All about Wall-E

“Dancing, a series of movements involving two partners, with speed and rhythm much harmoniously with music.”

 

While the captain asked the computer, like an innocent child, curiously and mournfully, “Computer, define ‘dancing’!”, Wall-E and Eve were skimming over outside the window, soaring in the universe;

 

While the computer was explaining the definition of “dancing” mechanically, the two beautiful curves were defining “dancing” proudly in knowing that they were no longer alone;

 

And while all the people forgot the beauty that they once had, the creations of human were pursuing it sincerely and frankly. 

 

At this moment, a man and a woman moved their eyes from the screen to outside the window. They suddenly discovered the beauty of the real world, and held each other’s rather cumbersome hands abruptly. The flame of humanity has been rekindled in their eyes.

 

Classic Pixar

 

Since Toy Story, all Pixar movies followed a certain mode: a short store in a big world, an insignificant person, an intended purpose, a potential evil force, a group of supporting roles who had trouble with the leading role in the beginning and finally became companion in misfortune with him, and a conventional happy ending.

 

Surprisingly, instead of being boring, this mode is, if anything, unique. After having tried friendship, family and father-son relationship themes, Pixar moved to love story this time.

 

Hello Dolly’s original soundtrack— the cheerful Put on Your Sunday Clothes brings audiences to the future worlds. There are, outwardly, endless skyscrapers one connects to another in a dull atmosphere. And with the camera zoom in, the buildings seem weird —they are all piled up by rubbish.

 

Suddenly, the back ground music changed to empty echoes of the city, which do sound dreary, delivering the feeling of the end of the world. This scene is no longer unfamiliar with us—just like the New York City in I Am Legend but without so much rubbish.

 

Then a busy working robot appears–this is our Wall-E, and the music was from his radio. On the one hand, playing this date music in the a large pile of trash shows Wall-E is unreconciled to be degenerated and is pursuing romantic; on the other hand, it satirised the reality that the earth has completely been occupied by rubbish and no human being still lives there anymore.

 

All the people now are living in a spacecraft—Axiom, where apparently has realised communism. Every person there is equal—equal social position, equal free, equal rich, equal fat and equal lazy.

 

This “blasted ship” provides people a too comfortable and indulgent life for more than 700 years.

 

When the captain was waking up and walking to the main deck, Blauen Donau began to play.

 

Simple but touching

 

The lines between Wall-E and Eve remain no more than repeating each other’s name, but are completely enough.

 

An animation is aiming at injecting life and soul into the cold 3D skeletons, and this movie is doing well to this end. Wall-E and Eve, they even don’t have mouths, but the three magical kisses between them are always so touching. It makes the human mind stands bewildered in the presence of its own creations.

 

This movie, Wall-E condensed and recreated a variety of American values. The US is the most pluralistic and diverse country in the world, but it still has its own traditional value concept.

 

We can, sometimes, capture a flicker of Gump’s spirit from Wall-E. That is how the Americans summed up their own national spirit— enduring hardships, working hard toughly and tenaciously, because they are fool and awkward.\

Su Tungpo Background

The best saying of Sun Tungpo and the best description of himself was what he said to his brother:

“Up above, I can associate with the Jade Emperor of Heaven and down below I can associate with the poor folks. I think there is not a single bad person in this world.” 

 

Su Shi, also known as Su Tungpo, was a writer, a poet, an artist, a calligrapher, a pharmacologist, a judge, a secretary to the emperor, an engineer, a yogi, a Confucian statesman and a confirmed winebibber of the Song Dynasty.

 

In 1037, Su Tungpo was born in Meishan, near Mount Emei in what is now Sichuan province. His courtesy name was Zizhan and his pseudonym was “Resident of Tungpo”. That’s why he is always referred to as Su Tungpo.

 

In Su’s childhood, he was educated by a Taoist priest at a local village school. And at the tender age of 19 (A.D. 1057), he passed the Chinese Civil Service Examinations at top, and attained the degree of jinshi, a prerequisite for a high government official.

 

After the recommendation from his patron Ouyang Xiu, one of the most famous politicians and scholars at that time, Su was appointed Fengshang assistant magistrate in 1061 and then started his tormented official career.

 

Before suffering his first political persecution, Su held a variety of government positions throughout China including, a secretary of History Department in 1064, a magistrate of Metropolis in 1071, the Mozhou magistrate in 1074, the Suzhou magistrate in 1077 and the Hangzhou magistrate in 1079.

 

Concerning the matter that the government monopoly imposed on the salt industry, Su was always opposed to a political faction headed by Wang Anshi, a great reformist and poet.

 

In 1080 the reformist faction came to power, and they claimed all Su’s critiques aiming at them were intended to be against the emperor.

 

As a result, Su was sent into banishment from 1080 to 1086. During this period of time, he began Buddhist meditation, and wrote a series of poems and prose which were filled with Buddhist monasteries.

 

In 1086, due to the ascension of a new government, Su and all other exiled officials were recalled to the capital.

 

Then he served as the Tengzhou magistrate in 1085, the Secretary to Emperor in 1086, the Hangzhou Commander in 1089 (where he constructed a pedestrian causeway: Sudi, now is a famous resort), the Yingchou magistrate and the Minister of civil service in 1091, the Minister of war in 1092 and the Minister of education in 1093.

 

During this time he acquired a reputation for being “the friend of people”.

 

However, in 1094 Su suffered the second banishment as the victim of a court intrigue to Huizhou and Hainan Island.

 

He passed away in 1101, a year after he returned to China.

 

References:

 

Lin Yutang(1947)The Gay Genius,The John Day Company: New York

Su Shi (2005) Wikipedia, [online]

(click here to Su Tungpo profile)

Being Extraordinarily Ordinary: Reese Witherspoon Profile

She is funny, blonde and smart—all Hollywood asks for a girl.  However, unlike other Hollywood girls who almost dream of becoming super stars from the day they were born, she didn’t realize that acting was what she wanted to do with her life until 19. 

 

 

Being well-known after “Legally Blonde” became the most popular comedy in 2003, she succeeds to play a role as a model for girls.  She is Reese Witherspoon, at the age of 29, one of the most bankable female stars in the movies.

 

Though regard herself as stupidity sometimes, Reese is comparatively smart.  At the age of 18, she was admitted by Stanford, but later dropped out for her acting career. 

 

She always keeps a clear mind about what she really wants, what is more important.  Once she makes a decision, just does it. 

 

In today’s Hollywood, more often than not, females are still just the accessories of males.  When a hero successfully wins a battle or frustrated by something, he may need a beautiful, considerate heroine accompanies and comforts him.  I’m sorry to say that, in the movie, actresses shouldn’t tend to wear less and be erogenous as sex objects. 

 

Reese prefers to just celebrate herself rather than make it on being sexy, though she could be.  That is the art of choice, and by extension, the art of life.  Obviously, she is good at it.

 

Reese’s confidence comes from her dad and she considers it as everything in her business. 

 

She is chatty and does like to express her opinion.  But when others compare her with several stars, she is quite modest and self-restrained.  American culture encourages people to be active and aggressive while Chinese culture advocates introspection and condescension.  Only those who combines these two, can get a marvelous balance. 

 

Reese takes “ extraordinary ordinariness” as the huge compliment for her. 

 

She and her husband don’t own multiple houses or fancy cars, although they have lots of money.  She just keeps the life as what it used to be. 

 

Reading books while the kids play, cooking almost every dinner, and making home comfortable and lovely, her life is unbelievably normal.  She enjoys being a wife, a mother, and she is proud of herself. 

 

Nobody will wonder her charm in and out of the spotlight.  No matter the androcentrism or feminism are both extreme.  Women should find a new role to play in this modern society.  Like the ancient Chinese “Golden Mean” tells us, to cope with happiness and sadness, material and spiritual wealth in an ordinarily natural way.  That is what we can learn from Reese Witherspoon.

 

 

Poem

Monkey King

The important thing about Monkey King

Is that he has a golden stick whose size can be changed to kill the demons and ghosts

It is true he has a pair of acute eyes that can tell evil spirits from humans

And he has a master, two fellows and thousands of apprentices who may help him

You can also see three or even more monkey kings as long as the real one pulls some hair out of his body

But the important thing about Monkey King

Is that he has a golden stick whose size can be changed to kill the demons and ghosts

 

Kites

The important thing about kite

Is that it brings people much fun

It is a traditional custom in china to fly kites when spring comes

The sky looks colorful as the kites fly

You can join in the Kites Festivals to enjoy varieties of kites

And you should firmly grasp the thread

Or it will fly higher and higher until disappearing from your eyes

But the important thing about kite

Is that it brings people much fun

 

Slippers

The most important thing about slippers

Is that you will feel comfortable when you put them on

It is true wearing slippers can keep rooms clean and save the time from tidying

And it can help you take good care of your feet

You may need to change different slippers when you get into different rooms

But the most important thing about slippers

Is that you will feel comfortable when you put them on

 

Life and Times: Su Tungpo

“…People may have sorrow or joy, be near or far apart,
the moon may be dim or bright, wax or wane,
this has been going on since the beginning of time.
May we all be blessed with longevity though far apart, we are still able to share the beauty of the moon together.”

(When will the moon be clear and bright?, Su Tungpo, translated by Lin)

Su Tungpo- sourced www.fubusi.com/2006/2-17/140804252.html-available for non-commercial purpose

 

Poet, painter, calligrapher, prose master, gastronomist, dissenter in politics, humanitarian, hater of Puritanism, incorrigible optimist.

Putting those labels together seems not enough to reflect the richness and variety of Su Tungpo’s personality precisely. As Lin Yutang, Su’s biographer, described, he is the combination of a gigantic intellect and a guileless child’s heart, and perhaps the most complicated individual in Chinese history.

 

Su Tungpo was born in 1037 in Sichuan province, China and his appearance can be only recorded by Chinese painting, which is known for focusing on spiritual expression rather than realistic one. This explains why Mr. Su outwardly appears so different in various pictures—sometimes decent, sometimes bantering; sometimes tall and thin, and sometimes short and stout.

 

But all those portraits represented one thing in common—the impromptu and unexpected inherence of Su’s. According to his friend’s note, in fact Su is a black and fat man, as it described as “the ink pig”, which also refers to that Su has an obsession with calligraphy and painting.

 

Su was a superorganic recluse. In China, a recluse has a duplicate meaning, and it denotes never disputes with others, on the one hand; one will never be a time-server or follower, on the other.

 

There is an old saying in China: “A junior recluse finds seclusion in the remote country, but a senior recluse feels most secluded amidst the urban hustle.” Su is a recluse in the government.

 

In his age, conservatives and reformists were the two main political forces which had been in power by turns. As Su believed in his own belie, both of the two political groups treated him as a dissenter. As a result, Su was shunted aside by his colleagues and suffered political prosecution for several times.

 

However, those frustrations cannot stop Su staying optimistic. In Rodenbach’s peotry anthology Les Vies Encloses, illness was described as “epuration”. Su is the Chinese Rodenbach. When he was forced into his second exile outside civilised China in Lin Nan, he wrote, “Eating 300 lychees(a kind of fruit) a day, I’d rather stay here permanently.”

 

Yes. Su was infatuated by cate and wine. In Lin Nan he discovered a local cinnamon wine. According to The Gay Genius, his bibliography, Su praised this wine with its distinctive bouquet. “In his exorbitant praise in a poem about this wine, Su Tungpo said that if one drank enough of it. One felt so light that he could sail the sky and walk upon water. And he learned the formula for making this wine and had it inscribed on a stone and hidden below the Iron Bridge of Lofu so that only seekers after God could find it.”

 

Henpecked Husband

As a Victorian joke says, it is good for a man to marry a wife with an artificial limb, since one can slip out to have fun at midnight without fear as long as his wife’s leg has been hidden. The story tells us that, in the past more than one hundred years, males have achieved tremendous improvement in the sense of humour, but the henpecked nature will never change and, valid everywhere.

 

Su Tungpo was also a henpecked husband. And he tended to express this emotion in a mellow humour manner. Once Su wrote a limerick to make fun of himself. It says “but just to hear the roar of lioness, I dropped my cane and heart grip with fear.” (In Ancient China the roar of lion represented Buddha’s anger. He depicted his wife as Buddha here.) Self-mockery by writing poetry — that is typical Chinese style humour.

 

“The endless Yangtse River eastward flows; as its huge waves are gone all those gallant heroes of bygone years are gone, too.” (To cherish the memory in Red Cliff, Su Tungpo)

 

In the past 1,000 years, something remains, like the Yangtse River is still flowing today; something has changed, like Su Tungpo was gone, and became one of these heroes.

(click here to background)

China exports in first fall since 2001

General Administration of Customs (GAC) says China’s exports totaled 115 billion US dollars last month, down 2.2 per cent year-on-year in the first monthly decline since June 2001.

 

November’s total trade volume stood at 189.89 billion US dollars, down 9 per cent year-on-year. The previous decline reflected slumping US demand after the tech bubble burst.

 

“It means the financial crisis is not only weakening the economies of the United States and European Union but also weighing on China’s economy.” Said Zhang Jian, senior economist with the Asian Development Bank’s China Resident Mission.

 

According to Zhang, if exports fall due to weak external demand, imports will drop more drastically because most of the country’s export industry is processing with supplied or imported materials. The decline in orders at the latest Canton Fair, an significant barometer of China’s trade, was a gloomy portent.

 

According to GAC, the EU remained China’s top trading partner, with bilateral trade totaling 392.94 billion US dollars in the first 11 months, jumping 22 per cent over the same period last year. Trade between China and the United States, the second-biggest trade partner, rose 11.6 per cent to 307.82 billion US dollars.

 

Japan remained China’s No. 3 trade partner with bilateral trade totaling 246.23 billion US dollars, up 15.2 per cent, according to China Daily.

 

Nevertheless, Chinese enterprises were able to overcome weak overseas demand because China’s exported products are mostly daily necessities with low elasticity of demand and demand from emerging markets remain strong, according to Zhou Shijian, a senior research at Tsinghua University.

 

A trade expert with the Ministry of Commerce said during an interview with China Business News that China’s export volume is expected to achieve a growth rate of around 15 per cent in 2009 despite the impact of the financial crisis and global economic downturn.

Chinese government plans “expanding consumption” bail out

As the global financial crisis has raised decrease of both external demand for Chinese goods and domestic consumption power, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan is calling for more tangible measures to stimulate China’s domestic consumption potential to sustain economic growth.

According to China Daily, the Chinese government is asking related departments to establish a series of policies to help the low and middle income people, and to ensure the living allowance of these groups, in order to stabilise and increase people’s income, especially the wages of low- and middle class people.

The rise in wages and subsidies for low-income residents will improve their living standards and expand the degree of consumption at the same time. As Wang said:

“Such residents need to improve their living conditions, to purchase needed appliances and increase the spending on the education of their kids.”

Xinhua Online reports, David Dollar, the World Bank country chief for China states that, the stimulus will be enough to keep China growing at a healthy rate so the focus now should be on good implementation.

While Stephen Green, senior Standard Chartered Bank economist, held an opposite point of view:

”They (policymakers) will be laying out just how big the kitchen sink has to be to re-invigorate the economy. All the data suggest the economy has further skidded into the fourth quarter.”

Nevertheless, the sink of global economic has an inevitable impact on China’s economic. The World Bank forecast earlier that the global economic slowdown may even drag down China’s growth to 7.5 percent in 2009. (Guangming Daily)

According to Economic Observers, in the last year, China’s economic growth slowed to 9 per cent in the third quarter from 10.4 per cent in the first half and 11.9 per cent last year. Economic data for October and November showed further downside risks.

China unveiled a 4 trillion RMB (581 US dollars) stimulus package on November to boost domestic demand.

 

Dominance of the Globe by 18 century: European and China

As a result of China’s stagnation and Europe’s accelerating rise from the eighteenth century onwards, European power was then later by 1914 regarded as “the dominant” at the global stage.

(European dominance of China)

 

Fact is vital in history study, and therefore here are three facts:

Firstly, there has been long tradition of Eurocentrism in the field of history study. The “European miracle” theory coined by Eric Jones was a classic example of this tradition. (Smith, 1991)

Secondly, by 1914 European powers as a whole was a dominant military and economic power over the world.

The third fact was that until the early nineteenth century, China had long been one of the largest economies in the world, and it even remained as the world’s largest economy for centuries before the eighteenth century. (Bairoch, 1975)

 

Some people believe that European technological superiority was the reason of European dominance. But I think only looking at the internal changes such as a series of technological inventions in the development of continental Europe is not adequate to explain how European became dominant power in the globe.

 

China’s failure

 

For example, China which had well-advanced scientific and technological knowledge in many respects before the nineteenth century did not actually gain much advantage to take an absolute lead in the world.

 

That therefore indicates that although technological superiority of Europe was important and significant in European overall development, it still could not adequately explain the fact of European dominance.

 

On the other hand, what China lacked was exactly what Europe had, and that made real difference. China that had the “seed” of capitalism before and the “water” such as scientific and technological knowledge for its growth did not have much “soil” which refers to political and social foundation that worked to sustain the “seed”.

 

Consequently, China did not transform itself into a capitalist society, but stayed in its traditional self-sustaining feudal system, meanwhile its western European counterparts were aggressively progressing into capitalist societies.

 

Hence, I can elicit that political and social foundation was the crucial factor in developing European capitalism, and the transformation into capitalist society ahead of other societies as well as strong growth of capitalism along with underpinning of European imperialism were the ultimate reasons that best explain European dominance of the world in 18 century.

 

Bibliography

 

Bairoch, Paul. 1975. Disparities in Economic Development since the Industrial Revolution. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Smith,Alan K. 1991. Creating A World Economy: Merchant Capital, Colonialism, and World Trade, 1400-1825. Boulder: Westview Press

 

 

 

Book review: The “Zuo” Lady

The “Zuo” Lady (Woman on the Edge) is a Chinese famous stylish novel.  Zhang Kangkang, a contemporary female writer, wrote it.  With its publication in 2002, a new term, the “Zuo” lady came into being. 

 

The Chinese vocabulary “Zuo” refers to modern women who never docilely follow rules and always have a strong sense of self-awareness. 

 

In China, “Zuo” is a word from the Wu Dialect. All of the phrases built by the word “Zuo,” like “Zuo Tou,” have negative meanings. They sound a little bit like trying to kick up a row.  “Zuo Tou,” (“Tou” means head) means changing hairstyles frequently or wearing a strange hairstyle to stand out. 

 

However, with social development, women’s status has improved so greatly that the vocabulary “the Zuo lady” was developed into a new meaning.  Overnight, tens of thousands of Chinese Zuo ladies came out, walking on the streets and taking deep pride in their new name.

 

Women tend to stand on their own feet and to fight for their freedom both physically and mentally. They still like to make trouble, but not to trouble men any more. Instead, they are seeking challenges and challenging themselves all the time. 

The creator of the term, Zhang Kangkang, regarded “Zuo” ladies as a product of modern society, as well as a phenomenon that would inevitably come into being. 

 

“Zuo” ladies may be thinking about traveling to the North Pole today, and tomorrow will do it at the cost of life, family, career and savings.  They may enjoy themselves at a party throughout the night, and the next morning sit in the office, again starting at their work with a radiant look.  They may fall in love with a stranger this morning, and in the afternoon decide to marry him.  They are capricious, but they all have, or at least once had, a decent job with a satisfactory salary and they are all creative enough to play a leading role in the development of their own fields. 

They “zuo,” more often than not, because the environment they are living in is too small for them to seek out enough opportunities to show their graceful bearing.  When their strong self-awareness conflicts with social practice, there is a kind of strange feeling that drives them “zuoing.”

 

Some people have accepted Zuo ladies and tried to appreciate them, while others still emphasize the great image of traditional Chinese women.  And I admire them for their courage to stand up to the old way of life and persist in their own lifestyles. 

 

In western culture, we may find many Zuo ladies.  However, Zuo ladies are still newcomers in China.  Next time, if I come across such a “Zuo” lady who may have just resigned from her job and is traveling alone with a large bag on her back and a confident smile on her face, I will raise my thumb to support her.

 

 

 

 

War never change

When talking about ‘how we can end war’, primarily, it is assumed that ‘we want to end war’, and the most importantly, we all think ‘war is bad’, and we know that, in some cases, ‘war is even fatal.’

But the problem and the most contradictory fact is that, a lot of people today are still very much keen talking about warring, discussing about any possibility of facing the situation where one has to go to a war, either in a pre-emptive manner or in purely defensive choice.

Here is where we are: we, humans, arguably the most intelligent on the planet, have effectively placed ourselves in a classic catch-22.

On the one hand, we hate wars among ourselves, we want to end war; on the other hand, we are always prepared to go to another war. One must ask: why the hell is this? Is there any chance to get out of it?

My reflection on war, so far, tells me that it is extremely difficult to end wars between humans. I argue that the fundamental cause of warfare is fear. Fear leaves us in a great possibility to go to war. To end war actually means not to fear, to bring peace really means to bring peace in mind.

I hold strong doubt about the stability of human mind in peace, not only because I believe it is natural for humans to be sensitive about any potential threat to their security, but also equally important, it is the fact that the persistent unequal power relations in the global context fosters fear among humans.