A few years ago, I had the pleasure of directing the biography of Taiwanese sculptor Ju Ming.
He is best known for his quirky Living World Series and the monumental Tai Chi Series.
In the process of filming the documentary, I fell in love with the wonderful space that is the Ju Ming museum, an open air sculpture park dedicated to the exhibition of Ju’s works.
Hence, I am a little ticked but nonetheless very delighted to see that the museum has launched a new product.
I call it Taichi series 2.0 — cookies cast in the shape of the famous sculptures.
It is thus with great satisfaction that I can finally lay claim to having an entry on “Chinese food” on my blog, right along my musings about ‘Chinese documentary film’, ‘China’s urban life’, ‘Chinese internet.’
In the age of short text messages and punchy micro-blog entries, the semicolon seems to be in danger of extinction.
The diminishing use of that punctuation mark,which, links yet separates closely related ideas may well signify larger changes in our culture. Addicted to speed, we constantly accelerate and have little patience to pause to contemplate. We eschew the complexity of multi-part arguments in favor of the instant gratification of simplistic sound bytes.
Kudos once again to the NYT. Few other papers can do what it has done with this essay:make its reader reflect upon the social and cultural milieu in which proper language use finds its true significance.
I especially love this quote by Kurt Vonnegut in the article: “When Hemingway killed himself he put a period at the end of his life. Old age is more like a semicolon.”
The best films often don’t win the biggest awards.
This is the conclusion that I have come to after observing film competitions and award ceremonies on the sidelines.
I have seen very average films make it to the top film festivals in the world. On the other hand, highly nuanced and well produced pieces have been left out on the cold, hard pavement of rejection.
The key to this puzzle lies in that intangible and elusive variable we sometimes call “resonance”
News about this year’s Oscar nominations seem to confirm this educated guess. 4 out of 15 films that made it to the shortlist for documentary features deal with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of these, 3 out of the 4 war films, No End in Sight, Taxi to the Dark Side,Operation Homecoming, scored Oscar nominations.
We all know that the war in Iraq and Afghanistan are millstones tied to the neck of the American conscience. So documentary film making,too,becomes a means of exorcising the ghosts of blood, violence and the tears of innocent victims. The war theme resonates with the American zeitgeist.
In other words, if you are making a personal film about a little known cause in an obscure place with a polysyllabic name that defies pronunciation, your chances of clinching an Oscar nomination and winning a big award are close to zero. No matter how well-made your film may be.
This is because your film will not find resonance with your intended audience. The jury panel and the film festival goers may be frustrated because they search, could not find, those reflections of their greatest sorrows and deepest anxieties in your work of art.
In that sense, the ability to read the times and have your finger on the pulse of your audience is just as important as the technical skills involved in crafting a good film.
Having said that, it is perhaps wise to go ahead and make that obscure little film anyway.
I have always been suspicious of self-help literature. Think about it, if all these self-help books really worked, would our bookstores still be inundated by fresh titles offering stale advice?
Nonetheless, I found this talk about the 8 secrets of Success by marketer and success analyst,Richard St. John , clever, succinct and entertaining.
I have never been on Second Life so I have no idea what it means to inhabit larger than life personae in the virtual world.
Nonetheless, I am fascinated by this space in which everyone gets to place at being a comic book superhero.
What a fascinating topic for a documentary film and I am so glad someone has just made one! Trailer for documentary about virtual worlds – Boing Boing
Check out the trailer for “Second Skin” , a documentary about the virtual world and the gamers who ‘live’ in them. You can also go to the official film website here.
There are so many ways to look at the virtual lives that people have created for themselves online.
It is the stuff of Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Technology and Literature.
Perhaps the virtual world is like a mirror that reflect and refract our true selves.
We all grew up on Hollywood fare. Most of us would have heard of Bollywood, India’s home-grown film industry.
Now we need to add the term “Nollywood” to our list. “Nollywood” refers to Nigeria’s fledging film industry that gives “guerrilla film making a whole new meaning.”
Making action flicks on a 9 day turn around, on a shoe-string budget of just a few thousand dollars and equipped with the bare minimum of digital camera equipment.
Nigeria’s fledging film industry has become the subject of a documentary film, “This is Nollywood”
I cannot wait to see this film because I think it will compel me to think about Africa in a new way.
Words like “fun”, “entertainment” and “movie-making” seldom come to mind when we think of Africa. Instead stereotypes of the Continent of Darkness persist. Our perception of Africa is often shaped by media stories of Aids, corruption and despair.
Any film that broadens that narrow view of Africa is a welcome addition to our world.
As the Beijing Olympics fast approaches, Western media organizations are quick to pull out the well-worn cliches about repressive regimes and the Olympic Games.
It is refreshing therefore to read this interview in the Seattle Times blog with Dr Susan Brownell, an American anthropologist who does research on sports in China and their connection with politics, culture and society.
You may want to read the entire interview but here are the two excerpts extracted by Danwei:
What I find most interesting is Dr. Brownell’s proposition that major events like the Beijing Olympics are the accelerators of great change in China. This is a departure from the usual point of view that the staging of the Olympics is merely “window dressing” a great public relations push to present China in an acceptable light.
This is a perspective of someone who knows China well. Dr Brownell is a former athlete who has spent time living and studying in China.
But will her voice be heard amidst the din of China-bashing that has become “fashionable” in some media circles?
I have been overdosing on tech news lately so I am trying to redress the balance by returning to a mainstream news diet:
1) The feelgood factor | Economist.com
The Economist has an in-depth special report on corporate social responsibility– the good, the bad and the ugly. Observations include the emergence of the corporate version of the peace corps–companies sending employees on month-long “do good” assignments abroad.
2) Japan’s Best Sellers Go Cellular – New York Times
Japan is always interesting to watch when it comes to trends in the mobile space. Cell phone novels sound instant and quirky. As someone with a passion for literature, I think the use of the mobile phone as a medium will have a profound impact on narrative structure and form of the novel.
I have always thought that the obsession with constant happiness is a peculiarly American phenomenon that has, unfortunately, infected the rest of the world. The Economist tells us “happiness” has become a new growth industry. That is a sad statement on the state of Civilization!
3) Michel Gondry guest edits YouTube | Media | guardian.co.uk
Movie director, Michel Gondry is curating Youtube.com during the Sundance Film Festival period. Another sign that Web 2.0 is influencing one of the world’s most prestigious film festivals.
4) http://www.youtube.com/nonprofits
Stumbled upon the web page for You Tube’s Non Profit Program. All US 501(c) registered charity can apply and enjoy online marketing and branding capabilities on Youtube for free. Wonderful way to make a worthy cause go viral.
I have been amazed by how much my reading habits have changed over the past two years.
I no longer read hard copies of daily newspapers and magazines on a regular basis.
Instead I subscribe to news feeds using the Google Reader. I scan through hundreds of articles electronically on a daily basis to imbibe the latest trends of our Web 2.0 era.
But I was recently reminded of the pleasures of reading a hard copy of a magazine when I bought a copy of Ming Pao Monthly in Hong Kong.
Yes, I could read some of the articles online for free at the Ming Pao Monthly website but there is something about reading a literary and scholarly magazine slowly, on the train, in the hotel room, while waiting for a friend at a cafe…
The key word is “slowly.” Because pondering on the dilemmas of our times takes time and attention, both rare commodities these days.
Only then, will the pleasures of the essay on the encounter between ailing Chinese scholar Ji Xianlin (季羡林） and famous actress Lin Ching Hsia（林青霞） come to life on paper. So will the weight of the burden of China’s environmental crisis be truly felt.
Perusing the pages of Ming Pao Monthly, I am reminded anew of the responsibilities of the Chinese intellectual. They have to bear the burdens and sorrows of our times before everyone else. 先天下之忧而忧，后天下之乐而乐。
And that certainly takes time,attention and heart.
If I could start a TV channel from scratch, I would format it like TED . Originally a conference of technology and entertainment trends, TED has broadened its content to cover many contemporary themes. It has also started putting its video archives online.
Here is why I love TED as anexperience:
Great content: inspiring and often entertaining talks by the movers and shakers of our times.
Clear focus: Powerful ideas — that is what TED has to offer and you’d find it on the site consistently.
Intuitive: It is easy to view videos, leave comments and participate.
How do you defend your intellectual property rights when technology makes it so easy for just about anyone to copy and distribute your creative work online?
The music industry, the publishing industry and now, even the TV industry have to grapple with this question.
Some musicians, most notably Radiohead, is allowing fans to buy direct on the Web at a price they see fit. Others think the answer is to give it away online FREE.
I have been fascinated by the creative commons movement and what Cory Doctorow science fiction writer and BoingBoing.net founder has achieved by giving away his e-books free.
Kotkke.org has this interview with Doctorow.
http://www.kottke.org/07/11/cory-doctorow
I particularly like what he says about the role of serendipity in this new way of distributing: “So for one thing, the free online distribution of my work has created new opportunities—it’s like dandelion seeds blowing around that find all the cracks in the sidewalk that I never would have been able to find just by walking around and planting them.”
The idea of dandelion seeds blowing in the wind is almost poetic.
Be short and sharp. Post frequently. You are writing for the Web 2.0
audience with the attention span of a flea. That is the standard
advice handed out to the newbie blogger.
A friend, who is a student at one of China’s top universities, asked me an intriguing question the other day: “What is the difference between art and design?”
The textbook answer she has been given at school? “Design is more commercial.”
Designer, Paul Rand is one person who has demonstrated beyond a doubt the commercial value of good design.
He has created some of the most memorable logos of our times, including the IBM logo and the UPS logo.
Watch this 4 minute tribute to Paul Rand’s life work.
