He is the biggest pop star in Asia (well that is what I read)
He is from Taiwan (all the movie stars, pop stars etc seem to be from Taiwan, Singapore & Hong Kong)
He is multi-talented - plays the piano, plays basketball, sings and is an actor
(see the Chinese film 'The Secret' it is pretty good)
I think he is totally HOT and I love his hair cut.
SCROLL DOWN IF YOU WANT TO READ MORE ABOUT CHINESE POPULAR CULTURE
I have been making my mission to learn more about the modern culture in China.
I am spending less time reading the history books and more time reading the
Chinese version of 'New Idea'
FIRST DAY OF UNI STUDYING CHINESE AUG 07
Scary!!!!
total Chinese immersion
Sometimes I understand nothing.
Sometimes I understand 90%
1 Australian in my class. Italian, French, Spanish, Thai, Finnish etc
aged 15- 62yo
meeting lots of people from all around the world.
Im very happy. People just come and chat to you on campus.
Yesterday I was having an intersting conversaton with a guy from Jamaica
Everyone talks very quickly. People in my level have been learning for 2 years, I have only been learning for 1 year so I reckon I am one of the worst in the classs.
I HAVE NO AUDITORY MEMORY
At all times during my life (in English) if I don't remember
So I can read 100's of characters but I can't hold a conversation in Chinese.
If the teacher says "repeat this"
zai daxue ta xuexi hanyu
all i remember is "zai"
So I have to resign myself to looking like an idiot for 5 months.
Thats not too bad.
I guess over time my auditory memory will develop as I listen for 4 hours every day.
Also the VERY DIFFERENT teaching style will sink in.
SO this is the teaching style in China.
repeatedly chorus dialougues
memorise
parrot
There is no room for spontaneity and creativity.
I find it really disconcerting parroting out
"my ideal professsion is a lawyer" etc
without the sentences having any meaning to my life.
I just get bored and switch off.
I feel like I am in primary school.
In Sydney my teacher incorporated learning about the culture with learning the language.
I loved my Chinese class in Australia. Felt alive just going.
It made Chinese so interesting.
Now my brain is dulled. Studying Chinese is also SO different to studying psychology.
The way we study makes it seem that Chinese has no depth, that it is flat and dead.
I am used to using much more than my memory at university.
I am so glad that in the past I studied psychology.
Psychology was an exploration. We asked lots of questions. We delved deeper.
It brought up the philosophical, emotional, scientific, practical, ethical - so many levels.
It is fantastic meeting so many people.
I have to balance my social life. There are so many invitations.
I have been in China for 5 months now.
I still like it. But still happy to go home and see my friends and family.
ONLY 4 MONTHS TILL I GO HOME!!!! yay
19 WEEKS TO GO!!!
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SILK MARKETS
Today I went to check out the Silk Markets (near Yong an li station)
They were massive
Lots of very upmarket stuff Tiffany, Chanel etc (although not real)
Lots of bags, shoes, jewellery etc etc
'come here lady, cheap price' "helloooo lady"
i avoided studying today but still go to practise my Chinese at the markets
it was good. i could actually say quite a lot.
i used some lines i learnt in class. cool!
Lots of pearls and silk. im not a big pearl fan. i associate pearls with an older generation. but the pink pearls looked nice.
I bought a new black autumn jacket. really nice. reminds me of New York- for $15 Australian
I small cute burgendy handbag with plaid material as well. square. $10 Australian
and a big leather weaved wedgewood blue handbag for $10 Australian
some star dust earings for $5 and some brown lip gloss for $5
and musk pink nail polish for 30c (yeah really out of character - nailpolish????)
i think the Chinese is paying off. they say "is this your first time to China" to see if you are naive
and i say in Chinese " zhe shi di san ci lai zhongguuo" this is my third time to china.
they say "you speak chinese, i give you a cheap price"
and they remember me. when i walk past they say. you speak chinese.
yeah chinese was useful today. actually totally necessary
today i went to the foreign book shop and hung out in Wangfujing.
walked to the train. got out my train card and got a shock to notice my bank card was not in my wallet.
i thought "what am i going to do if i am here with no money???? how i am going to get another card??? how do i call my bank from here??? what if someone has taken my money? etc etc i was going to rush home and cancel the card but i ran back to the bank which closed. it closed at 5pm and it was now 5.30pm.
the atm i left it in was behind locked doors. i could see the atm through the glass.
the tellers were counting and stuff. the guard was standing behind glass doors. there was a little crack.
the guard did not speak English. he kept saying. the bank is closed come back tomorrow.
i said to him in chinese. "today i came to this bank. i used my foreign bank card. now i pointed in my wallet and its not there. im very worried"
i don't think he understood some of my tones. so i pointed to a chinese bank card and said "this is a chinese bank card, I also have a foreign bank card" so then he started to have some idea what i was talking about. and then said i have lost it.
another guard came over and they let me in the bank.
i repeated all this to the bank teller really fast in chinse. i think he understood a bit but eventually said "please speak English"
Chinese is hard. well the tones are hard. damn it!!!!!
he said passport. i didn't have my passport. but they gave it to me. i was soooo happy to see my card. some llovely person found it and handed it in. many chinese people (or people in general) are honest so i felt a little bit happier and peaceful towards the world.
CHINA
I am not just in China. I am living outside Newtown for the first time in about 15 years. So partly there is China. and partly there is not Newtown. so i get exposed to many non-newtownesque ideas, lifestyles, attitudes,
its good and bad. i think i would like a balance between questioning society and fitting into society. i can't be polarised and reject society or totally conform to it. but a nice balance.
Im realising just how narrow my world in the inner city of Sydney was. In a way some people in the inner city can be open minded but in a really dogmatic way. ha ha. they think they are broad minded but expect everyone to think exactly like them.
LANGUAGE EXCHANGE
Today I met a language exchange person.
He is cool. He studies Physics. He is doing his Phd on lasers. How awesome. I think that is so interesting.
I asked him about chaos & complexity theory but he said it is too difficult for him.
Anyway we arranged to meet through the net. I thought he would be a girl. See I can never tell with peoples names. I always assume everyone is a girl.
We are practising him reading out a sentence and me repeating it. It is quite hard.
I helped him with pronunciation.
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THE STREET FOOD IS B A C K !!!!!!!!!!!!
had some food on sticks tonight. i think they try and clear it out to clean up for the olympics
but street food is the BEST thing about China.
us laowai's loooove this sort of thing. we don't want to come to china and visit an American shopping mall.
i love street food. sitting on a little plastic stool in the gutter. watching peole riding by on their bikes. lots of people all gathering and eating. some of the cooking utensil looked hand made. the guy calls me his friend. 'thank you my friend'
he says.
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WHO IS FAMOUS IN MODERN CHINA
DA SHAN
Da Shan is the best Chinese-speaking laowai in the world.
He is originally from Canada but has been living in China for at least 20 years.
He advertises everything.
He is mega tall, reddy-blonde hair glasses.
All of us students of Chinese are green with envy.
There are also some sort of poem - debatey thingies they do. Da Shan is really good at this.
Da Shan speaks better Chinese than many Chinese people.
Cheng Long
(Jackie Chan)
I think you all know who Cheng Long is. From Hong Kong, Kung fu movies.
Liu De Hua
(Andy Liu)
He is very handsome and looking a bit older now. You would def recognise him from movies.
He is also a singer.
Zhou Jie Lun
(Jay Chou)
I think Jay Chou is hot. He is a singer. He is the hotest guy in China.
Sun Yan Zi
is a singer from Taiwan (or Singapore)
She sings pop songs in Mandarin.
Dang wei bo
Apparently he is an actor, model, singer and basketball player.
I just constantly see him on billboards and the side of buses advertising fashion.
He is very cute.
S.H.E
pop duo. China's version of the spice girls. I think they do some little cutesy rap and stuff.
They promote everything from mobile phones and fashion. they are from Taiwan.
Everyone who is an actor seems to be a singer and a model as well.
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