maineland 尋岸 documentary

february 2021. prc and usa are still in a de facto proxy (trade) war with my hometown still pretty much in the eye of the storm. a timely yet interesting documentary from three years ago helps shed some light on a tiny morceau of the multifaceted relationship between the two peoples.

maineland saw the camera followed two young, wealthy chinese students stella and harry spending their last two years of high school at fryeburg academy in maine. the tuition fees stand at usd 50k in 2021. why is such an exclusive school so depended on international students from china? half of the international students in 2017 were from china. and why a socialist economy can export so many  “wealthy second generations” 富二代 in their foreign endeavors?

two years ago was the only rare occasion when i didn’t argue with my vietnamese friends that china wasn’t and doesn’t look anything “social” to me with not many nor not so few privileged citizens. and you have to ask why the most powerful country in the world keeps on exploiting the hard earn money of its arch rival.

if there is anything positive to report on, it is that stella and harry weren’t spoiled brats at all. i am not so sure about some of the other characters around them!

a must watch if you dig sino-american politics.

prc usa cold war…

why should you choose one over another? no, it’s pure hypocrisy. the first use state capitalism to camouflage for socialism. the latter committed many war crimes. and this almost centenarian is good testament linking the two!

so dont think one side has a higher moral ground than the other because middlemen like kissinger show both sides are unethical.

passing of tv personality and anchor

passing of tv personality and anchor

hugh downs and regis philbin both passed away in July 2020. i am writing this not because i m a tv junkie. i am writing this because they were on the small screen when i first set foot in the usa. one was in more serious reporting as anchor of a news magazine, with his pre- and post-retirement years venturing more into  issues relating to senior citizens and gerontology. the latter was a staple of morning tv for years, the 9am eastern time slot on wabc tv in nyc. if i had any acculturation into the so-called american society, these two personalities did play their part.  people who appear on tv look like they are immortalized, but they aren’t. next year with be the 30th anniversary of my first arrival in the usa. thank you for informing and entertaining me in those early years.

 

Nanjing and Minnie Vautrin

uncovered from my draft entries, last modification dated  13 déc. 2017 03:32.

she might or might not be a significant figure of the expat and missionary communities in nanjing china in the world war ii era, what is written on her and her personal experience will sure be a part of the war / massacre / peace / never again narratives for a turbulent era. her name is Minnie Vautrin.

so here is what I penned around the christmas season  of 2017:

what to write or not -rthk late night documentary repeat had an episode on the massacre in Nanjing, sooming my focus in and out throughout the 50 plus minute, a missionary’s story caught my attention – Minnie Vautrin 魏特琳. Reading this in December when everyone walking into shopping centres got bombarded with jingles make the contrast more vehmenly sad. Vautrin, probably suffered a nervous breakdown from witnessing so many people dying around her, took her life within a year of returning to USA for a sick leave.

today, 14 may is the anniversary of her suicide.

if you leave – Pretty in Pink

if you leave (80s)

if you leave

came from the movie “Pretty in Pink”

fore more clips

or a soundtrack without video? some typed up lyrics plus still photos…

___________________________

if you leave, a number plays its visits from time to time in the airwaves resembling a not-so-distant relative. Whether it’s from the radio or boombox, in the car or at a fast food joint, I always allowed its melody in to my unsuspecting ears. Although I have never watched “Pretty in Pink“, the electronic 80s never fall out of favour. I wonder if it has anything to do with the above PG-13 but not risqué at all lyrics.

Coming of age, Cult, Classic 80s, words that thrown around to discribe the film, don’t really matter to me. My simple weakness for replaying the song or turned up the radio whenever it was on, was hinged upon the melody, and maybe the lyrics.

這首英文歌是其中一首我聽過很多次以後才打聽叫甚麼名字的歌曲。相關的電影在英文台播放了不止一次，到沒有從頭到尾的看一篇。不要緊的，雖然美國流行文化認為這是成長於八十年代的年輕人之神劇，用中文思想的我沒什麼認同感，只不過旋律搭夠因此誠意推薦！

Four Queens and a funeral

That was the post title I had in mind a year ago on 31 July 2012 when Gore Vidal took the elevator to heaven. The London Olympics were in full force and I remembered seeing Freddie Mercury (no, I wasn’t hallucinating), the Queen Elizabeth II and George Michael somewhere, somehow during the opening ceremonies. Mix that with Vidal and you know how the mathematics worked out.

I’ve watched more video interviews, documentaries on VIdal than I’ve read his books. Nevertheless, his wit and elegance perfused in the media forms by and about him. Here are some of his quotes.

Our state of affairs:

As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.

On being a Queen perhaps:

Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.

On democracy:

Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.

and on Religion, from his Lowell Lecture at Harvard University, April 1992

The great unmentionable evil at the center of our culture is monotheism. From a barbaric Bronze Age text known as the Old Testament, three anti-human religions have evolved—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These are sky-god religions. They are, literally, patriarchal—God is the Omnipotent Father—hence the loathing of women for 2,000 years in those countries afflicted by the sky-god and his earthly male delegates. The sky-god is a jealous god, of course. He requires total obedience from everyone on earth, as he is not just in place for one tribe, but for all creation. Those who would reject him must be converted or killed for their own good. Ultimately, totalitarianism is the only sort of politics that can truly serve the sky-god’s purpose.

I really preferred this ONN particular Queen I wrote about among the four.

Vidal on corporate grip

Snowden and Sinicisation of the States

If you are USA citizens (many nationalities are Americans, you don’t need me to lecture you in this particular post, do you?), you shouldn’t be so proud that gay marriage seems to be making grounds, nor that you have re-elected your first Black president for a second term. Nothing worth going jubilatory about.

Ari Fleischer, former press secretary of George W. Bush, had tweeted as around the time when Snowden’s leak surfaced:

“Drone strikes. Wiretaps. Gitmo. [Obama] is carrying out Bush’s 4th term. Yet he attacked Bush for violating Constitution,”

Well a few short notes for those of you, that might mean MOST of you who haven’t noticed.

Chinese dissidents flock to foreign media such as BBC, Radio Free Asia, RFI, VoA and the like when they have something to say.

And this time the news broke with The Guardian, a British newspaper, a foreign media for the people of ths USA. The journalist, who is American, seems to be based in Brazil these days. I bet North American soil is too safe and free for him these days.

While China has its Great Fire Wall to block out bad influence websites for her citizens, the USA seem to be catching up by blocking the entire Guardian website for troops stationed abroad.

Hmmm Did I say Sinicization?

And the rhetoric of US officials on Snowden while is not identical, but definitely rhymes with that diffused by the Chinese government when Liu Xiao Bo was honoured with the 2010 Nobel peace prize.

Perhaps Evo Morales was “meddling on the internal affairs” of the USA that the Western European countries citing technical or diplomatic difficulties and did not allow the president of Bolivia to pass through their airspace. Boy I thought “meddling on the internal affairs” is patented by the Chinese government. Apparently not, or Beijing failed to follow up with the ptent office.

hmmmm did I say Chinalization? LOL

I dunno whether Dick Cheney was correct on Snowden as a “Chinese” spy, but I am curious as to how much backbone the Nobel committee will have should Snowden receives a nomination for the Peace Prize in the coming years. Afterall, Obama had his during his first year in office.

So be faithful to your country, dear US of A citizens, for the government is doing everything to promote you and your liberty!

hmmmm Did I say Sinification?
Wait a minute, I might be wrong afterall. Google, whose offices in Beijing got a sea of flowers when Chinese netizens sent in their condolences. Google took the moral high ground to leave China because the Chinese government likes to breathe down the necks of her citizens. Now, by the same token, Google, MSN, Facebook and the like must find refuge somewhere OUTSIDE of the USA if NSA/Prism are acting like overprotective parents. But where could these companies go tomorrow?

See you in DC! Oops I really meant Peking LOL.

Gac Filipaj, janitor and now Columbia graduate

A friend of mine questioned me the significance of a janitor from Columbia University, Gac Filipaj, who graduated with a Bachelor degree in Classics after taking 14 credits per year in the morning while holding his full time job in the afternoon into the wee hours in the morning.

custodian Gac Filipaj at work

It’s inspirational because he presevered and took advantaged of free tuition offered to employeees and studied over a span of twelve years. A decade to finish this academic project, how could one not paying any respect!

Gac Filipaj congratulated by boss

I also read from from news sources that he was making US$28 an hour. Two things came to my mind immediately for comparaison. Firstly, in Hong Kong employeers and business owners bitched about how the minimum wage, implemented since May 2011, hurt their businesses. While I don’t know the exact minimum wage in New York, probably 9 or 10 US$, HK’s stands at less than US$4 (HK$28). Secondly, I recall student newspaper of City University of Hong Kong documented the Uni’s practice of moving a three-shift (8 hour each) day to a two-shift (12 hour each) arrangements for security guards. That compounded with the fact that another university outsourced the sanitation work to save money, make me think and rethink progress or the lack of in various industrialized economies. Sure there are people living in poverty, but Hong Kong businesses have some learning to catch up in treating the lower-paid employees.

Filipaj among graduates

84th Oscars

Les français doivent si fiers de leur culture, plus spécifiquement leur cinéma, lorsque la 84ème cérémonie des Oscars. Une production française – The artist, et deux autres productions américaines qui ont les thèmes

1) sur un des innovateurs du cinéma – Georges Méliès dans Hugo et

2) un fantasme sur Paris et quelques fameux resortissants américains à la ville de lumière des années 1920s dans Midnight in Paris,

sont dans le final de 100 mètres pour le meilleur film.

Georges Méliès - Le Voyage dans la Lune

Je n’ai pas assez de temps à voir The Artist avant la cérémonie, mais pour un film muet parmi les dix finalistes ne se répète pas comme la comète de Halley. Hugo, immergé en haute technologie de graphisme, porte une histoire qui m’attire petit à petit, étant donné que j’avais assisté à une conférence de digital 21 l’an passé à Pékin sur “Video art” dont le nom Méliès est entré dans ma tête. Ce prémier s’est manifesté encore dans le couvert de magazine Paroles de l’Alliance Française de Hong Kong.

French film paying hommage to American Cinema or American films centred on French themes – The Artist, Midnight in Paris, Hugo.

Young protagonists playing detective with traces left by parent – Hugo (again) and Extremely loud and incredibly close covered what I’ve watched prior to the ceremony this year. Perhaps I ‘ve screened too many arthouse type of late, so I have my biases and let see if the results with overlap my preference.

Shit White Guys Say… to Asian Girls

this video is relevant mainly for my friends and acquaintance in North America. It is in certain way funny but people ACTUALLY say those things re-enacted in the video. Cultural appropriation, a hot potato revisited from one of the many angles.

Fortunately most of the white people around me have some degree of cultural sensitivity. If not, they are hiding their bigotry pretty well LOL.

Yes, of course there are self-hating Asians (or should I say Asian Americans or Asian Canadians) who like to be appropriated or just wanna be “white”, but when people have identity issues and choose to live miserably, that’s non of my business hahaha.

And to those offended by this video, I tell ya I follow what
Eleanor Roosevelt had said:

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”