Odd Things I saw - Miniature art

I'm a huge fan of art and I came across this unique form of artwork that I wanted to share with you all. Artist Chen Forng Shean expresses his creativity on a microscopic scale, his masterpieces are the size of a needle eye. If you don't look hard enough, you probably won't realise it's there.

Chen has been dubbed as 'the founder of miniature art in Taiwan', he has been creating miniature masterpieces for 30 years. He never needs to worry about running out of space to store his artwork! LOL!

When working on a small scale, there are quite a few challenges. For instance, a shaky hand is of no use in this type of artwork.

"If the hands shake a little bit, the work will be destroyed, " Chen said, "my job is dealing with very fine things, so I learned to breathe and hold my breath. When I take a breath, I can hold it for 60 seconds, and then I can engrave every stroke with the rhythm of my pulse." Reference: Sina english

Kim Hyun Joong releases his debut solo album

Popular Korean singer/actor Kim Hyun Joong will be releasing his first mini album across Asia on June 8th. Key that date in fans. The album ‘Break Down’ will be released in Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore on the same date.

The track listing has been revealed, the song on the album are:
- Break down
- Intro (Let me go)
- Please
- Kiss Kiss
- Yes I will

Kim Hyun Joong the lead singer of the boy group SS501 decided to release a solo album a while back - it’s great to see that his album will be released very soon. Keep an eye out for it.

The Best Bits of CherriiPOP – Wedding stories

There have been a lot of wedding stories covered on the show this year; they were quite popular stories on the show because I got a lot of comments about it. Here is a recap:




A few weeks ago I mentioned an interesting story about a Taiwanese woman marrying herself. She herself decided to put a ring on it. A wedding planner was hired and she invited her close friends and family to her wedding. I really admire that story because she is sending out a strong message to other 30 year old women that you don’t have to follow tradition and you should love yourself. Legally her marriage isn’t recognised, so in the future when she meets Prince Charming she can marry him without divorcing herself. It’s inspirational that she’s living life to her own rules!




On the date 10-10-10 this year, many couples around the world said ‘I do’, so venues were booked out in advanced. Why did so many couples choose this date? Well because it is an auspicious date since the day, month and year are the same. In Asia, people believe that when you get married on this date you will live a happy life together. In the past, the dates 08-08-08 and 09-09-09 were highly popular for weddings for the same reason. If you are planning to get married in the near future, then you might consider these auspicious dates 11-11-11 and 12-12-12.




The Last story is: A lot of adult Japanese men who have no luck in the love department have resorted to loving anime cartoon characters. These virtual girlfriends are printed images on pillowcases and these men will take their ‘girlfriends’ on dates to the movies, restaurants or special getaways. The men feel a lot of happiness in the relationship and feel that it is true love. Some men love their virtual girlfriends so much that they will marry them and have the whole wedding celebration as well. It’s a very interesting story and people who have an obsession with manga or anime characters are called ‘otaku’ in Japan.

Single Lady got Hitched to Herself

There was an interesting story about a Taiwanese woman this week. We all know Beyonce’s huge hit song ‘Single Ladies’. Part of the lyrics go ‘If you like it you better put a ring on it’. Well 30 year old office worker Chen Wei-Yih defied that song and she didn’t need a man to ‘put a ring’ on her hand, she did it herself and MARRIED HERSELF!

She hoped that by marrying herself other people will love themselves and not feel like failures if they were in their thirties and unmarried.

Chen really spoilt herself and planned a wedding for herself! She hired a wedding planner, photographer, banquet hall and sent out wedding invites to 30 of her friends. The wedding costs totalled to $5,700 – a very good price for a wedding! I wonder how much her dress would cost? She is also planning a honeymoon for herself to Australia!

She states that she is not against the traditional marriage, but she wanted to express a different idea within the bounds of tradition. She said “age 30 is a prime period for me. My work and experience are in good shape, but I haven’t found a partner, so what can I do?”

Chen’s marriage to herself has won a lot of supporters online. It was also reported that the ceremony isn’t legal and doesn’t recognise Chen as married. In the future if Chen meets Mr. Right, she will not have to divorce herself to get married. So that is good news for Chen. I can’t imagine how messy it would be for her to divorce herself, oh the legal battles and did she think about a pre-nup? LOLz

This story goes back to what I was talking about before. Self gifting and I think throwing yourself a wedding is a massive self gift! I wish her all the happiness in the world!


Reference: ninemsn

Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) July 22 - Aug 8. Lots of great films from Asian Cinema!

Movie lovers must check out the MIFF festival ! MIFF Showcases the best of world cinema. With over 50 countries participating in this year's festival, it's diverse program will surely cater for everyone's taste in film.

Here is an overview of the films from Asian Cinema in MIFF.

China
- 1428
- Apart Together
- City of Life and Death
- Like a Dream
- Petition
- The Search

Hong Kong
- Dream Home
- Like a Dream
- Love in a Puff

Indonesia
- The Dreamer

Japan
- Air Doll
- Beetle Queen conquers Tokyo
- Caterpillar
- First Squad, the moment of truth
- Kanikosen
- Mai Mai Miracle
- Summer Wars
- Symbol
- In a pig's eye
- Still in Cosmos

Malaysia
- Karaoke

Philippines
- For Y'R height only
- Independencia
- Lola

South Korea
- The Actresses (Interesting film, reminds me of the tv show 'The hills')
- Hahaha
- The housemaid (classic and remake versions)
- Paju
- Poetry
- A perm
- The wonder hospital

Taiwan
- Au Revoir Taipai
- Like a dream

Thailand
- A letter to uncle Boonmee

Vietnam
- Adrift

Enjoy the MIFF festival everyone!