Chinese Lantern Festival 2009

My article on the Lantern Festival.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2231961/chinese_moon_festival_legend_traditions.html

~~~~~

Trends: France vs the US

While I was doing some data mining using Google statistical tools, a neat idea popped up. What would happen if I pit two or more similar/dissimilar things against each other? Which one is more popular (based on search volume)? In this little experiment, I compared France to the US.

~~~

1) When I compared the search term “France” to the search term “America”, the former was found to be more popular generating higher level of interests.

~~

2) When I compared the search term “French” to “American”, the latter was overwhelmingly more popular.

~~

3) When I compared France’s ageless wonder “Eiffel Tower” to America’s greatest monument “The Statue of Liberty”, the latter edged the former by a small margin.

~~

The results were pretty much in line with what I had expected. France has a longer and much more illustrious history than the US, and thus it is not a surprise that the country generates more interest than America.The fact that Americans are more popular than the French is self-explanatory. Who would not want to be an American (sarcasm)?

The last result left me a little surprised. I thought the Eiffel Tower would have a slight edge over the Statue of Liberty; I was wrong. I guess people picked symbolic value over historic value. In summary, people like France but love Americans or being Americans. Liberty and freedom are loved as well.

Culture 101: Horse Sashami

One of the major misconceptions foreigners often have with regards to the Japanese is that they only eat fish and nothing else. While it is very true that the Japanese love to eat fish, they crave for other animals as well. As a matter of fact, one of Japan’s most popular dishes is horse sashimi or raw horse meat. Raising horses for their meat is a major industry in some regions of Japan. But why the Japanese pick horses and not cats, donkeys, or better yet llamas?

The answer lies in Japan’s warring past. In ancient times, horses were used extensively in battle by the Japanese military. As food supplies often ran short, Japanese soldiers had had to resort to killing war horses for food. Through time, they became accustomed to eating horse meat. When the war ended, disbanded soldiers continued to this tradition and thus this was how horse sashimi came about.

Horse sashimi is one of Japan’s most popular dishes, but it is also one of the most expensive dishes. This is largely due to the fact that the Japanese do not view horses the same way as they view common livestock such cows and chicken. Horses are highly respected in Japan. Raising horses to be killed for food has to be carried out in a proper and honorable way. The extra care required to raise the horse is the reason why horse sashimi is a bit more expensive.

[Simon N.]
~~~

In Focus: Water Puppet Theatre

Water puppetry is 100 times more fun than the normal thing.

~~~

In Focus: Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea

In recent years, mainstream animation has shifted from hand-drawn to CGI. As I am a fan of traditional animation, I find this to be quite disheartening. While CGI animation is certainly impressive, it lacks one important ingredient and that is the artist’s touch. This is something that can’t be replicated with technology.

I do not know what it is about CGI animation that has led to the inventive and artistic void. Perhaps, it has to do with the limitations of the technology which often render the characters lifeless and uncreative. The fact that making animation with a computer program is far from equivalent to doing it with pen and paper might also be a factor. Technology tends to discourage creativity and obstruct the artist’s vision.

Unfortunately, my opinion is in the minority. Most people are trend-loving; they tend to favor things that are more current. This explains why CGI animated movies fare much better than traditional animation in box office performance. As a consequence, movie studios are phasing out traditional animation at a blistering pace. Animation as I know it is dying before my eyes.

Fortunately, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. My love for animation is once again renewed when Walt Disney Studios announces its support for the theatrical release of Hayao Miyazaki’s newest animated feature titled Ponyo. As Miyazaki is one of few animation directors who remain faithful to traditional animation, this is fantastic news. In fact, the Ponyo movie was 100% hand-drawn with no CGI effects. This movie involved the collective cooperation of a number of artists (including the master Miyazaki himself) resulting in 170,000 separate sketches.

For those who may not know, Miyazaki was the director of numerous award-winning animated movies including Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and the iconic My Neighbor Totoro. Below is the trailer for the latest movie. As one can see, the movie’s art direction is as perfect as it could be. The animation is outstanding as well. The movie opens in the United States on August 14, 2009.

[Simon N.]
~~~