This is kind of old news, but better late than never, eh? This is an environmentally aware animation that until recently was playing at the People’s Square subway station. I used to see it on my daily commute in the massive corridor between Line 1 and Line 2, where it would be simultaneously be playing on a dozen screens for the tens of thousands of people that switch lines there. Something about the austere black and white animation and its similarity to the Chinese shanshui (mountains and rivers) landscape painting style would always bring my eyes to it. People’s Square is a capitalistic maze of color and flashing lights, a sad black and white depection of the environmental degredation happening in the world was always a welcome change for me. It was also nice knowing that someone here in Shanghai was trying to get the message across that we are destroying the natural world. Today I saw a write up on it over at the Neocha Edge blog, which, by the way, is a fabulous place to see and read about all types of contemporary art coming out of China.
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Let the rivers be rivers, Let the mountains be mountains
Sunday, December 27th, 2009Beijing’s Fourth Queer Film Festival
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009Jeremy Goldkorn may just have the coolest job in all of Beijing. He is the founder and editor of Danwei.org (now blocked by the Chinese government, mirror site available in China at danwei.tv), which seeks to increase the international community’s understanding of China by translating pieces of Chinese journalism and bringing to light stories that you may not notice if you don’t read Chinese or scour the Chinese internet and blogosphere. Danwei has also done a fabulous job discussing developments in the fight for LGBT rights in China.
Today they posted a video of an interview Jeremy Goldkorn had with the two organizers of this summer’s past Beijing Queer Film Festival (北京酷儿影展). The organizers, Yang Yang and Cui Zi’en (催子恩), talk about the history of the film festival along with their thoughts on the gay rights in China today, what being openly gay can mean for your career in China and what the future will look like. If you’re interested in gay rights in China this video is a must see. Also, check out this Huffington Post article about the film festival.
Note: Vimeo video hosting is blocked by the Chinese government. To view this video in China you will need a proxy or VPN.
Beijing Queer Festival from on Vimeo.
There was one question and answer from the interview that I wanted to highlight by publishing it here:
Goldkorn: From the first gay film festival in 2001 to now the fourth in 2009 has China seen any improvements in gay rights?
Cui Zi’en: Amongst the populace there has been some greater freedoms for homosexuals, the rise of grassroots associations and freedom of interaction between homosexuals. But at the government level, in terms of government laws, policies etc. there hasn’t been any change at all.
You’re on the money there Cui Zi’en.
Photos and Videos from China’s National Day
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009For those of you that don’t have CCTV at home and were unable to watch China’s larger-than-life National Day parade last week here is a fantastic time lapse video of the shindig done by Dan Chung of The Guardian. For a nice selection of images from the day check out the Boston Globe’s Big Picture page.
China’s 60th Anniversary national day – timelapse and slow motion – 7D and 5DmkII from Dan Chung on Vimeo.
CCTV Protects Me From Evil
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009From Danwei comes this clip from Obama’s inauguration speech as it aired on CCTV’s News channel. CCTV is the massive national State owned TV station with about a dozen channels. See for yourself how they kept the Chinese people safe from mental anguish. Didn’t they have the text beforehand?
Music Videos from China
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008I’ve long thought that there should be more music videos for foreign bands being made in China. This place is filled with weird quasi-futuristic and old traditional sights mixed together into an unholy cocktail. The Australian pop duo Empire of the Sun just put out a very bizarre music video for their song Walking on a Dream that was filmed in Shanghai. This song and the band members remind me of the pop band MGMT, whom I happen to enjoy immensely, though their sound doesn’t seem as good somehow. Nonetheless it’s a cool/funny music video that includes many many aspects of modern Chinese culture as the Shanghaiist pointed out.
I can’t just include a foreign made music video from China, I mean China does have its own music scene. If you sift through all the horrible crap that people listen to over here you can find some gems. The song “Thirty Years” by the band 山人 (Mountain Men) is good and has a cool animated music video. The band is from Yunnan where I used to live and which has a thriving music scene. I first heard about them from Danwei.
And last but not least a video from my favorite Chinese band: 新裤子 (New Pants). They are a Beijing based punk/pop band. Here is the video from their song “Bye Bye Disco”
An American Who Has Lived in China for Over 60 Years
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008I get a real kick out of reading about foreigners who have made China their home for long extended periods of time, especially those who lived through World War II, the Chinese civil war, and the Maoist era. People like Sidney Rittenberg and Joseph Needham lived lives those of us who are relative newcomers to China can only dream about. So it was with great excitement that I found this video about another foreigner, American no less, who has lived in China since 1947. His name is Sidney Shapiro, he is 93 years old and lives in a hutong in Beijing.
This video is in Chinese. Though if you know a little Chinese you can probably follow along, it’s relatively simple. I didn’t understand every bit of it but understood the majority. Fascinating stuff. He saw Shanghai under control by the Guomindang, moved to Beiping (as Beijing was known then), watched as Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China from Tian’anmen gate, joined the Chinese Communist Party, and married a Chinese woman. I really enjoyed hearing him speak Chinese. His Chinese is quite natural sounding even if he does add a rising tone to the end of some sentences. I wonder if his Chinese is better than his English now?
Also, a couple weeks ago I read this story on Danwei. It is about a Belgian man who has lived in Beijing since 1980 and recently received the equivalent of a green card from the Chinese government – basically a residence permit that lasts for 10 years. For the rest of us living in China requires a lot of time spent getting and renewing visas, I’m pretty jealous of this guy’s situation.
