Odd Things I Saw - Toilet mural

To all you  love birds out there. When you want to do something romantic for your partner, what would you do? Wine, dine, buy some flowers or maybe jewellery.

Well, Chinese artist Wei Hua came up with an innovative idea and gift for his future wife. He created a wall of toilets and arranged roses in the toilet to form a love heart. I don't entirely understand how toilets came in to the equation of a romantic gift for his beloved.

The art piece is appropriately named the 'toilet waterfall'. A total of 6,000 roses were put in the toilets. 

Me personally, I think he should have just given her the 6,000 roses (that''s like a florist shop) that is romantic. I think the addition of toilets is overkill, but it definitely will leave a long lasting impression for her and the whole town. lol

Chinese Olympian under fire for second child

Diving gold medalist Tian Liang is being investigated by authorities for alleged violation of the one-child policy by arranging the birth of his second child in Hong Kong.

Tian 32, a gold medalist from the Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004) Olympic games retired from diving in 2007 and became an actor.

In 2008, Tian welcomed his firstborn, and earlier this year his second child was born in Hong Kong. Since the arrival of his second child Tian has faced accusations of violating the nation’s one-child policy.

China introduced the one-child policy in the late 1970’s to control the fast growth of its population. Since then, authorities have made exceptions, allowing eligible couples to have a second child.

Opinion has been divided over Tian's situation.

Shaanxi Administration of Sport stated that Tian had not violated the one-child policy since his son was born in Hong Kong.

Ma Li, director of the China Population and Development Research Center, however, confirmed with the Global Times that "no matter where their house registration is located, Tian and his wife broke the law."

According to NPFPC's hotline for public inquiries on the one-child policy, a couple who are not eligible for a second child are considered to have violated the policy even if their second child was born outside the mainland.

The hotline said the couple will be fined if they bring the child back to the mainland. The fine would be between two and six times the couple's total income of the previous year, and any future fines would triple for every additional child. That is a harsh penalty.

Tian and his family have remained silent since the news broke.

Du Peng, a professor with the Population Research Institute of Renmin University of China, told the Global Times that he expects the policy to be loosened little by little to deal with the country's growing aging population and decreasing birth rate.

"First, families with either the mother or father being the only child can have two children. Then gradually, all families will be permitted to have two children," Du said.

What do you think about this? What about the harsh penalty that applies to couples that have more than one children?

Reference: Global Times

2012 Vietnamese Tet Festival @Sandown, Melbourne

As we all recover from the New Year celebrations... Festivities start to pick up again as we celebrate Tet (Vietnamese New Year) & Chinese New Year. 2012 welcomes the year of the Dragon.

The largest Tet Festival in Melbourne will be held on the 4th & 5th of February at Sandown Race Course.



What you can expect at the Sandown Tet Festival:
- Delicious food such as bot chien, pho, barbeque food, sugar cane drink
- Live entertainment. Usually there is an international singer that fronts the performance show. It hasn't been announced who this is yet - I will keep you posted. Previous performers have included Don Ho, Diem Lien, Tommy Ngo.
- Fun carnival rides such as the boat, the spinning planes
- You can try you luck with the cool games! See if you can take home a huge soft toy.

Past Tet festivals have attracted over 35,000 people. It is expected a bigger crowd will attend this year's Sandown Tet festival.

What does the year of the Dragon mean?
It is considered the year of good luck. In Chinese mythology, the dragon represents good fortune in health, wealth and longevity. The dragon is also a protector and is well respected and beloved by the Chinese people.

The art of branding in China

In China, people place high importance on brand names, as they are deeply superstitious and have a strong belief in feng shui. Popular brands in china include the fizzy drink ‘Tasty fun’(aka Coca-Cola), the fashionable running shoes ‘Enduring & Perserving’ (aka Nike) and the flash car ‘Precious horse’ (aka BMW).

China is a massive market for corporations with sales of consumer goods increasing by 13% per year and luxury goods 25% a year. When a corporation decides to introduce their brand in China, it is crucial that they get their ‘Chinese brand name’ correct – as it can make or break the brand.

When it comes to selecting the right brand name, a team of consultants carefully use computer programs and linguistic analysis to ensure that the Chinese brand name has a positive connotation in both Mandarin and Cantonese.

Some of the best Chinese brand names actually sound like the English equivalent. There is a lot of artistry in translating and selecting the right brand name for the Chinese market. Here are some examples:

Coca-Cola’s Chinese name is ‘Kekoukele’, which means - tasty fun.

Tide detergent or ‘Taizie’ means – gets rid of dirt

Reeboks or ‘Rui Bu’ means ‘quick steps’ (Isn’t that clever?)

Colgate or ‘Gao lu jie’ means ‘revealing superior cleanliness’

It’s quite brilliant that they were able to come up with clever Chinese homonyms for the original English name. Often, the phonetic Chinese translation can lead to a brand name with no meaning in Chinese (therefore the brand would be identified foreign) or it can have a negative meaning.

Therefore corporations prefer to choose a Chinese name that suggests power, status and good luck. But, if the name could also sound like the English equivalent – that would be an added bonus.

Common Chinese words that are found in many brands include: le ‘happy’, li ‘power’, ‘ma’ horse and fu ‘lucky’.

Microsoft had a bit of trouble with selecting their Chinese name for search engine ‘Bing’. Bing in Chinese means disease, defect and virus. With consultation, they chose the name ‘Bi ying’ which means ‘responds without fail’.

Another interesting story is Peugeot, they decided to choose a homonym name ‘Biao Zhi’ which sounds similar to the Chinese slang for ‘prostitute’ (biaozi). The automobile brand has inspired many dirty jokes as you can imagine.

If you are entering the Chinese market, carefully select your Chinese brand name as it will impact on your business.


Reference: new York times

Jackie Chan’s 100th film – ‘1911’

Jackie Chan has come a long way since starting out as a child actor and a stunt man in the film industry. He has become a heavyweight in Asian films and he paved the way for Asian actors in Hollywood. His film career has spanned over 4 decades and now the hardest working man in show biz has released his 100th film.

In recent years, Jackie Chan has expressed his desire to shed his kung fu star persona and become a serious actor. Jackie has been taking on more dramatic and challenging roles (e.g. Shinjuki Incident, The Karate Kid) to display his acting versatility. To mark his 100th film, he had chosen a historic drama ‘1911’ to mark the achievement.

1911, tells the story of the founding republic of China when Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary forces overthrew the Ming dynasty. An all star including Joan Chen, Hu Ge, Zhang Ziyi along with Jackie’s son Jaycee, accompany him in this epic movie. The film was filmed over 6 intensive months.

In Australia the film was released on October 13th at Village cinemas. You can check out their website for session details.

Congrats to Jackie for this incredible achievement. I hope to see his 200th film in the future *^_^*

Next Week - My First Book Review - Amy Chua's 'Battle Hymm of the Tiger Mother

I'm so excited about the first book I will review on the CherriiPOP Show - Battle Hymm of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua.

This book created a lot of controversy in the US media when it was released this year. Naturally, I was curious about the book, so I had to read it. From the moment I read page 1, I was glued to the book. This book is fascinating and incredibly honest. It gives an insight to a mother trying to raise her children with traditional Chinese values in a modern western society.

It's the type of book that you have to read cover to cover; reading excerpts doesn't give you the full picture.

Tune in next week's show for my FIRST book review!

Watch author Amy Chua discuss her book.

Movie Review - Lost in Beijing (2007)

This movie aired on SBS a few weeks ago, I have been meaning to write a movie review and I finally have some time to do so.

This film caused a lot of controversy for the themes it explores (blackmail) and gratuitous love scenes. After delays in the film's release, the film was then banned by Chinese Authorities.

Lost in Beijing, follows the lives of 2 couples and how their lives are forever changed when they cross paths. Liu Pingguo (Fan Bingbing) and her husband, An Kun (Tong Dawei) are a young couple who have moved to Beijing to seek a better life. Liu Pinggao works as a foot masseuse, An Kun works as a window washer. Liu Pinggao works for Lin Dong (Tony Leung Ka Fai), the owner of the massage parlour, his wife, Wang Mei (Elaine Jin) practices Chinese medicine.

One day, Liu Pingguo is incredibly drunk at work and her middle aged boss Lin Dong takes advantage of the situation and rapes her. Her husband witnesses the ordeal and he thinks that she was having an affair. An Kun is furious with her and takes revenge by sleeping the Lin Dong's wife. Liu Pinggao blackmails her boss for a sum of money, telling him she won't report him for rape or tell her husband what really happened. Lin Dong agrees.

There lives get more tangled up when Liu Pinggao finds out she's pregnant and she doesn't know who the father is. Surprisingly, the middle aged couple really wants a child in their lives. They agree to support Liu Pinggao through her pregnancy in return for the baby.

This is one intriguing film. It was fascinating to watch how the dynamic of the relationships changed and evolved throughout the film. We see the barbaric rapist acting like Liu Pinggao's husband, being overly concerned during her pregnancy. Lin Dong desperately wants a baby in his life. We watch An Kun having hope that the baby is his, he starts to regret his agreement in giving up the baby.

I found myself glued to drama that was unfolding between the 2 couples. It was refreshing that the film was not predictable at any stage. It explores the complicatons in life and hard decisions people make in order to survive. The four leading actors took on the roles fearlessly, especially Tony Leung. I started out detesting the character and somehow found myself empathising with him later on in the film.

This isn't a love story, it's a film that will challenge your values.

4/5 stars

Odd Things I saw - Sexy cabbage ladies artwork

Exotic cabbage artwork -110610 by CherriiPOP





While I was surfing the net this week, I came across these cool artworks by Chinese artist Ju Duoqi. She makes sculptures entirely out of Chinese cabbage. The sculptures are of women in sexy and classy poses. She named this project ‘The fantasies of chinese cabbage’.

The use of cabbage in the sculptures is quite amazing.I will never look at a Chinese cabbage the same.

The Fairytale Royal Wedding

The history making royal wedding of Prince William and Kate was watched by over 2 billion people. William and Kate looked amazing! I love watching Royal Weddings, for me it is a major TV event. I bought snacks, chocolate in preparation for the event - Just like what people do when they watch the footy on the telly.

Everyone was anxious to see her dress. Everyone gasped the moment she stepped out of the car. Kate looked so elegant, so radiant. I love her train – the way it pleated, it was really beautiful. The dress was made by British Designer Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen.

The moment her dress was revealed, designers around the world went through a mad rush to copy her dress. Kate is a fashion icon – any dress she wears instantly sells out. Her wedding dress will certainly be in high demand. What I love about this dress is that it is so elegant and timeless. Fashionistas believe Grace Kelly’s stunning wedding dress was inspiration.

Guys don’t feel left out - you can buy replicas of Prince Williams cherry red military uniform as well. Here is a photo of a Chinese couple wearing copies of Prince William and Kate’s wedding clothes.

If you are planning your wedding why not go for a royal wedding? Every bride and groom should feel like a princess and prince on their special day!