Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Different kinds of "rock"

In Europe and the US, rock and pop as well as rap and soul can be considered as their representative of popular music. My favourites are always surrounded by electronic guitars and drum. Evanescence, Nirvana, Slipknot, Nightwish, Green Day, Linkin Park, No Doubt, Bush, Muse.....they are all rock bands, and they are from different genres.

Heavy Metal:
These kind of groups can be found in the whole world, and they are mostly underground. This genre is too "metalistic" to me and I always get headache from this. But I still have my favourite in this genre: Silpknot...
I like it because the background music of its songs. Slipknot consists of 7 members: 2 guitars, 1 lead vocals, 5 of them are in the "drum" groups(2 of the drum groups are backing vocals). I love the way that they put  percussion made by tin or other metals into their music.

Blues Metal:
When coming up with this genre, I always think of Aerosmith and sing their oscar-nominated song "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing". The lyrics of the song is blues, and Aerosmith performed it with its metal music, with some scream voices, making the music seems like blues, rock and metal----another mixtures of music.
Opera Rock:
Nightwish, was famous for Opera Rock, once upon a time. Tarja's singing accompanies with soft metal rock group as well as symphonic music. After Tarja's leave, Nightwish's music is changed. Symphonic metal and folk metal. The only genre it has never changed is: heavy metal. (Nightwish is from Finland)

Piano Rock:
My all-time favourite is from this genre----Evanescence. Soft metal rock accompanies piano.
Grunge Rock:
Grunge rock was neglected by the public once. The bands of this group: Nirvana, the Hole, Bush and No Doubt. "Don't Speak" of No Doubt is my favourite song.

Punk-Rock:
Green Day is the representative of Punk-Rock!!!!!

Gothic Rock:
Nightwish is in this genre too. But I personally reckon Within Temptation is more closer to Gothic Rock.
Within Temptation is from Holland



Progressive Rock:
Muse is a band which is from this type.


Saturday, October 6, 2012

To what extent should Communists and Nationalists live together?

(This is my own opinion only)

Starting from 47 minutes, the question has asked those Korean celebrities whether North and South Korea should be unified together.

Although I am not Korean, acting as a global citizen, I would choose "for" rather than "against" towards the Korean unification, in terms of economic and social dimensions. (Owing to my lack of knowledge on Korean politics, I neglect to write the political part thoroughly.)

Politically, what i reckon on the surface of the unification: the rise of Korean international status due to the whole nations look more complete and the institution of Korean government would be more stable and more diverse.

Economically, the unification of Korea would be prosperity for the economy, not only to herself but also to the whole world. The idea of communism can help Korea build its economy with some plans while that of capitalism can help her to build up its market economy.Taking Germany as an example, before 1989, Germany was divided into two parts--West and East. If you are history students, you will realize East part is communist and West part is capitalist. There was ideological difference between two nations. Until 1 year after the fall-down of Berlin Wall in 1989, East and West Germany was reunified into one nation. Nowadays, Germany is one of the richest countries in the Europe while European countries such as Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Iceland(we call them "Piigs"(歐豬五國))Besides, even some magazines drew cartoons (below), saying that world economy requires Mrs Merkel, Premier of German Government. It shows that Germany has played a significant role in the world, in terms of economy. Therefore, there would be probably a boom for the Korean economy as well as an advantage towards the global economy if the reunification of Korea exists in the world, with reference to the German economic development. (She would be second "Germany" and an imaginary enemy of China.)

Socially, Korean unification can raise up people's living standard. Knowing that North Korea is adopting the idea of isolation(but now, the new leader seems wanting to open up the country), the people might not follow the rhythm of the international society.If South and North were unified, it helps the North Korean to satisfy the rhythm of the society. Besides, under the influence of economy within the nation, people's living standard would be raised due to the policy of "socialist market economy" would be existed within Korea. Furthermore, there would be the rise of sense of belonging and national identity of either North and South ones as "Korean". The discrimination against North ones would be relieved because of the unification while the South ones would feel that they are definitely "Koreans" rather than "South Koreans"--they have the complete identities and the Korean society would be more stable, just like the German citizens after the downfall of Berlin Wall.

Yet, the unification might be a problem to the North citizens or South citizens. Some of the South citizens might have more hatred on the North ones. The relationship between Hongkongsters and Chinese is a very typical example. After takeover of Hong Kong in 1997, there was a "moral panic" in Hong Kong against the return to China---the influx of emigrant. Hongkongsters fear about the spread of Chinese communism and they did not want to live under the institution of "one-party dictatorship", so they move to foreign countries. Nowadays, Hongkongsters hate mainland Chinese very much since those chinese has lower educational level and their actions ruin the image of Hong Kong, as well as those Chinese are impolite and pride, they love going to Hong Kong to buy the milk powder, to give birth their babies(main purpose: their children can enjoy 12-year free education), thereby serious social problems such as inflation and hardships in Hong Kong. South Korea might suffer from the situation like Hong Kong after the unification. However, Hong Kong is a very small part of China and the influx of mainland Chinese to Hong Kong such as buying stuff and giving birth as well as the academic degrees, is serious problem towards Hong Kong because she is very small nations while mainland China is very big nation (relating to geography). But South Korea and North Korea are half-to-half. Half of the Korea is South and another half is North. The situation of Hong Kong might not be found in South Korea due to the geographical difference.

Negative impact in terms of political aspect: more diverse in institution=>more struggles in the Congress, and make the policy difficult to pass, as well as the rise of meeting adjourns(流會).Take Germany and Italy in the 1930s as an example)

In conclusion, what i am thinking is, the unification of Korea benefits South Korea economically while it has a positive impact in terms of society towards North Korea. But there is also negative impact of the unification of Korea. The unification of Korea not only based on what North and South citizens think, but also their leaders. If most of them think that the unification sounds great, the leader agree that the unification can help to build up the economy, the institution as well as society, I believe that the unification is possible and there will be less negative influence to the South and North ones. But it depends on what the two leaders think. Therefore, to a large extent, I think Korea's unification is considered as "for" rather than "against" towards both South and North Korea.

In the recent year, the new leader of North Korea, try to be like Deng Xiaoping in China---to open up and reform the North Korea. After the opening up, the unification seems possible to Korea. However, the "nuclear crisis"(remember the nuclear weapon?) of North Korea is still in alarm. On the other hands, the ones in South(see those celebrities and university students), want their countries to unify with North Korea so much. Korea seems possibly unified.

As a Chinese, if I was working as the standing committee in the Politburo, i really did not want them to unify. I would be scared after the unification: Oh my, other than Japanese, i have another competitive opponent.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Having nothing to do?

Today, I have a particular strong thought about the phrase ‘having nothing to do’ or what we say ‘無聊’ in Chinese. I keep thinking the question ‘do we really have any time that we have nothing to do?’ or we just do not want to do what we have to do or things that we have to do?

After having some thought, I realize that the answer is we do not want to do anything at all sometimes. But the reality is – we sometimes try to convince ourselves that we have nothing to do and to allow ourselves to waste our time for granted. Then, we end up wasting a lot of time doing things for no purposes such as browsing Facebook hundreds of time (like in a minute or so) in a day, lying on sofa playing mobile phone, or even sleeping.

So, I try not to make myself saying I have nothing to do. Instead, I try to give myself some justifications why I am doing this. Feeling ‘無聊’ sometimes can be caused by a sense of emptiness or ‘空虛’ but I hope that is not happening to be. When people feel ‘空虛’, they lose their directions and can easily be preyed to do some bad things – I think some people commit crime because of this? So, if I am really doing ‘nothing’, I should say I do not feel like doing anything right now. All I need is some rests. Right?

Other than wanting to know about motivations behind one’s behavior, similarly, we could apply this to meanings in communication – ‘people do not always say what they mean and people do not always mean what they say’. Perhaps we could try to think beyond the surface. Then, we will see the deeper meanings beyond the surface meanings.

The Hallway to Online Fame – Youtube

Who say Hong Kong people lack creativity? The prevalence of Youtubers in Hong Kong proves one point that there are many creative Hong Kongers who can express themselves brilliantly through Youtube videos or what we call video blogs (Vblogs). They start to a form sophisticated discourse community. When compared them with myself, I find that I should work more hard to pursue my own goals. I always think there are always some lazy people in the world and I just need to work a little bit harder than them and then I can then secure myself a job.

You may say that some of them make non-sense Youtube videos. But, at least they have the courage to post a video, pursue what want to do and say what they want to express.

Some says ‘The biggest mistake one can ever make is not to make mistakes’. I totally agree to this statement. Definitely, I need to change my attitude and should work hard for myself.

Below are some examples of well-known HK Youtubers:
Ming Jai
Eminleo
Cooking HayHay
Lou (Mr. Lou)
司徒夾帶 (Umoviegroup)
伍公子 (Louis Ng)
窮飛龍 (Smilemiann)
薑檸樂 (Ginger Lemon Cola)
Bomba Production (Fox, Felix, Kibi…)