httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhgv85m852Q

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You can find more background info about the Huaqing Palace, An Lushan, and Yang Guifei. (Please note that the Yang Guifei statue in Huaqing Palace was sculpted by modern art students. She was more a fantasy of these students than true depiction of history… because she was not fat enough. :)

During the Tang dynasty, being fat was deemed pretty whereas skinny people were seen as second class citizens. There was a saying that “women with a 23″ waist would never find a husband; and women with a 32″ waist would have lots of men to choose from.” Not only fat women were seen as pretty (thus Yang Guifei was very fat), soldiers without a big tummy would never be promoted. Men who were too skinny would not even be qualified to fight for their country.

The following pictures show Tang figurines that can tell how the Tang people defined beauty. Also, though I’ve learnt from history books that Tang exported a lot of Chinese culture and civilization to Japan, I was still shocked when I saw Tang constructions…. they were so similar to historic constructions I’ve seen in Kyoto, Japan. The long time link between the two countries is indisputable. And I could see why the Japanese were so excited and so much national pride was generated when they were able to defeat China during WWII.

For a comparison, I’m also attaching a picture of a historic temple in Kyoto, Japan:

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The plane had taken off from the region of Xinjiang in northwestern China, where police in January raided an office of an ethnic minority separatist group. Police said at the time that they had killed two suspects and arrested 15.

The Communist Party chief of the region, Wang Lequan, disclosed Sunday that the raid had uncovered materials indicating the planning of an attack on the Beijing Olympics, which begin Aug. 8.

“Their goal was very clear,” Wang told reporters on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress here.

The official New China News Agency initially labeled the airliner incident an attempted terrorist attack but later quoted an unnamed official from China Southern Airlines as saying, “It’s up to the police department to decide.”

The China Southern Airlines flight, which departed the regional capital of Urumqi at 10:35 a.m. Friday, was forced to land about two hours after takeoff because “some people were attempting to create an air disaster,” Nur Bekri, chairman of the Xinjiang regional government, told reporters at the same gathering at which Wang spoke Sunday afternoon.

Bekri, who gave few details of the incident, said authorities were investigating “who the attackers are, where they are from and what’s their background.”

“But we can be sure that this was a case intending to create an air crash,” he said.

The Reuters news service cited a source with knowledge of the incident as saying “inflammable material” was found in the plane’s toilet and that at least two passengers on Flight CZ6901 had been taken into custody.

The flight crew reported the incident to the control tower and the plane was told to land in Lanzhou, a city in Gansu province, China’s government news agency said. The passengers and crew were unharmed and arrived in Beijing on Saturday morning, according to the news agency.

Chinese officials said last year that terrorism was their top security concern for the Summer Olympics.

Although China has not been a major target of international terrorist groups, a small separatist group that collaborates with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement has staged bombings in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. The Chinese and U.S. governments as well as the United Nations have labeled the East Turkestan group a terrorist organization. East Turkestan is another name for Xinjiang.

Uighurs, who are Muslim, make up the largest ethnic group in oil-rich Xinjiang, home to about 20 million people. Human rights activists say the Chinese have repressed the Uighurs, central Asians whose culture and ethnicity are different from China’s Han majority.

Wang, the region’s Communist Party chief, said security forces would take steps to crush any attempts to spread unrest in the region or to stage attacks. He did not name any specific Olympics venue as a target.

“Those terrorists, saboteurs and secessionists are to be battered resolutely, no matter what ethnic group they are from,” Wang said. “We are prepared to strike them when the evil forces are planning their activities.”

President Hu Jintao met Saturday with Xinjiang officials attending the National People’s Congress and urged them to strengthen unity among the region’s ethnic groups.

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“Those Oriental people work like dogs. They work their hearts out. They are workers non-stop. They sleep beside their machines. That’s why they are successful in life.”

Ford went on: “I’m telling you, Oriental people, they’re slowly taking over.… They’re hard, hard workers.”

A professor told CBC that it’s time for elected officials in Ontario to retire the term “Oriental” because it’s outdated and offensive.

Anthony Chan, a former broadcaster who works as a Canadian studies professor at the University of Washington, said he understands the term “Oriental” continues to be part of some people’s lexicon but the acceptable, and more accurate, term to use these days is “Asian.”

Oriental refers to the Orient, which has been used to refer to the Far East. Historically, the Orient was a term used in Western culture to refer to Asia.

I agree to an extent that the term “Oriental” might have some imperialistic taste in it (the term was created in the 15th century — according to Merriam-Webster dictionary — during the peak of European colonialism and has been considered an European egocentric way of describing their supremacy over non-European peoples). However, my question is, on the other side of the token, what about the term “the West”? Should we also stop using it?

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The world has changed. “Ni Hao, Kai-lan” is only one signal telling the emergence in importance of China on the world stage.

My friend’s nephew, now 4 years old, was born and raised in Hong Kong. His parents, both have studied in Canada and the US, are “traditional” elite Hong Kongers who devote themselves into learning English. As such, they put their son in an English-speaking preschool and the language used at home is basically English. The son also watches English TV programs. (much more “English” than many Chinese immigrants in Canada!)

This year, the parents have to find for their son a primary school. The system in Hong Kong is that kids must go through interviews by individual principals of the schools they apply for. Armed with a perfect English ability, the parents were confident that their son could get into one of Hong Kong’s most famous boys’ school, which the father is an alumni.

After the interview, though, the son was rejected. The reason? (I was shocked when I heard that…) The principal said the son’s Chinese was too bad.

Now, while the parents are still scrambling to find ANY school, the son is attending Mandarin immersion class.

I think this little story says a lot.

Anyway, here’s the story about Kai-lan:

AP – The little cartoon girl with the black hair and the big eyes looks straight into the camera, grins and opens her mouth. The words come out, and they are unexpected in both sound and tone: “hong se” — the Mandarin Chinese term for “red.”

In Nick Jr.’s new children’s animated series, “Ni Hao, Kai-lan,” the protagonist is Chinese American, the cultural and design influences echo China, and the embedded lessons are focused on the language spoken natively by more people than any tongue on earth.

“Ni Hao, Kai-lan” (“nihao” means hello in Mandarin) premieres Feb. 7 to coincide with Chinese New Year. The mindset behind it — and how it seeks to do with Chinese what “Dora the Explorer” does for Spanish — offers insight into how Chinese culture is ceasing to be exotic in America and taking its place in everyday life.

“We tried to respect not only Chinese culture but American culture also,” says Karen Chau, a New York-born, Plano, Texas-bred Chinese American who created the show. “It’s really 100 percent American and 100 percent Chinese,” she says. “What we really don’t want it to be is this isolation of one culture.”

In an era when diversity is a buzzword, China remains, for many Americans, a broadly misunderstood culture. Many depictions of Chinese in American popular culture still suggest, if not overtly evoke, outdated notions of the “exotic Oriental” with the elaborate dynastic robe and even the wide-brimmed hat and slanty eyes.

But the emergence of Chinese culture here has only accelerated in the past few years — particularly as more kids get to know Asian classmates, the economic status and education level of Chinese immigrants increases rapidly and American parents realize the importance of China in the global culture. In 2006, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 3.6 million Chinese Americans — not including the thousands of Chinese nationals who live here but are not citizens.

“There is a major emergence of Chinese culture and Chinese language, Chinese art, Chinese activities in the mainstream of U.S. society,” says Sam Zhao, who runs the Center for U.S.-China Cooperation at the University of Denver in Colorado.

“Chinese people had so much more understanding of the U.S. than American people did of China for quite a while,” Zhao says. “There was a deficit here in the U.S. in terms of understanding China. Now that understanding is becoming more balanced.”

These days, “Mommy and me” Mandarin classes are expanding rapidly in suburbs and exurbs as non-Chinese Americans join up. Each month brings new books on Chinese culture — from last year’s lovingly illustrated volume of posters made during China’s Cultural Revolution to March’s “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles,” New York Times reporter Jennifer 8. Lee’s exploration of Chinese food’s journey through America.

“Ni Hao, Kai-lan” takes that mainstreaming directly to children — no surprise from the kids’ network behind “Dora,” “Go, Diego, Go” and the multiracial CGI series “The Backyardigans.”

“Our goal was to create diverse shows,” says Brown Johnson, executive vice president and creative director for Nickelodeon Preschool. “We were trying to broaden our lexicon and look and the kinds of stories we told.”

At Nick Jr., staffers associated with the series have been taking crash courses in Mandarin Chinese so they can be more literate about the show. Cultural and linguistic advisers are on board, too. To hear the show’s producers tell it, all the immersion has been illuminating.

“There’s just a tremendous amount to be learned from this culture,” executive producer Mary Harrington says. “And China’s place in the world and the global economy is going to have a big impact on kids, on today’s 2- to 5-year-olds.”

“Ni Hao, Kai-lan” focuses on a little girl, Kai-lan Chow, and her friends Rintoo (a tiger), Tolee (a koala), Hoho (a tiny monkey) and Lulu (a pink rhino). Together they wend their way through American childhoods and Chinese cultural adventures — including lantern festivals, campouts and playing in the snow — and learn lessons on how to manage anger and cooperate.

Kai-lan’s most important relationship, though, is with Yeye, her grandpa (“yeye” is Mandarin for grandfather). The intergenerational interplay is wonderfully sophisticated and subtle for a kids’ show, and the mannerisms of the grandfather (voiced by Clem Cheung) are pitch-perfect. “What I really wanted to share was bringing generations together,” says show creator Chau, who was very close to her grandfather.

Linguistically, the show takes a two-pronged approach. A few words are showcased each episode, and viewers are given an opportunity to pronounce them aloud in a call-and-response session with Kai-lan. More seamlessly, Chinese words — and the occasional Chinese character — are offered up in context so it’s easy to tell what they mean. Even the plots are calibrated to reflect aspects of Chinese and Chinese-American culture.

“Ni Hao, Kai-lan” has a look that’s a little bit Pokemon, a little bit “South Park” (without the bad attitude) and a lot of Chinese toy and kid culture. Its visual style would feel right at home on a pencil case sold in any department store in central Beijing. One can imagine the appeal it could hold for the “Hello, Kitty” aficionados among us.

For anyone interested in China, “Ni Hao, Kai-lan” is a dramatic illustration of how much Chinese culture — like Irish, German, Italian and so many other immigrant cultures before it — is not only present in America but is part of us. That’s part of why Jade-Lianna Gao Peters, the 11-year-old Milwaukee girl who voices Kai-lan, is excited about what American kids unfamiliar with Chinese culture can glean from the show.

“They can learn a lot,” says Jade-Lianna, who was born in China and adopted when she was 8 months old. “They should watch it because the world’s going globally Chinese. And they can learn a little Chinese … and learn how to be a good friend.”

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The Fairness in News Study reveals that while MPs and reporters agree on many elements of fairness in journalism, they disagree when it comes to the rules of engagement between journalists and sources.

In particular, there is disagreement over the limits of privacy of public figures, using hidden cameras and tape recorders, reporting off-the-record conversations and quoting unnamed sources.

“Clearly, politicians and journalists see the news quite differently,” says Dr. Fred Fletcher of York University, Past Chair of Canadian Media Research Consortium and co-author of the Fairness in News Study.

“Although more than two-thirds of MPs believe that Canadian news media live up to their role in the democratic process, as many as 84% do not believe that most stories present the news in a fair way. By contrast, the overwhelming majority of Press Gallery members in Ottawa consider the majority of their stories to be fair.”

• MPs are much more likely than journalists to regard media criticism as excessive
• Only half of the journalists surveyed and fewer than one in four MPs were aware of the existence of journalistic codes; fewer than 20% of journalist reported referring to such a code
• In their assessment of journalistic practices, MPs tended to be more in tune with public opinion than journalists
• MPs and journalists agree that knowledge of a subject is an important basis for fair journalism and most journalists agree they are not as knowledgeable as they should be
• Broad dissatisfaction with the Ottawa-centric nature of the news.
• Nearly half of the journalists and just under two-thirds of the MPs reported dissatisfaction with the variety of regional viewpoints in the news.

About the Study

The Fairness in News Study arose from concerns about defining fairness and journalistic accountability expressed in recent court cases and in various journalistic forums. It is based on the findings of a Pollara research survey commissioned earlier this year by the CMRC and analyzes the perceptions of fairness in the news held by 61 Members of Parliament and 64 journalists in the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery.

Detailed findings and methodology are available on the CMRC website.

The Study was co-authored by Fred Fletcher, professor emeritus of communication studies and political science at York University, and André Turcotte, professor of communication at Carleton University and Research Director of the Fairness in the News Project.

About the Consortium

The Canadian Media Research Consortium is a non-profit partnership of the University of British Columbia School of Journalism, the York Ryerson Graduate Program in Communication and Culture and the Centre d’études sur les médias at Université Laval. The Consortium is committed to conducting applied research on issues of importance to Canadians with particular emphasis on important economic, social and cultural issues related to technological change in the media and sharing those findings with scholars, media and the public.

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Less noticed has been the rapid rise of China as a supplier to the US$60 billion-plus world market for cultural products. From a position of relative insignificance a decade ago, China has risen to become the third-largest exporter of cultural goods in the world and clearly the largest in Asia.

It is a major force in all but one of the five major areas of cultural products recognized by UNESCO — recorded media, printed media, visual arts, audiovisual media and heritage goods.

It dominates global exports of audiovisual products, notably video games. It is second only to the US in exports of the visual arts. And in recorded media, by far the largest and most competitive cultural goods export category, China has made a phenomenal gain, achieving an average annual growth rate of 40% between 1994 and 2002 to become No. 7 globally.

And China is not only an exporter. It has emerged as a major and growing import market, especially for books, magazines and other printed media.

The lack of comparable statistics has always presented a problem in analyzing trade flows in cultural products and services. However, a UNESCO study1 in 2005, based on balance of payments figures in the United Nations’ Commodity Trade Statistics database, presents a comprehensive and somewhat surprising picture of the flows involved. It is used as the statistical basis for a commissioned report by Ron Drews just released by the Asia Pacific Foundation.

As expected, high-income economies are the largest producers of cultural goods. But these goods are now flowing to and from Asia Pacific at a rate that is increasing faster than anywhere else.

In 2002, UK was the biggest exporter of cultural goods with US$8.5 billion, followed by the US with US$7.6 billion, then China with US$5.9 billion. Asia as a whole had surpassed North America as the second-largest cultural goods exporting region, with a 20.6% market share compared to North America’s 16.9% share, down from 25% in 1994.

The 15 largest European Union nations accounted for over 51.8% of the world’s exports of cultural goods in 2002, only a small decrease from the 54.3% share held in 1994.

The emergence of Asia is due to phenomenal increases in shipments from Southeast Asia of recorded media and from East Asia of video games. These are significant gains, since recorded media surpassed printed media as the leading cultural good traded in the world and audiovisual media had the highest proportional increases during the period.

Canada has a significant role in world trade in cultural goods, ranking number eight as an exporter and fifth as an importer. In 2005, this country’s total trade in these products reached C$6.8 billion. But Canada is predominantly an importer rather than an exporter.

In fact, our cultural goods trade deficit is second only to that of the US. Canada’s strength as an exporter is in printed (US$800 million in 2002) and recorded media (US$360 million in 2002): it is ranked among the top ten in these two categories. But imports in the same two categories in the same year were US$2 billion and US$1.71 billion respectively.

In recent years, this country’s export performance has not been impressive, even in absolute terms. Between 2003 and 2005, exports of cultural goods and services virtually stagnated. But trade in these products between Canada and China grew at a double digit pace every year from 1996 to 2003. China had become the fifth-largest market for Canada’s exports of cultural goods by 2005 and second-largest source of imports.

Overall, China is Canada’s No. 2 trading partner in cultural goods, accounting for about 5% of all of Canada’s international transactions in the field. Still, there is a huge imbalance in trade in with China — while Canada is a substantial buyer of Chinese cultural products, it sells relatively little in return.

Drews argues that Canada’s industry will have to raise its competitiveness if it is to deal with the growing contest for market share, not just from China, but from countries in Southeast Asia as well.

It suggests Canada is well positioned to become a competitor in the rapidly growing audiovisual market, which is already dominated by China, but must develop a sustained growth strategy. China’s dramatic rise as an economic power is due in large measure to its ability to bring government together with big business and to use a planned approach to direct and build areas of its economy.

Drews argues that Canada will have to take a leaf out of China’s playbook by adopting a more planned and strategic approach to market development. He suggests a three-stage approach.

First, Ottawa needs to undertake a Culture Export Competitiveness Review, focusing on each sector of cultural trade. The review would examine how government policies and funding can be better deployed and utilized by Canadian culture industries and organized in a more strategic manner.

Next, there should be an assessment of Canada’s co-production treaties to determine how these can evolve to strengthen Canada’s ability to be a more competitive culture exporter.

Finally, Ottawa and the provinces should develop Regional Media and Entertainment Industry Cluster Strategies by giving more autonomy to the provinces in organizing their media and entertainment industries.

The regional cluster reviews should look at what strengths the regional markets possess and how these can be strategically leveraged and better funded, to make Canada more export competitive.

This is alien to the way cultural industries have been treated by Canada in the past. But exports by cultural industries will become increasingly necessary to the nation’s competitiveness in the global economy, Drews concludes.

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This beautiful performance is by the China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe. The choreography of the dance, Buddha with Thousand Hands, is breathtaking and awe inspiring. Even more amazing is that all of the performers are deaf and cannot hear the music. They have performed in Vancouver last February during the Chinese New Year. It was a big buzz in the community.

More info here, and here.

Except:

In the 15 days after Spring Festival, Tai Lihua, a dancer with the China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe, accepted interviews from 85 various media outlets. On her busiest day, Tai met with 15 media.

What brought the 29-year-old dancer so much media attention was her performance in “The Thousand-handed Goddess of Mercy,” a dance routine presented by 21 deaf and mute dancers during CCTV’s popular Spring Festival Gala Show on February 8. Tai was the lead dancer of the piece. Because of the nature of the dance, most of the time Tai’s face was the only one the audience could see.

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The figure was up by 25 from the previous year and is the highest since the NPA started compiling suicide statistics in 1978.

Overall, the number of suicide victims decreased by 397 from 2006 to 32,155, the NPA said. But the number still exceeded the 30,000 level for the ninth consecutive year.

More students who took their lives said in suicide notes that “school problems” were the cause of their action, the NPA said.

“Children in Japan nowadays tend to be unable to control themselves when they are faced with hardships such as issues of school bullying,” Akito Kita, a Waseda University professor on education laws, said. “That is because they cannot become confident in themselves by solving problems on their own. Adults excessively interfere with them.”

The number of student suicides had hovered between 600 and 700 since 2000. But the figure surpassed 800 for two straight years from 2005, according to the NPA.

In 2006, 14 elementary school students killed themselves, up by seven from the previous year, while 81 junior high school students committed suicide, an increase of 15.

The number of senior high school students who committed suicide in 2006 increase by five to 220.

Since 1998, the NPA has analyzed the cause and motive for suicides based on the contents of suicide notes.

The number of students who killed themselves because of school problems climbed by 20 from the previous year to a record 91 in 2006.

The reasons cited included poor grades, school bullies and reprimands from teachers.

The number of suicides among those 19 years old or younger increased by 15 to 623 in 2006. It was the second straight year of increase among this age group.

Overall, 22,813 men, or about 70 percent of the victims, and 9,342 women killed themselves last year, the NPA said.

By generation, 11,120 people aged 60 or older committed suicide in 2006, an increase of 226. They accounted for 35 percent of the overall figure.

The number for those in their 50s was 7,246, down by 340, while 5,008 people in their 40s committed suicide, down by 200 from the previous year.

By occupation, unemployed people made up the largest group, with 15,412 of them killing themselves, up by three from 2005.

A total of 8,163 employees committed suicide, down by 149, while 3,567 self-employed individuals took their lives, a decrease of 133, according to the NPA.

Of the 10,466 people who left suicide notes, 4,341 said they decided to kill themselves because of health problems, up by 196 from 2005.

Economic and lifestyle issues were mentioned by 3,010, a decrease of 245. And 1,043 people cited family matters, an increase of 32, the NPA said.

According to a survey released by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, the number of suicides in 2006 was 29,887, falling below 30,000 for the first time in four years.

The NPA’s figure is higher because it covers non-Japanese people who committed suicide in Japan.

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What is the problem of promoting one’s country to the world, impressing others to like it?

To be fair to everyone, CSIS should check on other similar organizations such as the British Council, the Japanese Society etc to see if they too are trying to spread their cultures as a way to dominate the world.

I think CSIS might be next checking on the Chinese Cultural Centre and other Chinese media in Canada… because they all promote Chinese culture and language. And CSIS might well believe the overseas Chinese media are state-owned.

This government is too obsessed with bashing China to a sickening level.

CSIS say: Confucius part of Chinese bid to win over western hearts

CP – Canada’s spy service believes China has enlisted Confucius, the master of enduring wisdom, in its drive for global dominance.

A newly declassified intelligence report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says Beijing is out to win the world’s hearts and minds, not just its economic markets, as a means of cementing power.

The secret CSIS brief, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, points to the creation of more than 100 Confucius Institutes around the world, including one at the British Columbia Institute of Technology in Vancouver.

The Confucius Institutes, the brainchild of Beijing’s Ministry of Education, primarily promote Chinese language and culture.

“In other words, China wants the world to have positive feelings towards China and things Chinese,” the CSIS report says.

“For China to achieve its goals, people must admire China to some degree.”

CSIS director Jim Judd recently acknowledged the agency devotes considerable effort to keeping an eye on monitoring Chinese operatives.

China denies allegations it schemes to pilfer Canadian military and industrial technology.

The CSIS report, portions of which were blacked out, paints the spread of Confucius Institutes as a calculated use of the discipline known as “soft power.”

“While academics debate the relative importance of hard power – tanks, missiles, guns and the like – versus soft power, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) government views the soft power concept as useful,” the February intelligence report says. “PRC officials refer to China’s quest for soft power in the official media.”

The spy service notes analogies have been drawn between the Confucius Institutes and the German Goethe Institutes, the Spanish Cervantes Institutes and the French Alliance Francaise.

Since the opening of Canada’s first Confucius Institute in Vancouver last year, agreements have been struck to create institutes in Waterloo, Ont., Montreal and Moncton, N.B.

The website of the Confucius Institute at the B.C. Institute of Technology says it aims to provide “market-driven programs and services that will serve the needs of the local community and promote culture and business ties for economic developments between China and Canada.”

Allison Markin, a spokeswoman for the Institute of Technology, said the school was unaware of CSIS’s interest.

“We’re an educational institute, so it’s not something we look at in a political vein, or any sort of security vein,” she said Monday. “What we’re doing really is delivering education for people.”

Robin Yates, a professor of East Asian studies at Montreal’s McGill University, said China is trying to play catch up with Taiwan, Korea and Japan, which have been more aggressive about forging cultural ties with the West.

“China, with its burgeoning economy, has failed rather miserably in its efforts at projecting its interests.”

Zhai Jianjun, first secretary for education at the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa, stressed that the priority of the Confucius Institutes is to bring the Chinese language and culture to different corners of the world.

Modern China has begun to penetrate the Canadian consciousness, CSIS notes.

“Evidence of the increasing appeal of Chinese culture in Western society is all around us,” the intelligence report says

The growing popularity of Chinese films, the emergence of NBA star Yao Ming, Chinese manned space flights and the coming 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing “all suggest at least a modest rise in Chinese soft power.”

CSIS says once the Beijing Olympics are over, the Confucius Institutes will “take a more prominent place in China’s efforts to increase its standing in the world.”

Tags: china, canada, CSIS, spy, confucius institute, culture, language, education

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