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Tag Archives: culture

A sound note on music’s unique, equalising ability to evoke human emotion

11 Tuesday Jul 2017

Posted by Betty Zhang in Opinion

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academia, arts, culture, emotion, human experience, music, Opinion, sociology, thoughts, writer, writing

How to begin a manifesto? Fiery-veined passion propelled me to grasp for words that equalled Chopin’s effect. Then, having failed that, I scrambled for pictures; moving pictures, still pictures, pictures of girls posing as dryads, twirling ballerinas—I even enlisted the help of one Joe Wright, filmmaker extraordinaire. All of this, to no avail. My folly, I realised with aching clarity on this cold winter afternoon with only his music for company, stems chiefly from the vain belief that Continue reading →

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The King Is Not Dead

05 Sunday Mar 2017

Posted by Betty Zhang in Notes, Opinion

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1950s, america, culture, elvis, elvis presley, icon, music, musings, Opinion, pop culture, rock, thoughts, twentieth century

elvis.jpg‘There’ll never be another Elvis,’ said the old man to the impersonator. But there needn’t be, not when he is survived and granted eternal life by his works, influence, and legacy. Why would we need another Elvis when he is the one and only? The king never died; he is unsurpassable; long live the king.

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My Anglo-American Christmas

27 Tuesday Dec 2016

Posted by Betty Zhang in Opinion

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america, books, charles dickens, christmas, cinema, culture, england, family, film, food, harry potter, history, holidays, j. k. rowling, life, memory, movie, music, nostalgia, pop culture, reading, television

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I am Chinese, my family is small and we are not religious. We don’t do gifts and parties, nor do we transform our home into a tricolour tinsel and cedar wonderland. I never even believed in Santa, thanks to my mother’s casual ‘Santa and magic and stuff are not real, it’s all made up’ when I was very young.

For Christians, Christmas is the birth of Jesus. For the non-religious, it is about Santa, reindeers, and snow. For us, it is a time to eat together: we mark the day celebrated by many with food and family, the pillars of Chinese culture, and I would not have it any other way.

But Christmas itself—be your take on it Christian or capitalist—is not Chinese, no matter how I celebrate it. Christmas in my mind is a kaleidoscope of Anglo-American sights and sounds. Continue reading →

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Vincent

06 Tuesday Dec 2016

Posted by Betty Zhang in Notes

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art, artist, culture, literature, love, painting, poem, poetry, vincent van gogh, writer, writing

vincent van gogh.jpg

Orange ‘n’ blue / Van Gogh my boo

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Leonard Cohen is dead

12 Saturday Nov 2016

Posted by Betty Zhang in Uncategorized

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arts, culture, death, leonard cohen, music, musician, poetry, prose, singer, writer, writing

leonard cohen.jpg

I heard it on the radio this afternoon so it must be true. When I got home social media confirmed the news, but unprecedented election outcomes in the States stunted the outpouring of grief for this legend of modern music and poetry. Much of the world is still reeling after Continue reading →

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A letter to James Dean on sensitivity, introversion, & metaphysical relationships

10 Thursday Nov 2016

Posted by Betty Zhang in Letters

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arts, books, celebrities, cinema, culture, hollywood, introvert, james dean, letter, literature, mind, prose, writer, writing

james dean.jpg

Dear James,

The following quote has been attributed to you but I’m not sure if you actually said it as there’s some debate online regarding its origin.

Am I in love? Absolutely. I’m in love with ancient philosophers, foreign painters, classic authors, and musicians who have died long ago. I’m a passionate lover. I fawn over these people. I have given them my heart and my soul. The trouble is, I’m unable to love anyone tangible. I have sacrificed a physical bond, for a metaphysical relationship. I am the ultimate idealistic lover.

For the sake of this letter and my sanity I’m going to assume that those words did spring from that solitary, sensitive soul of yours, because Continue reading →

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In defence of art

09 Tuesday Aug 2016

Posted by Betty Zhang in Opinion

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art, arts, Beauty, books, culture, literature, love, music, poem, poetry, prose, world, writer, writing

Bowie-1975-e1452703772242.jpg

Architects design buildings, which are then built and maintained by builders, plumbers, and electricians. These buildings provide necessary living and working spaces for residents and professionals who, in turn, contribute to their society and economy. Politicians govern, lawyers defend, doctors save lives, businesses of all shapes and sizes provide essential goods and services. Scientists, physicists, engineers, and astronomers brought humanity to the moon. The world as we know it will not cease to exist without art and its practitioners but without moonage daydreamers, boy wizards, star-crossed lovers and those whose passion or profession it is to observe, think, analyse, and create, Earth is merely that which orbits the Sun, a celestial body where the passage of time is marked by births, deaths, and unexamined lives.

So here’s to poems about nature and beauty, songs about love, books that changed the world, and paintings that bewitch with their illusions of light and movement; here’s to films that enchant and inspire, to great teachers and their scholars, to thinkers, poets, writers, artists, composers, musicians, directors—to anyone who immortalised their human experience in art form.

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There’s something gorgeous about French, no?

15 Sunday May 2016

Posted by Betty Zhang in Beauty

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art, Beauty, culture, france, french, language, linguistics, love, music, romance

an_education23

Le français est beau: French is beautiful. This subjective statement is almost an universally accepted truth in a world where revelation that something (the stylish bag you bought in Paris) or someone (that cute guy over there) is French is guaranteed to be met with an ‘ooh’ and a knowing smirk.

Oh, yes, indeed! How Frenchy, how chic, how cultured and sophisticated the French thing/person is! This is, of course, due to the enormous amount of cultural capital attached to words like ‘French’, ‘France’, ‘Paris’, or ‘Parisian’ as a result of the country’s longstanding influence on culture, art, and design in every form, from priceless paintings in the Louvre to how luxury cosmetic products are packaged and advertised.  Continue reading →

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Literary listicle: a flaneur’s stream of consciousness

05 Saturday Mar 2016

Posted by Betty Zhang in Uncategorized

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art, asia, australia, creative, culture, language, literature, personal, poetry, prose, sociology, writing

wizard-of-oz-original1.jpg

Or, had the precise terms for Baudelaire’s leisurely metropolitan stroller-cum-observer and The Catcher in the Rye‘s free-flowing narrative mode exuded less enigma, ‘Walking down the street: a list of things seen and thought about’.

Down the street I go.

Uneven pavement: the human skin (birth marks, deformities, blotches, spots and dots), success, life, the colour of elephants, scrapped knees, summer heat, pebbles and dryness.

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An elderly Greek lady: hearty home-cooked meals, the laughter of boisterous grandchildren at play, immigration, old photographs gathering dust, early morning bus rides, flowers at the cemetery, gold jewellery begging to be polished.

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Oranges on display at the fruit market: something to throw at your arch nemesis; action movie sequences involving white men on motorbikes and confused people of colour; the rough texture of a Cézanne.

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Cars: destination, rage, modernity.

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My family’s Chinese restaurant: familiarity, home, mother.

68-1948

Asian shop signs: age, haste (waste?), and money; Cantonese BBQ meat hanging in the window, glazed and dripping sauce into oily silver trays below; a steamy bowl of Vietnamese pho.

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Butchery: Babe, bacon, pink, rawness, blood and cartilage, rubber boots, wet tiles, cha-ching, thank you, next!

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Traffic lights: dusk-lit skies, grey suits, vacant stares.

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Café: chocolate brown, the inevitability of stale cake (‘It’s all fresh!’ – the shop girl), cigarette smoke, friends and lovers wiling the day away, the trusty ch-ch-chUAAAA of the milk steamer and the resolute BANG BANG of used ground coffee being emptied, muffled music and ice cubes jingling against glass, lipstick stains on napkins, crumbs and spillage.

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Liquor store: ID card (1991!), old men in tatty shirts, filthy motel rooms, vintage porno mags, the pungent odour of drunkards’ piss (why the fuck must it linger for days?), the queue at Centrelink, sweat stains…the promise of gin and momentary relief from All That Is Going Wrong (don’t).

The_Bunghole_Liquor_Store.jpg

I cross the street and enter grease, fatty patties, sodium galore, glaringly cheesy 50s Americana and pimply teenagers. They call it Hungry Jack’s. At this point we must part our ways, reader, for *Yoda voice* trash my body, I shall.

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Renoir: an impossibly French, irresistibly beautiful filmic ode to the painter

24 Sunday Jan 2016

Posted by Betty Zhang in Reviews

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

art, artist, cinema, culture, film, memoir, renoir, review

renoir-uk-film-movie-quad-poster-design-london1.jpg

Gilles Bourdos’ 2012 biopic follows an ailing but strong-willed Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s (Michel Bouquet) struggle to bring his artistic visions to life in spite of his deteriorating health. The painter draws inspiration—and much-needed spiritual rejuvenation—from Andrée Heuschling (Christa Théret), his last model. The film, set in 1915, also touches on Renoir’s struggle to make sense of his son Jean Renoir’s (Vincent Rottiers) perilous decision to rejoin the army.

On a broad scale, the film sheds light on universal themes of love, loss, pain in all its physical and emotional permutations, (be)longing, and individuals’ lifelong search for their raison d’être. It also poignantly juxtaposes Continue reading →

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