This Is Not China

A safe space for all diasporic Chinese or Sino folk (華裔) Read the FAQ before sending an ask

[thisisnotchina]

motleystitches replied to your link

Radio Free Asia has been criticized as a piece of US-government funded US propaganda machinery. (One of its directives is to advance US foreign policy).

Thanks for letting us know!

That’s definitely a valid point, but I think in this case, because it’s researched & reported by Uyghur and Uyghur American journalists & is about something that’s less likely to get a lot of attention, I’m more willing to post the article, even if it does originate from RFA.

[thisisnotchina]

China Bans Uyghur Language in Xinjiang Schools

The new directive prohibits use of the language in schools up to and including the secondary level.

Ilshat Hassan, president of the Washington-based Uyghur American Association, told RFA that Beijing is attempting to skirt its own laws by labeling the new policy part of a bilingual education, while it works to “eradicate one of the most ancient Turkic languages in the world.” “In fact, by enforcing this new policy at the preschool level, the Chinese government intends to kill the Uyghur language at the cradle,” he said. “It is nothing short of cultural genocide. The international community must not allow China to destroy our beautiful language and culture, which has thrived for several millennia.”

[sinetheta]

Journey to the West dir. Tsai Mingliang. 2014. 

Journey to the West is a testament to Malaysian-Chinese filmmaker Tsai Mingliang’s appreciation of the avant-garde; it is a twenty-five minute work consisting of twenty-one sequences of the Walker, a monk garbed in brilliant crimson robes, moving slowly through different locations in Hong Kong over the course of a day. The Walker is always juxtaposed with the vibrant clamor of human activity, standing out amongst the crowds with his nearly imperceptible barefoot steps. The Walker gains an unexpected acolyte, French actor Denis Lavant, who follows him and mimics his slow, measured pace. 

Tsai has mentioned interest in developing a productive “ethics of slowness,” perhaps an atonement for the human sins of both reckless impatience and lethargic indolence. Journey to the West deviates from the social expectation that movies provide a consumerist form of entertainment, as the Walker and his haunting steps traverse the boundaries of traditional cinema.

[thecolorblockcurator]

Heart II, 2012, Hung Liu

[diversemovies]

A video showing Wong Kar-wai’s influence on Barry Jenkins, with side-by-side comparisons of Moonlight with In The Mood For Love, Days Of Being Wild, and Happy Together.

[riseagainphoenix]

Barry Jenkins talking about how much Wong Kar Wai’s aesthetics influenced him is so heartrendingly beautiful to me. This is a conversation being had through film between two directors of colour that has zero need or room for white authorities or heteronormative visions. 

@junkshop-disco I think you’d really enjoy this.

[youholdthewater]

Absent Without Leave  (2016). dir. Lau Kek Huat

The tracing of personal anecdotes becomes an act of mining collective history in Lau Kek-Huat’s debut feature documentary in which he attempts to reconnect with his absent father. What follows is the gradual unraveling of his grandfather’s forgotten story: an absent father to the filmmaker’s own absent father, but also a guerrilla Communist soldier, a protector, a martyr of Malaya during WWII.   Intensely heartfelt without being overly sentimental, Absent Without Leave navigates the murky waters of Malayan history that appears far removed from the present. It reminds us not only of Malaya’s tragic past, but also our collective amnesia, of how quickly and seamlessly these narratives are thrown into physical and psychological exile. In this journey into forgotten consciousness, we are offered a glimpse of reconciliation and a possible redemption for those who have been absent.“ [X]

This was apparently banned from being screened in Malaysia but if you’re in M'sian territory you can join their Facebook event page  and receive a link to watch it online for free from February 28th-5th March

[culturenlifestyle]

The First Vertical Forest In Asia Will Produce Over 132 Pounds of Oxygen Daily & Will Be Home to  Over 3,000 Plants

[wordsnquotes]

culturenlifestyle:

These amazing vertical forests located in n Nanjing, China will produce around It’s a good job that these vertical forests in Nanjing, China are going to produce 132 pounds (60kg) of oxygen daily. Called Nanjing Towers, they will be Asia’s first vertical forests.

Keep reading

[thisisnotchina]

You said to correct you, so I'm letting you know right now that you're wrong.

[sickymag-archive]

RED for sickymag.com

Photography Lane Lang Model Junli Zhao at China Bentley Hair & Make-Up Ted Luo

[thisisnotchina]

I really love Chinese culture and history and am trying to learn mandarin. I was thinking of using asian design elements decorating my home, starting to prepare more Chinese foods and learning customs. Would this be cultural appropriation? Would anyone be offended by this? I would in no way be stealing anything, more learning and embracing. It's more about learning and adapting to Chinese culture in preparation for visiting China. I wouldn't do anything like wearing traditional clothing.

if you think cultural appropriation is exclusively about clothing then there’s nothing i can say to you that will in any way enrichen your life

in addition, we have copious resources on this blog and enough answers to similar questions that you should be able to address yourself to them and not to me

[water-shape]

RIP Ren Hang

[a-side-of-rice]

A SIDE OF RICE is now accepting submissions for Issue #02 – The Folktale Issue!

A SIDE OF RICE is a zine created by Asian Americans for Asian Americans. We want to celebrate and investigate the people we are, and the things we do. Our goal is to build a creative space where people feel encouraged to grow and innovate, both individually and within their communities.

We’re looking for contributions that critically explore what it is to live out radical Asian American politics. We encourage you to submit

art (photography, painting, drawing, etc.)

DIY guides

prose

poetry

travel guides

recipes

playlists

articles

op-eds

that reflect on this issue’s theme: folktales. Specifically, we’re looking for explorations of folktales, myths, and religious scenes that illuminate possibilities for becoming. How do our peoples’ stories help us envision futures for ourselves? How do they transform the ways we see our pasts? If a story has traditionally been used against us to prescribe our relationships and roles in society, how can we find rebellious and redemptive possibilities in it? If you had a say, how would this story be told? How does retelling make us who we are?

For this issue, we would prefer that you have a personal connection with the tradition from which you draw the material for your submission. Submissions close March 8th.

We accept submissions that are not written in English and will not require you to translate for publication. For more details, look at our submission guidelines or contact us directly.

Submissions should be sent through the official form. The $2 submission fee all goes toward printing and distribution costs, as well as paying contributors for submissions we select.

[thisisnotchina]

Has anyone been able to (endure) watching The Great Wall yet? I saw a post making the rounds saying "it's not that bad!!! They make fun of the white guy!!!" and I am suspicious, to say the least. (Not to mention the inherent problem in even including a white guy to appeal to western audiences in the first place...)

lol i’m not spending my money on that

and if the op of that post is white themselves then i’m even less inclined to spend my money on that

[tfwnojeff]

from what ive heard its got all your usual white savior tropes; the only redeeming feature is the female characters are awesome

[thisisnotchina]

yeah but that’s...not...exactly out of the ordinary for chinese period pieces though.

[thisisnotchina]

Has anyone been able to (endure) watching The Great Wall yet? I saw a post making the rounds saying "it's not that bad!!! They make fun of the white guy!!!" and I am suspicious, to say the least. (Not to mention the inherent problem in even including a white guy to appeal to western audiences in the first place...)

lol i’m not spending my money on that

and if the op of that post is white themselves then i’m even less inclined to spend my money on that

[thisisnotchina]

Chinese(?) fashion: whither Taiwan? – Thoughts And Ideas

Conversations on Chinese-Taiwan relations (so to speak) and identity in the world of fashion.

by @jesoutiensque

The irony is, of course, that Taiwan’s encounter of global/Western fashion predates that of Mainland China, at least in the modern sense. In many respects, Taiwan’s embrace of fashion (and individual expression) has also been historically more diverse, so has the West simply forgotten about Taiwan?

Perhaps the West hasn’t forgotten about Taiwan, but rather did not acknowledge it from the start. Regarding the conflation of Taiwan and China, one could say that Taiwanese fashion and its distinguishable aesthetics have never been recognized as separate from China.

How does it make you feel when you see stories about Chinese people (however defined) in fashion (like models, designers, or photographers) — regardless of their nationality or origin story — is there a sort of sense of ‘minority pride’? But is that also a function of your foreign residence?

I definitely have a feeling of pride towards individuals who are recognized by media or the world at large, especially when it has to do with fashion. Having grown up in a predominantly white neighbourhood, but also spending a great amount of time in the town next to it that was largely Asian (of all descents — Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Indian, and more), and then moving to New York City, I think that I have always been surrounded by diversity, and I was fortunate enough to have had an upbringing where I felt a sense of belonging. In those years, I knew and understood my minority status, but it wasn’t something that was constantly pushed in my face (at least in the area of social acceptance). However, I take both the “Taiwan” and “America” aspects of my identity seriously when I call myself a Taiwanese American. I am as much Taiwanese as I am American.

[diversireads]

“Iron Fist” proves Marvel is obsessed with rich white men—and it’s ruining their superheroes

There's only so much you can say, and only so much anyone wants to hear, about billionaire white guys and their destinies.

This explanation is problematic. First, Danny is not an outsider in any meaningful sense—which the hackneyed railer makes painfully clear. Danny is a billionaire white guy with superpowers, a tragic backstory, and a destiny.

Rich white dudes saving the world—that’s Iron Man, Arrow, Batman, Dr. Strange, Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, and, for that matter, Bill Gates. Yes, those rich white guys are often presented as lonely or isolated. But it’s an awfully crowded white savior island. As far as American pop culture goes, Iron Fist’s origin story is about as insider-y as you can get.

The second problem with Loeb’s explanation is that it suggests that Asian Americans somehow aren’t outsiders. This isn’t true, as Shaun Lau, an Asian-American activist and co-creator of the “No, Totally!” podcast explains. “I don’t think people understand the extent to which ‘outsider’ describes the life of an Asian-American,” Lau said. “When I walk down the street, I’m not perceived as an American because of the way I look. But I did a family trip to China, Japan, and Hong Kong, when I was 19, and I didn’t fit in at all in any of those places. I don’t speak the language, just looking at me the people who live there knew that I was American.”

[thisisnotchina]

The Stir-Fried Tomatoes and Eggs My Chinese Mother Made

This dish of savory, sweet-tart tomato sauce folded around soft-scrambled eggs is a taste of home.

It’s the kind of dish that people say is the first thing they learned to cook, that fed them when they left home, that inspires sudden and irresistible cravings. But when my hunger struck, I had no idea how to make it. I looked in my Chinese cookbooks, but it appeared in exactly none of them. Calling up my mother to ask her, I knew, would be like asking her to describe how to tie shoelaces: almost impossible to articulate, buried so deep in her muscle memory. In Chinese cooking, this dish is like air, present and invisible.

I knew that I wasn’t going to figure out a recipe for it, because I realized that my not knowing how to make this dish was akin to my Cantonese getting rusty, to not knowing when Chinese New Year is every year. It’s because I’m not an immigrant, only a son of immigrants, and so I know only the frayed facsimile of the world that my parents grew up in. Being part of a culture without living in it is like being in a long-distance relationship. You can make it work with grand displays of affection and splendid visits, but you don’t get to have coffee together on a Sunday morning — the little things, the stuff daily life is built on. I knew that if I were to have this recipe, it would have to come to me through my people or not at all.