When East Meets West

These are icons designed by Liu Yang, a Chinese born, but educated in her teen through adult life in Germany. Her work shows how East meets West. Her work fits so well with globalization of culture, people and places.
See whether you agree with her.
Blue means the West
Red means the East/ Asian/Chinese

The boss

Me

Child

Eldery in Day-to-day Life

Way of Life

Three Meals a Day

Moods and Weather

Things that are New

Opinion

Party

Perception of Each Other

Contacts

Handling of Problems

Punctuality

Queue in Waiting

In the Restaurant

Shower Timing

Transportation

Travelling

What's Trendy

Perhaps, it is quite a generalization but it is more or less the way of the West and the East. The two parts of the world are learning from each other while the division into two parts is too crude anyway. My favourite is 'perception of each other'. Here, the West is learning to dreass, drink and eat Asian way, but the East is fond of modern look, sausage and beer.
What is your favourite?
How do you interpret these graphics?
Liu Yang's exhibition
Liu Yang was born in 1979 in Beijing, China. She moved to Germany in 1990 and lives there since. She established Yang Liu Design institute in Berlin in 2004.
For more information, please visit her website http://www.yangliudesign.com/

My analysis? BRILLIANT!
I agree with most of the chinese stuff...especially the ones of Punctuality, Restaurant and Queue in Waiting. I swear the Chinese Nationals at KLIA were exactly like that when I tried to queue up for my flight, I couldn't even breathe when I was trying to squash through to the terminal.
It's great that Liu Yang managed to capture all my comparisons between the Chinese people and the Western people into a series of artwork...and in this instance, it's a lot more effective than any one of my gazillion essays on how they compare. I'm not so sure about the Travelling one...I'm certainly not one to be happy with looking at pictures and somehow living vicariously through them! But perhaps it's just me...=)

Mishy <3

DONE!

With my TEE University Application!!!

And...I now have one more university application to finish. -_-"

I am rather annoyed about this. I have so much to do, like learning how to complete my homework and study at the same time; write, photograph and edit the yearbook and graudation video; organise Leavers Week and; finish university applications at the same time.

All whilst attempting to assure the rest of the world that I am not yet dead, and indeed do enjoy socialising once in a while.
And okay, I realise I did ask for this, and no one forced me to be a part of the Yearbook Committee. But it's something that I've been dying to do since I started secondary school, and I am willing to add on to my already bursting amount of stress. But social events really should just learn to come in at the right time as well.

Like River Rock tomorrow night which I will be missing out on. Much as I would love to go, it is on a WEDNESDAY. A day which is normally busy as hell for me, seeing as it is in the middle of the week.
A lot of my friends are going. And many are annoyed at me for not going.
But I don't care. I don't have the transport or the time or, really, even the energy to force myself to care about any River Rock right now. Even IF dolphins followed the boat the last time. Even if this is possibly the last event all of us as Year 12s will share.
Sheesh, it's not even just us as Year 12s, we had to invite the Year 11s with us for some reason.

But, okay, moving on.

I received two TCK postcards in the past month. For those who aren't in the loop about this, it's a little experiment by the TCKid website. One person starts off the relay by buying a postcard and mailing it, and then the receiver mails it to someone else, who mails it to someone else. And it just keeps going.
Unfortunately, we're still in the early stages of this experiment, but I really do hope it picks up quickly after this. *ahem Brice*
I have yet to take photos of them, but I will get them up really soon. One from China and one from Canada. Finally Brice, it took you long enough it did. XD And it really was rather conspicious. I mean, who else would draw cats all over the envelope?
And as part of the programme, I promise that I will mail the relay postcard this Saturday.

So where will this postcard go to next? Only time will tell...
And, well, okay the address that I write on the envelope will too, I guess.

Mishy <3

Beijing Olympics '08

This one is being held in China this year. And I must say, I think the Olympic committee made a brilliant decision, deciding to host it in China this year. That, or they were bribed rather well by the Chinese.

08/08/08. Beginning at 08:08pm.
It's really interesting how they've managed to get it on what would seem to be China's luckiest day of all.

Watching the Olympics, I incredibly impressed with the idea of the scroll, and the meaning behind it. The body calligraphy amazed me [because I had no idea how the guy knew where to put down the brush] and the lighting of the cauldron [after all the useless running around] was definitely a highlight. I was also rather impressed with the drums at the beginning, although I didn't actually like the way they gradually started looking more and more like a kaleidoscope than a drumming performance. I looked forward to a dragon/lion dance and, okay, I was pretty disappointed that none came. I can honestly say that it is the highlight of my Chinese New Year, and not having it at the Olympics made me sulk a bit.
People say that China is all for precision. Nothing must be out of place. Everything must be perfect.
But in a sense, I'd say that this is what makes China, China. The precision is a sight to behold, especially in a country like Australia where no one likes to listen to authority. [the year 8s and 9s at every school are proof]

When the athletes came out, this had to be my highlight of the entire ceremony, possibly excepting the lighting of the cauldron.
And many people found it boring because, let's be serious, they only had one country to support, and most probably didn't know the flags of all the countries, much less the names.

I, on the other hand, found it extremely difficult to figure out whom I should be cheering for. After living in these places, who do you say deserves to get your support the most? South Africa, or Australia? Indonesia, or Malaysia? The Philippines, or Singapore? [not that I have lived in Singapore, but I believe they're worth supporting] And of course, should I be supporting China- the place where my roots come from, or Hong Kong- where my grand-uncle currently resides? England- to where at least a quarter of my mates have moved, or Canada- where at least a tenth have moved?
Of course, I didn't actually think about it too much, and cheered for all of them all the same.

My brother and I also stayed up the entire night, comparing team sizes [we have decided that China's is by far the biggest and the best, after having to re-evaluate our opinion of the size of the American team- both in numbers and in height] and trying to figure out where each flag came from. We didn't exactly know every country, nor did we know where they all came from either, but we figured all of them out based on the flag and the costumes they wore.

My mother, after all these years of travelling, still didn't know how to figure out if a country was from the Bahamas or Africa just based on the flag and the costumes alone. Her education has been wasted.

And according to a lot of my South African friends, plenty of people were thinking about me during the Olympic ceremony.
I had only one thought when I was told this: WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT???
In St. Stithians Girls' College, I was the only Chinese girl in my grade. There were more chinese girls in the grades below. But the Boys' College had even more chinese in one grade than the girls college had put together in the whole school.
So really, why am I the one who's being thought of during the Olympic Opening Ceremony??
I know I have [or, well, HAD] a Chinese counterpart in my grade back at Saints, and my counterpart is also an actual Chinese from China. Unlike me, since I am from Malaysia. It made no sense whatsoever. He is more Chinese than I am, he's in Jo'burg at Saints where he can remind them of his presence daily, and I am the one who gets thought of? A friend from the boys college even sent me a message congratulating me on the performance in China. I was incredibly shocked.
I suppose it was a stereotype thing. I'm not concentrating on it too much and I really can't do much except to shake my head in wonder.

Although I can't help but wonder if I perhaps left my mark on Saints a little too clearly.

Mishy <3

Azn Pride?

Walking around the hallways of Morley Senior High School, or indeed, any school in a first world country, one tends be be ambushed by hoards of Chinese[race and nationality]/Vietnamese/Japanese/Koreans hanging around with each other.
It's noticable, it's big, it's in your face, and it's come to be classed as 'azn pride'. And no doubt, it is definitely a force to be reckoned with. Getting on the wrong side of one member of this group, means that you're potentially in trouble with the rest.
Azn pride is apparently now so exclusive, that you must have yellow skin [a la Simpsons], and have two asian parents to be classified as ASIAN. Watching any and all 'asian' movies is a must and 'asian' music must be at the top of your ipod list- Anime and Manga are king. Everything else is simply a sub-standard, and may be made fun of.

This kills me.

When has Asia only been about China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam?
What happened to the rest of Asia?
What happened to Turkey?
Or the UAE?
Or India?
Or Mongolia?
Since when has Asia been that blob on the map that we now know today as China? The last time I checked, Asia was the biggest continent on the planet, consisting of countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, China, Korea, Japan, Turkey, Afghanistan, the UAE, India and several others. Surely now, azn pride cannot simply be restricted to that big blob called China.

And since when has azn pride been about exclusively watching, listening, eating and breathing everything from China/Vietnam/Japan/Korea, but crticising the rest?
A girl in my Human Biology class has been making fun of Africans non-stop for about a week, maybe more now. I would love to shut her up. What gives her the right to make fun of Africans? What gives her the right to think that Africans are sub-standard? To the best of my knowledge, Africans are a potential force to be reckoned with. They've been colonised, forced to abandon their culture, and are now facing all sorts of economic, religious and cultural hardship and many countries receive no help simply because they have no resources. But they're catching up, and they're doing it fast- Before we know it, Africa will definitely be a force to be reckoned with.

My version azn pride means accepting cultures from all over the world, and being a part of the world, whilst maintaining by pride as a person living in Asia. It means showing my culture to others, and allowing them to experience the ways of just ONE of the many cultures that Asia has to offer. Asia is so diverse, so amazing, that it seems a sin to just hoodwink the whole world into believing that Asia is China and nothing more.

I'm, perhaps one of the very few who aren't part of these big asian gangs. I remain on good terms with a few of them, but remain at the sidelines, and away from their azn pride. And maybe it's for the best. So God save me, I would rather be seen as an outsider to the 'Azn people', than close my views on azn pride.

Mishy <3