The topic slowly but surely moved on to London as Beijing game winded down. The "8 minute presentation" has been a point of talk. South Metropolitan, citing online discussions, called it "praised widely by Chinese for plebeian appeal" but "criticized by British media".
Over-sensationaliztion and mis-characterization are not Western Media privilege. "Widely praised" could hardly sum up the Chinese opinion towards London presentation. Most people didn't "get it" beyond the obvious symbolic images, the double-deck bus, umbrella and soccer balls. Plebeian, was far from the nature of the pitch, of anything but.
In fact, most interesting differences was in the pitching approaches, while Beijing's opening and closing ceremony relied mostly on "people power", the London presentation relied more on "star power".
Double-deck bus and such, like hutong's to Beijing, although very much London, but were cliche-ish and considered hardly selling points. London's selling pitch relied on star power, the popular Leona Lewis, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, and David Beckham. Even American Michael Phelps, freshly minted as an Olympic hero, was in front of Buckingham Palace rallying up the crowd.
On the Chinese performance side, you could hardly spot a recognizable face if you were not Chinese. Oh, There was Jacki Chan among the "stars" singing some jumbo-mumble song, but that's it. And there was Placido singing a duet, but he was anything but Chinese. Any wonder why singing was the least attractive part of those ceremonies? Overall, the closing ceremony has been a bore to many Chinese, who grew used to massive production, but an eye-catcher for Western audiences - you couldn't find this many people in a Cirque du Soleil show, could you?
Speaking of stars, David Beckham is considered irrelevant by 1/3 of the world - most Americans, an over-the-hill overpaid gossip column target by another 1/3 - most Europeans, and a megastar by the rest 1/3, including the Chinese; Jimmy Page is considered a nostalgic symbol or washed-up antique depending on your age; Leona Lewis is the most contemporary. People who hates talent shows may want to phone Maria Cary for a career revival. But at least the odds of acceptance here is much higher.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
08-12
Friday, August 22, 2008
Ugly Gentleman
British "gentlemen" are enamored with the words "overzealous". Remember the Brits complaining about "overzealous" "men in track suits" trying to protect the flame during the London torch runs? That was in Britain. Now in Beijing, Brits used word "overzealous" and "belligerent" to defend their own rude behavior again.
David Davies, who won a silver in the swimming marathon, soaked Chinese "officials" who was urging him to attend the medal ceremony with bottled water. It should be pointed out that the lady who was splashed water on her face, called official by British media, was actually a volunteer. The ward ceremony was already in delay due to Davies' pass-out at the finish. While the Welsh enjoyed telling his life story on the camera, his fellow competitors was waiting to get on the podium. According to Olympics regulation, failure to attend the award ceremony in time could result in cancellation of the medal award.
Granted, there was a culture divide here. In China, touching of elbow or tucking of cloth in urging was common practice and understood as acceptable, and may even appreciated when for the benefit of the urged; while in Britain, body contact was more strictly forbidden without mutual gesture. Still, the British's action of dousing was extremely rude and thuggish. The British media, which called Davies a gentleman, took no exception, and did not seem to mind of the behavior. Britain’s performance director, Scott, joked: “He was just shaking a champagne bottle, nothing more than that.”
The incident was not widely reported by official Chinese media, perhaps out of desire to keep the Games "harmonious", but had angered many Chinese netizens. Many were surprised that no apology was demanded. Then again, a few Chinese were worrying China demonstrated too much dominance in diving as it was poised to sweep the eight Gold.
Good luck London of 2012.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Who is Liu Xiang
(1)
What a spectacle it must be when more than 90,000 collectively let out "ahh?" in astonishment.
No, it's not opening ceremonial group exercise, it was the reaction in the Bird's Nest when it was announced Liu Xiang dropped out the race due to injury. More jaws were dropped in front of millions of TV sets in China and around the world. They had seen Liu Xiong warming up; they had seen him at the starting block, seemingly grimacing in pain. They couldn't believe the drop-out.
Several minutes later, huge crowds began to file out, leaving the stadium half empty.
The reaction immediately began. Many couldn't accept the reality how he ended competition - on the starting block, some even suggested he should complete the course, even by walking to the end line. For the conspiracy theorists, they pointed to huge commercial interests behind the decision to pull out. Liu had been the face for numerous products in China. The admirers meanwhile poured out their sympathy and support for Liu, a CCTV reporter even called the pull-out a admirable decision. One had to be puzzled what was admirable in a dropout due to injury.
The speculation centered around the nature and extent of Liu's injury, and the media coverage leading up to the drama. Earlier signs indicated he was not in good shape. He withdrew from a meet in New York in May citing hamstring injury, and alleged purposely false-started at the Prefontaine Classic. He then skipped the European circuit, and did not appear at the opening ceremony. In the meanwhile, Chinese media had been giving a different picture. He reportedly posted a good time in test-run on the track of Bird's Nest. Just several days ago, he was said to run well within 13 seconds. Only on last Saturday, his coach cautioned Liu had a symptom of inflamed Achilles tendon, in injury that was said to first occurred six years ago and suddenly reemerged prior to the competition. That would be the official injury that did Liu in on the starting block of Olympics games. The drama stunned the whole stadium and a whole nation.
Among the bickering between Liu's fans and supporters and those who cast doubt why it ended with this dramatic fashion, it's important to remember that scrutiny was an understandable reaction when so much national pride and money were tied up with Liu. Even the American reporter James Farrows had commented:"But it would be natural and human if it were something more too: perhaps better not to try at all than to be captured forever on tape coming up short. It's hard to feel sorry for someone as rich and celebrated as Liu Xiang. But you can sympathize."
(2)
What to make of the Liu Xiang drama, or tragedy? I say get over it China.
It's unnatural, or even unhealthy, to place so high expectation and pressure on one athlete. It was too high an expectation to expect ANY short distance sprinter to repeat Olympics glory of four years ago. You just have to review Olympic history to see how realistic that is.
Too much had been made out of Liu's victory in Athens four years ago. Liu, as the first top Chinese athlete in sprinting had been a symbol of athletic capacity of Chinese, and even Asians. Many even held him as a proof that Asians are no less inferior to, say blacks, in printing athleticism. Sorry to burst bubble, but 110 hurdle isn't pure speed, technique plays a big part. And so what Asians are not as gifted in short track? Difference in muscle build up has been a reality. Black athletes have been dominating short track running from forever. The U.S. has been successful in track and and field due to precisely racial diversity of population and foreign imports. There is even research that suggests Jamaica sprinters' success - see Bolt and top three finish in women's 100m - is in part because they are naturally gifted due to gene in fast switch muscle fiber. It's neither true nor fair to place ethnic theories behind one athlete.
In America, there are similarly biased sayings such as "White men can't jump". Occasionally, there are white high flying dunkers to "prove them wrong". But frankly, several example of freakish athleticism of whites and bunch of examples of freakish athleticism of blacks prove nothing, nor does it prove anything. While "White men can't jump" remains an urban mystery, nobody seems to particularly care to de-mystify it.
In a commercial, Liu Xiang beams into the camera and asks:"I am Liu Xiang, who are you?" Yes, it's important to answer that question. Who is Liu Xiang? He is still the Olympics champion in Athens, the first Asian to get a gold in short distance track and field. And he should be remembered as such, regardless of whatever drama happened in Beijing. Who are we? We are just spectators. We can cheer on and feel the pride if he wins, but to place too much significance in his victory or failure is just too much. It's just another day an athlete pulls out of competition, dramatic or not.
...........................................................................
九万多个人异口同声“啊”是什么感觉？
不,这壮观情形不是在排演开幕式团体操，而是现场广播宣布刘翔已经退出比赛时全体观众集体地惊诧难以置信。中国和世界各地的电视机前还有数不清掉下来的下巴。
几分钟后球场观众走了大半。
评论马上炸开了锅。持阴谋论者有之，同情支持者有之，甚至认为刘翔走也要走到终点的也不乏其人，把退赛称作“伟大的决定”的也莫名其妙地存在，似乎退赛场景还不够戏剧化一般。
当我们看待各种评论漩涡时，应该说各种反应都是可以理解的。当一个人的体育成就被赋予这么多超出体育的意义，当一个人的成功与否被加以这么多的期望和压力，被和更广义的成功与否联系在一起，当一个运动员的受伤与否，受的什么伤什么时候受的伤，被象保护国家机密一样保护的时候，还有什么不能理解呢。当体育被过多得和商业和民族荣誉感联系在一起——这是实事——指责和洗不清也是正常的事。
醒醒吧，中国人。
集体得瑟什么呢。这种得瑟四年前就开始了。刘翔在雅典的胜利被认为不仅是民族的骄傲，甚至是中国人甚至说黄种人在短跑能力上不比别人差的证明。说实话，110米栏并不是证明单纯速度的项目，它需要的除了速度还有过栏技巧。更何况一个刘翔根本不能证明或反证什么人种的差异。一个体育怪才，刘翔，相对于一些体育怪才，同场竞技的黑人兄弟们，的胜利并不能说明任何问题。美国也流行一句话，White man can't jump (白人跳不起来)。 自从黑人在NBA高跳驰骋后，这句话也多少成为城市神话。偶尔也有出个厉害的白人扣篮者，但这些个例并不足以打破神话，也没有人特别在意要去证明或反证。
就算中国人确实在短跑上不如黑人又怎样呢？美国在田径上的成功很大程度上靠的就是人种的多样化和进口运动员（比如来自肯尼亚的长跑运动员）。某些差异本来就存在，有研究表明牙买加人肌肉纤维天然就占优势，但在Bolt出现前没有人相信这么高的人能够跑这么快。当那个中国运动员站在100米复赛跑道的时候，看他的体形就知道他跑不过同场竞技的人并不让人觉得奇怪。但这并不意味着我们不能为他跑出相对自己的好成绩叫好，更不意味着中国人就低人一等。
在一个广告中刘翔问：我是刘翔你是谁？确实，这是一个需要回答的问题。刘翔是刘翔，不管鸟巢戏剧化一幕的后面是什么，刘翔还是奥运会金牌获得者，还是第一个获得短跑项目金牌的亚洲第一人。如果你研究一下奥运历史的话，你会发现期望一个短跑项目的金牌获得者四年后卫冕从一开始就是多么超出现实的期望。而我们，只是看客，观众。我们可以为他的成功而自豪而欢呼，就像美国人可以为菲尔普斯的八块金牌而自豪欢呼。但是赋予竞技太多不相称的意义，滥词赞美或苛求指责，戏剧也就变质。
[附：伤]
5/31/08，刘翔退出纽约赛，理由为大腿受伤
6/8/08，在Eugene的Prefontaine Classic抢跑，有人称故意
随即放弃欧洲赛
8月，“腿伤已好，状态良好”
8/8，未参加开幕式，
8/15，“内部赛测出12.98，脚伤跟腱炎复发”
8/18，鸟巢起跑线上因伤弃赛
Friday, August 15, 2008
Grab Them Golds
A quick look at the medal count standing, you find leading countries are United States, China, Australia, France, Russia, South Korea, Germany, Japan, Britain, and Italy rounding out the top 10, with the first two in a pack of significant margin. Ladies and gentleman, that's almost your list of G-8 with China as 'guest observer", with Aussies of Commonwealth standing in for their Canadian brethren thanks to their performance in the pool. Only the Koreans are not economically or politically as influential. Conspicuously missing are India and Brazil, two important emerging markets in the BRIC block that many thought of being on the short watch list of G8 expansion.
Some "angry elitist" in China have vehemently protested that the medals had little to do with them so they could hardly got into the spirit of the Games, except...venting. As far as netizens go, the western press talked about "angry youth", a name implying overt nationalism, they missed the other part of the story: for every radical nationalist there seemed to be an equally radical bunch who took the baton from whatever was criticized of China from the West and took it to another extreme level. The Chinese mockingly called them, most of whom never set a foot in the outside world, jingying - or "elite".
The criticizers pointed out that medals are worthless, because they were not representative of how athletic or fit the Chinese were. They had a point. But these games were never meant to be a gauge on how athletic or fit a nation was. Otherwise, Finland should have won the gold of fittest nation, with Canada not far behind. The leading country in medal count, the United States, is also the world's leading country in obesity. The Michel Phelps and Usain Bolts of the world are never meant to represent mere mortals like us, or even whether a sport is practice by the people. They are what they are, games, and competitions.
A member of Canadian Olympic committee was outlining the strategy to improve Canada's medal counts: ID talent, get them into the "system", etc etc, as I typed. Whatever "system" those athletes are in, those games are not only for the national glory, it's also about pushing personal limit, achieving the best. How can anyone not be touched and emboldened by those marathon women filing in the stadium after running 26 miles, battling extreme fatigue? "You not only became a champion," the person in the TV said, "but also found a better self."
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TV Scene one: Tennis, women's single semifinal. The crowd was raucus. Loud chants of "China Jiayou" and "Lina Jiayou" can be heard between plays, sometimes even before the play was over. Some Russian accented "Sa-fi-na~" could be heard streaking out too. Given the atmasphere of the Olympics, tameness wasn't bo be expected, but this crowd was clearly not of your typical French Open. Safina stringed a couple double faults. Maybe the crowd noise was getting to her a little bit, but she kept her cool. Then, Li na charged to hit a overhead. The collective "woo" in anticipation could be heard from crowd. Out of bounds! Li Na was noticablly annoyed, she turned her head to the crowd and cursed out a grumbled "shut up". The crowd went dead. Lest she forgot, she proved she was a member of the crowd too.
TV scene two: Rowlling, women's double skull. CCTV camera was focusing on the Chinese pair who was targeted as haing "gold potential". Cameras were so busy chasing gold potential events that an earlier pair event didn't got broadcasted live. Minutes later, the Chinese got only to the fourth. The ancor in the studio annouced:" It's regretful, but it's O.K., actually China won a silver unexpectedly in an earlier rowlling event." The tape began to roll. No embarrassed TV crew faces could be seen on screen.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Autopsy of a Media Storm
A story about double-act of singing on the opening ceremony was making rounds in the media and blogsphere. In pursuit of theatricals perfection, directors combined Lin Miaoke's stage appearance and Yang Peiyi's singing voice.
Most of the reports in the western media seemed to be based on an interview of the music director by the Chinese media. transcript shows
陈其钢：“对。也可以说这是最后一分钟的不得已的选择。因为我们经历了若干次审查，都是相当严格的。我们听过一次林妙可的录音，在现场放的，是在联排的时候。然后有各方面的人，尤其是中央政治局的领导，在听的时候，给我们提出了意见，说必须要改变。这是没有办法的”
which indicated Lin's voice was not good enough and had to be mimed by another voice. Whether he was telling the whole story was another matter.
While some reports got that fact straight, others totally missed boat. Chicago Tribune for example, reported as: "one member of China's Politburo revealed Miaoke had lip-synched the song, after the original singer, Yang Peiyi, was told she was not good-looking enough." Chen, who revealed news, was not political leader. the Tribune might not realize it was in conflict with its next line: "Chen Qigang, the ceremony's music director, had been asked last minute by the Politburo official to replace Peiyi with Miaoke, according to an interview with Beijing Radio."
Nevertheless, the "not quite" headline of "girl kicked out of ceremony performance at the last minute" because of "chubby face" and "Bucket/crooked tooth" had became the main theme of the story. I am not sure where journalists got the crooked tooth part. It sounded like their own interpretation by looking at the picture.
Time UK emphasized that theme by using headline of China banned child singer with crooked teeth from singing at opening ceremony. "Chubby-cheeked with crooked teeth, she was substituted at the eleventh hour by Communist Party officials desperate to present the best possible image of Chinese youth to a curious world. " it asserted.
Whether Lin's voice being subbed in the 11th minute or Yang being substituted, fact remained Yang did not get on the stage except her voice. Who said good looks and stage presence weren't "talent"? Jessica Simpson would probably agree.
Fake, is the predominant word used in headlines across UK press. Headlines such as China 'faked' awesome Olympic opening ceremony was already in place when it was revealed parts of the "footprint" show was not shot in real time. Maybe the Brits didn't know that was not made of secret. NBC mentioned it during the broadcast. Past TV productions, such as fire in the studio fireplace during the 2002 Salt Lake Games, was also generated digitally.
Fake might be an uneasy word, but perfection was always an illusion. Lest we forgot.
Guardian hedged their report by pointing the source to a translation by the China Digital Times website.
"We had been through several inspections - they were all very strict. When we rehearsed at the spot, there were spectators from various divisions, especially a leader from the Politburo, who gave us his opinion: It must change," said Chen.In deed, by leaving out details such as it was Miaoke's voice they were listening at the rehearsal, that translation could lead to confusion conclusions. That's what you got by sending reporters who are not versed in the local language.
Whatever the source, British media finally found their controversial story about the opening ceremony. BBC called it the second "fake" story about the opening ceremony, and asked openly for comments whether this has damaged the image of the Beijing Olympic games. Its own tone was made apparent in its editing choice of comment to appear on the main page - a Beijinger comments: "If the stories are true, it is absolutely disgraceful and I am ashamed as a Chinese citizen."
It's understandable that British got extra mile from this story. London after all has to host the game in four years. As Telegraph put it:"it might now be easier for London to end the 'arms race' that requires every staging of the Games to be more spectacular than the last. "
In fact, the media storm was not broken first in the west hemisphere, Chinese media and blogs were seethed about the story first when the interview was first published. There was something about China and fake that struck a cord in people's mind. Some English language reports even cited Chinese message board writings in the initial confusing hours. Yes, that what journalism reduced to.
The stand-in singing is a result of complex social value system we have today. There is China's overwhelming desire for perfection; there is this film director who is famous for meticulousness in aesthetics; there is Eastern culture of "face value", there is also this today's "looks" obsessed culture - American or British or Chinese. Think of Audrey Hepburn singing to the voice of Marni Nixon. Although it should be pointed out that both girls get credit on both the ticket of the ceremony and DVD that is released, the concern of influence of adults value system - and what kind of system should it be - on the two girls is genuine and legitimate. Personally, I think the directors miscalculated the social amplification and should have simply used best vocal. That being said, some of the directions and tones of this media storm are not surprising. After all, controversies are relatively scarce on these Games, how else can the media be fed on. Related Content of This Rocking Post
Monday, August 11, 2008
无题
(1) To translate or not to translate
Maybe the Olympics should be hosted by Babel, before the tower-building was stopped, that is. Ring Blog reports:
Normal interview rhythms are being disrupted by the translation of every question and answer to Chinese.Arrogance, that's what being in a dominant culture could do to you. And the media people wonder why people don't like them that much. Question at hand: do people of the hosting country deserve the privilege to know what is being asked of athletes and what the answer is? Despite the effort in promoting English, there are a lot of people in China who don't understand English well.
....
The translations irritated some reporters working on tight newspaper deadlines in the United States. One asked why the questions and answers had to be translated when they were all in English. Two minutes later, a question was asked in Chinese, reminding everyone of why there are translations in the first place.
(2)
The country that Chinese audience gives most sympathy to in those games is Iraq, the oil rich but war torn nation. After almost missing the Olympics, they received a big cheer in the opening night. Their rowing team appeared to have no team uniform (see picture) and used a patch work of wore out personal T-shirts.
(3)
China has begin her full chase for the gold. But the most I am interested in seeing, is how Chinese media and public treat those who lose. In the past, the media has not been very enthusiastic towards those who failed to clutch the gold, and even not too kind to those who were suppose to medal but crumbled under pressure. Early indication is that the mentality is much more forgiving this time around.
(4)
The most exciting competition so far: 4x100 men's freestyle relay that resulted in a gold for America. The most nerve racking but inspiring competition so far: Men's team Gymnastics in which Chinese team vindicated themselves with a gold. Related Content of This Rocking Post
Friday, August 8, 2008
Olympics Opening Ceremony: Live
- 8:08pm 08/08/2008 Beijing
8:08am 08/08/2008 Eastern Standard Time
- TV, TV, get a TV
- Crap, I don't realize this is a NBC country, which means 8:08pm 08/08/2008 doesn't arrive until prime time. Nothing ever happens until NBC says so.
- 8:15, how can I forget the country up north? Wherever America fails, there's Canada to the rescue. Thanks god for CBC.
- The great inventions, paper, printing, etc. Yeah, I should have known those would be on the show. Shocking...not.
- Zhang Yimou and China are a match made in heaven, his grandiose style of art rendering requires a lot of man-power, and China has a lot of...man power.
- The synchronized human keyboard is... impressive. The reciting Confucius Disciple...menacing (I'm sorry).
- Did I just see Curse of the Golden Flower?
- Oh, the fireworks. How I love them.
- Liu Huan and Sarah Brightman! Wait, what are they singing? Is that Chinese or English? I thought I understood both, now it seems I understand neither.
- Dignitaries on the stand are waving fans to relieve themselves from the heat. The place being the Bird's Nest, it probably can hatch eggs into little birds right about now.
- Switching to web cast now. It's surprisingly hard to find a live stream. Good jobs IOC in cracking down. But thanks to channel surfing, we CAN NOT BE DENIED.
- Parade of Nations is on. Some of the outfits of the teams make the so called "egg and tomato" outfit of Chinese team that so many Chinese were scolding of look beautiful.
- What's up with the background music? It's a combination of all kinds of traditional Chinese music. I hear the mellow Spring rivers and flower night, and I hear trumpet section usually reserved for marriage parade. There are Irish Pipes blending in also. Strange to say the least.
- The Japanese are actually holding Chinese flags. Is that because they are worried about being booed? You have to give it to the Japanese, they are always so methodological about dealing with problems.
- Do I hear Chinese Taipei and Zhonghua Taibei (in Chinese)? It's a compromise. But it passes quickly, I don't give it much a thought.
- More testament to the man power in China, There is a huge ring of cheer leading girls, volunteers I guess, lines up the runways. or should I say girl power?
They are dancing in sync to the music. I'm wondering how they find the rhythm, because there is no rhythm to speak of in the music. They will be doing this for two hours. It must be tiring.
- One of the best benefit of watching Parade of Nations is to watch the close-up shots of beautiful athletes. The TV director clearly understands that.
Seeing the Brazilian flag bearer alone probably gets my casual viewing's worth back.
- The anchor says of a random flag bearer from a Muslim country (of which I don't remember the name) : "She ran with a full body suit and scarf." WOW!
- I just want to yell "Manu, Manu" (Ginobili)
- Now the ring of girls change to waving arms standing still. Finally they can't keep up.
- Sarkozy is in the house. Wasn't he saying he would not attend? I am actually hoping to see his wife.
- Both Russian and USA teams receive a big cheer from the stand.
- The Swedish team wears outfit that resembles Chinese Qi Dress(旗袍). I'm not sure that belongs to their ethnic clothing or is a tribute to the host. It's kind of cool.
- The girls now can't even keep the waving arms up, they change to clapping.
- Finally, the Chinese "egg and tomato" team arrives. A huge roar breaks out in the stadium. Yao Ming, the flag bearer, is accompanied by a 9 year old from ShiChuan. The child reportedly saved 2 lives in the recent earthquake. Nice gesture to show the Chinese haven't forget about the earthquake.
- The final riddle unfolds. Li Ning, an gold medalist and successful businessman of his namesake brand, flys up and runs along the wall of an unfolding scroll, Kong Fu style, around the stadium. The flame is alight! That's probably the highlight of the night...urgh morning. More fireworks are in order.
- Let the games begin.
[update] I just saw the freaking drum performance on NBC with better picture and more comfort. It's awe inspiring. At the same time, it invoked images of ancient dynasties, precise , cheerful, powerful, and a bit intimidating. It was very Chinese - spectacle made possible by the will of people. The Hymn to My Country that followed was touching.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Hundred Years
[Chinese Version]
China calls the coming Olympics “a hundred year’s dream”. To the Chinese, Olympics is clearly not only a sports gala and party festival. Incidentally, I’ve recently watched Matching to a Republic, a TV series of historical drama. With fifty nine episodes, and 40 plus hours spent on, it probably deserves some of my comments on the historical road China traversed.
Many of the trajectories of present day China can be traced back to hundred years ago. There isn’t much new under the bright sun.
(1)
Let’s start from a scene in a later episode. Sun Yat-sen, who was regarded as the founding father of Republic of China, tried to reorganize his party into a revolution party after he failed the Second-Revolution. At the time, the then president of the new republic, Yuan Shikai, was about to crown himself the emperor of a constitutional monarchy. Of the 11 governors declared as Nationalist Party member, only two supported his agenda in force. Attractive political ideals were no match for practical position in powers. Sun realized the paradox, that he needed more centralized power to achieve his political dream, a real republic. Political construction might get by with loose organization, but a revolution that didn’t have enough public base required authority. He began to encourage political purity and personal loyalty within the party.
Sun didn’t make his political dream a reality. Before him, Emperor Guanxu wanted to reform but lacked real power, Empress Dowager Cixi had the power but didn’t want the radical political reform, at least not while she was still alive. His follower, Chiang, who took a cue from Sun’s realization and took it to another totalitarian level, ran a corrupt government, but at least nominally united China divided by warlords. Mao’s party also understood the secret to survival and what it took to achieve things in China. It promoted ideological purity within party and believed in “Political power grows out of barrels of a gun”. It took only three years for them to win out the civil war. There is no revolution any more today, but the political belief lives on: that you need a degree of central power and authority to get things done in China, where average citizen isn’t informed or active enough of politics. Deng was also such a believer.
Second Revolution wasn’t unique to Sun either. Mao had his own second revolution - the Cultural Revolution. At least part of the motive behind Mao’s second revolution was the same as Sun’s, that he saw his political ideal was in danger, and that his New China was slipping back to the Old China. New bureaucrats were quickly reverting back just like old bureaucrats, and that conflicted with his vision of a strong China. Mao took a page from Sun. To experiment his vision of democracy and people’s power, he encouraged personal idolization of himself and increase his own authoritative power. It degenerated into a disaster. Later elitists inherited the authoritative part but scratched, or postponed democracy part.
The TV drama series stopped short of the Chiang’s era, probably because it was too close for comfort. But Chiang made an unnamed appearance in it. In one episode, a Japanese instructor pointing a finger at mud in a flower pot, said: “This small piece of mud can contain of a large amount of bacteria, hundreds of millions, as many as there any 4 hundred million Chinese.” An angry student went up to the lectern and retorted, “It must contain a hundred million bacteria, as many as the people in Japan.” That man was Chiang.
Ever since Xinhai Revolution, Sun, Chiang, and Mao, their ideology, personal style, and politics were very different, their understandings of the China’s reality and future differ, but they were all nationalist.
(2)
Matching to a Republic as a Chinese production of recent history has some refreshing improvements. Gone are stylized faces and ideological divides. In stead, it depicts historical figures as human and personal touches.
I’ve also witnessed some contemporary historical writing go to another radical extreme. Rewriting and redefining seem to be in fashion. It’s not surprising in the context of the world we live today. Overturning history, whether rightfully so or not, means at least the merit of independent thinking. It attracts attention, usually accompanied by commercial success. If it so happens that Napoleon fought Julius Caesar, or we interpret historical figure with our own modern minds, too bad. Dead people can not explain themselves.
George Washington was a slave owner. He only freed his slaves after both he and his wife died, in his will. But that’s not to say he was not “the greatest man in the world”. Chinese intellectuals at the time especially admired him for not declaring himself the new King of America. In truth, there was little political ground on the American colony for him to crown himself. And why would he anyway？Great leaders are charismatic and of great social conscientious, but they are not living not of their time.
Turning 180 too many times makes us forget where we come from and even where we stand now.
China has a strange tradition of overcorrection. History was dressed up like little school girl according to winds of overcorrection.
(3)
Overcorrection as an ancient political term deserves some interesting investigation. You see, correct as a verb has a natural authoritative, top-down tone to it, like the time God walked into the city of Sodom and decided to correct them, make it just.
To lead a nation as diverse as China, needs tremendous wisdom and courage. To take the shortcut of making a strong nation needs a degree of authority and central power. The problem is that in China, once the power is installed, it does not have the tradition of checking itself. Or that tradition has been lost. With that, came the revolution and subversion, and the more radical solutions in the pass hundred years or so. The question we have to pose to ourselves: does the approach matter even if it is the right thing to do? Where do we place the so called procedure correctness, and where to draw the line?
The central theme in hundred years of China’s political movements is primitively to make the nation stronger. Rights of people come second. Pragmatism has always had market in China. It fits with the tradition of “succeed you becomes the king, fail you becomes the vagabond” well. Political and ideological arenas are no different.
(4)
The modern history of China from hundred years ago started from wars, more precisely, from losing the wars. Since then, general attitude of Chinese toward political system was anxious and goal-oriented, primitively to hope to bring a stronger nation.
An 1876 NYT article said of Chinese “fear of any innovation and reform”. No, it was not describing the religious Tibet, which shall be described as Shangri-La and peace loving etc. Since then, Chinese has made their own conclusion about that piece of history, they flat out concluded: “to be backward is to be beaten.”
The deficiency of politics of which primary goal was to catch up with the world and make the nation stronger – not be mention it was spearheaded by a small population of new elite – was the lack of stability. Only when the population was modernized and learned how to comprise and manage the country through politic could stability be possible. People sometimes are used to all the responsibilities to the leaders and politicians, yet Confucius said: “I reflect upon myself three times a day.”
(5)
The TV drama gave great sympathy to most of the historical figures.
Empress Dowager Cixi was a steady political hand. Her temper might be fickle, but her ability to manage the Qin officials was unmatched. She even had the courage, or foolishness depending on how you see it, to declare war on all major Western powers. However, whatever she did or did not choose to do, she managed the country as if it was her property. Winning the wars would have been nice, but losing wasn’t too much of a disaster either. The burden of war retribution fell on the population, not her highness.
Lee Hongzhang, the last Qin statesman who was called “Bismarck of the East” by the West and once called traitor by the Chinese, devoted his life to China’s diplomatic relation with the world. However, his none-resistant policy was equally costly. He steered clear of the provenances under his governance clear of the military conflict even when the central power in Beijing was been traced out of the city. Once the war was lost, people under his governance couldn’t escape the bitter result either, they would also have to pay war retributions. Frankly, on one hand China was too big for the then imperialists to swallow; on the other, a defeated country has little to bargain for, great diplomatic skill or not. Lee wouldn’t make the slightest difference.
Yuan Shikai, the able politician whose personal ambition drove him to be the hero who ended the Qin monarch, but also doomed him to be one who wanted to become an emperor of his own. But as capable as he was, his Beiyang New Army didn’t register a victory or even a serious fight for the country. In stead, it became a bargaining chip of his own power.
Kang Youwei, the ambitious but impractical reformer who failed, was really the father of all “overseas democratic fighters”.
Chinese like to speak of “grand virtue”, loosely interpreted as fighting for the people, and “personal virtue”. But, grand virtue is sometimes hard to judge, it swings with political and cultural tides. Chinese also often speak of personal political ambition negatively. But ambition isn’t really sinister. The sad tragedy of all these historical figures of the last hundred years was that there wasn’t a system in place to align their personal ambition with the common good of the people.
Luckily, we average folks still have personal virtues to cherish with, especially with the ones close to us.
(6)
The success of the gradualism reform in China was largely praised around the world. Gradualism reform can be traced back to the experience of a hundred years ago. The more radical reform of Wuxu failed, but a more gradual approach later was largely successful.
The world today warily watches China as a “rising power”. Let’s not forget there was a period a hundred years ago the world warily watched China as a possible power, mistakenly we must say, reflectively. The prospect of a large population and vast market was simply attractive, then and now.
The debate started a hundred years ago continued into today: should China make foundation of Chinese wisdom but adopt Western knowledge? Or should China totally westernize, especially in the political areas?
I shall point out this is really a false topic. When enough people opened up to the modern knowledge, when enough people are wealthy and educated enough, when politics is no longer but designed by a small educated elite, people will reach a natural selection. Chinese or Western, does it matter? Moreover, the distinction between Chinese and Western may be water under bridge then. Culture is fluid.
Similarly, Chinese characteristic is a natural mark, not something you proclaim for, or design for. Proclaiming of ___ (feel free to fill in the blank) of Chinese characteristic is always suspicious.
(7)
Speaking of war and treaties, let’s look into a few. The first Sino-Japanese war of Jiawu was largely limited to the navy fights. The central government, the Qin court, was under menace. A treaty was quickly signed. No serious fight was staged. The Battle of Beijing by the eight-nation alliance saw an army of only teens of thousands, with a casualty of less than 2000. Many Chinese forces didn’t fight in the war. The New Army of Beiyang didn’t open a shot, and the South China stayed out of the conflict all together. Although the Boxers, agitators of the conflict, joined the fight, but it’s safe to say no “war of people” happened. To blame the loss of war and unfair treaty all on “to be backward is to be beaten.” seems to be overly simplistic. Fifty years after, facing another advance equipped United Nation army, Chinese forces didn’t loose ground.
It’s not surprising Western powers called the Chinese “loose sand” then. They had a point.
What the new People’s Republic really contributed to the Chinese wasn’t ideological ist, but the new found upward spirit and confidence in the society.
(8)
The Beijing Olympics is said by Beijing and foreign media as a landmark of integrating into the modern world. The process and exploration started more than a hundred years ago.
In fact, the shaping of modern China and its choices are always under the influence of the Western powers, including the worrisome nationalism. People in the West don’t often understand why China can not let go of the memories of more than a hundred years ago. But for Chinese, history from a hundred years ago directly influenced political choices of their nation every step of the way, and thus wired into their current life.
Many people have pointed out Chinese society is often restless. Such restlessness also started a hundred years ago. The history of being the invaded makes people less confident, makes the politics more radical.
If China could have waited the development of the country and its new social class entered the political scene, things might be different. But the international society then didn’t give China patience and time; the wars didn’t give China much time and choices.
Nowadays, the powers make a point not to burden the defeated countries with unbearable debt or too much unfair treatment. That’s an improvement. Lesson learned. But history has no what ifs.
(9)
Now that Beijing Olympics is finally here. For many, “a hundred year’s dream will be complete. Can we get the game start with, and finally get on other businesses?
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Monday, August 4, 2008
The Bird Nest is...Empty!
I have a friend who always tells me artists are big Huyou - the Chinese term for deceit. "The more famous ones are the bigger huyous" he would say, "they appeal on a higher level."
Q: What inspired you in designing the National Stadium? Can you describe the design process?OK, so the design concept for the National Stadium came from a complete “emptiness”? What's inside emptiness? Does emptiness has emptiness? Is the steel beams emptiness? Aside form the usual cliches that follows, the whole answer leaves me feeling pretty...empty. Hmm, artistic talking, pretty huoyou.Ai Weiwei: The design concept for the National Stadium came from a complete “emptiness,” when Herzog & de Meuron and I were talking about the initial plan before we started on the actual design. We emptied our minds, which made it possible for us to find the best points from aesthetics and practicality. The rationale of the structure, its exterior and interior appearance, called for a maximization and unification of aesthetic functions and actual needs. The sense of totality was critical in the initial conception of the design. During the process, we were anxious and excited. We hoped to produce a language that possesses a unique form that is able to support many functional requirements. The entire design process was carefree and fun, it seemed very clear and obvious, free of any obstructions of traditional notions.
Q: Are you going to the opening ceremony?Was it really "I’m not interested in it" or "I haven’t received any invitation."? Now I was really confused. Was he really trying to distance himself from the Olympics after he joined the design of the stadium and reaped financial and press gains? If not for the "designer" title associated with the stadium, few Chinese would have known his name. His double position was very much Chinese. Chinese intellectuals have a tradition of accusing others, say deploring the lack of free speech, and turning around doing exactly the same. All artists are expected to have an edge, but still...Can you say Houyou?Ai: I’m not attending the opening ceremony, I’m not interested in it, and I haven’t received any invitation. If I need to be more clear on why I’m not willing to be part of the ceremony, it’s that I think it’s too far from the spirit of freedom. I’ve always thought of this ceremony as a product of government bureaucracy, rather than a natural celebration and expression generated among free citizens. I feel that there are too many regrets in this ceremony, which could make me unhappy.
Ai went on to say people in a society that didn’t have democracy were not possible to get excited and cheer for the game - facts not withstand, and thus the term “pretend smile.” But by that time, I've lost interest in further reading.
For the record, out of all newly built stadiums, I like "the cube" the best. Related Content of This Rocking Post
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Open contraversy
The opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics Games has still a week to go, but has already created media controversies.
This time, a South Korean TV network, SBS TV released video footage of rehearsals of the ceremony, violating the implicit consent of not leaking details by the media. Details of the opening ceremony was guarded as "state secret" by China, understandably to keep the stunts fresh. It was said that those who were invited to the rehearsal had signed on to the no-disclosure agreement.
This gave Chinese netizens new ammunition to get angry against South Korea. Public opinions in China towards South Korea have not been particularly warm and fuzzy since Koreans claimed rights to cultural heritage of many Chinese traditions. Many people have dubbed the Koreans "cultural thieves" and "men from Mars" since then, and the newest episode added new controversy to the fire. Even CCTV has showed discontent in its news program "One Plus One".
It's not clear whether SBS has "the right to report" or it has violated "professional ethnics", as many claimed.
[update: SBS TV formally apologized.]
PS: Travel channel is currently having a "China Week". The varieties of food on display are having me drooling.
Friday, July 25, 2008
奥运礼服
看了今天亮相的08奥运会中国代表团“奥运礼服”，真是很无语。偶能怪谁呢？怪国旗的颜色？还是怪设计师的理念？五星红旗的红黄两色纯度过高、太过明亮，实话说并不适合黄种人的肤色。这就寄望于设计师在色彩和款式上与细节处巧妙设计，结果看到的竟是单纯颜色的堆砌，好似张艺谋的电影。
当初有设计师曾归纳出最能代表华夏文明的六种色彩，即所谓的“国色”：中国红、琉璃黄、国槐绿、青花蓝、长城灰、玉脂白。叹气，现在看来优雅端庄的后四种已全被舍弃，难怪被网友戏称番茄炒蛋白米饭。
07年奥运组委会曾向社会公开征集礼服设计方案，短短几月内，评委会收到了来自全球的设计方案超过2000个，也因此在坊间引发“国服热”，汉服、唐装、中山装，究竟孰能体现古国风范、中华神韵的争议不绝于耳。
最终，考虑到中国体育代表团的礼服应同时体现“历史的元素”、“当下的智慧”与“未来的概念”，所有的“国服”均被放弃。若是在设计上稍微借鉴一下“国服”的中国元素，不知道礼服的效果会不会好些？
还好还好，也有养眼的。名字叫“青花瓷”系列的颁奖礼服尽显中国风韵，多少是个安慰。
Monday, July 21, 2008
The Myth and Common Sense
It's fun to check your level of common sense, especially when it comes to China.
Let's first be entertained by a story straight out of the Jame Bond movie - if you so wish to think. An UK band gets their name right: Panic! at Disco. It's reported a Shanghainese disco bunny compromised an UK government official. A top aide to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown was seduced by a hot woman he met in a Shanghai disco, who came back to his hotel room. In the morning, his (unencrypted) Blackberry was gone.
With my common sense, I see it no more than an extra curriculum activity by shrew "service provider". There is no ethnic code in Shanghai sex deal world that a women won't nick your cellphone or other valuables.
But it doesn't prevent UK officials to extend their James Bond pedigree and painted it as a honeytrap operation. "A senior official said yesterday that the incident had all the hallmarks of a suspected honeytrap by Chinese intelligence", as Times UK reported. Maybe when you are an UK government official, your common sense is wired differently.
The same panic was shared by U.S. government officials. There were numerous report about their hysteria about Chinese cyper espionage. I will care not to list them, you can just google for it. Almost every official has had some sort of claim about his laptop being compromised during trips to China, the most famous being allegations that US Commerce secretary's laptop was hacked during a December trip to China.
The common sense here is that China's web space is ripe with all sorts of malware. If you plug your laptop into China's network unprotected, chances are your computer will come into contact with some sort of malware or spyware within minutes. That has happened to me before. Or if your computer is protected, the firewall will have a line that such such ip address tries to contact your computer without authorization. On the other hand, it would be extremely difficult for the Chinese government to pinpoint your laptop on the open net if you are mobile and gets online possibly from anywhere. But maybe senators and secretaries are not tech savvy enough to know?
The myth is not limited in the James Bond world. Apparently it can be propagated in the bar world also. South China Morning Post reported a story that Beijing authorities are to ban Blacks (Chinese don't usually bother to call blacks "African _" because racial tension with blacks was a no issue historically with China) and Mongolians from bars During Olympics, based on one anonymous source. The stories was subsequently debunked, but still managed to catch some fire among some media and blogs.
My common sense tells me there is no way Chinese authority would pursuit such a policy during Olympics when a significant proportion of Olympic athletes are of African ethnic origin and are likely to frequent bars. Not to mention Beijing will be under the whole world's watch during the time. My common sense also tells me there's virtually no way to successfully tell Mongolian women from Chinese women from the looks. But apparently common senses of SCMP's reporter and quoting media's are very different and, should I say, unique.
Beijing was notorious for lax in enforcing the rules. And Western press often rightfully pointed it out. Now that in the wind of Olympics, China begins to enforce formerly lax enforced visa laws, Washington Post calls it China growing unfriendly to foreigners. And enforcing rules to shut down a foreigner owned club that lacks performance license catches the attention of the Time. Sure, it brings some inconvenience to some individuals, but my common sense tells me no matter what intentions are, a rule is a rule is a rule. Protest the rule if you must, but don't protest the enforcement of it as unfriendly. My common sense, as I know of China, also tells me that foreigners have long enjoyed super-national status in China, Chinese have long been very friendly to them. In fact, many foreigners working in China are doing so without proper visa or documents. They are staying on tourist visa but earning money in China. Oh, they are not doing hard labors as many Chinese do also. Where did the rule promoting western media go this time around? For visa, I believe average Chinese traveling to Europe or America have to jump through far more hoopla than foreigners to China. Just ask any random Chinese. In fact, there was an article on this blog of a rant by a famous Chinese sports reporter of American visa officials' attitudes. But these seem completely escape the media. The unfriendly article is particularly funny because it was frequently said of China as Xenophobia on those papers, yet the story turns out so many foreigners who are working in China illegally and live comfortable lives, including the lead-in story. But, somehow, the fault is still on China.
Of course, Chinese can probably do more. Beijing's People's University sent out students from its Sociology Department to observe people's public conduct and concluded that manners had greatly improved. For me personally, I wish Chinese have learned how to wait a line. I was in a double-line waiting for taxi dispatches in Beijing airport a couple years ago. A Beijing young man cursed out almost looked like wanting to start a fight because I was not taking advantage of the spaces in front of me in the parallel line, waiting instead patiently the man in front of me. To him, it slowed him down. Of course, he saw me as a Chinese. There's no telling what he would do if I was actually of different skin color. My guess is he would be less rude. That's a myth now, but also my common sense.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
KTV inside birds nest?
A look inside the Bird Nest, a passage to the VIP room.
If you think it looks somehow familiar in style, you are right. It looks like KTV, with generous use of gold color and metal in ornate material.
I'm left wondering if it is the designer catering to the Chinese sense of wealth and style, or Chinese asserting control of creativity.
In other news, I've struggled in Wii of Olympic games representing China. If it's any indication, Olympics is hard. The most difficult game for me? Trampoline, twisting accordingly in the midair. And the one I excelled? Baseball! Go figure.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Clapping
Two relatively old news: One, Beijing Olympic committee issued clapping guide of Olympic cheers; Two, in the 110 hurdle of Goodwill games, clapping was very sporadic when an athlete from an African country was introduced and he raised his hands to gesture.
Yes, both are a bit hard to get used to, but both are aspects of China. And they are related in understanding the colloquial "why do they do that?".
Talking about clapping, I'm glad no one clapped at the end of showing of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, including a battalion of kids in the theater. It would have made me feel aged.
I was a huge Indy fan, having watched all Indy movies, many twice. I'm not sure how it got 77% percent rotten. All that action and the plot failed to engage me, to a point I began to wonder about why they kept a silly posture striding two moving vehicles through the Amazon, wasn't it easier just to swirl the car to shake the enemy off? or how come Indy and his troop survived three trips over the waterfall without a bruise. I know, it's a cardinal sin of watching an action movie, but that can't be all my fault, can it? Is that because Harrison Ford seemed to have lost his joie de vivre, or because I'm getting too old for this? Probably both.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Hooters and the cultural deficit
A moment of silence for the perished.
Now something more light-hearted.
If you go to the Beijing Olympics this summer, you can not only taste a slice of China but also find comfort in...hooters, which opened last year. Where else can you find a lame place where waitresses dancing to 80s pop songs like YMCA? Not even in America.
The fact that Beijing has the Hooters and the Hooters hasn't met much objection is not surprising, given the extremely pro-business regulation there and not much else. To quote some Chinese hooters girl, "In China, there aren't many feminists". Besides, sexual content in restaurant and entertainment business isn't exactly new in China's homegrown industry. In fact, I recently find that China has legitimized soft-porn industry too, only under the disguise of fine art nude photography.
I'm a bit surprised that Hooters is able to marketing itself as "American Spirit". But maybe not. The so called cultural deficit has been huge for China. To get a grip on this, you only needs to walk into a Chinese book store and an American Barns&Nobles. The amount of translated American publications along with its original version is huge. The same can't be said about Chinese books. (Hong Huang mentioned about this also in her recent msnbc interview.)
So the real interesting question is: Are they really able to understand the U.S. through watching American TV soaps and going to Hooters? On the second thought, maybe not, seeing how many people think Sex and City represents typical America. Shanghaiist has a very interesting, though a bit old, interview of a Chinese college hooters girl who was encouraged to worked there by her parents, who though hooters represent American value of "passionate and friendly", like..."mayflowers". It confirms also the genius-ness of South Park. Just like in Raisin, customers who want to flirt are encouraged to "come back".
At least, unlike Hooters in America, Hooters Beijing doesn't have DVDs of hooter girls for sale. Then again, they are unlikely to find so many double-Ds in China too. In other words, not much "hooters"*.
*hooters is American slang for breasts.
Monday, May 12, 2008
How to blame it all on China, a guide
As an intelligent and conscientious man, I offer my service of finding ways to blame on China.
The most followed international news of recent days is cyclone disaster and relief effort in Myanmar. Amid the politics of food aid, it's not surprising that someone will soon find China to be blamed, proclaiming China has Burmese blood on its hands. The fact that China is among the first and largest unconditional aid provider while the U.S., whose aid comes with conditions - as usual, is still all talk be damned.
It's kind getting old though. The term along with the logic has already been used by groups pressuring for the Darfur issue. Some media genius even coined up genocide Olympics, as if calling the Beijing Game this outrageous term would make common Chinese people more sympathetic to their cause and help resolve the situation. The Chinese government, for their part, is sticking with the long standing no-interference policy. So what if China reverses its policy and get hard on Junta? There is a strong possibility that the so-called warm relationship would cool off, and the aids would be denied. sort of the situation the U.S. is in? And then the people would suffer more. There is no easy black and write when it comes to international policies. But I'm afraid the blame-it-on-China crowd would have a hard time understand that.
Nor am I here to defend Chinese policy. The post is to help find creative ways to blame it on China.
One of the most creative activist group is Dream For Darfur, which is solely focused on pressuring China, using upcoming Olympics as the leverage. According to their website, one of the cardinal sin of the Chinese as complicit was threatening the use of veto power unless some language to be modified, upon which the U.S. and France completely give up the motion. You would think, given the same logic and given the organization is based in the U.S., the U.S. and France should be pressured to force the vote first, not to give up over some language. By their inaction, does it make the Americans and French complicit too? But no, China would be a much easier target.
I don't pretend to know all the politics involved around Darfur issue, all the ins and outs, but I do know the focus on pressuring the government side encouraged the rebel leaders in Europe refuse to return to the peace talk. And I do know the most prominent NGO advocate groups' focuses are all, coincidently, gasp, in perfect alignment with the U.S. foreign policy. The current Sudan government is Islamic. Do you know of any well-known Save Somalia groups or groups focused on pressuring Ethiopia, which is sponsored by the U.S. in its invasion of Somalia and caused humanitarian crisis by using some of the same tactics accused of in Darfur?
However, let's not dwell on that. Let me focus on helping. I don't question the passion of folks at Dream for Darfur. I'd like to offer some help at math calculation. For the Chinese government, on one hand it has the Olympics, which will go on, successful or embarrassing; on the other hand it has oil trade that is increasing important to the energy starved China and their long standing non-interference principle. Do the calculation. Now, do you believe the government would cave in because some foreign group want to purposely link the Olympics with an affair as complex as Darfur? From a practical perspective, the donations you folk gather would have provided some relief to the suffering people in Darfur. In stead, they are wasted on garnering media attention, jetting protesters around the globe on the torch rout, flying Mia Farrow to Hong Kong, and possibly even buying some tickets to Olympics events.
However, while we are at blaming it on China, I have a bolder proposal for you. Since many Chinese would like to bring up the war in Iraq in conversation of Durfar - two wrongs don't add up to one right, I agree - why not blame that on China also? It would work. See, the U.S. invasion of Iraq has a $3 trillion price tag, which would not made possible without the Chinese willingly run a huge trade surplus and pump that money back into the American treasury. The American consumers wouldn't be able to continue enjoy their prosperity and cheap Chinese goods with the war going on, which would have increased the pressure to stop the war. China Finances Humanitarian Crisis in Iraq! That would be some catchy headline.
I could have provided more tips on how to blame it on China. (e.g. Blame Hilary's loss on China, her husband's administration has been soft on China, and she has taken on a harder line than Obama's campaign. China contributed to her loss.) But on the second thought I would save them for now and let you exercise on your own.
Peace to the world.
{afterthought}
- Perhaps the difference in attitude towards activist and non-interference is rooted more deeply than people realize. Christian religions has a notion that the whole world is under God and needs to be saved(see missionaries, crusades); while Chinese philosophy is more pragmatic and inward looking(see Confucius).
- Advocate groups vs sovereign nations, or disintegrated international politics, has been an increasing trend in international politics. In a sense, AQ falls into this category too. While it's always remarkable to help advance humanitarian courses, it will be interesting to see how this trend effects national relationships.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
From Juno to ?
If you use two films to sum up the current election, it's There Will Be Blood on the Democratic side, and No Country For Old Man on the Republican side. - Norman Ornstein on the China Town Hall of National Committee on United States-China Relations
The film that sparks this post though, is Juno, the cool teen pregnancy story. Hollywood may never guessed that the film would stimulate much cultural and political discussion among the Chinese youth. A review on the popular Chinese social website douban, which teems with so called the angry youth and the literate youth, sailed at the idealization and political correctiveness of the picture, apparently in response to the overwhelming adulation of American tolerance on the subject.
Rest assured, the author got her main points right. Juno isn't your typical pregnant teenager, she is ultra cool and wise beyond her age. Nor are her parents. Abortion is still a hotly debated issue deeply rooted in the religious and political spectrum in the U.S.
Case in point, school paper of Yale University broke out a story about an art student deliberately pregnant herself and then miscarry to make a strong statement. Only to be proved a hoax later. The whole parody only shows how the media today is clueless as in lacking common sense judgment. Not to mention the fact that most major news outlets today are under the entertainment division of big corporate umbrella. News programs' pampering of viewer inclination, rather than just reporting purely based on facts, contributed to the perceived anti-China biased that so many Chinese resent of in this election season. While average Chinese might have conspiracy theory about how the news agencies and governments of the West "out to get China", it's mostly news media out to get attention and politicians juggling to get political favor.
But I digress.
We were talking about political correctiveness in Juno, weren't we? While I personally think Juno is more idealistic and personal than PC, PC is certainly prominent in American culture. PC is the American English term for "harmonious society", 和谐社会. (Sorry, Hu jintao. You can't quite apply for patent yet.) PC is designed to appease social tension, at the sacrifice of personal freedom of speech non the less. It is more disguised, and doesn't require a government agency to administer.
However, political correctiveness doesn't extend to outside the nation. So it's OK for Juno to crack a joke about China handing out babies "like how they handing out free ipod. And the audience laughs (I admit I chuckled also.). No wonder China bashing becomes a new fashion when the election is heated.
PART II
For their part, many of the Chinese youth don't fully understand these, or very exposed to western style politics. Matthew Forney, a former Beijing bureau chief for Time, thinks young urban Chinese study hard and that’s pretty much it. That's probably not a fair assessment, but I do think youngsters under patriarch Chinese government have a tendency of swinging between over-zealous and totally apolitical. In between, you have also people who are opportunistic or simply naive. In that regard, Chinese education largely failed. One of the flawed product of the system, Wang Qiangyuan, or Grace Wang as her English names goes, shoots into infamous stratosphere her story reaches both NYT and Washington Post. Aside from her other character flaws, Miss Wang certainly doesn't understand what free speech is really about, despite her ambition for politics. Civil protests of two groups of opposite views simultaneously need no mediator, as she so flattered herself. What did she want everybody to "negotiate" about? Shut up and go home?At home, many Chinese are boycotting French products, with Carrefour being the easily accessible target. While Carrefour might temporary fall an undeserving victim, I think some of the overbearing bashing on the other side of this youth activism get it wrong also. For one thing, Chinese boycotter are already more measured and rational than some of the "boycott China" folks in the West struggling to find anything not labeled "made in China". Unlike those folks, Chinese protesters are calling for just 17 days of boycott and one day shun of Carrefour. A sensible boycott must be measured, achievable, and have a clear goal, which in this case is about sending a message. Judging by these standards, the current boycott call is actually pretty well thought-out.
Why bash them even if they don't get it all right, especially since we already accused them of not doing much beside studying and getting rich? Aren't they getting experience of political activism, which is an important aspect of all democracy? How else can they learn to express themselves with measured and civil actions and abidance of law?
*sorry for the long post. But I feel like I have many more to say on this topic. I'm also thinking this post should probably be written in Chinese. Related Content of This Rocking Post
Thursday, April 17, 2008
CNN患了口蹄疫吗——致美国CNN的一封信，附邮资，请回复
转自李承鹏博客
美国人的性格其实像螃蟹，壳子挺坚硬的，横行霸道，只要你掰开它的命门，立马就流汤
鹏语录：
他们哪儿有祖宗十八代
历史短得和兔子尾巴一样
要靠的话顶天了就靠到祖宗七八代
那还是杂种
我的美国同行CNN及卡弗蒂你们好：
春天来了，听说我的美国同行不小心患了口蹄疫，十分着急，贵国的性病一直是长在下半身，不知为何这次集体发作于口腔，望告知详情，切切。
我英语一直不好，但从来没有把CNN念成WCNN，现在觉得也许WCNN更合适，因为在真正的垃圾眼中，世界的一切才会都是垃圾，只有真正的暴民和匪徒，才会断言另一个国家和族种50年来一直是暴民和匪徒，卡弗蒂不小心就暴露出他、CNN、及美国的头等机密，哦，卖糕的，是不是前总统的拉链没把CNN及主持人的嘴锁好，美国拉链，原来美国人也生产垃圾产品。
顺便打听一下莱温斯基可好。
有点跑题？其实也不，我以前一直挺喜欢美国的，可后来看了莱温斯基的长相后暗自觉得贵国领袖品位很垃圾，他当着国民撒谎的样子很暴民，前段时间看薛涌写的你们很多州长、议员玩性游戏时却又玩疵了，觉得他们更很垃圾更暴民，但我一直没好意思说。这是因为我觉得自己只能用美国人的思路去理解美国人，这叫民主和自由，比如说你们从小就喜欢吃热狗，这是一种文化，所以我假装认为你们的长官只是在和女伴练习吞热狗的方法。我认为我这样的想法很文明，也接近西方的思路，“我可以不同意你的观点，但我用生命捍卫你发表观点的权利”——“我可以不同意你吃热狗的姿势，但我用生命捍卫你这种姿势表达出来的深喉态度”。
注：我这封信需要找个精通汉语白化文写作的高手翻译，英语特别是美式英语玩不转，这一点你们是垃圾
过去中国人不太惜得嘞你们美国人那点破事，是因为建国只有二百年的你们就是一个还长青春痘的小屁孩，孩子因为青春躁动喜欢砸碎邻居家玻璃在街边管点闲事儿假装点酷哥是小节，但这次你们指鼻子骂中国人祖宗我可不干了，最近好多人要骂你们家祖宗十八代，我劝阻了，咳，他们哪儿有祖宗十八代，历史短得和兔子尾巴一样，要靠的话顶天了就靠到祖宗七八代，那还是杂种。
就算要比谁更“垃圾”的话，我们家就算有垃圾这么几千来也修炼成了精，那叫马王堆文物，那叫孔夫子的夜壶，你们家有吗，是白宫吗，是打着激素冒充肌肉男的史泰隆吗，当你们每次派好莱坞讲故事说“LONG LONG AGO”的时候，我一考查，不对呀，那是人苏格兰的历史，那是人意大利的历史，那是人古巴比伦的历史，或者是非洲黑兄弟的历史。
博物馆里倒是有，可那是偷来的，你们不说偷，说是帮中国人保管。多伟大的情操，美国人有好帮别人家保管财物的习惯，这一点都不暴民不匪徒。
WCNN及卡弗蒂同行，有一些中国哥们这几天用知识份子的厚道态度跟你们讲道理，不像我，我是“混识份子”，就是我把很多知道不知道的东西混在一起形成武器的份子，我的意见是，跟美国人不用讲道理，跟丫玩板砖和挠痒痒。
作为同行你们能告诉我吗，我一直不明白为什么美国人不准伊拉克伊朗朝鲜以及很多国家拥有核武，自己却天天加班加点生产着，这很像二愣子只许自个儿拥有弹弓却不许别人拥有，说是玩弹弓危险，其实是为了保全自己老大的地位，后来眼绷瞎了，我也不明白美国人每天生产出地球上最多的废气，却号称自己很环保很绿色，这如同放屁的人先跳出来骂放屁的。
美刀现在是不太灵了，美国经济也在打摆子，我研究过很多版本的美国史，发现这些版本里有一最重要的共同点就是，美国人上世纪初还很穷，首都卫戍部队司令穷得来连喝杯红酒也是奢侈，老百姓更穷，饿着肚子跑到首都去示威却被士后到处驱赶，其实大家争来争去也就是为了一根红肠，打那时候起红肠就成为你们的最爱，直到莱温斯基时代，后来你们是通过打两次世界大战才发起来的，先假装热爱和平，就是不要，等到锅热了油爆了，你们才下手赚大发了。
有钱就是硬道理，这条经验指引着你们，现在一缺钱就四处想打仗，说是维护世界和平，整顿世界秩序，开始我还觉得美国人就是有正义感，自己贴着差旅费出去调解别人家庭纠葛很不易，可是这些年来你们实在显得太忙了，人两口子吵架关你们美国人什么事，时间长了我就觉得你们有点可疑，因为你们总跑别人家去，别人到你们家去时，你们却特害怕。
那年我去美国采访女足世界杯，在签证处碰一美国人不给我签，还问我一些问题，比如：一、你为什么不喜欢美国女足还要去美国采访女足世界杯？（当时我回答：我喜欢中国女足难道不够吗？“喜欢”不应是一个记者是否采访的原由）
二、你为什么先去叙利亚再去美国？（我回答：先去叙利亚是因为先在那儿有中国国奥比赛后有美国女足世界杯）
三、你能保证不滞留美国吗？（我笑了：求您能不能不借故把我滞留美国，那地儿太不好玩了）
那签证官立马给我护照上盖了一个“永不签证”的拒绝章，我就说：“你以为女足世界杯在美国举办就是你们美国的比赛吗？这是国际足联委托你们美国人办的比赛，产权属于国际足联，相当于租你们几座城市给世界人民参加比赛，我是国际足联官方邀请的记者，你们美国人要做的是怎么保证我在美国期间的安全因为你们那地方太不安全，而不是因为我先去了叙利亚就拒绝我入境，你们不是号称新闻自由吗，你们不是不把体育和政治相关吗，我告诉你，你要是不改掉这个决定的话，明天我保证二十四小时内就让一百万中国人看到民主自由的美国是怎么回事。”
见我这样，那哥们在新浪上搜索了一下我的中文名字，他识中文，发现面前这人果真挺横的，第二天就给我签了去美国的章。
这条经验告诉我们，美国人的性格其实像螃蟹，壳子挺坚硬的，横行霸道，只要你掰开它的命门，立马就流汤。
你们CNN来中国采访我们什么时候这样对待过你们，还得先问你喜不喜欢姚明才允以放行？这段时间中国人有点太惯你们了，有关方面太怀柔了，其实可以再狠点。
听说CNN对于卡弗蒂的口蹄疫这样解释：“我们不认为这伤害了中国人民，如果中国人一定要这么认为的话，我们可以道歉”。之前我还只是怀疑卡弗蒂只是生病了，现在我可不可以认为整个美国都变态了，我会说：“美国一直由一群撒谎者、爱滋患者、SM性游戏爱好者、吸毒者、掮客组成，如果你觉得我这样伤害了美国总统议员州长和人民们的话，那我可以道歉”，或者就像美国媒体曝光总统因坚持晨跑脚上长了鸡眼，我就说：“美国总统其实根本不是一个人，我刚刚看了，他就是一个大鸡眼”。信不信，“大鸡眼”这三个汉字很快就会被演绎成其它很多说法，我有奖征文。
CNN同行，其实我们之间根本用不着道歉，咱各玩各的，你们把一点都不垃圾的肯德基家乐福全及一切美资企业搬走吧，看谁更急，毛主席当年面对你们的威胁曾经说过：“封锁？打仗，核武器，大不了再打一次解放战争，我们有好几亿人，当今世界谁怕谁。”
主席那会这么一说真就把你们吓着了，后来就派阿甘们来跟我们打乒乓球了，再就派福特通用肯德基跟我们做生意了，这不挺好的吗，大家和和气气赚钱花，非得把别人整成垃圾暴民你们才心理平衡？我研究过你们的宪法，卡弗蒂这么说很违宪。
而且你们不是信上帝吗，要是你们最后去见上帝时，上帝问你们在尘世间干的最多的事情是什么，你们总那么牛逼哄哄地说我们干的最多的就是指责别人，管教别人，这就违背了上帝的旨意，骄傲、暴躁、贪婪……就是犯了七宗罪，下辈子就得下地狱。而我们信佛，佛问我们尘世间干的最多的事情是什么，中国人大多会说，哎，好多事情都没干好，佛想想，就说，那你们轮回再做人吧，把没干好的事情去做好。
我们把你们国家的名字汉译得多好啊，美利坚，美好，胜利，坚强。这是垃圾能有的美德吗，这是暴民的审美情趣吗，我国大多数人都很善良，要是像CNN那样的路数，是不是就可汉译成“饿，埋了坑”“俺，卖给你啃”，还真是你们国家的真实写照。
美国挺多优点，但那种螃蟹性格太招人烦，我这封信是附了邮资的，你们应该回复，我教你们学习怎么写骂人的文章，来来回回就“垃圾”“暴民”，太没技术含量。
最后，出于同行之间的关心，我给卡弗蒂一个治口蹄疫的秘方，买一盒中国产的“马应龙痔疮膏”，每次上节目前抹一次，下节目后再抹一次。
-----------------------------
把人骂痛快了也是本事一桩 呵呵呵
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Free to Bet
Dalai Lama is visiting the U.S., where he is met with protests. It should be noted that unlike protests from the other side, no proceedings or speech is interrupted. In Seattle, Dalai Lama reveals that his aides are talking to China, despite his public outcry that China wouldn't engage in dialogue with him. That sounds as much a politician as a spiritual leader, isn't it? Not that one would mistaken him that he isn't. In an interview, he says he is against the boycott of the Olympics, but offer no opinion whether world leaders should boycott the opening ceremony. Much like he says he is for peaceful protests but offer no opinion about disruption of Torch Relay, all with a charming smile. "I can't just shut them up" sounds great as a spiritual leader, but rather a bit irresponsible as a political leader.
All I wanted to do was get a picture. These protestors have deprived me of that - Michael Johnson, Spectator
Speaking of media, what's up with both BBC and NYT run pieces about Torch Relay and the 1936 GAME? To be clear, it's not the presentation of historical facts that I have problem of, rather, it's the writing style that they used - as if there were never any torch relay in between the Nazi Germany's game and the 08 Beijing Game. They mislead and inflate the hate comment on those web-ages. I'm wondering whether they will rehash the story once 2012 London Game rolls around.
The Chinese, not impressed by the West a long time ago - as German writer/film producer Frank Sieren put it, are probably fed up by the pre-deposited reports. Some are using Youtube to mock fun, and the poor BBC reporter, James, falls the latest victim. Talks about boycotting French products are all the rage among Chinese netizens. While there have been no short of talk about boycotting Chinese products in the West, realistically it's much too hard, unless you are very rich or very poor.
All this leads some to wonder if the "free to bet" circus show backfired. And yes, it's "free to bet" since it looks like many of the politicians and activists are betting their political agenda on this. Related Content of This Rocking Post
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