19 posts tagged “china”
Lust, Caution
Director, Ang Lee
Fantastic movie! I ordered it from my mom's netflix account because I've been wanting to see it. I had no idea it was rated NC-17, lol. She told me to watch it first to tell her if she would like it :P I may just have her order the R version if she wants to see it. I dont' imagine she would like the graphic sex scenes. Other than that, I thought that it was a fantastic film, definitely high quality which is a shame that I'm sure people will pass it up because of the higher rating.
I really enjoyed the entire story line. I love seeing WWII era Shanghai and Hong Kong, aside from the depressing occupation part. I just find all the movies that are about that time so interesting. I definitely recommend the movie, even if you get the R version and skip the graphic bits, it is still a great movie and great story.
It's been a long time since I've watched a Chinese film and just hearing the language at the very beginning made me miss China so much and really made me want to get back into the language. Ah, so sad.
Anyway, the ending was typical Chinese. Very sad :(
A late night challenge: Show us a photo of the full moon.
What can I say? Is it obvious I'm missing China? Another photo from my travels, a little village we stayed at outside of Turpan, Xinjiang Province. This is in the morning :) *sigh* Good times. Man, I have to get started on my plans for the reunion! I haven't even signed up yet, let alone a plane ticket. I can feel my empty wallet throbbing at all my plans when I no longer have a job.
~Nikki
Awesome. I so wish there was a protest going on around me. I would so be there. I'm still so furious at the mention of China. I know that each protest makes it worse for the Tibetans, or at the very least, doesn't really help their cause but man, I get a twisted joy out of knowing that they must be so annoyed and embarrassed at not being able to get the torch through hardly any of the cities. I'll stop there, because I will get venomous if I keep talking about it.
After Paris?
San Fransisco.
Whoever thought they would be able to get through San Fransisco without incidents should be fired.
That is a picture of some protesters scaling the golden gate bridge. I can't imagine how windy it must be up there. I hope they don't get hurt. Fantastic though.
The problem I have is that none of this really matters. Sure, it embarrasses them, sure it 'brings the human rights abuses in China to light' (bad idea, Olympic Committee, btw), but it won't really change anything. China is still going to benefit from getting the Olympics. Even with the protests and lack of substantial reproach, it is just an international showing that China can get away with anything without fear of serious retribution. Seriously, Olympic Committee, what did you expect? Sure, they made promises, but what incentives do they have to keep them since they already won the Olympic bid? The repression in China has gotten worse since the second they won that stupid bid. Good job Olympic Committee. This goes on your heads too.
Seriously, it is like giving the Olympics to Nazi Germany. Great idea that was.
Screw you China.
~Nikki
Show us a photo of cherry blossoms in bloom.... Or, if you don't have cherry blossoms where you live, show us a photograph of any flower in bloom!
Wow, two in a row. Can you tell when I have a lot of homework? I tend to post more. Ah, procrastination, you will kill me in the end.
*sigh* I miss China. I'm glad that the reunion is coming up, I want to see my friends so bad. I hope Alex is going to be there (the dude in the picture)!
Anyway, speaking of China, I'm off to continue my paper on the political human rights abuses suffered by Tibetans. Uplifting...
~Nikki
China summons U.S. envoy over Dalai Lama award
US Dalai Lama award angers China
Dalai Lama honor stokes U.S.-Chinese tensions
I have mixed feelings about this. Mainly because the suppressed realist in me knows the futility of his cause in dealing with China. Honestly, does anyone in the world (outside of China) really think he could be a threat? It's ridiculous. I love that he won this award, the pictures just put a huge smile on my face. But I worry. I worry about the repercussions to the people in Tibet. There has recently already been a huge round of Anti-Dalai Lama campaigns in Tibet and this, I fear, will just make it worse. It is a double edged sword. The Dalai Lama receiving this award, just like visiting Germany last month, are huge steps for the Tibetan cause and are showing that, little by little, more things are being done to help. Or at least showing that we aren't so afraid of China. But, I know enough about China that they don't take outside interference nicely, and even if the threats against U.S.-China diplomatic relations are just empty threats, the things that will go on inside Tibet will be completely real.
Exile Tibetan Government insists China to adopt sincere approach to Tibet issue
That's the real kick isn't it. China just pisses me off sometimes. I guess they are just playing the role of a authoritarian state. Pretend that things are going great, make it look like you are 'talking' but really not doing anything. It's just stalling, why open up talks at all? To get international pressure off their backs while they wait for the Dalai Lama to die. Which will open a whole other can of worms, don't get me started on what I think will happen then. Beijing just pisses me off. This is the problem I had with the Conflict Analysis paper I just wrote over the issue. She wanted us to come up with a solution, which I didn't. You know the only thing I could think of
Why can't we all just get along?
Some more links
Resolve Tibet issue: Dalai Lama
Burma and Tibet: The world's double standards
Wow, it's like an article on the discussions I've been having with people for the past few weeks. (If you only read one of the articles, you should read this one)
And just for kicks Tibet officials "furious" at Dalai Lama's U.S. award
Tibet officials=China
"If the Dalai Lama can receive such an award, there must be no justice or good people in the world."
I'm sorry, I find that comment extremely hilarious (in a not funny way -_-)
On another note, I won't really go into it, here is a response from Taiwan to China's comment about reunifying (or whatever they want to call it).
Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday offered talks on a formal peace accord with Taiwan, but Taiwan rejected the call, saying it is an independent country whose future must be decided by the Taiwan people. "We cannot discuss peaceful reunification with a regime that suppresses Tibet, shoots its own people and backs Myanmar's military government," Government Information Office Minister Shieh Jhy-wey told reporters.
"Taiwan's founding principles are human rights and democracy. If Hu Jintao really places hope on the Taiwan people, as he said, he should listen to the Taiwan people's voice. Although the Chinese Communist Party rules China, it does not represent the Chinese people," Shieh said.
~Nikki
Show us a photo that's overexposed or underexposed but you love how it turned out.
The story: We had woken up early (think: 3am) to go on a camel ride, climb up some sand dunes, and watch the sun rise over the Gobi Desert in Dunhuang. The dune was impossibly steep and the sand impossibly soft. Took AGES to get up. Fortunately, it took seconds to fly and tumble down, lol. And even with my camera in a bag, the mini sand flying around everywhere worked it's way into the crevices and broke my poor camera, half way through the trip.
Later that day, we had the whole day free to relax since we woke up so early. We walked around town and found a cute little park and just laid down. I worked at my camera with some business cards and the like, for ever. I was determined. I was overjoyed when I got it to work (I still have the shitty camera to this day), but for some reason, for a little while, the exposure was totally off. But, I still loved the way this picture of Kat turned out :)
Show us something that you are saving or budgeting for.
Submitted by foxsydee.
Well, here they are, in order both of sooner to later, and also price wise...
And, ultimately, the goal of my life, getting back to China and staying there. For a while at least.
罗可儿
Nikki
Show us a cityscape.
*insert many sighs of longing here*
~Nikki
I can only guess that it made the world he went
back to…strangely without meaning. Though he lived in it, though he even
enjoyed it, it remained utterly remote. I think it had lost sense for
him. In his heart was the reflection of a lovely dream that he could
never quite recall.
-Somerset Maugham
I very rarely go out to eat, and even more rarely by myself, but yesterdayI
thought I would treat myself while I was out running errands. I went to Rice Box. I don't go out for Chinese
food. I find nothing more disappointing than going and eating something
that doesn't even vaguely resemble actual Chinese food and it generally just makes me melancholy.
Maybe the food at this place was close enough to being real to call up a pain that was hiding
below the surface. Maybe it was simply eating Chinese food alone.
But it felt like a shot in the heart. The longing that I felt at that
particular moment for China was more poignant than it has been in months, since
I first came back.
What am I doing here?
I have plans, aspirations, motivation, but I feel so completely stuck in limbo that it feels eternal. Waitressing makes me feel like my life is over and constantly reminds me that I'm overqualified for it and just want to get out. I fake it, but I feel like I don't belong. Everywhere I go is the constant reminder that I'm stuck here, getting into a groove of a boring, stagnant life. I can't do anything till I'm out of school, but even the fact that I got stuck here is infuriating. I can't intern till next summer, I can't work until I graduate, I can't move until I find a job somewhere else.
I miss my life in China but wonder, at the same time, if I'll ever, mentally, be able to go back. It's such a different life than the one I am leading.
Maybe this is all because I'm simply lonely. There is no one I can connect to here, I haven't found anyone with interests the same as mine. My friends are scattered across the globe now, especially since many were able to graduate and find jobs (I can only blame Katrina for so long before the excuse gets old). They have kept going, and I am still behind. Maybe a trip to visit some of them would get me out of this funk that I'm in. Or maybe it'll just put my life into a harsher contrast than I am currently seeing it now in my mind.
I look ahead and see my life being so impermanent, jumping around from place to place. But at the same time, my life seems so completely stuck. Limbo kills.
You've got a lot of choices. If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore
and you're not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice.
~Steven D. Woodhull
Yea, it's another one of those entries.
Someone on my friends list on LJ mentioned it though, and you know how it
always gets me thinking. It was about how we love the idea of searching
for home. Think of all the movies or TV
shows that you’ve seen about people searching for their home or coming back and
finding it unlike they remember. Why
are we so drawn to it? It isn’t like it
is a very happy concept. Maybe it’s
because it is something we all go through, searching for a home, at some point
in our lives. That in between time is a
rough time in life; the feeling that you don’t really have a ‘home’. It isn’t just a place where you put your
stuff, it’s a certain feeling. Having
your stuff around you doesn’t make a place home. It’s a trade off sometimes I guess, do you want your things, your
possessions around you or someplace that actually feels right? I guess not everyone has to make that
choice, or perhaps they just don’t want to.
People ask me what it was I liked about China. I find it hard to answer. ‘Oh, there is the pollution that blocks out the sun, the taxis that try and run you down, and everything is harder than it needs to be’ always makes them give me a look and wonder what exactly was good about it. It was home. Texas was home for a while simply because I grew up here, but anyone that knows me at all knows that I hated it. I lived in New Orleans, and while I could have stayed there forever, I still had a small feeling that I was an outsider, maybe that is what happens in college though. But in Beijing? For no reason, it felt like home. That’s always the feeling that you are looking for. If only it wasn’t so far away.
And you go back home, and it isn’t the same as you left it. Or you aren’t the same. There is something in you that knows there is a little something off, a little something different. You realise that there is something missing now. What is that, some quote I have ‘The worst feeling in the world is the homesickness that comes over a man occasionally when he is at home’. And yet there is also another one that says that half the people in the world are homesick all the time and it isn’t another place that you long for, but something in yourself that you haven’t been able to find. Makes you wonder. I suppose once you’ve found that certain thing inside you, anywhere you go will be home. That is always what I strive for, when you find true peace in yourself, changing location won’t make it go away. It was always easier to think that when I was in a place I liked though. But I’m working on it :)
You can never go home again.
I can only guess that it made the
world he went back to…strangely without meaning. Though he lived in it, though he even enjoyed it, it remained
utterly remote. I think it had lost
sense for him. In his heart was the
reflection of a lovely dream that he could never quite recall. -Somerset Maugham
~Nikki
