Bloredom

So I meant to submit my online application to that economics graduate school programme in Zürich today… but it seems my last-minute mentality isn’t getting me anywhere with the Swiss. Sure, the deadline is today:

But unfortunately it’s not actually possible to submit that thing today:

Switching off their servers on the date of admission? What’s wrong with those people? Damn friggtards (that’s “retards”+”fuck”+some modesty).

Or, in German: Wenn ihr mich nicht haben wollt, dann könnt ihr mich gerne haben. Friggtards (yes, I think it works in German, too).

(to conclude: I guess I won’t be in Zürich next year then)

With all that nasty insurgency warfare dominating the news in the past years, air force isn’t exactly flavour of the week. So the US Air Force is battling a perceived drop in importance and looming budget cuts with an ambitious and pathetic ad blitz. Because there is one thing that scares air force officers more than communists and evil dictators with weapons of mass destruction: that one day they could lose parity with the other branches of the military. What do you mean, the army is fighting two wars at once while our pilots are sitting on their butts sipping martinis? It doesn’t mean those dirty grunts can get more money than us! After all, we can never really have enough cash to throw at procuring those queer Cold War dinosaurs that we just love!

With that in mind, it’s nice to know that air forces in other countries are still in the business of defending their country. And although the IAF hasn’t exactly got a lot of good press recently (see also this), here is some cheerful news:

For the first time ever, a female Muslim Arab soldier has joined an elite Israeli Air Force unit. Upon completing a medic training course with top honors, she became part of the Airborne Combat Search and Rescue Unit 669, a premier unit that extricates wounded soldiers from combat zones in sensitive and highly classified operations. (found here)

Did you know that Bloredom loves the IAF?

China has been a caricature of the heavy-handed, inflexible and moronic autocracy in recent weeks. It’s truly disgusting to hear the Communist party drones repeat their spiel about the “Dalai Lama-clique” ad nauseum — I mean come on, someone teach those sad losers “PR 101″ please!

Unsurprisingly, then, China’s first little PR victory against global protesters was not won by Beijing’s propaganda machinery:

A wheelchair-bound Chinese torch bearer has rocketed to national fame after fending off protesters in Paris, becoming a symbol of China’s defiance of global demonstrations backing Tibet.

Jin Jing, a 27 year-old amputee and Paralympic fencer has been called the “angel in a wheelchair” and is being celebrated by television chat shows, newspapers and online musical videos after fiercely defending the Olympic torch during the Paris leg of the troubled international relay.

Protesters denouncing Chinese policy in Tibet threw themselves at Jin. Most were wrestled away by police but at least one reached her wheelchair and tried to wrench the torch away.

Jin clung tenaciously to what has become a controversial icon of the Beijing Olympic Games until her attacker was pulled off.

Her look of fierce determination as she shielded the torch, captured in snapshots of the scene, has now spread throughout China, inflaming simmering public anger at the protests.

See Foreign Policy Passport for photos of the brave athlete.

This is almost too brilliant to be true. I mean, it takes some drastic imagery to beat the underdog image of the Tibet crowd. A pretty girl, a cripple in a wheelchair attacked by a guy with a Tibet flag and a hoodie? That’ll fit the bill! In fact, it’s so perfect that the cogs in Beijing’s propaganda machinery couldn’t have made it up themselves, even if they weren’t so third-rate. Hard to imagine any other story that will make the average uncommitted Western reader empathize with the Chinese side of the dispute.

P.S.: What’s up with these defiant urges of mine? What the hell am I thinking, siding with nasty Beijing against those freedom-loving crowds?

China will redouble efforts to preserve its cultural heritage in arts and architecture. About 100 forms of Chinese opera, for instance, have died out in the past 60 years.

These “news” appeared in Foreign Policy’s (usually most helpful and informative) weekly China newsletter. It was reproduced from Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency. The question on my mind is: how many lazy journalists did it take to introduce these “news” to an American audience? To see what I mean, consider Jung Chang’s account of the fate of Chinese opera on the mainland during the “Cultural Revolution”:

‘Relaxation’ had become an obsolete concept: book, paintings, musical instruments, sports, cards, chess, teahouses, bars — all had disappeared. The parks were desolate, vandalized wastelands in which the flowers and the grass had been uprooted and the tame birds and goldfish killed. Films, plays, and concerts had all been banned: Mme Mao [Chairman Mao's wife] had cleared the stages and the screens for the eigth ‘revolutionary operas’ which she had had a hand in producing, and which were all anyone was allowed to put on. In the provinces, people did not dare to perform even these. One director had been condemned because the makeup he had put on the tortured hero of one of the operas was considered by Mme Mao to be excessive. He was thrown into prison for ‘exaggerating the hardship in the revolutionary struggle’. (in Chang’s biographical book “Wild Swans”, p. 415)

So that is how opera came to “die out” in China. When a news agency resorts to such passive language, chances are it is the work of amateurs, or of censors, artfully dodging the obvious question: how could all those operas just “die out”? Or, more to the point, who killed them? I would guess on the side of Xinhua news agency, a mixture of ignorance, self-censorship and inertia account for the absence of even a hint of background information in the article. In the case of the Foreign Policy editor who put it in the magazine’s newsletter, ignorance and laziness provide a sufficient explanation. To answer my initial question, then: it took two, one on each side of the Pacific. What a lovely division of labour this is, bringing us the best of vacuous Communist Party press releases every week. Thrilling.

March 10 was Chuck Norris’ birthday. Happy birthday Chuck!

Bearded and muscled, Norris shot to fame fighting kung fu legend Bruce Lee in the 1972 film The Way of the Dragon, and later films show him devastating groups of men with one kick.

“Norris visited Iraq when violence was its worst and other celebrities were skittish. He’s one of the guys,” public affairs officer Specialist Mark Braden said in Baghdad.

“The Marines love him. He’s like a mythical legend,” Staff Sergeant Amy Forsythe in Falluja said. (here)

Chuck Norris also recently teamed up with another mythical legend, governor Mike Huckabee. Together they made what must rank among the most hilarious campaign videos in human history. Clearly Huckabee is a Christian fundamentalist, and quite scary as such, yet he is also oddly charming and authentic. Check it out:

And Chuck is not just an example to Americans. After all, it is Iraqis more than anyone who are in need of some heroic inspiration these days.

[An Iraqi] police trainer said Chuck Norris was a role model for the police in Falluja, which until 2007 was an stronghold and the scene of fierce battles with security forces.

“I’ve seen his videos, he’s a hero. He saves the city, he protects women and children and he fights crime wherever it is. We should all be like Chuck Norris,” Khaled Hussein said. (again, here)

Who wouldn’t like to be a little more like Chuck?

Also definitely check out http://www.chucknorrisfacts.com/ :-)

It’s that time of the year again…

World Book Day was designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and is marked in over 100 countries around the globe. (here)

I decided to treat myself to Mark Leonard’s new book, “What Does China Think?” (also, don’t miss his article in Prospect, “China’s New Intelligentsia”) — and naturally, I couldn’t resist Waterstone’s “3 for 2″ deal, so I also bought “Imperial Life in the Emerald City” (about Baghdad’s “Green Zone”), and “A Concise English-Chinese Dictionary for Lovers” (which, by the way, isn’t a dictionary). Add to this “Lust Caution”, the short story which Ang Lee turned into his newest film, and “Heinrich Heine — Gedichte”, a very lovely Reclam edition that will finally replace my miniature Diogenes paperback edition of Heine’s poetry. I will post some reviews soon, I hope.
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Enter the Bloredom World Book Challenge 2008 ™! I will give my Diogenes paperback Heine to the first person who can demonstrate that they bought at least one book within a week of World Book Day 2008 (before or after; textbooks don’t count). You can add a comment to this blog post and tell me when you bought your last book, or when you will buy your next book. I will then send my Diogenes book to the person with the most impressive claim. Delivery may take a while… but this may be your one chance to get hold of this special book, as it is not available on Amazon or any other online book store.

Here I comment on the 2003 film “Oldboy” by Korean director Park Chanwook, mostly for those who have seen the movie already — if you haven’t, you definitely shouldn’t use www.crunchyroll.com to watch it in high quality for free, as this would be totally illegal (see the end of this post).

As in the case of Lust Caution, the task of reviewing Oldboy feels overwhelming. And once again, most reviews I found online are oddly unsatisfying — the market for good English-language reviews of Asian movies seems quite inefficient. Thankfully, I located at least two exceptions. One by Stephanie Zacharek for slate.com, and one by Roger Ebert for the Chicago Sun-Times.

Zacharek powerfully summarizes the protagonist’s development:

As Choi plays him, Dae-su isn’t immediately sympathetic; in fact, it takes an astonishingly long time for us to feel anything for him. His face, framed by a thatch of bristly black hair, often wears a look of comic anguish, as if the distinguishing features of the comedy and tragedy masks had been mixed up. The bags under his eyes are a metaphor for the emotional weight he carries; he looks like a man who’s had the soul kicked out of him. But as the story progresses, he becomes more and more handsome: There’s something both virile and tender about him in his scenes with Mido. (Gang, with her softly rounded features and dreamy dark eyes, gives a beautifully shaded performance.) The changes we see in him are so transfixing that his ultimate humiliation, in the movie’s climax, is nearly impossible to bear.

One does not understand Oldboy without recognizing its tragic narrative (as Ebert does). At the end, Dae-su realizes that all along he has been entangled in a scheme of events that is beyond his control, yet his conscience does not accept excuses. Fate tricked him into committing the ultimate sin, but it is sin nonetheless.

To me, this cruel conclusion turned Oldboy into a masterpiece. My instinctive defense of Dae-su — “But he didn’t know!” — is muted by Dae-su’s own horror when facing the truth. These moments resonate with Zacharek’s observation:

“Oldboy” makes us feel a part of something bigger than ourselves.

Ultimately, Oldboy is a blessing because it tells a story that we in the West at this point in history couldn’t tell for ourselves (which is probably why the announced Hollywood remake isn’t getting off the ground). Few cultures are conducive to tragedy, and we are lucky to get a glimpse every now and then in foreign films such as this one.

P.S.: The movie is available as a fast and high-quality streaming video on the website www.crunchyroll.com (quick and painless registration required) in the “Dramas” section — please don’t watch the movie on that website, as it might be totally illegal. For as long as there are greedy, nasty lawyers out there who are after our money, Bloredom will not condone or encourage any copyright infringements.

Update 1: For hilariously negative (and angry) reviews of director Park Chanwook’s movies, the New York Times is a reliable source: here it rubbishes Oldboy, and here its follow-up, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (Stefan, look no further ;-) ). A brief, more charitable, review of Lady Vengeance in in the Washington Post, while Kozo has a balanced, if long-winded review on his website loveHKfilm.com (which, by the way, is highly recommended). In another post, I may explain why I think Lady Vengeance deserves praise (and not just for the lead actress), and works as a sort of anti-Amélie.

Separated by four years and five thousand miles (according to this handy World Distance Calculator), these two girls share the same sentiment nonetheless. One is celebrating Israel’s 56th anniversary on 26 April 2004; the other, 62 years of South Korean independence on 01 March 2008. Charming, aren’t they?

[Update: the Korean photo is Stefan's, of course]

Taroko (Wikipedia here, nice photos here) is the most popular of the six national parks of Taiwan. Its highlight is Toroko Gorge: steep cliffs rise from a river bed deep down, and far above the mountain road that runs along the gorge. The surrounding mountain are covered by evergreen vegetation, their peaks veiled in clouds.

Taking one of Taiwan’s clean and efficient trains from Taipei to the Eastern town of Hualien takes us about three hours. There, the adventure begins.

Enter our shiny Yamaha scooter. It took us a while to find a scooter rental place with helmets that offer more protection than your average “Hello Kitty” helmet (more on Taiwanese scooter fashion in another post), but eventually we paid a mere 10€ for a scooter, a day’s gasoline, two helmets, and two raincoats. So as you can see in the picture, we were good to go!

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Not exactly fashionable, the aforementioned raincoats weren’t very practical either. On the road they produced a nerve-wrecking noise, which just about drove me insane (and I wasn’t even driving!) — and we still got soaked… well, as you can see in the photos they were at least good for some interesting photos, with Paohui starring as a psychodelic version of Dark Helmet from Spaceballs (Lord Helmchen in German), and me and my backpack as the Hunchback of Notre Dame [update: Paohui thinks I look like a turtle].

Oh, and imagine what fun it is to ride a scooter in the evening along Taroko Gorge! A winding mountain road, on one side a steep stone wall up to the mountain peaks, with signs everywhere warning of falling rocks, on the other side the cliff sharply descending to the river bank at the bottom of Toroko Gorge. Continuous rain, speeding tourist coach busses, and the startingly rapid nightfall combine to produce quite an unsettling experience. Suddenly it made the hotel’s recommendation to stay in town after 5pm look plausible, and us all the more foolish for ignoring it.

Of course, the main attraction here are the many hiking trails, offering great mountain scenery, temples and monasteries.

The most impressive of all, however, was the Eternal Spring Shrine, a haunting reminder of the pioneering spirit that made Taroko into what it is today. After the Japanese defeat in WWII left their plans to connect West and East of the island via Taroko uncompleted, their successors from the Chinese mainland picked up the pieces in 1956. Over the next four years, the toil of thousands of former Kuomintang soldiers carved a road out of the cliffs along Taroko Gorge, which then in 1960 became the Central Cross-Island Highway. The Eternal Spring Shrine was subsequently built to honour those workers (I saw different figures, ranging from 40 to 450) who died during its construction. Visiting the shrine today, the sheer scale and daring of this pioneering work still fills me with awe.

Lust Caution has left me speechless, so I have spent some time finding reviews that accord with my impressions. So far none has fully convinced me, but this one in Slate is at least interesting (and short). The best critic of Ang Lee’s movies seems to be Ang Lee himself, so I recommend this write-up of an interview with Lee, as well as this piece on the movie and its director.

For what it’s worth, the film comes with a recommendation from myself. Its target audience is Chinese, however — and they liked it, with scores of mainland Chinese travelling to Hong Kong or downloading pirated version to see the non-censored version of the film, which won just about every award at the “Asian Oscar”, the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival.