Vitas

The first time I listened to him, he was singing Opera 2. I was totally amazed. I didn't think he was a normal person. An alien, or an angel.

Since his souring voice always gave me goose bumps, I excluded his songs from my bedtime music playlist. Several months thereafter, my life was void of Vitas.

At the beginning of summer vacation, my friend told me he was crazy about Vitas. 'Oh, I long heard of him, but sometimes I felt him scary.' 'No no, watch his MTV Shores of Russia!'

I searched this song on YouTube. The opening scenery is a vast piece of water, reflecting the changing colors of the sky. Then I saw the sideface of Vitas. I knew I fell in love with him.

The following part of Shores of Russia is no less excellent. Every movement of his and every shot of the scenery is full of beauty. The story line of 'returning home' is very warm, answering to people's longing for the simple life in the countryside, butter and bread, silver-haired grandparents, clean sky and water, dry-grass cart...

Then I listened Lucia Di Lammermoor, Opera 1&2, The Bird of Happiness, The Star, Mother... I felt him a smart, talented, tender-hearted singer. He deeply loves his mother. Anyone who loves his mother is a good person, I believe in that.

My fever for him has receded. However, he'll become a constant companion in my life. His angel-like appearance and voice tell me what it is like to be perfect.

A Second Thought on Tess

Something is irrevocable. We have to be responsible for the things we do.

It is too emotional for Tess to kill her eyesore Alec, and it brought her to her execution. Though readers may sympathize her, time couldn't flow back, and her slate couldn't be erased.

There are so many sad stories about the irrevocability of life. One moment of being stupid may bring you a lifetime of torture on conscience.

Macbeth wasn't intended to kill Duncan, the King of Scotland. He never thought of committing such a crime in order to become the king because I don’t think he really took the witches’ prophecy to heart. Aroused by his wife Mrs Macbeth, he stepped onto the journey of plotting, murdering and fearing, leading to his own downfall.

Scrooge in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is much luckier. He saw his miserable later life if he kept being a miser in his dreams. Waking from the terrible dreams, how happy he found himself, not too bad yet in circumstances, still healthy and wealthy. Chanting ‘Merry Christmas!’ to everyone, he corrected his wrongdoing in the past.

Isn't it nice for everyone to see an overall picture of his latter life when he come to a certain point of his life? Then people would foresee the possible consequences of their doings in the present, and may come in time to improve it.

But hardly can it guarantee a happier world. People are forever unsatisfied with their lives. It is good that we always live in uncertainty, and learn through pains to be more sensible. Perhaps I may wish the pains would not be too huge to bear……: p

We can't drink poison because we are too thirsty. If we stay thirsty we may die, but if we drink poison we are sure to die, incurred by ourselves.

Life requires a lot of waiting. I need to keep patience and wait for my time even in the darkest night.

Tess, a Warning against Being Pure?

I read Tessof the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. Though an adopted version, I was greatly touched by the misfortunes of Tess. In my eyes, she is the most sympathetic girl. How pure she is! In a luckier circumstance, she would be the apple of the eye of her parents, the spoiled little princess in her lover’s heart, and a lovely friend among the neighbore. Alas! She lives in Hardy’s story, pictured by a cold pen, though arranged so by the author’s warmest heart.

Firstly she was trapped into a sense of guilt by her mercenary parents. Without this, she would have safely lived in her home, married a just man, and led a safe and nice life. However, she fell into Alec’s lustful hand. Abducted by the sophisticated Alec D’Urberville, she had to reconcile to the devil at every step. Oh, how could the kind, pure Tess have the courage to give Alec a slap when he attempted sexual harrassment? How dared she not to hold Alec’s waist while Alec purposedly let go of the rein on a slope?

She lost virginity. She herself must have felt too much ashamed. Therefore she sweared to become Diana’s follower, never to marry. She wanted to use abstinence as her defence of her dignity. But facing the gentle Angle Clare, how can one resist the power of true love? It is extremely painful to say ‘no’ at Angle’s proposal yet she couldn’t afford to tell him the real reason of her doing so.

Finally, despite these, they married. Angle confessed his fooling around with a strange woman. How excited the innocent Tess was! She thought since they two both did wrong things therefore they could forgive each other. But she forgot the stubborn face of social norms: a man’s loss of virginity may be forgiveable, but not a woman’s. Angle seemed to have lost all his flames of love to Tess. Poor Tess painfully yet timidly waited for her husband’s return. After torturing Tess, Angle left to a faraway place, leaving his loving wife behind.

Years elapsed. Alec suddently stood in front of Tess a converted man. From the abridged book I wasn’t quite sure of the intention of Alec. Has he really fallen in love with Tess? Or he was again attracted by Tess’s beauty? At last, believing Angle would never come back, she lived with Alec. This woman endured too much harsh life. She had no strength left. A pure heart has been covered with too much dust, carried too many scars. She really was too tired to fight any more.

Fate seems to take to teasing her. Soon after she surrendered again to Alec, Angle, her true love came back. Alec, that ugly man, twice ruined Tess’s prospects to live happily without any worry or fear with the one she really loves. Tess’s innocent heart could bear such hatred no longer. With such anger and desperation, Tess killed Alec in order to be with Angle.

She finally enjoyed a short but the happiest moment in her life. Being with Angle, no secret between them. Mistakes forgiven, genuine love faced. Oh, let the time stop at this moment……

I give my deepest sympathy to Tess. A pure heart is such a rare, yet it is constantly attacked. To protect oneself, one has to learn to be sophisticated. Being sophisticated means to learn to control and conceal emotions, to dare to rise up to opposing forces. For a strong heart it’s justified to do so. But for a soft, kind and innocent one, the risk of hurting or embarrassing others may hinder its determination to do justice to itself. So at last, a pure heart would rather hurt itself, rather than hurt others, though such deeds may be labeled as stupid in the end.

Thanks to the critism

These days i've been reading the comments under some Olympic-related articles on the website of The Economist.
I'm not keen on national or international affairs. Less do i log on any political related website. This time, a friend of mine short messaged me to log on that comment column and try to debate with some anti-China guys.
Some comments are indeed provocative. Not a good debator(otherwise i could talk back with power), I felt anger was stuck in my throat. After viewing some pages of comments, i think i was more objective than before.

These are some lessons i learned:

lesson1: Always debate with logic. Never lose a cool mind facing accusations.

lesson2: Face our problems. Accept those that make sense. It is true that many issues are left unresolved these days in China, and some reporters point them out. Maybe the tone they employed is not so favorable, even sarcastic, we have to consider their comments rather than fire back with anger.

I understand some Chinese commentators' uncomfort, for Chinese people are traditionally introvert. People are not used to encounter the pointing fingures so directly. I think I didn't fully accepted the reporters and some commentators' critism until maybe five days later.

lesson3:To those extreme guys who are aimed to make chaos, the ill-intended ones, I think it's no use to debate with them, for they are not level-minded themselves. Yet it's necessary to point out their purpose and find points that are not valid in their speech, otherwise their comments may mislead some inexperienced heads like mine. (I think i really need to reinforce my logic! I should have told some failts in some comments by myself through mere reasoning. It doesn't take too much knowledge on politics)

I'm very thankful for the debators. Though the articles they debated on in the Economist may not be so fair, well, it's the journalists' nature to pick on social ills, and it is inevitable that there be some 'prejudice-bearing' speech. What I can do is try to be more open-minded and tolerant, learn to be critical and cool, and love my country in an appropriate way.

My Interpretation of the Chinese Elements in Beijing 2008 Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony of Beijing 2008 Olympics is amazing! I don’t want to use this word to describe last night’s performance for it has been worn out in so many viewers’ mouths, but I can’t find a more proper word to express my feelings. Fascinated by Director Zhang Yimou’s imagination and originality, touched by the thousands of performers’ unity anad efforts, attracted by the glamor and charm of traditional Chinese culture, I’m soooo proud of Chinese people and culture!

The following are some interesting Chinese elements I particularly like:

The countdown
缶, pronounced as fou, is a music instrument in Chinese history. In the Bird Nest, 2008 fou players struck the traditional welcome beat while spoke aloud a sentence in Lun Yu(Confucius’ words): Isn’t it a great pleasure to have friends coming from afar? With their beat, the light inside the fou turned on and out. Finally, here begins the countdown! The 2008 fou players lead the audience around the world. Heartbeats of the world united. 10(the upper part is Chinese character of ten,十), 9(九), 8(八), 7(七), 6(六), 5(五), 4(四), 3(三), 2(二),1（一）！

WOW, how can they ever managed the arrangement of lights so precisely! And again I can’t hold my excitement of seeing Chinese characters in the countdown! It’s just amazing!

The Olympic rings:
At the same time, 29 gigantic footsteps created by fireworks appreared one by one from Yong Ding Gate to the bird nest, representing the 29 Olympics in modern history. When the last step walked in the nest, it transformed into millions of stars, which form the Olympic rings. So romantic it is that arounded by Fei Tian(flying fairies, a Chinese element often seen on Dunhuang wall paintings), the rings floated in the midair, like a piece of dream. Very science-fictional.

Movable printing characters—one of the four great inverntions in Chinese history
The movable printing characters are also very impressive. 897 well trained performers hid in seperated ‘characters’. Three stages of the development of the Chinese character “和”(harmony, peace) immerged from the surface, fully extend the message that Chinese people love peace and try to contribute to world peace.

Chinese people suffered a lot this year. Heavy snow, railway accident, flood, earthquake… besides these, there are the clique of ‘Tibetan independence’, unfair news coverage…in a word, some countries are just afraid of the rise of China. Yet, in the series of struggles, Chinese people are standing together, more closely and level-minded than ever. At this moment of the collective festival, I know in some parts of the world some people are still seeking chance to pour filth on China. But no one can doubt the fact that China is becoming stronger. It’s an unrrestrainable trend, and I’m proud of it!

Surrounding the huge ‘和’ are thousands of deciples of Confucius. Holding the bamboo books and reciting Confucius’ maxims, the performers draw me back to the Spring and Autumn period of China, a time of rituals and ceremonies, a time of reforms and blossoms…I especially love these sentences:
四海之内皆兄弟也。All men are brothers. (showing the generosity and tolerance of a great nation)
朝闻道夕死足矣。Once learned the ultimate truth in the morning, I don’t regret to die in the evening.（whenever reading it, I feel like crying. Isn’t it the perfect footnote for the strenous scientists?）…I can’t remenber the rest. But a strong wish rose in my heart: I want to re-read Lun Yu.

Taiji

Surrounding the reeling bamboo book are 2008 Taiji players. White, loose Taiji clothes help the players fully emmersed in a peaceful state od mind. This is the unstrained Chinese spirit. This is what I admire most about the ancient Chinese heroes.