July 09

Welcome to the first issue of LUAN DUN.

It’s called Luan Dun after a hotpot dish from Dongbei, the north-eastern part of China. All kinds of ingredients and flavors are cooked together in one big pot. Luan means chaos, so it suggests that everything is truly mixed up together.

Luan Dun is for those of you who are new to China and for those who want to keep up with China as it continues to change. We want you to understand China from various angles, but most importantly, we want to help you think the way locals do.

For its 300th issue, News Weekly (a local Chinese magazine) put together a collection of ‘keywords’ to describe some of the events and attitudes from the last year.

Based on the Internet term – Web3.0 – Love3.0 (also known as fast love) describes the speed and the easy accessibility of finding love through the internet. It also reflects the open-mindedness of Chinese youth today towards love and intimacy compared to the more traditional and conservative view of the older generation.

Chinese people believe that buying expensive things is money well spent; showing off their wealth makes them feel proud. This phrase reflects a view that places financial value over product quality. It also explains the growing consumption of luxury products where the brand name is everything.

“ONLY BUY EXPENSIVE ONES, NOT THE RIGHT ONES”

“只买贵的，不选对的”

“TO BE A MAN, DON’T BE TOO CNN”“做人，不能太CNN”

“爱情 3.0”“LOVE 3.0”

CNN’s reporting of the situation between Tibet and China is considered biased by most Chinese, who have turned against the channel. The saying suggests that to be a good person, don’t be too biased, therefore, don’t be too CNN.

CHINASNAPSHOT

中国怎么想

At the end of 2008, Mexico and India overtook China, to become the countries with the lowest production costs. This shows that China is evolving beyond a country that solely relies on cheap labor for their economic income.

CHINASNAPSHOT

中国制造

Cheng Guan is a local government agency established in every city in China. It recently published a handbook called “Cheng Guan Law Enforcement Practical Procedures”. Its guidelines for enforcing the law included the catchy and practical “MAKE SURE THERE IS NO BLOOD WHEN YOU HIT SOMEBODY”. which caused a great deal of attention on the Internet, when the book was circulated.

CHINASNAPSHOT

城管

CCTV is known to be strict and formal, as it belongs to China’s central Government. But following the recent death of popular news anchorman Luo Jing, they have decided that it is time to make a change by adding more life and emotion to their broadcasting session. We’re not sure how this will play out yet, but we will be looking out for the first smiling newsreader.

CHINASNAPSHOT

中央新闻联播

June is the month of the gao kao (tall test) or “College Entrance Exam”. This is the chance for students to get a place at University and is the climax of the already stressful years of education. According to the Ministry of Education, the number of exam participants increased from 5.27m to 10.5m between 2002 and 2008. Of these only about 50% get a place at university.

This June, participation from all Chinese provinces has decreased, by up to 10%.

There are two main reasons for this cause:

The high failure rate, coupled with the difficulty of securing a graduate job is making more people question the value of a college education.

Going abroad to study is becoming more popular amongst Chinese young adults. More and more families have the financial means to send their children to what are seen as more prestigious colleges.

One example: all 29 students from one Chong Qing class abandoned the college entrance exam because they were awarded places at American universities.

高考

CHINASNAPSHOT

A hundred groups of people that once had their photos taken in Tian An Men Square were invited back to re-take that same shot in 2009.

This compare and contrast reflects the change in time, politics and economy that China has gone through in the past 40-50 years since The Reformation.

CHINASNAPSHOT

时代变迁

Wilber Pan (Pan Weibo) is a famous American born Taiwanese singer, rapper and actor.

Many Chinese singers imitate songs from the West, keeping the tune but changing the lyrics. However, “Be With You” performed by Wilber Pan is an actual collaboration with Akon, who made the original track. Newest Album: 007

Song: Be With You

POP CHINA•MUSIC

潘玮柏

Cheer Chan is a popular Taiwanese singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist.

Chan writes her own music and lyrics and is always seen with her Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitar. Chan’s lyrics encourage people to keep following their dreams despite the harsh bite of reality.

Newest Album: Immortal

POP CHINA•MUSIC

陈绮贞：太阳

Xu Wei is one of the best known rock musicians in China.

Greatly respected as the “Godfather of Rock”. His lyrics reflect hope, warmth, tolerance, solicitude and his understanding of life. He said, “Youth is the war of self breakout”.

Newest Album: Today 2002-2008 Greatest Hits

POP CHINA•MUSIC

许巍：今天

2002-2008生活作品集

惘闻

Wang Wen is a post-rock band from Da Lian.

Wang Wen’s music is a mix of sadly sweet melodies, heavy, noisy guitars, and Chinese scales. Close your eyes and you will easily lose yourself in the ambience created by their music as it takes you back to the scenes of your favorite movies. Wang Wen influences include Tortoise, Mogwai, Mono and Red Red Meat. Their newest album will be released on the new record label Fox Tail recently founded by Zhao Chenhong, Beijing’s best record dealer.

This year marks their 10th anniversary, although not popular among other mainstream music, but they are greatly popular among China’s Rock scene.

POP CHINA•MUSIC

The film deals with the massacre of Nanjing and its aftermath during the Second Sino-Japan war. Shot entirely in black and white, the film presents a sympathetic portrayal of the Japanese soldier Kadokawa, who witnesses the slaughter.

The Nanjing massacre is still a very powerful theme among Chinese people, who never stop wanting to explore and know what was going on during that tragedy. The success of this film reflects youth’s patriotism and interest in the history of war.

POP CHINA•MOVIE

“Better dead than alive.” – Kadokawa

南京！南京！

Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf is a Chinese animated TV series. The first movie – The Super Adventure - came out in 2009.

Several goats and their old nemesis, Big Big Wolf, join forces to defeat their common arch enemy – Bacteria.

Chinese cartoons tend to be associated with poor animation and boring plots. However, “Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf” has gained popularity because of the satirical features that are added into the plot. These features include “Shanzai” [fake copycat brands], “melamine incident” and “Microsoft blank screen”.

喜羊羊与灰太郎：牛气冲天

POP CHINA•MOVIE

Cape No.7 is a 2008 Tawainese romantic comedy musical-drama. It has broken Taiwan’s all time box-office record.

Aga, a band singer, returns to Hengchun frustrated with life. Tomoko is a Japanese model assigned to organize a local warm-up band for the Japanese super star’s beach concert. Together with five other ordinary Hengchun residents who were not expected to be great or amount to anything, they formed an impossible band. Meanwhile, the love between Aga and Tomoko grows…

Romcoms are very popular amongst Chinese youth, reflecting their dreams of perfect love.

海角七号

POP CHINA•MOVIE

永恒之塔

POP CHINA•INTERNET

Aion - The Tower of Eternity is a massively multiplayered online role-playing game released in Korea with new localized versions in development. It is the No.1 hottest online game according to Baidu.com.

Extraordinarily rich and hyper real graphics set it apart from other MMORPGs. Its character creation system allows for a great deal of character customization.

POP CHINA•INTERNET

地下城与

勇士

Dungeon & Fighter is a 2D side-scrolling online action game, developed by Neople.

The game is classic arcade game style and offers a variety of game-play modes and tasks. Players can fight in solo or in groups to advance to higher levels, while winning functional and decorative items.

In 2009, it began to be run by Tencent QQ in China. Thanks to QQ’s huge number of users, it is now the no.3 hottest online game according to Baidu.com.

POP CHINA•INTERNET

劲舞团

Audition Online, also known as X-BEAT in Japan, is a downloadable multiplayer online casual rhythmic game produced by T3 Entertainment. It was originally released in South Korea in 2004, but it has been localized by various publishers around the world.

It is free to play, but people can buy a variety of virtual items such as clothes for the player’s avatar. Characters can be customized and there is a warehouse of music to choose from. It acts as an online virtual society for players to communicate and interact with each other, including making friends, characters falling in love and getting married.

This is a typical place for people to get social and hang out, extremely popular after ‘zhai’ culture (the culture of staying online at home all day) spread throughout China.

The Chinese version of Twitter:

You can share messages of up to 140 characters to Fan Fou from MSN, QQ, Gtalk, Mobile Phone and your own blog. You can also upload and share pictures.

The Fan Fou Ranking continually updates the top 5 hottest movies, media, culture and websites. The reading is based on Fan Fou user views.

POP CHINA•INTERNET

www.fanfou.com

饭否

Happy Camp is a theatrical entertainment program produced by Hunan Provincial Satellite TV station.

A combination of bold and casual hosting styles, Happy Camp’s hosts tell bad jokes, play tricks on celebrity guests and encourage the audience to sing and clap along whenever possible.

This show is currently China’s most highly-rated entertainment show.

POP CHINA•TALK SHOW

快乐大本营

Shanghainese Stand-up comedian: his humour reflects the changes Shanghai has experienced over the last 30 years. The uniqueness of his act comes from the language it is delivered in, Shanghainese, which means he remains somewhat inaccessible to both foreigners and most Chinese alike.

POP CHINA•TALK SHOW周立波

“Help me, friend”“朋友帮帮忙”

“Are you kidding me”“算了吧，兄弟”

Bai Jia Jiang Tan is a popular TV program of China Central Television, mostly featured on CCTV-10.

This program invites distinguished professors from different universities to give a series of intensive lectures on Chinese culture and history, such as Three Kingdoms, the Analects of Confucius, Kang Xi Emperor, often in a more interesting and peculiar way.

This program is China’s first integrated educational program about Chinese culture and history, and unlike many other televised classes, it has gained wide popularity among Chinese youth. This suggests that despite China’s youth being portrayed as fickle, they actually have their own academic aspirations and deep interest in their own history and culture.

POP CHINA•TALK SHOW

百家讲坛

Board Game Bar is a hot new place to hang out for Chinese youth today. It currently has more than 15 stores in Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing and Shanghai.

Here you can eat, drink and play over 150 different types of board games, and this only costs 15-20rmb an hour per person. Parents see the Board Game Bar as a healthier place for their kids to be, compared to night clubs or internet cafes.

POP CHINA•YOUTH

桌面游戏吧