There is one guy in the building across from mine who has taken to learning how to play the trumpet. Sometimes when I leave my windows open I can hear him practicing. It seems like he only plays American music. One time last semester I walked into my room to the rousing sounds of Dixie which was a somewhat strange experience. A few days ago he was playing My Way and I am please to say he has gotten better since he started. I guess rock on trumpet man!
Note: I really don't have much rhyme nor reason for sharing this, I just though it was kind of fun.
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If you ask most Americans to name a Chinese actor they will probably name Jackie Chan. This makes sense since, unlike many Chinese actors, Jackie Chan has released several popular English language movies in the United States. Jackie Chan is no less popular in his native China, but Jackie Chan and 成龙 (Chéng Lóng in standard Mandarin Chinese, Jackie Chan's stage name in China) are two separate entities. While Jackie Chan's work, like Rush Hour or Shanghai Noon, are comedies 成龙 has a more diverse filmography. While many of his films, like Drunken Master and Police Story (1985), have a comedic tone some of his other Chinese language films, like Police Story (2013) and the soon to be released The Foreigner, are significantly more serious. Furthermore, 成龙 has a well respected music and opera career; in China, he not only does his own stunts but he does his own soundtrack too. 成龙 is significantly more political than Jackie Chan: he has criticized the ruling Democratic Progressive Party on Taiwan (almost earning him a ban form the island), 2008 Olympic protesters, and Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters while supporting Xi Jingping's drug war and Chinese nationalism (even writing an explanation for the Chinese National Anthem, The March of the Volunteers). This year's Spring Festival Gala 成龙 sang a rather serious song about loving his homeland, China (this is somewhat important since Jackie Chan is a resident of the Hong Kong SAR and some in the Hong Kong SAR don't see themselves as Chinese). It is not like there weren't comedy bits in the Spring Festival Gala (it is important to note though that comedy bits and funny bits are different things, particularly in the Spring Festival Gala), it is just that he chose not to participate in those segments and, since he has done more serious stuff in the past, this wasn't weird to anyone. From what I also heard, he even had a sex scandal in China, which he survived I believe in part because he is seen as a more mature actor in China than he is in the US. 成龙 is defiantly more respected as an actor in China than Jackie Chan is in the United States, probably because of the more diverse and serious roles he has taken in China along with his successful Chinese language music career. This begs the question, are there any commonalities between Jackie Chan and 成龙 other than they are both stage names for the same dude? Yes actually. Even in China, Fáng Shìlóng (房仕龙, Jackie Chan/成龙's birth name), still has made his name with funny movies where he does martial arts and stunts without a stunt man, like he did in the US. His style of martial arts is also the same both in China and the US, from what I have read it is a deliberate contrast to Bruce Lee's martial arts style. He also tries to be a good role model in his Chinese and English movies, he avoids cursing and playing villains in both languages, preferring to play more every man type roles. Whatever you call him 房仕龙/成龙/Jackie Chan has, undeniably, made his name as a major actor and a house hold name. The only issue is what name your house knows him as.
Usually when people in Shanghai talk to me about "football" they are actually referring to Soccer, aka football almost everywhere on Earth except the United States and now the Global Harbor Mall in Shanghai. For some reason, Great Stone Gridiron will train your young Chinese son how to play real American football. They also spent a good deal of money on advertising, Global Harbor is covered in ads for American football training. I haven't seen very many people in China actually playing American football but apparently someone must. I think it might be a way for Chinese parents to help get their sons into American universities and colleges with low ranking football programs but high ranking academic programs.
Yesterday I went to Srinakharinwirot University, one of Juniata's exchange partners and the University where all my Thai friends go to, to talk to their next batch of exchange students. It was a bit more formal then I thought, they even brought the guy who funds the program (who also sponcered the TnT kitchen), to speak a bit about why he likes Juniata. Aftet the two Thai former exchange students spoke I talked for a bit about thinks I thought was important. We also sat down afterwards so I could help with questions they had, something I think I did better with. Finally, Srinakharinwirot University is trying to figure out why Juniata is not sending them any students, eventhough that is part of the exchange. I think I might end up helping them figure this out when I get back to the US.
Random Stuff on a Random Day in Hanoi
So I really didn’t have a theme today for why I did what I did, it all was just kind of around and sounded cool so that is what I did. I decided I wanted a lighter day since I have a water puppet show scheduled for later today so I just did two big things: the Military Museum and the Fine Art Museum of Vietnam. I liked the Military Museum but I generally like military museums so that is not a helpful statement. What I can say is that if I was French and I visited the Military Museum I would be pretty bummed. Most of the large artifacts were American made war trophies used ether by American or French forces. The only French made weapons in the place were small arms while the Vietnamese proudly displayed American planes, tanks, bombs, and guns they captured, they even displayed a pile of scrap from shot down American aircraft. It is nice to know that your military’s stuff is so valuable that even 50 years later even the literal junk gets displayed proudly to show the overwhelming odds a people fought against. The Military Museum also had weapons used by Communist Vietnamese forces: the regular NVA, VC, and various other Communist militia forces. They even had the first Communist tank that rolled into Saigon and a MIG fighter that shot down several American jets. Be warned though, the Military Museum does expect you to be at least somewhat familiar with Vietnamese history, for example the Museum spends a lot of time discussing the Battle of Dien Bien Phu without really telling you why the Battle of Dien Bien Phu was important (it was the last battle of the First Indochina war and a victory for the Vietnamese over French forces FYI). After so much Communism I kind of wanted to do something different so I went to the Fine Art Museum of Vietnam later that day. This did not help get me away from Uncle Ho and the ideas of Marx though. Had to first walk by the North Korean embassy in Hanoi which, while somewhat nondescript, was obviously the North Korean embassy because of the bulletin board with framed photos of Kim Jong-Un in it. The Museum itself was also very communistic. Only the first floor was devoted to art from before the rise of the Vietnamese Communist Party. The rest of the art was heavily influenced by communist ideas. Much of it was about the workers, the peasants, Ho Chi Minh, and the Communist military forces. Still, they had a nice collection of early Vietnamese Buddhist statuary and a fine collection of Vietnamese lacquer painting. Two of the museums other three exhibits, a special exhibit on ASIAN printing, a pottery exhibit, and the exhibit on Vietnamese folk art, were also beneficial to the Communist Party. While the pottery and the folk art exhibits were kind of weak the ASIAN printing exhibit had some cool works. I just wish the museum actually explained things a bit more, I have very little context for any of the works. Finally I took a short walk to Hanoi’s Opera House. It was a cool building I guess. It was also next to the actual Hanoi Hilton Hotel something I always wondered if they had. Note: I plan on doing a small update ether late today or early tomorrow on the Water Puppet show and dinner. In memory of Chef Peng Chang-kuei, inventor of the Americanized-Chinese classic General Taos Chicken who died today, I ate the closest thing ECNU serves to the sweet and sour chicken dish. While ECNU'S version is different, more Hunanese, from the one served in Chinese takeout places across the nation it is still pretty good. Even though Facebook, and consequently Facebook Messenger, is blocked in China many Chinese still want some type of online messenger system to use, enter WeChat. The vast majority of Chinese and foreigners I have met in China have a WeChat account and use it regularly, more regularly than texting or calling. Even Chabad's Rabbi in Shanghai has a WeChat that he uses to share info about the Chabad House's activates and events. While WeChat has a Facebook wall esk "Moments" page and "subscription" accounts the app is really designed for person to person or group communication. In terms of features I would put WeChat's feature set far ahead of Facebook Messenger's. While Messenger offers a rarely used payment feature as kind of a side thing, WeChat pay seems almost more useful then a credit card in China. Also, WeChat offers voice calling and GPS maps which are both useful features that Facebook doesn't offer. Finally, WeChat has a sticker collection feature, that Facebook doesn't, which is simply far too fun. You will whole heartedly agree with the old adage "a picture is worth 1,000 words" when you express approval for something with a clapping Xi Jinping or showing confusion with a ground hog shouting "啊." My biggest issue with WeChat is that they most probably likely turn over chat logs and metadata over to the Chinese government whenever the government wants it. While for me this is not a problem as I avoid doing anything too sketchy or illegal, it is a problem though for activists who find that the police know the plans they made on WeChat a little too well. If I needed any level of security for my conversation I would not use WeChat. In China, I enjoy WeChat and I wish Facebook would steal some ideas from them. Outside of China, I will only use WeChat to communicate with my Chinese friends in part because of its limited use in the US and in part form its total lack of security. This morning, I was woken up by a Skype call with my Mom who is actively at my family's Thanksgiving party in New Jersey. Because of how time zones work, even though it is November 25th in Shanghai, it is still the 24th on the East Coast of the United States. I enjoyed popping in for Thanksgiving, even if it was a bit confusing for not fully awake me. While this 12 or 13 hour (depending on day light savings time) is somewhat difficult to wrap your head around, fear not China has even more time zone weirdness if today also being tomorrow or yesterday makes too much sense for you. If hypothetically I was studying in Western China in cities like Lasa, Tibet Autonomous Region or Chengdu, Sichuan Provence the legal time difference would be the same 12 or 13 hours. Unlike many countries, all of China legally sets their clocks to Beijing's time zone instead of using the 5 time zones China actually covers. While this is ok for someone like me in Shanghai who would be in the same time zone as Beijing anyway, the significant difference between solar time and clock time poses a real problem for people in West China. Many just ignore the law altogether and use either what time zone they should be in or they adjust their schedules to compensate for the difference in solar time and clock time; hypothetically you would have lunch at 10:00AM when it is solar noon instead of having lunch at 12:00PM which is clock noon. This time zone oddness also means that the largest amount you would ever officially have to change your clocks by crossing one time zone is if you went from far West China (UTC +8:00) to Afghanistan (UTC +4:30). Afghanistan is one of a few countries to use a non-standard half an hour time zone. China also borders North Korea who, interestingly but kind of unsurprisingly, uses the non-standard half an hour time zone of UTC +8:30. If you really wanted to mess with your time zones and didn't care what countries you had to go to do it, an overland trip from Afghanistan, through China, and ending up in North Korea would be your best bet. I fully expect that Thanksgiving I won't have to deal with any of this time zone stuff, since I will be celebrating Thanksgiving from New Jersey, USA.
Unlike English, which tends to adopt foreign words to get new words, Chinese tends to gets new words by combining preexisting Chinese words. For example, the Chinese word for computer is 电脑; with 电 meaning electrionic and 脑 meaning brain combining to form the complex concept of a computer. Thanksgiving can be broken down into 感恩,meaning greatful, which can iteself be broken down into 感,feel or sense; 嗯,kindness; and 节,meaning holiday. Still, my favorite example of this is turkey, which in Chinese is 火鸡,from 火 meaning fire and 鸡 meaning chicken. While I am a fan of turkey and Thanksgiving, it would be significantly cooler if instead of eating a bird with a named after a country it isn't from for Thanksgiving we all sat around the table and ate a fire chicken! While it may be a funny literal translation with our pure white domesticated turkeys you can defiantly see the fire connection with some of the more while turkeys with their glistening feathers. Even though Chinese has a perfectly good word for turkey and the stereotype of China is that the people will eat any animal under the sun, turkey is rare in China. I am sure if I wanted to buy a turkey I could get one somewhere in Shanghai, but I believe it would be quite the quest.
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AuthorI am a junior at Juniata College spending a year studying abroad at East China Normal University. Please feel free to join my on my journey to China and beyond. Archives
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