Author Archive for IFTF

remembering pleasures of the past: Chinese black and white photos

Published
by
IFTF
on March 19, 2008
in BBS, History, Photos and Virtual China
. 2 Comments

A recent photo montage on Tianya, called Smiles of the Past 50 Years. You won’t be able to link to it without registering at Tianya, so I’ll post some more below the jump.

Early spring1957, Hubei province, Macheng County, Xujia Village, 549 Production Brigade: soldier Yang Zhiyi shows off on the bar.

Bar_work

Spring 1975, Hubei Province, Macheng County, Zhongyi Commune, Wangjiyi Production Brigade: practicing high jumping.

High_jump

Spring 1976, Jiangsu, Hai’an County, Beiling Commune, Fengda Brigade member. Using the natural elements of the rivers, banks, and ditches in the landscape, the brigade holds rope-climbing and other kinds of activities.

Ropeclimbing

July 1978, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous District, Du’an Yao Autonomous County, Gaoling Commune, 5 Bamboo Production Brigade: foot-race.

Mountain_path_race

January 1960, Heilongjiang Province, Longjiang County, Baishan People’s Commune: In the space of one short month the entire commune got together to build 9 ice rinks where over 4000 people participated in ice sport activities. This is a group heading to the rinks with their home-made ice skates and blades.

Skating

Summer of 1958, Liaoning Province, Beipiao County, Under Elms Village, Longtan Farming Commune, taking a break from work and “leap-horsing” in the fields.

Leapfrogging

travelers’ news on Tibet: lonely planet china forum

Published
by
IFTF
on March 17, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Another good source for information on Tibet and other areas in China is the Lonely Planet’s Thorntree Forum, the North-east Asia section.  Seems to have regular postings such as this one:

Tuesday morning update from sources in Lhasa.

Things are quietening down significantly. Many streets are now open
again and cars and taxis are out and about…even in the old quarter.
There is still a very heavy military presence but restaurants, teashops
and even the Summit cafe with the good coffee is open. A major clean up
operation is underway.

There is a surprising number of people on the streets including many
Chinese tourists who have surfaced from the west end and are going down
to the old quarter so see what all the fuss was about.

All foreigners have not been kicked out of Lhasa…these reports are
false. There seems to be a number of tourists still in town although a
very small number.

taking karaoke online: singing cute songs in China

Published
by
IFTF
on December 19, 2007
in Gender, Music, Video Clips and Virtual China
. 1 Comment

If you like Chinese teens singing online, or if you just want to see what a lot of young women seem to be using the Internet for in China, you’ll want to check out Mingming1986’s YouTube channel. It makes sense, of course, given the Chinese love for karaoke. 

Mingming86 is a Hong Kong video collector who specializes in webcam karaoke by Chinese young women, mostly with enormous eyes and girlish voices.  She has over 3,000 subscribers and has uploaded almost 800 videos. Mingming86 also has some video collages of still photos of similar looking girls set to music, and a random smattering of humorous videos from the mainland and Japan.  It looks like she’s pulling these off of random Chinese websites, since she has a note that says: If you see yourself in any of these, let me know and I’ll delete it immediately!  Here’s a typical one titled Chinese girl [Hebei girl - Kungfu (with eyes that pull you in)]:

Mingming86 has hundreds of these things, with girls identified sometimes by name and mostly by region.  Here’s a "Gansu girl."

“music for buying dark landscapes”: The Contractors

Published
by
IFTF
on June 20, 2007
in Art, Blogs, Commerce, Music, Translation, Video Clips and Virtual China
. 1 Comment

Contractors

Check out one of Beijing/San Francisco artist Rania Ho’s relatively new projects: The Contractors.  The group makes music, videos, photos, concerts, and apparently can even lead a mean art tour (see their latest video). Their MySpace page is not to be missed.

We are inspired by other superstar building contractors, high-ranking
government officials, housing bureau officials, land management
officials, special interest lobbyists, investment bankers, venture
capitalists, media moguls, real estate investors, internationally
renown architects, construction crews, welders, plumbers, electricians,
bricklayers, cement mixers, stone cutters, various migrant workers.
Our aim is to rule them all.

TV clip on Internet addicts

Published
by
IFTF
on January 29, 2007
in Games, Television and Video Clips
. 7 Comments

Found this on Youtube: a clip from Sky TV from the Internet addiction clinic in Beijing.  It’s based in a military hospital and is run military-style–the kids even wear camouflage.  I’ve tried to get an interview and a visit at the place but haven’t been able to yet. The part where they set them up with real-life shooting games instead of virtual ones is brilliant!

QQ’s ipTV: a road to virtual China

Published
by
IFTF
on January 22, 2007
in Blogs, Design, Games, Television, Virtual China and Web 2.0c
. 1 Comment

ChinaTechNews reports that Tencent has partnered with Chinese electronics manufacturer TCL to develop an Internet-enabled,
interactive TV with QQ-branded applications such as IM and games. It’s
called iTQQ. IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) is moving ahead relatively quickly in Japan, South Korea, and especially in Hong Kong. It is already available to some Chinese urban residents via pilots such as the one that brought IPTV into the tiny one room apartment of a migrant worker family I interviewed in Shenzhen in 2006.  No-one in the family had ever been online, nor did they have much of a sense of what that even meant (aside from a vague idea that their son would have to learn about it to get a job in the future). Nevertheless, they were learning to navigate an interactive screen via the familiar remote control and a new set-top box that had been installed in their apartment by their landlord, for which they were paying a monthly fee.  It may be that for many ordinary urban Chinese, virtual China will be experienced in the coming decade not through the PC at home, work, or Internet cafe, not even through the phone–but through the ubiquitous television, so beloved by most Chinese families.

IPTVWorld.net has photos of the recent iTQQ demo at TCL’s Industrial Research Institute in Shenzhen:
Itqq
Intel’s Mobile in China blog posts details:
this
new iTQQ TV not only can play TV programs, but also can provide
interactive services for end users such as online game, photo album,
e-cards and instant messagers…aged people can now inquire the working status
of their children through the device even with no former internet
experiences. Furthermore, remote controller can be used to communicate
with the children to know whether and when they will come home for
dinner. Besides, with such an innovative TV set at hand with QQ IM
functions, the end users may share their favorite TV program with
friends instantly…Unlike traditional TV users need TV controller and
set-top-box controller at the same time to switch between two screen,
iTQQ TV users have seamless entertaining experiences with both TV
program and internet value-add service . very impressed !

Chinese spambot?

Published
by
IFTF
on September 14, 2006
in Search
. 3 Comments

I see one way the blogspam is done from China:

Spam

Uighur dance party video

Published
by
IFTF
on July 29, 2006
in Art, Blogs, Music, Video Clips and Virtual China
. 1 Comment

Muhtar_video

Check out one of the most popular musicians in northwestern China’s Xinjiang province: Murat Muhtar.  Thanks to Michael Manning on his blog The Opposite End of China, who has digitized and uploaded two of Muhtar’s videos. One selection is a typical music video of two beautiful people dancing together against a picturesque background.  In the second, my favorite, you get to see normal-looking people of all ages having a good time dancing to music they love. Manning describes it as:

the Uyghur afternoon dance party in the countryside. In this type of
video, I imagine the artists invites his friends, family, and neighbors
out to a nice shaded spot amongst fruit trees, where dancing and music
ensue. The whole event is videotaped and later edited for use on a VCD.

(via ESWN)

Chinese students share info to go abroad

Published
by
IFTF
on April 17, 2006
in Web 2.0c
. 1 Comment

CNet writes about Chinese smart networking students, who are using websites to form teams of up to a dozen, in order to prepare the very best applications to the best American schools:

A posting at one of the most trafficked local Chinese sites [unfortunately you have to register to read it--Lyn] keeps an ongoing list of the latest admittees from China, including one to Harvard, one to Princeton, five to Yale and six to Stanford, among the 65 schools listed….

The Internet provides not only an information exchange but also helps to connect students concerned about everything from how to write admission essays to how to prep for interviews, said Tina Shi, a graduate student from Shanghai who went to Stanford last year. "Students also use the message boards to facilitate offline events. In my year, we had four or five application teams, each with 10 to 12 people," she said.

Link

radical vocabularies in virtual China

Published
by
IFTF
on March 29, 2006
in Politics
. 0 Comments

According the blog China Confidential, China’s Internet monitors are becoming concerned about radical "leftist" (meaning, ultra-socialist or communist) language online.  The kinds of things that might warrant special attention?   

Unorthodox, repeated references to Lenin, say, or Lin Biao (Mao’s Long
March comrade-in-arms, who disappeared after a supposed coup attempt
during the Cultural Revolution but nevertheless remains an inspiration
to heretical overseas Maoists because of his theory of guerilla warfare).

link
(via Global Voices)