oct 15th, wang nan, my cousin, my first playmate, my first best friend, my first partner in crime, has finally embarked on the voyage to switzerland. as he mentioned in his blog, for him to be a part of this growing trend in china, of studying abroad, he has lost so much, yet at the sametime, learned so much. in the end, he got the best opportunity school wise, and location wise. i'm extremely proud and happy for him. of course, i'm also happy that i will have a place to stay when i visit lausanne.

oct 8th, returning from the DPRK, boy, i'm so glad that i made the decision to visit, its one of the coolest spot ever... eh.. for photo taking at least. sorry folks, due to my workiing schedule, i'm behind, the bali picture will be up soon, and of course, the DPRK ones will go up after that. here are some samples of what to expect, enjoy ^_^

oct 1st, happy 56th P.R.C. finally, a breath of fresh air(of course, metaphorically) after weeks of endless work. virtually everyone i know is leaving this city for this one of the two week long breaks in china. as for me, i have booked front roll seats to the stage adaptation "cha guan" or tea house, which is a famouse novel written by one of china's most significant writers, lao she. then, the day day after, north korea. thats right, the DPRK.

sept 26th, this... is unbelievable.

sept 23rd, To the creative team for China's UTstarcom. Did you know that my american bosses laughed at you today? Did you know that our team laughed at you today? Except that my american bosses are probably laughing at how much lack of respect towards authenticity, and lack of creativity China has, as oposed to just laughing at how cheesily this shot was art directed. By slacking off on creative work, you not only embarrass your selves, but also our country as a whole. Do you honestly believe this sack of shit would benefit your client a single bit? I pity you, and I pity the Chinese brands.

sept 12th, flew back to beijing, now out of a total of 10 flights i took in china, including this trip to tai yuan and back, the flight from tai yuan to beijing was the ONLY one arrived on time. for those of you that don't live in China, for a flight to be considered "late" it usually is at least an hour late, the previous 9 flights i took in the period of 10 months on average are about 2 hours late. oh yeah, they don't really have a compensation program in china, not even say... water / snacks for the pissed off customers in waiting areas. also, guess what, sometimes, they'd let you board the plane, and then tell you the flight is late, this way, they won't have to refund tickets should somepeople choose to, imagine sitting in a packed plane with airconditioning failing you by the minute, yep, you gotta love china's attitude on mass transportation.

sept 10th, i'm back in tai yuan to see gao liang, the google pitch made me miss his wedding and i felt bad.

sept 9th, i swear to god i'm on a roll, well, actually everyone i worked with are, we just won google.

sept 6th, Gao Liang, one of my best friends in preschool have gotten married today, with his beautiful wife Wei Wei. This makes me officially the only one in this group of trouble makers who haven't gotten hitched yet. o well, i'm still young... at least i still think i am.

autg 26th, just finished reading "The first half of my life" an autobiography of the last emperor of china - Ai xin jue luo, pu yi. it was by far one of the most interesting books i've read. i found out later that pu yi was also affected by china's cultural revolution, and later died in a hospital that refuses to give him care. This part of history has always been a blur in china, and doesn't get talked about much. I really think the chinese communist government should step out and apologize for what they've done to the people during the 60s.

aug 26th, how do you win a major account in just 4 days? hire bo thats how :D we won! working 48hrs straight finally paid off.

aug 23rd, really really really busy these days, siemens pitch and a the fucking v3 ads wont get off my back, exactly how many fucking formats are there in china? why are there so many anyways? Here is my advice to the Chinese Advertising Association. instead of sitting there interpret how much sexual connotation an ad can conjure up, (they killed off one of our ads which featured a woman posing with one of her hand tucking her shirt in her pants) please focus on standardize these formats? i had to do 80 comps for 2 executions. once again, i have to bring that sentence up - this country is so fucking backwards. CAA is just one of those places that keeps the country that way.

aug 22nd, motorola china has once again killed off one of our great concepts, because of "not showing the phone enough" i really despise these corporate people, they think they're paying for square inches of their phones rather than our communication. good thing is that we're executing it our selves. i'm an internal phone model, hehe. Will show off the ads soon.

aug 9th, returning from bali island. just what i needed, i only wish i could take someone special along. the pictures will be up later.

july 25th, i'm not proud to have written this, but i get extremely upset towards pretentious people. read only if you're bored.

july 24th, the best link of the year, thanks to adam(not viewable from china in general because of the government firewall) this shot should win some fucking cool awards. i present to you, the smoking gun.

july 24th, my dissatisfaction with batteries, and my curiosity over all things mechanical are both blowing out of proportion these days. it started with my facination with hasselblads, and then, when the battery on my olympus om-1 died, i saved up for a leica m3. this time... i have set my eyes on something that is completely out of my league - an Omega Seamaster.

incase i forget when i get rich. here's the id number: 2293.52.00

jul 23rd, very good friend lige's bday. organized the party on a stone boat in ri tan park, how cool is that... happy birday lige!!!

also, my elementary school class mate elaine, RX8 driving PBS woman, is back from phili, what a girl, she has done really well for her self in the states, i'm so proud of her. too bad you're flying off so soon.

lige just got icing in her face.

july 7th, pretty nice, i enjoyed it.

jul 5th, flying back to LA.

i'm never going to fly china eastern ever now, the flight was delayed for 4 hours, and i think its normal for them, cus every single flight i took in the past 6 months in china have all been delayed, its like they don't care.

i love the beaches in LA, and these various types of performers.

dinosaurs and ufos, how cool is that.

haven't seen tiffany for a really long while now, glad she's doing well. she hung out with me, brian and mike in pasadena.

nancy is so cool to have stuck by me when i went everywhere, kept me company. she loves her "smoky eyes"

flew back on JAL, very refreshing to be on board a flight that took off on time, and smiling flight attendants, yeah, not muscle twitch, i'm talking about actual smiles.

jun 29th, my bday, jessie totally made me special by putting together these words with glow sticks in my apt court yard, it drew quite a crowd. i was totally speechless over this, thank you so much jessie :)

at touch 9 with friends..., here's song tao

violet park

of course.., this happened

chris, me, and lu

shawn

lu, at kareoke

doug and meilin

shawn, lu

fanni's friend and fanni

jun 25th, dying...

jun 23rd, David Ogilvy's bday, the O&M group has made this day the DO day. Hmm, soon, there will be also.... a BO day, hehehe.

this is our corporate gift, a mini sculpture from a fine artst in Beijing, titled "MADE IN CHINA" it is very cool.

I was also impressed with our celebration site, the famous 798 factory gallary. When i arrived though, i found out that they didn't have enough AC in this place, it got so hot, the air inside became misty. MISTY!!!

so i left after 20min. Thanks A LOT to whoever that planned this >:( , i dressed formal, do you understand???

jun 20th, the aunt i'm closest to was hospitalized in shanghai, i decided to fly there to visit her. mom flew there from LA also.

construction is still going on at shang hai's pudon int' airport

part of pudong's int' airport is the famous, one and only mag lev light rail train in the world. top speed - 400 km/h, sounds very impressive. i would've used the money to build some more schools in the country though, or public toilets!

i found this abandoned house waiting to be demolished near huai hai lu. i thought it still has some charm and walked inside.

jun 11th, ok, actually, its monday's rejection, tuesday's loss, and friday's betrayal.

what a perfect fucking way to end this week, how could the same fucking idea have two different outcomes? The very same idea from me that got killed the day before, becomes the fucking glorious winner now coming from someone else? Is this backstabbing accidental? What the fuck is going on in this office? AND... I don't think i'd pick up an incoming call in the middle of someone else's pitch, thats just disrespectful!

jun 10th, monday's rejection, tuesday's loss, and friday's fucking mega traffic jam, i think i know what i did that made god angry... i won't do it again, i promise. By the way, for the Beijing city planners, here's a hint:

BUILD MORE SUBWAYS!!! TAX THE CAR OWNERS!!! OR RUN OVER THEM WITH TANKS, YOU CAN'T EXPECT PEOPLE TO TAKE THIS UP THEIR ASSES FOREVER.

jun 7th, the two-day college entrance exam starts today. This unfair system is considered by most chinese the gateway to success in life. I was lucky enough to avoid this fiasco in my life, so i've always been curious how its like. I decided to go to one of the designated exam-sites, Beijing #4 highschool to check it out.

30min til lunch break, the parents already dug in and ready to pick their kids up.

out side of school, 5minutes to go, parents are up and ready.

students finished with the test early came out, others are still inside.

a lot of parents are documenting this as an important point in their kid's life. doing it with style i might add.

yes... i had my hasselblad, it makes big shutter noice and i have to meter people before i take pictures, this got some attention.

somebody just fainted during the test, they announced that through PA system, ambulance was on site.

jun 6th, what a shitty way to start off this week. I just lost a pretty important pitch so to speak.

june 1st, O&M beijing gives b-day cakes to employees, but get this, they'll celebrate only onece doesn't matter how many people are born in that month. At the beginning of every month, two cakes will be delivered from a very decent bakery to the office, and one of them will have a nice chocolate plaque saying happy bday to "blank" , "blank, and "blank. Mmmm... can you smell that love... Well, at least i'm cool enough to get that plaque. YESSSSSSSS!

may 27th, so i always go to this tiny photo developing store down the street from my office. The store owner has two cats, i can't say they're people friendly, they're just... "unaware". Everytime a customer comes in, they would take one look at him/her then go on about their business, really cool. Well, today, a customer brought in a dog, this is what happened.

may 25, Ah, yes, finally, a taste of America in Beijing's drawning polluted air, although it'll be official in 2 weeks, i figure i should do my part as a fan.

This is for my friends that still enjoy listening to Chinese pop, who still think The Matrix Trilogy is their all time favorite, who still shop at A&F, who still shop at Diesel, who still wear a bandana under a cap, with authentication sticker still on it. For that random person at Hua Li building i see everynow and then, wearing an ECKO shirt and khaki trouser. For the very same group of white people i see at Vics EVERYTIME i go there, and the girls that dance with them. For all the people i admire, for all the people i disparage, I present to you, this album.

may 21st, i watched two awesome movies today, a japanese anime called apple seed, and a hollywood production called in good company, which featured scarlett johansson, dennis quaid and topher grace (eric forman in that 70s show) i loved both movies, thought i recommend them.

may 18th another sleepless night due to overwhelming work load, this is starting to bother me. alright, anyways, here are my updates.

may 1st, company trip to seoul, korea, here 's a street lamp in front of the Blue house, korea's "white house"

my face got as red as my shirt that night, so happy to have impressed my co-workers by saying "cho-ghee-yo, uh... pitcher beer.... uh... soo-mee-da?"

one job you have to perform on a tour is to shop at tour designated shopping areas, in this case, a chinese friendly duty free electronic shop

and after that of course, tour designated restaurants

mike is the pimp in korea, at least he says so, didn't see any girls around him when i met him, but he took me to this great ox-tail soup place around his house. I'm glowing like a lightbulb from this bow of ox-tail.

its all good. Thanks dude.

korean palace, its super tiny compare to the forbbiden city, but i do have to admit, its much cleaner and guess what my fellow countrymen? NO FUCKING STARBUCKS IN THE PALACE!!!!! HOW ABOUT THAT FOR A CHANGE?????

april 3rd, i flew back to taiyuan for the moving of my grandfather's grave site, i took a picture of one of our helpers. His gaze was the purest i have ever seen, truely mesmorizing.

mar 20th, finally, a sign of spring

mar 15, my fucking god, nov. 15 was the official date when i started in ogivly, ever since then i just was not able to spare a single night for this little blog of mine. finally, stories piled up and i decided to give up a gym night to update how i'm doing in Beijing.

view outside of my window

so i live in an apt complex around the 2nd ring north east from forbiden city. its called pop moma, it has absolutely nothing to do with neither modern art nor museums, i don't know whats up with that. beijingers always say to live in this apt complex is "xiao zi" or, petty bourgeoisie. I like the connotation of this word "xiao zi" in china, beijingers say it to you with a perfect blend of mockery and admiration.

view outside of my office window

our ogilvy office building is located not far from china's most well know boulevard, Chang An street, or street of lasting stability.

our floor, Ah hai's bottle gourd, its a real one he had someone brought back from north east of china

my desk. apparently i was the only one with the new 20" apple mon when i came in, pressure......

the loyalty door, no really, its really called that

my big boss, nils andersson, Group ECD of ogilvy beijing also the tallest man in the company

two big boses of mine at our chinese new year company party in swissotel.r

nov 6th, just finally getting back to LA, i miss berlin, and paris. now i have to prepare to leave for beijing and start my ogilvy job. finally, i get to leave this shitty town.

sept 15th, wicker park is surprisingly better than what i had expected it to be, every body should go watch it. now its still a b level movie, but hey, its a damn good one. Stupid trailer totally didn't serve its justice.

sept 11th, Wow, thanks a lot cliff, this note is currently sitting in a shrine right now...

sept 5th, labor day weekend, went with family to zuma beach, the beach is awesome. here's midori wondering when he'll get some attention from my mom.

aug 28th, we're going to orange 22,a furniture show in down town. on the way, we stopped by to meet up with adam at super happy bunny, this work space is amazing.

aug 26th, i always imagined how will my first formal job offer after art center would be. Big conference room with couple of people deked out in diesel, small office with an old ECD surrounded by ten million award statues... i never thought it would be a phone call 4am in the morning, a pretty damn good offer too. i'm officially scared now... goodbye student life.

aug 23rd, today is unbelievably beautiful, i was driving down 101 and the sun is setting. i wish i had a better camera. downtown LA is rarely this sexy, i took it as a sign, it knows my plan and tries to convince me to stay.

aug 16th, incase you missed my graduation pics, you can still see them here

aug 16th, so i finally ran out of stuff to give to agencies, and have to letter press the covers again. i made two covers, each with a different color. as i cleaned the thick rubber base ink off of the press, which took 30min to do so, i realized that this process is enormously time consuming. i was so in love with printing that i'd spend entire weekends here, and comes to think of it, i think this is when my ex started to think i'm cheating on her, quite sad.

aug 12th, asian art museum

i was actually walking up straight, it was the steep hill

aug 11th, blackrocket had this really cool theme that i liked. i also learned to say "embarcadero" for the first time, adam laughed at me.

i had a huge crush on a girl at steps of rome. she was about to have her birthday cake icing shot into her face by this waiter. the way she refused him was the cutest girly act i have ever witnessed, if you are that girl, please email me :D

aug 10th, going up to frisco with adam