Never leave any valuable thing in the library without paying attention.

I feel upset today because when I tried to search for books and rewrite my research paper, I lost my cell phone in the Bronfman Library. It sucked. I did not leave my phone for a long time, but still, somebody took it away while I was checking the bookshelf right beside the table where I was sitting. Although I went to the service table and told the lady that I had lost my cell phone, she said they were not able to help me because they are not supposed to set up monitors in the study area. Afterwards, I realized it was not the right time to be upset; instead, I should shut the calling service down to avoid “that guy” using my phone to call somebody abroad. Then I went to the nearest Rogers shop and asked them to cancel or freeze the service until I got a new phone. I remember that one of my friends lost her new PDA in the library of Seneca College. The situations are quite the same—we both left for a very short period of time. I just want to warn people that library is really an unsafe place for your personal stuff.

Introduction to Film (for non-majors)

This class took place in the Price Family theatre in Accolade East Building. This is a full-sized movie theatre with a big screen. It also has a blackboard at the front, under the screen, but we can't figure out who would use it, since the teacher would have to write really, really big letters. The professor had a shaved head and wore a dark blue suit with a blue shirt and no tie (exactly the same clothes as in his picture on his York University web page). He sounded exactly like a TV movie reviewer, maybe like Roger Ebert, or maybe even Mr. Cranky in real life – except that he seemed to be happier. He spent a lot of time runiing over to the side of the room to load up DVDs of movies so he could show clips during his lecture.

The students seemed relaxed. There were about 350 of them, first and second year students, and they said the professor was a fun guy, but a little disorganized. They handed in their first writing assignment for the course at the beginning of the lecture. That took 20 minutes. The assignment was 500 words on “a cinematic experience.” The students said they had written their assignments and passed them around in tutorial class to get comments from other students, and then revised them. Now, the professor (or maybe the graduate students) would read them and make comments, and then they would revise them again.

In the lecture, the professor showed clips of a lot of different movies, to demonstrate different techniques of narration in classic Hollywood films and more experimental films. In CHC (Classic Hollywood Cinema), there are always two narrative lines: the progatoganist's public quest (maybe, the detective trying to discover who committed the crime) and the protagonist's private quest (probably a romance). He showed a scene from The Big Sleep (1946) as an example of a bit of romance: this scene between Hunphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall was added after the film was made, in order to put more romance into it. Notice the "coded" way they talk about romance (this scene is famous for that), and notice that the detective's public quest is interfering with his private one.

Further, movies can tell stories by restricted narration (when the camera sees only what the main character sees; this often happens in detective stories) or unrestricted narration (where the camera, and the audience, see more than the character sees). Usually, movies do both, in a careful mixture. He showed this scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie (1964) as an example of clever mixing of restricted and unrestricted narration. Watch it carefully: when do you know only what Marnie knows, and when do you know more than she knows?

The Professor seemed to be happiest was when he would ask the class if anyone there had seen a movie he was going to show, and only a couple of hands went up. That would make him laugh.

tennis at York University

Have you ever been to the tennis club of York university? There are many superior tennis players who are waiting for you. In this session, the most exciting thing I did was to join the tennis club of York University. Actually, I like playing tennis very much, but I was not sure about whether I could join the tennis club of York University or not. One day, I went to the club and asked them about it. When they allowed me to join the club, I was very excited. When they talked about some things that I didn't understand, they were very patient and kind in explaining them to me again. Likewise, I’m not a York degree student; sometimes I can’t go to practice because I have to go to my own class. They allowed me to be absent for some practices. I appreciated that. We had a lot of fun. We always encouraged each other when we were in matches. I like to attend this club, and also this is a good chance to learn English. I learned some idioms and some oral skills from them. They often helped me to progress in many different ways. For example, when I went onto the court to play, I often segregated myself because I didn’t know how to talk with people. Somebody saw this situation; he told me to relax and not to be afraid. They tried to get in and understand my world. I felt very pleased when I talked to them about my hometown or my culture. They also play good tennis; I have never seen such superior players as them. We had a lot of fun with each other. When we completed our practice, they always told me funny things about their childhood. We shared good times with each other. Now, I’m not sure which university I will study in and where I would prefer to live, but if I study in York University in Canada, I will join the club until graduation. I have to say thanks to those club members because I have learned many things from them. I like this moment. I hope that more and more students will join the tennis club in future.

Volunteering at York

Volunteer

Have you ever volunteered? Would you like to work as a volunteer? If yes, you should come with me and join the Student Alumni Program-York is U which is the best organization in York University.

After I got the information from Don, I thought it was worth a try, so I sent an email to them to ask for details about this organization. After a short time, I got an email back. There was a general meeting on Oct.2nd. I went to this meeting, which was like a welcome party. First of all, we signed our application forms, and then we started our games. We were introduced to York is U, a Student Alumni Program which makes York a spirited, clean, safe and fun place for everyone. YorkisU members believe that York should be a source of pride and a place where students can return, year after year, even after they graduate. When we join this organization, we can gain valuable experience volunteering, make a lot of friends and learn the skills of leadership. There are many events in York University, such as York’s Birthday, the Stress Buster Carnival, Green Week, and Halloween. These cool events are all created by York is U. Thus, they provide a positive volunteer experience and leadership opportunities through participation. So, you should come and join us to be a volunteer, whether you have volunteered for anything before or not. At the orientation, we introduced ourselves and played games to remember each others' names. Food and drink were provided for the party. We could talk to the Director or Coordinator–Members one on one. At the meeting, they also gave out awards to people who had made a great contribution to this organization. A Member is any York student volunteer who has volunteered a minimum of 16 hours during a single York is U year and has attended a volunteer Orientation. So, you get your chance to be a volunteer first, then to be a member of York is U. As a member, you can have a lot of privileges. For example, you can attend an exclusive pinning ceremony where you receive your York is U membership pin, and personal congratulations from a top ranking University official. You can get exclusive invitations to York is U holiday and end-of-year parties. Members will receive an official recognition certificate at the end-of-year party to recognize them and thank them for their contributions. We had a lot fun in the general meeting. We also signed up for the coming events. Finally, we got a cool uniform at the end of the meeting.

Last week, I went to help them to prepare for Green Week. We painted banners and made Bristol boards. I have started my volunteer activity. How about you? Come and join me! There is a lot of fun to be had here. By the way, as I know, I’m the only person who is studying in YUELI who is a mamber here. That means that by joining this organization, you can learn English as well!!!

York is U - Student Alumni Program

York University326 Student Centre

4700 Keele StreetToronto, Ontario

M3J 1P3
Phone: 416.736.5492
Email: yorkisu@yorku.ca
Website: http://www.yorkisu.ca/

Chinese Student Association

After I finished the general meeting of York is U, I went around the student center and went to the fourth floor. I found another cool organization there, which is called the Chinese Student Association. The people in this club are very friendly. Frankie Chen, events director, told me that the Chinese Student Association is a club with 36 years of history at York University. They welcome everyone who is of Chinese descent to join this club. I signed the form and then I paid ten dollars for a membership card which is a Chinese Student Association at York University membership ID. It’s cool being a member of this club; you can get a lot of benefits. For example, you can get a discount on Canada's Wonderland tickets. There were four people playing mahjong at the front of the office. That was surprising. They told me that they are students in different classes at York University. They always get together and chat with each other. Frankie said, “This club can help Chinese students to enjoy university life. Also, students will feel they belong to Chinese culture.” At the end of our conversation, Frankie asked me if I was interested in being an executive because he had found out I had three years of experience as Chairman in my Student Union at home. I told him that I would try to apply it because I could improve my leadership skills. Finally, Frankie emphasized that although this club is the Chinese Student Association, they would use English in speaking and writing. Therefore, you should come and join me in this club because you can have a lot fun here. It is also a good place to learn English!!!


Club Office: Room 419, Student Centre
Website: http://www.yorku.ca/ycsa
YorkCSA forum: http://www.yorku.ca/ycsa/bbs
Facebook: YCSA [Chinese Students' Association at York]

Edison

animation and pop culture history: topics

Everybody knows something about cartoons and comics. They are for children, but they are also for adults, sometimes. They make simple pictures and caricatures, just for fun or for more serious purposes. Cartoons come in different forms and styles, and they are made for different audiences in different countries: Mickey Mouse and the Disney Corporation, the Fleischer Brothers, Bugs Bunny and Warner Brothers, Japanese Anime and Manga, Rocky and Bullwinkle and their Fractured Fairy Tales, Ralph Bakshi, Peter Max, Marvel Comics, Matt Groening, Stan Lee, Wallace and Gromit, Dr. Seuss, Maus, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and The Dark Knight: from Georges Melies to Wall-e, they have been a part of popular culture for more than a century.

Like movies, animated films and novels can be analyzed academically, and this can be a common, fun way for university students to practice their critical reading and thinking skills – not too seriously (but maybe yes, seriously,)without having to read a lot. How many movies have you seen, and how many cartoon movies? Do you know things about their history? How are cartoons movies different from live-action movies? What do all of those Disney movies (Pocohontas, Mulan, etc) have in common? What are cartoons really saying? Do they have secret meanings? Can they criticize society more than other movies and escape punishment? How do they tell their stories? Do the different styles of different times and places tell us something about history and cultures?

We investigated some cartoons from different times and places, just to see what we could figure out by ourselves. Here is what we decided.

For example, there is the 1966 Japanese anime TV series Speed Racer and the 2008 Wachowsky Brothers movie version, Speed Racer. Alex and Feng showed us clips from both. The original Japanese show was made from a comic book. The animation style was quite simple compared to the style of a company like, for example, Disney. In a way, it was "underground" comics for the U.S. audience. Maybe that is why the Wachowskys, who made The Matrix, wanted to make their new one: they like things that are underground or subversive -- and they like comic books. Also, it is true that in Speed Racer there is a lot of technology, and technology is a good thing in that show. For characters like Mickey Mouse, however, technology is usually something they have problems with. That could be why Speed Racer was a hit with kids, in the 1960s, compared to Mickey Mouse.

Even if the animation was simple, Alex points out that it can be stylish because it comes from comic books. There is a newer series from the U.S. called Samurai Jack that imitates that Japanese style, but is very artistic, too.

Brian, Carol, and Edison showed us different cartoon versions of the story of "The Tortoise and the Hare" (that is, The Rabbit and the Turtle), to explain the differences between Disney's "classic" way and Warner Brothers' versions that make fun of Disney's way. Disney's 1934 The Tortoise and the Hare is a correct version of the classic story, where the tortoise wins the race, in the end, because he never stops and never gives up. The lesson is to be honest and never quit. In this version, the hare spends too much time trying to impress the girls and forgets the race until it is too late. In the first Warner brothers version, however, Tortoise Beats Hare (1941), Bugs Bunny is the rabbit, and the story is different. In this version, the turtle wins because he cheats! (So this is not a great version for teaching children the moral lesson of "be honest, work hard, and never quit.") In another Warner version, Rabbit Transit (1947), the turtle sort of cheats again. This time he has a rocket-powered shell. Warner and Bugs want to make fun of the official version of things.

In fact, that style has become really normal for cartoons since. The Simpsons do that, just like Warner Brothers and Bugs Bunny did, and more recent movies like Shrek do it, too. Brian, Edison, and Carol showed us that there is even a 2008 movie version of this story, Tortoise vs. Hare that makes the same kind of jokes with the story.

Fatmah and Mor added some more clips comparing the Disney style with the Warner Brothers style. They showed is the classic 1933 Disney version of The Three Little Pigs, which won an Oscar for best animated short that year. This cartoon is so classic that it is easy to understand, even though it is so old. The characters speak in rhyme, and they sing their song, "Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf?" which is a song almost everyone has heard somewhere, even though most of us have never actually seen this cartoon. Then they showed us a Warner Brothers cartoon from 1944 called Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears. This cartoon shows very clearly how Warner Brothers makes fun of the classic elements of these kinds of stories, as Bugs, playing the role of Goldilocks, makes fun of the bears, while the bears are trying to remember the story accurately so that they can get something (that is, rabbit) to eat.

Melaine and Shelly showed us clips from Disney's The Lion King (1994) and the Japanese anime TV series Kimba the White Lion (1966). There is a controversy about Disney's movie, that Disney may have stolen the idea from the earlier TV show. This link to the Wikipedia article about Kimba explains the controversy. It even shows that an early version of Disney's lion cub was white, just like Kimba. (It also tells about an episode of The Simpsons that mentions the controversy). But Melaine and Shelly explained the plot of Kimba, which is different from The Lion King. In Kimba, humans are destroying nature with evil technology, and killing and capturing endangered species. Kimba's misson is to try to make peace between animals and humans. Disney's movie doesn't have humans in it at all -- but then, Disney probably wouldn't make a movie that says people are evil . . . .

Joy and Wenting showed us examples of cartoons from Tom and Jerry and Itchy and Scratchy (the characters from The Simpsons). The stories of these two groups of characters are basically the same: there is a cat and a mouse, but the mouse is smarter than the cat. Tom and Jerry are really very old: according to Joy and Wenting they started in 1940. But Itchy and Scratchy are meant to be a parody of the older cartoon. The main differences between the two are that in Tom and Jerry the cat is grey and the mouse is brown, while in Itchy and Scratchy the cat is black and the mouse is blue. So, in the new version, the animals look less realistic, but as we all know, in the new version the violence is a lot more realistic. When we look at the older cartoons, though, we can see that Tom and Jerry are really very violent themselves. Joy and Wenting showed us a cartoon of theirs called Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse.

After Joy and Wenting told us about these cartoons, they also told us about Happy Tree Friends, which is even newer and, therefore, even more violent!

Ellie, Tony, and Q-La showed us clips from the Beatles's 1968 animated movie Yellow Submarine. This was called "the first psychedelic movie," but you have to be old enough to remember the 1960s to know what psychedelic means. The style of animation in the movie is very strange, and not like anything you might see today, really. It is very different from the usual Hollywood style, and it is not intended to be realistic at all. As Ellie said, it is called "surreal" animation. The plot of the movie is about bringing peace to Pepperland, and driving away the evil "Blue Meanies." In fact, it's message of peace was considered, at the time, to be very political: the movie implicitly opposed the U.S. in the war in Vietnam.

Soju

Soju is a Korean drink. It was traditionally made from rice, but more recently it has been made in other ways. It has about 20% alcohol, which makes it stronger than wine (which is usually about 10-12%), but not as strong as whiskey (which is usually about 40%). It is not very expensive, so it tends to be a favorite drink for students. You drink it cold, not warm like the Japanese rice wine, sake (soju is usually stronger, anyway). Ho Jeong says that now younger people – well, her friends at least – will keep it in the freezer. You might pay 90 cents or 1 dollar for a bottle (300 + ml) in Korea, $3 a bottle in a restaurant; here in Canada, you can pay $9 a bottle in a store, and $15 bottle in a restaurant. In addition, since there are just 7 shots in a bottle, you usually have to buy two bottles . . .

The most important thing to know about soju is the etiquette. You have to learn the rules from your father or grandfather. First, you should never pour your own drink! People say that, when someone pours their own drink, it is very unlucky to be sitting in front of them. Next, when you drink it, if you are facing someone older than you, you must turn to the side and hide the drink with your hand. It is disrespectful to drink while you are facing someone older directly. Third, you should always use two hands when you pour a drink for an older person. And you should always pour it for the older person!

Recent social changes in Korea have meant that more women are drinking soju now. They have to, because drinking soju according to the rules of etiquette is an important part of business communication in Korea, and now women are in business more often. It is possible now to buy weaker soju because of this.

Parents sometimes teach their children how to drink soju when they are in middle school. This may sound surprising, but it makes sense if you understand that one of the rules of soju etiquette is that, if an older person offers you a drink, you may not refuse. As you may imagine, this rule can make things interesting in high school.

In general, age is important in Korean society. It can be a delicate social situation when an employee is older than his boss, since the boss is supposed to be treated as an elder. Daniel says that a good guy boss will not insist on being treated as an elder outside of the office. There is a movie in the Nexus, Paul Weitz’z 2004 In Good Company, which might be interesting to watch because it is about this issue (but in America).

A poktanju is a drink that is made by dropping a shot of soju into a pint of beer. This is the same as the drink that we call a depth charge (which is a kind of boilermaker) here, but we use whiskey instead of soju. But Daniel says that soju is less expensive.

So, when students drink soju, or other things, they have drinking games, of course. In China, they will count off numbers in their group, and each time the number reaches 7, or 14, or 17, or 21 – that is, any number with 7 in it or a number that is a multiple of 7, you have to stand up or clap, and if you forget, you have to drink, or they can ask you to do things, or you have to tell the truth about something. In Korea, they do the same with the numbers 3, 6, 9, etc., and when you get to 33, you have to clap twice. Don remembered a drinking game from his time in university called “Zoom Schwartz Profigliano,” which is a little strange and not so easy to play.

by Koo Bong Hwoi

School in China

In China, the schools are very centralized. You can see a complex of buildings, all in one place, with primary and secondary schools, and even university, at the same location. The classes may have about 60 students each. The students wear uniforms – but as we all know, there are lots of different ways to wear a school uniform!

Students stay in the same classroom, with the same group of fellow students, through the whole school year in high school. They have classes that take about 45 minutes and 8 or 9 classes per day. School starts at 7:00 a.m., and can go until 5:00 p.m. Teachers can add classes to the end of the day, especially for exam preparation, so that you may be in school until 7:00 p.m. The teachers can even add classes on Sundays.

You can choose your program – well, with some other considerations. Your test scores make a difference to which program you will be able to get into; also, teachers can pick students whom they like for their classes. There are science programs and humanities programs. Most students choose the science programs because they think the subjects will be more practical – and also because in the humanities programs require a lot of memorization, and they don’t want to have to do that. Carol’s high school had 23 classes, with 21 of them science program classes, and 2 of them humanities program classes.

The classes are all ranked for the next year by the big examinations at the end of each year. They don’t call the class numbers “levels,” and the classes will use the same textbooks in the same year, most of the time, but some classes will move faster through the books and cover more material. So, classes are in competition with each other. This means that the students in the same class will probably help each other a lot when they have to take exams – although there are sometimes super-smart kids who don’t become very social with the rest of their classmates, and don’t help much.

School is very different in China from the way it is here in Canada. Here you can find some very elite, difficult, and very expensive private schools, like Upper Canada College (for boys), the Bishop Strachan School (for girls), and St. Andrew's College School (for boys). Most of the English-speaking Prime Ministers of Canada went to U.C.C. If you want to see a movie about this kind of school, look at Peter Weir’s 1989 Dead Poets Society, which stars Robin Williams. (It’s in the Nexus on VHS). Here is the last scene of the movie (don’t watch if you don’t want to know the end!)

by Zhao Xun

Introduction to Psychology

We visited a lecture of the course called Introduction to Psychology on Tuesday, July 22. The topic of the lectures was Types of Psychotherapy. The professor is Tifrah Warner, and she is from Israel.

When she started her lecture, she asked a student to choose a proverb from a small book that she gave to the student. The proverb was this one: “It is not necessary to blow out the other person’s lantern to let yours shine.” (Swahili, East Africa) We thought she did this partly to make people relax, but also to get them ready to think. Professor Warner seemed quite relaxed and friendly, and also concerned about her students. She spoke to them in a very kind way but also seriously about their ideas.

For the first few minutes of the lecture, students came in the lecture hall and put essays on the table in the front of the hall while she was talking. They had to walk right behind her to do that. She didn’t get angry at that; in fact, one student came in, dropped off an essay, and left, and she laughed about it. We wondered if professors should tolerate this kind of disrespect. In some other countries, many of them don't. A lot of students were eating and drinking in the lecture, also. There was a lot of typing noise from students taking notes on their laptops (or looking at facebook). One student was reading a graphic novel. For some students, it looked as if they were at a movie theatre, or watching TV.

Even though we studied the chapter of the textbook assigned for the lecture in our class before going, Professor Warner didn’t talk a lot about what was in the book. Daniel says that in Korea, for some subjects, like psychology and business, the professor will use lecture time to talk about examples in detail, and not go over the textbook material very much. However, in hard science or engineering courses, professors may stay closer to the textbook.

In Korea, students also hear rumors that if you fail a course, you will get a refund – but that is not true.

In China, Shang says, some professors will teach from the textbook, and some won’t, depending on the professor. In addition, some professors will focus on the textbook before the exam (to help students prepare for specific questions), but others won’t even do that.

In Saudi Arabia, Ahmed says, sometimes professors will say to students that they should read the textbook on their own, and the professors will want to lecture on other things. However, three or four weeks later they will find that the students have not done any of the reading, and they will be forced to lecture on the textbook – and therefore to force the students to study it.

In the Saudi system, professors have a lot of freedom to decide what to teach, and even when to teach. They can go to a class at the first meeting and say, “I am not available at this time,” and reschedule the whole class, so that they only have to be on campus a couple of days a week. This can be a big problem for students’ schedules.

Instead of lecturing on the textbook chapter directly, Professor Warner made her lecture and discussion focus on one interesting issue in the chapter: when should psychotherapists prescribe drugs and when shouldn’t they prescribe drugs? Most of the students in the lecture seemed to be against the idea of using drugs too quickly in psychotherapy, but when the professor gave them a list of kinds of cases, most said they would prescribe drugs more quickly than her. She described the way many doctors think: “the medical model.” First, doctors think of psychological illness as being like physical illness. Therefore, they assume there must be a physical cause for a psychological illness. Therefore, this cause should be chemical, and should be fixable by drugs. But she said that just because there are chemical changes in the brain doesn’t mean you need drugs. You can change someone’s brain chemistry by giving them a hug. And she described the work of Milton H. Erickson, a therapist who she admires a lot, to show that you don’t need drugs as often as most people today think.

But when students asked, she had to say that her view is not the majority opinion in psychology today. Today, drugs are being used more and more anyway.

If you want to visit this course, you can find the syllabus online through the York University website, and you can get the textbook at the Reserve Desk in Scott Library. “On reserve” means you can only borrow it for two hours, and you can’t take it out of the library. That means you basically photocopy what you need. The textbook is Psychology: Themes and Variations by Wayne Weiten. The call number is BF 121 W38 2007.

Dim Sum

Dim Sum is a way to have breakfast in China. You can go to the restaurant and order a lot of little dishes to have with tea. In some places you can just point at what you want, when they bring it by on a cart. Then the waiter gives it to you and marks down what you got on a sheet of paper that you have. The dishes are different kinds of food, kinds of dumplings, rolls, seafood, buns, etc. Some of them are sweet, and some are not. This has been a custom in China for a few hundred years, so it is old, but not one of the oldest parts of Chinese culture. The custom is a bigger thing in the south; in the north, it is more like just a dessert.

In the past, people believed that drinking tea and eating at the same time was bad for you; however, people later found out that tea is actually good for your digestion, so dim sum was enabled to be popular. Yoyo says that it was a tea house owner who popularized the idea that tea is good with food, which isn’t a big surprise.

Before 7:00 in the morning, the tea is free, so the older people go at 6:00 a.m. They gather and spend hours there with newspapers and conversation with everyone who comes in. Then they go to tai chi at 9:00. The younger people usually don’t come until about 10 a.m., so they have to pay for tea.

We’re not sure what Canadian food is, really. Don says that if you want to look for an American breakfast or brunch, you might try any of these places:

Flo's Diner

Fran's

Grapefruit Moon

Sunset Grill

Over Easy

The Rosedale Diner

Or if you’re looking for other kinds of food, you might try one of these places:

Grazie (Italian)
Milagro (Mexican)
Edo (Japanese)
Mezes (Greek)
The Rebel House (English)
Allen’s (Irish)

Does anybody have any other suggestions? Where is a good place to go in Toronto for Dim Sum?

by Yang Ying

guo xiao jiao

One thing that comes from Chinese culture is guo xiao jiao, or the old practice of foot-binding for women. This may be unique to China. In the old days, they started to bind a girl’s feet when she was four years old, and they started in the fall and winter so her feet would not feel it so much because of the cold. This practice, of course, broke the bones in the girl’s feet, since they were trying to make her feet stay very small – maybe four inches long. Foot-binding was banned officially after the 1911 revolution of Sun Zhongshan (his name is usually written Sun Yat-sen by the English), but it had to be banned again after the 1949 revolution of Mao Zedong as well. Today there might still be a few very old women who are living who had it when they were younger. Eason’s great-grandmother had it; he saw it when he was very young.

If you look at Beijing Opera, you can see the characters called Dan. These are the girl roles. At York University, a performer named William Lau knows how to play those roles. His group, which is called the Little Pear Garden Collective, gives performances and demonstration of Beijing Opera on the York campus and in lots of other places. In his demonstrations, he shows the audience the special shoes a dan performer wears to make the girl’s feet appear to be very small. They make the performer walk with very small steps.

Foot-binding may seem quite strange to people from other countries, but it is not true that this is the only beauty practice in the world that is not good for the women’s health. In the west, in the past, women often wore corsets that were very tight. A corset is a garment that makes a woman’s waist smaller. Sometimes women were supposed to have very small waists – maybe 48-50 centimetres (or 18-19 inches). These corsets could rearrange their internal organs in bad ways. Here is a link to a fashion magazine’s advice column from 1903 about how to get a girl to start wearing corsets.

After we heard about foot-binding, we talked some more about definitions of beauty. Why did people in China think that very, very small feet were beautiful? What is beautiful in any culture? Some scientists say that beauty is usually about looking young. Maybe that explains foot-binding a little. There is a science writer in English named Steven Jay Gould. He wrote an essay called “A Biological Homage to Mickey Mouse,” in a 1980 book called The Panda’s Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History. Here is the York library call number for this book: QH 366.2 G666 1982. This essay explains the concept of “neoteny,” which says partly that people find youth attractive.


by Zhang Weifeng

Xiangsheng (Cross Talk)

This is a kind of performance that -- yes, Daniel -- we will have to pay to see (unless we see it on TV). It is a type of comedy, and it is very funny. Like the Korean Tal Chum, it is traditionally a form of satire, also, but tolerated by the government because it is traditional – a way to express people’s anger without getting in trouble. In a typical performance, we see a conversation between one person and one or two others, always men. They wear traditional clothes – but not really elaborate costumes. They might perform in front of ten people, or ten thousand. They speak very quickly, and one of them will imitate characters’ accents, or even animal sounds, and criticize the government indirectly, over up to twenty minutes. Sometimes single performers can tell stories that last up to a month, over many performances, like The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The real heart of Xiangsheng is in its use of language. Doing it requires very advanced language skills, and it would be hard for non-native speakers to understand everything they hear. One website describes it as being a little like the famous English comedy routine, "Who's on First?" as performed by Abbott and Costello (here is a link to the script for this routine). Don thinks the U. S. comedian George Carlin might be a bit like a Xiangsheng artist, for example in this performance. The four skills performers need to do Xiangsheng are speaking, imitating, teasing, and singing. Performers can become famous, and even rich. Ma Sanli was a famous “crosstalker,” but he died in 2003 (he wasn’t rich; he was more concerned about being an artist). There is a famous foreign crosstalker today, named Dashan, who is Canadian (he might be rich). Here is a link to one of Dashan's performances.

by Gao Shang

A Curious Resemblance

David says that York University visiting Mathematics Professor Alip Mohammed looks a lot like the great writer Lu Xun (1881-1936), founder of modern bai hua literature in Chinese and the author of The True Story of Ah Q (1922). What do you think?

Royal Ontario Museum

Hi, everyone, I’m Jing. Today I would like to share my experience of visiting the Royal Ontario Museum with you. On Sunday, May 8, 2008, I went to the Royal Ontario Museum with my friends Johnson and Jason. Actually, we went to there at 5:00 pm on May 6; however, the manager of the museum said that the museum had to close before 5:40 pm that day because they had a very important activity. Therefore, we went back home and went to the museum again on May 8, 2008. The Royal Ontario Museum is one of the world’s great museums and the fifth largest museum in North America, and it contains more than six million items. The Royal Ontario Museum totally has five floors that include two major kinds of galleries, which are the Natural History galleries and the World Culture galleries.

The Natural History gallery includes three galleries, which are the Gallery of Birds, the Gallery of Insects, and the Gallery of Mammals, and all of these galleries are on the second floor of the museum. I think the most interesting gallery of the Natural History galleries is the mammal’s gallery, which has many models of mammals, such as tiger, wolf, lion, etc. (but I didn’t take any pictures there because my camera didn’t have enough electricity.)

However, Johnson and Jason liked the bird’s gallery because there were many fossils and models of different kinds of dinosaurs that Johnson and Jason are really interested in. The gallery of birds displays many specimens of different kinds of birds, as you can see from the picture.

The gallery of insects contains both live and dead insects, such as toads and cockroaches.

The World Culture galleries include the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Canadian, Indian, and Egyptian galleries. The Chinese, Japanese, and Korean galleries are located on the first floor. I think the Chinese gallery is the most interesting one because it has many ancient Chinese sculptures, models of Chinese famous buildings, and some other Chinese cultural relics that I have never seen before.

The Canadian, Indian, and Egyptian galleries are on the third floor of the museum. The Canadian gallery contains many examples of early 19th and 20th century artifacts, which are from the indigenous cultures of the Plains, Eastern Woodlands, Northwest Coast, and Arctic regions. This gallery also has some famous artworks and paintings (as you can see from the picture).

The Egyptian galley contains a wide range of artifacts, which are agricultural implements, jewelry, cosmetics, and more. There are also a number of mummy cases, including the gilded and painted coffin of Djedmaatesankh, who was a famous female musician in Egypt, and the mummy of Antjau, who was a wealthy landowner.

We spent almost three and half hours visiting the museum because it is so big and knowledgeable. I think visiting the Royal Ontario Museum was an unforgettable and pleasant experience for me because I could see and learn about many histories and cultures of different countries from the museum.

Architecture of the Imagination

On Wednesday, June 11 we went to the Accolade East Building to see an event made by the AGYU, York University, and a public school in Toronto, at Jane and Finch, called Brookview Middle School. At this event, we found out that there was a big project during the year at the middle school. A professor of drama, Kathy Lundy, and AGYU curators from York like Allyson Adley, teachers from the school, a poet (Michael St. George), an artist (Bruno Billio), a filmmaker (Sarah Sharkey Pearce) and a video editor (Aleesa Cohene) from Toronto helped a group of about 26 grade 8 students write and design and make their own movies. The title of the movie was "Architecture of the Imagination." We asked the drama professor what she did with the students, and she said she helped them learn how to act with their voices.

When we arrived, there was a big reception in the CIBC lobby, on the ground floor of the Building. Accolade East is on the York central common, where the buses come in, but on the opposite side from York Lanes and the York Bookstore. It’s next to the Schulich building. They had a lot of free food: sandwiches, fresh vegetables, water, pop, and coffee, and fresh fruit – but when the grade 8 kids arrived they went straight to the table with the fresh fruit and ate it all in about 10 minutes. At the reception there were the students and teachers, the York and Toronto artists and professors, and also the parents of the students. We noticed immediately that the students and their parents all come from different countries. Some of them looked like they were from Africa, some of them were muslims (a lot of the girls were wearing head coverings), and others were from Vietnam.

We also met there a bunch of students from a different program at YUELI. They were a group of 40 middle school teachers from China, from different cities in Jiangsu province. Their teacher at YUELI is Shira. They came to see the movies, too. We asked them if they would do a program like this at home, and they said, “we hope so.”

At 6:45 the whole crowd went into the Price Family Cinema, a movie theatre they have in Accolade East. It's also on the ground floor, just next to the CIBC lobby. It’s a full-sized movie theatre, with a full-sized screen, and the crowd almost filled it up. There must have been about 400 people there. But before we could see the movies, we had to listen to speeches by a lot of people, including the Dean of Education at York and the Principle of Brookview Middle School (who went to York for her degree). Everyone was proud of the students – especially their parents. Finally, two students gave the last speech, and we saw the movies.

There were eight movies, all of them animated, with students doing the voices. The stories were written by students, and they were about subjects like parents, bullying at school, stereotyping of students, and also pirates and voyages into space. They looked very professional.

It’s amazing, what they can do in Toronto to be really multicultural. Everyone there was different, but they all had pride and they all knew how to be successful. It was certainly something worth celebrating!

Yuri and Sina

Speak Your Mind

On Wednesday, May 28, 2008, we went to see an event at the Art Gallery of York University. It was called “Speak Your Mind,” and it was a performance by a group of poets, dub poets, and hip-hop artists, but only with their voices and some drums. When we arrived, we found that they had free food at the front desk – well, a platter of fruit, a platter of fresh vegetables, and a bowl with bottles of water and soft drinks. The performers were all there, talking with each other and eating. They were dressed very cool: one guy had dredlocks; one girl had jeans, very short hair and thick glasses. We didn’t know who they were until later, but they were very friendly.

We talked to Nancy Kamalanathan, who was the organizer of the event, and she told us that she is a high school student, in 11th grade, and that besides organizing this event, she took a course at York for credit as part of the ACE program (Advanced Credit Experience), which she said was supposed to give her an advanced idea “about university life.” Her course was Philosophy 1100, “The Meaning of Life,” and she said it was “difficult, but it makes you think a lot.”

The Art Gallery is empty for the summer, so when we went in, behind the front desk, we saw only a few big empty rooms. The show was in the last room, and they had chairs, a microphone, and a video camera in the back of the room. Lots of people were taking pictures. Jing and Dohee sat in the first row, and Allison Adley, who works at the AGYU, took their picture. I wonder if it will be published!

There were a lot of performers. d’bi young is from Kingston, Jamaica. Nancy Kamalanathan is from Toronto, and she is Tamil. Michael St George is from Kingston, Jamaica: he has the dredlocks, and he told us he is a teacher at Brock University. Adebe D.A. is a York student and also Toronto’s Junior Poet Laureate. Andrew Hewitt is another high school student, but he already has a job as a journalist (a column about environmental fashion) – before he goes to Carlton University in Ottawa to study journalism. He has also founded an anti-bullying organization at his school. Blakka Ellis is from Jamaica. “Motion” is from Toronto, but her parents are from Barbados and Antigua. Mohammed Mohsen is Palestinain and an art students at OCAD. “Truth is” has won the Toronto Poetry Slam competition several times.

It wasn’t easy to understand everything that they were saying. Most of them had strong accents from their places. But it was easy to understand their spirit. They spoke with strong voices, sometimes singing, sometimes like actors on stage, about the things you need to do in life to respect and defend yourself, and about political situations in the world. It was especially interesting to see how much high schools students in Canada can do to be part of their communities outside of school: they get involved and live like grownups while they are still studying!

posted by Dohee and Jing

stuff that we know about

Abaya
Aleph
Ba Wong Dragon, Ma Men Xi, San Jiao
Bai Wu Chang and Hei Wu Chang
Bei Bei, Jing Jing, Huan Huan, Ying Ying, Ni Ni
Blini
Bon, Hallowe’en, and el Dia de los Muertos
Bubble Tea
Chahar Shanbe-Suri
Chang'e
Chun jie
“Double happiness”
Eid al-Fitr, "Eid Mubarak!"
Frederick Taylor, Principles of Scientific Management (1911)
Fu (upside down)
Gozira, Gamara, Mosura
Groucho Marx
Guan Yu
Haji Firuz
Hong Bao
Hummus
Isle Royal, Isle Saint Joseph, and Devil's Island
Jane and Finch
Kenting
Kourou
Loon
Mamdouh Shoukri
Masala, mole poblano, wasabi
Matroyshka
Mother, hemp, horse, admonish, “?”
Ni Hao, Kai-lan!
naver and daum
Nowruz
Paddle
Pelmini, empanadas, perogies, ravioli, calzones, pasties, mantou
Qi Lin , Gryffon, Quetzalcoatl
Qin Shi Huang
Riyadh
Sarafan
Soju
Tianchi and Loch Ness
Xiangqi
Xiangsheng
White Day
Zheng He