:: a great 2D animation short titled 胡同的梦 (Hutong Dream) by Li Chao (李超), an undergraduate student at China’s Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Li made this video as part of a Digital Media Workshop. Through a series of interrupted dreams, the animation shows a lonely old man’s blurred perception of reality as his monotonous life hurdles toward its end – death. Bravo, well done. // AjS
:: the lovely and formidable Mrs. Jenny Zhu recently interviewed me about the Chinese creative community, emerging youth culture, and social media in China. Check it out on her blog. Please pardon the pink // AjS
:: happy memorial day weekend. A rather good show this week, if we do say so ourselves. Dirty gospel and sophisticated ladies, Cooke covers and Superflys, unsigned Cubs, plus Otis and more! If it doesn’t make you happy, then perhaps you’re just not the happy type. Have fun! Thank you. // a
[if you're having problems with the above player, click here.]
miles davis – ’round midnight’
mable john – ’same time, same place’
curtis mayfield – ‘think’
candi staton* – ‘he called me baby’
lester young – ‘[back home again in] indiana’
cubworld – ‘good morning, love’
wilson pickett – ‘bring it on home to me’
sarah vaughn – ‘it might as well be spring’
edward clayborn – ‘then we’ll need that true religion’
otis redding – ‘direct me’
*I couldn’t tell you why I pronounced it ‘station‘ – I really couldn’t.
download, link to, or embed ‘rough sundays show 8′
[Aric S. Queen is a guest contributor to 56minus1]
:: a 0300TV interview with Chinese communist party pet dissident and well-known conceptual artist / designer Ai Weiwei (艾未未). Recording in Beijing in May of 2008. // AjS
:: live-action design knees-up Cut&Paste makes its Shanghai debut this Saturday, May 23.
The Cut&Paste Digital Design Tournament is a globally touring competition that pits designers head to head, in a series of lightning-fast rounds, to prove their mettle. 2009 sees 16 cities on its roster – Shanghai is number 14 – plus a global championship event in June. 2D, 3D and Motion Design are represented, and contestants have a fixed amount of time – 15 minutes for 2D, 20 minutes for 3D, eight hours for Motion – to execute a creative brief on the spot. Their work is projected, live and in real time, on massive screens so the audience can ooh over every creative decision, ahh over every technical move, and get a glimpse into the ever-nebulous Creative Process.
Check the video from the last tour:
Pretty neat, eh?
Shanghai’s 16 contestants have been handpicked from tons of entries collected earlier in the year (they’re listed on the Shanghai event page, under their respective categories). Tournament judges include Chinese contemporary artists Ding Yi and Jellymon creative director Sam Jacobs for the 2D category, Asentio Design founder David Williams and adFunture founder Eddi Yip for 3D; and W+K’s Francis Lam and AKQA’s Johan Vakidis for Motion.
The afterparty – co-hosted by Free the Wax (they who brought Daedelus, People Under the Stairs and, most recently, Modular Records) – sees LA’s Free the Robots in Shanghai, rather fitting given Cut&Paste’s 2009 tour started in LA three months ago. (It’s been moving across North America, Europe and Asia ever since.)
Three audience design contests will allow folks not content just watching to get a taste of what those onstage are up against. Winners of these contests – selected from all global entries – get to go to global championships in June, along with the official winners from each city.
Whether you’d like to see the creative process somewhat demystified, or are just hankering for a good show, head down the Shanghai Sculpture Space Saturday evening.
Cut&Paste Digital Design Tournament 2009: Shanghai. Saturday, May 23. Doors 6:30pm / Show 7:00pm. Shanghai Sculpture Space (570 Huaihai Xi Lu, near Kaixuan Lu). RMB 100 presale (RMB 80 for students) through Ticketmaster / RMB 120 at the door (tickets include entry to the after-party at Yuyintang with Free the Robots). Full details: www.cutandpaste.com or shanghai@cutandpaste.com. Facebook event here. // PL
[Panthea Lee is a guest contributor on 56minus1. Full disclosure: Panthea is the producer of Cut&Paste Shanghai, and Neocha.com – of which Adam Schokora (56minus1) is a partner – is a sponsor of the event.]
:: I found a great place in Shanghai to get wanton and zongzi. On Huating Rd., very close to the Middle Huaihai Rd. intersection (north side, basically at the entrance way to the old Tang Hui), a new place opened up last week. It’s not really a restaurant, but rather just someone’s home. There are only two proper tables, one of which is in the family’s living room and doubles as a wanton-wrapping station – it’s also where I sat and had my breakfast this morning (see first photo below). The other table is a fold-out that can be setup for outside seating. Great food and Longjing tea (free, of course). Pardon the reddish effect with the photos, I was testing out a new iPhone app called Vint Red. Pretty neat result. // AjS
:: I recently re-discovered the work of Hutoo (北京互象动画, blog), a Beijing-based company that, among other things, creates superb 2D animations. Hutoo’s cartoons are humorous, full of post-1980 China nostalgia, and horrifically violent at every turn in the trials and tribulations of their bloody-nosed main character Kuang Kuang (哐哐). If you haven’t had a chance to enjoy any of Hutoo’s work before, I’ve shared an episode below titled Bombing Schools (炸学校, probably better translated as School Bombing). It’s hard not to love. Enjoy. // AjS
:: from the bus sitting just off the strip in Las Vegas. Recorded in the daytime, thus the birds. Temptings, Scots, deep-southern gospel and much, much more. I hope you like it. Thank you. // a
[if you're having problems with the above player, click here.]
sam cooke & the soul stirrers – ‘Jesus, i’ll never forget’
gene krupa & buddy rich – ‘I never knew’
mae west – ‘I’m in the mood for love’
belle & sebastian – ’sleep the clock around’
frank sinatra, dean martin & sammy davis jr. – ‘me & my shadow’
the meters – ‘a message from the meters’
lucky millinder – ‘who threw the whiskey in the well?’
the temptations – ‘who’s lovin’ you?’
hunter’s chapel singers – ‘I’m so glad I got good religion’
otis redding – ‘champagne & wine’
download, link to, or embed ‘rough sundays show 7′
[Aric S. Queen is a guest contributor to 56minus1]
:: bridge bloggers, who cross linguistic and cultural divides to further cross-cultural communication, play an important role in the Chinese Internet. There are quite a number of major projects that translate English-language content in Chinese, and countless other individual bloggers doing the same thing on their own. Below, we take a look at the other direction: Chinese bloggers who are writing in English about a wide variety of topics.
Although a number of these bloggers mention improving their English skills as one of their goals in running an English-language blog, that’s not the focus of bridge bloggers (pure English-for-English’s-sake blogging can be found on niche SNS Web sites like Dio English and on isolated blogs that people seem to be keeping just for fun). Bridge blogs are being written for an audience unable to read Chinese, one that’s possibly unfamiliar with Chinese culture, both online and off, with the goal of mutual understanding and information exchange between countries and cultures. Here are five categories of bridge blogs that range from straight-up translation, to original writing, to corporate tie-in blogging.
journalism ::
Some bridge bloggers work in a familiar format reminiscent of the mainstream media. Josie Liu’s China in Transition blog presents well-crafted articles about various contemporary issues in China. Liu has worked as a journalist for a number of news outlets, and brings a journalist’s perspective to the blog format. She’s also guest blogged at China Digital Times. Seagull Reference, a blog run by a “government IT employee working in Beijing” who calls himself Big Brother Chang, also focuses on newsy topics. He often mixes his own viewpoint into his summaries of the news. In a practice widespread across the Chinese-language Internet, Seagull Reference is spotty when it comes to providing source links, so while Big Brother Chang is pretty quick off the mark, readers have to do a little digging to find the original Chinese articles. The author keeps another infrequently updated blog, Rotten Intellectuals in China, which features short profiles of professors caught in academic dishonesty scandals, or who have made public statements that are particularly galling, such as Sun Dongdong’s suggestion that 99% of China’s petitioners are mentally unstable.
filters ::
Many of the most constantly fascinating bridge blogs translate Chinese netizen voices into English. Global Voices Online aggregates and translates blog posts from all over the world, and China is one of their biggest areas of coverage. GVO authors are a mix of nationals and foreign observers of the countries covered; for China, translators are drawn from Hong Kong, the mainland, and other parts of the world. Currently, Bob Chen, whose bio says he’s a Chinese student, posts quite frequently on hot topics of conversation among China’s netizens. Topic selection leans toward social issues and online reactions to corruption. ChinaSMACK is run by Fauna, a resident of Shanghai, with other contributors based in China as well as overseas. The site’s stated mission is to translate daily content from China’s Internet forums. ChinaSMACK pulls and translates a high volume of comments from a variety of different BBS portals (Tianya, KDNet, PCHome, etc), and captures a side of online public opinion that is not as weighty or angrily nationalistic as may be implied in other English-language outlets. The treatment is typically “tabloidy,” even when ChinaSMACK addresses the same themes as GVO and other bridge blogs. There’s an extensive glossary of Chinese web-speak which helps new readers get up to speed quickly. At the Youku BUZZ blog, Steven Lin (a former journalist) and Kaiser Kuo (a Chinese-American writer and musician) distill the most popular videos from one of China’s top video hosts.
life observations ::
Other bloggers present their own ideas directly, without a translator serving as an intermediary. Ifgogo, subtitled “Chinese in English,” is a collaborative blog for ethnic Chinese writing in English, the vast majority of whom live on the mainland, with a few other members in Singapore, Canada, and the US. There’s no grand mission here; the blog’s about page reads “It’s just a blog in English. It’s about everything.” Topic range from discussions of cultural differences, to reports on excursions, to relationships, to tech and Internet topics. Other individual bloggers sometimes start out consciously to be bridge bloggers. Monica Cai, an undergrad studying international trade in Beijing, launched her own bridge blog after hearing a presentation by Rebecca MacKinnon. It’s a fairly new effort, which the author says will focus mainly on the lives of Chinese students. Wang Jianshuo, a Shanghai IT professional who’s been blogging since 2002, also falls into this category. His posts deal with life in Shanghai, travel, his various hobbies, and general China issues. He tends to stay away from sensitive issues, and his posts and comments sections seem designed to foster mutual understanding rather than heated debate.
specialty ::
There are also specialty bridge blogs devoted to a particular topic. China Web2.0 Review covers developments in the world of China-produced and China-oriented new technology Web sites. Current authors are Luyi Chen, an information systems PhD at Shanghai Jiaotong University, and Tangos Chan, VP of China Growth Capital. (Link here for a 56minus1 interview with Tangos Chan.) China Web2.0 Review reports on the latest moves by established Web2.0 sites and the implications those moves may have for the mainland’s Internet. It also introduces new Internet startups. The blog of the Shao Foundation covers the foundation’s various cultural and social events and exhibitions. It features video, slideshows, and summaries in English of Chinese-language content. It’s arty, sometimes cutting-edge, and tastefully laid out.
corporate ::
Bridge blogs may also be useful for companies that are themselves engaged in cross-cultural businesses. China Travel 2.0 the “official blog of www.SinoHotelReservation.com,” is kept by Winser Zhao, who writes of the blog’s motivation on the about page: The debates are interesting. The difference is quite huge. I thought I should tell more about China to Foreigners.” Posts introduce various scenic attractions in China, discuss aspects of Chinese culture, and from time to time touch on current events. Winser is joined by Seasky, who is based in Shanghai, and Katie Yao, a student at Xi’an International Studies University. The “travel 2.0″ concept promoted by the blog and Web site refers to guideless travel, where all arrangements are made through a network of friends, similar to an online social network. The China Youth Watch blog, run by consulting company China Youthology, pulls back the curtain on Chinese youth culture and profiles young creative and trendsetting types. It’s kept by Lisa Li and Zafka Zhang (who are also in a band together), with ethnographers Helen Yu, Summer Xia, and Candy Yang. There’s quite a bit of depth in the posts, if you’re looking for a window on Chinese youth today. Link here for a 56minus1 interview with Zafka Zhang.)
// AjS
[Friday 5 is the product of my work at Edelman Digital (China). Link here for the full Friday 5 archive. If you'd like to be added to the bilingual (English & Chinese) Friday 5 email distribution list, please send me an email at: adam DOT schokora AT edelman DOT com.]
:: Tuesday marked the one year anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake. Almost 90,000 people died in the disaster – over 5,000 of them children, trapped under the rubble of their own school classrooms, but spare a moment to think about 126 that did survive. Rescued from collapsed schools and designated as some of those most severely affected, they were brought to Beijing and enrolled in a specially tailored program of rehabilitation. The children, mainly Qiang and many of them orphans, gave a name to their new family at the Shuren-Ribet School in Beijing, “ShuMeng-ErMa” – hope in Sichuan for Qiang sons and daughters.
With no written system, Qiang culture and history have always been passed on by storytellers, musicians and religious leaders, but almost all of these ‘cultural carriers’ perished in the earthquake, leaving the preservation of Qiang culture at risk. The ShuMeng program works not only to offer basic education, food and shelter to these children, but to provide Qiang cultural classes, counseling and a sense of structure to their lives. Children who had nothing now have hope and a chance to make something of their future, but without funding, this program will have to close. The children will be separated from each other and sent back to schools in disaster-stricken areas. Such an upheaval would not only remove each child from his or her new surrogate family at the school, but it is unlikely any would receive education in Qiang culture or traditions at newly constructed schools in Sichuan – something that puts the future of this minority’s traditions in danger.
These children have been given hope, but risk having it taken away again – you can help. // AjS
:: I’m a TED.com fanboy – always have been, always will be. It’s some of the best content on the whole of the world wide wide, and It’s just gotten better.
With the support of NOKIA, TED.com is rolling out a major open source translation project aiming to present TED talk videos in 40+ subtitled languages, including simplified and traditional Chinese. There are already four videos subtitled in simplified Chinese (1, 2, 3, and 4 – many more coming soon), one of which is probably my all-time favorite TED talk: Jill Bolte Taylor’s Stroke of Insight. Enjoy, and share with your Chinese friends that perhaps wouldn’t watch without subtitles.
Related, TED.com is holding it’s first ever official event in China next month: TEDxShanghai. (Full disclosure: I am a member of the TEDxShanghai advisory board). Also, link here to check out TEDtoChina, a Chinese-language TED fan / community site. // AjS
:: I spent the past three days in Anhui visiting with my friend’s grandfather, a lovely man full of stories and laughs. He apparently took a liking to me as well and upon my departure gifted me two vintage Chairman Mao pins and a handwritten “Cultural Revolution Souvenir” (文化大革命纪念). Note the last two lines of handwriting in the picture below: 1966 – 1976, 十年动乱!!! (1966 – 1976, Ten Years of Turmoil!!!). A souvenir indeed. // AjS
:: from a very creepy R.V. park in Roswell, New Mexico, this week we have everything from a reverend to a sister, the biggest band in the world covering the best artist of all time, moon on moons, two from the Big O, and much more. // a
[...and don't forget to join our facebook page - 6 more people and I can finally tell my parents I've done something with my life]
[if you're having problems with the above player, click here]
sister clara hudmon – ‘my loved ones are waiting for me’
the rolling stones – ‘pain in my heart’
ray barreto* – ’soul call’
ben harper – ‘where could I go’ [live]
edith piaf – ‘c’est l’amour’
al greene – ‘belle’
charlie parker – ‘my old flame’
joe tex – ‘the love you save [may be your own]‘
sun kil moon – ‘gentle moon’
otis redding – ’stay in school’
otis redding – ‘i’ve been loving you too long [live]‘
*a few people have emailed me about this being the wrong spelling of his last name, when, in fact, his name was misspelled on his birth certificate. [thank you world wide web]
download, link to, or embed ‘rough sundays show 6′
[Aric S. Queen is a guest contributor to 56minus1]
:: so, I have a new show called Rough Sundays. It’s basically great and if you’re not listening, it’s okay, because there’s a good chance your friend is and they’ll fill you in soon enough. Old gospel + blues + Motown + funk + soul + a lot of Otis Redding = a great show (as mentioned).
I have gone ahead and posted the pilot + the first four episodes below, I hope you like it. I’ll be cross posting Rough Sundays on 56minus1 here. // a
roberta martin singers – ‘the old ship of zion’
nick drake – ’saturday sun’
eartha kitt – ‘i’m a funny dame’
john coltrane – ‘naima’
patsy cline – ‘crazy’
tom waits – ‘in shades’
thomas a. dorsey – ‘if you see my Savior’
keb mo’ – ‘city boy’
the staple singers – ‘will the circle be unbroken’
otis redding – ‘old man trouble’
lou reed – ‘caroline says [alt]‘
mavis staples/lucky peterson – ‘wade in the water’
django reinhardt – ‘for sentimental reasons’
fats waller – ‘vipers drag’
david bryne/brian eno – ‘one fine day’
bessie smith – ‘me & my gin’
ray charles – ‘makin’ whopee [live]‘
omara portuondo – ‘veija luna’
benny goodman boys – ‘blue [and broken-hearted]‘
otis redding – ‘a fool for you’
Rough Sundays – show #2: [recorded from SXSW in Austin, Texas]
bob schneider – ’round & round’
blind willy johnson – ‘church I’m fully saved today’
okkervil river – ’savannah smiles’
janis joplin – ‘get it while you can’
stevie ray vaughn – ‘life without you’
devendra barnhart – ‘at the hop’
toni price – ‘west texas lullaby’
daniel johnston – ‘hey joe’
willie nelson – ‘hello walls’
the polyphonic spree – ‘light & day / reach for the sun’
nina simone – ‘the family’
chet baker – ‘alone together’
pinback – ‘loro’
the louvin brothers – ’satan is real’
the beta band – ‘dry the rain’
carmen mcrae & sammy davis jr. – ‘happy to meet your acquaintance’
funkadelic – ‘adolescent funk’
georgia peach & her gospel singers – ‘the Lord send me’
fred astaire – ‘I concentrate on you’
otis redding – ‘you’ve made a man out of me’
mahalia jackson – ‘I bow on my knees’
john lee hooker – ‘blues before sunrise’
cat power – ‘lived in bars’
frank sinatra – ‘one of those things’
led zeppelin – ‘tangerine’
brother joe may – ’search me Lord’
ella fitzgerald – ‘good morning, heartache’
edmund hall celeste quartet featuring charlie christian – ‘profoundly blue’
gilberto gil – ‘three little birds’
otis redding – ‘down in the valley’
…so, that’s the first month or so. Stay tuned, as I will be cross-posting Rough Sundays on 56minus1 here.
[Aric S. Queen is a guest contributor to 56minus1]
:: see below for some snaps taken at this weekend’s BLENDER: Digital Culture Festival in Shanghai; Popil and DEZIO doing some freestyle mark-ups. For the full Flickr set link here. DEZIO was kind enough to gift me a set of poker cards featuring his work. If interested, link here for a short documentary I produced about graffiti in Shanghai featuring Popil. // AjS
