02.26.09
Posted in Pop Culture at 1:28 pm by Benjamin Ross
While certainly popular among certain circles of Chinese youth, hip hop culture hasn’t quite achieved the cultural relevance in the Middle Kingdom as it has in say…the middle-class Midwestern 99% white suburb where I grew up. So it came as a pleasant surprise to see this collection of Chinese graffiti sprawled across the walls of an underpass on the campus of Shanghai Jiaotong University.
Interestingly enough, one country where hip hop culture has caught on among the masses, and is the preeminent form in Western cultural diffusion, is Mongolia. Teens listening to rap music, graffiti (seen below), hip hop fashions (also below), and corn rows (unfortunately not pictured) are an everyday sight in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator, and considerably more prevalent than in Mongolia’s powerful southern neighbor.
Permalink
08.18.08
Posted in Olympics, Pop Culture, Society at 6:42 pm by Benjamin Ross
There was a long period in Chinese history where most 50 foot statues were constructed in the image of one particular individual.
Nope, that’s not the Great He1msman, but rather the Great Diesel, greeting beach volleyball fans to Chaoyang Park.
Permalink
07.08.08
Posted in Personal Anecdotes, Pop Culture at 10:07 am by Benjamin Ross
Whenever you are a foreigner out walking the streets in China, you usually get asked where you are from at least about 1.5 times per hour. When I would tell people I’m American, the next logical question is always “What city?” This is when things would get complicated.
“Kansas City,” I would reply. (Hardly anybody in China has heard of Kansas City, just as hardly anybody in the US has heard of Fuzhou).
“Kansas…you mean Texas, right?” was the most common reply. The Chinese word for “Kansas” and the word for “Texas” are somewhat similar, so it’s an understandable mistake. Ultimately, many Chinese people have in fact heard of the state of Kansas, but they have never heard of Kansas City, which by in large is in Missouri.*
To make matters simple, I decided on this trip to just tell casual inquirers that I am from Chicago. I’ve only lived there 10 months, so I am far from being a native, but it’s simpler than explaining that Kansas is not the same as Texas, and that Kansas City is actually located in Missouri, not Kansas. So far, I have not run into a single Chinese person who hasn’t heard of Chicago. However, when it comes to Windy City, nobody makes mention of the Sears Tower, Michigan Avenue, or even deep dish pizza. From school children to cab drivers to the guard in front of my apartment complex, the first words from the mouth when Chicago is mentioned are invariably 公牛队 (gong1 niu2 dui4) and 乔丹 (qiao3 dan1), “The Bulls” and “Michael Jordan.”
Michael Jordan is such a household name in China that I shouldn’t have been surprised the other day when I saw this item selling at the Mutianyu Great Wall.
In the middle of the image, next to the stone carvings of dragons, tigers, the Great Wall, and other sino-imagery, you can see one of MJ yelling to his teammates. He is the only athlete whose bust I have ever seen on such a souvenir. I couldn’t even find one of Yao Ming. The fact that this rendering of an American athlete, at China’s most famous tourist attraction, certainly speaks volumes about his popularity in the Middle Kingdom. The rage over basketball has exploded in China over the past few decades, and Michael Jordan, willing or not, has become its de facto cultural ambassador. While many Chinese fans today identify more with Kobe Bryant or Allen Iverson, Michael Jordan is still viewed as the face of the game, and thus its him, not Kobe or even Yao, who gets his face on the Great Wall souvenir.
*Technically, there is a Kansas City, KS also, but the main urban center is Kansas City, MO. Many Americans don’t seem to be aware of this either.
Permalink
11.21.07
Posted in Pop Culture at 1:59 pm by Benjamin Ross
Chinese popular music is not for everyone. When I say “not for everyone,” I am referring to those citizens of the world who are neither a) part of China’s roughly 1.5 billion inhabitants or b) have been in China long enough to be desensitized to the point where they can open up to the idea that not all Chinese pop is as horrendous as that which dominates 99% of the radio waves.
This past weekend, a friend from Fuzhou came to visit me in Chicago. Accordingly, I set my iTunes to play some of my own personal favorite Chinese artists, including Zheng Zhi Hua, Wu Bai, and the now-defunct Hong Kong rock band Beyond. In the middle of Beyond’s anthem 抗战二十年, I asked my friend what she thought of the song.
“It’s so…old,” was her response. This would not be so significant if it weren’t for that this is the same response I get 99% of the time when asked by Chinese people who my favorite Chinese singers are. The “It’s so…old” is usually accompanied by a non-verbal but completely understood, “You are such a dork for listening to that stuff from the 80’s and 90’s.”
Old or not, I have found that most of the Chinese pop music I can stand to listen to does come from the previous two decades. Over the past decade most Chinese popular music has increasingly devolved into the shells of shallow American pop songs, with their words replaced by even sappier Chinese lyrics. The artists mentioned above, while not musically spectacular, do have a certain element of soul to their music which is absent in most contemporary Chinese pop.
So now consider the my situation had it been in the United States. If I were to tell several American friends that two of my favorite musical groups were U2 and the Talking Heads, would it elicit a response of “Gosh, those guys are so old”? My guess is probably not.
China is in currently the midst of a period of change more rapid than at any other point in its history. Many observers would argue that the greatest mass improvement in living standards in human history has also come at the expense of one of the world’s longest lasting cultures.
To say that the musical group Beyond is anything more than a footnote in China’s 5000 year history would be a stretch. But in terms of the short history of rock music in China, Beyond is as influential on the Chinese scene as the Beatles or the Rolling Stones would be to that of the West.
Discounting cultural works, especially music, on account of them being old (but not necessarily out of date), is nothing foreign to the China or the US. But the degree of street cred I lose from confessing to liking artists such as Beyond, Zheng Zhi Hua, and Wu Bai does leave me a little worried about the future of music in the Middle Kingdom. And if popular music is indeed a microcosm of Chinese culture itself, then we could be headed towards a period of even more drastic change than we have seen in the past few decades. As for me, I will still be listening to Beyond and the Talking Heads.
Permalink
08.16.07
Posted in Pop Culture at 8:02 pm by Benjamin Ross
After almost a month as the co-host of “I Love Health” I am beginning to understand a thing or two about Chinese TV. The major observation I often hear about Chinese TV (from Chinese and foreigners alike) is that it is full of low quality programming. I now have several Chinese close friends with good English who frequently download American TV shows from the Internet. They all have all unequivocally told me that the American shows are superior to Chinese ones, and say that when given the choice, they would never watch a Chinese TV program over an American one too. Based on my own personal limited exposure to Chinese television (and TV as a whole), I would have to say I agree with this assertion.
There are several theories why Chinese TV is so…how can I put this nicely?…crappy. One is that the Chinese education does not emphasize creativity and arts as much as that of the West, and this is reflected by the film and television industry. While there is truth to this statement, I think it only represents a piece of the puzzle. Another factor is the relative youth of the Chinese TV/film industry. While the industry itself is not that young, it must be put into perspective that only three decades ago, the only TV and films permitted were those glorifying the Communist Party.
But another reason I am finding for the severe lack of quality programming in China is massive dilution of the talent pool. Much of this is because the Chinese media is still runs essentially like a 单位 (danwei), the old work units which were the building blocks of Socialism. While private enterprise is rapidly rendering the concept of a danwei job obsolete, government offices, schools, public hospitals, and the media all still operate under the old danwei system. What this means is endless levels of hierarchy, webs of bureaucracy, and at the very top cadres with leather day planners who don’t seem to do any actual work, but somehow have the highest salaries and the personal drivers.
Chinese TV operates under this system. Chinese TV has 3 levels: Central Television (CCTV) which is based out of Beijing, provincial television, and city television. CCTV is available all over China. Provincial channels are usually available regionally (i.e. Fujian Provincial TV in most Southeastern provinces, as well as most major cities), and local channels are typically only available in the cities they are broadcast from.
Unlike the US however, where local stations are typically only responsible for local news, in China local stations are often responsible for their own programming. Because of this, production, directing, and acting talent are all spread around the country, rather than being focused on several major TV networks, and then syndicated across the country. Consider my show as an example. My co-host, Zheng Zheng, is only one year out of college. She is attractive, speaks perfect Mandarin, and does a decent job reporting news with me on “I Love Health.” However, she is probably one of several thousand, and would not stand a chance compared to the announcers on CCTV. Then there is Ting Ting who writes and directs all of our material. Ting Ting does an excellent job preparing the material, and coaching Zheng Zheng and my performance. However, she just graduated college this spring…with an advertising degree…and she is the writer for a TV show. I know friends in the US who studied screen writing 4 years in college, waited tables in Hollywood another 4, and still never got their chance to write anything. Then of course there is me. Granted I speak Chinese, but so do several tens of thousands of other foreigners in China. I think I do a moderately decent job overall as an announcer, but there is no chance I would be on TV if shows if they were all centralized, even accounting for the fact I am a Westerner.
When you consider how dispersed the talent is over China, it starts to become clear why programming is so sub-par. The last two shows I was a contestant on, SuperMe and Superstar were both ripoffs of the famous Hunan TV show Super Girls, which is the famous Chinese clone of American Idol. They were both were produced by Fujian provincial TV, yet had no local connection to Fujian. Instead, they were just another one of the several hundred American Idol ripoffs currently in production in China. I can’t help but posit that if TV were centralized, and they rounded up all of the best talent from the hundreds of stations across the country, held try-outs, and began production with a top-notch staff, the quality would vastly improve. Instead, what we are stuck with are hundreds of small local TV stations, all producing their own redundant clones of the same TV shows.
Personally, I sense that a big reason TV centralization has yet to occur is because it would necessitate a restructuring of the system. This would require firing a great deal of the TV deadweight (cadres) as well as trimming down the personnel to only the best the country has to offer. This would not bode well with most of the people who would have the power to bring about such a change, and also would stand to cause considerable “instability,” the ultimate pet peeve of the CCP. Until this happens, we are probably stuck with the same stagnant programming.
Permalink
07.03.07
Posted in Pop Culture at 11:55 pm by Benjamin Ross
The 4th of July is the one time a year when us Americans can dress up in red, white, and blue, and drink beer and light fireworks as we sing off-key versions The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Its a day to eat bar-b-que, have block parties, and above all, celebrate. The reason for all the celebration, in theory, is to commemorate our Independence, and to be proud of being American. But what does it mean to be proud to be an American? Living in China, I often come across tiny moments which answer this question. The most recent of these came from an unexpected source.
Last weekend I was enjoying an evening with friends in a private room at a karaoke bar. After several hours of Chinese pop songs, one of my friends selected Michael Jackson’s Thriller to be played on the hi-fi. Unlike most Chinese karaoke videos, the Thriller video is the uncut version of the original.
As the first scene began with Michael proposing to his girlfriend, the normally raucous atmosphere of the karaoke room toned down to a curious movie watching mode. My friends’ eyes remained peeled to the screen as Michael morphed into a werewolf and chased his girlfriend through the woods. The frightened look in their eyes was suddenly spun around as the scene flashes to Michael and his girlfriend eating popcorn in the movie theater. Everybody in the room had been engaged, scared, shocked, and humored, and were now settling into the fact that this was not just a typical karaoke video.
As Michael danced down the street, heads bopped up and down to the bass notes of that famous Thriller instrumental loop. When the music faded and zombies emerged from tombs and man-holes, the girls began to squirm in their seats. As Michael danced with the zombies, the atmosphere reverted back to that of a karaoke room. Shots of beer were consumed, snacks were munched, and the group chitter chattered amongst each other.
The party atmosphere was broken once again when Michael’s girlfriend runs home only to find the zombies breaking into her living room. As the zombified Michael emerged, looks of fright and anxiety graced my friends’ faces one more time, only to be promptly swifted away as Michael reaches in to grab his girlfriend and then suddenly wakes her up from a dream. As Michael turned around and faced the camera with his glowing eyes, the karaoke crowd clapped with delight.
One of the girls turned to me, “Wow, I had no idea he was so handsome back then. He is really strange now.”
Michael Jackson was handsome in 1983. But it was not just his physical appearance. Michael could sing. He could dance. He had the red leather jacket. And his teaming with producer Quincy Jones and a skilled team of directors, actors, musicians, and choreographers, produced a 13 minute clip of pure genius. Watching the Thriller video in a karaoke room in Fuzhou in 2007, it is still every bit as fresh as it was when I saw it for the first time when I was only 4 years old. It’s a work of art, which has proven to cross not only borders of time but those of culture.
During the next song another one of my friends in the room turned to me, and referring to the Thriller video said “That was really incredible. There has never been anything done like this in China.”
Because of various factors, social, economical, political, demographical, and some purely coincidental, the United Sates is an environment where this kind of creative innovation has thrived for 400 years. As the world’s largest fondue pot of ethnic mixing, American culture has produced some of the world’s most profound innovations, personalities, and works of art from the last 400 years. From Thomas Edison to Bill Gates, from Huckleberry Finn to Homer Simpson, and from the Model T to Gmail, the cumulative achievements of American culture should make us all proud.
The Fourth of July is not only a time to celebrate our independence, but also a time to appreciate the achievements which have occurred since our independence. This Wednesday take a short break from the beer and bar-b-que to re-watch the Thriller video. Or read a few chapters from The Grapes of Wrath. Download a copy of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. Pop in a CD of Duke Ellington, Bob Dylan, or Elvis Presley. Use an iPod. Watch The Simpsons. Listen to one of George Carlin’s stand up routines. Reread the American constitution. Rent The Godfather, or eat General Tso’s chicken.
If anybody asks why you are proud to be an American, you will have a list of reasons to give them. And then you can return to the beer, bratwursts, and acapella renditions of This Land is Your Land.
Permalink
04.28.07
Posted in Pop Culture at 2:06 pm by Benjamin Ross
As much as I despise 99% of Chinese pop music (and most other pop music for that matter), there are a few Chinese songs which have managed to make it into my iTunes regular rotation. While these songs aren’t necessarily “pop” per se, they do fall into the large canon of Chinese music which, as laowai living in the Middle Kingdom, we are constantly bombarded with. With no further ado, here are my personal Chinese pop song recommendations.
真的爱你 by Beyond. Beyond is the most famous band in the brief history of Chinese rock. They are from Hong Kong, so accordingly most of their songs are in Cantonese, which many feel is a more musical tongue than Mandarin. Unfortunately, Beyond’s lead singer died while doing a stage dive at a concert. They continued touring as a trio for several years, and today are pretty much retired.
奔跑 by 羽泉. This upbeat, motivational tune was popular when I first came to China in 2004. The KTV video shows the singers playing their instruments, then going for a fast break on a basketball court. It’s cheesy but fitting. This song stays in constant rotation on my iPod, and was also the song I sang on Fuzhou Foreign Idol.
北方的狼 by 齐秦 If you’re a guy, and looking for a good song to sing at the KTV, this is it. The words are slow and simple, and the song is well-known and liked by most Chinese men, and women too. It tells the story of a wolf coming from the north, and the music fittingly portrays this description.
挪威的森林 by 伍佰 This is a sad love song about leaving a girl, but it has a decent lead guitar riff, and the singing is pleasingly rhythmic. 伍佰 is from Taiwan, and has had many hit songs in both Taiwan and the mainland.
我的地盘 by 周杰伦 (Jay Chou) Conventional knowledge says Chinese and Hip-Hop don’t mix, but Jay Chou makes as good of an attempt as I have ever heard. Jay’s rap lyrics are also famously known to be completely incomprehensible, even to the Chinese ear. Other than the cheesy, Disney-esque opening, this tune really moves. The extra “er” he adds to the end of every word in the chorus gives it a nice touch.
If you want to listen to any of these tunes, click on the links on the song names. If you’re interested in more songs by these artists, you can get them from baidu.com. Above the search bar, click on the link that says “MP3.” Then on the next screen fill in the little circle that says “MP3.” If you want lyrics, click on the circle that says “歌词.” Copy and paste the name of the artist into the search blank and click on the grey rectangular button that says “百度搜索.”
Once the search results come up, click on where it says “试听” to listen to a song. A new window will come up with a player. If you want to save a song, right click on the hyperlink at the top of the player, and save the link. Sometimes baidu links are dead ends, so you might have to try a couple times to get it to work. Good luck.
Permalink
04.16.07
Posted in Pop Culture at 3:35 am by Benjamin Ross
This post has nothing to do with China whatsoever. I felt inclined to write it nonetheless.
I just finished watching the new hit movie 300. Before I tell you my honest opinions about the movie, let me just say that the special effects were spectacular. In case you have not seen it, 300 tells of the Battle of Thermopylae between Sparta and Persia. The basic structure of the movie is this. 5 minutes of hyper-masculine macho battle prep-talk – 15 minutes of stabbing, grunting, and decapitations – 5 more minutes of hyper-masculine macho battle prep-talk – 5 more minutes of stabbing, grunting, and decapitations, et cetera.
Here’s the formula for each fight scene. Warriors run at one another from both sides. As soon as one warrior approaches another, one lashes out his sword or a spear. The weapon connects, blood and body parts fly around in slow motion, and dismembered warrior falls to his death. The warrior who is still alive runs at another warrior, and the same result occurs. Combat deaths occur the rate of about one per three seconds when the camera is on. There are a few variations, such as when a rhino appeared out of nowhere and attacks, or when several hundred arrows come out of the sky in unison (this happened several times), but other than that, it was like watching a 2 hour game of Mortal Kombat.
In case you did not figure it out yet, I did not like this movie. In fact, it was so pathetically cliché that by the end, I was laughing out loud every time a decapitated head flew across the screen in slow motion. It was the gore of Passion of the Christ, mixed with the plot of a Chinese Kung Fu movie. I wish I could say that 300 was the worst movie I have ever seen, but unfortunately this is not the case. 300 is just another volume to the ever growing list of Hollywood movies which rely on “cool” rather than content to attract viewers.
300 is a perfect example of what you get with several hundred million dollars, a team of brilliant computer graphic designers, a script that could double as a high school play, and a team of actors who make Keanu Reeves look like Marlon Brando. Special effects and computer graphics today are so advanced, that they have rendered solid acting, well-written scripts, and real historical context obsolete. I watched 300 with the naïve assumption that I might actually learn something about ancient Sparta and Persia. Here is what I came away with.
The skies over Sparta are always full of black clouds with a sun constantly peaking through them.
Spartan warriors are scrupulously trained to all shout “Ahh oohh” in unison after certain vocal cues from their leader.
90% of Spartan communication is done in the form of monologue or speech.
Spartans say the word “Spartan” roughly once per sentence.
To become a Spartan soldier you must have a perfectly sculpted 6 pack.
Persians kings are black men with piercings all over their face.
A good movie will entertain. A great movie will leave you still thinking about it an hour after you have finished watching. 300 was neither. Special effects can be entertaining, but they do not take the place of an insightful, informative, and thought-provoking production. Special effects should be used to accentuate a movie, not be the basis which the entire film is based. Apparently, our society has devolved to the point that our entertainment has to be spoon fed to us by Hollywood through special effects and graphic violence. Thank God for books.
Permalink
04.01.07
Posted in Me on TV, Pop Culture at 3:56 pm by Benjamin Ross
Remember the big boom in Reality TV at the beginning of the decade? Well, CCTV (China Central Television) had one couple years ago, and now it is trickling down to the local Fuzhou stations. Maybe I was a fool to think Super Me (aka Fuzhou Foreign Idol) was an isolated example, but yesterday I got another phone call from the TV station. They are doing a show where 8 Chinese contestants and 8 foreign contestants will be competing in a “marketing competition.” After completing several tasks and answering questions from a panel of judges, a winner will be awarded. The prize…a job with the Southeast Automobile Company in Fuzhou. Yes, you heard me, a real job in a real car company. Who will be the next Fuzhou Apprentice??? After coming in second place in Idol, I will now have another chance to make it big on Chinese reality TV! I expect it to be nothing short of hilarious. More details to come.
Permalink
« Previous Page « Previous Page Next entries »
