Today also happened to be the day before new year (除夕)in the lunar calendar. I would like to wish everybody a happy, healthy and prosperous dragon year. Instead of the usual heavy subject matter, I would like to talk about something more light hearted. I am in a holiday mood today so I will address some concern about the lack of creativity in TV broadcasting in China. Instead of using academic discussion I will simply provide a link to a hot TV series that has taken my sister by storm. She is the one that actually sent it to me. In fact she considered this love/history drama so good that it triumphed all works from Taiwan and HK (of course that’s her personal view).
The TV series is “步步惊心” or “步步驚心”loosely translated as “Startling by Each Step”, I know the translation is always so corny. It is about a modern girl who went back through time to the later reign of Qing Kangxi period. If you are familiar with this period, you will know the palace intrigue that took place. Although it is considered science fiction, the costume and cultural aspect is very accurate. The author of the original work is 桐华. She did an awesome work by inter-weaning love and politics into the story.
In an earlier comment I talked about the importance of “国家,” and having just watched this music video by Jacky Chan (成龙) in duet with MEI He (美和) paying homage to that same idea made my day. Without a strong enough country, there is no freedom.
Following is a rendition of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” in Chinese. It’s a delightful performance. The Chinese performance struck me for having taken the music (in my opinion the great part) and replacing the lyrics (in my opinion the not so great part) with something that is much more palatable. While China has many problems to overcome, she is also benefiting from experiences in societies abroad. The benefit of coming from behind is you have the luxury to pick and choose. Not to mention, who would imagine there’s a connection between Lady Gaga and grandma’s and grandpa’s in China!
(Here is another performance by 钟辰乐 (Zhong Chen Yue) singing “Memory” accompanied by an orchestra. I think I still prefer his China’s Got Talent version from a while ago.)
This might be old news to some (as the original painting was done during the Song Dynasty) but a digital version was created for the China pavilion during the Shanghai Expo 2010. After the expo it was displayed from November 9 to November 29, 2010 and is currently in Taipei from July 1 to October 4, 2011.
This has always been one of my favourite painting so I think I will share it here. The actual painting is (24.8 by 528.7 cm) (9¾ in by 17 ft 4 in) Hope you like the digital version below:
Some poetry buffs may want to offer a translation for the following song. My take is it is about ‘departure’ between a couple. The mood of it might resonate with some of you, perhaps over those who departed in the recent train crash and bus accident. The song is neat in combining modern pop and traditional Chinese opera. I have always appreciated Chinese artists who bridges the past with the new, linking the older generation with the young. (Another example here.)
I dare say, I think I like the boy’s version more than Barbra Streisand’s. Zhong Chenle says he found the song on his own over the Internet, and his older brother taught him the lyrics.
Following is a story of triumph about 高逸峰 (Gao Yifeng) on the wildly popular “中国达人秀” (“China’s Got Talent”) show. According to the Baike page, Gao once owned a very large business. Through mismanagement, his company went bankrupt. He re-emerged into a much more modest endeavor. Below is my translation of his conversation with the judge before he performs, “从头再来.” This song is one of my favorite, and with Gao bearing his battle scar while performing it, I can see how he was able to move his audience to tears.
Judge: What are you performing?
Gao Yifeng: Sing a song
Judge: Where are you from?
Gao Yifeng: Anhui
Judge: How old are you?
Gao Yifeng: 49
Judge: Your hair is very special. It looks great. Did you color it or is it naturally that way? Read more…
The video below is about the 青藏铁路 (Qingzang railway) connecting Tibet Autonomous Region’s Lhasa and Qinghai Province’s Xining. Much of the 2000km railway is an engineering marvel. One, for it’s 5000 meter elevation and rough terrain and another for where the tracks have to work on top of permafrosts (where the ice could melt depending on the time of the year). It opened in 2006 connecting the autonomous region to the rest of China’s railway networks. Singers 阿兰达瓦卓玛 (Alan Dawa Dolma, or simply known as Alan or 阿兰) and 韩红 (Han Hong) performed “天路” (“Heaven Road”) in tribute to this important project that Dr. Sun Yat-sen had first proposed around the turn of the century. Read more…
Serenade Chairman Mao and pay homage to the Communist Party as Nigerian born Uwechue Emmanuel (in Chinese, 郝歌 (Hao Ge)) managed to do on CCTV through popular Chinese song, “草原上升起不落的太阳.” Chinese people love their motherland and harmony. Intonation must be impeccable. Race is irrelevant.
As you all already know, there were calls on Twitter few days ago asking Chinese citizens to protest and overthrow their government. (raventhorn2000 weighed in few posts ago.) One of the rallying locations was a McDonalds at Wangfujing in Beijing. The video below was taken by a Chinese citizen catching U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman at the scene. It’s pretty hilarious actually. A Chinese man asked him: “Hi Ambassador, what are you doing here?” Huntsman replies, “Just joining the fun.”
The Chinese man then teased, “you want chaos for China, don’t you?”
A lot has already been written in the Western media about the yesterday U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speech on Internet ‘freedom.’ In her speech, Clinton singled out China for being “repressive” on the Internet, and for that reason, the predictable narrative is out yet again: U.S. vs. ‘bad’ China, ‘bad’ China, or U.S. being too harsh to, still, a ‘bad’ China. This nonsense aside, I thought the speech was telling of a number of things.
First of all, don’t forget that the U.S. Department of State’s mission is to conduct U.S. foreign policies. In that sense, everything Clinton said were expected and predictable. The biggest give away is near the end of her speech where she said: Read more…
In celebration of the Chinese New Year (or the Spring Festival), 230 million people are expected to ride China’s rails. This is another illustration of a society on the move. Many have moved into cities and are now traveling back to their hometowns for this important family reunion. Given China’s sheer numbers, it is no wonder China is investing so heavily into train technology. I thought it was interesting a migrant worker saying he is willing to wait 40 hours to get a cheap ticket rather pay a high price ticket on a high-speed train. (See “Faster but costly, high-speed train sparks controversy.”) One thing for sure; for many travelers, the longest journey will be in line at the train station, and not on the train itself.
This came directly from the U.S. White House blog. First thought that came to mind is we should avoid the media and go directly to the source more to get a more rational understanding of our world. Here is a formal take from the White house on the “U.S.-China Commercial Relations” and economic issues.
Below is another take on the “茉莉花” (“Jasmine Flower”) melody which I made a post about roughly a year ago. This time it is based on a solo on the GuZheng (古筝).
Why I read the Economist? Could be the sense of that, “oh how the fuck can you still talk in a such a snobby and smug way, when you have been so wrong for so long? — but wait, I really love the way you phrased that, though I still think you know jackshit.” (jxie)
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