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Chongqing State of Mind (Music Video)

Nov 112011

Even as someone who now lives in NYC and has heard this tune ad nauseum, I still could not help but like this video. Let’s hear it for Chongqing! Go show the makers of this video some love here: http://chongqingstateofmind.blogspot.com/

Lyrics (English & Pin Yin)

(Verse 1 – JP)
Yeah, I’m up in Yuzhong. Now I’m down in Nanping.
Right by Yang Ren Jie, I’ll be Chongqing forever
I’m the new Mr. Da, & since I made it here
I can make it anywhere, Chongqing loves me everywhere!
I used to teach at Xi Zheng, Ni Hao to my Falu Xue Sheng
Right there in Yubei, and over there in Shapingba
Take it to Tiandi, Bon Bon’s got good eats
Catch me in the kitchen like Clifford cooking pastry
Cruising down the Jialing, Cruising down the Yangtze,
Renmin Guangchang, Practicing my Tai Chi!
Time to go to De Yi, I wanna sing KTV
Stoppin by Haoledi, and I brought my boys with me
Say what up to Ty, Ty, still rockin Mianhua
Ping An Chongqing
Seng Lin Chongqing
Jian Kang Chongqing
Chang Tong Chongqing,
Yi Ju Chongqing
I’m MOST DEFINITELY FROM…

(Chorus – Celie)
Chongqing!!!!
Mountain City where dreams are made of,
There’s nothing you can’t see,
Now you’re in Chongqing!!!
Where the mei niu are so sexy,
the hot pot is spicy,
Let’s hear it for Chongqing, Chongqing, Chongqing

(Verse 2 – JP)
Catch me at the club, with Celie, rappin on stage,
Here I made these baseball caps more famous than a Mei Gou Ren,
But you should know I bleed Red, Wo shi Jian a da Ren
but now I play Ma Jiang, like I’m Chongqing Ren
Welcome to the Shou Kou, corners where we eating sticks,
Hao Chi La Jiao, Home of the hot pot,
Jiulongpo, Dadukou, and Changshou, holla back,
for foreigners, you love us though we dont know how to act,
30 million stories out there and they’re naked,
it’s a pity some of you just can`t make it,
Marine’s Chris Bosh, baby’s got it made
Celie’s like Lebron, I’m more Dwyane Wade
What`s up Jiangbei? What`s up Beibei?
Christmas Day Jiefangbei, rest in peace Ms. Jiang Jei!
Huo La De Tian Qi
Huo La De Mei Nue
Huo La De Shi Wu
I’m from the Spicy State thats…

(Verse 3 – JP)
Chongqing piaoliang, girls so sexy
Ni hao ke ai, baby, wo ai ni,
I wish I could speak Chinese, Ti Bu Dong, Dui Bu Qi
But Mei Wen Ti, baby come and take a walk with me…
Walk down Chaotianmen, Walk up Hong Ya Dong
stop by Ciqikou then go to Furong Dong
Da Zu Shi Ke, let`s take a bus ride
then cool off in the hot springs, oh what a lovely night
Shancheng pijou, Gaoliang baijiu
Toast to Chongqing, now everybody ganbei!
Party every day, that’s the Chongqing way
Never want to leave, here my heart will always stay
came here to teach, graduated to the good life,
DJ, rap star, “Legs” in the spotlight,
Hey Chongqing, You got me feeling like a champion,
our city never sleeps, better slip you a Ambien

(Bridge – Celie)
One glass in the air for the big city,
No sunlight, all girls looking pretty,
no place in the world that can compare,
Put your glasses in the air, everybody ganbei
GANBEIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!! for……

NPR snapshot of Chongqing

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Dec 082009

Anthony Kuhn gives a quick 3 minute overview of the Chonx in “Chongqing, China: Mountainous Terrain, Spicy Food“

Three Gorges: Photo essay by Chua Chin Hon

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Nov 242008

Photojournalist Chua Chin Hon documents five years of change behind the Three Gorges Dam.

FOREWORD: For journalists chasing the China story, capital Beijing and financial hub Shanghai are the obvious staging grounds for tracking the rapid changes in the country and the challenges it faces. The 660-km stretch of river towns and cities behind the Three Gorges Dam, however, has been an interesting alternative for me since I paid my first visit there in June 2003. The major themes – economic sustainability, environmental worries, the thirst for energy, the destruction of historical and cultural heritage – are all here, framed against the backdrop of millions of ordinary Chinese struggling to cope with the powerful political and natural forces beyond their control. Would all the sacrifices be worth it in the end, as China successfully uses the Three Gorges Dam to tame and harness the power of the Yangtze River? Or would the dire warnings about the controversial project materialise with tragic consequences? No one is quite sure for now. The photographs on this website, taken over five trips between 2003 and 2008, represent perhaps the opening chapter of a dramatic story that is just beginning to unfold.

Ted Koppel does Chongqing: "The People's Republic of Capitalism"

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Jul 102008

Starting tonight (Wednesday the 9th) in the U.S., the Discovery Channel will be airing a special series on the economic growth in China and what it means for the U.S. Most of the filming is done in our favorite city, the Chonx! Thanks to Dan over at the China Law Blog for the tip.

Here is a breakdown of the program schedule for those who can watch it when it airs (once there are clips available online I’ll be sure to post them here)

July 9-12 at 10 p.m. ET/PT
Part 1: Joined at the Hip — Wed., July 9, at 10 p.m. ET/PT
Part 2: MAOism TO MEism — Thur., July 10, at 10 p.m. ET/PT
Part 3: The Fast Lane — Fri., July 11, at 10 p.m. ET/PT
Part 4: It’s the Economy, Stupid — Sat., July 12, at 10 p.m. ET/PT
See complete program summaries and highlights.

“I wish that people who think they have no interest in or concern about China would just give it a try,” said Koppel, who has been producing long-form programs for Discovery since retiring from ABC in 2005. “Our future is so tied together with China’s future, and [the Chinese] get it. . . . The greatest tragedy of all would be if they keep plowing away at this and we become so relaxed about the permanence of America’s place in the world that we fail to see that there are people breathing down our necks.” (See article in LA Times)

If Ted Koppel thinks we should pay more attention to China, who are we to argue?

Night Chongqing

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Jul 072008

Heeding the call of my grumbling stomach, I wander out the main gate of my campus and down to the noodle shop around 9:30 pm. There it is dinner time for the 老板 (laoban) and his family. A rather large and boisterous three generational affair. They gather around a large table, him, the wife, the sister, the brother-in-law, their children (about my age perhaps younger), and a smattering of little ones. They alternate getting up from the dinner table to attend to the guests still arriving at this late hour, like myself. Continue reading »

Rollin' on the 702

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Jul 032008

Public transportation is one of my favorite things about living in a big city. Unlike many of the other foreigners here, I rarely miss driving my car. Looking back, driving from one place to the next was often a lonely time, wrought with introspection, and less than happy thoughts. Here, there are the constant distractions inherent to public transport.

There are the busy times of the day, when people push and crowd, shoving their way onto the buses. Times when, I find myself standing on one foot, my center of gravity inextricably meshed with the warm bodies next to my own. As we alternately crawl through the deafening, stop and go traffic and careen around narrow switchbacks, I cling desperately to the nearest stationary object—the frame of the door, a curve in the ceiling, the edge of a seat. Continue reading »

Chongqing vs Shanghai: Public Transportation

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Mar 312008

September 17, 2007

Living in Chongqing for two years left me with the impression that I would never want to drive a car again. I often concocted wonderful fallacies about commuting to work on the subway–free to nap, catch up on my reading, or simply spend more time in my head without having to worry about traffic lights, speed limits, and fender benders.

According to several sources, Chongqing’s population rivals Shanghai in its millions and has taken the lead as the largest city in China. And yet, take a ride on the light rail in Chongqing and the cars are often nearly empty. Even at rush hour or during busy weekends, standing room is plentiful. Take a city bus and about seventy-five percent of the time you can find a seat or one will open up at the next large stop. When a bus arrives that is too crowded, the locals often wait it out optimistically for the next to arrive with less people.

But here, in Shanghai, I am frequently overwhelmed by the sea of people trying to get from point A to point B. The buses seem to come much less frequently than those in Chongqing. After waiting for ten to fifteen minutes for the next bus to arrive, a knot of impatient passengers is already poised at the edge of the curb waiting to pounce upon the next set of sliding doors. As the bus approaches from the distance the tension and expectation manifests in the craned necks and squinting eyes of the crowd. As it nears the stop, all eyes follow the front door with the burning intensity of a predator tracking its prey. When the bus finally slows to a stop, the pack quickly dissolves into a state of complete and total entropy. As each person attempts to claw his or her way to the front, it is move or be flattened.

The subway mob proves to be an even greater adversary. These are the suits and the polished heels hurrying to make deadlines, rushing to meetings with clients, or running late to the office. A mob with a purpose means, Get the f* out of the way. When being swept away with the tide of rush hour, I cannot help but think of Japan. Having only heard secondhand, I imagine the beauty of it–standing and walking sides of the escalator, tidy rows of people waiting patiently to board the next train, and most remarkably of all the order is maintained naturally without the help of referees or police officers. Compare this to Shanghai where people travel up and down the stairs describing paths of least resistance, more frequently than not leading to face-offs and standstills upon the steps. Here people cluster in front of the platform gates in tight nuclei, and the moment the gates open surge forward into the car. Those attempting to get off have a difficult if not impossible time, and if not aggressive enough they are just as likely to be pushed further into the car by the mass of incoming bodies. At some stations, subway personnel attempt to maintain some semblance of order, forcing passengers to wait in lines and keeping the gates clear. But the noise from the waves of people easily engulfs the sound of the subway personnel’s futile shouts. And the orderliness begins to disintegrate before the gates are even fully opened. At peak hours if you manage to squeeze onto the subway, your limbs are pinned to your sides as if in a vice and it is nearly impossible to breathe. Once I was unfortunate enough to be pinched between the throng of people and the door with no chance of breaking through the ranks and wedging myself further inside. So when the door opened I was caught right in the middle of the fray. I lost my footing three times in the thirty seconds or so that the door was opened. Those wanting off pushed me out of the car. Those wanting on, squeezed past me and also pushed me out. Once the skirmish had subsided I had to shove my way back on and reclaim the five square inches of floorspace that were rightfully mine.

So much for catching up on my reading.

Edit: Define irony. 6 days after I wrote this post, this one goes up by Wangjianshuo (a very well known Chinese blogger in China). Just goes to show how different perspectives can be after you’ve spent enough time in a place.

Chongqing Welcome

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Mar 222008

Chongqing smells like cigarettes, exhaust, and peppers. Today was a beautiful sunny day and you could almost make out the blue skies above the smog.

How I missed you!

The moment I climbed down from the airport shuttle I was assaulted by a Bangbang man. Despite how many times I insisted that I did not need his help to roll my mostly empty suitcase he still stayed glued to my side plying me with questions about which hotel I was staying at or if I was trying to get to the train station. Meanwhile, solicitors were coming out of the woodwork stuffing my coat pockets with advertisements. I was so flustered I started walking in the wrong direction just trying to get away from them all, but I still couldn’t shake the Bangbang man. He was so fervent with his “Don’t tell me you’ll even refuse help from a poor bangbang! It’s only two kuai.” Once it was clear I was going the wrong direction I finally relented and let him walk me back the opposite 50 meters to the bus stop. No wonder foreigners are overwhelmed when they first arrive here.

Comfortably settled on the bus back to my old neighborhood I was struck by a couple things. First, people here dress simply and practically. I didn’t see a single knock-off brand name purse or pressed suit or shiny patent leather anything. You wouldn’t catch any of these people window shopping on Nanjing Road. Second, everything looks old and worn in. Not talking about clothes now, but the buildings. I left at the end of last August and since then new buildings and constructions have gone up all over town, but if I didn’t know any better I would have thought these new buildings had been there for years. The brand new bridge to Caiyuanba that was not yet finished when I left, is finished now but has a settled in look like it’s been there for ages. Perhaps it is because the massive bridge still manages to be dwarfed by the towering apartment districts rising up on the hills on either bank. High rises around my old neighborhood that just went up last fall have a dirty, tired look to them. Soot streaked windowpanes, a gray film masking every facade. Shiny and new does not last long in this city. But the old taxis have been replaced by roomier and curvier new models, at least those still manage to flash bright yellow through the gray districts.

It makes my heart ache a bit to think about the first impression Chongqing must give to newcomers. But the truth is, the lack of attention to appearances tells of a certain characteristic in the people here that I would not change for all the shiny window panes in all of Shanghai and Hong Kong. The people in Chongqing are simple, real, and proud. This isn’t a place where they’ll repaint the walls of buildings facing the street while the inside three walls crumble away with neglect. No, for better or worse, in this city they give it to you how it is.

Now if only the girls would eat more so they didn’t all look like toothpicks. *Sigh*

Livin’ in The Chonx

Chongqing State of Mind (Music Video)

NPR snapshot of Chongqing

Three Gorges: Photo essay by Chua Chin Hon

Ted Koppel does Chongqing: "The People's Republic of Capitalism"

Night Chongqing

Rollin' on the 702

Chongqing vs Shanghai: Public Transportation

Chongqing Welcome

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