I found an animated video about Chinese philosopher Mencius on YouTube. Mencius or Mengzi (孟子) was one of the most important interpreters of Confucianism which was the basis for Chinese society for over 2000 years and still plays an important role in contemporary Chinese behavior.
The videos are in Chinese, but with English subtitles so for anyone interested, this is an easy and entertaining way to learn a bit about one of China's great philosophers. The first part of the video series is below and you can watch the rest using this Youtube link.
I recently spotted Jeremy Lin, the NBA's new star, on the campus basketball courts at Xiamen University of Technology (XMUT) this afternoon. Lin is not playing the rest of the NBA season for the New York Knicks due to a knee injury so I wondered whether he's moonlighting here in China. However, when I saw Kobe Bryant nearby as well, I started to get a bit suspicious.
Jeremy Lin being here is slightly more believable since he's currently on the Knicks disabled list and his parents are from nearby Taiwan, but Kobe might find it harder to escape from the Lakers at this time. In reality, Jeremy and Kobe were here only in cardboard cutout form (I wonder if the NBA has licensed their appearance). Jeremy, Kobe and some other NBA figures were just standing around while XMUT students competed in some dribbling and shooting contests.
The 3D version of Titanic opened in China last week on about 2400 movie theater screens in China. On its opening day (April 10), the 3D sinking ship saga brought in U.S. 11.6 million (RMB 73 million) making it the second highest opening day grossing film in China.
It does seem that this film is something of an event in China - a few of my Chinese students and friends (at least the female ones) have mentioned wanting to see it and its pretty rare for Chinese college students here to see films in theaters (they routinely watch them illegally for free online instead).
One slight bit of controversy involves censorship by the State Administration of Radio, Film & Television (SARFT) of nudity in one of the movies' scenes where Kate Winslet's breasts are exposed. Reportedly, the boob ban wasn't due so much to aversion of nudity, but to fear that Chinese theater goers would try to reach out to try and grab a feel of Kate's 3D bosom and thereby disrupt the view for other viewers. One disappointed viewer stated on a Chinese microblog site: "I've been almost waiting 15 years and not for the 3D icebergs" according to China Daily.
For anyone interested in the recent controversy over the production of iPads and other electronic devices by Apple and other major companies, there's an interesting podcast called The People Behind Your iPad.
Apple as well as many other major computer and electronics companies subcontract much of their production to Foxconn, which has made it the world's largest electronics manufacturer. Recently, the Fair Labor Association (FLA) did an audit on Foxconn working conditions and found many problems and violations of both FLA standards and Chinese law. Marketplace reporter Rob Schmitz was able to go inside one of Foxconn's plants (which are actually more like self-contained cities) with about 240,000 workers in the city of Shenzhen.
The interviews seem to indicate that the Foxconn workers, although they believe their jobs are highly monotonous and do have complaints, don't believe that Foxconn's treatment is as bad as some Apple/Foxconn critics have suggested. However, I wonder whether Apple and Foxconn should be judged solely on the views of the factory workers who are generally uneducated migrants from poor countryside areas of China where the only work prospects are on peasant farms. While Foxconn factory work provides them with higher income that they could make in their hometowns, it doesn't seem fair to compare income opportunities of poor, rural farming communities with huge and incredibly profitable multinational corporations such as Apple and Foxconn. That's kind of like comparing Steve Jobs or Terry Guo (Foxconn's billionaire founder) to much more average-income people like me - what I'd consider a sizeable fortune would be pocket change to them.
The political scene in China has been full of drama recently that I'm sure the leaders in Beijing would much rather avoid, especially before the leadership transition later this year. Most Americans probably don't try to follow Chinese politics at all and are likely completely ignorant of the political scandal going on in China. While its difficult to find detailed and reliable information about what's really going on and I certainly don't claim to have any greater knowledge than anyone else reading the current Internet news, but for anyone interested here's some minimal background:
Bo Xilai (薄熙来) was until recently, the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) Secretary of Chongqing Municipality. Prior to his recent problems and fall from grace, he had become one of the most powerful politicians in China and seemed likely to become one of the 9 members of China's Standing Committee later this year.
One major reason for Bo Xilai's popularity among many Chinese was his promise to reduce the gap between China's relatively small (but extremely powerful) newly rich segment of the population and the rest of China's still largely poor population. Bo became known for cracking down on organized crime and corruption in Chongqing and urged a return to more egalitarian communist-style leadership. However, he was also criticized for heavy handed tactics such as torture a bit reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution era. This may have led to Bo's ostracism by China's top leaders, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao in addition to his overtly public image which markedly contrasts with most of China's current top leaders. Ironically, Bo is also alleged to have been involved in large-scale corruption (which he became famous for cracking down on in Chongqing).
Bo Xilai and wife implicated in murder of British businessman?
Yesterday (April 10, 2012), Bo was removed from the CPC's Central Committee and it was reported that he is suspected of involvement in disciplinary violations. Additionally, Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, is being investigated in the murder of Neil Heywood, a British businessman found dead in his hotel room from alcohol poisoning. One of Bo's subordinates, Wang Lijun, allegedly implicated Bo's wife in the death of Heywood and Bo is now accused of apparently unspecified, but "serious disciplinary violations."
My guess is that we'll never know the full story of Bo Xilai, his wife and Neil Heywood. Whatever semi-accurate version of the events do eventually come to light would make for a great political thriller/murder mystery novel although it would be guaranteed to be banned in China.
For some information on the Bo Xilai controversy, here are some links to recent news articles (and a Google search can provide many more):
Sometimes its interesting to see that people tend to view things as their own, regardless of whether something really is or not. This may be especially true here in China where virtually everything is copied without much regard to its origin. For instance, I had a Chinese friend whose phone had an instrumental ringtone of the rock/pop ballad Right Here Waitingwhich is apparently quite popular in China. Of course, anyone who was in America and listened to the radio at all in the late 1980s would remember the song since it was played incessantly at the time. In fact, it was a # 1 hit single for singer/songwriterRichard Marx in 1989. Here's a video of Marx performing the song to guitar (rather than the original piano) accompaniment.
Curious about how my friend chose this song for her ringtone, I asked her about it and was slightly surprised to find that she'd never heard of Richard Marx, but more surprised when she insisted that the song was actually Chinese rather than American. I didn't recollect Richard Marx looking very Chinese and tried to tell her that it was actually an old song by an American singer that must have been copied by a Chinese singer, but she refused to believe this, saying that maybe the American copied the Chinese song. While its not uncommon for Chinese singers to record cover versions of popular American songs, it would be exceptionally rare for an American singer to cover a translated Chinese song (I can't think of any examples offhand).
Considering that most Chinese people don't know Richard Marx from Karl Marx and probably haven't heard the English version of Right Here Waiting, I wondered how it became so popular here. I'm still not sure, but from a little online research I found out that Marx (Richard, not Karl) was one of the early Western singers whose music had some degree of exposure in China (until the 1980s, communist China was almost completely isolated from the outside world and almost no Western music was heard). Right Here Waiting also fits well within Chinese pop music sensibility which tends to favor simple ballads that can be performed at karaoke clubs.
I also found out that in the 1990s, a Cantonesecover version of the song was recorded by Kenny Bee (锺镇涛; Zhong Zhentao). Instead of Right here Waiting, its was more poetically titled 紅葉斜落我心寂寞時 ("The falling maple leaves reflect the loneliness of my heart"). Here's a video:
I don't know if Richard Marx (or his music publishing company) has licensed the use of his biggest hit song here in the Middle Kingdom for ringtones, karaoke, etc., but I imagine its used without permission much more than not. Too bad for poor Richard who could be raking in royalty payments from all the Chinese phone users' ringtones, etc. (in reality, Marx is not likely poor since he's also had a very successful career as a songwriter and producer since his performing days). And just for fun, here's a version of Right Here Waiting played on the guzheng, a Chinese traditional instrument.
At least since these videos are on YouTube, Richard Marx might actually receive some royalties from Chinese versions of his song. Regardless of Richard's royalty income, Right Here Waiting is likely to remain right here ringing on phones throughout China.
Earlier this week, there was a Chinese holiday (Tomb Sweeping Day; 清明节) and since I have no ancestors' tombs to sweep here, I decided to go and visit Hulishan Fortress here in Xiamen (厦门). Hulishan is located on the coast, near Xiamen University. The fort was originally built beginning in 1891 and finished in 1896. It was built 25 meters above the sea and beach and made of sand, clay and glutinous rice (I looked for the rice since I was a bit hungry, but didn't see any so it seems that the renovated fort is rice-less).
Toward the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), China realized (albeit a bit too late to save the last imperial dynasty) that it had fallen way behind the Western powers in terms of technology and needed to modernize. To protect the southern coast, China bought German-made Krupp cannon, including two that are reportedly the largest coastal cannon in the world. One of these monster cannons remains - 280 mm, 14 meters long and weighing 60 tons.
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