Pop China

Review: Summer Palace (2006)

2009-04-13T20:15:00.000-07:00

For starters, this film was not what I expected. Based on the trailer and other promotional material I had seen, I was expecting the plot to focus much more squarely on the events of 1989. Instead, those events play a very brief and secondary role to the overall plot, that is, the complicated relationship between the characters Yu Hong and Zhou Wei. Truth be told, only a handful of scenes are expended on the history. Now, if this movie were trying to make some point thereby, namely, that these two young Chinese self-absorbedly consume themselves with their love affair and ignore what's happening around them, I might be forgiving. However, that's not what the film seems to be trying to do, and moves far too quickly time-wise to give the sense of time and space that even that approach would require.

Thus, even as a character study, which I think is in fact what it is trying to be, it falls a little flat. It strikes me as problematic that I finished watching a movie that was more than two hours long still not really understanding the motivations of most if not all of its characters. This weakness if perhaps most demonstrated via the use of the film's other heavily promoted aspect, the sex. While I never got the feeling that the sex was exploitative per se, the lack of character development made the amount of sex seem excessive. Example: Yu Hong teaches her roommate Dongdong how to masturbate. To the extent that the audience never really got to know Dongdong very well, that scene, and its implied taboo nature, felt like a throw-away especially considering the tumultuous period in which it occurred. Yes, there was a later scene where the same character had a sexual encounter with a male student, and thus continuity was expressed, but after that the character basically disappears. Discontinuity. Later, we hear only that she had become a housewife in Guangdong. Ultimately, the movie is not clever enough to play with expectations like that.

Review: The Chinese Botanist's Daughters (2006)

2008-08-29T23:02:00.000-07:00

I was pleasantly surprised to run into this film; I had never heard of it though it's directed by Dai Sijie, the author of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. Like the film version of Balzac, this one is awash in luxurious landscapes and colors. Also, like Balzac, with this film, Dai once again treads into territory that still remains relatively untouched in mainland Chinese film. Fortunately or not, Dai is an exile, and he takes what liberties he likes. The film itself was shot not in China, but in Vietnam.

In this case, Dai takes on the topic of the Lesbian relationship between an orphaned student and the daughter of the "botanist," that is, the practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, who serves as her mentor. Given that this is still a "Chinese" movie, the sexual aspects of their love are downplayed, almost too much, as the characters do not seem to develop any sort of self-reflection on what it means to be Gay, and rather the focus is on how the relationship affects traditional familial and gender roles. While Dai may be criticized for portraying the father and the brother/would-be husband as stereotypes of homophobic, patriarchic men, I'm willing to give him more slack considering that he is breaking new ground by virtue of making the film in the first place.

My main criticism of the film, however, regards the ending. I felt it was a little excessive although it too perhaps reveals an uncomfortable truth about China. You'll have to watch it to understand what I mean. A more minor quibble I have is that Dai doesn't really do anything with the fact that his main character, the student Li Ming, is bi-racial. The half-Russian girl could have been used more effectively to show ethnic boundaries within China. As it is, her background seems like more of an after-thought and perhaps was included just so that Dai could make use of the half-Chinese, half-French actress Mylène Jampanoï. That Dai did not is particularly unfortunate given his use of Yunnan as his setting, and that province could certainly serve as fertile ground for any such discussion.

Review: Please Don't Call Me Human (2003)

2008-08-29T21:45:00.000-07:00

This is the second book by Wang Shuo that I have read. While the narrative aspect isn't as strong as in Playing for Thrills, it is more explicitly satirical. It is also very timely.

The plot concerns the workings of an organization known as the Mobilization Committee ("MobCom" for short) who give themselves the task of finding an heir to the Boxer Rebellion who can reverse China's recent history of humiliation at the hands of Western powers. Eventually they settle on a young pedi-cab puller by the name of Tang Yuanbao who has inherited the technique of "Big Dream Boxing" from his father. From beginning to end, Wang describes the lengths to which the Chinese nation will go to regain their pride at the expense of the life (and body) of this man. Reading this book, it's impossible not to see some connections to the recent events surrounding the Beijing Olympics.

Review: Nanking (2007)

2008-02-04T00:59:00.000-08:00

Recently I was given the opportunity to view a special screening of the documentary Nanking, which is currently only in limited distribution despite the fact that it is Western-produced and was released in China in Summer 2007. In general, I liked it, but I do have some mixed feelings. Why? Well:

The use of several well-known Western actors (including Woody Harrelson and Mariel Hemingway) to do in-character visible narration was interesting in terms of technique, but it might also be a little distracting.

That fact, combined with the obvious dependency on Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking, meant that the movie tended to present the Western residents of the city as the sole saviors, while failing to give any mention of similar actions undertaken by the native Chinese. While I do like Chang's book, and I must admit that these foreigners did play a large part in saving the lives of many Chinese, the cynic in me views the movie as something of a self-congratulatory pat on the back.

In addition, I always have anxious feelings regarding anything that uses popular media to depict Japanese wartime acts, particularly when those media are shown in China. On the one hand, I certainly favor greater awareness of what happened. Yet, on the other, I know that every piece of material such as this will only increase anti-Japanese sentiment in China, and readers of this blog will know that I am not a fan of such sentiment. After watching this movie, which is quite graphic, such sentiment is inevitable despite the fact that one of the narrated characters claimed that he didn't want his footage to inspire hatred of the Japanese.

That said, I reiterate that this movie is a useful tool to disseminate information about what happened particularly for Western audiences.

Review: Playing for Thrills (1997)

2008-02-04T00:35:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I finished reading my first Wang Shuo novel. For those of you who don't know (which might very well be most of you), Wang Shuo is considered to be China's "bad boy" author in so far as his novels prominently feature crime, cursing, and sex.

The plot concerns a former PLA soldier, Fang Yan, who, in a turn that bears some similarity to Kafka's The Trial, finds that he is the chief suspect of the long-ago murder of one of his friends. Fang, the narrator, then proceeds to try to put together the pieces of the forgotten past, which in turn becomes a sort of subtle satire on the effects of China's Reform and Opening.

I think what is most interesting about the book is Wang's continual toying with the linear progression of the story, both through scenes that are simultaneously surreal dreams and flashbacks and through the concluding chapters in which the story actually progresses backwards a la Memento. Such a style contrasts with what I've found to be the overwhelmingly realist style used by contemporary Chinese authors without going the route of complete surreality that one might find in the most avant garde Chinese authors such as Can Xue. Wang's is a refreshing approach although it can be confusing at times. Further, given the unique structure of the ending, it leaves a fair number of threads unresolved, which is somewhat unsatisfying.

Nonetheless, I generally recommend the work, and I'll be starting on my second Wang book soon, for which you can likewise expect a review.

A New Wei

2008-01-14T00:21:00.000-08:00

I've said in the past that I'm a fan of the work of Wei Hui; this might diminish my credibility in the eyes of some. Whatever.

Naturally, I read her blog, and I was quite surprised to find that she's trying her hand at independent film making, producing the following clip. In my humble opinion it's actually not bad; if nothing else, the technique is good. Subject-wise, it's not quite what I would expect from her, and it rather strikes me as being somewhat Xu Jinglei-esque.

Globe All Lies?

2008-01-12T15:24:00.000-08:00

Japan Probe posted this clip of a Japanese news report discussing recalls of a speaking globe sold in Japan that states explicitly that Taiwan is part of the People's Republic of China. That this "mistake" occurred owes to the fact it was produced in Shenzhen.

Because the clip is in Japanese, read the post on Japan Probe for the full rundown of what's going on. Pay attention to the bit at the end which features China Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu discuss the fact that Chinese companies must obey domestic laws even in the case of constructing products for exports.

Dousing the Olympic Flame

2008-01-12T15:11:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I kick myself for not still being in China and the delay that this causes for knowing what's going on there. In the case of the topic for this article by Howard French, the events happened more than two weeks ago, but I am just now hearing about it. Sigh.

I thought French's analysis here was spot-on. Although this woman's hijacking a Olympic press conference was not itself related to the Olympics, it is very emblematic of the kind of pressures that can bubble up as China tries very hard to create a positive image for itself in advance of the games. It also points to the way social problems—in this case, extra-marital affairs—can be ignored at such times. I'd like to say that this woman strikes me as being very strong for having the guts to do what she did. I hope the situation resolves itself well enough for her.

What's Your Drug of Choice?

2008-01-11T17:58:00.000-08:00

The New York Times had a brief report on the arrest of sixth generation director Zhang Yuan for taking drugs. I'm not terribly familiar with his work, but I know that he directed Green Tea, which is certainly not, by any means, in my downloaded movie folder to be watched at a later date.

I think what interested me about the blurb was the specific mention of what he been using: crystal meth and ketamine (aka Special K for the uninitiated). Now, one does not often hear about drug culture in China because the Chinese government takes drugs very seriously and would therefore be unlikely to allow much dissemination of reports on the hows and the whys of domestic drug use. The result is that, in my experience, Chinese youth know very little about drug cultures. But, when you do hear about drug use in China, it's often of the more exotic, designer variety, such as Ecstasy, and less so the "quotidian" crack or heroin.

I think a lot of interesting results could be obtained by a thorough investigation of Chinese drug culture, but it would be hard to go about collecting information. For my part, although I've encountered drug "dealers" in the form of elderly ethnic minority women in Dali who ask you "smoking the ganja?" they quickly run away if you try to press them for further information.

The Cuffs and Collar Don't Match

2008-01-10T11:45:00.000-08:00

Danwei posted a nice piece yanked from The Register about Western music promotion in China. Read it in its entirety if you'd like, but I'd like to highlight one section in particular:

The problem is that niche online audiences are very niche indeed. Genre awareness is perhaps one of the biggest spokes in the wheels of music development in China. It is possible to find all major genres—as well as a great deal of sub-genres—represented in tiny fan-groups online. However, the elaborate categorisation of music we seem to so enjoy in the west is the preserve of only a few music obsessives in China. While Converse trainers and drainpipe jeans might make your average Chinese high street hep-cat seem like an alternative cognoscenti, the chances are that understanding is lacking and there is very little consistency between any two elements of their identity, including music preference. Whilst hanging at the bar in Beijing underground live venue D-22, I noticed a Chinese girl next to me with crazy hair, blackened eyes, torn clothes and black fingernails. I got talking to her and asked her what kind of music she listened to. “Backstreet Boys,” was her immediate reply.

The kind of deeper involvement with a genre that would mean a goth could never admit to liking the Backstreet Boys is noticeably absent here. This girl is just as likely (or unlikely) to go out and download an Aaron Carter track as she is a Lacrimosa one. Music online is rarely searched out or bought according to genre. In fact, not only is your average MP3 not sold as part of a genre, it is also almost certainly pirated, completely DRM-free, with no meta data attached and, in a huge number of cases, doesn’t even have a file title. You are left with a completely ‘naked’ piece of audio. China simply never went through the age where music was bought at a premium on vinyl, cassette or CD, then lovingly horded, categorised and put on display for all your dinner party guests to see, encouraging in-depth dinner discussions about prog-rock or jazz.

Some of you might realize that the process the author is describing here is similar to what I described in the paper I linked to in my very first post on this blog, namely, that when cultural artifacts are globalized, they are often done so with limited scope. However, as I have argued in a more recent paper that I wrote, that scope can be deepened later. So there is hope for the Goth girl after all; she might eventually start listening to My Chemical Romance.

Zhang Yimou Turns Green

2008-01-01T19:13:00.000-08:00

Zhang Yimou recently won an award issued by the Chinese government for "following eco-friendly rules during movie shooting and highlighting green issues as the chief director for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games in 2008."

I think what's particularly noteworthy in this article is its recounting of how Chen Kaige was nominated for the award as a "negative example" given the negative environmental consequences of his film "The Promise." Zhang's own selection probably can be viewed as an attempt to draw attention to the issue. Further, Zhang is probably seen as the lesser of several evils given that he also has been criticized for the environmental repercussions of his production "Impression West Lake" (see this article).

Hate the Game, Not the Cosplayer

2008-01-01T19:00:00.000-08:00

Cosplay is an international craze as this Japanese report (via JapanProbe) hopes to demonstrate. It seems as though the event was staged for purposes of "cultural exchange," which this blog wholeheartedly supports. This blog also wholeheartedly supports any demonstration of nerdiness.

Black and White and Red All Over

2008-01-01T17:57:00.000-08:00

The Chinese government is paying increased attention to training young journalists to toe the Party line according to this Washington Post article.

In China, [the role of journalism] traditionally has been to support the government by spreading propaganda and suppressing news that contradicts policy or puts officials in a bad light. But as the country has opened to the world in the last three decades, many journalists -- and journalism students and their professors--have acquired new ambitions for their craft, such as investigative reporting on official corruption.

Against that background, the party's Central Committee in 2001 urged Chinese media and journalism schools to adopt the concept of "Marxist journalism." The term was broadly interpreted to mean journalism that the government views as improving society and taking account of Chinese realities, including censorship under one-party rule.

This topic is somewhat out of the scope of this blog given that there's little "pop" about it, but nonetheless the article struck me as representative of something to which I've become sensitive of late, namely, the imprecise usage of "Marxist" within China. This imprecision, in turn, certainly does impact Chinese popular culture.

As far as I can tell, there is very little Marx and a whole lot of Lenin in such efforts.

Addressing censorship, Fan told students that the government must "guide public opinion" because many Chinese are not well educated and cannot understand current events well. "The situation of our country decided we need to guide public opinion," he said. "We should consider the social effects of every report, thinking if it is good or bad for our country, society and people, especially for the stability and development of the country."

Such a call for guidance is very much a Leninist position. As I discovered while writing a paper in my other life as a PhD student, Chinese students are generally unfamiliar with what differentiates Marxism and Leninism. In fact, despite the fact that People's Republic of China officially follows "Marxist-Leninism," most Chinese students have never actually read any of Lenin's writings.

Why is this important? Well, in so far as we foreigners only hear about the Marx and not the Lenin, it leads to misunderstanding on our part of what tack the Chinese government is actually following. Which likewise leads to a popular misunderstanding of Marxism.

The following paragraph gives another example of similar Chinese rhetorical imprecision:

"Reviewing the reality of journalistic education, one finds many inclinations that need attention," he continued. "One is out-of-date textbooks. One is the Westernized concept of journalism. And another is the abstract research approach in which theory and practice do not match. These problems can only be solved by strengthening the Marxist concept of journalism."

I have added emphasis to point out what an astute reader might already have noticed: the speaker implies a false dichotomy between "Western" and "Marxist," seemingly forgetting that Marx, and Lenin also, are European. It follows that rhetorical-Western signifies anything the government is wary of and rhetorical-Marxist is anything the government supports, which may or may not actually be Marxist.

I don't want to come off as too critical here, but I would love nothing more than for Chinese youth to have a deeper understanding of Marxism, and that begins with a more precise understanding of what the word itself entails. Otherwise, "Marxism" just becomes a mask for increasing nationalism and opportunism, both of which are certainly prevalent among today's Chinese youth.

On a related note, this article, also from the Post, details the Chinese military's increasing recruitment efforts among students at China's top universities.

Namu Namu

2008-01-01T17:32:00.000-08:00

The NY Times had this profile of Yang Erche, aka Namu, supposedly a well-known singer/actress/model. I'd never heard of her, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Nonetheless, she does seem interesting. For a Chinese star, she's apparently well-versed enough in international affairs to have made an online video proposing a marriage to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. (For some reason, Chinese stars have a thing for French men; take Maggie Cheung for example.)

And, no, I do not intend to turn my blog into a Chinese scandal sheet. Rather the reason I am linking to the article is because Namu is identified as a member of the Mosuo minority ethnicity, and her celebrity seems to have brought some degree of notoriety to her people.

NAMU made her name internationally when her English-language memoir, “Leaving Mother Lake” (Little, Brown, 2003), became a best seller. She worked with an anthropologist, Christine Mathieu, to tell of her upbringing among the Mosuo near Lugu Lake in a remote part of southwestern China. She became better known to American and British audiences when she was featured in a 2004 documentary about the Himalayas by Michael Palin, formerly of Monty Python.

Namu says she used these opportunities to bring tourism and much-needed development to her people. Her detractors accuse her of sensationalizing the Mosuo and exploiting her roots to further her own celebrity. Criticism increased when sex tourists began flooding in. “Now we have a road, and we don’t have to walk seven days to get out,” Namu said, defending her work in the area. “Kids can go to school. But people still say bad things about me. How can I be responsible for everything? I am exhausted from their needs and criticism.”

The increase of sex tourists is certainly disheartening, but nonetheless Namu, and the Mosuo more generally, do offer an example of challenges to traditional notions of patriarchy. I believe that the Mosuo have indeed given some inspiration to feminist thinkers in China. I'll be on the lookout for some of Namu's books.

Peking Opera No Longer at Its Peak

2008-01-01T17:19:00.000-08:00

The LA Times had a very heartfelt look at the decline of the popularity of Peking Opera in China.

Its stalwarts remain mostly elderly Chinese and foreigners. For the young, the stilted pageants have become something of a cultural embarrassment, tantamount to an American teen snickering in disdain when Mom plays her old Neil Diamond albums.

That paragraph looked into my own soul. My own mother really does listen to Neil Diamond. I'm also a foreigner who happens to have enjoyed the couple of times I've seen opera performances. The article continues, profiling one particular performer:

For Qiu Jirong, the opera's hard times are bittersweet. He makes his living from it, but the slender man with delicate features prefers modern dance, hip-hop and Michael Jackson to the stodgy rhythms of his art form.

After his father's death from lung cancer at 39, Qiu's mother pressured him to continue the family legacy. He once cried when he saw his father paint his face before a performance because the makeup looked so threatening. Then, at age 9, he was thrust into the theater and its ornate customs. His given name means "to continue."

Sometimes, he feels it really means "to be trapped."

Worth the Paper It's Printed On

2007-12-30T08:54:00.000-08:00

One (fairly justifiable) retort one will hear if one brings up the topic of pollution in China is that much of the pollution is caused by foreign companies and that even the trash has been imported. This woman turns the system on its head: she imports waste paper and recycles it.

via videosift.com

Sweatin' with the Oldies

2007-12-30T08:31:00.000-08:00

Happy holidays! I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

via videosift.com

Where in the World is CoCo Lee

2007-12-29T03:44:00.000-08:00

I{m currently updating from Buenos Aires so please forgive all the bad punctuation marks. I haven{t yet figured out how to use the keyboard yet. This will be a short entryñ

1. I watched a CoCo Lee music video on TV yesterday. Is she popular in South America )question mark)

2. There is also a TV commercial to encourage everyone to learn Chinese. The commercial was very dramatic with happy people on bikes and flowing hair all shot at rather semi'artistic angles.

Review: Becoming Madame Mao (2000)

2007-12-09T14:51:00.000-08:00

This is the second book by Anchee Min that I have read. The first, Red Azalea, was pretty good. This one is excellent.

It's so excellent, in fact, that at times you forget that you are reading historical fiction. You begin to wonder: was Min there? Her characterization of Jiang Qing is quite believable, and the way she entwines Jiang's life with those of other key figures is remarkable.

It's also notable for the fact that you can actually learn something from it. I have learned more about the political maneuvering behind the Cultural Revolution than I have from any other source. Even given the fictional context, one gets the impression that it is justified to conclude that, despite Jiang's very real ambition, it was truly Mao pulling the strings in order to keep his own position secure. Further, the names of the key players stick with you with because you have fully fleshed-out characters to go with them. Heck, now I actually know who the other three people in the Gang of Four were, and I've always felt that was a weakness in my knowledge of that period.

I (glowingly) recommend this book. Of course, it may not be for everyone; I admit that I have a special fondness for anything CR related. Yet even for people who aren't so inclined, this remains an excellent introduction which will probably get them hungry for more.

I'm looking forward to reading more of Min's historical work.

Jet Li Breaks Another Record

2007-11-25T18:06:00.000-08:00

Jet Li broke his own record of earning 100 million yuan (US$ 13 million) in his new film "The Warlords," a record for an actor in a Chinese-language film. The previous record was also held by Li for his role in "Hero," earning him 70 million yuan. In the Reuters article, Li's marketability is confirmed:

"Without Jet Li, we would not dare to invest $40 million in a Chinese-language film," Xinhua news agency quoted director Peter Chan as saying. Li was a "guarantee" for global sales, Chan said.

Apparently, the budget for "The Warlords" was only $40 million, which is a huge step down from many recent films (see previous post). According to the same Reuters article, approximately half of the $40 million budget went to the cast, including Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Beijing-based actress Xu Jinglei.

This means that if Jet Li made approximately $13 million, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro had to share the remaining pie with other members of the cast. In other words, they made much, much less than Li (considering the pie was only ~$20 million to begin with). Both Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro are quite good at selling films in Asia (believe me), but the difference is that Jet Li has global appeal thanks to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero."

I just watched the trailer and it looks pretty awesome. Too bad we won't be able to see it Stateside until March of next year.

Back in the Day

2007-11-19T20:26:00.000-08:00

Wow... I'll let this one speak for itself. Watch it. You won't regret it.

First Lady in Red

2007-11-18T23:27:00.000-08:00

This is an excellent article detailing what will likely be China's next first couple, namely Xi Jinping and the well-known singer Peng Liyuan. As the article makes clear, what's notable about the situation is the very fact that Peng (Xi's wife) will be in the spotlight at all. Not since the infamous days of Jiang Qing has really much of anything been known about the spouses of China's top leaders. And from what I can see China has everything to gain from selecting Xi as its next president. He's hardworking, a man of the people, intelligent, etc., and he has a wife who also possesses those qualities.

In 1968, Xi won a place at prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing, where he earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and a doctorate in law. If he ultimately gains the presidency for which he is now so clearly being groomed, he will be the most highly educated leader in the country's history. Since he joined the Communist Party at 21, Xi's career has been on a steady ascent. He built a reputation for decisiveness, honesty and efficiency as party secretary of prosperous Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, boosting foreign investment and cutting bureaucratic red tape. His personable style has also served him well. It was no surprise, then, that he was chosen this year for the plum position of party secretary in Shanghai, the most important regional post in the country, after his predecessor was charged with stealing US$470 million from the city's pension fund. This month Xi was named to head the group that manages Hong Kong and Macau affairs, another high-profile post.

...

Peng holds a master's degree in folk music and is best known for her extensive folk repertoire. But she has also starred in Chinese and Western opera, once playing the lead in Mulan to the music of the Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra. She is one of the most familiar faces on CCTV, having appeared on the network's Chinese New Year special a record 19 times. Peng's performance at last summer's ceremony marking the one-year countdown to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing gave the event a generous dose of both patriotism and panache.

...

In addition to demonstrating patriotism through her music, Peng serves as the most fetching major-general in the People's Liberation Army, and sometimes dons army fatigues to prove it. She shows her humanitarian side through her work as China's AIDS ambassador.

This blog wholeheartedly endorses Xi to be China's next president and Peng to be his first lady. Not that it will make a difference for another 5 years.

My Hair is Prophylacking

2007-11-16T14:20:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you read about something that's so blog worthy, it's almost too good to be true. This article's topic, namely hair salons using used condoms as hairbands, is an example; as such a lot of blogs have already posted on it. I don't really have much to add except maybe such a product would add the protection that my hair so dearly needs. Frankly I'm balding, and I need all the help I can get.

Actually there is a lot more I could say, but, given that I try to keep this blog somewhat professional, decorum dictates that I cannot. But I'll give you a hint as to what is running through my mind: watch There's Something About Mary. *cough*hair gel*cough*

Of Wolf and Man

2007-11-13T16:01:00.000-08:00

Danwei pointed me to this article about the hugely successful Chinese novel Wolf Totem being awarded the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize, which is to be awarded to fictional works that have yet to be published in English.

I'm very excited about this development, as Wolf Totem will certainly prove to be a very important work in contemporary Chinese literature both due to its content and the circumstances surrounding its release. I'm also breathlessly awaiting its translation which should be published soon. Of course I could read it in the original language, but truthfully I'm too lazy.

"Wolf Totem" has turned out to be much more than simply an appealing story. The book's messages about the state of modern China and Chinese culture have touched a nerve. It has been featured on television shows, used by businesses in China as a motivational tool and sold for film production, and has spawned a children's tale.

In his writing, Rong manages to convey admiration of Mongolian nomads' fierce, wolf-like independence and love of freedom as well as disdain for the political passivity and rapaciousness of modern Chinese society.

The partly autobiographical story is drawn from Rong's own journey to northern Inner Mongolia in 1967, where he remained for 11 years during the Cultural Revolution in the isolation of the Elun grasslands, doing farm work. His fictional protagonist, a young intellectual named Chen Zhen, witnesses there the complex relationship between nomads, living simply and maintaining their livestock herds, and the wild wolves of the plains.

Zhen is dismayed by the arrival of fellow Han Chinese from the cities, who upset cultural traditions with their ideas of modernity and wreak environmental destruction.

Hip-Pop

2007-11-13T11:32:00.000-08:00

"Do you like Hip-pop?" was a question I was asked by a student shortly after my arrival in China. From that time, the emergence of Hip-hop culture in China has been something of especial interest to me. It was something that I mentioned on my personal statement when I applied to grad schools. And so it was with great interest that I read this article that I found via Shanghaiist today.

On stage, a pair of rappers face off, microphones in hand, trading verses of improvised rhyme. They look like typical hip-hop artists, dressed in baggy pants and baseball caps. But listen closely and you notice something unusual: They’re performing in Chinese. One rapper spits out words in a distinctive Beijing accent, scolding the other for not speaking proper Mandarin. His opponent from Hong Kong snaps back to the beat in a trilingual torrent of Cantonese, English, and Mandarin, dissing the Beijing rapper for not representing the people. The crowd goes wild, raucously voicing delight and dismay.

...

In a recent campaign for Wyborowa vodka, Burton took his crew on the road, presenting 150 shows in 40 Chinese cities. His artists performed a mini history of hip-hop, from its urban American beginnings to its Chinese apotheosis. It was the perfect brew—an African-American entrepreneur promoting a Polish vodka owned by a French corporation using Chinese performers practicing an Afro-Latin-influenced art form that originated in the inner cities of the United States. Welcome to hip-hop’s new world.

Now I'll be frank and say that it really bothers me when I see Chinese kids (or Japanese or Korean) wearing dew rags and acting hyphy. And yes I like Eminem's stuff, but I think there's a huge qualitative difference between someone who grew up amongst such symbols and someone who's seen it on TV and wishes to appropriate it. Nonetheless I support wholeheartedly the globalization of the general hip-hop culture.

Kao-feine Monks

2007-11-13T11:08:00.000-08:00

Shanghaiist posted this awesome Pepsi ad. It's so awesome in fact that I'm going to ignore its very problematic use of a white guy.

Shaolin Pepsi - video powered by Metacafe

Mo Money Mo Problems: Wall Street banks Hong Kong Filmmakers

2007-11-08T11:40:00.000-08:00

*EDIT: I've added "Hero" to the list below.

When I first read that John Woo’s new film “Red Cliff” is the most expensive Asian movie ever, I thought wait, wasn’t “The Curse of the Golden Flower” the most expensive film ever? So here is a short list of some notable movies along with its budget and box office gross in US dollars (approximate):

Red Cliff (2007)
Budget: $75MM; Worldwide Gross: ????

The Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)
Budget: $45MM; Worldwide Gross: $19MM

The Promise (2006)
Budget: $42MM; Worldwide Gross: $23MM

House of Flying Daggers (2004)
Budget: $14MM; Worldwide Gross: $93MM

Hero (2002)
Budget: $30MM; Worldwide Gross: $170MM

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Budget: $15MM; Worldwide Gross: $209MM

Source: IMDB Pro

Is it me or are movies getting more and more expensive but the gross margins getting weaker and weaker? But that doesn’t matter right? As long as Wall Street and the likes of Goldman Sachs are willing to put down a golden brick or two to back these ventures, the movies will keep coming. Of course, I don’t mind because I’m a huge fan of this particular genre of film. I just hope that budget and quality are not negatively correlated.

Young Olympians

2007-11-08T11:17:00.000-08:00

An 8-year-old girl runs 2,212 miles to Beijing in 55 days. A 10-year-old swims in a river with her hands and feet bound. And then there's 4-year-old Yang Yang, riding a 1,000-pound beluga whale.

Kids' stunts such as these are becoming more common as Olympic fever rises with the approach of next summer's games. But don't expect any great outcry. In China, where one-child families are the government-enforced norm, pushing a child to overachieve is a social imperative.

So begins this article from AP, which details the lengths that parents will go to push their children to achieve athletic goals.

The AP reporter rightfully points out that the children's role vis à vis their family is largely culturally constructed.

"There's tremendous competition, a lot of pressure for kids to do well at something in China today. It's something that parents can get pride out of and perhaps make money at," said Grant Evans, a professor of anthropology at the University of Hong Kong.

Chinese media reports about the feats invariably quote bystanders who wonder whether such activities are dangerous or unhealthy.

But the criticism ends there; children's rights are only just now starting to creep into the Chinese public consciousness.

"Here in this part of the world, you've still got very different ideas about children and their relationship in the family to what you have in America," Evans said. "The idea that children should have rights over and above their parents is simply culturally foreign."

Still, as far as I know, China has signed the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child so the argument could go either way. In my experience, the one-child policy induces parents to treat their children pretty well, resulting in the so-called "Little Emperors." Further, the inclusion of the boy swimming with the whales is something of a non sequitur considering that he was the one who initiated the activity with his parents, who merely gave in to his request.

It's also worth noting that none of these children have any likely chance to compete for China on the Olympic level; that is, they haven't yet been snatched up by the official government training centers.

Half-Naked Pandas

2007-11-08T00:23:00.000-08:00

Lots of sources have posted about the Panda fashion show, and so in my quest to be a little different than the rest, I've resisted going along with the crowd. But then I saw this picture.

Funny, when I saw pandas up close in Sichuan, they weren't quite this sexy. There were more like this:

In other news, Chinese MMORPG producer Perfect World is expanding their operation into Russia. According to Pacific Epoch, this marks the 10th country that Perfect World has entered. Wow. 10's actually a pretty big number for this kind of thing.

Also according to Pacific Epoch, NetEase is sponsoring an online beauty competition for... wait for it... IT receptionists. Huh. Gaze at the (somewhat strange) pictures here.

From India With Love

2007-11-05T23:07:00.000-08:00

A few days ago Shanghaiist posted an article concerning the production of a new Bollywood Film set and filmed in China called (unsurprisingly) "Made in China." Supposedly the film will be bankrolled by Warner Bros. Huh. I wonder if it will be shown in China.

What further makes this notable is another recent post on Shanghaiist that details the praise that Indian newspapers sometimes lavish on China. It's no secret that China and India have quite similar developmental issues but that China has developed at a pace that far outstrips that of India. So it's not surprising that India pays attention to its neighbor, and I suspect we might see more references going both ways in each country's popular media.

Lust and Much Caution

2007-11-02T13:14:00.000-07:00

Honestly, I hadn't expected Lust, Caution to be officially released in Chinese Cinemas. There's something about the subject matter, namely erotically charged atmosphere and the sex scenes that earned it a NC-17 rating in the states that makes it seem like a likely candidate for a ban on the mainland. But then it was released and to much acclaim.

Why? Because if you strip out the sex (as the censors have done), you have yet another film about World War 2 and Japan, which Chinese audiences eat up and the Chinese government encourages. As this post on EastSouthWestNorth makes clear, Ang Lee went so far as to make the film more patriotic for mainland consumption.

In addition to the sex, the following aspects were modified:

A scene showing refugees. I was a little bit puzzled by this cut, however I reckon it's similar to the cuts made in MI:3.
The words spoken by Tang Wei's character to warn Tony Leung's character that his life was in danger, supposedly to make it seem less like she betrayed the cause of resistance.

Also of note is the enforced media blackout regarding discussing these changes.

A/V Club

2007-10-31T14:22:00.000-07:00

Japan Probe posted an article on yet another case of Chinese "netizens" raising their collective voices in consternation against something done by the Japanese. Apparently a young gravure idol (gravure being the word for swimsuit model) has been taking pictures and videos in rural China, and this has raise the ire of the netizens. As Japan Probe mentions, it's important to draw the (fine-line) distinction between gravure and A/V (i.e., porn), which is a distinction that has been lost in the protest. Of course, making the video is a rather silly move to begin with, as the linked C/Net article points out.

Here's some of the video:

In other news, apparently Facebook is expanding into China through some undisclosed acquisition, according to this article in Pacific Epoch. I'm hoping that the acquired company is Xiaonei and that I can link my accounts. Probably not though.

For Those About to Rock

2007-10-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

Howard French just wrote an article in which he described the sad state of the music industry in China today.

"[Alternative] music in China today is much like Western rock in the 1960s, with its frequent references to social issues like war, poverty, civil rights and generational conflict. But alternative rock is rarely heard on the radio."

...

"Many point to a commonly invoked generational shift in China, with today’s young people too caught up in the country’s economic boom to dwell on social problems or ponder life’s bigger questions. "

Unfortunately, I couldn't agree more. As much as I enjoy my Jays and my Jolins, I hope for the day when popular music can mean the same thing in China as it did for Americans in the 1960s. I remember trying to discuss the cultural significance of various English songs and just getting blank stares.

Review: Sunflower (2005)

2007-10-23T00:56:00.000-07:00

In what follows you'll have to forgive me for reading too much symbolism into this (wonderful) film. The fact is, I just read a book on a Freudian analysis of the French Revolution, and unfortunately I see far too many similarities here to pass them up.

In the film we are presented with the story of Xiangyang beginning with his birth and ending with the birth of his own son approximately 30 years later. This time span sets up the aforementioned symbolism quite well, for the birth comes right at the height of the Cultural Revolution. Before Xiangyang even has a chance to begin an attachment to his father, his father is falsely declared a rightist and sent to a labor camp for six years. Upon his return, the father is incredibly alienated from his son, and the rest of the film is an allegory told through the ups and downs of their turbulent relationship.

For starters, it is easy to see that the father represents old China, and his removal during the Cultural Revolution likewise symbolizes China's conscious attempt to divorce itself from its past at that time. Later, when the father is allowed to return, we see the ensuing uneasy relationship represent the discomfort with which China felt (and still feels) at coming to terms with its past. The son may continuously revolt, but as the father reminds him, "you can never run away from me."

I especially like the direction of the film after it entered 1999. The father stubbornly chooses to live out the rest of his days in a Hutong despite the mother's insistence that they move to an apartment. This is very timely, and we can empathize with the father as he watches sadly the construction equipment that is tearing down piece by piece his, and consequently China's, past. Lastly, the father's disappearance prior to the birth of his granddaughter makes us aware of how much China's youngest generations have lost. Fortunately, we are reminded implicitly by the device of the sunflower and explicitly by the narrator (Xiangyang) that old China will still live on, albeit in perhaps a different way.

Side note: the film also features a cameo of sorts in its presentation of artwork by Zhang Xiaogang, which was quite a nice touch.

Review: Lust, Caution

2007-10-17T17:42:00.000-07:00

I realize I'm a little behind the curve, but I didn't get a chance to see this movie until today. What can I say that hasn't already been said?

About the acting: I'm a fan of Tony Leung in general, and he was his normal broody self. The audience is also rewarded by seeing a side of him never seen before, namely the side that is normally covered by underwear. Joan Chen was fantastic (and looks fantastic). Wang Leehom was decent but not great; although I should probably admit that he is more talented an actor than Jay Chou although I think he is inferior musically. And then there's the star of the film, the new actress Tang Wei; her performance was very... naked. In all honesty, I'm not sure what I think of her ability; I'll have to wait until I see her do more work before I can develop an opinion.

About the deeper stuff for which I created this blog: As the movie got underway, my first reaction was "great, another movie about the Japanese occupation." Seriously, the number of films coming out of China about the war makes me wish to see some which are based on the Opium Wars or other examples of foreign imperialism. Yet, for what it's worth, Lust, Caution does not give a stereotypical depiction of the Japanese; in fact, the Japanese barely play a role at all. The film instead chooses to focus on the Chinese collaborators led by Leung's character, Yee. This served the purpose of giving the ol' "us vs. them" a little bit more depth in so far as it became "us vs. us." Indeed, Yee is constructed very well. He starts off very likable, but then surprises Mak Tai Tai (Tang) and the audience by more-or-less raping her. That scene was very uncomfortable, and I think offers a good symbolic portrayal of what the general populace of Shanghai must have felt at that time. This symbolism is reinforced during later trysts as Mak Tai Tai starts to give in to her (quite brutal) passion.

Yet, in so far, as this symbolism manifests itself in Mak Tai Tai, a woman, Lust, Caution enters into some problematic gender territory. I wasn't entirely happy that the character lets emotion triumph in the end and sacrifices herself, her friends, and the resistance for the safety of Yee. Naturally, I can't blame Ang Lee for that as I imagine it comes from the source material by Eileen Chang (which I admit I haven't read). Still, I can appreciate that Chang and Lee are trying to set up a juxtaposition between the black-and-white "Long live the resistance" ethos that we saw in the early play-within-a-play and a more complicated reality.

On the other hand, what I thought worked really well in the movie was Lee's subtle allusions to class differences. Was I the only one who felt that this movie was quoting Pygmalion, at least a little? The transformation from Wang Jiazhi to Mak Tai Tai was quite impressive, and I think Tang was especially good at expressing her discomfort at these changes.

Reboot

2007-10-17T17:27:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone (or no one, depending on who actually reads this),

As you can see, it's been a while since I've updated this blog. There are several reasons for that, including: I had a 9-5 job this summer, I started life as a PhD student. But really the biggest reason is I just got behind. And I'm still behind, but I'm slowly trying to rectify that.

I'd like to thank my collaborators, Joel and Jean, for taking care of things in my absence.

Wu Hsing-kuo, back in New York

2007-07-12T12:38:00.000-07:00

In an interesting move, the Lincoln Center Festival opened their 2007 season with a performance from the Contemporary Legend Theater of Taiwan. The Lincoln Center Festival is a yearly event which takes place while most of the resident Lincoln Center organizations (the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, the New York City Ballet) are on tour or vacation. It serves as a showcase of opera, theater, and music for outside companies.

After last night's performances of "The Tipsy Concubine" and "Farewell my Concubine", the company will switch gears tonight, presenting Wu Hsing-kuo's one-man version of King Lear. For those who don't know, Wu is the lead dancer of Taiwan's Cloud Gate Dance Theater company, as well has the founder of the Contemporary Legend Theater of Taiwan. He also made his Metropolitan Opera debut this year, performing the speaking role of the Yin-Yang Master in Tan Dun's "The First Emperor" alongside Placido Domingo.

Caution! Ang Lee's Latest Flick

2007-07-11T22:57:00.001-07:00

Ang Lee's latest flick "Lust, Caution" is based on a short story by Eileen Chang. The story is a political thriller coupled with a love affair that that takes place in 1940s Shanghai during the Japanese occupation of China.

I'm excited to see Ang Lee take on a film about this time period. Besides, Tony Leung will be playing a main character and he is one of my all time favorite actors. Even the movie poster looks like a vintage Shanghai poster- art!

You can watch the trailer here.

Next up - Reading Murakami in Chinese

2007-07-11T22:11:00.000-07:00

As a big Murakami fan, I would love to get my hands on a copy of Murakami's work translated into Chinese. It was be interesting to see how that differs from the English translation. Actually, I have not read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, but I'm surprised there is only 50,000 copies of the translated Chinese version in circulation. I would imagine that any Murakami piece of literature, especially one that touches upon relations between China and Japan would get a lot more traction. Lin Shaohua, known for his translations of Haruki Murakami's works, offers an explanation:

Lin: Of his later works, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle runs to 500,000 characters in the Chinese edition, and a serious issue like reflecting on the source and heritage of violence is difficult for modern readers in their fast-paced lives.

I'm not sure I agree with the above statement, but I agree with this one:

Lin: Murakami has said, "I only write my own experiences" [...] The second decade, taking The Wind-up Bird Chronicle as the turning point, emphasized a "burden" or sense of responsibility, and was taken up with carrying out the investigation and exposure of Japanese history, particularly the violent and depraved history of the Second World War, including the War of Aggression Against China, and with digging into the sources and traditions of violent elements in Japanese culture, so as to reflect and ruminate on the future of the Japanese nation. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Kafka on the Shore, and After Dark belong to this category. But Murakami has not been fully appreciated on this front by our readers, nor has there been much relevant criticism.

Murakami once spoke a sentence in English: Violence, the key to Japan. He is unique among contemporary writers to dare to put it this way; even Kenzaburo Ōe never expressed it so clearly. This requires courage and a conscience.

All writers require courage and a conscience, so I'm glad Murakami is one of them.

Farewell Lin Daiyu

2007-07-06T05:56:00.000-07:00

This is a long overdue entry regarding the passing of Chen Xiaoxu, the actress who played Lin Daiyu in the CCTV series "Dream of Red Mansions." There are plenty of articles and blogs about her life and death so I will refrain from repeating what is there out already. Instead I will speak about how the actress became the present-day embodiment of a timeless character from the most famous Chinese novel ever written.

I don't think I can do a good job explaining what the novel represents in the hearts of the Chinese. However, in order to first understand why the character Lin Daiyu is of such importance, one must first see how the novel is a cultural icon of China. The novel blends all aspects of Chinese life, family, religion, and philosophy into a work that can be read as both political and social commentary, as well as what many are familiar with- a romance novel.

Lin Daiyu is not representative of the strong, independent modern-day woman. She is the underdog. She is frail, often sick, and immensely jealous when it comes to Jia Baoyu. However, she is sensitive and intelligent, and the only one in the whole household (or in the universe, for that matter) who understands Jia Baoyu. Wealth would eventually play a part in who marries Jia Baoyu, and Daiyu dies of a broken heart. The truth is, everyone rooted for Lin Daiyu but a fairytale ending for such a story would have never worked. It would not have been poetic and realistic enough for the readers. In the novel, love is not love until it is tragic.

The bittersweet ending for Lin Daiyu in the novel has touched millions, and because Chen Xiaoxu did such a good job playing Lin Daiyu, she became representative of Lin Daiyu in the eyes of millions. Furthermore, the fact that Chen Xiaoxu believed that she was the only one who could play Lin Daiyu when she auditioned for the role make her seem even more cosmic. After her role as Lin Daiyu, she played a small part in another CCTV Series "Family, Spring, Autumn" (another tragic ending) but then entered the world of advertising. (I had a hard time imagining the frail Lin Daiyu as an advertising executive...but of course, they are not the same person.)

And it's not just me. In the eyes of millions of Red fans, Chen Xiaoxu is Lin Daiyu which is why her death was felt hard in China. Yet, somehow, her becoming a Buddhist nun fits the story and completes the circle.

* * *

Referring back to this post, I hope this entry shields some light on why so many people were insulted.

Culinary Revolution

2007-06-29T03:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. The thing is I'm preparing to leave Harbin (my home for 3 years) and return to the states to begin my future life as a grad student. In honor of this, several of my students treated me to a dinner at a Cultural Revolution theme restaurant.

Yes, you read correctly. And judging by the obligatory "famous people who've eaten here" photos, it must be fairly well known in China. While I myself didn't bring my camera, a few of the students did, and what follows are their pictures.

The entrance:

The lobby:

A view of the general eating area:

A tribute to the Great Helmsman:

Me standing with a Red Guard:

More decor:

The evening's revolutionary entertainment:

Not shown: the singing, dancing (and exploited) "little person." All in all, it seems just like China's equivalent of Medieval Times.

Journey to the Westside

2007-06-18T07:33:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of the Gorillaz and also a big fan of China so I was more than a little thrilled when I got the latest email sent out on the Gorillaz mailing list. Here's the blurb:

From the creators of Gorillaz, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett with acclaimed director Chen Shi-Zheng, this dazzling new opera premieres at the Manchester International Festival on 28th June – 7th July. Based on the ancient Chinese legend (and popular 80s TV series) of the Monkey King, this epic journey to enlightenment features Monkey, Pigsy, Sandy, Tripitaka and a cast of more than 70 musicians, singers, Chinese martial artists, acrobats and contortionists (Dalian National Circus of China). Working within the operatic tradition, it is entirely groundbreaking with its mix of live action and animation.

Oh, why, oh, why can't I be a Brit? After all, it's been my secret fantasy for so long. They get all of the cool things starting with the accent and ending with this show. While some might consider it a heretical revisioning of the original story, I'm sure it will be so much more interesting than the umpteenth serial version on Chinese TV.

Crazy Foreigner Climbing Action

2007-06-18T01:18:00.001-07:00

My friend was recently asked to appear on an English-language Chinese news program out of Harbin. His mission: to scale a climbing wall. And hilarity ensues, with the help of clips from Mission Impossible 2, a great soundtrack and 14 year-old fellow expats. Submitted for your approval:

The Internet is for...

2007-06-09T08:16:00.000-07:00

When I started this blog, I pledged to track trends Chinese popular culture whenever it touched upon important social issues. One of those important social issues is of course sex, and one recent trend is ever-increasing government attention being paid to pornography, particularly on the Internet.

Now writing an article about the p-word is difficult because once I hit the "publish" button, my site is going to experience an increase in visitors who are per... fectly normal and who just happened to stumble onto my blog because they were searching Google for por... tals into the exciting world of Chinese pop culture. As it is, I noticed a spike in traffic right after I posted an entry on the movie Spider Lilies. I wonder why...

(For those of you who stumbled on my site in such a fashion: hi! Enjoy your stay!)

This is an illustration of the fact that, for better or for worse, the vast majority of Internet usage is not for intellectual edification. And that has the Chinese government worried. "[Zhang Meimei] claims some 370 million sexually explicit Web sites on the Internet put the country's 20 million Internet users under the age of 18 at risk," according to this article from the China Daily. The article goes on to link viewing pornographic material with serious crime:

Ministry of Public Security spokesman Wu Heping says as much as 80 percent of juvenile delinquency were caused by juveniles' exposure to sexually explicit Web sites all over the world. China has the second largest Internet users of 144 million, only behind the United States. "A large portion of crimes, including rape, racketeering, robbery, and theft, are committed by juveniles addicted to content on pornographic Web sites," said Wu [Heping].

(I'll go on record saying I think that Wu's statistics are dubious here even though I agree that pornography can be detrimental to society in many cases.)

To combat this perceived problem, China is actively deleting explicit posts and closing sites in addition to filtering all foreign content through the Great Firewall. Yet the implication of that same article is that the government is finding it difficult to cope because the game is continuously changing. In one case, police had difficulty prosecuting a suspect because the material he offered on his site was available for free, and current Chinese law only applies to material that is sold (see story).

More than anything else, the government is having difficulty keeping tabs on all the new ways in which pornographers are peddling their wares. For example, one regulatory commission is monitoring video chatting services for illicit content (see story) while another has brought charges against several dating web sites that seem to be fronts for prostitution rings (see story).

One of these 12 Web sites, which claims to be a lonely hearts dating service, reportedly carried a posting from a young woman who described herself as a 'professional pleasure giver'. A statement issued by the Beijing Online News and Information Panel says that the content in some of these Web sites is extremely shocking. The 12 accused sites are found to be packed with detailed information on the sex trade that includes service items, pricing, and contact information. The statement goes on to categorically say that over 95 percent of the content on these Web sites is sexually explicit.

And the most peculiar report says that the web sites of several schools have been criticized by the Ministry of Education for making money through the distribution of sexual material (see story). In fact it seems as though every branch of the Chinese government is fighting this battle as the China Banking Regulatory Commission recently stated that Chinese banks won't provide services to site offering pornographic content (see story).

I feel it's worth noting that none of these academics or state agencies really discuss the underlying issue of the objectification of women. (Of course this charge could also be levied against a lot of American critics as well.) As an example of this, an unfortunate import from the West, men's magazines, are becoming quite popular (see this older post from Danwei) and don't seem to be meeting too much resistance from the government. And in so far as Xinhua's website itself seems to lure in visitors through pictures of scantily-clad women (examples), one has to wonder where exactly the fine line lies.

Death Note Denoted

2007-06-09T06:37:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late posting this, but I wanted to wait until I had researched the matter fully. And by researching, I mean watching the movies and reading the manga that are at the center of the controversy. Ah, the extent to which I must go to give this blog the depth it deserves!

In this case, the government has started cracking down on illegal (meaning all) distribution of Death Note comics or DVDs. The reason? Because children have been encouraged by this Japanese series to write their own notes condemning their teachers and other students to death. This follows the model of the main character, Light, who desires to create a perfect world by killing those he feels disturb the peace through the method of writing their names in his notebook.

After completing my "research," I don't know how I feel about this issue. In general, I'm never a proponent for banning of any sort. What's more, the series deals with fairly adult themes and is clearly not intended for children, so it really can't be said that children are being targeted. Never in the series is a teacher killed, and only once in the movie did Light kill a fellow student. Above all, the violence cannot be said to be gratuitous because the story does have a point, and that point is centered on an ongoing meditation on the nature of justice and retribution. Dare I say that this topic is an important one for Chinese young and old to be reflecting on?

That said, I'm not sure if the notion of adult comics exists in China like it does in Japan, where reading comics is something in which people of all ages engage. And nuanced laws that reflect this understanding are crafted.

Instead, as far as I know, comics here are still just for kids. (N.B.: I think such an attitude is also prevalent in the U.S., particularly with respect to video games.) Unless Death Note is forbidden, silly vendors will unhesitatingly sell it to children and/or sillier parents. And those children will fail to comprehend the ethical battles being fought between Light and his detractors, and only see the ease with which Light can kill those he wishes to die. And killing loses its negative repercussions. Using this perspective, an outright ban is reasonable.

Of course, to support this position, one also has to believe that there is a substantial link between fantasy violence and real life violence, which certainly remains an unresolved question. I personally don't believe there is a huge correlation given that I grew up playing so-called "murder simulations," and I think I turned out mostly OK. Yet I will admit that the response from children affected by the ban is a little unnerving. From a relevant story in the Japanese Daily Yomiuri:

According to the Legal Daily newspaper, when the Lanzhou city authorities in northwestern China's Gansu Province inspected and confiscated 48 pirate editions of the DVDs on May 29, there were reportedly many threatening calls to the city the next day from angry middle school students.

That same article implies that there is a connection between the ban and anti-Japanese nationalist sentiment, which is also an interesting twist. In other words, the situation is complicated indeed.

It Begins with Shanghai

2007-06-03T22:29:00.000-07:00

I was pleasantly surprised when Artdaily.org featured an art event in Shanghai. I could be wrong but I don't remember ever seeing a featured event in Mainland China on Artdaily (I do believe there was an event in Hong Kong a few months back). So I guess this means that Artdaily is finally going to cover art in Shanghai? I hope so.

The event, ShContemporary will take place from September 6th to 9th this year at the Shanghai Exhibition Center. On the ShContemporary website, it notes:

ShContemporary will define a new approach to art into a real structural relationship between the local context and the international market.

The combination of explosive growth among the wealthy Asian upper and middle class and the recent trends towards Asian contemporary art (Japan, China, India, etc.) have created a market searching for development and enlargement of offer within the Asian Pacific geographical area.

Right, so why is this a partnership between Lorenzo A. Rudolf, former director of Art Basel, Pierre Huber, well known Swiss art dealer and collector, and BolognaFiere Spa? Why has it been close to impossible to have local experts in the field organize such an event? It could be that perhaps there is currently a lack of "know-how" in China for organizing such events. However, we should ask who is buying contemporary Asian art? All the money is being flushed in from the West, and this will dictate who will reign over the Asian art market going forward. I suppose it should be encouraging that the exhibit will comprise of 120 exhibiting galleries and art dealers with 50% to 60% from the Asia Pacific and 40% to 50% from Europe and America.

Even so, I think this is a good turning point for the contemporary Asian art market. This exhibit was obviously organized because there has been a demand in Asian art whether for investment or pleasure (and we all know you should never buy a piece of artwork that you don't find enjoyable). The location of this event is also important because it is in Shanghai and not in Beijing or Hong Kong which I think were the other probable choices of venue.

I can only speculate on who will control the Asian art market in the future, but perhaps I should put my other hat on for a moment and declare that I can't wait to see the list of exhibitors! All the stars seem to be aligned for this event. It's unfortunate that I will miss it.

Deal or No Deal

2007-06-02T08:38:00.000-07:00

Lately there's been a lot of deals, almost deals, and broken deals going down within the video game industry in the land of the dragon.

First there was the rumored on-again, off-again romance between American video game giant Electronic Arts and Chinese company, The9. As detailed in this post on Kotaku, EA ended up signing a deal to buy 15% of the other company at a cost of $167 million. Like most deals of this caliber, this also involved licensing rights; in this case, The9 can market FIFA Online, which will probably net them a decent chunk of cash. However, as billsdue discusses in this post, this deal has also caused some speculation that World of Warcraft developer Blizzard might want to terminate their deal with The9 for the distribution rights to that game. World of Warcraft is a major cash-cow, and Blizzard probably doesn't want to be funding one of their American competitors through a continued partnership with The9.

And Blizzard isn't the only company breaking with their Chinese partner. Gamasutra recently had an article on Korean MMOG producers looking to sever the contacts with their Chinese counterparts due to new projects by the Chinese companies that compete directly with the Korean products.

It is rumored that Japan's SEGA meanwhile has shut down their entire China operation due to poor performance of several MMO projects (see story).

On the other hand, the Swedish-based Entropia Universe have announced that they will release their Second-Life clone Entropia in China after negotiating a deal with the Beijing government, strangely enough, and ensuring that no content rules will be broken (see story). As if China needs more MMO games or even a new SL-clone considering that it already has one in the form of HiPiHi (see previous post). Some day I'll actually get around to firing up my beta copy of the latter.

I wonder if any of these wheelings and dealings will be covered in the upcoming documentary that CCTV is filming about Chinese online game companies (see story).

Won't Somebody Think of the Children?

2007-06-02T07:34:00.000-07:00

Reading this article via a link from Shanghaiist inspired me to post this picture that I took in Lijiang. Shanghai police may have heroically raided a local Wal-Mart to remove realistic looking toy guns, but Chinese police in general have their work cut out for them if they want to rid all of China of this menace.

Casting for Perfection

2007-06-02T05:32:00.000-07:00

As a big fan of "Dream of Red Chambers" I should be glad that there is currently an increased interest in the epic due to 红楼梦中人, the Red Mansions Casting Contest in which contestants compete for the leading roles of 红楼梦 à la American Idol and Super Girl. On my recent trip to China, I watched two shows and I must respectfully report that I was rather disappointed with the show and the contestants. It feels like a big commercial ploy and will also cost 60 million RMB, the most expensive mainland Chinese television drama ever made according to this article in the The Standard.

It is cashing in on the huge popularity of reality TV in China to get double mileage with a nationwide pre- production talent contest. The winners will end up cast as the main characters of the television adaptation. Look closely and you can learn a lot about what's going on in the Middle Kingdom today. While some would look at the whole affair and see a plague of junk culture and rampant individualism imported from the West, in reality, homegrown tradition is more than holding its own. The television contest has gone beyond reawakening interest in the nation's greatest novel to stir at something far deeper.

I hope it will stir up a few good things from the dust. However, according to the translation of an interview between He Dong, an entertainment journalist and Hu Mei, the general director of the new series, Hu Mei does not sound convinced that all this jazz is for the art of 红楼梦.

He: How can that be? As the overall director of the new series, how will you handle actors with whom you are unfamiliar who have been selected to play the leading roles?
Hu: Early this year I made a statement that the idea behind the Red Mansions casting contest did not come out of my own wishes as director. Perhaps from a commercial standpoint, this might be a very clever idea. But any artistic creation follows its own rules. For myself, I am not used to hyping up a project before it is complete. I also don't like this commercialized form of media operation.

He: I think I understand little about where you are. Then are you satisfied with the selection results of the "Red Mansions casting contest", the top-8 or top 5?
Hu: I most certainly cannot say that I'm satisfied, because I have no way of knowing anything about most of the people who have qualified. I'm unclear what sort of standard of judgment the the randomly-chosen judges have. So right now I can only stress that the talent competition is just a talent competition; shooting a TV series is a different thing. My principle is that you can select whoever you want, and I'll continue to prepare for the next step of shooting the new series as seriously and conscientiously as I can.

He: In my understanding, after "Red Mansions casting contest" entered its final round, some of the kids in competition were engaging in commercial promotion apart from the shooting of the show. What's your take on this?
Hu: Really? I never heard that. If it is indeed true, then it's probably an excessive desire for profit.

Well, at least the director Hu Mei sounds like he remains true to his profession and his art. I can only hope for the best.

Personally, I wonder if it's even necessary for a remake as the CCTV 1987 television series is already so perfect that anything else would pale in comparison. For now, I will refrain from biased promotion of the CCTV version of the epic, but the truth is I doubt the remake will be comparable. I will, however, give it the benefit of the doubt and wait until I've watched it to make my final judgment call.

Yao Ming Provides Secret Service for Elephants

2007-06-02T05:24:00.000-07:00

Or so you'd think after watching this YouTube clip that I found via Shanghaiist. Actually, I'm quite impressed with the steps that this fine, young, and exceedingly tall man is advocating for little guys and big elephants both. (See this entry for information on his AIDS PSAs.)

Shanghaiist also provided a link to an article pertaining to how Yao Ming has pledged not to eat Shark-fin soup out of concern for the treatment of endangered species. Good for him. China took flak recently for a scandal in which a boat full of exotic animals (including some endangered) destined for lunch was found abandoned off the coast of Guangdong (see story).

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

2007-06-02T04:52:00.000-07:00

During my recent trip to China, I had the pleasure of watching Chinese television and finally understood what all the fuss regarding marketing in China was all about. Back home in the States, there are usually multiple versions of one commercial that would go on for a few weeks. Some commercials are memorable, others are comme ci, comme ça. But the commercials in China? They are brilliant with a capital B. Take for example the commercials for Head & Shoulders. I have not seen a H&S commercial here in the States in years. In China, I saw at least two different kinds of H&S shampoo commercials, one of which featured Wang Leehom. In addition to Mr. Wang's musical talents, he also has incredibly shiny, bouncy.. hair. Not only did the commercial make me want to switch from Herbal Essences to H&S, I might also download some of his new music. Now, this is super duper brand marketing.

Another commercial I really liked is the Crest "Lemon Tree" commercial, which did not only make me sing along but also made me wonder if I can even buy the Crest "lemon" toothpaste back home. I think the answer is "no," but I will have to check.

Stars vs. SARS

2007-06-02T04:37:00.000-07:00

Thanks be to Joel for pointing this out to me. It's a little old (2003), but it's still fun to try to pick out all the stars. And I must admit that I should bone up on my knowledge of Chinese pop because I can't name even a respectable minority of the supposedly 80+ stars who took part. For what it's worth, I can see David Tao, Wang Leehom, Stefanie Sun, Jolin Tsai, Jay Chou, Coco Lee, and S.H.E. Most of those are from Taiwan (Stefanie Sun is from Singapore and I think Coco Lee's home base is Hong Kong) so I'd guess that the overall mix is also biased towards the island, not that that explains my ignorance. My only question: where's Faye Wong?!

OK, now that I'm done being starstruck, I'll actually fill you in on the purpose of said video. In 2003, David Tao and Wang Leehom got together to write a song to respond to the SARS outbreak. Then they enlisted everyone else. Very much a "We are the World" kind of thing.

If you're interested, here are the lyrics and the Chinese names of the performers (also thanks to Joel).

Review: Eros: The Hand (2004)

2007-06-02T01:14:00.000-07:00

Let me start out by saying that Wong Kar-Wai is hands down my favorite Chinese director. I love everything he puts his hands on, including in this case, The Hand, which was one of three segments in an international anthology, Eros, that was helmed by the Italian Michelangelo Antonioni.

Like most of Wong's films, it's as much about showing excruciatingly pretty pictures (and people) as telling any kind of story, which makes it difficult to write a review, particularly one that touches upon relevant social issues. What's more, as it's but part of a longer piece, the length of 42 minutes doesn't allow for much plot development. In this case, what little there is concerns the tailor Zhang (played by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's Chang Chen) and his relationship—professional and then some—with the riches-to-rags prostitute Miss Hua (played by the always stunning Gong Li).

As the anthology's title suggests, sex is a major theme in the film, but as is Mr. Wong's forte, he is more interested in relentlessly building sexual tension and longing than going for any sort of quick release. In that way, the film recalls his earlier masterpiece, In the Mood for Love. In fact, if I had to criticize any aspect of the film, I would say that Wong doesn't have enough time to truly explore the depths of the two characters' mutual attraction. The brief sexual activity that does transpire, furtive and not quite fully consummated, does not in itself yield any sort of catharsis, either for the characters themselves or for the audience. Of course, I shall not spoil for you how Wong does go about providing that final cathartic moment, but suffice it to say, it is not entirely sexual.

Indeed, throughout the film, Wong explores alternative avenues of eroticism. For example, that eroticism is represented most explicitly in Miss Hua and her trysts—heard but not seen—with her clients. But it is also represented in the way that she values material goods, such as the gifts given to her by those clients or the dresses made for her by Zhang. The dresses themselves become fetishized by Zhang and come to provide some of the relief he needs in one memorable scene right as the camera fades.

More than anything, Wong in his direction very clearly fetishizes the West and, more specifically, a Westernized modernity as viewed from the 1960s. Like his other films, including 2046 which featured Zhang Ziyi as another high-class prostitute, his gives his characters a decidedly Western appearance in clothes and hairstyle. That is, Miss Hua may be dressed in an otherwise traditional cheongsam, but everything else about her suggests a worship of the West. Further, the material trappings with which Miss Hua adorns her home are of the Western variety, and, at one point, as her fortunes begin to slide, she expresses her hope that financial succor will come by way of a client returning from a sojourn in America. The camera of Christopher Doyle, Wong's director of photography, frequently lingers on telephone conversations, and the soundtrack lingers on a gramophone piping out jazz numbers and orchestral snippets.

Wong even manipulates the dialogue; all but one character in the film speaks Mandarin despite the film being set in Hong Kong. Granted Mandarin is not itself Western, but it is foreign in this context. The sole character who does speak Cantonese is the desk man at the lowly hotel where Miss Hua ends up, and even then Zhang refuses to respond to him in that language. Throughout the film, one gets the sense that both Zhang and his boss are trying to affect good class, and this refusal is telling.

Wong is nowhere near the apologist that other Chinese directors, such as Zhang Yimou, tend to be, and perhaps the decadence of his films both in content and in presentation could invite criticism. However, the nominal inclusion of the Cantonese speaker would seem to indicate that he is aware of his problematic depiction, and, despite the linguistic affection, the tailors labor in what ironically amounts to be a sweat-shop. It is that sweat and the sense of physical heat that rises from all of his films that let's the audience know that we are watching a film that is firmly set in Asia. The fact the film was an Italian production and debuted at the Venice Film Festival cannot change that.

Creativity in Captivity

2007-05-28T02:37:00.000-07:00

A recent article from the The Australian gives a really excellent overview of the creative environment at this point of time in China and a great way to bring together a lot of the links that I've been saving up for a rainy day. (And today it rained, by the way.)

Chinese painters, filmmakers and composers are winning awards and lots of money overseas. But although they are, for the time being, losing the larger war for the hearts and minds at home, there are reasons to hope that the freedom to express themselves will come in time. Few, if any, groundbreaking artists are in jail in China, although some—such as the country's only Nobel Prize winner, writer Gao Xingjian—have exiled themselves. Most are still working hard there, including a film director, a painter and a writer who spoke to Review in remarkably frank detail about their brushes with the censorship apparatus. Many find the process of finding the space to communicate their art exhausting and constricting. Their negotiating partner, the Communist Party of China, has had almost 60 years in power to hone its skills of patronising, obstructing and marginalising its competitors for the big ideas and values that will shape the country in the 21st century.

This paragraph contains several key points. The first of which is that the most talented Chinese artists often turn to outside markets first and wait for the domestic market to catch up later. As director Jia Zhangke says later, "my first three films were released in the US and Europe, so people pirated DVD copies and sold them everywhere, and others downloaded them." But for another artist, Yao Junzhong, "it's much harder to make his work available to fellow Chinese" and his paintings “sell these days for up to $40,000, but only overseas."

As a result, China is experiencing a creative brain drain of sorts. Ang Lee's forays into Western Cinema are an early example, but recently other well-known Chinese directors, including Wong Kar-Wai, have also begun to shift his attentions from East to West.

A flurry of films premiering at the Cannes filmfest underscores a new restlessness among the Asian industry's top talent, driven by a desire to paint on bigger canvases and reach broader audiences. First off at the festival that ends next weekend was My Blueberry Nights, Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai's bittersweet ode to the American road movie, starring Jude Law and singer Norah Jones. (See story.)

This effect is perhaps more marked in the music industry. In this case, the musicians don't even get started on a normal career track.

We don't really have an original-music environment. Only few people listen to it. Only few people produce it. And almost nobody wants to distribute it. Youths like Lin are not even buying pirated CDs of Chinese mainland pop music. They simply don't listen to it at all."Because there isn't any," says Lin, "Of course singers are releasing CDs, and I hear them occasionally in a store or from a friend. But can we really call the few CDs filled with out-of-date Western or Japanese influences original Chinese mainland pop?"

...

And Xiao Ke, a renowned music producer and songwriter based in Beijing, says we can't do very much because it's hard to survive as a musician now. "Singers always have to get famous through some other methods, like rumored love relationships or
criticizing others." (See story.)

The Chinese music market is very limited, and right now that market seems to be limited to pop (not surprising), and, to some degree, pop music that is inspired by American Idol clones such as Super Girl.

When it comes to pop music, hip and dazzling Shanghai seems to have no music scene, though its nightlife sizzles. The only name in pop that comes to mind when (if ever) talking about local singers is probably Shang Wenjie, last year's Super Girl talent show champion.

...

"The development of the music industry is not supposed to rely on talent shows," says Wang [Hu]. "Talent shows are a great way to discover young talent, but most of the participants couldn't face the quick success properly. Still debutantes, they consider themselves superstars already."

...

"China never experienced the music boom that Western countries went through during the 1960s and 1970s," he explains. "The Western music market is mature enough to accept the coexistence of all styles of music. However, in China, we must face the reality." (See story.)

Certainly this does not stop at least some music being made, and some of it's even decent quality. Yours truly is a great fan of Faye Wong and Jay Chou, and I do know that there are some indie-type bands playing in the bigger cities, including Shanghai, but there's no national movement to bring those bands to the forefront as you might find—ironically—in other countries. Instead you see situations where 70,000 Chinese youth try out for just one of those clones, My Hero. (See story.)

And this method of doing things is experiencing a backlash both socially and politically.

But others criticize such shows for fueling the belief that one can become overnight sensations and celebrities without real talent or effort. Gu Jianfen, a well-known composer and singer, notes that excessive media exposure can harm future careers." True, they're gaining popularity at the moment, but this process is not equivalent to success," Gu says. "Fame and profit can also kill their dreams. If they really want to be successful with impressive works and devotion to art, it may cost them a lifetime." (See story.)

The government unfortunately then responds with severe legislation that most likely further hinders the development.

Tears, wild hair and unhealthy songs are banned when China's latest version of American Idol goes on the air next month. "No weirdness, no vulgarity, no low taste," the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television said Friday in a notice to the producers of Happy Boys Voice, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. (See story.)

Furthermore, according to this post at Danwei, "the Ministry of Culture and other government departments are finishing up a new framework for certifying culture and arts professionals." Such actions would certainly curtail the viability of these shows, and therefore the current entertainment market.

That is not to say the market is not growing. It is, and in part because of globalization. Many Western artists are jumping at the chance to give concerts in China. On June 26, Christina Aguilera will join the list of Western stars who have recently performed in this country; this list also includes Eric Clapton, the Black-Eyed Peas, and the Rolling Stones. (See story.) In the world of film, Ridley Scott has expressed a desire to work with Zhang Yimou on a future project detailing the life of Qin Shi Huang. (See story.) (Zhang Yimou, of course, is developing something of a reputation as a film collaborator.) Other foreign directors are working with the Chinese authorities to produce on potentially sensitive topics such the life of Chairman Mao (see story) or the Nanjing Massacre (see story). Finally, Chinese cities such as Shanghai are welcoming themselves up to hosting film festivals as other major metropolitan areas do. (See story.)

But such "opening-up" does not necessarily lead to the development of the domestic industry, and, in fact, as the opening quotation also suggests, there are increasing efforts to reel in China's wayward artistic sons. Consider for example, the case of Lou Ye who was banned from producing movies for two years because he presented his film Suzhou River at a film festival in 2003 without official approval. (I've seen this film, and I'm not sure what's so bad about it.) After those two years were up, history repeated itself, and he earned a sentence of five years when he presented Summer Palace at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, which among other (18 years-old historical) issues featured male and female nudity, supposedly a first for Chinese film. (I have not this film, but you can see the NSFW trailer here.)

As a result, artists and the government end up playing a kind of game. Says Jia Zhangke, China's latest star film auteur and possible bad boy (see story), in the Australian:

"Seven or eight independent movie makers sat opposite the SARFT cadres and reached 'a kind of compromise' whereby banned films were set aside, but new films could be made openly. But they are not stable in their minds. Sometimes they get extreme, sometimes they're surprisingly open to us. The forbidden areas are still unknown."

All the more so when the officials in charge of "correcting" change, and you have to deal with somebody new. (See story.) It will be interesting what the future holds.

Coca-Cola Plays Around with AIDS

2007-05-27T18:36:00.000-07:00

From People's Daily Online:

Coca Cola (China) Beverages Ltd. has launched a program to give 100,000 sets of playing cards with AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria prevention knowledge to Chinese migrant workers. The poker cards will be handed out at railway stations and construction sites in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hangzhou in July, said a statement from the company. The company also plans to cooperate with the Chinese Foundation for Prevention of STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) and AIDS to hand out AIDS prevention cards in Henan, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, where the incidence of AIDS is high.

Strange, but it reminds me of an earlier post about similar efforts by L'Oreal. I hope that I can get a pack; I'll be traveling in some of those cities in July so it's a possibility. It also reminds me of a time that I was on a bus returning from the Great Wall in Beijing. I was chatting with a high school student for most of the ride, and before we parted ways, he wanted to give me a gift so he gave me a deck of cards with various cartoon depictions of diseases. Fun times.

Asian Youth and Euthanasia

2007-05-26T03:39:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure how I stand on the topic of euthanasia because the truth is I've never thought about it much before. Of course, because I'm a metaphorically card-carrying liberal, I should probably support it, and if I were to consider it more, I probably would. Which means I get to keep my card. However, as in any ethical situation, once you get past the "life is good, death is bad" duality, you really must consider the specifics of the situation.

And so it was with great interest that I read this article from the LA Times, which tells the story of a woman, Li Yan, who has used her blog to detail her crusade to legalize euthanasia in China.

Confined to a rusty wheelchair and unable to control her muscles below her neck, Li Yan seemed destined for nothing more than a short life of pain and hopelessness. Instead, the 29-year-old with muscular dystrophy has been catapulted into the center of an ethical debate. Li, fearing that her disease eventually will leave her in a helpless state, used her blog in March to ask the National People's Congress to legalize her right to die. "I don't want to live with my brothers and sisters-in-law after my parents' death, let alone go to an orphanage or welfare institute," wrote Li, a rosy-cheeked woman with plump lips who can't keep from breaking into a smile even when discussing her most morbid wishes."I'd be away from heaven and life would be worse than death for me," she wrote, addressing the congress during its annual two-week meeting in Beijing. "So I would like to apply for euthanasia when I'm still able to sit and talk."

Her blog has sparked a debate among Chinese Internet users, even resulting in an online poll according in which 90% of the people supported her right to die, according to the article. And a lot of connections have been made between her situation and that of Terry Schiavo in 2005, who I do think had the right to die as she wanted.

However, Li Yan is not Terry Schiavo. First of all, she is still conscious. Second, she still has some years of life to look forward to. In this China Daily article, she admits that she believes she can live until the age of 40. She is 28 now; she's got 12 more years to go. Considering that her doctors told her she wouldn't live longer than 18, it's really anyone's guess as to how much life she has left, but it's probably safe to say that she still has some time. From what I gather, she's not trying to gather support to be euthanized when she's in a future comatose-state; rather, she wants to die now.

More than anything, she seems to just want the government to officially sanction her suicide plans. She's already tried once, through the method of self-starvation, but stopped at the pleading of her mother. As she mentioned in the quotation above, her greatest fear is that she might have to live beyond the deaths of her parents. In that case, might I suggest that a better choice might be to campaign for improved health care for people in her situation? But she said already that she doesn't want to live in a state-run convalescent home, and so death seems like the only option to her.

"As long as my computer works and my fingers can move, I will keep trying. If failing, I will kill myself through a hunger strike, the only way I can die." Li said in response to a question on what she would do if her efforts to push for the law come to nothing.

Personally, I don't buy her argument, especially after comparing how she describes her affliction ("super cancer" according to the China Daily article and many other sources that quote her) and what the affliction actually seems to be ("muscular dystrophy" according to the LA Times and every description of her condition).

I offer my sympathy to her, but I'm not sure she's the right poster child to be spear-heading this very important and controversial topic. I share some of the LA Times' apprehension that life seems to be getting cheaper in China.

The central government has been guarded, hinting in the state media that China wasn't ready to join the few nations that have legalized euthanasia. But in a country where death shadows the underclass in myriad ways — from coal mine explosions and sickening pollution to earthquakes and floods — many people appear to view euthanasia as an act of mercy.There is no right-to-life movement here like the one that sought to keep brain-damaged Terri Schiavo alive two years ago in Florida. In China, the one-child policy has begotten institutionalized abortion. Capital punishment is common and swift."China's atheism education, people's practical mind-set and poverty all add up to a willingness to accept euthanasia," said Zhang Zanning, a professor of medical law at Dongnan University in Nanjing.

I am pro-choice, but it scares me the extent to which adoption is not considered a viable option in the case of pregnancies in China. So too with this; I worry that there might not be enough of a balance in the discussion, particularly one that was launched in the digital age, which simultaneously dehumanizes people as it increases connectivity. That is, it's one thing to tell Li Yan you support her decision when you're sitting in some PC bar in Tianjin; it's another thing when you actually know her personally and care for her, as I assume some people (including her parents) do.

I guess that what I really want is for the people of the Internet to be offering her some choices other than death so that the net doesn't become the breeding ground of suicide that it has in South Korea and Japan (see story).

If anyone out there is more acquainted with the politics of euthanasia, I'd love some comments.

Lay's and KFC Make Strange Kang-fellows

2007-05-25T02:00:00.000-07:00

I was buying some lunch in the local convenience store when I saw the following packaging. I bought a pack of Texas BBQ chips just so I could take it home and snap a picture.

The promised gift is a coupon book for KFC. I don't why, but there's something about the union of Lay's, KFC, and Stefanie Sun on one wrapper that seems a little unholy (and intriguing) to me. The world is no stranger to cross-promotions, China least of all, but I don't quite understand the marketing genius that came up with the idea to link two competitors (more or less) in one product.

I suspect the idea was KFC's. That company is probably orchestrating a charm offensive meant to counteract the negative press generated by previous scandals including the "Sudan I" red dye affair in 2005 (see story) or the recently brought to light questionable hiring practices in a Guangdong restaurant (see story). Also, see my earlier entry for another example of KFC's promotional blitz. Obviously, I can't say there is a definite relationship here, but I do see KFC as trying to step up their PR efforts. (See this entry on Micah Sittig's blog that provides an extensive catalogue of KFCs television advertisement efforts in China.)

The inclusion of Stefanie Sun is no doubt meant to inject at least a small degree of Chineseness into the joint effort between two American conglomerates. A similar approach was used by Coca-Cola and Blizzard (makers of World of Warcraft) in their own television ads that featured S.H.E. But in that case, the two companies in question were in markedly different industries. For the sake of completeness, here are two of the spots from 2005 and 2006 respectively.

Likewise, Chinese companies are also teaming up with Western brands to increase their cachet. For example, software company Kingsoft has partnered with Pizza Hut, strangely enough, to promote office software (see story) and YouTube clone Tudou has joined forces with Adidas to sponsor a video competition (see story). Yet none of these leave me with the same "huh" feeling as the Lay's-KFC project.

Confucius Gets the Old Nip and Tuck

2007-05-25T01:14:00.001-07:00

It is well-known that Confucian thought is returning to the forefront of Chinese society after it was denigrated during the pre-Reform period. It serves as the cornerstone of President Hu Jintao's "Harmonious Society" movement and has been touted by pop academics such as Yu Dan as the cure for Chinese ills. (See story.)

Since the publication of her enormously popular book on the teachings of Confucius late last year, Yu has been racing from college lectures to book signings, TV appearances and speaking engagements. The public can't seem to get enough of this overnight sensation who has turned dusty old Confucian teachings into a Chinese version of "Chicken Soup for the Soul." "I never expected this," the smartly dressed 42-year-old said in a hurried interview from the back of the black Audi taking her to the airport. "In the 21st century, our value system is changing; people are faced with a lot of confusion and choices. The classics are not just fossils. They are a value system that can help us find answers to modern-day problems." For more than 2,500 years, the Confucian doctrines of filial piety, moral righteousness and hierarchical relationships were the guiding principles of life and government in China and most of East Asia.

But she might be doing this at the cost of diluting or altering altogether Confucius's original meaning.

Yu has become such a phenomenon that she has drawn the scorn of some scholars who say her pop psychology has little to do with real Confucianism. One group of professors called on her to resign and apologize for reducing the classics to fast food. During a book signing in Beijing, a man wore a T-shirt reading "Confucius would be annoyed."

In fact I discussed her with some students just the other day, and they were both very aware of her celebrity and also the charges that had been leveled against her.

Now the Chinese media wants to take the remodeling of Confucius to the next logical step.

Producers of a cartoon series that will feature the ancient Chinese philosopher and educator Confucius are soliciting animated imagery of the sage from designers around the globe. Shenzhen Phoenix Star, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-listed Phoenix Satellite TV, said it was offering 500,000 yuan (about 64,100 U.S. dollars) to reward the best designer. The company is working with China Confucius Foundation to produce the 100-episode cartoon series, which is part of the latter's efforts to promote Confucianism worldwide. The series, with each episode lasting 13 minutes, is to recount Confucius' life, the formation of his school of thought and how he enlightened his disciples. "We've been working to promote Confucianism in different ways and cartoon, as a popular means of dissemination, is apparently one of the most effective ways to popularize the essence of Chinese culture to the overseas audience," said Wang Daqian, deputy secretary-general of the foundation.

...

The "standardized", "official" portrait of Confucius unveiled by the foundation last year is apparently too dull and serious to become an animated image.

Next up: Confucius in a cape and tights.

Gold Net Bar

2007-05-20T06:43:00.000-07:00

This CNet blog gives an overview of an interesting documentary project called Chinese Gold Farmers. The lead in the project, Ge Jin, is a PhD student at a certain school that a certain someone will soon be attending, namely UCSD and me. So I'll probably meet this guy. Cool.

I have my own story related to gold farming. During my first year as a teacher in Harbin, one of my students called me and told me that her uncle wanted to talk to me. When they arrived, although my Chinese wasn't as good as it is now, it quickly became clear that he wanted me to give him some advice as to how he could start up his own "farm." He had heard about other people doing it, and he wanted his own slice of the pie. Short of looking up prices on various web sites (including eBay), I couldn't really give him too much assistance as I don't in fact play MMOGs myself. Actually, I was happy to be useless because of the ethically problematic nature of the whole situation.

Another student of mine told me that he had a part time job doing live translation for Chinese gamers interacting with Western. I didn't think to ask at the time, but I suppose he might also have been involved in this field of work.

Here's the video linked to the CNet blog:

Video Games Killed the Mando-Pop Star Pt. 2

2007-05-20T06:17:00.000-07:00

Fresh on the heels of an earlier post, Kotaku has found another Mandarin music video that was created to promote a video game. This one promotes a new Korean MMO project named Granado Espada (that looks to deal with pirates... go figure) that I'm not too familiar with and features 3 singers that I've not heard of before. Color me clueless. According to the linked article, one of the singers is a graduate of a clone of Super Girls, which is itself a clone of American Idol. Here's the video, which features some pretty nice cosplay action:

Another Kotaku post points to a press release announcing an international contest taking place in another MMOG produced by the same company that released the previous music video.

Fakes on a Plane

2007-05-18T07:45:00.000-07:00

Tucked inside a longer (and certainly worthwhile to read) piece by Peter Hessler in the latest issue of National Geographic is a shorter note about a chance meeting on a plane.

In February 2006, I boarded the Air China flight, found my seat, and began to doze as other passengers were filing past. At one point, I half awoke and noticed that a man had an odd resemblance to Mao Zedong. It might have been a dream, so I didn't think much of it until I heard two flight attendants talking excitedly. One of them said, "The actor who plays Chairman Mao is back there!" "Which row?" "Twenty-five!" He was in the middle seat, wedged between two Wenzhou businessmen, who, like nearly everybody on the plane, were falling asleep. But the actor looked completely alert. He wore a neat gray suit, a red tie, and full makeup. His teeth gleamed—they must have been false—and his hair had been dyed black and brushed away from his forehead. He wore a prosthetic mole on the left side of his chin. Every physical detail was in place, and the effect was stunning: Mao Zedong in seat 25E, economy class.

Reading this piece cracked me up, both because of the existence of a THE guy who plays Mao and the fact that he's seemingly always ready for a performance. (Another well-known actor who played Mao died in 2005. See story.) Imagine if Will Farrell were known as THE guy who played Bill Clinton or Dana Carvey as THE guy who played George H.W. Bush (oh wait).

Oh, and did I mention that Peter Hessler is the man? I want to be him. Seriously, I admire him a great deal for a variety of reasons. Read River Town and Oracle Bones to find out why.

No Wei

2007-05-18T03:42:00.000-07:00

I just saw a post on Shanghaiist that made me pretty sad. It seems that the author Wei Hui suffered a major spinal injury, was in a coma for 20 days, and might end her writing career as a result.

Wei Hui is most famous for her book Shanghai Baby, which has been translated into several languages including English. The book is known for the frank descriptions of sexual behavior that got it banned in China (although I did find the English translation in the foreign bookstore on Wangfujing). And I have to admit that I'm a fan of it and the sequel Marrying Buddha. While many of you may be snickering "I'm sure you are," let me explain: as Chinese society develops, I think such counter-cultural voices are important, and I think she mixes the sex talk with a heavy dose of erudition, which is not surprising given that she graduated from Fudan, one of China's top universities. All in all, I think she's a better writer than other authors than cover a similar trope, such as Mian Mian in Candy or Chun Sue in Beijing Doll.

I'm hoping that she doesn't give up writing after all; she could potentially turn these events into her next novel. After all, it is well known that her books are autobiographical. Also, I hope that more of her work gets translated.

In other literature news, Danwei has a recent post on the hoops that Chinese authors have to go through in order to join the Beijing Writers' Association. It includes some quotations from two of my favorites, Mao Dun and Lao She. There's also an older post on the seizure of some unlicensed horror story magazines, and an even older post that I've been sitting on about an ex-con writing his memoirs about his time in prison.

What is Your Quest?

2007-05-18T03:19:00.000-07:00

This is a follow-up of sorts to a previous post on the new season of Survivor that will be filmed in China.

Quest China, a sequel to Quest USA will show four teams - China, UK, the US, and Australia - battle it out through a 12-day adventure. They start from Shanghai and hit Beijing, Chongqing and other cities before ending back where they started. Because of distance, they will go by air. Tasks are not decided, but performing Peking Opera is likely to be one - as is performing peasants' chores.

Peking Opera? Sign me up!

...And I did. I'm crossing my fingers that I get called back or whatever is the equivalent for submitting an online form. This could be the lucky break I need towards achieving my secret dream of becoming a TV star in China. I look forward to being a wacky foreigner hamming it up on Chinese-language TV. If you'd like to sign up, go to http://www.questusa.tv/tz_en.asp.

I'm sad I missed the no-doubt equally-entertaining hi-jinks in the predecessor which featured Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, and Hong Kong Chinese competing against ABCs in the US.

Why Fed Ex Hired Marco Polo

2007-05-14T02:41:00.000-07:00

Funny because it's (hopefully not) true. When did this ad air?

Video Games Killed the Mando-Pop Star

2007-05-14T02:07:00.000-07:00

As I get settled into this sort of blogging, I'm trying to get more judicious about the sorts of things I post about so that I don't spend all day at my computer... or perhaps I should say so I don't spend 25 hours a day at my computer. A few weeks ago when Kotaku posted a story about a new Chinese MMO that was endorsed by Richie Ren (of 对面的女孩 fame), I almost bit. But then I didn't. I'm fickle.

Yet now Kotaku has posted a follow-up linking to the following music video by Mr. Ren, and I can no longer resist. Feast your eyes (and your senses).

Personally, the "hoo girl"s really do it for me. Honestly though, I prefer the ads that S.H.E does for Coke and WoW.

NBA and the Hip-Hop Profits

2007-05-13T06:19:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, most of you out there in the "Blogosphere" probably won't be able to read this as it's classified as Times Select, but I'll try to summarize it as best I can.

Primarily, the article discusses increased cooperation between the NBA and businesses in China to bring American basketball to China. For example, it briefly mentions something that I've read before, that the NBA might be interested in starting a league in China. (How that would compete with the already extant CBA is any one's guess.) It goes on to say that the NBA is looking to bring more star players to China for promotional activities, including LeBron James who was named the league's ambassador to China.

And this is where it starts to get interesting. Certain parties in China see this as an opportunity to increase familiarity in China with African-American culture.

Yan Gang, the chairman and chief executive of Citic Guoan, said the Chinese government wanted to introduce African-American culture to China and planned to use the players union for a cultural exchange.

Through an interpreter, Yan said: “What we intend to do is really bring the real African-American culture to China by way of, for example, doing soul-food restaurants and having more appearances of U.S. basketball players in China. These things will deepen the understanding of African-Americans in the minds of the Chinese.”

...

Basketball, more than any other American team sport, represents the confluence of everything perceived to be cool and hip about the United States — the music, the dress, the overall pizazz.

...

“There is a fascination with hip-hop rap music and African-American culture,” said Sue Williams, a writer and producer. She has produced three documentaries on China since 1987. She is completing a documentary called “Making It,” individual portraits of China’s Generation Xers.

In her view, the rationale behind introducing China to the popular elements of African-American culture, like sports, music, fashion and art, makes sense.

“It’s fun, it’s loose, it’s physical; it’s kind of shocking, all those things that are really new,” she said last week.

“What they want to do is change the culture in colleges. As a student, you’re so driven to succeed and get good test scores and do well and be perfect academically, and get a great job. And they see college-level basketball as a way of creating more of a communal identity, of making college more fun.”

On the one hand, I support China's quest to become more cosmopolitan. On the other hand, I don't think this is the best way to go about it. Maybe it's just the cynic in me, but in a country where 黑人牙膏 ('Black Man's Toothpaste') is very popular, reading about 'soul food' restaurants in a Chinese context brings to mind unwelcome images of Black minstrels.

And the dollars that are riding on these deals reek of exploitation. Believe me, I would love to see more of my students come to appreciate quality hip-hop music, but I don't think that's going to come about through the efforts of a bunch of rich, white team owners trying to get richer. Looking to the greater hip-hop culture to spice things up for the bored kids who do nothing but study ignores a lot of the historical and social background that informs that culture. And I'd rather they learn about those issues first before they move on to 50-cent.

But... maybe I'm wrong. Maybe China will actually take the lead in cultural sensitivity in East Asia and greatly surpass both South Korea and Japan, which aren't doing so well either. I certainly hope so.

No Consoling Chinese Game Players

2007-05-10T23:38:00.000-07:00

Gamasutra posted an interview with Lisa Hanson that's chock full of useful information about the Chinese game industry and market. Ms. Hanson is the director of the consulting firm Niko Partners, and she featured prominently in the essay I wrote that appeared in this blog's first entry.

Check it out for yourself, but I think the most interesting tidbits relate to the difficulties consoles face in China, mostly stemming from the fact that they are still officially prohibited (though I know more than a few students who own PS2s or PSPs and sometimes both).

The biggest barrier to market entry for a foreign game product is the complex regulatory landscape. There are many rules in place that make it cumbersome and difficult for a foreign company to get its game or hardware to the point of legitimate launch in China.

...

Currently the sale of game consoles is prohibited in China, yet several hundred thousand of the newest consoles have already made it into the hands of hard-core gamers there via the grey market. Their hunger for the latest games and technology shows that demand is there. Console games are available in pirate versions for $1 or less or in grey market versions for $40-50. Far fewer grey market games are sold because of that price differential. Yet if the console ban were lifted, then the console makers could presumably launch business models specifically for China that enable sales of lower priced software. Perhaps they will follow the online game subscription model. Until the ban is lifted, nobody can discuss their business strategy for console hardware and console game sales.

Reading this and the rest of the interview, it should be clear (if it wasn't already) why piracy is so prevalent in China: it's simple economics. Free or cheap is always preferable to expensive even when demand is high. This is also true for poor college students in the states, another favorite target of "big business." As such, perhaps companies like Nintendo should put more effort into lobbying China to open the market as Hanson suggests than encouraging China to crack down harder on their potential customers as Nintendo does here. (For the record, I am a Nintendo fanboy, and I support their actions in general.)

The article also mentions the fatigue system that was implemented recently and that I wrote about in the aforementioned paper. It also makes reference to the ways that certain Chinese companies are attempting to circumvent the law, and that in the general the law doesn't seem to be having the desired effect. (See this entry on Billsdue for more info. Another related problem is described here.)

Copyright and the Seven Dwarfs

2007-05-10T20:44:00.000-07:00

Due to some traveling during the May holiday, I missed the chance to post on an interesting entry that appeared on Japan Probe that discussed a certain Shijingshan Park in Beijing that unmistakeably tries to make its own version of Disney's Magic Kingdom. (See the original article for some picture evidence.)

Fortunately for me, the story doesn't end there. Japan Probe has posted another entry that describes how the park has seemingly responded to the criticism by the Japanese press and removed a lot of the offending material. The site quotes an AP report:

Despite the striking similarities to foreign characters, Yin insisted the Beijing park’s are all locally designed.

“Take our Cinderella as an example. The face of Disney’s Cinderella face is European, but ours is a Chinese. She looks like a young Chinese country girl,” he said.

Yeah, as does the Snow White surrounded by the Seven Dwarfs. Nonetheless:

On Wednesday, two workmen with sledgehammers could be seen tearing down the Sleeping Beauty statue.

Yin, the deputy general manager, refused to say why.

In similarly amusing IP infringement news, Ironic Gamer has a post on innovation in the time-honored Chinese tradition of burning images of valuable objects for the sake of deceased relatives. In this case, dead grandparents can now while away their time in the afterlife by playing their very own Nintendo Wii. An older article about burning paper Viagra can be found here. Man, it sounds like the dead are having more fun than I am.

World Wide Webslinger

2007-05-03T01:25:00.000-07:00

One perk of being in China is that I get to see certain movies before y'all in the States. Usually these movies are of the Hollywood Blockbuster variety. Spiderman 3 is no exception. Especially due to the fact that it is currently the "May Holiday" week, theaters and even clothing stores have been hyping this movie up something fierce.

The movie opened here yesterday as it did all over China. The previous day I was walking around the main shopping street in Harbin, and I saw the following:

According to their sashes, they are advertising a theater that is cheaper than the Warner Cinema nearby, but I prefer to think that they are runners-up in a cosplay competition. (My apologies for the low-res quality of this and the remaining pictures; they were taken by a cell phone camera.)

Yesterday, when I went to watch said movie in said theater, I found this inside:

There was another Spidey-Clone running around (in a better outfit) for the purpose of taking pictures:

Finally, because it's considered such a novelty to watch the film in its original language, we couldn't watch the English language version on the normal, pedestrian screens. No, we had to watch it in the "VIP" room, which featured 24 leather recliners and free drinks for a mere 10 RMB more. Easily the swankiest movie-watching experience I have had.

As for the movie itself, I won't write a review; instead I'll just say: Meh. But the overall experience: w00t.

Mingpai Dynasty

2007-04-28T07:43:00.000-07:00

A few days ago the Time China Blog had a post about the similarity between the "China Top Brand" product designation and Nazi SS logo. When I read that, I was glad to find out that I was not the only person in China to make that connection. I never assumed it was intentional, but it did seem like a pretty large oversight.

Now EastSouthWestNorth has taken up the topic and dug a little deeper. They include some bits of an interview with the man who designed the logo:

"The China Top Brand logo is obviously using the Chinese character 名 for 'famous' or 'top.' Why is it being compared to a Nazi SS logo? This is a waste of time; there is no need to hype this one up. If we don't even have enough self-respect and self-confidence for this piece of popular culture, then we are finished as a people! This is too sad, too pathetic!"

I'll have to respectfully disagree with him about whether any complaints on this similarity represent over-sensitivity. After all, I've known some cases where Chinese "netizens" have gotten angry over depictions of a red sun in a far less visible context.

Further I think it is disingenuous of him to say that the symbol is obviously anything; in all the times I have seen it on products as diverse as air conditioners to ice cream, I have never once thought that it looked like "ming," but instead immediately thought of SS. It seems he is grasping for a justification. Again I do not accuse him of any intentional action but it would be nice if he owned up to the possible misinterpretation and redesigned the logo.

In other news:

Miao Pu, an actress from the mainland that I have never heard of, has decided that she wants to buy a plane, take flying lessons, and then fly it across the strait to Taiwan. My first thought when I read this: I wonder if she'd fail a history test à la Rainie Yang (See previous entry.) (story)

Chen Kaige (director of Farewell My Concubine and The Promise) is teaching film classes at a university in Kyoto. Once again, I'm glad to see Chinese entertainers taking the lead in building bridges. (story)

Review: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (2002)

2007-04-26T07:28:00.000-07:00

To start with, I should clarify that my subject here is mainly the film version, not the book upon which it is based, which I have also read. But as they are both helmed by the same man, Dai Sijie, I might as well be talking about the same thing, and I will discuss both to some degree.

Like the book, the movie concerns two young men Luo (Chen Kun) and Ma (Liu Ye, who also has had roles in The Promise and Curse of the Golden Flower) who are sent down to the country side during the Cultural Revolution. As such it is not altogether original in the world of Chinese Cinema, but it does feature some interesting conceits such as the central influence of the titular Balzac and other "decadent" Western writers. And like of some of those other films, it shares the same fate: it is not readily viewable in the country of its setting. Heck, it's difficult enough to track down a torrent to download it; I know because I've been trying for two years. (For more of the story of the film's creation, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/27/movies/MoviesFeatures/27balz.html)

I will save a discussion of Chinese writers in exile for a later date. (Such discussion will also include surely include Nobel Laureate Gao Xingjian; don't believe any Mainlander who says a Chinese has never won the Nobel Prize.)

Instead, I really want to focus on the ways in which the movie differs from the book. In summary, it appears as though Dai has changed what he wants to say through his work. The first seemed to be a meditation on life in the countryside (naturally), and moreover on the ways in which that life does not match the picture painted by the government. The book features the very strong narrative presence of the character of Ma, who uses his music ability to reach out to the locals and chronicles their folk music. His efforts thereto are met with resistance by the town cadres because the lyrics are bawdy and not exactly edifying. In the movie, this sub-plot is reduced to a single scene, and the narratorship of Ma is quite diminished to an almost superficial role. Indeed, in the beginning of the movie, Ma's character seems to be upstaged by the more extroverted and charismatic Luo. The departure of the Seamstress (Zhou Xun, who also starred in Suzhou River) is less moving than in the book because we do not feel the same tension that she does between life in the village and the life in her dreams.

Instead, Dai has replaced that tension with nostalgia. He frames the film in the Three Gorges Controversy, an element which did not appear at all in the book. The switch from diachronic time to synchronic is quite jarring, and unfortunately the new scenes feel quite tacked on. In their "where are they now" vibe, they strike me as similar to the end titles in many an '80s American youth drama. That said, I can respect Dai for wanting to draw attention to this matter, and the audience can feel his concern for what's been lost by the damming. We can likewise better appreciate his concern for his homeland than we could if his were just another film in the GPCR pile. The closing scene, in which the village is flooded, while a little cheesy, is nonetheless full of real emotion, not of the motionless and ghost-like characters, but of the director.

Survival Press Kit

2007-04-25T02:50:00.000-07:00

[via Pacific Epoch]

The next season of Survivor will be filmed in China:

"CBS has booked China as the location for the next edition of Survivor, and locked in premiere dates for two key summer reality shows—including Mark Burnett's Pirate Master. Production of U.S. entertainment projects in mainland China had been rare, due to logistical and government restrictions. But with a growing economy, China has begun a more open policy, including its active wooing to host the 2008 Beijing Olympics. While bigscreen features, such as the 2006 The Painted Veil [See: http://popchina.blogspot.com/2007/04/review-white-countess-2005-and-painted.html], forged new ground by filming completely in China, CBS's lensing of an entire series is a precedent for an American network."

Huh. That's kind of crazy. I kind of want to try out for the show. I feel like I could win, as long as there aren't any underhanded alliances like there was in the first season. And I wouldn't get picked up by the cops either after I won.

The question remains: where in China will it be filmed? After all, China's a big country. They could be put in the wilds of Tibet or the urban jungle of Beijing. Either way, things could get pretty crazy. It does seem a little odd to juxtapose a major world power against some of the tiny islands that have been home to the show in the past. In fact, according to the article, the only other time that the show was not set on an island, was the Guatemala season. I don't know; China just doesn't strike me as being in the middle of nowhere.

No, You Really are Perfect

2007-04-22T06:39:00.000-07:00

I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change is now on Broadway. However, this is not just any other production. As many other sources have indicated, this is the first time a foreign production of an American musical will be playing in the United States. Further, this production will be performed entirely in Mandarin Chinese (with English subtitles). I was pleasantly surprised upon learning about this production. The director Joel Bishoff understood that Chinese audiences don't just want a translated version of the production, they want to see a show in local context laced with local references. I can't wait to read about the reviews of the Mandarin Chinese show in New York. In fact, I'm going to try to get tickets to the show.

Here is the link to the Chinese site: http://www.iloveyoumandarin.com/home.html

This production premiered in Shanghai in December 2006 and has been selected as the special opening ceremony attraction at the prestigious 2007 Beijing Theater Festival on Tuesday, April 17 before the entire company (cast and musicians) makes the move to New York City. Immediately after their New York engagement, the company will return to Beijing to launch an extended multi-city tour throughout China. Featured in the talented cast of four is Lin Yilun – one of China's most popular singing stars and the winner of the 2006 Best Male Singer of China Award at the CCTV & MTV Music Awards – along with Yu Yi, Wen Yang and Ma Qingli.

Kiss of the Spider Lilies

2007-04-21T07:05:00.000-07:00

On Thursday I was looking around the many Chinese YouTube clones seeing if I could find the latest episode of Lost. (This method is sometimes faster than trying to download it from a BitTorrent server in the states.) As I came to the first page of OuOu, I noticed that one of the featured links had quite the risque picture associated with it. The link was also ridiculously popular. (At the time of this writing, it has been watched by more than 5 million viewers.)

What is it? It's from a press conference on 4/17 regarding the recent movie from Taiwan called Spider Lilies. The movie stars Rainie Yang as a cam-girl (if you don't know what that is, good for you) and Isabella Leong as a tattoo artist. They happen to develop a romantic relationship.

After seeing the clip, I tried in vain to find a download location so that I could see the film in its entirety. Lacking that, I can't say much about the film in general, but apparently it's been well received by the LGBT community. It even won the Teddy Bear Award at the recent Berlin Festival for Best Queer Film. (See: http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/829/ and http://www.shadowsonthewall.co.uk/shfesbff.htm) The director, Zero Chou, is herself a lesbian.

That's all well and good, but at the press conference, the director showed some deleted scenes which showed a much more "involved" kiss between the two leads. You can hear the cheering from the audience when this occurs. And I wonder if the resulting attention this publicity stunt might cause throughout the internet might detract from the message, whatever that message may be. All in all, the movie is clearly using the premise of two attractive girls encountering each other physically to bring itself attention.

And looking at the figures, it seems to be working. It sits atop a long list of other short user-submitted films that promise "female comrades" to a (presumably) male audience in China that is hungry to push the digital boundaries of what the state censors officially permit them to view. Just recently, Baidu's Japanese home page (http://www.baidu.jp) was ironically blocked in China because it seemed too many Chinese were interested in viewing the sights and sounds of Japanese bedrooms that were hitherto off-limits to them. (See: http://www.danwei.org/net_nanny_follies/baidu_japan_blocked_in_china.php)

I cannot see such developments as positive even if in this case they come in the package of a movie that might purport to promote tolerance.

For the sake of completeness, here is the video in question; be forewarned as it is NSFW:

And here is a trailer for the movie as a whole:

Going to the Chatroom and I'm Going to Get Married

2007-04-20T03:11:00.000-07:00

[via Shenzhen Undercover]

This article gives more detail on something that I'd seen earlier on Pacific Epoch (http://www.pacificepoch.com/newsstories?id=P94757).

VIRTUAL marriage has become a new fashion among pupils in Shenzhen, with many children "marrying" several times and even "giving birth" to virtual babies online, an investigation by the Shenzhen Evening News reported yesterday.

A survey by the newspaper of 49 pupils at a primary school in Luohu District showed that 24 percent of them had virtual "marriages", and 14 percent of them had even "married" twice.

Parents and educators worry that the virtual marriages would lead the kids into misunderstanding the reality of marriage.

The game in question is called Fantasy Westward Journey. Apparently the reason getting virtually married is so popular is because the game awards extra points, and so the authorities are worried that children might get the wrong impression that the big score counter in the sky might actually go up when they get married in real life. Personally, I'm not sure it's such a big deal; I think it's fairly common for kids to have play weddings, and there's certainly the stereotype of young girls fantasizing about their future married life.

All the World's a Stage

2007-04-20T02:40:00.000-07:00

From the New York Times:

IT was a smash hit. Boffo! in Hollywood English. Bang ji le in Mandarin Chinese. It was a television show watched by possibly 600 million people worldwide in February at the Lunar New Year in China, ushering in the Year of the Boar.

The show featured talent from China, Tan Weiwei and Li Yuchun, two winners of China’s Super Girl contest — a competition that attracts a far larger audience than “American Idol.” Jackie Chan, the Hong Kong martial arts superstar who is also a singer, was in the lineup. As were Kanye West and Gnarls Barkley from the United States. A-Mei from Taiwan sang.

The international stars were brought together over two nights at the Aladdin/Planet Hollywood Resort in Las Vegas to do the show, which was recorded there and shown the next night and for five more nights in China by Hunan TV.

Possibly because I was in South Korea at the time, I didn't hear anything about this, which is a shame because I love both Kanye West and Gnarls Barkley, and nothing would make me happier than seeing them become popular in China. Not that that's going to happen.

Two interesting tidbits from the article: 1. the Gnarls Barkley segment was cut initially because "one of the musicians had tattoos on his arms." I'm guessing its referring to Cee-Lo, but I don't know for sure. 2. This quote from someone in the business. “China is different from most other countries. It prefers contemporary Chinese music to global pop stars. You don’t find American and global entertainers featured on radio and television." I don't really agree with this statement; Chinese youth still seem to know about pop stars like Avril Lavigne (see: http://popchina.blogspot.com/2007/03/avril-goes-and-makes-things-so.html) and the Backstreet Boys. And they like Rain from South Korea. A lot.

It's also worth nothing that this show was produced for Hunan TV, which is making a name for itself for innovating Chinese TV (in so far as the American Idol-clone Super Girls can be called an innovation.)

In other TV-shows-with-a-connection-to-both-China and America, the New York Times also had an interesting look at a new Nickelodeon show about a Chinese-American girl called Ni Hao, Kai-lan! (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/arts/television/15davi.html) I wish they had this show when I was a kid.

Olympics and Sudan

2007-04-18T03:31:00.000-07:00

One of the difficulties of having a blog that's focused on a relatively small niche—in this case, popular culture in China—is that sometimes there are topics that are extremely important and that you want to discuss but that do not fit very cleanly within your pigeon hole. For me, China's foreign policy, particularly that which is related to Africa, is one such topic.

But now, thanks to this article in the New York Times, I have an avenue with which I can broach this topic. The article is short, but here's the gist:

For the past two years, China has protected the Sudanese government as the United States and Britain have pushed for United Nations Security Council sanctions against Sudan for the violence in Darfur.

But in the past week, strange things have happened. A senior Chinese official, Zhai Jun, traveled to Sudan to push the Sudanese government to accept a United Nations peacekeeping force. Mr. Zhai even went all the way to Darfur and toured three refugee camps, a rare event for a high-ranking official from China, which has extensive business and oil ties to Sudan and generally avoids telling other countries how to conduct their internal affairs.

So what gives? Credit goes to Hollywood — Mia Farrow and Steven Spielberg in particular. Just when it seemed safe to buy a plane ticket to Beijing for the 2008 Olympic Games, nongovernmental organizations and other groups appear to have scored a surprising success in an effort to link the Olympics, which the Chinese government holds very dear, to the killings in Darfur, which, until recently, Beijing had not seemed too concerned about.

To begin with, I want to go on record as saying that I think the label of "Genocide Olympics" is entirely unwarranted, and I'd prefer it not be used. If nothing else, the 1936 Olympics should already hold that title. What's more, linking the Olympics with China's foreign policy, is also not very justified. Again, it's certainly not the first country on the hot seat to host the games, and China is certainly not the only large country with questionable activities *cough*.

But... anything that causes China to rethink its stance on Sudan is ultimately a good thing, and I was especially heartened to read of Spielberg using his connections to the Olympics (via Zhang Yimou) to influence this change. One person really can make a difference! Especially if you are arguably the most famous movie director in the world.

Shanghai Streets Not Very 1337

2007-04-12T00:14:00.000-07:00

"Squealing tires, merciless opponents, constant traffic, heady speeds and Shanghai like you’ve never seen it before. Welcome to Shanghai Street Racer."

So goes the blurb for an American-produced racing game that I thank (or curse) Shanghaiist for pointing me towards. That said, the game really does offer everything I've been promised: a Shanghai like I've never seen before... and not just because I myself have not yet been to Shanghai.

This Shanghai features:

More neo-classical architecture than Washington D.C., let alone the Bund
Advertisements and Billboards in English
Scantily clad women in said advertisements prominently displayed throughout what appears to be a business district
A Casino (!)
And at least one American flag.

Come on, now. The only think that is remotely Chinese about this game is the (traditional) Chinese characters that are strewn throughout the UI and the vaguely Asian-sounding dance music in the background. Top that off with horrid graphics and game-play. Add an installed icon in the tray to taste. And the result is me asking the same question as I did before I installed the game: why the hell is USA Today making video games.

Review: The White Countess (2005) and The Painted Veil (2006)

2007-04-11T02:35:00.000-07:00

The White Countess and the Painted Veil are two relatively recent movies that I watched recently. Both deal with foreign residents living in China during the first half of the last century, and therefore offer an interesting look into China at that time. And, to some extent, as movies related to China, they have potential to offer insight into the China of today as well.

Why? As the brouhaha around the Chinese pirate character in the yet unreleased third Pirates of the Caribbean movie (See: http://www.danwei.org/media_regulation/sarft_pirates_nationalism.php) should indicate movies about China can prove to just as valuable for academic study as movies from China, because the truth is that China cares very much about its image is projected in the media of other countries. (This is also true for domestic films. See: http://www.danwei.org/media_regulation/sarft_uncovers_a_poisoned_appl.php)

That said, I will begin with The Painted Veil because it is the most ostensibly problematic depiction. I have read several other Western reviews of this film which criticized its plot centered around a white man, Walter Fane (played by Edward Norton), who saves the day in a village filled with residents that are unfavorably depicted as yokels .

Yet this movie was officially sanctioned to be released in China and was actually fairly popular. Naturally, part of that comes from the fact the movie was co-produced with a domestic company, and so it was guaranteed to be screened as long as certain requirements by the government censors were met. (See: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-veil21dec21,0,1263865.story)

I also think that there's an alternative reading to the film that might contribute to a more positive Chinese reception. That is, although the western views are triumphant in the end, at least the traditional views put up a good fight, and in a modern China that is searching for identity, this aspect may in fact be appealing. The movie also makes it clear that the Western methods of Fane would not have been successful were it not for the significant help of strong Asian characters such as the Colonel (played by Hong Kong actor Anthony Wong) or Fane's assistant. And then Fane, the symbol of imperialism, dies in the end.

I will go so far to say I suspect that the characterization of the Colonel especially might be a result of the cooperation between the various concerns given that he really does serve as bridge between cultures in the film. This is especially apparent in the scene in which he and Fane negotiate with the warlord. Moreover, the sympathy with which he is portrayed throughout the movie is quite surprising given that he is a KMT officer, but I do not think it is coincidental.

Ironically the hand that the Chinese played in producing a story on imperialism makes it less imperialistic. On the other hand, The White Countess is considerably kinder in its depiction of the relationships between Chinese and foreigners, and ultimately that may work to its detriment. The fact is, while there is no overt imperialist sentiment, there are also no Chinese characters of any import in the story at all. The story as well not have been set in Shanghai, considering it is preoccupied with the lives of a few Americans, Russians, and one Japanese with questionable intentions. Only very briefly do we catch any looks into the lives of the many Chinese who live and work around our characters.

The main character, Todd Jackson (played by Ralph Fiennes), is portrayed as actively pursuing isolation and never takes much interest in his surroundings except to encourage representatives of the various political powers to be guests in his newly opened bar. But, even then, he never engages them, he only watches. He becomes good friends with the Japanese Mr. Matsuda, but makes it clear he does not want to take their relationship to the depth needed to actually inquire as to his friend's goals in Shanghai. In this way, Mr. Jackson represents the stereotypical pre-war American, much to the same purpose as Rick in Casablanca.

I've never heard any Chinese opinions of this movie, and that likely comes as a result of the fact that there isn't much of anything to form an opinion on one way or the other (excepting of course the very lack of important Chinese roles). Not to say it is bad—on the contrary I enjoyed it quite a bit—but it affords neither the facile anti-imperialist criticism nor the alternative reading I have suggested for The Painted Veil. As a result, you do get a sense of the detachment inherent in the lives of these few expatriates, which perhaps is the intention after all.

The Upside-Down World of Classical Music In China

2007-04-05T23:26:00.000-07:00

In "Classical Music Looks Toward China With Hope", the first of three articles in a series of the New York Times, the authors hypothesize that a flagging market for Classical music in the West, including declines in CD sales, music education, and concert attendance, may soon be made up for by the burgeoning interest in the subject coming from China. The article doesn't really go into detail in describing how China's economic system has created a bizarre, almost mirror-image financial situation for the life of a classical musician.

Both Western and Eastern parents have been known to frown upon choosing careers in the arts as being unprofitable. The trend is especially strong when considering Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese men, who are encouraged to pursue practical careers to support a family. This leads to a large gender imbalance in the music conservatories of these areas. For young people, choosing to follow a musical career path means completing Masters- or Doctorate-level study, only to enter an incredibly competitive marketplace with a small chance of making a living in your chosen profession, and almost no chance of achieving the major goals: a solo career or an orchestra job. (Or perhaps a high-profile faculty position at a major university or conservatory, which can only be gained after achieving one of the other two goals.)

But in China, as noted in the article, families often view entrance into a major conservatory as a ticket out of poverty. This is mostly because right now, teaching music (especially piano) is ridiculously lucrative. And thanks to the immense name recognition of schools like Juilliard, it seems that all it takes is a big-name school to cash in on the enthusiasm. When my Chinese classmates return to their hometowns, they are treated as minor-celebrities, and can teach students for sums approaching $100 USD, an astounding sum given the average income of most Chinese families. One of my friends has recently been appointed to teach at the Beijing Central Conservatory, arguable the best school of music in China.

So, Chinese families are making enormous sacrifices to give children the opportunity to enter a field that in the West is deemed risky at best. What makes this even more surprising is that in China, the most coveted goals of music students are non-existent. There is no such thing as a career exclusively as an opera singer, concert pianist, or any performing artist, because there are just not enough paying performance opportunities in China. Similarly, orchestra jobs usually do not pay enough for the musicians to make a living. All professional musicians must therefore teach students to make ends meet.

However, I feel the article doesn't do a great job pointing out one similarity between both cultures: for most of the music students in China, their parents just want them to be a more well-rounded person, not the next Lang Lang. It's a bit like girls from well-off families in ancient times, who were required to learn painting, calligraphy, and playing chess as part of their basic education.

Rainie's Act of Contrition

2007-04-05T07:12:00.000-07:00

I'm not at all familiar with Rainie Yang, but I find her story pretty moving. Apparently Ms. Yang is the sole person in all of Greater China who seems clueless about the Japanese occupation during World War 2, and she has been paying the price of her ignorance for several years now. My lack of familiarity is probably not a coincidence.

Few things can turn the ire of the 1.3 billion people of China against you than taking a flippant attitude towards the war. This is no less true now than it was in 2003. Perhaps it is more true given the rise in popularity of media related to the war and in particular the Nanjing massacre. (This year, four commercial films will be released about that very topic. See: http://english.people.com.cn/200703/29/eng20070329_361979.html.)

I wish her luck in her quest for atonement because she really does need luck.

I'm interested in translating the text of the message you see in the picture. It's a little unclear and written in traditional characters, and her grammar is incorrect in at least one place. (That would support her excuse that she's uneducated.)

From what I can read:
"Hello, everyone. I am Yang Chenglin. I can't say very much. Yet I want to still ? all the ? well and still ? friends ? support from now on. Then I will diligently perform. I really thank you very much. Chenglin."

If you can fill in the blanks, please leave a comment.

Art Imitates Life and Death

2007-04-05T06:44:00.000-07:00

A lot of other China blogs have been talking about the recent case of a young girl who was so obsessed with Hong Kong actor / singer Andy Lau that her father committed suicide seemingly to gain Andy's attention. (For example: http://www.danwei.org/internet/andy_lau_fans_father_kills_him.php) I don't want to steel from those sites' thunder. Instead I will add to the discussion by posting this link which describes a new movie that was announced in the wake of the death; the movie will detail the circumstances that led to the man jumping into the sea. The director claims that he will use the film to encourage healthy relationships between stars and fans. I hate to drop the "exploitation" word, but I guess I'll believe it when I see it.

Chen Tianxing has reportedly contacted Yang Lijuan for possible collaboration, but the reply described her as "too sad for things like this."

This whole situation is meta- on so many levels.

Hello Ziyi

2007-04-05T05:51:00.000-07:00

As much as I try to convince people that I'm not that big of a fan of Zhang Ziyi, I admit that I post about her very frequently. In today's entry I want to make note of the fact that Sohu.com is now hosting the official Zhang Ziyi web site, which includes a blog (http://www.helloziyi.com/space) among other things. Zhang is probably trying to take advantage of the popularity of celebrity blogging in China as exemplified by Xu Jinglei and might be hoping that this will help her reconnect with the fans in her native country.

In other Ziyi news (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-04/01/content_5921001.htm), she was recently given the awkwardly titled "You Bring Charm to the World" award by Phoenix TV, Baidu, and Beijing University. She shared the honor with Ang Lee, Liu Xiang, Tan Dun, and others. She was also nominated by the media as one of the most influential Chinese for 2006 (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-04/01/content_5920753.htm). I would certainly agree with that nomination as I feel strongly that she is the most socially significant celebrity in China at this time even if she is not necessarily the best actress. Hence why I give her so much coverage.

Plumbers and Hedgehogs Running Amok in Beijing

2007-04-04T18:43:00.000-07:00

[via Nintendo Gal]

Sega and Nintendo have announced plans for a game that's interesting in theory, but we'll have to wait to seee whether it lives up to its potential in practice. From the press release:

In Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, players will compete in events that take place in environments based on the official venues of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Using a supporting cast of characters from the amazing worlds of both Mario and Sonic, gamers will be able to compete as or against a range of lovable personalities including Mario, Sonic, Luigi™, Knuckles™, Yoshi®, Tails™ and more. Innovative usage of the Wii and DS control systems to maneuver a favorite character will allow players to race the likes of Mario and Sonic down the 100m track, engage in exhilarating rallies in table tennis and churn water in a swimming heat, all while competing for the much sought after gold medal.

Depending on how true-to-life the settings are, I'll probably get the game just because of the China connection. And then I'll never play it if it sucks.

Beijing 2008, Google Stalking, and the KFC Bandwagon

2007-03-31T17:36:00.000-07:00

Some close friends of mine came to China for a vacation and I traveled from Harbin to Beijing to meet them. Naturally we went to the typical first-time-visitor tourist traps including of course the Great Wall. We went to the Badaling section of the Wall, where I was impressed at the distinctly fewer hawkers since the last time I went. I believe this is the result of a government campaign in advance of the Olympics, which ironically made its own presence known in a interesting way.

However, my friends aren't just any old tourists; they are also super-nerds (like me), and their visit also included a tour of Google's Beijing office (located near Tsinghua University.) Now I'm bound by an informal verbal NDA not to reveal some of the things that I saw, but here are some photos that I hope don't give away any trade secrets.

This is a toilet in the men's restroom. Notice the knobs and LED readouts. Pretty high tech stuff!

These are the exercise facilities.

Some old-school hacking.

Finally, here's a shot of the entire building at night.

All in all, a very cool experience, and once again I realize it pays to have connections. Doesn't top my tour of Pixar though. After my friends left, I had some time to kill before my train left for Harbin so I spent some time walking around downtown Beijing including the Wangfujing area. While there, I saw the following:

Sinyi Real Estate Advertisement

2007-03-26T00:24:00.000-07:00

This advertisement has recently been broadcasted in heavy rotation on televisions and in subway stations all over Taipei. I like it because it includes many aspects of modern culture in Taiwan: big-screen TV's, bicycles, Japanese dramas, coffee, and cats.

As the scene comes up, the crying woman is singing along to a pop song with lyrics something like, "Happy break-up, I wish you happiness, I can find someone better...."
The titles that pop up say:
I never realized
there would be a day like this
[the luggage tag says "your stuff is all here"]
Originally I thought the apartment we found together
would be together forever
It was only on that day
that I finally understood
he wasn't thinking the same thing
Very quickly,
I have a new
place that truly belongs to myself
Living alone,
there's a lot to learn
Learning strengthens
the ability to keep yourself from crying
Well, at least I can
enjoy Japanese dramas all by myself
make coffee that I drink myself
I thought I would never trust another person again
but actually I realized
there are still some people it's worth it to trust
"Sinyi Real Estate -- Trust Brings a New Happiness"
And at the end of the ad, the woman is singing another pop song, with the words of "When you're confident in yourself, it's really much more beautiful."

The Coke Army

2007-03-22T23:18:00.000-07:00

This is a good follow-up to a previous post I did on advertising on Chinese college campuses. It seems that Coca-Cola has started recruiting students from 10 Beijing universities to serve as campus marketing representatives.

Coca-Cola is partnering with Oak Pacific Interactive's campus social networking site Xiaonei.com to promote its "University General Manager" activity at coke.xiaonei.com, reports eNet. Undergraduate students at ten Beijing universities can sign up on the site for the chance to receive marketing and sales training at Coca-Cola. Some participants will have the chance to work for Coca-Cola. Xiaonei.com has over five million registered users from more than 2,000 universities.

If you venture to http://coke.xiaonei.com/, you'll find some information as well as an interesting 10-minute video on the training, which also shows the students distributing Coke products to other students in dormitories. Watching it gave me two thoughts: 1. I wonder how the author of the article I linked to in the previous post would respond to this, and 2. I wonder how I can get some of that free Coke and related schwag.

As far as the site Xiaonei goes, it really is a little too similar to Facebook.com. In fact, as I learned from signing up, it's virtually indistinguishable from Facebook except that everything is written in Chinese and it gives users the option of modifying their profile pages to a greater degree. Even the new Facebook history feature was copied over. Aside: I got a evil sense of glee from signing up for Xiaonei because it allows me to inconspicuously keep tabs on some of my students. But I haven't really learned anything interesting; rather, I've learned that many of them like fluffy clouds and sparkling hearts. All in all, the experience makes me feel like a parent happening across his child's diary.

Caveat Emptor

2007-03-22T20:27:00.000-07:00

You can always count on EastSouthWestNorth to have fascinating, in-depth articles, and this one is no exception. It details the difficulties one particular star, Guo Degang, has been having due to his television endorsement of a weight-loss tea that appears to be fraudulent.

From a translated article:

In the Chinese advertising law, it is stated that healthcare products cannot advertise curative effects. However, the product known as "Secret Tibetan Lubricant" not only claimed to have miraculous powers, but they also have celebrities who showcase the product. Many consumers were influenced by these advertisements, and therefore spent money uselessly.

61-year-old Wang Litong is a Beijing consumer. After seeing the advertisement for "Secret Tibetan Lubricant," the health-conscious Wang Litong purchased two packs. Beijing consumer Wang Litong: "It had no effect. I did not have the oil expulsion nor the black oily feces that they advertised about."

Ge Xuejin of Daqing is 58 years old. She saw that three packs of "Secret Tibetan Lubricant" could eliminate a bulging belly and therefore the 98-kilogram Ge Xuejin purchased three packs in order to lose weight. Ge Xuejin carefully followed the instructions on the booklet. But there was no effect on her other than annoyance. Daqing consumder Ge Xuejin: "After more than 20 days, I weighed myself. I had gone from 98 kilograms to 200 kilograms. I spent more than 90 RMB to purchase those three packs. That may not be a lot of money, but I am disappointed."

I personally would hate it if I didn't get the "oily, black feces" I had been expecting. And going from 98 to 200 kg in 20 days... she must have drunk an awful lot of tea.

It's Documentary, My Dear Watson

2007-03-22T20:17:00.000-07:00

A very short article from the Shanghai Daily that got my attention:

THE UME International Cineplex in Xintiandi will screen 22 award-winning Chinese documentaries, such as "The Old Summer Palace" and "Dong," from April 6 to December 21. Veteran director Jia Zhangke and Lu Chuan will talk with audiences. The event is part of Shanghai Documentary Channel's "Docu China" campaign, which aims to promote documentary film making across the country.

Too bad I'm not in Shanghai, otherwise I'd love to attend some of these screenings, especially that of Jia Zhangke who has been generating a lot of buzz in China lately.

In general, I greatly support the aim of a project such as this. However, perhaps I am a little pessimistic about its chances of really encouraging a movement of documentary film making in China. I want to be fair, and so I hate to drop the "C" word, but let's just say that the best documentaries aren't necessarily the ones that paint rosy pictures, and the current political environment has explicitly stated its intention of encouraging positive views of China. That is, if Mission Impossible 3 runs into difficulties because it shows that people in Shanghai like to hang their laundry on their window sills, what chance does a film showing the real conditions of orphans or, umm, AIDS patients, for a hypothetical example, have?

Asian Film Awards

2007-03-21T17:31:00.000-07:00

Right now as we speak and for the next few weeks, ze beautiful people of Asia will descend into Hong Kong for its Entertainment Expo of which the Asian Film Awards was the opening event. The goal is to eventually create something with the prestige of either the Oscars or Cannes.

Among the awards given were "Box Office Star of Asia" to Andy Lau, "Best Actress" to Japan's Miki Nakatani, and "Best Picture" to Korea's The Host, which was recently released stateside.

For more information and pictures, check out:
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=434502007
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-03/21/content_5875203.htm

Prison Break Breaking News

2007-03-19T05:48:00.000-07:00

[via Shanghaiist]

Lots of foreigners will mention that they can't believe Prison Break is as popular as it is despite the fact that there is a ban against it in China. Not me; I don't actually think it's that surprising, if for no other reason than perhaps its very illictness is enticing. Or that Chinese girls think that the lead actor is hot, as are probably many of the other lesser characters.

Owing to this popularity, certain television stations are attempting to cash in despite the ban:

An editor at Jinan TV, a station in China's eastern Shandong province, said excerpts of "Prison Break" had aired on its children's channel as part of a regular program called "Watch Movies, Learn English," the paper reported. "The program would show some scenes, then the host would explain the meaning of some of the words used and how they would apply in real life," the paper quoted the editor surnamed Zhang as saying.

Children's channel? Perhaps not the brightest idea. It's no wonder the government eventually stepped in. In addition to getting pressure from the goverment to get back in line, Zhang also gives another reason for eventually terminating this programming:

"We also feared causing an intellectual property dispute, so we stopped airing it," Zhang said, adding that the show had been sourced from "English enthusiasts."

Interesting.

The Boy Behind Bad Girl

2007-03-19T01:45:00.000-07:00

Bad Girl, a comic strip from Song Yang, has been generating a lot of buzz. According to the LA Times:

Little P is a red-haired joker with a robot dog and a mind bursting with rebellion. She has a closet filled with tight, midriff-baring clothes. Her biggest worry is getting fat.Meet Bad Girl, a cartoon aimed at a generation of young Chinese raised on a diet of imported video games, Kentucky Fried Chicken and communist rhetoric....Song, a bad boy with a pen and paper, has the oversized ambition of creating a cartoon character that can help redefine the world's image of modern China and boost a domestic industry overshadowed by manga from Japan and manhwa from South Korea. China, with its 1.3 billion people, boasts one of the world's biggest cartoon markets, but the vast majority are imports....Song is riding high: Bad Girl is featured in an advertisement for Hugo Boss' Man fragrance; he has a gallery show in Beijing's trendy Dashanzi art district; and he is working on a "cartoon-based record" for a foreign music company, featuring original songs sung by him and a voice created for Bad Girl's character. The record is due out this year.

This comes about on the heels of a lot of discussion about China's generally uncompetitive animation industry. It will be interesting to see whether China can compete in the comics arena.

Articles about Song and his comic strip have recently appeared in other sources as well:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2371559.ece
http://www.china.org.cn/english/NM-e/155786.htm

Truthfully I hadn't heard of Song or Bad Girl before reading this article. I've going to see if I can find out more about it locally, but until then here are some representative images: http://comic.qq.com/a/20060607/000004.htm

Zhang Ziyi Barely Visible

2007-03-19T01:19:00.000-07:00

[image via F*ed Gaijin]

Internet users in China are criticizing actress Zhang Ziyi for appearing in a revealing advertisement for a magazine in Japan, reports the Chinese-language Ming Pao Daily. Zhang is one of China’s most popular actresses in Hollywood, appearing in films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Memoirs of a Geisha. Nationalism has been increasing on China’s Internet; the most recent news headlines about Japan’s abuse of "comfort women" during WWII caused more backlash against Zhang’s advertising appearance in Japan. Zhang appeared in an advertisement on a skyscraper. Only her upper body can be seen but her critics say that she appears to be semi-nude. Users on China’s popular internet portal, sina.com, say that like basketball star Yao Ming, Zhang should refuse to appear on advertisements in Japan.

Before reading this I didn't know that Yao had such a condition although I'm not sure the Japanese would be as interested in him as they are in Zhang. It seems to me that Zhang has a good opportunity to be a cultural ambassador between the two countries even though she has arguably made some mistakes (such as playing a Japanese Geisha within a WWII period drama). Despite what her compatriots think, I'm honestly rooting for her to be successful. China frankly could use more stars with as much global clout as her.

Here's a YouTube video of another ad she did for this campaign:

Walk the Line

2007-03-17T08:17:00.000-07:00

Here's a Chinese add for Johnny Walker. Tanslation: "for the next broken record, for the next Chinese success story, for the next Hollywood legend, for the next stride toward a new breakthrough, for a raised glass, to go towards the world's raised glass, China, keep walking."

I'm not sure how I feel about using nationalism to sell liquor.

Egad! More Egao!

2007-03-17T07:58:00.000-07:00

Here's another article (see previous) about the recent Egao phenomenon that seems to be sweeping China. This one describes how Egao has reared its head in journalism:

China's Southern Metropolis Weekly magazine recently reported this shocking news: The central government created universal health care for the country's 1.3 billion people, wiped out bribery and reduced the country's wide income gap. Migrant workers in the southern city of Guangzhou, notorious for its sweatshops, were "happy" and "respected," the magazine reported in its print and Web editions. Of course, it was political parody and all untrue.

Donate Blood or Else!

2007-03-17T07:49:00.000-07:00

Short and sweet from Pacific Epoch:

Chinese online game operator Moliyo has announced that it will reactivate closed (banned) game accounts for its licensed 3D MMORPG Cabal Online if the players donate blood in a donor drive on March 18, reports 17173.com. Moliyo cut off 120,000 game accounts in early March because the accounts were using plug-ins (automated software). Moliyo will unlock game accounts for blood donors within three days. Game players may also receive special Cabal Online game accounts by participating in the blood drive.

Super Girls Fly to Japan

2007-03-17T07:38:00.001-07:00

I saw a report on Japan Probe that two Chinese women have been added to the roster of popular Japanese pop group Morning Musume as "exchange students." After watching the associated YouTube video, I noticed something interesting: one of the girls, Li Chun, apparently had been a contestant on Super Girls. Now I'm not quite sure how to interpret this as an indicator of Sino-Japanese relations but I'll post it anyways because it's about Super Girls AND Japan.

Does anyone else think her voice isn't all that great?

Rated R We There Yet?

2007-03-17T07:23:00.000-07:00

During the recent CPPCC sessions, it seems there has been some continued discussion regarding instituting a ratings system in China. I found two things particularly interesting in this post on Danwei.

First it labels Rice as China's first rated film. Now I must say that the censors did a good job banning this movie as I had no idea that a film version of this book by Su Tong (which I have read) even existed. Hopefully a more developed rating system would allow for such movies to see their much deserved light of day.

Second it mentions kids watching mature movies in the cinemas, which unfortunately is something that is relatively common in China. I remember watching The Banquet (which is pretty violent) and being surprised by the number of children in attendance. Once again, the existence of a rating system might allow for more mature movies to be made without fear of heavy cuts. In theory at least.

China's First Gay Talk Show

2007-03-17T07:11:00.000-07:00

Danwei posted some very interesting information about a new Gay talk show produced by Phoenix TV.

China's first program focusing on homosexuals, "Same-Sex Get-Together" (同性相连), is going to be broadcast on the Character Reading (性情解码) channel on Phoenix TV's website. Reportedly, the program is going to hire an openly gay presenter and will be broadcast live at 3 PM each Thursday starting from the 5th of April. For the next 12 weeks, it will continuously pay attention to topics from the gay community. At the moment the program crew is recruiting a gay host, as well as running screen tests for homosexuals seeking friends and willing to publicly issue such messages.

Hmm, interesting. I hope this works out. Phoenix TV is no stranger to controversy as its base in Hong Kong and private ownership (including one part owned by Newscorp's Rubert Murdoch) put it in the position to touch subjects deemed too sensitive for Mainland TV.