Ines Brunn
Ines Brunn lives in Beijing and owns a fixed gear bike shop. She also performs and does amazing tricks on the bike.
A video about Ines should come up soon.
Xiangqi
Chinese men gather and play Xiangqi (Chinese chess) everyday. Even if wind blows away the board with pieces once in a while and fingers are freezing. They lit up their cigarettes and play over and over again. "This is our hobby," they say. "Everybody likes to play." So they play, play, play.
"The rules are almost the same as for international chess," explains one of the men. "It goes back to the times of Xiang Yu and Liu Bang. Each player has 16 pieces. There are 32 pieces in the game. Jiang is your side's symbol. And if it's captures by the other player, you lose the game."
"You fight using your mind and strategy. It's like life," adds another one.
Xiangqi (象棋) is a two-player Chinese board game in the same family as Western chess, chaturanga,shogi, Indian chess and janggi. The present-day form of Xiangqi originated in China and is therefore commonly called Chinese chess in English.
The game represents a battle between two armies, with the object of capturing the enemy's "general" piece. Xiangqi is one of the most popular board games in China. Distinctive feature of Xiangqi include the unique movement of the pao ("cannon") piece, a rule prohibiting the generals (similar to Chess King) from facing each other directly, and the river and palace board features, which restrict the movement of some pieces.
More about Chinese Chess in Wikipedia.
Elyse's American Dream in China
Elyse's American Dream in China from upe on Vimeo.
It’s been 8 years Elyse lives in Beijing. Elyse came to China unexpectedly and fell in love with Beijing, so decided to come here after her graduation. “There is a really good Chinese word yuen fen, that explains how I ended up in China. I was originally studying Arabic and I was supposed to go to Egypt to study abroad, but my university decided it was a little bit risky. And then my friend said, I should go with them to Beijing. So I came. It was a special semester, every morning we had Chinese class and every afternoon we would go and do anthropological field studies on the streets of Beijing. So, if that doesn’t make you fall in love with the city… It was a really nice way to get an introduction to Beijing. I came back another semester and then I moved here in 2003, after the graduation. I don’t think you decide to stay in Beijing, as life just happens. I would have never imagined that I would be doing things that I’m doing now. As a friend of mine put it, I’m achieving my American dream by living in China, which is funny, but kind of true.”
Elyse writes and directs plays and is already known in Beijing for her comedies. “I don’t need for people to love me, that’s not my goal. I need for people to think about things and step outside of their boxes. That’s what I want,” says Elyse. “And for them to laugh. Because you either are going to laugh or you are going to cry. Those are the two reactions you are going to have to any issue that you deal with in your life. As you deal with your life and issues that you come across, you can crawl and cry about them or you can laugh about them and be a bigger person. Laughter is one of the things that make human good. And it is a great medicine. Why not to have more laughter?”
A 24h assignment
Topic: Rising prices in China
A part of a multimedia assignment:
Rising food prices from upe on Vimeo.
Higher food prices – less profit
Rising food prices mean hard times for restaurant owners. As food is getting more expensive, costs of doing business rise as well.Fan Liu Ling together with her husband opened a little restaurant "Ma Shi Tiang Xia Di Yi Feng" two months ago.
They mainly serve traditional Xichuan food such as spicy noodles or spicy hotpot. According to Liu Ling, prices of some products that they use in the restaurant’s kitchen went considerably higher since the opening.
“For example, the price of the sauce for spicy noodles used to cost about 180 Yuan a pack, whereas now it's 210 Yuan a pack,” says Liu Ling.
“Another product that has got more expensive is oil. Today we went to the store for the can of oil and found out that now it costs 30 Yuan more than the last time.
Production costs in China have been rising because of government regulations on taxes and retirement insurance, as well as more expensive raw materials.
But with prices rising for many commodities like sugar, oil and cotton, the country’s cabinet announced that it would impose price controls on food, introduce subsidies for the needy and increase the availability of fuel supplies. It should stabilize prices, according to a statement on a government Web site.
Though products cost more, and each bowl of noodles is actually more expensive now, Liu Ling is afraid to raise prices at her restaurant.
“The competition is very fierce and we are afraid to loose our customers,” says woman. “But if prices will keep going higher and we won’t be able pay the rent, eventually we will have to raise our prices too. The prices will also get higher if we start making no profit at all.”
Singing Beijing
Halloween Subway party
$300 assignment - everything was shot on a compact camera.
Halloween Subway Party from upe on Vimeo.
Let's go. With Pablo.
Pablo Bartholomew from upe on Vimeo.
Video on ChinaDaily http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/video/2010iopf.html
The National Day in China
China celebrates it's 61st Annyversary. Tian'anmen Squere, Beijing, China, 2010 10 01.
On October 1st, The National Day of the People's Republic of China (国庆节) is celebrated. The PRC was founded in 1949 with a ceremony at Tiananmen Square. This is where many Chinese people come every year, during the public holyday.
