Saturday, October 4, 2008

Reflector (band)

Reflector is a punk rock band that formed in Beijing in 1997. According to the band's official English language website, Reflector has been featured on CNN and in Newsweek magazine. Reflector lists among its English language musical influences the bands Green Day, NOFX and Lagwagon. In 2000 their song "Scream Club" was featured in the movie ''Warm Summer Day''.

In 2001 Reflector became one of the first punk bands from China to tour the United States; the band performed in seven West Coast cities, including a gig in Sacramento opening for Anti-Flag.

The band performed at Cui Jian's 2003 Live Vocals festival, and in the .

Personnel


*Tian Jianhua aka "Tj" - Bass/Vocals
*Li Peng - Guitar/Vocals
*Ye Jingying - Drums/Background Vocals

Discography


*1999 - Wuliao Contingent compilation, 8 songs
*2002 - ep on People's Records

Modern Sky Festival

The Modern Sky Festival is an outdoor rock music festival in Beijing, China, organized by the Modern Sky record label.

The first festival was held October 2-4, 2007 at Haidian Park. It featured four stages of music and over 120 bands, including the headliners, the American band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Chinese bands included New Pants, Rebuilding The Rights Of Statues, P.K. 14, Queen Sea Big Shark, Joyside---who appear in the film Wasted Orient , Carsick Cars, and Snapline.

Midi Modern Music Festival

Midi Modern Music Festival is China's largest rock music festival. Since its inauguration in 1997 it has been held each year in Beijing during the May holiday , with some breaks due to government problems in 2003 and 2004 .

The festival is hosted by the Beijing Midi School of Music, Beijing's first and only rock music school.

The 2006 festival, held in Beijing's Haidian Park, hosted 40-80 thousand visitors, and featured performances by more than 50 bands performing on four stages . The artists represented the genres of rock, , and DJ. The 2007 festival included UK acts the Crimea, Kava Kava , of the Eurythmics, and Soundtrack Of Our Lives.

The 2008 festival was delayed to october for reasons related to the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Lao zihao

L?o zìhào refers to a trade name for extant Chinese shops of historical prominence. While not indicated by the name, Lao zihao is usually used for those shops originating in the Beijing area after the capital was relocated in the Ming Dynasty. Those shops with origins from other regions of China are classified as 中华老字号 . Many of the shops have a history of well over 400 years, and in modern times have begun to expand via mass commercialization of their staple products.

Notable Beijing Zihao's


全聚德 -- Beijing Roast Duck restaurant

东来顺 -- hotpot restaurant

都一处 -- restaurant famous for its ''shaomai''

便宜坊 -- another competing roast duck restaurant

狗不理 -- baozi restaurant

馄饨侯 -- wonton restaurant

六必居 -- sells various preserved vegetables and sauces

荣宝斋 -- sells various works of art

同仁堂 -- supplier of medicinal herbs used in Traditional Chinese Medicine

张一元 -- teahouse

Johnny Judge Gallery

Johnny Judge Gallery is a contemporary art gallery which was founded in 2006. It specializes in young artists from Beijing, China. In July 2006, the gallery owners presented selected artists for the first time in the L.A. Gallery Beijing. In August 2006, they opened the acclaimed festival “Made in China: Young Art and Fresh Film from Beijing” in Berlin, Germany.

Background


In 2004 the gallery founders decided to do an exhibition of contemporary Chinese art. Their main goal was to expose the new generation of Beijing artists and what they were doing.
Drawing on contacts with gallery owners from the 798 Art District and the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, they were able to select a group of young artists from various fields and backgrounds. Over the course of the project the core group was extended to more than ten artists. Moreover, a film festival was attached to the exhibition.

Exhibitions


In the summer of 2006, the selection of Beijing newcomers was presented on two occasions. In July, a preview exhibition took place in the L.A. Gallery Beijing. The opening show featured Beijing underground rock band “Hang on the Box.”
In August, the festival “Made in China: Young Art and Fresh Film from Beijing” opened in Berlin. The integration of private and public space was appraised by art critics, but triggered a public scandal when Berlin’s major tabloid paper B.Z. accused the works of art by artists “TA MEN” as being too graphically violent and sexually explicit.
Currently, Johnny Judge Gallery is organizing an art event in New York City.

China Nationalities Museum

The China Nationalities Museum is a museum in Beijing, China, located just to the west of the Olympic Green. It features displays of the daily life and architecture of China's .

As stated on its website, the museum's goals are as follows:

*To demonstrate ethical [] architecture
*To preserve ethical [sic] relics
*To spread ethical [sic] knowledge
*To study ethical [sic] heritage
*To enhance ethical [sic] culture
*To promote unity of all Chinese nationalities

Construction began in October 1992. The North Section was opened to the public on June 18, 1994, and the South Section was opened in September 2001. Construction has continued through 2008 and will continue following the 2008 Summer Olympics. The museum covers approximately 50 hectares and so far comprises 44 ethnic villages and 200 ethnic buildings. There are 800 staff members comprising various Chinese ethnic groups. All buildings are constructed to a ratio of 1:1.

At the museum, several ethnic groups grow traditional crops such as paddy rice or buckwheat, and each day Tibetan lamas from the Tar Monastery of Qinghai chant Buddhist sutras.

The museum has also collected approximately 100,000 cultural relics, and exhibits items representing the daily life of China's ethnic groups.

The museum's curator is Wang Ping.

Ethnic activities


Festivals and cultural activities featured by the China Nationalities Museum include the following:

*Tibetan Shoton Festival
*Tibetan New Year
*The New-rice Festival of the Va
*The Sowing Festival of the Va
*The Sanduo Festival of the
*The Munao Singing Festival of the Jingpo
*The of the Dai
*The Third of March Festival of the Bai
*The Huaer Fair of the Tu
*The Nandun Festival of the Tu
*The Sheba Festival of Tujia
*The Chahua Festival of the Yi
*The Knife-shaft Festival of Miao
*The Festival of the Miao
*The Horse Milk Festival
*The Pepper Festival of the Salar
*Raoshanlin Singing Festival of the Bai
*The Fashion Show of the Yi

Beijing dialect

Beijing dialect is the dialect of Mandarin spoken in the urban area of Beijing, China. The Beijing dialect is the basis of Standard Mandarin, the standard official Chinese spoken language that is used by the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China on Taiwan, and Singapore.

Although the Beijing dialect and Standard Mandarin are extremely similar, there are some differences that make it easy for Chinese people to tell between a native of Beijing speaking homegrown Beijing dialect, and a non-native of Beijing speaking Standard Mandarin.

Distribution


The term "Beijing dialect" usually refers to the dialect spoken in the urban area of Beijing only. However, linguists have given a broader definition for Beijing Mandarin that also includes some dialects extremely akin to that of Beijing.

For example, the local speech of Chengde, a city north of Beijing, is considered sufficiently close to Beijing dialect to be put into this category. Standard Mandarin is also put into this category, since it is based on the local dialect of Beijing. Other examples include the local speech of , Inner Mongolia; Karamay, Xinjiang; and Shenzhen, Guangdong. Many of these cities are populated by recent Han Chinese immigrants from diverse linguistic backgrounds or their descendants. As a result, the residents of these cities have adopted standard Mandarin as the de facto common language.

Phonology




In phonology, Beijing dialect and Standard Mandarin are almost identical. See Standard Mandarin for its phonology charts; the same charts apply to Beijing dialect.

However, there are some striking differences. Most prominently is the proliferation of rhotic vowels. All rhotic vowels are the result of - , a noun , except for a few words pronounced as that do not have this suffix. In Standard Mandarin, these also occur, but nowhere near the ubiquity and frequency in which they appear in Beijing dialect. This phenomenon is known as .

Moreover, Beijing dialect has a few phonetic reductions that are usually considered too "slangy" for use in Standard Mandarin. For example, in fast speech, initial consonants go through lenition if they are in an syllable: pinyin become r , so "don't know" can sound like ; j q x become y /j/, so "go quickly" can sound like ; pinyin b d g /p t k/ go through to become ; similar changes also occur on other consonants. Also, final /-n/ and can fail to close entirely, so that a nasal vowel is pronounced instead of a nasal consonant; for example, ends up sounding like "" , instead of "" in Standard Mandarin:

The tones of Beijing dialect tend to be more exaggerated than Standard Mandarin. In standard Mandarin, the four tones are high flat, high rising, low dipping, and falling; in Beijing dialect, the first two tones are made higher, the third one dips more prominently, and the fourth one falls more.

Vocabulary


Beijing dialect has a lot of words that are considered slangy, and therefore occur much less or not at all in Standard Mandarin. Non-Beijing natives often have trouble understanding what most of these mean. Many of these slangwords have the rhotic -r. Examples include:

* — very, especially
* — do not; usually followed by if used as an imperative
* — to be angry
* — to leave; to run away
* — a person with limited abilities, klutz
* — interjection indicating surprise or doubt
* — to an extreme extent; used of tastes
* — stingy, spendthrift
* — excuse me; heard often on Beijing buses
* — to stroll about; equivalent to standard Mandarin or
* — to let go on feet, to go, leave.
* / — no backbone, spiritless
* — to finally and thankfully become quiet and calm
* — way ; equivalent to standard Mandarin
* — ruined

Note that some of the slang are considered to be , or "base language", that are carryovers from an older generation and are no longer used amongst more educated individuals, for example:

* — since a young age
* — to be disoriented

Others, still, can be construed as expressions that are used amongst "trendier" crowds:

* — cool *in relation to a matter*; compare with *describes a person*
* — to toss into the hoop; used of basketball
* — special female friend *negative connotation*

Grammar



As with phonology and vocabulary, the grammar of the colloquial Beijing dialect utilizes more colloquial expressions than does Standard Mandarin. In general, Standard Mandarin is influenced by Classical Chinese, which makes it more condensed and concise; Beijing dialect is not influenced in this way, and can therefore seem more longwinded — though this is made up by the fact that Beijing dialect is spoken faster and has phonetic reductions .

An example:

*Standard Mandarin:
**
**
*Beijing dialect:
**
**
*After having gone through Beijing dialect's phonetic reductions:
**
*''It is going to rain today, so remember to bring an umbrella when you go out.''

The Beijing dialect sentence would sound too long-winded if used in a context that requires Standard Mandarin , though it sounds fine if used among Beijing locals . The Standard Mandarin pronunciation sounds fine if it is used in a context that requires it , but it is too stilted and short to be able to accommodate all the phonetic reductions of Beijing pronunciation and may be rendered incomprehensible as a result.