Pop China

Review: Summer Palace (2006)

2009-04-13T20:15:00.000-07:00

For starters, this film was not what I expected. Based on the trailer and other promotional material I had seen, I was expecting the plot to focus much more squarely on the events of 1989. Instead, those events play a very brief and secondary role to the overall plot, that is, the complicated relationship between the characters Yu Hong and Zhou Wei. Truth be told, only a handful of scenes are expended on the history. Now, if this movie were trying to make some point thereby, namely, that these two young Chinese self-absorbedly consume themselves with their love affair and ignore what's happening around them, I might be forgiving. However, that's not what the film seems to be trying to do, and moves far too quickly time-wise to give the sense of time and space that even that approach would require.

Thus, even as a character study, which I think is in fact what it is trying to be, it falls a little flat. It strikes me as problematic that I finished watching a movie that was more than two hours long still not really understanding the motivations of most if not all of its characters. This weakness if perhaps most demonstrated via the use of the film's other heavily promoted aspect, the sex. While I never got the feeling that the sex was exploitative per se, the lack of character development made the amount of sex seem excessive. Example: Yu Hong teaches her roommate Dongdong how to masturbate. To the extent that the audience never really got to know Dongdong very well, that scene, and its implied taboo nature, felt like a throw-away especially considering the tumultuous period in which it occurred. Yes, there was a later scene where the same character had a sexual encounter with a male student, and thus continuity was expressed, but after that the character basically disappears. Discontinuity. Later, we hear only that she had become a housewife in Guangdong. Ultimately, the movie is not clever enough to play with expectations like that.

Review: The Chinese Botanist's Daughters (2006)

2008-08-29T23:02:00.000-07:00

I was pleasantly surprised to run into this film; I had never heard of it though it's directed by Dai Sijie, the author of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. Like the film version of Balzac, this one is awash in luxurious landscapes and colors. Also, like Balzac, with this film, Dai once again treads into territory that still remains relatively untouched in mainland Chinese film. Fortunately or not, Dai is an exile, and he takes what liberties he likes. The film itself was shot not in China, but in Vietnam.

In this case, Dai takes on the topic of the Lesbian relationship between an orphaned student and the daughter of the "botanist," that is, the practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, who serves as her mentor. Given that this is still a "Chinese" movie, the sexual aspects of their love are downplayed, almost too much, as the characters do not seem to develop any sort of self-reflection on what it means to be Gay, and rather the focus is on how the relationship affects traditional familial and gender roles. While Dai may be criticized for portraying the father and the brother/would-be husband as stereotypes of homophobic, patriarchic men, I'm willing to give him more slack considering that he is breaking new ground by virtue of making the film in the first place.

My main criticism of the film, however, regards the ending. I felt it was a little excessive although it too perhaps reveals an uncomfortable truth about China. You'll have to watch it to understand what I mean. A more minor quibble I have is that Dai doesn't really do anything with the fact that his main character, the student Li Ming, is bi-racial. The half-Russian girl could have been used more effectively to show ethnic boundaries within China. As it is, her background seems like more of an after-thought and perhaps was included just so that Dai could make use of the half-Chinese, half-French actress Mylène Jampanoï. That Dai did not is particularly unfortunate given his use of Yunnan as his setting, and that province could certainly serve as fertile ground for any such discussion.

Review: Please Don't Call Me Human (2003)

2008-08-29T21:45:00.000-07:00

This is the second book by Wang Shuo that I have read. While the narrative aspect isn't as strong as in Playing for Thrills, it is more explicitly satirical. It is also very timely.

The plot concerns the workings of an organization known as the Mobilization Committee ("MobCom" for short) who give themselves the task of finding an heir to the Boxer Rebellion who can reverse China's recent history of humiliation at the hands of Western powers. Eventually they settle on a young pedi-cab puller by the name of Tang Yuanbao who has inherited the technique of "Big Dream Boxing" from his father. From beginning to end, Wang describes the lengths to which the Chinese nation will go to regain their pride at the expense of the life (and body) of this man. Reading this book, it's impossible not to see some connections to the recent events surrounding the Beijing Olympics.

Review: Nanking (2007)

2008-02-04T00:59:00.000-08:00

Recently I was given the opportunity to view a special screening of the documentary Nanking, which is currently only in limited distribution despite the fact that it is Western-produced and was released in China in Summer 2007. In general, I liked it, but I do have some mixed feelings. Why? Well:

The use of several well-known Western actors (including Woody Harrelson and Mariel Hemingway) to do in-character visible narration was interesting in terms of technique, but it might also be a little distracting.

That fact, combined with the obvious dependency on Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking, meant that the movie tended to present the Western residents of the city as the sole saviors, while failing to give any mention of similar actions undertaken by the native Chinese. While I do like Chang's book, and I must admit that these foreigners did play a large part in saving the lives of many Chinese, the cynic in me views the movie as something of a self-congratulatory pat on the back.

In addition, I always have anxious feelings regarding anything that uses popular media to depict Japanese wartime acts, particularly when those media are shown in China. On the one hand, I certainly favor greater awareness of what happened. Yet, on the other, I know that every piece of material such as this will only increase anti-Japanese sentiment in China, and readers of this blog will know that I am not a fan of such sentiment. After watching this movie, which is quite graphic, such sentiment is inevitable despite the fact that one of the narrated characters claimed that he didn't want his footage to inspire hatred of the Japanese.

That said, I reiterate that this movie is a useful tool to disseminate information about what happened particularly for Western audiences.

Review: Playing for Thrills (1997)

2008-02-04T00:35:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I finished reading my first Wang Shuo novel. For those of you who don't know (which might very well be most of you), Wang Shuo is considered to be China's "bad boy" author in so far as his novels prominently feature crime, cursing, and sex.

The plot concerns a former PLA soldier, Fang Yan, who, in a turn that bears some similarity to Kafka's The Trial, finds that he is the chief suspect of the long-ago murder of one of his friends. Fang, the narrator, then proceeds to try to put together the pieces of the forgotten past, which in turn becomes a sort of subtle satire on the effects of China's Reform and Opening.

I think what is most interesting about the book is Wang's continual toying with the linear progression of the story, both through scenes that are simultaneously surreal dreams and flashbacks and through the concluding chapters in which the story actually progresses backwards a la Memento. Such a style contrasts with what I've found to be the overwhelmingly realist style used by contemporary Chinese authors without going the route of complete surreality that one might find in the most avant garde Chinese authors such as Can Xue. Wang's is a refreshing approach although it can be confusing at times. Further, given the unique structure of the ending, it leaves a fair number of threads unresolved, which is somewhat unsatisfying.

Nonetheless, I generally recommend the work, and I'll be starting on my second Wang book soon, for which you can likewise expect a review.

A New Wei

2008-01-14T00:21:00.000-08:00

I've said in the past that I'm a fan of the work of Wei Hui; this might diminish my credibility in the eyes of some. Whatever.

Naturally, I read her blog, and I was quite surprised to find that she's trying her hand at independent film making, producing the following clip. In my humble opinion it's actually not bad; if nothing else, the technique is good. Subject-wise, it's not quite what I would expect from her, and it rather strikes me as being somewhat Xu Jinglei-esque.

Globe All Lies?

2008-01-12T15:24:00.000-08:00

Japan Probe posted this clip of a Japanese news report discussing recalls of a speaking globe sold in Japan that states explicitly that Taiwan is part of the People's Republic of China. That this "mistake" occurred owes to the fact it was produced in Shenzhen.

Because the clip is in Japanese, read the post on Japan Probe for the full rundown of what's going on. Pay attention to the bit at the end which features China Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu discuss the fact that Chinese companies must obey domestic laws even in the case of constructing products for exports.

Dousing the Olympic Flame

2008-01-12T15:11:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I kick myself for not still being in China and the delay that this causes for knowing what's going on there. In the case of the topic for this article by Howard French, the events happened more than two weeks ago, but I am just now hearing about it. Sigh.

I thought French's analysis here was spot-on. Although this woman's hijacking a Olympic press conference was not itself related to the Olympics, it is very emblematic of the kind of pressures that can bubble up as China tries very hard to create a positive image for itself in advance of the games. It also points to the way social problems—in this case, extra-marital affairs—can be ignored at such times. I'd like to say that this woman strikes me as being very strong for having the guts to do what she did. I hope the situation resolves itself well enough for her.

What's Your Drug of Choice?

2008-01-11T17:58:00.000-08:00

The New York Times had a brief report on the arrest of sixth generation director Zhang Yuan for taking drugs. I'm not terribly familiar with his work, but I know that he directed Green Tea, which is certainly not, by any means, in my downloaded movie folder to be watched at a later date.

I think what interested me about the blurb was the specific mention of what he been using: crystal meth and ketamine (aka Special K for the uninitiated). Now, one does not often hear about drug culture in China because the Chinese government takes drugs very seriously and would therefore be unlikely to allow much dissemination of reports on the hows and the whys of domestic drug use. The result is that, in my experience, Chinese youth know very little about drug cultures. But, when you do hear about drug use in China, it's often of the more exotic, designer variety, such as Ecstasy, and less so the "quotidian" crack or heroin.

I think a lot of interesting results could be obtained by a thorough investigation of Chinese drug culture, but it would be hard to go about collecting information. For my part, although I've encountered drug "dealers" in the form of elderly ethnic minority women in Dali who ask you "smoking the ganja?" they quickly run away if you try to press them for further information.

The Cuffs and Collar Don't Match

2008-01-10T11:45:00.000-08:00

Danwei posted a nice piece yanked from The Register about Western music promotion in China. Read it in its entirety if you'd like, but I'd like to highlight one section in particular:

The problem is that niche online audiences are very niche indeed. Genre awareness is perhaps one of the biggest spokes in the wheels of music development in China. It is possible to find all major genres—as well as a great deal of sub-genres—represented in tiny fan-groups online. However, the elaborate categorisation of music we seem to so enjoy in the west is the preserve of only a few music obsessives in China. While Converse trainers and drainpipe jeans might make your average Chinese high street hep-cat seem like an alternative cognoscenti, the chances are that understanding is lacking and there is very little consistency between any two elements of their identity, including music preference. Whilst hanging at the bar in Beijing underground live venue D-22, I noticed a Chinese girl next to me with crazy hair, blackened eyes, torn clothes and black fingernails. I got talking to her and asked her what kind of music she listened to. “Backstreet Boys,” was her immediate reply.

The kind of deeper involvement with a genre that would mean a goth could never admit to liking the Backstreet Boys is noticeably absent here. This girl is just as likely (or unlikely) to go out and download an Aaron Carter track as she is a Lacrimosa one. Music online is rarely searched out or bought according to genre. In fact, not only is your average MP3 not sold as part of a genre, it is also almost certainly pirated, completely DRM-free, with no meta data attached and, in a huge number of cases, doesn’t even have a file title. You are left with a completely ‘naked’ piece of audio. China simply never went through the age where music was bought at a premium on vinyl, cassette or CD, then lovingly horded, categorised and put on display for all your dinner party guests to see, encouraging in-depth dinner discussions about prog-rock or jazz.

Some of you might realize that the process the author is describing here is similar to what I described in the paper I linked to in my very first post on this blog, namely, that when cultural artifacts are globalized, they are often done so with limited scope. However, as I have argued in a more recent paper that I wrote, that scope can be deepened later. So there is hope for the Goth girl after all; she might eventually start listening to My Chemical Romance.

Zhang Yimou Turns Green

2008-01-01T19:13:00.000-08:00

Zhang Yimou recently won an award issued by the Chinese government for "following eco-friendly rules during movie shooting and highlighting green issues as the chief director for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games in 2008."

I think what's particularly noteworthy in this article is its recounting of how Chen Kaige was nominated for the award as a "negative example" given the negative environmental consequences of his film "The Promise." Zhang's own selection probably can be viewed as an attempt to draw attention to the issue. Further, Zhang is probably seen as the lesser of several evils given that he also has been criticized for the environmental repercussions of his production "Impression West Lake" (see this article).

Hate the Game, Not the Cosplayer

2008-01-01T19:00:00.000-08:00

Cosplay is an international craze as this Japanese report (via JapanProbe) hopes to demonstrate. It seems as though the event was staged for purposes of "cultural exchange," which this blog wholeheartedly supports. This blog also wholeheartedly supports any demonstration of nerdiness.

Black and White and Red All Over

2008-01-01T17:57:00.000-08:00

The Chinese government is paying increased attention to training young journalists to toe the Party line according to this Washington Post article.

In China, [the role of journalism] traditionally has been to support the government by spreading propaganda and suppressing news that contradicts policy or puts officials in a bad light. But as the country has opened to the world in the last three decades, many journalists -- and journalism students and their professors--have acquired new ambitions for their craft, such as investigative reporting on official corruption.

Against that background, the party's Central Committee in 2001 urged Chinese media and journalism schools to adopt the concept of "Marxist journalism." The term was broadly interpreted to mean journalism that the government views as improving society and taking account of Chinese realities, including censorship under one-party rule.

This topic is somewhat out of the scope of this blog given that there's little "pop" about it, but nonetheless the article struck me as representative of something to which I've become sensitive of late, namely, the imprecise usage of "Marxist" within China. This imprecision, in turn, certainly does impact Chinese popular culture.

As far as I can tell, there is very little Marx and a whole lot of Lenin in such efforts.

Addressing censorship, Fan told students that the government must "guide public opinion" because many Chinese are not well educated and cannot understand current events well. "The situation of our country decided we need to guide public opinion," he said. "We should consider the social effects of every report, thinking if it is good or bad for our country, society and people, especially for the stability and development of the country."

Such a call for guidance is very much a Leninist position. As I discovered while writing a paper in my other life as a PhD student, Chinese students are generally unfamiliar with what differentiates Marxism and Leninism. In fact, despite the fact that People's Republic of China officially follows "Marxist-Leninism," most Chinese students have never actually read any of Lenin's writings.

Why is this important? Well, in so far as we foreigners only hear about the Marx and not the Lenin, it leads to misunderstanding on our part of what tack the Chinese government is actually following. Which likewise leads to a popular misunderstanding of Marxism.

The following paragraph gives another example of similar Chinese rhetorical imprecision:

"Reviewing the reality of journalistic education, one finds many inclinations that need attention," he continued. "One is out-of-date textbooks. One is the Westernized concept of journalism. And another is the abstract research approach in which theory and practice do not match. These problems can only be solved by strengthening the Marxist concept of journalism."

I have added emphasis to point out what an astute reader might already have noticed: the speaker implies a false dichotomy between "Western" and "Marxist," seemingly forgetting that Marx, and Lenin also, are European. It follows that rhetorical-Western signifies anything the government is wary of and rhetorical-Marxist is anything the government supports, which may or may not actually be Marxist.

I don't want to come off as too critical here, but I would love nothing more than for Chinese youth to have a deeper understanding of Marxism, and that begins with a more precise understanding of what the word itself entails. Otherwise, "Marxism" just becomes a mask for increasing nationalism and opportunism, both of which are certainly prevalent among today's Chinese youth.

On a related note, this article, also from the Post, details the Chinese military's increasing recruitment efforts among students at China's top universities.

Namu Namu

2008-01-01T17:32:00.000-08:00

The NY Times had this profile of Yang Erche, aka Namu, supposedly a well-known singer/actress/model. I'd never heard of her, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Nonetheless, she does seem interesting. For a Chinese star, she's apparently well-versed enough in international affairs to have made an online video proposing a marriage to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. (For some reason, Chinese stars have a thing for French men; take Maggie Cheung for example.)

And, no, I do not intend to turn my blog into a Chinese scandal sheet. Rather the reason I am linking to the article is because Namu is identified as a member of the Mosuo minority ethnicity, and her celebrity seems to have brought some degree of notoriety to her people.

NAMU made her name internationally when her English-language memoir, “Leaving Mother Lake” (Little, Brown, 2003), became a best seller. She worked with an anthropologist, Christine Mathieu, to tell of her upbringing among the Mosuo near Lugu Lake in a remote part of southwestern China. She became better known to American and British audiences when she was featured in a 2004 documentary about the Himalayas by Michael Palin, formerly of Monty Python.

Namu says she used these opportunities to bring tourism and much-needed development to her people. Her detractors accuse her of sensationalizing the Mosuo and exploiting her roots to further her own celebrity. Criticism increased when sex tourists began flooding in. “Now we have a road, and we don’t have to walk seven days to get out,” Namu said, defending her work in the area. “Kids can go to school. But people still say bad things about me. How can I be responsible for everything? I am exhausted from their needs and criticism.”

The increase of sex tourists is certainly disheartening, but nonetheless Namu, and the Mosuo more generally, do offer an example of challenges to traditional notions of patriarchy. I believe that the Mosuo have indeed given some inspiration to feminist thinkers in China. I'll be on the lookout for some of Namu's books.

Peking Opera No Longer at Its Peak

2008-01-01T17:19:00.000-08:00

The LA Times had a very heartfelt look at the decline of the popularity of Peking Opera in China.

Its stalwarts remain mostly elderly Chinese and foreigners. For the young, the stilted pageants have become something of a cultural embarrassment, tantamount to an American teen snickering in disdain when Mom plays her old Neil Diamond albums.

That paragraph looked into my own soul. My own mother really does listen to Neil Diamond. I'm also a foreigner who happens to have enjoyed the couple of times I've seen opera performances. The article continues, profiling one particular performer:

For Qiu Jirong, the opera's hard times are bittersweet. He makes his living from it, but the slender man with delicate features prefers modern dance, hip-hop and Michael Jackson to the stodgy rhythms of his art form.

After his father's death from lung cancer at 39, Qiu's mother pressured him to continue the family legacy. He once cried when he saw his father paint his face before a performance because the makeup looked so threatening. Then, at age 9, he was thrust into the theater and its ornate customs. His given name means "to continue."

Sometimes, he feels it really means "to be trapped."

Worth the Paper It's Printed On

2007-12-30T08:54:00.000-08:00

One (fairly justifiable) retort one will hear if one brings up the topic of pollution in China is that much of the pollution is caused by foreign companies and that even the trash has been imported. This woman turns the system on its head: she imports waste paper and recycles it.

via videosift.com

Sweatin' with the Oldies

2007-12-30T08:31:00.000-08:00

Happy holidays! I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

via videosift.com

Where in the World is CoCo Lee

2007-12-29T03:44:00.000-08:00

I{m currently updating from Buenos Aires so please forgive all the bad punctuation marks. I haven{t yet figured out how to use the keyboard yet. This will be a short entryñ

1. I watched a CoCo Lee music video on TV yesterday. Is she popular in South America )question mark)

2. There is also a TV commercial to encourage everyone to learn Chinese. The commercial was very dramatic with happy people on bikes and flowing hair all shot at rather semi'artistic angles.

Review: Becoming Madame Mao (2000)

2007-12-09T14:51:00.000-08:00

This is the second book by Anchee Min that I have read. The first, Red Azalea, was pretty good. This one is excellent.

It's so excellent, in fact, that at times you forget that you are reading historical fiction. You begin to wonder: was Min there? Her characterization of Jiang Qing is quite believable, and the way she entwines Jiang's life with those of other key figures is remarkable.

It's also notable for the fact that you can actually learn something from it. I have learned more about the political maneuvering behind the Cultural Revolution than I have from any other source. Even given the fictional context, one gets the impression that it is justified to conclude that, despite Jiang's very real ambition, it was truly Mao pulling the strings in order to keep his own position secure. Further, the names of the key players stick with you with because you have fully fleshed-out characters to go with them. Heck, now I actually know who the other three people in the Gang of Four were, and I've always felt that was a weakness in my knowledge of that period.

I (glowingly) recommend this book. Of course, it may not be for everyone; I admit that I have a special fondness for anything CR related. Yet even for people who aren't so inclined, this remains an excellent introduction which will probably get them hungry for more.

I'm looking forward to reading more of Min's historical work.

Jet Li Breaks Another Record

2007-11-25T18:06:00.000-08:00

Jet Li broke his own record of earning 100 million yuan (US$ 13 million) in his new film "The Warlords," a record for an actor in a Chinese-language film. The previous record was also held by Li for his role in "Hero," earning him 70 million yuan. In the Reuters article, Li's marketability is confirmed:

"Without Jet Li, we would not dare to invest $40 million in a Chinese-language film," Xinhua news agency quoted director Peter Chan as saying. Li was a "guarantee" for global sales, Chan said.

Apparently, the budget for "The Warlords" was only $40 million, which is a huge step down from many recent films (see previous post). According to the same Reuters article, approximately half of the $40 million budget went to the cast, including Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Beijing-based actress Xu Jinglei.

This means that if Jet Li made approximately $13 million, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro had to share the remaining pie with other members of the cast. In other words, they made much, much less than Li (considering the pie was only ~$20 million to begin with). Both Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro are quite good at selling films in Asia (believe me), but the difference is that Jet Li has global appeal thanks to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero."

I just watched the trailer and it looks pretty awesome. Too bad we won't be able to see it Stateside until March of next year.

Back in the Day

2007-11-19T20:26:00.000-08:00

Wow... I'll let this one speak for itself. Watch it. You won't regret it.

First Lady in Red

2007-11-18T23:27:00.000-08:00

This is an excellent article detailing what will likely be China's next first couple, namely Xi Jinping and the well-known singer Peng Liyuan. As the article makes clear, what's notable about the situation is the very fact that Peng (Xi's wife) will be in the spotlight at all. Not since the infamous days of Jiang Qing has really much of anything been known about the spouses of China's top leaders. And from what I can see China has everything to gain from selecting Xi as its next president. He's hardworking, a man of the people, intelligent, etc., and he has a wife who also possesses those qualities.

In 1968, Xi won a place at prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing, where he earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and a doctorate in law. If he ultimately gains the presidency for which he is now so clearly being groomed, he will be the most highly educated leader in the country's history. Since he joined the Communist Party at 21, Xi's career has been on a steady ascent. He built a reputation for decisiveness, honesty and efficiency as party secretary of prosperous Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, boosting foreign investment and cutting bureaucratic red tape. His personable style has also served him well. It was no surprise, then, that he was chosen this year for the plum position of party secretary in Shanghai, the most important regional post in the country, after his predecessor was charged with stealing US$470 million from the city's pension fund. This month Xi was named to head the group that manages Hong Kong and Macau affairs, another high-profile post.

...

Peng holds a master's degree in folk music and is best known for her extensive folk repertoire. But she has also starred in Chinese and Western opera, once playing the lead in Mulan to the music of the Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra. She is one of the most familiar faces on CCTV, having appeared on the network's Chinese New Year special a record 19 times. Peng's performance at last summer's ceremony marking the one-year countdown to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing gave the event a generous dose of both patriotism and panache.

...

In addition to demonstrating patriotism through her music, Peng serves as the most fetching major-general in the People's Liberation Army, and sometimes dons army fatigues to prove it. She shows her humanitarian side through her work as China's AIDS ambassador.

This blog wholeheartedly endorses Xi to be China's next president and Peng to be his first lady. Not that it will make a difference for another 5 years.

My Hair is Prophylacking

2007-11-16T14:20:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you read about something that's so blog worthy, it's almost too good to be true. This article's topic, namely hair salons using used condoms as hairbands, is an example; as such a lot of blogs have already posted on it. I don't really have much to add except maybe such a product would add the protection that my hair so dearly needs. Frankly I'm balding, and I need all the help I can get.

Actually there is a lot more I could say, but, given that I try to keep this blog somewhat professional, decorum dictates that I cannot. But I'll give you a hint as to what is running through my mind: watch There's Something About Mary. *cough*hair gel*cough*

Of Wolf and Man

2007-11-13T16:01:00.000-08:00

Danwei pointed me to this article about the hugely successful Chinese novel Wolf Totem being awarded the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize, which is to be awarded to fictional works that have yet to be published in English.

I'm very excited about this development, as Wolf Totem will certainly prove to be a very important work in contemporary Chinese literature both due to its content and the circumstances surrounding its release. I'm also breathlessly awaiting its translation which should be published soon. Of course I could read it in the original language, but truthfully I'm too lazy.

"Wolf Totem" has turned out to be much more than simply an appealing story. The book's messages about the state of modern China and Chinese culture have touched a nerve. It has been featured on television shows, used by businesses in China as a motivational tool and sold for film production, and has spawned a children's tale.

In his writing, Rong manages to convey admiration of Mongolian nomads' fierce, wolf-like independence and love of freedom as well as disdain for the political passivity and rapaciousness of modern Chinese society.

The partly autobiographical story is drawn from Rong's own journey to northern Inner Mongolia in 1967, where he remained for 11 years during the Cultural Revolution in the isolation of the Elun grasslands, doing farm work. His fictional protagonist, a young intellectual named Chen Zhen, witnesses there the complex relationship between nomads, living simply and maintaining their livestock herds, and the wild wolves of the plains.

Zhen is dismayed by the arrival of fellow Han Chinese from the cities, who upset cultural traditions with their ideas of modernity and wreak environmental destruction.

Hip-Pop

2007-11-13T11:32:00.000-08:00

"Do you like Hip-pop?" was a question I was asked by a student shortly after my arrival in China. From that time, the emergence of Hip-hop culture in China has been something of especial interest to me. It was something that I mentioned on my personal statement when I applied to grad schools. And so it was with great interest that I read this article that I found via Shanghaiist today.

On stage, a pair of rappers face off, microphones in hand, trading verses of improvised rhyme. They look like typical hip-hop artists, dressed in baggy pants and baseball caps. But listen closely and you notice something unusual: They’re performing in Chinese. One rapper spits out words in a distinctive Beijing accent, scolding the other for not speaking proper Mandarin. His opponent from Hong Kong snaps back to the beat in a trilingual torrent of Cantonese, English, and Mandarin, dissing the Beijing rapper for not representing the people. The crowd goes wild, raucously voicing delight and dismay.

...

In a recent campaign for Wyborowa vodka, Burton took his crew on the road, presenting 150 shows in 40 Chinese cities. His artists performed a mini history of hip-hop, from its urban American beginnings to its Chinese apotheosis. It was the perfect brew—an African-American entrepreneur promoting a Polish vodka owned by a French corporation using Chinese performers practicing an Afro-Latin-influenced art form that originated in the inner cities of the United States. Welcome to hip-hop’s new world.

Now I'll be frank and say that it really bothers me when I see Chinese kids (or Japanese or Korean) wearing dew rags and acting hyphy. And yes I like Eminem's stuff, but I think there's a huge qualitative difference between someone who grew up amongst such symbols and someone who's seen it on TV and wishes to appropriate it. Nonetheless I support wholeheartedly the globalization of the general hip-hop culture.