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.
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.
How high? ShangHAI!
Having never been to Shanghai before and eager to escape the Eskimo’s meat locker that is Beijing, I was thrilled when my friend Tao Yang invited me to wayfare around Shanghai for the weekend. We’ve walked miles around the old city, eaten the most unbelievable soup dumplings, and taken the requisite pictures in which Pudong Tower appears to be growing out of our heads (coming soon…).
As they say in Shanghai, 生活蛮好。 Life is pretty darn good.
oh RLY?! (lolz, by the way. Serious lolz.)
What I find so thrilling about Shanghai, apart from its reasonable temperature and welcome walkability, is the amazing cinematic quality of this city. Maybe it’s because my associations with Shanghai are all from movies (Admittedly, this is case with most places. My entire geographic knowledge of LA is based on the conversation Cher and Josh have in the car in Clueless.), but Shanghai’s reputation as a historic, romantic, dramatic city becomes strikingly apparent as you stroll through the old city. Shanghai has a charm (no matter how reproduced or manufactured, in some cases) that is rare in Beijing and the crowds of moter-bikes, low, stacked houses, and sprawling courtyards are more vivid and visual than any cinematic simulacra.
This Zhou Xuan is not the same as that Zhou Xuan…
This is a total film nerd’s dream*: We’re staying right on Suzhou River, have seen the Paramount Theater where the stars of the 1930s and 40s flocked, the 新世界 signs of old Shanghai, and seen the old gongyu (apartment) of many a famed Shanghai star, including Zhou Xuan. (It’s right beside the old residence of Eileen Chang, FYI. In case you were, you know, really curious about the proximity of residences of, like, famous Chinese women from the 40s involved in the arts…)
Zhou Xuan is looking fierce.
Maybe we’ve lucked out with exceptionally sunny weather, but the light has been soft and beautiful and hits the river and peeks through the clothes hanging out the dry everywhere in an incredible way. I’m certainly no photographer or cinematographer, but I’m all swoony over this light.
It’s all very touristy and fun and the perfect city for a bunch of cinephiles to go roaming around in.
*Okay, a Chinese film nerd, probs. On that note, I am totally missing meeting Jia Zhang-Ke by being here in Shanghai this weekend. I’m trying not to think about it.
This entry was written by , posted on November 22, 2009 at 7:09 am, filed under Uncategorized, adventures, art, chinese, film, style, travel and tagged chinese cinema, shanghai, suzhou river, zhou xuan. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
This word will take me back to China in too few hours:
飞机
FEI JI
Airplane
(Goodbye, America, for another little while. It’s been surreal, but wonderful. And don’t call me Shirley.)
This entry was written by , posted on October 27, 2009 at 2:58 am, filed under chinese, language, travel and tagged airplane, chinese. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I wrote this a while ago and forgot to post it. Just file it away under Strange Retail Experiences Are Things Best Forgotten.
When I first arrived in Beijing, I was agog to find that there was, of all things, an American Apparel store in this fair city.
I was agog not because I would ever underestimate Dov Charney’s plans for evil world domination, but because the central thesis of American Apparel is thus
a.) irony
b.) sex
The Napoleon of creepiness and leggings.
Suffice it to say that these things are not the central thesis of Chinese culture. In fact, they are kind of counter-intuitive to most facets of Chinese culture.
I decided to investigate:
It was all there. So strange, so florescent, so tight! The body stockings and sweatshirts and the vaguely bitchy salespeople and the dressing room mirrors that make anyone feel like the fattest, most repulsive person on the planet!
It was all there except…customers.
So, your average hipster Americano heads over the AA on North 6th and picks up a little number that says I lack imagination, but I can still earn the respect of my peers by appropriating the aesthetics of working class America to fit my svelte frame and obliterated gaze.
As far as I can tell, when a hipster Chinoise walks into AA, they possibly think: OOH! Gold leggings! I will wear these to work, which by the way is a respectable job and not stripping. WAIT, 600 KUAI FOR LEGGINGS WTF I THINK NOT.
This entry was written by , posted on October 12, 2009 at 9:32 am, filed under chinese, style and tagged american apparel, wtf. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
The other day, I was at my friend’s house and happened to noticed that she had an email open in her inbox, the title of which was “Holy Shit! Midgets! We’re totally going to Kunming!!!”
I didn’t really want to pry.
But! It turns out that there is a real life dwarf commune in Kunming, China.
More Evidence
Apparently, the citizens of said commune live in little mushroom-shaped houses and dress up to perform for tourists. Either this is Chinese kitsch reaching new and horrifying heights, or a really sly stab at irony.
Is this an actual refuge for little people? A blatant tourist trap? A backwards attempt to glorify vertically-challenged Chinese while actually kind of exploiting them? Totally weird? Something that would probably only happen in China?
Yes.
This entry was written by , posted on October 10, 2009 at 11:00 pm, filed under Uncategorized, adventures, chinese, travel and tagged china, dwarf, kunming. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Due to my crippling fear and loathing of technology, I’m not normally one to geek out about web design. The bloc site We Live in Beijing, however, has a cool, eye-catching layout and a multi-functionality that combines elements of facebook (may we who live in China continue to mourn this loss…), twitter, and any clever news and events source. The site contains especially great previews and reviews of the Beijing music scene, as well as pithy little articles on dating, travel, sex, and all that makes up Beijing life.
Fuck yeah! These guys are all over the China music scene…I have no idea who they are!
While the site is funny and informative and helmed by style-conscious Norwegians, does somehow lend itself to certain stalkerish habits.
As much as we facebook-stalkers of bygone days might have longed for the ability to see who’s been visiting our profile…be careful what you wish for. On weliveinbeijing.com, a member can not only see who’s been visiting their profile of late, but also what any given member is currently doing. If Klaus is looking at Zhang Wei’s profile, I know. If Ning is contributing to a forum entitled “Don’t Marry a Foreign Man,” I know. This is weird and awkward, but just seems to just encapsulate a larger truth about life and love in Beijing: this is a city of creepsters.
Within the expat community, it kind of makes sense. When you have people coming from all directions and cultural backgrounds, you’re going to get some signals mixed and some wires crossed when it comes to communication between and among the sexes. But…also, this seems to be a breeding ground for desperate, tactless losers. New York is not exactly a cathedral of chastity, but I’ve never felt so grossed out when I go out to bars and such. Men have no problem eyeballing you in a way that’s not exactly, um, subtle, saying totally inappropriate shit, and touching you within minutes of meeting you. Mostly it’s harmless and non-aggressive, but sometimes it’s best to signal your friends, do the Wolverine thing with your keys between your fingers, and grab a cab.
I’m not trying to be a puritan here, but the extremely explicit advances and general forwardness, excessive hair gel use, and Chinese dudes’ totally unironic use of the phrase “baby girl, I wanna get wit you” has caught me a bit off guard. (Maybe I’m just used to hanging out with socially-idiotic hipsters for whom eye contact is a notch too intense for bar banter.) To address the social networking thing again, I’ve only just joined weliveinbeijing, but I already have a mailbox full of totally weird messages from men I have never met, none of whom feel compelled to actually spell out the incredibly complicated and lengthy word Y-O-U. From the fairly innocent (What u do? Where u frum, girl?) to the more forward, (”i wish to know u better and be a good friend. you feel it. i feel u. give me cell phone.”…On this one, I couldn’t tell if this person wanted to have sex with me or steal my cell phone.), to the plain inexplicable (”u have a good profile. i like ur name. it mean tree.”) I am fairly certain that there is no language in the world in which my name means “tree,” but that’s one way to get a girl’s attention…
Of course, not all of Beijing is swarming with creepsters, but there’s a fair bundle in the land of of the 10 kuai beer, uninhibited nightlife, and social networking that practically begs you to stalk other people. Until I figure this out, I’ll be going out in my habit, Wolverine costume, and telling all inquiring minds that my name is Tree.
This entry was written by , posted on October 8, 2009 at 11:07 pm, filed under Uncategorized, adventures, beijing, chinese and tagged creeps, dating, facebook, trees, weliveinbeijing.com. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
This is the best Chinese-English online dictionary in the history of Chinese-English online dictionaries! At the very least, you can amuse yourself by drawing dirty pictures in the “draw Chinese character” part and see what character your picture most resembles.
That is my public service announcement for the week.
This entry was written by , posted on October 5, 2009 at 11:57 pm, filed under chinese, language and tagged nciku. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
There are two basic ethnic groups in Beijing: Chinese people and everybody else.
Call them foreigners, 老外 (Lao Wai: a kind of slang expression that literally translates to “old outsider.” Perhaps a more updated and gentle way of saying “Foreign Devil.”), but when it comes down to it, you’re either A or B. Chinese or…not.
There are some gray areas (such as my friend who was born in Beijing to Chinese parents, but grew up in Canada, so is considered local by Beijingers, but not by the state), but mostly Beijingers are divided on their status of being homegrown or exported. There are some who would consider this lumping-together of non-Chinese people to be a.) wildly reductive b.) kind of racist and c.) totally bizarre, but I can’t imagine who those people would be. Maybe it’s a preserve the purity of the race (yikes) thing, but even children born of non-Chinese parents in China are not considered Chinese citizens. It’s notoriously difficult for foreigners, even those married to Chinese people, to gain citizenship or even obtain visas with really secure longevity. Considering China is increasingly becoming a major destination for West African and South East Asian immigrants, it seems that China may one day have to tackle the great rainbow-colored beasts of multi-culturealism, assimilation, and immigration policy! For now, though, in China (as in the world of reality TV fashion shows), you’re either in or you’re out.
The tide seem to be changing, though, and the idea of what is “Chinese” with it. Though Beijing is still a city notorious for brief stints by job-hopping foreigners, more and more so-called 老外 are making Beijing their permanent homes. These people are taking root, changing the cultural climate, and producing a new generation of Chinese children who don’t necessarily look or act like the Chinese of yesteryear. I’ve seen people–especially kids and teenagers–off all ethnicities chattering away in fluent Beijing-hua. This city is their home; they are, effectively, Chinese.
When people ask me what the big differences are between Beijing and New York, my obvious go-to answer is that what Beijing lacks in cultural diversity it makes up for in motorbikes. This may not be true for long, though, as a new generation of multi-cultural Beijingers take the reins. Maybe someday “foreigners” may not just be mere foreigners, but part of a real global city where the 老外is allowed inside.
This entry was written by , posted on at 11:13 pm, filed under Uncategorized, beijing, chinese, language, news and tagged beijing, foreigners, immigration. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
WHAT’S YO NAME?
In the interest of preventing us bumbling foreigners from butchering their names and/or feeling cool, many Chinese people have chosen English names for themselves. This can be hilarious or ridiculous or just indicative of evil hegemonic forces at work.
Let’s investigate:
My roommate’s real name is Yuan Yuan and this is how her family and Chinese friends address her. If you knew her between the years 1990-1995, you would know her as Annie. If you’re not Chinese and you met her after 1995, you’d know her, as I do, as Cleo. Does changing one’s name, a relatively major move in most societies, represent something monumental to those who choose Western names? To be a complete Liberal Arts ass about it, what does changing the signifier mean to and about the signified? I know many Asian people in the US who’ve changed their names, but that perhaps makes more sense in an English-speaking country. In China, however, when the native tongue and culture should reign supreme, all evidence points to an uneasy post-colonialist paradox.
So, do Chinese feel compelled to choose English names for fun or ease or because it represents some way to enter a Western discourse? I’ve met some people whose choice of names point to a definite irony about the whole thing (or, just a poor grasp of English) –HURRICANE, for example, is the name of a friend of my boss. I’ve also heard tell of Chinese people who’ve dubbed themselves POWER, SMACKER, and QUIET.
Maybe if you name yourself something weird, Angelina Jolie will adopt you.
I also will refer you to the incident of 2008 when my dear friend Soo Hyun decided that, even after a lifetime of having a Korean name in an English-speaking environment, the time had come to choose an English name. The choice: Bob Dylan.
I am changing my name to Ming Kwang Yang.
Luckily, that was a short lived (and facetious) idea.
Obviously, most Chinese probably don’t think “I am choosing an English name with full consideration of the post-Colonial and Semiotic implications of doing so!” when they decide on a new name, but rather something like “Hmmm, I bet it will be easier for foreign folks to pronounce ‘Sarah’ than ‘Xuan Rui Qu.’” Or something like that.
In any case, it remains a source of both amusement and contemplation. After all (Sorry. It’s too easy…): What’s in a name?
This entry was written by , posted on September 26, 2009 at 12:11 am, filed under chinese. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.