So tonight, as I put off analyzing the Perry theory I wrote so many silly haiku about (wait til you see my sonnet for next week), I shall briefly blog.
I spent most of my day today at a Lunar New Year festival. It was put on by a Chinese student organization and featured a variety of different shows and performances. There was no food, but that's ok because Friday I went to a dumpling-making program and stocked up on tasty dumplings. There were plenty of modern and traditional performances, with everything from modern dance groups to magicians to the Chinese opera to a Chinese tv show. Almost the entire 4 hour show was in Chinese, so for the most part I had not idea what was going on. But my Chinese conversation partner (a friend of mine who we meet and talk with each other every other week or so in order to help him practice English and me learn about his culture) kind of filled me in on the purposes and significances of the performances. For example, there was one love song that is used in the equivalent of Chinese westerns, where the main characters are kind of superheroes, larger than life kung fu masters who can fly and whatnot (I kind of picture Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, except a little less art-heavy). It was performed with wooden flute (dizi) and a kind of sideways harp (zheng). Then we had a pop culture dance where they performed both modern songs (like a g6) and songs from kid's tv shows in China, which everyone found very funny. Overall it was a good experience and got me to thinking about how little I know about China.
Since I will be going there in less than 6 months, I'm going to start brushing up. My convo partner was saying it is hard to understand Chinese traditions because in one sense, according to him, they don't have one tradition. Instead its traditions based on certain dynasties. For example, some people are very loyal to the Han dynasty traditions and so when clothes and performances dating from the Qing dynasty are also prevalent, they get angry. It would be like some people clinging to traditions from the colonial days of our country like common thanksgiving depictions but rejecting labor day because that traces its roots to the industrial times over a hundred years later (I think). It's hard for Americans to understand, I think, because we are a country built on incorporating traditions from everywhere. There are very few traditions that are "right" and "wrong", it's more of a well I do this thing and you do that thing and a "to each their own" mentality. So more investigation is needed, because today was a taste of what China will be like: not understanding anything anyone was saying but still benefiting from even the two or three words my convo partner would translate. And asking many, smart, investigatory questions. At the end of the event, a student asked to interview me. She was asking how much I knew about all the things going on. That's when it hit me how much I really didn't know. Time to change that.
On a completely different note, I've been thinking lately about the culture I grew up in, not specifically my family but of those big pop cultural influences. This specifically came up because of my conversation over google with Pokeboss, Captain Peanut, and Red Button (Terrific Craniac and Naysayer P Squirrel were there briefly too). Pokeboss and Captain Peanut recounted how they mentioned the Death Star to some of their fellow staff members one day and only one person knew what they were talking about. If you recall, Pokeboss, Captain Peanut and I had an intervention for Red Button near the end of last school year because she had never seen Star Wars. It is apparently worse than I thought. I have many friends who have never seen it but now it looks like there's a whole generation that has missed out. Dungeon Daddy said most of his class had barely heard of Darth Vader. How can this be possible? This is one of those things that has been such a staple in my life, that I cannot fathom not knowing anything about it. Anyway, I'm not going to rant about this again, but know that in a few years, the only thing I'm going to ask for Christmas is DVDs (or perhaps Blue Rays) of all the shows and movies that have so significantly impacted my life. My kids will have sleepover parties where they share these cultural artifacts (man I feel old using that language) cultural legacies, with their friends. All my friends will do the same with their kids. We will bring back the knowledge of quality television and movies. Because who knows what crap is on TV today.
What will I make them watch? Let's make a list:
Star Wars (all 6 plus the Clone Wars tv shorts, and probably the Clone Wars TV show since that's actually not that bad and probably one of the few quality TV shows today)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the movies for sure, maybe just the newer show since that's better tailored to later generations)
The Muppets (movies, Muppet Show and Muppet Babies)
Looney/Tiny Toons (the old tv shows, not the new action hero crap or sitcom style of today- Nothing after Space Jam!)
Batman (Original 4 when they are old enough and the Nolan trio, the Animated Series, Batman/Superman Adventures, Batman Beyond, Justice League)
Flintstones (and any Hannah Barbara I can find like Scooby Doo and Jetsons)
Jackie Chan Adventures (these were pretty good and came late in my cartoon watching years but I saw them cuz my brother)
Avatar: The Last Airbender (so good all people of all time should watch this)
Indiana Jones
Jurassic Park
Disney (all of it, everything, yes even the Black Cauldron I may even let any daughters watch the princess and tinkerbell crap, Lord help my wallet)
Beast Wars (likely Transformers too)
I can tolerate Spongebob I suppose...
Fairly Odd Parents
I wonder if they would "get" Invader Zim... do I?
Fresh Prince of Bel Air
Cosby Show
I Love Lucy
Sister Sister
Full House I suppose
Dont even get me started on teh Nickelodeon shows like All That or Rugrats or Clarissa Explains It All, cuz then I never really would stop...
Basically, unless something new comes out that I approve of, my kids are going to be watching old stuff. If I have enough DVDs or whatever, they won't be watching the same 3 movies over and over again either (I hope, cuz I remember hearing Lion King 3-4 times a day cuz my sister loved it so). I say this partly in jest, partly in mockery of television today, and partly in some sense of seriousness that I'd want to pass on my influences to my kids. Obviously, I'm not the only one with a say in raising them, so maybe I'll have to make my wife watch all of these things first ;). But seriously, I know I am biased. The things we watch as kids stick with us for the rest of our lives, even if they were terrible. But as nostalgia is a running theme of this blog, I'd like to point out that even as I revisit these old things, I'm justified that I was very lucky in the types of shows and movies I saw. There was some quality stuff out there. What happened?
I wanted to end this blog with a Character Spotlight, since I haven't done one in a while. So for this evening, our Spotlight shall be Dr. Beeker Flips. No particular even caused me to pick Beeker, but I was thinking about him this week since they announced Resident Evil 6 and RE:5 was kinda our game. He's well on his way to being a doctor these days. He will surely save many lives. He's already delivered babies and dissected people and knows more about the human finger then I do about the entire human body. I'm sure in his free time he still does flips and plays games and hopefully he's kept up with the latest youtube sensations. Have you seen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5XA7_8_FvA ? Ahh good times harkening to the RA days. This was our first winter break we didn hang out in a few years. Mostly cuz I don't have an apartment in CA anymore. We have a rain check on a Vegas trip, once we finish busy life times. Who knows when that will be. So, Dr. Beeker Flips, old friend and one of the smartest and nicest people I know (we've only seen him angry once and oh waS the girl aSKing for it!), I salute you with this Spotlight.
Goodnight all! Next Week: Adventures in Video Chatting
-James Tiberius York
Reading: Wikipedia, even when it was blacked out, for random crap, and also Chinese history
Listening to: Hero movie soundtrack: If I want to start learning about China, what better way than the way mainstream Hollywood depicts it right?
Playing: I played TOR, SC2 and LoL yesterday. Good gaming day with Dungeon Daddy, Spam Boa, and Heavy Spy.
Happy Dragon Year!
Hey Arnold!
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