Within a Sky Full of Earth

O que conta não é a manifestação do desejo, da tentativa amorosa.
O que conta é o inferno da história única. Nada a substitui, nem uma segunda história. Nem a mentira. Nada. Quanto mais a provocamos, mais ela foge. Amar é amar alguém. Não há um múltiplo da vida que possa ser vivido. Todas as primeiras histórias de amor se quebram e depois é essa história que transportamos para as outras histórias.
Quando se viveu um amor com alguém, fica-se marcado para sempre e depois transporta-se essa história de pessoa a pessoa. Nunca nos separamos dele.
Marguerite Duras 

Here's hot! I hate this weather!

Come on bro, cheer up! We all have to get on with it...

This place is so small... we're getting bigger day-by-day... oh no! You know what?! One day when they realize we can't both fit in this cage, you know what will happen to us???

No! Mm... maybe they'll move us to a bigger one! Hurrayyyy!

No, you dumb! They'll either kill or move one of us to somewhere dark... really dark, with no food, no friends, no kids to come and visit us................. sniff sniff..................

Oh! I don't want to live alone! I can't scratch my back without you! What are we going to do then?!

Well... we can keep eating... sleeping... taking a nap... waving at the kids... eating again... and scratch each other's back! Yeah!

Yeah! Let's do it then!

We're so good in scratching backs, no? And we always make those around us smile!

I think what we do best is... is... I can't think of anything... bahhhhhhhhhh!

Ohhhh!!! Don't cry!!! I'll cry too!!! Bahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Sniff... hang on... there must be something we do best!

But we can't think of anything bro...

Oh! I know! Bingo! Day-dreaming is what we do best! Yeah!

Hahaha! Yes! We're geniuses!

There is something I want to do... like learning new crafts, sculpturing, developing films! But we are only two chubby lazy funky pandas...

Right... Those things are always on when we are busy here in the Zoo working for those people... bahhhh! I want to learn more and more!

So what should we do?

Mm... keep dancing, sleeping, eating... and scratching each other's back! Oh, and waving at the kids, putting a smile on them!

ascese | s. f.
do Grego áskesis, meditação

s.f.
exercício de devoção e meditação religiosa;
sistema moral dos ascetas.

Desde que deixei o Líbano, em 1976, para me instalar em França, perguntam-me inúmeras vezes, com as melhores intenções do mundo, se me sinto "mais francês" ou "mais libanês". Respondo invariavelmente: "Um e outro!" Não por um qualquer desejo de equilíbrio ou equidade, mas porque, se respondesse de outro modo, estaria a mentir. Aquilo que faz que eu seja eu e não outrem, é o facto de me encontrar na ombreira de dois países, de duas ou três línguas, de várias tradições culturais. É isso precisamente que define a minha identidade. Tornar-me-ia mais autêntico se amputasse uma parte de mim mesmo?
Amin Maalouf no livro que todos deviam ler "As Identidades Assassinas"

Decades ago, a cousin of mine one evening left his car in a multi-storey car park near a Manchester theatre where the English National Opera Company was soon to start a performance. When my cousin went to get his car to drive home he found a chorus of opera goers doing the same. Quite a few of them had started earlier than him. The car park's one exit, scores of cars, and the helical exit ramp inadequately serving six or more floors meant that getting to the fee kiosk took around half an hour.

When David's turn to pay came he saw that the fee was for over four hours' parking and he knew that his car had only stood three and three quarter hours on the space he was asked to pay for having occupied longer. (More than once, he's described the evening in detail and that point never changes.) David told the car park attendant that he thought the fee asked was mistaken and he said why he did. The attendant adhered to that tradition of British service that, in the seventies and eighties, gave National Car Parks' its unparalleled reputation. David sat in his Volvo - one of those big ones, often built as estate cars - and said something like, "If I'm going to be late because of poor egress [can't be his word but his point] arrangements have delayed my starting the 30-mile drive home then I'm going to pay for the parking I had, no more." Drivers behind the Volvo began to ask what had ended their slow progress. They did so in growing numbers - some with threats, others with offers to 'pay the difference.' David rehearsed his intention, ignored the threats, and declined the offers. The delayed drivers' frustrations grew. Sitting in his kiosk the attendant came to appreciate that it was less strong than the Volvo; he 'phoned for advice and began to negotiate. (Not all traditions are inviolable.) David said if he were given the home telephone number of the area manager for the car park company then he would pay for 'up to four hours' and leave. 'Knowing my cousin, he may have remarked that he'd had time to form a clear memory of the attendant's face. For sure, he got a 'phone number and, to less than happy acclaim, drove off. Home again, about one in the morning, he rang the 'phone number and heard a man whose voice suggested the call had awoken him. David established the man worked managing car parks. He went on to mention that on this night, which they were enjoying, an opera had been performed at the theatre near the car park he had used and he explained that, with many similar users having to pay before they could each drive their car away, to get from the parking spaces to the fee kiosk took long enough to increase parking charges asked. Increases that were, David said, clearly objectionable. The man seemed to think being awoken in the early hours was the same. Certainly, he asked did David know what time it was. David said he did, even mentioned the time, and added that if he had not been so delayed leaving the car park he would not have been 'phoning as he was. The upshot of these delays and alarms was that on opera nights an extra attendant was employed to pencil on each driver's car park tickets the time he, or she, drove from the floor where they had parked the vehicle they drove.

From a 2007 visit to my native country, which I left 27 years ago, and from having there, for 12 days, hired a car, I guess that if anybody, for more than one minute, nowadays halted a queue of cars leaving a city car park he, or she, would risk being thought a terror suspect and becoming subject to detention without charge for interrogation lasting up to 28 days - or is it now 42? (Unlike the Pope, on matters of faith, or car parking agents, on new ways to get more money, I could be wrong*.)

* "I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken", is a plea Oliver Cromwell made, on 3rd August 1650, in a letter to the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland. Remembering it when I'm perplexed has often been of use to me; saying it to anybody supremely confident and yet incompetent has helped me, too.

astray
adverb
1 the shots went astray OFF TARGET, wide of the mark, awry, off course; amiss.
2 the older boys led him astray INTO WRONGDOING, into error, into sin, into iniquity, away from the straight and narrow, off the right course.

A Bloom esteve presente na Feira do Livro da Escola Portuguesa de Macau, que decorreu nos dias de ontem e hoje, no átrio da escola. Com alguma afluência e alguns livros vendidos, o gosto de participar é sempre maior do que as intenções comerciais. Neste caso teria sido mais proveitoso estender a data da Feira e juntá-la ao dia da festa de Natal, em que os familiares dos estudantes estarão presentes com mais tempo e sem pressas, o que acontecerá amanhã. Voltaremos para o ano, no Dia Mundial da Criança. Obrigado.

This was the result of my creative writing exercise on Shirley Lim's workshop. After a process of relaxation, the idea was to bring back a distant smell from the depths of your memory. Writing freely without stopping for a few minutes.

It was the house. The view. As if you could smell the view. The floor, not the scent of the floor, but the touch as a smelly little torture. The doors. The walking in. The ring bell. The summer. The smile of the face that would walk you in. The face that is just a memory, ageless in time, as now and forever. The room inside. The weight of your jacket that was about to be put asside. Thorned. And then someone was there. Rich, perfect, beautiful. And that person was all hands. Hands lighting up a cigarette. Matches probably. Or a cigarette that would be lighten up by itself, just like that, with those magic hands. Hands that would flow to the pages of a book or so many books placed on the shelfs of the wall. And then he would hold his head in an endless thought. Endless in time. Through the steps of the memory.
But the smell was the smoke. The smoke all over the place, unnoticeable. Like the smoke of a gun that is about to blow your head. Smoking coming in and out, invisible, just targeting your eyes sleepless into your rememberings.
The hands that hold the cigarette, yes. And the smoke that from the truth was not really there.

Before time, everytime my sista like be the boss of the food.
We stay shopping in Mizuno Superette
and my madda pull the Oreos off the shelf
and my sista already saying, Mommy,
can be the boss of the Oreos?

The worse was when she was the boss
of the sunflower seeds.
She give me and my other sistas
one seed at a time.
We no could eat the meat.
Us had to put um in one pile on one Kleenex.
Then, when we wen' take all the meat
out of the shells and our lips stay all cho cho,
she give us the seeds one at a time
cause my sista, she the boss
of the sunflower seeds.

One time she was the boss
of the Raisinettes.
Us was riding in the back
of my granpa's Bronco down Kaunakakai Wharf.
There she was, passing us one Raisinette at a time.
My mouth was all watery
'cause I like eat um all one time, eh?
So I wen' tell her, Gimme that bag.
And I wen' grab um.
She said, I'ng tell Mommy.
And I said, Go you fuckin' bird killa;
tell Mommy.

She wen' let go the bag.
And I wen' start eating the Raisinetes all one time.
But when I wen' look at her,
I felt kinda bad cause I wen' call her bird killa.
She was boss of the parakeet too, eh,
and she suppose to cover the cage every night.
But one time, she wen' forget.
When us wen' wake up, the bugga was on its back,
legs in the air all stiff.
The bugga was cold.
And I guess the thing that made me feel bad
was I neva think calling her bird killa
would make her feel so bad
that she let go the bag Raisinettes.

But I neva give her back the bag.
I figga what the fuck.
I ain't going suffer eating one Raisinette at a time.
Then beg her for one mo
and I mean one mo
fuckin' candy.
BY LOIS-ANN YAMANAKA

"Boss of the Food" was the introdoctury text that Shirley Lim brougth to us. She read it aloud with all the tones of the little young girl who was supposed to be the voice of this story on the form of a beautiful poem. Lois-Ann Yamanaka is a Japanese American writer from Hawai. She often uses this Hawaiian Pidgin. Somehow shows how your inner voice can be reached on your own special language. And that's what was all about: bringing up your voice as a creative writer.

Poderemos compreender tudo isto, mas se não apoiarmos com humanidade, fugirá por entre os nossos dedos.
Poderemos compreender e apoiar com humanidade, mas se não governarmos com verdade, não esperemos a gratidão do povo.
Poderemos compreender, apoiar com humanidade, governar com verdade, mas se não pusermos tudo em prática com todo o nosso empenho, de nada valerá o esforço.
CONFÚCIO [551 BC - 479 BC]

• LIGAÇÕES EXTERIORES: WIKIPEDIA em Português e em Inglês.

[WHO STILL HAVE PROBLEMS TO LOGGING IN]

hubris |ˈ(h)yoōbris|
{noun, first used in the late 19th century} [from Greek],
• presumption, insolence, (orig. towards the gods); pride, excessive self-confidence

EXAMPLES
Aldous Huxley: "Hubris against the essentially divine order of Nature would be followed by its appropriate nemesis."
S. J. Gould: "By what hubris do we consider ourselves any bigger in a universe of such vastness?"
[Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (Fifth edition, 1993) page 1281, left hand column.]

The ancient Greeks believed hubris led to downfall
In 'hubris' the 'u' occurs before the ' b', and an 's' is the final letter. The same letters, capitalized and brought together in their hUBriStic order, name an internationally known bank. The overlap of the letters and their positions in the word and in the bank's name is a coincidence, perhaps an amusing one. If one find the coincidence striking then, moving from orthography to meaning, one may come to ask, "Could the bank's abundant enthusiasm for rehearsing its successes and for pursuing profit by means ranging from the conventional, through the disastrous, to the legally dubious, together amount to hubris?"
Moving again, from current meanings to past beliefs, one might see the losses, accusations, and punishment that UBS has recently suffered as echoes of those nemeses that long dead Greeks believed they risked when by ignoring their cities' conventions, faith, laws, and wisdom.
[BY GODFREY @ BLOOMLAND]
• EXTERNAL LINK AT WIKIPEDIA

Meu querido A.
Há muito que não te mando um postalinho. Aqui vai mais um de Klimt, tão característico dele, com tanta cor e os desenhos miudinhos. E eu e o avô vimos esta pintura em Praga nesta galeria! Agora não me lembro bem, mas Klimt é de Viena. Só sei que não entendi esta confusão de mulheres mas ficámos presos a olhar e a querer entender. Embora se diga que a pintura não é para entender mas sim para ficar preso a olhar e às vezes a sonhar e sobretudo a admirar. Ultimamente "dá-me" para me irritar quando penso que todos estes artistas sofreram na carne e na alma e nunca chegaram a saber como estavam certos na sua intuição de que era belo o que faziam.
Beijos da avó Z.
GRONAU 22/07/98

Como foi anunciado aqui e sem grande alarido da nossa parte, devido ao tufão e à crescente corrente de água e por tudo o que aconteceu posteriormente, a Bloom * Creative Network levou Carlos Marreiros à Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universade de Hong Kong dando início às palestras de Outono organizadas por esta instituição. A ideia era levar também o complemento dos livros, sobre a arquitectura de Macau e em específico sobre o multifacetado arquitecto macaense, ocasião que não se chegou a realizar. Acabámos por não estar em condições de acompanhar a pequena comitiva que se deslocou ao território vizinho porque no dia anterior o horizonte era bem diferente.
A palestra intitulada "Tracing Lines Between Two Worlds" acabou por ser um sucesso, com uma audiência repleta e uma grande projecção na imprensa local das duas RAE's. Para nós foi uma grande satisfação ter estabelecido este intercâmbio. É fulcral para o nosso projecto, na necessidade de discussão de todas as suas amplitudes, poder falar, mostrar e discutir tudo o que nos (des)encanta. Foi a primeira colaboração com esta instituição universitária, outras oportunidades surgirão para a contínua repercussão do nosso desígnio, e referimos aqui o "projecto" desta cidade como espaço multicultural e criativo. Para que não se esqueça é necessário incluir esta mescla de muita coisa e de coisa nenhuma que vive e ferve por entre as margens desta terra que há muito tempo tem o nome de Macau. Por alguma razão viemos aqui parar, por outra iremos algum dia partir. Até lá é preciso continuar e fazer a ligação entre estes mundos da realidade e da imaginação. Foi nesse âmbito, para além da clara alusão Oriente/Ocidente, que demos o título a esta sessão. Agradecemos aqui ao Arquitecto Carlos Marreiros pela pronta disponibilidade e a Ralph Lerner, o Decano da Faculdade de Arquitectura de Hong Kong, por ter dado a melhor continuação à nossa iniciativa.
Fica aqui a reportagem do Hoje Macau pela mão de José Manuel Simões.

Carlos Marreiros entusiasma plateia em conferência proferida em Hong Kong
'A arquitectura serve para promover a felicidade'

Carlos Marreiros, um arquitecto com alma, esteve na Faculdade de Arquitectura de Hong Kong onde foi escutado por uma pequena multidão que se rendeu aos seus dotes de oratória, experiência e ousadia.

À conferência, inserida nas Palestras de Outono e realizada em parceria com a Bloom Creative Network de Macau (que alagou mas não morreu), compareceram cerca de 150 pessoas, na sua maioria estudantes de arquitectura, mas também professores e arquitectos, inclusivamente Ronald Lu, Presidente do Instituto de Arquitectura de Hong Kong.
O arquitecto de Macau falou sobre as relações entre arquitectura, sociedade e economia, debruçou-se sobre a arquitectura da miscigenação e da transgressão — sobretudo a da sua cidade — afirmou que “Macau transgride pois, desde as gaiolas de ferro até aos volumes e tamanhos, há muitas coisas que não deveriam sequer existir”.
No seu discurso, percorreu o património construído no Território, desde o chinês e o português até ao dos nossos dias, afirmando que “património é tudo o que faz parte da memória colectiva, independentemente da sua idade, inclusivamente o que está a ser feito agora”. Ou seja, do património mais antigo até ao modernismo, com destaque para a obra de arquitectos como o modernista Cham Kuan Pui ou Raul Furão Ramalho Costa, que percebeu como ninguém o clima e a atmosfera de Macau, Manuel Vicente Bravo, Bruno Soares ou Adalberto Tenreiro.

Viagem pelo tempo

Um discurso que foi uma espécie de viagem pelo tempo, onde Marreiros enquadrou alguns dos seus trabalhos, dos mais pequenos aos de maior envergadura como o do Estádio de Ténis em Coloane. Como não podia deixar de ser, falou ainda do exercício de fazer arquitectura, referindo que “um arquitecto não pode limitar-se a ser competente ou apenas um agente de construção. Tem que ser inovador, adiantar-se ao seu tempo, não se prender ao gosto instituído”. Tem que ser criativo, inovador, ousado. Afinal, “a arquitectura serve para promover a felicidade”.
Marreiros, que na palestra chegou a interpretar John Lennon em “Imagine”, acredita que a globalização é inevitável, acredita na fraternidade universal e no direito à diferença. Todavia, crê, “a globalização só tem valor quando sabemos que o lugar onde vivemos tem alma”. Ao basear a sua obra numa dialéctica de procura e de pesquisa intercultural, Carlos Marreiros vai certamente deixar o seu nome escrito na RAEM. Ele sabe como ninguém pegar na tradição e refaze-la com contemporaneidade. Ele é o exemplo da arquitectura de autor que não se confina à ideia de edifício ou de casino, que não é obtusa nem cria prédios que sobem para cima de passeios.
As Palestras de Outono prosseguem até 25 de Novembro, com Jurgen Mayer, alemão de Berlim, Rene Tan, de Singapura, Mirko Zardini, director do Centro Canadiano para Arquitectura, Remo Riva, de Hong Kong, Laurie Hawkinson e Reinhold Martin, ambos da Universidade de Colômbia, Nova Iorque.
[POR JOSÉ MANUEL SIMÕES]

OUTRAS LIGAÇÕES AO MESMO TEMA:
• Traços e palavras da interculturalidade [JOSÉ MANUEL SIMõES in HOJE MACAU - 26 SET]
• Desafios arquitectónicos em Macau[SÉRGIO TERRA na TRIBUNA DE MACAU - 30 SET]
• Macau's heritage work praised in Hong Kong [ROBERT CARROLL in MACAU DAILY TIMES - 3 OUT]
• Carlos Marreiros' profile [MACAU DAILY TIMES - 3 OUT]

At Bloom we are always with an eye on the future. Now, more than ever. For instance we're following since the start the fabulous eInk project and its forming devices. We believe that that's one of the ways of the future of publishing industry. But now there's a new scene on the block. Code named "Brick", following the same idea of the version 2 of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project by the designer Yves Behar, shown here, the "Brick" is an all screen laptop projected by Apple Computers. The upgrade of the OLPC it's something that combines the touch feeling of a iPhone and the use of a normal notebook computer. The concept is the same, a computer that can be used by kids all over the world costing around 100 US$.
Nobody know how's the mac version will come to life, and how will be shaped, but will be something completely different from what we know. Apple’s feverishly-anticipated “Brick” project is the world’s first all-screen laptop. There’s slim chance, of course, but I for one would love a computing device like this: A hybrid iPhone-meets-Macbook-Air that would put hot netbooks like the EeePC to shame.
Apple’s “Brick” would be a hybrid laptop/tablet/ebook that dispenses with a physical keyboard and trackpad in favor of a virtual, adaptive UI that blends multitouch, gestures and its own orientation to switch between different modes:

Laptop — When the Brick is held horizontally with the two screens at an angle, the bottom screen turns into a virtual keyboard and touchpad. There’s no tactile feedback for touch typists, but never mind, corrective text handily makes up for the myriad errors. The top screen acts like a regular laptop screen, except that it also is touch sensitive, and is responsive to multitouch gestures like double-tap to zoom, pinching and scrolling.
Tablet — When the two halves are opened fully they snap together in the middle to make a tablet with a continuous touch-sensitive screen. This mode is best for surfing the web, browsing and editing photos, and displaying mind-altering music visualizers.
eBook — Like laptop mode but held vertically. Each screen transforms into an electronic page for easy reading. Displays eBooks, eMags or specially laid out websites. Readers navigate by swiping the screen to turn the pages.
Tabletop — Like tablet mode but for two people. When an onscreen button is pushed, the screens are oriented for two users sitting opposite each other. Great for collaborative tasks and especially games.

And why’s it called “Brick”? Because it smashes Windows! ;-)
[WATCH YVES BEAR AT TED.COM] [SOURCE: CULT OF MAC & TED.COM]

In early 1939, Detective Comics' success with the seminal superhero Superman in Action Comics prompted editors to scramble for more such heroes. In response, Bob Kane conceived "the Bat-Man". Kane said his influences for the character included actor Douglas Fairbanks' movie portrayal of the swashbuckler Zorro, Leonardo Da Vinci's diagram of the ornithopter, a flying machine with huge bat-like wings; and the 1930 film The Bat Whispers, based on Mary Rinehart's mystery novel The Circular Staircase.

Bill Finger joined Bob Kane's nascent studio in 1938. An aspiring writer and part-time shoe salesperson, he had met Kane at a party, and Kane later offered him a job ghost writing the strips Rusty and Clip Carson. That was what he recalled:

Kane had an idea for a character called 'Batman', and he'd like me to see the drawings. I went over to Kane's, and he had drawn a character who looked very much like Superman with kind of... reddish tights, I believe, with boots... no gloves, no gauntlets... with a small domino mask, swinging on a rope. He had two stiff wings that were sticking out, looking like bat wings. And under it was a big sign... BATMAN.

Finger said he offered such suggestions as giving the character a cowl and scalloped cape instead of wings; adding gloves; leaving the mask's eyeholes blank to connote mystery; and removing the bright red sections of the original costume, suggesting instead a gray-and-black color scheme. Finger additionally said his suggestions were influenced by Lee Falk's The Phantom, a syndicated newspaper comic strip character with which Kane was familiar as well. Finger, who said he also devised the character's civilian name, Bruce Wayne, wrote the first Batman story, while Kane provided art. Kane, who had already submitted the proposal for Batman at DC and held a contract, is the only person given official company credit for Batman's creation. Comics historian Ron Goulart, in Comic Book Encyclopedia, refers to Batman as the "creation of artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger"
[SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]

In collaboration with the University of Hong Kong and an initiative of Bloom * Creative Network, the Macanese architect Carlos Marreiros will be at the Faculty of Architecture for an open lecture. Titled "Tracing Lines Between Two Worlds" the lecture will flow on the intercultural way of life of this region of the world – Macau, where East and West melted through time, generating its specific and fascinating Architectural Culture. This lecture, which is based on the lines between two worlds, will provide a specific learning experience for the participants regarding Architecture of the East and the West – the similarities and the differences and the boundaries between the universes of reality and imagination, which the Macanese architect is a good example, on its diversity and miscegenation.

DETAILS
Date/Time: 26/09/2008 18:30-20:00
Venue: Room 419, Knowles Building, The University of Hong Kong
Language: English
Registration is not required.
Further information, please visit this website.
Any enquiries feel free to contact the Faculty of Architecture by email.

Where does digitisation lead us?
Give your views.

The Frankfurt Book Fair, as the global meeting place for the book world, is a barometer of change in the industry. Last year’s survey showed that digitisation was seen as the greatest challenge for the book sector worldwide.
This year they want to find out your opinion about how digitisation will influence the future of the publishing industry and who will be the driving force behind it.
They would be grateful if you could spend a few minutes giving your responses to the questions. The results of the survey will be published in the Frankfurt Book Fair Newsletter, which we hope will make an interesting reading.Please answer the following questions in brief (it will take you about five minutes) on this link. Thank you.

Beyond Zhang Yimou's Generation: Nostalgia, Humanism and Survival of the Silent Majority in Chinese Cinema since 1997, by Mao Sihui
The Macau Ricci Institute (MRI) is glad to invite you to its September "MRI Forum", a monthly seminar on Greater China related topics.
The forum will be chaired by 徐浩均 Choi Hou Kuan, Chris, Executive Assistant of the Macau Ricci Institute. It will be followed by a small cocktail party during which participants will have the opportunity to meet the speaker.

Under this topic, the speaker will be using film clips of his own choice such as scenes from Jia Zhangke's "Xiaowu" (1997), "Platform" (2000), "Still Life" (2006), Wang Xiaoshuai's "Beijing Bicycle" (2001) and "Shanghai Dreams" (2005), Li Yang's "Blind Shaft" (2003), Yang Yazhou's "Loach is Fish too" (2004), Qi Jian's "The Forest Ranger" (2006) and Zhang Yang's "Going Home" (2007). These films represent the real truth-seeking spirit of these "younger" directors which is extremely valuable in contemporary China and can be a very good channel to explore the deep social, psychological and cultural implications of a fast rising China in the age of "glocalisation" (the dual process of globalisation and localisation).

Mao Sihui is Professor of English and Comparative Cultural Studies, Chairman of English Language Teaching and Research Committee, Director of MPI-Bell Centre of English, Macao Polytechnic Institute and Vice President of Sino-American Cultural Studies Association of China. He is also Honorary Professor of Comparative Literature of Hong Kong University and PhD supervisor for Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. He received his M.A. from Department of English, University of Lancaster, and his PhD (Comparative Literature – Film Culture) from the University of Hong Kong. He taught for many years at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and then at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. His publications include Technologising the Male Body: British Cinema 1957-1987 (1999), New Perspectives: Contemporary Literary and Cultural Studies (2000), Decoding Contemporary Britain (2003), and Literature, Culture and Postmodern Transformations: 8 Case Studies from William Shakespeare to James Bond (forthcoming) and also over 50 journal papers/ book chapters in language and translation studies, literary and cultural studies. He is editor-in-chief of New Topics in Contemporary Cultural Studies Series (6 books) published by Sun Yat-sen University Press (2007-2008) He is currently working on the project Representations of Macao in Contemporary Cinema.

Due to limited space, interested persons should reserve their seat on a "first come, first serve" basis. Your contact details, especially e-mail address, will allow us to keep you informed of forthcoming MRI Forums and other MRI activities. At the occasion, a selection of the Institute’s publications will be offered at a discount price (please, see below).
To reserve your seat, please click on the following this link or send an E-mail to forums@riccimac.org or call (853) 2853 2536.

Date & Time: Wednesday, September 17th 2008, at 6:30PM
Venue: Macau Ricci Institute, Av. Cons. Ferreira de Almeida, No. 95-E • MAP
Language: English

Yesterday we had a full house. It is an amazing book, China: Portrait of a Country, and just to look at the pictures we can talk about them for ages. It was really a pleasure to have Liu Heung Shing and once again Karen Smith with us. We would like to thank to everybody who came to this and to the other events. We will soon post some pictures of all the sessions and we'll return with more in September. This was our first try to revive a lovely area in Macau. We want to do it like the beat of the city's art! Hope you can enjoy it as we do.

OUR BIGGEST THANKS TO PETER SUART, XU XI, KUNG CHI SING, KAREN SMITH, LIU HEUNG SHING, PHILIP TSANG, MARJORIE YAU, MARY CHAN, SHEILA LO, JOSEPHINE MA, ALICE WU, CATHERINE CHENG, LIZ LAM, GLENN TIMMERMANS, ANDREW MOODY, JORGE MESQUITA AND VICENZO. TASCHEN, HONG KONG UNIVERSITY PRESS, HAVEN BOOKS, CHAMELEON PRESS, TIMEZONE 8, ASIA PUBLISHER SERVICES, FOREIGN PRESS DISTRIBUTORS, BAMBU SOCIEDADE DE ARTES LIMITADA, SANTA CASA DA MISERICÓRDIA DE MACAU, CASA DE PORTUGAL EM MACAU, JORNAL HOJE MACAU, MACAU CLOSER MAGAZINE AND TO ALL THE ONES WHO KNOW THAT THIS WOULDN'T BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT THEM!

[...] Liu Heung Shing got the idea for the book shortly after China won its bid to host the Olympics. “I began to wonder what people in 2008 would understand about the journey that Chinese people have undergone from 1949 till today. When people get off at the airport they’ll be surrounded by luxury – villas, fast trains, cars, stadiums – but will not necessarily appreciate or understand the road that has lead to today.”

The photographer says he wanted to present as balanced a portrait of the country as possible. In Western media, he notes, “China is either too backward or it’s flooding the West with all these goods and is a threat to its neighbours… at what point does conversation turn into demonisation?” At the other end of the spectrum, Chinese media tend to see “China through a viewing glass that is not always propagandistic, but the Chinese have a tendency to put the best face forward.”

The book takes a panoramic, decade-by-decade look at the nation’s development, from the founding of the People’s Republic, to the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, to the Opening and Reform and Tiananmen, right up to its ongoing economic miracle. Even China’s most recent heartrending national tragedy, the Sichuan earthquake, makes an appearance. Liu has spent the last four years pouring over archives, travelling the country meeting photographers and gaining access to negatives. “Surprisingly when I started calling the photographers, I had a very warm welcome.” Many of them already knew Liu’s 1983 work, China After Mao, which was circulated ‘unofficially’ in China.

Between 25 and 30 per cent of the works in the new book have never been published, including one of Madame Jiang Qing, purported to be the last photograph taken of her before she was arrested that same evening. Another shows Chairman Mao with more than a dozen of his personal staff, an image Liu says “would have been impossible to publish during Mao’s lifetime.” Another photo depicts one of Mao’s ‘railway attendants’ in fashionable dress. Elsewhere, we see original images alongside official photographs, such as the Gang of Four at Mao’s funeral, placed beside the official photograph in which the four were airbrushed out. [...]
[STACEY DUFF in TIME OUT HONG KONG]