china videos

[prince]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4LIThTB8Ww&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fforum%2Esmartchina%2Ecom%2Fthread%2F15364%2Fpage%3D1%2Fchina

[Long Pan]

This is incredible; absolutely crazy; I love it ! Thanks for sharing it

[Rincewind]

I used that video for one of my classes a couple of months back. The students really liked it. I now keep it on my MP3 player all the time incase I have to entertain a class at short notice.

[Long Pan]

This video makes me think about this Chinese article which has been quite popular here during the last few weeks, pointing the technology gap between China and Germany or Japan, especially in the robot field. This is a extract

前几年上大学时我们学校的大厅里看新闻，个个系的都有，当电视播放日本大学生制造了一个机器人拿到德国与德国大学生的机器人比试时，我们机械系的学生都傻了眼，那个机器人就是现在大家知道的可以双脚保持平衡自我行走的那种，不过没有外壳，学这行的我们一眼就看出它身上布满的控制器、马达、线路，镜头一闪而过，更多的是机器人不靠任何帮助自行双手翻跟头，90度鞠躬，双脚蹦跳前进，别的系的同学和老师都露出笑容“真好玩，太可爱了”，而我们系人除了惊讶，还有发自内心的．．．害怕！真正的害怕，这个差距太大了，这就是制造业，自动控制，材料学，的成就。

So now we know the reason of this gap; the real genius are still outside playing in the fields. Maybe Qinghua should go and hire him

[prince]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR6K-yUbWz0

[Nathan]

What an amazing voice that girl has... damn I gotta find a girl that can sing like that.

[Long Pan]

Isn't it miming ?

[md1101]

for the robots: i can't believe his wife puts up with him! he sure is an interesting guy. love that last robot.

as for the lady singing in that competition, i think it is her singing longpan its just that the voice and video are out of sync

[prince]

[Nathan]

Hey Prince, keep these youtube finds coming. Good vids.

[prince]

[liuzhou]

Lots of Chinese minority music videos here.

[shanghaikai]

Haha, I have to say, that interpreter girl for the robot video was pretty cute!

The scene with them talking to the wife and the robot walking past in the background was pretty classic too.

Regardless of the obvious gap, I think the video is very much a human interest story, demonstrating that creativity can be found anywhere. It is, as they hint, a real tragedy that someone without any formal education can see a pile of rubbish and figure out how to create something relatively sophisticated out of it. It's too bad such talent coupled with such an environment couldn't go further.

As for Jin, I was actually there to see that. Since I don't keep up to date on that scene, I wonder if Jin has parlayed his initial internet popularity into something more substantial than a few gigs @ Bon Bon in Shanghai.

[prince]

jin has about 200 songs out. + countless freestyles and battles 2 of them $50,000 grand prize.

therefore the name: 100 Grand Jin

ya boy/jin callabo: down so long (around 2004)

"can you blame my confidence, in 4yrs i rock about 36 states and 5 continence"

now is 2007...so yeah.

but still theres a lot of obstacles in his way though

[shanghaikai]

As I said, I don't follow that scene so I can't say I'm aware of where he is in the hierarchy but my sneaking suspicion is that his popularity is still largely relegated to the Asians hip hop crowd.

And I hope you meant "continents" instead of "continence." Something of a big difference there

[prince]

yeah... racism has a lot to do with it... not playing his songs on radio... main stream media etc...

[shanghaikai]

I'm going to take the cautious path of admitting that I don't know enough about his foray into the mainstream to judge whether or not racism is behind something like "not playing his songs on the radio." Radio stations, like television station, play to demand. If there's no significant demand for an Asian rapper, they're unlikely to put him on because at the end of the day, the bottom line is what matters in business.

That said, societal norms have a huge role in this. The mass media certainly has yet to accept Asian males as being masculine. Blacks/African-Americans have fairly good strangle-hold on this media image and there is no one way to solve, change, or influence this widespread pop-culture notion. Aside from Asian-Americans or more international Asians, Jin is widely regarded perhaps as a talented lyricist and simply a cute "oddity." No matter what his fashion style, or how he poses, he's still the Chinaman who has done a great job of emulating what is regarded as "black culture." He is, therefore, not "authentic." Those white-rappers who have "made-it" struggle with proving their "this-is-why-I-am-angry-and-rap" image to gain acceptance. Black culture, arguably, has adopted the underpinnings of this art-form, this music genre, as a product of themselves and their socio-economic "situation." Anyone outside of these stereotypes, no matter how talented, are going to face a high and stiff bar to overcome.

Korean rappers don't get much attention outside of Korea either. That's just the way it is. For Jin, I hope he makes it, and I encourage him to pursue it if it is his ambition. Unfortunately, the world is not always our oyster.

[gato]

Radio stations, like television station, play to demand. If there's no significant demand for an Asian rapper, they're unlikely to put him on because at the end of the day, the bottom line is what matters in business.

There are also few non-Asian pop stars who have a mass fan base in Asia. It's difficult to cross cultures anywhere.

[shanghaikai]

True..to an extent. I certainly hear more English songs on Chinese radio than I'll ever hear Chinese songs on English radio. This just shows the cultural dominance of Western society. To go further, the cultural dominance of American society.

[muyongshi]

To go further, the cultural dominance of American society.

That depends....As a general rule in the music world a good majority of our music is created in England. It is a generally accepted rule that England is the proving ground (about 5 years ahead of the US in terms of music) and the US is the "money maker". If you make it in England you then come to the US and get rich is the general idea. Now this doesn't apply to the said category of "rap" but a good amount is not originating in the US. Just a thought.