Fuck Rain

Many thanks to Art.Lebedev for acting out my little personal note to Rain. And no, I don't mean the liquid precipitation of natural cause. But that pretentiously named Korean grunt. Thinks this gonna be a real hit with Anti-Rain Clubs...Pretty sure there's lotsa them. Source: About Colon Bank

The Fuwa's Rejects

A peek into into Fuwa's creator, Han Meilin's sketchbook with all the rejects that failed to make the ranks of the Fuwas... Thank God (if there is one), there's only five, no, six of these creatures...

The Sixth Fuwa (Represented Crisis Not Sold Separately)

Just when you thought the highly touted Beijing 2008 had moved on, and that the Fuwas (mind you, i do like them very much), together with all its much-talked-about secret identity being the foreboder of crisis, will be behind us now.... Along came another crisis. For those unknown to the theories...a little refresher, courtesy of wikipedia. In the months leading up to the Olympics, coincidental similarities between the characters and several events became were noted on the internet blogs under titles such as "Curse of the fuwa". Some Chinese have taken to calling the characters "Wuwa" (witch dolls). Online criticism of the dolls has frequently been censored. 1) Beibei, a Chinese sturgeon of water/sea element, for the 2008 South China floods. 2) Jingjing, a panda, for the Sichuan earthquake. Sichuan is well known for its pandas. 3) Huanhuan, representing the Olympic flame, for the Summer Olympics torch relay protests. 4) Yingying, a Tibetan antelope, for the 2008 Tibetan unrest. 5) Nini, a swallow thought to be a kite, was blamed for the "kite city" of Weifang T195 train accident. Nini was also believed to be a locust, and associated with a locust plague that infested Inner Mongolia in June 2008. Done the math already? Five crisis, five Fuwas. The up side of this theory is, if it is indeed true, that means no more crisis for China anymore (well, at least till next year), the down side is, there's no down side, it's just a intentionally mean joke at best. Then came the 2008 Chinese milk scandal. Almost like some freak of nature's way to ensure that 2008 won't just be engraved on the general consciousness with just the Beijing Olympic. But we have run out of our ever-so-lovely Fuwas to pin the curse on, isn't it? Well, not quite so, I'm afraid. 2008 Summer Paralympics. I'm sure you remembered Fu Niu Lele (roughly meaning "Lucky Ox 'Happy'")? The association game is elementary from this point on.

Monkey: Journey To The West

Remember the previously post on Gorillaz Meets Monkey God? There is now a full-fledged website for the musical as the original soundtrack was out last week. Do check out the galleries page for some interesting take on the Chinese Folklore. The album cover.