53 posts tagged “china”
To be honest, I had second thoughts of watching The Founding of a Republic.
China Daily, the state English paper, is required reading for me DAILY and I didn't want to overdo the propaganda.
But curiosity got the better of me and so I went to Lido this afternoon to see the film that marked the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in October last year. (Side comment: I don't remember if I read it or heard somebody say, but notice how communist countries love to include "People" and "Democratic" in their names. Think DPRK too, a.k.a. North Korea.)
I must admit part of it was curiosity to see the big stars who were making cameos in the film as well. In fact, all throughout the movie, I was playing the "spot-the-big-star" game.
The film covers the period from 1945, shortly after WW2 ended, to 1949, when Mao Zedong was inaugurated as president of the new republic formed after the communists split with the Kuomintang (KMT) led by Chiang Kai-shek (CKS), who retreated to Taiwan.
Like this review, I was expecting the worst especially on how KMT and CKS were portrayed. I need to read and brush up on my history of the Chinese civil war but nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised that CKS was shown to be somewhat of a compassionate leader in the end.
But I couldn't help squirming everytime the subtitles used "liberate" as the communists overtook most Chinese cities but as many reviews have pointed out, the nuance was lost in translation. Surely, liberation and communism don't go together, do they?
Now, I am curious what my Taiwanese friends think about the film. I'll ask them when I meet them later this week.
In the meantime... spotting-the-star was on.
In the first few minutes of the film, there was Jet Li, playing a Navy officer of the KMT. In the last few minutes of the film, there was Andy Lau, playing Yu Jishi, a KMT general who received the order from CKS not to attack Beijing anymore signaling the absolute defeat of the Kuomintangs.
In between, there was Eva Huang (I was amazed that I could recognise her) as a Xinhua broadcaster, Leon Dai as a military officer, Donnie Yen and Zhao Wei (Vicky Zhao) as China League leaders, Zhang Ziyi as a female communist leader, Tony Leung Ka-fai in a funny role as a bystander and Jackie Chan as a reporter. The roles of Eva, Vicky, Leung Ka-fai and Jackie were all fictional, however.
Not all cameos made it to the final product, though, like John Woo whose part was edited out. Tang Guoqiang, the actor who played Mao Zedong, really looked like him.
I'd say that Jet Li and Andy Lau's brief appearances were both given prominence, especially Andy's who had a close-up before fade-out to Mao Zedong's inauguration. Watching him on the big screen, I must say he really has a strong presence and it makes me want to watch Infernal Affairs again.
Between the two China, I have great respect for both. I am also an eager student of both. And if there's one thing that I learned from the film, it's that war is really mafan.
In China...
It's year-end once more and we're doing our traditional Asia's Idols issue for the magazine. I'm scouring our East Asian members for nominees... this year's theme is on people who are changing their worlds (think Obama). I would have wished our Taiwan member would nominate Ma Ying-jeou but unfortunately, our cut-off age is 49 years old. I can't think of anyone from Japan and China's Wen Jiabao is overaged too. Then TIME comes up with its cover story on Li Lianjie, better known as Jet Li.
I wish our China member would nominate him. He'll be my personal choice for our Asian Idol this year too.
China is implementing a new law next year: no more lip-synching. A spokesman from China's culture ministry said: "People who perform for profit should not cheat audiences with fake singing or pretending to play instruments, as has been the case in the past." Story here.
Now we'll know who can sing and who can't. I know for sure that Jielun sings live in his concerts.
F4, I don't think so; maybe Jian Hao and Xiao Tian, yes. But in their group numbers, I doubt they sing live all the time. Rain? Lee Hom? Fahrenheit? S.H.E.? Cheng Lin? How about SMAP, Arashi and other Johnny's boys or those Korean pop groups? It makes me also wonder... if you have a three-hour show full of pop tunes or fast numbers complete with choreography, wouldn't you be out of breath after those numbers? So okay, it's a crime to mime but they should also cut artistes some slack and not impose an absolute sing-live law. I wouldn't want to hear panting on the mic paito.
If there's Black Day in Korea, there's Singles Day in China. And it happens on November 11. Why? Because it's 11-11. One. The solitary number. And four of them in one date. This thing started only in the 1990s but what if it's been around since the early centuries? One could just imagine what a big celebration November 11, 1111 was.
帶我走 到遙遠的以後
Take me away, to the far future
帶走我 一個人自轉的寂寞
Take away my recurring loneliness
帶我走 就算我的愛 你的自由 都將成為泡沫
Take me away even if my love, your freedom will becomes bubbles
我不怕 帶我走
I'm not afraid, take me away.
It looked like a scene from one of those Asian dramas...or maybe I have just been watching too much of them that I sometimes see things as if I was looking at a TV screen.
The taxi had dropped me off across the street and this being Beijing, the road was so wide I had to figure out where to cross and not be ran over by a random car. When finally I made it to the other side, I stopped before the young guard in the green uniform standing alert at the gate. The business card flew from my hands and I ran to chase it from the wind. The young guard looked momentarily distracted before straightening up to attention. Just as I looked up, I saw him already at the front of the building grinning. Shit. I have never felt so clumsy and ditzy in my entire life. He looked preppy that day, his skin darker from the last time I saw him months ago. And that time in March, I wasn't also prepared yet to see him and was my clumsy self. Why does he always have to catch me in my unguarded moments?
If only things were easy and we could just go far away.
Discussions on the global financial meltdown was practically coming out of my ears at the Asia-Europe Meeting. everyone from Bank of China's VP to SBY to Sarkozy to grandpa Wen Jiabao were all talking about it. So I guess that sort of ruined shopping in Beijing for me. When I went to Uniqlo, I already had four items in my cart. Then I paused and took a good look at each of them thinking if I really needed them. Before I knew it, I was putting them back on the racks and left the store with nothing. (I wished there was an H&M branch in BJ though.)
So all I really bought were DVDs (the BJ Olympics opening ceremony and a special edition of Jay's The One plus his first two albums) and Jay's latest album, Capricorn.
This was my fourth visit to China and my third to Beijing and yet, there are still a lot of things I haven't done or seen. More reasons for another visit and another... after all, China is a big, big, big country and its capital is a big, big, big city.
1. I went to finally watch a Chinese opera but it wasn't the 'face-changing' one that I wanted to see. I enjoyed the performance nevertheless, but I would still want to see the changing masks stunt.
2. I didn't have the time to see the Bird's Nest and Water Cube. I guess I did not have the will and could just have hopped on to a taxi... ONLY if I had the energy after a long day of work. BECAUSE I wasn't in BJ for a bloody junket. So BN and WC, you'd have to wait for me until my next visit.
I had second thoughts packing my black wool coat thinking I might be overdressed when I get to Beijing. But I'm so glad I brought it along, otherwise, I would have frozen to my death. It was windy and cold, with temperature as low as two degrees C. And for my Southeast Asian blood, that is so bloody, bloody cold. So one week, I get that weather that made it so difficult to haul myself out of bed in the morning and then I return to muggy Bangkok with average 30 degrees C. Nice.
