Archive for the 'Culture Clash' Category

Magibon has made it to Japan

孙智谦 on 18 Apr 2008

 
A couple of months ago, I commented on the Magibon phenomenon and how her videos are both infuriatingly pointless and incredibly mesmerizing. I didn’t expect it, but that post for some reason put the site right near the top of Google’s search results when you search for her name. Apparently a lot of people are finding the site looking for info about her, so when someone in the comments section on that post mentioned the video below, I had to check it out and post it here so that people could find it. I’m not going to turn this into a Magibon news site; I have neither the time nor the desire to cyber-stalk anybody. But the video is pretty great because it shows how far intense interest (some might call it obsession) and the internet can take a person. Here’s the video:
 

 
Congratulations, Magibon! You’ve managed to find just the right mix of pointlessness, cuteness, and interestingness (? - needed another ‘ness’) to get the whole world talking, and it’s paid off with what seems like a pretty incredible experience. You’re either one very smart or very fortunate girl; probably a good combination of both. In any case, you rock. No telling where things could go from here…
 

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Nobody concentrates harder than old Chinese ladies

孙智谦 on 02 Apr 2008

 
I found the video below on blog.howma.com and had to post about it because of how awesome it is. Yeah, it’s pretty cool how well the guy in the video dances, but the real story is the old lady on the couch behind him…
 
If you had a guy in your living room wearing a suit coat with no shirt, pajama bottoms, and slippers, and he was dancing all up in ya face like MC Hammer, you’d probably laugh hysterically, right? Or you’d glance up once in a while to watch for a few seconds, right? At the very least, you’d giggle or something. I think most Westerners would. But not old Chinese ladies! The one in the video just keeps on knitting/sewing/doing-whatever-she’s-doing and pays absolutely no attention to the guy whatsoever. It’s like the he isn’t even in the room! I don’t think it’s possible to concentrate any harder than that. And that’s why if I ever find myself in a tag-team Operation competition, I’m taking an old Chinese lady as my partner.
 

 

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Rain Vs. Stephen Colbert

孙智谦 on 28 Mar 2008

 
I never would’ve guessed it, but apparently Stephen Colbert and Korean pop star Rain have been battling for supremacy in the Korean pop scene for years. And based on the examples in the video below, I gotta say that Stephen Colbert has Rain beat hands down. He’s so much more manly and tough and a much better singer than Rain…
 

 

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Lee Hom, Jeong Hee, and Rain - Perfect Interaction

孙智谦 on 28 Mar 2008

 
Cross-genre music is awesome, but cross-cultural music is the best. Check out Perfect Interaction (完美的互動) by Wang Li Hong (a.k.a.: Wang Lee Hom), featuring Lim Jeong Hee and Rain (who isn’t actually IN the video for some reason). This song puts me in a good mood when I hear it. Love the sound, and their voices go together perfectly, which is I guess why the song is named what it is. A catchy song in 3 different languages with English subtitles in the upper left of the screen? I can’t ask for a much cooler video experience than that! It’s too bad there aren’t a lot more of these kinds of cross-cultural collaborations in music.
 

 

Culture Clash and Entertainment and Korea and Music and Taiwan | Comments (1)

Mariah Carey’s “Ken Lee”

孙智谦 on 24 Mar 2008

 
I hate American Idol and just about any other “Idol” show, especially the failed auditions. I hate seeing people who think they can sing make fools of themselves in front of a public audience. And I hate seeing people who can sing decently get severely criticized by stuck-up, arrogant judges. But this is pretty awesome. I’m not sure what the language is they’re speaking, but I think it’s Bulgarian? And that’s Eastern Europe, which is close to Asia, so there’s your connection. Plus, Ken Lee sounds like an Asian guy’s name.
 

 
Painfully funny, eh? Now I recognize that English isn’t her native language, but seriously…if you’re gonna try to sing a song in a foreign language for any kind of TV show, at least make sure you can properly pronounce the words, especially when they’re pronounced so clearly by the original singer. She gets an F for her overall performance and an A+ for inventing that awesome cockamamie dialect thing…
 

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Japan is the weirdest place on earth, and that (mostly) rocks!

孙智谦 on 20 Mar 2008

 
Japan is totally weird
 
What the heck is up with Japan? How did it get to be so incredibly weird and hilariously amusing? What’s in the water there that makes Japanese people so concerned with showing just the right amount of deference to each other while at the same time whacking each other in the crotch with sticks on national TV? What is it that makes them the world leader in coming up with useless inventions (it’s an actual art)? What is it that makes them advertise using bizarre, pointless commercials? What makes them want to combine firearms and cartoons? Appointing cartoon ambassadors? Sexualizing noodles?! Ok, that one freaks me out, and it only scratches the surface of all the weird stuff going on in Japan in that area…no comment there.
 
I have no idea what the point of this post is (or anything I throw up on this site, really), other than to say that bizarre Japanese stuff is really cool (just not the weird sexual stuff - I’ll pass on that). If I hadn’t already invested so much time in learning Chinese, I’d probably have my face buried in a Japanese grammar book right now. Here’s a cool Japanese commercial:
 

 

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Ni Hao, Kai-Lan premier

孙智谦 on 08 Feb 2008

Ni Hao Kai-Lan
 
Ni Hao, Kai-Lan finally premiered yesterday on the Nick Jr. TV network, and Tim Goodman over at the San Francisco Chronicle has posted a review on SFGate.com. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read the excerpt below from the review:
“Ni Hao, Kai-lan” takes the “play along, think along” concept that was popularized by “Blues Clues” and adds the ethnic element that helped fuel “Dora” as a major hit with kids. Like those shows, Kai-lan (who is 5 “and three-quarters,” if you must know) goes on a variety of adventures and asks children viewing at home a string of questions. (This interactive trick has proved quite successful in the children’s programming arena. Kids love to shout out their answers.) Along the way, everybody learns a valuable lesson.
His review is pretty helpful and points out some interesting aspects of the show that are pretty different from the way Dora does things. It sounds as if it’s a pretty quality show. Of course, that’s only one review. If you want more information on it, click here to go to its official site.
 

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North Korea up close and personal…well, sort of.

孙智谦 on 07 Feb 2008

North Korean Statue
 
Neil Woodburn over at Gadling.com posted a lengthy and fascinating article chronicling his five-day stay in North Korea. It’s amazing just how applicable the nickname “the hermit kingdom” is, even once you’re actually allowed inside the country. Below is an except from the article:
It was very strange. I’ve never been anywhere where I couldn’t communicate in some manner or another with the locals, thereby gaining insight into living conditions and culture that only can be gleamed from first hand experience. Nor have my movements ever been completely controlled; we could only go where they wanted us to go in North Korea and see only what they wanted us to see. We couldn’t wander into a neighborhood store or market or anywhere off the carefully choreographed itinerary. In fact, after we pushed too hard one evening to visit somewhere off the itinerary, I was surprised to hear our frustrated guide quote Shakespeare in telling us that it wasn’t possible, “It doesn’t mean I love Caesar any less, it just means that I love Rome more.”
It’s extremely interesting, so I highly recommend reading the whole thing.

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Wang Jian Shuo - bridging the gap between the East and the West

孙智谦 on 25 Jan 2008

Wang Jian Shuo's picture
 
The guy above is Wang Jian Shuo, and so far his blog is the only one I’ve come across that’s written by a native Chinese speaker in English so that 外国人 (foreigners) can get some insight into China’s history, culture, and current events. What a cool idea! It gives westerners a chance to see how a regular-Joe (or whatever the Chinese equivalent of that would be) in China views the world and will hopefully help put to rest the misconception that all Chinese people are just like that one quiet, anti-social, “ching chong talking” kid that consistently got straight As in your high school Calculus class while you failed. I’m not big on personal blogs for the most part because I don’t have a lot of time to read about some random person’s daily life, but when it offers a window into a culture that people often aren’t exposed to but that is also a huge player on the world scene, I think it’s worth checking out.
 
You can check out his blog by clicking here.
 

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The state of 科幻 (SciFi) in China

孙智谦 on 16 Jan 2008

Science Fiction World Magazine Cover
 
I’m a big fan of SciFi. And I’m a big fan of Chinese. So logically, I’ve always wondered about Chinese SciFi, how much of it existed, what it was like, etc…but I’ve never really taken the time to look anything up about it for whatever reason. Thanks to this post on RedKemp.com, I don’t have to. It’s pretty well laid out for me.
 
According to RedKemp, SciFi all but went away when the Communist Party took over, but it’s had a revival as of late, and some people are even saying China’s in the midst of a “golden age” of SciFi. That’s pretty exciting news to me. It’s always interesting to see other cultures’ takes on popular SciFi themes in general, so anything combining SciFi and the culture that I find the most fascinating is a winner to me. RedKemp does a pretty good job of rounding up info on SciFi in China, so I won’t comment any further. I’ll just link to some of the same things they link to for the lazy readers, including myself.
 
 

China News and Culture Clash and Entertainment and Language | Comments (2)

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