Water Ink

Today 56 newspapers from 44 countries have published the same editorial (in 20 different languages) to encourage the delegations at Copenhagen summit to seal a deal to reduce global warming and act on climate change.

I’m proud of the fact that the paper I worked for is the initiator and the two newspapers I’m writing for are the participating Chinese newspapers.

To read the full editorial ‘Fourteen days to seal history’s judgement on this generation‘. Or if you prefer, in Chinese.

Now it’s up the world leaders to take some leadership and make difference in the next two weeks.

Yeeyan, a community-based translation website, has been suspended for several days. When the website contents became inaccessible at the beginning of this month, an apology was posted on its homepage, citing ‘technical problems’. Rumours started to circulate on Twitter that Yeeyan was suspended by the authorities because of some contents seen as ‘improper’. A couple of days later one the founders of Yeeyan Zhao Jiamin confirmed the suspension. There are little details about the reason, and the future of Yeeyan is in doubt.

Valued itself as a website through which its members can ‘discover, translate and read the best internet contents not in Chinese’, Yeeyan has been doing a valuable work of introducing foreign language (mostly English) news and stories to the Chinese readers through an unofficial channel. It ran like a social network. Members of shared interest congregated around specific topics or particular publications before picking up pieces from foreign news sites and translate them into Chinese.

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The 30 seconds ad, which is being shown on major US TV networks, looks to elevate the “Made In China” image. It is said to be commissioned by China’s Ministry of Commerce and sponsored by 4 industry bodies, made by DDB Beijing Guoan Advertising Corp.

I was a bit surprised to learn that US embassy in China is working to ’standardize the translation of common vocabulary in Chinese.’ They want White House to be translated as Bai Wu (白屋), instead of Bai Gong (白宫, meaning white palace), and Obama to be Oubama (欧巴马) instead of Aobama (奥巴马).

Well they are fighting a losing battle. Bai Gong has been commonly used to call the White House for many years (I doubt it has ever been called anything else). Bai Wu is plainly ridicules. I’m not sure whether this is political correctness or purely bureaucratic – in order for Chinese not to confuse President Obama with a monarch?

Washington Post also managed to read into the choice of Aobama and Oubama as a political gesture. Aobama is used in China mainland, while Oubama is used in Hong Kong and Taiwan. So Beijing’s insistence of using Aobama in the face of American ’standardization’ must have some political undercurrent? It even suggests Ao (奥) in Chinese could mean ‘difficult to understand’, ‘abstruse’ and ‘obscure’, as if using Aobama is Beijing’s way of subtly demeaning Obama. I have to say this is fanciful over-reading. The simple fact is Aobama or Oubama doesn’t have much difference. Aobama, if you read aloud in Mandarin Chinese, sounds better, more masculine I would say, than Oubama. The character Ao itself, meanwhile, belongs to a pool of Chinese characters often used to translate foreign names, not associated with ‘difficult to understand’ etc. in such case.

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The Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee scored an own goal. Obama said he was ‘humbled’, I imagine deep down he was screaming “You guys are not helping!” Trying to “encourage” him, the Committee managed to turn a triumph into an embarrassment. The fact that Obama’s supporters felt it’s necessary to come out to defend him says a lot about this decision. On Guardian’s Comment is Free site, the natural congregating place for Obama’s international supporters, the online poll says 70% think it is far too early.

I’m afraid this just reinforces the perception that liberal European are dazzled by the Obama, in that they are so fed up with George W. Bush and willing to award the Nobel Prize for the ‘vision’. If this means to be an encouragement, would being a Nobel laureate help Obama to negotiate peace for middle-east for example? I think not. It won’t help Obama to pursue his domestic agenda either. Judging from the reaction on American media, it only farther polarizes his supporters and detractors. Prize for peace, what an irony.

The parade is of course a spectacle for the domestic audiences. Yesterday BBC led the report by “China celebrated 60 years of communist rule”. Well, yes, but people who are bewilded by the fuss and sometimes feel smug about it need to appreciate that Chinese people are immensely proud of what the country has achieved and they want to show it to themselves and to the world. Like it or not, parading the “best of us” at the a central point is the way to do it.

I didn’t watch the live coverage of the parade, but by watching several social networking sites, fed by pictures and comments, I managed to follow the event nonetheless. I wonder whether this is becoming the viewer experience in the future, that we must follow the online live comments from Twitter or others. Perhaps TV network would facilitate twittering in order to re-establish watching TV as a real-time “event”. But I dread the day when tweeting in the cinema becomes the norm.

The best pictures and videos I’ve seen are from The Big Pictures and Dan Chung’s time-lapse and slow motion version.

China’s 60th Anniversary national day – timelapse and slow motion – 7D and 5DmkII from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

News photographer Dan Chung used his new Canon Eos 7D to shoot this video Another Night in Beijing under low light. The place is Beijing’s Nanluoguxiang (南锣鼓巷). His blog DSRL News Shooter has some fascinating topics and stunning photos and videos, contributed by news photographers working in China.

Edinburgh Fringe 2009 – Chinese Music Old and New
Harmony Chinese Music Ensemble
Canongate Kirk
22 August 2009

The Harmony Chinese Music Ensemble, led by Scottish composer and flutist Eddie McGuire, gave a mesmerising performance at Canongate Kirk on the Royal Mile. Kimho Ip, a regular member of the Ensemble, performed a meditating piece using Chinese music instrument yangqi (杨琴) and electric sounds. Cheng-Ying Chuang, who had already given a well-received solo performance at the same venue, also joined in, playing zhongruan (中阮) and liuqin (柳琴), both of the two Chinese music instruments are rarely seen and heard in the UK.

But the star of the night is in no doubt Fong Liu, a vocalist who performed various Chinese folk songs. Initially appearing a little nervous, she soon relaxed and her piercing voice and theatrical style engaged and enchanted the audiences through the evening. Her volume of voice, which is necessary when those songs were originally sung in the scarcely inhabited mountains in the Western regions of China, seemed perfectly suited the generous space of Canongate Kirk.

While singing the mountain folk songs, her voice delivered the extremely enjoyable and touching untamed quality. It was obviously a choice made by the artist, as when she sang the encore, Love Song of Kangding (康定情歌), she abandoned the modernised, gentle version you might have heard elsewhere, and went for the raw, Tibetan style instead. She then showed her extraordinary range by singing a tender Northeastern lullaby and a smooth and soft Eastern folk song, Purple Bamboo Melody (紫竹调).

It’s a shame that Harmony Ensemble only performed one night at this year’s Fringe. Judging from the audiences’ reaction, Edinburgh will surely welcome them back.

A Chinese blogger accused CCTV (China Central Television) News Channel’s recently unveiled countdown sequence plagirised BBC News’s countdown. I think what he’s talking about is the music. He’s obviously an admirer of the BBC sequence, displaying almost second-by-second stills from it. I’m not a music expert. To my untrained ears, they do sound a bit similar.

I’ve started a weekly UK book charts review on my Chinese blog (taohuawu.net) a couple of weeks ago. This is aimed to Chinese readers who are interested in the latest trend in English language book publishing. An increasing number of Chinese readers are bilingual and keen to know more about English language books. Meanwhile there have also been more and more books being translated into Chinese. You’ll be amazed to see the level of interest, and I hope this weekly review will help them know better about books published in the UK.

I’m also writing book reviews for various Chinese publications. They are not necessarily in the charts though. The selection is based on what I think are relevant to Chinese readers, as well as my personal interest.

My weekly UK book charts review (in Chinese).