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As we enter the holiday seasons and the weather gets colder, our Luan Dun pot continues to boil with chaotic social news and delicious pop updates.

It’s called Luan Dun after a hotpot dish from Dongbei, the North-Eastern part of China. All kinds of ingredients and flavors are cooked together in one big pot. Luan means chaos, so it suggests that everything is well and truly mixed up together. We also have our monthly introduction to new terms invented by Chinese netizens based on their heated online discussion about social, economical and political issues.

This month’s feature designer is More Tong who joined us not too long ago. The concept of his design is of a comic superhero. More hopes that as you flip through the pages, you will feel the force thrust upon you through the news the superhero delivers.

Luan Dun bids us goodbye as this marks the last issue of the year, but we will be back in January with a brand new issue for 2011.

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

Seasons Greetings!

China

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The 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games ended just a week ago and is deemed as yet another success for China after the 2008 Beijing Olympic games and the recent Shanghai Expo.

A month prior to the game, Guangzhou’s government had ordered half of the city’s 2.1 million private cars off the streets to improve traffic conditions and air quality for the Asian Games. To discourage private car use, residents were able to take public transportation for free.

However, residents of Guangzhou, a city of 10 million, responded enthusiastically to the offer, leading to crammed subway trains and long lines at stations as commuters poured in for the free rides. Guangzhou’s transportation authorities say they have had to rescind the offer within the first week because the overwhelming number of people had become uncontrollable.

Before Asian Games

Thousands of students from a local high school in Guizhou decided to attack their cafeteria the evening the school announced an increase in food prices.

Students were already unhappy with the poor quality of the food, and not to mention the cafeteria’s animal attack from flies, cockroaches and mice.

The incident was posted online and netizens cheered with support, stating that “we should be more reactive rather than passive about unreasonable and unfair policies”.

?!

1

Support!2

Percentage: 32.7%Vote: 3,772

Hard to say 3

Percentage: 16.6%Vote: 1,918

Percentage: 50.7%Vote: 5,856

Doubt!

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT NUDE WEDDING PHOTOS TAKEN BY YOUNG COUPLES?

There are two options: the couple can either be posed wearing absolutely nothing at all or with sheets (or leaves) placed strategically across their bodies.

The Shanghai Wedding Trade Association for photographers is pressing the government to ban any studio that engages in this practice, claiming that it disrespects the institution of marriage. Traditionally, Chinese wedding photos are taken months before the ceremony. The couple is usually posed wearing either Western or Chinese outfits.

A rather odd trend has been developing in China involving naked portraits of newly-weds.

When pictures began spreading online, Sina (Yahoo! Equivalent) began a poll to see what netizens think of such trend. The poll should speak for itself.

Nude wedding photos are disgrace to parents

Young people should be proud of their beauty.

It’s not everyday that China’s streets are infiltrated by people in shocking fashion…until a woman from Chengdu has caught the attention of netizens, becoming the internet’s new sensation for her sense of style and causing a mixture of admiration for her daringness as well as disgust…

It seems as though she is oblivious to the crowd’s response to her fashion, but most netizens feel that she’s actually enjoying the attention.

Ohhhhhh...Photos from Chinasmack

The second batch of 2,000 seeds of the Britain Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010 was bought by Chinese netizens on the Internet once again, and it just took 5 seconds on Taobao.com after bidding was opened at 10 a.m. on Nov. 4 .It is reported that the seeds are divided into two versions of regular edition (199 RMB) and a collective edition (399 RMB). The two-tiered prices did not dampen the enthusiasm of Chinese netizens. Compared with the collective edition, the regular edition included a commemorative badge of the Britain Pavilion. A total of 8,000 seeds were sold out within 2 minutes in the first group purchase on Oct. 28. According to Taobao’s statistics,

the “Seeds Palace” of the Britain Pavilion has successfully completed their goal of sowing the seeds throughout the country.

Source: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/ 7190025.html

1USD = 6.7RMB

un gelivable不 给力

给力 (gei li) As opposite to 不给力 , 给力 is used to describe something interesting, cheerful or helpful.

不给力 (bu gei li)This expression originated from certain dialect which means boring, get bored. Now it has been widely used by netizens to describe anything that they dislike or think is boring. Recently, they even created an English word for this expression: ungelivable.

bu

我嘞个去 wo le ge qu

This term has become an internet buzzword of the month used by netizens to express being too shocked to believe what is happening. It’s another way of saying “OMFG” in Chinese without the swearing content. Though the term became so popular in the past weeks, no one actually knows how it came about.

神马都是浮云mystic horses are all drifting clouds

shen ma dou fu yun

神马 [shen ma]

The term 神马,pronounced [shen ma] literally means Mystical Horse, but phonetically, it sounds like [shen me] which means “What?”. The term became popular amongst netizens simply because typo occurs too often that when netizens type ‘what’ the keyboard automatically detects the word word Mystical Horse.

浮云 (fu yun) The term 浮云, pronounced [Fu Yun] literally means drifting cloud which also means ‘not important or worthy of mentioning’. This month, Xiao Yue Yue became the main topic of millions of netizens when her friend Rong Rong blogged about her 2 day experience eas a tour guide when Xiao Yue Yue and her boyfriend came to town for a visit. In the post, Rong Rong described her as fat, crass and unbelievably obnoxious. After Xiao Yue Yue became an internet sensation, Rong Rong wrote “I can’t use anymore words to describe her, what [mystic horse] internet queen? No way, everything is drifting clouds!” and thus the phrase “Mystic horses are all drifting clouds” is born.

This phrase became commonly used by netizens, especially white-collars, in situations when you’re disappointed, giving up or when you find things not worth dwelling upon. For example, “Work is work, overtime is overtime, what [mystic horse] more can you say, it’s all drifting clouds.”

POP

CHINA

Music Concert Movie TV Series

Tech

!Fama, a canto-rap duo with mainstream popularity, releases their latest album called Miracle. In this album, they tried a new approach where the duo 6Wing and CKwan are each responsible for his own solo disc.

In addition to their hands-on participation, the innovative duo has lined up a group of notable musicians to help in the production, including Khalil Fong, Ivana Wong, hip-hop artist Kz, and DJ Tommy.

Together yet separate, the new Fama album features 6Wing’s title track Miracle (featuring acclaimed actor Anthony Wong) and CKwan’s radio hit

FAMA: MIRACLE

The Great Course. The rap duo not only contributes seven songs each to the 2-CD album, they also included three music videos each on 2 bonus DVDs.

Source:http://i-scribblez.co.cc/2010/10/fama-miracle-2010/

Leehom Wang, an American-born singer-songwriter, record producer, actor and film director of Chinese descent based in Taiwan, recently released his fourteenth studio album, entitled The 18 Martial Arts.

The album consists of interesting remix of various lines from Leehom’s directorial debut film Love In Disguise. This album marks the return of LeeHom’s “chinked-out” musical style that infuses traditional musical elements of the east, with the beats of western hip-hop.

The last track of the album One Of Us is written after his visit to Sierra Leone with World Vision Taiwan and serves as a nice ending to the album

expressing music as a universal language that unites all.

WANG LEEHOM: 18 MARTIAL ARTS

One Two Free is an up-and-coming rap duo from Taiwan formed by Born and A-Da, who pursue freedom in their boundless, uplifting, and fun music. The versatile duo double-handedly handles every aspect of their music from songwriting to album design and MV production – the latter being their specialty.

The hilarious music videos for their debut song Screwed and Welcome have been surprise online sensations with incredible hit rates, with Welcome boasting a stellar lineup of guest stars in MC40 (Da Mouth), Adia, Vanness Wu, A-fu (Sodagreen), Rachel Liang, Yuming Lai (Y2J), and Eason Chan! That’s rather impressive for a newcomer group, and

their self-titled debut album contains the two hit singles and 11 other liberating new songs, such as Sister featuring Landy Wen.As is written on the description of this album: Free means freedom, freedom of creativity, freedom of thought. Free means release, release pressure, release anger. Free means free of charge. Dream is free.

自由发挥 (ONE TWO FREE)

Check out their latest MVhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjth3yjsFac http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2N2uGeifvg&feature=related

Chinese pop singer Faye Wong kicked off her comeback concert tour in Beijing Oct.29, 2010. She had performed 5 concerts in Beijing and another 5 in Shanghai during the months of October and November. Although the ticket price ranged from 300 to 2500rmb, they were sold out within 10 minutes.

It has been five years since Faye Wong performed in a concert. The superstar has stayed away from the limelight after giving birth to her second daughter.

FAYE WONG’S COME BACK CONCERT

According to China News, Faye Wong was paid 6.5mil RMB for the concerts. And 500,000 RMB of the money will be channeled to the Smile Angel Foundation, which she and her husband Li Yapeng set up to help patients with cleve lips.

1USD = 6.7RMB

Wang Xiaoshuai completes an unofficial trilogy with this tricky, moving drama set in the Sichuan city of Chongqing.

Wang’s film follows Lin (Wang Xueqi), a sea captain, returning home to discover that his teenage son, Bo, has died in a shooting incident. Wandering around the extraordinary city – cable cars trundling through permanent damp – he slowly pieces together the details. It seems the boy took a hostage in a supermarket and was killed by a police officer.

Lin’s journey is both that of an errant father taking stock of his guilty past and the return of a prodigal son to his hometown to find himself an outsider.

Chongqing Blues concerns itself with the clash between tradition and modernity. While Lin and his old pal, whose son was the dead boy’s friend, ponder the decline in morals and

respect, the younger generation squint at mobile phones and chats on the internet.CHONGQING BLUES

CHonGQinG

Director Zhang Yimou returns to a more basic form of film-making in this touching story of innocent love from China’s Cultural Revolution era. Strong performances add substance to an otherwise simple story of young lovers burdened by societal difficulties in their efforts to be together.

A young, innocent girl meets a special boy, amid the turbulence of China’s revolutionary years. Both of them are sent to the country-side to labor under Mao’s crazed design for social re-ordering. Adapted from a true story, the film focuses less on the madness of the times and more on the fear of being labeled politically incorrect which, coupled with the socially conservative norms of traditional China, serve to encumber the innocent desire to be together.

A slow but nicely filmed story of heartache and heartbreak.

Under the hawthorn tree

山楂树之恋

UNDER THE HAWTHORN TREE

An internet film that reflects upon one’s youth and dreams called 老老

老[Lao Nan Hai, “Old Boy”] has been rapidly spreading on the internet, moving people of all ages, with many people leaving shedding tears over their youth, commending it as a rare example of a fine domestically-produced piece of work. The film has also spurred passionate discussion amongst netizens about one’s dreams.

“Old Boy” tells a story of two ordinary men pursuing their dreams, using humorous scenes to make viewers think of their own dreams. They form a band to participate in the “Happy Boys” competition which brings the entire film back to their childhood.

THE BRIGHT ELEVENOLD BOYS

The film, directed by “Chopsticks brothers”, is part of the THE BRIGHT ELEVEN project which composed of 10 short films of around 10 minutes and one longer film.

The film consists of a very good translated English subtitle, and since it’s release a month ago, the film has been viewed nearly 41 million times on Youku:http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjE4MDU1MDE2.html

闪婚

Flash Marriage is a phenomenon that appeared in the recent years among modern young couples in China‘s large cities, where the financial burdens of keeping up a long-term relationship before marriage have proven too expensive for many couples. The soaring prices of immovable property in these cities has made such speedy marriages more economical.

The drama is about a series of problems that derived from a marriage between a post 80s couple who knew little about each other and flash married.

FLASH MARRIAGE

The series is set during the Western Han Dynasty, when the protagonist Dou entered the royal palace as a maid. Dou displayed extraordinary talents and her skills impressed the Empress Dowager, who sent Dou to marry the King of Dai in order to spy on them.

Throughout the series, Dou rises as Queen, but at the pinnacle of her power, she realized that her personal life was slipping away from her. In order to regain the love of her husband, in order to stop her children from killing one another, she weaved her womanly tactics to overcome every obstacle,

SCHEMES OF A BEAUTY and forged one of the golden ages in Chinese history known as the Rule of Wen and Jing. Her name is recorded in history, she is Empress Dou of Wen Kingdom.

This probably doesn’t come as quite shocking now that we’re familiar with China’s shanzhai culture. The shanzhai culture refers to Chinese imitation and pirated brands and goods, particularly electronics.

It’s rather impressive knowing that now you can find a shanzhai iPhone 4 that runs android. According to McGadget.com, the phone has a 3.5-inches HVGA capacitive touch screen, front and rear cameras, GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi and runs Android 2.1. As far as design goes, they have all the basic elements of the iPhone 4 down.

Also, soon you’ll also be able to find a dual OS on iPhone 4 clone!

Android iPhone 4

山寨

ESC

Author:Charinee Chairasmisak

W+K Shanghai

Designer:More Tong

Date:2010 Dec