Primary source information

So just to let everyone know I am going to be showing a clip from the movie “Once Upon a Time in China II” as my primary source. However as I am unable to put this clip on-line with out breaking all kinds of copyright laws. So I tried to find the script of the movie so that I could post the text version of the scene however this was a bust and when i stop to think about it seems like it would have been no matter what because chances are that even if I had been able to find a copy of the script I highly doubt that it has been translated into English. So as a last resort I am giving a link to a website which has a short review and synopsis of the movie. Also if you would like you can also get information on the five other different movies in this series. I know I always refer to it as a trilogy but if you take the time to read all of the reviews trust me you will understand why.

http://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/once_upon_a_time_in_china_2.htm

 

enjoy

So it’s official I’m gonna die

So I finally realized what iss going to kill me and it is this up coming weekend. I have  lovely easter weekend planned includng having a rough draft of my thesis, my classroom thoery project, a lesson plan, all due on monday, then I get to present on wednesday and oh yeah I have a tornament to play in D.C. this weekend.(games on both sat. and sun.) So it is official I am going to be killed by this weekend either that or I am just going to be the biggest hermit for the week ever. In short I can’t wait for all of this to be over and done with and I’m pretty upset with myself for making myself do this in order to walk this May.

Oh yeah an dthe best part is I’m using this right now as a method of procrastinating yes even though I should be working already I’m posting on my blog. (which I guess thecnically qualifies as work since it is for class) I guess I just needed to get my rant out and didn’t feel like actually yelling at anyone but i did actually do some slight damage to my keyboard so that sucks. Hey maybe I can use that to procrastinate. No I really need to get to work so that I can get everything done and give an awsome presentation on wednesday. Oh yeah Lauri I think you are going to get your wish.

Good night and If you are willing to kill me please do.

break

Well I have to be honest I just can’t seem to get used to posting on this site every week. I have been trying to remeind myself to do so but I just can’t seem to remeber. So at any rate I went to disney over spring break and relized that since everyone is there for the same reason differences don’t seem to matter at all. I must have heard at least 10 differnt languages while I was there, some I regonized and some I probabbly counted more than once because I didn’t recognize, as well as seeing every differnt type of person I could imagine from punks and goths to guys that were “thugged out” but none of this mattered. It’s odd to think that there are things out there that everyone can identify with and it just made me alaugh a few times. (especially since every where it said “this all started with a mouse”) I wonder just how many things there are that can cross cultures as well as the disney empire has and to be honest I can’t think of that many. Mass media and the internet have helped to make the world a smaller place (by the way I refuse to ever go on it’s a small world again) but there are so few things that truly transend everything and connect the world.

Paper

I must say that i am extremely happy that the paper date was moved to monday as I’m still not really sure how I’m gogin to tackle this one and was dreading trying to come up with soething sper of the moment. I do think tha the extra discussioin day will help us all with the book (btw great conversations about it go on before class but not really about issues we discuss during class). Must admit that i wish i had taken better notes on the movie but such is life. Luckily I do remember enough from the movie and the discussion to use in my paper. Lucky for me I can remeber things that I hear sothe discussion will probably help me more since the movie had subtitles.

Oh yeah really off topic comment was it just me or were those treats that we had yesterday almost too sweet. I was literally able to see the sugar in the center part. I must be getting old since I know actually think that things can be too sweet but again such is life.

Gender roles

I have to give out a big thank you to Adriane (hope i spelled it right) for letting me use her book on masculinity (which I will give back to you on friday since we didin’t have class yesterday). I had a chapter on masculinity in cinema by looking at Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Chow Young Fat that gave me some pretty good insite to use for my paper on masculinity issues in Kung Fu movies and cinema in general. A few things I didn’t know or make connections on include the use of the dragon both as a symbol of china and a phallic symbol. Clearly the later of these two representaions will come in handy as many Kung Fu movies have dragon in the title of them, not to mention the use of dragon dances constantly through out various movies. Also I didn’t know this but stage/screen names used by many Kung Fu actors have dragon in them. Both Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan used screen names liek this Bruce Lee’s translated into “Little Dragon” (I think that was it unfortunatly I don’t have the info right infront of me even though I probably should. While Chan’s which was actually based off of Lee’s translates into “Hong Kong Dragon”. Clearly this shows that a stong male character is obviously an important aspect of Kung Fu movies. I hope to find more on this as well as female gender roles as i contimue to go through my material.

project

Well, I know that the library has books on my topic however the majority of these books have been taken out. I can only assume that someone else in the class must be wworking on a simmilar topic as I am. If you have the books from the library that are about cinema in China/Hong Kong please let me know so that we can figure out some way to share the books as I am sure that you are not working on this project 24/7 no matter how much that might impress Dr. Fernsebner. Please send me an e-mail (sespe9su@umw.edu) so that we can work something out clearly sooner is better than later as we have a bibliography due on friday. If you ahve the books and are going to work on your Bibliography thursday night that’s fine I can come get them from you early friday morning as our class is my first of the day. On the other hand if you want to work on it friday morning that is cool too I can get the books from you thursday night and have them to you by whatever time you want friday morning.
stev

So it shall be done.

Well I’m pretty happy that I was convinced that this is a do able project. Plus I have some extremely jelous friends both back home and on campus who are throughally amazed that I’m being allowed to do a project that uses kung fu movies. However as I do need to make sure that I actually do something more than just a movie review I plan on making the actual topic of the paper gender roles in chinese cinema, through the use of the “Once Upon a Time in China” trilogy. There even seems to be a pretty good amount of information in the library plus MCLC is am awsome resource. Also I have only watched the first one so far but there are aspects of gangs, foriegn tinervention and protistution (however the movie does take place prior to our time period) if any wants to use it.

Project

So I’ve been thinking and looking at materials the library has and thinking some more and then finding dark little holes to climb into. In short I plan on doing something regarding Chinese and US relations however this is far to vast a topic to do with out narrowing it down first (hence my search for dark little holes). So basically I figured I have to figure out how I really plan to attack this issue with out just burrying myself in far to vast a topic that has too much information. This is what I have come up with:

1) Comparing US and Chinese relations during the cold war and after it. Simplay put during the Nixon administration and today.

2) The affects of the situation between Mainland China and Tiwan on the US, or possibly relations between the Mainland and Tiwan minus the US.

3) Trade between the US and China. Why is it that like 90% of the things we buy (especially toys) are made in China? (I don’t think that I’ve ever bought anything out of those little machines in grocery stores that wasn’t made in China.)

4)  Chinese immigration to the United States and through out the world.

5) (I’m sure that this one is most likely not doable but i would love for it to be.) Kung Fu movies . . . popularity in China and The US (Why the hell do we love those movies and actors like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Sonny Chiba, and Jet Lei?)

Suggestions from anyone would be much appreciated as I need to find a way to really narrow this down quick.

history 471

testing testing 1 2 3

this class will teach me how to curse in another language (laguage #6)

or so i’m told