Happy Independence Day! No doubt many people are going to enjoy their long weekend watching fireworks and having barbecues. Look what we found on Youtube: someone singing a Mandarin version of the Star-Spangled Banner (a Canadian, no less). Enjoy, and be proud.
Okay, scientists, please start cloning giant pandas immediately, or do whatever you have to do to overpopulate giant pandas. Now I want to keep a dozen of baby giant pandas as pets. Failing that, let's have some toy makers produce a cute fluffy animatronic panda doll. (No, Robopanda doesn't cut it.)
With the news of the passing of historian and UC Berkeley professor Ronald Takaki, a trailblazer in the early Asian American movement, last week's Asian Pop column by Jeff Yang is focused on the establishment of the Asian American concept and see how the Asian American experience is relevant to the world in the 21st century.
Which is why, far from being the end of days for Asian American identity, this should be just the beginning. No community has been more impacted by multiracialism, transnationalism and panculturalism, the forces that are reshaping racial discourse. In essence, we represent something of a beta test for the future. If we can find common passion and shared purpose despite the issues we face, well, there's hope for global society yet. On that note, I'll let Professor Takaki have the final word, in this quote from a 2001 WashingtonPost.com interview:
"Our expanding ethnic diversity of this century, a time when we will all be minorities, offers us an invitation to create a larger memory of who we are as Americans and to reaffirm our founding principle of equality. Let's put aside fears of the 'disuniting of America' and warnings of the 'clash of civilizations.' As Langston Hughes sang, 'Let America be America, where equality is in the air we breathe.'"
Well, the giving of money or dowry to the other family when two persons get married is a funny tradition to start with, but it is a tradition rooted in history. Now that there is a serious gender imbalance happening in China, bachelors will do anything to just get married because of social and family pressure. (Confucius has said that there is nothing worse than not getting married and not having children.) This gives scheming opportunists a chance to cheat desperate housemen out of enormous amount of money, sometimes their life savings.
With no eligible women in his village, Zhou Pin, 27 years old, thought he was lucky to find a pretty bride whom he met and married within a week, following the custom in rural China.
Ten days later, Cai Niucuo vanished, leaving behind her clothes and identity papers. She did not, however, leave behind her bride price: 38,000 yuan, or about $5,500, which Mr. Zhou and his family had scrimped and borrowed to put together.
This article about speaking Mandarin instead of one's native language in the workplace is interesting in that it has a parallel in the American workplace; some companies has corporate policy that allows only English to be spoken on the work floor, no matter what the demographic makeup is.
People that are outsiders may think that everyone in China speak Mandarin (Putonghua). But actually there are hundreds of dialects that are in use in China. Mandarin is only adopted as a national language and is second language to most people. Linguistically, a Chinese workplace can be as confusing as that of the United Nations.
Youtube: A Kid's Song for the Dragon Boat Festival
The following song is quite popular among Cantonese children around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on May 28 this year.
An English translation of the lyrics is attempted as follow:
Going round and round
around the chrysanthemum garden
Fried rice cake
and sticky-rice bun
Double-Fifth is the Dragon Boat Festival
mom tells me to go watch dragon boat race
But I'm not going
I'm going to watch the little chicks instead
When the chicks are old enough
I'm going to sell them
How much will they sell for?
how many will I sell?
And I'm going to buy a toy pinwheel
it will spin beautifully
Watching it go round and round
like the chrysanthemum garden
Watching it go round and round
and round and round....
It's funny how even in children's songs, people are already trying to instill the concept of making money into the mind of innocent children. Who says Chinese is not capitalistic by nature?
I don't know what you'll be watching this Sunday (May 17), but for me, I'll definitely be watching the documentary "How Bruce Lee Changed the World" on History Channel. From its webpage:
Bruce Lee is universally recognized for prying open the doors of ancient Chinese martial arts to the mass market. The history of Lee's life, and death at the age of only 32, is shrouded in mystery, but his influence on popular culture continues to be felt today. This special pieces together rare family archival footage owned by the Bruce Lee Foundation, together with in-depth interviews with individuals who have cited inspiration from Lee. Viewers will journey across the US, Asia and Europe exploring Lee's influence on popular culture worldwide--even joining Shannon Lee on a trip back to her father's roots in Hong Kong; nearly fifty years after Lee arrived to make his first kung fu film. Also features in-depth interviews with actor Jackie Chan, comedian Eddie Griffin, rappers LL Cool J and RZA, Marvel Comics' Stan Lee, and renowned film directors John Woo and Brett Ratner. Lee's friend and business partner famed Hong Kong film producer, Raymond Chow gives a rare interview.
This comes from their Youtube description: "To commemorate the one year anniversary of [5.12 Earthquake], musicians Abigail Washburn and Dave Liang of the Shanghai Restoration Project traveled to Sichuan to make music with children who survived the earthquake and their parents. Using folk songs sung by the children as well as sounds of their parents rebuilding their houses with bricks and mortar, Abby and Dave created a unique musical soundscape, and this video shows how the whole process unfolded in March, 2009."
To see hear more of the music, see pictures from the project and to learn more about how to support Sichuan Quake Relief, you can go to afterquakemusic.com.
Today is the one-year anniversary of the 5.12 Earthquake that took the lives of 90,000 or so people in China last year, many of those children. Needless to say there are many commemorating activities going on in China today.
Today, much of the rebuilding of the quake-stricken regions is yet to be done. Hundreds of children are left orphaned, some disabled. Giant panda's habitat remains in ruin. People can still donate to the China Earthquake relief funds today. Good place to start will be International Red Cross, Mercy Corps and Save the Children.
File this item under Chinese cooking. Or TCM. Or LOL.
Amid the global spread of the Swine Flu, China's Health Minister has suggested adding star anise to your daily cooking, because star anise is one of the main raw ingredient to the antiviral drug Tamiflu, which seems to be able to control the swine flu.
"We can cook up some pork with star anise. This will certainly be a good treatment (for the flu)," Health Minister Chen Zhu joked at a news conference.
I think joked is the keyword there.
But anyhow, star anise is a spice that adds a lot of flavor to meat dishes. It is also part of the five-spice mix that is very common in Asian supermarkets. Try add some five-spice to your barbecue chicken next time.
Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step
Three thousand, actually.
There's an old Chinese saying that says "It's better to walk 10,000 miles than read 10,000 books." Well, if that's the case, Christoph Rehage is a very well-read person now; reading through experience. He had WALKED (!) thousands of miles when he tried to walk all the way from Beijing to Bad Nenndorf, Germany. His footprints are definitely all over China. Here's his very nicely edited video of the trip:
Yay, there is a new English source of China news starting today (Apr 20) for those of you yet to master the Chinese language. Global Times, a People's Daily affiliate, has launched an English version of the newspaper and website. You think it can compete well with other established English news source such as China Daily, or even People's Daily's own English site?
Well, apparently, amid a tightening job market, many young people and new graduates in China are undergoing plastic surgery hoping that a prettier face will give them the advantage in landing a job.
When the hospital surveyed patients, it learned that about 50% of the cases were job-related. Of them, one group is college students about ready to graduate, Liao says. The other: "White-collar employees after being laid off are having surgery so they are more attractive for the job search," says the retired pediatrician. Most patients are women.
This may sound crazy to us who get our jobs through merit and not by our looks, but in a market that routinely asks job applicants to include photos and body measurements, this is just the normal way of doing HR in China.
Many employers make no bones about what they're looking for in a candidate's looks. In Zhaopin's online job listings, more than 2,250 recruitment ads mention height, weight and other physical requirements.
C'mon, going under surgery just to get a job? Confucius certainly would not have approved this. In fact, he was the very first person to say that you cannot judge a person's by his/her look.
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