http://www.gochengdoo.com/ http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/blog/item/2932/whats_on_chengdu_may_1719 FRIDAY | MAY 17

youku

Li Daiguo @ Machu Picchu
Experimental world/folk.
Starts at 9 p.m.

youku

Mosaic @ Little Bar
Chengdu dance rock. RMB60 (students RMB50).
Starts at 8 p.m.

Red Water @ Hemp House
Funk rock. After party with DJ Cvalda. RMB40 (incl. 1 gin tonic).
Starts at 9 p.m.

SATURDAY | MAY 18

Xi Meng @ Machu Picchu
Chinese folk/ rock. RMB40 (pre-sale RMB30).
Starts at 9 p.m.

Bloom Party @ Morning Bar
with DJs Yang Bing, Kaize, Ewan & XiaoLong. RMB30.
Starts at 2 p.m.



OCC - Out of Countrol @ Little Bar
Beijing rock. RMB40.
Starts at 8 p.m.

TA5TY! & Disco Death @ Hemp House
with DJs Loco, Issy!, Just Charlie. Free entrance. Starts at 10 p.m. Happy hour before 9 p.m.

Chengdu Mustangs VS Shanghai Nighthawks @ Sichuan University (main football field stadium)
American Football match. Free entrance.
Starts at 2 p.m.

SUNDAY | MAY 19

Red Dress Charity Run @ Orchard Villas corner
RMB100 (first 100 to sign get a t-shirt and dinner). Benefits to to Hopeful Hearts.

Hu Defu aka Ara Kimbo @ Jingcheng Art Palace
Taiwanese folk/ world. RMB80-580.
Starts at 8 p.m.

Liu Dongming @ Little Bar
Chinese folk. RMB60 (students RMB50).
Starts at 8 p.m.

Sichuan Symphony Orchestra Weekend Concert @ Jiaozi Concert Hall
Italian opera benefit concert.
Starts at 8 p.m.

Open Guitar Class @ Eight and a half Bar
with Soundtoy guitarist Li Zhe. Free entrance.
2.30 - 5.30 p.m.



Freaking hot @ Nuokenuo Bar (opposite the Main Gate of Chengdu University of Technology)
Local old school punk & thrash metal with Coming Up for Air & TMetal. RMB5.
Starts at 7.30 p.m.

Vintage Flea Market & BBQ @ Old fashioned cafe (16 Paotong Shujie)
2 - 10 p.m.

ONGOING

Oil on canvas: Contemporary Chinese Art @ Chengdu East Music Park (Cengyi Gallery)
Free entrance.
April 20 - May 20

Soft Violence @ K Gallery
Luo Fahui solo exhibition. Free entrance
April 25 - May 24

The Moment of Blossom @ ViaVia
Contemporary art exhibition with Yining Zhao.
May 14 - 25

Zoige @ West Village Lifestyle Center
Tibetan and Qiang craft and art exhibition. Free entrance.
Though May 27

WANDERLUST @ Moca
Modern art exhibition with Francis Alys, Marcel Broodthaers, Honore d'O, Joelle Tuerlinckx & Panamernko
Free entrance.
April 18 - June 9

Suwen @ Yingmeng Art Salon (Chengdu East Music Park)
Contemporary Chinese art exhibition with He Duoling and others. Free entrance.
May 11 - June 10

Ensemble @ Yijia Art Gallery
Rumen Raykov collection exhibition.
May 18 - June 18

UPCOMING EVENTS

Agnes Kain @ Little Bar
Aussie accustic pop. RMB80 (RMB60 pre-sale).
Starts at 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 21

This will destroy You @ Little Bar
Indie/ post-rock from Texas. Support: 48V. RMB80 (pre-sale RMB60).
Starts at 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 22

youku

Mr. Turtle @ Little Bar
aka Mr. Chelonian. Local pop/ rock. Support: Heermeng. RMB60 (pre-sale RMB50)
Starts at 8 p.m. Friday, May 24

Apollo 20 @ Hemp House
Chengdu rock. After party with DJ Loco. RMB30.
Starts at 9 p.m. Friday, May 24

youku

Zuoyuo @ Little Bar
Chinese rock. Support: Monkey Legion. RMB60 (pre-sale RMB50).
Starts at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 25

Zhu Guangyu @ Machu Picchu
Chinese folk. RMB50 (pre-sale RMB40).
Starts at 9 p.m. Saturday, May 25

Show Luo @ Sichuan Provincial Gymnasium
Taiwanese Mandopop. RMB280-1,280.
Startst at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 25

Tiger Battle of the Bands @ Little Bar
rock band talent concert. Free entrance.
Starts at 7.30 p.m. Sunday, May 26]]> Thu, 16 May 2013 10:55:00 +0800 http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/blog/item/2932/whats_on_chengdu_may_1719 http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/blog/item/2935/sticky_business_kendoka_in_chengdu
In 2003, the couple decided to move to Chengdu and start careers, she, teaching English, and he, refereeing for the Asian Karate Federation (he holds a sixth-degree black belt in karate), work they continue to this day. Two years later, they opened a kendo club where they both teach and train. In the meantime, they also had two sons, who are starting to practice kendo but "mostly are busy with homework," according to their mom.

Against a backdrop of nonstop energetic battle calls and the sounds of students smacking their bamboo swords (shinai) against helmets, Bergen-Bartel sat down and shared her insights on kendo—the "way of the sword."

What is the state of kendo in China and in Chengdu?
Officially, China joined the international federation in 2009, so before that time it was pretty unofficial. It's slowly just going to different cities. There are lots of people practicing in Beijing and Shanghai—those are the major powerhouses for kendo because there are more foreigners there. Right now China doesn't have a lot of high-ranking practitioners; the highest is fifth dan [rank]. Eighth dan is the highest rank you can get. I'm third dan now, and currently my husband is fourth dan, so he's the highest dan in the southwest. They have a lot of high-ranking practitioners in Japan, U.S., France, Korea, and Taiwan.

In the southwest [of China], we are the first official club. In China, I think Beijing has the first club, they were founded in 1998. In Chengdu there are a couple other clubs. There are affiliated clubs and then there are non-affiliated clubs. There's quite a few affiliated clubs, I can't remember how many now. Then there's maybe one unaffiliated club that I know of, close to Sichuan University. We host the Chengdu Open in July, we have people coming from all over China, sometimes we get people from Hong Kong if we're lucky, and there's been a couple of Japanese who live in Beijing.



How do people react to it given its ties to Japan?
Originally people were like God, what's this? But then of course you get anime lovers, Japanese-culture lovers, who are interested. And slowly you just get people who are more interested in the sports, martial-arts interest. I think karate, jujitsu, and judo are definitely more widely practiced in China. But kendo's slowly gaining its place. There's a deeper aspect of spiritualism in kendo, I feel. You do a lot of kata [form work], so in general that's the attraction a lot of people have to kendo, and also you get to use a sword, so that's fun. A lot of people get interested [first] in the swords.

What were your goals and what challenges did you face starting up a kendo school?
For my husband, I think he wanted to be a teacher, he wanted to teach martial arts and he wanted to bring back more purified martial arts to China, to Chengdu because at the time there was only one karate school, and it was not very authentic. So he wanted to bring that kind of culture and let everyone enjoy the physical activity of martial arts.

We had a lot of trouble starting because not many people knew of the martial art, so just promoting kendo was hard, and slowly over the years more and more people were informed about Japanese culture and Japanese martial arts and they came to watch or try out, and that garnered more interest. I think most interest is spread by word of mouth because we don't have a Web site. Occasionally we've done demonstrations at Ito Yokado for Japanese fests, and there were a couple TV programs that we've been on, but we haven't done that much promotion.

How many students do you have, and what kind of people do they tend to be?
We have about 100 who are regular, more than 80 have obtained first-degree black belt or above. A lot of times there are people who are interested in anime who show up but normally they don't stay that long, sadly. There are other people who come and say, "Wow this is so cool, I want to do it," and they normally stay longer, and now there are more people interested in budo culture. [Students who have practiced other martial arts] have been educated on the culture behind martial arts, so they're not as likely to have preconceived ideas. So they're more adapted to this kind of culture in the first place and so they're more likely to succeed.

Most of the students are full-time workers. We don't have many stay-at-home moms or anything. But we do have a lot of girls—the ratio is about 3:7, female to male. Normally there's a lot more guys in kendo so our dojo's pretty lucky in that way. The jujutsu club is mostly guys—I've only seen one or two girls in there before. We try to promote it toward women more and try to make the women feel equally comfortable as the guys in a situation and if they receive a mis-strike or something we make a joke and make sure the guys don't do it again.

Sometimes there are championships where women compete with men, but usually not in China. It's more interesting, I find. Men are a lot more physical with their fighting—they use more power—and women are more technical. They're smaller so they have to use technique to succeed in fights. So it's interesting to see them fight with each other.



Are there martial arts that are more female oriented?
There's a martial art in Japan, naginata, it's with a long spear. That's more female-dominated in Japan—I guess it's the culture; a long time ago the women could defend their homes with long spears and still take care of their kids on their backs and guys would go to the battlefield with swords.

How practical would kendo be in a real-life fight?
Not practical. I should just get a gun [laughs]. No, it's not very practical. In some way I think having the experience fighting people helps because you can confront people with loud screams and maybe scare them, but if I came into a difficult situation, I'd probably just throw my wallet and run.

How often do you practice, and do you practice any other martial arts?
Typically two to three hours a day. On the weekend normally more, six hours or something like that. I do iaido and jodo, iaido's with the real sword, and jodo's with a staff, and I started karate recently but I'm not practicing regularly.

Do you think there's a kendo-Star Wars connection?
I don't think I'm qualified to judge what George Lucas had in mind! But I think the ethics behind the Jedi philosophy is kind of connected to kendo or budo culture in general; I think that's what inspired the Jedi knights, I don't know. I think George Lucas said The Hidden Fortress was one of the films that inspired him to write Episode 4.

Have you participated in major tournaments?
We have five national team members that participated in the last world championships in Italy. My husband and I participated in the previous world championships, the 14th world championships [in Brazil]. So I actually got to play as a [China national] team member—a lot of people were like, "What? There's a blond girl on the Chinese team?" It confuses the hell out of people. People who have practiced in the country and technically started in the country can get permission from the national organization to play for the national team. So since I got my first dan in China, I'm considered like a Chinese practitioner. It's a little strange.



And you've won some too, right?
I've won the women's division national championship twice in China.

Have you received any honors or accolades from the government for your work?
I wish! Not yet. Kendo's very small compared to the other sports in China, and it's not officially recognized as a sport so the government is not that interested in it. But I think slowly as the popularity grows the government will get more involved. Right now they're getting pretty involved through the wushu association. Some tournaments have prize money, but not in China. Here, there are trophies and equipment for prizes.

What's the best way to train?
I think a lot of smart and hard training helps, and understanding that it takes a long time to build up the proper techniques and ability to use your body along with the sword. So just knowing yourself and practicing hard and practicing right will help you. Training right, knowing yourself and having a cause I think is what's going to help.

What does kendo bring to you?
I think kendo's a good way to learn more about yourself, your own spirit—that's a little out there, but that's why I do kendo, to learn more about myself and overcome my weaknesses.

Mugen Ryu Martial Arts Academy offers courses in kendo, jujutsu, iaido, jodo, budo taijutsu, and self-defense for women. Classes are held on weeknights and during the daytime on weekends.

This article was first published in CHENGDOO citylife Magazine, issue 63 ("people").
Photos by Dan Sandoval. ]]> Wed, 15 May 2013 00:45:00 +0800 http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/blog/item/2935/sticky_business_kendoka_in_chengdu http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/blog/item/2933/faces_of_bangladesh
One of my friends told me that he had heard stories of people going to Bangladesh and then getting back on the plane out the very same day. I can believe it.



I landed in Dhaka, paid 50 USD for a visa on arrival, and my adventure began. To fully experience the intensity of the place, I stayed in the old part of the city. I thought I was prepared, but even with my previous exposure to the Indian subcontinent, Bangladesh tested my nerves and patience and pushed me out of my comfort zone. I will never complain again about the bad traffic back home! I will appreciate the effectiveness of Chengdu's traffic light system, the importance of bus schedules, and the comfort of brushing my teeth with tap water.




But there would be no Bangladesh without the people! Despite facing poverty, corruption, and vulnerability to climate change, the people I encountered were incredibly friendly, generous, curious and open-hearted, at times bombarding me with questions. Besides encounters with locals, the country has a lot to offer: Tea plantations in the northeast, the biggest mangrove forest in the world (Sundarbans), the world's longest natural sandy sea beach, fishing with otters, amazingly sweet and tasty cakes and desserts are a few of the things that make the country worth a visit.





































































This article was first published in CHENGDOO citylife Magazine, issue 63 ("people"). Photos & text by Michal Pachniewski.]]> Tue, 14 May 2013 13:55:00 +0800 http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/blog/item/2933/faces_of_bangladesh http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/blog/item/2934/crouching_pepper_hidden_panda_another_chengdu_promo_video
The animation features dancing chili peppers escaping from a hot pot to party around the city, enjoying somoe of the most notable traditions of Sichuanese cultlure, including face-changing at the opera, drinking tea in the tea fields, and then flying by the Global Center.

youku

The video was created by a group of five young IT employees who call themselves "Chengdu IT Sisters." The women said that they were inspired to start working on the video after they saw the "9 Minutes to Know about Chengdu" video last summer.

This video, created by "Chengdu IT Man," gives a nine-minute overview of Chengdu's history and current economic and social situation (in English and Chinese).

youku

The IT Sisters, co-workers at the Chengdu Hengfeng Animation Company (成都恒风动漫制作公司), decided they would release their own short promotional video about Chengdu before the Fortune Global Forum this June and worked on it during their free time for half a year.

After the warm reaction to the first video, the IT Sisters hope to create another video featuring kung fu peppers.



Although most of the hundreds of comments on the Youku post of the IT Sisters' video were positive, some were cynical: "This is all in the past, now the calling card of the city is exhaust, exhaust, exhaust."]]> Tue, 14 May 2013 12:20:00 +0800 http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/blog/item/2934/crouching_pepper_hidden_panda_another_chengdu_promo_video http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/blog/item/2931/interview_with_sichuan_quake_reliefs_peter_goff Volunteers sort donated materials after the Wenchuan quake in 2008. Photo by Julien Rideller

Sichuan Quake Relief is a Chengdu-based, community-response NGO that formed in May 2008 in response to the Wenchuan earthquake, providing immediate relief as well as working on longer-term assistance projects west Sichuan. The organization also provided aid following the 2010 quake that hit the Yushu region of the Sichuan-Qinghai border.

Days after the Lushan quake, we sat down with SQR founder Peter Goff, who had gone to Lushan following the jolt and reported that search-and-rescue efforts were shifting toward relief work—providing the displaced with temporary shelter, food, water, and medical aid. Frequent and heavy aftershocks, landslides, and rain were causing logistical difficulties, especially in the most isolated parts that were cut off from road access.

At the time of writing, the quake and subsequent aftershocks had left nearly 200 people dead, around 20 missing, more than 11,000 injured (among which 1,000 cases were classified as severe), and 150,000 homeless.

Can you give us a general update on the situation in Lushan?
The lack of access is a bit frustrating. All the NGOs are waiting to get in. After the last experience they are well prepared, but the permits to go in will be restricted – I think there will be tighter restrictions [than in 2008] because of the potential for congestion and the extreme dangers going up there. You're surrounded by mountains which must be four, five thousand meters high and with just straight cliff faces. The day I was there, two vehicles went off the edge, one excavator and one truck that was carrying some soldiers. And this was in dry conditions, so you can imagine what's like when it's wet up there.


Lushan citizens in front of their collapsed home. Photo by China News

Like in the 5.12 [May 12, 2008] quake, you have structural engineers going up there carrying three pots of paint, green, red, and yellow. If your house is OK, they paint it green, if it needs reinforcement, they splash it yellow, and if it has to come down they splash it red. Out of the 150,000 homeless some get the green splash, and they can move back in, and the ones with a red splash have to be rebuilt. This time they started putting up tents really quickly. In Lushan Middle School, they had them fully erected by Saturday night [the day of the quake]—200 tents, each accommodating 12 people or so. And that was one of eight tent centers in Lushan. Somewhere on the road between Ya'an and Lushan they have 60,000 tents, so there should be enough tents and enough medics on the road to help.

What is SQR doing at the moment?
While we're waiting [to get in to assess the situation], we're preparing hygiene packs like we did for 5.12. We take a plastic basin and fill it with detergents, hand wipes, soaps, toothbrushes and toothpaste, Band-Aids, plus things that are useful in a camping environment—strings, scissors, waterproof tape, disposable ponchos, candles, lighters. We can make any number of those—depending on what you put, they in probably cost less than RMB100 a pack. People can donate items or cash for those, but it should be noted that it is illegal in China to distribute used clothes—everything must be new.


Photo provided by Peter Goff

What were the gaps in relief efforts following the Wenchuan quake?
Those things like hygiene products were a very obvious gap. The Red Cross fed everyone and provided water, but those things like hygiene and basic sanitation were not really taken care of. Any kind of rehabilitation—mental rehabilitation, building communities and temporary shelters was an important factor to get people into a more organized and positive life and entice them to improve their own quality of life and look after the most disadvantaged, the disabled, and the dislocated with a poverty-stricken background.

What major projects were you able to complete?
We set up a community center in the old earthquake area and a school, which runs by itself and doesn't need too much day-to-day care, we're just on the board to advise. In the community center we run development projects and grassroots NGO incubation and cultivation projects.

Since 2008, SQR ran through three stages. The first year after the Wenchuan quake was helping with emergency relief. Then in years two and three we dealt with people in temporary tent villages and tried to improve their lives with physical and mental rehabilitation, sanitation, and education projects. And when people moved back into permanent dwellings in the fourth and fifth years, we did grassroots incubation—training people with disabilities and giving them microloans so they could set up their own businesses.

The 5.12 network was quite active in training people in civil society development and NGO activity. Where these people are working, what their projects are doing now, I'm not sure, but they will probably get involved in this. It probably needs the same coalition like the last time, but the scale is obviously a lot smaller.

How long did it take to build houses and reinstall infrastructure?
Last time, the lucky ones were back in their house 18 months to two years after, and the unlucky ones three to four years—but there are still people not in houses. After three years they took down temporary shelters regardless if they had homes to go to or not. Because there were enough houses in the area, people who didn't have homes could at least rent rooms in somebody else's house. Back then Sichuan kind of benefited from the government's stimulus package.
In Lushan, obviously, the infrastructural damages are not on the same scale. You can drive 10 to 15minutes from Lushan, and there is no damage whatsoever, but then you get into the area that's obviously stricken, but it's not as widespread as last time.


Tongji, Pengzhou after the Wenchuan quake. Photo by Qingwei

Does it even make sense to rebuild in a quake area if there'll just be more quakes?
Last century there were several quakes in the area, and next century there will be quakes in the area. The fault line runs right down to Yunnan and up to Qinghai. So it's extremely likely there will be a bigger quake in the next 20 years. What do people do? In Beichuan they decided that building in that landscape was a bad idea initially and moved 25km down the river. But that option doesn't really present itself here because most of the people affected are farmers. If you're a 50-year-old farmer with nothing but an acre of land or two, what are you options? I don't know what [the authorities are] going to do in terms of the bigger picture.

I guess you can take some confidence out of the fact that the schools built after 2008—the Lushan Middle School, for example— 1,600 kids walked out in 20 seconds without one scratch [the incidence of school buildings collapsing in the 2008 quake was infamously and disproportionately high]. So there is truth that buildings kill people, not earthquakes. If they are rebuilding properly there don't have to be future fatalities.

[We were able to call the people] at a library we donated to a temporary school in Baoxing. They remembered us from before and told us that the rebuilt school stayed up along with all the rebuilt schools stood up in the area. But Baoxing wasn't the worst hit part—I imagine that there were houses that came down twice [once in 2008 and again in 2013].

Who is behind SQR currently?
If you'd asked me that on Friday, I'd have said no one. There are a few people, Catherine [Platt, "Found in Translation" columnist in Chengdoo Citylife Magazine and active member of the Chengdu expat community] and me, who are still working on it every week.

How do you ensure transparency?
We've got a committee. Last time the treasurers in the chambers of commerce supervised all incoming and outgoing money. For the moment, I don't have that problem, because there is no money yet. But once there is, I will do something similar. When we work with multiple organizations, like the chambers of commerce and Chengdu International Women's Club, the Rotary Club, they all have their own internal sort of reporting systems, and they have their treasurers, so there are checks and balances in that alone.

We also appoint someone who's not involved with any those to supervise the finances. As much as possible, we try to link the donor with a specific project. For example, if a significant donor would come, we would ask them to buy the tents and pay the factory directly. That way we don't touch the cash at all. We also tried to document what all the different NGOs and relief groups were doing and what their contacts are so that we can better coordinate them and match donors to projects. Sometimes other NGOs come in and we help them and do logistics and provide them with a driver and translator and access. It worked last time, and that's why I guess people are offering to help us this time.



On that note, how can concerned citizens help? Is the best way just donating money?
We could have Chengdu-based volunteers later. But it won't be getting on a truck and going up for 48 hours [like some volunteers did last time], it could be fundraising, updating Web sites. Quite a few people who were living here in 2008 are now scattered around the world and are starting fundraising initiatives.

The events at the Bookworm [the barbecue and concert as well as the Des Bishop comedy night] are raising a bit of money and initial awareness, and then people and start to get together and discuss options—different groups are doing different things. In terms of funding we recommend people coordinating projects to wait a bit, see what the state is going to do, what the Red Cross is going to do, and what the other NGOs are going to do. And we'll see what gaps appear and fill those gaps. But that won't become apparent before a couple of weeks, and we move on from that point.

More info on how to help the Lushan quake relief efforts

This article was first published in CHENGDOO citylife Magazine, issue 64 ("Traffic").]]> Mon, 13 May 2013 13:50:00 +0800 http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/blog/item/2931/interview_with_sichuan_quake_reliefs_peter_goff http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/blog/item/2930/mandarin_made_easier_the_radical_person learning Chinese characters with radicals

This month, I'm going to introduce the 人 and 亻 radicals. Both are known as the person radicals; the former can be a character as well as a radical, but the latter is always just a radical. The character 人 is a pictogram. Doesn't it look a bit like the splayed legs of a person walking when viewed from the side? Characters with radical 亻 are usually related to the activities of human beings, and this radical is always placed on the left side of a character. Let's look at some examples:

从 (cóng) – to follow, to obey. This character look likes two people (人/rén), one following the other.
众(zhòng) – crowd. As the saying goes, three's a crowd. Three 人 together make a crowd.
休 (xiū) – to rest, take a rest. It consists of radical 亻 and the character 木 (mù), which means tree. A person rests by leaning against a tree, just like in this pictogram.

们 (men) – added to personal pronouns for the plural. 我 (wǒ) means "me," "I," or "myself," and when 们 (men) is added to it, as in 我们 (wǒmen), it means "we" or "us." Similarly, 他们 (tāmen) means "they" or "them" (masculine), and 她们 (tāmen) means "they" or "them" (feminine).

仆 (pú) – servant
你 (nǐ) – you
他 (tā) – he, him
仅 (jǐn) – only, merely

This article by Lucy Wang was first published in CHENGDOO citylife Magazine, issue 63 ("People").]]> Thu, 09 May 2013 12:20:00 +0800 http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/blog/item/2930/mandarin_made_easier_the_radical_person http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/blog/item/2929/whats_on_chengdu_may_1012 FRIDAY | MAY 10

youku

Immanu El @ Little Bar
Swedish indie rock. Support: Amnesiac. RMB80 (pre-sale RMB60).
Starts at 8 p.m.

Bob Marley in my Heart @ Hemp House
Reggae party with The Trouble, Mosaic, DJs Bassman & Andy Mac, Mcs Kafei Hu & Fat Shady and VJ Chafei. RMB60. Shot: Buy one Get one free before 9 p.m.
Starts at 8 p.m.

Wine Tasting @ La Passion in the Suning Square (next to Galleria Mall)
French wine and food, cultural programming . RMB290
Starts at 6.30 p.m.

SATURDAY | MAY 11

youku

Lucifer @ Little Bar
Unplugged rock with Rustic front man Li Yan. Support: Sinkers. RMB50 (students RMB40).
Starts at 8 p.m.

Hong Kong's Urban Sound @ Lan Town
with DJ Blood Dunza & MC J-Hoon. Free entrance.
Starts at 10 p.m.

Chengdu Calling @ Steam Hostel
Live concert with Soundtoy, The Trouble, Stolen & Zhuo Yue. Free entrance.
Starts at 8 p.m.

Back to Lhasa @ Machu Picchu
Chinese folk with Da Chang. RMB30
Starts at 9 p.m.

SUNDAY | MAY 12

Negatyw @ Little Bar
Polish rock. Support: Yuppie. RMB50
Starts at 8 p.m.

Xiao Zhou Album Release Tour @ Machu Picchu
Chinese folk. RMB30
Starts at 9 p.m.

ONGOING

Silent Freedom: Zhou Dachuan @ Blue Roof
Contemporary art exhibition with Chen Weimin, Cai Liming, He Renjun, Kou Jintao, Li Mang, Lu Banglin, Wang Dajun, Yang Jin, Zhang Yiming, Zhao Bo, Li Xiuying, Zhao Nengzhi, Zhou, Nan. Free entrance.
April 6 to May 12

Children's Art Exhibitiion @ A4 Gallery
Free entrance
April 20 - May 13



Oil on canvas: Contemporary Chinese Art @ Chengdu East Music Park (Cengyi Gallery)
Free entrance.
April 20 - May 20

Soft Violence @ K Gallery
Luo Fahui solo exhibition. Free entrance
April 25 - May 24

Zoige @ West Village Lifestyle Center
Tibetan and Qiang craft and art exhibition. Free entrance.
Though May 27

WANDERLUST @ Moca
Modern art exhibition with Francis Alys, Marcel Broodthaers, Honore d'O, Joelle Tuerlinckx & Panamernko
Free entrance.
April 18 - June 9

Suwen @ Yingmeng Art Salon (Chengdu East Music Park)
Contemporary Chinese art exhibition with He Duoling and others. Free entrance.
May 11 - June 10

UPCOMING EVENTS

youku

Flunk @ Little Bar
Norwegian synthie pop. RMB80 (pre-sale RMB60).
Starts at 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 14



Mosaic @ Little Bar
Chengdu dance rock. RMB60 (students RMB50).
Starts at 8 p.m. Friday, May 17

youku

Li Daiguo @ Machu Picchu
Experimental world/folk.
Starts at 9 p.m. Friday, May 17

Xi Meng @ Machu Picchu
Chinese folk/ rock. RMB40 (pre-sale RMB30).
Starts at 9 p.m. Saturday, May 18

Bloom Party @ Morning Bar
with DJs Yang Bing, Kaize, Ewan & XiaoLong. RMB30.
Starts at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 18



OCC - Out of Countrol @ Little Bar
Beijing rock. RMB40.
Starts at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 18

Chengdu Mustangs VS Shanghai Nighthawks @ Sichuan University (main football field stadium)
American Football match. Free entrance.
Starts at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 18

Red Dress Charity Run @ Orchard Villas corner
RMB100 (first 100 to sign get a t-shirt and dinner). Benefits to to Hopeful Hearts.
Sunday, May 19

Hu Defu aka Ara Kimbo @ Jingcheng Art Palace
Taiwanese folk/ world. RMB80-580.
Starts at 8 p.m. Sunday, May 19

Liu Dongming @ Little Bar
Chinese folk. RMB60 (students RMB50).
Starts at 8 p.m. Sunday, May 19

Sichuan Symphony Orchestra Weekend Concert @ Jiaozi Concert Hall
Italian opera benefit concert.
Starts at 8 p.m. Sunday, May 19

Open Guitar Class @ Eight and a half Bar
with Soundtoy guitarist Li Zhe. Free entrance.
2.30 - 5.30 p.m. Sunday, May 19]]> Thu, 09 May 2013 10:30:00 +0800 http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/blog/item/2929/whats_on_chengdu_may_1012 http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/blog/item/2928/miss_single_a_whole_without_an_other_half
As a teenager, I had a clear description of Mr. Right: He is Chinese, healthy, and not bald. The details went on: He is 1.78 to 1.8 meters tall, appropriately taller than me. He is fit, interested in sports and, even better, he is good at sports, especially basketball, my favorite. He sings well so that I can enjoy it when we go to KTV. He is bold, decisive, responsible, filial, and every other positive attribute missing in myself so that we complement each other.

But even as this happily-ever-after dream faded as I grew up, Mr. Right never appeared.

Then again, neither did Mr. Wrong, and the dream eventually faded out completely. When one of my friends came back to Chengdu during the Spring Festival, she asked me about what kind of men I was interested in. My answer was ... I had no idea. During my 20s, when my girlfriends stayed with Mr. Wrong while they reviewed their lists for Mr. Right, I came to understand that no man would meet all the criteria on my checklist. Maybe I would fall in love with somebody I couldn't picture at all—maybe he would be shorter than me, bald, and a sports idiot.

My friends, especially the females, cannot understand why I am still single, being such a nice woman. I used to think it was because I was not beautiful enough or slim enough. But after seeing plenty of women who were neither slim nor gorgeous get married, I decided that wasn't it. And I decided, furthermore, there was nothing wrong in my being single.

But from time to time, the question would creep up. Why me? Or rather, why not me?

An icebreaker for a work-related conference I participated in took the format of a speed date, and all of us were asked whether we were single. Most men lightheartedly joked that they were "MBA" (married but available). Most women said they were not in any kind of romantic relationship. All of these were professional consultants at the top of their field. Being so-called successful women (making good money working for multinationals), we frequently worked overtime. So obviously, the first problem was that I had no time for men. But I have time for friends, books, movies, parties, and other things, so that wasn't the answer.

Is it because successful women pursue more successful men? Maybe for some single women, this pyramid theory holds true, but not for me: I am looking for a man I want and need but not necessarily one who is conventionally successful. I prefer the explanation that successful women are more independent both economically and psychologically, and thus they can afford to be more concerned with the right choice rather than just picking one before it's too late.

But even if I've accepted my singleness, most people around me seem to hold that a marriage, even if it is a failure, is still better than none. So, since that's their attitude, they can tell me why I'm single too. I polled a dozen of my close friends and family members to see why they think I'm single.

Males

Michael (32, in a stable relationship, friend, former colleague):
"I think compatibility matters when choosing the 'other half.' Since you have a good job and are well paid and you are mentally independent, fewer men are compatible."

Jesse (29, in a struggling relationship, close friend, gay):
"Mr. Right has not shown up."

Eliot (37, breaking up with his girlfriend, friend and former subordinate):
"Establishing a relationship is similar to selling a product, and the product is you. Different products have different features and attractions. Unluckily most men do not use their head, so hot girls are popular products compared with women of thoughts."

Xinmin (61, divorced, father):
"Mr. Right has not shown up. And you are too busy."

Jerry (28, single, soul mate):
"Because you are not fond of the people who are fond of you, and the people who you are fond of are not fond of you, and the people who you are fond of and are fond of you are married to other people."

Gino (32, single, friend, former colleague):
"You think too independently."

Haha. Is there a problem with my male sample? None is married, and only one is in a happy relationship.

Females

Indie (29, in a stable relationship, close friend, lesbian):
"I think the richness of your heart/inner world is beyond men's control. However, I love you soooo much."

T (30, married in 2011, close friend of 10+ years):
"You have not met Mr. Right in the right time at the right place."

Sasha (30, divorced, close friend of 15 years):
"Mr. Right has not shown up."

Sherona (41, divorced, cousin):
"You didn't know to find a boyfriend in school when busy with studies. You don't have time to find a boyfriend when your work is too occupying. With high education background and high accomplishment, it is difficult for you now to find a boyfriend compatible to you."

Iki (56, divorced, mother):
"I don't know the reason, and it is your own business. You have not met the right person and you don't meet guys who I wanted to introduce to you."

Bonnie (26, just breaking up with her boyfriend, friend and former subordinate):
"It is in the end a mistake for two people being together; the key lies in whether one can stand such a mistake. But there are people who do not stand mistakes and you are one of them."

Their answers can be boiled down to two different explanations: one about lot and destiny, the situation is beyond one's control: He just hasn't come. The other group is about compatibility: My independence and my job make it difficult for me to find a man. But wait a minute! Is there also problem with my female sample? I did not realize the marital status, or lack thereof, of most of my friends until this survey. Perhaps they have influenced me.

Having turned 30 last year, I feel I have crossed a threshold. When I was 25, I thought I could wait until 30. When I turned 30, I started to think I may stay single forever because nowadays everything has a price, and my price is going down, as most would say. On the contrary, I love myself more after 30. I decide to be a better person for a man who knows, understands, and loves me rather than just any boyfriend or husband, even though that man may never show up.

This article by Tan Juan was first published in CHENGDOO citylife Magazine, issue 63 ("People"). Illustration by Meike Männel.]]> Tue, 07 May 2013 19:20:00 +0800 http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/blog/item/2928/miss_single_a_whole_without_an_other_half http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/blog/item/2927/mega_bites_with_dandoval_eating_bamboo_rat
Public and private opposition to the column, and the image of a well fed Dandoval inside and outside the CHENGDOO team grew in popularity. There was in-fighting, and an editor might have repeatedly threatened to kill off the column. But Dandoval stubbornly resisted calls for editorial and lifestyle reform, suggestions that he learn to cook his own healthful meals and document the process—which, according to some of the feedback we receive, would be an appreciated move by a number of readers.

***

In the midst of all this, one evening, over a late-night dinner, a manly competition of who had eaten what broke out. Dan boasted of having eaten bear (killed by his uncle), bats, and buffalo, among other wild game. What started as a theoretical culinary discussion morphed into a real challenge when a befriended chef informed us that there are restaurants in Chengdu that serve bamboo rat.

We accepted the challenge (to find it) and then forced Dan to accept the challenge (to eat it). Our Baidu-fu let us down, but after repeated reconnaissance missions to Qingshi Qiao Seafood & Fish Market we found a little dark booth that sells the rodents to specialty and high-end restaurants in Chengdu. We talked to the delivery guys and collected the restaurant's information. Perseverance paid off, and with brilliant rhetoric manipulation we defended against Dan's last-minute attempts to back out of the deal.

***

It might serve rats, but Langui is a place to come with the cash. The rat dish (竹鼠/zhúshǔ) was not on the menu, but our waiter knew what we were getting at when we finally manipulated the tones enough to mimic Sichuanese pronunciation.



Just before the dish arrived we pulled out the camera to show Dan the images of the live rats we'd taken at the market. "They look like giant hamsters with creepy little hands," he said, visibly shaken after meeting his soon-to-be meat.

But when the dish arrived, the mood shifted again."Actually this doesn't look too bad," he happily remarked, nearly salivating as he tucked his napkin under his chin and armed himself with chopsticks. There was a hint of the familiar, according to Dan: "Fatty meat bits flooded in red oil." The uninitiated could easily have mistaken it for an ordinary pork dish.



Not one to be timid, Dandoval took a big bite. "Tastes a lot less like bat and a lot more like pork. Not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I expected it to be more in the rodent family kind of a texture, but it's not at all. It's very fatty. Very chewy." In some kind of cruel culinary irony, the rat was served in a pot of its own dietary staple, bamboo, which "adds a nice crunchiness to an otherwise very chewy dish."

After more bites later Dandoval decided that the taste itself wasn't anything out of the ordinary: "The key thing is the idea. You're eating this yellow-toothed little beast. But other than that it goes down rather easy. ... The problem with the dish is the more you eat it the more you get tired of its chewy texture."

"Really it was the idea of the rat that was the difficult part to get through," Dan concluded. "The flavor itself is acceptable and the texture was not ideal. ... It tastes like a lot other Sichuan dishes. Nothing too special about it, nothing to write home about. You should still try it just to put checkmarks in your book."

Plenty of culinary traditions have included rat in their cuisines—allegedly, rata de marjal was even part of the original Spanish Paella before it was substituted for the usual suspects.

Mai Dan!
The bill came down to a hefty RMB500 just for the rat dish. Not cheap by any means, but the alternative is buying a whole live rat at the market for RMB300 and butchering it yourself at home. Or, of course, just skipping the rat tasting altogether—possibly a better idea, given Dandoval's unsolicited post-meal commentary: "Not sure if the rat or something else, but something made me gassy as hell from that meal."

Overall, Langui makes a very professional impression in terms of service, interior décor, and food preparation, and is certainly a place to experiment in the high-end dining category with its menu of meat and seafood dishes prepared in Sichuanese, Cantonese and Hunanese styles.

Which dishes terrify you?
E-mail the name and location of your suggested culinary torture chamber and we might feature it in the future.



This article was first published in CHENGDOO citylife Magazine, issue 62 ("community").
Photos by Dan Sandoval and Joe. ]]> Mon, 06 May 2013 13:30:00 +0800 http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/blog/item/2927/mega_bites_with_dandoval_eating_bamboo_rat http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/blog/item/2926/chengdu_in_pictures_words_with_graphic_novelist_sascha_hommer Sascha Hommer, 34, was inspired to create a graphic novel set in China after a visit to Chengdu in 2005. A longer stay in 2011 provided further material for the project, which he's now working on alongside his regular work on comic strips and illustrations for magazines, newspapers, and other print media or organizing comic festivals and culture exchanges in far corners of the world. Longtime readers of CHENGDOO magazine might recall Sascha's illustrations in previous issues or the CHENGDOO citylife board game that he co-designed and illustrated. He spent a few moments talking about his inspiration for and progress on the book project.

How did you end up in Chengdu and why did you decide to make a book about it?
The first time I came to Chengdu was to visit a friend in 2005, and I stayed for two months just for fun. [After that], I wanted to make a book about China mostly because of the one-sided reporting about the Olympic Games in 2008. I was very annoyed by the anti-Chinese sentiment in German media, and although I'm not a China expert—I can't even speak Mandarin—just being in contact with people in China and the fact that I'd been to China before gave me the strong feeling that the guys who wrote these articles didn't really know what they were doing. This was the starting point to question the reporting, and I thought it should be possible to present other aspects of the country, and in a different manner.

So with the idea of writing a book about China I arrived for a second time in 2011, but once there I quickly understood that it's nonsense to make a book about China; it's too big, and I don't really know anything about it. But it's different with Chengdu, although I wasn't there for too long, because I had a different access to the city and views the normal tourist wouldn't be able to see, and besides, this book is now my very own and personal story where I document what I've experienced. It doesn't claim to be enlightening, not in a didactic way, anyway, but maybe it could be enlightening in a more subtle way, especially in regard to the reception of the local culture by the expat community.

I don't want to make a book that people buy and think, "Oh now I get to understand the culture in Chengdu." It shouldn't be a travel guide either. It'll be a rather surreal report, where I simply attempt to find a form to reflect what I have seen and the people I met.

When did you start actual work on the book?
The work already started back in 2011, before I arrived in Chengdu. I read a lot about the city and China, books like The Chinese World, and did online research. During my second stay I drew a diary, simple scribbles only I can decipher, which later allowed me to check what happened every day. Between the pages I added random flyers or other papers I came across.

Part of my research was the work for CHENGDOO, which allowed me to get to know the city in ways the ordinary tourist usually wouldn't experience—with, for example, a bike and a predetermined route of stations for magazine distribution which enabled me, despite my general lack of orientation, to draw an inner city map, or at least of some districts of Chengdu.

Now it's been nearly two years since you were in Chengdu. How does the time distance affect your work?
Back in 2009 I made a book about my time in school in the '90s (Four Eyes), and the time distance from the source material in this case was much bigger, but it's interesting to work with your memories, to see how you have been and how your own life worked. At one point you understand that you don't know the chronological sequence of events and that certain etched versions of stories in your memory don't add up once you analyze them more thoroughly.

So for the Chengdu book I use the diary and the storyboard as tools, but if a scene works better at the end of the book, I move it. If I really stuck to the storyboard I'd get bored. It just hangs there on the wall for reference. It's not about keeping actual chronology or the logical sequence of actual events, because at the end there must be a certain logic visible for the reader.



What are some of the motifs that appear in the book?
The quake and stories in general, and stories of rats and cockroaches. A less prominent motif is going to work—I read German texts for recordings as a part-time job. Another is inner rooms and flats. What do flats look like? I had to search for a flat or a room, and that search stretched over two weeks. And table tennis. Only marginally I touch on backpacker hostels because I spent two weeks there, actually a totally boring topic, but because I had to go there against my will, the processed experience may become again an epiphany.

And what about the characters in the book?
The figures are depicted schematically and mask-like to prevent, from the very beginning, readers thinking that I intend to present a portrayal of reality. So the acting characters are shown as aliens. Besides me, there are two main characters who are my friends, and the rest are more or less casual acquaintances who carry one or two motifs or parts of the action, although at the moment I'm not sure which I will finally include and which I may drop because they don't carry enough importance. In any case there are scenes with lots of people in bars sitting together. In the book about my youth I decided to merge several real persons to one character as they symbolize something similar and to simplify of course.


Illustration from Sascha Hommer's upcoming graphic novel about Chengdu. Text reads, "This is my atelier."

When you draw people, they are always a bit cuddly but also a bit disconcerting. Why this mix?
It's a graphical shift into an absurd sphere that creates a certain tension. When I draw a figure with a big head and small body—proportions you recognize as being of infants—but the character acts as an adult, it may come off as creepy. But in many stories which would otherwise seem trivial, it creates a tension I enjoy. Especially in this project it's important for me not to be realistic, not to create a reportage in the original sense, not a portrait of reality. That way it's clear this is a subjective report, and hopefully that is a way that is more telling than a realistic illustration.

So what did you notice about the people in Chengdu?
What stood out in my opinion was that the foreigners who live here together are randomly cobbled from different corners and have to arrange their lives together and of course together with the locals, and especially in the cultural sense have to produce everything they want themselves.

It seemed that the foreigners there fall into two categories—the ones that were accidently stranded in the city and those who consciously decided to go to Chengdu, and this mix is on one hand a bit dysfunctional, but on the other hand it's always an open structure. That also means that a lot of things go wrong and a lot of activities are temporary and noncommittal.

Will we see the book translated into other languages? What about Chinese?
There are good chances for a French translation as my last books appeared in France, which is a very important market. That has a signaling effect, which then again could automatically draw translations into other languages, even more so than publication of my book in my home market.

I don't know enough about the Chinese market, and I guess there wouldn't be many publishing houses which come into question, but it's a young market that is developing rapidly so the situation could be changing already. I'd love to see a translation into Chinese, but such a translation wouldn't be as simple as a translation to French, for example, as the book is aimed at the European reader or anyone else who is not in China [so there would also be the question of point of view]. It would be exciting to see how Chinese readers would perceive this book.



In Germany you seem to have forged a lot of links for Chinese comic artists?
In several editions of my comic magazine Orang we presented the works of Yan Cong [from Beijing], Hok Tak Yeung, and Chi Hoi [both from Hong Kong], and apparently it pays off for them to be visible in European magazines. Yan Cong, for example, was published in Italy after a small publishing house spotted his work in Orang. For me personally it's interesting to dabble in different scenes, as the work flow [in Germany] is different from the young scenes in Beijing and Nanjing that have developed rapidly in the last couple of years.

Are you hoping for the China hype with this book?
To be honest, the idea to make a book that sells well is always in the back of my mind when I start a book, but once I start working with the material, the thought disappears as the material itself becomes more important. It's already the case with this one.

Sascha's book is set to be published next year. In the meantime, see more of his work at his blog.
This article was first published in CHENGDOO citylife Magazine, issue 63 ("People"). Images provided by Sascha Hommer.]]> Thu, 02 May 2013 10:50:00 +0800 http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/blog/item/2926/chengdu_in_pictures_words_with_graphic_novelist_sascha_hommer