Recently in current events Category

I always remind my friends that we live in a increasingly superficial world. I initially didn't want to comment on the Lin MiaoKe and Yiang PeiYi as millions of Chinese bloggers already have I'm sure. Before I make my comment, I want to make clear that I think we're all judgmental, yes, we all have that subconscious of judging a book by its cover. Don't agree? Just look at US congressmen today and compare them to the ones from the 50s, where 70% of them were bald back in the day.

The choice between the two girls I suspect is purely out of aesthetic reasons, like picking someone for an endorsement of something. In this case however, I do have to say, the game organizers or whoever 's responsible didn't choose wisely, and took the Olympic Spirit and took a typical marketing. I respect Yang PeiYi because she went through a grueling nation wide hunt for this Ode to the Motherland voice. It would be shallow to say the least, to cast such a judgement upon a girl this young despite her obvious talent.

China, this is really, in poor taste, No one in the world respect style over substance.
Zhang Yi Mou, where were you when Miss Little Sun Shine was playing in theaters?

Having said that, the opening ceremony is still mind blowing, and I still think its the best opening ceremony ever and extremely proud... The game continues in the nation of contradiction.

From Boston.com. These pictures are out of this world. More from that site. It's a must see.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/08/2008_olympics_opening_ceremony.html

Prior to my departure from Beijing, I took pictures of this charming city at night. Like a beautiful woman in her sleep, without the charade and make up during the day. I see a truer Beijing. I dedicate this album to the coming opening ceremony of the Olympic games tonight. Best of Luck, Beijing, and have a wonderful night!

I was brownsing CNN today, and its quick survey of the day is: "If you had the chance, would you want to go to the Olympics in Beijing?" To my big surprise, a whopping 69 percent of people voted No.

So let me get this straight America, despite the fact that this coming Olympic games is set in the biggest country in asia, home to one fifth of worlds population. A country that has a history 25 times of the US. You also wouldn't check out - the fastest growing economy in the world, the up and coming, biggest competitor in EVERY SINGLE aspect to United States. A big economic power thats making its best effort to collaborate with US and downplaying the "competitor" role by buying massive amounts of boeing airplanes and pushing the crappiest GM cars to its citizens. No, all you can think about is how the monks are treated in Tibet, people, get over it, I've been to tibet, Monks were never mistreated, what happened in the 50s and 80s were monks trying to make Tibet independent, they were rioting with fucking rifles and grenades, violent riot will meet with swift law enforcement, that happens every where. Tibet's BEEN Chinas for close to 300 freaking years, if you think Tibet is independent, you might as well give back Alaska, California, Nevada, New Mexico at least! I can not believe how many ignorant people are out there claiming they're liberals and act unbelievably sheltered.

Travel abroad, visit the place before you can cast some opinion. Otherwise, you're just dumb.

Wow, I'm not into the music, but, Wow!

Da Zha Lan before City's more recent glamorous days was a dump, and before people's republic was city's red light district. Now the city pured millions into a revitalization project. I heard a lot about it and decided to pay a visit. When I got close to it, I felt like I'm in Xin Tian Di in Shang Hai, its such a film set, everything is brand spanking new, and... old at the same time. I am happy for Da Zha Lan, this area is in a disparate need for face lift, but to have it completely demolished and turned into a... even older, distant era than before, I question its value and authenticity, for a brief moment I felt the area was not built for me, it no longer belongs to the people that lived in Beijing, its just for tourists, then very quickly I realized, maybe its for both, a reminder for Beijingers as well, as we were deprived of this part of history for so long also.

I was in US when the quake happened. two days after, there are news reports on schools being the only building in certain areas that had collapsed. I forgot which news report it was, but I did remember it was a Chinese news channel. When I came back to Beijing, and continued to follow the news, such news piece weren't mentioned at all, and when I brought that up to some friends, they were suspicious of me, believing in the western media.

Of course I have to admit that not being in the actual areas, I can't say for sure, but today, this news came out on CNN. Of course, for all you sensitive types and conspiracy theorists, its a report from the western news source, read it at your discretion. On Baidu, I do know this: 在绵竹市五福镇,唯一倒塌的建筑是第二小学校舍,造成大约300名学生死亡。(300 students died from the only collapsed building, their school building in the town of Wu Fu, in the City of Mianzhu.) The news piece originated from Reuters and has since been confirmed.

Whatever the case maybe, I hope the media here in China can be even more transparent as they promised to be. Tibet has been a really good lesson for a country with slow reacting media, in which caused a great deal of misunderstanding and deliberate inflammatory reports from the western countries. By keeping stories that suggests spotty school building construction from the public is going backwards and for sure it will attract the same type of scrutiny as the Tibet incident.

Lili got a 3-months-old puppy today. Such an adorable dog. His name is Bobo.

I'm sure everyone now has heard of the earthquake in Si Chuan. I have no idea what 7.9 magnitude earthquake is like, not many of us do, but remember that guy in that building when Kobe earthquake hit? Thats just 7.2. We also don't have a grasp of the scale of damages, death tole is now above 30,000, make Pasadena California as an example, imagine one in every 5 dead. Its hard to estimate what kind of damage natural disasters will cause, but its not hard to know when we need to contribute. This is the biggest earthquake in China on record, let's help.

Mike took me to Korea town on 32nd to have lunch.

Me

In Manhattan now, visiting friends and checking out this lovely city again. On the plane I read the book "City Records" (城记) a book about modern Beijing's coming of age. How city planners, architects, engineers, and politicians have all made this city the way it is right now. Many people expressed that Beijing's modern city planning is a disastrous one, this book explains why people think that way and important gains and losses between different parties when each decision about city planning was made. I've always been interested in this book. Not only that I love beijing, in both past form and... not so much by comparison, its present form. When I go back, I will do some exploring of my own and write my own thoughts on this. Anyways, very interesting read. Thanks again, to Chloe, for lending me this book.

Chloe has done it again, this buddy of mine not only knows where all the cool venues are, she can always manage to get in for free! CIGE stands for China International Gallery Exhibition, it touts its self as a premier exhibit to feature some of the most well known contemporary artists around the world, especially from within China and around Asia.

I'm absolutely amazed at some of the pieces and can it really opened up my eyes again. Having little access to quality museums and galleries really took its toll. The funny thing in this city is that just when you're depressed about that fact, something extraordinary pops up and delights your senses.

I also saw Rachel Ma as I came out of the exhibit, she's a happy little art dealer now working for a very respectable gallery in 798, I'm happy for you Rachel :)

More images after the jump.

Sorry people, for lack of posts. I have been trying to sort out somethings recently, with work, travel, friends, a new phone and a new laptop. Had dinner with Chloe two days ago in No Name bar, a place Me and Lu scouted for our Redbull shoot once upon a time. It was really good, in fact I think I had the best Yun Nan food in beijing that night, so I recommend that to all. The big story here is that Beijing finally has the type of soda cans that had the push-in kind of openings instead of the grenade rings, I was literally waving my arms in the air for this... improvement, hehe.

Believe it or not, I do know the reason behind two designs. The grenade ring was never intended for it to be fully pulled off, once it pops, it was designed for people to pull it far enough for them to insert a straw. This design exists in developing countries because product's retail environment isn't clean enough. To have the can come in direct contact with your lip would be regarded as something dangerous.

The new design, obviously needn't much explanation, it opens faster, pours out smoother, and you end up with kids that won't have a chance to play with the ring and cut them selfs by accident.

Back to in the restaurant, I was shocked, actually shocked at the coke can when the waitress brought it to me, look folks, Coke cans in Beijing, has finally changed to the western push in style!!!!!!!!! The grenade ring style can opening is disappearing FINALLY... I sat there in amazement for literally 2 minutes speechless. Now if Beijing can make the smokers disappear like they did with the old cans, that'll really be something.

Pictures of taipei will be up soon. In the mean time, I can show you these. Various hip and trendy clubs/bars I got taken to by some friends.

Bathroom of Primo, Taipei. It was a soft opening night that night. I was introduced to some of the nicest people. Even shook hands with the owner of the ever so famous Bar Rouge in Shanghai.

Club 18, I've never seen a club filled with so many people.

Tila Taquela, met Faye Wong's manager in this bar.

Post election celebration. People were ecstatic about the result.

See those shots? I wasn't kidding about people being happy that weekend.

Ex-collegues invited me to a field trip couple weeks back. Just got them back today.

View from the top of Houhai hill. The weather in beijing that day sucked, but the forbidden city still looked glorious in the smog.

View of the hill from the boat.

Former Ogilvy colleagues. Thanks Vivian Guo for the invite, I had fun :)

Tibet Tibet, you are China's forever. We love Tibet more than Dhalai, more than Bjork. Tibet can't leave, not during war, not during peace, not during economic difficulties, not during Olympics, not during anything.

Ever notice most songs are written about love? From a secret crush, to love at first sight, to heart break, to longing. Desire can be beautiful and scary at the same time. Does love make us stronger? Then why do we reveal so much vulnerabilities to a loved one? Does it make us weak? Then why do we abuse a loved one's trust sometimes? As we move on, we become skeptics, cynics, and sometimes, abusers, and yet, we put our selves in this loop. I'm not in love. I'm not in doubt. I am... despondent.

To people I loved and people who loved me back. Happy Valentines Day.

Rambo.
I hated it. It's a bad video game movie. With all do respect, I Iove Stallone, but this one didn't really work for me. Its a "bordering shit" movie.

Juno.
I LOVED it. The dialogue's smart and quirky, worth watching. My favorite line in the movie: That ain't no etch & sketch.

Atonement.
Found the beginning very Jane Austen like. Who can blame them, its from the film maker that did pride and prejudice. Never dug that. But, Loved the story, I was absolutely absorbed. My favorite part: When James McAvoy sat down in the restaurant, next to Keira Knightley, there was a silent, long gaze out the window. It pretty much summed everything up.

No Country for Old Men.
Wow, I saw violence being taken to a whole new level. My heart had been jolted from scene to scene, and I'm not the type of guy that have that often with violent movies. Rambo was just as bloody and gory, but guess what, its like... decades behind this one. Very dramatic, very neat portrayals of the main characters, Javier Bardem deserves an Oscar for his performance. Loved the beginning part of the film, sets the mood for a stark, harsh country. Favorite part: When Josh Brolin stepped back into the clothing store with boots and hospital gawn.

There Will Be Blood.
I find this one interesting, in the sense that the story hid the conflict between characters in the beginning and slowly they emerged just like... you guessed it, oil. a bit long, but I liked it.

Jumper.
Traveled around the world with the movie, well, barely. I'm a bit disappointed, it lacked Bourn Identity's intrigue because it didn't set up a whole lot of intrigue, once you know the guy jumps around, then... you pretty much know the rest of the movie. Also... wasn't there someone that could already do that in Xmen? This is such a kids movie.

went to artcenter to visit