mamahoohoo has moved to
http://panlaoshi.tumblr.com
Updated: The whole film is on YouTube. Each part is about ten minutes long.
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This is the trailer to a very interesting documentary about the election of banzhang in a third-grade classroom in Zhongguo:
If you’re interested in the movie, it is available through Netflix (and it’s only about an hour long).
The many migrant workers in China often leave behind their children when they leave to go to other places in the country to work. Sometimes the children are left with grandparents, but they are more often left with distant relatives, and they end up having mainly taking care of themselves from an early age.
This eight-minute documentary is a sad look at China’s children of migrant workers. The narration is in Cantonese, but the children and the interviews are in Mandarin (subtitles are in English).
Update: Oh no! The story was false. A Chinese reporter admitted to fabricating this whole story. Remember, xiao pengyoumen, plagiarism is bad!
The economic downturn is affecting everyone! A Chinese businessman needed to “downsize” his collection of mistresses, so he had a contest of sorts between his five mistresses to see who would win. The first one to be eliminated plotted to kill the man and the other women in a car crash. She died, the rest ended up in the hospital, and in the end, everyone left the man (including his wife, who then learned of his affairs).
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/02/17/china.mistress.contest/?iref=mpstoryviewdate:
AIDS/HIV was the leading cause of death in China in 2008.
This is an interesting article about Kirsten Gillibrand, the junior senator from New York (she replaced Hillary Clinton), who was an Asian studies major at Dartmouth, studied Chinese in China and Taiwan, and worked as a lawyer in Hong Kong.
She is one of only two members of Congress who is fluent in Mandarin.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/nyregion/15kirsten.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
A Korean woman who lives in Southern California is suing Miley Cyrus over the infamous photo for $4 billion. Her thinking is that she represents 1 million Asians who live in California. When multiplied by $4,000, which is the minimum damages for a civil rights violation, that equals… $4 billion!
http://www.tmz.com/2009/02/12/asians-want-4-billion-from-miley/
Gizmodo typed in “I am extremely…” into the Google search box and found that there are 303,000 people who are “extremely terrified of Chinese people.” Laoshi thinks this is weird and funny.
http://gizmodo.com/5150092/303000-people-extremely-terrified-of-chinese-people
The Big Picture (one of Laoshi’s favorite photography sites) has a bunch of pictures of the Lantern Festival, the fifteenth day of the Chinese New Year festivities.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/02/chinas_lantern_festival_and_an.html
The First Midwest Chinese Speech Contest
美国中西部首届中文演讲比赛
Northside College Preparatory High School
5501 Kedzie Avenue, Chicago, IL 60625
April 25, 2009
9am – 3pm
Midwest Chinese Teachers’ Alliance (MCTA) is proud to host the first Chinese Speech Contest in Chicago in the spring of 2009. Students who are currently enrolled in a Mandarin Chinese program at an elementary school or a middle/senior high school taught by MCTA members are welcomed to participate in this event.
Registration:
Registration begins on February 10th and ends on March 10th, 2009. Please download a registration form from the MCTA document hosting site at http://sites.google.com/site/mctadochost/, and email the completed registration form to mcta.chicago@gmail.com by March 10th, 2009. Please also mail a hardcopy of registration form and fee ($10/contestant, payable to “Michelle Cheng”) postmarked on/before March 10th, 2009, to : Michelle Cheng, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, WL-A134, 1500 West Sullivan Road, Aurora, IL 60506-1000.
Rules:
Students will be assigned to one of the categories in three divisions (1st through 5th grade students, 6th through 8th grade students, and 9th through 12th grade students) according to their length of study and background. See contest rules attached. Students (native/near- native speakers or heritage students) already speaking Mandarin or other Chinese dialects before entering are not eligible.
Theme:
In alignment with 2009 ACTFL, the theme is “Speaking Up for Languages…The Power of Many Voices”. Students are free to come up with individual speech titles in the context of this theme which is to describe their own Chinese learning experiences.
Awards:
Medals, certificates, and prizes will be awarded to the contest winners and participants.
Evaluations:
All contestants will be judged and voted by the judging panel. Judges will be selected from MCTA members.
See updated information on MCTA blog website – http://mcta-chicago.blogspot.com/
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