Ballad of Mullan

The animation movie Mulan is very familiar to most Americans. Disney successfully tells a traditional Chinese story in Hollywood style. Mulan is a strong-minded independent woman. She represents woman power against discrimination. That's what the movie mostly focuses on. Actually, Mulan's story comes from a ballad in ancient China. Now the music of this ballad is lost, but the lyric tells the story generation to generation. It's basically like a long five-word poem in classical Chinese. I read two English translated versions of the Ballad of Mulan. Here's the one I think it's better. It tells how Mulan loves her father and overcomes obstacles. I like the last sentence of this ballad a lot. It's a great metaphor. It can be understood as this: Male and female are born with different talents, but they are identical when they occupy the same activity.

The sound of one sigh after another,

As Mulan weaves at the doorway.

No sound of the loom and shuttle,

Only that of the girl lamenting.

Ask her of whom she thinks,

Ask her for whom she longs.

"There is no one I think of,

There is no one I long for.

Last night I saw the army notice,

The Khan is calling a great draft -

A dozen volumes of battle rolls,

Each one with my father's name.

My father has no grown-up son,

And I have no elder brother.

I'm willing to buy a horse and saddle,

To go to battle in my father's place."

She buys a fine steed at the east market;

A saddle and blanket at the west market;

A bridle at the south market;

And a long whip at the north market.

She takes leave of her parents at dawn,

To camp beside the Yellow River at dusk.

No sound of her parents hailing their girl,

Just the rumbling waters of the Yellow River.

She leaves the Yellow River at dawn,

To reach the Black Mountains by dusk.

No sound of her parents hailing their girl,

Just the cries of barbarian cavalry in the Yan hills.

Ten thousand miles she rode in war,

Crossing passes and mountains as if on a wing.

On the northern air comes the sentry's gong,

Cold light shines on her coat of steel.

The general dead after a hundred battles,

The warriors return after ten years.

They return to see the Son of Heaven,

Who sits in the Hall of Brilliance.

The rolls of merit spin a dozen times,

Rewards in the hundreds and thousands.

The Khan asks her what she desires,

"I've no need for the post of a gentleman official,

I ask to borrow a camel fleet of foot,

To carry me back to my hometown."

Her parents hearing their girl returns,

Out to the suburbs to welcome her back.

Elder sister hearing her sister returns,

Adjusts her rouge by the doorway.

Little brother hearing his sister returns,

Sharpens his knife for pigs and lamb.

"I open my east chamber door,

And sit on my west chamber bed.

I take off my battle cloak,

And put on my old-time clothes.

I adjust my wispy hair at the window sill,

And apply my bisque makeup by the mirror.

I step out to see my comrades-in-arms,

They are all surprised and astounded:

'We travelled twelve years together,

Yet didn't realise Mulan was a lady!'"

The buck bounds here and there,

Whilst the doe has narrow eyes.

But when the two rabbits run side by side,

How can you tell the female from the male?

How will Chinese celebrate Thanksgiving?

Chinese don't celebrate Thanksgiving at all. What will happen if Chinese celebrate it? I made some imagination based on how Chinese celebrated other festivals.
They will probably made a lot of wheaten food with turkey, such as turkey dumplings, turkey rice balls, etc. All families gather together, and have Thanksgiving dinner. Then firecrackers and fireworks. After that, instead of a family traditional football game, all the adults will sit at the table play majiang, probably for the whole night. Kids will have karaoke and seniors will watch crosstalk and sketch in a TV gala. Or just adults, kids and seniors all play majiang at three different table. The only difference will be that Kids gamble fake money, seniors gamble less and adults gamble more.
I wonder if majiang to Chinese is like football to Americans, will Chinese want to watch a long majiang game played by professional players on TV? It would be a great idea: found a National Majiang League, and maybe College Majiang as well.

Where to draw the line

Another comedy night, I, as brilliant as usual, noticed a fun fact. Barney, in the How I Met Your Mother, only dates girls under 30. Charlie, in the Two And A Half Men, only dates girls under 40. And in those comedies, they are always okay with a lot of ridiculous activities and a very silly simple stuff can unexpectedly becomes a deal breaker. It's interesting where characters in comedy shows draw the line. Reflecting to our real life, without all those drama, drawing a line is important in many circumstances. Recently, I am seriously thinking move a line I drew before, which is when to be lazy and when not. Laziness is a bad habit I started at 9th grade. And I kinda got addicted to it and the addiction get worse and worse. Recently, it affects me a little bit and makes me reconsider where to draw the line. So at some aspects, I should stop being lazy and start to deal with problems instead of avoiding all the time. But I don't want to push me too hard, just move it a little bit further.

Weather

Generally, the climate in Oklahoma is basically the same as Beijing, where I grew up. But the weather here changes way much more frequent. The other day it's more than 20 Centigrade, suddenly it's less than 10 degree. (I more prefer Centigrade than Fahrenheit.) Recently, it's getting worse. It's either very cold or very windy. Either makes playing tennis inconvenient. In those days always with perfect weather, once I played 5 days in row. Playing tennis under warm sunshine in softy wind is so much pleasure. But now, it's even hard to find one day comfy to play tennis in a week. Besides, terrible weather brings negative emotions to my mind. In weather like raining and thundering, I feel very tired and don't want to walk, cook or work. Just sit on the couch, have a couple of beer and junk food, and watch funny videos. Overall, weather decides how I spend a day.

Boys' Day

November 12th is Boys' Day in my college, Tsinghua University. We made the day after Single's Day Boys' Day and the day before Women's day Girls' Day. Girls prepare a lot of amazing stuff for boys on Boys' Day and so do the boys on Girls' Day. Four years' college, four Boys' Days and four Girls' Day. All of those days are sweat memories lasting life long time. Now we have graduated and went to different place around China and America. But this still can's stop us to have a Boys' Day. Even just a greeting of "Happy Boys' Day" from classmates will bring up all those time we spend in college and how heartbroken we were in graduate season. Seeing the photo you girls holding words in different places around the world makes me miss you guys so much. I wish we could get together sooner. Can't wait to hear your adventures.

Single's Day

November 11th is the Single's Day. I don't know if it's worldwide or just in China. Because in Chinese bachelor can be called "bare stick" and 11/11 is the day with the most 1s, which looks like sticks. And this year is 2011 so Single's Day, 11/11, became Super Single's Day, 11/11/11. This only happens once a hundred years. Single's Day obviously is a day for single men and women to celebrate that they are not stuck in any relationship and couples should show mercy through not kissing or even cuddling in front of singles. This festival is getting more and more popular among younger generations. And a lot of traditions have been created. Like seeing breakup movies and listening to breakup songs. This year a movie called Breakup for 33 Days gain more than 150 million RMB box office, which is way beyond expert's expectation. In my opinion, Single's Day should also be a day to remind yourself it's time to get a company and wish no need to celebrate this day next year. No one wants to be alone. Right?

I love one extra hour.

I just experienced my first wintertime clock change. It's the only day in a year having 25 hrs. The excitement when I found clock time changing from 1:59 to 1:00 is even beyond experiencing two earthquakes in 24 hours, which is also very cool. With the extra hour, I can have more rest or do more work. I have more space to manage my time. Today is a brand new day. The sunrise is one hour earlier, so is the sunset. Morning get warmer, and afternoon get cooler. I won't feel very chill when I go out of the house in the morning. And I get more comfy time to play tennis in the afternoon, which I am actually gonna do later. I won't need to go to bed very late tonight. I can just follow my regular schedule, and still go to bed one hour earlier. In consequence, I can also easily get up earlier tomorrow. All these magic things can really happen at one time, thanks to the one extra hour. Wintertime changing day is now officially my favorite day, which reminds me that summertime changing day will be my least favorite day next year.

A Dream of Extra 1000+ Bucks

Yesterday I had a dream. I dreamed that I had 1000+ dollar in cash, 1400 or 1600 (I am not good at remember numbers in dream). They were all 100s, and their color was red like Chinese RMB. But I'm sure they were American dollars, not because dollar has more value than RMB. If so, I would have dreamed them Euro. In the dream, I reminded myself to put them in the bank after taking my driver license's writing test in the afternoon. This part is real. I do planed to take the test the next day. That's why the dream is so appealing to reality that I couldn't tell if it's true or not. After I waked up, I kinda remembered the dream. I picked up mt wallet to check how many cash there. Of course, there wasn't any 100 bill. But it really seems there were more money than I thought there should be. There were about 14 or 16 bills, but all 1s not 100s. You can never earn extra 100s money by making a dream. But to have a feeling of getting a few extra 1s is quite a sweet experience.