Regarding That Chinese Stuff Back There

I do want to start writing in Chinese, but Blogger, blocked in China, is not the suitable platform, especially as I will be writing in simplified Chinese. So expect to see more posts from here:

http://arieh.blog.sohu.com/

I will continue to post here in English.

Yours,
Me

你好！

对不起，更多的是我发现，汉语成了我的友语，我的爱语，本来只是某一种语言，只是课的内容，但是怎么可能还算是这样呢？我的生活是汉语，我的媒体是汉语，我的初恋是汉语，我就是汉语。我用汉语来写下来我最深的感觉！我想不到一个不会说不会写中文的我。我如何能忘记她，我的爱？怎么会忘记我写过的情书呢？想不到，我想不到啊。。。

bye

I've been doing some thinking lately. A lot of thinking. About how we don't get choose the language we were born with. about how we are so willing to let ourselves be its slaves. About how this is unacceptable, and about how this is not freedom. if i want to be free, really Free, i have to choose the language i speak and write. my choice.my goddamn choice.

not to say i dont like english i like it. but it was forced on me.i had no say.i might have picked english anyway but i might have not

so im going to write in chinese now,.
why mostly for this reason
everything i do is already chinese
mightaswellstartwritingmybloginchinese
canigomorethanthis
isitpossible
yes
好

---

好玩贺卡等你发，邮箱贺卡全新上线！

Your New Favourite Band(s): In Chinese! (Awesome Chinese Music! Keep Reading!)

No good Chinese music, right? It's all stupid love ballads, right? Nothing to listen to while you're studying nearly 17/7 and are unwilling to listen to English music, right? Wrong. Trust me, dude, you're wrong. Well, not about the stupid love ballads: there are a lot of those, and I've actually found that if you force yourself to listen to them, they start to grow on you*. But see, you don't have to force yourself to listen to crap, because there is awesome Chinese music out there: awesome, creative, weird, inspiring, original, sublime, etc: you simply haven't found it yet. You're not looking, and what's worse, you're just making excuses to listen to your sweet, sweet, Backstreet Boys. So where is it, you ask? Hey! Don't talk to me like that! Be patient and it'll come to you!

Haha, I'm kidding. (Couldn't you tell?) Here are some fantastic bands, followed by some neat tracks to get you started:

二手玫瑰 (Secondhand Rose): My favorite of all on the list. Their music is a combination of traditional Chinese crosstalk-like banter and modern rock tunes, with a whole bunch of weird sound effects (and occasionally throat singing – I've heard kids and choirs singing a few times too) and offbeat instrumental flairs thrown in. Rather unusual, but the singer's voice rocks those tones like you wouldn't believe – from one note to the next with such sharpness it's breathtaking. (At least to me. I dunno if you guys get turned on by stuff like this.) It's like he's singing Beijing opera with a backing band. What's more, a lot of the lyrics are actually pretty funny and very, very sharp. And tremendously original: there are very few bands as original/crazy as these guys. (Well, good crazy: there are plenty of bands that are crazy but just suck. Like this one.)

What should you start with? Well, basically all of their songs are worth a listen. (And I really do mean that; there are no filler tracks.) But first, a word of caution: a lot of them start off kind of slow or silly, but then get really deep and plain freaking nuts towards the end. (坚持就是胜利!) And most change so quickly from one melody/genre to the next that's it's often hard to find continuity.
Take 公益歌曲; it's a lighthearted, summer beat at first, but they throw in these Nirvana-like riffs every 30 seconds or so, and it's got this killer, epic finish.
娱乐江湖 is in the same vein, but it's even better. Probably my favorite song of theirs, actually. If you're impatient, skip to 3:20 for the good stuff.
野史 is a little too weird, but it gets nice at the end, almost like System of a Down.
因为所以 is nice; they do this cool bagpipe thing.
允许部分艺术家先富起来 is badass. Listen to it.
春天的故事 is nice, real slow, and beautiful.
命运 is just real cool.
A song that I’m not particularly fond of is 伎俩, but it's got the lead singer's voice at its best.
起飞 is kooky.

扭曲的机器 (Twisted Machine) is a heavy metal band. It's not exactly my cup of tea, but there aren't many Chinese bands like these guys, so they're worth a mention. Scratch that; these guys are great.
别惹我 is sick. Badass-action-movie-soundtrack sick.
存在的意义 is pretty cool, and not quite as heavy as 别惹我.
镜子 is similar, real smooth. Can't really put in the same genre as 别惹我.
理想的背后 is another sick, sick song. I would enjoy it more if its lyrics were vehemently anti-American. (I'm actually serious about that; for some reason, some songs just sound better as anti-government pieces.)
我快不会照你们说的去做 actually is an anti-establishment song. It's not really so good, but I'm putting it on the list because it's really interesting to hear songs like this from a *PRC* band. (Nothing explicitly anti-China, though.)
TV秀 is another song with lyrics that I'm sure try the patience of the Chinese government. It is, however, actually a pretty sweet song.

The band 刺猬 (Hedgehog) got me really excited, because they play beautifully, but then I heard the lead singer sing. Ugh. At the very least, they've got some brilliant opening riffs.
春天来了's is fantastic, end-of-the-world-grade material. Real nostalgic feel.
电影 is so light and fragile, so lovely – mmm!
They have quite a few songs in English, too, so if you're into English music, give that a try.

Carsick Cars. Chill alternative stuff. They're like China's Arcade Fire. I mean, I don’t actually like Arcade Fire, but they're all low-fi and stuff; I'm probably just not cultured enough. Anyway, this isn't my favorite type of music, but I really do like 广场, one hell of an epic song.

The album 谁是崔健; no, not a band, but it's got a bunch of really awesome songs, so go out and get it.
The first 10 seconds or so of 浪子归 are incredible; the rest are decent, with the exception of this really neat electrobeat at 2:20.
一无所有 is the best song on the album by far. Yes, that good.

The Hero soundtrack – some insane instrumental pieces on that one. No lyrics, but feel free to add your own.

Random, neat tracks I've discovered: 新长征路上的摇滚 (反光镜乐队 – awesome punk feel), 不是我不明白 (挂在盒子上 – electronic riot grrl!), 狐狸 (万晓利 – simply a sick, sick song), and 机器猫 (新裤子 – again, just a really neat song).

For the first few weeks of listening exclusively to Chinese music, I put up with Jay Chou, J.J. Lin, S.H.E., 邓丽君, 胡彦斌, etc. Alright, I shouldn't say “put up”; they're all pretty good, actually. Jay Chou is magnificently talented, 邓丽君 is obviously delightful, and 胡彦斌 has...well, some awesome socialist songs. But you have to go beyond the pop surface, because there is actually a lot behind it.

Now where to get them? Well, if you're in mainland China, get yourself straight to the incredible, thank-god-for-unlimited-legal-free-downloadable-nondrm'd-music Google Music. If you're not, well, sucks to be you. Try Baidu, because you're almost certainly not going to find physical CDs in the West (or anywhere else, for that matter). Bittorrent should have them too, if you want to break the law.

P.S. I'm just covering rock/metal/alternative music here. I highly recommend instrumental classical music, which, again, you can your own lyrics to. Give 成公亮 a go.

*Who can't help liking 姑娘我爱你? Srsly.

Swordsmanship

Have you guys seen the movie Hero? You know the scene where the emperor looks at the character painted by the best fighter of them all and goes, “Where’s the swordsmanship in that?” And then later he looks at it and finally gets it? You remember that scene? It's so plain, the character. So plain. Looks like it was made by someone with no skill at all. The artist has mastered the sword, the brush, so flawlessly that he unwilling to use it. He has reached a stage of such utter perfection that he is beyond compare entirely. A state so profound that he realizes its purposelessness. Why?

You know, life is a *lot* like this. A lot. I'm not trying to be really deep or anything, I'm just pointing out that things really work like this. Think about it.

Chinese Girl Texts Me (In English): "Is 2012 The End Of The World?"

I swear I'm not making this up. I suppose I should feel honored to be asked such a deep question; to them, I am the all-knowing god, the colossus standing proudly astride their provincial little world, etc. (Sort of like this awesome dude and his non-existent Korean skills.) Anyway, without further ado:

april: Is 2012 the end of the world? [she usually asks in chinese; english means it's an Extra Important™ question]
me: 哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈 [hahaha]
april:你是笑我傻吗？我宿舍的人一直在说这个事，我本来不信，但现在觉得好恐怖啊！ [are you laughing 'cuz i'm stupid? the people in my dorm keep talking about it, i didn't believe them at first, but now i'm getting really freaked out]
me: 对不起，回答是否定的，但需要一个解释，到我们见面时再说吧 [sorry, the answer is no, but this requires an explanation, we'll talk when we meet next]
april: 那一定给我好的解释。 [then you better give me a good explanation!]
me: 别着急，这个我很有研究 [don't worry, i have a lot of experience in this area]
april: 那好啊！幸亏你有研究，我都快被我们宿舍的人弄疯了。[that's good, thankfully you know about it, i’m being driven crazy by my roommates]

Oh, and in case you don't know what she's referring to, have a look at this.

Joke I Heard On Chinese TV

There's a school, right? And there's an Egyptian student and an Indian student in the same class. They start talking about their countries' ancient civilizations. The Egyptian goes to the Indian, hey, back in my country I was at the pyramids, and I found buried in the ground phone cables! This proves that Egypt invented the telephone first.

The Indian goes, well, I was chilling by the Indus river valley, and I dug a hole and found nothing.

The Egyptian retorts, ha!, you see, this proves the superiority of Egypt!

The Indian replies, no, it proves that India was the first to invent wireless!