:: I recently came across this short “romantic comedy” film titled Signs by Sydney, Australia-based Patrick Hughes. It’s excellent. He produced it for the Schweppes Short Film Festival. Link here for more shorts from Hughes. This video is also on . Bravo, well done. // AjS
:: 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.
:: I just came across this video directed by Lee Tang (李唐) of the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Art (鲁迅美术学院) that spoofs the classic revolutionary opera The Long March Suite (长征组歌) to the tune of Jay Chou’s hit song Ninja. The video itself is great, but what I most appreciate is the front-and-center watermark throughout. Lee likely used an unregistered / free software to extract the original clip, making this fine piece of work that much more “from the Chinese Internet.” This video is also available on Youku for faster loading in China. // AjS
:: 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.]
:: 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 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
