No granola

Ah, 6 am. I've just written 2500 words on how a can of Dr. Pepper can be used as a historical source. The beauty of the all-nighter. I've missed you so. I thought I'd let you know. Actually I might have pulled some in Spain while perfecting my Spanish essays, but that was different. I slept funny in that country. Of course if this were Amherst, there'd be loads of us of doing the same thing. We'd all trek to Valentine together, swipe our cards and dig into Granola. But no, this is Cambridge. My classmates wrote theirs ages ago. Granola doesn't seem to exist in this country. Nevertheless, it's been a great night. I've been discovering early 90s hip-hop - Geto Boys, Mobb Deep, Bell Biv Devoe - "that girl is POI-SON!", Warren G, Naughty By Nature, Pete Rock & CL Smooth. Good times. I kind of don't want to go to sleep now.

Booyah!

Say what you want about the sham Hong Kong elections, where we can only elect half of the legislative assembly, but any system where anyone as colourfully entertaining as"Long Hair" 長毛 Leung kwok-hung, can get reelected deserves some credit. Always decked out in his Che Guevera T-shirts, he stops at nothing to embarrass the Hong Kong and Chinese governments, gatecrashing snazzy international events with loud obnoxious protesting - "Human Rights For China" at the Olympics recently - , desecrating national flags, wearing silly pig masks, basically giving the establishment one big headache after another. A self-described Trotsykist, yet barred from Communist China, he's been imprisoned numerous times, lives in a tiny council flat, apparently reads voraciously and gives away most of his salary as a legislator. Newspapers had predicted his downfall last week but this grassroots activist sure showed them, grabbing more votes than any other pro-democracy candidate in his constituency.

In other weirder news, the notorious solicitor 謝偉俊 Paul Tse or self-proclaimed "Superman of Law" has also become a legislator. This is the guy who used to plaster his face on every bleeping minibus in the city Carrie Bradshaw style and then decided to pose nude in a magazine. WTF?

Addicted

Against my better judgment, I have become addicted to Operación Triunfo, the Spanish version of American Idol, or rather Fame Academy. I blame my flatmates.

It is complete and utter trash. The singing is really only a minor part of the competition. Because all the contestants live together in an "academy" (this term can only be applied in the most liberal way because what they do in that place has very little to do with learning), they bicker and bitchslap Big Brother style. The bickering isn't limited to the contestants either, the jury, the presenter, the director of the academy (who thinks flamboyance is an acceptable excuse for being the most annoying person ever on TV) all have tedious goes at each other to generate "tension." Then there is the blatant emotional exploitation employed by the producers who stop at nothing to make the contestants and the audience tear up. I must cop to crying four times during one show. I am that much of a sap.

The performances themselves include some of the most torturous massacres of the English language I have ever seen. Nevertheless, the jury who is most deaf and always go for the pretty girls, especially that pringao of an old pervert Javier. Really the only saving grace to this show is the Simon Cowell figure, Risto (always clad in designer shades) who thinks he's the most important person in the world. Sometimes I think this might in fact be true. Most curiously though, the favourite to win is Chipper, a married gay African American man who speaks no Spanish whatsoever.

Fortunately it's the only TV I watch nowadays. I go to the cinema 3 times a week but only watch TV once a week. It's on Tuesday nights. And since it's Spain, the show starts at 10.30 and finishes after 1am and then there's the aftershow which finishes at 2.30 in the morning. And because I am obsessed with politics, and Tuesday is primary day, I stay up and wait for the latest on Obama v. Hilary and thus spend most Wednesdays half dead. Keep in mind Spain is 6 hours ahead of Eastern Time. OMG Lake County, Indiana why did you have to count your votes so late and provide my most nail-biting moment of 2008 and make me not sleep at all. I hate you Gary, Indiana.

In other news, I've become very Spanish and have started a fotolog. I blog in Spanish now.

Boycott Hermès! Boycott Louis Vuitton! Boycott Airbus!

This is getting scary, comically scary. Chinese netizens have been leading huge anti-Western, more specifically anti-French, protests this week. They've been calling for boycotts of such illustrious French brands as Hermès, Louis Vuitton, and Airbus, never mind these are brands that they would only be able to afford in their wildest dreams. I'm sure it'll be a successful one. OK, so they've decided to take aim at good ol' Carrefour instead, but "Napoléon = Pervert" and "Free Corsica" are admittedly pretty great though.

What is worrying though is the sheer force of this nationalism and misplaced ire. All of this is due to some silly little scuffles on the Paris leg of the oh so sacred Olympic torch relay and Sarkozy threatening to boycott the Opening Ceremony unless China talks to the Dalai Lama. We Chinese are kind of, actually super sensitive it seems, when it comes to foreigners wounding our national pride. The Olympics were supposed to be our moment to bask in the glory of finally being accepted into the respectable, modern world. Yet them damn Free Tibet peace-lovers have been raining on our parade! No Fair!

And look, them so-called "peace- lovers" be frontin. Witness Exhibit A, on the left, Chinese paralympic fencer Jin Jing being attacked by crazed Free Tibetan because she is the torch bearer. Now everyone knows that attacking the disabled is not cool, but this infamous incident has been fodder for the Chinese communist propagandists. People wept tears of agony because of this. Jin Jing has become the Olympics' first national hero and they're still five months away. In the West, of course, all we ever heard about was the poor Blue Peter presenter. Chinese netizens have been mounting a bounty hunt for the head of that Free Tibetan, by the way.

Meanwhile, I went to the Dia de la Terra / Earth Day fair here in Barcelona today. It was loads of fun, spontaneous dancing, yummy veggie food, hippies and ilk. Two prominent stands were Falun Dafa Hao (there was a woman there who welcomed me with open arms and proceeded to gift me with free DVD's and newspapers) and Free Tibet. The Free Tibet stand was never less than crowded, lwith loads of liberal Europeans were lapping up the "SOS Tibet" and "Tibet is NOT China" T-shirts. The point is that Tibet, with her English-speaking charismatic Dalai Lama, Richard Gere and masses of supporters is a public relations phenomenon, lovingly courting the West and its media, whereas China is just one scary monolith stealing your jobs. Do any of us in the West feel anything positive towards China the nation? Neither Obama nor Hilary seem to.

Well in China itself, the Chinese netizens are fanatically and frighteningly patriotic, and are increasingly angry that everyone seems to hate them. Whoever said the internet would bring about the collapse of dictatorships around the world has sadly yet to be proven right. China has mastered the art of censoring the internet, but more alarmingly, netizens have become even more patriotic than the government. They jump on any anti-China bias in the Western media (and there is plenty around) and have been leading these demonstrations which have reached a magnitude that is making officials uneasy.

This is sad because very few of them, and for that matter, very few of us actually really know what's going on in Tibet. Official Chinese media says ethnic Tibetans rioted and attacked Han Chinese stores and people. While this version has been confirmed by foreigners in Lhasa at the time, but little is known about the repercussions, other than Tibetans have been acting out in various parts of China. The Free Tibet movement claims Chinese police have killed many Tibetans. This hasn't been confirmed but is what the Western media feeds us. Thus we're all caught up in a propaganda war, depending on who you choose to believe. Either way, in their view, the Chinese are the real victims. Victims, first, of Tibetan aggression within China itself; second, of Tibetan aggression in the Olympic relays; and third, of Western China-bashing. With all this groundswell of patriotism, does it matter to the commies if Sarko doesn't come? No wonder nobody wants any bloody Hermès.

2007: A Year in Review

Or The Top 13 Products of Reality TV Competitions & Their Finest Moments

Despite my having left America, 2007 was the year I watched American Idol for the first time ever. Contrary to expectations, I’d never actually watched any reality TV music competitions until earlier this year when I became compulsively addicted to the whole Sanjaya brouhaha on youtube. So I am nowhere near an expert on the topic, but since the whole phenomenon has had an immense impact on the world of pop music, and as I claim to be a pop aficionado, I’m going to try to my best to make a list out of it, because I love lists. I love reading them. I love compiling them. I love showing them off. It makes me giddy.

Of course no list would be complete without its own list of caveats. This list is heavily skewed towards U.K./U.S.A. music because that’s what I listen to mostly. Also, I have not listened to a lot of the following artists’ output, because there is too much to listen to when you are a pop music fan, so it is likely that their finest moment isn’t really their finest moment.

Bonus: Daniel Zueras
Spain – Operacion Triunfo runner-up, Season 5 (2007)
Let’s kick things off with one of the most jaw-dropping music videos ever. If you haven’t seen this, then you absolutely must. The song isn’t that much to write home about and I know practically nothing about the singer, but what a video. It features the most unconvincing pillow fight ever. Warning: not exactly safe for work though.

13. Darin Zanyar
Sweden – Idol 2004 runner-up (2004)
It’s like Aaron Carter all over again, except he’s really 20.
Finest Moment: “Insanity” (2007)
Instead of making the transition to Justin Timberlake, he seems to be taking the more adventurous JC Chasez route. A tad gothic, a tad kinky, and a catchy “hey ho.” He’s wearing a nice jacket in the video too.

12. Margaret Berger
Norway - Norwegian Idol runner-up, Season 2 (2004)
Finest Moment: “Samantha” (2006)
Bertine Zetlitz, Annie, Marit Larsen - Norway seems to be cranking out these icy electropop princesses like nobody's business. Margaret Berger, despite coming out of the Idol school of music, follows closely in the vein of the aforementioned. "Samantha" is dizzying electrogoodness, while aspiring to be a self-help anthem as well: "Let your head up high, girl / you need to be yourself."

11. Lemar
U.K. – Fame Academy, 2nd runner-up, 2002
Sadly, he seems to be the only visible face of the UK R&B scene, one which is very much in the doldrums :(.
Finest Moment: “Dance (With U)” (2003)
Lemar burst onto the scene with a debut that was a wonderful slice of throwback R&B. Laidback, groovy, "the ooh the aah the ooh," it was the epitome of a lazy summer track. Unfortunately, with the exception of "If There's Any Justice," his brand of adult contemporary R&B has been dull and duller ever since.

10. Jennifer Hudson
U.S.A. – American Idol contestant, Season 3 (2004)
Boy, she sure told that Beyoncé, didn’t she? Dreamgirls exploded to life whenever Jennifer Hudson was on screen, which sadly wasn’t enough.
Finest Moment: “And I Am Telling You That I’m Not Going (Richie Jones Dance Remix)” (2007)
Because few things are better than big gay house remix of a Broadway belter, but those few things do exist and so let’s count them down!

9. Katharine McPhee
U.S.A. – American Idol runner-up, Season 5 (2006)
Perhaps the world's most prominent victim of reverse-ageism
Finest Moment: “Love Story” (2007)
This is glorious. Horns, handclaps throughout the song. Backup soul singers that go oooh ooh ooh. Katharine might be recounting the “typical love story," but this simple song was one of the best pop songs of last year.

8. Christophe Willem
France – Nouvelle Star winner, Season 4 (2006)
They call him "The Turtle." His back seems to be perpetually hunched. He's got to be one of the world's unlikeliest popstars.
Finest Moment: “Double Je” (2007)
When I first heard this song, I had no idea it was a guy, which goes to show what an astonishing falsetto Christophe has. It's a catchy, slinky disco number, the highlight of which is Christophe screaming "Je me déguise, en chanteur dans ma salle de bain!" Along with the new Alizée and Julie Zenatti, there were loads to excited about with French pop in 2007.

7. David Bisbal
Spain – Operación Triunfo runner-up, Season 1 (2002)
My students tell me that he’s the only Spanish reality TV star worth a grain of salt.
Finest Moment:“Torre De Babel (Reggaéton Mix)” feat. Vicente Amigo y Wisin & Yandel (2007)
Flamenco + Reggaéton = mind-blowing. This song is just massive.

6. Carrie Underwood
U.S.A. – American Idol winner, Season 4 (2005)
She once implored Jesus to take the wheel.
Finest Moment: “Before He Cheats” (2006) Obviously. Wow. This song made me reconsider the whole genre of country music, which I had previously rather ignorantly written off. This song is so fierce - “I dug my key into the side of his pretty little souped up 4 wheel drive / carved my name into his leather seat / I took a Louisville slugger to both headlights / slashed a hole in all 4 tyres/ maybe next time he’ll think before he cheats.” – that’s what girl power is all about. In fact, I could've just quoted the whole song, as it's so quotable. But what makes it so great is that Carrie herself hams it up with a little guttural affectation. Few things are as bitter, funny, and endlessly entertaining as a wronged psycho country girl.

5. Miranda Lambert
U.S.A. – Nashville Star, 3rd place, Season 1 (2003)
More country! Incredible, isn’t it? What’s become of me? I actually went out to buy this album - my first and only country album.
Finest Moment: “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” (2007)
There’s something about these wronged country girls and their violent beer-guzzling, pistol-carrying, trash-talking tendencies that make for wonderfully unhinged vocal performances, replete with their adorable twangs, and backed up with loud guitars, harmonicas, tambourines and banjos. Ooh, it’s just great. Miranda goes to places wee Carrie can't even fathom. One of her cracking songs has her loading a shotgun, lighting a cigarette, and yelling "I'm gonna show what little girls are made of / Gunpowder and Lead!" Having said that, Miranda is by no means a one-trick pony. She gamely throws herself into her melancholic ballads, but it is avenging touch chick shtick that makes for the most entertaining.

4. Will Young
U.K. – The original Pop Idol (2002).
Believe it or not, Will Young is the music video artist of this millennium. Few artists have made videos as consistently entertaining and original as he has. The run of Leave Right Now / Your Game / Friday’s Child / Switch It On / All Time Love / Who Am I is absolutely amazing. Like Kelly Clarkson after him, Will Young abandoned the pop ballad path that his record company had probably condemned him to, and reinvented himself as a chameleonic popstar.
Finest Moment: “Your Game” (2004)

Although his gender-bending cover of Tori Alamaze/Pussycat Dolls' "Don't Cha" was all kinds of ace ("Don't you wish your girlfriend was a free-ee-ee-ee-eak"), "Your Game" was the song that made me sit up and pay attention to him. I had previously written off as little more than a boring record company cipher, the way that Leona Lewis seems to be now ("Bleeding Love's" ludicrous OTTness notwithstanding), but this is a big, bombastic, Broadway superstar track. Will Young's roots are in musical theater, and it clearly shows this is where he's most comfortable, when he's funky and theatrical. The best thing about is the question and answer thing he does with his backing chorus "What you gon do?" "I DON'T KNOW!" "what you gon say?" "I AIN'T SURE!"

3. Kelly Clarkson
U.S.A. – The original American Idol (2002)
Kelly’s debut had some great songs in “Miss Independent” and “The Trouble With Love Is”, but she proved she wasn’t going to play the straight pop game in the amazing Breakaway. Sadly her new album, which generated loads of controversy because of its rancorous conception, has produced little more than indifference upon its release.
Finest Moment: “I Hate Myself For Losing You” (2004)
An underrated album track wherein Kelly proves that she's got lots of angst, but not so much that it's at an annoying Alanis level, and not as teenagerish as Avril's either. It's a very likeable Kelly Clarkson angst. This is an enormously catchy ditty, and it builds up so that she's really belting it out in the last minute. I'd sing along the whole way through if it weren't for the clumsy line "what do you do when you look in the mirror and staring at you is why he's not here?"

2. Fantasia Barrino
U.S.A. – American Idol winner, Season 3 (2004)
Fantasia, oooh Fantasia. She has one of those unique fiery and husky voices that screams out for some explosive man-munching material. It goes without saying that her teary heartstopping performance of "I Believe" on winning American Idol is flat-out amazing, but songs like “Hood Boy” and “Baby Makin’ Hips” fully exploit her voluptuous volatility.
Finest Moment: “When I See U (Remix)” feat. Polow Da Don & Young Jeezy (2007) <<---- it is imperative that you download this!
Polow Da Don (producer of the year) works his wonders on Fantasia’s lovesick blushing, stuttering and scribbling X’s and O’s by inserting a menacing, towering backing beat and heavy synth lines. While Fantasia’s incredible howling about the mundane: “Should I send an email at hooooooome?” “Youuuuuuu sexy booooooyyy” is further juxtaposed with Young Jeezy’s thuggish non-cussing (it’s a remix for the radio, he fondly points out). Incongruous, perhaps? No way. It becomes a battle between Fantasia’s amazing emoting and the masculine crunk. Er, my most listened to song of 2007, this.

TO BE CONTINUED... (whenever I can be bothered)

Kids and film

The most right-wing people I have met in a long time are the class of 14 year olds I teach. They live in the center of the city, and so are pretty well off. But some of the things that they say are quite frightening, like "Sarkozy is the best thing ever to happen to Europe," attacking Catalan autonomy and especially Barcelona Football Club, and quoting verbatim what the leader of the conservative party here in Spain, the PP, has to say about anything and everything. Clearly their parents have a lot to answer for.

I also teach at a secondary school out in the east of the city, in an area that is somewhat shabbier but is charmingly known as Clot. I've got a class of 16 year olds and a class of 17 year olds. Most of my students there are pretty liberal and some of them are fervent anarchists. One of them regularly participates in anti-fascist protests that inevitably end up being violent clashes with the police. He also listens to a genre of music known as Oi!; one day he brought in a song entitled "Skinheads on the rampage" for the class to listen to (He's actually a lovely kid).

So I've been a bit lazy and decided to watch films with my classes. This week, my 16 and 17 year olds have been watching The Squid and the Whale, one of my favourite American films of recent years. While I'm sure they aren't obsessed with dysfunctional family movies as I am, they were greatly amused by the foulmouthed and atypically horny 12 year old boy, although they were befuddled by the unconventional ending. I didn't think my Sarkozy-worshipping 14 year olds would have taken well to it, especially as they gawked with horror when I showed them the trailer to Juno - "This type of thing [Teenage pregnancy] only happens in America - here in Spain, we are Catholic, this would never happen." They're either deluded or they're going to be perfect politicians.


I wondered then, whilst watching the incendiary new Mexican thriller La Zona, how my 14 year olds would react to it. What a frightening but incredibly relevant film it is. It's full out class warfare set in the gated communities which litter Latin America, where the poor are helpless, where the police are corrupt to the high heavens, and where the rich and powerful, paranoid of crime, violently decide to take justice into their own hands. It's ruthlessly critical of inequality that is rife in Latin America. It is interestingly, also a coming of age story where a wealthy teenager realises that there's a world outside the sheltered half-truths that his father has been feeding him. If only this film was in English, so then I'd have a reason to make my 14 year olds watch it.

El Poder de las Palabras

Una manera por la que aprendo palabras de un idioma es escuchar canciones. La primera canción en castellano de que me acuerdo haber escuchado es “Frijolero” del grupo rap-rock mexicano Molotov. Ya que no entendía mucho castellano, la canción me impresionó mucho porque era fácil de comprender. La canción, que trata del racismo en la frontera mexicano-estadounidense, es brusca, indecente y fogosa. Acusa a los estadounidenses de derecha de llamar “frijoleros,” una palabra despectiva, a los mexicanos. También les acusa de meter las narices, explotar y hacer la guerra a otros países.


Es irónico que el grupo Molotov mismo fuera acusado de escribir canciones misóginas, machistas y antiestadounidenses. Las letras de sus canciones son muy fuertes. Las palabras que usa son las que no son enseñadas en las clases de castellano. En la canción “Frijolero,” describe a los estadounidenses como “gringos,” “puñeteros” y palabras aún peores. Su otra canción “Puto”, que incluye la línea “matarile al maricón,” causó mucha controversia, porque fue interpretada como homofóbica. Molotov explicó que la palabra “puto” no es un insulto a un homosexual, sino se usa con el sentido de un miserable o un vago. Las canciones de Molotov imitan y se burlan de la mentalidad machista y latina.

¿Para qué usa Molotov estas palabras tan incendiarias y provocadoras? Para que las recordemos. Son palabras que tienen poder para indignarnos y asustarnos, pero también poder para impresionarnos. Los temas de los que tratan las canciones de Molotov, como el racismo, el machismo, intolerancia y la corrupción, son temas que deberían indignarnos.

Mi canción favorita de Molotov se llama “Gimme the power / Dame el poder” que es una protesta agresiva contra la corrupción del gobierno desde el punto de vista de la gente que vive en la pobreza, desde la gente sin el poder. Con un estribillo muy pegadizo: “dame dame dame dame todo el power /para que te demos en la madre / Gimme gimme gimme gimme todo el poder / so I can come around to joder,” la canción ha llegado a ser un himno generacional para el impotente contra la autoridad. De alguna manera, expresando este sentimiento con palabras, el poder ya está en sus manos.

OMG i danced with sharon jones!

"Right now for your enjoyment and pleasure we would like to introduce to you - the funky and dynamic sister who is exciting dance floors across the nation with her dynamic new sound…. Soul brothers and sisters from coast to coast get up and get down whenever her records are played. They doin' all the funky new dances - They doin' the Bump N Touch, they doin' the Dap Dip. Everything. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm talking about 110 pounds of soul excitement coming for you. This sister is so bad, she’s badder than bad…. And now ladies and gentlemen, the star of our show — the super soul sister with the magnetic je ne sais quoi — Miss Sharon Jones! Miss Sharon Jones! Miss Sharon Jones!" - Binky Griptite, The Dap-Kings.



She's 51. She's got crazy legs she used to kick up a storm. She's a former prison guard. She sounds like she came from a time warp in the 60's with her James Brown aping funk and her fierce, screaming voice. She also looked straight at me and demanded a young man come up on stage and dance with her and her band, the Dap-Kings. I obliged. What else could I have done? I might have grabbed her ass at one point. I can't remember. There were too many people watching me.

Needless to say, it was the best concert I've ever been to.

You can still touch my knob, it's free

'

I need a life. I got a new computer. The other one was 6 years old and I had to delete music files all the time as nothing would fit in the 30 GB hard drive. The new one has 120 GB, except because I've got so many remixes, I've only got 30 GB of space left. eek.
***

Despite releasing an album this year, Timbaland's output this year is quite rubbish when compared to his 2006 work, and sounds boring compared when put next to Polow Da Don. In one (foul) fell swoop, the horrible "Give It To Me" undid all the fine work on Loose and FutureSex/LoveSounds. Luckily, "The Way I Are" is all kinds of awesome. Hip-hop can always do with more techno beats and synths, but the best thing about it is the lovely Keri Hilson. I giggle every time I hear her sing "you can still touch my knob, it's free." Keri Hilson has a knob! haha! Not the real words sadly.

So onto the remixes. There are so many. The French version is crap. The OneRepublic remix is quite gorgeous in the Coldplay-influenced way that "I Think She Knows" and "All Good Things (Come To An End)" were. My favourite is The Icons Remix that loops Keri Hilson's voice over and over and goes on for 7 minutes. Bliss.

The most wtf remix is the Nephew Remix by Danish rock band Nephew. "The Way I Are" is essentially a tale of a poor guy trying to get it on with a girl, and the girl saying that she doesn't mind his poverty. Nephew build on this premise and put an ethnic identity spin on it, it doesn't matter, we're Scandinavian, we're socialists, we like sex with the penniless - "I'm Scandinavian, everything is what it is; I'm Scandinavian, everything is free." - thus turning it into some weird Scandinavian hard rock anthem.

me and my lil bro

I'm back in Hong Kong. I've been hanging out a lot with my 14 year old brother, who is the coolest 14 year old in the world, because I've managed to convince him that there's absolutely no shame in listening to Avril Lavigne.

I got a little worried when I came home after being away for so long and saw that he's been listening to the likes of Travis, Jet and Switchfoot(!?!). It was obvious that my sister had been corrupting him with her rubbish pretend / Christian rock ways. All was not lost though; he and I both agreed that Good Charlotte's "Keep Your Hands Off My Girl" and My Chemical Romance's "Teenagers" are unimpeachable rock ditties, both of which we would scream along to. Anyways, after much indoctrination in the form of forced listenings to my ipod during our roadtrip through the mountains of Sichuan, he not only randomly bursts into "Hey! Hey! You! You! I don't like your girlfriend! No way! No way!" in the middle of the day but he also does "Lil Mama and Avril Lavigne! Remix! Lil Mama and Avril Lavigne! Remix!" Likewise, instead of "you can stand under my umb-ba-rella, ella, ella,ey ey" I've heard him do "you can be my cind-er-ella, ella, ella, ey ey." Maybe that last part was just my fanciful imagination, but either way I'm way proud of him.

this is us on a good day.
Juizhaigou, Sichuan Province, China. This is supposedly the lake where Zhang Yimou shot the fighting and flying over the lake scene in Hero.
Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan Province, China. The water in the lakes and waterfalls at Jiuzhaigou are so clear and blue, it's unreal. But you really need to be an expert at the art of crowd-dodging because the place is packed with Chinese tourists.
Our extended family donated money to build a primary school in a rural village in Guangxi Autonomous Region in memory of our grandmother. There was pomp and circumstance at the opening of it. Boring speeches extolling the virtues of education, communism, charity, as well as lion dances, flagwaving, etc.