China’s Stand-Up Comedy

September 5, 2010

People laugh in China. There’s even humor, jokes and comedy. However, I often don’t see the humor in a Chinese joke while a Chinese audience roars with laughter.

Part of the joy of humor in America is when you discover the shocking meaning behind the punch line.

John Pasden, who has lived in China for more than 10 years, writes Sinosplice. John has been interested in Chinese humor for a while.

He points out that Chinese stand-up comedians follow the punch line with an explanation of why the joke is funny.

  • Zhou LiBo’s Chinese stand-up comedy “war story” with English subtitles

A popular stand-up comic in Shanghai, Zhou Libo, provides an example.  He jokes about China’s massive purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds, “I am really confused about why a poor guy lends money to the rich. We should just divide the money amongst ourselves,” he says. “But on a second thought, each of us would only get a couple of dollars!”

Then Zhou LiBo adds the explanation, “Because the population is so big.”

Although Zhou LiBo is a stand-up comedian in China, his reputation reached the Los Angeles Times, which reported that the government in Beijing can’t understand him while his fan base continues to grow.

The Times says, “Zhou is Shanghai’s homegrown rock star. Born and raised there, he began his career with a local comedy troupe before taking the stage on his own. His routines are filled with local humor and performed mainly in ‘Shanghainese’ — a local dialect with only a passing resemblance to Mandarin.”

In fact, China has more than 56 spoken languages and a flock of dialects while having one written language.

See Four Equals One China—Minority China – Part 5 and Part 6

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Middle Kingdom on Fashion Fast Track

September 4, 2010

Three decades ago, blue, black, gray and green clothing dominated Chinese streets. Today, individuality is the rule.

Since China is the hub of worldwide manufacturing, it is no surprise that fashion is alive and well there too. In fact, urban Chinese consumers are highly brand conscious. Even luxury brands like Christian Dior are in demand.

Fashion in China is more than a 40 billion (in US) dollar growing industry.

Forbes’ China Tracker, Avery Booker, writes about the fashion competition in China and points out that foreign retailers like H&M are wading into the Chinese market and doing well.

Meanwhile, Chinese retailers find innovative ways to compete with foreign companies by going into Chinese markets that foreign companies have not reached.

Attitudes to domestic brands have changed because state owned companies have been privatized and are producing better quality products. 

What’s interesting are the foreign faces Chinese retailers are using to sell their fashions—like Wentworth Miller of “Prison Break” as well as actor Orlando Bloom and model Agyness Dyn.

In order to promote the development of China’s fashion industry, super-model beauty contests have also blossomed.

See Disneyland Chinese Style

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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China’s Fighting Singing Crickets

September 4, 2010

The first time I read about China’s singing crickets was in “Empress Orchid” by Anchee Min.  Retired concubines spent time carving gourds where these crickets lived to entertain empresses, emperors and princes.

I learned about China’s fighting critics from a comment on this Blog and there was a link included.  

While writing this post, I Googled the subject. In Gardening4us.com, Catherine Dougherty tells us, “cricket culture in China dates back to the Tang Dynasty (618 – 906 AD).” 

She says, “It was during this time the crickets first became respected for their powerful ability to ‘sing’ and a cult formed to capture and cage them. And in the Sung Dynasty (960 – 1276 AD)… cricket fighting became popular.”

In TrueUp.net, Kim says, “The Chinese consider the cricket to be a metaphor for summer and courage…”

We learn from Pacific Pest Inc. that, “Crickets are popular pets and are considered good luck in some countries; in China, crickets are sometimes kept in cages, and various species of crickets are a part of people’s diets … and are considered delicacies of high cuisine in places like Mexico and China.”

From Home Made in China, we learn in a comment from Gogovivi, who is based in Qingdao, North China that, “Summer used to mean picking berries in the yard and making jam, canning green beans, going to the farmer’s market, BBQs, lawn mowing, hiking, swimming. Now my whole family looks forward to the arrival of singing crickets.”

See A Stylish Assault Against Pornography

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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2 Comments | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, cultural differences, history | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
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Chinese Brush Painting – Gongbi Style (flower and bird painting)

September 3, 2010

Chinese brush painting developed over a period of more than six thousand years.

Figure Painting developed beyond religious themes during the Song Dynasty (960-1127 AD), and landscape painting was established by the 4th century.

Another style is flower-and-bird painting, which became independent of other Chinese brush art around the 9th century then gradually developed into two different styles. Source: Asia Art.net

One famous 20th century Chinese brush-painting artist was Chen Zhifo (1895 – 1963)

Chen was born into an educated family.  At 23, he went to Japan to learn patterns that later influenced his painting style.

Chen would become a renowned painter in the early 20th century.

His artistic career started in design, patterns and other arts. When he started Gongbi style flower-and-bird painting, he was nearly 40, and he revived the declining tradition of Gongbi style Chinese brush painting.

When he started painting, he usually sketched his subjects then went through many drafts modifying them before applying colors.

Chen focused on the design of branches, leaves and birds to portray his subjects.

See Caressing Nature with Chinese Calligraphy

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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The Human Rights of Individualism

September 3, 2010

The Guardian.co.uk reported that China moves to reduce number of crimes punishable by death.  Considering that in 1980, China had no legal system much has been accomplished and more is yet to come.

I agree that some of the crimes that warrant the death penalty in China are unfair for the crime committed, but China is not a Western country and the history of China prior to Communism shows that convicted criminals were often executed for a long list of nonviolent crimes.

Call me an Old Testament man. I believe if someone is convicted with overwhelming evidence of a brutal crime, he or she should face punishment equal to or worse than the crime they committed.

A trial for first-degree murder should end in a swift execution.

Face it, there are convicted criminals who cannot be allowed out of prison. Instead of locking them up for decades at a high cost to honest hardworking taxpayers, the criminals should be executed.

The Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, “Recognition of inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world.”  Source: Human Rights Here and Now

I disagree with the term “all members” of the human family. Some criminals forfeit that right due to the nature of his or her crimes.

In forty-six American states and the District of Columbia, convicted criminal offenders are denied the right to vote while serving a sentence in prison. Thirty-nine states also disenfranchise felons on parole and twenty-nine disenfranchise those on probation.

In fourteen states, even ex-offenders who have served their sentences remain barred for life from voting. Source: The Sentencing Project

However, there is pressure on the United States to go easier on ex-offenders and allow them to have the right to vote again.

In fact, almost every country is changing due to pressure from human rights groups.  I don’t oppose what the human rights groups are doing yet slavery didn’t end during the American Civil War. Why isn’t more being done to end slavery?

Today, more than 27 million men, women and children endure brutal working conditions for no money and under the constant threat of beatings, torture and rape. Source: iAbolish.org

All a slaver has to do is make sure he or she lives in a country that, at worst, will lock him or her up for life and provide free shelter, free food and free medical—something that China doesn’t do for these types of crimes.

Do you believe pampering hard-core criminals is going to change them? Maybe theWest should consider what “human rights” looks like in a collective culture as opposed to individualism.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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5 Comments | America, China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, crime, cultural differences | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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