Don't Judge a Passport by its Cover
While always mindful of the doors it has opened, I have never defined my identity by the passport I carry. And I’m definitely not going to start now.
Yes, I’ve lived in Asia for 17 years. Yes, my passport has recently changed colour. But the blood that runs through my veins is, and always will be, European.
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Mosaic of China Season 02 Begins
I spend most of my time either a) scuttling between coffee shops and a tiny recording studio 🦀 or b) holed up at home, editing audio in my loungewear. 🦨
So it was lovely to bring together 100 people to celebrate the upcoming launch of the new season of the Mosaic of China podcast. A huge thanks to everyone who came, you have made this project come to life. 🥂🥰
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The New Normal in Shanghai
I’m conscious that for some people, I’m the only person they know on the ground in China. It’s been a while since I posted anything about the pandemic situation here. So here’s a quick update from today, October 21st 2020.
At this point we have avoided a large-scale second wave. But there are still localised sporadic outbreaks, after which that particular area goes back into a mini-lockdown. Testing, contact-tracing, the works. Right now there’s one in the city of Qingdao, a city on the Northeastern seaboard. During this period, anyone traveling back from a newly infected area goes into quarantine again. But all the while, the entire rest of the country continues as normal. And after a couple of weeks, the city comes out of lockdown and rejoins the rest of the country.
“Normal” feels pretty normal at this point in Shanghai. Many people still wear masks, but mainly as a courtesy. They’re only mandatory on public transport, at airports, and in other places where people might congregate in larger numbers. I never leave the house without at least having one in my pocket. It’s the same story with the health tracker on our phones, we’re always ready to show the code when asked, but these instances are getting rarer. Some buildings still take your temperature before allowing you to enter, but again it isn’t mandatory across the board. Most places are back to 100% occupancy.
Like everywhere else, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. But this is a quick snapshot of life in Shanghai right now.
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Cassiopeia
🎵💥Cassiopeia by Sara Bareilles
🎧 Listen #1: That’s a kooky little song. Catchy chorus.
🎧 Listen #2: Oh there’s that weird song again. I don’t think much of the ending. But that chorus still gets me. What the hell, I’ll buy it.
🎧 Listen #10: OK I‘ve worked out why I like this chorus. The choices she has made with the harmony are sublime. Good stuff.
🎧 Listen #11: Maybe I should stop listening to the second chorus on repeat. I’ll play it all the way through.
🎧 Listen #12: Wait, what the hell are these lyrics anyway?
🎧 Listen #15: This is actually quite clever. A lonely star dreaming of love. And there’s some nice little wordplay on constellations and supernovas and whatnot. Cute.
🎧 Listen #20: Hold on, those lyrics aren’t just cheap puns about space. “She dreamed of a way to ignite”; “Lightyears alway from the hope of being sun-kissed”; “She burns with desperation”; “They both smiled: what a day to explode”; “Break me to pieces”; “Let’s see what a fire feels like”. MY HEART ACHES.
🎧 Listen #25: I’ve just noticed the extra percussion ‘collisions’ in the chorus. How the hell did I miss those until now?!
🎧 Listen #26: Oh, the drums are heartbeats. I’ve been a fool.
🎧 Listen #30: “A supernova grew up to be stardust”. Holy shit, I finally get the ending. This song is so perfect, I’m gonna puke.
🎧 Listen #Gajilion: How can someone create an entire world out of a 4-minute song? I need to write a public love-letter to Sara Bareilles, and herald her genius and humanity to the galaxy.
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Almost a Perfect Match
This is my new Facebook avatar.
Rather than include realistic wrinkles, I just need enough Botox now to make it match...
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40,000 Downloads
In the big scheme of things, 40,000 downloads is very modest. But I’m deeply grateful for each and every one of them.
Thank you to everyone here for all your support of the Mosaic of China podcast. I’m looking forward to Round 2!
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Fishscale Clouds
A beautiful morning sky. But according to the phrase《鱼鳞云，雨淋淋》these ‘fishscale’ clouds mean... a typhoon is on its way.
I have also found out that this is called ‘mackerel sky’ and ‘buttermilk sky’. In France it’s ‘ciel moutonné’ (fleecy sky); in Spain ‘cielo empedrado’ (cobbled sky); in Germany ‘Schäfchenwolken’ (sheep clouds), and in Italy ‘pecorelle’ (like little sheep).
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Reviewing The AFI Top 100 Movies
Over the past two years, we have watched every single one of the top 100 Hollywood movies of all time, as compiled by the American Film Institute in 2007. The full list is below.
Shamefully, out of these hundred pre-2007 American films, I hadn’t seen a whopping 67 of them before this exercise. I loved the classics; I tolerated the musicals; I slogged through the westerns and war films; and I never want to set eyes on a Marx Brother EVER AGAIN.
To save you from embarking on the same silly idea, here are two years’ worth of my insultingly reductive one-sentence reviews, which each include a mark out of ten for enjoyment & rewatchability:
CITIZEN KANE (1941) - Citizen Trump. 8/10
THE GODFATHER (1972) - Epic mafiapalooza. 9/10
CASABLANCA (1942) - Refugees, rogues and romance. 10/10
RAGING BULL (1980) - A feel-bad movie about abuse and self-destruction. 5/10
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952) - So corny, only redeemed by its great production numbers. 7/10
GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) - The life of a headstrong woman in the old South. 6/10
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962) - Four hours of camels. 7/10
SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993) - Gruesome arbitrary horror. 9/10
VERTIGO (1958) - Women acting as props in a world of creepy men. 8/10
THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) - Dark & psychedelic. With catchy songs. 8/10
CITY LIGHTS (1931) - Who knew a silent film could be so funny, and so moving? 7/10
THE SEARCHERS (1956) - Visually stunning, casually racist, semi-subversive cowboy flick. 6/10
STAR WARS (1977) - Nice small film, someone should make a franchise out of it. 8/10
PSYCHO (1960) - Tawdry and tense Hitchcock classic. 8/10
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) - Monolithic (pun intended) genius. 8/10
SUNSET BLVD. (1950) - I’m ready for my cynical Hollywood nightmare, Mr DeMille. 7/10
THE GRADUATE (1967) - The alienation, the generation gap, the love triangle. And plastics. 8/10
THE GENERAL (1927) - A wartime romp about a man and his train. 4/10
ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) - I coulda been a contender instead of a bum watching this great crime drama. 9/10
IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) - It’s true, it is. 8/10
CHINATOWN (1974) - Forget it Jake, it’s an L.A. suspense thriller with no relation to Chinatown. 7/10
SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959) - Duplicity and immorality, but... nobody’s perfect. 10/10
THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940) - The dismal dignity of the poor economic migrant. 7/10
E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982) - So magical. I’m not crying, you’re crying. 9/10
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962) - Atticus Finch for President. 9/10
MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939) - Corruption, fake news, and senators without a backbone. Brutally timeless. 9/10
HIGH NOON (1952) - 24 meets Blazing Saddles. 7/10
ALL ABOUT EVE (1950) - A masterclass in acting the hell out of brilliantly written dialogue. 10/10
DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) - Femme fatale film noir crime classic. 7/10
APOCALYPSE NOW (1979) - Impressive boat trip of madness. 7/10
THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) - Second-rate suspense in suits. 3/10
THE GODFATHER PART II (1974) - Less engaging version of The Godfather Part I. 6/10
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975) - Violent and disturbing portrayal of control vs. chaos. 8/10
SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937) - A bossy girl manipulates labourers and animals to do her bidding. 6/10
ANNIE HALL (1977) - Well la-di-da, it’s a pair of neurotic New Yorkers. 7/10
THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957) - Gentlemanly madness in the blazing sun. 5/10
THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946) - The best film about the complexity of human emotion that no-one’s ever heard of. 8/10
THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948) - A lucky escape from someone who slowly goes mad with power and greed. Relatable. 7/10
DR. STRANGELOVE (1964) - Conspiracy theorists with their finger on the nuclear button. Also relatable. 7/10
THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965) - A lovely romance, with superfluous Nazis. 8/10
KING KONG (1933) - Booming, screaming, and roaring. Oh and a story about Man’s disrespect of nature. 5/10
BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967) - Sexy, violent, and ultimately as impotent as Clyde himself. 4/10
MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969) - Like Taxi Driver (#52 on this list). But with a man-baby and dream sequences. 7/10
THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940) - Classic comedy about feminism and class. 8/10
SHANE (1953) - Yet another western, this time through the gaze of an irritating child. 6/10
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934) - Bus-riding, carrot-eating, wedding-jilting sexy silliness. 7/10
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951) - Sexiness, Stress, Stanley and STELLA! 6/10
REAR WINDOW (1954) - Snooping and suspense. With a dead dog thrown in. 7/10
INTOLERANCE (1916) - Gigantic audacious unwieldy storytelling from a century ago. 6/10
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2001) - You. Shall not. Pass (judgement on this great adventure trilogy). 8/10
WEST SIDE STORY (1961) - It’s alarming how charming this is. Despite the shonky acting and weird makeup. 6/10
TAXI DRIVER (1976) - Misogynistic leering violent sleazefest. 6/10
THE DEER HUNTER (1978) - Does the world really need a gratuitous 3-hour movie about Russian roulette in Vietnam? 4/10
M*A*S*H (1970) - More like M*I*S*H*M*A*S*H. 3/10
NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) - Confusion, criminality and crop-dusters. 8/10
JAWS (1975) - The terror and stupidity of opening up beaches despite obvious dangers. Soooo relatable. 7/10
ROCKY (1976) - We’re all just bums from the neighbourhood trying our best. 6/10
THE GOLD RUSH (1925) - Alaskan starvation tomfoolery. 5/10
NASHVILLE (1975) - Seventies celebrity, exposed through intersectional storytelling. 4/10
DUCK SOUP (1933) - Bizarre irreverent farce. Bizarrevarce. 3/10
SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS (1941) - A great bus chase, a great joke about Pittsburg, but otherwise... meh. 5/10
AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973) - Like Happy Days with a great 60s soundtrack. And nothing else. 3/10
CABARET (1972) - Skewed performative mirror of Weimar Berlin. 5/10
NETWORK (1976) - I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take the degradation of news journalism any more. 7/10
THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951) - It’s a jungle adventure romance with a terrible score, Mr Allnut. 6/10
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) - Poison darts, bad dates, melty faces and, best of all, red lines superimposed on maps. 8/10
WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (1966) - Dysfunctional couples drink a boatload of brandy and argue in different theatrical configurations. 6/10
UNFORGIVEN (1992) - Where the antihero kills all the other antiheroes. 5/10
TOOTSIE (1982) - Semi-woke, semi-sexist Hoffman drag race. 7/10
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971) - Crime and justice and other strangely compelling nastiness. 7/10
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998) - Gruesome, gory and grim. 7/10
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994) - A great story, a great Morgan Freeman voiceover, but actually not much else. 7/10
BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969) - A couple of charming robbers run away to Bolivia. 6/10
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991) - The classiest horror. Never mislay your pen! 8/10
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967) - Murder mystery with undercurrents (and just currents) of racism. 7/10
FORREST GUMP (1994) - CGI and schmalz. 6/10
ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976) - Procedural docudrama. More docu than drama. 7/10
MODERN TIMES (1936) - Chaplin with a conscience. 6/10
THE WILD BUNCH (1969) - Trains and bridges and guns, bang bang. 4/10
THE APARTMENT (1960) - True love and male privilege. 8/10
SPARTACUS (1960) - Pervy biblical epic 6/10
SUNRISE (1927) - Murderous husband has a shave and chases a piglet. 4/10
TITANIC (1997) - Superb storytelling, awful dialogue. 7/10
EASY RIDER (1969) - Cult counter-culture classic... that also happens to be crap. 4/10
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1935) - Anarchic grating singing nonsense. 2/10
PLATOON (1986) - Relentlessly miserable portrayal of war. 6/10
12 ANGRY MEN (1957) - A brilliant lesson in how to negotiate with blowhards and bigots. 8/10
BRINGING UP BABY (1938) - You know, the usual madcap leopard/brontosaurus story. 7/10
THE SIXTH SENSE (1999) - Still amazing, even when you know the twist. Every day. 10/10
SWING TIME (1936) - Goofy & adorable. Except for the blackface. 6/10
SOPHIE'S CHOICE (1982) - A totally authentic portrayal of what happens when broken people find each other. 8/10
GOODFELLAS (1990) - Sheer menace. 8/10
THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) - One great car chase, bookended by utter shite. 3/10
PULP FICTION (1994) - Hyper-stylized expletive-laden crime caper. 8/10
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971) - Small-town 50s Texas in all its sexy tragic monotony. 7/10
DO THE RIGHT THING (1989) - Simmering racial tension gets turned up to boiling. 9/10
BLADE RUNNER (1982) - A dystopia where you’re never sure who is capable of human emotions. DysTrumpia. 6/10
YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942) - Cloying patriotism with moments of heart. 5/10
TOY STORY (1995) - A harrowing tale of envy, delusion and mob rule. 9/10
BEN-HUR (1959) - Loooong. And gaaaay. 6/10
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The Yin and Yang of Shangri-La
“Shangri-La” is two things.
One is a mythical Himalayan utopia invented by a British author in the 1930s, designed to evoke the exoticism of the Orient.
The other is here, a real place in the Tibetan part of Yunnan province. It was formerly called Zhōngdiàn (中甸) and its name was changed to Shangri-La in 2014 to promote tourism.
I’m not sure why this was needed, seeing as it is home to Sungtseling: a Buddhist monastery built in 1679, and a cousin to the Potala Palace in Lhasa.
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Ambivalence in Yunnan
Good news: There are relatively few cases of COVID-19 in China. 😃
Bad news: the borders are still closed for returning foreigners, so we‘re basically trapped here. ☹️
Good news: China is a big place, so we were able to take a 4-hour flight from Shanghai and still remain within the country. 😃
Bad news: the weather forecast for the next week here in Yunnan Province is solid rain. ☹️
Good news: at least it was dry enough to take this photo in Dali old town. 😃☹️😃☹️🤯
The Job of an Independent Podcaster
So what actually is the job of an independent podcaster?
It’s now halfway through 2020 and I’m approaching the 1-year anniversary of the Mosaic of China podcast. So I thought I would have a go at writing my own job description.
1) Technical Production
Audio Equipment Set-Up
Web Hosting & Content Aggregators Set-Up
2) Artistic Production
Format & Content Design
Brand & Art Design
Sound & Music Design
Web & Social Media Design
3) Content Production
Series Content Production
Guest Outreach, Research & Coordination
Studio & Interview Production
Editing & Post-Production
4) Audience Outreach & Marketing
Copy Writing & Image Sourcing
Web & Social Media Community Management
Marketing & Audience Building
Most people think that recording interviews is the main part of my job, so it might be a surprise to see it tucked away in part 3c) of the list above. In fact, most of my time these days is spent in guest coordination, sound editing, and audience outreach.
I hope this helps to demystify the effort it takes to get a project of this kind up and running. My question for anyone else in the podcasting arena is, does this correlate with your experiences? What have I missed out?!
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Brand New Steps
If you’re coming out of (or making plans to come out of) self-quarantine, here’s some quick advice from two months in the future.
Going back to your old routines is GREAT, no doubt about it. But now is also the best time to create some new ones. For better or worse (mostly worse) you’ve been forced to step out of your normal daily life for a couple of months. When else will you be given this chance to reinvent yourself?*
I suffer occasionally from light depression, and it gets way worse when I’m not active. So quarantine wasn’t easy, and I’ve been in a bit of a funk ever since. But what’s really helped is setting a new goal of walking AT LEAST 10,000 steps per day. Going from three months of limited activity in February up to a daily average of 14,156 steps in June has been a lifesaver, and I hope I can build this into my daily routine going forward.
*And yes, the snarky answer to this question is: “during the second wave”. Beijing is going back into temporary lock-down as we speak. But as of now, we’re still hopeful that the same won’t happen here in Shanghai...
A Plethora of Platforms
I recently did an audit, and have discovered the Mosaic of China podcast listed on 53 different podcasting platforms. FIFTY THREE! This *does* include two platforms in China (喜马拉雅 and 微博) but it *doesn't* include those Android apps that I can't access from my Apple phone. So I'm assuming the total number would be even higher.
My questions to both podcasting fans and professionals are:
What did I miss in my audit? I believe I've curated the most comprehensive list, but tell me if I'm wrong. New podcasting platforms seem to be popping up on the daily.
Does anyone have a sense of when we can expect some consolidation in this space? Or is this confusing podcasting multiverse forever here to stay?
The Sage Kings of Karaoke
There’s a reason why karaoke is so popular in China and other East Asian societies with a Confucian heritage: it’s an important catalyst for group social harmony.
The Sage Kings of ancient China used the rites of music to help bond their subjects together. It’s no coincidence that the Chinese Communist Party emphasised the use of patriotic songs to instill doctrinal fervour. And today, many Chinese corporations still use company songs, alongside collective exercise routines, to inspire loyalty.
Today's compilation episode from Season 1 of Mosaic of China is all about the podcast guests’ favourite songs to sing at “KTV”, the Chinese version of karaoke. Out of all the questions asked to guests on the show, this one elicited the biggest array of emotions: from joy and pride, to embarrassment and… sheer terror.
It’s a shame that group social harmony doesn’t always guarantee group *vocal* harmony. But since no-one really cares about that… what would be *your* go-to song to sing at karaoke?
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A Symbol of Hope
On January 20th, I instagrammed a photo from the Shanghai Disney Resort. By January 24th, the park was closed, and it would remain so for over 100 days.
Today, it is the first Disneyland resort in the world to reopen, with reduced capacity and a slew of extra density control, screening and sanitation measures.
If ever the world needed an image that symbolises the hope of a scrupulously planned road to recovery, then the time is now and this is it.
The first episode of the Mosaic of China podcast was with Philippe Gas, who was the President and General Manager of the Shanghai Disney Resort. Despite my newbie technical errors, it’s still one of my favourite interviews of the season. Let’s hope Philippe’s philosophy of positivity and international cooperation will be another message of encouragement for the future.
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