Happy Leap Day.

       
Hello, happy leap day to the all of you. Starting from tomorrow, it's gonna be March already. Aloha March and goodbye February. As usual, I hope things will be fine throughout the month. Oh, I can't wait for the holidays. So what are you guys going to do during the holidays? I guess most of my friends are going for camps. Sounds fun but I'm not going. Gonna spend my time at home. :) Latest songs addictions are very quiet and classical songs. Would like to blog something today. :D

I'm gonna blog about the united buddy bears in Pavilion. There's a lot of it but I couldn't manage to snap all of the bear's photos. But nevermind, at least I've some with me. Gotta blog those photos now. But I'll just blog some of it, will continue more soon. :D

Yes, it's United Buddy Bears. :D

Respect for all life.

Japan.

Malaysia.

America.

UK.

Canada.

Australia.

It's good to gain a friend than losing a friend. Sometimes I found that whenever I wanted to chat with a friend which you've never chat with him/her for a long time, it's hard. It's like there's something blocking between you and him/her. The feeling's weird. Anyway, gotta take things a little bit more easier. :)

That's all for now, see you! :D

Yours Truly.

Doris C.

AnDa Union

Back in November of last year, a group of Inner Mongolian musicians - AnDa Union - came through Lawrence, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri on their US tour. The group performed at the Lied Center on the campus of the University of Kansas. In addition to their live show, there was also a screening of a documentary about the group at a library in Kansas City.

I want to share AnDa Union and their music here on my blog. They're awesome.



I'll first talk about their show and then the documentary about the group.

AnDa Union's show was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. They use instruments unique to the grasslands of northern China, belt out "Mongolian throat singing" for their vocals, and select their songs from a catalog of ethnic folk music from the steppes of the Mongolian plateau.

To get a taste of what they're about, here is a YouTube video of the song "Derlcha" from a performance they gave in January, 2011:



Very unique stuff. I'd never seen anything like the bowed instruments most of them are playing. That's not an er hu. It's an instrument native to ethnic Mongolians (that I don't know the name of). I found it interesting that, as you can see from the video, they're not pressing down on the strings when they play that instrument. Instead, they're pushing their fingers onto the fret board next to the string.

Here's a photo of what I'm talking about:



Below is another video of what was probably my favorite song of the show - "Galloping Horses." This song was the finale of the show we saw in Lawrence:



This song, and their whole show really, is so high-energy. In addition to unlike just about anything else in the world, AnDa Union's music is simply a lot of fun. I personally think having a good time is what going to see a music performance is all about and felt very happy after the show had ended.

I regret not getting this post written a few months ago when they were still on tour in the US so others would know about the group. Looking at their website, their next several shows are in Australia and New Zealand and they will be playing in London this summer. Their website also says that they'll have a UK and European tour this summer and autumn. If they're coming near where you live, I'd definitely check them out.

If AnDa Union isn't coming to your area, you should look out for the soon-to-be-released documentary about the group - AnDa Union: From the Steppes to the City.

I was lucky enough to help organize the first North American screening of the film on November 2, 2011 at the Plaza Branch of the Kansas City Library. Several musicians from the band and the director/producer of the documentary were there to watch the film with us and then answer questions afterwards.

The premise of the film is to introduce you to the band in the city where they all live - Hohhot, Inner Mongolia - and then take you to each one of the band member's home towns/villages. If I remember correctly, all of the members of the group are from the countryside of Inner Mongolia (if they all aren't, most of them are).

Inner Mongolia, traditionally, was a nomadic place where life revolved around raising animals and surviving the harsh seasons. Now, there are big cities are popping up throughout the autonomous region. The growth rate in Inner Mongolia is one of China's highest as the region is flush with an abundance of natural resources. A lot of the traditions and culture native to the region are being lost due to the homogeneousness that comes with economic development.

The footage of going back to each group member's home and meeting their families is a wonderful thing to see. The viewer gets to meet their families, see the food they eat, and see the homes where they live. Seeing all of these things is not something you can experience through too many other mediums.

Between visits to different home villages, there's footage of the musicians in the group practicing their songs, teaching lessons to young Inner Mongolians interested in learning traditional music, fine-tuning their instruments, and performing their songs. The film shows how the music is intimately intertwined with the places that they are from.

I really liked "AnDa Union: From the Steppes to the City." Not only is it great to see the group doing things related to their music, but it's even better getting to see the culture from which their music is derived. Being invited into homes deep in the Inner Mongolian countryside is not something that many will ever get to experience.

The Screenings section of the movie's website gives a number of film festivals that the film is being shown at in the coming months. If I ever see anything about the film's wide-spread release in the future, I will be sure to post it here to my blog.

I got a huge intake of AnDa Union back in early November. It's so cool that they - and a number of other China-related acts - came through Kansas this past year. The only thing I missed seeing during AnDa Union's stay in Kansas was their jam with local Lawrence musicians at a local coffeeshop. I couldn't make it to that night. I'm sure it was a sight to see.





Edit: Thanks to fellow blogger Ramesh for sharing that AnDa Union was featured on the BBC World Service on 2/14/2012. This is a really good interview with the producer of the film and one of the band members.

Here I Am.

       
Bonjour! Here I am again. It's raining heavily right now, the wind is blowing strongly too. Came here to blog something simple today. Exam is around the corner, which is on next Monday. I've been dating with books recently. Walking with the love and chatting with the lovely friends brightened up my day. :D

Nowadays, I'm getting more and more tired. I can't get used to waking up early in the morning. Maybe I need some time. Seriously I can just doze off anytime, because I'm really tired. Why am I blogging now? Am I suppose to study instead of blogging? Haha, that's because I need some entertainment here. So I chose to blog now. Listening to music is a great choice too. :)  Thank goodness it's friday today, ahahahaha. Now I can relax myself for a little while. :P

Alright, I'll post some random photos before I end my post. :)

Day after day, time passes away.

Random shot. Taken last year.

The big blue sky with fluffy white clouds.

You'll describe this.

Evening sky.

That's all for now, see you!

Yours Truly.

Doris C.

Red Color New Soldier

Li Zhensheng was a photo journalist during China's cultural revolution in the 1960s and 70s. Li, a young man originally from Shandong Province, was relocated to Harbin, the frigid northern city on the edge of Siberia, to be a photojournalist for the newspaper there.

Although the Chinese Communist Party employed him at the state-run paper to take photos that would glorify the Mao's radical revolution, Li took it upon himself to document more than just the propaganda that his bosses asked him to emphasize.

Li knew that something had gone horribly wrong as Chairman Mao exhorted China's young red guards to bully their teachers, to kill intellectuals, to destroy cultural relics including the "four olds," and to make Mao himself into a god-like figure.

Determined to record all aspects of the chaos going on in Harbin at that time, Li captured the darkest aspects of the decade that China was ruled by a senile madman. He risked his life by shooting what he did and hiding the negatives so that his work would be preserved for history's sake. In 2003, Li published a collection of these photos in his book, Red Color News Soldier.



The book's format is: a short introduction from China historian Jonathan Spence, a few pages of writing from Li, photos from the time period he'd just described, more writing from Li, more photos, and so on for more than 300 pages. There are also a number of newspaper front pages mixed in throughout the book to give the reader a feel for what the official Party mouthpiece was spewing as well.

While the writing in the book is at times illuminating, the reason the book exists is to display Li's extensive photo collection. The photos in this book are not light reading. There are photos of property being destroyed, young children and working people declaring their love for their dear leader, and intellectuals and Party enemies being tortured, humiliated, and killed.

The following few photos aren't necessarily the "best" in the book, but they're ones that I could find on a quick internet search:










These photos speak for themselves. There are a couple hundred more like them in the book.

I'm glad I added Red Color News Soldier to my library. It's difficult to get through. But it is an important perspective on the madness that China descended into less than fifty years ago.

Keep Holding On.

   
Hello readers. :D Life's been busy nowadays. There's a lot of stuffs to do. We're going to have our exams soon. So fast. Gonna work for it. Stressed with my studies and also homeworks. I just have to try to relax, just like what my loves told me. Being too stressed isn't good too. Having flu and sore throat, this proves that the weather is terrible. Gotta take good care of yourself, people.

It's been a long time I've never express my feelings or thoughts in this blog. I miss doing so. But I just don't know what to start with, my mind is blank. Just like what I'm writing right now. Oh wait, what crap am I talking about? To be short, I'm coming back to this blog with an empty mind. Talking about photography, I don't really have to mood to focus on that nowadays. I rarely take pictures for now. Because we're all busy with homeworks and studies. I thought of doing something which is quite interesting, I named it photo 366, I actually planned to take pictures of everyday and keep it in a photo album. Planned to take different pictures everyday, but failed to do so as there's no time for it. Ah, nevermind, I'll try it next time. And we're going to have our very important exam this year. No one would bother about all these for now.

Smiles. :)

Yours Truly.

Doris C.

    

   

Hello February!

           

So it's already February huh? Yes it is! Thank goodness we're not having school today. I can sleep longer. :P  Went to school for 12 hours yesterday, for the very first time. The feeling was awesome but I felt very exhausted. Stayed back in school for the co-curriculum activity. Spent my time chatting with the loves. We had fun. And went home after that. :)

Went to Pavilion with the family on the last Thursday. I love those CNY decorations there. It was very nice.

Look of the day.

Went to Tokyo Street to have a look.

Gong Xi Fa Cai.

Where's my angpau? :P

Yours Truly.

Doris C.