DISGRASIAN™

AMAZIAN OF THE WEEK! Liu “The Invisible Man” Bolin

Name: Liu Bolin

Age: 38

Hails from: Beijing, China

Occupation: Visual Artist

Known for: Appearing to disappear. China Daily just did a feature on Liu, a Chinese performance artist who camouflages himself into everyday surroundings for photographs using an awe-inspiring combination of paint and patience. Liu has created over 80 “invisible” works since 2006 and has been featured in museums across Europe and the US–one of the few modern Chinese artists to be recognized by the worldwide art market.

Continue reading AMAZIAN OF THE WEEK! Liu “The Invisible Man” Bolin

Filed under: Artists, Awesome, Beijing, China, Chinese Artists, Chinese Government, Enclaves, Expression, Liu Bolin, Performance Art, Rebels, The Chinese Government, The Invisible Man, Visual Artists

An Olympic Medal By Default Would Smell As Sweet

In the nail-biter Final of the women’s 3,000-meter speed skate relay last night, the South Korean anchor whizzed across the finish line in gold medal position–with Chinese rivals scowling at their tail, Canada scrambling just behind, and the U.S. over a half-lap away.

Minutes later, South Korea got disqualified for this bump, which happened during the last turn:

And with the leaders out, et voilà, the lagging U.S. team instantly became a team of bronze medalists.

Continue reading An Olympic Medal By Default Would Smell As Sweet

Filed under: 2010 Winter Olympics, Asians and Speed Skating, Bronze Medal, Bumps, Canada, China, Disqualificasian, Rivals, South Korea, South Korea Women's Relay Team Disqualified, Speed Skating, the Olympics, United States Bronze Medal, Vancouver Olympics, Vancouver Winter Olympics, Whooppsie, Winter Olympics

When Worlds Gently And Mindfully Collide

OBAMA: It is good to finally meet you here, your Holiness. Thank you for coming.

DALAI LAMA: It is good to see you, President Obama.

OBAMA: Your good friend Sharon Stone called the White House today nine times in anticipation of your arrival.

DALAI LAMA: She is–what do you call–a hoot. Very good intention, but very hot mind.

OBAMA: Indeed.

DALAI LAMA: (leaning in) And of course, as nuts as a bowl of almonds.

OBAMA: Yes!

[gently, they chuckle]

OBAMA: Your job seems… challenging.

DALAI LAMA: Your job also seems challenging. However, this is a good test for you.

OBAMA: It is. I believe that that ultimately, the American people are good. We all want to benefit humanity, just go about it in different ways.

Continue reading When Worlds Gently And Mindfully Collide

Filed under: Book Smart, China, Chinese Government, Dalai, Epic Meetings, His Holiness, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Intelligence, Opposition, Photo Ops, President Barack Obama, President Obama, Right Wing Nutjobs, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Sharon Stone, Smarts, The White House

Mobilizasian: We’re With Coco!

We’ll have to assume that you’re at least vaguely aware of the hurly-burly surrounding the time slot conflict between Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien.

Nope? Have you been living under a rock? An Internet rock?

Anyway. Here’s the lowdown, in 2 minutes of rad Taiwanese animation (this neat little segment was originally produced for something called Apple Action News, shown here with the English translation):


They nailed one thing–everyone quickly jumped on the O’Brien bandwagon (Jen and I cheered watching Jimmy Kimmel tear Leno apart on his own show last week). Not just because Leno is criminally unfunny, not just because–though he’s getting a slow start on The Tonight Show–O’Brien is a beloved underdog. The whole idea of takebacks is totally DICK–it ain’t cool on the playground, it ain’t cool on TV.

And check it out: Asians are totally rallying for Team CoCo! Heck, we knew Intern Jasmine on board, but it’s inspiring to see that our friend Phil at Angry Asian Man has gotten, well, pretty angry about the topic. He spoke out about it, joined by cutie-utie-utie pie actors Karin Anna Cheung and Eddie Kim, as well as… RUFIO! Peep the video:

Continue reading Mobilizasian: We’re With Coco!

Filed under: Angry Asian Man, Animasian, Apple Action News, China, Conan, Conan O'Brien, Dante Basco, Eddie Kim, I'm With Coco, Jay Leno, Jonathan Zucker, Karin Anna Cheung, Living Under A Rock, Movements, NBC, Phil Yu, PSAs, Rufio, Taiwan, Takebacks Suck, Taking Sides, Team CoCo, Underdogs, We're With Coco

One Finger That Makes Quite A Bang

I know I’m really late to the game in finding out about this, but I just read that a 32-year old Chinese martial arts master named Fu Bingli scooped a Guinness world record late last year for doing 12 pushups with one finger.


From the Telegraph:

“I’ve been training since I was seven years old and my index finger has as much strength in it as most people’s entire body,” said Fu of Lianyungang, eastern China.

I read that quote and immediately was like, whoa. Not to get all gross or anything, but my pervy little mind was instantly consumed with questions: What else could ya do with a finger like that? And with what intensity? And uh, how soon??!?!?

But then I realized that his finger looks like this:

Continue reading One Finger That Makes Quite A Bang

Filed under: China, Fu Bingli, Guinness Book of World Records, Index Finger, Martial Artists, Weird Chinese Behavior, World's Strongest Fingers

AMAZIAN OF THE WEEK! Ha Jin

Name: Ha Jin

Hails from: Boston, MA (born in Liaoning, China)

Occupation: Writer

Known for: Telling the stories that no one else does (or can). Jin has published five novels, three books of poetry, and multiple collections of short stories–allowing him to stack up a gobsmacking collection of literary honors, from the National Book Award to the PEN/Faulkner Award.

The author just released a new story collection, A Good Fall, which explores Continue reading AMAZIAN OF THE WEEK! Ha Jin

Filed under: Authors, Awards, Boston, China, Chinese-Americans, Great Writers, Ha Jin, National Book Award, PEN Faulkner Award, Professors, Short Stories, Story Collections, Storytellers, Writers

Goodbye Panda

Tai Shan, the panda Americans have watched with awe since his 2005 birth at the National Zoo in Washington D.C., is going home. On loan from China, Tai Shan was allowed to stay at the Zoo for two and a half years longer than originally agreed upon–but now he must head to his native soil to enter into the main breeding program at the Beifengxia base in Sichuan.

Sad, but neccesary. Let’s just hope that China doesn’t call in any of our other debts. [quivers]

[AFP: Tough To Bear -Washington Loses Panda Cub To China]

Source

Filed under: Breeding Program, China, Goodbyes, Homecomings, Little Bears, Loans, National Zoo, Pandas, Pandas Are Sickeningly Cute, Sadness, Sichuan, Tai Shan, U.S. Marines, U.S. Public Debt, Washington D.C.

We Found Our Chinese Haunt: The Dali Gay Bar

In an attempt to counter a rapidly rising AIDS rate, the Chinese government has actually done something cool: opened a government-funded gay bar in Dali, one of the ten Chinese cities most affected by the disease.

The bar will offer free condoms, sex ed and a proper watering hole for the area’s gays, many of whom are from rural villages, and “used to gather in a patch of woods near the historic town.” Not to linger on the past, but hanging out in a patch of woods without mushrooms or a cooler/tent/bonfire or elf leader just makes us sad.

Anyway, this is awesome progress and we’re psyched! But enough jibber-jabber. When do we drink???

[via AMERICAblog Gay]
[Reuters: China City Government Opens Gay Bar To Fight AIDS]

Source
Thanks, Jasmine!

Filed under: AIDS, Booze Rules, China, Dali, Gaysian = Fun, Gaysians, Government Funding, HIV, The Chinese Government, The Woods, Thinking and Drinking, Watering Holes, We Heart Gaysians

He Said WHAT?! Obama Has Never Used Twitter

The internetz is spazzing out today over a bomb Obama dropped Sunday at a town hall meeting of university students in Shanghai, the third stop on his Asia tour. When asked if the Chinese should be able to “use Twitter freely”–Twitter and Facebook are both blocked in China–our president, who has 2.6 million followers on the social networking platform, said:

Well, first of all, let me say that I have never used Twitter. I noticed that young people — they’re very busy with all these electronics. My thumbs are too clumsy to type in things on the phone.

Obama also addressed those little matters of censorship and human rights, calling freedom of expression and religion “universal rights” before the Chinese government-selected crowd, but never mind that.

The takeaway here, OBVS, is that Obama has never used Twitter. Because all the blogs are talking about it, it’s become, like, this big internet meme overnight, and it’s one of the hottest trending topics on Twitter at the moment, right up there with  “bad romance,” the Lady Gaga single, and “Stephen Jackson,” a recently-traded basketball player.

You know, like the stuff that really matters?

[ReadWriteWeb: Obama: "I Have Never Used Twitter"]

Filed under: China, China Censorship, China Human Rights, Important Stuff, Obama Asia Tour, Obama I Have Never Used Twitter, Obama in China, Obama Shanghai Town Hall, President Barack Obama, Social Networking, Trending Topics, Twitter

The Wang Way To Win

Do you remember 21-year-old Wang Jing, a Chinese sprinter from last summer’s Beijing Olympics?

If not, it’s because she didn’t qualify for a second round heat in either of her races during those games, the 100m and 4×100m. You probably missed her.

Last week, however she celebrated gold in the 100m at the 11th Chinese National Games. And silver in the 200m! Dayum!

Today, it was annouced that Wang failed a drug test and was stripped of her gold medal. Worse, the Chinese Athletics Administration Center (CAAC)–China’s governing body for track and field–has BANNED WANG AND HER COACH FOR LIFE from competition.

What a shitty Monday, huh? First, FAILING. Then, banned for LIFE. Wang is never getting hugged by her parents again.

[Reuters: China's Womens 100 Metres Champion Banned For Life]

Source

Filed under: Bans for Life, Beijing, China, Disappointing Your Parents, Doping, Drug Tests, Drugs, Failing Isn't Asian, Gold Medals Rule, Mondays, The 2008 Olympics, Wang Jing

John Woo’s Red Cliff Comes To Los Angeles, Wed. Oct. 28 [FREE SCREENING]

The NY Times has called John Woo’s new film, Red Cliff–an epic historical drama based on a legendary 208 A.D. battle that heralded the end of the Han Dynasty in China–”a grand-scale war movie.” Another critic’s lauded it as the “best thing John Woo has made in years.” My mom, who’s seen the Asian release of the film, said, “The movie is very impressive, the cinematographic and big movie stars, big budget,” which is like a Hardass Asian Mom’s version of two thumbs way up.

We personally can’t wait to see it–the movie stars two of our boyfriends, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung–but Red Cliff doesn’t open until November 18. HOWEVER…DISGRASIAN readers in Los Angeles can see it this Wednesday, October 28, in the beautiful DGA Screening Room in Hollywood, for FREE.

Here are the deets:

Red Cliff screening
Wednesday, October 28, 7:00pm
DGA Screening Room – Theater 2
7920 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90046

To RSVP, send an email with the subject line “RED CLIFF RSVP – AAAN” to redcliffRSVP@gmail.com.

Priority will be given to people on list, but that does not guarantee a seat. Arrive before 6:30 to secure your spot!

For the official movie website, click here.

Filed under: Action Movies, Asian Filmmakers, China, Hong Kong Filmmakers, John Woo, John Woo's Red Cliff, Red Cliff, Takeshi Kaneshiro Is a God, Tony Leung, War Movies

Looks Like A Xenophobic Hot Mess: Scenes From The Red Dawn Remake

I found these photos from the Pontiac, MI set of the new Red Dawn movie over at reddawn2010.com, a site entirely devoted to the remake:

“Be Disturbed At Not Understanding“? Oh, believe me, I am.

Remember when I wondered if there was any way to remake Red Dawn with Chinese invaders without the movie being totally racist? The following set-photos–which have the feel of a wild, whiskey-soaked, Joe McCarthy wet dream–would suggest the answer is “no.”

Although I did find this amusing:

Yes, those “Obscene…Weapon(s) of Mass Distraction” appear to be donuts.

EVIL CHINAMAN ALSO FUNNY HA HA!!!

[reddawn2010.com]

Filed under: China, Communism, Evil Chinamen, Fear of a Yellow Planet, I Am Extremely Terrified of Chinese People, Red Dawn Remake, The Chinese Are Coming, Xenophobia