Movie Review — Rosewater

Jon Stewart took three months off from Daily Show to make this movie. It’s based on a truth story that a journalist who covered Iran election and interviewed for the daily show got arrested and tortured in Iran for 118 days. By making this film, I think Jon Stewart partly wanted to show his personal apology for this journalist, partly want to raise more awareness about Iran and journalists’ situation in similar political regime.

It’s easier to image that the film is about a super hero, who. even facing all the tortures mentally and physically, still stick to justice, truth,  freedom of speech,etc. However, if you have watched Jon Stewart’s show, you know that he is not that kind of guy.

Instead, it is  a very human story, human, all too human. The interrogator is much interested in the sex message, New Jersey than the “spy”. The main character will apology for the things he never did and say the words he never believe, just for earlier release. Lots of people in Iran work for the government even though they are educated in the west and not fully believe that. So what?

This is reality. Reality is much complex than all the fake stories, which has distinguish good and evil, in which virtue will always trump. I do know lots of people who sacrifice everything, even their lives for their ideas, especially during revolution. However, as I mature, I feel it is totally unnecessary.

I believe, truth will trump, I believe the world will progress, but only when you look at it in a long term. If timing is not good, if you haven’t got enough support to succeed, it is better sometimes to bend your wills, bury your opinions  and wait. Maybe it is called wisdom, maybe it is called political. Whatever, at least I think we should sometimes, looking at things in a much longer time view.

after all, it is a quite straight forward and honest movie. Even it is not entirely shot in Iran, it still manages to get some beautiful scenes from this amazing country. Iran’s beautiful Islamic architecture, mosque, tea culture, Persian carpets, etc. I wish we could sometimes, look at the countries without all the political prejudice.

Because, politics is like fashion, it will go away. But the culture, the art, and the nature, will last.

Reading Sigmund Freud

Yesterday, as I stroll down the bookshelf in library, I found and read an incredible book —Civilization and its discontents.  I didn’t realize it’s written by Sigmund Freud, father of psychoanalysis.

Before that, while I was young,  I casually read his famous book, the interpretation of dreams, not fully understood but left me with an impression that he likes to root every problems to sex drive.

However, this time, I was totally shocked by his genius. The serene and masterful tone, calm analysis, and insightful thoughts totally convinced me.

I believe he is a gift of all human beings and will definitely console us when we feel confused by the world and ourselves.

Movie Review– The Painted Veil (面纱）

Friday night is usually a movie night for me, this time, I picked an unusual love story, The Painted Veil. Though W.S.Maugham is one of my favorite writers, I haven’t read this book. Just by watching the movie, I know it is the typical Maugham style. No fairy tale, cold and so true.

The movie mainly focus on the marriage between Kelly and Water. Kelly,as a young  beautiful girl, married Walter quickly, who is a intelligent, shy and dull bacteriologist, just for escaping from her mom. But soon, she became so bored by her husband and had an affair with another man passionately. To punish her, Walter took her with him to a remote Chinese town fighting cholera. Finally, isolation, loneliness and brutal disease made her close to her husband again.

Sometimes the greatest journey is the distance between two people

It’s quite similar to another famous Chinese novel –张爱玲 《倾城之恋》. For me, again it asks a difficult question– What is love? what is love between men and women? What is marriage for most people?

I feel love is such an overrated and vague concept. Maugham and 张爱玲 are my favorite writers about love. Few people along the history experience true love, but most people get relationship or marriage, which they call based on love. For them, love is such a beautiful name which can disguise any ugly reality, like sexual desire, social status, wealth, escape, companion, etc.

But what’s wrong with this? it is so normal and I even advocate for it. True love, is rare. Simply because few people are actually attractive, either physically or mentally. Even so, lots of people long for companion, long for being cared. Why care about the reason for love?

I think the most stupid question in earth is , why do you love me? It doesn’t matter at all. The real answer for this question would break your fairy tale dream.

I would advocate this because recently , there are more and more young people in China refuse to have marriage. Sadly, most of them are not happy with being single either. They are just looking for some true love and won’t settle for anything else. To them, I would like to suggest to give up the dream and be more realistic.

Aside from the story, the movie is still worth watching. The scenery of China is stunning, the actor and actress give quite great performance.

An organized life

My therapist suggested me to put everything in order, and live a quite routine life. For any other people, it may sound so natural but for me currently, it may sound a little bit wired, because I am kind of trapped in the follow of my heart.

Maybe it needs to be changed, just for the sake to be a normal person. Wake up the same time everyday, then do the work, eat the food at regular time and maybe never ever do other stuff.

I may eventually return back to the healthy state, but is that what I want? I don’t know..

Let me give it a try .

Good Taste —中国文明何以变得如此粗糙？

精神萎糜的表现就是形式感的丧失，不再追求美学趣味，不再有情怀。有些东西是不能被压缩和省略的，过分压缩省略的宇宙中缺乏梦想，人不愿去考虑远大的未来，也会丧失目标。

I recently come across this article in a thought website and feel exactly the same as the author. Sure, China used to have really great taste, the aesthetics of Chinese culture is way better than Japan, even Japan now becomes the inspiration of lots of western artists, like impressionism, minimalism. If we could look at the arts in Song Dynasty, go to the remaining gardens in Suzhou,  we would definitely feel that Chinese art is much more sophisticated and mature.

However, it is not the case in modern China. In modern China, I don’t know how to describe that , but it feels very cheap, exaggerating and superficial. The decorations, the architecture, the way people dress, etc. Regarding to people’s dress or behavior, I feel it is quite similar to Mexico.

Then, what is the difference between good and bad taste? some will immediately point to economy, the upper class have good taste while the lower class won’t. Sure, I will agree with that. Modern China’s taste is more or less the same with typical lower class taste. In that case, we should be more or less consoled because as we get richer, we will have some modern taste, though it would never be something like ancient Chinese taste anymore.

Although I am sad the unique aesthetics of China is lost, this is the reality. The only way for me to get a similar feeling is by traveling to Japan or Korea.  I think modern China will have a very modern taste, more futuristic, similar to HK.

In personal level, I think taste is all about details. Even though we are poor, we could still remain good taste by paying attention. Keep fit & clean, behave modestly, be more kind and considerate, hopefully we will resume the reputation of our nation.

写一下高考作文

材料作文：文章和人品

古人说：“言为心声，文如其人”。性情偏急则为文急促，品性澄淡，则下笔悠远，这意味着作品的格调趣味与作者的人品应该是一致的。金代元好问《论诗绝句》却认为“心画心声总失真，文章宁复见为人”，艺术家笔下的文雅不能证明其为人的脱俗。

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写作，和其它如绘画，音乐，雕塑等艺术，最原始的初衷都只是单纯的作者用于抒发自己感情的方式，其本质上是完全自我的一种表达方法。每一个灵魂在生命的过程中，总会有一些时刻，震撼于天地之大美， 纠结于人生的悲欢离合，感叹着生命的卑微与无常，也有时刻会意气氛发，胸怀天下，也有时刻倾心于世外桃园，细水长流。此时，满腔的情绪沸腾， 总想找到一个出口，有人选择绘画，有人选择音乐，而对于很多中国古人，都习惯拿起笔作文章。这才有了古人所谓的，言为心声，文如其人。

文章，又是作者与读者之间交流的唯一方式。作为读者，我们只能从文字中感受到了作者的内心世界，既而找到了共鸣与慰借，由文及人，猜测着作者可能的性情与人品。 每个热恋的人，都明了柳永笔下“衣带渐宽终不悔，为伊消得人憔悴”， 很难想象，这么深情款款的词不是爱情至上之人所写。 每个人想忧国忧民又倍感无力的人，面对岳飞的《满江红》都无法平静，很难相信写着这么精忠报国的词的人，会是卖国求荣，自私自利的。 每个人为尘世所累的人，都羡慕陶渊明的“ 采菊东篱下，悠然见南山”，我们是不会相信，天天勾心斗角一心往上爬的人，会有任何概率拼凑出这么洒脱的词。同样的例子不胜枚举。

但随着历史的进展，艺术却有了很多的附加价值。艺术可以成为商品，通过出售为作者营利。即使不出售， 艺术也可以为作者得到想要的名望。 此时艺术往往沦为一种工具，而对应的作者，与其说是为了言志，不如说是 一个手艺人，仅仅是为了产出这种商品。

既然是商品，就要考虑市场，考虑大家喜欢什么。 所以才有了，”为赋新词求说愁“，因为愁闷似乎象征着自己深谙世事，有所历练，而却不知，作者还是”少年不知愁滋味”。 想靠文章得名天下，也必须摸透世人推崇什么，比如仁义道德，比如安贫乐道，这些都是普世所推崇之价值观。即使再如何假仁假义之人，都知道写文章应该用这种字句。

我试图想例举几个这种写得特别好的写手，但实在想不出来。当然是我才也许是因为，如非出于本心，写出来往往流于表面，无法真的震撼到人。每个时代都会有出现这么一些利用文章，利用艺术的手艺人，一时附庸风雅， 但往往只能介于二流，随着时间，立马被人淡忘了。

除了有意为之的作者之外，的确还有一批人，他们写文章也是真实的，做人也是真实的，两者不相符也是真实的。有一些人写文章是表达自己想要的理想境界，自己也明了现实中由于诸多原因自己无法做到。还有一些人，写文章用于表达自己的人生理念。尤其是近现代，随着白化文的盛行， 古文原有的工整，对偶与压韵都无法传承。 大量的人不再用写诗写词来抒情，而改转用音乐，绘画，至于电影。文章也大部分是用于理性的思辨，提出观点。而人的观点， 与本身的行为，是可以完全没有关系的。有言行如一的，如孔子尚君子，尚有为，自己也身体力行，周游列国四十多年宣扬自己的思想， 如老庄尚无力，法自然，故飘飘于尘世之外。也有言行不一致的，比如叔本华，其人生哲学可谓悲观至及，好似把人性也分析得透彻， 但他的哲学也没有帮他把人生过于豁达淡定些。比如卢梭，作为法国启蒙思想家，其著作很有人文关怀，但现实中丝毫无人品可言，甚至于对爱他的人都没有一些同情。

所以，言可以心声，也可不为心声。不如按孔子所言，“不以言举人，不以人废言”，我们看文章就看文章 ，看人就看人，何必一定要把两者联结在一起呢？这样，或许我们也不会有所谓的名人名言，也不会有人微言轻的困扰了。

Russian Alcoholic Drinks

One thing that attracts me to go Russia is simply Vodka. My knowledge about Russian  drinks before I got there is just Vodka.But soon after I was actually there,  I realized that vodka is just one tip of a huge iceberg. Russia  has such a wide range of drinks to offer, no wonder stereotypical image of drunk Russian men is so deep rooted

Vodka

Of course you can’t talk about Russia drinks without starting from vodka. Instead of using Vodka as a base for cocktails, Russian people like to drink it straight. Actually, cocktail is not so popular in Russia. If you are in bars, you will find few cocktail options.  Instead, you will have to face a long list of all brands vodka. Of course, for most people, Vodka shot is not so easy to drink straightly, so you can pair it with juice to smooth your throat.

People do drink vodka quite a lot and you can always find small bottle of vodka at every convenience shop.

Beer

Beer is still the most popular drinks all over the world, so does in Russia. compared with Russia domestic produced beers, nearby European country’s beer seems to be more popular, like Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark Copenhagen.

During my time in Russia, European countries threatened to stop import goods to Russia for political reason. The major concern for Russian people is that they can’t drink all the wonderful beers!

Wine

I don’t know beforehand that Russia also produce wine.

Kvas

This is quite unique in Russia, a very low alcoholic drink as an alternative of coca or water. Especially for lunch, if you don’t want to get drunk, you can drink Kvas with your lunch. The taste is a little bit sweet.

Medovukha

another quite popular low alcoholic drinks based on honey. So you can image the taste, quite sweet.  A bunch young college students introduce this to me, by acclaiming that it is far more popular in Russia.  In country side, you can find a lot of street vendor selling home made Medovukha. Of course, it is tasty and quite suit for ladies.

Alcoholic Coffee

This might not be the invention of Russia, but still Russia people like to start their days with coffee mixed with alcohol. Irish coffee, Espresso with vodka or gin, or simply ask for anything. You are not only waked up but also feel extremely happy for the new day~~

Movie Review –whiplash

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2582802/

The movie is about a self taught Jazz drummer, a young and ambitious man wants so much to be the greatest drummer. Even though he is not from a family with music background, he is willing to sacrifice everything for it.

The journey is not easy one, like other things in real life. Nothing comes easier even you try so hard. The teacher might not be supportive, the family is not supportive, you are extremely lonely without any friends, but what? if that is really what you want, just go for it.

Nowadays, dreams, ideas are all washed away. People like to enjoy the pleasure of life, comfort and easiness. Pushing yourself in the extreme become not only unpopular, but also stupid. However, is food, wine, dance with music all what we want?  Won’t anyone of us get tired of these pleasure?

I am not against the hedonistic pleasure, but I just ask for one question–

Are you satisfied with living life a pig? I guess lots of people won’t because the pleasure we got from those sensational things are not exciting enough. We want more than that.

Dream, ideas, fighting against others, relationship, manipulating people, actually are much more interesting. Thus, people are drone to politics, to arts, to business, or even to science to solve those unsolvable problems.

The whole process is the key point in life.

I want to part of that process. I need to change my attitude to research. to life, to business. Having a positive attitude actually is the first step and the most important one.

Another thing is about relationship. Why should I focus on the loss and gain, but not the process itself?

Epicurus Philosophy

By reading so much about the philosophy, I think Epicurus would be my choice.

I used to think that meaning and virtue is what I should work for. But it turns out, meaning is quite artificial. What is the essence of life? why animal never look for a life with meaning but human must do?

Pleasure is the end of life. doing the things that my heart feel pleasure, why is it not good enough? in that way, looking back to the life style of South America, I would probably agree that they are really generous of life and know exactly what they want.

Hedonism and consumption have become the norm of the developed society, people engage more in entertainment business than other things. So the future would be that people embrace more on pleasure, unwilling to focus and hard work.

But what’s wrong with that?

Book Review — Straw dogs, Human and other animals

This book keeps me awake for two consecutive nights, because the ideas the book propose is totally against my traditional thinking.

It imposes an intriguing question — Is human different from animals? In which way?

Humanism has become so dominant that no one questions its fundamental belief. However, is it true? is it true that we are different from animals and we can control our destiny?

I was largely influenced by  Karl Marx and the materialism philosophy, which emphasis that we are the controller of our own life, that we could determine our destiny. However, through my life, I begin to find this claim is not true. My conscious is not the master of my action, something else, like my feelings, my gut reaction, actually contribute a lot to how I handle things and do things.

Thus, this question took me to this book. Through it , I try to understand myself and my belief.

First chapter— there is no evidence that Human are different from animals, on the other hand, according to Darwim’s evolution theory, we are animals. Humanism is another religion, no difference with Christianity. Science can’t help us determine our destiny, it is just a tool which can’t serve the human needs.

Second chapter — deception of free will and moral autonomy. Do human have these? According to Kant, yes, but according to Auther Schopenhauer showed that we don’t have.

third chapter— vice of morality , Morality is not timeless, instead, it is a fashion and superstition. There is nothing more artificial as morality.

fourth chapter — unsaved. The vast population growth of Human beings make us not able to live in this planet

Fifth chapter –non progress. The history is not in progress, but instead, it is a circle.

Sixth chapter– as it is .

Action is just a consolation. For those for whom life means action, the world is a stage on which to enact their dreams. Over the past few hundred years, religion has waned, but we have not become less obsessed with imprinting a human meaning on things,

action preserves a sense of self-identity that reflection dispels. When we are at work in the world, we have a seeming solidity. Action gives us consolation for our inexistence. It is not the idle dreamer who escapes from the reality. It is practical men and women, who turn to a life of action as a refuge from insignificance.