It’s the Year of the Tiger.
It’s the thrill of the fight.
This entry was written by , posted on February 14, 2010 at 1:01 am, filed under Uncategorized. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
This time between the “Western holidays” (Christmas, New Year etc.) and the Mother of all Chinese Holidays, 春节, has been fraught with changes, stalled projects, snow, worrying about calamities both in China and abroad, new friends, and 太多的咖啡，香煙，和啤酒。In the midst of all this strange limbo between festivals, I’ve been rather absent on the interwebz. Fear not, here are some interesting links to tide you all over while I’m busy figuring out my life and buying fireworks for the impending New Year.
Some menacing work from NeoCha
–> NeoChaEDGE is an amazing, bilingual Chinese design and art website that I’d heard about from several sources, but never really checked it out until Mike sent me the link. It’s a website devoted largely to Chinese designers and graphic artists, but also reports on music, performance, and other aspects of the offbeat or underground art world. It’s definitely a unique interactive site to see artists who didn’t necessarily come straight outta 798 or 莫干山路 and represent a more independent slice of the Chinese art world.
More work from NeoCha
–> This band, La Loupe, consists of some new American friends who rock out folky tunes (often featuring my second favorite* instrument, the melodica!) with Chinese lyrics. They have a small, but awesome following in Beijing and are a little Dean & Britta-esque in their compositions and overall vibe. Really catchy songs, the music is simple and witty.
–> This is just absurd. Welcome to our scary world.
–> Last but not least, check out my girl Tao Yang being a total expert on Chinese independent film all over the news–holla! Tao Yang was interviewed for a Chicago news station about film festivals and the direction of Chinese film and aced it fabulously.
*after the glockenspiel, of course
This entry was written by , posted on January 22, 2010 at 12:04 am, filed under adventures, art, beijing, chinese, film, music, news and tagged beijing, chun jie, dean & britta, la loupe, neocha. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Rapture on the Great Wall:
Hallelujah!
This entry was written by , posted on January 9, 2010 at 12:28 am, filed under adventures, beijing and tagged great wall. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
冬眠
DONG MIAN
Hibernate
winter sleep.
This entry was written by , posted on January 7, 2010 at 11:52 pm, filed under Uncategorized. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
There’s nothing to put the insanity of one’s own native culture in perspective more clearly than the insanity of another. Since coming to China, I have been both horrified and mesmerized by the inexplicable programming on CCTV. (China Central TV, which controls essentially all of the programming in the country and boasts 19 channels ranging from news to a “military and agriculture” channel.)
While a lot of CCTV aims to entertain with family-centered soap operas (many of which are based in bygone dynasties and some of which feature magic!) and American Idol-style talent competitions, it’s the documentary-like exposé programming that I find most baffling. In the past few months, I have witnessed an hour long, prime-time “news” story about an elderly couple living on the outskirts of Beijing who have a lot of cats. Likewise, I’ve seen hard-hitting, in-depth programs about a man who can eat a lot of food and a lady who went to Australia. It’s entirely possible that I’m missing some language or vital cultural context, but I had relegated CCTV to the same level of media savvy as Nick at Nite until I had the following conversation with a friend:
FRIEND: So, do you watch TV in China?
ME: On occasion, I have indeed been known to. I must confess, though, that I find it truly puzzling!
FRIEND: How so? Please elaborate!
[It's a tiny bit possible that the specific language of our conversation was not exactly like this. But I digress...]
ME: Well, in the place of prime-time news programs, I have seen a lengthy program featuring a man eating a live snake while a group of young children look on. Chinese people are truly bizarre.
A pause.
FRIEND: Fear Factor.
ME: Oh, yeah, I guess so. Well, another time, I saw a show where they spent like an hour talking about how some old people have a lot of cats.
FRIEND: Anything on HGTV. Or Lifetime.
ME: Fine. A game show where people try to fit their entire families into spaces of infinitesimal square footage!
[I pause, confident that I have finally triumphed in the weird TV Olympics and also proud of my use of the world "infinitesimal"!]
FRIEND: (coy) Was this show, by any chance…Japanese?
ME: (grumpy) Possibly…
FRIEND: Whatever. No matter what you’ve got over there, I submit for the evidence: Wife Swap, A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila, Ice Road Truckers, or any show involving competitive cake decorating. Our TV is ridiculous.
ME: No! We are Americans! We invented television! We made Walter Cronkite and The Daily Show and the complete works of Matthew Weiner!
[I realize that this tirade makes me, who doesn't really like TV that much, sound like Kenneth from 30 Rock. I also realize that making a TV reference as evidence that I don't "really like TV that much" is kind of not that effective.]
FRIEND: Wife. Swap.
ME: Touché.
Conclusion: We are all weridos. Some of us just like eating snakes more than others.
This entry was written by , posted on January 3, 2010 at 4:38 am, filed under Uncategorized. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Happy 2010, mes amies. May this year be wild and fun and hopeful and prosperous and beautiful.
Here is a Chinese word to tide you all over:
雪犁
XUE LI
SNOW PLOW
This is something that Beijing lacks, but should really consider investing in to deal with this snow that’s been falling for almost 48 hours.
This entry was written by , posted on at 3:49 am, filed under Uncategorized. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Once in a while, you find yourself gobsmacked by a totally unsuspecting cultural experience. When James Wallace, a Nashville-based musician who I met in Beijing way-back-when, invited me to a concert he was playing in, I was more than happy to drop by and see an old friend. What I didn’t expect was an astonishing show combining traditional Chinese and Mongolian instruments with some of the finest bluegrass and Americana on either side of the Pacific.
The headliner was Abigail Washburn, an amazing artists who’s made the world hear just how sweet Chinese bluegrass can sound. Abigail plays a range of instruments and carries songs in such a strong, smoky voice in both Chinese and English. What’s most incredible, though, is not her considerable musical talent, but her ear for bringing together seemingly incompatible sounds to create an unexpected fusion of Chinese and American musical traditions. When a Chinese musician went to town on the pipa, I realized for the first time that this instrument (that I’d formerly thought of as just vaguely whiney) sounds like the fiercest, most badass banjo in town.
Charmed as we were by Abigail, James, and conspirator Kai Welch’s renditions of old American fare with some Chinese instrumental interludes, I was totally blown away by the introduction of the Mongolian rock bang, Hanggai. I know: Mongolian. Rock. Band. We were skeptical, but it was rad, you guys. They wore fantastically pointy hats and with instruments with such names as the “horse head fiddle” and “Tobshuur,” as well as electric guitars, bass, and drums, totally rock on with their frocks on. (Observe frocks below.) The whole company brought the house down with Mongolian and American drinking songs–they were clearly having a great time.
What I found so inspiring about the whole show was not just the obvious skill of the musicians, but the enthusiasm they showed for doing something new, something innovative, something beloved. I’m no musician (apart from my unfortunately well-documented bongo skillz…Black Yak Band, you were all there in my heart) and no informed connoisseur, but I know when I’ve seen an amazing show and I left the concert feeling good about life. I feel like seeking out these experiences–those that leave you feeling colorful and energized and even nostalgic–is especially important in Beijing, where life can fall into grayness or sameness quite unexpectedly, and this show was enough to inspire ridiculous cliches about art and inspiration and how, at the end of the day, a banjo and a pipa and a Chinese song and an American song can do the trick to make life that much better.
This entry was written by , posted on December 19, 2009 at 10:03 pm, filed under adventures, art, beijing and tagged abigail washburn, beijing, hanggai, music, yugong yishan. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I have been a total delinquent blogger of late and would like to extend my apologies to my vast and devoted reader-base (or not! Hi Dad.) Between having the lovely and talented Miss. Erin Child as my guest here in beautiful, breezy Beijing (again: not! It’s like 1997 up in here.) and trying to tie up loose ends before I kick it over to the America for holiday time, I have been a neglecting this here blog. Fear not, intrepid reader! Having a guest visit Beijing (and most places, for that matter) opens your eyes to all the cool things you overlook on the day to day or lose in the smog.
In any case, Erin’s visit has allowed me the chance to visit and revisit a lot of touristy places, a lot of dumpling restaurants, but also a lot of amazing Beijing places that have been hovering somewhere outside of my radar.
While meandering through hutongs near Gulou, Erin and I stumbled across Fangjia Hutong, or Fangjia 46. A lot of people are calling this little oasis of art galleries, cafes, art stores, and a jazz club (or in Chinese terms, “a creative neighborhood”) in the midst of a Gulou Hutong “the new 798.” Now, I feel like that’s neither true nor necessarily a good thing, but Fangjia 46 has an unmistakable charm and calm that could certainly propel it status as Beijing’s next big little art area. The few galleries didn’t have shows up, but seemed to host studios and exhibition spaces with definite potential. There’s also a great theater in Fangjia 46 that’s apparently hosted some amazing dance and theater and may soon also show…film screenings? Eh?
Ever since I got to Beijing, all of my Chinese friends have been advising me vehemently to go the zoo. I mean, I like baby pandas as much as the next person, but I didn’t really feel that compelled to trek all the way across Beijing in winter to see giraffes and whatever. Much to my surprise, most of these friends (who are, incidentally, mostly female and in their 20s) were not talking about the ZOO Zoo with, like, animals, but rather the 动物园 Market–the Chinese discount clothing market across the street from the Beijing Zoo. Call me a heartless capitalist: I like pandas, but I REALLY like ridiculous Chinese clothes.
The Zoo Market (which is, of course, located above a bus depot) is a shocking Mecca of absurd Chinese fashion. Pleated leather miniskirts! Literally–LITERALLY the world’s largest concentration of bejeweled sweater-vests. But all that was only of passing fancy to Erin and I–we were after the Chinglish t-shirts.
Long story short, we limited our purchases to t-shirts adorned with pictures of small houses and the inexplicable phrase “CAT POWER WILL NEVER STOP.” (Perfect for: encouraging the prowess of certain cats or Cats, or really, really long Cat Power concerts.) I also got a sweatshirt with the word BOHEMIANS splashed across a face in lieu of a nose.
Oh Beijing. You’ve done it again.
We’ve also had some slightly more standard Beijing adventures: Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, etc. We have learned that Ming Dynasty architecture is nothing if not consistent and that no where is too cold, too boring, or too far if you’re with your 好朋友。
This entry was written by , posted on December 13, 2009 at 3:09 am, filed under Uncategorized. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
拜访
BAI FANG
VISIT
Use it in a sentence: Erin明天来北京拜访我！ Erin is coming to Beijing tomorrow to visit me!
WOW. I hope this town looks good in red*, because that’s the color we’re going to paint it.
*It does. I mean, really.
This entry was written by , posted on December 1, 2009 at 3:08 am, filed under Uncategorized. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
It’s getting cold. Well, to be fair, it was frigid and (government-generated) snowy for most of November, but temperatures have kind of leveled off to a season-appropriate chill. In any case, the temperature is going to continue to drop and then remain glacial for the forseeable future.
I am devising strategies to stay sane in all of this without hibernating or scorching myself on an electric blanket.
Survival tactic #1: Bright colors!
In the gray gloom of a Beijing winter, there’s a small comfort waking up to a bright orange bedroom. The Chinese seem to have embraced this concept with great vigor and I have encountered a countless collection of tangerine, clementine, and brightly golden hued walls in houses, restaurants, and hotels all over China. My apartment takes the (carrot?) cake, though. My roommate has situated our flat not only with orange walls, but orange curtains, an orange couch, and a charming array of orange throw pillows. Delightful. And citrusy.
Survival Tactic #2: Uniqlo Heattech Clothes
(This is probably the closest this blog will ever come to product placement, so please forgive me.) One arena in which Beijing has far surpassed New York is in its number of Uniqlo stores, which thrilled me when I first arrived here. Unfortunately, most of the Uniqlo stores here boast clothing more akin to 1990s Gap (tech vests, anyone?) and less like the sleek SoHo Uniqlo wares, but they do carry the heattech leggings and turtlenecks that allowed me to prevail through last winter un-frostbitten. I don’t know what “Japan Technology” means, but it makes me feel like I’m wearing robotic clothes, which is never a bad things. Overall, these leggings and shirts are thin and silky and keep me toasty. And the logo is partly orange, you guys.
Survival Tactic #3: Calming, wistful music
Winter is a season that boasts the delicate charm of looking out a window onto softly falling snow whilst wearing a thick sweater and smiling gingerly like a J.Crew model. Sadly, this charm has often worn its welcome out by February. I have found an effective way to revive romantic notions about winter is to seek out some sweet and gentle melodies to allay the murderous frustration that you haven’t seen the sun in days and coax a soothing sense of domesticity and coziness…and French-ness?
In 2007, I listened to Nouvelle Vague nonstop. Last winter, I took further gestures in deluding myself that my life was a French New Wave movie (starring Louis Garrel, apparently) and kept ‘The Dreamers’ and ‘Les Chansons D’amour’ soundtracks on repeat. This year, I have joined the huddled masses of Beijing expats in listening constantly to Au Revoir Simone. The dreamy quasi-electro folk trio (who are from Brooklyn, btdubbs, and not actually French) just played in Beijing and Shanghai and the onslaught of coverage in the expat media circles left us all clamoring to hear their new album, Still Night, Still Light. I’ve been hooked for weeks: their melodies are shy, but poised, soothing, wintery music. And while much of Beijing may have flocked to see the band at Yugong Yishan, only one person got to unexpectedly hang out with them at the airport the next morning because we were all going to Shanghai. So, go me.
Survival Tactic #4: Don’t go to 五道口 three days in a row! It’s really far away! And it’s cold! (I learned this valuable lesson this weekend.)
Survival Tactic #5: Good friends. Good movies. Fun work. A gentleman caller or lady friend to help keep you warm. Whiskey. Jiaozi. Vitamin C. Making plans for spring.
This entry was written by , posted on November 30, 2009 at 4:00 am, filed under adventures, beijing, chinese, news, style and tagged au revoir simone, beijing, uniqlo, winter. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.