Running into a Movie Award Ceremony

Thanks to the help of some great guys, I managed to sneak in the Israeli Movie Academy Award (something like this...) without an invitation!

Posters for the coming Haifa International Film Festival.

At first I imagined this to be a rather a self-amusement. Well, to a country with only 7 million people, how many movie stars and directors are there? How many movies are produced every year?

虽然和金鸡百花奥斯卡的铺排盛大不能相比，这个颁奖会却也搞得有声有色。有老前辈上台插科打诨，也有小童星一秀才艺。既有国际友人越洋送祝福的滥俗或喜庆，也有缅怀逝世英才的低婉和煽情。再加上现场乐队的卖力演出，气氛相当不错。有个小制作拿了好几项大奖，亲友团欢呼雀跃那叫一个激动呦。

However, the soiree went unexpectedly funny. There was commemoration to old-schools,and praise to vanguard. Old pioneers showed up with jokes while little actor and actress jumped around with cute gestures. Although the overall scale was far from Oscar or even the inglorious Chinese Golden Rooster Award.

The Gold Lion Award winner Lebanon was nominated in almost every single award. However, it didn't win them all for sure, not even one third, which was, as I concerned, pretty reasonable. Well, since the award itself was mainly for encouraging domestic film industry,why should it give all its prizes for a international award winner anyway?

刚得了金狮奖的战争片《黎巴嫩》风头很劲，但得的奖项却相对不多。很多奖颁给了不太熟悉的人或电影：大约也是旨在鼓励，重在参与吧。

"The atmosphere here in the ceremony was very friendly," when I told this to a journalist later in the reception, he shrugged: "That's because you are not familiar with this circle......"

Anyway, as you can see from mine terribly taken photos here, people were yelling and congratulating to each other as if they were in a Rosh Hashanah gathering and they were all from the same family.

Since it's my first exposure to such scenario, I paid great attention to those TV crews... Looks cool aren't they?

第一次参加这种晚会，对现场的摄像师们很感兴趣。这个晚会是全程直播的，所以看着摇臂从天而降前后推拉，我也一直在想象电视前观众眼中的景象。

某位壮硕的老太太得奖，全场起立鼓掌，不知是在庆祝她终于圆梦，还是因为又一次封后，众望所归？希伯来语太差，听不懂………………

这个戴帽子的家伙似乎很牛，既做颁奖嘉宾，又领到了一个不知是不是最佳男演员的奖。为他颁奖的是海法市市长。这厮上台大咧咧上台领奖时顺手把自己的帽子往老爷子头上一罩，嘻嘻哈哈地不成正经，把现场气氛烘托得甚是热烈——如此搞怪人物，我欣赏！于是在随后的餐会上拉他照了张相。

The reception was soooo gorgeous! I drank red wines and ate various sushis and falafels...hahaha

大约是为今天的赎罪日（Yom Kippur）准备吧，会后的餐会很丰盛，我混入人群如鱼得水，左右逢源，酒足饭饱！顺带和一些可能是名流（反正也不认识）的人瞎聊了几句。中国人么，一堆白人中颇有鹤立鸡群（不是因为身高……）的感觉。

后来听说《共舞巴仕尔》（Waltz with Bashir）的导演也在，可惜没看到！不然也可以要个签名啥的。

1点多到家，爽！

Three Poems I Composed in the Land of Israel

犹太历新年前后，校园荡净，四无人声。出门访月，唯遇骤雨。得句后补缀成此篇。

寂寞夜雨寂寞花，孤灯小园映谁家
秋风萧瑟松声远，山色转折近海崖
回首不见回乡路，侧耳唯闻雨滴答
半生漂泊江湖梦，此刻方觉到天涯


孤灯小楼夜
侧耳唯表钟
推窗见残月
惨笑两无声

九月十五日，自耶路撒冷南行，入Negev沙漠。车停沙漠中，骑骆驼访宿贝都因人（بدوي）村落，宿Hanokdim（הנוקדים）。饮酒吃肉，听歌起舞，不亦乐乎！夜幕低垂，独步荒野，四野无人。见星海灿烂，忆及所闻之阿拉伯传说，颇有所感。遂有此篇。是为记。

其一

举步向大荒，四顾皆苍苍
平沙吞落日，汉海泄八方 
皎皎一何敻，煜煜晃不央
古来凡几见？念之使心伤

今日(按，八月十五日）至地中海游泳，潮起潮落，波翻浪涌，至离岸稍远处则波涛少静。当时颇有所感，惜未成文。晚徒步回校，忆寅恪先生诗事，遂凑得此篇。平仄不调，词句不律，用语亦文白间杂，言浅意直，权作打油谐趣，博有心人一笑耳。

今人论古哂未休，前贤读史岂无忧
白云苍狗纷纭事，墨笔汗青不可求
且笑同光中兴痴，欢歌盛世正当时
读书纵晓今日秀，抱木或可立枯谋
山破河殇江流断，地震日食谁可怨
虎啸牛鸣民无涕，天聋天哑天何惧
少年心死秋桐碎，老骥声嘶暮雪飞
掩卷闭目徒一叹，故国不见使人愁

Post-Communist Gathering

I kept running into the same Israeli guy, Greg, three times two days ago and thus became good friends. Last night I went to his dorm for dinner and we indeed had some great time.

Greg has a super funny a-bah (dad). He showed great interest to my Chinese origin when he was skyping with Greg and I had to wave to him several times in front of the netcam. Later this became a topic. As an alleh-hadash (immigrant) from Russia, Greg told me how his dad played Soviet songs when he was small.

"You can imagine how those former Comsomols enjoyed their youth time..." said Greg.

"Yeah, actually I know precisely because my parents' generation was so deeply influenced by Soviet culture. Those were the only foreign songs available at that time indeed." I replied.

And suddenly I remembered a rhythm that I heard when I was young.



When I hummed this Greg shouted "OMG, you know this??" And he started to sing in Russian.

It was an amazing moment. A Chinese and an Israelite were singing a precise Soviet love song in two languages: Mandarin and Russian.

On Tibet-Xinjiang Problem

Someone asked my stand on Tibet/Xinjiang issues. As far as I think, the suppression, the bloodshed and all the lurid grievous news are neither a religious issue nor ethical. Just as most other nasty things going on in China, the minority problem is fundamentally political.

I think a quotation from Marx fits precisely well in to the situation:

The German Jews desire emancipation. What kind of emancipation do they desire? Civic, political emancipation.

Bruno Bauer replies to them: No one in Germany is politically emancipated. We ourselves are not free. How are we to free you? You Jews are egoists if you demand a special emancipation for yourselves as Jews. As Germans, you ought to work for the political emancipation of Germany, and as human beings, for the emancipation of mankind, and you should feel the particular kind of your oppression and your shame not as an exception to the rule, but on the contrary as a confirmation of the rule.

                           --Karl Marx, On the Jewish Question (1843)

Let me explain this a bit more. If you read enough Chinese news (not from People's Daily of course) you should be well-informed about the tension between the government and the people.

Yes, there are Tibetans who are suppressed due to their belief. There are Uigurs who are stifled because of their ethical identity. However, I'm sure there are more Hans who are exploited in the countryside and city sweatshops.

Yes, the People, no matter they are Tibetan or Uigur or the Han, Buddhists or Muslims or atheists, are suffering from the biggest post-totalitarian bureaucracy on the earth. If the political reform cannot be pushed to resume, they will continue be suffered under "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics", a good name for the joint-oligarchy ran by corrupted Communists and demoralized capitalists.

In current situation, advocating for a "free" Tibet or an independent East Turkestan are doomed to be barren. Quite contrary to those "freedom fighters"' original idea, the regime will only use international condemnation as a proof to justify its conspiracy theory that China's problems are all because of some evil anti-China powers. With its total control on media, the regime can easily agitate more hatred among Chinese people and between Chinese and the West.

Therefore, a much better way to help Tibetans or Uigurs or Muslims or Christians in China is to sponsor and support the growing civil society in China. None of the communist regimes collapsed simply because of wars or military intervention. They collapsed thanks to the internal resistance from their own people.

Being a Chinese in Israel = pictures???

I'd never knew I could arouse a sensation among people simply because of my Chinese-looking appearance, until I came to Israel.

In my second week in Haifa I heard from my Hebrew mora (female teacher), a local lady in her mid-40s, that there would be an annual beer festival on Haifa's gorgeous Mediterranean beach. When I showed up at the festival, several hundreds of people were already there buying all kinds of beers. Just on my way to the queue, I was stopped by a blond Israeli girl.

"סליחה!  Shall I take a picture with u?"

What the hell, I thought, "Of course!"

Just when I was still recalling the glorious moment of the Canon flashlight, a burly Israeli lad appeared in front of me. What the hell, I thought, was he the boyfriend of the blond?

"Hey man!" he spoke up, "Are you from China?"

"Yeah...?"

"Well then let's take a picture!"

What the hell, "Sure!"

Thus, before I even managed to get my first beer, I was stopped twice for pictures. I felt I need no alcohol because I was already so high!

Well, I've heard so many stories about being "foreigners", i.e. people from countries richer than the People's Republic but particularly the Caucasoid, in China. People in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai are as sophisticated as their compatriots in Hong Kong, who will flatter you as long as they can squeeze as much money as possible from you. However, if you are a Caucasian or be whatever race other than East Asian and happen to be in a small city, you will find yourself suddenly become a super star. Tons of unsophisticated people will swarm to you simply to appreciate a "laowai" that they've only seen on screens.

But Israel is after all a developed country, isn't it? And, it is a immigrant country, is it not? Why are her children so eagerly in need of pictures of a Chinese guy?

I gradually figure out this. It's simply because there are so few Chinese here! After being here for more than a month, I've only seen three Chinese outside the university. Not in Safed, not in Tiberius, Not in Jerusalem, Not even in TEL AVIV. Wow, what's wrong with Israel? Or is it because I was in such a bad fortune that I was doomed not seeing my countrymen, who account, supposedly, the largest population on the earth?

Anyway, when my classmates wonder why I can smile so dazzling when taking photos, I just give them a mysterious Chinese smile: they never know how many chances I've got to practice my smiling!

Shalom!

I'm a Chinese undergrad luckily making the decision to come to Israel for my study-abroad semester. Currently I'm based in University of Haifa in the north and will be there until January.

I still cannot believe the fact that I've been here for more than a month: I can hardly handle any conversations in Hebrew longer than 30 seconds! However, I've really been exposed to a very interesting society and an amazing culture, hoary in some aspects yet vigorously young the other. It has already been a thrillingly experience that went beyond my original imagination. But as my adventure goes, I think I will encounter more prodigious stuffs!

I'd love to share my experience with you, and I may doodle my thoughts, reflections, etc. here. Being fully aware my poor knowledge on Israel and the Middle East, I'd like to ask you understand and forgive, if not appreciate, any mistake, if not offence I may make due to ignorance. Any comments are welcome but I may remove any ads and things I considered offensive.

Enough for an intro. Again, welcome!