I look a bit drugged... but man, those lights on set are quite blinding. And unlike the hosts, I wasn't given any TV make up. Doooh!I'm back! And I (just about) survived the shoot... My goal was to NOT sneeze on the host, and I managed! I really have to go and prepare for an exam now, so I'll leave you with this for now. A better update will come later!
Don't worry, you look great! I'm sure no one will notice.
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures, and great story. I hope you are feeling better soon.
ReplyDeleteEven drugged, sounds like you had a fun time!
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking it wont take more than a year before we read that the most well known females in CHina are Zhang Ziyi, Vicki Zhao, and then Jonna W!
Adrian
colleen -I don't quite agree on me looking 'great' but what the heck... considering the flu I believe I did a fair effort.. :)
ReplyDeleteMartin -full story will be up tomorrow!
Adrian -hahahhaa... you're so full of funny ideas like always... "Jonna W" sounds like a real nerd btw... hahaha!
Hope you get better soon! Being sick is the worst!
ReplyDeleteExcited to hear how it all went.
Well, Jonna, I hope you are not being used as propaganda for harmony. Chinese gov loves to show their people how powerful China is today and that so many laowais are learning Chinese now (hence the sheeple would be grateful to the gov). Chinese propaganda today is very subtle. I am Chinese originally from China and my kids were born in the U.S. and they are learning Chinese Mandarin in a language school sponsored by the Chinese government via Chinese embassy. They get free textbooks courtesy of Chinese gov, prepared solely for foreigners learning Chinese. There are still so much propaganda in the textbooks. For example, the first lesson for the 5th grade textbook is entitled "Going Back to School," which sounds appropriate for the first lesson since it's natutally being taught at the first week of the new school year. The lesson talks about an American Chinese kid going school-supplies shopping with her/his mother before the school starts. All sentences in this lesson seem non-political until the last two paragraphs, which reads something like the following:
ReplyDelete"On every school supply that I bought, from erasers to pencils to notepads, I kept seeing the phrase 'Made in China'. So I asked my mom what that phrase meant. Mother told me today's China is a world class advanced country and that we should be proud of our motherland..." (if you literarily translate these sentences into Chinese, you will see the communist propaganda.)
So many laowais in China are just so goofy that they are being used for subtle propaganda without knowing it. I don't mean to be critical of you. But how old were you 20 years ago? Did you know what happened in China about this time 20 years ago? Is it just a coincidence that Chinese media at this time are so busy with putting on many happy shows of laowais in China and showing the civilized aspects of China?
You are beautiful! I don't know why the Scandinavians appeal so much to human nature of beauty, there is a theory women turned blond to attract more mates, perhaps life was extra hard for females in the Neanderthal age.
ReplyDeleteWell you made it through that's an accomplishment I'll try to change my photo so you can see what bad looks like....lol ;o)
ReplyDeleteGotta go with Colleen on this one. For having the flu you look really nice.
ReplyDeleteEmmy -thanks!!! :)
ReplyDeleteAnonymous -Well I don't think the sneaky propaganda is a problem for someone who is aware of the situation. I mean, I don't swallow everything that's in my book hook, line and sinker.. I take it with a grind of salt. I often find the texts in my books to be completely old-fashioned and to the verge of ridiculous, so to b completely honest w you... I rarely even read them. Instead I focus on the vocabulary and the grammar of each chapters. For reading, I have started to buy magazines such as 'xue zhong wen' (especially made for laowais learning Chinese, but with some more modern articles), or I just try to read short stories or women's magazines... again, though, I don't believe everything I read but I think that's mainly because of the culture difference... like, so many things are just done in different ways here in China compared to back home.
As for Chinese being proud of having laowais knowing how to speak their language.. well, I don't think that's that unique in any way. I once interviewed one of Ericsson's China bosses (who's Chinese), and when I realized that he spoke fluent Swedish I almost fell of my chair. When I told my editor we even included that fact that he has Swedish language skills in the article introduction!!! that's how 'cool' we thought it was!
I think anyone who puts in the effort to learn a language (learn it well that is!) that's considered a bit harder than Eng, German, French or Spanish deserves a standing ovation. But maybe that's just me... I just get so impressed when I meet Chinese people in Finland who have picked up Finnish (some people say Finnish is even harder than Chinese!) and speak it very well, and I know that many finns would be proud to know that someone actually made an effort to learn their non-so-widely-spoked-language... so I don't know if that whole thing is that unique? Wanting to show laowais that speak Chinese on TV might be cool now, but wait 10 years and we'll see how popular it is.. Trends tend to change.
Phoenixkidd -haha, thanks! I personally prefer brunettes to blonds (I was planning to go there myself, but after my attempted wig experience I have started to doubt if it's really for me).
Pete -yeah, true. Actually, seeing how bad I felt last night I am thinking that wow, pretty cool that I still went! :)
Ed -thanks, that's nice of you to say! Makeup can do wonders! ;)
The studio setting is very classical. You look so classical too! Look forward to the full story
ReplyDelete