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Tag Archives: pop culture

One Direction who? Meet Harry Styles, solo rocker

01 Tuesday Aug 2017

Posted by Betty Zhang in Reviews

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album, album review, harry styles, music, pop culture, review, rock, singer, song, writer, writing

harry styles.jpgWe all know who he is—or do we? On the cover of his self-titled album Harry Styles is rather naked and definitely distressed: the singer bares his back to us in a pool of murky pink water, his downcast head inside cupped hands, a soaking wet study in vulnerability and penitence. The face, hair, and tattooed torso adored by millions across the globe are hidden almost with a trace of shame; the overall impression this image leaves is that of the star’s sensitivity as opposed to sexiness, 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

vintage christmas.jpg

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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Shakespearean actor dons cheap gorilla suit

18 Friday Nov 2016

Posted by Betty Zhang in Notes

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cinema, film, gorilla, hollywood, internet, jimmy kimmel, king kong, movie, pop culture, tom hiddleston, tv

tom hiddleston.jpg

When in Hollywood. Continue reading →

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You’re cordially invited to my pity party (read: my life is no lighthearted sitcom, woe is me)

17 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by Betty Zhang in Petit Passages

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entertainment, life, pop culture, sit-com, television, tv, writing

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I wish my life was a sitcom. That way, everything and everyone will turn out alright at the end, because you just know. Continue reading →

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