Filming and editing are two separate things.
FWIW I have had a few short (~3-5 minute) videos (already filmed) professionally edited recently for very reasonable rates... executed within a day, and under 800/minute. Very happy with output quality and service.
I can give you the editor I used's contact details if you wish, send me a PM.
Shenzhen is awesome! So much going on. Everyone is from somewhere else so you don't get that 'lao difang ren' mentality with swearing, arguing on the street, spitting, day-long-mahjong, etc. It's a very young city. The sort of place you can literally make anything happen. A true city of opportunity.
No coverage so I thought to share. Yesterday morning on Hongshan Nan Lu near the intersection of Hongshan Dong Lu a man with a mental illness took an axe to the general public. Multiple people were seriously injured. Police turned up but were unable to constrain the attacker, and ultimately shot him.
Apparently the attacker was a Chinese man in his mid 30s.
I read an article recently, recalled some TM threads here and looked them up.
It seems sad that as an international organization supposedly fostering effective and professional communication they are unable to provide a current, geographically delineated list of clubs and events.
Hi Ronald,
You should get in touch with Jim Goodman, he has pictures of a lot of these that he took himself from the 1990s through early 2000s.
As far as older ones go, he has published a number of books on the province some of which almost certainly include older images which he could provide. (Likely including the one near Baoshan.)
I also have a collection of old Yunnan photographs and other imagery and could provide you with a French era (~1900) black and white of one in southeast Yunnan.
Jim's website which has his email: blackeagleflights.blogspot.hk/
Or just email me and I'll put you in touch with him. My email: walter at the domain name of the website pratyeka.org/
I have a few images of covered bridges from ~2001 onward, but also photographs of some old photos. Unfortunately they would take me a long time to dig up and I don't have time right now. I would suggest contacting the various prefectural museums for additional assistance (eg. Dali, Baoshan, Kunming, Jianshui, Mengzi/Honghe). There is also a private museum in Tengchong which would likely be of use.
A copy of the finished book would be appreciated.
No results found.
@nailer is being unfairly dismissed: they are certainly fallible. At one point they were well managed and the only game in town, and their outdoor bar had an interesting social vibe. Recently, none of these is the case (was given a bad bill to the tune of ~300% - no managers present and a subsequent complaint resulted in a less than ideal outcome, many more places are now open, and the outdoor bar is closed). Unless you are specifically seeking faux-Americana (often far better examples elsewhere) or two degrees removed faux-Mexicana, there's little reason to go there. How come French Cafe can serve a great sandwich for 24元 but Sals requires 50元 for a pretend-exoticized nibble? Certainly the business will continue, but the hey-dey is clearly gone. Romaniticizing the past aint gonna help. E-waste recycling by shipping (non carbon neutral) junk across the country? Puh-lease. Garbage processing people here recycle anyway! I applaud the ethical stance of one of the managers, but the place has frankly lost its mojo.
Hands down the best draft craft beer in Kunming. On top of that, very reasonable prices for food and other drinks (especially wine).
Called the number provided on a Friday at 2:15PM while a 10% discount was advertised "on Friday and Saturday" (listed in GoKunming specials).
A Chinese person answered the 'English' phone number in Mandarin then explained in broken English that you need to order 3 hours in advance. (Subtext: As their business is so slow)
Grumble. False advertising. Waste of time. Seems 100% Chinese run. Probably bad pizza.
The listing here is wrong! Teresa's are not defunct, they are just back to being one store instead of two stores on Wenlinjie now! They are still in business, still answer on this phone number, and are still delivering! Points for consistency, it's been years! As of right now, it's 68元 for the more toppings vegetarian at the largest size. They will do thin or thick crust. Yes, it's not to everyone's taste, but I always used to find adding dried chilli powder and some extra salt brought it up to tasty. Might go for a dash of Sichuan pepper oil to spice it up this time around. (You know you've been in China too long when...)
I also had a bad experience here recently.
Honestly, I wish them the best of luck, but I do think the staff are poorly managed and the owners have the wrong attitude and a clear lack of experience in service-oriented business. While the pizza is OK, everything else I have tried (including overnight stay) can be had cheaper and better elsewhere, and the pizza at Roccos is better in my opinion. The service has always fluctuated between acceptable to don't care.
Since they don't have their situation resolved yet, and it has been a few years, I have made the decision not to go there anymore or send anyone else. It's just not worth the hassle, given the crappy location (masked as private or lost). Better pizza with more quiet and privacy on Roccos' terraces.
The Dai stilted house
Posted byAnother great article Jim. Super Mengla time-lapse there!
An equivalent of the Jinghong valley would hammer home the changes ... literally sleepy farmer town to skyscraper neon city!
We're in Prague (the city not the cafe) of all places, but miss hanging out with you guys talking about Dai architecture for the 1000th time!
@DanTheMan: Dai and Lao and Thai people are collectively known as Tai peoples, or Tai-Kadai peoples. They are also closely related to the Zhuang minority. They emigrated from southeast China. Their original belief system was not Buddhism, rather forms of animism, some of which are still respected.
Various Tai peoples along this journey exposed to foreign belief systems: Chinese religions, Theravada Buddhism, Vajrayana Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. However, they are very predominantly Theravada Buddhists... with a syncretic approach to prior belief systems and tolerant to parallel practice.
However, the writing system used by the Dai did come from the south, up from Chiang Mai region through the Shan States of Burma. Ultimately that in turn was based on other Indian abugida scripts which are eventually traced to Brahmi and Kharosthi. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmi_script and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharosthi
Unfortunately the traditional script used in southwestern Yunnan (Dehong area) and southeastern Yunnan (Xishuangbanna area) were different. The problem was made worse by Mao-era government refactoring of the language, which has since gone on yet again, and by government meddling in the traditional education at monasteries. These days most Dai kids there probably can't read Dai, or can only read one version. In another generation, I'd be surprised if it isn't effectively extinct as a written language.
First commercial e-vehicle rolls off Kunming assembly line
Posted byradar.oreilly.com/[...]
Discoveries in Yunnan's Dayao County
Posted byHey Jim, great piece!
I think the 'clean shaven man peeling off his face' is Baozhi (418-528), a monk said to have been a Chan (禪 - the Chinese Mahayana tradition that gave rise to Japanese Zen) master, and to have peeled off his face in front of Emperor Gao of Qi dynasty and later Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty (reigned 502–549, noted for his patronage of Buddhism in Chinese history, sometimes known as 'the Chinese Ashoka', co-author of the famous scripture 'Emperor Liang Jeweled Repentance' (梁皇寶懺) that is often recited at Qingming Jie and Guijie (Ghost Festival), and who considered Baozhi his favourite monk) and revealed himself to be the Twelve-faced Avalokitesvara (ie. Guanyin / 觀音 or 观音 in simplified).
Apart from Baozhi's status as a Chan master, the story is associated with the esoteric Buddhist tradition (meaning either Indian/Tibetan Vajrayana, such as that potentially transmitted directly from India via the Pala Kingdo in Nanzhao times, or earlier 漢傳密宗 / 'China-transmitted Esoteric Buddhism', China's indigenous Vajrayana) cult of Avalokitesvara. Esoteric Buddhism is thought to have spread in China (surviving amongst other and established Buddhist traditions) through popular cults around "divine" monks just such as this one.
Sources allegedly describe Baozhi's early life as follows.
Born in Jincheng (晉城), Shanxi (山西) province under the Liu Song Dynasty (劉宋朝; also known as the Former Song Dynasty / 前宋), his original surname was Zhu (朱). He left home and entered the Daolin Temple (道林) located in the dynastic capital of Jiankang (建康) or modern Nanjing (南京).
Around 465-471 (when Baozhi would have been approximately aged 47-53) he stopped eating or sleeping, let his hair grow, and began walking the streets barefoot, holding a staff decorated with either a pair of scissors, a mirror, or bits of cloth.
Later, around 479-482 (when Baozhi would have been approximately aged 61-64; cue "when I'm 64...") he began to tell the future both verbally and through prophetic poems. Due to his growing influence, Emperor Wu had him imprisoned, during which time he was seen walking about the town despite being in prison. During the same prison term he predicted with accuracy being sent alms on a golden alms-bown by a noble. Hearing of this the emperor had Baozhi removed from prison and invited him to the palace.
Various stories of miracles are thereafter attributed during which he wins the Emperor's respect and goes on traveling about the country. One such story involves him being gifted a robe by Faxian, one of the few famous monks who made it from China to India and returned via the Southern Silk Route (ie. by water). Finally, Baozhi predicted his own death.
Kunming Expo looks to be largest ever
Posted byThe circular layout at least does looks to be an improvement on the old center, which was very difficult to navigate. However, what's with the vast Stalinist guangchang? I know your mate runs a tile factory, but can't we get some more progressive urban design happening please? It's like the new south bus station ... arrive from central Kunming on the metro, walk across a huge paved square exposed to sun, wind and rain, then line up in a vast ticket hall like 20 years ago before waiting for your transport connection. Come on guys, it's not that hard. Think about the bloody customer.
The faceless grottos of Anning's Fahua Temple
Posted byNice writeup but factually inaccurate - there was not a [single] 'Chinese brand [of Buddhism] then permeating the Tang Dynasty'.
See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Buddhist_traditions_timeline for an overview of the emergence of Buddhism's various traditions.
At a minimum, Chan, Tiantai and Chinese Vajrayana (Tangmi) were all well established in China, Tibet had multiple traditions, and Theravada was in the south from Mon missionaries from circa 8th century or earlier.
In different parts of the Tang, the area around Anning was variously controlled by Nanzhao (Yunnan's local empire, lost to history) or (later) the Chinese Tang Dynasty.
It is important to note that Nanzhao used Sanskrit (affiliated with Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions) for some religious purposes, rather than Pali or Chinese, though it did also use Chinese. However, Nanzhao would have been familiar with Sarvastivada/Theravada traditions from the Mon and possibly via Tibet. They definitely had contact with the Pala kingdom, a Buddhist kingdom centered around what is now Bangladesh whose history is unfortunately obscured by the fact that much of its past has been sold or destroyed by modern day religious zealoutry, overpopulation and extreme poverty. There is a great scroll in the National Palace Museum in Taiwan from Nanzhao that shows black-skinned people with topknot hair visiting Nanzhao's court.
About Shibaoshan - the interesting thing about those grottoes behind Shaxi (on what is allegedly the old road from Dali to Lijiang, and only slightly south of the first curve in the Jinshajiang or upper-Yangtse, and right next to an ancient site of intensive rice agriculture that is only now being excavated - Jianchuan) is the presence of underniably Hindu 'yoni' (essentially oversized female genatalia cut out of solid rock), whereas there appears to be only Daoist and Buddhism themes in Anning.
The mountains near Qingzhou (the old capital of Shandong) also have some excellent carvings I can recommend visiting.
Smiles from Perpignan in southern France, Walter.