Blogs from Beijing, China, Asia - page 444

Noah, an American filmmaker who lives here in Beijing, advised us last week not to shoot Tian'an Men Square with a digital camera, and "never ever take a tripod." Well, today Wednesday, August 16th, after buying several small red People's Republic of China flags, the three of us: Christy, my DP and Ren, our Williams-educated translator, walked onto the Square and shot the dynasty gate with Mao's portrait and several soldiers/sentries looking on. We shot Mao's Mausoleum and the Monument to the People's Heroes, all with the tripod. We got it done. Fuck no ballsNoah. There are names for guys like him. The one I'm thinking of starts with a "P." We then went to a new art colony on the outskirts of Beijing called Arario. Arario houses several galleries and work spaces and the art ... read more

Today is another picture day because I do not have anything new to talk about. Right now I am just trying to wrap up things with work, as I only have two more days. The internship has been a good experience, but I would have liked to have had a more closed ended project. Instead I just leave hoping that someone else will pick up where I left off with the company's marketing. Tonight several of us went to a spa and got massages. It was a very Chinese experience and I feel rejuvenated for the rest of my stay here in China. You do not realize how many muscles you have, and use, until somebody starts pressing down on them and moving them in ways you do not usually :)... read more

Beste iedereen, na lang te hebben gesukkeld met my space overgegaan naar deze site... en nu kunnen jullie tenminste al onze foto's zien! Je krijgt er ook een korte opsomming bij, de uitgebreidere uppdate komt er later maar zeker, beloofd! Dit was onze start: 15/8 Vertrek LHR 16/8 Landen in Bejing, China! onmiddellijk naar Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Zhongshan Park 17/8 Summer Palace, Hutons, Yingshan Park 18/8 Bezoek Great Wall, 's avonds Opera/kung fu/acrobatie 'show', hot-pot 19/8 Vlucht van Beijing naar Xi'an, Mosque, Bell Tower, Drum Tower 20/8 Chaing Kai-Shek Garden, Terracotta Army 21/8 Gewandeld naar Big Pagoda en dan shopping! Slechts enkele foto's hier... overige 68 werden gewist bij het overzetten op Dan's account... taalprobleem met niet te voorzien gevolg! Als je ons wil volgen, onderaan is een wereldkaart te ... read more

Through the course of our stay in Beijing, we have had language/culture classes every Monday and Friday afternoon. Mondays we had a student named Tim as our teacher and on Fridays we have Lynn. So since we leave Beijing on Sunday to go on a week long tour of China and then go home on the 30th, today was our last class with Tim. However, we talked him into not even having class, but rather taking us on a field trip. Imparticular we wanted him to take us to a bookstore where we could get materials to help us learn Chinese when we go home. I am so glad that he was able to take us, because otherwise we would never have come across this particular bookstore. While we have been to other bookstores that were ... read more

Yesterday (Saturday) I interviewed Meg Maggio, the founder of the Courtyard Gallery in Beijing. She has been living here since 1988, and she's an incredible resource. She speaks flawless Chinese. Today I am interviewing Wang Qingsong and Zhu Ming, two of my personal favorites, and Meg has arranged for two more interviews on Monday, one with Liu Zheng and Ai Wei Wei. Zheng has an incredible book called The Chinese and a more recent series called Survivor. I had been trying to contact him, and Meg represents him, so there you go. It's been like that with Meg and this is an incredible city for art. Survivor is part of the Santa Barbara show. Ai Wei Wei is an avant-garde photographer and curator. He organized the controversial and well-recieved FUCK OFF show in Beijing in 2003. ... read more