About Jaime Wolf

Jaime

Location:

(USA)

Joined on:

04/15/08

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  Culture

  Censor-y Overlords

  
  
  
  Under ordinary circumstances, Chinese censors make it difficult for filmmakers to present any kind of meaningful depiction of contemporary life, which is one of the reasons that period stories and martial arts adventures are so prevalent. Like our MPAA ratings board, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television is generally opaque & high-handed—earlier this year, however, the organization issued a list of specific guidelines that filmmakers are expected to abide by...a list so specific and strict as to shut down nearly all films set in the present, a situation that is expected to last until after the Olympics.
  
  Meanwhile, documentaries—made by Chinese and foreigners—remain among the best, and most satisfying means to get beneath the surface of Chinese life. Jung Chang's Up The Yangtze (currently playing in New York, and opening in theaters around the country throughout the summer), about a tour boat cruising the Three Gorges site, deftly counterposes the young members of its crew with the well-off Westerners they serve; clearly China's rapid modernization is no less bewildering to natives than to foreigners. Joana Vasquez-Arong's Neo-Lounge spotlights a high-end bar in Beijing, following the mostly Western expatriates who congregate there over a year in their lives. Manufactured Landscapes, about the photographer Edward Burtynsky, features breathtaking footage of Chinese factories and industry and their environmental impact, while West of the Tracks, a monumental 9-hour film, observes the death of "the iron rice bowl"—heavy industry in the Northeast that had long been the center of the country's economy.
  
  And beyond the reach of the government censors, an increasing number of Chinese filmmakers are making underground, un-approved films—both fiction and documentary. Karin Chien, a New York-based indie producer has just launched DGenerate, a distribution apparatus for such titles. This summer, they'll be releasing 15 films focusing on contemporary China, including a feature-length documentary on the nationwide American Idol-esque Super Girl Singing Contest television show and the lyrical San Yuan Li (clip above), a collaborative portrait of a village trapped within rapidly urbanizing Guangzhou, originally commissioned for the 2003 Venice Biennale.

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  Posted on May 16, 2008 by - Jaime Wolf

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  Media

  

  China And The Pirates

  In the current issue, the filmmaker Jia Zhang Ke writes about how China's rampant DVD piracy has created a class of street vendors operating suitcase cinematheques, their tables overflowing with Hollywood blockbusters placed willy nilly next to arthouse obscurities and Asian hits. There's very little sense of curation: if it's been released somewhere, the Chinese will bootleg it (researching this phenomenon in Shanghai, in and among Pirates of the Caribbean and Mission: Impossible discs, we found illicit copies of the '60s avant-garde film Chappaqua, and The Brave, a little-seen film that Johnny Depp directed in 1997).
  
  Understandably, Hollywood studios have spent a lot of time attempting to fight piracy, but the subject isn't quite so black and white. Because the Chinese government only allows 20 non-Chinese films a year to be exhibited in theaters, the black market provides a window onto the outside world that wouldn't otherwise be open; many Western stars are stars in China primarily because of piracy.
  
  Last month, a Beijing DVD vendor was convicted and sent to prison for Intellectual Property Theft, the first retailer to be so punished. Such gestures may increase as the Olympics approach, but the true culprits who manufacture and distribute counterfeit DVDs, software, clothing and electronics will continue to evade prosecution—despite Government avowals in support of the Motion Picture Association and other IP watchdogs, a significant portion of the country's GDP comes from pirate goods, and in part the Chinese regard profiting this way as historical payback for their exploitation by the West in the late 19th and early 20th century.
  
  An overview of piracy written by Anne Stevenson-Yang and Ken DeWoskin for the Far Eastern Economic Review, can be found here (.pdf). A contrarian take by Aaron Schwabach in the Journal of International Media and Entertainment Law, arguing that the problem has been overstated, can be found here.
  
  Of course, the aura of romance, danger and adventure surrounding the notion of Chinese piracy dates back to the 1800s. Much of it can be found in Milton Caniff's groundbreaking 1930s newspaper comic "Terry and the Pirates," an adventure serial following a pair of American fortune hunters up and down the Chinese coast. Though marred by the kind of condescending Orientalism then prevalent, the comic is genuinely thrilling, beautiful to look at, and an obvious source for the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" series. IDW have recently published their third handsome volume of the complete strips.

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  Posted on May 15, 2008 by - Jaime Wolf

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  Culture

  

  The Chinese MC Hammer

  As the harrowing details of yesterday's 7.8 earthquake in Sichuan Province continue to pile up, allow us to offer a few moments of light respite courtesy of the Internet celebrity known as the Chinese MC Hammer. With equal measures of diligence and exuberance, this young man has recreated the choreography of MTV classics by Hammer, and Michael Jackson, in his living room (in some of the clips, implacable relatives can be seen in the background, sitting on the couch and knitting, or stirring up food in the kitchen). On YouTube, his collected work can be found under the name HammerXXX; on the Chinese site youku, he goes by MC强强. Should some Chinese filmmaker ever decide to make a local version of "Fame," he's obviously a shoo-in for one of the leads.
  
  
  
  Meanwhile, if it's a bit of additional historical background on earthquakes in China that you seek, this page by the Disaster specialist Dr. George Parannas-Carayannis is a good place to start.

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  Posted on May 12, 2008 by - Jaime Wolf

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  Culture

  

  China's Secret Weapon

  We bet no one at Hill & Knowlton is smart enough to suggest this, but if the Chinese government really wants to endear itself to the rest of the world, it should kick the dopey Panda to the curb and adopt the Red Panda as the country's new national animal. Native to Southern China (and also—hello!—to Tibet), the Red Panda looks less like a bear and more like a raccoon or a cat; despite its name, its actual relationship to the familiar Giant Panda seems quite distant. An engangered species, the Red Panda simply happens to be the world's cutest animal, and we all know how powerful cuteness can be as an inducement to forgive or overlook various transgressions. Naturally, the Japanese, with their unsurpassed connoisseurship of cuteness, understand the Red Panda's appeal—an episode of "Genius! Shimura Zoo", in which the supercute Japanese hostess Becky is forced to share her apartment with a pair of mischievous Red Pandas stands as one of the signal achievements in the culture of kawaii. The Red Panda is also commonly referred to as the Lesser Panda—to which all we can say is: Please.

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  Posted on May 1, 2008 by - Jaime Wolf

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  Media

  

  China's Less-Polished News Sources

  Too frequently the slick, overly produced style of network television news shows ends up obscuring the actual subjects they're purportedly covering—most programs, despite the opportunities presented by the medium, are sadly more "tell" than "show." As a result, some of the more interesting glimpses of life in China can be seen via various scrappier and less polished outlets. Over the past couple of years, Current TV has presented a handful of China pieces, including stories on the influx of Western entrepreneurs trying to establish businesses in China, migrant labor, and the Chinese sex industry. The expat-run web-video concern Sexy Beijing TV produces quirky documentary snapshots on urban development and local culture, and Al Jazeera often runs China stories, including reports on the growing Chinese auto industry, and about Chinese workers brought to Italy to work in sweatshops operated by the country's textile industry.

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  Posted on April 30, 2008 by - Jaime Wolf

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  Politics

  

  Be Scared Of China (Sometimes)

  Status of Chinese People is an aggregator blog primarily spotlighting news stories about authoritarian abuses committed by the Chinese Government. One can read through it for useful (if not always or entirely definitive) background on the persecution of Falun Gong, Tibet, censorship, and freedom of speech—we are particularly fond, however, of its collection of stories about shoddily produced and counterfeit goods. The special link to "Bloody Harvest," a lengthy investigation into persistent allegations that the Chinese government and military have colluded to create a profitable trade in so-called "transplant tourism" by harvesting live organs from imprisoned Falun Gong members, is truly the stuff of nightmares though.

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  Posted on April 25, 2008 by - Jaime Wolf

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  Culture

  

  A Chinese Pop Primer And Mixtape

  Although the mainland has evolved rich and vibrant offerings in film and television in the post-Mao era, most Chinese-language pop music still tends to come from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. Led by Cui Jian, an important Beijing rock underground emerged in the '90s, but it's hard to call much of that music catchy, exactly, or danceable, or "poppy." And while promising indie and electronica scenes have also sprung up over the past few years (which our friends at Shanghaiist.com have been excellent at spotlighting), few of the big acts that you'll hear on the radio, or see on TV will come from the mainland—and if they do, chances are they'll be studious imitators of one of the established stars.

  Over at Muxtape, we've assembled a mix of songs in Cantonese and Mandarin by some of the bigger names in the Chinese pop firmament. Mainstream Chinese musical taste is often unfortunately biased in favor of the soft and melodic—the recordings of the Carpenters are much beloved on the mainland. As a result, CDs by even the most adventurous and forward thinking Chinese artists can be heavy on sappy ballads, but the best tracks deserve to be hits in any language.

  Some quick notes on a few of the artists: Coco Lee and Wang Lee Hom are ringers of a sort—both grew up in the U.S., in, respectively, San Francisco and Rochester, both were in their late teens when they caught the notice of Chinese talent scouts while visiting family overseas (Lee in Hong Kong, Wang in Taiwan), and both speak English better than they do Chinese. Hong Kong's Karen Mok is one of the most consistently interesting and experimental commercial Chinese artists, and a dynamic live performer—her CD Golden Flower, produced by the Taiwanese rocker Wu Bai, stands among the best electronica/dance discs of the past decade. Vicki Zhao Wei is the only contemporary mainland artist in the compilation, and an enormous pop and film star. A pioneer of Chinese dream pop, Faye Wong has famously covered songs by the Cranberries and the Sundays, and collaborated with the Cocteau Twins. My Little Airport is a delightful Hong Kong indie band whose music is now being distributed internationally by the pop connoisseurs at the Spanish label Elefant. Chow Hsuan is a legendary singer and film star from China's jazz age, recording in the 1930s and '40s—recently, a bunch of classic recordings by Chow and other artists from the time, were compiled and remixed by the Hong Kong DJ Ian Widgery and released as "Shanghai Lounge Divas."

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  Posted on April 24, 2008 by - Jaime Wolf

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  Culture

  

  China's "Most Famous Foreigner"

  If you happen to come across a Chinese language instruction program on CCTV International called "Sports Chinese," you may not be aware that its host, the ingratiating Canadian redhead who goes by the name Da Shan is the most famous white man in China. Da Shan ("Big Mountain"; his Anglo name is Mark Rowswell) acquired his impeccable Mandarin at Peking University in the late '80s, and remained in the country after the Tiananmen Square crackdown drove most other foreign students out. Appearing in some television sketches, he took up Xiansheng, a traditional Chinese form of nonsense comedy, his mastery of which brought him widespread popularity. To non-Chinese, Da Shan comes across as obsequious and slightly antiquated; resident expatriates regard him as deeply uncool. But it is precisely this non-threatening, deferential manner—a Caucasian Uncle Tomism—which the Chinese find so lovable, and which has made him a ubiquitous television host and endorser of commercial products.

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  Posted on April 23, 2008 by - Jaime Wolf

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  Environment

  

  China's Green Brothers

  In honor of Earth Day, we'd like to point you to the Green Brothers, aka John Romankiewicz and Shane Zhao Xiangyu, enthusiastic young men in their early 20s whose shared interest in China's various efforts at sustainable energy has resulted in a series of enjoyable video podcasts exploring local initiatives in recycling, biomass power, solar water heaters and windfarming (for some reason, the video links from their own page aren't working; ergo, we've linked directly to their page on YouTube). If the sheer scale of Edward Burtynsky's pictures of industrial waste and environmental degradation can make you feel the problems are insurmountable, the Green Brothers provide a refreshing, humanizing perspective, a sense of life on the ground, including interviews with farmers and workers about recycling and alternative energy. Romankiewicz and Zhao's vivacity and good humor is infectious; the comments section on their intro page is already filling up with interview requests, and an invitation to screen their podcasts as part of a short film festival in Vancouver.

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  Posted on April 22, 2008 by - Jaime Wolf

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  Education

  

  Crazy English

  "Crazy English" is a popular method of English-language instruction in which Chinese students declaim random-sounding sentences in unison, in public places at the top of their lungs. Its originator, Li Yang, who has become a very rich man, seems to some more like a demagogue or cult leader than a true educator. You can see students practicing his method here; you can read about the unsettling aspects of Crazy English zealotry here.

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  UPDATE: The New Yorker just covered Crazy English here.

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  Posted on April 21, 2008 by - Jaime Wolf

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  Culture

  

  The Biggest Dick

  China may vie fiercely with Dubai, South Korea and Malaysia to have the world's tallest skyscraper, but they can lay claim to the world's largest penis sculpture. At 30 feet tall, it is more imposing than similar icons made by penis-worshipping sects in Korea, Japan, and Bhutan (Guangdong is also home to the legendary "Father Rock," a natural stone formation some 92 feet high).

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  Posted on April 18, 2008 by - Jaime Wolf

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  Environment

  

  Everyone Talks About The Weather...

  The old saying that "everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it" turns out not to be true in China. The latest issue of Plenty Magazine features an excellent article by Tom Scocca about the extensive effort currently being mounted by the Chinese government (whose Weather Modification Office employs more than 50,000 people) to ensure clear and sunny days in chronically smog-choked—and in July and August, rain-soaked—Beijing for the Olympics this summer. Weather modification turns out to have a long history in China; attempting to fulfill Mao Zedong's imperative "Ren ding shen tiang" ("Man must defeat the heavens"), the country spends $90 million annually on munitions shot into the sky in order to variously seed clouds for rain or head off precipitation.

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  Posted on April 16, 2008 by - Jaime Wolf

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  Art & Design

  

  Document China

  Earlier we spotlighted the amazing China photographs of Greg Girard. Fritz Hoffmann, Girard's partner in the photo agency Document China, also has some terrific work that can be seen here. Howard W. French, the Shanghai correspondent for The New York Times also carries a vintage Rolleiflex on his travels and has been posting some of the arresting results here and here. Janek Żdżarski, a Polish photographer who's been living in Beijing for the past couple of years, keeps a photoblog here. Meanwhile, Robert Vanderhist's photos of Shanghai from the early '90s already seem ancient, capturing some of what's since been erased by the city's supersonic development process.

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  Posted on April 17, 2008 by - Jaime Wolf

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  Art & Design

  

  Phantom Shanghai

  We're pretty crazy about Greg Girard, whose pictures of Shenzen accompany Adam Matthews's story in this issue. After a decade based in Hong Kong, Girard moved to Shanghai in 1998 and has been documenting the mainland's dizzying changes ever since. His book "Phantom Shanghai" was one of our favorite publications of last year. Images from that project can be seen in this pdf and online here; an interview with Girard is here. A wide selection of Girard's personal and commercial work covering China can also be found at www.greggirard.com.

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  Posted on April 15, 2008 by - Jaime Wolf

• Culture

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  They Win Medals!

  Table tennis will be the hottest local ticket at the Beijing Olympics, and the U.S. competitors are bound to be anxious. — read more

  Contributors: Jaime Wolf

  010: The China Issue - Apr 01 2008

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