I just completed the trailer for my Beijing Olympics film, Boomtown Beijing,just in time for the upcoming Singapore International Film Festival and the charity screening in Beijing on April 20th.
A big thank you to my friend, Zhou Hou Heng (周侯衡） , for helping me edit and package the trailer.
Watch the trailer here:
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:
Politics, Beijing and the Olympic Games
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?
Technorati Tags: Beijing Olympics, 2008 Olympics, Beijing, China politics, sports, Susan Brownell
I have never given an interview about a film on a business show before. Well, there is always a first time.
The China Business Show is a weekly show on WSR Radio that sheds cross-cultural insight on doing business in China. I am impressed by the range of issues that the show covers, from technology and business strategy to the media and corporate social responsibility.
My big thanks to Christine Lu, executive producer and host, for having me talk about my Beijing Olympics documentary on her show.
For those have you who missed the live show, you can go to the China Business Network site to listen to the interview.
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No matter how good my Mandarin is, I know that the Beijing-er can always tell that I am an outsider (外地人）from my accent.
I spent the best part of 2007, living out of a suitcase in Beijing, working on a documentary about the Beijing Olympics.
For someone from a small country like Singapore, Beijing is a sprawling city and I find that I spent a lot of time in a cab, trying to get from one end of the city to another.
Three minutes into my cab ride, The same question always comes up, “小姐，你是哪里人？” Miss, where are you from?” The subtext is of course, “You do not sound like one of us.”
In the process of making the film, I have come to a better appreciation of the Beijing accent and the Beijing dialect. While I was working on the sound-mix of my documentary, my Beijing born-and-bred sound engineers will cackle at phrases in my film while the nuances are completely lost on me.
It is great fun therefore to read this blog post, explaining what does the Beijing “R” sound mean?
Beijing Sounds – 北京的声儿 (link via Danwei)
My Beijing friends tell me that figuring out whether to end a word or phrase with the “R” sound, or “儿“声，is an art unto itself. I am sure an entire encyclopedia can be written on the “dos” and “don’ts”.
The outsider often betrays their very foreigness by trying too hard, ending each and every phrase with the “R” sound. As a result, they make a laughing stock of themselves.
What comes intuitively to the native Beijing-er may take a life-time of puzzling out for an outsider or 外地人like me.
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