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what an owl sees.

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Photography makes us feel that the world is more available than it really is.

Susan Sontag, On Photography.

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THE LIFE AND SORT OF DEATH OF ERIC ARGYLE

Part of Origin’s 1st Irish festival, The Life and Sort of Death of Eric Argyle from award-winning Irish theatre company 15th Oak tells the story of Eric Argyle, a recently deceased man who kept a secret for 30 years.

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Trial of Bo Xilai, and the Elusive Implication

Nothing in China receives more attention than the trial of Bo Xilai these days. Soon after Jinan Intermediate People's Court opened its official Sina Weibo account to make public of the case, the number of its followers soared to  540,000 over night. 

People still remember the former Chongqing Mayor for his campaign in "Singing Red-song and Striking Black （a metaphor of gangsterdom in Chinese)", in which he took down a number of officials including Wen Qiang, former Head of Chongqing Justice Bureau, the first departmental level cadres to be executed. As son of Bo yibo, one of eight founding fathers of PRC, Bo Xilai had a prominent career path. He was Mayor of Dalian,  Governor of Liaoning Province, China Commerce Secretary and Mayor of Chongqing in chronicle order. People had rooted for him to became a member in the fifth administration. Now, everyone knows his career has come to an end.

This is the first time ever a legal case is made public in such details. Everyday the official weibo account of JIPC releases records of the trial, even videos, to inform the public of the hearing. On contrary to his previous image as a decisive and eloquent leader, his defense in court is weak and empty. So far he has presented nothing to counter the charges on him, and very often he just excuses himself as forgetful. It is also nasty that he blames almost everything on his wife.

No one is skeptical of his guilt, except some of the sins he committed  might never be proved.  The uncertain part is, however, what the Xi Jinping administration wants to achieve through this "open" trial, what message and to whom, the central authorities want to send.

As some critics point out, having Bo to defend himself in court as a defendant rather than having Discipline Inspection Commission interrogating him and using social media to "live" broadcast the trial do not necessarily mean transparency or improvement in legal practice. It only signifies a change of rules in the game. 

Media still serve as mouthpiece of the CCP. Although technology makes it easier for people to get information and participate in discussion, to what degree information is available in China largely remains in CCP's control. If some critical information is available to the public, it surely is intended this way. It is still too early to judge. Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang face a more challenging situation than Hu and Wen did. This trial may be an important step in the early period of their time.

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Is Public Sentiment the Boundary of Open Discussion?

The gang rape case of Li Tianyi, the son of General Li Shuangjiang, though seems clear to Netizens, is still not yet resolved. While the police claimed that they have carried out the investigation and prosecution of this case strictly in accordance with the law throughout, rumors abound on the Internet, as the other four suspects have not been made public.

After the new barrister Lan He took the case, he pleaded acquittal for his client, and asked the court to investigate the background of the plaintiff, claiming that the plaintiff is a prostitute and the case is a blackmail of the plaintiff to Li.

The plaintiff’s profession is not yet clear; some said she was the hostess in the bar, in which the gang took her. In the meantime of a public uproar, Yi Yanyou, a professor of Tsinghua University, made a little speech on Sina Weibo that the harm of rape on a hostess is smaller than that on other female, causing an even bigger outcry of the public. Having put up with the inequity caused by social ranking and wealth, people’s accusation of Yi trying to smarming up to the powerful flooded his Weibo account. Eventually he deleted the post and apologized to the public without any further comment on the case.

Although it looks like a good sign to feminists that people instantaneously recognize and react to discrimination against “controversial” females who have been subjected to unfair judgment for centuries, it is not necessarily true that people indeed treat all women with due respect, especially women who are not “innocent” in the moral sense. While seemingly Professor Yi has offended everyone by arguing that the damage is smaller if the rape victim is not a “chaste” woman, what really fanned the resentment was more likely the fact that a scholar of a first-rate university was arguing for the privileged rather than the poor. If this were not a case that involved children of the powerful, what Professor Yi said would probably never cause such a fuss.

When a young girl was raped in Hong Kong in June this year, people did not show as much sympathy to the victim, who was identified as a college student from Beijing. Though the incident took place on 2nd June, about four months after the gang rape, it was tried almost immediately after it occurred and hence got public attention a few months before the gang rape case. Unlike the plaintiff in the gang rape case, who has been commiserated in public opinion since the beginning, the victim in Hong Kong was accused of being flirtatious and stupid by many Netizens. This is quite normal in today China. As long as the victim is not underage, disabled, or mentally unstable, people can always find a way to blame her for having encouraged the crime.

Back to Professor Yi’s speech. CCTV presenter Bai Yansong commented Yi’s speech in his show News 1 Plus 1, saying that 1. All men are equal before the law; 2. The law doesn’t discriminate people by their identity; 3. Yi’s speech is worse than false news, for it has offended the public.

The situation is delicate and the discussion is not pleasant. However, since Yi is a professor of law, there should be nothing wrong about him studying and discussing about real life cases. Although his opinion was indeed offensive, it doesn’t make it worse than false news. On the contrary, human rights movements always benefit from open discussion. If people scruple to talk because the public may be offended, it is certainly not a good sign for a healthy democratic society. Professor Yi’s backing down without elaboration on presupposition and argument impeded a chance of a rational conversation over a range of topics concerning human rights，legislation, judiciary and more. Although it alleviated people’s agitation over the case, it didn’t help to develop a neutral environment for communication.

Besides, who can stand for the public and accuse someone for hurting the public sentiment and why should public sentiment weighs over one man’s freedom of speech? Aren't there already too many evil doers acting in the name of public interest but only to annihilate some individual's rights and freedom?

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Do You Want A Good Laugh?

If you want something like a seventy-minutes non-stop kind of good laugh, you probably would like to check this out.

Featuring Peter Grosz, credited for a number of shows including The Colbert Report, Veep, and Key & Peele, Recipe For Success With Chef Michael Denardi is a demonstration of an enthusiastic chef's imaginative recipes that you probably should avoid following and his just as suspicious life credos.

Addressing people's obsession of food and celebrity, the show mocks at the study of success and chicken soup for the soul. The object of ridicule here is surely not just the wannabe celebrity chef, who's incredibly hyper, paranoid and self-absorbed, but anyone who believes in achieving success by listening to proved methods. The usual things you hear in real life won't be mind-blowingly absurd like "Make everything personal, coz you are a person", "Hold the grudge, that way you feel alive", but most of them are just as unrealistic or cliché. Integrating all the "methods" for achieving fulfillment in the metaphor, the demonstration of the recipe of baked ziti burritos shows exactly the reasons why the dish doesn't work, as neither does the chef's career.

Peter Grosz could be a little bit more composed in the performance. Although the character is a very much hysterical figure, he probably doesn't have to show emotional unrest the whole time.

All in all, the show is a nice comedy suitable for all age. If you want to relax your mind, the last showing will be August 25.

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Worst plot in The Newsroom so far

I love and hate summer time. There's so much to do with everyone marketing for summer holiday but at the same time, you are stuck with only a few shows all week if you are a TV junkie. 

I also love and hate Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom, the only show that I follow in summer since last year.

His signature rapid-fire dialogues and extended monologues can be both enjoyable, but sometimes they are tedious. Can you imagine they shoot one episode, comprising 80-90 pages script, in 9 days, whereas most feature films shoot 2-3 pages of script in one day? (Read The Sorkin Way on Vanity Fair, May 2012). While it seems the story develops easy and smooth with characters coming and exiting for conversations, he certainly has done a great job in researching and wording.But it asks the viewers to follow the dialogues and monologues very closely while many audience just want to relax when they are watching TV, so it's understandable that viewers either fully commit to the show, or discard it when it becomes tiring.

Also, he can push too hard to put his opinions into viewers' head, and he's always preaching through the delightful trio (Will, MacKenzie and Charlie) and their apprentices. Despite the occasional too unrealistic plots, like the cadidate debate in last season for example, the series is up-lifitng with attention to detail and accuracy.  

However, it is hard to watch the 5th episode. It seems as if Sorkin is no longer as attentive to facts and detail as before. While the story is not polished enough, some of the characters appear not only unprofessional, but  even annoying. 

To begin with, whyever Maggie and Gary should be sent to Uganda in the first place? They are a compact team, and their show focus on things concern American. Haven't they pledge to help American to make the best decision in public life? True, it's important for American to know about the rest of the world, but it's just illogical to send away two core members in the team for potential news.

Secondly, Maggie and Gary show nothing but idiocy in their trip to Uganda. Even a tourist knows he/she should make sure transportation and housing will not be any problem in advance, why two young professionals with the back-up of a big corporate can't secure these and end up crashing in an orphanage?

Besides, as someone who's been to Uganda, I find it disturbingly absurd  that they don't even get a chance to Kampala for some reason. Kampala is very close to the Entebbe Airport. It takes only about one hour drive from Entebbe Airport to downtown Kampala. If they do not have a car after they land, they can easily call a taxi. Several UN offices and many NGOs locate in or near the city, which they can ask for information and help after they arrive. There are also many orphanages in and near Kampala, if their object is not to chase news-worthy story but just to see how war orphans are living. 

Maybe I am asking too much for accuracy, but if the show in the series has a mission to civilize and clear away stereotypes of thinking, why Sorkin caters to people's imagination of a dark African country, where violence is everyday life and inescapable? How's that not ironic? The rest of the season remains largely a puzzle to the audience, but it seems that Sorkin creates this plot of Maggie being traumatized in Africa is just to make this character traumatized.

It is very disappointing to see Sorkin make this plot regardless of how it fits into  people's cultural stereotype thinking just because it's convenient. Hope it gets better.

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Suicide, the Unbearable Lightness of Being in China

“I have done nothing wrong to anyone in my whole life. Why should this happen to me?” 

The iconic Leslie Cheung was diagnosed with depression and chose to end his life on April Fool’s day in 2003, as if to proclaim that there would be no more cruel jokes on him. However, his last words still haunt the public.

  Born in 1956, Leslie was one of the most influential entertainers in the Chinese circle. He began his career in the entertainment industry by winning the second place in a singing contest and strived for some five years to finally be known. While his albums broke several records and he was regarded firstly as a singer, his performance in A Chinese Ghost Story, Farewell to My Concubine, Ashes of Time, and many other films had won him international recognition as a remarkable actor.

  When the wind rise again,

I will not calculate for my gain and loss,

Nor will I force myself to please anyone,

I will happily go back to where I belong, even though I will be in tears,

These days are precious,

But I should follow the poem in my heart.

When the wind rises again, late at night,

I will remember how you have been by my side,

You cheered,

You cried,

And thus we bid each other goodbye.

  He sang this song at his farewell concert in 1990, when he claimed that he would not sing again. The video is on Youtube, Youku, and other sites. While many people did not have a chance to know him in his best days, they are knocked out by the video when they see it. It was almost like listening to him talking, murmuring. Did he know that someday he would have to leave even though he did not want to? 

More recently, people encounter the story of a young girl named Jie. She had never done anything spectacular, neither did she ever show the ambition to accomplish anything huge; nevertheless, she touched people whom she had never met and never would.

She went to college in Nanjing. Like most freshman students in China, she watched a lot of TV shows and movies, was crazy about pop music stars, enjoyed Japanese comics, and wanted to start a serious relationship in school. Her weibo account, started in 2009 with the screen name “Zoufan” (meaning “walking rice”), was intended as a medium to network and to record fun things. While she did not have many friends in real life, she prided herself of having many “zombie followers” online, who had almost never responded to her posts or interacted with her in any way.

  I have depression, that’s why I die, nothing special. Please don’t feel bad. Bye. March 18, 2012.

  She died in her dorm room the night before this post was put up on Weibo. She used a third party application to send out the message at the time she set. When people saw it, it was already too late. She had been diagnosed with depression at the age of 16, not long after she entered high school. Although she got better at 17, she remained a quiet girl who rarely talked to people around her. A journalist has reached some of her high school classmates and teachers to find out what she was like; they barely remembered her.

In an attempt to protect her from potential discrimination, her mother had told her not to tell anyone about her mental condition. Even her own brother did not know until recent years, when she relapsed, that she had been quiet not only because she was shy, but also because she had to overcome a lot of problems to just have a simple conversation with others.

  The side effect of online communication is, every time I need to talk with someone in real life, I have to stop for a moment to choose the right wording, to euphemize the idea nicely, to imagine if my facial expression matches the words which are about to come out and then really put on the face and say the thing. Usually people turn around before I am ready.

  Before she relapsed, she had been crazy about Zhou Bichang, a pop singer in China, and had made a few friends through fan club. Her biggest dream in sophomore year was to follow Zhou on her national music tour. After her relapse, she had to rely on medication to maintain a life. Even the things that once could easily make her excited became dull and pointless.

In the last year of university, one of her two roommates moved out because she had been admitted by a university oversea; another one got a job and was busy adjusting into the balance of work, school and personal life. Jie spent much time alone in the dorm room. The idea of the future is exciting and terrifying to many young people, but that, to Jie, seemed irrelevant.

  In junior high, my mom expected me to get A on everything. In high school, she hoped that I could get B. In university, she just wants me to be alive.

  Her mother had never pushed her to get a job, had not even mentioned that she should get some real life experience in the society. “It is not like the old days anymore. Back then everyone had to take whatever was available and worked so hard to feed themselves. When you are done with school, you come home, and there will be something for you.” 

She dutifully took her medication, but it did not seem to ease her suffering. She lost her appetite, lost her sensitivity and lost her sleep. She became addicted to horror movies and spent almost every night watching whatever she could find, because fear seemed to be the only thing that reminded her she was still living and watching movies was better than trying to fall asleep. However, her memory was decaying. It became annoying that she often remembered in the middle of the screening that she had watched the film before.

A few months before her suicide, she found an internship as an associate in a bank. Her family and friends were all happy for her. But she hated it. Having to take the subway to work every day was suffocating and dealing with people made her anxious.

  I don’t tell my mom how some people are mean and terrible, because I know she will tell me it’s the thing that you have to suck up. I would like to have someone telling me, “I’ll kill that person for you.” And I am the one to say, “Oh, no, calm down, I’ll just suck it up.”

  She was a plain, average, 22-year-old senior student.

She went to school in Nanjing, China, a few hours bus ride from the small town where she was born and raised.

She studied economy, and would have graduated in June 2012. 

She had depression but she also tried to be positive and wanted to be cured.

Her life wasn’t terrible, but it sucked.

She had openly talked about committing suicide many times, but her friends had not taken her seriously. Since March 19, 2012, two days after she died, comments on her posts bloomed. The number of her followers has been going up and almost reached 144,000 by July 2013. 

Among these comments, some people confessed they felt better that there was someone who understood what they were going through. Others pretended that she was still alive and in confusion, and tried to cheer her up. Many of them tried to answer the question that she had asked, “What is the point of living?”

Does this point of living exist?

According to a report by Southern Weekly, more than two millions attempts of suicide take place in China every year, causing 280,000 deaths. About 80% of the victims come from rural areas, and suicide is the primary cause of fatalities among people from 15 to 35. Unlike Leslie or Jie, 90% of the suicides never seek help.

Last May, writer Sun Huifen released her latest novel after years of research on suicide cases in her hometown Zhuanghe, Liaoning Province. She was utterly shocked when she first learned of the numbers concerning suicide in this small town. As her research went on, her heart was torn. “The suicides in this land are like leaves in autumn, they just fall in silence. The families are broken forever, but no one pays attention to them. These deaths are no different from that of Lao She (a famous writer) or Leslie Cheung, but their pain and their families’ are hardly noticed.”

Lev Tolstoy began his famous Anna Karenina by claiming that “All happy families are happy alike, all unhappy families are unhappy in their own way.” However, the tragedies of suicides in China are very similar. Without public awareness, governmental aid or social assistance, the solitude caused by poverty, illness, or social inequity eventually becomes desperateness.

There is a saying in Chinese goes similar to “Better a living dog than a dead lion.” Yet to some, living has become too wretched to tolerate.

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China: When Does the True Reform In CEE Come?

The College Entrance Examination ended on June 9th and students already received their grades a few weeks ago, yet most of them are still waiting for the result of what college they are going to go.

Unlike in the U.S. or most western countries, Chinese students do not take as many times of the exam as they want to get the grade that they are satisfied with, most students take the exam only once in their lifetime, after three years in high school. Whether they can go to the university they like, for most of the students, is determined solely by their CEE score. No matter how good a student has been in high school, if he/she doesn’t do well enough in the exam, he/she won’t be considered at all. 

The CEE system has been one of the most powerful institutions in China. Its supporters believe it promotes social equality and promises a hopeful future to those who are not even the least privileged but willing to work hard. Newspapers love to tell inspiring tales of people coming from modest families getting into fancy colleges by working extremely hard, and parents just love to know the stories of those who get the highest grade in the college entrance exam, so that they can tell their children how they may score better.

However, the defect in the system is obvious. For one thing, with the only goal of taking down the exam in three years, most students have to compromise the their interests in subjects that are not directly related to the exam. Their creativity is crippled, so is their passion in the world. To better prepare for the exam, many students dare not to date, and most of them spare no time in the community. Even vacation can be luxurious. For another thing, it is unfair to judge a student solely on one exam.

Seven years ago, I didn’t do well enough in the CEE and couldn’t go to the university that I really want to go. I always regret that, especially I have done so well in the two mock exams before the real one.

People have been urging reformation on the system. A few universities are allowed to set aside a few quotas to choose students based on things other than the CEE results. These universities are among the best ones in China. While it may be an improvement of the system, people express their doubt about whether corruption could be prevented. Jiang Fangzhou, a teenage writer, was admitted by Qinghua University in 2008, despite that her score didn’t qualify her. Although she was quite a populous writer by then, many people didn’t think she deserved to be treated differently.

Reformation of the CEE system is still among the priority in education. The number of institutions getting permission of self-admission is growing every year. However, most of these institutions are not universities, but vocational schools. Granting these institutions the permission only means that the government tries to alleviate the employment pressure by giving students who don’t have a good grade an option to stay out of the job market for a few more years. 

My cousin Meiting, a promising student who went to a prestigious high school and attended the CEE this year, failed to score good enough to go to the university she wanted like me. After more than a week’s thinking what might be her better option, she finally decided to apply a university 800 miles away from home. Her reason was not many students in Guangzhou, where she was, applied to Henan University, where she was applying, last year, and she was hoping the situation was the same this year. If, however, that she is not admitted, she will have to go to a private university or even a vocational school.

Meiting had done great in the mock exam. But those grades would never count in the competition.

Although the reformation on the exam per se has been discussed since years ago, and there are some changes over the year, the essence of the exam and the system stay the same. High school students still spend most of the time doing homework, and little on caring their community, humanity, love, travelling, and so many more. The exam still determines too much of a young people’s life.

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The rule here is simple: If you are invoking 1984 in a country in which 1984 is available for purchase and can be freely deployed as a rhetorical device, you likely don’t understand the point of 1984.

Newsweek’s Michael Moynihan splashing some cold water on those who are crying 1984! over the recent NSA revelations. (via newsweek)

1984 is available in China, and you can deploy it as a rhetorical device, though the number of people who really understand that might be a problem. However, that American have seemingly higher degree of freedom doesn't necessarily mean that the risk of losing democracy or freedom is non-exist. 

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Tumblr Tuesday: Food & Wine Classic Photo Project Edition

Food & Wine Magazine Inspiration and recipes served daily.

Nicole C. Franzen Inspiration Station by Nicole Franzen features beautiful portraits and clean shots of still life.

After the Cups Follow Alice Gao’s After the Cups to see dishes full of color and depth.

Noah Kalina Noah Kalina, creator of the famous Noah Takes a Photo of Himself Every Day for 12.5 Years, showcases his  photography on his Tumblr.

Chris Ozer Chris Ozer utilizes lines and shading to create photographs that are at once beautiful and eerie. 

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I miss Uganda.

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Necessity never establishes legitimacy. To say that a phenomenon is necessary means, for me, that it denies man: its necessity is proof of its power, not proof of its excellence.

Jacques Ellul

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Burning monk photo: How a moment became breaking news in 15 hours

(Photo: Malcolm Browne / AP)

Fifty years ago today, an Associated Press correspondent made a series of photographs that would shock a president and impact U.S. policy on the Vietnam War.

Continue reading

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The images are so powerful and the action admirable. But I am still trying to understand more about it.