Working Women's Festival

I don't know if the translation is right. Anyway, today is kind of big in China. Most women gets half a day off and most of them rush into the shopping malls. You can see women with flowers on their hands everywhere. In retrospect, during this festival, my previous female colleagues got flowers and very big bags from the company. I never knew what were inside and never dared to ask. Also, even in ordinary days, the company usually handed out presents that is only useful to women. Male employees' only choice is to give them out to their girlsfriends or female family members.

As a matter of fact, in modern China, women are treated very well comparing to men, who don't have their own festivals. Women almost have the chance of doing as well as, if not better than men in many aspects of life. However, they have much less pressure with their career development. They could be very successful, and won't be blamed at all if they are not. On the other hand, men have to keep pushing themselves so that the whole family can live a better life. The road to success is endless, cause there are always someone who are better than you. To keep their wives from complaining, the husbands' struggle will never end.

Sometime, I think the freedom of women has gone too far. "Girl power" is everywhere in the society now. Some women seeing being female as their advantages. They see being treated well as granted and are never sincerely thankful for the kind gestures given by men. They can do all kinds of crazy things and believe they will not get punished. There are more and more wives cheating on their husbands now than husbands cheating on their wives. Some are too lazy to find a decent job and do online dirty talking all day long with their friends on line. Some shameless women spend money that their husbands earned on their secret lovers. They don't even feel ashamed when get buzzed and blame their husbands for not earning enough money, or not spending enough time with them, or whatever.

I have nothing against women and always look them as equals. I also hate the thought of treating women as reproducing machines. However, I do feel that the modern liberalization of women has gone too far and also on the wrong path. Most of the traditional virtues of women are missed and forgotten during this process. What a shame! If women want to be treated with respect, they should learn to treat men in the same way. They should know that they still have their share of responsibilities in life. After all, the festival is only for the WORKING women, isn't it?

Chinese or Japanese?

I watched the edited version of Oscar ceremony on Chinese national TV. "Edited" means a lot of funny jokes are left out, which is due to the harsh cencoring system in China. Thank god they don't dub the show anymore, although there are tons of mistakes in the subtitle. To save the trouble of downloading, I have to live with it.

"The Departed" is the biggest winner of this year, which is adapted from the movie "The Infernal Affairs" of Hong Kong, China. To be honest, I am not a big fan of the new version. Except for changing the location and cast, the director Martin failed in bringing anything new into this movie. Most of the subtle relationships of people from the original movie is lost. I'd feel much happier if Babel wins, although it suffers from a structure resemblance with "Crash", which is the winner last time.

Before the award was given, the nomination footage indicated that "The Departed" is the remake of a Japanese movie, which is a terrible mistake. Although Martin later thanked the Hongkong director on the stage, people from China are strongly evoked. Some people believe that this is not a mistake, but done intentionally.

I myself cannot imagine someone will be crazy enough to do this on purpose. However, this should be a mistake with truth lies behind. Although China is well know for its physical goods export, Japan has done much better in entertainment industry and culture export. For example, Japanese manga is especially well known around the world. When a western people encounter something good from asia, having difficulty from telling one country from another, they will tend to think they are from Japan.

There is a very good example. When a host from China is trying to interview Celion Dion, her first reaction is to ask if he is from Japan. Maybe she met much more Japanese reporters than Chinese ones. There are also circumstances when Chinese tourists are mistakenly taken as Japanese. Although China has a much bigger population, it is still a quite new face on many international stages.

Futhermore, the entertainment in China is regulated too much, which is bad for its culture imports and exports. Even though foreign cartoons cannot be show on prime time TV at all, it doesnot make domestic cartoons any better, most of which are ridiculously simple-minded no-brainers. There are so many things you cannot do. Recently, a very popular Chinese cartoon "rainbow cat and blue rabbit" was banned on national TV due to some so called "violence" and lack of "educational meaning". This is like a camel burying its head into the sand. The regulators think too less of the children nowadays. They treat all of them like babies when they are actually watching porn from the internet. No wonder online downloading is so popular in China.

In a nutshell, to make a bigger impression to the world, Chinese entertainment and Chinse culture still have a long, long way to go. However, I believe China will make it's mark in the future. By then, someone might mistakenly take Japanese stuff as from China.

National Competitive Exam

I have just got back from the National Competitive Exam of the United Nations. The exam takes place from 6pm to 11pm nonstop, which is another record for me. It was so late that even the subway is out of service. I have to use the expensive taxi to get home.

The questions are not very difficult, most of which are basic economic concepts. However, there are still many that I don't remember very well. But I find that I am very good at those kind of exams. I can keep completely focused the whole time and give detailed answers to the questions that I am not familiar with, hoping to recover at least some of the points.

According to the recruiting regulation of the UN, the results of the exam will ridiculously be released from July to December. Passing the exam means a chance of interview in the UN headquarter in New York city. Even though not very satisfied with the experience today, I still hope to get this chance of the free trip to the big apple.

Happy Spring Festival!

Today is the biggest festival of all in China: the Spring Festival, or Chinese new year. Today people are going to get together with their family members, play with fireworks, eat Jiaozi, and watch the traditional evening show on TV. We are going to play a little bit gambling with Majiang too. Hope I can win this time.

Happy Spring Festival!

Painted Veil

Painted Veil is a nice movie I recently saw. Tyler Durden and KingKong girl both gave excellent performance. Most importantly, the movie was shot in southern China and most scenes were incredibly beautiful with mountains and rivers. I did some background checking and found that the title was from a poem by Shelly. Don't we all have painted veils?

Here goes the poem:

Lift not the painted veil which those who live
Call Life: though unreal shapes be pictured there,
And it but mimic all we would believe
With colours idly spread:--behind, lurk Fear
And Hope, twin destinies; who ever weave
The shadows, which the world call substance, there.

I knew one who lifted it--he sought,
For his lost heart was tender, things to love
But found them not, alas! nor was there aught
The world contains, the which he could approve.
through the unheeding many did move,
A splendour among shadows, a bright blot
Upon this gloomy scene, a Spirit that strove
For truth, and like the Preacher found it not.

By Percy Bysshe Shelley, Sonnet IV in Posthumous Poems