Chairman Mao Good Soldier. and other heros.

Lei Feng is the yeti of Chinese Communist history—a creature widely described and occasionally photographed, but perhaps nonexistent. In a roomful of China scholars, it’s easy to divide them into those who say that he was a pure propaganda confection—a smile, a name, and a handful of slogans—and those who see traces of fact. It never helped the advocates of authenticity that Lei was photographed in perfect lighting while ostensibly reading Chairman Mao’s works at night by flashlight. 


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/06/world/asia/lei-feng-day-draws-chinese-cynicism.html?_r=0

A member of the Chinese military gave a man a free haircut in Shanghai on Monday in observance of “Learn From Lei Feng Day.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/06/world/asia/lei-feng-day-draws-chinese-cynicism.html?_r=0


chairman Mao Zedong called the nation to learn from the spirit of Lei Feng. He also wrote an inscription

Xiang Lei Feng tongzhi xuexi

Visitors pose in front of a large photos of Lei Feng taken by Zhang Jun at an exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of “Learn from Lei Feng Day” (March 5) on at the Beijing World Art Museum on March 6, 2013.

 

European Pressphoto Agency

 

 

Best known for helping little old ladies cross the street and offering to darn his fellow soldiers’ socks, Lei Feng first became a propaganda sensation after his death in 1962 at age of 21, when the People’s Liberation Army soldier was hit by a falling telephone pole.

A recent article in the English-language China Daily, which reflects government thinking, lamented that Lei Feng Memorial Day had been “consigned to oblivion” compared to flashier holidays such as Chinese New Year and Christmas. The article was a comment on how most Chinese these days see holidays as an excuse to buy gifts or otherwise spend money.

Other Chinese Heros

1. Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong)

http://www.economist.com/blogs/analects/2012/07/how-remember-koxinga

His name is very revered in Taiwanese culture and quite synonymous with success and ability. If you want to give praise to someone’s achievements, you could tell them they are very chénggōng.

   

 

The name Koxinga is a mispronunciation of Guóxìngyé(國姓爺), a title meaning “Lord of the Imperial Surname” given to Zheng by the Ming emperor. Zheng Chenggong was a champion of the Ming in their struggle to maintain their dynasty against the surging Manchu Qing who would ultimately take over China and serve as its final dynasty before becoming a republic.

Mistress Culture in China!

Far from being a secret, having a mistress(情妇, qíngfù) is a new way to show off one’s social status in China. These “luxury accessories” require the maintenance of a set of unspoken rules: fancy apartments, beautiful clothes, and spending money. In return, the Chinese mistress often makes herself sexually available exclusively, dresses in designer fashions and flawless make-up each time she goes out with her beau, and sits conspicuously by his side at business and social functions.



China’s mistress phenomenon is often linked with the country’s materialistic culture, the result of cutthroat competition amid a populous society for the dazzling but limited opportunities that the country’s transition to capitalism presents.

Take a look at the lines of limos waiting outside of university campuses on a weekend night. What makes a good mistress today goes beyond youth and good looks to a college education and social skills. Gifts go beyond bling and LV bags to tuition for advanced degrees and money for international travel to make these status women more sophisticated and interesting.


Mistresses are called ernai(Second Woman) in China.

A district in Shenzhen has become known as 'Second Wife Village' for the number of mistresses living there. Photo by Redux/eyevine


Keeping a woman is common among powerful Chinese men. A study by the Crisis Management Centre at Renmin University in Beijing, published this January, showed that 95 per cent of corrupt officials had illicit affairs, usually paid for, and 60 per cent of them had kept a mistress.



Chinese official life had two social circles.

http://aeon.co/magazine/society/why-young-women-in-rural-china-become-the-mistresses-of-wealthy-older-men/

As the saying goes: ‘Old oxen chew young grass’

A further distinction is sometimes made between ernai, who ‘know their place’, and xiaosan, ‘little threes’ (as in ‘third party’), who try to insinuate themselves between a lover and his wife with the aim of forcing divorce and remarriage. In practice, the terms are used interchangeably, but the difference matters especially to urban girls seeking to distinguish themselves from their rural counterparts.


‘Most xiaosan have a steady job and a higher educational background than an ernai. Xiaosan expect to marry the man because they’ve invested so much: their youth and their love,’ explains the 22-year-old founder of a website for xiaosan in Richard Burger’s Behind the Red Door: Sex in China (2012).



What’s more, some young Chinese women infantilise themselves, often with the aid of plastic surgery, to imitate the big-eyed heroines of Japanese cartoons. The aesthetic is popular with older men, who are aroused not just by the fragile look, but by affected sa jiao, ‘cute whining’, done in the fashion of a demanding child. In their private pictures, the girls look all of 14, while the men play alongside them in childish games or make faces at the camera.

http://aeon.co/magazine/society/why-young-women-in-rural-china-become-the-mistresses-of-wealthy-older-men/



Sociologists see the boom in mistresses as a result, in part, of China's increased wealth - even at the height of the last imperial dynasty only a small fraction of men could afford to support a second wife or lover. Mistresses were dubbed "er'nai", or second breast, a label that has stuck to this day.
But the phenomenon is also a result of rising inequality and the fact that men still largely hold the reins of power in China.
"China is still a patriarchal society. A lot of girls still think the only way they can get anywhere is to find a powerful man," says Prof Li.
That is borne out by many of the ads from women on Baoyang.cn.
"I love wearing costumes, I love everything that's pretty, I want a man who can improve my life, I want a better life than I have now," writes one girl who identifies herself as "student from Nanning" in southern China.
Another writes: "I have always wanted to travel but nobody finances me. While I am still young I can come to your city and we can have fun. I want 6000 rmb a month."
Many ask for much more. A mistress with a degree from one of the top universities in Beijing or Shanghai will cost tens of thousands of yuan every month, as Mr Huaung's ad with its request for an intelligent mistress illustrates.
"These women already have a good life and good earning potential but they can't afford the designer clothes and bags that they aspire to, so they find lovers to foot the bill," says Fei Yang, who runs a so-called anti-mistress course designed to encourage women to earn their own money and start their own businesses.
But beyond the monthly stipend, these liaisons also offer the possibility of connections that, if well managed, may set a woman up for life.
In this respect 50-year-old Li Wei is the ultimate role model. Known as the Queen of Mistresses, Ms Li came to China from Vietnam as a child refugee.
A plain-looking woman, she used her quick wit and natural intelligence to seduce a series of officials, starting with a member of the local Tobacco Bureau in the southern province of Yunnan and ending with Chen Tonghai, the chief of the state-owned oil and refining giant, Sinopec.
Along the way, many of her lovers were charged with corruption, but she managed to escape prosecution - and keep the billion-dollar fortune she had amassed - by agreeing to testify against them.
In 2011 she told her story to the Chinese magazine Caijing and immediately became something of a folk hero among women.
As many remarked at the time: "Laugh at the poor, not at the whore."

In Shenzhen, a troupe of young artists dressed as mistresses and as a corrupt official to speak out against corruption and the decadent behavior of officials.


http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Ffemail%2Farticle-1367968%2FLi-Wei-Meet-Chinas-unlikely-heroine-lovers-billionaire.html&ei=t5XmVNC8NYyZgwTzsICwAQ&usg=AFQjCNG8CRGmf2htS17uVbf1Rn4V3TGWQw&sig2=TBz8IlvaD-Acv9l8Kj4xyw

'It showed that behind every successful woman, there are many bad men.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1367968/Li-Wei-Meet-Chinas-unlikely-heroine-lovers-billionaire.html#ixzz3SFO88NXa
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Christianity in China!

Christianity in China is a rising trend. China acknowledges and follows following 5 religions

1. Taoism and Chinese folk religion (30% - 80%)
2. Buddhists (10% - 16%)
3. Christians (2%-4%)
4. Muslims (1%-2%)

5. Protestanism

Some scholars prefer not to use the term "religion" in reference to belief systems in China, and suggest "cultural practices", "thought systems" or "philosophies" as more appropriate terms.

“By 2030, China will almost certainly have more Christians than any other country and the Communist party is very alarmed.

Chinese officials often cite the experience of Poland, where they believe the Catholic Church helped destroy communism and, although the two situations are not really comparable, the party still sees Christianity as a very serious threat that it needs to suppress.

Christianity is booming in China, propelling it toward becoming the world's largest Christian nation. But as religion grows, it spurs a government crackdown.

While Christianity is waning in many parts of the world, in China it is growing rapidly – despite state strictures. The rise in evangelical Protestantism in particular, driven both by people’s spiritual yearnings and individual human needs in a collective society, is taking place in nearly every part of the nation.

“I come because I found a love here that isn’t dependent on a person,” says Du Wang, a young businesswoman in Hangzhou. “It is like a river that doesn’t go away.”


Yet as Chinese achieve material wealth and success, many feel lost. The success of economic reforms under Chinese leader Deng, launched in the early 1990s, has not helped rebuild China’s spiritual infrastructure, decimated during war and the Cultural Revolution. China’s rise has come with a cost: a loss of traditional values and the rise of cheating, corruption, and fierce competition.







Known throughout China as the “Jerusalem of the east” because of its huge Christian population, Wenzhou is an obvious target for a government concerned about the spread of this “subversive” religion. Until recently, one of the most striking things about the city was the abundance of giant ornate cathedrals and huge neon-lit crosses dotted around town and the surrounding countryside. Local church groups estimate at least 10 per cent of Wenzhou’s population – more than 1.2 million people – attends a Protestant congregation regularly. Just as in the rest of China, the Catholic population is much smaller but still numbers in the hundreds of thousands. They have also been subject to forced cross removals, harassment, increased surveillance and detentions for “illegal” worship this year.

Kunshan road youth choir. The Kunshan Road Protestant church in Shanghai has a young congregation led by a woman priest. Protestants in China should only attend churches run by the official 'Three Self Patriotic Movement'

While Catholic numbers are rising much more slowly, Protestant congregations, particularly “illegal” house churches, have exploded across the country and Protestantism is growing even faster than Buddhism, the dominant religion in China.

Both Han and Wang say they feel Catholicism is stricter and more serious than Protestantism, which is more popular and tends to attract younger people who don’t necessarily have a family history of Christian faith. This flexibility of Protestantism also leaves a lot of room for individual interpretation. So it is no surprise most of China’s many heterodox movements and cults tend to grow out of the charismatic fringes of the underground Protestant churches.

 The chongyi church in Hangzhou is one of the largest churches in China.

The Vatican and Beijing have had no formal relations since the Communist Party came into power in 1949.

Officially an atheist country, China does not recognize the authority of the Vatican over its millions of Catholics. Instead, it has set up its own Catholic governing body, known as the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association that answers to the Party.

This association is similar to other state organizations that manage followers of major faiths, including the Three-Self Patriotic Movement for Protestants and the Chinese Patriotic Islamic Association.

Chinese Urban words

1. you can you up - If you can do it then go and do it.

2. "no can no BB," which means "if you can't do it then don't criticize it."

3."Tuhao" comes directly from its Chinese pronunciation, and can be loosely translated as "nouveau riche" or uncivilized rich people.

4. "No zuo no die, - if you don't do stupid things, they won't come back and bite you in the ass."

Korean obsession with Plastic surgery

Very recently,  I rented an apartment in Reforma area of Mexico City and I noticed a large community of Korean women around the point was they all look alike to me and that raise a red flag in me that why is that in K-POP video or Korean movies , all korean women looks similar.

After digging a bit further I found out the reason for this is Korean women obsession about Plastic surgery and half of the women in Big cities like Seoul has undergone plastic surgeries.

The most common procedures are eyelid surgeries and nose jobs, which Koreans colloquially refer to as "the basics." Getting "the basics" is like dying your hair— everyone does it and rarely are people secretive about the work they've had done.

     Subway stations advertise Cosmetic procedures

Korea biggest cultural export "K-pop idols"  are all seems to have gone under knife and most desirable "Western looking Features" are almond shaped eyes (double eyelid),  long noses.

Whereas in the West, plastic surgeries are less common and people in the west tends to do either boobs or butts job, they hardly go for surgeries on the face but in Korea the obsession with facial beauty is such that Job applicants are frequently required to submit head shots, and the belief that beauty means more social capital has resulted in countless parents pushing their kids into plastic surgery, a phenomenon that makes South Korea unique in that regard. 

Korean beauty contestants all look the same as all seems to have undergone surgery

Obsession with Western feature in non-white countries are not limited to Korea, it is predominantly common in other countries , In India, facial cream advertisement are full of making you "Whiter" and in Egypt people want blond hairs.

In India , it is called ""Snow White syndrome"

                                               A Ponds advertisement showing Indian white skin obsession


Source - Business Insider

Chinese Movie Series, Movie#2 - Nàxiē nián, wǒmen yīqǐ zhuī de nǚhái

那些年，我們一起追的女孩 (Nàxiē nián, wǒmen yīqǐ zhuī de nǚhái) means (In those years, we all were chasing girls), is one of my favorite chinese movies. It is also one of those rare Chinese movies, which doesn't involve Magic, Monkeys, swords fighting, Kungfu or Kings and landlords. (Probably the reason might be this movie has come from Taiwan)

Plot: The plot of this movie is everybody story of a careless boy in school falling in love with most beautiful and most intelligent girl of the class. Later he managed to come close to the girl, but in the end they get separated, it doens't have the typical happy ending means the girls and boy never get together.

                         Poster of the film  

                            

                    A still from the film  

Interesting Facts:
1. This movie is a Biographical fill of Giddens Ko (Director).

2. The film was on a very tight budget; Giddens used his entire savings and mortgaged his house to raise money, saying that he did it to impress ex-girlfriend, who provided the inspiration for this film's female protagonist, Shen Chia-yi.

3. This film was primarily filmed at Ching Cheng High School (精誠中學), the school Giddens and Shen Chia-yi attended.

4. The ending theme song "The Lonely Caffeine" (寂寞的咖啡因) had been composed by Giddens for Shen Chia-Yi when the two were in a relationship. He asked the male lead actor to sing the song in the film, because he felt this would convey the song's original meaning.

5. Another theme song - Those Years" (那些年).was an instant hit. The music video on YouTube logged its ten millionth viewer on 11 November 2011.

6. The film was heavily edited before its release in Mainland China.The scene where a flag-raising ceremony was taking place was edited away, as were the scenes involving masturbation.In total, six scenes involving "negative sexual and pro-Taiwan content" were either edited away or changed.

        Giddens ko on the far left, Michelle Chen(in the centre)

7. The film surpassed the performance of other Taiwanese films such as Monga, Cape No. 7 and Lust, Caution.


Conclusion: Watch it for the its beautiful story and to relish your childhood memory

Chinese Movie Series - Movie#1 - Qiū Jú dǎ guān sī (秋菊打官司)

One of the first Chinese movies I watched was "Qiū Jú dǎ guān sī" (English- Qiu Ju lawsuit), it is one of the many movies in which both Zhang Yimou(Director) and Gong Li(as an actress) worked together.

Plot: The film tells the story of a peasant woman, Qiu Ju, who lives in a rural area of China. When her husband is kicked in the groin by the village head, Qiu Ju, despite her pregnancy, travels to a nearby town, and later to the big city to deal with its bureaucrats and find justice.

Intersting Facts:
The film was shot in 1992-China in northwest Shaanxi province, Many of the street scenes in the cities were filmed with a hidden camera so the images are a sort of documentary of China during the time of Deng Xiaoping.

This film gave Gong Li international recognizition and she won multiple international film awards for her performance.

In this movie, she has carried her character with so originatily that if someone has not seen Gong Li before, will think that she is just an average looking , a real peasant woman. (you would be surprised to know that Gong Li has been one of the most beautiful woman in China and voted #1 during a newspaper poll in China in 1996).

Gong Li during a scene of the Movie

The same GONG Li in real life on the cover of a Magazine.

Conclusion: This movie is a must watch for Gong Li fans and those who want to know what China was lik in year 1992.