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Mar. 25th, 2005 09:01 pm
China - the expanded edition
James Fenton on artistic exchanges between Europe and China
China bans sexy satire on Mao - "Set in 1967 - at the peak of the Mao cult during the Cultural Revolution - the novel tells the story of the bored wife of a military commander who takes advantage of her husband's absence to seduce a young peasant soldier."
Is that literature or pornography? I have to confess - I don't find modern Chinese literature all that great. Maybe the translations I have suck, but the stories seem to fall into two categories: depressing morality tales with no hope, or or tales about the revelations of free love, sex and drugs set in the present that's meant to be "subversive" but are really trite and unrealistic and comes off more like bragging than real exploration.
Chinese Hip Hop - "Hi-Bomb - composed of Lionel "Little Lion" and Shang Hao - rap in English, Mandarin and the Shanghainese dialect."
ShanghaiNing
Chinese women with bound feet - "Strange to think it was an erotic thing," the boss Li Wanhong says to me as we watch. "To us, the smell of rotting flesh would be unbearable. But back then men wrote poems about the rich smell."
THE BODY AS ATTIRE: The Shifting Meanings of Footbinding in Seventeenth-Century China
The Clash of China's Generations NYT article - "Face" is a new movie about an interracial relationship between a black guy and a Chinese woman. Hilarity ensues, I'm guessing. (Also, major validation for me, and would be interesting to get my parents to watch it. I remember telling my mom about who I was dating, and her reaction was, "At least he's not black." You may consider this racist and prejudicial, which it is, but it was also a sign of progression on her part.)
"Q. But do you think Asian cultures are particularly sensitive to the notion of shame?
A. Perhaps. The Chinese are not very expressive. We don't tend to say, "I love you," even to our families, and we're not physically affectionate. And when Chinese people eat out, when the bill comes, you have to put up a good fight to pay it, even if you don't have enough money. Old-school Chinese never go Dutch." - Too true - watching my parents duke it out with cousins for the bill takes about half an hour, under normal circumstances.
Where cabbies are cheery but skint
Wang Xiaodong remains an outspoken champion of the Chinese nationalist movement. He tells Martin Jacques why his country must not trust the US. Why anyone would trust the US, I don't know.
"His main target has been what he calls "reverse racism", or the widespread attitude among Chinese intellectuals that denigrates China and looks to the west for the country's future and salvation. In fact, this kind of attitude is far from unusual in the Asian tiger countries: as they have exploded into economic growth, they have invariably looked to the west, at least initially, as their model and their vision."
Once again, I ask - who the hell are these political intellectuals and how much real power and influence do they actually wield? Also, I don't think Wang is using "reverse racism" in the sense that it is meant in America.
"When it comes to the problem of the national interest, China's liberal faction stands unconditionally on the side of other countries, mainly the United States. They submit unceasingly favourable reports about the United States: that we don't need vigilance towards the Americans, nor should we develop our national industries. We should place our full confidence in the United States for recovering Taiwan. This is nonsense."
Hmm...
EU leaders seemed ready to postpone lifting the arms embargo on China last night, responding to Beijing's adoption of a secession law designed to prevent Taiwan's moving to independence.
Mao's children seek their fortune. Wish that they would note that capitalism =! democracy.
With mobsters jailed and foreign investors pouring money into its gaming industry, Macau is enjoying a spectacular boom. "It seems to be a particular feature of Chinese culture that people can't help but gamble," said David Green, a Macau-based analyst for PricewaterhouseCoopers. - So unfortunately true.
China's legislature adopted a tough law authorising the use of military force against Taiwan yesterday, prompting a furious reaction in Taipei and concern among neighbouring countries.
Blood and coal: the human cost of cheap Chinese goods
Someone explain the logic of this claim to me: China's Currency Policy Leading to Housing Bubble in U.S., Says JBGLOBAL LLC
The People's Republic is on the fast track to become the car capital of the world. And the first alt-fuel superpower.
China tightens rules for online chat rooms.
China bans sexy satire on Mao - "Set in 1967 - at the peak of the Mao cult during the Cultural Revolution - the novel tells the story of the bored wife of a military commander who takes advantage of her husband's absence to seduce a young peasant soldier."
Is that literature or pornography? I have to confess - I don't find modern Chinese literature all that great. Maybe the translations I have suck, but the stories seem to fall into two categories: depressing morality tales with no hope, or or tales about the revelations of free love, sex and drugs set in the present that's meant to be "subversive" but are really trite and unrealistic and comes off more like bragging than real exploration.
Chinese Hip Hop - "Hi-Bomb - composed of Lionel "Little Lion" and Shang Hao - rap in English, Mandarin and the Shanghainese dialect."
ShanghaiNing
Chinese women with bound feet - "Strange to think it was an erotic thing," the boss Li Wanhong says to me as we watch. "To us, the smell of rotting flesh would be unbearable. But back then men wrote poems about the rich smell."
THE BODY AS ATTIRE: The Shifting Meanings of Footbinding in Seventeenth-Century China
The Clash of China's Generations NYT article - "Face" is a new movie about an interracial relationship between a black guy and a Chinese woman. Hilarity ensues, I'm guessing. (Also, major validation for me, and would be interesting to get my parents to watch it. I remember telling my mom about who I was dating, and her reaction was, "At least he's not black." You may consider this racist and prejudicial, which it is, but it was also a sign of progression on her part.)
"Q. But do you think Asian cultures are particularly sensitive to the notion of shame?
A. Perhaps. The Chinese are not very expressive. We don't tend to say, "I love you," even to our families, and we're not physically affectionate. And when Chinese people eat out, when the bill comes, you have to put up a good fight to pay it, even if you don't have enough money. Old-school Chinese never go Dutch." - Too true - watching my parents duke it out with cousins for the bill takes about half an hour, under normal circumstances.
Where cabbies are cheery but skint
Wang Xiaodong remains an outspoken champion of the Chinese nationalist movement. He tells Martin Jacques why his country must not trust the US. Why anyone would trust the US, I don't know.
"His main target has been what he calls "reverse racism", or the widespread attitude among Chinese intellectuals that denigrates China and looks to the west for the country's future and salvation. In fact, this kind of attitude is far from unusual in the Asian tiger countries: as they have exploded into economic growth, they have invariably looked to the west, at least initially, as their model and their vision."
Once again, I ask - who the hell are these political intellectuals and how much real power and influence do they actually wield? Also, I don't think Wang is using "reverse racism" in the sense that it is meant in America.
"When it comes to the problem of the national interest, China's liberal faction stands unconditionally on the side of other countries, mainly the United States. They submit unceasingly favourable reports about the United States: that we don't need vigilance towards the Americans, nor should we develop our national industries. We should place our full confidence in the United States for recovering Taiwan. This is nonsense."
Hmm...
EU leaders seemed ready to postpone lifting the arms embargo on China last night, responding to Beijing's adoption of a secession law designed to prevent Taiwan's moving to independence.
Mao's children seek their fortune. Wish that they would note that capitalism =! democracy.
With mobsters jailed and foreign investors pouring money into its gaming industry, Macau is enjoying a spectacular boom. "It seems to be a particular feature of Chinese culture that people can't help but gamble," said David Green, a Macau-based analyst for PricewaterhouseCoopers. - So unfortunately true.
China's legislature adopted a tough law authorising the use of military force against Taiwan yesterday, prompting a furious reaction in Taipei and concern among neighbouring countries.
Blood and coal: the human cost of cheap Chinese goods
Someone explain the logic of this claim to me: China's Currency Policy Leading to Housing Bubble in U.S., Says JBGLOBAL LLC
The People's Republic is on the fast track to become the car capital of the world. And the first alt-fuel superpower.
China tightens rules for online chat rooms.