:: I recently posted about my good friend Helen Lee (Shanghai-based fashion designer behind the brand insh) presenting her new fall / winter collection, MIGRATE, as part of Shanghai’s 2009 Fashion Week. I attended the show and brought my video camera along – below is the view from the cat walk. // AjS
This video is also available on Tudou for faster loading in China.
:: this video series features Shanghai-based creator Nial O’Connor (a.k.a. Zeldz Magnoonis) introducing his soon-to-be released comic “Jing Squared” (晶²). The comic is designed specifically for viewing on mobile phones, and will be available for download from mid-2009 onward throughout mainland China.
In this first video short, Nial presents Jing Jing – the title character of his comic – and discusses her character, powers, and world.
Illustration & narration by Nial O’Connor. Film production by 56minus1. Soundtrack by Nara.
Link here for an earlier 56minus1 post with some of Nial’s work from an exhibition at Shanghai’s Art Plus gallery. Also, link here for a recent interview Nial did with Merge Magazine. // AjS
Below is a Chinese-subtitled version of the video above. If you are accessing the above VIMEO video from within China and finding it to be loading / streaming too slowly, the below Tudou video may be faster if you don’t mind the subtitles. There also a Chinese-subtitles version available on VIMEO.
:: this video is the tenth in a Danwei.org series of short interviews conducted at this year’s Chinese blogger conference (cnbloggercon 2008, Guangzhou, November 15 & 16th).
In this interview, Carol Lin (林凯洛) (a.k.a. The Carol), a prolific Taiwanese blogger, , social activist, and an all-around digital maven, who is also well known for her photography, shares her thoughts on the lack of development in the Chinese web 2.0 / Internet industry, Taiwan’s uncensored Internet, the opportunity average Chinese people got to “taste the flavor of freedom in an unblocked Internet” during the Olympics, and digitally savvy Chinese netizens.
This video is also available on Tudou for faster loading in China.
To see other interviews from this series, link here.
Filming, editing, and interviewing: Adam J. Schokora
Subtitles: Alice Liu
Music: B6
:: a great animated video titled The Crisis of Credit Visualized by Jonathon Jarvis that tells the story of the world financial crisis so that everyone can understand: slowly and simply. // AjS
:: following up on Jon’s post yesterday about the José González’s show at the Shanghai Children’s Art Theatre, I went to his second performance in Shanghai last night at Glamour Bar. José again put on a great show, with an intimate stage arrangement that allowed for everyone to get up close. One highlight of the night was José showing off his Chinese and saying “牛逼!” (niu bi) to the crowd, something he must have picked up in Beijing a couple nights earlier. Below is a video I took on my phone of “Teardrop,” his last song of the night. Again, kudos to and his team at Split Works for bringing José to China. // SL
[Sean Leow is a guest contributor on 56minus1.]
:: this video is the ninth in a Danwei.org series of short interviews conducted at this year’s Chinese blogger conference (cnbloggercon 2008, Guangzhou, November 15 & 16th).
In this interview, Guo “Daxia” (郭”大虾”), a controversial and prolific grassroots Chinese blogger well-known for tackling many of China’s most sensitive social issues on his blog (which has long been blocked / inaccessible in mainland China), discusses his experience blogging, “civic consciousness” in China, the influence social media is having on official policymakers, censorship, free speech / public discourse, and the Chinese government propaganda department loosing control.
This video is also available on Tudou for faster loading in China.
To see other interviews from this series, link here.
Filming, editing, and interviewing: Adam J. Schokora
Subtitles: Alice Liu
Music: B6
:: happy Chinese new year from 56minus1. This video was shot in Shanghai on January 25th, 2009; Chinese new year’s eve. 牛年愉快! // AjS
This video is also available on Tudou for faster loading time in China.
Special thanks to for help with filming / firework lighting, and for firework lighting / moral support.
:: this video is the eighth in a Danwei.org series of short interviews conducted at this year’s Chinese blogger conference (cnbloggercon 2008, Guangzhou, November 15 & 16th).
In this interview, Isaac Mao (毛向辉), China’s first blogger and a self proclaimed “free philosopher of sharism,” talks about how many major news stories in China first break online with local netizens using blogs and other social media tools to find, share, and uncover the truth about issues the mainstream / traditional media aren’t allowed to cover. Mao goes on to speak optimistically about China’s social progress and evolution, assuring that the country is moving toward a modern society very much worth looking forward to.
This video is also available on Tudou for faster loading in China.
To see other interviews from this series, link here.
Filming, editing, and interviewing: Adam J. Schokora
Subtitles: Alice Liu
Music: B6
:: in this video short, 93 year old Teacher Gui (Ms. Gui Biqing, 桂碧清) tells two short stories from the Cultural Revolution era in China; one about a son taking the punishment for his family’s capitalist ventures and bourgeoisie background while they were abroad, and another about the good children of academics / intellectuals going bad and rebelling against their parents and society.
This video is also available on Tudou for faster loading in China.
The “teacher gui” video series will be sharing short excerpts from ongoing interviews with Teacher Gui, who is working with Chen Yi (陈怡), a reporter at the Shanghai Service Platform for Science & Public (上海科普资源开发与共享平台), to write her memoirs; a yet-to-be titled autobiography published sometime in 2009.
Teacher Gui has been a resident of Shanghai since she was a teenager. Born in 1917, she spent her early years growing up in Beijing on the campus of Qinghua University where her father was a professor. When the Japanese came too close for comfort, Teacher Gui and her family fled south to Shanghai, where shortly thereafter they were again inconvenienced by the Japanese.
Teacher Gui has lived through some of modern China’s most turbulent and interesting times. Through it all, including an 18 month stint locked up during the cultural revolution for being accused of espionage, she’s never stopped working. She was a radio news broadcaster with the Soviet Union broadcasting station in Shanghai, a kindergarten headmaster, and Chinese language teacher. She’s been teaching Mandarin to foreigners in Shanghai since the early 1940’s, and she still teaches to this day.
For more on Teacher Gui, feel free to Baidu or her; there are plenty of interesting articles, interviews, etc. from over the years.
// AjS
:: this video is the sixth in a Danwei series of short interviews conducted at this year’s Chinese blogger conference (cnbloggercon 2008, Guangzhou, November 15 & 16th).
In this interview, Wen Yunchao (温云超), also known as Bei Feng (北风), a well-known blogger, activist, and independent / grassroots reporter at the forefront of current social and political events in China, online and off, talks about the growth of online social networking over the past year, increasing control over and censorship of online debate, and the speed at which Chinese netizens use their blogs / microblogs to work together, organize, and “report on” major happenings.
This video is also available on Tudou for faster loading in China.
To see other interviews from this series, link here.
Filming, editing, and interviewing: Adam J. Schokora
Subtitles: Alice Liu
Music: B6
:: in this short, 93 year old Teacher Gui (Ms. Gui Biqing, 桂碧清) talks about her experiences with customer service in the times of government-assigned jobs and the “big rice pot,” a cousin of the “iron rice bowl.”
The “teacher gui” video series will be sharing short excerpts from ongoing interviews with Teacher Gui, who is working with Chen Yi (陈怡), a reporter at the Shanghai Service Platform for Science & Public (上海科普资源开发与共享平台), to write her memoirs; a yet-to-be titled autobiography published sometime in 2009.
This video is also available on Tudou for faster loading in China (and without the disappointing “skip” in the YouTube version above).
Fortunately, Teacher Gui was kind enough to allow one of her students (i.e. me) to sit in and film these sessions. Unfortunately though, the invitation came a bit late in the process, as she has already finished talking about most of the cultural revolution period in China (1966 – 76).
Teacher Gui is 93 years old and has been a resident of Shanghai since she was a late teenager. Born in 1917, she spent her early years growing up on the campus of Qinghua University where her father was a professor. When the Japanese came too close for comfort, Teacher Gui and her family fled south to Shanghai, where shortly thereafter they were again inconvenienced by the Japanese.
Teacher Gui has lived through some of modern China’s most turbulent and interesting times. Through it all, including an 18 month stint locked up during the cultural revolution for being accused of espionage, she’s never stopped working. She was a radio news broadcaster (with the Soviet Union broadcasting station in Shanghai), a kindergarten headmaster, and Chinese language teacher. She’s been teaching Mandarin to foreigners in Shanghai since the early 1940’s, and still teaches to this day.
For more on Teacher Gui, feel free to Baidu or her; there are plenty of interesting articles, interviews, etc. from over the years.
// AjS
:: this video is the fourth in a Danwei series of short interviews conducted at this year’s Chinese blogger conference (cnbloggercon 2008, Guangzhou, November 15 & 16th).
In this interview, Zhai Minglei (翟明磊), a citizen journalist and blogger who previously wrote for Southern Weekly (南方周报) and later founded 1Bao.org (壹报) and Minjian (民间) magazine (since “shut down”), talks about how he is pleasantly surprised that the Internet in China has become a platform for the traditional Chinese concept of “jianghu” (江湖) to re-emerge, in the face of “miaotang” (庙堂).
This video is also available on Tudou for faster loading in China.
Filming, editing, and interviewing: Adam J. Schokora
Subtitles: Alice Liu
Music: Sulumi
// AjS
:: this video short was filmed at the home of Cold Fairyland’s lead singer and pipa player, Lin Di (林笛). In the video, Lin Di performs three songs, “unplugged,” that she’s been working on for a soon-to-be-released solo acoustic album.
Opening / closing music by Zuo Xiao Zu Zhou (左小祖咒), a song called “你一直没有让我脑子休息过.”
This video is also available on Tudou for faster loading times in China.
// AjS
