chinese new year and why it rocks.
written: 10:01 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 01, 2006

Things are much easier if they exist purely in my head.

**

I opened this week's issue of Time magazine straight to page 44, a review of Huo Yuanjia. The quote from the movie they chose to highlight: "Put [Jet] Li on the offensive, against a live opponent or 10, and he opens up on screen - how he fights is who he is."

My first thought? "Nice analysis of someone you don't even know."

Also interesting and note-worthy is Bryan Walsh's reference to Huo Yuanjia as a "real-life fighter" and not a hero like he's depicted in the film.

And I call foul on anyone who dares say that Jet Li can't act. They must be freaking blind.

Or maybe I'm the one blinded by adoration for him, but hell, I think he CAN act - though not mind-blowingly brilliantly - and that shall be that.

**

I am soooooo not doing my readings and I know I should read the stuff assigned for tomorrow's Legal Theory lecture but I'm not back into the swing of things yet.

Note that gratuitous usage of the word 'yet', with the assumption that my inertia is only temporary. If I know myself at all, I know that such lethargy should never come with 'yet's attached.

The first few days of Chinese New Year this year were almost exactly the same as the previous years; the only difference was that I wore different clothes. That is why I love Chinese New Year. It's quite a waste of time, the way you sit around relatives' houses and do nothing and I hate making small talk so I never quite rise to the occastion. The family circle is even smaller for me; my paternal relatives (pretend that phrase existed before I typed it) live in Taiwan and so the only people I visit are my mom's brothers and sisters. We gather at my grandma's on the first day of the New Year for lunch, so the hongbao collecting is all done there. On the second day, we do this consecutive visits thing: my family heads to the East and sits around my aunt's house, after which my aunt's family and my family drive 10 minutes to my other aunt's house to sit around, and after that everyone comes to my house to sit around and have pizza.

It's the same thing year every year, it's really quite pointless, but I refuse to let my cynicism usurp my love for Chinese New Year because I love Chinese New Year despite the ghastly songs and nothing can take that away from me. It's the calm before a storm, the perfect excuse to slack off school work a couple of weeks after term has started, a holiday that every Chinese person the whole world over celebrates.

It's not even about the money anymore. My attitude towards the money aspect of Chinese New Year has changed remarkably over the years. When I was younger, just three, four years ago, I had a mental checklist of who had given me hongbao and who hadn't; for those that hadn't, I anxiously waited for them to reach into their bags and take out that glorious wad of red packets. It's embarrassing, but true, and thankfully, that's all in the past. I honestly forgot about the whole hongbao thing whilst at my grandma's until my aunts starting distributing them.

My uncle, bless his generous heart, gave all his nephews and nieces a hundred bucks each, as usual. He's a great man. He would've paid for my time at Cambridge if I'd made it.

When my relatives were at my house my dad came up with the brilliant idea of playing them my College Day video. Like - UGH. I was mortified. I went out of my room, saw that everyone was crowding around the TV set and thought that they'd all became serial Jackie Chan fans (The Medallion was on that night), until I heard my own freaking voice. UGH, I say. It's been a month and I still haven't watched the video and trust me when I say that I will never ever watch the video. It's horrifying. I hate watching myself on tape and hearing my voice on tape!

My mom told me that my younger cousins said my English was very cheem. (Hard, difficult, not easy to understand.) I personally don't think it was; I could've embellished it further if I wanted to. But hey, that reaction isn't unusual. I tend to get that quite a bit.

And then there was the mahjong. Ah, mahjong. My family has four people so you know, just nice a number for the game. We played all three nights. The first night I was quite annoyed because my brother was being a pricky jackass and I found the game really pointless, and it is really pointless, but we played again the next two nights and hey it was fun! Pointless and quite dumb but fun nonetheless.

Second entry of the day. I still love Huo Yuanjia very very much. I also just found out that Ronny Yu the director is the dude behind Bride of Chucky and whatever else - that totally explains why I found the camera work a bit choppy. It was quite unlike classic Jet Li kungfu films like the Once Upon a Time in China series (which I love) and I kept thinking, Fuck the director can't fucking direct! Which is only about 5% true, I think. The slow-mos were a tad annoying but it's Jet Li's last wuxia film so the dissing ends here.

To read Legal Theory or not to read Legal Theory? Probably not.

And I just remembered that I forgot to print my stupid memo again. Shit.

before sunrise // before sunset

Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010