Video Find of the Day
This is cool, although I wouldn't know it except for the detailed description. The "speaker" is Alice, who is ranting in Chinese sign language about the use of denigrating signs for the deaf in that language, and calling for more respectful signs. Dragons arise!
From the description:
Alice's main points are: * The Deaf Chinese are used to using signs for "deaf-mute" (聋哑人) and "mute" (哑巴) but these signs are not respectful to Deaf people. * Overseas, Deaf communities stopped using the expression "deaf-mute" 20 years ago, and only China persists. * It was foreigners that appreciated that within the character for deaf, "聋," is the character 龙, meaning "dragon," a traditional mythological protector being. That's pretty cool! * [There's more.]
Deaf, not Dumb: Chinese Sign Language 聋哑"与"聋人"的区别？
Showing posts with label chinese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chinese. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Lions & Filipinos
More from Sunday's Chinatown Parade. The video starts with Chinese lion dancers. Unfortunately I was caught with low batteries. So no zoom. That problem was corrected by the time the Filipino cane marchers showed up. I was in heaven.
Chinatown Parade
Chinatown Parade
Monday, July 21, 2008
Dragon Team
There's nothing like a Chinese Dragon. I've wanted to film a Chinese dragon team for ages. I love the pass-off, when the half of the team animating the dragon is replaced by the half that has been resting. The dragon itself never tires. I managed to get two pass-offs on this video, filmed last evening during the Chinatown Seafair Parade.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Street Angel
Video Find of the Day
Two clips from an old Chinese classic movie. The movie is 馬路天使, Malu tianshi, (in English) Street Angel (1937), A User Comment on IMDB by Howard Schumann has this to say about it:
"Two sisters having fled from the war in northeast China come to Shanghai looking for a better life. Xiao Yun (Zhao Huishen) is forced into prostitution while her younger sister Xiao Hong (Zhou Xuan) becomes a singer and dancer at a local brothel. Though enslaved to the musician Wang, they are aided by the friendship of a young street musician Xiao Chen (Zhao Dan) and his friend Xiao Wang (Wei Heling) who help the sisters fend off the brothel owner and local thugs. Considered an early Chinese classic, Yuan Muzhi's lyrical Street Angel depicts the daily struggles of those who made up Shanghai's underclasses in 1935 at the time of the Japanese occupation: the street walkers, news vendors, fruit sellers, musicians, barbers, and the like. The film blends comedy with social realism and shows Chinese women as victims of a ruthlessly commercial society."
I recognize the song in the first excerpt.
周璇 - 天涯歌女 Zhou Xuan - The Wandering Songstress 1937
The bird in this second excerpt looks and acts like my Zino (1990-1999) who lived in the front office at Real Change for his last three years, making himself a constantly frustrating out-of-reach morsel for the Real Change office cat, Sid Vicious.
周璇 - 天涯歌女
Two clips from an old Chinese classic movie. The movie is 馬路天使, Malu tianshi, (in English) Street Angel (1937), A User Comment on IMDB by Howard Schumann has this to say about it:
"Two sisters having fled from the war in northeast China come to Shanghai looking for a better life. Xiao Yun (Zhao Huishen) is forced into prostitution while her younger sister Xiao Hong (Zhou Xuan) becomes a singer and dancer at a local brothel. Though enslaved to the musician Wang, they are aided by the friendship of a young street musician Xiao Chen (Zhao Dan) and his friend Xiao Wang (Wei Heling) who help the sisters fend off the brothel owner and local thugs. Considered an early Chinese classic, Yuan Muzhi's lyrical Street Angel depicts the daily struggles of those who made up Shanghai's underclasses in 1935 at the time of the Japanese occupation: the street walkers, news vendors, fruit sellers, musicians, barbers, and the like. The film blends comedy with social realism and shows Chinese women as victims of a ruthlessly commercial society."
I recognize the song in the first excerpt.
周璇 - 天涯歌女 Zhou Xuan - The Wandering Songstress 1937
The bird in this second excerpt looks and acts like my Zino (1990-1999) who lived in the front office at Real Change for his last three years, making himself a constantly frustrating out-of-reach morsel for the Real Change office cat, Sid Vicious.
周璇 - 天涯歌女
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Burial and Unburial
Video Finds of the Day
The first video recalls many funeral processions I saw in Taipei. For 3 months in 1957 we lived in a house that was one block from a highway that led from Taipei to a major cemetery just outside the city. This video was filmed in mainland China near Yangshou, which is in the south. Besides bringing back memories of the funerals, it recalls Chinese mountain landscapes, and tells you that they are not exaggerations.
I like the idea of going out to cheerful music and fireworks. I think these processions are extremely beautiful.
Funeral on countryside.
Here's a short National Geographic documentary clip set in Taiwan showing the unburying of the dead, cleaning the bones, and storing them in urns. Not my utmost preference, but appealing.
Second Burial
The first video recalls many funeral processions I saw in Taipei. For 3 months in 1957 we lived in a house that was one block from a highway that led from Taipei to a major cemetery just outside the city. This video was filmed in mainland China near Yangshou, which is in the south. Besides bringing back memories of the funerals, it recalls Chinese mountain landscapes, and tells you that they are not exaggerations.
I like the idea of going out to cheerful music and fireworks. I think these processions are extremely beautiful.
Funeral on countryside.
Here's a short National Geographic documentary clip set in Taiwan showing the unburying of the dead, cleaning the bones, and storing them in urns. Not my utmost preference, but appealing.
Second Burial
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Dance Teams
Video Find(s) of the Day
These are highly contrasting dance videos, but I think they have enough in common that seeing them back to back enhances each one. The first one features an innovative funk dance team that started in the late '70s.
Electric Boogaloos 1980
The second one features a unique Chinese dancing team.
Chinese Deaf Dance Team
These are highly contrasting dance videos, but I think they have enough in common that seeing them back to back enhances each one. The first one features an innovative funk dance team that started in the late '70s.
Electric Boogaloos 1980
The second one features a unique Chinese dancing team.
Chinese Deaf Dance Team
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