beijingorbust.blogspot.com
Beijing or Bust: June 2009
http://beijingorbust.blogspot.com/2009_06_01_archive.html
Random observations of this over-hyped yet still fascinating city. Sunday, June 14, 2009. In Pursuit of Tai Chi. I was in Boston for a short trip and my old friend Mary, whom I hadn’t seen for a year, visited me from Philadelphia. Over the weekend, she could not stop talking about Tai Chi. You know that I went to Taiwan in 2008 for research on Eastern Healing, said Mary. I arrived in Taipei with my knee and back badly hurting. Dr. Lin, my host, did acupuncture on me and the pain went away! After that tri...
beijingorbust.blogspot.com
Beijing or Bust: What's Memory Good For?
http://beijingorbust.blogspot.com/2006/01/whats-memory-good-for_113807662378347352.html
Random observations of this over-hyped yet still fascinating city. Tuesday, January 24, 2006. What's Memory Good For? All quotes were transcribed from my video footage.). After lunch I dragged my camera gear to the Sanwei Bookstore for the seminar. I had planned to stay only for an hour. A few writers from the church I’m following for my documentary were going to be there. I simply wanted to shoot some footage of them in action outside of the church. The host started by thanking everyone for their courag...
beijingorbust.blogspot.com
Beijing or Bust: The Good Shots
http://beijingorbust.blogspot.com/2006/01/good-shots.html
Random observations of this over-hyped yet still fascinating city. Monday, January 16, 2006. I decided to wait and see, in that underground church set in a two bedroom apartment 20 floors above ground. I woke up 20 minutes later, after dreaming myself heroically going to jail for doing the documentary. I grabbed my camera and headed towards the living room. Just as I was wondering how long the preaching would continue, a loud knock hit the door from the outside. The cop didn’t know how to respond&#...
beijingorbust.blogspot.com
Beijing or Bust: Acceptable Stereotype
http://beijingorbust.blogspot.com/2009/12/acceptable-stereotype.html
Random observations of this over-hyped yet still fascinating city. Monday, December 14, 2009. The later years of my stay in the US, I was an indoctrinated listener of National Public Radio. Every liberal intellectual type seemed to have the local NPR station preset on their radios, so I followed suit. Tibetans on the other hand, she described enthusiastically, are warm, kind and welcoming – the antithesis of the Chinese. An American who had suffered much along with the birth of communist China, including...
beijingorbust.blogspot.com
Beijing or Bust: November 2009
http://beijingorbust.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html
Random observations of this over-hyped yet still fascinating city. Sunday, November 22, 2009. In Search of Chinese-Chinese. One day last week I went to a private clinic in Beijing. As usual the clinic was quiet and only a few clients—half of them foreign expats—sat around waiting. A tall Scandinavian-looking guy came and sat in the couch next to me. We stroke up a conversation about the newspaper story I was reading. Then he asked,. 8220;Are you Chinese Chinese? Chinese who give up their dreams for desk ...
beijingorbust.blogspot.com
Beijing or Bust: Crying Babies
http://beijingorbust.blogspot.com/2005/09/crying-babies.html
Random observations of this over-hyped yet still fascinating city. Friday, September 09, 2005. Apparently calling someone “stupid” was too harsh. The script supervisor, who was born in Taiwan, grew up in the US and now resides in Hong Kong, suggested, “ask her why she doesn’t know how to change nappies.”. For the next few takes, the Chinese actress used several variations of the line, as “how come you don’t know? 8221;, “how inexperienced you are! 8221;, “aiyaya, the nappies are over there! It was alread...
beijingorbust.blogspot.com
Beijing or Bust: My Home Village
http://beijingorbust.blogspot.com/2010/05/my-home-village.html
Random observations of this over-hyped yet still fascinating city. Sunday, May 23, 2010. Last month, I accompanied my father on a visit to his home village. In China, one would call the hometown on the paternal side of be one’s own. However, in my thirty-(big) plus years of existence, I had never before been to “my” home village. 8220;You are back,” they would say to my father. “You are getting old,” with a chuckle they would add. No no no, I would quickly reply, I like my “home village.”...8220;In ten y...
beijingorbust.blogspot.com
Beijing or Bust: December 2009
http://beijingorbust.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html
Random observations of this over-hyped yet still fascinating city. Monday, December 14, 2009. The later years of my stay in the US, I was an indoctrinated listener of National Public Radio. Every liberal intellectual type seemed to have the local NPR station preset on their radios, so I followed suit. Tibetans on the other hand, she described enthusiastically, are warm, kind and welcoming – the antithesis of the Chinese. An American who had suffered much along with the birth of communist China, including...
beijingorbust.blogspot.com
Beijing or Bust: August 2009
http://beijingorbust.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html
Random observations of this over-hyped yet still fascinating city. Tuesday, August 11, 2009. I flew back to Chengdu for my high school 20. Reunion. Of the 360 students in my graduating class, more than one third showed up. Most I had not seen for 20 years and had a hard time remembering. It was embarrassing but also a source of rapturous laughter once the identities were revealed. We all said how we missed our high school years- teachers caring, friends loving, and time innocent. David, visiting all ...
beijingorbust.blogspot.com
Beijing or Bust: May 2009
http://beijingorbust.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html
Random observations of this over-hyped yet still fascinating city. Thursday, May 14, 2009. To Catch a White Wolf with Bare Hands. The cliché goes—in the new Wild Wild East of China, anything is possible. Tiring as it is, clichés do seem to exist for a reason. The central issue, like always, is about money. The most difficult for independent producers is to find the “first money”— usually with nothing more than a script, suggested star castings, and a fantasy revenue forecast—t...None of the stereotypes s...
