Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Yuan Tengfei: Most Awesome History Teacher




The 38-year-old Beijing high school history teacher evoked public attention in late 2008, when his lecture videos were uploaded and spread on the internet. His humorous and sharp teaching style won him huge internet popularity and the title "Most Awesome History Teacher in History". In 2009 Mr. Yuan was invited as a speaker at Lecture Room (Bai Jia Jiang Tan) of CCTV, one of the most viewed TV shows in China, which features series of keynotes on Chinese history, literature and traditional culture. Prior to Yuan, this show had already popularized a few star scholars. Yuan's lectures 'Epic of the Song Dynasties' (Liang Song Feng Yun) renewed record audience ratings again with vividly told stories of history, with insightful research and interesting delivery. By the end of 2009, Yuan turned himself from an ordinary high school teacher to a well-known commentator, most welcomed speaker and best-selling author. No other high school teacher has gained as much sensation as he received in China, a country where liberal arts doesn’t gain much attention. "Calling me the Most Awesome Teacher, however, is a total exaggeration," Yuan himself responded humbly.
In early 2010 Yuan was involved into some political disputes. His comments about Mao, videotaped earlier as part of his class, was circulated on the internet and led to "punishment" by his school, though more of a gesture than real punishment, and some public pressure. This incident added to him another identity: a political dissident.


Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Beijing Workers' Singing Moved Millions

Two migrant workers in Beijing, with bare arms and worn faces, covered a song "In the Spring" (春天里) in their shabby dorm. This video quickly went popular among millions of viewers in China.
In the video are 29-year-old vagrant singer Liu Gang (the one with the guitar) and his friend, 44-year-old Wang Xu, who works as a docker in Beijing.




Wang Feng, original writer and performer of this song, highly praised their work as "lived out the true spirit of rock & roll from where it is most needed - the blue collar class". "I was most delighted to see my song re-produced by people like these two guys. They gave substantial meanings to my work and, more generally, all works of rock&roll as a means to express what needs to be said in our society."

-------------------------
In the Spring -Lyrics

I still remember those spring days
When I hadn't cut off my long hair
I had no credit card and no girl
No home with 24-hour hot water supply

But I used to be that happy
Only with my old wooden guitar
In the street, under the bridge, and on the field
Singing the songs that nobody would listen to

If one day I'm old and alone
Please leave me back in those past days
If one day I'm gone silently
Please bury me in the spring

I still remember those spring days
Hardly had I grown beard
No present for Valentine's Day
Nor did I have my lovely princess

But I didn't think they were that bad days
Though I only had fantasies of love
In the dawn, in the night and in the breeze
Singing those songs that nobody would listen to

If one day I'm old and alone
Please leave me back in those past days
If one day I'm gone silently
Please bury me in the spring

Now you are my beautiful spring
As warm as it used to be
I cut my long hair and grew my beard
Pains are gone with the wind

But I feel such a sadness
Time left me deeper loss and emptiness
In the sunny spring days
My tears can't help shedding
...

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Busyness Leads to Happiness


Here's a piece of recent work done by Christopher Hsee, of University of Chicago, a prominent researcher of psychology and one of those who established the term hedonomics.
It was three years ago when I was helping with some research on his team that Prof. Hsee told us about the original idea behind the article: he wanted to prove that people sometimes do things only to "release their excessive energy". Sounds like a strange idea, but he said he had a way to prove it (which is pretty much you read from the article above). I was soon convinced he's a genius.
Then we went to a few colleges to do the "experiments". I still remember some details: after finishing one survey, we "lied" to students that the questionnaires of next survey was not ready and they had 15 minutes to kill. They could either stay in the room or hand in the questionnaire to another location in the building where I was collecting the papers and sending out candies... At the end of the day, our data suggests that people would choose the farther location not for a better candy, but as an excuse to take a walk and avoid idling.

Now I'm really happy to see this very project is published, and realized that perhaps I should find myself some more "busyness" in order to be happier, rather than staying home all day long...

Sunday, September 19, 2010

New Media Evolves Faster than Imaginable



-------------------
I was reading this book by David Kline and Dan Burstein on how blog was going to change the way the world interact. Three minutes after opening it, I said: "Wait a minute! This book was published in 2005, that is, when Facebook was an infant, Youtube was about to come out, and Twitter was nowhere. It's an astonishing fact to me that some of our integral interfaces DID NOT EXIST, only 5 years back. In other words, our planet was functioning without a large proportion of its veins, only 5 years back.
The Internet has been evolving so fast that nothing is predictable. -- This is my take on it.

My newest attention on Web2.0 revolves around the popularity of Sina's Weibo (Microblog), the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. Weibo has been a huge success and many (I wouldn't mind being included at all) say it brought a revolution to the way they process information. Barely 1 year since its launch, Weibo has a userbase of millions. This number is projected to reach 100 million in 2011!
Here's a summary of all the things that Weibo did differently from Twitter:
(1) Unlike Twitter (which only supports links), Weibo offers a wider range of features including attaching pictures to tweets (weibo's), commenting/sharing others' tweets, categorizing users being followed, etc.
(2) It promoted the product by inviting celebrities, who are often too busy to maintain a blog, but often have a few minutes to kill while waiting for a connecting flight. This has been a huge success!
(3) Event-based marketing was also emphasized. During FIFA World Cup 2010, such a big buzz was produced that 1,904,369 weibos (tweets) were generated on July 12th, with a record high of 3,619,063 total tweets (including re-tweeted) on the same day.

Here's an article with more on why and how Weibo plays the game differently: http://www.chinahourly.com/life/2317/

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Better than penalties ?

These days I have been obsessed by the World Cup and home-cooked Chinese food.
Now the World Cup is having only the final 16 teams staying. What's next is going to be crueler: bloody eliminations. While we enjoy the breath-taking matches, someone came up with an interesting, peaceful and fairer way than penalty shoots, to decide the results when you have a draw: let victory go to the team who committed fewer fouls. Check it out for details: http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/lifestyle/patrick-barclay/penalties-spot

Will South Africa see any penalty-decider in the coming days? Let's see! ...

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

stupid bloggers

I used to think the most stupid bloggers are those who write private stuff to embarrass himself/herself (eg. his/her angers about a relationship, or whatever he/she shouldn't let the public know).
Now I know there is a stupider way of doing it: write a "private" entry and create the "security code" for access, while it is still visible that you created this article. They think this will allow sharing with their intimate friends while preventing others from reading it...
Fool, don't you know this embarrasses you even more? ... The existence of this function doesn't make sense. What a fool it takes to develop and implement this idea!

Friday, May 14, 2010

An Untranslatable Kind of Music


I found a webpage playing my favorite Jay Chou song Qing Hua Ci (Blue & White Porcelain) with lyrics translated into English. A commenter from Hawaii responded: Nice, but I'll stick to Rihanna, Chris Brown, Cold Play, and whatever else in on my iPod...

Having grown up in China, I often have difficulty answering the question "What music do you listen to?" The fact is among my favorite songs from the Western music world, a large majority fall under pop, folk, and country. However, they count for only about one third of all music I listen to, if not less. The rest are mostly Chinese songs. This is where the problem gets complicated, because I find it difficult to describe the Chinese music I listen to with one proper word. The concept of Chinese music is confusing. Do I mean the music played on traditional Chinese instruments like guzheng and erhu, or my grandparents' Peking Operas? NO.
The broad Chinese-speaking regions, including Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and the Chinese-speaking population living elsewhere, generally share the same popular music industry. Recently I've found a word C-pop (Chinese-pop) to refer to this genre as a whole. Hong Kong used to be dominated by Cantonese music, and Taiwan was mixed with Mandarin and Taiwanese local dialect Hokkien before the late 1990s. As the entertainment industry in Chinese Mainland caught up and emerged as a huge market, most albums released in the whole region today are in Mandarin. Because of shared language (Mandarin), contemporary artists from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore are heard and chased by millions of young Chinese fans throughout the dozens of major cities in China.
On today's amazingly connected planet, the news of a soccer-player trade in Barcelona, or that of an NBA star in L.A., can easily blow a buzz among sport fans in China in just a few hours' time. Similarly, millions of Chinese youngsters are crazy about Greenday, Avril Lavigne and Eminem. However, such influence goes usually one way only. Scholars refer to the benefits brought to a country (U.S.A. is the most used example) by such exposure as "soft power", because one country can spread its values and ideologies through exporting intellectual and cultural products. USA publishes the most books every year in the world; Hollywood movies are watched by hundreds of millions of people from Japan to Brazil; an increasing number of many countries' elites are graduates from American universities. Such soft power helps the US triumph today's world, together with its gigantic political and economic power.
Why do Asian children watch western sports and listen to western music way more than how much their western counterparts greet what's from the East? Two obvious explanations can be easily raised. First, it could be simply because the products themselves are better, or more likable. Few people can deny basketball itself is an attractive game. Therefore fanatics have no reason not to watch the highest-level games of NBA broadcasted in their own countries. Second, the entertainment and sport industries in western countries enjoyed an early start under well-established market environments. They clearly had more resource and stronger desire to expand elsewhere.
Besides the two mentioned above, I think a third reason is highly relevant: language. Let's come back to the topic of music listened to by Chinese. Three hundred million people in China, equivalent to the entire US population, learn English. Listening to English songs is not only trendy, but also easy – 100 times easier than a Chinese song for an American to understand. Paradoxically, while music is labelled as a universal language to bring people together, it is practically impossible to completely understand and appreciate a song when the language fault line is not bridged. In other words, as long as lyrics go along with it, all music is untranslatable. When it comes to Chinese music, the gap is even more unbridgeable.

Taiwanese singer-songwriter Jay Chou is undoubtedly the king of Chinese pop music. Without the handsome looking of a typical superstar, he established himself as the idol of millions with unmatchable music talent. The most popular songs found in all his ten albums belong to what is called “Zhong Guo Feng (Chinese Wind)” style. This unique style is created and popularized by Jay Chou and his partner Vincent Wang, whose lyrics typically tell romantic stories inspired by classical Chinese literature. It was the beautiful ballad-like melody, magic combination of various rhythms, sophisticated Chinese rhetoric, and other classical elements (such as traditional Chinese instruments) that made Zhong Guo Feng music particularly appealing to listeners. Personally, the first such song that enchanted me was Dong Feng Po (East Wind Breaks) released in 2003. Since then, Jay Chou has been taking my breath away with one or more Zhong Guo Feng songs in each of his albums. Some of the most representative ones include Ju Hua Tai (“Chrysanthemum Flower Bed”), Qing Hua Ci (“Blue and White Porcelain”), Fa Ru Xue (“Hair Like Snow”), Qian Li Zhi Wai (“Far Away”) and Lan Ting Xu (“Preface to the Orchid Pavilion”). Typical Chinese elements such as martial arts, calligraphy and porcelain, are embedded in these lyrics to depict ancient romance.
Some believe that Jay and Vincent’s popularity reflects a renaissance of traditional Chinese influence among young people. For example, a Chinese descendant in South East Asia said Jay’s songs motivated him to learn Chinese harder so he could understand the text. In the meanwhile, these songs are even accepted by Chinese of older generations. My 50-year-old uncle can sing some of them.
Now think about the chance Zhong Guo Feng music can be comprehended by a non-Chinese speaking person, especially a westerner. Given the complicated nature of Chinese language and the far cultural distance between the east and the west, the chance is apparently bleak. To an extent, I think it is meaningless to try to translate such works, because no other language can express the same artistic conception conveyed in Zhong Guo Feng songs. While trying to westernize my thinking in many ways, music is one thing I’m resistant about. Being able to appreciate the gorgeousness of Zhong Guo Feng music is a joy in my life, and I am proud to be a Chinese who can understand these songs. They will always stay rooted in my mind.
If you want to explore the beautiful Zhong Guo Feng, learn Chinese!


Reference:
http://pam.posterous.com/qing-hua-ci-by-jay-chou
http://www.culture.tw/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1007&Itemid=157

Thursday, May 6, 2010

One-man standup show, in Paris, in English..

Yesterday I went to Paris with some CEMS friends for this guy's show - Olivier Giraud, a french man doing standup comedy in English!..

His jokes are mainly from national stereotypes, and making jokes of life in Paris. "How to Become a Parisian in One Hour" provided a decent amount of material for my 851 cultural journals, thanks to Olivier.
I couldn't help doing a quick comparison between his show and the one-man standup performance of Zhou Libo 周立波 in Shanghai, a metropolis comparable to Paris in the east. While Zhou often adopts a sarcastic tone against Shanghai's migrant population, to please local Shanghai audience , Olivier (a Parisian who lived in the US for 10 years) jokes about the more unpleasant side of modern urban Paris to the English-speaking population in Paris, many of whom are foreigners like me.

All in all, whatever works...

Find Olivier on Facebook

Monday, April 19, 2010

Celebrity Charity Work Challenged for Transparency




Taiwaness star Chen Chien-Chou陳建州 (His facebook page), commonly known as "黑人" (blackman), drew attention two month ago for a video with him proposing to his girlfriend Christine Fan 范瑋琪 at an NBA game. The couple is very active in charity work and is highly respected in the Chinese entertainment circle.

This week, the basketball-player-turned-actor's name is on headline again, but in a controversial way. He has been leading a charity project Love Life dedicated to empowering handicapped kids. A newspaper (followed by some TV programs) in Taiwan accused him of "keeping a part" of the funds raised. The controversy was that the charity T-shirts sold by his project were produced by a company he owns, which seems to be making a profit from the revenue besides donations to Love Life. The fact was Chen and Love Life NEVER publicly promised to donate all earnings to charity work from the very beginning, and they DID dedicate most earnings to Love Life. However, this event was impacting enough to cause some doubts in the accountability and transparency of Chen's well-intended charity work.
The day before yesterday, one of the many stars invited to participate in the project Dee Hsu (徐熙娣 aka 小S) called into a live TV discussion to defend for her close friend Chen, and started a fierce debate with TV commentator Clara Chou 周玉蔻. Dee Hsu reconfirmed the point that they did not force anyone to buy the half-commercial half-charitable T-shirts, nor did they ever promote them with a commitment of 100% charity.
The video became hot on line within hours.
Including Chen, many other artists feel morally misunderstood by the public. It seems most netizens are supporting the philanthropic stars. However, this can be a lesson for celebrities running charity works. Rather than being misunderstood and cry for some empathy later, they may want to build the right public credibility from the very beginning.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Canadian Multiculturalism

Two things about Canada:
1. Lately started watching and loving Russell Peters. His sharp wit about racism, culture differences and stereotypes makes him my favorite English-speaking comedian. He also makes me think Canada is an interesting place- multicultural and open.
Besides his shows that can be found on youtube. I give this one to you: Russell Peters on One on One. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKXxiccJx9c

2. Canadian Please: Julia and Andrew's self-made music video for Canada Day. Cool lyrics and melody, written and shot in just two days..
Lyrics:
Yeah I know that you wanna be Canadian, please
Even if in winter things tend to freeze
We've got the world monopoly on trees
And our country's bordered by three different seas

Yeah I know that you wanna be Canadian, please
We invented the zipper, we've got expertise
We made insulin to combat disease
Yeah I know that you wanna be Canadian, please

CHORUS
Brits have got the monarchy
The US has the money
But I know that you wanna be Canadian

The French have got the wine and cheese
Koalas chill with the Aussies
But I know that you wanna be Canadian

Et si ce n'était pas assez
On a deux langues officielles:
L'anglais et le français
Ooh la la

Yeah I know that you wanna be Canadian, please
Where else do you find mounted police
Or go to the hospital and not pay fees
Yeah I know that you wanna be Canadian, please

And when freshwater is in high demand
We've got the world's largest supply on hand
So you know that we could make a pretty good friend
But it's even better if you can be...

CHORUS

So you're thinking to yourself,
"How do I live in this beautiful country?"
Well we've got some steps for you to follow...

STEP 1: Lose the gun
STEP 2: Buy a canoe
STEP 3: Live multiculturally
STEP 4: You're ready, there is no more!

We got beavers, caribou and moose
We got buffalos, bears, and Canadian goose
And we're sorry about Celine Dion
But she did do that good song for James Cameron...

CHORUS
Brits have got the monarchy
The US has the money
But I know that you wanna be Canadian

The French have got the wine and cheese
Koalas chill with the Aussies
But I know that you wanna be Canadian

The Greek chilled out with Socrates
Can't build a wall like the Chinese
But I know that you wanna be Canadian

In Kenya they have safaris
We've missed lots of other countries
But I know that you wanna be Canadian

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

After witnessing the phenomenal 4-goals-in-one-match Messi in Camp Nou last night, today I´m a little bored in Barcelona. HEC Volleyball Team is arriving tomorrow and I will literally have nothing to do until joining them then. I´m staying at Agora BCN University north of Barcelona. So bored that I took a walk around the university´s classrooms to kill time. Facebooked two friends Roberto and Paola but neither is free tonight. The only thing I can do before dinner starts (at 8pm..) is writing something on blog with a Spanish keybord which I´m already familiar with..
Barcelona is a city I can´t describe. I don´t even know if I like it or not. Park Guell and La Sagrada Familia did not transcend my expectations, but paella did. Ahahh!!

Friday, March 26, 2010

Joe Wong and his humor



This Chinese-American is a scientist-turned comedian. He jokes pretty much on everything: marriage, politics, and most successfully, being ethnic. His accent is part of what makes it work. One thing I like a lot about his performance is the clever connection of his storyline, so that jokes are linked in a natural way. I used to perform the Chinese stand-up comedy, or crosstalk (相声). A number of my friends are quite good writers and performers of it. From them, I even learned there are theories and patterns in designing the jokes, especially in lining up elements. When I'm watching Joe Wong's performance, I'm convinced that he did his homework in writing them. In fact, Joe started exploring his humor by writing for a campus newspaper at Rice University.

Another principle in comedy is adjusting contents to specific context, primarily depending on audience group, to maximize the effects. In Chinese stand-up comedies there are such terminologies like 把点开活儿, meaning "Do your work according to the environment". Joe does this really well too. If you watch the show at RTCA Dinner (see below), you will find he customized his contents by telling a lot of political jokes, even making fun of the Vice President and C-SPAN. It is nothing but clever, isn't it!

Joe Wong on Letterman (1st appearance)

Joe Wong on Letterman (2nd appearance)

Joe Wong at RTCA Dinner

Joe Wong's Homepage:

More Videos

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Think 'Interesting"

I have discovered one recent change in my mentality. Instead of saying something is useful or important, I started to keep saying something is 'interesting'. This turnaround from obligation-oriented to interest-oriented thinking has a fairly significant impact: I sort of stopped procrastinating...
I'm finally back to myself, a positive and productive person.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Patriotism, Jealousness, or Prejudice?

I don't want my blog to be political at all. But today I feel want to comment.
Sina is said the largest Chinese language blog community. This week on top of Sina blog site was a post by Chinese Mainland actor Jie Zhou (周杰), titled "Forgetting the past equals betrayal". Of course it was posted in Chinese. But here is the background.
Jie Zhou became known 12 years ago, in 1998, for his performance in a TV series called "Princess Pearl", or Huan Zhu Ge Ge (还珠格格). This TV series was produced and shot by Taiwan-based companies, and two former members of the Taiwan idol band "Little Tigers" (Xiaohudui) starred in it too. This series turned out so popular that both leading actresses, Vicky Zhao 赵薇 (Mainland Chinese) and Ruby Lin 林心如 (Taiwanness) became household stars overnight. It even popularized Bingbing Fan 范冰冰 who played a supporting role. Two sequels (HZGG2 and HZGG3) followed, and the novelist Yao Qiong (琼瑶)conquered millions of audiences with her romance stories.
Jie Zhou has been a famous yet controversial figure since then, too. Rumors about his tensions with Taiwan-born actors and staffs in the cast became a topic for paparazzi. The recent post (12 years after!) on his blog included his explanations and comments behind those conflicts. According to what he wrote, actors from Taiwan (he apparently indicates the two Little Tigers - Alec Su 苏有朋 and Zhipeng Chen 陈志朋) were holding arrogant and insulting attitudes towards Chinese Mainland. Taiwan had a much more mature and commercialized show business at that time, compared with Chinese Mainland, so they were already superstars before the shooting of HZGG. They frequently gave complaints and negative comments on Chinese Mainland, viewing it a different country to where they are from. In his blog, Mr. Zhou sounds critical and somewhat furious about these attitudes, even after 12 years.
Most readers sound supportive for Jie Zhou on his blog, which did not surprise me at all for two reasons. One, most readers of celebrities' blogs are their fans. Two, the One-China view is rooted in most Mainland Chinese's minds as a principle. Any claim about Taiwan independence usually stimulate instinctive antipathy among Chinese Mainlanders. In fact, many people who have not lived abroad also assume that most Taiwan people favor "returning" to China. This illusion is a big part of the reason behind many misunderstandings between the straight. Due to different conditions between the political contexts, Taiwan is much opener to whatever voices on political views. This fact, neglected by many Mainland Chinese, also creates a gap in communications.

The timing of his post is interesting, too. Only three weeks ago, the singing group Little Tigers had a shining reunion show at CCTV Spring Festival Gala, which is televised all over China and countries. Their show reminded millions of audiences of the good old days, and rejuvenated the Little Tigers' popularity again. Jie Zhou, in contrary, has been away from center of spotlights for a while. Though he frequently emphasized his intention to stay away from media and be a low-key celebrity, the interesting timing of his post triggers me to question his motivation behind the post.

Now, here is my point.
The conflicts between Little Tigers and Jie Zhou are essentially cultural conflicts rather than political or interpersonal ones. Jie Zhou apparent lacks full understandings about Taiwan and its people. At the end of his post on blog he wrote: People from both sides of the straight should all know there is only one China. This is the bottom line that all Chinese should stick to.
I would not comment on the intention of this red-sounding statement, but I guess not many readers from Taiwan (if any) would agree. Jie Zhou is also making serious mistakes by transforming personal experiences to a generalization about all Taiwan people. This approach does no good to cross-straight communication at all. If there were to be a war between two sides (though I will never believe there would be one), people like Jie Zhou are the first to blame.

Friday, February 26, 2010

l'auberge espagnole


If you ask me to describe my life here and now, I would recommend a movie titled "l'auberge espagnole", or Spanish Apartment.
Living in an unfamiliar European city, but suddenly having new friends and experiencing something that will make your life different. I have to say I fell in love with the flavor of Europe, the excitement, the spectacle of diversity. Cross-culture experience is not all about stereotyping each other, but real parties, real people, love affairs, and anything you can imagine. It's rather a celebration than illusions. Voila. C'est mon vie.
It's a good movie. Watch it!



Monday, February 8, 2010

French Life A-Z

A = anpe
B = boulanger
C = cdiscount
D= deezer
E= ebay
F= facebook
G= gmail
H= hotmail
I= ikea
J= jeux.fr
K= kiabi
L= le bon coin
M= mappy
N= nrj
O= orange
P= pages jaunes
Q= quelle
R= ratp
S= skyblog
T= telecharger
U= ugc
V= via michelin
W= wikipedia
X= xxl video
Y= youtube
Z= zara

Monday, January 11, 2010

Canadian Life A to Z

I'm trying one way to observe the typical lifestyle of a country: let Google tell you. I am doing this on Google.ca, recording what follows each single letter that I enter, to see the most searched words starting with each letter. Here's the list:
A: Air Canada
B: Best Buy Canada
C: Canadian Tire
D: Dictionary.com
E: Ebay
F: Facebook
G: Gmail
H: Hotmail
I: Ikea
J: Job Bank
K: Kijiji
L: London Drugs
M: Mapquest
N: NHL
O: OSAP
P: Plenty of fish
Q: Quotes
R: Rogers
S: Sears Canada
T: TD Canada Trust
U: Urban Dictionary
V: Via Rail
W: Weather Network
X: XS Cargo
Y: Youtube
Z: Zellers

My comments on this list: Canadianized, commercialized, urbanized, electronicalized, google-ized!