All of the photos were taken using film; hand processed, and developed by yours truly; and later scanned into the computer. Enjoy.
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| Hong Kong Harbor & Star Ferry |
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| Temple |
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| Old Hong Kong Trams in Central |
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| Tai O |
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Hong Kong Film Photographs
For those of you who only look at this blog for pretty photographs, I apologize for the recent dearth of them. To make up for it, here are are some photographs I took last year during my trip to Hong Kong.
All of the photos were taken using film; hand processed, and developed by yours truly; and later scanned into the computer. Enjoy.
For more photos, go to Angela Photo Musings:
All of the photos were taken using film; hand processed, and developed by yours truly; and later scanned into the computer. Enjoy.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Forget Jack Frost,
...have you met Jack Ice?
This is what I woke up to this morning--a icy window. Just to clarify, my window is frozen from the inside. And yes...the heater was on last night.
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| Please excuse the clutter that lives on my windowsill |
This is what I woke up to this morning--a icy window. Just to clarify, my window is frozen from the inside. And yes...the heater was on last night.
Monday, December 13, 2010
You don't always get what you bargain for
For decades, China has coveted the Nobel Peace Prize, in hopes that one day one of their own citizens (while living in China) could claim it as a recipient. To China, winning the Nobel Peace Prize would ultimately prove to the world that China has indeed become a country to reckon with and has finally caught up to, if not surpassed, the Western powers. This year, China's wish was granted, although not in the form they were expecting it. What can I say? You can't always get what you bargain for.
Back in early October, it was announced that the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize would be awarded to Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissent currently jailed for subversion of state power, after co-authoring Charter 08, a highly critical political manifesto on the Chinese government. Liu was also a notable figure in the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protests.
To say that China wasn't thrilled upon learning Liu Xiaobo was awarded this year's Nobel Prize would be an understatement. As soon as the announcement was made, China quickly called the Norwegian ambassador to express their anger and publicly retorted by calling the decision "blasphemy."
Additionally, the story of that the first Chinese man ever had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was shushed quiet throughout Chinese media outlets. News story concerning the prize form international news outlets, such as CNN or the BBC were also blacked out (CNN and BBC are only available in apartment complexes catered to foreigners and in nice hotels.). Many western news websites featuring stories about the award and Internet searches on "Liu Xiaobo" and "Nobel Peace Prize" were also blocked by the Great Chinese Firewall. Lastly, and perhaps the most creepily, as the news of the decision spread, the Chinese government erased the characters composing the characters of Liu Xiaobo's name out of the SMS (texting) database so that no text messages containing his name could be sent out. Those who succeeded prior to the big erased found their messages blocked and sometimes SIM cards deactivated.
Not surprisingly, this past weekend as the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony was held in Oslo, Norway, many Western news websites were blocked once again.Without using a VPN, I couldn't access CNN.com; although ironically, I could access the NY Times where the "Empty Chair" was one of the leading stories of the weekend. (Since Liu Xiaobo was obviously not allowed to attend the ceremony in Oslo and accept his award, the award was given to an "empty chair," thus all the "Empty Chair" headlines about the Nobel Peace Prize this weekend.)
Back in early October, it was announced that the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize would be awarded to Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissent currently jailed for subversion of state power, after co-authoring Charter 08, a highly critical political manifesto on the Chinese government. Liu was also a notable figure in the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protests.
To say that China wasn't thrilled upon learning Liu Xiaobo was awarded this year's Nobel Prize would be an understatement. As soon as the announcement was made, China quickly called the Norwegian ambassador to express their anger and publicly retorted by calling the decision "blasphemy."
Additionally, the story of that the first Chinese man ever had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was shushed quiet throughout Chinese media outlets. News story concerning the prize form international news outlets, such as CNN or the BBC were also blacked out (CNN and BBC are only available in apartment complexes catered to foreigners and in nice hotels.). Many western news websites featuring stories about the award and Internet searches on "Liu Xiaobo" and "Nobel Peace Prize" were also blocked by the Great Chinese Firewall. Lastly, and perhaps the most creepily, as the news of the decision spread, the Chinese government erased the characters composing the characters of Liu Xiaobo's name out of the SMS (texting) database so that no text messages containing his name could be sent out. Those who succeeded prior to the big erased found their messages blocked and sometimes SIM cards deactivated.
Not surprisingly, this past weekend as the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony was held in Oslo, Norway, many Western news websites were blocked once again.Without using a VPN, I couldn't access CNN.com; although ironically, I could access the NY Times where the "Empty Chair" was one of the leading stories of the weekend. (Since Liu Xiaobo was obviously not allowed to attend the ceremony in Oslo and accept his award, the award was given to an "empty chair," thus all the "Empty Chair" headlines about the Nobel Peace Prize this weekend.)
Friday, December 10, 2010
On a horse...
Undoubtedly, one of my favorite Chinese terms is "马上," (mǎshàng) which means immediately or right away. Now the reason why I like this phrase isn't because I'm an impatient person (although I am), it's because when you directly translate the characters 马 (mǎ) and 上 (shàng) it means "horse" and "on," respectively. Meaning, whenever someone tells you something (or someone）is immediately coming (马上来 mǎshàng lái），that speaker is literally saying the thing/person is coming on a horse, i.e. it's coming as quickly as it can. Since for a long time historically horses were the fastest mode of transportation, it makes sense that saying something is coming on a horse would logically mean it's coming right away and as fast as it/he/she can.
The term 马上 (mǎshàng) is hardly the only term in Chinese that have an occasionally humerous, yet logical literal translations that somehow relate to a larger or different term. In fact, most terms in Chinese make some sort of sense when broken down character by character partially in order to make terms more easy to remember (aside from terms that are phonetic translations of foreign things or places). Here are a few additional examples:
1. 马上(mǎshàng)
The term 马上 (mǎshàng) is hardly the only term in Chinese that have an occasionally humerous, yet logical literal translations that somehow relate to a larger or different term. In fact, most terms in Chinese make some sort of sense when broken down character by character partially in order to make terms more easy to remember (aside from terms that are phonetic translations of foreign things or places). Here are a few additional examples:
1. 马上(mǎshàng)
- Character-by-character translation: On a horse
- Actual translation: Immediately, right away
- Character-by-character translation: Rent-out car
- Actual translation: Taxi
- Character-by-character translation: Fire leg
- Actual translation: Ham
- Character-by-character translation: Cowboy pants
- Actual translation: Jeans
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Chinese pop music
Lately, my huihua (conversation) teacher has been starting each class by playing different Chinese pop music videos. While I'm sure listening to music in foreign languages (along with films and television) is a great way to aide our learning of Mandarin, I must confess from what I've heard of Chinese pop music previously and after coming here to Beijing, I'm not much of a fan.
Perhaps it's just the music I'm being exposed to and that seems to be very popular, but all the songs seem to be slow, dramatic power ballads with music videos featuring even more over-dramatic story lines, e.g. right after a couple moves in together, they discover the girl has some sort of fatal cancer. Call me a cynic, but watching the music videos and listening to the songs make me cringe.
To me, listening to the songs and watching these music videos is much like taking an already super-sweet candy, drenching it in even more sugar syrup and then eating it. There's no way the overly saccharine tast of the candy, or in this case the music, appeals to me. I feel like I'm getting cavities just by listening to it.
Many other people in my class and other people I know in the US seem to like it though, so maybe it's just me. I also do realize that our musical taste is very much influenced by our respective cultures and I do like some sappy, slow longs from time to time (yes, James Blunt, I'm looking at you), but from what I've heard Chinese pop seems to be too much for me.
Of course, I don't profess to have very much knowledge on Chinese popular music. So if you perhaps want to prove me long or know of a Chinese band/singer that may appeal to me, please by all means let me in the comments or via e-mail. I'd be happy to be proven wrong.
Sorry, I have no access to YouTube here in China, so I can't embed or link you to a Chinese pop music video. I'm sure if you search on YouTube "Jay Chou" or even "Chinese pop song," plenty of videos will pop up.
Perhaps it's just the music I'm being exposed to and that seems to be very popular, but all the songs seem to be slow, dramatic power ballads with music videos featuring even more over-dramatic story lines, e.g. right after a couple moves in together, they discover the girl has some sort of fatal cancer. Call me a cynic, but watching the music videos and listening to the songs make me cringe.
To me, listening to the songs and watching these music videos is much like taking an already super-sweet candy, drenching it in even more sugar syrup and then eating it. There's no way the overly saccharine tast of the candy, or in this case the music, appeals to me. I feel like I'm getting cavities just by listening to it.
Many other people in my class and other people I know in the US seem to like it though, so maybe it's just me. I also do realize that our musical taste is very much influenced by our respective cultures and I do like some sappy, slow longs from time to time (yes, James Blunt, I'm looking at you), but from what I've heard Chinese pop seems to be too much for me.
Of course, I don't profess to have very much knowledge on Chinese popular music. So if you perhaps want to prove me long or know of a Chinese band/singer that may appeal to me, please by all means let me in the comments or via e-mail. I'd be happy to be proven wrong.
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| Jay Chou, a big Chinese pop star from Taiwan. |
Sorry, I have no access to YouTube here in China, so I can't embed or link you to a Chinese pop music video. I'm sure if you search on YouTube "Jay Chou" or even "Chinese pop song," plenty of videos will pop up.
Happy Holidays!
Since Hanukkah began last week and the holiday season has officially begun, I thought it was time to wish anyone/everyone reading this blog a happy holiday season. I hope you have a great holiday season where ever you may be, whatever it may be you celebrate (or not celebrate).
And to my friends and family that are reading this, I hope your holidays are extra great and please know I'm thinking of you all especially during this month of family, friends, food and celebration.
Films, girls and sajiao
While perusing ChinaDaily.com the other day, I came across a column written by Qi Zhai entitled, "Time standing still for Chinese-style love affair," in which she examines the central relationships in two different Chinese movies (Street Angel and Under the Hawthorne Tree) made 70 years apart. In her examination of the two films, Qi Zhai realizes that despite that one was made in the 1930s and the other in 2010, the relationship archetypes both films remains the same.
In both these two films (and many others), Qi Zhai points out that the female character in the story is portrayed as very "childlike", while her male counterpart is more of the "eternally cheerful, silently suffering, unbreakably strong type." She goes on further to write that the relationship between both characters remind her much of a father-daughter relationship rather than a relationship between two people of equal maturity.
This portrayal of the ideal female counterpart in a relationship as being a naive, childlike is a large part of why I've never been drawn to to the Chinese and Korean soap operas (and films) that are very popular in China, Korea and abroad. I often find the female leads annoyingly dependent and difficult to relate to.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm hardly the type of girl who relies on others to take care of things for me. I take pride in the fact that I can (mostly) take care of myself. Consequently, I find other people who are overly needy or dependent very trying and seeing characters with such qualities on film or television, cringe-worthy. However, in Chinese culture, this archetype of a naive female and her strong, silent male counterpart is often portrayed as the ideal relationship.
Nothing demonstrates this more than the idea of sajiao ((撒娇), which the Modern Chinese Dictionary defines as, " to deliberately act like a spoiled child in front of someone because of the awareness of the other person's affection."*
From my understanding of sajiao, it's typically used by the female in relationships in order to invoke the male counterpart to do something for them as a sign of affection. Often times, the girl will act much like a spoiled young girl (as opposed to grown woman) in order to get her male companion to do whatever she wants him to do, even if she can do it perfectly well by herself. The only Western/English equivalent to sajiao that I can think of is the concept of a damsel-in-distress, but even that doesn't seem like an appropriate equailvent.
In both these two films (and many others), Qi Zhai points out that the female character in the story is portrayed as very "childlike", while her male counterpart is more of the "eternally cheerful, silently suffering, unbreakably strong type." She goes on further to write that the relationship between both characters remind her much of a father-daughter relationship rather than a relationship between two people of equal maturity.
This portrayal of the ideal female counterpart in a relationship as being a naive, childlike is a large part of why I've never been drawn to to the Chinese and Korean soap operas (and films) that are very popular in China, Korea and abroad. I often find the female leads annoyingly dependent and difficult to relate to.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm hardly the type of girl who relies on others to take care of things for me. I take pride in the fact that I can (mostly) take care of myself. Consequently, I find other people who are overly needy or dependent very trying and seeing characters with such qualities on film or television, cringe-worthy. However, in Chinese culture, this archetype of a naive female and her strong, silent male counterpart is often portrayed as the ideal relationship.
Nothing demonstrates this more than the idea of sajiao ((撒娇), which the Modern Chinese Dictionary defines as, " to deliberately act like a spoiled child in front of someone because of the awareness of the other person's affection."*
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| Wuzhen |
From my understanding of sajiao, it's typically used by the female in relationships in order to invoke the male counterpart to do something for them as a sign of affection. Often times, the girl will act much like a spoiled young girl (as opposed to grown woman) in order to get her male companion to do whatever she wants him to do, even if she can do it perfectly well by herself. The only Western/English equivalent to sajiao that I can think of is the concept of a damsel-in-distress, but even that doesn't seem like an appropriate equailvent.
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