Walkalator

Without a doubt, the best thing about being in Beijing this past year has been the to opportunity to reconnect and see family and family friends that I haven't seen in many years, not only in Hong Kong but also in Beijing.

One of these family friends I've reconnected with is the eldest daughter of my parents' close friends, named Ivy Tsui . When my family still  lived Hong Kong, she and I were neighbors. We played together often, and attended the same preschool.

Now, Ivy is a contemporary dancer based in Hong Kong. However she is currently in Beijing for a short while dancing with a company that brings together Hong Kong and mainland China dancers together.

As a result, I've had the great opportunity to two separate contemporary dance performances that she's been a part of since coming to Beijing. The performances (along with Ivy herself) have been great and eye-opening. I'm sure if it weren't for Ivy's participation in the shows, I would've never gone to see the shows on my own.

Below are two site-specific dance (dance performances outside of the traditional theater setting) videos that featuring Ivy and her fellow dancers. The videos and dances themselves were directed by Ivy's good friend, Alan Wong and were filmed in at the Hong Kong Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station.

If you have a free moment, the videos are definitely worth a look!

Enjoy!

Wu Guanzhong

Since coming to Beijing, I've been trying to broaden my horizons and enjoy the burgeoning art scene here. I'm hardly an art expert in any sense or really that knowledgeable about the art scene in Beijing or anywhere else for that matter, but I have quite enjoyed discovering and looking at art not only in museums, but in the art galleries around the city. Though originally finding and visiting galleries at first was a means to an end to find something simply to do, it's proven to become a bit of hobby during my time here.

Granted, during my time in Paris, I was also very interested art. How could you not be, after all? It's Paris! With so many amazing and renowned pieces showcased all over Paris, it'd be a shame to not enjoy and appreciate it. However, unlike in Paris, where my obsession was visiting every museum I possibly could, visiting galleries in Beijing is a definitely a different experience (not necessarily for either better or worse).

One of the painters I've discovered while in China is Wu Guanzhong (吴冠中). Wu Guanzhong was a very renowned contemporary Chinese artist who blended Western techniques with Chinese brush painting techniques to create paintings that I find amazing. I particularly like his landscape paintings, especially those of the villages in Southern China.

Now here's a humorous story for you relating to Wu Guanzhong:

Last week, I was out in the 798 art district to see a completely separate photography exhibit, when I happened to stumble upon a gallery with many Wu paintings (actually, most likely reproductions) on display and of course, I walked in to take a better the works on display. As it turns out, the gallery had many Wu Guanzhong paintings/reproductions for sale, hence the exhibition. While I roamed around the exhibition, one of the gallery curators came up to me, started talking to me about how the paintings and how I could also choose form a catalog of Wu's other works to purchase, if I liked.

Apparently, to this curator, I looked like I had enough money to spend on purchasing a reproduction (the prices all seemed to start at 1,500 RMB and upwards). Thoroughly amused, I chuckled, smiled and politely took the curator that I unfortunately did not have the money to invest in a piece of art.
Never in my life would I think that someone would approach me about buying art, thinking that I even remotely had the money to purchase any. Even though the paintings/reproductions actually weren't that expensive as far as art goes, I still couldn't afford it. But I did like that the curator thought I could. Haha.
Anyways, if you have time and are curious, take the time to look up Wu Guanzhong. I think you'll like his paintings as well.


Articles on Wu Guanzhong:

• The Telegraph obituary (Includes an interesting portion on Wu's life during and after the Cultural Revolution)
  
• NY Times obituary
• Gallery of works

Yabaolu: Russian-town

Last October, I posted a few pictures from an area of Beijing that I half-jokingly called 'Russian-town,' where shop and restaurant signs seemed boast more Russian than Chinese. Although I termed the area 'Russian-town' as a sort of joke or tease, there is a relatively large Russian population in Beijing and the rest of China. In Beijing, much of the Russian population is centered around the Yabaolu area

Yesterday, The Global Times online Metro Beijing edition ran an interesting story on the large Russian population in Beijing. If you're curious to learn more about the Russian population in Beijing (like I am), you can read the article here.

Please note that the term 'Russian' both in the aforementioned article and in terms of the 'Russian' population of Beijing doesn't only refer to citizens to modern-day Russia, but also includes citizens of countries that used to be apart of the USSR, including (but not limited to) Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan, etc.

Anyways, I just thought I'd share that article with you since it related back to something I posted a while back.

Happy Wednesday.

More Wine in a Can

Yes, that's right. Apparently one wasn't enough. There are actually different varieties of wine in a can in China.

May I introduce to you, "Sparkling Chardonnay" in a can's sister, "Sparkling Rose" in a can?

Classy, I know.

The Road of Rejuvenation: a lesson in Chinese history, according to the CPC

As I mentioned in my previous post about my visit to the Chinese National Museum, the one of the main exhibits, entitled "The Road to Rejuvenation," chronicles Chinese modern history from 1840 onwards. However, to call it it an historically accurate exhibit would be quite a stretch, a point highlighted in a New York Times article entitled, "At China's Grand New Museum, History Toes the Party Line."

Now of course, in general, national history museums of any country, not just China, are not the best places to go when searching for the most accurate historical accounts of a nation's history. However, the exhibit on modern Chinese history seems to take historical revisionism and blatant pro-Chinese Communist Party propaganda to a new level.

Inside the exhibit, which is aptly named, "The Road of Rejuvenation," you can find plenty of flaunting of what the CPC (the Communist Party of China) considers it's greatest achievements, including mementos from China's first voyage into space in 2008. But you'd be hard pressed to find any actual mention of any of their failures, such as The Great Leap Forward and the resulting famine, Tian'anmen Square Massacre or the Cultural Revolution.

Perhaps the best part about this very biased exhibit however, is the very bombastic language used in their explanations. Many of the statements in the summaries and captions seem straight out of a bad Communist Party propaganda novel. Needless to say, I found many of them highly amusing and almost made my two hour wait in line worth it.

Unfortunately, my camera battery was dead so I have no (good) pictures to share with you, but I had my cell phone camera to help me record some of crazy things written in the exhibit.

Below are some quotes from the exhibit. I think there are some real gems in there and you'll find them as amusing as I did. Enjoy!

• "The Chinese nation is a great nation whose people are industrious, courageous, intelligent and peace-loving and have made indelible contributions to the progress of human civilization."

• "'The Road of Rejuvenation' is a permanent exhibition showcasing the explorations made by the Chinese people form all walks of life who, after being reduced to a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society..., rose in resistance against humiliation and misery, and tried in every way possible to rejuveniate the nation"

• "Today, the Chinese nation is standing firm in the east, facing a brilliant future of great rejuvenation. The long-cherished dream and aspiration of the Chinese people will surely come to reality."

• "...the imperial powers descended on China like a swarm of bees, looting our treasures and killing our people."

The Chinese National Museum

As I briefly mentioned in my last post about Labor Day here in China, I had last Friday off in honor of the holiday. Since traveling in China during national holidays seems to more of a lesson futility due to the large crowds of tourists everywhere, I decided to stay in Beijing and visit some places I wanted to see before I leave. Included on that list, was the newly-reopened Chinese National Museum (中国国家博物馆).

After undergoing over three years of renovations, the National Museum recently re-opened after years of arguing and revisions. Historically, the current site of the National Museum was home to two separate museums, the Museum of Chinese History and the Museum of the Chinese Revolution; they were combined in 2003 to make up the Chinese National Museum. In an effort to boost China's (specifically, Beijing's) international standing, the Chinese government decided it was time to renovate and bring the museum up to par (or at least, what they felt like was up to par).

The original plan was to have the museum completely redone, renovated and opened for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, however due to years of arguing and disagreement over the museum's content and endless revisions on the interior design, was not finished in time. Nor was it finished in time for it's second hoped-for end date, which was supposed to coincide the 60th Anniversary of Communist rule on October 1, 2009. Finally, the National Museum reopened just this past March after years and years of delay.

Since 2008, China's museums have gradually begun waiving their entrance fee, in hopes of attracting more visitors. While I appreciate free museum admission as much as anyone, in the case of the National Museum, this seems to have backfired.

Best of intentions, the most misguided of results

If the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education (or as I will refer to it, the BMCE) has anything to do with it, soon all college students at Beijing universities will be required to take a course entitled, "Mental health for College Students" with a expanded section on 'relationship skills.'

According to the BMCE's plan, students would take a 16 to 18 hour class for one course credit. The course itself would cover nine chapters and follow a recently re-drafted syllabus outlined by the BMCE.

Upon hearing this news, I didn't know whether to laugh at be absurdity of it all or shake at my head at just shake my head at how misguided this entire idea seems.

After all, if love and relationships could be simply defined and outlined in a textbook, there wouldn't be millions upon millions of books, poems, songs, blogs, and even Twitter tags on the subject matter. But while many may wish it were so, relationships and love do not follow any set path nor do they they all fit in a certain mold. Perhaps if it did, then we could all take a class in high school, be done with it and literally move on with our lives.

Unfortunately, that's not how it works. What works for one person does not necessarily work for the next person. In fact, I'd personally argue that love's ability to morph and change according to the people and circumstances around it---much like a chameleon---is what makes it so mysterious and popular topic for literature, music and the like. With this in mind, I cannot see how anyone or any group of people could possibly outline in nine short chapters on what is is the 'right' and the 'wrong' way to handle relationships.

Ducklings and Chicks for Sale!

You can almost anything you need being sold on the streets of Beijing, including---but hardly limited to---fruit, notebooks, DVDs, and T-shirts. In the spring, this apparently also entails puppies, chicks, ducklings, baby rabbits and small gerbils/guinea pigs/hamsters. 

Yes, in the box are live chicks & ducklings being sold.
Haidian District, Beijing

I have to confess though, the chicks and ducklings are quite adorable. Not enough for me to buy one though (not to mention that I have no place to keep it).

There are a lot of things I can't find in China,

but Groupon apparently isn't one of them.

Taken at the Jishuitan Subway Station, Line 2

Now if only they had groupons for flights home...

The Return of the Horses

For those of you who were afraid that horse transportation was slowly disappearing, don't fret. The horse-drawn wagon selling industry is still alive in Beijing.

Haidan District, Beijing, China

It's a sign that the weather's warming up again and spring has returned when the horse-drawn wagons return to the streets selling fruit.

Spring has arrived!

While I still despise winter, the best part of living in places with a 'real' winter (meaning a place with daily below freezing temperatures and snow), is joy of walking outside one day in March/April/May and realizing that spring has finally arrived.

Well, that day arrived sometime last week in Beijing. Instead of the sad, barren, empty trees I'm used to see lining the streets, now there are trees with little specs of green dotting the branches and others have even blossomed overnight.

Since this weekend is a long weekend (I have Monday & Tuesday off for Qingming Festival, the festival during which you traditionally pay your respects to your ancestors), today I went over to Yuyuantan Park to view their famed cherry blossoms. These cherry blossom trees, like the ones in Washington, D.C., were a gift from Japan to China as a offer of peace and friendship. Looking at the blossoms, it undeniable spring is here, and hopefully to stay for a bit.

I hope an equally pretty spring has arrived for all of you as well. And if it hasn't, I hope it comes soon!

Shanghai, Take 2

Stop number three (number four for Leslie) on my winter break travel itinerary was Shanghai. Although I had been to Shanghai previously (see posts here and here), I was excited to return and explore it on my own more thoroughly.

Upon arriving in Shanghai and making our way over our hostel, it was immediately apparent that we were back in the big city. Instead of the more laid-back, quiet(er) pace of Qingdao and Hangzhou, in Shanghai we were immediately greeted with giant crowds, honking cars and a large rush of people going in all directions. I distinctly remember turning around and saying to Leslie "We're definitely back in the city now."

Though it's apparent immediately that Shanghai is a very metropolitan city, I think after spending several months in Beijing it's much more striking just how modern and cosmopolitan it actually is. In comparison, Beijing looks like the older, more worn-down sibling of the younger, more polished Shanghai. While the best phrases to describe Beijing probably are historical and politically significant, the words cosmopolitan and modern probably best describe Shanghai.

In some ways, the difference between Shanghai and Beijing almost remind me of New York and Washington, D.C. It's undeniable that politically, D.C. is a very important city. The decisions made in D.C. affect not only the people of the United States, but often the lives of many people outside of it's borders. That being said though, Washington, while it does have it's own local scene, does not have the cultural pull in the United States that New York does. Washington makes the laws, but arguably, New York is the cultural (not to mention financial) capital of the United States.

Likewise, in China, Beijing is undoubtedly the political and historical capital of the country. However, if you look at art and lifestyle trends, I'd say the majority of the taste-makers are centralized in Shanghai. Not to mention that like New York, Shanghai is also the financial capital of China. So while Beijing dictates the rules by which Chinese people abide by, Shanghai tells them how their lives should look, feel, hear, taste and probably even smell.

Of course with that being said, not all of Shanghai is the modern, glitzy city that most people think of right away when think of Shanghai. There are definitely old parts as well, but I'm leaving that for another post. So stay tuned.

 

More pictures on Angela Photo Musings

• Shanghai: At Night 
• Shanghai: Pudong 
• Shanghai: Shikumen 
• Shanghai: Taikung Lu
• Shanghai: Yuyuan Bazaar
• Shanghai: Misc.

Shame on you PKU

Recently, Peking University (北京大学, or as it's more commonly known 北大) announced they were going to expand their program of offering "consultations" to students they deemed "problematic."

Included on the list of students that should receive such counseling are students who have academic problems, come from poor backgrounds, are addicted to the Internet and have "radical" ideas.

What exactly consistutes "radical ideas" is beyond me though. I thought college and  university was the best time for students to broaden their thinking and challenge their beliefs.

It's one thing to offer students support should they choose to seek it, it's another thing to single some students out as "problematic."

All I have to say is, Peking Univeristy, being the prestigious university you are, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.

The Telegraph (UK): Peking University to screen students for 'radical thoughts'
China.org.cn (China): PKU to expand problem student consultations

For the record, I'm a student at Beijing Normal University (北京师范大学), not Peking University. It's probably a good thing too, or else I'd probably deemed a problem student as well. At least I can say I'm American and use that as an excuse.

Lovely

Meet "widespread dust's" meaner, grittier sibling, "blowing dust."

Note also it's blowing at 29 mph (~46.7 km/hour). And yes, you can feel/taste this dust in your mouth and lungs. Fantastic.

Clearly, Beijing's weather isn't very hospitable.

Ready, Set...Marry??

Some days here in China, I feel like I'm living in the midst of a Jane Austen novel. No, not in the nightly-balls-and-parties-and-touring-grand-English-estates sense, but more in the you-must-get-married-by-X-age sense. As much as I love reading a good Jane Austen novel occasionally, living in a what I like to call a marriage-obsessed culture is a different story altogether. 

To call China a marriage-obsessed culture is not far-fetched. There is a lot of emphasis here on finding the 'right' person, getting married and starting a family, particularly on females here. In fact, the term for an unmarried woman over the age of 27 is 剩女(shèng nǚ) meaning leftover woman. No, I am not kidding, though I wish I was. (If you think 27 is rather young to be disparaging over a lack of husband, at least one of the articles I read on "sheng nu" alleged that a girl becomes a "sheng nu" at after the very young age of 25. Ack.)

The emphasis on marriage is so great that during the Spring Festival/Chinese New Year, many parents and singles headed to the temple fairs for the sole purpose of trying to find a potential marriage match. At the Beijing International Sculpture Park, an estimated 50,000+ people visited the park's love-matching event where parents and singles could consult relationship experts, find potential matches and look at the estimated 5,000 personal advertisements posted by other people looking for a potential partner.

Across town, a similar event at Ditan Park averaged 150,000 visitors per day to it's seven-day match-making event. Outside of the event, more desperate parents unwilling to pay the even entrance fee held signs touting their offspring's accomplishments in hopes of finding them a good match.

In Shanghai, the match-making fervor isn't limited to the Spring Festival. Every weekend, in People's Park in the center of Shanghai, parents gather craning their necks to look at papers posted on bushes touting a potential match's good attributes including background, education and physical traits, all in hopes that the next meeting they arrange for their son/daughter will lead to a good marriage.

The pressure to get married isn't just limited to the heterosexual set either. In Shanghai, in contrast to the open marriage market in People's Park, there is also a thriving fake-marriage market, in which lesbians and gays gather in hopes of finding someone to enter into a fake marriage with. 

Speaking of snow

Look at the snowy scene I awoke to this morning:

You can't really tell from the picture above, but it was snowing as I took this picture.

It's supposed to snow off and on all weekend here in Beijing. While I'm not exactly thrilled---winter's not exactly my favorite season---I know any snow, however little, is a relief to the farmers and government who are worried the looming (very likely) possibility of a drought this year.

So bring it on, snow. Show us what you've got.

Qingdao

The first stop on my winter break travels was Qingdao, which is located on the southern most tip of the Shandong peninsula in northeast China. Leslie & I took the overnight train from Beijing to Qingdao and stayed in a hostel near the center of the old town. We had booked ourselves into a shared four person dorm; however since it was low season, we ended up having the entire room to ourselves the entire time we were there.

Now for background on Qingdao:

From 1897 to 1922, Qingdao was a German and Japanese concession city and as a result, much of Qingdao's old architecture still retains a German flair. In 1919, protesters in Qingdao headed the May 4th Movement against imperialism in China, with particular regards to the Japanese presence in Qingdao after the end of WWI. More recently, Qingdao hosted the sailing portion of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and it remains a popular summertime destination because of it's many beaches.

Some thoughts on my time in Qingdao:

• Qingdao is definitely a summertime city. Many things when Leslie & I were there were closed. Some of them might have been closed down early in anticipation of the Spring Festival/Chinese New Year, but I suspect some of them only do business during the summer catering to tourists. Plus, many of Qingdao's attractions revolve around the beach, which isn't a very hospital able place to visit when mercury is hoovering at freezing every day. 


• Qingdao is a hilly city. You know you've been in Beijing, which is a very flat city, for too long when your legs are sore after spending a day walking around Qingdao, even though the hills aren't really that steep.


• If you only stay in the older portion of Qingdao, it seems like a very small town. It's not until I took the bus out to the newer, more recently developed areas that I remembered that it's actually a city with a population of 8.1 million people.


• Despite claiming to be a big tourist destination, I don't think Qingdao sees many non-Chinese/ non-Asian tourists, which is ironic considering Qingdao used to be a German concession city and hosted a portion of the 2008 Olympics. Where ever we went, people were gawking at Leslie. I think we could count on one hand how many other Westerners we saw during our three days there. When we were at the Qingdao airport waiting for our flight to Hangzhou, a young Chinese woman actually exclaimed very loudly, "There's a foreigner here!" I don't think she expected me to be able to understand what she said.


• At least in the older part of the city, Qingdao has really maintained a German feel in their buildings. While some of the buildings were probably built when Qingdao was still a German concession, I suspect at least some of them were built later to mimic the more European styles of architecture.


• In the newer parts of Qingdao, it's obvious that Qingdao is still very much a city in transition. As we walked around the city, Leslie & I saw entire city blocks that were fenced off in anticipation of being demolished and rebuilt. There also a lot of signs for the metro system they're currently building.


• Things in Qingdao get started much later than in Beijing. Leslie & I arrived on the overnight train from Beijing at 8 AM. Coming from Beijing, we didn't think we'd have a problem checking in at our hostel and finding food. But we were wrong. Luckily though, we were able to call the hostel staff and wake someone up to let us check into the hostel. We soon figured out that morning that things in Qingdao didn't really seem to get moving until around 10 AM.

Now for the pictures I know you've all been waiting for...

The Protestant Church

May 4th Monument

St. Michael's Cathedral

  

Zhanqiao Pier

Long time no see!

Hello dear blog readers,

My sincerest apologies for being MIA since my winter break started. Traveling is exhausting and time really has flown.

My friend Leslie left this morning to return home to the United States after spending a month with me in China/Hong Kong. I'm sure she's thrilled to excited to return home to comforts of home and not having to listen to Mumford & Sons (my latest musical obsession) every morning. Not to mention the fact that squat toilets don't exist in the United States.

As for me, I have a couple more days left in Hong Kong before I return to Beijing on Sunday. While I'm not exactly jumping for joy about returning to Beijing (after all, Beijing & I have a rather rocky relationship), my "loss" is definitely your gain.

Consider this blog officially back from hiatus. Pictures & posts about my travels to follow soon. Your patience (I think) will be rewarded.

Thanks for reading,

Angela

And I'm off!

Being the regular blog readers I know you all are, I'm sure you all realize I'm finally now on my winter break. Better late than never, I say.

Two days after my finals, my friend Leslie came to town. This past week, we've been fitting the bitter Beijing cold and wind and visiting Beijing's major sights. And when I say bitter cold...I really do mean bitter cold.

Tomorrow, we're leaving to travel for a total of ten days to Qingdao, Hangzhou and Shanghai. On the 30th, we'll head to Hong Kong, where we'll be spending the Chinese New Year/Spring Festival. I'm excited (as always) to return to Hong Kong to see family and friends again.

Not to mention that Hong Kong is a food lover's paradise and I love food. Plus, Hong Kong's much warmer than Beijing right now.

Since I'll be on the traveling through the 30th of this month, there will most likely be a decrease in blog posts until I reach Hong Kong, at least. I do hope to get some posts up while I'm on the road, but in case I don't, I hope that everyone has a good rest of January!

And for those of you reading in Hong Kong, I hope to see you soon!

If that doesn't look cold to you, you're crazy.
Summer Palace, Beijing

PS. For those of you going through Living-in-Cultural-Limbo-blog withdrawal (which I know is all of you), at least you know when I return, you'll have lots of pictures and things to look forward to. :)

Now from the DPRK...

Before I came to China, I never realized that occasionally CCTV (the Chinese government's broadcasting network) would show news clips and B-roll from North Korea, or as it prefers to be called, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Although, in hindsight, it makes some sense considering China's (precarious) relationship with North Korea.

The stories featuring North Korean media sources are a rare occurence. The first time I saw it was at the end of September during North Korea's large national meeting, at which Kim Jong Il made his youngest son a four-star general. Most of this footage seemed to be staged B-roll sent out as a part of a press release.

The second time was during the South-North Korean tension over Yeonpyeong Island this past November. During the 'crisis,' CCTV (at least the English CCTV) covered the story from both sides. CCTV showed footage from news broadcasts on the situation from both South and North Korea as well as short sound bites from both average North and South Koreans about their reaction to the crisis.

While the footage of the South Korean newscast appeared the same as any other country's newscast, the North Korean newscast was strikingly different. Unlike most newscasts that feature an anchor reading the news often with some accompanying footage of some sort, the North Korean broadcast appeared to just have an anchor who seemed to be yelling the news to the camera with no other visual aids. Overall, very different from any other newscast I've seen.

As for the opinions of the 'average North Korean' featured in the news story, I think it's safe to assume the interview with the two 'average North Koreans' were carefully staged, crafted and government-approved before being sent out to foreign news agencies.

Regardless, I find the fact that I get any news, even government-sanctioned news, about North Koreans from North Korea directly fascinating. It's definitely not something I could ever see back in the States.

The CCTV Building
Beijing, China