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The story of the UCLA undergrad, Chris Jeon, who allegedly traveled to visit the rebel faction in Libya has ran the circuit dry at this rate. There are plenty of reasons to explain and describe why his actions were stupid at this rate. For one, he voluntarily decided to stroll into a battleground with what could barely pass as a travel itinerary in the back of his head. That’s not the reason why my blood boils at the mere thought of this his actions. It’s the principle of his stupidity that weighs heavily on my judgment and it’s representative of other college students out there. NAFSA estimates that 260,327 students have studied abroad during the 2008/2009 academic year. While it’s cute that thousands of undergrads are showing a keen interest in the world, I’m skeptical of their intentions. However people may try to phrase it, they’re traveling out of their own self-interest. For example, numerous student volunteers fly to Africa, India, or another developing countries to deliver aid. Yet, they feel the need to set photographs of themselves with the native children they’re supporting. They appear more preoccupied with showing the world their experiences than the actual service at hand. This is far from altruistic and is nothing short of self-promotional at best. Joshua E. Keating of Foreign Policy Magazine doubts that Jeon did this for attention under the insistence that he didn’t want his parents to know. I disagree. I went to college and had several friends who studied abroad or traveled to foreign countries. Everyone at that age travels in part because they want a story to tell. It’s this very reason that Chris Jeon is a tourist of the worst kind. Sociologists and quasi-critical theorists would correctly label him as an “ethnic tourist.” The specific definition for that term is murky and varies from critic to critic. What it comes down to is that it’s a damnation of exploitive tourism around the world. Jeon may not be funding the diamond trade, sweatshops, human trafficking, or other seedy third-world networks, but he’s certainly getting in the way. He’s more or less like that annoying tourist who hovers around natives and takes snap shots while they’re busy trying to go about their lives. The main difference is that this is a warzone and not a Native American reservation. But hey, it’s all for the sake of self-discovery and enlightenment, right? Let’s forget for a moment that Jeon came startlingly close to breaking the law and potentially committing an act of treason. He claimed that he joined the rebels because he “thought it would be cool” and this is essentially the kind of behavior that college students engage in all the time. It’s cool hunting of the most ridiculous sort. that valorizes travel under the veneer of-self-discovery, enlightenment, and other new age hokum. This process is praiseworthy, but to any objective observer it’s nothing short of narcissistic. The important distinction is that Chris Jeon finally put a more practical use...
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Benny Chan’s Shaolin is an ambitious mixture of golden-age Hong Kong martial arts movies and new-jack epics from China. But can it please audiences of either genre? Everything in Chan’s movie is top shelf, from the full-size reproduction of the temple built and burned just for the occasion, to Andy Lau in the starring role as a ruthless general who inevitably falls and is reborn as a monk, to Jackie Chan’s extended (and awesome) cameo as a Shaolin cook. The martial arts are capably handled by Cory Yuen, who is not only an originator of action cinema’s visual vocabulary but continues to add to it from both sides of the Pacific. Meanwhile, production designer Yee Chung-Man has crafted stunning costumes for Hong Kong classics such as A Chinese Ghost Story and Comrades: Almost a Love Story as well as newer works like Curse of the Golden Flower and True Legend. Yet plenty of movies with big budgets and dream teams have flopped due to lame characters and unfocused storytelling, and this one falters in neither department. Going into production, Andy Lau admitted he wasn’t the greatest martial artist but recognized that his character had a lot of depth and humanity. The perennial good guy seems to have a lot of fun (and restraint) playing a full-blown villain, and handily accomplishes the even more difficult task of rising above yet remaining believable. But there are good movies and then there are good kung-fu movies. The drama, melodrama, and epic scale are present in bulk, but the martial arts are serviceable. While plenty of bodies are violently strewn around the screen without excess cg or wirework, the viewer will neither jump with excitement nor squirm with discomfort. It might just be me, but the period piece sets and ratcheting tension made me crave the crazed imagination and over-the-top intensity seen in melees from much lesser movies, sequels, and rip-offs that feature the word Shaolin in their titles. I wonder if that would have derailed the movie’s serious tone? As the first movie made with approval from the actual Shaolin Temple since Jet Li’s breakthrough effort of the same name, Shaolin easily succeeds in capturing its balance as a pacifistic yet powerful force for peace. The general’s story of redemption is expertly told, and possibly even inspiring to victims and outcasts of today’s vicious marketplace seeking peace of mind. However, it doesn’t quite qualify for the temple’s jaw-dropping, gravity-defying, ass-whupping onscreen legacy formed by Li, Gordon Chan, Bruce Lee, and other movie monks of the past. It probably didn’t intend to be. But as a result, while fans of world cinema will be well satisfied, action, midnight movie, and hardcore Hong Kong cinema freaks may be left impressed but slightly wanting. North American fans of epic action, Shakespearean drama, and righteous monks can finally see Shaolin on the big screen on September 9, 2011. Find your theater here and watch the international trailer here.
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Fake Tiananmen Square looks real, but where are the hawkers? A “local enterprise” (private business) in Qishan County of China’s Shaanxi province has gone one step further than securing government approval to operate. It became the government by building its headquarters to replicate Tiananmen Square. Looks like they couldn’t decide where to put the replica tanks. Hey, maybe they took the Bad Religion song to heart, but what is truly amazing is that this complex is allowed to stand. Has the copyright on the set design of the Square expired? What’s next? Maybe the official organ of the People’s Republic will call the Tiananmen Massacre a myth and having a duplicate Square is one way of wiping away history.
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During Day one of Call of Duty XP, in the huge sound stage the crowd boo’d Kanye West’s name. It was reported that 6000 people came to the event and many of them cheered for Dropkick Murphys just a moment earlier. You get the picture of the crowd demographics. People of color were plentiful, although the skin tone median was on the lighter side. Shooting guns military style and hip hop sounds like an incongruent match. The history of cinema repeats in some words or another, “there’s no place in the army for a black man”. Perhaps that changed recently, yet at “XP”, Kanye still had a well packed crowd of the mostly lighter skinned fans and they were into it. Perhaps it was paying the $150 meant stick around and watch one of the most famous musician perform, or maybe it was a way to appease a crowd who paid $150, and wouldn’t be satisfied with Dropkick Murphys. Isn’t that a $15 concert? I’d think to have Kanye and his troupe perform would be a profit breaker. 6000 x $150? = $900k. There’s plenty of merch and expensive Burger Town food.
I’m not making a point that’s good or bad about Kanye West. He’s clearly a star, but it seemed like the wrong call. The folks who were super into it… did they even pay? I doubt it, and there they were at the concert in the front. The right act? A heavy rocking band. Metallica, Linkin Park or Slayer sound about right. It should be an act that military folks and dudes who’d wear an Affliction shirt. A band that’ll appease the fans of a military shooter game of multiple ages. Alas, it was Kanye, a strange choice to end a two day event of paint ball, guns, testosterone, zip lining and Jeeps.
These folks work for the company who’s part of the costume design for the games. They’re not exactly true cosplayers.
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Chinatown NY. Once a tourist trap in NYC, now is facing tons of issues post 9/11. Not mentioned of course is the overall reaching national economic problems which appeared evident in NYC prior to LA or SF. The stats in the article sound fatal for the once vibrant area. Shops closed, traffic weaned away, tourist buses rerouted, and signs saying to stay away from Lower Manhattan. Granted, you can get the mix tapes, faux fashion items, and just regular fun goods, yet the tourists haven’t been there in the typical mass. The garment district is doomed. Out of it all, maybe an awakening of taking back the area! (NYDailyNews – Chinatown)
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