#peng wang

[veritphoto]

Cheng Peng & Lei Wang — The Storm Driven Sea SP at Four Continents 2024

[sizska]

Artist: Peng Wang

[gettothedancing]

‘One Child Nation’ Condemns Abortion Even If Its Director Thinks Not

Toward the end of the film, Nanfu says she is struck by the irony that she left a country where women were forced to abort for a country where governments restrict abortions. She says One Child and prolife policies only superficially contrast—at root they are both the same violations of bodily autonomy. Yet, Nanfu’s opinion notwithstanding, “One Child Nation’s” central message is not a celebration of autonomy. Rather, it is an exposé of evils of antinatalism.

Suppose that it became faddish among the Chinese people to grow out their fingernails very long, in a throwback to the practices of the nobility in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Suppose further that manual productivity and therefore GDP began to decline as a result, and the Chinese government enacted a policy forcing people to keep fingernails trimmed to one centimeter.

Such a One Centimeter Policy would be an invasion of bodily autonomy and a restriction of choice. But it would not generate the objective crisis of conscience that forced sterilization and abortion did. This is because a fingernail is merely a part of a human body.

While fingernail length is subject to various morally licit determinations, a policy requiring citizens to cut back overgrown nails to one centimeter does not involve any intrinsic evil, as opposed to (say) maiming a properly functioning organ could, since the functioning of the integumentary system is compatible with a range of fingernail lengths.

Suppose further that various states in America enacted modest pro-fingernail policies like cutting public funding to nail-cutting salons or banning trimming past the third centimeter. That would be a case of irony for the Chinese emigrant to America because, at root, pro- and anti-nail policies would both restrict bodily autonomy in morally indifferent matters, which in liberal democracies are more often left to individual choice.

The film provides absolutely no support for the idea that a godlike autonomous will is sufficient to radically confer value on indifferent fetal matter. No evidence is provided that such a choice makes any difference as to what kind of thing and unborn entity is: a genetically and functionally distinct organism of the species homo sapiens.

Even interviewees who defend the policy admit it involved mass killing of human beings. Everyone seems to know that it is scientifically and metaphysically impossible for the will to change what an unborn child is; it can only decide if it continues to be.

[starlitblack]

designboom

[sizska]

Artist: Peng Wang

[sizska]

Artist: Peng Wang

[figureskatingcostumes]

Cheng Peng and Lei Wang skating to music by Christopher Tin for their short program at the 2024 Worlds and 2023 Cup of China.

(Sources: 1, 2 and 3)

[austerlitzborodinoleipzig]

Favorite 2023/2024 Programs Pairs SP

Pairs event at Worlds was so fucking good even without the Russians. (You'll only see me saying this for pairs. This is the only discipline where Russians were legitimately above the rest). But this season did prove that the field can actually manage without them.

Have to say tho that most the programs aren't really good and we're desperately in need of some good Choreo which is too rare at this point (Cheng Peng save me!).

So here's list if my favourite programs from this season. Rankings are to be taken with a grain of salt.

Honorable mentions go to

Ghilardi/Ambrosini (The Ecstasy of Gold). Choreo did not left an imprint but I love the music choice the costumes and the general vibe. G/A had some great packaging this season.

Ariano Kent/Laliberté Laurent (500 miles). You just can't keep the Canadians away from Sadboi music and this baby pairs came out with the weepy ballad variant of 500 miles. It's an experience for sure.

7th - Yuna Nagaoka/Sumitada Moriguchi - Can’t Take My Eyes of You, by John Lloyd Young, choreo by Cathy Reed

Fun. Charming. Nice to watch. Nothing special but this is one of those feel good programs. The fact that YunaSumi for their first season together have better packaging than RikuRyu is nothing short of tragic.

6th - Anastasia Golubeva/Hektor Giotopoulos-Moore - Architect of the Mind, by Kerry Muzzey, choreo by Jonathan Guerreiro

Recycled from last year. I love the baby Australians so much and this routine show why. Ability to follow the relentless pace of the music. A sense of drama. Good unisson and well matched lines. I especially love the step sequence where their bodies unfurl to the swirls of the music a bit like an accordion. It scratches an itch. Love Nastya's lines and love Hektor's commitment to the performance.

5th - Minerva Fabienne Hase/Nikita Volodin - Stay, by Rihanna, choreo by Paul Bolle and Mark Pillay

Not the most original thing and Virtue/Moir did it better. But Hase/Volodin are not Tessa and Scott, nor do they need to be. It could be a bit bland and tbh if the team were only slightly less talented it would be.

But instead we have a nice, light, romantic program. It goes perfectly well with Minerva's softness. Volodin is very solid but non existent as a performer and that's ok ! They only have to move prettily to the music and it works for them.

4th - Ellie Kam/Danny O’Shea - East of Eden, choreo by Drew Meekins

What good skating skills does to a motherfucker !!!

Even with the tech shortcomings (that throw jump is not even close to ready), when I saw them live in Angers this seasons they blew everyone put of the water with this SP. Skating skills are so rare among pairs skaters and it's so good to see them being rewarded by the judges for it. The sheer ice coverage the breath the ease of their skating is wonderful to see live. And East of Eden, overused as it is, is a perfect match for their brand. The music is suitably intense. Definitely one of the highlights of the season.

3rd - Cheng Peng/Lei Wang - The Storm Driven Sea, by Christopher Tin, choreo by Lori Nichols

Definitely the best choreo of the bunch, gets bumped from first place because Peng/Wang are a new pair and it shows. We sadly did not get the performance that short program deserved. The drama the position, the intensity... Unmatched.

Deanna Stellato-Dudek/Maxime Deschamps - Oxygen, by Cirque du Soleil choreo by Julie Marcotte

I HATED the music at the start of the season. The loud breathing triggered my misophonia and the vocals were grating.

I love it ! It's unlike anything else in the current pairs' field. Cirque du Soleil doesn't get more Québécois than that. The step sequence is fun. The lift rocks.

1st - Annika Hocke/Robert Kunkel - I Love Rock and Roll, by Joan Jett, choreo by Luca Lanotte

Speaking of rock... Best short of the season hands down. Gorgeous lifts with hard and creative dismount? Check! Massive throw jump? Check! Big twist? Check! Great step sequence with loads of attitude? Check! Music that will make the audience loose it? You bet! Performance levels? Unmatched!

Of fucking course they judges hated it and they were robbed blind at worlds.