Sneaky Supper: Snack or Busted, Your Call!
I may not talk about my new found love for boardgames and TTRPGs enough, as I actively work on promoting Sinosphere created games, and help western creators produce culturally appropriate games content. It was with this hat on that I found myself at UK Games Expo this year, touching base with creators and generally looking around.
I stopped off at Capital Gains games, drawn in by their Zombie Life Insurance game (which I will be talking about soon), and found a lovely Singaporean company producing small box games with fun graphics, a wide range of subjects, quick playtimes, many of them capturing that Sinophone experience.
So many games of this type are food based. It’s a universal experience, but also carries the specificities of home. Apps and boardgames commonly draw on cooking, hot pot, buffet, dim sums, or ‘guess the dish’ mechanics, and I’ve found myself having to triple check which hotpot deck building dice game I’m playing. I get it. When there is SO MUCH content tied to culinary tradition, it’s hard to be original (says your girl as she edits another “Roll For Noodles” video). Sneaky Supper, however, is a subgenre I hadn’t seen before.
Posted in Articles, Events and tagged Asian, food, game, pop culture, review, Singapore, snacks, tabletop
The Phenomenal Popularity of Ne Zha 2
Ne Zha 2 hit the cinema screens this Spring Festival to phenomenal domestic success. This has been attributed to many things, including some secret technophile organisation of allegedly nationalistic Chinese entrepreneurs spreading their hidden agenda. The actual reasons are probably a mix of high production quality, the right place, the right time and as often is the case, cultural appeal. Nothing less than an icon in China, the legendary figure of Ne Zha has always enjoyed much love throughout the history of his cultural evolution. In this article I guide you through this development and explore the factors behind the immense appeal of his latest reincarnation. Nezha entered the Chinese pantheons during the Tang Dynasty with the spread of Buddhism, introduced into China in the previous centuries. Chinese Buddhist tales portray him as a deity sent to the mortal world to protect it against the rising number of yao. His legend evolved from the Song Dynasty, a tale of rage fights, heavenly judgements and gruelling atonement. Temples venerating him were found as late as the 1940s (if you’d like to learn more, you can read my book). In the contemporary times, he has been reborn in the modern temples of home and pocket entertainment. Most people in China will remember this figure from the 1979 Shanghai Animation classic Nezha Conquers the Dragon King (recently re-released), created in the style of the art of Dunhuang, a fitting tribute to the murals that his image first graced. Here he is the undaunted Continue Reading →
Posted in Articles and tagged china, Chinese, culture, film, mythology, pop culture
Hesuipian 2022
For those of you finally seeing the back of the Christmas weight gain, have some sympathy for those of us who live with a foot in both China, and the West, and are now heading again into further festivities. With nearly two weeks of celebration, mainly marked by meals, snacks, and other culinary over indulgences, it’s no surprise that China has collectively decided to escape into cinema for a respite from food and family.
As usual, anticipation has built up over the last few months for the greatest annual celebration in the Chinese calendar, and among the food shopping, clothes buying, and decorating, bookings have been flooding in to cinemas by the millions, reserving seats during what is now the busiest cinema season of the year. Hesuipian, or “films to celebrate the birth of a new year” are now integral part of Spring Festival, but the tradition only really established itself in the late 90s.
Posted in Curated & Translated and tagged china, Chinese, cinema, culture, film, hesuipian, new year movie, pop culture, Spring Festival
Chinese ‘Pop’ Art: Drinks with Faces
This year’s Qixi (Double Seven) festival was marked in a few interesting ways. Western brands like Gucci released ‘couple’ ads featuring LGBT partners, and Gong Jun, star of hit series Word of Honour appeared on Xuehua Beer cans. Though dressed in modern clothing, he is depicted wielding a paper fan, and surrounded by a colour scheme reminiscent of his character’s signature teal hanfu. He is just one of thousands of Chinese stars who lend their images to advertising, and there is a particular dynamism to Chinese drinks can and bottle art, which has flourished over the last decade, inspiring the art of other media and reaching far outside China.
Posted in Articles and tagged advertising, art, bottles, cans, china, Chinese, culture, drinks, food and drink, marketing, pop art, pop culture, soft drinks
Big Fish and Small Gods
As a public speaker who saw the oncoming wave of Chinese animation in the early 2000s, and who spent the last decade promoting these to West, it was my absolute joy to introduce Big Fish & Begonia this spring to the general public at various venues in London for the cinema release. Summer brings the home media release, set for the 9th of July, which coincides with the UK publication of my new book From Kuan Yin to Chairman Mao: An Essential Guide to Chinese Deities. Many of the beings I have written about are also featured in this 21st-century animation, and one of the reasons I have written the book is to demonstrate the contemporary relevance of these deities. In this article, I take a look at their origins and their reinterpretation in the film.
Posted in Articles and tagged animation, Big Fish & Begonia, china, Chinese, culture, Daoism, deities, fantasy, pop culture
Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings
As one of the major directors in Chinese cinema, any new work of Tsui Hark’s is exciting news, let alone any work released outside China and Chinese-speaking regions. As relatively more Chinese films make their way to Western cinemas, some top-bill Wuxia titles are now sharing the summer slot with Hollywood Blockbusters. This summer sees the global release of “Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings”, the third film in Judge Dee series (after “Mystery of the Phantom Flame” and “Rise of the Sea Dragon”), produced by renown and award-winning producer Nansun Shi (Infernal Affairs, Seven Swords, Chinese Ghost Story). Five years would have given this film considerable build-up, especially after the second one, which, despite the bold steps it took, was by far the weaker of the two.
Posted in Events and tagged china, Chinese, cinema, culture, Detective Dee, film, pop culture, review, Tsui Hark, Wuxia
Have a Nice Day
When I first heard about this Chinese animation, it was in the context of bankable dissent, so I was pre-disposed to dismissing this work, but when I actually had a chance to see some of the footage, I was thoroughly impressed, and subsequently, very happy to hear it was being screened at the Genesis.
Posted in Events and tagged animation, china, Chinese, culture, Dong Hua, film, indie, pop culture, synth pop
On Chinese Geek Part 1
From the outside, China has a unified people. It presents itself as a united country when dealing with any outsiders, though internally, they are proud of the 56 ethnic groups which make up the whole. Each region having its own customs and rich history.
These days, with the increasingly widespread presence of mobile phones, wifi and other communication channels, new communities spring up, and new tribal lines are drawn. One of the nascent new people of China, are a community whose mythic stories star giant robots, whose traditional dress is Cosplay, and whose folk dances consist of spinning leeks.
Posted in Articles and tagged anime, Bienshen, china, Chinese, cosplay, culture, doujinshi, Geek, Henshin, maid cafe, MMORPG, moe, mung, pop culture, tongren, Transformers, Zhai
China Underground – A Translated Sample
An interview with the band Vagabond Street, by John YingLing, for his upcoming documentary, China Underground.
I’ve translated about 3 hours of interviews for this project, which is now heavily into post production (but could still do with more funding). This will be one of the video programe available to accompany my talk “Peking Into Punk”.
Posted in Curated & Translated and tagged china, China Underground, Chinese, documentary, film, Guangzhou, indie music, music, pop culture, punk, rock, Vagabond Street
All Hail Starscream
We’re half way through a very busy month, of conventions, appearances and traveling. A month that started off with a fantastic weekend at Auto Assembly. Europe’s largest Transformers convention. We were made to feel so welcome, that I had to write something for my new friends and followers.
Let me tell you a bit about Transformers in China.
Posted in Articles and tagged china, Chinese, Guangzhou, pop culture, toys, Transformers