30DC13: Last Items I Purchased

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I’ve had a Chapters gift card sitting around in my room for about two years now, and I’ve either forgotten about it or had nothing to buy. Recently, I decided to treat myself and to take advantage of the bonus points they’ll give you when you purchase in the month of your birthday, so I bought the following things:

Review/Comparison: Travel Guides!

Ignorance and Hammeredism

"The Chinese are taking over the world!" a new acquaintance hissed to me secretively today at the inauguration of the Canadian Embassy in Nice, "They're EVERYWHERE!"

This delightful conversation went on in the same vein for a good chunk of time until my friend Vince stepped in to save me from this eccentric lady and moved the topic from the overwhelmingly enormous Chinese population in the world to various aspects of Chinese culture.

I find that this type of make-you-wince-with-discomfort-because-you-can't-believe-people-are-saying-what-they're-saying conversation is actually not all that uncommon when speaking to many European people, particularly if they're a bit older. I'm not suggesting that all Europeans are ignorant, but many, especially the French, just don't censor themselves when speaking. Many believe absolutely crazy things wholeheartedly, and they just want to tell you about it. It's actually very honest in an almost charming way, if you don't get offended.

Over dinner later on that night, my friends asked me how it makes me feel when people say stupid things like that, and I realize that I didn't give them a very complete answer, because I was interrupted by our meals arriving.

It actually doesn't really bother me if I think or know that the person isn't purposely trying to insult me or my race or my culture. Often, they're just trying to relate to me, even if they might be doing an awful job about it. I get that some people are just ignorant, but they're not actually trying to be rude, so I'm ok with it. If they're not uncomfortable, I'm not uncomfortable, and I'll humour them. Besides, I can laugh about it later over dinner and it makes a great story!

And I know people like that won't likely ever get to appreciate awesome poetry like the following. Also written by the great 李白 (Li Bai), this poem urges readers to enjoy life while they can because time is fleeting. Now, at first it sort of sounds like he's only repeatedly telling everyone to go get hammered, which isn't entirely untrue, but it's actually more of a metaphor; this lonely, depressed genius always felt like his talents were not appreciated or utilized by the emperor, so he he derived his greatest pleasure from alcohol. Thus, drinking, in the context of his work, means enjoying life.

The translation is done by Professor Ying Sun of the University of Rhode Island, and "is intended to be idiomatic, apprehensible for western cultures, and rhyming whenever possible."

將進酒

君不見黃河之水天上來，
奔流到海不復回？
君不見高堂明鏡悲白髮，
朝如青絲暮成雪？
人生得意須盡歡，
莫使金樽空對月。
天生我才必有用，
千金散盡還復來。
烹羊宰牛且為樂，
會須一飲三百杯。
岑夫子，丹丘生，
將進酒，杯莫停。
與君歌一曲，
請君為我傾耳聽：
鍾鼓饌玉不足貴，
但願長醉不願醒。
古來聖賢皆寂寞，
唯有飲者留其名。
陳王昔時宴平樂，
斗酒十千恣讙謔。
主人為何言少錢？
徑須沽取對君酌。
五花馬、千金裘。
呼兒將出換美酒，
與爾同銷萬古愁。


Bring in the Wine (Li Bai, 701-762 AD, China)

Can’t you see the Yellow River coming from heaven,
Running to the sea with no return?
Can’t you see the mirror, high and bright,
Weeping over black hair at dawn, but white by night?
Enjoy life when there is prosperity.
Never tip a gold cup to the moon, empty.
Heaven has given me a gift and it’s my turn.
All my forture is squandered, but it will return.
Let's have fun - a feast with veal and beef.
Empty three hundred drinks before we leave.
Master Cen, Pupil Danqiu,
Bring in the wine and I'll keep pouring for you.
And I'll sing you a song.
Please listen and hum along:
The life style of the rich is all fake.
I’d rather stay drunk, never awake.
All sages in history were solitary,
Except those drinkers who left their glory.
When Lord Chen entertained in Ping-Le Palace,
Pricey wine was poured just for joyfulness.
Why worry about spending money, my host?
Bring in more wine and I’ll drink the most.
Take my spotted stallion and fancy fur.
Ask the lad to trade for the wine I prefer.
Drink away the eternal sorrow we all suffer.

Birthday Bêtises & Classic Chinese Poetry

I turned 22 yesterday!

Like many other 22 year olds, I celebrated by going out with my friends and, as my eloquent brother put it, got totally shitfaced, which led to spending the first half of today completely stationary in bed, willing my stomach to settle. How "klassy", I know.

It's not that I have a penchant for sauce (although I do appreciate a good brandy and a good whisky) or that I'm fond of drinking to the point of sickness. My birthday aside, I'll shamefully admit that I was actually trying to drown my sorrows because I just got the most memorable birthday present to date: a broken heart.

Like my girl Amra says, "Les mecs, ils sont tous des connards!"

I relayed this to my indignant and very irritated mother, who responded shrilly, "That's so stupid!!! Why do you have to drink to celebrate? Why would you drink when you're sad, when you know it would just make things worse?!"

I replied that, yes, in the back of my mind I was aware that drinking wouldn't make me feel any better, but I definitely wasn't the first to whom getting hammered to drown out my dolor appeared an inexplicably excellent idea. I then surprised even myself by quoting two lines of classical Chinese poetry written by 李白 (Li Bai), one of the greatest Chinese poets in history:

"抽刀斷水水更流，舉杯銷愁愁更愁"

Paula Varsano translated these two phrases beautifully as

"Plunge a knife in to break the water
the water flows but faster.
Raise a cup to quell the pain
the pain grows but deeper."

It's interesting to note that many of the most revered Chinese poets in history were notorious alcoholics. In fact, they even have a nice name for the eight most famous ones - 飲中八仙 (Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup, according to Wikipedia).

Anyway, after this conversation, I grew curious of what made up the rest of this poem, so I did some research online and found it. However, because the Chinese language is so intricate, I couldn't really understand what the poem was saying even though I could read the words, so I called up my mom to ask her to explain it to me, since she's the best teacher I've ever had.

The poem and the best translation I could find go:

棄我去者，昨日之日不可留﹔
亂我心者，今日之日多煩憂。
長風萬里送秋雁，對此可以酣高樓。
蓬萊文章建安骨，中間小謝又清發﹔
俱懷逸興壯思飛，欲上青天覽明月。
抽刀斷水水更流，舉杯銷愁愁更愁﹔
人生在世不稱意，明朝散髮弄扁舟。

What left me yesterday
Can be retained no more;
What worries me today
Are the times for which I feel sore.
In autumn wind for miles and miles the wild geese fly.
Let's follow them with eyes and drink in tower high.
Your writing's forcible, like ancient poets, while
Mine is in Junior Xie's direct and easy style.
Both of us have ambitions high;
We'd bring the moon down from the sky.
Cut running water with a sword, it will faster flow;
Drink wine to drown your sorrow, it will heavier grow.
If we despair in our lifetime of all affairs,
Tomorrow let us sail away with loosened hairs.

My mom summarized it to me as: What has happened is the past. There might be things that bother you right now, but take some time to look at how beautiful the world is - there's nature and there's literature to inspire us. You might want to drown your sorrows by drinking yourself silly, but in reality, that doesn't help at all. Instead, why not take a carefree trip and enjoy the world and to forget about the things that are making you unhappy?

Nicely done, Mom.

And it just stunned me all over again how brilliant classic Chinese poetry is, especially because of how much meaning and imagery can be captured in so few words, and with so much structure. Beautiful. I think I'm going to look into taking some Chinese lit classes when I go home.

Fighting Distraction and Love for Savage

I think I pretty much won the Friend Lottery. I've always been blessed with friends who have incredibly big hearts. My besty (like many of my close friends) is a huge environmentalist; two of my best friends are studying to be nurses - one of them even after his mom contracted SARS as a nurse on the job during that whole terrifying event, and one of them is this supersoftspoken girly girl; and now, one of my best friends in university just discovered a newfound passion in social issues. She's started this blog called Fight Distraction With Action, which features her very articulate articles on a range of topics pertaining to social issues like slavery, violence and gender issues. Her writing shows such a depth of thought and it has made me re-examine my attitudes on these topics and what I can do, as well as how my range of ability can make a difference. Huge props to her, and go check out her blog!

On a different note, I've been nursing my ailing self all weekend, willing this awfulness to go away before my trip, and while I was holed up in my room in bed just keeping myself alive, I discovered Savage Love, Dan Savage's internationally-syndicated sex advice column for The Stranger. You see, I was getting my daily dose of Lainey Gossip, when I watched this vid she posted of Ashton Kutcher who happened to be on Bill Maher while he was interviewing Dan Savage (clip below). And I just instantly loved him because, my faghagness aside, he's hilarious and really well-spoken. So I found his column online and have been spending hours and hours reading back issues of it - I almost finished 1999 in a day, and let me tell you, that's a lot of reading. Thank goodness I only have one exam left (for now, anyway), and it'll be over soon.

Dan is really funny, and frank, and open, and he's heard it all, and I think he spreads a really positive vibe about sex and sexuality. He's all about consent, playing safe, and being good, giving and game (GGG). I also love when he puts people in their place when he receives letters that are obviously fake. Definitely check out his column for a devilishly fun read.

A note to Dan himself: You are so much better than Ashton Kutcher!

Geisha Girls and Dragon Ladies

Tonight was my girl Laura's birthday party (she turned 21 three days ago) - Happy Birthday, Sweetums! My goodness, but I am intensely full. I always eat so well and so much when I go visit her.

So I've just begun reading this really interesting book that I must, must, must share. It's called The Asian Mystique by Sheridan Prasso, and I'd wanted to read it ever since I first saw it at my campus bookstore.

It sort of elaborates on Saïd's Orientalism, but its focus is on the mythologies related to East Asians (as opposed to South Asians). In particular, it looks at the myths of the "Geisha Girl" (subservient, docile, obliging, sexually available) and the "Dragon Lady" (domineering, hard, demanding, sexually insatiable), which are very pervasive in Western culture (especially in the media and, perhaps as a consequence, in the way people think), where these myths come from and how the people who inspire such myths actually are.

I loved the intro and was really interested in what she had to say, but I totally had a What the Hell Moment when I was a few pages into the first chapter and read that the Dragon Lady myth came from false publications about the Empress Dowager Cixi, who was actually a really softspoken, gentle person but had her rep ruined by lying authors. Um, what??? Sure, people in the west wrote all kinds of lies about her, but she was actually very ruthless and scary. It's well documented in history. She wasted a LOT of taxpayers' money and did all kinds of things to screw the country up for her own benefit; a shy, bowing lotus she was not.

Regardless of that, I read about a really interesting event that I'd never heard about before. In the 60's, a French diplomant named Bernard Bouriscot had an affair with a Chinese opera diva while he was stationed in China - but his lover turned out to be a spy. A male spy. They actually had sex regularly (though infrequently) and Bouriscot never even suspected that his lover was a man throughout their 20 year relationship until he demanded to see "her" body in the light during his trial for treason - he handed over a ton of confidential documents to his lover during their 20 years together because he said that he was made to believe that "she" and their child would be in danger if he didn't. That's right, their child. You see, his lover even claimed to be pregnant and "produced" a son the year after they met.

How can a man be intimate regularly with someone who doesn't have a vagina and still think that he's being with a woman? Supposedly, during a medial exam, the opera singer showed that he could retract his testicles into his body and he'd tuck his penis between his firmly clenched thighs. I still don't completely understand the mechanics of their lovemaking, but that's not the point.

The point is, Bouriscot basically brainwashed himself into thinking that something so ludicrous was true, that his lover was a woman, because he firmly bought into the Geisha Girl Myth. He believed that all Chinese women are super modest and shy, so they all keep their thighs firmly clenched during sex, they only make love in the dark and that they all keep their encounters brief and rare. He credited all the unusualness of their sexual relationship (and even his lover's physical discrepancies with real women) to cultural difference.

That's what shocks me. The power of these myths can cause extreme paradigm shifts (to the point of self-delusion), and these myths are still everywhere today. I live in one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, and I still meet those gross idiots with Yellow Fever who will come up to me to say the stupidest things, like "Where are you from? No, really, where are you from?" and "Konichiwa, Chinese Princess" and "Say something in your language."

Can we start some discourse about this? Can we start talking and raise some awareness about this ridiculousness so that we can finally be on the path to getting rid of this absurdity?

Québécois Fashion Bibles

Okay, I admit it - I'm one of those. Cancon is not the first thing I reach for, flip to or click on at the magazine stand, bookstore, on TV or on the Internet. I love foreign media products. Hong Kong cinema and gossip rags, American TV shows and European magazines just make my day.

The only exceptions to the Cancon rule are Fashion Canada, Lainey Gossip (not sure if it counts as Cancon at all, but Lainey is Canadian) and Québec fashion magazines. In fact, every time I go to Québec, I absolutely have to pick up the latest issues on the stands.

I've always loved Québécois fashion because it's sort of inspired by European style (like how Toronto fashion is influenced by New York style and Vancouver by LA). And okay, superficially, I have to admit that I feel cool just for being able to read these mags - I've worked really hard since grade four to be able to! Additionally, I appreciate that Québec has its own vibrant culture.

During my trip last weekend I realized that the Québec fashion publications scene has evolved quite a bit since the summer of 2005, when I spent 5 weeks in Rivière-du-Loup doing the Summer Language Bursary Program (now called Explore). Apart from Clin d'oeil, my French-Canadian fashion bible then, now there is also Elle Québec and Filles Clin d'oeil (FCD).

Let me break it down for you.

Elle Québec is more artsy and very fashion-heavy - full of Fashionland news, beauty spreads, great fashion spreads, all the Major Shows condensed stylishly onto the pages, with a touch of literature/film/art/culture info. Clin d'oeil, while also technically a fashion magazine, is just slightly more lifestyle-oriented, because of the genre of the articles, and more about clothes you can actually buy. I love both, but I must admit, I was a little disappointed with Clin d'oeil's fashion spreads this issue because I wouldn't buy anything on those pages. I don't know if it's the clothes themselves or the art direction - but I do believe that tie-dye is supremely tacky 90% of the time.

And FCD is clearly geared towards the younger set. The graphics design and layout are very hip, and I find the clothes generally way more wearable. Or at least, they're more like what I would buy. And even though I don't love the beauty section (the glittery smoky eye looks more "battered woman" than "rock star" to me) the features are more fun and relevant to my age group - the cover proudly exclaims, "PARTYS, BEAUX GARS, STARS, CRÈMES GLACÉES"). I like this one best (although Elle comes a close second!) probably because I'm firmly in the target sector of this publication, and I'm glad that the younger demographic of Québécois fashion girls is finally taken care of in the print arena.

The only issue is the age-old problem of wanting what you can't have. While it's great that everything is attainable domestically in these magazines, I think part of the appeal of spreads in foreign mags is the fact that I can't have what I see. I can only stare and admire. I know - it sounds so sick, right? I clearly have a problem. But I think that kind of appeal is akin to that of many expensive things and luxury items, don't you?