Yes, we’re excited about the Expo! And now that we are back again after being quiet for a while, Luan Dun would like to first and foremost wish everyone a prosperous year of the Tiger, Rawwrrr!

Although it’s April and the festive season is way over, China never ceases to evolve - interestingly and chaotically. This is why Luan Dun continues to dig up interesting events happening all over China that will help readers understand the society more through the eyes of locals.

Not only that, we also want to keep readers in touch with the mainstream culture that plays a big part in Chinese life.

Our feature designer of this month is Momo Wu, who is all about simplicity. She uses fluorescent light to bounce shadows off of Chinese craft paper which then creates a simple brown and white effect.

We hope you enjoy this month’s Luan Dun!

2 weeks to expo and counting!

Let’s kick off our April issue with a little tribute to the Blue Tooth Paste. What? You don’t know what BTP is? Turn to the next page to find out!

Hello! I am tHe blue tootH paste akasHangHaI expo mascot - HaI bao

海宝 [hăi băo] = Sea BaBy

At the Womens 1,500 meters short-track speed race finals, the only Chinese competitor broke the Olympic record and won the Olympic gold medal. After the race, reporters asked her, “What does it mean to be the Olympic champion?” Zhou Yang replied, “After having won the gold medal and broken the world record, many things will change, I will become more confident and will ultimately be able to help my parents live a better life.” These words touched many viewers.

However Zhou Yang was criticized by the State Sports General Administration deputy director Yu Zaiqing on the CPPCC (The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference) session. “Thanking your parents is not a problem, but thanking your country should be the priority, your must put the country first, don’t just thank your parents and leave it as that.”

Country firstfamily seCond

“Thanking your parents is not a problem, but thanking your country should be priority.”

China debates the need for a 500 rmb note

The CPPCC (The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference) might be over, but people are still debating some of the more outrageous proposals considered by the committee. And the most recent issue to put Chinese netizen’s into a typing hysteria is a proposal to increase the largest Renminbi denomination from 100 RMB to 500 RMB. Chen, Chairman of the board at Hong Kong Yu Zhen Holding Group Co Ltd, is quoted as saying, “Cash denominations are too small for the significant increasing cash transactions in our society, which is a waste of time for the financial institution and the people.”

Anyone who’s ever tried to put a deposit on an apartment knows the uneasy feeling of rolling up to the contract meeting with a backpack full of cash, but if this was ever to

go through, we’re fearful of its unintended consequences on transportation. Taxis find it difficult enough to break 100 RMB bills, so we can only imagine the expletives we’d hear when we dig out a 500 RMB bill.

Among other concerns brought up by netizen: issues of RMB counterfeiting (if you get a fake 500 RMB bill you lose much more than with a 100 RMB bill), robbery and the need for labor intensive jobs (there are enough people to refill the ATM machines frequently, so why cut jobs?).

1usd = 6.8RMB

i hate mushrooms!!!

Recently, a post on local BBS revealed a middle school in Dong Guan, Guangdong Province, forcing all female students to undergo the Mushroom haircut. The intention of this was so that students did not have to fuss about their hair and were able to focus more on their studies. Another reason: it would keep other male students from distraction.

Getting your hair cut a certain way in Chinese middle schools isn’t something new, but it may be the first time students have fought against school authority through the Internet referring to legal documents for support. With that, they’ve unwittingly received media attention. In the post, students pointed out

that according to Article 37 of the Chinese Constitution under “Personal freedom of the People’s Republic of China citizens shall be inviolable”, hair is part of the human body, so is illegal for the school to enforce such rule over their students.

What happens next is yet to be known, but we have a question: Why the Mushroom haircut?

inside China’s new gay faCebook Clone

Those behind the Great Firewall have had to accept that Facebook is not going to be their main form of social networking. However this is China, and no Facebook just means there’s a market for unblocked Facebook clones (think www.renren.com). And if you’re gay in China there’s a brand new option: Feizan.com (Chinese only).

Although not the first gay-friendly site of its kind in China (Gay.com beat it to the punch), Feizan is clear in its intentions. Zhao writes, from Shanghai Daily, “Feizan also requires users to reveal their sexual orientations, outing status, role in relationships (striker or goalkeeper)... and whether you are circumcised.” Clearly, this is an all-male clubhouse.

Personal, yes, but these questions don’t say much specifically about the gay community in China that the site is serving. A telling question though appears later: “Will you get married?” China doesn’t recognize gay marriage, so it seems a bit odd to include it. But this question hits a sensitive issue within the LGBT community here. Many gay men (and women) in China are expected to marry someone of the opposite sex for social reasons, regardless of their sexual orientation. Although this is more common in the older generation, the practice is still far from obsolete.

February 18th, which is the 5th day of the Chinese lunar calendar, marks the birthday of the Chinese God of Wealth, 财神爷 [cai shen ye]. At least 550,000 people from all over China were seen queuing up by Guiyuan Temple of Wuhan City before dawn to burn incense as a way to welcome The God of wealth, as well as praying for blessings for the upcoming year.

People from all over China started to queue up in front of Guiyuan Temple from 7pm the night before, waiting to serve Cai Shen Ye. Roads leading to the pinnacle were brimming with tourists by midnight. The crowd became so uncontrollable that guards and police had to be present, and the incense fumes became so unbearable that masks were needed. Local media believed that the recession is behind the booming worship for the God of Wealth.

A man holding patron saint’s statue made a curtsey in the direction of the temple.

Gas mask is essential for staying in the cloud of smokes.

speCial foCusreCession enCourages superstition

speCial foCuswho dares haCk the China Centraltelevision?

On February 15th, which is the second day of the Chinese New Year, several netizens reported that they could not login to cctv.com and that the homepage of CCTV was covered by an image of a Western woman’s behind. The page didn’t fully recover until 20:20 of that day. No official comment from the website thus far.

According to the reporter, he wanted to login in cctv.com at 20:05 to watch the Vancouver Olympic Games, only to find a picture with a Western woman’s derrière. He was not alone; many netizens had already discovered the problem and posted it on a few BBS. The content that got hacked might seem irrelevant to the Spring Festival Gala hosted by CCTV on Chu Xi (Spring Festival’s Eve), however,

many netizens believed that the hacker was upset by the Gala because it placed too many soft ads in-between the program which is supposed to entertain the whole country for the one time in a year. The reporter then contacted a few employees of CCTV, all of whom replied “on vacation, don’t know about it”.

In fact, it is not the first time cctv.com has been hacked. On January 30th, some “unhealthy videos” were posted on Xing Bo Ke, one of cctv.com’s video channels, but removed 2 hours later. The comment then was “our IT department doesn’t work on weekends, plus nobody reported about this, it’s probably just a joke.”

esCape from beiJing shanghai & guangZhou

北上广 [běi shàng guǎng] refers to the three “super” cities Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou with financial, political, and cultural privileges celebrated by the younger generation of China.

However, the extremely high and unreasonable price of real estate, the strict ID registration system and great pressures in life and work are now forcing younger Chinese to leave these super cities to seek lower-paid jobs in order to secure a more relaxed lifestyle and better life quality in smaller towns.

Child slave

To be or not to be…A child slave, or 孩奴 [hái nú], that is the question. After 30 years of economic reform, the conflict between traditional concept of child-bearing and the harsh reality of life has made young post 80s Chinese couples reconsider the thought of bearing offspring.

With thousands of people blogging in China’s cyber space, a new group of bloggers have made a name for themselves by blogging about raising children. These young parents who regularly blog about their children’s daily lives, exchange tips and post hundreds of cute photos of their toddlers, are divided about whether they are slaves to their children.

“I used to think I could have a baby young and the grandparents can raise it, so I could have a young person’s life again,” says Li, an expectant mother. “But now, I’m afraid I’d have to sacrifice everything for my child.”

Li’s desire to have a baby at a young age as well as her concern for her independence and dependence on the tradition family unit is not unique, and the debate of where the balance lies has spread online like a cold in a kindergarten.

naked marriage

Naked Marriage or 裸婚 [luǒ hūn]refers to couples getting married without rings, apartment and cars which is becoming more acceptable to young people who want to get married sooner rather than later.

Zhang Yi, a 28-year-old editor at the fashion magazine Sunshine, imagined her boyfriend’s proposal like this: In a nice restaurant, he gets down on his knee, flourishes a diamond ring and asks: “Will you marry me?” She would then scream, and with tears of joy in her eyes, throw herself into his arms.

But the reality was totally different. One night at the end of 2008, her boyfriend simply said: “My mother has asked us to register for the marriage certificate as soon as possible.” Zhang agreed - and that was it. “My husband is two years younger

than me. I understand he has little money. Besides, I love things to be simple. So I agreed,” Zhang says.

On Jan 6, 2009, the couple took a day off and registered their marriage. Instead of a banquet, their wedding ceremony was a 100-yuan ($15) dinner at a small restaurant where they first met. When Zhang’s parents asked them for wedding photos, she said they had no time for that, as the pair had to work the next day.

Zhang was amused when her friends said she had a “naked marriage” (luo hun), which is now one of the hottest topics among young people in big cities.

This Chinese Lunar New Year, Taiwan welcomes to theaters its latest gangster flick, starring pop idol, Ethan Ruan (阮經天), and actor, Mark Chao (趙又廷).

This movie kills two birds with one stone as without a doubt, MONGA puts Taipei on the commercial movie map, while also exploring Taipei’s history; something that even the movie’s young stars were not fully aware of prior to filming. The movie portrays a period in Taiwan’s history synonymous with the conflicts between rival gangs. This was especially prominent in Wanhua District, and despite the story being a work of fiction, it is filled with the memories of Niu’s (the Director) youth.

Set in 1980s Taiwan, after the end of military dictatorship, MONGA centers around five boys who join a gang because they are tired of being pushed about. As they relish their new social standing, they soon discover that being gangsters in ‘MONGA’ comes at a price. Other gangs have their hearts set on the thriving locale. Soon the boys’ world as they know it is thrown upside down.

Movie

monga | 艋胛

This black-and-white Taiwanese film by Leon Dai, which gained great acclaim at the recent Golden Horse Awards, tells the simple story based on a true-life incident, where a man took his daughter and perched themselves precariously at the edge of an overhead bridge over major road traffic, threatening to jump off because they had been given the short end of the stick from society time and again.

A father’s love for his child is unconditional, a bond that can’t be broken. But sometimes government bureaucracy can interfere. Li Wu-hisung lives in a harbor zone in Taiwan with his small daughter. He doesn’t have a job, so he takes on risky tasks on boats to earn money. When he tries to do the right thing and enroll his daughter in a school, the government decides it’s in the child’s best interest to remove her from his care. He does everything he can to get her back, leading to a desperate standoff in front of the media and the world. Based on a true story, it conveys a quest of love that knows no bounds.

Movie

not without you | 不能没有你

Movie

little big soldier 大兵小将

Starring the world’s most famous action hero Jackie Chan and one of China’s top pop idol Wong Lee Hom, LITTLE BIG SOLDIER tells the story of a farmer forced into conscription, Who is looking to escape the army of the army ever since. His big opportunity arrives when he stumbles upon a wounded general from an enemy state, and he kidnaps him, intending to claim credit for the capture, which includes five mu (acres) of land, and most importantly, an honorable discharge from the army.

Jacky Cheung is back, and he invites you to his “Private Corner”!

It has been more than five years since he released his Cantonese studio album - Life is Like a Dream in 2004, and no longer content with singing pop songs, the Canto-pop King has evolved to offer us a new sound.

With a voice like vintage wine, Jacky can always be counted on to deliver the goods, and his vocals make a perfect match with the jazz sound of the new album. Private Corner is made with a discerning audience in mind, and producer Andrew Tuason ensured the best sound quality by using only authentic instruments.

Music

private Cornerby JaCky Cheung

Music

senses aroundby yoga lin

One Million Star (singing competition) first season champion Yoga Lin enjoyed a dream start to his singing career in 2008, thanks to his well-received debut album Mystery, and a little before that the Yoga’s Trick concert tour, which made him the youngest Taiwan singer to hold a solo concert without releasing a record. Now, listeners have come to expect more from this rising star.

Titled Senses Around, the new album is built around the theme of human communication, and the title of each song has something to do with the mind or the senses. The amusing first single “Eat What You See”, written by famous Hong Kong lyricist Wyman Wong, features a cannibalism theme with the underlying moral of never judging people by their looks. Other new songs include “Ear”, “Heart-sore”, “Hysteria”, and “Empathy”.

Music

time fliesby eason Chan

Eason Chan is back in the Hong Kong Coliseum after opening his Moving on Stage world tour there in 2007.

This time, he is holding 18 shows between March and April 2010, new personal record for the reigning Canto-pop king.

To coincide with the concerts, Eason will release the highly anticipated new Cantonese mini-album with six new songs, including the airwave smash “No Man’s Land” and the second plug “Tourbillion”, both penned by well-known lyricist Wyman Wong.

P1.CN is a private online club, and membership can only be obtained through invitations when chosen by their street-snap photographers or invited by your friends who is already a member of this fashion related SNS.

Although restricted, snapshots taken in nightclubs and on the streets have become very popular, and pictures are widely copied and posted in other websites, bbs, blogs and SNS.

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p1.Cn

p1.cn

FASHIONZINE or 发神经 [fa shen jing] is a webzine created by a group who called themselves Chic Sin (痴線 [chi seen]). Both of these names share a common meaning: go crazy. This may reveal the creative attitude of ChicSin Group, a non-profit group of people that have come together with a shared appreciation of aesthetics. Most of them are rising artist and editors from leading Chinese lifestyle magazines

As a webzine, FASHIONZINE is a multimedia platform related but not limited to the following fields: experimental, avant-garde art and design, fine arts, fashion, photography, music, film, and pop culture.

FASHIONZINE’s biggest ambition is to provide a platform for emerging contemporary designers in China. In past issues, Fashionzine introduced Central Saint Martins graduate Vega Wang, Chongqing fashion blogger Pandagugu and worked with Chinese photographer Ren Hang.

chicsin.com

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fashionZineChiCsin.Com

Dating shows may lack cachet or artistic value but they never cease to attract an audience. Since Chinese New Year, Jiangsu TV’s dating show YOu ARE THE ONE became China’s hottest reality show of the month.

In the show, one male participant is challenged with questions from 24 female participants, many of which are related to the reality of current social issues like housing; whether or not to continue living with parents; whether or not to have children and so on.

This show acts as a platform that allows a generation of young Chinese to express their views on love and marriage in a modern society. Some of its content may be provocative and controversial, but all of it is entertaining.

tv pRogRaM

you are the one非诚勿扰

uPWARD EVERYDAY is one of the most famous talk shows in Mainland China. It is hosted by famous hosts from Hunan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea.

What makes uPWARD EVERYDAY different from other talk shows in China is that their purpose is educational, but with an entertaining approach. The show was produced to educate Chinese audience on mannerisms, social interaction, succeeding in life and so forth. By doing so, they invite a wide range of guests from various fields to talk about their life experience in the most entertaining way.

tv pRogRaM

upward everyday天天向上

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Charinee.C@wk.com