Who can decide it?

I have been reading articles about the definition of public and private space for two weeks. Hannah Arendt thinks public space is where human beings can really be immortal, but people shouldn't bring issues about labor and worker into public sphere. Liberalists encourage everyone joins public space, but individuals have to remain neutral and to abandon issues about moral. Habermas also include everyone into public space in which everything can be discussed. However, the lack of separation between public and private, and his neglect of the methods to implement public participation have made his theory unattainable...

Ok, who care these shits? To be honest, even I know hundreds of reasons why the understanding of public and private space can benefit me, there is no use to talk about it. Writing this blog can be said as public participation, but hello, is there anyone who think we're participating public affairs through reading and writing blog posts?

When people don't have the rights to speak in public, they fight for it with their lives. But when finally they're free to speak in the public, they realize that they have nothing to say. Oh yeah, many bloggers will love to share with you about the countries they've been and the scrumptious food they've last night. I've definitely notice that the information about consumption on blogs is useful.

If no one is reading about this post, I would be really happy. After all, this is just one more useless string of electronic codes embedded in the hullabaloo of blogosphere.

Drawing at the back of an envelop

The image of the deul between 宮本武藏 and 吉岡清十郎 in 井上雄彥's comic was craved in my memory.

There is no black and white

It has been two weeks since I last updated my blog. I am in a shock therapy--reading Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine. This book shows us that free-market strategy is not working as well as what it claims. While the government favors multinational enterprises, sells its state-owned business, and boosts up stock market, millions people are suffering unemployment and poverty.

Living in Indonesia for seven years, I saw the disaster of free-market plan. Huge disparity of wealth existing in that country for decades. When everytime I sat in my father's Honda Accord watching people begging for money on street, I always asked myself: if I lived in poverty, can I still have the strength to study philosophy and arts? Can I still be an intellectual? For these questions, Naomi Klein provides some of her insights--free-market plan only benefits a few and harms the rest.

I am not totally agree with all what Klein has said. Not everything is black and white. State-owned corporations may indeed provide million jobs for people and bring wealth to the government, but it can also be used as a political weapon, banning those mavericks with different ideology from having a decent job as what we see in Venezuela. You can dicotomize our ploblems in society and choose to stand on one side--capitalism or communism, left-wing or right-wing, government regulation or laisserfaire--but this world is always more complicated than what we think.

Olympics

Because of my job, I can see the newest soundbites of the most talented athletes and of the potential Olympic gold winners in various fields. China's “gold fever” has become so overwhelmed that people in U.S. are also caring about the number of golds they can get. While athletes are vying for the gold medals, the sports sponsors are engaging another war under the table.

For example, in the track and field, people are all talking about the three potential winners of the 100m and 200m races: Tyson Gay, Usain Bolt, and Asafa Powell. PUMA sponsors Usain Bolt; Adidas, Tyson Gay; and Nike, Asafa Powell. Any one of them who gets gold would boost his sponsor's sales and brand name, and this champion can get almost everything he wants—money, fame, power, women, etc. None of these guys would settle for a silver, not to mention a bronze. The spotlight is only focus on the winner. Others will only fade away…

Good luck, Liu Xiang.

Forbidden Cliche

This is a great, funny article written by Kaiser Kuo making of foreign journalists in Beijing. Let me extract two paragraphs:

No writing “There is an ancient Chinese curse that says, “May you live in interesting times.’” There isn’t such a curse. No writing “the Chinese word for crisis includes the character for opportunity and the character for danger.” That it may be true doesn’t reduce my aggravation each time I see it in print. In fact, just to be safe, avoid anything involving “an ancient Chinese saying.” This will save you, anyhow, from having to Google for choice quotes from Sun Tzu or Confucius’s Analects.

While we’re on puns, some common ones to avoid include pander/panda and the always irksome Peking/peeking. And no using “your average Zhou” or “Zhou Sixpack.” There will be absolutely no punning on the interrogatives “who” or “when” and the family names of the Chinese president and premier, respectively. I know you’re thinking, “Hu knows Wen I’ll get another chance like this?” and I feel for you, but just resist it, okay?

You have to leave

This is one of the images in my dream last night. I feel that it's not a bad thing to leave the place where you were born. You get your freedom. However, you will miss this place all you life.

One of the most important elements in Art--light

While there is still plenty of time before my fall internship begins, I visit museums every week. In most of the modern art--movies, paintings, architures, and photographs--the most extensive element they use is light. Light is the extent of human sensorium. Without light, we might have nothing to create. With light, every thing can be art.

Complains Choir of Chicago

Great song. I watched three times and cried three times. When they sing "the most creative minds work for the advertising industry...," I feel so sad, hahahah....

I watched this song in PS1 Contemporary Art Center. Complaints Choir was founded by Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen in Helsinki. After the first complaints choir took place in Birmingham--the arsehole of England--and made a surprisingly success, the idea of turning complaints into a easy to learn song has spread around the world. On YouTube you can find complaints choir of St. Petersburg, of Singapore, of Melbourne, of Jerusalem, of Hamburg, and of Helsinki, etc. The lyrics of these choirs are really funny.

New Yorker just performed their complaints choir in June this year, but the video hasn't been put on YouTube. Can't waite to see what the residents of the world's most chaotic city will sing.

Gust

Where am I going?

I am looking for a fall internship in this summer. Drifting in the sea of job fair, I am searching for a vertigo to engorge me. Last night, I found out my friend who works in an advertising agency is working overtime at Sunday night. I thought this was Taiwanese adverstising agencies' characteristic--abusing their employees 7 days a week. It seems like everywhere the advertising industry is almost the same.

Another friend rebutted me that at least people earn more in New York than in Taiwan. But is money the whole story to explain why we have to work ourselves to exhaustion? Is money the cause for me to die for? If we all have to work till we die, why don't we work for someone we admire, not just for money? Apple, Pepsi and Toyota can find the most talented college graduates to work for them, because they convinced the youths that together they can change the world. I don't believe them, but I agree we need a meaning for our sacrifice.

I can still talk about ideal, but if I can't find a job after this year I better shut up.

My resume

I finally finish my resume!!!!!! Writing a resume drives me crazy. It's an excruciating process of self-criticism and self-deconstruction. My friend Jane even help me proofread it three times. I wonder if she will throw up when she see my email asking her to proofread my resume again today.

Peter Chu
4116 76th St., Elmhurst, NY11373
tel: 9174036717
mailto:9174036717chejenchu@gmail.com

~~~~~~~~~~~Objective ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To obtain internship in an advertising agency

~~~~~~~~~~~Education~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
M.A. in Communication and Media Studies, Fordham University, New York, NY 2007-Present
First year's GPA: 3.96/4.0
B.S. in Advertising, National ChengChi University, Taipei, TaiwanGPA: 3.76/4.0

~~~~~~~Professional Experiences~~~~~~~~~~~~
United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (AoC) Media Literacy Education, New York, NY (http://www.aocmedialiteracy.org/), Research Assistant, Oct. -- Dec. 2007
* Assisted with the development of AoC's online clearinghouse to enhance the availability of information relevant to media literacy education, media policy and youth media.
* Consistently commended for ability to develop complex database and to complete assignments on time.

Batey Advertising Agency, Taipei, Taiwan (www.ogilvy.com.tw/showframe.asp?Cno=david), Account Assistant, Jul. -- Aug. 2005
* Assisted with marketing strategies of Mitsubishi Motor's Grunder.
* Accountable for collecting and organizing the latest car commercials, posters, sales figures, and customer satisfaction surveys.
* Worked closely with account director and producer, learning both the strategies and commercial production of an advertising campaign.

~~~~~~~~~~~Projects in Undergraduate~~~~~~~~~~~
Advertising campaign leader, Ministry of Education of the Republic of China's Creative Space Design Awards, Taipei, Taiwan, Aug. 2004 -- Jun. 2005.
* Designed an advertising campaign to develop the reputation of Creative Space Design Awards, organized the voting process, and arranged press conferences for awarding prizes.
* Result: submissions to the contest increased by seven percent in the year I led the advertising campaign, and the results of the contest were covered by two major newspapers in Taiwan.

PR campaign planner, Air Hair Salon (Chengchi University Branch), Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 2003 -- Jun. 2004.
* Planned yearlong PR events and arranged a beauty contest to promote Air Hair Salon.
* Result: Air Hair Salon's publicity has increased from 64.9 percent to 81.7 percent, and the beauty contest was covered by three newspapers and one television news in Taiwan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Honors~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2004
* My article "The Question of Life and Death Gate" was selected by Liang, Kai-Ming, chairman of Interface Marketing Consultant Co., as teaching reference, Taipei, Taiwan.
2003
* My documentary about overseas Chinese student was selected by Taiwan's best documentary director Yang Li-chou to be played in Student Documentary Film Festival of Chengchi and Fujen University, Taiwan.
* My article "Understanding the Young Times Advertising Award" was selected by Professor Chen, Wen-Lin as a handout for class, Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan.
2002
* My assignment "Public Understanding of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) Questionnaire" was selected as model for telephone interview questionnaire conducted by Telephone Interview Center, Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan.
* Scholarship for Excellent Academic Performance, Chengchi University, Taiwan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Languages~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fluent in Chinese.

~~~~~~~~~~~Professional Skill~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Video Editing Software: Apple's Final Cut Pro
* Graphic Software: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
* Analytic Software: SPSS
* Drawing Skills: Chinese calligraphy, Chinese water & ink painting, watercolor, and carbon.

Color practice

Wedding Speech on June 7

Many Jakarta Taipei School's friends asked what I said in 翠's wedding, so I decided to write down my extemporaneous three-minute speech on this blog. Here is what I said in her wedding:

(開場自我介紹: 我叫朱澤人....)
我這次從紐約特地回來參加翠元的婚禮 因為我過去有六年的時間跟她是同學 看著她從小學五年級作業和課本常常忘了帶 一直到她考進台大
不過這次有很多在印尼的老同學都沒收到她的喜帖
翠元個人的解釋是說 怕大家因為收到喜帖 要包紅包 這樣會很不好意思
不過套句過去一樣是認識她六七年的老同學羅鈞瑋所說:
傻子 錢不是問題好不好？
所以我今天集結了老朋友們的對翠元的感覺 帶來給翠元
我們這些朋友們都一致認為 翠元對朋友是非常真心的
大家有什麼感情上的苦惱或是煩心的事 都會想要說給翠元聽
因為她會很認真的聆聽你 雖然下一秒可能就忘了你說什麼
但是至少聽得時候很認真 我個人也有類似的經驗
高中時我有一次受到學業上的挫折 想要躲進廁所好好痛哭一場
不過翠元注意到了 結果她就一路跟我跟到廁所門口
我知道她想要安慰我 不過當時真是害我超尷尬
現在想起來 這件事很讓我感動 翠元對朋友是真心的沒話說
今天很高興在這邊能夠參與翠元生命中另一個重要的事件
我在這邊帶上我們老同學的祝福 也希望翠元在結婚後不會忘掉我們 這些受過妳幫助 以及幫助過妳的人 謝謝。

After the speech, the bride came to me and said the speech was excellent. I think I give her what she wants--to hear her merits from an old friend's mouth. I don't have to harp on her and warn her about what marriage should be. All I have to do is to remind her what she is in our eyes--an sincere, caring, and lovable friend--and to hint that her oblivion of us in recent years has push herself further away from what we know about her. However, I don't think she receives my implications.....

Wedding Speech

Here is the speech I am going to give in my friends' wedding in this Saturday. Because all the attenders are Chinese, I write this speech in Chinese.

讓我在此借用符號學Semiotic的理論提出一個觀念給新郎與新娘，把婚姻當成是動辭，不要把婚姻當成是名詞。長輩們要求我們在婚姻中要不斷彼此包容、尊重、扶持對方。這些我們都聽過，但是不快樂的婚姻卻還是彼彼皆是，其中原因之一即是我們依舊將婚姻當成是名詞，把白紙黑字當成是真實。
舉例來說，看看最近的電影：曼哈頓奇緣、27件禮服的秘密、真的戀錯了，都是把婚姻當成是結局、一個終點、一個結尾，而不是一個行動的開始。這種觀念讓我回憶起七年前，我和新娘翠元還是高二生的時候，他有一次忽然問我：朱朱，婚姻是不是就是一張免費性愛券呀？那個時候我還真不知道怎麼回答她。其實這個觀點源自於基督教Saint Paul的思想，Saint Paul認為我們之所以需要結婚，只是因為有機會行性愛的緣故。
在隔了整整七年後，我可以完整的回覆她上述的問題，如果婚姻只是張但書或制度，那麼他的價值就跟性愛券沒什麼兩樣。但若婚姻是一種體貼的、傾心的，互相尊重的行動，那這段婚姻才能給予你生命豐富的意義與價值。
注意，把婚姻當成動詞決對不是說婚姻要讓夫妻彼此都做對方的監視人，或是需要每天購物討好對方。我在此說的將婚姻當成是持續滋長感情、讓對方自由發展的行為，而不是限制性法律歸約。如此，婚姻就更像是一種相處模式，而不是一個事件；是一種過程，而不是一個目標；是一種循環性的溝通，而不是線性的計畫。這樣，我想婚姻這個動作將會讓彼此持續的快樂，讓生命不再有所空虛或遺憾。
最後要記住，Victor Frankl所說，人沒有權力決定未來什麼事情發生在自己身上，但是人可以決定用什麼樣的態度來面對他們。今天希望新郎和新娘能利用將婚姻當成是動辭的態度，來共同發展兩人的未來。

The main point of this speech is that we should think of marriage as verb, not as noun. Marriage is a process nuturing deeper love, not just a point of our life. In other words, marriage demands more actions than the time when people are dating each other. Or, is that true? Recently, when I write a topic, I always found myself thinking the opposite of my argument. For example, when I write about marriage as verb, I also think that maybe, in the age of over-consumption, we should stop anaethetizing ourself with actions. Instead, mediating the role we play, ruminating the lessons we learn from life, and refraining our desires to make more trivial decisions are the most vital things to tell newlyweds.

I only have three minutes to give this speech, but my mind is tangled with contradicatory thoughts. I am going mad.

Update on 7 June:
In the end, I change my speech. I let go of the sermonic way of speech and only recount the bride's image in friends' eyes. That's enough....

In Taiwan--Obama rocks

I am a little surprise to see the posters of a book about Obama in Taiwan's bookstores. Almost every big bookstore has these posters catching people's attention. The title is ''Obama： The first black President of America？'' The content of this book (written by a Taiwanese) is like a combination of the summary of Obama's memoirs and the brief account of the 2008 Presidencial Election. It's like an introduction of Obama to all the Chinese who are not familiar with him.

What you can't see is often more important than what you can see. In Taiwan's bookstores, what one seldom see is the books of Hillary Clinton and John MacCain. I can't help to think that the whole world is expecting Obama to be the next President of America. Obama, thus, become a symbol of progress and a representation that ability, not skin color, is what we value most in the 21st century. He might be the inspiration of people all around the world, not just America. Had MacCain or Clinton become the next President, I wonder they can achieve the same impact on people.

Forward!

Most of my friends know I can draw, so they often ask me to draw their portraits for birthday presents. What they don't understand is that I am not reading an art school or planning to become a professional artist, so nine-tenth of my work is really sucks. However, one of my characteristics is that I don't like to give up. The picture below is my latest art work of an old friend's portrait.

Here is the original portrait she asked me to draw as her present (completed in January, 2008) : See, the new one is much better than the old one. Don't ask me why I draw the same person again, even she doesn't ask me to do it. It's about self-esteem. It's seems like doing our best is not enough. We also have to use our brain. Sharpen our mind, ruminate the best answer, and practice more!

Humanity

I am reading Jonathan Glover's Humanity now. This book shows us how a war can intrigue the worst side of human being--selfish, cruel, and sadistic. We can gorge our enemies' eyes and torture them to death without blinking eyes. We can erase our conscience in order to kill people efficiently. We will even smile at an amputed body while feeling excited for our own survival.

In the preface of Humanity, Glover asks a serious question: what is humanity? Without humanity, we are just murderers killing each others for nothing. Without humanity, we are just like the thug in the movie Rashinmon (羅生門), claiming that "if we are not selfish, we can't survive." On Time's China blog, I saw the smiling faces of people who rob the materials that are sent to help refugees in Sichuan. Why these people--who are neither the victims of the earthquake nor the refugees who need help--smile? I think they might be excited that the earthquake didn't kill them, so they trample others' life to assert their distorted self-identity.

Morality is not how we mention about ourselves, but about how we response to an extreme situation. In the Sichuan earthquake, some people choose to be a rescuer, some choose to be a thug. Of course, we need to build our humanity constantly; but in the end, human beings are--as Victor Frankl says--"self-determined."

Sichuan Earthquake. No drawing today.

Yesterday, an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale has hit Wenchuan in Sichan province. Latest estimates put the possible death toll at more than 10,000 according to shanghaiist.com. Right now, there are still thousands of people bruied under collapsed buildings.

For those who want to donate money to help people in Sichuan, please look at the following information below. This comes courtesy of the shanghaiist website:

"For those who are looking to contribute to current aid efforts underway, you can now donate money to the Red Cross Society of China which has formed a disaster relief working group to be dispatched to the earthquake-stricken Wenchuan County in Sichuan.
They have also published an emergency relief hotline, along with bank account information to receive donations to assist their cause:

Account name: Red Cross Society of China开户单位：中国红十字会总会

For those who want to donate in RMB: you can send money to the RMB account at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China branch below:人民币开户行: 中国工商银行 北京分行东四南支行人民币账号: 0200001009014413252

For those who want to donate in foreign currency, you can send money to the foreign currency account at the CITIC Bank branch below:外币开户行：中信银行酒仙桥支行外币账号: 7112111482600000209

Hotline: (8610) 65139999Online donations: Red Cross Society of China website: www.redcross.org.cnClick the tab for online donations "

The Death

Today is my last class in this semester. As some of you know, this blog is part of my class assignment. That's mean my professor might come to this blog and see what I'm doing. However, we have already finish our final, and I think the professor already gives us our grades.

So from now on, I will just draw anything that comes into my head. No matter how wield it is. The topic of the painting above is "The Death." If there is Death, I hope "she" is beautiful.

Chinese Patriots in Foley Square

This video clip is produced by my senior in Fordham University. I don't know exactly the purpose of that assemblage in Foley Square, but I think it wants to show how Chinese feel proud of their country.

On one side of the coin, the clip shows how Chinese people can express their patriotism in a peaceful way without hotile, anti-French sentiment. Not every Chinese is insecure, xenophobic nationalist as Time magazine correspondent Simon Elegant portrays. Many Chinese still want to show a nice face to the world.

But on the other side of the coin, a person who questions the wisdom of a call to boycott Carrefour or the way Chinese government handling Tibetan issue can easily be the subject of attacks and be branded as "traitor" under the rising nationalism of Chinese.

Jacques Ellul warns us in Porpaganda that "man is terribly malleable, uncertain of himself, ready to accept and to follow many suggestions, and is tossed about by all the winds of doctrine." An individual's emotion, impulsiveness and excess can be stimulated with ease when he or she is in a group. I think the same peer pressure that makes people become the prey of propagandists is also happening on the torch-grappling anti-China protesters. Does political assemblage do any good?

Mind as Sword

Tonight I went to Union Square with my friends. I met a Taiwanese girl who studied computer art in San Francisco and now got a job in R/GA, an interactive advertising agency. When I heard the name of her company, I almost dropped my jaw. It's the company I was looking for my internship!

I haven't sent my resume to R/GA, but I know I've very little chance to get an internship in there, because the company is mainly focusing on online interactive ads and Web page design. I can do neither of them. The area of my expertise is "communication," and what I mainly learn in school is to understand media's impact on society. I live and breathe in the words of Marshall McLuhan, Neil Postman, Joshua Meyrowitz, Jacques Ellul, David Bolter, and other titans in media studies. I observe how media affect human perception, understanding and feeling, and try to combine these knowledge with other fields of studies to interpret our social movements. But looking for a job in advertising agency's creative department? Sorry, I have to learn to produce a nice 3D animation or a cool digital image.

I still have confidence that I can find a job in the U.S., and I will keep on deepening my thoughts and strenthening my communication skill. For me, mind is like a sword. If you don't sharpen it everyday, it will rust.

The Funniest Commercial This Month

Almost every month I will pick out what I think is the funniest commercial and put it on my blog.

This one is really good, because it shows our desire to do something evil. Pay attention to the movement of camera. It's brilliant. You never see the person who is holding the camera in the first 40 sec, but we get the idea of who is holding it and what's her character.

Here is the description of this commercial on the veryfunnyads.com: "A German hardware store promises a hefty reward to the best do-it-yourself project--and sets the stakes very high."

We're attacked by millions of messages everyday and our desire for more funny video clips is harder and harder to be satistied. I feel sad that I've to find an interesting video in ads, but maybe only ads can meet my expectation. I am going to amuse myself to death......

Endless Protests

Yesterday on WSJ, I saw the image of a North Korean defector tried to set himself on fire to halt the torch relay, and the image of hundreds of red-clad Chinese supporters marched to the anti-China protestors, waving national flags as they took the streets of the South Korean capital to defend the torch.

We can see more clashes between the pro-China and the anti-China demonstrators on the media. Both sides know the camera is out there sending images all over the world, and both sides act crazy. Set oneself on fire? Waving national flags on the street of another country? Like Thomas De Zengotita said in Mediated, "we are all method actors now." All of these protesters are self-conscious performers. Who cares about whether the Dalai Lama is going to talk to the Chinese government? The image of conflict is the one that will attract readers and viewers.

Picture--Giselle

As most of my classmates know, I am living in the image of Giselle right now.

Again, this is the drawing I use in my video project. I first use photoshop to create a black-and-white version of her picture, then using pencil to copy it on paper. The drawing is not ART, but it looks good, right? We all love the remediated pictures of reality.

The decisive actor in boycotting the Beijing Olympics

As the torch relay heralding the Beijing Summer Olympics turns into a duck-and-cover operation in several cities, the conflict between pro-China and anti-China sentiment has intensified the duality of the pros and cons of boycotting the Beijing Olympics.

On the side of boycotting the Games, the anti-China camp focuses on the Chinese government's notorious human rights record, including backing the military thugs in Burma, blocking Internet access, fettering journalists, buying two thirds of Sudan's oil, and brutally cracking down on ethnic-Tibetan unrest. They believe boycotting the Beijing Olympics is a righteous way to bring China further into the community of responsible nations.

On the other side of the coin, the pro-China camp points out that the boycott will have opposite effects than intended. They claim the boycott of the Games' opening ceremonies and radical individuals' effort to extinguish the Olympic torch are odd ideas, for these moves might feed China's nationalism, make the regime in Beijing more defensive, and fortify Chinese people's belief that the West is trying to humiliate China.

But in spite of all these efforts to call for China to take its responsibility for its status as a superpower and bring the 21st century to a better place, people will find out that the pro-China and anti-China protesters are not the real determinative of the future movement in this boycotting issue; the decisive actors are the multi-national corporations.

Lenovo, the world's fourth-largest PC maker, sees the Olympic torch uproar as a threat to its brand image. Investing more than $100 million in sponsoring the torch relay, Lenovo hope the Beijing Olympics can blast its name around the world and underscore the reliability of its computers, as it is now making an aggressive push into the U.S. market. However, the company now fears that the protests, intensified by the crackdown in Tibet, will tarnish the Olympic brand and Lenovo's association with it.

Lenovo's concern of the protests will certainly play a more powerful part than outsiders' demands in the government's decision making, because China's Communist Party leaders—mostly engineer—care more about the fate of the computer company that might influence China's economic growth than the human rights issues. We can imagine what enormous amount of fear will be aroused in China's Communist Party when the Western consumers boycott products made in China.

While some multi-national brand's disquietude over the protests might bring China to greater awareness of its crucial position in global politics, other companies might just strengthen the stubbornness and inertia of the Chinese government leaders. Coca-Cola, McDonald's and PepsiCo are still appealing to Chinese pride and patriotism even as the country is being pilloried overseas. Looking to expend their market shares in China, these international companies are cheerleading for China, asking customers to chant its Olympics refrain (including McDonald's "I'm loving China wins!"), and using nationalism as a strategy to build a closer connection with the Chinese people.

These major corporations fend off criticism from Tibetan and free-speech groups who want these companies to use their influence to improve China's human-rights record, and they're even apologizing for their support for the Dalai Lama or their use of Tibetan monks' image in commercials. Their attitude reminds us the fact that most surveillance software is manufactured not in China, Russia or India, but in North America. Shouldn't the world boycott America for manufacturing and exporting spyware to China?

As Joshua Meyrowitz warns in No Sense of Place, "The vacuum in our visible political realm of authority may be giving undue power to invisible men and women who run large national and multi-national corporations." These invisible business leaders who refuse to be viewed and examined by the public media can determine all forms of national and international communication technologies, university research, or even government foreign policies. One might argue that we, as consumers, can affect business leaders to push the Chinese government to negotiate with the Dalai Lama. But the fact is that not everyone is a consumer. Can you imagine what Chinese government's attitude toward Tibet will be if Tibetans are the largest consumer group in China?

Besides, when we have more option to choose whether to boycott Lenovo, McDonald's, Pepsi, and Coca-Cola for its association with China, we will, as Thomas De Zengotita points out in Mediated, only become more indifferent to our own decisions and to what is happening in the world. How many people think that their money spent in Starbucks will indirectly fund Israel arms fair when they enjoy a Tall Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte? Or how many people will even bother to know about the conflict between Israel and Palestine?

The real decision makers are still behind the camera, and all we can see on the media are the celebrities' boycotts of the Beijing Olympics and the Chinese Internet users' boycotts of companies for purportedly supporting the Dalai Lama. The issues of Tibet and Darfur will slowly be driven away by all these self-conscious performers until we no longer notice what is really happening.

Video Project

I draw this sketch for a video project, not for fun. The model--also the main actress in my video project--is my beautiful classmate. I hope all my classmates can recognize who she is.

I give this art work a 70, because it is not "real" enough. You know, I am not good at using the strategy of immediacy--imitating the real world without audience's awareness of the medium--to remediate reality through painting. I prefer drawing abstract painting. Besides, I don't have 2B, 4B, and 6B pencils, so the sketch is not dark enough. We have no fund in filming this project, and the paper I use is the cheapest one I can find in stationery store. It's difficult to draw without the right tool..................................... Alright, I admit that I am just not a good at sketch.

In the video cutting process, I plan to use this painting to dissolve in the real image. That means I got to depict exactly what's presented on the screen. It looks like I overestimate my ability, and I have to reduce my sleeping hours to finish four more paintings. Ahhhhhhh.

The biggest challenge in my life

Yesterday, my girlfriend, living with me, found out that two of her former colleagues got married. She looked all their wedding pictures and commented on every detail of their wedding ranging from the style of their dresses to the size of the wedding reception sites. She was particularly interesting in the wedding of a nurse colleague who marry to a rich doctor, because they invited almost 500 people to their extravagent "wedding of the century," as the bride shamelessly dubbed it. I worked in the same hospital with my girlfriend for three months, so she meticulously explained to me who hated the bride and who wanted to pursued her best friend while I was struggling in writing an English essays.

Then, she suddenly said, "What if I don't have so many friends in my wedding?" Yap, I know she wanted to get married after seeing all these pictures. Especially when she is now thirty years old (five years bigger than me), wedding pictures can easily stimulate her fantacy of having a romantic "wedding of the century."

Many friends said I am living a very boring and easy life--reading books, drawing ink painting, and cooking food for my girlfriend everyday. My parents pay for my tuition and I never have to worry about taking care of them after I graduate. But me living a carefree life? Look at my situation. Few months ago I just turn twenty-five years old, and now I have to worry about getting a decent job and pursuading her mother to permit our marriage. I also have to earn enough money in two years to satisfy my girlfriend's fantacy about her wedding, for she wants to get married before thirty-two years old.

Promising a girl who are five years bigger than you that you will marry her is definitely a challenge. In fact, I think this is the biggest challenge in my life.

Beach

Three places that I've lived for more than two years--Taiwan, Indonesia, and Singapore--are all surrounded by sea. It's natural for my parents to bring me to some beautiful beaches every year since I was a small kid. Indonesia and Singapore close to equator, so you can go to beaches and swim in the ocean every month. In Taiwan, the time you can go beaches is from April to November. But here in New York, we only have three months--from June to August--that are suitable for swimming in the ocean.

Singapore is just a tiny island, so there isn't much to say about its beaches. Most of Taiwan's beaches are too dirty, for Taiwan has overdeveloped heavy industry clustering in the small island. Indonesian's environmental protection is worse than both Singapore and Taiwan. However, I would say the most beautiful beaches I've seen is in Indonesia. You know, Indonesia has around 17,500 island, and many of them are far away from polluted cities. It's really easy to find a "paradise beach" with stylish resorts in Indonesia.

Yesterday, I've got the chance to go to Long Island Bar Beach Park. The sand is not so good, for it fulls of small stones and shells. I can't take out my shirt and lie on the beach because the weather is still cold--around 50 Fahrenheit. It seems like I've to wait for at least one more month to go to the beach, and when that time comes, it will full of people. Where can I find my ideal beach in New York?

My Professor on Japanese News Report

It's not only cool to see your professor on a TV news report, but also fascinating to watch how another culture presents him. The video clip above shows my professor Paul Levinson on Japan NNN-TV News talking about Obama's oratory skill. Here are few small things I notice:

1. In the beginning of Professor Levinson's comment about Obama's speech, he says, "I will give Obama a 98. You know, once in a while, he slips off, but he is really superb. I would give Hillary an eighty." However, in the Japanese translation, we can only see that "Obama's speech is 98 points, and Hillary is 80 points." It seems like only the scores matter.

2. The pronunciation of "writer" in Japanese is "laita," which sounds like "lighter." "Speech" is prounced "supiichi; "Hillary" is "Hilaly;" and "Obama" is--"Obama." Ohhh Yehhhh!

3. My school--Fordham--in Japanese is "Huodamu." I believe no Japanese will hear about Fordham unless I prounce it Huodamu.

If Japanese people value so highly the first hand information that they even come to America and interview my professor about his opinion on the US election, why can't China and Taiwan do the same thing? I gotta produce some video clips about the US presidential election for Chinese, so they don't have to tolerate the mishmash of China Central Television's reports.

My new pattern of behavior

The girl I love in high school is getting married. If this is not complicated enough, then listen to this: she wants me to give a speech on her wedding day.

We have known each other since we were eleven years old and we were classmates for seven years in Indonesia. In elementary school, she was a girl you wouldn't have a second glimpse. But in junior high school, she suddenly became so gorgeous that almost every boy in the class wanted to be her boyfriend, and I was not an exception.

I knew I liked her because of her look, not her personality or character. Maybe this was the reason why I never pursued her, for I realize that I was just blinded by her appearance. However, after 1998 anti-Chinese incident in Indonesia, most of our classmates went back to Taiwan, and only three of us--including a girl who was my "shadow"--left.

During these three years in high school with mostly three students in class, I got the chance to really look into her thoughts. She has a pure and unblemished mind. I usually said she was foolish, but what's underlied beneath was her conviction that all human are good and we should do our best to be a great person. I was deeply attracted by her childlike mind.

Now, she is going to get married, while I also have a beloved girlfriend. Knowing each other for such a long time, I find it's hard to accept her new role as a wife or a mother. Of course, wedding provides a ritual for her to change from one role to another, and we are all happy to attend this great ceremony. But giving a speech in front of her parents, relatives, friends, husband, friends of her family, friends of her husband, and all the other people that you would never think of makes me faint.

In No Sense of Place, Joshua Meyrowitz points out that the combiation of many different audiences (such as wedding) will create a new social situation that people would need to change the patterns of role behavior. What I want to say to her as a friend on the wedding might embarrass her family or husband, and what I can say to her parents and relatives might be too sloppy or boring for her. Maybe I should see the movie Wedding Crashers again.

Murakami Takashi

Brooklyn Museum is now having an exhibition of Murakami Takashi's art work. Murakami Takashi (村上隆) is one of the most influential and acclaimed contemporary artists to have emerged from Asia. His art style is mainly directed by Japanese animation. As he said, animation is "more representative of modern day Japanese life."

However, I think his art is too much alike Andy Warhol's. He repackages low culture and sells it to all other markets in different forms, including $5,000 limited-edition Louise Vuillton handbags. His distinctive style--superflat--has the characteristics of both consumerism and sexual fetishism. In this aspect, he is more like a business man selling products of popular culture than an artist searching for a deeper meaning of his work.

There are different levels of goals for artists. Scott McCloud divides the purpose of art work into six levels: (1) idea, (2) form, (3) idiom, (4) structure, (5) craft, (6) surface. The sixth level artists only consider what appears on their medium, whereas the first level artists ask for the purpose of their art. Murakami's art work is between the second and third levels. He developes his own personal idiom of art and discovers all that the art form is capable of, but he doesn't seems to struggle with the meaning of his art pieces other than selling them.

What is the level of my art work? Emmmm......I must belong to the seventh level.

I am gullible

At 11 pm., April 1st, I received a call from a female friend. She said, "I want to tell you something that I don't want anyone knows about it." I was in the middle of writing my book review for McCourt's class, so I didn't think too much about why she want to tell me or even what "day" it was.

After I said yes, she proceeded in telling me, "I am pregnant. I don't want the child. Can you accompany me to the hospital?" Then she began to cry and murmured about what she should do. Here, I need to explain a little bit about the story's background. First, we don't have any sexual relations, which means I am not the child's father; second, that female friend is also a foreign student, and it is quite horrible for this thing to happen on us, for we don't know anything about America's law or its medical environment.

I said nothing but my willingness to help her. To be honest, I was worried not only about her, but also about myself, for I didn't know what to do in the hospital.

At 1 am., April 2nd, she called me again. This time, she was not crying anymore. Immediately after her first sentense--"promise me you won't be angry with me"-- I knew I was fooled. Yah, now I realized it was April Fool's Day.

The most interesting thing was that after I told the whole story to my friend Brandon, he said to me, "On April Fool's Day, I always receive a lot of calls from girls saying they are pregnant. Of course I know they are fooling me. You are so gullible!"

Suggestions to these "gravidas":
1. Don't say you're pregnant on April Fool's Day, for even if it is real, no one will believe you anymore.

2. You guys should change April Fool's Day to Non-marital Pregnancy's Day.

Waiting

Who are you waiting for?

At least you have to pretend it!

"Are you a racist?" I jokingly asked a friend who talked about the weird hair style of a black man we saw on bus . Without hesitation, she answered, "Yes, I am." I was not only shocked by her answer, but also astonished by her shameless atitude of saying that.

This event brought me back to three years ago when I asked the same question to a friend who said Indonesians were noisy, rude, and uncultivated. She gave the same answer without a second thought. She even justified her thoughts by questioning me how I didn't notice the stupidity of Indonesians.

Gosh! Admitting yourself as a racist means that you are superficially judging people by their colors and races, not by their behaviors and personalities. It is totally unjustified to hold one person responsible for the behavior of another person or a collective of persons.

Well, there are racists in every country. I don't expect them to disappear in this century, but at least they need to pretend that they are not racists and to feel ashamed of their superstition and bias.

Man's search for meaning

Don't ask the meaning of life; ask what life expects from you. Life has no general meaning. As Viktor E. Frankl points out, "life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual."

Professor Paul Levinson once asked us about what we want--fame, power, or money--in the future. At that time, I was the only one in class who chose fame. Now, I think I have a better answer. I want to find a meaning to my life.

The challenges of Taiwan's new president

On March 22, 2008, Taiwan people officially ousted the leading Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that had dominated Taiwan since 2000.

The new president belonged to the opposite party Kuomintang (KMT), and its candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) won a landslide victory by gaining 2.1 million votes more than the candidate of DPP Frank Hsieh (謝長廷). Ma garnered 7.6 million votes, or 58.45 percent, while Frank Hsieh had only 5.4 million votes, or 41.55 percent.

Many KMT supporters have been waiting this day for eight years. Four years ago on March 19, 2004, KMT had a great chance to defeat DDP in the 2004 presidential election. Every poll of major media showed that KMT candidate can win for more than 10 percents of votes than President Chen Shui-bian, who sought for a second-term presidency. However, on the day of election, President Chen was accidentally "shot "by assassinators who had very lousy gun shooting skill (or, I should say, extraordinary skill if he want to minimize the damage to human body), and the bullet only cause a five centimeter scratch on Chen's stomach. DPP acclaimed that the President was heavily wounded and accused KMT of hiring the gunman on the Election Day. Many naïve Taiwanese believed DPP's words and went to vote for the President, resulting Chen's small-margin victory and causing all Taiwanese to suffer four more years.

One year after the Election, the police found a suicide with no guns left behind and declared him the gunman in the gun shooting on March 19. Until today, many people still believe that the 319 Shooting Incident is planned by President Chen himself. Now, back to 2008 Election again, Taiwanese afraid there might be another "incident" on presidential candidates that could change the polls' results showing Ma as the possible new president. Fortunately, there is no surprise. Ma becomes the new president of Taiwan.

On the night of March 22, 2008, fireworks lit up the sky over the headquarters of KMT, as supporters put up victory signs not only to celebrate the winning of Ma Ying-jeou, but also to commemorate this great day of disengagement from President Chen Shui-bian's eight-year rule that has been dogged by controversy, corruption allegations and tensions across the Taiwan Strait. Yes, I know many Taiwanese would love to ignite fire crackers for the inauguration of their newly elected president, but they should hold their excitement after examining the five main challenges of Ma in the next four years.

1. The deficit and inflation
As Chen and Vice President Annette Lu congratulated Ma, saying the government will do all it can to maintain political stability and assist the winners in taking over from them smoothly, they leave a rotten legacy for the new president to fix. According Taiwan Treasury Department, the government debt has increase from NT$2.4 trillion to NT$4 trillion under President Chen's eight-year mandate. If we add the NT$300 billion deficit of the Second Stage Financial Reform (二次金改), the NT$50 billion loss on Government Fund in stock market, and all the debt on state own enterprises such as Taiwan High Speed Rail, then we will find that Taiwan have at least NT$13 trillion debt.

Taiwan's inflation rate is another major economic problem. The wholesale price index (WPI) is expected to increase 2.4 percent this year, following a rise of 6.5 percent 2007 owing to soaring international oil and commodity prices. Early in this year, when Minister of Interior Su Jia-Chyuan said the 8 percent growth of rice prices was nothing serious because the number only reflected a normal increasing rate, thousands of citizens called Interior Department to complain about Su Jia-Chyuan's indifference to the hardship of people. Consumer prices in Taiwan climbed 3.89 percent from a year earlier, which was more than 3.1 percent median estimate of 14 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Meanwhile, Food prices rose 9.76 percent, import prices increased 14.06 percent, and wholesale prices rose 8.47 percent, while the only thing that didn't rise was the personal income of Taiwanese.

Thanks to President Chen, the new president has a lot of awful financial problems to fix.

2. The implementation of the three direct links
According to the director of Hong Kong's Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau, the new Taiwan's leader Ma can help spur the implementation of the "three direct links" across Taiwan Strait. The three direct links refers to direct cross-strait postal services, trade, and air and shipping services. Right now, if you want to travel from Taipei to Shanghai, you need to transfer flight at Hong Kong, which means you need to spend five hours on the flights, not including the time waiting for transfer in the airport. If you can flight from Taipei to Shanghai directly without transfer, it only takes you two hours for the flight.

President Chen's explanation for the absence of direct transportation links between Taiwan and mainland China is stupid and silly. He acclaims that China people are poor and evil, thus they cannot come to Taiwan's prosperous land. Taiwan lost its opportunity to become international financial center because of Chen's ideology. Many people have been brain-washed by DPP to believe that the completion of three direct links means China can easily control Taiwan. Now, Ma Ying-jeou not only has to establish regular direct flights between the island and mainland China, he also needs to convince Taiwanese that the national security has been well conceived.

3. The worn-out relationship with Beijing
President Chen makes Taiwan's relationship with Beijing worse in the past eight year by placing Taiwan independence as the top issue. Chen always threatens people that if they don't vote for DPP, China will take over Taiwan and jeopardize the rights they enjoy. This reminds me a question of a German student when I told her that I will like to work in China. She asked me, "Do you like China Communist Party?" It is a weird question. Why I must love Chinese government if I want to work there?

Ma Ying-Jeou must want to ask the same question: Why signing a peace treaty with Beijing and expending the China-Taiwan high-tech connection will lose Taiwan's sovereignty? Taiwan need to engage the mainland to improve the economy, for the island is too small to attract foreign investments that have been sucked out by China's booming economy. That German student who asked me a bewildering question is naïve in thinking that Taiwan can survive under the pressure of global economy without building business connection with China.

During the election, Ma has criticized Chinese government's crackdown on Tibetan protest, and supports the boycott against Beijing Olympic. Now, it's time for Ma to repair the relationship with China. Under the basic agreement that "One China Respectively Interpreted by Each Side," Ma must make sure all the negotiation on building close transportation and economic links with China will not threaten the sovereignty of the island.

4. The balance between building relationship with Washington and avoiding US arms procurement
While Washington switched formal diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, it still legally obligated to ensure Taiwan's security because Taiwan hold a very important position in American military strategy to block the diffusion of Communism. However, US always force Taiwan to buy exorbitant and obsolete American weapon. Yes, it is not that Taiwan doesn't want to buy any weapons from American; the truth is that American only sells some shitty weapons to Taiwan.

In the early 1990s, when US military refused to sell F-16 to Taiwan, Taiwan was forced spending 30 billion franc to buy French Air Force Mirages with overcharged prices. Also, when Taiwan had a contract with Boeing and Hughes for the procurement of personal portable Stinger Missile, what it got was the cumbersome Scorpion Stinger Missile that will decrease the mobility of the army. Sigh….Poor Taiwan.

Taiwan needs to build military capabilities to protect itself, but the amount it spends on arms procurement create a huge burden on its people. Now, Taiwan is the largest buyer of military weapons in the world, and even after KMT passed only one third of the military budget proposed by Defensive Department, Taiwan still need to pay $118 million to America. As I mentioned before, Taiwan already has more than NT$13 trillion debts. If Ma Ying-jeou and KMT submit under the pressure of the US government and pass the entire military budget, Taiwan's debts will increase to stratospheric NT$14 trillion, and every Taiwanese has to shoulder NT$150,000 (about $4700) for arms procurement in the next ten years. Taiwan still needs American protection, and Ma Ying-jeou needs to find a balance between building a friendly relationship with America and avoiding further robust defense spending.

5. The threat of one-party hegemony
It is clear that President Chen leaves an awful mess for Ma Ying-jeou to clean. Taiwanese should not feel relief simply because they change their president. There are still many obstacles on their way to build a strong country. KMT won 81 of 113 seats in the parliamentary election in February, and the overpowering of one political party is certainly not a good thing for the democracy of Taiwan. Lee Ao, one of the greatest human rights fighters in Taiwan, warns people that power can easily corrupt a man's soul, which is the reason why he always supports the opposite party.

My friend and classmate Brandon Hsu is a political enthusiast. He joined the Red Shirt anti-corruption movement in 2006, a campaign organized by former DPP leader Shih Ming-the (施明德) to depose President Chen, and he even designed his clothes and signboards for the movement. I don't like Chen Shui-bian, but I know the reason why I restrain myself to join the Red Shirt anti-corruption movement even the object of the protest is the person I hate. I know Lord Acton's famous proverb too well that "power tends corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely." Chen's corruption is nothing new and Taiwanese need to build a more powerful mechanism to supervise government, not one more political movement to divide its people. Besides, I prefer myself as a loyal opposition, keeping track of the policies of leading political party and supervising their every single movement, which are the only ways to make sure the healthy growth of democracy.

Since Ma, one of my favorite politicians in Taiwan, becomes the president, people should use higher standard to examine his ability and decisions. Even though I don't agree most of the DPP's policies and its pro-independence stance on the issues of two straits, I might support DPP in the future for the health of democracy in Taiwan. Wang Yeh-lih, political science professor of Tunghai University, believes Ma can minimize the concerns of one-party hegemony through arranging the premiership to an ethnic Taiwanese—as opposed to a Mainlander—with a background in economics, while assigning important jobs in government to women, no-party members and individuals from other political parties. But I believe the job of improving the democracy of Taiwan lies on the hand of every Taiwanese, and the work of making sure the freedom of speech and other human rights are in progress cannot depend on any politician, including Harvard-educated Ma Ying-jeou. John Stuart Mill points out in On Liberty that the only stimulus that can keep the ability of the body itself up to a high standard is the liability to watchful criticism of equal ability outside the body. It is every Taiwanese job to watch over KMT's activities in the next four years.

Cia Guo-Qiang and Chinese ink painting

I saw Cai Guo-Qiang's I want to belive in Guggenheim in New York today. The first time I heard his name was about four years ago when my teacher of Chinese ink painting talked about the new creative Chinese artists. I know some of his works exhibit in Taiwan, but I never have the chance to see them. Now, I meet his art work in New York City. I am really proud of this guy.

Cia Guo-Qiang is one of the most creative artists trying to break the old definition of traditional Chinese ink painting. Most of his large-scale drawings are made from igniting gunpoder and fuses laid on fibrous paper, and the reasults like the diffusion of black ink. He make the process of "explosion events" more creative than the art work itself, and you can feel every piece of it contains certain unplanned remainer of explosive matters.

Cia Guo-Qinag's work reminds me the good thing about Chinese ink painting. Once you practice Chinese ink painting, you can't be a tyranny or despot, because ink is so difficult to control on fibrous paper and you have to respect every single brush stroke. Artists, especially Chinese ink artists, have to know the preciousness of unpredictable results of ink diffusion. You can't erase the ink marks that you are not satisfied. You have to live with it, and try to intergrate them into the whole painting. Chinese ink painting is about letting go your ego, and learning how to appreciate every thing that is different from you.

When everyone can bring guns to school

My classmate Mike Egnoto wrote a post about guns and politics. He thinks we can end gun shootings in school by letting everybody carry guns to classes. Here is my comment.

"I think you're definitely right that we need guns to protect ourselves. We should push this further. The American government should give tourists and foreign students from Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan the right to own guns, because they need to protect themselves in America.

We should also let every radical Muslim and Zionist student carries guns and grenades in schools. Things will not turn out like what's happened in Gaza strip in the past fifty years, becasue no one will dare to mess with teachers carrying rifles, rocket launchers and handmade atom bombs in school.

If all these become true, school will become a very safe place for our children!"

This comment is not about Americans' right to own guns, it's about whether we want our children to live in fear when they are in schools. Maybe some Americans need guns to protect themselves and I think it's fine, but I don't want my children to sit between kids who are having a arms race.

A trip to Boston

Is it true that Boston Red Sox is the symbol of Boston City, so red becomes the representative color of the city? Or, is it the reddish-brown brick buildings and lobsters that make me connect red with Boston?

In Boston, I feel that New York City is blue simply because the color of Red Socks. Living in NYC, I don't realize the impact of New York Yankee on our media environment and the mythology of the city. Only until I saw the baseball caps with big, red, capital B appeal everywhere in Boston did I realize that sports teams has dominate the sensorium of American culture.

Creating the dualism of colors is not only a way of identify the differences between two cities, it is also a way to create a difference that builds on an image without any substance. How does Boston look like? might be a stupid question I've asked my when I drew the painting above. But the answer might not be so silly if you understand we are unconsciously imitating our surroundings. Boston looks like "red."

The Beggar's Culture

If people are asking for money, what kind of people would you be willing to give? Each time I moved or traveled to a different country, it is a question that always bothers me. Most people might not notice it as a problem. My mom never thinks about it, for her principle is that we don't give any money to the poor people on the street. But for me, I just can't simply move my eyes from them.

In Taiwan, most poor people sell tissues, toothpicks, chewing- gum and pens on the street. Nine out of ten sit on wheelchairs peddling their wares, and I think some of them are not cripples. In Indonesia, poor people sell drinks, crackers, peanuts, and cheap toys on the road or near the tollbooths of superhighways. They stand on the traffic islands during green light. Then they rush to the cars, knocking windows to call for attention during red light. In Singapore, I never see any "poor people." Maybe they all are locked by the government. In China, I can only use the word "horrible" to describe what I've seen. I've met a child around five years old with shabby cloth in the winter asking me for the cabob in my hand. I will never forget that scene.

In America, things become more tricky. Poor people in New York make money by singing, playing instruments, or dancing on the street or in the subway. Sometimes, you can't distinguish them from artists. They give me a better excuse to donate my money, not because they are poor, but because they entertain me. Neil Postman writes in Amusing ourselves to Death that television presents all subject matter as entertaining, and we can't have any serious discussion on TV. Maybe entertainment is the essence of American culture, for even mendicity becomes a show business.

My dream--Chased by the zombies

I dream almost every night. Last time when I told my classmate that I dream of her, she said, "you've told me so many times about that." That's true. If dreaming is like directing a film, then I must be an experienced director, for I direct hundreds of films every year.

Last night, I dreamed about being attacked by the zombies in Resident Evil. I am standing in a crowded subway station with other evacuees waiting for the train to take us away from this place. The zombies are heading toward the subway station, and I can hear people near the exits start to scream. We desperately need to get out of this city. However, when the train comes, it doesn't stop, and I can see all the people in the train are killed by the zombies.

I can't go outside, because the station is surrounded by the zombies, and I don't want to take another train, for it might also full of zombies. Having no choice, I jump down the platform and run on the track. At this point, I know the zombies already intrude the station and attack everyone inside. I run into the dark tunnel with all my strength without looking back again. Then I wake up. I am still alive.

The face of an Indian woman

New York is a good place for me to observe the faces of people from different countries. Sometimes, I will stare at somebody's face, try to memorize it, go home and draw it down. For me, drawing is a leisure activity, and writing in English is more like a job. In this aspect, painting should be my first language.

My dilemma

Thanks to my classmate Mike Plugh, I can provide the voice of thousands of dissidents for people in China. Mike gives me a link to Psiphon--a software that allows people in uncensored countries (such as America) to provide unfettered access to the Net to people who live behind firewalls of states that censor (such as China).

It is very simple. First, I download Psiphon, start it up, give my server a name, wait for my server passing through all the tests, and then I can start to provide people in China to access to blocked sites. However, as a censorship circimvention provider, I must carefully choose users living in a censored country. I don't know how it works, but if my user tells China's Internet police force about my IP address, then my server will be blocked and all the other users can no longer use the Psiphon I provide to them.

Here is the dilemma. I believe one of my friend is a lover of free speech and he hates government's censorship on Web sites, but his father used to work for the Chinese government.
What if his father finds out his son is using Psiphon? Should I give this friend my Psiphon server? Also, I have very closed friend working in a local court in China. Should I provide a chance for a judge to do something that is not accepted by the law? Ahhhh.....

The illusion of young, rich Chinese

The Lives of Others remind me of two distinct articles about China in Time magazine. One is on Nov 5, 2007, about China's Me generation (rich, yound middle class) who care more about iPods than the subsequent suppression after the Cultural Revolution. The other one is on Oct 1, 2007, about China's tightening control on media and the imprisonment of journalists and writers.

It seems that Chinese people are learning two features of American culture--the mindless consumption and the devotion to human rights. Right now, the former one has much more influence on the Me generation than the latter one.

Most of these rich, young Chinese believe that their contribution to economy can help China and the protests of human rights violations are bad for society. An account executive with advertising heavyweight Ogilvy & Mother in Beijing said, "There's nothing we can do about politics, so there's no point in talking about it or getting involved." However, if he has seen The Lives of Others, he will realize that there is no way to separate ourselves from the politics.

If he can't deride the silliness of what he sees, if he can't express his own observation of the society, or worse, if he can't make his work reflect the lives of others, how can he talk about creativity--the most vital element in advertising? As Hu Shi, one of the greatest intellectuals in China, said, " A free nation can't be build by a bunch of flunkies." Without the aspiration of improving human rights, there is no use in talking about building a great nation.

For now, I think the power of the Me generation is only depending on the credit limit of their credit cards.

The Lives of Others

The Lives of Others (Leben der Anderen, Das) is a great film about the horror of living under the suppression of the secret police forces. This movie makes me think of Ao Lee, one of the human rights fighters in Taiwan. He was in jail for six years and under the surveillance of secret police for three years. He lost his girlfriend, his youth and his creativity in jail. He never got the luck that the movie's main character has and escaped the fate of imprisonment. I will write more about him next time.

The most boring job in the world

On my trip to Shanghai in January this year, I found that China government blocked Wretch--the biggest web community in Taiwan. It's like censoring the whole Blogger.com! The same fate has happened on almost all the pictures on the Internet with titles like "bikini," "underwear," "thigh," or "swimsuit." The government not only trample the freedom of speech, they also deprive the pleasure of of every healthy man.

My friend from China tells me that China government hires thousands of people as Internet police task force. Their everyday job is to search keywords relating to contents that might "destablilize China's society and immoralize its citizens." I think they have the most boring job in the world.

Internet police force is a new form of security forces. These people are the reflection of their narcissistic boss. "The security forces ensure that the leader retains his celebrity, and in return the leader empowers the security forces (who often consist of young men from the countryside) to do whatever they want to the population at large," as James M. Curtis writes in "Why World History Needs McLuhan." But China's Internet police forces are no country bumpkins; they are a band of techno-savvy geeks who show Chinese people that everything is still under their control, even on the Internet.

I might work in China in the future, so writing this topic might jeopardize my future career. However, I believe that blogs will bring more accurate pictures of truth than the mainstream media, especially in China, where the mass media are manipulated by the government. Blocking blogs is unbearable.

The feeling of the unpredictable future

Something has happened. Is it just my pessimism? Or maybe its the malfunction of my sensorium. Surfing the Internet seems like a form of escapism. What's waiting for us is our unrecognizable face. We lie to ourselves that everything will be the same. But the future is just another word for end.

Enjoy your life.

Why monsters all love New York City?

I see Cloverfield today. To be honest, I am quit disappointed. The main reason is that the movement of characters and the cuts of each shot are too gratuitous. It is like the characters (including the monster) act for the camera so that it can catch their every action. Not to mention about the cuts. Their timing is too perfact. For more peculiar details in Cloverfield, please see the film review in The New Yorker.

This movie brings me to a question: Why the setting of disastrous movies is always in New York City? I found the answer on my trip to Shanghai when I looked down from an airplane and saw the glamorous New York City. You only have to imagine you are a monster, and you desperately want to find some place to destroy. You wouldn't like prairies or forests, for they have nothing to crush. This place must be the representation of modern civilization with millions of toys--buildings, cars, people, etc. Then the answer of my question is clear. Only when you imagine yourself as a monster will you know why monsters all love New York City.

girl, F train, memory

Subway is a wonderful place for me to observe human faces. This is a girl I saw on F train today. I didn't want to take out a camera and take her pictures, so I kept her image in my head. On the paper, I can recreate the image. My memory, therefore, is preserved on the paper, and because of this painting, my memory exists.

Image, girl, and ink

This is a practice of ink painting. She is not any particular girl I know, although I do use someone's image in my brain (not picture) to draw her.

I seldom put water colors and black ink together. The result is not bad. The problem is the shape of human face. It's....strange. I used to draw asian girl. Maybe that's the reason why I feel the face is a little weird. Or, I should start practising sketch.

A lesson from drawing a script

I shot my video project on last Friday. Spending almost two hours in embellishment of script is really unnecessary. In the night before the filming day, I redrew half of my story. Then the problems emerged. There is no space for me to put more shots on the script! This gives me a lesson. Script doesn't have to be well-drawn or immaculate; the most important thing in writing a script is to leave more space, so one can change it when he or she has a better idea. That's also a lesson about life.

We shouldn't worry too much about not having rich parents or a degree from Ivy school. What we should worry about is that we don't devote ourselves to our jobs, and never willing to become a better person. Too often, we just fill our lives with worthless stuff, and forget to leave more "space" for change.

Clinton's ad versus Obama's ad

Monica Langley and Amy Chozick, reporters of The Wall Street Journal, wrote that after Clinton had lost eight straight primaries in a week, her campaign strategies Mark Penn yelled at ad-maker Mandy Grunwald: "Your ad doesn't work…the execution is all wrong." Ms. Grunwald fired back by saying, "Oh, it's always the ad, never the message."

Let's compare the TV advertisements of Clinton and Obama. Remember the first feeling when you see these ads. Is there any huge difference between them?





Well, if somebody said the TV ads make Clinton lose and Obama win, I suggest they type "Clinton ad" and "Obama ad" on YouTube to see what they can find. One can find a lot of cool Obama girl's ads, and also a lot of cool anti-Hillary ads. It is not about the message of the TV ads produced by the candidates. It is about how people can make their own ads for their candidates.

What is sex appeal in advertising strategy? This is it!

I was majored in advertising in my undergraduate school. Even though I have changed my major to media studies in grad school, I still love to see every kind of ads.

This is the most wackiest ads I've ever seen for a soft drink. Strong sex appeal.While there might be thousands of audiences using this ads for masturbation, I wonder a few would bother to remember the product's name.