Why, oh why?

I was watching CCTV-4 (again, as usual) and once again, I saw the spreading disease that was the popped collar, on a CCTV reporter. I first noticed it during the Sichuan earthquake reports, when these reporters with popped collars were standing next to the pile of rubble of buildings and deceased. Ever since they have been popping up with increased frequency.

And frankly, this is what I think of the popped collar.

If you are not a true preppy New Englander or are not playing tennis, golf, or any sport of the sort, why do you wear a popped collar? Do you find it fashionable? As a reporter of a serious, respectable news agency, do you not realize you're not suppose to wear things according to the sway of pseudo-fashion trends? Please stop wearing your shirts that way. I find a polo shirt too informal for television journalism, but understand the limited capacities in emergencies such as earthquakes. But does the severity of the situation serve as enough of something to curb silliness that is the popped collar? Now that the disaster's has been stabilized, start wearing real serious clothes, and flip that collar down.

Earthquake and after.

For the past few days on CCTV, the only that has been airing is the earthquake coverage. All regular programming was tossed around, while the Chinese media extensively covered a major event for the first time in, history of the government.

The rise in nationalism should be interesting to watch as it becomes an important force in determining the future of China. The education system has made the population quite homogenous, thus, easy to unite with one idea. Perhaps the media is playing up the nationalism amongst the people in China right now, I don't particularly see it as nationalism. It's more of a bond between people, with the people not necessarily proud of its country, just comraderie in the face of human hardship. Compassion united the Chinese people, and it seems to have, or will, creep into the political realm, as it has already in the face of the Olympic torch incidents overseas. Angered university students united to boycott the French Carrefour stores because the torch was assaulted, as you will, in Franch. This zealousy is definitely dangerous in a way, with much truth distortion by the media or dramatization through word of mouth, any small incident can rouse the nation. The ruling party should be afraid if they were to do anything that angered the people.

The compassion shown by the people has been remarkable. People from other parts of China and the world have donated millions and millions. Those near the area have tried to drive to Sichuan, delivery goods and help. The stories of selfless aid are countless, each as moving as the next. The soldiers, doctors, police, and any other public servants have been extremely graceful, disregarding their own needs beyond expectation to help those trapped and hurt. Props to them.

The money donated by celebrities and people have become nothing but numbers to me. It's almost a game, to see who donates the most. Numbers like 10,000 have become so insignificant, in comparison to the 1,000,000. Sure money is good, but how do we know how much of it is going to the vicitims? Who's taking all this money? What do they plan on doing with it? It seems to be a show to donate money purposelessly, yet we are appeased when we donate because we believe we have helped out the people we see suffering on TV. Not a very meaningful way to help out the vicitms.

Amazing discovery.

Kohl's opened up after extensive remodeling that is suppose to make the store look cleaner and more organized. They sent out ads, along with a 10 dollar off coupon, so why not, I went to check it out. Last time I went to Kohl's was definitely at least 3 years ago, when I realized Kohl's clothing cannot be considered fashionable at all, and it's also terrible quality. Well, it seems like they are trying to improve that common image with Vera Wang (eek, why did she do it?), and Candie's (again, lame attempt at fashion. Hilary Duff, Fergie, and Hayden Panettiere are in no way fashion icons).
So the store was nicer looking, the stuff looks about the same. It's still cramped, but there are some high quality glassware and kitchen accessories. After I looked at a 130 dollar knife, I went in a cramped aisle and looked down. It didn't belong there. It was 80 percent off. It was a freaking Belkin iPod FM transmitter with a 10 dollar iTunes gift card. It was marked at 23.99. With 10 dollars off, I would be a proud owner of a nice iPod transmitter for only 14 dollars. I was pretty happy with myself, and of course I got it. Nothing else in the store caught my eye though, and I don't think I will ever go back in there again. Unless they send me another 10 dollar off coupon for another amazing deal.

Too much open for interpretation?

So I was watching a program on CCTV4 about the Olympics, of course, because that's pretty much all they show on TV nowadays. They traced the Beijing Olympics from 2001, when Beijing was chosen as the city to hose the 2008 games. Then it proceeded to the symbol thing, motto, mascot, and medal.
When a clip of the announcement of the motto, "One World, One Dream" played, I thought to myself, okay, what the hell is the dream?
This is extremely open to interpretation, probably at the intention of the creators.
Yet it is so wide that it really could be anything. People in China probably view the dream as the often quoted "hundred year Olympic dream," which is utterly ridiculous, I doubt anyone knew of the Olympic games back in the 1900's, much less wanting to host the games. The dream could also be modernization. Rather, proof to the western world that China has modernized to become country that has successfully imitated western countries in infrastructure, not so much culturally, although there is much effort from the Chinese government to advance the "civility" of the population by inculcating western "civilized" mannerisms.
Human rights groups in the western world are using this dream as a slogan as a battle cry for Tibetan freedom. They view the dream as one for human rights.
I personally thought it was probably meant to be the usual answer that is along the lines of world peace. In the case of the Chinese, it would be harmony among all the people.
But what did the creators mean for it to mean? Does it matter? With such an open ended attempt at rallying emotional oneness, it must be leaning towards some sort of a "correct answer." Yet it is such a picturesque phrase for the human race, being interpreted by everyon who reads it, given meaning by the reader through their vision of the world. The motto serves its purpose by creating a false sense of connectedness through the assumed desire of the same, nebulous utopian world which is actually different for everyone.
How does this motto then pertain to the Olympics? To solely promote unity? Or just another loaded communist propaganda style motto?

Some people should not sing.

So out of absolute boredom last night, I watched the annual Spring Festival show thing from this year. I do have to say, the show gets more extravagant every year, with more elaborate costumes and the usual big names, but the quality never gets better. I cringed through probably half of it, not including most of it I fast forwarded. 

The worst part was definitely Zhang Ziyi's singing. I will smack anyone who defends her, because that was just one horrendous conglomeration of shitty music industriness.

 

There she is in her uber expensive dress. Way to live your princess dreams now, wasting others' money. So some accused her of lip synching, I do believe that happened, and it was definitely a good thing. It probably saved us of hearing her natural abilities. The recorded song itself was absolute crap. There was nothing good about it. The melody was the stereotypical Asian song: happy, flat, semi-catchy. Her voice was horrendous. I couldn't believe how overly produced it sounded. It was her weak, raspy voice with a hundred of her backing her up. I didn't think I would ever say this, but she is worse than Paris Hilton in her already overly produced CD. She makes Paris Hilton sound good even. I don't think I can describe how incompetent her voice is and how unbearable that song was. *cringe cringe*

All that aside, she is a good actress. And she should stick to being the shitty-kung-fu-white-people-movie whore that she is. Same goes out for all Asian actors and actresses. You weren't good at acting to begin with, what makes you think you're good at singing? Save the world some torture, spare those poor gullible girls who will buy anything you put your face on. 

The show wasn't all bad of course. The obvious indoctrination of societal etiquette, morals, etc, the usual communistic inculcation was all there, and amusing for the first out of a hundred minutes. But there were two performances I did not expect. 

First by S.H.E. It wasn't horrendous, thanks to their producers and their fabulous lip synching. It was the usual mediocre performance of a not so good song. 

Then this guy popped up: 

Didn't realize who he was until my mother informed me of his past popularity. It's Fei Yu Ching. He sang a solo version of 千里之外, Faraway. Apparently it was his song originally, but as we all know, Jay dug it up and did a nice duet with him. 

According to Wikipedia 

"he is also known as the younger and slightly more effeminate brother of Chang Fei (also known as Fei Ge)." and "Fei is not married, although he was once engaged to a long time girlfriend." He's also 50+. Look at that face. Suspicious, no? 

Spring Break!

Nothing much has been going on during spring break, our plans for getting a cabin or beach trip, etc, didn't come through. Good thing I didn't stay for the game, would have been disappointing. Shopping has lost its spark somehow. Yesterday I came back with one shirt. 

I organized my music today, exciting I know. Turns out some of my unknown Jay Chou songs are actually by this guy: 

Fan Yi Chen 范逸臣

Stereotypical Asian pop singer, no? Not sure if the photoshop improved him or not. Songs are catchy with the usual sappy lyrics. 

色，戒 (Lust, Caution)

I went down to Griffith and saw a screening of Lust, Caution with some friends. 

I went in with some ideas I had heard from various places.

  1.   The movie has A LOT of sex. In many different positions. 

2.  湯唯 (Tang Wei), who plays Mrs. Mak in the film, is actually a porn star. 

3.  The movie kind of sucks. 

Now that I have finished the movie, I do have to say

1. There were only 3 sex scenes. Each did seem to last 10 minutes and did include them in various positions requiring a lot of flexibility, but it definitely was not as bad as people have made it out to be. Perhaps I am just a non sensitive person to such subject matter. 

2. Turns out, Tang Wei is actually not a porn star! Her talents to form a compressed human pretzel seems like she got a lot of practice somehow. 

3. The movie was actually quite good. It lives up to the 李安 (Ang Lee) standards. The plot, like that of all movies, has been done before, but this one framed the espionage love genre very nicely.

4. 王力宏 (Lee-Hom Wang) is quite hot. He is on the list of people to meet.