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3 days ago
The following is a continuation of Peltonator's series on Chinese rock music, the previous entry of which can be found here: http://peltonator.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!184A2363AD187F54!2884.entry The first entry in the series can be found here: http://peltonator.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!184A2363AD187F54!2799.entry Chinese music has predominantly lain in the arena of pop singers whose material has been handed to them by separate composers. The idea of forming a rock band who played their own instruments and composed their own music, though occurring occasionally in the history of modern Chinese pop music, has been rare. The tragic demise of the foremost Chinese rock band, Beyond, served as a huge setback to the formation of rock bands in China. In the new millennium, however, things began to change. Bands that performed serious rock music as opposed to the so-called bubblegum pop that dominated the airwaves, began to ...6 days ago
November 20th marks Universal Children's Day. I always thought it was June 1st, but I looked it up and found that June 1st is International Children's Day. What's the difference? I haven't been able to find a solid answer. Anyways, in honour of Universal Children's Day, I wanted to address the issue of beating children. In my travels around the world I have found that most places and cultures, in North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe, believe that it is both necessary and healthy to beat children. The belief is that children are born bad and this proclivity towards evil can be corrected through the act of spanking or beating. I'm not sure how people came to believe this. But in reading older literature I have found that people used to believe that those who behaved badly were possessed by evil demons. And by beating people, the demons would be exorcized and scared away. I remember back in 1986, I was walking along at the Expo in ...
7 days ago
Here's an interesting question: What is the most valuable treasure a community can possess? Precious metals? Gems? A mammoth shopping mall? A zero crime rate? A park? A hospital? While all of these, to varying degrees, may be seen as valuable, the most valuable treasure is none of the above. In my opinion, the most valuable treasure a community can possess is children . Without them, a community is living simply to die. It is stagnant and has no purpose. But these days, with cancerous materialism having infected most of humanity, with the self being placed on the altar, with pleasure and diversion being seen as the most important features of life, increasingly, children are being seen not as a treasure but a burden to society. People are marrying later and later in life. And many people do not regard the procreation of children as the primary purpose of marriage. Many who marry don't want to have children or want as few as possible. ...20 days ago
Carolyn and I have found a new apartment. It's in a good spot in Pudong, close to the subway, closer to my work and to Carolyn's parents' place. It's bigger (113 square metres) and cheaper than our current pad and has two balconies. I told Carolyn we're going to have to buy a barbecue. But she's more into getting a flat-screen TV. Work is going better now. They gave me a bonus. They're realizing that getting good foreign teachers isn't an easy task, so treating those well who teach well is a must. The least sign of contempt by employers to their employees is usually an act of corporate suicide. But most places don't realize this. The fact that I'm getting paid well for teaching only 13-14 hours a week is pretty good. And now that we're moving I won't have to spend 3 hours on the subway everyday wrestling with kung fu masters for a seat. Now that our move is official, we're busy packing everyday. Let's hope some ticks and roaches don't sneak inside any ...
25 days ago
As promised, here is the list of Chinese Number One songs from December 2005 up to October 2009. There are 75 songs in total. Please note that, normally, the songs went number one a week or so before the date given. The date refers to the time the song was listed as topping the charts. Also note that some weeks were absent from the database so the song wasn't necessarily number one from date to date. There may have been another Number One song in-between two consecutive dates. Take the English translations with a grain of salt. I used a translator that may not be entirely reliable. Format: Date Song-Title-in-Chinese (Song-Title-English-Translation) by Artist-English-Name (Artist-Chinese-Name) 2005-12-1 夜曲 (Nocturne) by Jay Zhou ( 周杰伦 ) 2005-12-15 不想长大 (Don't Want to Grow Up) by S.H.E. 2006-1-5 让爱靠近 (Spread Love Around) by Jolin Cai ( 蔡依林 ) 2006-1-19 冬天快乐 (Happy Winter) by Chris Li ( 李宇春 ) ...
