Chinese Chic　中華風　中華チック

Happy Chinese New Year of the Dragon, Everyone:-)

2012-01-26T15:46:00.001+09:00

Happy Chinese/Lunar New Year, everyone:-)

Hope everyone has a prosperous, healthy, and fulfilling year of the Dragon!:-)

Worthwhile and Interesting Blogs Which I Read Interview Series:) Interview Four: Matt Schiavenza: From the Dragon to the Apple

2012-01-08T18:55:00.003+09:00

1) What is the name of your blog?
My blog is called Matt Schiavenza: From the Dragon to the Apple . For the first three years of its existence it was called “A China Journal”. Creative, huh? The three years before that I had a blog called No Borders No Limits.

2) When did you start blogging?
I dabbled in blogs here and there when I was in college, but I didn’t write regularly until 2004, when I moved to China.

3) How did you pick the name for your blog?
I titled my first blog No Borders No Limits because I fancied myself a world traveler who would live in many different countries, teaching English and generally being a bum. Had I known that I’d have stayed in China as long as I did, I might have thought differently about it!
I then decided to have an eponymous blog, for a few reasons. One, I was trying to build a portfolio as a writer and thought it was important that people knew my name. Two, I was getting tired with the anonymity of the Internet; all the comment threads I read seemed to devolve into nasty arguments among people hiding behind fake names.
To be honest, I didn’t put an enormous amount of time into the subtitles of my site. “A China Journal” I chose because it was simple and direct, and that’s what I was going for at the time. “From the Dragon to the Apple” was just something I thought of, and while I don’t like it all that much I can’t be bothered changing it!
How did it get started? What motivated you to start a blog and what keeps you going?
When I lived in Italy for a year as a foreign student, in 2001, I used to write long e-mails describing my life to a group of friends. As the year progressed I put more and more effort into them, and as a result began receiving more positive feedback from my friends. This was the first time I had an “audience” as such.
By the time I moved to China in 2004 blogs had become quite popular, and I understood then that they were a unique and powerful tool that wasn’t going to go away. I felt that writing a blog would not only help my friends and family follow me from afar, but would also provide a platform for my thoughts and ideas. I wanted to join the conversation, so to speak.

4) How did you decide on what your main focus for your blog would be?
Initially, I didn’t pick a focus for my blog at all, so as a result in the early years my site jumped from topic to topic. I wrote about baseball, about American politics, about China, really about whatever popped into my head that particular day.
Then on the advice of a friend I started to focus my writing a bit more on China, because this was an area that I felt like I could “add value”, to use the hackneyed term. I realized that a lot of people were interested in what life was like in China, and as a person living there I could contribute something to their understanding. When I focused on China I found that my writing became more consistently interesting.
Nowadays things have gone full circle- I write about whatever pops into my mind again. This is due to being back in the US, where I necessarily have less to say about China. In addition I feel that I write about China in other forums so can reserve my personal blog for whatever interests me.

5) Did any other blogs inspire and influence your blog? What other blogs do you read?
Other blogs influenced me greatly. Back in 2003 and 2004 very few news organizations had blogs, so the medium was dominated by amateurs. There was really a sense that no matter who you were, if you wrote well your voice would be heard. Through these bloggers I learned about the importance of linking to others, the utility of embedding images and videos, and so forth- the nuts and bolts of the medium. Andrew Sullivan, in particular, inspired me. I’ve been reading his blog almost every day for several years now.
I’ve restricted my blog reading now to a handful about China—Danwei, The Peking Duck, China Hearsay, China Geeks, etc.—and a few others writing about other subjects. I love Techcrunch. There’s a blog about the San Francisco Giants, my favorite baseball team, that I love called The McCovey Chronicles. Foreign Policy magazine hosts several excellent blogs, including one by the well-known International Relations scholar Stephen Walt. Nowadays you can find good blogs written about just about everything.

6) Is blogging a full-time job now? Or is it a side-hobby? And if so, what do you do besides blogging?
Blogging isn’t and has never been a full-time job for me, though I wouldn’t mind if it were! I’m a full-time graduate student at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and am also currently an online reporter at the Asia Society here in New York.

7) What are some of the perks you've enjoyed personally as a blogger? Alternatively, what have you gained or learnt from your blog?
When I moved to China the community was so small that before long we all got to know each other, at least virtually. Whenever I visited Beijing or Shanghai I made a point to seek out bloggers I knew there, and some of my best friends in China are people I originally knew simply as bloggers. But perhaps the greatest perk was simply being told by strangers that they liked or admired my blog, and even in one or two cases that my blog helped inspire them in some way. That to me is quite an honor.
I’ve learned an enormous amount through the blog, but most importantly I gained a much-needed sense of humility. I’m lucky to have readers who know a lot more about things than I do, and every time they’ve corrected me on something it has made me smarter. Blogging in general has taught me a lot of the basics of being a writer, such as the importance of reading what you write before submitting it, and how to attribute ideas you borrow to the right people. In addition, simply the act of writing a lot, of getting bad writing out of my system, has made me better at it.

8) What is the most memorable compliment(s) you have received about your blog?
To be honest, I can’t think of any single compliment that I have received that stands out. But what I will mention is this—even when it doesn’t seem like anyone is reading, you’d be surprised who has heard of you. I’ve learned this on a couple of occasions, when I’ve had the honor of having well-known people tell me that they’ve heard of my site. Needless to say I was floored.

9) What would you like your readers to know about you which they may not already know from your blog?
Ha, well…I suppose that I’m not always so serious in real life!

Please head over to Matt's blog for a read at: http://mattschiavenza.com/

Happy 2012 Everyone!:-)

2012-01-06T20:04:00.002+09:00

Happy New Year readers!!:-)

My sincerest apologies for my prolonged absence but wait...i have an excuse..I flew off to Bangkok and Singapore during the Christmas and New Year Eve break and had a 10 day holiday (yes, i know, just right after n barely a month after coming back from China 3 week holiday!)..anyways, I enjoyed myself ton, caught up with alot of old friends whom i haven't seen in years, their parents, got intro to siblings or partners,etc..and rediscovered Bangkok and Singapore again after 5 years and 9 years respectively! Yes it was that long although i've been to both places, but been literally years since the last time!

I will be posting on my China, Bangkok, AND Singapore trip shortly, fingers crossed, hehehe..hopefully within the next 2 months..

Anyways, a quick update, i kinda like this Singaporean Chinese guy..i got to know him at a social meeting less than 2 months back and after alot of 'fate encounters' (i really believe in yuan fen (chinese term for fate or meant to be)) without which we would never have been friends or had the opportunity to develop a friendship beyond the mere hi-bye acquaintance relationship, i discovered he meets so MANY of my criterias and checklist for a 'husband' (as opposed to boyfriend material, he's def husband material in my books) that i've slowly and gradually gotten to like him more and more, i'm very comfortable around him, and he ticks almost all my criterion checklist, from his age to occupation, to family background, values, and much more..its funny cos he's not actually the kinda guy whom would attract me sexually or in terms of looks right away but he makes me very comfortable..i even met up with him in Singapore as he happened to go bck at the exact time i was there (another 'fate opportunities'!) However, i know he doesn't like me in that way as he's so sensitive and smart, i think he knows i kinda like him and wanna develop our relationship but he's showing alot of signs from his attitude and stuff that he doesn't like me in that way...oh god, i thought of giving up but i told myself, when will i meet a guy whom meets almost ALL my criterias next if i give up on him now? And besides, its been barely 1.5 months since we know each other and we have had so many opportunities to meet and stuff, i don't wanna give up now...so after consulting with some friends of mine, i've decided to keep trying and maybe tell him my feelings in one month or two months time n see how it goes..cos i don't think we can even be friends with his current attitude so what's there to lose anyways i think??

Anyways, 2011 has been a very very good year for me in terms of friendship, family relationship, possible start of my first relationship (Yes, i've nvr had a boyfriend before nor a sexual relationship with a man!at 28!) and travels!
Hope 2012 will be good for me and my readers too!:-)

ps: I actually visited a blogger's store for the 1st time today, he was gracious enough to allow me to interview him for the 'interesting bloggers series' which i have and he told me he opened a store somewhere in Sydney..and so i so happened to pass by today and popped into his store..it's really nice n much bigger than i expected..i think i even saw him..quite a nice thing to do, visiting a blogger's store whom i have corresponded briefly on email..but i didn't say hello as i didn't want him to think it was being weird visiting his shop..haha..maybe i'm thinking too much..but it was something interesting i did today:)

Worthwhile and Interesting Blogs Which I Read Interview Series:) Interview Three: Webs of Significance.

2011-11-26T23:59:00.004+09:00

This is the third in the series. Enjoy!

1) What is the name of your blog?

Webs of Significance

2) When did you start blogging?

November 16th, 2006

3) How did you pick the name for your blog?

Webs of Significance comes from a quote about culture by one of my favorite anthropologists, Clifford Geertz:-
"Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun..."

I guess it's my way of saying that what I blog about has meaning and significance to me -- but I am not going to presume that they have meaning and significance to others. So, a way of reminding myself to be modest, if you like. :)

4) How did it get started? What motivated you to start a blog and what keeps you going?

For what got me deciding to start a blog, you can actually go and look at my first entry:-
http://webs-of-significance.blogspot.com/2006/11/beginnings.html

But I can also tell you that when I started blogging, I was recovering from an ailment called frozen shoulder that had made it so that I wasn't working/employed at a time, so had plenty of time to think and compose my thoughts. Also, that I had two friends who were into blogging and they convinced me that blogging was worth my while. (Ironically though, they both don't blog all that much these days -- even while I continue to do so!)

As to what keeps me going: after I moved to Hong Kong in May 2007, blogging became a way to let people like my mother and interested friends know what I've been up to. And yes, I like how blogging helps me record and remember things (including about notable movies I've watched, hikes I've been on, places I've visited and things I've done on weekends and holidays, etc.).

5) How did you decide on what your main focus for your blog would be?

Hmmm... since I don't think that my blog has a main focus, maybe this is not a question I should/can answer!

6) Did any other blogs inspire and influence your blog? What other blogs do you read?

Re blogs that inspired me to get blogging: that would be those by my friends Brian (http://asian-cinema.blogspot.com/) and Ho (http://fallingstones.wordpress.com). Re other blogs I read: I read lots -- many of which can be found on my blogroll. :)

7) Is blogging a full-time job now? Or is it a side-hobby? And if so, what do you do besides blogging?

It's definitely not a full-time job as I don't earn any money from blogging! Re what I do besides blogging -- you mean professionally? If so, these days, I'm an editor for a newspaper here in Hong Kong -- and I also do consulting in Penang on museum and cultural heritage projects.

8) What are some of the perks you've enjoyed personally as a blogger? Alternatively, what have you gained or learnt from your blog?

Blogging allows me to practice writing pieces that are the length I want them to be on any subject I want. It also gives me an international audience to share my writings and photos with.

9) What is the most memorable compliment(s) you have received about your blog?

A Hong Kong friend of mine told me, after seeing my photos of Hong Kong on the blog, that the Hong Kong Tourism Board should hire me. :)

10) What would you like your readers to know about you which they may not already know from your blog?

Nothing. The nice thing about my blog is that I can reveal as much (or little) about myself as I want. :)

So head over there now to have a read at her blog:
http://webs-of-significance.blogspot.com

Worthwhile and Interesting Blogs Which I Read Interview Series:) Interview Two:The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

2011-11-20T22:41:00.003+09:00

Hey All,
Sorry about the long absence, but I've actually been away...on vacation!!!:-)I was in China for 3 weeks going through 12 different cities and towns from the North to the South, and from the East to the West. It was alittle like the Amazing Race given that I had scheduled it so tightly but I had always wanted to revisit China again and this time, really get to explore all of China and not stick to just the Beijing-Shanghai route. Anyways, more on my China trip (which i'll do a China Autumn Trip 2011 series on) later...below is Interview Two of my interesting blog series:-)

1) What is the name of your blog?

The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry.

2) When did you start blogging?

October 2007.

3) How did you pick the name for your blog?

It was honestly the least worst name in the sad (and small) pile of ideas!

4) How did it get started?
I started in October 2007, inspired by a meal at Bentley in Surry Hills that was so course-by-course awesome that I wanted to laser it into my memory forever. I also like eating as a way of rediscovering your own city - heading to Narrabeen for the spectacular grilled corn with chipotle and lime mayo or Terrey Hills for a hot chips pizza, etc.

5) What motivated you to start a blog and what keeps you going?

The fact that Sydney keeps repeat-offending on the "opening great new bar/cafe/restaurant" front is good inspiration. Also, there are lots of older places that keep doing incredible new things - there's Gelato Messina and its endless lottery of fun flavours. It's going to be even more impossible to decide what to order there after the gelato patisserie extension opens! The gelato hamburger that the staff is experimenting on looks amazing.

How did you decide on what your main focus for your blog would be?

See above, Sydney's (mostly) rewarding food scene was a way for me to get to know the city better - discover streets and suburbs I'd never visited. I like the idea that any mealtime could literally take you to a new place.

6) Did any other blogs inspire and influence your blog? What other blogs do you read?

I read far too many blogs to mention, but I especially like Lemon Pi - it's by a Sydney pastry chef who has worked at Bentley, Sepia and Marque. Her mix of witty, beautiful writing and inspiring recipes is very inviting. Melbourne Gastronome is a good example-setter in terms of Australian food blogs.

7) Is blogging a full-time job now? Or is it a side-hobby? And if so, what do you do besides blogging?

No, blogging is something I do for fun. I work at a magazine called Inside Out and also volunteer as a presenter at FBi radio in Sydney.

8) What are some of the perks you've enjoyed personally as a blogger? Alternatively, what have you gained or learnt from your blog?

I'm not really motivated by perks or launches or junkets (and there's no advertising or sponsorship on my blog or anything like that). Two rewarding & unforgettable things though: interviewing Nick Palumbo from Gelato Messina & him taking me on a spoon-by-spoon tour of the gelato cabinet. I think I tried almost every flavour! And when I went into Black Star Pastry to buy something and owner/chef Chris The said he had something for me - it was a special just-for-me pastry that wasn't on the menu. That made me feel quite lucky!

9) What is the most memorable compliment(s) you have received about your blog?

Finding out that the people who run the amazing restaurant Orto actually look up my blog for ideas on where to eat was lovely and unexpected. Also, Joanna Savill, co-editor of the Good Food Guide and director of Sydney International Food Festival has said some incredibly nice things.

10) What would you like your readers to know about you which they may not already know from your blog?
Some people might have the misleading idea that I have fancy food all the time or that I am very snobby about what to eat! The truth is I love a good cheese toastie or grease-stained bag of hot chips and I spend more time eating budget meals than lavish dinners. My wallet only stretches so far!

Please visit Lee Tran's blog for spectacular and unique food review experiences at:
http://www.theunbearablelightnessofbeinghungry.com/

Worthwhile and Interesting Blogs Which I Read Interview Series:) Interview One: Ask a Korean.

2011-10-19T22:57:00.005+09:00

I've always wanted to do an interview series of the blogs and bloggers which I read and I've finally found the time to do it. I am very humbled, honoured, and grateful to the willingness of the bloggers whom I've invited to be part of this series for accepting my interview requests despite often times never having read my blog or known that I've followed their blogs for so long.

I have read all the blogs recommended and interviewed for at least 1 year and above and usually for several years now. They range from blogs about Hong Kong cinema, to jottings on life in Hong Kong, as well as China themed blogs to Korean themed blogs.

I shall start this series with an interview of the well-known 'Ask A Korean' blogger, whom I've followed for several years now with his witty insights into Korean issues and racial issues in general. I like his blog cos we have quite similar background and interests,both having a law degree and background, having been born and bred in Asia before moving to the West when we were 16-17 years old, as well as both having a keen interest in Japan and WW2 in Asia, which is one of my most passionate topics (read posts related to this before). He has written posts about the comfort women which I applaud given that this may not be traditionally expected of someone falling into his demography, (i.e. straight korean male of an elite upper class background) and of cos, the fact that he seems very open-minded towards gays and sexual minorities earns him bonus points with me on top of his views on various issues which resonate with me (ie. the placing of undue importance on animal life over human lives, cultural imperialism over western objections towards dog-eating in certain Asian cultures, and the merits of traditional route learning as well as disciplined diligent studying, to name a few)

So if you haven't already checked out his blog, please do, even if Korean-related themes do not interest you in particular, his in-depth analysts and point of view on various issues and topics, should!!

1) What is the name of your blog? Ask a Korean!

2) When did you start blogging? October 2006

3) How did you pick the name for your blog? I named it after !Ask a Mexican!

4) How did it get started? What motivated you to start a blog and what keeps
you going?

I started it because I was finishing up law school and I was bored. Now, I keep it going because the questions keep coming.

5) How did you decide on what your main focus for your blog would be?

I know a decent deal about Korea, and I am a Korean American. It was a natural choice.

6) Did any other blogs inspire and influence your blog? What other blogs do you read?

Obviously, !Ask a Mexican! was a clear inspiration. I read tons of blogs -- too many to name at this point I think.

7) Is blogging a full-time job now? Or is it a side-hobby? And if so, what do you do besides blogging?

It's a side hobby. My day job is being a lawyer.

8) What are some of the perks you've enjoyed personally as a blogger? Alternatively, what have you gained or learnt from your blog?

I get free books once in a while -- that has been the only tangible perk so far. But I got to meet some very interesting people and learned quite a lot.

9) What is the most memorable compliment(s) you have received about your blog?

A lot of adoptees find my blog helpful. That really makes blogging rewarding.

10) What would you like your readers to know about you which they may not already know from your blog?

This takes a lot of time!

'Ask a Korean' website: http://askakorean.blogspot.com/

'Nouveux Riches' laps up Indonesian wealth

2011-10-10T21:23:00.000+09:00

A sign of the changing times...whereas the news stories coming out of Europe and America is one of Greece possibly defaulting and the credit downgrading of countries like Italy and Spain as well as food stamp crisis in America and it's continuing high unemployment with no end in sight soon..places in Asia, like Indonesia, have been growing rapidly in the past few years, creating incredible wealth and unprecedented burgeoning of the middle classes...when i heard in the video the guy had 70 cars, i was like..what?!!, was that 17 (still alot) or 70 that i heard? Confirmed after repeated listens, it's 70!

Beginners..2011..

2011-09-28T00:45:00.000+09:00

When it comes to love, we're all beginners:D

Highly Recommended film..quirky lines and slightly eccentric characters..thought it was a philosophical romantic drama but ended up being much more comedy and also had a strong pro-gay content than i initially expected:D Highly Recommended once again:)

Sydney, Oh How I Love Thee..:D

2011-09-24T21:38:00.003+09:00

There's been so much going on in Sydney in recent months..the new wing of the Former Starcity Casino has opened (now called The Star) which is just like minutes from my home and best of all, it has my FAV gelato ice-cream store in the whole of Sydney which is the only other branch store of the main store located in Victoria St Darlinghurst..which was quite awhile away for me..(but really close to my friend's place)..i was envying her as she lived so close to the gelato store but now i can walk to the new store in The Star casino..haha( altho the prices there are abit more expensive, compared to the main store, but hey i guess you pay for the convenience right?)

Also, another new development has just opened officially tonight, called Darling Quarter at Darling Harbour. It had been building for ages and now finally revealed..i actually like all the new restaurants there, which is surprising given that most of the time i find that new entertainment/restaurant districts in Sydney may not have so many places which attract me personally..but the best of all, THE BEST Brazilian All-You-Can-Eat-Buffet in Sydney 'Braza' (as informed by a Brazilian friend living in Sydney no less)has opened up a branch at Darling Quarter which once again means i don't have to trudge along to Leichardht which is where its main store is..haha..now the best Brazilian BBQ and the best ice-cream store in Sydney both have branches within 20 mins walk from my place! Yeahh..!! Suddenly, living in Sydney just got a whole lot better n attractive!!:D

周星馳系列 - 《行運一條龍》(1998) The Lucky Guy

2011-09-24T18:28:00.000+09:00

Just spent the afternoon watching this on Youtube. It reminded me of my highschool years as it came out for Chinese New Year in 1998 when i was in highschool..simply loved the movie and the nostalgia of the times even after watching it after so many years..

Thai and Pinoy Hunks!!!:D

2011-09-08T23:31:00.002+09:00

From Top to Bottom: Tik from Thailand; Ken from Thailand; Diether from the Philippines.

Just some lazy post about Southeast Asian hunks..there's Diether Ocampo from the Philippines, Ken Wongpuapan from Thailand, and Tik Jesadaporn from Thailand..hahaha..and the one thing in common is that they all have ethnic Chinese background (u can tell by just the appearance)..:D

ps: Another past blog post on Asian hunks:http://chinesechic.blogspot.com/2009/12/male-hunks-i-like-in-200910-0910.html

Bangkok Traffic Love Story (2010)--A Recommended Thai Sleeper Romantic Blockbuster!

2011-09-06T21:57:00.002+09:00

I highly recommend this film. It's about a Thai-Chinese single girl in her 30s and her love life:-) The actor, Ken, is quite cute and very famous in Thailand. As you can tell, the main actor and actress are ethnic Chinese and i've realised after watching a coupla thai films (ie. four seasons, love of siam,etc) that they love using Chinese-looking actors and actresses in their movies:-) (obviously those Thai's with Chinese ancestry).

Full movie with Eng Subtitles here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaIpZXqUbSw

香港中古廣告: 鐵達時天長地久(周潤發,吳倩蓮)1992

2011-09-04T20:25:00.000+09:00

I recently discovered this TV Ad from 1993, I simply love the feel and theme (set during the Anti-Japanese War in China 1937-1945) about two lovers whom get married before the man whom is a Chinese pilot with the airforce flies off to fight the Japanese during the war. I used to LOVE and i mean LOVE LOVE Jacqueline Wu Chien-Lien...she's the actress in this ad..I also love the ending of the ad where it says '不在乎天長地久﹐只在乎曾經擁有'( can be loosely translated as ' Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all')

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPN9XyIJY4E&list=FL9OpZDcscYT68KNijstthaA&index=16&feature=plpp:This is the link to another movie which is a classic in my memory of Jacqueline Wu, one of the last films before she faded out of the limelight..she hasn't done any new movies or tv series for at least 4-5 years now..she is Taiwanese with very good Mandarin with quite a strong 'mainland Chinese' accent which is rare given she's Taiwanese and was one of the top actresses in HK Cinema in the 90s having worked and starred along almost all the top male stars of that era, including Chow Yun Fatt, Leon Lai, Aaron Kwok, Andy Lau, etc..:)

Al Jazeera Correspondent - Burma Boy

2011-09-02T20:51:00.000+09:00

Oh my God, this is sooo interesting:)

As anyone whom knows me know, I'm really interested in WW2 and the Japanese Invasion and Occupation of Asia:D
And so when I saw this video, I found the video so exceedingly interesting! I didn't know the Africans had a part in fighting the Japanese too! Do Watch it!

Anita Mui - 周潤發和林青霞上台(92金像獎)

2011-09-01T22:23:00.000+09:00

The Beautiful Brigette Lin Hsin-Hsia with the Charismatic Chow Yun-Fatt:-)
Those were the golden years of Hong Kong Cinema. It's interesting how times have changed..HK stars couldn't really speak Mandarin then as can be seen during the dialogue..this would be unthinkable now in the movie/entertainment industry in Hong Kong, with everyone having to know how to speak Mandarin. Also, back then, there were absolutely no mainland Chinese actresses (or even actors!) in Hong Kong and thus Taiwanese actresses were very popular back then for the more 'Northern Looks' and 'Northern Beauty' compared to the 'Southern Cantonese look' of Hong Kong actors/actresses...of cos this discounted the mainland Chinese whom immigrated to Hong Kong in their late teens/early 20s and spoke Cantonese all the time such as Faye Wong and Leon Lai or the fact that all the Taiwanese actresses who were popular in Hong Kong at the time were 'Mainlanders' those whose parents or grandparents typically fled from Northern parts of China such as Shanghai and Beijing to Taiwan and thus looked more like 'Northerners' unlike the local Southern Taiwanese whom actually form the majority in Taiwan. Those were the days..hahaha..oh yea, you can see the late Anita Mui was cohosting too..miss her!:-)

Sydney Opera House First Time...after more than 4 years..雪梨歌劇院初體驗:-)

2011-08-22T22:11:00.002+09:00

OMG,it's been ages since i last blogged..AGAIN..i've just not felt the motivation to blog lately..hahaha..been super busy with my life in Sydney..i had a busy crazy July with house parties, takoyaki party, nabe party, birthday parties, and August as well, with more birthday parties, brunches at friend's place/art gallery cos their place has so much art collection hanging on the wall that it's practically like an art gallery..anyways, i also rode the scooter (or more accurately, my friend drove me) across the Sydney Harbour Bridge all the way from Neutral Bay to my place in the inner city...was totally AWESOME..just like in the movies with the winter breeze brushing against me as i took multiple photographs along the way..hahahah..it was my friend's cool bike/scooter which looks more like a pro-bike..

ANYWAYS, besides my random update, this post is actually about the fact that i never once saw a performance at the Sydney Opera House DESPITE like almost 5 years living in Sydney...until like almost one month ago, when i obtained 4 free complimentary tixs to a charity performance called 'Pray for Japan Charity Concert' which was fantastic..i invited along 3 friends as well , n no one had been to see a performance at the Opera House before so it was good for us all..then the very next week, i got invited by a friend with free tix to see a musical opera again which meant i had gone to see not one, but TWO FREE PERFORMANCES @ THE OPERA HOUSE! I know..sometimes, things happen like, you don't get to see a performance at the Opera House for almost 5 yrs living in Sydney and then BAMM, you get two free opportunities and experiences to view performances within a week of each other..

Anyways, will try to update abit more..though, i dun know if it'll work..hahaha..been cooking alot recently as usual, since last yr, made california roll, penang char koay teow, etc...and also, one last ramble..i seldom see gay black men in the media, or even hear much about them, but apparently a CNN anchor has come out earlier this yr, called Don Lemon..and omg, he's really cute! He's already 45 yrs old but looks like 20 years younger with flawless skin..gay men and their good looks! Type in 'joy behar don lemon' on youtube to see what he looks like. (cos i can't seem to copy paste the link here!)

Anyways, all for now..暫時先寫到這。。=)

Master Chef Australia...

2011-06-19T20:10:00.007+09:00

Above: Japanese Curry......

Above: Bika Ambon Cake...

Above: Bee Koh Moy/Pulut Hitam...Black Sticky Rice Dessert...

Above: Nyonya Assam Fish Stew with my Sambal Belacan Kangkong..:-)

I didn't follow the 1st two seasons, but after the runner-up in the 1st season being an Australian-Malaysian Chinese girl Poh Ling Yeow, who went on to host her own cook show on ABC as well as publish her own cookbook, and the winner in the 2nd season being an Australian-Malaysian Penang-born Chinese Adam Liaw, who will be opening his own restaurant in Sydney later this yr and whose cookbook i've actually read, i thought i would give it a go and i've become addicted to the show!:-)

Anyways, being cooking quite alot recently..so here's some photos of my lil' own masterchef kitchen!

Canberra Coastal Roadtrip 2011:-)

2011-04-27T21:57:00.004+09:00

Above: National Ceremony ANZAC Day 2011, War Memorial Canberra:-)

Above: Nantien Temple Berkeley Wollongong.

I went over the long Easter & ANZAC day weekend here in Australia to Canberra on a roadtrip with my housemates..the 4 of us had a roadtrip along the coast on the 'Grand Pacific Drive' going down along the coast stopping at scenic tourist sites, beaches,etc. We stopped over and had a picnic with dips and chips at Wollongong Beach near the lighthouses as well as visited Nantien Temple in Wollongong (the largest Buddhist temple in the Southern Hemisphere!) which was much more beautiful and amazing than I thought.:-)

We also visited Hyams Beach, Jervis Bay as well as Pebbly Beach whereby we encountered wild kangaroos hopping (the 1st time i had the experience of a kangaroo hopping so close to me!!) hahaha...anyways I've always loved Canberra in autumn and its autumn foliage and scenery and this time was no different. We rented bicycles and spent a full day riding around Canberra and admiring the sights as well as took a pic in front of our respective embassies in the Embassy District in Canberra (Australia's National Capital City). Had indian at a nice restaurant, lunch at a terrace overlooking the lake and rode around the lake visiting Parliament House, National Museum of Australia as well as attended the National Ceremony for ANZAC Day given that the last day there fell exactly on ANZAC day:-) Visited the War Memorial after as well...was an amazing experience overall, especially the roadtrip! Been awhile since i did a roadtrip in Aus:-)

Anyways, Hope you all had a fantastic Easter long holiday (over here in Auz that is!)

PS: Spent the last public hol day (Easter Tuesday) with a friend at World Sq Thai Express using the superb 'Sydney Entertainment Book' discount vouchers I had as well as afternoon tea at a cafe along Victoria Road Darlinghurst..the nice trendy area..hehe..I had a super Easter longweekend this year!!:-)

Back from a Hiatus from the blogging world...

2011-03-30T22:00:00.003+09:00

Hey All So sorry I was away on a hiatus from my blog..been busy with stuff...but just started reading a couple of blogs i used to read months ago..and updating this blog...too many things happened in my social life to update but yea..will try to post more often from now on...hope everyone's well!

Happy Chinese New Year of the Rabbit, Everyone:-)

2011-02-02T21:46:00.002+09:00

How did everyone celebrate their CNY this yr? I went to a Chinese Restaurant at Circular Quay with views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge as we were sitting outside:-)

There was a free Lion Dance performance outside the restaurant in celebration of CNY and we took plenty of photos!:-)

Anyways, Happy Year of the Rabbit everyone!:-)

Gay Teddy... 90210 :-)

2011-01-10T21:26:00.004+09:00

I have noticed many (and I mean MANY) gay storylines on tv, American tv shows, in recent years...there have been so many in the top tv shows that you can't turn the channel without seeing some kind of gay character be it in The United States of Tara or Glee or True Blood or...90210!

The gay storyline there, esp with the character Ian whom I am totally shocked to admit, could most DEFINITELY be someone whom I could fall in love (gosh, he's SO cute:-) ) with....is so addictive...although they have so little screentime:(

Anyways, I heard in the new season, the character of Ian will be cancelled off and replaced with a new love interest for Teddy....boohoo! I would probably stop watching it cos I like Ian ALOT:-)

Anyways, link here on youtube on the gay teddy storyline: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqZ86ixOkUg

Hope u guys n girls enjoy the short gay storyline too!:-)

Happy 2011, Everybody!!!!:-)

2011-01-01T09:21:00.004+09:00

Above: The Photo taken by my friend (who's a professional photographer with all the equipment btw! He has his own online collection) after the fireworks display~

I would like to wish all my readers a very happy new year and a great year ahead for 2011!!:-)

May All Your Dreams Come True!!!

PS: How did my fellow readers and bloggers celebrate NYE?? I went to Mrs Macquarie's Point @ Royal Botanic Gardens AND managed to squeeze into a great fantastic spot with unhindered views of the entire span of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge with the Splendid Fireworks!!

Christmas@ Darwin, Northern Territory 2010:)

2010-12-28T20:12:00.003+09:00

I spent Christmas in tropical Darwin this year, spending a total of 3 days over there.:-) It was the monsoon season and raining every single day with large outpours on every day which we were there for. The weather was hot and humid and similar to the weather in Malaysia and I found my trip a unique experience, exploring a different kind of Australia.

Things which I learnt on the trip were:

1) Darwin people are extremely friendly. The bus drivers in particular left a big positive impression on me. They were ALL exceptionally friendly, with each and every driver being friendly and cheerful to us.:-) Many would also greet the passengers and ask them how their day was and also wishing them a nice day when they got off the bus. We had bus drivers stopping by the side of the road at night when we waved at them and when there was no bus stop there. We had 2 different bus drivers on 2 different occasions not asking for the bus fare when we wanted to pay, once on an admittedly short distance but the second time on a very substantial 15-20 min journey with multiple stops! In Sydney, this would NEVER happen, you'd always have to pay no matter how short the journey and bus drivers do not talk or wish passengers a good day,etc..the Darwin residents were also very friendly to us saying hello on the road even when we didn't even smile at them or solicit any response from them, or being very friendly, such as allowing me to walk past first and taking the initiative to show us directions in detail when we hadn't even asked for assistance yet, etc..

2) Darwin has fauna and plants just like SEA. I found many plants, such as the bunga raya (hibiscus flower) and other fauna and plants of which i see and am familiar with in Malaysia, in Darwin. I was pleasantly surprised to see all these plants of which I am very familiar with, from my growing-up years in Malaysia.:-) ps: You cannot find many of the plants and fauna which you can find in Darwin and Malaysia in colder cities such as Sydney, Perth, Hobart, Adelaide, and Melbourne.

3) Darwin has many homeless Aboriginal people. My housemate told me of tv reports, when i returned from my trip, on the numerous homeless aboriginal people in Darwin and how they're affected with the current monsoon rains. I saw countless very poorly dressed Aboriginal people within my span of three days in Darwin. They would be everywhere, in the Darwin suburbs as well as CBD..and many looked homeless, simply wandering around without shoes or lying on the pavements...Darwin apparently has the highest aboriginal population of any other major city in Australia, more than sydney, melbourne, perth, adelaide,etc. It was quite a shock to see so many homeless aboriginals around the city.

4) That there are Chinese people everywhere. Even in Darwin and the Outback area of rural Northern Territory. I was abit surprised to see a Chinese-looking cook working in one of the rest stop restaurants/hotel along the highway out of Darwin enroute to Kakadu National Park (We took a daytrip to Kakadu National Park, Australia's largest national park and also a UN World Heritage Site!). The restaurant at the reststop which is like in the middle of nowhere also had a large banner written in traditional chinese characters welcoming supposedly chinese tourists. Amazing. There must be busloads of chinese tourists stopping over for the restaurant to especially get a chinese language banner made, out of all the possible languages.

5) Locals in Darwin don't have a habit of bringing umbrellas. Even during the monsoon season with rain pouring down in bucketfuls on a daily basis. I was dumbfounded to see local Darwin residents simply walking relaxedly under the rain and people walking around going about their usual business with the rain pouring whilst me and my friend were the obvious tourists with our black umbrellas and white raincoats everywhere we went in our backpacks just in case...you could see the locals staring at us when we wore raincoats..hahaha..with the strong monsoon rains and winds, I was surprised to see the locals without any rain protections whatsoever!

At the outdoor nightmarket style seats at Darwin Wharf, it started raining again 30 mins into our meal, and I almost thought that the Darwin people would just stay there and continue eating with the rain pouring down onto them and their food, given what i'd seen in the past few days, with people walking through pouring rain and getting off buses and walking home in the rain! haha...(for ur information, the people did start leaving the outdoor area for the covered areas at the first sign of drizzingly..hahaha..)

6) Darwin has outdoor markets similar to South East Asia as well as nightmarket style outdoor seating ordering from food stalls (food counters). Although the markets were all closed during our time there, we did come across a nightmarket style outdoor hawker centre at Stokes Hill Wharf, reminding me of Penang and Malaysia where we have outdoor hawker centres and seats.:-) It was my first time eating at a 'hawker centre' in my almost 10 years in Aus, with there just being milk bars and cafes in Sydney, Melbourne and even small towns which i've visited located in Southern Australia. Was very nostalgic for me, eating at the hawker centre and looking out towards Darwin Wharf.:-)

7) I saw full-sized large flat pomfrets ( like those you see in the markets) for the first time in my 27 years lifetime. And I saw it at Stokes Hill Wharf in Darwin Harbour. I was so shocked and amazed to see several large pomfrets swimming in the sea when diners threw their leftovers into the Darwin waterfront sea..the pomfrets were large and flat..omg..i've seen small and even large narrow shaped fishes in the sea before but nothing like these large flat moon-shaped pomfrets swimming in the ocean before! It was so surreal seeing fishes which you usually only see in the wetmarkets n supermarkets (or at most already in fishermen's nets) swimming naturally in the sea.

8) Darwin can look like a horror movie during the monsoon season. The torrential rains and strong winds were enough to make the roads and isolated surroundings look like a scene straight out of a Thai horror flick. More so, bcos Darwin's surroundings are often large isolated green spaces and tropical trees with no houses,etc and the sea during the night monsoons also looked like a horror scene out of a horror movie.

All in...it was a great n interesting holiday!

ps; I also starred in my first 1 min movie in front of Darwin's Government House whilst in Darwin, for my first time...hahahaha..i pretended to be a high-class Chinese with my cheongsam top which i wore looking at Japanese WW2 planes bombing Darwin from afar..hahaha..maybe i should put it on youtube?

pps: There were many cute good-looking tropical boys and men in Darwin!:-) I was amazed given the small population of just over 120,000 for the Greater Darwin region..omg..haha..Chinese Chic, noticing men even on holiday!

What Would You Do?...

2010-11-29T20:58:00.001+09:00

You see someone at the local boardwalk being taunted and bullied, what would you do?

This is usually how it starts, these real-life scenarios which ABC (an American channel)produces to see what everyday folks would do..it tests human kindness (or apathy and lack of compassion/motivation) and also seeks to gauge the American society's tolerance for prejudice and discrimination.

I love this series and have been addicted to it for about a year now:-) You can really see the human capacity for kindness to help a stranger or indifference towards our fellow human beings. As I expected, and which even the show has pointed out time and again, it is the women whom seem to step up and help others in need and whom are much more passionate and courageous in speaking out against what they perceive to be discrimination and unfairness whilst the men tend to let it go...

Anyways, I catch broadcasted episodes of the innovative show here in Australia, online at the ABC official website here:http://abcnews.go.com/WhatWouldYouDo/

If you can watch it in your country too, do give it a go! It's an amazing and insightful show into human nature and societal prejudices as well as discrimination:-)

Happy Birthday, Chinese Chic:-)

2010-11-25T22:28:00.001+09:00

This is my 27th Birthday!!:-) Happy Birthday to Me:-)

Filipino Fever Redux-Kimerald Team & Sarah Geronimo

2010-11-19T12:31:00.000+09:00

I have relapsed into my 'Filipino Fever' once again, after having subsided from my addiction to Filipino dramas, movies, and music for over a year...it started with some Filipino songs which I listened to on youtube which i liked before and grew to a full-blown 'fever' again when I discovered the latest Sarah Geronimo movies and Kim-Gerald loveteam movies for 2010...In the Philippines, there're alot of 'loveteams' whereby they pair up actors and actresses as onscreen loveteams in multiple movies/tv dramas and even continue with the 'image/fantasy' of them being a 'real couple' even in real life...its so cute, u don't find that in Hollywood or in other Asian entertainment scenes...

here's some links, its just too good...I find Kim Chiu prettier and prettier by the day and Gerald Anderson is kinda cute I must admit now (i used to find him so-so only)...Kim Chiu is so beautiful as she matures...she's Filipino-Chinese of pure Chinese descent, having had parents whom immigrated from Fujian Province, China sometime in the 1980s apparently. I am surprised and amazed at how romantic and 'real' Filipino cinema can be, I'm just surprised that Filipino movies and TV series have not travelled further ashore and gained popularity in other nations too, given how good they are..I'm sure other nationalities would like them too..I love'em! Especially, how they deal with topics like 'rebound relationships' and 'success/career taking over a relationship for guys'..very real issues or show the guy shouting at the girl, very real...you wouldn't see that in Korean cinema...i guess the difference b/w Korean romance and Filipino romance is that Korean romantic dramas are more idealist and fairy-tale like whilst Filipino romantic movies are romantic but with a touch of realism and realistic representations...without forsaking the perfect romantic fairytale aspect as well, which is why I love them:-)

Anyways, without further ado, here's some of the movies and songs which I have become infatuated with recently:

Hating Kapatid (2010):
http://www.youtube.com/user/hcpen?feature=mhum#p/f/8/YJgQUvClsTY

Till My Heartache Ends (2010):
http://www.youtube.com/user/hcpen?feature=mhum#p/f/6/x1c-1vRfPNY

Paano na Kaya (2010):
http://www.youtube.com/user/hcpen?feature=mhum#p/f/5/_kBbcT2NJbo ( I just the cliche story of the bestfriend theme of falling in love with your bestfriend...isn't it just so romantic? I love how they show Gerald Anderson topless so much in this mv trailer..hahaha...my perfect relationship would be to fall for a bestfriend/friend..i'd rather fall in love with a friend without even realising it later down the line than start a relationship feeling the sexual attraction from the very beginning.)
http://www.youtube.com/user/hcpen?feature=mhum#p/f/4/In7HZtq_FrY
http://www.youtube.com/user/hcpen?feature=mhum#p/f/1/3G2TuoP5DYo (interview of Kimerald for their movie.)

And these are some older songs which i still like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9ycF5vqGR0 (Ikaw Lamang)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdyxjLgGX00 (Tayong Dalawa)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVCRvPYlbMo (Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now)

enjoy!~

Bondi Beach and Surrounds...

2010-11-15T22:52:00.000+09:00

I went to Bondi Beach for the annual Sculptures by the Sea twice this yr...it was nice..and also enjoyed a picnic (and swim for my friends) whilst there...i visited 4 beaches along the Bondi-Coogee Beach Coastal Walk which we did, meaning we actually passed by 4 beaches n took either a beach nap or swim or dipping my toes into the seawater along the way...was nice:)

I was surprised by the number of good looking ppl with perfect bodies at the beach! Especially at Tamarama and Bondi Beach (and to an extent Coogee Beach too!)..it was like walking into a model shoot or scene from some American movie..haha..all the good looking guys there with sculpted bodies and not to mention topless women..i was shocked! Many cute gay guys in Tamarama Beach too! hehe...great beach for great eye-candy!:-)

Anyways, it was a nice way to spend a late Spring/early Sydney Summer at the Beach-Not to mention I was severely sun-tanned as usual!:-);-)

Parramasala at Parramatta Night:-)

2010-11-07T12:30:00.003+09:00

I went with one of my housemates and his friend to the inaugural Parramasala Festival at Parramatta..it is a South Asian Festival celebrating South Asian cultures and food (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc)...it was nice, the lighting above the streets reminded me of the festival lighting bck home in Malaysia...there was free entertainment and ticketed events as well with henna stalls and a sari bazaar...nice overall...had dinner at a pizza n pasta place afterwards on the main street in Parramatta...my first time having dinner at Parramatta i think:-)

Anyways, the Parramasala Festival coincided with the important annual festival of lights, Deepavali (or Diwali)...so to all my readers whom celebrate the festival...

Happy Deepavali!

American Television..

2010-10-28T23:04:00.004+09:00

I have recently been watching American TV quite frequently...I am watching Glee and Modern Family..(and of cos the new season of The Amazing Race). Don't get me wrong, I seldom watch TV whilst in Australia but when I go back to Penang, I watch alot of Astro Cable TV and recently on my July trip back, I watched a few episodes of Glee and Modern Family and really liked them..but then i just forgot about it until earlier this week when The United States of Tara was showing on TV and I caught a couple of episodes n really liked the storyline of the son whom's gay...and then on the same night i caught an interesting doco on dharavi, the slum of Mumbai on ABC 1 channel and also came across a 1996 Australian drama called 'Sweat' with Heath Ledger in it! I was going to switch channels until i was stumpped when one character was telling Heath' No I didn't tell about the GUY you are dating'..and i was like WHAT?! I knew this was a pretty old drama and so I was surprised there was actually a gay plotline for one of the main characters...turns out Heath was playing a gay athelete in this drama (way before his Brokeback Mountain days) which is a drama revolving around a group of students in a Sports Academy..i am going to follow the drama now...i am just surprised that Aussie dramas were so progressive back then, it was a positive portrayal and Heath did not play a stereotypical effeminate gay role but was a normal Aussie bloke into sports...he also has a bestfriend n straight roommate...

I also like Modern Family for its quirky lines and unique mockumentary format...its really good ..well recommended...love the Columbian wife plot as well as the gay couple plot, which once again depict non-stereotypical gay characters, one being overweight, the other being non-good looking with a beard...as opposed to the stereotypical image of gay men being fit and in shape and good-looking...

I also came across The Amazing Race, new season, on TV, the day after I 'rediscovered' all these wonderful dramas and as usual got hooked...i watched through several seasons earlier this year on youtube when i found out they were available online as i'd missed several seasons before...great to be able to catch the new season on tv...once again, there's another Taiwanese-American team:-) The father-son team..as i've written about before, i kinda knew they were Taiwanese-American (and not Chinese-American) by their looks and the fact that upwardly mobile and famous Americans of Chinese Heritage tend to be Taiwanese-American..I do hope that they go far. By the way, the son is an internet youtube sensation even before he joined the show, he has millions of youtube subscribers apparently, this is one of his videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gdCjQw6Lb8&feature=related

Anyways, I'm going to be enjoying myself for the next few weeks, esp since we can watch catch-up tv and episodes online for episodes we missed on the tv network's website here:-)

Places in China...中华大地...中国の名所.....

2010-09-26T11:29:00.002+09:00

There are a couple of places which I have either visited and fell in love with or which I would like to visit. The following, with a short explanation of why I like these places, are places which I'd like to visit (again) in China:

1) Hong Kong
Of course, what's not to like about HK? It's China's most well-recognised and international city with a unique and interesting history as well as have been the representative Chinese city since 1949. I fell in love with Chinese culture, especially contemporary Chinese culture, from my growing up years in the 90s watching Hong Kong TV series and movies. Hong Kong taught me what being modern as well as Chinese means and it'll always have a special place in my heart. (Not to mention Hong Kong retro 1950/60s cheongsams,Hey you didn't think I could just forget to mention the cheongsam rite? )

2) Beijing
Beijing also somehow has a special place in my heart and imagination and I don't know why..it just draws me and is especially attractive to me despite not having visited since 1996 and not remembering that much about that trip given my young age then. I just know I will like this city if I were to return now, given its historical place in Chinese history, the countless important Chinese cultural venues/destinations there such as the Great Wall and Forbidden City, Summer Palace,etc as well as it being known as the cultural capital of China with contemporary Chinese modern art as well as ancient Chinese antiques at the antique markets of Beijing all congregated there...and lets not forget to mention the wonderful hutongs and delicious Peking Duck...

3) Shanghai
Shanghai with its modern history and retro chic of the 30/40s would surely attract anyone..I can walk down the lanes of Huaihai Lu just imagining that I was back in the heydays of the 1940s..hahaha..i loved the old French Concession area when i was last there in 2004 for a Winter Chinese Law School...

4) Ningbo
This small city south of Shanghai captures my imagination given how close it is to Shanghai so giving it a smaller city-feel as well as how HK Star Stephen Chow Sing-Chee has Ningbo roots and made his 'CJ7' movie in Ningbo precisely for this very reason. I also love tangyuan, and Ningbo tangyuan is arguably the most famous in China.:-)

5) Hangzhou
Hangzhou is probably THE most beautiful Chinese city I have been to with its splendid gorgeous West Lake area which simply captures your breath away.. And i'm not kiddin either:) I didn't expect much when visiting Hangzhou during my Winter Law School excursion trip to Hangzhou bck in 2004 but it was simply amazingly breathtaking..it was just like the China you saw in the movies set in the 30s/40s..the Chinese-style sampan boats as well as newer restaurant floating boats flowing along the West Lake and you can hop on and off the numerous 'islands' floating in Westlake and visit the chinese gardens,etc. The Hangzhou people also seemed more sophisticated and the entire atmosphere of Hangzhou was just less gritty and industrial than other Chinese cities of comparable size..the streets are well-paved and quite clean,etc..I'd DEFINITELY RECOMMEND Hangzhou...

6) Suzhou
Suzhou which is very famous and popular with tourist for being the epitome of classic Chinese scenery and water painting, being known as the Venice of China, with its meandering waterlanes and bridges all around the city, has alot of older Chinese architecture intact. It would prob be well-suited for making movies set in the past, as unlike numerous Chinese cities under redevelopment, Suzhou has retained (at least back in 2004) alot of its 30s chinese houses,etc...i was expecting to like Suzhou more than Hangzhou but I found that Hangzhou captured my breath away whilst Suzhou was kinda alright, maybe i had too high expectations for Suzhou..but it definitely has a small 1930s chinese feel to it for a large city of its size...

7) Northeast China/Dongbei (Former Manchuria)
I've been wanting to visit the Northeast in recent yrs as being a modern Chinese history buff, especially of the 1930s and 1940s in China as well as during the Japanese Occupation period in China, the Northeast has always represented that era for me. I've always been filled in my imagination of the cold Siberian winds blowing across the faces of Chinese women in cheongsams with large scarfs wrapped around their hair travelling on the Chinese trains across the Manchurian plains, and this has always been my image of China during my younger days when China seemed a distant land away...this is as the Northeast people are 'Northerners' unlike people I came into contact with bck in Malaysia whom were all Southerners like from Hokkien province, Guangdong province, HK, Taiwan, Macau,etc...people from the north seemed like mainland Chinese people, so different from us..I hope to be able to visit soon...during winter and indulge in my fantasy looking out of the (now super fast chinese trains) windows imagining what it would have been like in the 40s in Dongbei...

8) Yunnan Province
If I want to visit the very northend of China, I also want to visit the very southend of China, or the place poetically named by the Chinese as 'South of the Clouds'; Yunnan Province. This province has the most minorities in the whole of China and is also the most popular tourist destination in China apparently for its unique interesting minority culture as well as warm weather all year thru. (Hainan Island is also another extremely popular tourist destination in China in recent yrs) My family has visited Yunnan already, going to Lijiang, Dali, and Kunming. I'd like to visit Lijiang and Shangri-La...

9) Fujian Province
This is the province which most influences my upbringing and my contact with Chinese culture given that Penang, where I grew up, is a Hokkien immigrant area with the Malaysian-Chinese living there mostly coming from Fujian province ancestrally. Taiwan, my other country, is also Hokkien-dominated in its people and culture. Thus, this is my 'real' ancestral province and I'd like to see what the people and culture there are like..I've been fascinated are they similar to Penang and Taiwanese people given that the roots are the same?? Or do they look different and speak Hokkien differently from us? I've heard from two people I know whom have visited Fujian on vacation recently, and both have highly recommended it. (Sidenote: As a sign of how much China and its tourism has developed in recent yrs, I was taken abck that two ppl i know had visited Fujian Province recently as i always thought it wasn't a popular tourist destination for foreigners at all so i was surprised.)

10) Hunan Province
If Fujian province is my 'real' ancestral province, then Hunan province is my 'official' ancestral province. This is as Chinese people follow their father's ancestry in determining their 'ancestral province' and so given that my paternal grandfather (whom is still alive and living in Taipei) came from Hunan, and my dad thus is of Hunan ancestry, then ,I'm also officially of Hunan ancestry.

However, in reality, I know nothing about Hunan, besides that Chairman Mao comes from Hunan, and also eating the Hunan Cured Smoked Meat which my grandfather's (now my uncle's) business makes and which are occasionally brought back to Malaysia for us..in reality, Malaysia and Taiwan, both of which are arguably Hokkien societies, have shaped me completely...but then, I'd still like to visit my 'official ancestral' province...

11) Chongqing
I would like to visit Chongqing due to Chongqing being the wartime capital of China during WW2. Haha..me and my 'Japanese-Invasion-during-WW2' obsession...

12) Nanjing
I would also like to visit Nanjing because of historical reasons, it being the site of the infamous 1937 'Rape of Nanking' massacre whereby the invading Japanese troops raped,pillaged and massacred 300,000 Chinese people in the span of roughly 6 weeks.

13) Xinjiang Province
I'd like to visit Xinjiang as its the most different province of China I think, with almost half of the population being central Asians...it'd be very interesting...its also like the wild west of China and i'd like to have a look at it...

14) Qingdao
I've heard that Qingdao and the coastal areas along Shandong province are amongst the most beautiful and I'd like to see that for myself..I saw a movie by Karrina Lam before many yrs ago and the scenery shot in Qingdao of the wide blue sea was magnificent..its also the home of many former German mansions as well as China's famous Qingdao beer..so that's another reason to visit it.:-)

Dear Readers, Where'd You Like to Visit, in China or elsewhere in Asia, if given the opportunity?

Overseas Chinese Part V..海外华裔华侨...世界の中国系、華僑たち..

2010-09-21T10:40:00.001+09:00

This is the last and final post of the 'Overseas Chinese' post series, which form part of the 'Year of China' theme for this yr.

This final post deals with the Chinese in Japan, Korea, and India.

The Chinese in India number roughly only 20,000. This number does not include Mainland Chinese students, visitors, businessmen,etc but refers to those Indian-Chinese with Indian nationality. They mainly concentrate in Kolkata (Calcutta) and currently own tanneries, restaurants, sauce-making factories, and dentistry. At the height of Chinese migration, during WW2 (to escape the Japanese invasion of China at that time) there were around 50,000 Chinese living in Kolkata. But then numbers dwindled after the Sino-Indian War of 1962. Many Indian-Chinese migrated to countries such as Canada, UK, and Australia. I have met someone whose mother had migrated from India to Canada before, when i was volunteering at the Sydney Intl' Film Festival...

The Chinese in South Korea number only around 20,000 most of whom hold Taiwanese passport due to the fact that South Korea only established ties with China in 1993. However, the actual total number of Chinese people, including the new immigrants from China since 1993 totals over 600,000! This comprises, workers, students, businessmen, and other long-term residents. Most of these are however not ethnic Chinese but Korean-Chinese from China. Apparently 71% of the over 600,000 Chinese passport holders in South Korea currently are of ethnic Korean descent (China has the world's second largest overseas Korean population, numbering roughly 1.5 million, after the United States, which has the largest overseas Korean population, but in front of Japan, which has the third largest overseas Korean population.)
There is only one Chinatown in South Korea, being at Incheon, where there once was a large Chinese community until the oppressive and discriminatory policies brought in during the 1960s/70s which limited foreign ownership of property, targetting the Chinese minority then, which led to an exodus of Chinese to the US and Taiwan.

There are about 10,000 Chinese passport holders living in North Korea. They are allowed greater freedoms than the average North Korean citizen, being allowed foreign travel, ownership of an unrestricted radio, and being allowed to be involved in the profitable import-export China trade.

The Chinese in Japan number roughly 650,000 including newer immigrants from China and old residents from the former Japanese colony of Taiwan. Like in South Korea, the older Chinese residents tend to have links with Taiwan, whilst the newer and more numerous Chinese residents tend to have links with mainland China. There are Chinatowns in several Japanese cities such as Osaka, Nagasaki, Kobe, and the most famous one, Yokohama Chinatown. There are also Chinese schools whereby the medium of instruction is Chinese. There have been quite a few influential Japanese figures of Chinese descent, such as the famous Momofuku Ando, whom was the president of Nissin Foods. He was apparently the inventor of instant cup noodles (ramen) in the 1960s. I was very surprised! This means that the world-famous Asian cup noodles currently sold everywhere was not invented by an ethnic Japanese but actually by an ethnic Chinese...Ando was from Taiwan originally. Then , there's also Sadaharu Oh, the famous baseball player as well as Renho, a current Cabinet Minister and the first Japanese Cabinet Minister to have foreign ethnicity. Her father was from Taiwan and she held Taiwanese nationality until 18.

Hope this post series has been informative,interesting, and helpful in going towards some understanding of the overseas Chinese around the world, of which I'm one too:-)

Overseas Chinese-Part IV...海外华裔华侨...世界の中国系、華僑たち..

2010-09-15T21:23:00.001+09:00

This is part of the continuing posts on the 'Year of China 2010' theme...

This time, we shall be discussing briefly on Chinese in Africa. Apparently, recent research has shown that there are at least 500,000 (which is half a million!) Chinese people residing on the African continent currently. A surprise isn't it? Given that we hardly hear of Chinese in Africa, or for that matter, any other nationalities living in Africa actually..haha..

These Chinese are overwhelmingly mainland Chinese labourers as well as contractors and engineers whom go over to Africa with Chinese companies to build roads, schools, hospitals, buildings,etc as part of Chinese government policy and plans or on a private commercial basis.

There are also Chinese whom have lived in South Africa for decades and speak the language there as well as are politicians,etc. This was really cool to find out as i found out that most of the 'old chinese south africans' are of Taiwanese origin given that Taiwan had diplomatic ties with South Africa all the way up to the end of apartheid.

My current apartment mate is Congolese (I live with 3 other people currently in Pyrmont.) She has some Belgian blood in her as apparently her granddad has some Belgian relations. She is the first person from Congo that i've met and she surprised me when she told me that there are thousands of Chinese in Congo, owning all the big stores and supermarkets and being able to speak the local language as well as some French/English! I was like...WHAT, there are Chinese, and I mean LARGE numbers of Chinese living and owning businesses in Congo.... of all places?!! Wow..the Chinese literally are upwardly mobile and everywhere:-)

All About Love:-)....得闲炒饭:-) (2010)...

2010-09-08T11:06:00.000+09:00

Above: Posters and Pics from the movie 'All About Love'. The words 'Happy Together' refers to homosexuality indirectly in the Chinese context given that its often used in contemporary popular chinese culture since the late 90s (at least in taiwan and hk, maybe not so much mainland china) to refer to a positive connotation of gay relationships.

The movie which I was looking forward to by my childhood and adolescent growing up yrs fav comedic star Sandra Ng and recent fav Vivian Chow has screened recently:-) It's called 'All About Love'. I have mentioned this film before and it is Vivian's 13 year absence comeback film.;-) Can't wait to catch it. Another lesbian film of interest, which I found out about recently is the UK/South African film 'World Unseen'; trailer here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlD3EprZp5M It is set in 1950s apartheid era South Africa about the lovestory between two Indian women (there is a substantial Indian minority in SA), one liberal and open and the other conservative and traditional. Looks interesting judging from the trailer alone:-)

Trailer of All About Love:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJZ6BERG-q8

Below is an article about the movie 'All about Love' which i found on the Wall Street Journal online version:

Hong Kong: A Love Story
By ALEXANDRA A. SENO
With her latest film, "All About Love," director Ann Hui On-wah writes another heartfelt letter to her home, Hong Kong. Like her other works, this story, a romantic comedy about a pair of bisexual women who are pregnant, highlights aspects of the island's current social issues and is set in Hong Kong's upwardly mobile Mid-Levels neighborhood.

"I make films because I really want to find out what Hong Kong is like at the moment," says the 63-year-old Ms. Hui.

When two former lovers—30-something Macy, a lawyer, and Anita, a banker—meet at a counseling session for expectant mothers, they fall in love again in a tale that plays out against familiar Hong Kong backdrops: offices, bars and restaurants near trendy Hollywood Road; gyms and yoga studios. The overhang of personal financial insecurity and the local penchant for political and social demonstrations make their way into the film, too. Along the way, the couple's story touches on sexual politics, ostracism and the idea of a Hong Kong identity.
"It is a serious film but it is also very commercial," says Ms. Hui, a graduate of the London International Film School. "Sometimes it is better to make serious issues more acceptable to audiences, by making it a comedy and having big stars so that people will come watch the movie." In the movie, Hong Kong's top comedian Sandra Ng Kwan-yue plays Macy; Anita is played by the pretty 1990s pop singer Vivian Chow Wai-man.

"This is a movie about relationships," adds Ms. Hui. The topic was an obstacle for some.
"It was not easy to make this film happen," says Yeeshan Yang, an anthropoligist-turned-screenwriter who wrote the film. "Ann has [a good] reputation, so she has a lot of independence with what she does."
Ms. Yang credits the director with making the male-female relationships in the story much more accessible: In the film, Macy's old boyfriend—and father of her baby—is a former client who beat his wife; Anita's baby was fathered by a much younger man she met online.

Ms. Hui, who was born in Anshan (northeast China) but grew up in Hong Kong, made her name with socially conscious dramas such as 1982's "Boat People," about the aftermath of the Vietnam War, starring pop god Andy Lau Tak-wah, and "Ordinary Heroes," a 1999 drama about Hong Kong political activists with Anthony Wong Chau-sang. With the critically acclaimed "The Way We Are" (2008) and "Night and Fog" (2009), she looked unflinchingly at life in Tin Shui Wai, the Hong Kong housing estate that is home to hundreds of disadvantaged families.

Many producers might have shied away from "All About Love" because of its lesbian theme. Homosexual films are banned in China, so it eliminates any chance of distribution there. Indeed, even Ms. Hui says she was surprised when film financier Wong Jing agreed to back her movie.

"All About Love" marks their third film together, but it's an unlikely partnership. Mr. Wong is the king of Chinese B-movies and a savvy entertainment-industry investor, known for churning out soft porn and schlocky action flicks. Ms. Hui's work doesn't fit that mold, and she certainly doesn't churn out films, having been known to take five years on a single project.

For years, Ms. Hui and Mr. Wong even publicly traded barbs. After watching her semi-autobiographical "Song of the Exile," which was released in 1990, Mr. Wong wondered—in a statement that went viral in Hong Kong media—why anyone would pay to see a film about an unattractive middle-aged woman. Aware of the public perception of their history, Ms. Hui chuckles. She says: "Actually, we work very well together. He doesn't bother me, and he has made my work rhythm better, faster."

Some may wonder why Ms. Hui has not made a film in China, but she says she would if it was the right project, one with a Hong Kong point of view that's fitting with her own.
"All About Love" opened last weekend in cinemas around Hong Kong.

Hope to see it in Australia at some cinema or film festival soon!;-)

Overseas Chinese-Part III...海外华裔华侨...世界の中国系、華僑たち..

2010-09-05T21:07:00.002+09:00

This is a continuing post of the 'Year of China' theme for this year. This post shall focus on the Chinese in Latin America.

Apparently, you can find Chinese-Latin Americans as well! There are large numbers in Brazil, Argentina and Peru. Apparently, Peru has over 1.5 million Chinese-Peruvians (many of mixed descent) living there...there is even such things called Peruvian-Chinese cuisine which is also known as 'chifa' which is not some unique exotic food but widely known amongst Peruvians and very popular too:-) This popularity in Latin-American style Chinese food from Peru has spread to other latin American countries too such as Argentina.

I also saw in the news earlier this yr that many recent Chinese immigrants have immigrated to the border between Mexico and America on the Mexican side as a means to eventually cross over and live in America. They apparently go into Mexico on tourist visas or other temporary visas and overstay illegally. Thus, like the trend in so many other regions of the world, the Chinese population is continually expanding since China opened up to the outside world meaning that the current overseas Chinese population in Latin America (and other parts of the world for that matter ) will only continue to increase with the tide of mainland Chinese immigrating by various means in the three decades since China opened up and reformed. This will add to the already existing Chinese populations which immigrated pre-1980.

Cool hey? This means one can go to Peru, if you're of Chinese descent, and the people there probably wouldn't even think too much given that they have seen Peruvian-Chinese people as well..haha..:-)

Overseas Chinese-Part II..海外华裔华侨...世界の中国系、華僑たち..

2010-08-31T20:51:00.002+09:00

This post which is part of the 'Year of China' 2010 themed series of posts, will be continuing with the Overseas Chinese series, this time focusing on the Chinese in the West. This includes Chinese of North America, Europe, and Australasia.

The Chinese make up roughly 4% of Canada's and America's population as well as roughly 3% of Australia's and NZ's population. These include Chinese whom may have come from Southeast Asian countries and not China/HK/Taiwan as well as Chinese whom re-immigrated from another country to these countries.

The Chinese once again typically do well economically and socially in these Western societies as a whole, owning businesses and entering prestigious and elite schools disproportionate to their population. For instance, i heard that the ivy league universities in America now have an unwritten policy of raising the bar higher for Asians to enter as there are simply too many qualified Chinese/Asians and they already make up alot of the student intake at these ivy league institutions. In Australia, the Chinese also are disproportionately represented in the top selective high schools as well as elite university courses and in professions such as Taxation, and Accounting/Business, the Chinese tend to get into the big firms in large numbers.

Once again, like in the case of South east Asia, the Chinese in the West not only are better off economically and academically, they also have made some significant inroads into the areas of politics and entertainment in recent yrs in the West, making more progress relative to other Asian groups such as Koreans and Japanese. For instance, in America, there's Lucy Liu, Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li, Lisa Ling, Jackie Chan, etc and currently 2 Chinese-American cabinet ministers in Obama's Cabinet ( i think!) whilst in Australia, there's Alice Pung, Masterchef Poh as well as current winner Liaw whom is also Chinese-Australian..

I heard in France, the Chinese also dominate the newstand business in Paris as well as have a firm foothold of small firms in France...

There are of cos also Chinatowns in big cities across the Western world and even Chinese restaurants or Chinese-owned stores can be found in the smallest towns across the Western globe..

Overseas Chinese -Part I...海外华裔华侨...世界の中国系、華僑たち..

2010-08-25T02:24:00.000+09:00

This post is another 'Year of China' 2010 themed series post. This time, I shall be introducing readers to the array of Chinese communities residing overseas.

In the first part, we shall be dealing with Southeast Asian Chinese, the biggest overseas Chinese community by historical length as well as overall numbers.

First off, this is an old table from Wikipedia on the rough statistical numbers of Chinese people residing around the world. (Please note the numbers are outdated given that I know for a fact that Taiwan now has 23 million people already and Malaysian Chinese number roughly over 7 million currently.)

Rough Estimate of Total Global Chinese Population:
1,310,158,851 19.73% of global human population(estimate)

Regions with significant populations:

Majority populations:
People's Republic of China
1,207,541,842
[1]
Hong Kong
6,593,410
[1]
Macau
433,641
[1]
Republic of China (Taiwan)
22,575,365
[1]
Singapore
3,684,936
[2]
Minority populations
Indonesia
7,566,200
[3]
Thailand
7,053,240
[3]
Malaysia
6,590,500
[4]
United States
3,376,031
[3]
Canada
1,612,173
[3]
Peru
1,300,000
[3]
Vietnam
1,263,570
[3]
Philippines
1,146,250
[3]
Myanmar
1,101,314
[3]
Russia
998,000
[3]
Japan
655,377
[5]
Australia
614,694
[3]
Cambodia
343,855
[3]
United Kingdom
296,623
[3]
France
230,515
Italy
210,000
[6]
India
189,470
[3]
Laos
185,765
[3]
Brazil
151,649
[3]
New Zealand
148,570
[7]
Spain
147,928
Netherlands
144,928
[3]
South Korea
137,790
[8]

As you can see, in Southeast Asia, in terms of percentage-wise, Singapore has a Chinese-majority population, making it the only country in the world to have so, besides China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan which are in the 'Chinese sphere'.

The country with the second largest Chinese percentage population is Malaysia (where I am from), 24-25% of the total population. Then comes Thailand which has around 11% Chinese population and then Vietnam and the Philippines which each have roughly 1.5% Chinese population. Of cos, in terms of absolute numbers, Indonesia has the largest overseas Chinese population, being over 7.5 million strong. But in terms of percentage-wise (which is the most important factor to measure), they only make up less than 2% of Indonesia's total population.

However, due to very low rates of intermarriage between Chinese-Indonesians and Malay-Indonesians, the Indonesian-Chinese have retained more of their Chinese customs and culture as well as sense of identity as compared to Thai-Chinese, whom despite making up 11% of the population, and possibly even higher if Thai-Chinese mixed bloods were counted in (some say that up to half of all Thais can trace back their lineage to some Chinese blood!) have become so assimilated through the highest rate of intermarriage in South East Asia between Chinese and Thais as well general cultural assimilation that Thai-Chinese have in general less Chinese identity and culture as compared to Indonesian-Chinese or even Filipino-Chinese.

The Chinese in Southeast Asia are on the whole economically more empowered as compared to the indigenous population, and this is true be it in Thailand to Malaysia, Singapore to Indonesia.
For some reason, the Southeast Asian Chinese are overall much wealthier and form the bulk of the economic elite as well as hold a disproportionate percentage of the country's economy all across Southeast Asia. Therefore, if you looked at the richest list of Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, etc for example, the Chinese tend to make up at the very least half of that list despite only proportionately being only 2%-24% of the population.

Furthermore, even societies where the Chinese have assimilated in better, the Chinese also make up a disproportionate percetange of the political ruling class as well as the entertaiment industry as idols to be emulated. For instance, in Thailand and the Philippines, the political elite are disproportionately represented by those with Chinese blood. I only knew about this after doing some research. In Thailand, it was reported that during the time of Thaksin (the former Thai PM whom also had Chinese blood in him, apparently being of half Hakka descent) seven out of the ten cabinet ministers had some Chinese blood in them. Even currently, the current Thai PM Abhisit has Chinese blood in him as well, coming from a wealthy Thai-Chinese family. The opposition leaders also apparently all have at least some Chinese ancestry as well! Furthermore, out of the top 10 Thai banks, i heard 7 are owned by Thai-Chinese with many being Hakka (despite Thailand having a Teochew majority).

In the Philippines, the National Father Jose Rizal also had Chinese ancestry in him and many famous Filipino actors and actresses have Chinese blood in them. In fact, when i first fell in love with Filipino entertainment, I was really taken aback at the number of Chinese-looking faces (most are mixed Filipino-Chinese)...examples are too many to count, Kris Aquino, Angel Locsin, Christian Bautista, Dennis Trillio, Toni Gonzaga, Kim Chiu,etc. In fact, many I don't even have to check up on their background as they simply look too Chinese and especially when I see sometimes their family members being interviewed on TV, some of whom look even more Chinese, its obvious they have some Chinese blood in them, even if a couple of generations back.

This was the case with Thai stars as well, with Tik Jesadaporn and Ken coming to mind as well as Ice Saranyu...they look so Chinese..Tik's brother looks like a Singaporean-Chinese and Ken looks like he could have easily come from HK!

Besides holding economic power as well as political and entertainment power in some countries, the Chinese in Southeast Asia have also influenced the food of many Southeast Asian cuisines deeply which I found deeply interesting. For example, did you know that Southeast Asia didn't have noodles in the past?! I didn't know that until this past year or so, when I discovered through some initial research that noodles was introduced to Southeast Asia by the Chinese immigrants meaning that countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines did not have noodles in their cuisines before the arrival of the Chinese. So, dishes like pad thai, mee goreng, pansit, were directly brought in by the Chinese. Furthermore, other quintissential dishes like nasi goreng indonesia and teh tarik were also introduced by the Chinese but transformed and adapted to local conditions over time. How cool is that?!

Even famous dishes such as adobo in Philippines must have been influenced by the Chinese given that a key ingredient in that is soy sauce, which is a Chinese invention and used widely throughout all Southeast Asian, and indeed East Asian countries. Other food such as tofu which is used in Southeast Asian cuisine would also have been introduced by the Chinese given that tofu was also invented by the Chinese. The fact that you can find some common dishes in some SEA countries also indicates they may well have been brought in by the Chinese, dishes such as Bee Koh Mui (Black sticky rice in Coconut) which is found in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines as well as Tikoy which is again found in all the above countries and all have similar sounding names, being the Hokkien name, given that the majority of Chinese in Southeast Asia are Hokkien people, and NOT Cantonese people, contrary to popular belief.

Interesting facts hey?

Penang Hometown Trip 2010:-)...

2010-08-15T19:32:00.002+09:00

The following are some photos taken when I was back in Penang, Malaysia, my hometown in July:

Above: Malaysian-style curry and spices...

Above: Nyonya Kuih (Nyonya Snacks/Dessert Delicacies)

Above: Mantou (Chinese plain buns) with curry crabs...yummm..loved the mantou..

Above: I loved this dish, it was some kind of soup with yam in it..i was craving for yam so much before returning to Penang, so i got my fix of yam on that night!..hehe...

Above: Malaysian famous Curry Fish Head...yes this dish only has a large fish head with vegetables, nothing else..

Above: Another hawker style feast with pipis, bee hoon, mud crab ( i had alot of crab on this trip back, would've cost me an arm and leg if i were to have it here outside)..

Above: A simple meal of malaysian-style dry wantan mee and my fav hawker drink when bck in penang, the hearty and healthy barley 'pheng' which is iced barley drink...had this in balik pulau, went there for durian season and also to visit this 'little village' on Penang Island..i've never visited before i think..

Above: Dried Fish...Balik Pulau...

Above: Haagen-Daz Ice-Cream...

Above: My favourite and most visited korean restaurant in Penang..been here for more than 10 years, since my highschool days...:-)

Above: Taiwanese food at Queensbay Mall...this was surprisingly good...full of goodness and rich in the 'hearty and home-cooked' department, if you know what i mean...

Above: Self-Explanatory. Ha..

Above: Japanese Food at Miraku, G-Hotel Gurney Drive..

Above: Malaysian drinks hawker stall...

Above: Teochew Food in Penang..another favourite restaurant of mine whenever I'm back in Penang...we go to this place for Teochew cuisine whilst we go to another place near Chinatown for Hainan Food..

Above: Durian...yummy..thank god it was durian season when i went back to Penang!

Above: Malaysian style Wantan Mee with the top bowl being Fookchow Malaysian Fishball Soup with Tanghoon...

Above: Malaysian nyonya kuih (desserts)...

Above: Bee Koh Muai...Black Sticky Rice in Coconut Syrup...

Above: Another favourite Penang meal, Lor Mee (Braised Noodles)...

Above: My Favourite Ramen place in Penang...Ramen Yataimura in Pulau Tikus..

Above: My MOST missed food in Penang and something I salivate over whenever I'm thinking of food in Sydney whilst dreaming about Penang food (amongst other countless Penang delicacies!)...Nasi Kandar! I ALWAYS have ladies finger vegetables with tauhu (rough beancurd), curry sauce, with curry sotong..yuMMYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!! PS: Also, in case you're wondering what is that large bowl that i'm drinking off, it's teh tarik, malaysia's national drink..very sweet n nice, u can get it in sydney as well for $3.50 at mamak, chinatown...very expensive as you can tell..

Above: My obligatory Chicken Rice meal at Singapore Airport whenever I transit Singapore..the chicken rice in Singapore is simply heaven...even at the airport:)

As readers can see, its turned out to be essentially a food photo-essay journey, hasn't it? Hope this has enticed readers (whom aren't from Penang, Malaysia) to visit it soon for its world-renowned food!!:-) Hehe...

8 Major Chinese Regional Cuisines...中华美食8大菜系...中華料理の８大系...

2010-08-14T02:24:00.000+09:00

As part of my continuing 'Year of China 2010' theme for this year, this post shall introduce readers to the 8 major culinary traditions of China. The most commonly known 'type' of Chinese food served in the West is Cantonese cuisine. However, Chinese food is made up of many different regions given the vast size of China as well as different ethnic groups and within Han Chinese, different regional Han food.

Below is a summary of the 8 major divisions/provincial food of China which collectively make up the representative array of Chinese food (of cos, these 8 are broad categories and there are various other food such as Mongolian-Chinese, Korean-Chinese food, Henan food, Xinjiang food,etc which also form part of Chinese cuisine, but which are not included in the 8 major categories of Chinese culinary tradition):
1) Hunan
2)Fujian
3)Anhui
4)Zhejiang
5)Yue/Cantonese
6)Shandong
7)Jiangsu
8)Szechuan

Most ppl, including Chinese ppl, say Cantonese food is the most delicious and most refined, but however, I personally think its because of the number of Cantonese ppl residing in the West historically and the prominence of Hong Kong (a Cantonese food haven) on the world stage.

I personally prefer Hokkien food the most and then Teochew food (which is very similar to Hokkien food) as its the food I grew up with and comfort food for me (Hokkien food being the root of much of Malaysian Chinese and Taiwanese cooking and cuisine).

Chinese food is also broadly divided into two divisions as well being Northerner's food and Southerner's food. Northerners' (Chinese people refer to people whom live north of the Yangtze River as 'Northerner's and those whom reside south of the Yangtze River as 'Southerners'.) are stereotyped to traditionally eat a wheat-based noodle and dough/starch based diet whilst Southerner's are traditionally said to eat a rice based diet. Of cos, most Chinese people you come into contact with as well as Chinese immigrants whom immigrated overseas to SE Asia and the West are mostly Southerners, from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Fujian, Guangzhou, Hunan, Guangxi,etc whilst Northerners would refer to people from Beijing, Tianjin, Harbin, Shenyang, Changchun,etc.

Nowadays, different regional dishes are usually served in combination in restaurants although some restaurants do specialise in serving only one kind of regional cuisine such as only Shanghai cuisine or only Hunan cuisine. There are also generic Chinese dishes which are eaten in all provinces and do not really originate from any one particular province such as 'fried rice', 'chicken and mushroom soup' or 'stir-fried vegetables with garlic'. Examples of dishes which form part of a regional cuisine include Mabo Tofu which is a Szechuan cuisine or Dongpo Pork Cuts which is a Shanghainese dish or Mui Choi Kau Yuk (Braised Pork Belly in Preserved Salty Vegetables) which is a typical Hakka dish.

So tell me dear readers, what kind of Chinese food do you like most??

Penang Durian Season July Trip 2010

2010-07-23T17:43:00.004+09:00

I am currently back in Penang, my hometown, after 2 years and 4 months..been ages, and guess what?? It's durian season!! hehe...I haven't been back during durian season for at least 4 years and thus i haven't had durian for that length of time:-) I've had HEAPS of DELICIOUS DURIAN during this time and eaten alot of good ole' penang hawker food during this vacation as well as had Japanese food, Thai food, as well as Korean bbq and also my beloved nyonya cuisine and nasi kandar as well as malay rice with so many other goodies such as teochew food..yummy..visited balik pulau, chinatown, pulau tikus market, and a couple of other places too:-)

I also managed to squeeze in a visit to my old primary school and went into the classrooms and sat in the tiny chairs (during school holidays so the place was empty)...been at least 15 yrs since i had entered those classrooms!! (I've visited before years back but even then i didn't get a chance to enter the classrooms as they were locked and this time, they happened to be cleaning the classrooms)...took photos with my brother and his friends whom also attended the same primary school as I...it was a trip down memory lane for us all despite our age gaps..also went to pulau tikus market as well as visited my former mandarin language tuition teacher at her home..she taught me and my bro mandarin on weekends throughout our primary and secondary days..
i also got to visit the 'Japanese Bon Odori Festival' this time which is held annually in Penang but which I haven't been before, my brother's friends had told him about it and he had friends visiting from Taiwan and Kuala Lumpur and so we went together with out parents...it was nice..

Everything is so delicious and affordable here, and oh...the delicious nyonya food and nasi kandar as well as freshly grounded 'sambal'!!! You simply can't get this type of freshly grounded sambal (malaysian chilli paste) back in Australia...and things are so cheap back here...movie tickets cost only RM7 or RM 10 and only a dirt cheap RM5 on Wednesdays...that's like AUD $2 for the cheapest tickets to the latest movies! Will be returning to Sydney, Oz on Sunday:(

Markets of Sydney Review & Recommendations:-)..雪梨的跳蚤市场评估与精选....シドニーの週末マケット

2010-07-03T16:40:00.010+09:00

Above: Bondi Markets...

I just realised I have been to many of the outdoor weekend markets in Sydney and have decided to do a short review and recommendation of each market, according to my personal preferences of course, so this review is not meant to be objective (obviously!):

Paddington Markets: I personally didn't find this market particularly interesting in terms of stuff sold which i liked, but then again, that was back in 2007 so I haven't been back, it may have changed...i nvr went bck since because I didn't find anything of interest to me there on my couple of visits bck then..so i wouldn't personally recommend this place although it does sell what is usually sold in other markets as well, such as vintage clothes, designer t shirts, interesting photos, home decors, art,etc..open every Sat from 10am-4ish..

Bondi Markets: I really like Bondi Market! It's like one of my favourite markets in Sydney and sells really neat photo art, designer shirts and clothing, as well as other cute designer decorations, old books,etc..i've bought designer shirts here before cos one of the plus points of markets in Sydney and why i visit them is that you often find very unique clothing,etc which are only found at these markets and at cheap prices! For instance, the clothing brand i've bought at the bondi markets is called 'monster threads' and they have a boutique which sells exactly the same stuff for $10-$20 more! So you save alot...in fact, i think in Sydney, the only place where you can buy good quality relatively cheap clothing is at these markets (of cos if you want non-designer type cheaper priced clothing, you can still get them at coles or something)..open every Sun from 10am-4ish..oh, and there's this really cute Asian guy who owns a stall there too, he sells graphic paintings for interior design and looks Vietnamese-Australian to me..so another bonus for my visits, man-candy while i pass by his store..hehe...

Balmain Markets: Very small market, really nothing much to see, not really recommended...open every Sat 9am-4ish...

Kirribilli Markets: Usual stuff sold, has some nice designer lamps, bags, clothing, food sold as well, nothing which caught my particular fancy but for some other people, may find something they like there, paintings and artwork sold there too...you can see the Opera House and Harbour Bridge from the markets so its a good view...open 2nd Sat of the month 9am-3ish...

EQ Fox Studios Markets: Its open on Wednesdays as well, has mainly food sold there, recommended as alot of gourmet personalised food such as takeaway frozen pastas, as well as an array of cakes, pattisterie and juices as well as other food such as russian pancakes or dutch hotcakes,etc...i've tried the chorizo roll there, not bad...open every Sat 10am-3ism...

Bondi Junction Markets: This is an extremely small market with food sold mainly, i loooooveee the Peruvian Chorizo Roll sold there by a Peruvian guy, its absolutely DELI...also sells some nice breads...every Fri and Sat 11am-3ish (i think!)....

Surry Hills Markets: This is a nice market selling alot of fashionable items and old books, decorations, art and craft,etc...given that it's held in the middle of hip central Surry Hills (Sydney's premier artist and funky suburb), there's alot of hip looking people wandering around there and the artist types...i found a stall i liked selling handmade unique personalised scarf with left-over materials..really cool,...highly recommended too...open every 1st Sat of the month 10am-4ish...

The Rocks Markets: I like the night market held here which focuses on gourmet food and clothing, arts and crafts, souvenirs,etc. The food stalls are pretty good as they are usually stalls set up by the restaurants situated within the rocks and so you can try $10 paellas and wagyu burgers for less than they would cost in the restaurants themselves! I particularly tried the seafood spanish paella several times there as well as believe the wagyu beef burger at one of the restaurant stalls is one of the best ever in Sydney for under $10. Highly recommended as the atmosphere is great and within walking distance of the Opera House where you can sit on the public seats provided and enjoy the free view:-) Open Fri nights as well as on weekends...

Do check out these markets if you are ever in Sydney during those times or live in Sydney and have a spare weekend someday...particularly the Bondi Markets, Surry Hills Markets, as well as Bondi Junction Markets are well worth a go..!:-)

Cycling Canberra Autumn Trip '10...砍培拉首都单车秋行‘10...カンベラ自転車の秋旅..

2010-06-04T22:55:00.006+09:00

I went to Canberra towards the end of May during Autumn time..this is my 3rd time to Canberra, and frankly, Canberra is my favourite city/town in Australia for a holiday destination.

Basically, there are places where I feel something special or a special emotional connection to as well as places which i like as a vacation destination. For instance, Melbourne, Tokyo, Taipei, and Penang are cities which I have a special emotional connection to, whilst places like Macau, Bangkok, and Canberra are vacation destinations which I enjoy.

I've been to Canberra once in Autumn, on my first trip actually, when I was there on a day trip to renew my then expiring passport at the Embassy as I was told it would take only a mere day to have it renewed whilst if I waited in Sydney, it'd take between 3 to 4 weeks before I'd get it back from the Sydney Consulate. I'd already notice the auburn red maple trees planted within the Australian Parliament House grounds then but it didn't really hit me until this trip, how gaspingly wonderful the autumn colours and maple trees of Canberra really are!:-) ( My previous visit, my 2nd time to Canberra, was during Spring in Oct'08 for the famous Canberra Floriade Tulip Festival of which I attended the Night Floriade as well as the Nara Festival which so happened then and which i was lucky enough to pass by.)

I would definitely recommend visiting Canberra during Autumn time just because of the wonderful and awe-inspiring Autumn foliage and colours around! It's really jaw-dropping, for lack of a better word, especially the areas around Lake Burley Griffith and the International Flag Display promenade lakeside...omg, the colours are something i've not seen in a loooong time, and difficult to find in a densely populated city such as Sydney. During spring, winter, and summer, you cannot find these awesome colours, as the trees either all turn green in colour or wilt away during winter.

The best way to travel around Canberra, taking in the sights is definitely via bike, which can be from Mr.Spokes Bike Hire near the Lake (google for details) and its currently $35 for a whole day with chain and lock as well as helmet. All the key attractions are reachable via bike and the views are simply amazing lakeside (especially with the autumn auburn colours in full display during autumn time). I took so many photos as I was so surprised that I could see and experience this beauty of Autumn in Canberra!! I hadn't expected the fantastic and beautiful scenery which I usually associate with tv dramas shot in autumn time Japan or South Korea. It seriously looks like one of those scenes from S. Korean romantic tv dramas with the maple trees in full bloom and the willows and autumn trees in full, swaying amongst the autumn breeze. The weather was fantastic too for cycling, cold, but not too cold, like winter.

Major attractions I visited are as follows: 1) Embassy District (where all the different national embassies residing in Australia mostly are situated) with the Chinese Embassy being the most prominent amongst tourists and residents alike for its unique archi and huge compounds, it has archway pavillions and even a tennis court inside. 2) International Flag Display promenade 3) Sculpture Garden, National Gallery, 4) National Portrait Gallery 5) High Court, passed by 6) National Archives of Australia 7) Old Parliament House Gardens 8) Parliament House 9) Canberra Glassworks 10) Old Bus Depot Market which was having a free concert performance as part of the Canberra International Music Festival 11) Doing the 'Bridge to Bridge' cycle across Lake Burley Griffith.

I didn't visit the famous War Memorial and National Gallery this time round given that I'd already visited the War Memorial twice and the National Gallery once on previous trips already.

Anyways, I also managed to squeeze in a quick walking tour of the Canberra City Centre and visited Canberra Centre again and had dinner at a Japanese Ramen place in the Canberra downtown area which was delicious after cycling for the entire day since the morning!

Great Canberra Autumn Cycling Trip it was, definitely highly recommended for residents and tourists alike in Australia, go during Autumn time!!:-)

Please go here to see more photos: http://hcpen1111-canberrainautumncyclingtrip2010.buzznet.com/user/photos/

My 5th Year Blog Anniversary...

2010-05-29T01:25:00.007+09:00

Above: This is the Cheongsam-Style clothing I made recently. It's my first one made in Australia. I bought the exquisite cloth at a boutique named Bird Textiles Emporium located on Surry Hills, it's really expensive, even with the 50% discount, costing me AUD$80 for 2 metres. I found, with plenty of luck, a tailor whom had experience making cheongsams and aodais, cos she just immigrated to Australia from Vietnam recently! How cool was that...(the Vietnamese costume is called the Aodai and is virtually indistinguishable from the Chinese Cheongsam.) The tailor shop is even in the CBD! The tailoring costs matched my cloth costs. (I just love the light-weight transparent feel of the cloth and swallows pattern on it!!) The material is hand-printed in Australia, not machine printed...that's why its so expensive!

This month May 2010, marks the 5th Year Anniversary of my blog...I started this blog whilst on exchange in Tokyo, Japan back in 2005 as I felt living on student exchange in a foreign and exciting city like Tokyo would provide a cool experience for me to record down my time there as well as be part of the cool emerging trend of owning a blog as the blogging thing was only becoming more popular back in 2004 and 2005.

I first started out recording trivial stuff about my life in Tokyo and interesting things I encountered in daily life and later on included my takes on topics and social issues of interest to me such as women's rights and gay issues. I never spoke about personal issues on the blog but started doing so a year after my blog in 2006 and have continued to be as open as I feel comfortable in posting about my personal life. I also included a childhood picture once in one of my post as well as started annual posts e.g. WW2 Anniversary Posts as well as themed posts such as ones on HK Cinema and Women's rights or Gay Media.

I have also opened up opportunities to meet and have email contact with some readers of mine throughout the years. I would also like to take this opportunity, as I have done in past years, on my blog anniversary posts, to invite readers interested to please leave me their email address with a short comment on this post and I'll get in touch with you:)

As I have always revealed, e.g a photo of me during childhood, certain things about myself as the years have gone by, I thought it was time to reveal something else which I think many readers, old and new (of course, if you have contacted me before or have come from certain types of weblogs over to my blog via links or am just attune to 'those kind of stuff' through time, would have already realised) have sometimes misunderstood my identity....I am a male blogger.

Yes, I am a guy.

I understand with my frequent posts on women's issues and feminist rights which I am genuinely passionate about, many have come to have that kind of misunderstanding (what, with my passion for the cheongsam! haha...). I felt it was now the time to reveal that about myself, given it being my 5 year blog anniversary, and the general impression my blog has given about my gender. I however, have never expressly or purposely attempted to pretend to be female although certainly at times it had hindered how i expressed myself in terms of romantic descriptions. I think some readers should know what I am referring to given what I have written about in the past....

I hope I will have many years to come in my blogging life, as I realise many blogs I used to surf have shut down and many bloggers throughout my blogging life have stopped blogging altogether due to their own personal reasons. I may also stop one day but I hope that day won't be soon. Please continue to support me and my blog and do continue to leave your comments.

Thanks!

PS: I just found out in Chatswood, 'New Shanghai' serves delicious Chinese Rice Wine Glutinous Rice Ball Dessert called 酒酿圆子汤. I've always liked this dessert which was introduced to me in Taiwan. I've passed it several times but never tried and decided to give it a go this time.
You can have it with small tangyuen or sesame-paste tangyuen.

So Sydneysiders, do give it a try next time you're in Chatswood!

Sydney Biennale 2010...2010雪梨艺术双年展......2010シドニー美術バイアヌアル....

2010-05-25T00:53:00.007+09:00

I went to the Sydney Biennale 2010 a few weeks ago, it occurs once every two years and is the premier Arts Festival in Australia. This year, it was held in various locations incl. Cockatoo Island again, an abandoned industrial island within Sydney Harbour. I saw an arts installation on the island and guess whom i saw...Maggie Cheung! I thought it was only clips from her previous movies but then slowly realised that it was from recently...and I went bck home to check as I was surprised she would be involved in an art installation given that she's seldom in any new productions nowadays, but was surprised she actually was in this installation movie and not only that, this art installation movie, running for over an hour, had its world premiere in Sydney for the Sydney Biennale! (It's going to be shown in UK and Shanghai too later). And I had gone to the Biennale on the first day, so I had in effect attended the premiere on an industrial island in Sydney Harbour! Wow!!:-)

Photos here:

China and Reevaluating the Yuan...中国与人民币中国と人民元

2010-05-21T22:34:00.001+09:00

This is another post from my 'Year of China' theme which is my blog theme for 2010, as mentioned earlier in the year, when i did the Nostalgic Chinese Cinema post series.

There has been much talk of late about China and the artificial rate that the RMB (China's official currency, called the Renminbi in full) has been controlled by the Chinese govt. The US govt especially has criticised China and accused it of currency manipulation.

I think its laughable really, for the US to point its finger at China and demand that it raise the RMB. I mean the Chinese govt is ultimately responsible to the Chinese people and if it were not for the current artificially low rate at which the RMB is, China and its export-driven economy would not have been able to grow at such a rapid rate and millions of Chinese would not have been able to pull themselves out of poverty. I mean, US and foreign companies are also responsible for the low rate of the RMB. The thousands of US and foreign investor companies in China go there precisely because of the low RMB value so that they can earn massive profits when exporting back to their own countries and the consumers in these rich countries ultimately benefit with being able to save and buy cheap consumer products. Furthermore, if the yuan were to be revalued upwards too swiftly, it'd lead to thousands of factories in China shutting down which would lead to massive unemployment and societal unrest as Chinese factories are already operating on extremely minor profit margins due to the pressure of US and foreign buyers/companies who refuse to raise buying costs by much and thus the Chinese govt cannot be expected to please and help the US and Western economies by raising the rmb value whilst at the same time jeopardising the Chinese economy by doing so. This is an unreasonable demand.

However, the most unreasonable and ridiculous statement coming out of some US politician's mouth is that the current World Economic Crisis is somehow China's fault due to it's low rmb. RUBBISH. Typical behaviour of some countries unwilling to take responsibility for the deformed financial and banking sectors of the US and Europe and trying to scapegoat China for their economic problems. What nonsense really.

And all the talk of 'imbalance in the world economy' as the cause of the current world economic crisis is similar bullshit. What imbalance? When the US and European economies and their people were spending more than they could afford and their banks were fudging the figures, who else could they blame? Their consumers wanted the cheap products and their businesses went overseas to get them. Blaming China and other Asian economies for not spending enough thus causing the 'so-called' imbalance of trade is like a person whom borrows irresponsibly from another person and then buys and buys from that exact same person and when he or she becomes bankrupt then goes on to chastise the other person for producing such cheap and useful products and not spending enough money themselves. Huh?

Typical of some to want to feel better about themselves in the mess that they've made themselves by blaming others, namely China. I never heard Asian economies complaining about the imbalance of trade and Western countries' faults back during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.
The US and Western world will just have to learn to accept their responsibility for creating the current financial crisis which they're just coming to recover from, quit complaining and pushing the blame to other countries and their currencies, and start reforming and restructuring their messed-up financial and banking sector as well as dodgy companies, such as Goldman Sachs, for one, just like Asian economies had to do back in 1997.

As a final note, it's ironic how some Western commentators and talking heads were talking about the impending 'collapse' of China's economy and their criticism of Chinese economic practices and corporate practices back before the 2008 Financial Collapse in the Western world when it was them whom fell with their face down..and fast. China has hardly been affected, and speeding ahead straight pass them and Western Companies such as Freddie Mae and Goldman Sachs have been found to have shoddy and unethical corporate practices.

There is the realisation now that it is the Western banking and financial sector which needed the reforms which the West was previously criticising China as needing all along.

Look who's Laughing now.

Greece and South Korea：A Comparison...双国故事：希腊与韩国....ギリシャと韓国：二つ国の物語

2010-05-15T21:55:00.003+09:00

With the World Financial Crisis continuing to affect the US and Europe ever more pressingly even in 2010, its timely to compare Greece and South Korea, and in an even larger way, the Oriental way and the Western way.

In 1997, more than a decade before the 2008 World Financial Crisis speahearded by the collapse of the Lehman Bros in the US, Asia-Pacific was rocked by the Asian Financial Crisis. Back then, I still remember vividly reading in the newspaper of how Thailand's stock market had spiralled out of control, and how shortly, HK's stock market crashed subsequently as well. Thus, started a domino effect, with Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Japan all becoming embroiled in the crisis. Of cos, the country affected the most by far, was South Korea. Til then, the economies of the Asia-Pacific had been going strong and growing by admirable figures. Then it all came crashing down with the expose of the failings and weaknesses of the Asian banking and financial sector. There was painful reforms which almost all the Asian economies had to go thru and this is why with the 2008 Financial Crisis, Asian economies were not affected as badly (although still very badly during the worst period in late 08-mid 09 with countries like Singapore and Malaysia slipping into recession) and now rebounding back at an amazingly rapid pace and growing with impressive figures-Singapore, for example, is forecast to grow by over 5% GDP this yr in 2010. Other Asian economies are forecast to have comparable GDP growth rates too.

South Korea back then crashed, and the government had to borrow from the IMF a bailout package as large chaebols (South Korean corporations) crashed and many South Korean companies shut down and became insolvent with the unemployment rate hitting the hundreds of thousands. As part of the IMF bailout terms, the government of South Korea had to bring in extremely painful austerity reforms/measures calculated to bring the South Korean economy back into shape and also restructured its banking and financial sector properly. What touched me then was how media and news reports reported that many South Koreans started donating gold to the government to help the country stand back on its feet. I rem vaguely seeing housewives and citizens donating out of their own free will personal gold jewellery and personal gifts on the tele and was amazed at their patriotism and sense of sacrifice.

Contrast this with the situation of Greece currently. The country has mounting debts in the billions of euros and the IMF has come up with a huge bailout plan. This has had to be paid for by its larger European neighbours such as Germany which have demanded strict austerity measures to be brought in to reign in the spiralling debt problem engulfing the Greek government and economy at large. However, instead of following South Korea's commendable example back in 1997, and one could term the 'Oriental way'by sacrificing, the Greeks have turned to large demonstrations and rallies, destroying and defacing public and commercial buildings and holding strikes protesting the much needed austerity measures needed to bring Greece back on its feet. This is what could be called the 'Western way', discussion of individual interests and rights and the unwillingness to sacrifice for the nation's and ultimately, everyone's long-term well-being. The Greeks have shown that they are unwilling to face the responsibility of their own doing by living the life and enjoying the benefits which were never sustainable in the first place. I saw on the news that the Greeks had been fudging the figures and reports to the EU annually and taking advantage of being in the Euro zone without responsibility. They employed 1 million unproductive civil servants out of a population of 11 million. Pensions and work benefits were numerous and unjustifiable. Now, with the country in a wreck, instead of facing up to all this and cutting back, they are acting like spoilt kids, used to enjoying unsustainable luxury, and steadfastly, unwilling to face the consequences of their spending. Instead of sacrifice which brought South Korea's economy back from ruins in 1997 and accelerating such that it now has the biggest GDP growth rate in the OECD developed nation's club for 2009/10 and has thriving big brand corporations such as Samsung and LG and Hyundai, when merely a decade or so ago, big corporations were closing down, the Greeks have chosen to make their national economy worse, with strikes and protests with would inevitably bring down the economy even more.

Maybe, these lessons show that Europeans, and Westerners have a thing or two to learn from Asia as well, in that, the Western way, or the emphasis on individualism or personal interests is not the only nor best approach all the time and that the Oriental way, with emphasis on collective responsibility (which the Greek people refuse to take for their economic mess currently) and collective sacrifice (which the Koreans did back in 1997) may be the better way ahead.

PS: I also heard that some Greeks were shocked and felt betrayed that the EU didn't act fast enough to approve the enormous bailout package to assist them. Well, since the bailout is being financed by other European economies which have barely pulled out and are still on the road to economic recovery, why should they have to help the Greeks so fast? And I think they're especially kind to help the Greeks especially with all the Greek protests/rallies/strikes going on showing their unwillingness to change their ways...(i know they have to help the Greeks given the need to sustain the Euro. Actually, this entire Greek crisis has shown the weaknesses of a common currency, the Euro.)

There's Never Been a Better Time to be Gay in Asia..in the media, that is..

2010-05-04T01:27:00.004+09:00

Above: The Poster of 'Hello My Love' Korean movie, released late 2009.

These are just some links and updates on gays in the media in Asia...my usual 'gay news around Asia' update...been months since i posted anything 'gay'..haha..anyways, as the winds of change continue to blow in the Western world with gay marriage now legal in Mexico City and Washington DC, as well as more and more mainstream gay characters whom are diverse on tv such as 'Glee', Asia hasn't fallen behind.

In Taiwan, TV Shows continue to have regular segments dealing with the gay topic, for instance, in this following talk show on parents and their children, whereby all the children shown are mostly gays (Taiwanese have become accustomed to seeing openly gay ppl in the media since the early 2000s..not only celebrities, but many ordinary gay ppl go on talk shows without hiding themselves..), what was incredible about this talkshow was that the host, a respected middle-aged former News Broadcaster, was very fair and pro-gay rights..usually for various episodes of the show, he would try to be a neutral arbitrator on topics but in this episode on having gay children, he was incredibly pro-gay and even going so far as to literally persuade the parents to accept gay children....link in mandarin on youtube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o8k1mZPEHw

Another show discussed gays dealing with a disabled gay man and his partner whom is not disabled and how their families have come to accept their relationship including the elderly Taiwanese Ah-Ma (Grannie). As you can tell, Taiwanese are pretty progressive and the tv shows have expanded to include diverse topics even within the topic of gays such as disabled gays and their love lives.

Link in Mandarin here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDZvBXSEiiw

Korea and Gays in the Media:

Even conservative Korea, which is the most backwards when it comes to things like women's rights and gay rights as compared to China and Japan and Hong Kong, has improved markedly in recent yrs, in terms of media coverage and exposure..besides earlier gay Korean films which I have covered before on this blog, there have been more gay films just coming out in 2009 and 2010. I won't repeat previous well-known ones such as 'Antique Bakery' and 'Frozen Flower' which i have mentioned before but there's a small independent film called 'Just friends?' link here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/JustFriendsSubbed#p/a/u/2/SZi-45UQZuU

And another film which I just discovered online out of the blue and it was a surprising find..within the first 20 mins of the movie, i knew it was one of the best korean gay films i had seen..it came out in late 2009, however there were 3 major flaws towards the middle-end of the film which led it down but overall i really really like the aesthetic and overall feel of the movie. It was a movie which had parts and characters which I'd feel i would have expressed if I were ever to make a gay themed film but this film has done part of it for me (excluding the flawed bits). I love the actors and actress in it (they all look gorgeous and fit their roles perfectly) and the settings for many scenes such as the traditional korean house and making a wine restaurant in it was perfect as well as the beach scene...the twist and radio dj premise was also fantastic...the full movie WITH ENG SUBS (YEAAAHHH!!!) on youtube here:

Full Movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHydgGwE60E

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/user/hcpen#p/a/f/1/P6UMdbE9fPU

Now, for the flaws, SPOILERS AHEAD, Highlight to read:

1) I didn't like the fact that the female protagonist slept with her bf's boyfriend..i could understand why she did it, to destroy their relationship so she could have her bf bck cos ppl can be irrational when they're in love and in fear of losing their loved ones but the fact that the gay lover responded and they ended up having sex was ridiculous and doesn't make sense.

2) Why did the gay lover leave after the party incident? Also how did the French ex-lover of the gay lover know their house to show up? Big storyline mishap...

3) When her boyfriend leaves to find his gay lover in the end, why did they not end up together again?! It doesn't make sense, esp you see the gay lover with the French guy many yrs later hinting they got bck together in the end which again doesn't make sense given that earlier on at the party, it was shown that the gay lover didn't love his ex-French boyfriend anymore and wanted to break it off, so why did they end up together again?! Major spoil of the plotline..the very ending of the movie of the three of them on the beach was great though (the woman and her now ex-boyfriend with his now ex-boyfriend..haha) and the movie definitely has some great scenes and quirky lines/scenes...good gay korean-themed film overall..

Another milestone is that the first Korean drama to portray a main gay character started earlier this year called 'Life is Beautiful'. It is the first time in a Korean drama to portray a gay person as a main character and deal with their love life as well as feelings and challenges of being gay in Korea. Previous Tv shows have only hinted or put gay characters as cameos or at best in one or two dramas as a side character without a romantic storyline and basically no touching on the realities of being gay in Korea. This is the first time and written by a famous veteran female writer of Korean dramas known for her high-ratings in drama. The character is called Taesub and he is a kind man whom is also a doctor. He has been going out with some girls and always ends up breaking up with them. The drama starts with him finally coming to terms with his homosexuality and his new relationship with another gay man whom is divorced with a child after being outed after his marriage thru a mishap. Some links in Korean on youtube of their storyline (this is a 50 episode family drama and has multiple storylines, the gay one is merely one of them but apparently according to news reports, the online website attracts 80% plus comments on this gay storyline and the TV station broadcasting the show gets complaintsfrom viewers every day against the gay storyline, however, the writer has said she will continue to deal with the gay plotline in a positive and neutral manner and she was surprised the backlash wasn't as great as she thought it'd be) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZAVxTPZ1n0

Hong Kong:

Hong Kong has seen numerous gay independent films in recent yrs, none of which has attracted my attention, but just for ppl interested, these two came out last yr, out of 4-5 gay hk films, trailers here:

1)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL3hFo32Tr8

2)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNcRx2ScIPY (this is director scud's second gay trilogy, his films often have quite big budgets, despite being independent productions, showing that obviously there are production companies willing to invest in hong kong gay films and believe there is a market for it in recent years.)

And to end, i'd like to introduce something completely unrelated to this topic, being on straight love...i'm still on filipino fever, and here's a new movie i can't wait to see, it has a Malaysian theme, cos they keep saying 'Petronas Towers' and has JLC and Bea Alonzo..they look so cute together..trailer here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z3cz3W0YrY

haha, how did i start with a post on the topic of gay love and end with a link on straight love?! Hahaha...

Thailand's Le Majeste Laws and the Red/Yellow Conflict...泰国民政乱...タイ国の暴動...

2010-04-24T11:53:00.004+09:00

The Thai Coup overthrowing Thaksin Shinawat, in 2006, was what triggered the series of unrest occuring in Thailand in the recent years. I never really paid attention then although i was alittle concerned given that I loved Thailand, its culture, and as a tourist destination.

However, recent years of unrest and especially what is occuring now has peaked my interest. Even the previous taking over of Bangkok's international airports only elicited a response at the craziness of the Thai protests but it didn't motivate me to read or investigate further into the causes or details of the protests, reasons as to why ppl were protesting or getting the color codes correct. However, the recent protest for the past weeks led me to want to understand what the Thais were all protesting about and why the protests seemed neverending.

This is what i found out and the following is my personal opinion of the whole issue (please note this is merely my own personal opinion, from a neighbouring countrie's citizen's perspective, so its going to be subjective, but at least its going to be more impartial given that I have nothing at stake or personal interests in the politics of thailand):

From what I gather, in a quick summary for those like me whom are confused as to the chain of events and the differing sides, here's a quick rundown:

In 2001 Thaksin got elected in democratic elections to become the Prime Minister of Thailand. He served out his term and was re-elected, the ONLY thai PM ever to have served out his full term and get re-elected again for a second term, indicating his immense popularity to the people of Thailand. However, in 2006, the military in a coup overthrew him and brought him into exile overseas. He is currently in Cambodia, serving as an executive policy adviser to the Cambodian govt and leads the opposition from there.

Thaksin was and is extremely popular with the rural poor of Thailand, especially in the populous but poor North-East region of Thailand called Isaan. In addition, he is also supported by a large margin by the urban poor and lower classes of Bangkok and other Thai cities as well.

He was however not very popular with the middle and upper classes of Bangkok residents as well as other middle-upper class elites of Thailand, whom accused him of gross corruption and mishandling and siphoning state funds and investment deals to benefit his and his relative's wealth. The current unrest started, CRUCIALLY, with the yellow-shirt protesters (hereafter 'yellows') whom started wearing yellow shirts and rallying to bring down Thaksin. In 2006, the army which has always had strong ties to the Thai monarchy and Bangkok upper class elites brought down Thaksin thru a coup. They then governed the country promising democratic elections later down the line. The Courts dissolved Thaksin's party, called the 'Thai Ruk Thai' party and banned over 100 politicians from Thaksin's camp from joining politics for 5 years. However, another new party was set up with former unbanned politicians and supporters of Thaksin to contest in the new elections to be held in late 2007. In the 2007 elections, Thaksin's new party won the elections once again by a significant margin, thus forming the new govt.

Importantly, this means that Thaksin's party had won democratic elections THREE times to become govt. As a side note, the military also unilaterally changed the 1997 Constitution of Thailand and came up with their own 2007 version, and with heavy propaganda and publicity, it was accepted in a referendum in 2007 as well. However, the yellows were obviously not satisfied with the democratic election results once again bringing Thaksin's camp back into power for the third time. So they protested once again sometime in 2008, even going as far as occupying government house, occupying Bangkok's two international airports, and demanding that the new govt be dissolved as well. Finally, a Constitutional Court ruling brought down the leader Samak, because of accepting fees for accepting a cooking show appearance. He was replaced by another person within the ruling party (which is pro-Thaksin just as a reminder). The Court once again brought him down on another apparent breach. This led the way for the second Thaksin party to be removed from power and for the current Thai party, the yellow Democrats Party, with Abhisek as Prime Minister, to come into power. This led to the rise of the red-shirt protesters (hereafter referred to as 'Reds) and they have been protesting ever since and currently are involved in anti-govt protests and want new elections called.

My Opinion & Analysis:

My first line would be to state where my position and sympathies lie with, despite not being Thai and having no vested interest in whom eventually governs the country.

I am a RED SUPPORTER. This means I support the current anti-govt protesters, whom are mainly the rural and urban lower to poor classes of Thailand. This is as the current Democratic Party, led by Abhisek is indeed undemocratic. My main contention is that the 2006 coup SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED. Thailand has had many coups since 1932 and its laughable. I didn't know Thailand's democracy was such a weak one, and always looked up to them kinda when compared to Malaysia's democracy, but now after understanding Thailand's political history, I must say, Malaysia is much more stable, fair, and democratic when compared to Thailand (this is a comparison, Malaysia is nowhere near a 'real democracy', but in comparison to Thailand, at least there's been no military coups in Malaysia's history before and ppl don't get what they want just by rioting and toppling down govts).

Military coups occur so often in Thailand that one wonders why there are elections at all, it seems that whenever the military or Thailands' middle/upper class elites doesn't like somebody, they just need to get their 'well-connected' military in and topple the govt. This is what happened in 2006. Many analysts have said that Thaksin had become too popular by then. He was enormously popular with the Thai rural and urban poor population which, mind you, Thailand being still an overall third world country (despite its glitzy image of Bangkok, Pattaya, beach resorts,etc) means the majority of the population of Thailand. He enacted many populist and refreshing policies such as universal health care coverage for Thailands' millions of rural poor as well as economic benefits for Thai rural farmers. He poured in money into previously neglected areas of the rural provinces of Thailand which the elites (yellows) had not bothered to look into in decades past. Thaksin, also was said to be uncompromising and unwilling to follow the 'old elitist rules' whereby previous Prime Ministers had always been in close connection and deference to what the Thai Monarchy and Thai military wanted. He was seen as challenging the military/monarchy's status in Thai society given that no other Thai prime minister had been this popular as an individual previously and Thai's only had one idol, the Thai King and his monarchy.

By 2006, Thaksin was seen by many elite/military quarters as also challenging the status of the monarchy by becoming a Thai idol as well. Thus, he was removed undemocratically, and the military came up with its own draft Constitution which is ridiculous. They say its to curb previous corruption loopholes,etc which is PURE CRAP cos you cannot come into power undemocratically and now want to change the 'game rules'. Furthermore, it was the yellows whom started this chaos by bombarding the govt house back in 2008 and the airports and now, i hear that these very ppl are calling the reds (whom merely copied their tactics and even the very concept of color coded division started with the yellows!) terrorists and I saw in one interview, a yellow even said 'it was the first time in my life that 'i've seen this happen (refering to red taking over of Bkk's commercial district) and this is my first time being ashamed of Thailand on the world stage'. What the HELL?!!! These yellows are TRULY SHAMELESS, i tell you...the first time you're ashamed of Thailand and the first time this has happened?! I was feeling ashamed of Thailand and its ridiculous situation when the yellows were taking over the airports, clearly airports project to the world what a country represents, that would have put Thais to shame right? But nooooooo, the yellows say the current red actions are shaming the country. Then I'd like to ask these ppl the question, What about back in 2008, the yellow action of taking over the airports was not unprecedened? Was Not a shameful act at all??

Then there were even suggestions back in 2008 by some, not all, yellows that the current election system should be changed such that a good proportion of seats would not be elected thru elections but instead 'chosen' by 'a group of professions and sectors of society'..sounds to me to be what the currently undemocratic Hong Kong system is like. This is as the yellows, being mainly rich and middle-class elites residing in Bangkok and other main cities, know VERY WELL they cannot win an election fair and square in a country like Thailand, where the MAJORITY of Thais are still urban and rural poors despite the great economic strides made by Thailand in the past few decades, and thus by carving out a sizeable percentage of seats in parliament to be 'chosen by professions' it was clear they would be able to possibly win the elections given that the power connections meant that rural and urban poors would very unlikely be in most of these professions, presumably chosen from elitist backgrounds such as solicitors, judges, authors, businessmen, whom are all mainly yellow supporters. And the yellows claim to be the true guardians of 'democracy'....having used rallies and violent tactics and the military to topple 3 successive election results which elected Thaksin or pro-Thaksin parties to govt. It seems that the yellows just don't like election results when it doesn't go their way. One leader was even quoted in 2008 protests that 'they'll protest until the pro-Thaksin govt was toppled and they will not accept any further election results if it results in another pro-Thaksin govt in power'...wow, how democratic, that's like saying in the US, the Democrats have won power but get toppled by the Republican-backed military and Democrat party gets dissolved and all its members banned from politics and they regroup and form a new party called The New Democrats and once again win elections and Republican supporters rally and take over airports in New York and San Francisco demanding that the New Democrats come down and they won't accept any election results which put the Democrats, whatever form or shade, back into power..or in Australia, if one said we'll protest and accept any party except the Labour Party in govt'....sounds ridiculous right? Basically, the yellows don't respect elections, they just want to have it their way...and when they can't do it thru elections, they do it thru coups by the military or taking over international airports in thailand..remember, every time the pro-Thaksin party comes into power including the period when thaksin ruled was BY ELECTIONS.

Since the military coup, the yellows have only come into power with Abhisek BY COUPS AND COURT RULINGS. NOT ELECTIONS. It is clear that the majority of thais, whom also happen to be mainly urban/rural poor, are reds and support thaksin. That is what a democracy is. It is what the simple majority wants. And it is not what a sizeable urban powerful and socially and economically powerful elite want.

The biggest argument of the yellows is that Thaksin was corrupt and that currently, the yellow Democrat Party govt are giving the same benefits or even more benefits to the rural poor BUT HOLD ON for a sec. That's just like saying I am elected as Managing Director of a Corporation by the majority, then a group of elites topple me by force and unilaterally and replace me with their own MD and he COPIES or improves on the ideas and policies which I developed and say hey, whats the difference? Its NOT FAIR. You cannot simply come into power with military force (the yellows) and then COPY Thaksin's extremely popular policies and ideas and claim them as your own. Even the corruption charges at the root of anti-thaksin arguments is a poor argument for coups and banning pro-thaksin parties. Just recently, the independent Thailand Electoral Commission has ruled that the yellow Democrat party has also been corrupt in gaining campaigning funds and misuse of electoral funds... i mean hello! Every party and leader in Thailand has arguably been corrupt...but none of them, it seems, did more or cared more for the rural and urban poor or poured money into the rural provinces as much as Thaksin did.

So, basically, everyone was corrupt and did nothing for the rural poor, knowing that they can be ignored, but thaksin was alleged corrupt BUT he ALSO provided much for the previously neglected rural poor of Thailand, giving them a voice and economic benefits. So saying he/his party shouldn't be in power because of corruption is simply disingenious when all previous govt had also been corrupt to varying degrees AND neglected or ignored Thailand's vast rural population. The current Democrat Party has also been proven to be corrupt by the independent Elections Commission of Thailand and there is no guarantee it wouldn't become as corrupt as Thaksin allegedly was in the future.

So, my question is, how can you replace a democratically elected govt with an elitist-backed one whom simply copies Thaksin's policies and is corrupt itself?! Furthermore, the current party was the result of a military coup plus two court decisions, not a democratic election. They have no right to be there.

Le Majeste Laws of Thailand:

This is an even more sensitive topic which could possibly land me in jail were I in Thailand or entered Thailand. However, given that this is the web, with anonymity (my nickname bears no resemblance to my real name so there's no way they could possibly identify me via this blog, and furthermore, thai authorities wouldn't even know my current passport (cos my bckground is so varied) or even my gender to identify me.

This is the Le Majeste Laws of Thailand which prohibits anyone from writing or saying anything negative about the King or the Royal Family of Thailand. This means that there have been cases of ppl being thrown into jail for years for simply suggesting that the King has been ill-advised by his advisers or that his son, the apparent heir, is a playboy. (The apparent heir, has been divorced 2x and married 3 x with crown princesses ever younger in age. There was also a leaked video online of a birthday party held for his poodle whereby the prince's wife was topless parading around...not a pretty sight for the future queen with her breasts now exposed for all to see)
This also means that it is open to abuse for political means. The yellows associate themselves with being pro-Royals and paint the Reds as Anti-Royals. This is extremely dangerous as it is defaming reds as anti-loyal unpatriotic betrayers of Thailand and also can be used to arrest red supporters for any action/words deemed to be anti-royals. The position of the Thai-Monarchy is much higher than the British royalty or even the Japanese royalty in the public's eyes.

It reminds me of a time when the Japanese emperor was considered a living god and pro-militarist would accuse anti-war Japanese during WW2 of being anti-royals and traitors and jail them up. It reminds me of a time when Mao was considered a living god in China and red guards would accuse those whom did not show absolute worship of Mao during the Cultural Revolution of being anti-Mao, and traitors of their country. Different factions would also contest to prove who was the closest and real supporters of Mao and no one dared criticise Mao directly, instead placing the blame on his close advisers, The Gang of Four and Jiang Qing, placing Mao above any room for criticism. Food for thought, no?

PS: Make your own connections as I do not want to make assertions and assinuations on this very sensitive topic but if history is any lesson, the similarities are clear and apparent to anyone with their minds and eyes open.

PPS: There are now 'multi-coloured shirts' whom say they are not connected to the govt and they want the govt to clamp down on the protesters just to resume peace and order to their daily lives in Bangkok. Thats a pure joke, literally. The current govt, yellows, and multi-coloured are really all in the same pot, anti-Thaksin, and representing middle-class and elitist concerns when the majority of Thailand's people are lower-poor urban and rural residents. Its funny how they now want' peace' and no 'violence' now that their yellow govt is in power when back when the democratically-elected red govt was in power, they had no qualms about destroying Thailand's image with the exact same rallies, taking over of international airports,etc. And they're complaining of their lives being disrupted because they cannot do business and shop at the high-end shopping malls and eat at the upscale luxury hotels which the red masses have formed protest stations at?

Well, for their information, most of these red supporters have prob never even entered these shopping malls or ate at any of them before.....A case of hitting them where it hurts...haha...

PPPS: I think i'm always supporting parties which, on a socio-economic level, I never belong in..for instance, in Taiwan's politics, I've always supported the DPP instead of the KMT despite my family bckground and area where we live which all leans heavily towards the KMT and in the current case of Thailand, clearly I have less in common with the rural poor of Thailand than the middle and upper class elites of Bangkok, but I believe that goes even more to show which side is worth supporting more...

Cheating Men & The Women Beside Them...出轨与在他旁边的女人......浮気した男と彼のそばにいる女...

2010-04-12T21:22:00.005+09:00

I am so sick and tired of cheating men and the women who stand besides them. Think John Edwards and Elizabeth Edwards in the political world, Tiger Woods and Elin in the sports world, Sandra Bullock and Jesse James in the entertainment world, and that's just the famous ones we all know about. God knows what happens in the lives of ordinary people as well which is not sniffed out and reported by media these days. And in case you think it's just America, guess again, cos there was a recent high-profile case of a Taiwanese legislator caught on camera cheating on his wife with another socialite at some high-class restaurant in Taipei and Singapore's most well-known director Jack Neo was also recently busted for having a 2 year affair with a model half his age as well as other victims whom have come out to say they were repeatedly offered roles in exchange for sex with the director or were constantly sexually harassed by the well-known director Jack Neo. It seems that there is no sphere or occupation where men won't cheat, and cheat with women many years younger than themselves or their wifes!

It's disheartening really. And i really CAN'T stand these women whom stand beside their men and say they're willing to forgive them. And I can't stand these women whom continue to publicly support their men even with all the humiliation they face. Why in the world would you still want the man? I mean, you often find that its the men whom are the most guilty but yet gets to choose whether THEY would like to continue the marriage with their wife after getting busted and not the other way round. So undignified. Many of the women then choose to forgive their husbands only to find out in the end that their husbands have fallen in love with the younger woman and still decides to continue the relationship even AFTER the bust up. Look at Elizabeth Edwards as an example. She forgave her husband and even continued to campaign for him during his presidential run despite knowing about his affair and AFTER the media relevations. It was not until it was determined that John Edwards had fathered a child with the other woman was she forced into a divorce.

And i also take issue with ppl whom blame the women. What total rubbish. Don't EVER SAY that an affair is two people's responsibility. WRONG. It is ALWAYS THE CHEATER'S FAULT. NEVER THE OTHER SPOUSE'S FAULT. I love all the 'excuses' people come up with when men cheat. Oh the wife is too strong. She always 'bosses' her husband around. She's also responsible. The wife didn't take care of her image,looks,etc (err, cos she's been busy cooking, cleaning, looking after the kids the last 15 yrs whilst the husband watches the telly and takes them out occasionally?) ..what nonsense. Men will cheat in all kinds of circumstances. Look at Elin, Tiger's wife. She looks the perfect wife in terms of Western conventional beauty image. She's not even in her 30s, merely 20s, blond long hair, good face and thin body, but YET Tiger Woods cheated, not one or two but with possibly over 10 women. Look in Asia, with Vivian Chow...she was barely just 40 when her husband had an affair with a university/college girl and she looks stunning not just for her age but actually passes for just 30. She is also well-known for her feminine good-girl personality and so obviously being beautiful and having a feminine personality doesn't stop your husband from cheating. And the reason why i say it's NEVER right or understandable or two people's fault when someone cheats is becos the action cannot be mitigated by the fault of one. Therefore, even if the wife is unreasonable, looks sloppy and ugly and unappealing, smelly, has turned into a hot-tempered woman whom also insults her husband in public at every chance, it's STILL NOT her fault when her man cheats. It is purely 100% his fault. I REPEAT THAT.

Bcos, the solution to the above is not to cheat but to talk it out, work on it, go for counselling,etc..that's what couples should do. Not cheat.

Cos Saying a man whom cheats on his wife whom has some faults too, and that's ok, is like saying its ok for Tim to beat up Adam because Adam insulted his mother or its ok for Jack to kill Rob because Rob always disrespects him or that its Jill's fault as well when Joe rapes her for her ill-temper or that Janet has to take responsiblity as well for Jim stealing all her money and burning down her house because she is always insulting him to his friends and ill treats him for many years. Get it? One is simply disproportionate to the other. If you have problems, work it out with your other spouse. If you haven't tried, or fail after many yrs, then get a separation. Get a divorce. Not cheat.

I have no issues when a man divorces or separates from his wife and finds another (younger woman--ok maybe i'd still be like shallow you..but at least i'd respect him alot more than cheating) after the separation. But just don't try to be selfish and still want your social status, image, and your family and kids AND the other woman all at the same time.

And the worse thing is when all these men cheat and go for the younger women, not just 2,3,4,5,6 years younger, but they go for at least 7 yrs and younger and often up to girls half their age (basically almost their daughter's age) and call it finding 'true love'. Yes, these women/girls haven't cooked and cleaned, and provided free sex for years to these men which their wives have done, and once they find a younger fresher girl, out goes the wife whom spent decades toiling with them when they were poorer and unsuccessful and just starting out.

I mean some men even cheat on their wives when they're having cancer (!) re: Elizabeth Edwards, Jack Neo's first wife apparently... seriously heartless bastards...and i cannot fathom how men like these can go all the way up and climb the social ladder to become potential Presidential Nominees of the USA, Singapore's most famous director,etc..it seems that some would argue, its not relevant whether a man cheats or how he treats his wife as long as professionally he does well in his job. I'd strongly disagree. When it comes to promotions and climbing up the social ladder, of cos, its HIGHLY RELEVANT. This kind of 'impartial assessment' of people is seriously ridiculous. It is what caused armies to rape with impunity in past wars cos 'its ok or not detrimental to his social/job standing if he rapes' as long as he performs well in battles. It's what has covertly tolerated all the rape/abuse scandals which Australian football leagues have come to be associated with in recent yrs as its kinda 'all good' as long as they continue to win scores and victories for the team. It only becomes seriously not ok when they start losing games.

All these high profile cheatings and their wive's ultimate forgiveness ( the list is long...Jackie Chan is another one which came up whilst i was typing this) makes a poor and disturbing role model for the wider populace that its kinda ok for men to cheat..or at least if u're rich, ....cos although you may suffer a backlash from your wife, ultimately, she'll forgive you and your marriage and career will both stay intact on the whole.

And although i know its purely 100% a personal decision on the part of these very public cheater's wives whether or not to forgive their husbands, I also know that their decisions ultimately will have some kind of subconscious effect on the minds of the wider society observing the ensuing scandal unfold. Therefore, although its their personal decision, its also a public responsibility and a women's dignity issue as well. It can be 'Well, so and so forgave their husbands so maybe i should too..he's o'nly done it once' or 'Look at so and so, she kicked her husband out and took half his money..that gives me the courage to uphold my own dignity too and give my husband the boot..'

And it is with this final statement in mind that I hope Sandra Bullock gives her husband the kick out and not follow in the footsteps of Hillary Clinton (another name that popped up!), Elizabeth Edwards, Vivian Chow, apparently Elin Woods as well, and the numerous other 'women besides them' whom have effectively provided a negative role model for women and men and said that their dignity and trust can be trampled upon and that their self-worth is not worth much and can be taken and thrown aside by a man at his whim.

The Amazing Race 14...

2010-04-02T01:16:00.002+09:00

Victor and Tammy Jih won the Amazing Race Season 14, I only got to watch it early this yr on youtube..thank goodness for youtube. I was sooo happy! It's seriously one of the best seasons of TAR..there were a diversity of contestants which i really like, i liked the fact that the final few teams comprised of black sisters, a mute and deaf son and mother team, and an Asian-American sibling lawyer team. I am so glad Chinese-Americans won!! And they were smart too..both are Harvard educated lawyers..yes, BOTH...both lawyers now...and both pretty good-looking too..the season also had alot of gay contestants, another plus point for me....besides the openly gay ones which were 3 or 4 i think, Victor Jih is seriously under my 'gaydar' suspicion..just by his voice, his sensitivity, his love for crying (he cried and got emotional on so many occasions..too many for ur average straight male)..and yea, just his voice..and i really like him (or rather his voice) hahaha..and he's smart too...

btw, another reason i love the winners (besides being Chinese-American, prob wealthy, Harvard-educated solicitors,etc) is the fact that they're also Taiwanese-Americans! I knew it from the beginning, i just had this gut feeling they could be Taiwanese-American given that almost all the wealthy, well-educated, famous Chinese-Americans are inevitably from Taiwan originally (this is due to the history and politics of Taiwan/China and America. Until 1979, America only had diplomatic relations with Taiwan and not China and thus mainlanders couldn't immigrate to America until January 1979. On the other hand, Taiwan had 20,000 quotas allocated for it which is actually the quota allocated to China every yr and only wealthy and Taiwanese pursuing higher education like their masters/phd were moving to America 1950-1979 reflecting the status and education level of many Taiwanese-Americans in American society. Mainland Chinese came later on and were invariably poorer and thus had less resources and time to climb up the social ladder. You often hear stories of Taiwanese-Americans with parents whom came as computer engineers and lab scientists working in low-paid jobs,etc whereas mainlanders tended to come on relative reunion visas or less prestigious study purposes.) .

Bck to Victor and Tammy, so i had this gut feeling given that most well-educated well-to-do Chinese-Americans inevitably have roots from Taiwan and given the fact that they were speaking Mandarin most of the time (as opposed to Cantonese which would suggest roots from Hong Kong or immigration pre-1949) i googled, and i was right! They ARE Taiwanese-Americans!! Yeahh..another reason to celebrate their victory.

Just love The Amazing Race Season 14..hehe..

Tsubaki CM!...资生堂‘日本女性’广告!...資生堂つばきCM!...

2010-03-30T20:37:00.000+09:00

I fell in love with the Shiseido 'Tsubaki' theme song and commercial for their hair products a long time ago but only recently rediscovered the cm on youtube. God, the Japanese models/actresses featured are sooo pretty...i was basically enamoured by their beauty, haha...

youtube 'shiseido tsubaki cm' links:

IWD Again...International Women's Day 2010...国际妇女节2010...国際女性の日２０１０年..

2010-03-08T12:04:00.001+09:00

Today marks International Women's Day again....Oprah did a special show on Women's rights around the World sometime last yr...here's the link to the full show on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1teYeYl-ggc

I bought the book she recommended written by Nicholas Kristof and his wife Sheryl Wu-Dunn.

It's called 'Half the Sky' reporting about the plight of women/girls around the world now in the 21st Century and what we can do to assist them.

They say micro-financing projects target 90% plus women as women borrowers, time after time, multiple studies have shown use their money responsibly in investing in their children's education/food,etc and have an extremely high repayment rate whilst men tend to use the money borrowed irresponsibly and show off to their friends. Men also tend to be worse at repayment of loans. Furthermore, a study i read about last month showed that men have less ability to feel remorse and regret for what they do (confirming my long held belief from life experience that men have less compassion/empathy GENERALLY (not saying every single male species or even a majority but just comparatively as against women). The study in the paper showed that men tend to feel guilt only towards themselves (selfish!) as opposed to women whom tended to feel guilt and care about how their actions hurt other ppl's feelings. Men tend to feel guilty about how their actions hurt themselves, such as feeling guilty about not exercising enough, or feeling guilty about eating too much unhealthy food. Indeed i think this study corresponds to another study done in the UK on prostitution which showed that men who visit prostitutes most often than not know that the prostitutes are either traffick victims or feel disgusted by what they're doing but the remorse/guilt they feel means they still go ahead with the service. The only effective way of stopping them from visiting prostitutes wasn't one based on compassion/empathy but one based on the more selfish reason of being detrimental to themselves, basically, if the police launched a serious crackdown which involved them getting prosecuted, fined, names published on newspaper,etc. Basically, confirming the earlier study on men being generally less empathetic towards other's and more concerned about themselves.

Men are also more likely to be racist, homophobic, sexist, and less tolerant/more extreme, according to one study of Australian men many yrs ago which i read in Melbourne in 2005. This may be true given the general impression we have that most of the extremist/terrorist are men and most violent attacks/crimes based on racism and homophobia are also committed by men. Its not a Coincidence that Our Jails are filled with Men, especially those committing the most vile and violent crimes..

Anyways, here's to celebrating IWD 2010 with all the excitement and motivation one can have, and not forget the achievements and adversities women around the world still face in the 21st Century. :-)

Sydney Lesbian & Gay Mardi Gras Fest' 2010...雪梨同志节大游行2010...シドニーゲイとレスビアンパレード２０１０...

2010-03-02T22:42:00.021+09:00

I attended 3 events of the Sydney annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras this year, being the most events which i've ever participated in ...i usually attend the annual Parade...it's apparently one of the largest, if not the largest, gay and lesbian festival/parade in the world.

I went to Fair Day, my first time, which is a community event held at a park with about 70,000 people in attendance which launches the Mardi Gras official season which lasts 2 weeks this year. What surprised me was the number of straight families there bringing along their children..i even saw a middle-aged chinese man bringing along 2 elderly chinese women into the fair!

How mainstream gay events have become in sydney..a sign of the changing times...

I also went to the Mardi Gras Parade and also was an official Mardi Gras volunteer for one of the events, the one which i most wanted to participate in given the rarity of the opportunity: Spencer Tunick's Mardi Gras commissioned 'The Base' art installation. (google him if u don't know what kind of art he does!)

Photos from the Mardi Gras Parade:

Above：Gay and Lesbians from the Armed Forces incl. airforce, army, and navy parading..it was eye opening to see gay soldiers..i even saw a gay couple holding hands..wow..it completely turns around the stereotype of gay ppl in the fashion, designing industry when u see regular-looking blokes whom are gay serving in the armed forces!

Photos Below from Before the Parade..most ppl arrived for front row seats 4-5 hours before the parade begins at 7 45pm at night.:-)

Photos from Fair Day:Above: Fair Day...

Above: So cool...for a coin donation, you get to hit once on the metal plate and if you hit spot on, the guy sitting there falls into the bucket of water... the view from the park of the Sydney CBD skyline was breathtakingly beautiful..i was amazed at the fantastic view and took plenty of pics.

Above: When i saw this 'bear flag', i knew i had to snap a photo of it..it's so cute isn't it?

Above and Below: Some safe-sex pamphlets and volunteers with '69' on their singlets..hehe..

Above: Fair Day...with rainbow flyers..

Above: Probably THE highlight of my Fair Day experience, buff men in tight spandex on the pole! I've prob never seen pole dancing in my entire life (except in movies, always female too) and to see men with spandex on poles..hehe..

Above n Below: Since it was still CNY on Fair Day, had yum cha @Marigold Restaurant with a gay friend of mine before heading to Fair Day in the afternoon...there were quite alot of gay men at yum cha (prob went/going to fair day too) on the day..haha..my friend met a gay acquaintance at yum cha too...later on we saw them at the fair day again...

Above n Below: CW bank motorbikes advertising CNY promotions....Mardi Gras Big Screen @ World Square..

Photos from my volunteer work at Spencer Tunick's 'The Base' installation @ Sydney Opera House: Spencer Tunick's Sydney installation was commissioned by the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and had the theme of tolerance/acceptance and all being equal amongst ppl regardless of sexual orientation. When i first heard of it, i knew i just HAD to attend, where else could i see thousands of ppl in their most frank form gathered at a famous public structure such as the Opera House in Sydney?! But i knew if i didn't participate, it'd be hard to go close up n take pics..then i realised they needed volunteers for Mardi Gras events..i volunteered for a couple of events but only got accepted (maybe i entered too late...) to this one which was the one which i wanted to do the most! Yesss!!! It turned out they needed the volunteers the most for this and in the end very little vol turned up as it was held at 3 30am on a weekday morning..since it was part of a gay festival, i expected some gay ppl to turn up, but omg, there were so many gay ppl there!ahahaha..like i'd say 1/3 (its called gaydar)..and they had to pose with the straight men and gay men and women,etc..i think the most awkward pose was when Tunick asked them to embrace the person standing next to them...omg, sooo awkward..and pretend to kiss!!! There was a 'threesome' straight consisting of 2 men and one woman pretending to kiss and in an embrace and standing RIGHT next to them was a 'threesome' gay male one of three gay men embracing and also pretending to kiss, what a sight, the threesome straight and gay right besides each other...Also saw an obviously straight pair of male teenage boys whom had come along together doing this 'manly arm wrestle pose' when doing this,(instead of the embrace) hahaha...so weird for them i'm sure...i noticed this two teenage boys bcos one of them had been swinging for like 5 secs his assets at the 2-3 helicopters flying overhead before, almost unbelievable for me to see this, almost like the gay/male version of 'girls gone wild'! haha! (cos the media were cordoned off to an area quite far off the actual site of photo shooting, many of the tv stations had helis flying overhead to get better footage!)

It was definitely a sight seeing many of the couples straight and gay, in their most 'ala natural' state, in embraces and kissing side by side!

I had expected it to be kinda erotic looking at it, but i realised when I was volunteering with the cold weather, it was just an amazing sight, nothing sexual at all, though i did see a couple of cute guys..hehe..incl an australian-chinese guy (u can tell by his physique and accent) but i was surprised i didn't let the shallow side of me take over and zoom in on certain ppl in their most frank form..but one thing, tan lines were very visible amongst australians! (something u could only ever know in events like this or maybe in the gym!) and westerners definitely had ahem, more 'well defined' assets...of cos, my attention were mainly with the men..hahaha...there were not only old ppl and liberal looking people, but i was surprised the no of ppl who looked totally normal rocking up..many good looking young men and women too, straight n gay...

and there were alot of asians willing to do this, i was surprised! i thought only caucasians would do something like this...it surprised me the no of ppl there willing to do something like this early in the morning! And despite it being autumn, the temperature was chilly, so u can imagine how cold it must be for the participants given the state they were in!

I had a great time there(even chatted with the female security guard, whom was from Canberra) and even got to see the installation inside of the theatres of the sydney opera house (there were altogether 4, 1 main group one forecourt of opera house, 1 smaller group inside, and 1male/female each only groups at the Royal Botanic Gardens..Definitely a Once in a Lifetime Experience:-)Above: Waiting @ Royal Botanic Gardens for the sun to come up for the shoot, March 1st 2010 sometime early morning..prob 5-6am...

Above: Media ppl interviewing after the installation...

Above: Shot of the art installation on the steps of Sydney Opera House from Royal Botanic Gardens, all the plastic bags are for the participants' belongings...

Above: Ending the day with breakfast of pancakes with maple syrup n cinnamon butter at Museum of Sydney Cafe, Circular Quay...;-)
PS: 我一知道有一个几千个人的大型的裸体人体艺术会在雪梨举办就很想去看看因为知道这一生人没有机会再看到几千个男女裸体集体在户外，更何况是在一个世界闻名的建筑前，雪梨歌剧院。。Spencer Tunick 是一个很有名的裸体人体艺术大师，拍过了无数的集体裸体户外照在世界各地。但是我知道我很难近距离看如果不参加的话，当我正烦恼如何进入观看而不显得突出（因为拍摄是在凌晨夕阳时，基本上是不会有人的，除非是参加者，我看到网路上登这活动是由雪梨同性恋节举办的，而活动招志愿者！基本上，我马上报名，因为只有当志愿者才能不但不起眼的近距离观看集体裸体还能有机会偷拍几张近距离照片！当天已经规定了所有参加者不能拍照，媒体也被割在远处观拍，但还是有参者偷拍，我当天的工作位址也都太天时地利人和，能够让我偷拍几张，哈哈。。我之所以用中文写这一段是因为，我把裸体照放在我的网上照片附，不想让太多人发现有志愿者当天拍下的照片（好像我是唯一一个拍了这么多张！）所以请到我的相谱连接吧！我当天看到好多同性恋和异性恋坦诚相见的站在一起还有同志情侣和异性情侣肩靠肩相拥真的是太难相信的景观了！还看到满多华人参加，真的是惊讶！还有几位满帅的哟，但是没看到他们的‘最真实的一面’因为太多人了，几千个，还有我也没特别眼部跟着他们。。当天还有两位男同志，一洋一中，在歌剧院景前，赤膊库子拉下至膝盖，拍个留念照，天啊，我就刚好看到，哈哈，真的是脑子灵活，这生人不会再有机会光天化日在剧院前拍如此裸照了！放在网上男同性恋交友网站肯定令人瞩目还会问怎么这么大胆而没被警察抓呢？！真的是个毕生难忘的经验。。Below: Rainbow Flag hoisted on Town Hall for the 1st time in history; marking Sydney LGBT Mardi Gras 2010 Season....Happy Mardi Gras! Looking towards Mardi Gras 2011!:-)

Chinese New Year in Sydney 2010.....农历新年虎年在雪梨2010年....

2010-02-27T22:28:00.003+09:00

I celebrated the Lunar New Year here in Sydney this year by going to the Twilight CNY Parade as well as Dragon Boat Race at Darling Harbour. I've been to both events twice already, going there last yr too:-)

The Lunar New Year is celebrated in quite a big way here in Sydney and that's great for me given that CNY is one of my biggest festivals in the Chinese calendar.

Photos of both events below:
Above & Below: CNY Twilight Parade along George St (Sydney's main thoroughfare in the CBD).

Darling Harbour Dragon Boat Race 2010:

Above and Below: The scorching day @ CNY Dragon Boat Race Darling Harbour.

I was seriously sun-burnt on the uncovered areas of my skin (like last yr) at the Dragon Boat Race...my face, arms, and most seriously, knees, was seriously sun-burnt!...
Above n Below: Special Zodiac Illuminated Lanterns @ Customs House and Darling Harbour respectively..the lanterns were really really pretty!..I feel the Chinese New Year Festival in Sydney is better and bigger each year..actually, for the past 2 yrs, Chinese themes/festivals have been very dominant in Sydney...even the NYE Har Bridge Countdown Fireworks ended with the very Chinese/Oriental Ying and Yang Symbol!...

Above: May the Year of Tiger be a prosperous and fulfilling, smooth one for all:-) I copied the mark above from a Melbourne University Alumnae e-newsletter..

Gumtree and Gay Men...焦树与同志....ガムトリーと同性愛者...

2010-02-22T23:19:00.003+09:00

This post is inspired by the 2 ads I saw on Gumtree Sydney in the past couple of months..now, there's alot of overseas students wanting to do language exchanges in Sydney and I check out the language exchange board quite often recently as I was looking for Japanese language exchange partners to restart my Japanese skills after a stop of several years. But then sometimes I will check out other ppl's ads for languages completely irrelevant to me. And, I notice alot of Korean international students wanting to do exchanges..(cos there's tons of koreans in sydney)...and i came across 2 ads by korean international male students..most were unremarkable, nothing fancy, but these 2 got my attention..the 1st time was one from this korean dude whom wanted help with his english and he started off conventional enough, with looking for english friend, welcome everyone,etc...until he ended with 'but please no gays'. And I was like taken aback, why would you say u welcome everyone, but, oh..sorry, no gays..and also it's really weird to end with this, seems like he's been meeting alot of gay men in his previous exchanges?! I didn't know gumtree's language exchange board had become a hot gay hook-up place..haha..

And then, several months, later, it happened again..but this time, in a positive way, but still specific mention of the 'gay men thingy'..so weird!...below is a copy-paste from the later ad: (hope there are no privacy/copyright issues!)

'hi!! my name is (korean name here). i came to Sydney for studying english. i'm 25 years old and majoring in chemical engineering. i'm looking for a friend who can speak english. but it doesn't matter you can speaking english or not. if you're a native speaker, it would be better. but i don't care. i want to swap languages but i also want to have a foreign friend. : ) and i'm male. so i prefer a female as my friend to a male. but male friend is OK. and japanese, chinese, aussie, thai, people from all over the world is OK.we can play sports among men. and i'm willing to be a friend with some gays because i'm very open minded person. but i don't wanna be your boyfriend. just friend is OK. why don't you contact me (contact details here).'

I was seriously laughing out loud (inside) when i saw this..it's so hilarious, he's like bcos he's a guy he wants a female more..well i guess this is the case in the gumtree language boards as i 've seen several of these white/asian guys whom post ads seeking 'nice korean/japanese/chinese ladies' for 'social outings, movies, dinners.''...well, more power to them, but if i were one of these ladies, i'd never reply to a post like that...obviously interested in the romance (and not to mention sex bit) more than the language exchange bit...and then the korean guy above does this really stereotypical thing mentioning guys are ok too as 'we can play sports among men'...haha....not all guys are interested in sports ok..this IS the 21st Century ya know...and he ends again, like the last guy i mentioned, on the 'gay thingy', but this time in the affirmative, saying he is willing to be friends with gays 'but i don't wanna be your boyfriend'...haha..so funny...what is it within the korean male circles in sydney that homosexual men are surfing the gumtree language exchange boards looking for korean hetero males?!! Or maybe these korean men have heard too much about Sydney (thanks to the annual Mardi Gras) being the gay capital along with San Francisco and other cities like Bangkok and Barcelona that they seem to think that gay men are everywhere on these msg boards?! Or maybe there's some truth in it..any koreans residing in sydney care to shed light on this? I just found it so hilarious that this 'gay thing' was mentioned by 2 korean men on gumtree...i certainly never heard of it before..all my exchange partners, including the men, were straight, to my knowledge..

Anyways, any korean men residing in Sydney care to enlighten me?

Or do most Korean male international students in Western Countries do this kind of thing? Gawd, it must be TOUGH being gay in Korea..

PS: I actually heard, in Korea, despite recent outward 'liberalisation' in attitudes towards homosexuality being the chic and trendy thing to do, in private/inwardly, people still despise and look down on homosexuals in Korea..sad isn't it? :(

PPS: You must be wondering why i have a photo of two naked men in homoerotic poses above..well, i've noticed everytime i have the word 'hunk' or 'gay' in my post, i get quite alot of traffic coming in from obviously gay quarters, so this one's for you gay readers and not to mention str8 female readers:-)

Happy Chinese New Year of the Tiger:-)....中国农历新年快乐-虎年.......中国新年おめでとう.

2010-02-13T15:54:00.005+09:00

Dear Readers,

I would like to wish you all a Prosperous and Fulfilling Chinese New Year of the Tiger! May You All Have Good Health and a Splendid Chinese New Year Period during this festive Season:-) Gong Xi Fa Cai:-)

With Heartfelt Regards, Chinese Chic blogger.

Nostalgic Chinese Cinema Review Series: 1980s HK New Wave Cinema & Regeneration...1980年代的港产片新潮流..

2010-02-06T23:14:00.004+09:00

The 1980s revigorated Hong Kong cinema and led to a 'New Wave' of directors and films with new themes as well as more commercial films as ever...

The famous stars of this era were numerous and it was clear that those whom grew up overseas (ABCs) and Taiwanese female stars were very popular. This can be seen from the top female actresses of the time. Sally Yeh and Maggie Cheung were two very popular upcoming actresses of the 80s and both grew up overseas. Representing the fondness for Taiwanese beauties in the cinema industry would be Brigette Lin, Joey Wong, and Sylvia Chang. Other famous stars of the era included Maggie Cheung, Cherie Chung, Dodo Cheng, Rosamund Kwan, Chow Yun Fatt, George Lam, Tung Biew, and Lydia Shum.

The 80s saw many movies showing immigration to Western countries as this was the decade that Hong Kong families started immigrating in droves, with the British signing the treaty to return the whole of Hong Kong, including HK island, Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories back to China in 1997. At the time, this was viewed with caution and fear, and Hong Kong's new found wealth meant anyone with the means of immigrating immigrated. This can be seen in the series of film called : It's a Mad,Mad, World starring Lydia Shum and Tung Piew as the middle-class Hong Kong family with three children living in a crowded government housing estate and how they always seem to strike the lotto and their experiences of winning the lotto. In the later series, it shows them immigrating to Canada and their life there. This movie was an extremely popular series as it also represented the Hong Kong spirit and aspiration of striking it rich in the wild heady days of the economically booming Hong Kong of the 80s.

Joey Wong is most famous for her role as 'Siu Qing' in 'A Chinese Ghost Story' opposite Leslie Cheung. Leslie Cheung was also another extremely famous singer/actor of the 80s. He was one of the reputed top trio of highest paid/most popular male singers of the 80s in HK, along with Danny Chan, and Tam Wing Lun. It was his character as 'Gor Gor' in this movie which earned him this affectionate nickname later on throughout his life.

Sylvia Chang and Sally Yeh acted in the seminally important 'Shanghai Blues' in 1984 which was Tsui Hark's breakthrough movie and has since remained one of his most famous and perfect movies. It also started the nostalgic trend of movies/entertainment revolving around 'old Shanghai'.

Dodo Cheng was also extremely popular during the 80s. She acted in mainly romantic-comedies-horror and many other films. Her series of film 'Heart to Heart' is particularly likeable (Rosamund Kwan was in the original movie and she is also one of 80/90s top female stars in HK, being extremely beautiful..she looks not quite Chinese, i think kinda mixed, she apparently has Manchurian blood in her.) and she is also very famous for 'Her Fatal Ways' as a mainland Chinese cop going down to Hong Kong and poking fun at the 'backward village-like' ways of mainland Chinese as compared to Hong Kong residents whom looked down on the mainlanders back then alot.

And of course, how could I end without mentioning the always funny Sandra Ng, whom I simply adore and love, she was the top female comedian in HK cinema spanning the entire late 80s to the mid-90s. All her works are particularly funny and at the top of her career, she had to film several films at once. Her career in the 80s reflected what was popular back then and the way the industry worked. For instance, in the 80s films and scripts were finished within a matter of weeks or even days and movies were produced at such a speed that actors like Sandra would have to film 3-4 films at once, 7 days a week, without rest completing 1 film per week sometimes! Despite the speed of the script-writing process as well as filming, i love the horror-comedy films of the 80s, they're just so incredibly good! Chinese horror films were also extremely popular in the 80s with Chinese vampires, spirits,etc mixed in with comedy most of the time, reflecting the still traditional beliefs of hong kong residents despite their material wealth and appearances.

Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tSYePNDJBE&feature=related (Shanghai blues 1984)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go22F9j84U0 (Heart to Heart 1988)
http://www.youtube.com/user/hcpen#p/f/24/py5YOrWNU-Q (Heart into Heart 1989)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELvnymK6TkE (Her Fatal Ways)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUmbCg52N8U&feature=related (Movie with Sandra Ng)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNFTLMwAlgc (This is not a 1980s film but from 1992, misses the 80s by just a few yrs! I really like this ending clip dubbed into Taiwanese mandarin..gives a very nostalgic feeling for me of the 90s...from Sylvia Chang's 'Three Summers'.)
This is thus the final post of my 'Nostalgic Chinese Cinema Review Series'. :-)Hope you guys have learnt a thing or two on Chinese cinematic history..and do watch out for further posts on my blog theme for 2010: 'Year of China'!;-)

Nostalgic Chinese Cinema Review Series: 1970s Kungfu, Bruce Lee, and Action Cinema..70年代功夫动作片当道

2010-01-29T02:45:00.001+09:00

The 1970s brought with it along the rise of Bruce Lee and Kungfu/Action Masculine films. If the 50s and 60s were dominated by female actors, the 1970s saw the rise of male actors such as Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

The start of the decade witnessed a trend of explicit sexual content films with many soft-porn 'sex and violence' films produced which continued throughout the 70s and 80s. The infamous Lesbian flick 'Intimate Confessions of a Courtesan' came out in 1972 followed by a slew of similarly tiltillating sexual films such as 'Mask' in 1974 and 'Women's POW Camp' in 1973. They pushed the boundaries of Chinese/HK cinema and were the only Chinese movies allowed such daring scenes of homosexual gay love in 'Mask', lesbian torture in 'Women's POW Camp',etc which were possible under British controlled Hong Kong and would definitely have been banned in Taiwan, China, and quite likely other Chinese speaking areas such as Singapore.

Bruce Lee shot to fame in 1971 with The Big Boss/Fist of Fury. He acted in only a handful of films before dying of unknown causes.

The 1970s also saw the rise of Taiwan's melodramatic films based on Qiong Yao (a famous romance novelist) novels. These films were extremely popular amongst the youths of Taiwan and South East Asian Chinese throughout the 1970s as well as into the 1980s. They produced many famous Taiwanese moviestars such as Gui Ya Lei, Ke Jun Xiong, Jen Jen, Chin Han, Chin Hsiang Lin, Lin Feng Jiao, and the most famous of all, Brigette Lin Hsin Hsia. My mom was a fan of them, and a big reason for her decision to move to Taipei to study university apparently!

The 1970s also saw a rise of nationalist cinema in Taiwan due to the political international situation it saw itself. In 1971, Taiwan was kicked out and replaced by China in the United Nations. 1972 saw the breaking off of diplomatic relations between Japan and Taiwan and many other nations followed suit in the interminent years. Seiged by a sense of deep insecurity, Taiwan's government commissioned and encouraged many nationalistic films. A few of these involved anti-Japanese themes which were hereto discouraged due to cold war reasons. Now that Japan had switched diplomatic recognition to China, and it being the No.2 economy even then, Taiwanese cinema was in full force with a couple of very famous anti-Japanese war films. One of the most famous of these was 'Victory' (Chinese title: 梅花）by 刘家昌which was about the Taiwanese people's resistance to Japanese occupation during WW2. The theme song spread like wildfire and even went as far as Malaysia/Singapore amongst the overseas Chinese. Listening to the song kinda makes me emotional about being Chinese too as the Chinese title means 'Plum Blossom' which is the national flower of the Republic of China and amongst the backdrop of the anti-Japanese storyline, can be very emotive and evoking one's sense of pride in being Chinese.

Links:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j8MG3LUsGw
One of Qiong Yao's Romantic Movies with full Eng subs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfMYFh23cyk&feature=related
'Victory' (1975) theme song:

1980s coming up...

Nostalgic Chinese Cinema Review Series: 1960s Swinging Era of Change..60年代的脱变新风潮

2010-01-25T01:39:00.003+09:00

Above: Linda Lin.

The 1960s started conventionally enough, with many stars from the 1950s continuing to be famous well into the 1960s. The Biggest Studios of the era were no doubt Shaw Brothers, which had a huge production set and a Star Casting system mirroring the United States as well as Mp&Gi later renamed Cathay, which produced contemporary 1950s/60s family and romance films mainly.

In the 1960s, Linda Lin Dai acted in her famous 'Love Without End' (1961) and sang the theme song which has continued to be popular to this day.

Lucilla You Min also continued well into the 1960s until her marriage into a wealthy family in 1964 upon which she retired from acting. Starting from the early 1960s, she acted in a trio of HK-Japan productions in love stories involving a Japanese man and a Chinese woman. These films were similar to the Chinese-Japanese love stories mentioned in my 1940s post on Li Xiang Lan propaganda wartime romance films except that there was no longer any propaganda and there was only pure romance involved in the films.

Above: You Min in a HK-Japan co-production.

Grace Chang acted in the seminal 'Wild, Wild, Rose' (1961) and sang many famous songs in the film. I had a chance to see the entire film and it was great...

Another famous actress of this era was Betty Loh Ti. She was called the 'Classical Beauty' for having beautiful classical features and often appeared in both classical setting as well as modern contemporary setting films.

Above: Betty Loh Ti in a pink cheongsam.

Of course, mentioning Betty Loh Ti would require mentioning Ivy Ling Po whom she acted together in the infamous Huangmei Opera Style movie 'Butterfly Lovers'. This was a hit in Taiwan and South East Asia and shot Ivy Ling Po to fame. Ivy Ling cross-dressed as a man in the film which won her rav reviews. In fact, many female actresses cross-dressed as men during the 1960s which won them huge fans, ironic, given the conservative nature of the times. Another famous pair would be the Cantonese opera duo Bak Shuet Shin and Yam Kin Fai, one always dressing up as a man, and later on Brigette Lin would cross-dress very often in her films.

There were various famous stars of this era, too many for me to name...Carrie Koo, Diana Chang, Ding Hao, Lily Ho, Jenny Hu, Lydia Shum, Tse Yin, Lam Fung, Ka Ling, Josephine Siao, Connie Chan,,etc...the later two being the big names of Cantonese teen idol of the late 1960s with the rise of hippy and swing culture.

In the early 1960s, there was a trio of films dealing with the tensions and conflict between the Mandarin-speaking new immigrants to Hong Kong from the mainland and the Cantonese-speaking majority population of Hong Kong. I've seen one of these films called 'Nanbei YiJia Qing' and its extremely rare to see in a film, both Mandarin and Cantonese spoken and without dubbing into either language. I've included a link below!

By the Late 1960s, there rose a wave of teen idol Cantonese films with Cantonese stars Josephine and Connie as well as many films with sexual content, mirroring the development in the West with the sexual revolution in full swing there.

The end of the decade also saw the suicides of two of Hong Kong's top actresses. One was Linda Lin Dai in 1964 and another Betty Loh Ti in 1968. Both did not pass age 30 when they died. It seems like there was a pattern of top female stars committing suicide throughout the 1930s-1980s with Ruan Ling Yu in the 1930s, Zhou Xuan in the 1950s, Linda and Betty in the 1960s and many other actresses throughout the 60s and 70s.

Almost all reportedly either because of emotional/marriage problems or fall from the limelight.

Mandarin Cinema also started to decline in Hong Kong starting from the late 1960s and continued to decline throughout the 1970s such that by 1980, most film companies in Hong Kong no longer produced separate Cantonese and Mandarin language cinemas and simply made Cantonese films with Mandarin dubbing when necessary.

PS: As there are too many stars of the 1960s whom i haven't covered worth covering, I may do a continuing 1960s retro series of posts on 1960s movie stars later on throughout the year, but this is only tentative, dependent on my spare time..

Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCOLMoW_skY (Linda Lin Dai's 'Love Without End' 1961)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrPPd_1FtN4 (Betty's 'Dream of the Red Mansion', 1962)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYv3buYaemY&feature=related (Betty's 'Butterfly Lovers', 1964 based on the immortal Chinese folk romance.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJbaQKBy-TA&feature=PlayList&p=205315CF82316121&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=87
(Betty's 'Darling, Stay At Home', 1968 one of my fav films as its a moralistic feminist story on allowing women to work outside of the home and appreciating one's wife. Also one of Betty's last films before her suicide.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sYzjOF9TUo&feature=related (Betty's 'The Dancing Millionaress' 1964 with her then husband Peter Ho whom she divorced later. This divorce is rumoured to have caused her suicide in 1968.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nefqgiBynmE( 1962 Cantonese-Mandarin Nanbei Yijia Qing so funny!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo_yz4ftqTg&feature=PlayList&p=217C47A3F31495DB&index=45 (An English song by Josephine Siao)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=478b4fdZ-ys&feature=related (Josephine Siao 1960s movie)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8CCC4pI2j4&feature=related (Another Josephine Siao 1960s Cantonese film)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9Ywq4QyoNg&feature=related (Josephine Siao at an awards ceremony in 2008.)

1970s coming up...Kungfu fighting, Rise of Masculine Cinema, and Taiwanese Qiong Yao Romances..

Nostalgic Chinese Cinema Review Series: 1950s Hong Kong Grace+Lucilla+Linda..50年代千娇百媚...

2010-01-21T00:08:00.002+09:00

Above: You Min and Linda on cover of 1960s/50s mag.

When the Communist took over mainland China in 1949, so did the Chinese film industry change on the mainland. For the next 4 decades, the mainland Chinese film industry became closed to outside influences and followed a socialist pattern. The mainland Chinese film industry shall thus not be the subject of my series of nostalgic cinema review post-1949 movies. In my 1950s review post, I shall be concentrating on Mandarin cinema in Hong Kong.

By the 1950s, Hong Kong cinema had recovered from the complete shutdown experienced during the Japanese occupation years when many film stars/directors escaped into the interior. By the 1950s, there were two/three movie industries operating in Hong Kong. One was the small Amoy dialect movie industry producing Hokkien language films for the Chinese diaspora in South East Asia and Taiwan. Another one was the better budgeted Cantonese language film industry producing films for Hong Kong residents and also for the overseas Chinese population. But by far the biggest budgeted and star system one was the Mandarin language film industry in Hong Kong which had the best stars, quality, and budgets. These produced movies in Mandarin but often set in contemporary 1950s hong kong giving way to a strange/ironic situation whereby the characters all speak Mandarin in overwhelmingly Cantonese Hong Kong!!!

The Mandarin industry was made up mostly of Shanghainese refugees whom had fled from Communist rule in mainland China and shanghai.

The most famous stars of the era were predominantly female and the most famous star of that era was arguably Linda Lin-Dai. She won Best Actress four times in her career span and acted in many representative films of that era, three of her most famous works being 'The Kingdom and the Beauty' (1957) , 'Bu Liao Qing' (1961), and 'The Blue and the Black' (1966). Thus, she was famous throughout the 50s and well into the 1960s until her suicide in 1964. Her last film 'The Blue and the Black' was not finished at the time of her suicide and they had to get a replacement (with plastic surgery) to finish the leftover scenes.

Grace Chang was another very famous 1950s star. She appeared in many contemporary 1950s setting films as the vivacious bright modern girl with contemporary issues always found in many of her films such as modern love, taking the aeroplane, going travelling, and buying a car, all 'modern' luxuries sought and aspired to by the middle class in Hong Kong of the 1950s.

Her films give a very good representation of what kind of life was aspired to in Hong Kong of the 1950s but definitely do not show accurately what Hong Kong residents lived like back then!

Above: Grace Chang.

And Finally, one of my favourite stars, Lucilla You Min. She was well-known for being the graceful feminine star with a pure 'Jade Girl' image. I really like her alot and she appeared in three (or four) Japanese films in the 1960s in a series of HK-Japan collaborations. More on that in my 1960s post.

Above: Lucilla You Min.

Links (Do have a look! They're priceless scenes, giving a glimpse of HK society then) :

Linda Lin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAfpZd_wWHw (Linda's 'Love is a Battlefield' movie)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T62nSa1GvQ ('The Kingdom and the Beauty' full movie with Eng subs! A great opportunity for those of you to see for the first time a 1950s Chinese film!)

Grace Chang:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XMAIOvJgQ (Grace doing the Cha-Cha!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdNuAKuCMdw&feature=related (One of my FAV of Grace Chang in America circa 1959)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHEzpdyhcI4&feature=related (Grace Chang in 'Air Hostess' I've seen this movie, it shows priceless scenes of H.k.,Bangkok, Taipei, Singapore of the 50s in it!)

Lucilla You Min:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UfY-Z_98WQ (From the Famous 'Star, Moon, Sun' 1961)

Although i don't really enjoy watching 1930/40s Chinese movies (I've even seen the silent film 'The Goddess' by Ruan Ling Yu!) as they're way too far away in history for me to enjoy, I love 1950s/60s films as they have three attractions for me:

1) the cheongsam, where else can you see exquisite authentic ala 1950/60s style tight body hugging cheongsams on full display?!

2) the role of women in society back then and aspirations/role models

3)societal attitudes and norms back then as well as scenic scenes of Hong Kong and Asia in the 50s/60s, priceless shots!

PS: All photos come from the internet and particularly from the websites under my 'Chinese Cinema' section on the right hand bar. Do check out those websites for more indepth details!:-)

Hope you like them too!...1960s, my favourite retro decade coming on up!..stay tuned..

Nostalgic Chinese Cinema Review Series: 1940s Wartime Cinema..1940年代的日本军策电影

2010-01-15T23:00:00.001+09:00

Above: Third from left Zhou Xuan 'Golden Voice', Li Xiang Lan, Bai Guang (second from right).

The 1940s marked the start of the heyday of Japanese Military Propaganda films in Chinese cinema. Alittle history is necessary here...Japan invaded China in 1937 at a hurricane speed spreading from Beijing to Nanjing to Wuhan, Guangzhou,etc such that by 1940, most of the populated Eastern Coastal area of China was under Japanese occupation and the majority of China's cities and population were under Japanese military control.

Shanghai was split into different areas, with the Chinese controlled parts of the city being over 70% of the city and the French and International Concession area making up the most prosperous part of the city and roughly 25% of the city area. There was also a small japanese concession area pre-war. The Chinese area of Shanghai fell to the Japanese in 1937 after three mths of heavy casualty fighting and thus many filmmakers went into the unoccupied French/International Concession area of Shanghai in hiding. This area unoccupied by Japanese Army (Japan only declared war on the Allies in 1941) was a safehaven for Chinese intellectuals,etc but its safety was always at the mercy of the Japanese Army since the surrounding areas and most of Shanghai were already under Japanese military control.

This period in history is called 'Orphan Island Shanghai' referring to the 'island oasis' parts of Shanghai unoccupied by Japan until Pearl Harbor and the subsequent moving in of Japanese troops and interning of Allied citizens of the French/International Concession area of Shanghai as well in 1941.

During the anti-Japanese war 1937-1945, as the Japanese speed of invasion was so unprecedented, there was very little facilities/equipments to make films given that almost all the cities of China were under Japanese occupation. In the occupied territories, the Japanese Army forced filmmakers and companies to collaborate by setting up Chinese film production companies nominally under Chinese control but in effect managed and censored by the Japanese occupation army. These film companies were to produce films in line with Japan's Greater East Asia War and military policy to promote the invasion/occupation of China as somehow necessary and justified. During this wartime period, one star stood out. She became the most famous actress/singer arguably during the wartime period and can be said to have become famous directly as a result of the Japanese wartime propaganda policy which sought to create the ideal 'propaganda wartime star' to pacify the Chinese resistance as well as garner support from the homefront in Japan for the war in China.

Her name was Li Xiang Lan (李香蘭). Until now, this name is still well-known amongst many Chinese ppl and her songs are still popular amongst segments of the older generation. She was part of the ManEi Film Production Company set up by the Puppet Government of Manchuria to assist Japan in its wartime propaganda. What many ppl didn't know then, and many still do not know now (besides Japanese ppl and the avid historians like me!) is that Li Xiang Lan was actually a Japanese woman born and bred in Manchuria (now, NorthEastern China). Her grandfather was a keen fan of Chinese history/studies and moved the family to Manchuria in the early 20th Century. She was born in a place called Fushun, China and grew up speaking Japanese at home, Chinese in school and socially, and also taking English lessons at a very young age.

The Japanese military felt that it would be good to 'create' an ideal wartime propaganda idol and actively promoted her as a Manchurian-born Chinese girl whom spoke fluent Japanese and Chinese and represented the goodwill of China and Japan. She appeared in many wartime propaganda movies which emphasized the positive role model of Japan and the backwards nature of China. Her characters can be read to represent 'China' and the male lead 'Japan' and the Japanese male is always shown as modern, bright, and leading whilst her Chinese character as mystical, oriental, backwards, and in need of salvation (read: China needs Japan's guidance and occupation).

After the war, she was tried for being a traitor to China for having appeared in such propaganda films but was deported to Japan after authorities realised her Japanese ethnicity and nationality. She later wrote in her memoir (i've read it, in Japanese no less! very challenging read for my Japanese skills.) how she regretted appearing in such wartime movies which were propaganda and hurt the Chinese ppl, and China, which she regards as her second home. After the war, she reverted back to her real Japanese name Yamaguchi Yoshiko and appeared in many Japanese films speaking Japanese as well as a few Mandarin language Hong Kong films in the 1950s. She even appeared in Hollywood films speaking English due to her early English classes.

Another star famous in the 1940s was Chen Yun Shang. She appeared in many films and was one of the few to participate in a Japanese-backed film in the early 1940s when many actors/actresses/directors refused to colloborate with the Japanese. After the war, she was tried for treason for having appeared in the film but it seems she was granted a pardon. The film in question was an ancient costume one and did not have any direct propaganda link with the war going on. It was more of an entertainment film produced by the Japanese.

And of cos, by the late 1940s, there was one sexy siren in Shanghai renowned for her sexy image. It was said she was the most sexy symbol at the time and her name was Bai Guang (白光). She appeared in movies as the sultry prostitute or mistress, and was the sex object of every Chinese man it seemed. One of her most famous films was made just before the takeover of Shanghai by the Communist in 1949 called 'a Loose Woman's Heart'( 荡妇心)

Links (Have a Look! These are the important bits of this series of posts):

1)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGQblCBvOBU (Bai Guang's a 'Loose Woman's Heart')

2)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahUr1fF7ISo ('China Nites' 1940 One of Li Xiang Lan's Most Famous Films)

3)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk79hTJe0jo&feature=related (Li Xiang Lan's famous song 'He Ri Jun Zai Lai')

4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItjQVSBCFRc&feature=fvw(Li Xiang Lan in US Movie 'Bamboo House' 1955)

5)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1CZDgwXgnI&feature=related (One of my fav's Li Xiang Lan's rendition of Ye Lai Xiang at her final show announcing her retirement from film.)

This is simply a summary of the films of that era, and like all posts in this series, Chinese cinema of each decade is simply too vast and rich for me to comprehensively deal with so i shall only be summarising the stars/movies which i think speak to me personally or are representative of the era...going on to 1950s in the next post...

Nostalgic Chinese Cinema Review Series: 1930s 'Butterfly' and 'Golden Nightingale'...怀旧老电影：30年代的默片，蝴蝶和周旋

2010-01-07T20:09:00.001+09:00

This year shall be the 'Year of China' for my blog. This is to coincide with the rapid ascension of China on the world economic and diplomatic stage as China's economy continues to rise on a bullet train speed whilst the West and Japan's economy continue to be mirred in recession and faltering from the effects of the Great Financial Crisis. It also coincides with the World Expo to be held in May in Shanghai, it's 'coming out' party so to speak, as the Olympics was to Beijing.

To start off my Year of China theme (one would realise i actually blog very little on China itself, the nation and especially on China post 1949 despite my blog name and strong Chinese interest in this blog!!), I shall do alittle review and introduction of Nostalgic Chinese film stars and movies starting from the silent film era of the early 1930s to HK, Taiwan, and China's filmstars/movies ending in the 1980s. Anything 90s I have already done a review of it (well just 1990s HK Cinema) over here:
http://chinesechic.blogspot.com/2006/07/hong-kong-films-nolstalgia-1.html
http://chinesechic.blogspot.com/2006/07/hong-kong-films-nolstalgia-2.html
http://chinesechic.blogspot.com/2006/07/hong-kong-films-nolstalgia-3.html

This post shall be about the famous Stars of the 1930s and when Chinese cinema first boomed and blossomed. The early years saw Ruan Lingyu, a Canton girl who made it big in Shanghai, become the most famous star of Chinese silent film cinema. She was the divine 'Goddess of Shanghai' of the silent film era along with HuDie. She appeared in several films which were socialist and realistic for their portrayal of the time and how Chinese women had no power or say in their own lives. Her most famous work could arguably be 'The Goddess' where she depicted a prostitute who had to raise her child tirelessly and yet be the victim of societal prejudice and obstacles in 1934. Other notable works include 'New Women' and 'Three Modern Women'. She is often well known for her suicide more than just her movies. She committed suicide in 1935 at the age of 24 after rumors and unrelenting tabloid attacks on her moral character as she was in a lawsuit with her first husband and apparently in a relationship with a prominent married man. Apparently, in her suicide note left, there was the following passage which has been so famous that even now, ask any Chinese person, and they'll know this saying:人言可畏 'Rumours/Gossip can be Lethal'.
In 1992, Maggie Cheung won the Berlin Best Actress Award for her portrayal of Ruan's life in 'Centrestage'. This is also heralded as the turning point in Maggie's career and shot her to A-list status. Trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSFsvBVvfz0

Hudie (Butterfly) was also one of the top silent film actresses of the1930s although her career spanned until the 1960s into the sound era. She was also apparently the 1st Chinese actress to have received an award overseas (in Europe) i think. She continued acting until the 1960s with her last film being in the early 60s as a mother role. She was so famous that when the Japanese invaded in 1937 she fled to Hong Kong. Later on, when the Japanese occupied Hong Kong as well in 1941, she went into hiding and with the help of Resistance forces, escaping into unoccupied China in Chungking (China's wartime capital) as the Japanese had a policy of forcing famous moviestars to collaborate with the Japanese military occupation in appearing in pro-Japanese propaganda films to brainwash the Chinese masses into accepting the Japanese occupation. Hudie, like most Chinese stars of the era, refused to colloborate and managed to escape to Chungking and the interior.

Another famous top star of the 30s/40s was Zhou Xuan, often hailed as having a 'Golden Voice' like the golden nightingale. She sang in many movies and most of her songs are very popular. She also killed herself (i think) in the 1950s after suffering from recurring bouts of depression.
Trailer of one of her most famous song in the Movie: Street Angel (1937):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxu8Kxuf-Sg&feature=PlayList&p=B7D9C187D32EA475&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2

Going on to the 1940s, in my next post, which shall continue the Nostalgic Chinese Cinema Review Series...

Happy 2010!!!!~~~

2010-01-01T13:47:00.003+09:00

Above: Sydney Opera House Fireworks@12am

Above: Darling Harbour Fireworks@9pm

Happy 2010!!!! I spent it catching TWO fireworks display, one at 9pm at Darling Harbour and the second one, the main fireworks display extravaganza at the Sydney Harbour Bridge...was simply amazing!!! And my very first time celebrating the NYE at Sydney Harbour Bridge too!:-) We went very late like 8 15pm arrival at Darling Harbour for the 9pm fireworks and 10 30pm to the spot at Milsons Point for the main Midnight Fireworks but even with 10 ppl we could still get quite a good spot!! Yeah, in the end we did break up into smaller groups cos it got more and more crowded closer to the time.

Above: George Street (Main street thru Sydney CBD) closed off to traffic at nite!

More photos@online photo album.

So How did everyone else spend their NYE? Do tell me!

Merry Christmas 2009圣诞快乐2009年メーリークリスマス２００９~~

2009-12-25T10:16:00.000+09:00

Have a Very Merry Christmas Everybody!:-)

I went to the Annual Woolworths Carols in the Domain on 19th December 2009..it is the biggest free Christmas concert gala in Australia...there were over a hundred thousand ppl there i think..it was fantastic and it was my second time there since my first time last year with colleagues(2008), but last yr we couldn't see the stage properly as we had just walked in halfway and stayed for a few mins...but this yr i managed to get a good spot with the stage in full view and stayed till the end...took some videos too...it ended with a short 10 sec fireworks display!
Website here: http://www.carolsinthedomain.com/

Above: So artistic right...the tree above within the crowds..

Above n Below: My Second time seeing the Annual Macquarie Street Nightlights Display held around Christmas time every year....

Above: Discovered along an alleyway in Surry Hills area..i love the flowers and fauna on display in Sydney around Autumn/Winter time..

Above n Below: Christmas Lighting Displays around Circular Quay, Central Business District Sydney.

Queer Cinema in Asia Recommendations II..亚洲同志电影推介(II)..アジアゲイ映画お勧め(II)

2009-12-17T20:44:00.000+09:00

This is a follow-up post to this post:

http://chinesechic.blogspot.com/2009/10/queer-cinema-in-asia-recommendations.html

I read through some of the reader comments and would like to comment further on the issue. I intended for the post to be about Asian films with gay themes for 2009 and did not intend to go through the entire rich history of Gay Asian Cinematic history..too big for me to deal with!!

However, a reader mentioned 'He's a Woman, She's a Man' which is one of my fav HK films and coincidentally it had a gay-affirming theme in it. Released in 1994 and a blockbuster hit, it was one of the earliest Chinese films to deal with homosexuality not only in a positive affirming way, but also in a light-hearted comedy. It stars Leslie Cheung (the film mirrors his own life at that time, he came out in 2001 i think saying he was a 'bisexual'. But i think he was really gay but its just easier to say you're bi...i mean the guy was with his boyfriend for over 10 yrs by that time!) and my all-time fav HK actress, Anita Yuen (love her!). A follow sequel came out in 1996 with Anita Mui in it too. Both full films with Eng subs available on youtube online:

He's a Woman, She's a Man (1994): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWbY-keudJk

1996 Sequel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MFVM-27twg

The theme song and opening song sequences are so memorable for me...the movie theme song 追 by Leslie Cheung always brings tears to my eyes whenever I hear it as it reminds me of him after his suicide in 2003, and i always sing it in KTV as the lyrics are so meaningful...if you want me to translate the meaning into English I will. Just leave a comment.

Chinese cinema has always been ahead of Western cinema/American cinema when it came to the homosexual theme. Although Western cinema started earlier in exploring the issue, with British film 'Victim' in 1961 being a breakthrough for its usage of the word 'homosexual' and a sympathetic portrayal of gay men at a time when homosexuality was still a crime in Britain, Asia caught up and sped ahead by the 80s and 90s and are still ahead now. It took a Taiwanese director, Ang Lee, to make the independent hit 'Brokeback Mountain' and no Western mainstream hit has yet been made dealing with gay romance without someone dying or some kind of tragedy like that which has happened in 'Brokeback' and 'Philadelphia'. Almost all Hollywood films which do deal with it in a light-hearted comedy always inevitably shy away from gay romance and focus on the comedic side such as 'The Birdcage' and 'Next Best Thing'. However, i would say despite the shying away from gay romance in gay-themed mainstream hollywood films to date, there are still 2 Hollywood films which i love and which are classics to me. They are 1) In & Out by Kevin Kline 2) The Object of My Affection by Jennifer Aniston.

Trailers here, watch 'em if you can!:

In & Out:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tiTWGVwHp8

The Object of My Affection: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_lNnxTPB9A

But of course, our Chinese cinema have always been more daring and ahead of American cinema in frank and positive portrayals of gays and lesbians. For instance, besides 'The Wedding Banquet' waaaay back in 1993 which was a mainstream success with its onscreen kisses and bed scenes of the gay interracial couple, in 1997, Wong Kar Wai made 'Happy Together' with Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung, two of Hong Kong's most well-known actors then with a daring sex scene in the opening mins of the film. No top Hollywood actors have ever attempted such a scene even now in 2009, i mean it'd be like Brad Pitt and Tom Hanks in a raw gay sex scene bck in 1997. We Chinese did it, and I'm proud of that.:-）Then came 'Bishonen' in 1998 with two of HK's hottest new actors then, now very famous, being Daniel Wu and Stephen Fung. Then came 'Lan Yu' which was the first mainland Chinese-HK film to win multiple awards and mainstream success in 2001. Even anti-gay severely homophobic Singapore's govt allowed the production by Jackie Chan's production company of a gay-themed comedy set in Singapore in 2004 called 'Hainan Chicken Rice'.

Trailers for them here:

'The Wedding Banquet':http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-4u3C7CJbI

'Happy Together':http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaGkilBbiyc

'Bishonen' MV:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAk0MB6r6dY

'Lan Yu' MV:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvyAfun7b7w&feature=related

'Hainan Chicken Rice':http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYVrZ0FprWg&feature=related

There are many many more films which i've mentioned in previous post on gay cinema in Asia and so just check out my previous archives.

Two important last notes, remember I mentioned about 'Blue Gate Crossing' as one of my favourite Taiwanese film of ALL time before? The whole movie WITH eng subs is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfUufYr5XBA

Also bless the person whom uploaded the Discovery Channel program on Taiwan's LGBT movement in recent years just one day after it was broadcast:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3L1AnNWj9s (Mandarin language)

Some recent Taiwanese Entertainment Programs with gay interest topics (read: either discussion of gay topics or invitation of gay men to choose their ideal idol !):

1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGS5UXJhKbY (new film promo by out gay director of Bishonen, Yon Fan, new film 'Prince of Tears')

2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i-ErG_dapQ&feature=PlayList&p=800A9DEC7634FEA4&index=0 (i really like Guo Yan Jun in here..he's the first guy to take down the mask..he discusses his experiences with being chased by gay men, he's straight by the way i think)

3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFwYlEycPl8 (Guo Yan Jun in here, he's such a hunk! It's obvious that his good friend Lin Ke is gay..i can tell from what he's saying and also he's secretly in love with Guo..it's like SO obvious..those whom understand mandarin, have a look, it's obvious rite? Lin Ke obviously stole his worn underwear :-) )

Also, I just discovered a Malaysian tv drama "逆风18", it's so good! Rem my previous post on how good malaysian chinese dramas have become recent yrs? Well, this is another one, and its got a gay theme too! (wow! malaysia is becoming more n more open, i'm surprised the sponsors and management allowed the gay plot to be so central to the storyline). Set in Taiwan with a cast of malaysian chinese, thai, taiwanese ..it is a short 13 epi drama about a straight 18 yr old american-taiwanese whom returns for a summer vacation to Taipei after the death of his mom to visit his long-lost grandma. He meets and falls in love with a girl (taiwanese) whom in turn loves her childhood gay friend (malaysian) whom loves the straight guy...so it's a gay/straight love triangle about pure teen love and family relations, love it, love the song too with trailer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grpjLbe7q5Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkd-KGBAPMM&feature=related

Last but not least, rem how i said i went to see the hugely fantastic Spanish film 'Chef's Special' at the Sydney Spanish Film Festival earlier this yr? Well, apparently, its a big hit and was shown in Taiwan and S.Korea as well..trailer here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIG3dXMuuuQ

Previous Post on Homosexuality in Asia:

http://chinesechic.blogspot.com/2009/06/gay-pride-month40-yrs-from.html

http://chinesechic.blogspot.com/search?q=homosexuality+in+asia

Sad and Heartwarming Stories...酒肝袒卖无与慰安妇阿嫲的一日空姐记...元慰安婦エアホステスの一日..

2009-12-15T14:53:00.002+09:00

No, this post is not about current affairs..it's about some sad stories which occured in the past. One from a movie, the other in real life.

Now, the movie is called' Papa, Can you hear me Sing?' which was a famous Taiwanese tearjerker film which came out in 1983 (the yr I was born).
This movie was one of the first movies from Taiwan to have substantial Minnan/Hokkien dialect dialogue in it as Hokkien dialect was banned or restricted severely since the 50s in Taiwan until 1987 when it was allowed on airwaves,tv, movies, and songs. The theme song has since become one of the most famous Taiwanese Hokkien songs of all time, and I finally managed to watch this movie on Youtube recently, (given that it was screened in the exact year I was born in!)and of course I cried..haha..its a pretty corny story with tragedy after tragedy but it was still sad nevertheless..full movie here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJw2O4ayBvs

Another tragedy is that of the real life 'comfort women',Asian occupied territories women taken by the Japanese during and before WW2 to become sex slaves for Japanese troops during the war. However, this time, it is a heartwarming story as it involves a Taiwanese comfort woman named 'Xiu Mei' (whom i met and spoke to during an organised NGO visit by 3 comfort women to Sydney in 2007! I could actually speak to her as I understood Taiwanese hokkien and she had a translator for Mandarin/English into Hokkien for her). It was always her wish to become a flight attendant later on in her life and NGOs helped her to become one for a day with professional make-up, a wig, as well as the well-known China Airlines uniform on the plane! How touching!
Newsclip here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4JmIt3HeRo

A Heartwarming and Tear Jerker of a post ain't it?

Male Hunks I Like in 2009/10 ...喜爱的男明星在09/10年....最近気になるの男優...

2009-12-09T09:10:00.005+09:00

Update: Please leave me comments readers, this post has illicited too little comments!! Hey, its one of my rare posts on hunks actually....hehe..so leave a comment on YOUR favourite actors"-)

I am dedicating this post to male celebrities i've come to like recently. Of course, given that I only idolise and follow the Asian entertainment industry (and don't give a rat's ass about Hollywood) this post shall only be about Asian, and more specifically the Chinese entertainment industry (which includes China, Taiwan, HK, Singapore, and Malaysia).

I thought I 'd do this post to counter my other post on my fav HK female actresses.

As an aside, I do follow Hollywood entertainment very randomly, and some of my fav actors/actresses include Sandra Bullock, Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, Bette Midler, Whoopi Goldberg, Adam Sandler, and some others.

As for Asian ones, there are too many that I like such as Kang Dong Won (Korean), Jang dong Gun (Korean), Won Bin (Korean), Tsumabuki Satoshi (Japanese), Jo Hyun Jae (Korean), etc..too many for me to list out here...

As for Chinese ones, it'd be Leo Ku for his boy-next-door looks as well as Leslie Cheung for his genderless appeal, Daniel Wu (cos he's everyone's favourite list), and more recently, I've fallen in love with Guo Yan Jun (of 2moro fame) from Taiwan as well as Leon Jay Williams, a mixed-blood Singaporean model-turn-actor whom is prob the next big thing in the Chinese entertainment circle. He was a model in Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong before becoming an actor/singer in Taiwan and has now crossed over to the China market.

I noticed Leon Jay Williams again via the new Stephen Chow movie 'Jump' which was recently released. I had checked up on this movie becos I love Kitty Zhang Yu Qi (ever since her appearance in CJ7 last yr as the tight cheongsam-hugging school teacher, she's also Stephen Chow's new 'It' girl). Then when I saw the trailer, I just totally swooned at Leon Jay William's good hunky looks! How could anyone not?! I noticed him before when he first came out in 2004 in a hit Taiwanese drama series but didn't like his acting and the drama as it was one of those with pretty/good-looking actors but can't act at all..and judging from his works in the past yrs which i spent time checking on, he still can't really act and his mandarin accent is bad, cos as most younger singaporeans have poor mandarin skills (he said in an interview he could only read 20% of the chinese scripts and rely on hanyu pinyin most of the time).

But I saw an interview of him on a mainland Chinese program and he had a really great personality and I felt like I could like him as a good friend, coursemate or even relative! I was surprised as I always kinda felt guys with hunky, extremely good looks like him would not have that great a personality or I'd feel I would never know ppl like them in real life, but after that interview I really like him as a person (besides his good looks) although he really can't act..well, you cannot always be blessed with everything in life, correct? But anyways, I hope his fans dun come across this and kill me! Anyways, he has many yrs to improve his acting skills....

Some Leon J. Williams video links:

1)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAfCbNQIsMs (This song is amazing! It was originally the theme song for the Beijing Olympic Cube venue and turned into one for Audi.)

2)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il7MA5KnPus&feature=related (An English song. Doesn't he just make you swoon, gay guys and ladies? Hehe..)

3) http://www.youtube.com/user/hcpen#p/f/15/W1jZgn7GkuA(Stephen Chow's 'Jump' trailer..watch it! He's cute in it, sooo adorable. Hehe.)

As for Guo Yan Jun, he was never my 'type' of guy, given his atheletic dark-skinned complexion and sporty looks (i know i'm weird, i just don't really go for darker tan skinned guys with sporty looks) but after awhile of watching him appear on multiple shows (i watch taiwanese talk shows on youtube) I slowly realised I was becoming attached and idolising him...i was having an idol crush! So weird, and he's not even the type of guy i'd like in real life..well, anyways...he's had alot of gay rumours and experiences of gay men liking him, and one of his best friends in real life is very likely gay..i mentioned it in a previous post linking to the talk show where they both attended and I HIGHLY suspect his best friend is gay with my 'gaydar'.

If you want to see what Anthony Guo Yan Jun looks like in moving images, here's some links to taiwanese talkshows he attended:

1)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68h6mpELNSk
2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i-ErG_dapQ&feature=related

Above: anthony guo in a PTS tv movie, i love pts as they show quality programs all the time! In the scene above, apparently anthony has a dream scene of him and another guy. He walks around in tight underwear alot in the above movie i think! Yea!Shao Yu Ting is another new upcoming Taiwanese actor whom grew up in Canada and is currently very popular in Taiwan because of a TV drama he acted in. He's kinda cute as well..hehe.. link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GruShKu0bZE

Finally, someone i liked briefly because of his song OREA back in the day..haha..must be over 10 years now..Wallace Chung, I came across his news recently and checked up on his recent works, he's really cute even now!! Damn, how come they never age with time?!

He'd definitely be someone I'd possibly fall in love for..haha..very 'my type'..maybe alittle fairer skin would be good..hehe..

Some MV links:

1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7H2dgX6xJc

This post thus balances my previous post on HK actresses showing my favourite actors and actresses and also my preference in likable looks!

HK Stars of the 1990s: Anita Yuen, Charlie Yeung, Veronica Yip, Sandra Ng, Chingmy Yau, Carmen Lee, Athena Chu..and Vivian Chow..

2009-12-04T22:19:00.001+09:00

I've always liked the female HK actresses of the 1990s, the era when i fell in love with HK cinema and also my growing-up years...it was strange that I never had any real male idols (despite 100% liking guys, mind you!) besides (maybe) Leslie Cheung, Lau Ching-Wan and of course, everyone's favourite comedian Stephen Chow. I also liked Leo Ku alot and still do...other stars which I liked are Carina Lau, Lee Yi-Hung, Hsu-Chi, Christine Ng-Wing Mei, and Christy Chung.
However, my fav HK female stars are definitely those mentioned in the title of this post. Except Vivian Chow whom i've only come to like this year with the mention of her coming back to the big screen after a 13 yr hiatus. Mind you, I liked all of them in the 90s and some are no longer acting, many married to wealthy businessmen now. Below are some clips of movies of them and also what some look like now:

Chingmy Yau in 1995's 'You're My birthday Cake': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpIx9jyzY4Q
Veronica Yip in 1994's 'Red Rose, White Rose' (lady in white veil whom appears in second part):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLttV36KxiQ
Veronica Yip 2008/09: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWl7c8JMDUg&feature=fvsr
Carmen Lee in mainland Chinese TV serial early 2000s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU1berbwpvE&feature=related
Anita Yuen in 1993's ' He's Ain't Hairy, He's my Brother': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRm9QUVbaFY
Anita Yuen in 2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL3qlvaOAFg
Charlie Yeung in 1997 commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FcKvElKg00
Charlie Yeung in 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6j5AyY9AcI
Sandra Ng in 1993's 'All's Well, End's Well':http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ7jmdsj23M
Sandra Ng in 2009's 'All's Well, End's Well': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyLCVqoPeEs
Athena Chu in 1998's 'Raped by an Angel II': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sihiPusY2fk
Vivian Chow in 1993's Mandarin MV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvEaymFMWcw&feature=PlayList&p=4469C6A828B4F07A&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=49 Vivian Chow in 2007/08: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEuJhNoZW_o

Have a look, the one's in pink are particularly worth having a look at, Charlie Yeung and Vivian Chow still look stunningly pretty whilst Athena Chu's performance in 'Raped by An Angel II' is quite a cult classic for HK Cinema of the 90s, a typical Wong Jing movie. :-)

My 26th BDay:-)...祝我26岁生日快乐:-)..２６歳の誕生日おめでとう..

2009-11-25T11:32:00.003+09:00

It's my 26 th Birthday today...wish me Happy Birthday!!:-) It also happens to be the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women..which i am superb about given that women's rights come up right at the top of my list of priorities/interests.:-) What a lucky day for me to be born on such a significant day (given my feminist stance) as well as one month before Christmas.

26 years and hoping for more good luck in the new year of 2010!

PS: Since installing the feeder tracking visitors to my blog, i've noticed many common/regular readers to my blog whom don't leave comments. Hey, since it's my birthday today, at least leave me a birthday note hey? Better still, leave me a link to your blog if you have one as I'd like to see what kind of ppl my regular 'invisible' readers are like. I've these 'silent readers' spanning from London to Paris to Singapore! Leave me a birthday wish:-)!

Filipino Fever...菲律宾热情...フィリピンフィバー...

2009-11-12T00:48:00.000+09:00

Remember how in 2007 i discovered Filipino entertainment and fell head over toes over the Philippines, it's people, it's culture, all just because of the 'soft power' of Filipino entertainment? Well, I am now revisiting that 'filipino fever' of mine, which kinda lowered for the past year before in recent weeks i'm kinda getting that 'filipino fever' back again!

Some songs I like: adik sayo (addicted to you): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JITAGe7YHw

Ikaw Lamang (Only You):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9ycF5vqGR0

Tayong Dalawa MV (Two of Us): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzVf6_bpqkQ

The girl in the above MV is very pretty, her name is Kim Chiu, one of the new top talents in the Filipino industry. She's pure Chinese, being Filipino-Chinese, born to Chinese immigrants from Fujian Province, China. (Most Filipino-Chinese in the Philippines are from Fujian Province, thus being Hokkien people.)

Also, some movies from the past i love...'Got 2 Believe' (on youtube with malay subs), especially the end of the movie:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mpf24xQDG7k

and 'You are the one', one of my fav romantic comedies of all time!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSRQbpwux58

My love for Filipino culture and entertainment has also led to my peak in interest in the Philippines and understanding its current affairs, people, and issues. Have a look at this Current TV docu on Philippines No.1 export, its people!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7rVibDsWKo&feature=player_profilepage#

Enjoy!
Links to Previous Post on Filipino Culture and Entertainment:
1)http://chinesechic.wordpress.com/2007/08/11/reconnecting-with-my-south-east-asian-roots/
2)http://chinesechic.blogspot.com/2008/03/penang-cny-trip-08-ii.html

Singapore & the 'Inferiority Complex'...新加坡与新国语言政策...シンガポールとシンガポールの言語政策....

2009-11-02T01:54:00.005+09:00

This post is going to be about Singapore and its inferiority complex. Hahaha..
I was going through blogs in recent weeks when i came across a few blogs written by young English-educated Singaporean Chinese. I also went on via links to this Singapore online site called 'The Online Citizen' whereby there are posts on Singaporean social, economic, and political issues as well as commentary left by Singaporean readers on their views regarding these issues. One common strain that i discovered was the inherent inferiority complex that many Singaporean (Chinese) suffered and how they view themselves and their country in such a negative and under-deserving light. I mean, read any Singaporean blog written by a certain section of Singaporean society and you can see how negative they view their own country, an extension of their own inferiority complex. These are usually people whom are ethnic Chinese, English educated with a good command of English, from an upper to upper-middle class segment of society, poor Mandarin/dialect capabilities, and probably with a foreign education background too. Their blogs and views on the The Online Citizen are 80% and more negative on Singapore and Singaporeans in general as a populace and you can hardly see any positive things they would say about their country, a country which is one of THE richest nations in the world in terms of GDP per capita, clean, efficient, with a high living standard but yet read any Singaporean blog from an elite intellectual background and inevitably its 80% and above negative. The only position mentions would be about family or food.

Quite frankly, this is a case of what I call 'Elitism' and 'Inferiority Complex'. Singaporeans with a good command of English and from a higher education level tend to have an elitism complex as well as inferiority complex. They look down on their own country and even worse, on their own people, with common terms like 'third world mentality' 'third world manner's' 'third world..bla bla bla' to describe something they dislike about their country. Although i do agree with criticism about the government as its extremely dictatorial, and there's really a case of 'third world freedom of speech, gay rights, and media freedom' to be argued for in the case of Singapore, i tend to find many of these Singaporeans overly critical of the country and their people when there's much to be proud of.

I believe this has to do with the unconscious elitism and inferiority complex which many Singaporeans have in that they feel the West or Japan will ALWAYS be better than their own nation, never mind the economy, transportation, healthcare,etc in Singapore. It's a feeling which is worse when i've read singaporeans describing 'typical singaporean behavior' and looking down on their on, typically the less-educated or more dialect-speaking/mandarin speaking singaporeans. Singapore, like Malaysia, suffers from an 'internalised white-worship' mentality whereby everything Western is considered somehow better, the education in the West is better, the social manners in the West is better, the bla in the West is better..without any warrant.

One post in the 'The Online Citizen' and the comments it elicited really riled me...it was concerning Singapore's language policy which mandates that each major race learn compulsory 'Mother tongue' as a separate subject in school (as the Singaporean education syllabus is completely English) which means ethnic Chinese learn Mandarin, Indians learn Tamil, Malays learn Malay and so on. The particular post by the writer went on and on about how Mandarin wasn't her mother tongue, how the government was 'forcing an alien language down her throat'(*rolls eyes*, yes Mandarin is an 'alien language' but English, the language of Singapore's former colonial masters is not? Not a word of criticism on English usage) how her mother tongue was really a chinese dialect like teochew, fookchew, hokkien, cantonese,etc and how they should get rid of this policy and allow dialects in school and like 80% of the readers meaning 70-80 comments completely supported her even 'blaming' compulsory Mandarin education for 'destroying dialects' in Singapore.
BULL CRAP. This is another problem with the elite English-educated Chinese Singaporeans. Like my native Malaysia, there's always been a stratification of languages, although much less pronounced now than in the pre-2000s days when it was VERY obvious.

Basically, put simply, those whom speak and write good English are right at the top of the social/economic ladder in society, followed by the Mandarin-speaking people, and then followed by the dialect-speaking (meaning they use Hokkien,Teochew, Fookchew, Hakka,etc more) with poor command of English right at the bottom. That's the perception anyway. English is connected with social mobility and class, being of an upper class. This is supposedly the same as in India as well where English newspapers, government interviews, tv programs, etc are given an 'elite class treatment' whilst the media which has actually more readership such as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu,etc language media is given a second class priority in the public perception. This has caused such a huge elite upwardly mobile segment of Singaporean society to look down on dialect and Mandarin and recently, with the global trend in indigenous culture promotion, to just despise Mandarin and promote dialects.

I find it horrifying to say the least that these people whom already have poor to no dialect speaking skills are now rebelling against compulsory Mandarin education and promotion (A govt 'Speak Mandarin Campaign' which started in the early 1980s to promote Mandarin in place of dialects) and saying how it isn't their mother tongue. What is going to happen if the language policy of the Singaporean govt is done away with (one of the areas where i actually support it 100%) would be to result in Singaporean Chinese speaking poor Mandarin, equally poor, if not worse, dialect, and 100% English. This is already happening EVEN with the compulsory mandarin education currently. I mean, all the Singaporeans I've met, whom happen to fit into the elite english-educated foreign educated segment i just mentioned above, have horrible Mandarin skills and quite good English skills. They cannot really speak dialect as well given the elite group speak English at home, at work, in school, socially interacting with friends,etc that I find it resolutely ridiculous that some in this segment now would like Mandarin removed as a compulsory subject. One can only wonder with dialect being much less useful than Mandarin, which is actually a very useful language spoken by 1.3 billion Chinese plus the 35 million plus residing overseas in countries like America, Canada, Malaysia, and Philippines (there is even over 500,000 Chinese workers now living in Africa!) one can see what the result would be if dialects were introduced as compulsory. First off, it wouldn't work practically as it'd mean different teachers and materials and exams needed, given there's so many dialects, and also it'd mean different dialect groups would be unable to communicate with each other thus fracturing the Chinese community in Singapore.

Mandarin was introduced as the de facto unifying language in the early 20th century precisely to unite the Chinese Han race as different dialects were being spoken and people in the north could not communicate with the southerners and even southerners couldn't communicate with each other. (re: Cantonese with Teochews with Hokkiens with Hakkas,etc you get the idea.) But once again, the inferiority complex of these Singaporeans rear its ugly head and they decide they don't want anything to do with Mandarin. It's so silly given how much Singaporeans love to lament on their 'poor' English skills when its such a highly Anglicised and Westernised nation, one of the most Westernised in fact in Asia. They'd rather critcise and rebel against their cousin language of Mandarin, being within the 'family' than criticise the real culprit of what has destroyed dialect in Singapore (if you really must blame a language) which is ENGLISH. It is the English language and the accompanying inferiority complex mentality of the 60s/70s/80s/90s/00s which Singaporeans had/have which resulted in English occupying and completely kicking out dialect usage, first from the public sphere in the workplace, then progressively socially such that English has become for decades the language of choice when socialising amongst fellow Chinese friends, and then into the private sphere of the family, being used within the family. I read somewhere that a survey by the Education Ministry of Singapore ( i think) in 2009 indicated over 60% of all primary school aged children from ethnic Chinese backgrounds now use English as their spoken 'mother tongue' at home, meaning not only is the unifying Chinese language of Mandarin (or if you're one of those elitist Westernised Singaporeans, you'd at least call it a 'cousin language') or even chinese dialect not in use, a completely 'outsider language' of English is now the mother tongue of the majority of the next generation of Singaporeans.

As a fervently proud ethnic Chinese and proud Asian of both East Asian and S.East Asian descent(always has been, always will be...which is why i even majored in Asian Studies within my Arts degree in uni when it wasn't a popular major for Asians..) i find this EXTREMELY UNACCEPTABLE AND DISTURBING. But of course, no one in the Singaporean English blogosphere nor these influential online news sites are debating on the poor Mandarin levels of Singaporean Chinese, which as an ethnic race, all Chinese should understand. ( Believe me, with the Chinese population currently around the world, spanning from Malaysia, Australia, to Africa and the Middle East, Mandarin is VERY VERY USEFUL..even for my daily life here in Oz, i find so many Chinese people in Sydney and its very useful to understand mandarin, you just get more with an extra language and also dialects would prevent interaction between Chinese people meaning an outsiders language would be needed (English) for the different groups to interact (which is currently happening in Singapore and will get worse should Mandarin be removed and dialects introduced as the mandatory mother tongue subject). It's funny how some Singaporeans criticise about the 'poor english levels' in Singapore when it is the Mandarin levels and dialect levels which warrant debate and the status of English within society should be re-evaluated instead.

It's like attacking your cousin (Mandarin) whilst not being able to speak your own mother dialect (dialect) whilst being completely comfortable with speaking an outsider's language (English). Inferiority Complex at its worse. And the worse thing is when these elitist English-educated Chinese complain about Singaporean's English level and education system, it has still managed to produce thousands of Singaporeans whom successfully are able to enter and graduate from foreign universities and with Singaporeans making up a disproportionate number of students in Ivy League universities in America (relative to Singapore's small population size). Like seriously, obviously somethings been done right for them to even get into these places in the first place, right? But nooo, inferiority complex mandates that they complain about that aspect of Singapore as well...quite frankly, its like one of those people who go online heaping praise upon praise on North Korea and Communism in general whilst being in the comforts of their freedom of using the internet, their freedom of speech and freedom of movement within the comforts of a capitalist, democratic society, no???

And also the term of 'heartlander' which is used in Singapore is also a reflection of the elitism mentality of many young yuppie English educated Singaporean Chinese by creating this non-existent category of people in Singapore to refer to those ppl living in the suburbs, dialect/mandarin speaking, and supposedly socially bckward and conservative in values...so silly, as if Singapore is not small enough to have a 'heartland'?? So many of these socially English speaking ppl live or their families/friends' live in the 'heartlands' anyways to make this social distinction moot, but of course, they create this term to differentiate themselves from everyone else, with the 'everyone else' being more backwards...

It's not just a Singapore problem, sadly. I find it much more serious in Singapore though. In Hong Kong and Japan, there has also been a problem of 'Western White-Worship' and 'Inferiority Complex' as well despite their wealthy status. For instance, advertisements and magazines in Japan disproportionately feature white or mixed European-Japanese models and white men assumedly get the girls more in nightclubs compared to Asian men. In Hong Kong as well, white and English is also (or once was) put on a high pedastal as well.

However, both Japan and Hong Kong always had and have strong native popular cultures and pride to counter this inferiority complex but yet Singapore does not. This is why I find the problem of elitism and 'white worship' much more worrisome in Singapore and afflicting Singaporeans much more than Japanese or Hong Kongers whom actually have improved alot in the past decade with much more pride for their native culture and people. For instance, you are hard-pressed to find Japanese or Hong Kong ppl having a general perception that their people 'lack social manners' or are 'backwards' as opposed to many Singaporeans.

I do agree that Singapore and particularly its government has much 'third world' aspects such as lack of freedom of speech, media freedom, gay rights,etc for a First World(it is 1st world, despite these elitist claims of it being really third-world) .

However, I also think whats really shameful and 'third world' about Singapore is not its general citizenry or the nation itself, but those with elitist (generally) English-speaking Singaporeans whom have a 'third world' inferiority complex about their own nation, the nation which gave them so much material wealth as well as opportunities both abroad and at home to distastefully look down on their own nation and its people which provided them what they have today.

Thats whats truly 'third world' and deplorable about Singapore.

A society where the English educated elites unconsciously look down on those with poorer English skills whilst slamming their own unifying tongue of Mandarin whilst at the same time being completely at home with using their former colonial master's language.

A society where the future generation will all have as their true 'mother tongues' that of a truly 'outsider's' language, English.

A society which has become so Westernised that much attention is focused on the 'poor English' standards of Singaporeans whilst at the same time having no qualms on further eroding the already shamefully poor Mandarin levels of many Singaporeans and at the exact same time giving half-hearted support for dialect education.

A people whom have no pride in a nation which, despite having plenty of flaws, and a flawed government, has also managed to turn itself from a resourceless tiny island into one of the richest nations on earth within 30 years.

That's what's truly 'third world' about certain Singaporeans and that's the true shame of Singapore. And all this coming from a foreigner, me....Any thoughts, anyone?

PS: The above reflects my own thoughts on the subject and is not meant to offend any Singaporeans and be an attack on anyone, even if you happen to fall within the elitist English-speaking category of Singaporeans whom I refer to above. It's just to simply point out my observations and thoughts on the matter and, hopefully, change minds and spirits in that process, not to offend anyone!

I Love RTHK & Suzie Wong...我爱RTHK和苏丝黄...RTHKとスージーウォンが大好き...

2009-10-30T17:16:00.004+09:00

I would like to introduce to readers the Wonderful World of Suzie Wong, a 1960 Hollywood production which was a box-office hit in America. Set in 50s Hong Kong telling the tale of a 'Wanchai Girl' with a heart of gold falling in love with a poor American painter.

This film introduced to American and worldwide audiences for the first time the beauty of the 50s-60s style cheongsam worn by Chinese women in Hong Kong and South East Asia and very popular at the time. As a huge cheongsam fan myself, i loved the tight body-hugging high neckline n slit cheongsams shown in this movie as well as the multitude of on-location scenes of what Hong Kong looked like back in the late 1950s (priceless shots, really!). Please have a watch of what Hong Kong cheongsams (very accurate, verified from a cheongsam 'expert' like me! haha) and Hong Kong looked like back in its poorer days in the late 50s.

Entire film is available for viewing on youtube, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9-A19RezTc&feature=player_profilepage

Also, I love RTHK (Hong Kong's only public broadcasting station) current affairs programs as well as docus alot. They show aspects of Hong Kong society which may not be readily known to outsiders, usually focusing on the underbelly and socially discriminated or disadvantaged groups in Hong Kong and their daily struggles and triumphs. I especially like how they focus on not only the problems of these people, but also on the kindness and unextinguishable spirit of the common person and the optimism and hope one can have to overcome adversity in life. The episodes are available online for viewing (for those whom understand Cantonese or can read Traditional Chinese characters as subtitles are available for most programs in Chinese characters.) here: http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/program_archive.cgi?progdir=tv/commonfolks&event_name=%3F%3F+%3F%3F+銋%3F+甇%3F+%0A

~Enjoy!

Queer Cinema in Asia Recommendations 2009..亚洲同志电影推介2009年...2009年のアジアゲイ映画お勧め

2009-10-19T02:34:00.007+09:00

In Asia, recent years have seen a flourishing of Gay films in the mainstream media and undoubtedly, Taiwan and the Philippines have led this queer Asian film charge ahead of other countries such as South Korea which have also produced many gay-themed movies...as i said before, I believe in Asia, the most gay-friendly countries are definitely Thailand, the Philippines, and Taiwan. In terms of media coverage, the Philippines definitely comes up on top for its gay-friendly and wide-ranging exposure of gay storylines/characters whilst I'd say Taiwan comes in second in terms of media queer-friendliness.

There's been many gay Filipino films in the past 5 yrs, and this yr there's been many films as well..but i'm only looking forward to 'In my Life' by Philippine's veteran Star 'for all Seasons' Ms. Vilma Santos, one of Filipino Cinema's most recognised and esteemed actresses as well as starring John Lloyd Cruz, the leading Filipino box-office lead currently as well as hunky Luis Manzano!

Here's the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf9ae_0f_jQ

A Taiwanese film dealing with the same theme of gayness is the film which is produced by veteran and probably THE most famous Taiwanese producer/screenwriter Wu Nien-Jen of the film 'Tou-San' (1994) fame. I'm really looking forward to this film about a colour-blind young girl and her gay cousin living in a small fishing village in rural Taiwan.

Here's the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5cx-uf18xk

Another gay Taiwanese film, Neon Hearts, being an interracial romance between a teenage Swedish boy and a teenage Taiwanese boy, is also coming up this yr, trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5r06evlreE

Given it's three gay male films to look out for pointed out for this year, lesbians, fret not, there's been many lesbian themed films and i personally like 'Saving Face' made by Taiwanese-American Alice Wu starring Lynn Chen (she's gorgeous!), Michelle Krusiec (i identify alot with her personality), and Joan Chen, whole movie here from 2004: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVVQq9Hkjuk

Also, one of my all-time fav Taiwanese films (note this is not just for the LGBT category but for the Taiwan Film entire category, it's THAT good for me.) which i first saw at the Melbourne In'tl Film Festival bck in the early 2000s and had not much expectation but was overwhelmed by the finishing scene-Blue Gate Crossing. Fan Trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viiPb6z1ues&feature=related

Not to mention, THE BIGGEST NEWS out yet this year, in the HK entertainment industry, ...hold your breaths ppl (for those familiar with Hong Kong's entertainment scene ala 80s/90s)...Vivian Chow, the most celebrated and 'originator' of the term 'Jade Girl' in HK, whom retired from filming in 1996 and was well-known for being THE Jade Girl of the 80s/early 90s is making a comeback to the big-screen! And in a lesbian romantic comedy opp. Sandra Ng (my FAVOURITE HK comedian actress of ALL-TIME) to be funded by Wong Jing and helmed by esteemed award-winning director Ann Hui-On Wah. OH MY GOD. This is BIG. BIG NEWS. Given Vivian Chow's choice of this movie as her comeback movie after a 13 yr hiatus, it shows how much society has changed that a romantic comedy dealing with two lesbians can be made into a commercial mainstream hk flick, and also HK's pre-eminent Jade girl, known for her feminine, good-girl image from the 80's would choose this lesbian romantic comedy as her comeback movie..i can't wait!

Now, whoever said Asia was behind in terms of queer representation in the media and positive images/role characters in its media? I'm constantly doing my part to correct this incorrect perception many Westerners, Asians, and even gay Asians have that somehow or other, Asia is very behind in terms of gay rights, visibility, role models, when it isn't! In certain countries in Asia it is the case (re: Bangladesh, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia,etc) but definitely not in Taiwan and the Philippines, two countries which hold a very special place in my heart!

PS: Update 29/10: Taiwan's Annual Gay Pride Parade, held in Taipei and also Asia's largest gay pride parade, will be held on 31st October 2009. My very best wishes to my compatriot Taiwanese as well as overseas participants whom will be attending (predicted to surpass 20,000 marchers this yr!) . In addition, Discovery Channel Taiwan has decided to broadcast Taiwan's very first Documentary focusing on contemporary gay & lesbian Life in Taiwan and societal/political acceptance and changes in the past decade or so.

Trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/user/lovepeacing2009#p/a/u/0/ckS0ou5eA_8

(I SOOO wanna see this!! Please record it and put it on youtube and inform me anyone living in Taiwan! Pretty pretty PLEASE?!)

Human Rights Focus: Child Prostitution and World Hunger...人权焦点：儿童卖春与世界饥饿....人権フォーカス：児童買春と世界飢餓...

2009-10-14T22:56:00.002+09:00

I came across these documentaries ( i love docos!) on youtube and thought i'd share it with my fellow bloggers and blog readers, i was simply disgusted when watching them, i wanted to puke ..men, the root cause of all evil..and ppl ask me why i'm such a militant feminist..:

Caution: What you are about to see and hear is truly disturbing so please watch at your own discretion. Also you can see how widespread the problem of child prostitution is, spanning from Africa to Asia to Europe and all other continents as well.
1) Child Prostitution in Kenya: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdkhIW3QuVg
2) Child Prostitution in Indonesia:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw_e-E00e-8&feature=channel
3) Child Prostitution in Romania: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz8R3mC1TEg&feature=related

On another unrelated but equally important note, did ppl know that world hunger is becoming a more and more serious problem now? It is estimated by the UN World Food Program that over 1 billion people are starving or suffering from hunger currently (YES, 1 BILLION people, meaning 1/6th of the world's entire population are currently suffering from hunger). And also apparently every 6 seconds, a child dies from hunger in the world today. Truly depressing figures.
Link to an Aljazeera Program (my fav English cable news network) on World Hunger: http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/insidestory/2009/09/2009920134113629813.html
Oh gosh, with my post on child prostitution and world hunger, this post is truly very depressing ain't it??

Fifties Fairs....in Sydney 2009!!!....五十年代嘉年华会在雪梨.....五十年代の祭りシドニーで..

2009-10-10T01:32:00.001+09:00

Above: A touch of 50's class...

When i chanced upon the advertising leaflet promoting the 15th Annual 'Fifties Fair' in Sydney, I knew I just had to go!!!! Given that I am a 50s/60s fan of the cheongsam and that era, how could I miss it! What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon mixing amidst the crowd of 50s inspired and dressed ppl and pretending that I had been transported bck to the 1950s. Of cos, for Chinese representation, I wore my cheongsam top there..heheh..

I was very surprised to see the huge crowds there as the location is in Turrumurra which is really far north away from the city and inner suburbs, on the outer edges of Sydney already and tics cost $20 per adult and $55 per family which was quite costly, especially in a global financial crisis and with this being such a niche event, frankly i was expecting not many ppl to turn up..but boy was I wrong!! There were throngs of ppl and even queues to enter the fair! Cos it's held at this 40's built heritage house and enclosed garden estate and not very big...there were many ppl in 50's inspired fashion parading about and a 50s fashion contest as well as 50s style music and dance presentations ( i enjoyed the dance presentations alot!!!) and lots of stalls set up selling 50s/60s collectible items and fashion such as magazines, dresses, ties, shirts, 50s floral prints, etc..

Anyways, let the photos do the talking!

Above and Below: At the Bus Stop waiting for the shuttle bus to ferry us to the Fifties Fair..
Above: Entrance to the Sydney 15th Annual Fifties Fair 2009...

Above and Below: 60's Style...I was tempted to buy the 50/60s printed cloth cos what better way to make a cheongsam-inspired creation than with original 50s cloth material????

Above: Women getting their '50s makeover' at the booth...

Above: Lil' red riding hood with her cellphone..hahaha..

Above: Girls digging into their ice-creams on a warm Winter afternoon in their fifties outfits...

Above: Stalls selling 50's stuff...

Above: A sign of the times...guess whom won the 'Best 50s Couple' category..yep, the two ladies in the above photo..hehe..whether they're a real lesbian couple or not, it definitely goes to show a sign of the times, when a same-sex couple can beat the other straight couples to win a best couple contest..hehe..

Above: 50s Fashion Competition Parade..

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival 2009!... 中秋节快乐2009!...

2009-10-03T00:16:00.002+09:00

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival my fellow readers~

Hope you all have a wonderful family gathering +reunion, and of course, have plenty of mooncakes too!

I've already had my fill, i like only the white lotus mooncake without the egg-yolk. I usually buy the ones imported from Hong Kong called 'Wing Wah Mooncakes', which is freakin expensive at $41 per box of 4 regular sized mooncake without egg-yolks..but quite ok if you share with friends the cost...what type of mooncake variety do my readers like? With the consumerism culture and innovative designs available nowadays, there's plenty of varieties and unique tastes to choose from, so do share readers!!

PS: For those whom wanna know more bout the story behind the Mid-Autumn Festival, click on wiki here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival

Taiwan's Chen Shui Bian Sentenced to Life Imprisonment..

2009-09-30T23:32:00.001+09:00

If any of you have been following, Taiwan's Ex-President Chen Shui Bian has been sentenced to life imprisonment along with his wife on several corruption charges. His son-in-law and daughter have also been found guilty on several counts of money laundery and fined millions. He has also been fined millions along with his wife ON TOP of the life sentence.

This could possibly be the only case in Asia where an ex-President has been found guilty of corruption charges and actually been imprisoned and forced to serve a life imprisonment sentence. Quite frankly, I think its extremely naive for those whom support this decision as a sign of Taiwan's mature democracy as i think the decision is extremely politically-motivated. I mean anyone knows that all of Taiwan's ex-leaders have been corrupt and way more corrupt than Chen esp during the pre-1987 era under KMT dictatorial rule but no one then nor has any KMT president ever been found guilty of corruption, much less prosecuted or even a life sentence! But once a DPP leader comes, the KMT wasted no time at all in prosecuting Chen once Ma got elected and the Prosecution kept leaking information to the press and the mainstream media in Taiwan (which is extremely pro-KMT) kept their one-sided reportage of the ongoing trial of Chen such that he could not get a fair trial. Even the original presiding Judge of the case was swapped when he decided to grant bail to Chen and threatened with treason, how fair can Chen's trial be?!! Then another judge came in and decided to refuse Chen's bail application meaning Taiwan's Ex-President was and is still forced to sit in prison awaiting his trial..and there's no good reason for that! Like how in the world do they think Chen can escape Taiwan if let out on bail? It's simply a tactic by the KMT and pan-blue supporters to humiliate him...There's seriously no credible reason to continue to detain Chen in such an undignified manner..and you know what? The media in Taiwan even decided Chen was given too much 'preferential treatment' in prison, analysing and scrutinising what he got to eat for Chinese New Year in prison...i mean WTF?!!! He's an Ex-President, putting him in prison whilst awaiting trial is totally an abuse of judicial power in the first place with a strong hint of interference with the judicial system by the ruling KMT party, and he can't even get a lil' better prison food??!! Heck, he's spending CNY in prison ppl, give him a break!

The Taiwanese mainstream media and newspapers are mainly pro-China and pro-reunification with China and thus spare no opportunity in degrading Chen and pan-Green Independence supporters at any cost..for instance, Sisy Chen's news program (she's one of the more popular tv hosts in Taiwan) shows her bias against the DPP when she repeatedly wondered aloud what the point of anti-Ma anti-China bias demonstrations were for earlier in the year despite there being real concerns over Ma's current extremely pro-China stance and policies which seek to threaten Taiwan's national security and sovereignty. The fact they were held peacefully (which is a rare occurence) was something to be celebrated but all Sisy could talk about was what the point was, how tourism went down during the demos,etc..yea bla bla bla, and no one in the mainstream media bothered to criticise the huge anti-Chen demos in 2004 and in 2007 (i think) where the pan-Blue camp refused to accept Chen's mandate to rule and refused to accept election riots (despite the narrow margin) and continued to riot ceaselessly for his resignation..back then the likes of Sisy would go on their shows saying how 'shameless' Chen was, etc, see how many ppl didn't support his govt, how he should resign, etc...not a mention of the 'effect of tourism' or 'what lousy losers the pan-blue camp supporters were for not accepting election riots and committee official conclusions' but it was spinned as 'democracy at work'!

Even when Chen was in office, many ppl and mainstream media refused to call him 'President Chen' saying he wasn't the president as the 2004 election results were scammed and that the attempted assasination of Chen and Lu then was a Chen-preplanned hoax (despite all investigations coming with inconclusive evidence linking the assasination attempt to Chen himself)...this shows how disrespectful many pan-blue Taiwanese are of the democratic system in Taiwan. Many said that the election in 2004 was 'one of the biggest joke in the world' . NOPE. The biggest shameful joke was actually the ensuing refusal to accept Chen as the democratically elected President of Taiwan and holding massive ongoing demonstrations calling for his resignation, basically SORE LOSERS..thank god the Court back then decided the results was constitutional and thus, the power of hooligans did not overcome reason.

You simply can't riot until you get the result and party you want just bcos you are a sore loser...
Unlike America which has a mature democracy, and where Americans by and large accept election results, even in similarly marginal instances such as Taiwan's 2004 results (the 2000 elections between Al Gore and Bush had a similar result with Bush only winning narrowly) and where ppl still call Bush, President Bush even if they dislike him, and where Obama has decided not to go after former Republicans or Republican policies, in Taiwan, you see ppl rioting when they dislike the result, insult their President and decide he should get life imprisonment and crappy prison food, not call him 'President' when he was still in office and even decide to go for all-out 'revenge time' once the new KMT govt comes into power, immediately arresting Chen and other DPP leaders....

and of note, I do not even fall into the usual 'category' of ppl whom support the DPP and pro-independence, in fact, given my socio-economic-geographical background, being 'mainlander', 'middle-class', and living in Taipei's Daan District ( Taiwan's wealthiest and coincidentally also the district with the most 'mainlander heritage' residents in Taiwan) you'd think i'd be very pro-KMT and pro-China..as demographic surveys have shown that those with 'mainlander' heritage and living in northern and mid-Taiwan including especially Taipei City, tend to vote overwhelmingly for pro-China KMT. I simply believe the KMT and their 'Republic of China' illusion carry too much historical baggage and belong to another era and another time.

Note: For those readers unfamiliar with Taiwan's history, the term 'mainlander' or Waishenren, refers to those Taiwanese with grandparents or ancestors came over to Taiwan post-1945. This means those whom do not usually have roots in Taiwan pre-1945 and came over after KMT rule from the Japanese after 1945. Usually it means either both their grandparents or parents are from China or one is from China and the other is local-born Taiwanese.

Sydney Food Recommendations..介绍悉尼的私房饮食..シドニーの好きな食べ物所..

2009-09-22T21:25:00.001+09:00

Above: Indonesia in Harmony Festival, Entertainment Quarters Fox Studios.. my first time to Fox Studios/Ent' Quarters..pretty cool place i reckon..but tad lil' out of the way..

Above; Fishmarket, Sydney..a place for good sashimi..most importantly, cheap sashimi..hehe,...

Above and Below: Royal National Park in Sydney, The World's Second Oldest National Park and Australia's Oldest National Park...cool place..amazing experience n good camping/BBQ area..went during august/winter time..my 1st time...

I'd like to recommend some foodie places I enjoy in Sydney and visit on a regular basis, or try to visit on a regular basis....they're all cheap places and so-called 'food haunt's' of mine in this city..hehe..

1) Full House Korean and Japanese restaurant, CBD

This Korean restaurant located at Level 1, 238 Pitt Street, Sydney CBD right across the Galleries Victoria shopping centre serves cheap affordable reasonable korean cuisine with Japanese cuisine such as teppanyaki and sushi as well...what i love about this place is the balcony it has which is overlooking Pitt street busy scenes below....sit outside on the balcony for great views below..and also my favourite kimchi chigae can be ordered here...unlike many kimchi hotpot served in other korean rest. which try to save costs and give you only kimchi and some pork meat pieces, the kimchi tuna hotpot here has kimchi with tuna fish boiled in it which is heavenly..its the tuna pieces which are essential in making this the best kimchi chigae so far for me experienced in Sydney which is at once delicious and affordable..something like $13 altogether with rice and side-dishes...open for lunch and dinner.

2) Joy Cafe, Prince Centre, Haymarket.

This is located on the Quay St side of Prince Centre in Haymarket. I only order the Bakmi Gila here which is superb as its the best indo noodle i've eaten so far...i don't know where they order the noodles from but it's so qq..very bouncy...i usually ask for without the meat and replace the chicken meat they serve on top with plain veges and a fried egg..its a dry kind of noodles usually with dark soy-like sauce with chicken..costs less than $9 from memory..comes with soup as well..

3) Baba Laksa House, Grace Hotel, CBD.

Within the Grace Hotel in the Sydney CBD is this little Malaysian gem. It serves malaysian fare such as laksa, hainan chicken rice, fried rice, siam mee, etc. It is one of the more authentic places for Malaysian fare in Sydney. It opens from 11 30am-3pm i think mon-fri only. It is always busy with the CBD lunch crowd and with limited seating, be sure to arrive either before 12pm or after 2pm for good seats. Prices range from $9 to $13 per dish i think..

4) Ramenkan, Haymarket.

This is literally the best place of ramen in my humble opinion in Sydney in terms of price and authencity and deliciousness. It is located at Level 1, 90 Hay St, Haymarket on the 1st level..you have to take a lift up and the entrance is very obscure...actually the japanese restaurant Wagaya besides on the same street also serves delicious ramen but it only opens at 5pm daily doing the dinner/supper section so ramenkan is a better option for lunch...so i'd recommend wagaya as well for its authentic ramen and izakaya delicacies! Anyways, bck to ramenkan, anything ramen is good here...i like the miso butter corn ramen and negi miso ramen...

In terms of japanese food, and ramen in particular, Sydney serves quite alot of good ramen, unlike melbourne, which has quite crappy japanese food options in terms of affordability (obviously, if you're willing to pay high-end prices, you can still find good japanese cuisine in melb) and authentic ramen..at least this was the case pre-2006 when i was still in melbourne..another good sydney ramen place besides wagaya and ramenkan is menya...

5) Mother Chu Vegetarian and Cho's Dumpling Taiwanese Cuisine, CBD

For Taiwanese cuisine, i personally like Cho's at Prince Centre, Haymarket. It serves pretty authentic Taiwanese street food (well, can never compare with the real deal served in Taiwan of course, but close enough i reckon)....i love the 'xiao chai' (taiwanese side cold dishes similar to korean panchai) which you can order to compliment your meal..i think they're the real scene stealer..you can take them away as well which many ppl do to accompany their home-cooked meals..i also like to order the zha jiang mian...delicious..they also have a counter at hurstville shopping mall which is even better than the haymarket original shop (surprising, i know!!) as at the hurstville counter, you can order a cheap $6.50 'xiao bian tang' which is a taiwanese style-small bento box of rice and two choices of dishes and the variety is very authentic taiwanese food and cheap too..

Mother Chu serves Taiwanese vegetarian and I love ordering the Hong Shao Tofu..which is braised beancurd...absolutely delicious..and it doesn't come cheap too!..it's like at least $16 for the tofu alone..located at 367 Pitt Street...

6) Chat Thai and Thainatown, CBD

For Thai food, i personally like Chat Thai on 20 Campbell Street in the heart of 'Thainatown' in Sydney CBD...it serves delicious thai food in a good atmosphere and more importantly, has an opening hr until 2am at night every night ( i think!) so its a good supper place as they have a separate supper menu from the dinner menu! Website:http://www.chatthai.com.au/

I also like Thainatown on Goulburn Street..always order their Pad Kapraw with pork and kai down (thai style egg) and boat noodle soup with egg noodles replacing the thin white noodles usually put (my personal preference)...located on 91 Goulburn Street..

There's more places i like such as Kawa cafe on Crown Street in Darlinghurst and many others but too many for me to list here...hahaha..i do like my food/drinks..and so been to quite a few places...anyways, above are a sample..anyone have their own favourite places to recommend in Sydney? Do tell..

Chinese Chic 中華風 中華チック