January 23, 2004

• Roar of a Thousand Monkey's

  
  

  Happy New Year!!!  I think this is the first full Chinese New Year that I've spent in Shanghai.  Since I've come out here, I've spent CNY in Hong Kong with my relatives.  It is probably the most festive season in China.  The buildings are all adorned with red lanterns and banners.  The streets are a bit emptier because many of the non-residents of Shanghai go back to their home towns to spend the holidays with their families.  And the night sky is filled with the sounds of sights of firecrackers.  It's kinda sad in a sense however, because many of the younger generation are starting to dismiss some of the cultural aspects of the holiday that my parents brought with them to Canada.  Many decide to go away for CNY, opting not to spend it with their family.  Others barely take a second glance at the beautiful lanterns and lights carefully strewn along buildings and walkways.  Others yet walk past the dragon dances put on for the audiences that I am always amazed at.  I often think that we overseas Chinese are sometimes more culturally Chinese than the Chinese themselves.  Some of the locals I know wonder whether I celebrate CNY back home.  They are surprised when I tell them, "Yes.  Every fucking year.  It's one of the best times ever."  It's supposed to be good luck to set firecrackers off.  My friends Tony, Jude, Vinny, Tito, Sam and Carol hung out and had CNY dinner and set some firecrackers off together to ring in the new year of the monkey.

  
  

  I've been meaning to write earlier, to tell you my thoughts on awards shows in China.  A couple weeks back, I got an invite to the Channel V music awards.  It's kinda similar to the MTV music awards in the US.  Maybe the industry is not as advanced here, but I'm telling you, it was so crappy.  I wanted to leave after the first ten minutes.  Mind you, many record labels are hesitant to spend money in China because of rampant piracy (I love cheap CDs!).  I also think China is weary about the influence some of the pop icons have on the locals here.  The most popular singers are not from China, but are from Taiwan and HK.  "A Mei", an extremely popular Taiwanese singer was once banned from China because she sang the Taiwanese national anthem.  As China becomes even more embracing, I wonder how they are going to keep everything under control...

  
  

  
  

  
  The set of the Chinese Music Awards
  

  So aside from shitty production, there weren't too many stars there.  In the States, you got everyone at the MTV awards.  If someone were to drop a bomb at the awards show, the entire entertainment industry would be messed up.  My seats were kinda crappy, but if you look in the pic from above, the little round lit area was where all the VVIPs sat.  In that area was Faye Wong, A Mei, Ronan Keating (yes a white guy) and one of my all time favourites...

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Here's a close up...

  
  

  That's right.  Hsu Chi was in the same room that I was.  Okay, so the room could fit 50,000 people, and she was about the size of an ant.  But I heard her voice, and I could swear she looked at me a couple times as she presented her award.

  
  

  Aside from that little highlight, the show was extremely disappointing.  It was 3.5 hours long.  The award categories were split so that mainland stars would be in one category and HK/Taiwan stars were in their own (so the mainlanders wouldn't have to compete with the megas).  Hardly anyone cheered when the locals were nominated, I suspect that nobody knew who they were!  I guess it's kinda like the Juno awards, or whatever that Canadian Music Award Show is.  There's about 5 famous Canadian Singers and all the other nominees just get no respect.  Jay Chou won a couple awards, but didn't show up.  Beyond was there, but really it was such a struggle of an event.  We decided not to go to the afterparty, but I suspect that I could have gotten Hsu Chi's number if I did.

  
  

  Happy birthday's to Nancy, Ann, Jennifer, Bonnie, Cindy, Ryuma and Wai-ke.

  • 9:37 pm
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