EDITOR'S NOTE
HELLO!
CONTENTS Staffs
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oday is my debut with Visionary!
Thomas Jefferson pointed out in The Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. The questions are, “given the liberty to pursue, did you find your happiness?” and “If not, why not?” In answer to these questions, I suggest that people generally tend to contemplate a system that links one’s values and benefits, because when this system is influenced externally, one’s development is impacted. We students are no exception. Education has never been exclusive to those adults who have already experienced their part of life as students. Although those “young good men” pooped themselves out to educate us, we cannot reach our own happiness if we don’t act as self-determined and responsible people. To pursue our happiness: we need to undertake the things we love; we need to experience these merriments; and we need to find a place to share the joy. As William Shakespeare wrote, “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts . . .” (As You Like It, 2/7). Focused on students’ developments, Visionary intends to perform as a platform, a stage as it were, where exhibition and learning parallel each other; dispersing and absorbing set in juxtaposition; self-promotion and motivation ensue. Various and sundry words and pictures will be designed; personal stories and essays on topics are indispensible, and you will be able to discover almost anything and everything here! Here, at Visionary, we tend to provide the reader with the most vivid presentations and contemplations from teenagers like you and me. Here, you will encounter your counterparts who share the same opinions; may you also be inspired by his/her claims. Here, we can cast off our shyness, be up with the lark and sing our own songs in Visionary. These mustn’t go amiss! We all find our happiness in our unique ways, and I assure you that there must be someone in another place having the same interest as you do. I, along with my colleagues from Visionary, am more than happy to bring your happiness to everybody around the world and vice versa. Join the community of Visionary, laugh not to relentlessness, read not to dullness, and think not to stiffness! Yu Cao Shenzhen Middle School
Editor-in-chief Yu Cao
column 4
IS the United Nations still working?
Senior Advisor Gregory Robbins
THE importance of personal leadership
Senior Advisor Farzaan Kassam Advisors Lil Max Alive Xiao Editorial Da Ying Ina Yang Maggie Bi Cindy Xu Design Director Andy Lee Design Editors Kimi Lo Vanessa Wang Art Editors Moor Chan Triffy Wu Administration Nicole Dingz.x. Waiting Zhong
4
essay 7
OF elves and humans: a brief intro
7 8
my story 11
THE tanned, brown summer
11
MY trip to Taiwan, where history is still alive
13
THE school and its children need your help
14
MUSIC review
22 24 25
"ANY MOVIE WORTH SEEING IS WORTH ARGUING ABOUT, AND ANY MOVIE WORTH ARGUING ABOUT IS WORTH SEEING."
24 8
4
review 22
A journey of self-discovery —— book review of Eat Pray Love INCEPTION review
27 PHOTO GALLERY
photo gallery 27 comic 34
COLUMN
COLUMN
IS THE UNITED NATIONS
STILL WORKING? BY
Cizi Chen
4 VISIONARY
I
n recent years, because of its lack of effectiveness to mediate international conflicts, many have been arguing that the United Nations is becoming an ineffective and outdated organization, no longer a relevant actor in the modern international system. However, though not as effectively as people expect, the United Nations is still working. The standard to judge the effectiveness of the UN lies in whether it is striving to fulfill its principles and aims, which,
according to the UN Char ter, are “to maintain international peace and security; to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples�, etc. To achieve progress matching its goals, since 1945, the UN has taken a number of effective actions. One of the most famous examples is the laudable effort the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) has been making in the Middle East, providing humanitarian aid to millions of refugees. To be honest, I can certainly understand why people complain about the UN-sometimes its inabilit y to solve i nte r n at i o n a l co n f l i c t s, s u c h a s t h e nuclear issue in the Korean Peninsula, does disappoint people. Analyzing the similarities of its failures, it becomes quite obvious that the failures are results of the limitation of power of the UN, which makes it lack of strong authority to force its members to implement what will benefit international community while may hurt the interests of their own countries. Nevertheless, if considering its failures in another way, it is the limitation of its power that abates the hegemonism around the world. 64 years ago, the Big Four (the U.S, the U.K, the USSR and China) founded the UN, replacing the International League to maintain post-war international security. At that period, the United Nations was highly dominated by the Big Four, especially by the U.S and the USSR. However, the situation has changed since 1960s. In Asia and Africa colonized countries gained their independence in succession; simultaneously, the economy in Europe, Japan and Korean developed rapidly; in 1991, the collapse of USSR marked the end of one of the super power in the world--all of these have intensified the need of the new rising countries to voice themselves in international community and the world is evolving from single-polarized to multipolarized. Therefore, when these countries becoming members of the United Nations, the function of the UN is strengthened, since it is not only the single international organization with the reputation that can convince most of countries, no mater powerful or not, to join in, but also the place where every country can participate in the decision-making process of international affairs. The United Nations is still working, for it is approaching its aims by offering opportunities to all countries to express their opinions and restraining control from powerful countries. Fur thermore, the equality in the United Nations, which is derived from the limitation of power of the UN, also November 2010 5
ESSAY
COLUMN plays an impor tant role in lessening the control from the power. Although the unreasonable distribution of the membership fee among different countries sometimes politicizes the UN, but regardless of size or wealth, every member has one vote. In contrast to the IMF, the UN has done a much better job ensuring the equality among its members. Although the limitation of power leads
to equality, it also leads to ineffectiveness. Thus, the UN does need reform to integrate itself into new international situation. For instance, the UN may streamline its structure to improve efficiency; adjust the distribution of membership fee according to the abilities of different countries while maintaining its neutrality; and reconsider the necessity of the veto power in the Security Council, etc. All of these aim at
improving the UN to be a more effective, neutral and impar tial inter national organization and strengthening its reputation to gain worldwide respect that will reversely enhance its effectiveness. With the limitation of its power, the United Nations is still work ing--and expected to work more effectively after reformed.
y name is Sizi Chen and I am from Guangdong Experimental High School. International Relations is always where my interest lies. I believe that many international conflicts are engendered by misunderstandings among cultures and can be avoided by promoting cultural understandings; even sometimes conflicts are inevitable because of conflicting interests of different countries, they can be solved through peaceful means rather than violence. Having in mind such faith, I have been committed to promoting mutual understandings among cultures and people-to-people exchanges. In 2009, I studied in the USA as an exchange student
A BRIEF INTRO
BY Tianrui
Xiao
M
a n y w e s t e r n c h i l d r e n ’s literature works feature magical creatures; oriental works also include mythical beings, yet they do not include the elf. Primarily due to cultural diversity, eastern stories never came up with such an innovation. Although elves often appear in legends and lore, they vary vastly and assume drastically different roles, but mostly as “the real-life incarnation of an angel”. Usually authors grant them abilities superior to humans, and they are perceived as a race with a rich history and deep-rooted customs. People tend to picture them as tall, lean figures with striking, feral features, awesome agility and strength, and an air of elegance. But most importantly, they somehow fall in love with humans; rather, humans fall for the elves. One of my favorite examples is the story of Beren and Lúthien, first told in the Lay of Leithian by JRR Tolkien. As most know from the Lord of the Rings trilogy,
SELF-INTRODUCTION
M
OF ELVES AND HUMANS:
for a year; I have been involved in Model UN for almost 2 years, meeting new friends from all over the world and learning new ways of thinking there; and have interned in the Office of Foreign Affairs in Guangdong every summer since 2006, etc. In Visionary, I hope I can share my understandings of International Relations with people that have common interests with me, enhance people’s the awareness of cultural differences and of mutual understandings, and most importantly, spread my faith of solving conflicts in peaceful ways.
the elves are portrayed as a mysterious, powerful race with immense powers, yet their culture and history remained under a veil. This veil was largely lifted in the Silmarillion, a legend describing the history of Middle-Earth before the story of the one Ring. 6 VISIONARY
THIS FANATIC ZEAL THAT WE SEEM TO HAVE FOR ELVES DOES HAVE CLASSIC EXCEPTIONS AND VARIATIONS. In fantastical tales, elves are pure beings that are immortal, so love between elves and humans are fated to be significant. Beren was the son of Hurin, a human hero, while Lúthien was an elven princess. They met in the lush depths of a forest later known as Mirkwood, when Beren was enraptured by Lúthien’s songs. Love was instantaneous; so was doom. As with all romances, Lúthien’s parents, Thingol and Melian didn’t approve. Then they embarked on wild adventures which bards sang of, and in turn achieved a feat no elf or human could’ve hoped to attain: they stole a Simaril, one of three magical diamonds, from Morgoth, the very embodiment of evil. Of course, the ride had its ups and downs, but fortunately fo r re a d e r s, t h e outcome wasn’t tragic. Another example of such an affair seems to be the relationship Eragon had with Ar ya in the Inheritance Cycle. This affair varies from the one in Silmarillion in several aspec ts, making it more conventional and easier to accept. Unlike Beren, Eragon’s strength dramatically augments as the plot progresses, transforming him from a simple farmer ’s boy to the biggest hope of defeating his nemesis. At the same time, his love for Arya, an elf princess (yet again), gradually becomes apparent, later earning him a euphemistic rejection. They don’t automatically attach themselves to one another, but fate wove their destinies
together, so the pair became companions by chance. However, one of the most distinct traits this affair has retained is the ability to attain magnificent feats despite seemingly hopeless circumstances. Given the way this story has progressed, I believe Paolini wouldn’t bear to give this relationship a tragic end because of the potent sentiments Eragon harbors for Arya and also because of consumer demands. This fanatic zeal that we seem to have for elves does have classic exceptions and variations. Take the Harry Potter series, which didn’t feature any elf or even a race resembling elves (the mermen living in the lake don’t count, I believe), yet created an original world of magic readers have come to love, not merely due to the outstanding detail with which it was woven, but also due to its more intimate ties with reality. The very originality of that magical world transformed our previous assumptions about it, and nearly all the magical creatures featured in the books were ones we’ve never heard of, so appearance of elves would weaken this concept’s power. Comparatively, I would consider the vampires in the Twilight Saga even to be a distortion of elves to accommodate our tastes. Even with their mesmerizing eyes and fearsome habits, they’ve retained many of the characteristics we normally attribute to elves like agility, immortality, special powers, etc, and Meyers fused them with the modern world so successfully that we never bother to notice the rift. A core similarity they have with elves is that they possess a hold over our mentality with their appearances, capabilities and mystique, the most persuading reason I have for making such a postulation. For centuries western mythology depicted the elves as a higher race in comparison with us, possibly mirroring our deep desire to gain power and grace while preserving our noble ethnics and customs.
November 2010 7
ESSAY
Farzaan Kassam is a business director with 14 years of e x p e r i e n c e i n t h e te l e co m i n d u s t r y, t h e l a s t 1 1 w i t h Canada's second largest communications company with 33,000 employees and ¥$66 Billion in revenues. Far zaan led teams focused on improving per formance while reducing costs. In 2003, he co-created the Quick Win methodology, an IT and business methodology that generated ¥$140 Million in operational savings. The Quick Win methodology won the 2006 Stevie Award for "Best Support Team" beating 700 teams from around the world. Farzaan holds an MBA from the University of Toronto where he received the Bregman Scholar, Dean's List and Jane Ty e r m a n a w a r d . H e h a s a Masters Certificate in Project Management from George Washington University and recently completed the GEP program at the University of Toronto. In his spare time, he races cars, plays badminton and runs in half-marathons. His next goal is to learn Putonghua! BY Farzaan
Kassam
H
aving hired over 100 people in my career, I’m often asked what the difference is between those that get hired and those that get passed by. It’s a very difficult question to answer because every person is unique and their circumstances and experiences are unique. There is however a few key areas that make it easier to hire a person and have some confidence in their ability to perform under pressure. The most impor tant thing I look for in an individual is personal leadership, but what exactly is personal leadership? There are no clear definitions to what personal leadership is; it can be many things, but I’ve found that having an understanding of what personal leadership means to you can: • Be the most important package that a person needs to be successful in today’s world • Provide a basis to better understand yourself and those around you • Increase your chances of success by taking ownership of your life and your future Personal leadership to me is made up of four key areas: • Having the courage to take risks • Having the confidence to make mistakes • Never giving up on what you want • Taking the time to plan for the future
Having the courage to take risks If you don’t risk anything, you’ll never get the reward that comes with it. The best decisions in life are the ones that give you butterflies in your stomach. It’s important to take calculated risks, one that you’ve thought through by understanding the pros and cons. Even if the risk you take doesn’t work out as planned, you can use it as a learning experience for the future; it’s important to have these types of learnings when you’re young. My parents took a very large risk in life by moving the entire family (before I was born) from Uganda, Africa to Vancouver, Canada. The government was nationalizing their assets and gave Asians 48hrs to leave the country. They took only US$10,000 and their two children and left the country to start life in a new world. Forty years later, they now have two sons that have graduated with masters degrees (one from Harvard and the other from Toronto) and the family has good health, wealth and happiness. More importantly, they have safety, stability and harmony in their new home country of Canada. The risks they took were immense at the time, but without those risks, the future may
ESSAY have been very bleak indeed.
Having the confidence to make mistakes Mistakes are often looked upon in a negative way and people work their entire lives to avoid making a single mistake. That’s unfor tunate because, without mistakes, we cannot truly know the depths of our abilities. By operating at 95%, we will never truly know what 100% is capable of. Even the most successful people in our world, have made great mistakes in their
a short span of 10 years! When asked how he felt about what happened, he replied that the learning experience is what gave him the foundation he needed to make Apple the success it is today.
Never giving up on what you want Life will always be full of struggles and it becomes very easy to blame those struggles for the lack of success or “luck”. I don’t believe in the concept of luck; I
"N
OBODY CAN KNOW HOW SMART YOU ARE IF YOU KEEP QUIET AND DON’T SPEAK UP. IN THE CORPORATE WORLD, IT’S IMPORTANT TO NOT BE SHY AND TO SPEAK UP AND EXPRESS YOUR IDEAS."
paths to success. I would venture to say that the mistakes are actually what gave them the foundation for their longer-term successes. Why are mistakes so valuable? Because, if used appropriately, the individual can learn from those mistakes and ensure that the future does not repeat those mistakes. Rarely does a person have all of the information needed to make good decisions, but by having a history of calculated mistakes to leverage, the individual can then make good decisions because they’ve seen what failure looks like and how to avoid it. Mistakes in and of themselves can only get you so far; you need to have the confidence to make those mistakes and the confidence to have your voice heard. Nobody can know how smart you are if you keep quiet and don’t speak up. In the corporate world, it’s important to not be shy and to speak up and express your ideas. The best ideas often come from informal settings, so don’t be shy! Let people hear your inside voice. Perhaps the most famous “failure” was the ousting of Apple’s co-founder and CEO, Steve Jobs in 1985. He took the failure to heart and struggled for several years before emerging as CEO of NeXt computers. After selling NeXt to Apple, he returned to Apple to kick off what would become the second most valuable company in America, within
think luck is based upon how hard you work and how determined you are. If you work hard and are dedicated, life tends to become very “lucky”; if you sit back and wait for things to happen in hopes that you will find luck, your life tends to be very “unlucky”. Most people blame their lack of success on the basic struggles of life. To be truly successful, you must resist the temptation to blame the common problems in life and instead, embrace the idea that you can work through those problems and that they are merely speed bumps on the road to success. They will slow you down a bit, but they won’t stop you. The best way to approach these problems is to break down the larger problems into smaller, easier to solve ones. You can then tackle the problems in small pieces and once 75% of the smaller problems are resolved, the larger overall problem will tend to solve itself. When I was in high school, my school counselor told me that I didn’t have the intelligence to go to university and suggested that I not apply for the top schools. I went home feeling very sad at her comments and expressed my feelings to my parents and family. My brother refused to allow her comments to hold me back and insisted that I apply for university. I did apply and got into every school I applied for; furthermore, 16 years later, I November 2010 9
ESSAY completed an MBA from the top university in Canada, the University of Toronto. Had I let her comments hold me back, I would not have reached the success I have in life. Never give up!
Taking the time to plan for the future Goals are perhaps the most important aspect of personal leadership. Goals allow us to maximize and stretch our abilities by creating benchmarks for us to achieve. It’s important to not only set goals, but to share them with the people we care about. By sharing our goals, we have a much higher chance of achieving them. It’s also important to measure those goals on a consistent basis, every six months at the minimum. I often find that people’s goals are not hard enough for them to really stretch their abilities. While you’re young, set high, difficult goals. Set them so high that you think they will be impossible to achieve; I am confident you will be surprised at your abilities as you grow and mature into your role at work and school. When setting your goals, talk to people in different industries than your own so that you can gain unique and independent perspectives on different aspects of
10 VISIONARY
business and yourself. It’s also important to have your goals be focused on your passions, rather than just monetary goals. When you chase money, you rarely can win. When my younger brother and I were growing up, from the age of eight years old, he told everyone that he met that he was going to Harvard. We grew up a very poor family and the idea that one of us would go to Harvard seemed impossible. He didn’t care; he set his goal that he would go to Harvard for university and that nothing would stand in his way. He set very high goals throughout high school and in his personal life, all focused on going to Harvard one day. In 2007, my parents had the opportunity to attend my brother’s graduation at Harvard University, when he completed his MBA. President Bill Clinton spoke at the convocation that day and it was the most proud moment of my parent’s life. When I look back and think about the determination, the goals that he set and the hard work he put in, it’s obvious that he would become successful at going to Harvard, but when we were sitting there, with no money and no chances, it seemed impossible. Set your goals and do everything possible to achieve them, no matter how impossible they seem at the
time.
China’s position in the world For young students, today’s environment p ro v i d e s a u n i q u e o p p o r t u n i t y fo r immense success. China’s position in the world gives you once in a lifetime opportunity to leverage the great brand that the government has created for China. China led the world out of the financial crisis and now you must lead the world through the next phase of global growth. The world needs to learn more about China’s culture; the people that are reading this article are the ones that can extend China’s success to the rest of the world and in so doing, help the world better understand the Chinese culture. If there is one thing that you take away from this article, I hope that it’s the following: • • • •
Focus on what you want! Take risks! Don’t be shy, share your ideas! Never give up!
I’m confident, that if you focus on personal leadership, you will have all the ingredients to be successful in your professional and personal lives. I welcome any questions or feedback at farzaan.kassam@gmail.com.
MY TANNED
,
MY STORY
BROWN SUMMER ACADEMIC e
n Part O
Introducing a Personal Experience of the Summer Session Credit Courses at Brown University, 2010 BY Yiran
Fan
“WHAT IS IT ABOUT BROWN?” PEOPLE ALWAYS ASK. BROWN, FOR ME, WAS THE SCHOOL WHICH LET ME DETERMINATE TO STUDY IN AMERICA.
I
told one of my friends during our online chat that I was in the US studying. “What?” he screamed, “You really spent all your summer studying?” Yes. I went to the US this summer just for Brown University Credit Courses. The 7-week program that I chose, according to the Brown website, was an ivy-level academic work for rising or graduated high school seniors, who wanted to earn college credits beforehand. After I told my friend that I simply enjoyed my life at Brown, he called me “nerd” instead of my name. I would say that it was an honor to be called a “nerd” by an MIT guy. MIT guys proudly call themselves “nerds.” I not only chose the toughest program, but also, for me, the toughest courses: “Arts of Rhetoric” and “Great Modern European Thinkers”. “Arts of Rhetoric” was a course where you developed writing skills by composing three different kinds of paper on the same topic. I wrote on gay marriage issue in California, the Prop 8. I remembered that I spent a whole day analyzing the articles, and finding evidence to prove that the Court could not approve gay marriage in California. I was frozen in “the Rock”, the fully air-conditioning library, and trying hard not to be distracted by the bouncing squirrels outside. I was working so hard that everyone in Diman, my dorm mates, knew that I was writing on gay marriage issue. After that, my dorm mates changed their way of saying
“hi” with me: “Hey Irene, how is your gay marriage…paper!” However, few days after I submitted my final paper, dreaming
that my professor was so convinced by my perfect logic, gay marriage was approved in California. What a sad, sad story. If I have any chance, I will definitely film a cartoon named “Frustrating Me” or “Despicable Court” to beat “Despicable Me.” “Great Modern European Thinkers” was my devil. It prevented me from sunshine (classes started from 1 to 3 P.M. everyday),
November 2010 11
MY STORY prevented me from doorway chats (300 pages of reading per day. WHAT?!), and it even prevented me from losing weight (the professor bought us ice creams and smoothies AWESOME!). It is always good to have generous professors, but it comes to no good when they are also generous while assigning readings. I felt uncomfortable in the History class at first since I could not finish the readings, which made me had no confidence to speak out. My feeling of being left out overwhelmed me. I struggled whether I should confess to the professor that my English was just not good enough. It was more than a truth, not only because I was the only international student as well as the youngest student, but also most of the students were already Brown Sophomore or Junior students. However, I would not ask the professor to decrease reading assignments because I wanted so much to act like natives, and to be treated as natives. I told myself before I was on the road, the reason I wanted to study abroad was that I wanted to learn American culture, and get into it. I was so
12 VISIONARY
MY STORY stubborn to think that asking the professor to treat me differently would be a sign of giving up. After being stuck in the mind struggle I made myself, I ended up with a better plan: I walked with the professor after the class was over, confessed that I could not finish all the readings, and asked for suggestion. “Ha-ha!” the professor laughed, which scared me, “Don’t worry, just analyze par ts of the book, and present your interpretation in class. Besides, no one can finish my reading assignments. This is why we professors hate Wikipedia.” He winked, I cheered. With the comfort and encourage, I tried to do exactly what the professor told me: to analyze and to present. Every time I did my best, I made every next time better. Nonetheless, just as I felt good about myself in class, I happened to know that what my professor said was wrong. “What?” one of my classmates shouted, “How can one go to a history seminar without finishing the readings?” Wait a minute. Did I just suggest the professor was lying? Yup, it was a lie, but a white one.
“What is it about Brown?” people always ask. Brown, for me, was the school which let me determinate to study in America. It was a paradise where everything was right as long as you had reasons; it was a paradise where you did not need to lie for all you lacked; it was a paradise where weaknesses could make you stronger; it was a paradise where you could cast aside your fears and carry on. And it will always be that paradise.
MY TRIP TO TAIWAN,
WHERE HISTORY IS STILL ALIVE A BY Yuhao
bout a month ago, I paid a visit to Hong Kong Book Fair 2011, with a revering heart. Like many others, I am always, to some extent, regarding Hong Kong as Mecca, at least as the most convenient one for the air of freedom I breathed in there. During the Open Public Forum attended by internationally celebrated actor and writer Stephen Fry, bestselling novelist Freder ick Forsyth (esp. famous for his spy novels), critically acclaimed historian Andrew Roberts, moderated by Hong Kong businessman Sir Tung Wing Cheung, Tung asked the three writers “how do you deal with the characters in your books? Do you relate them with your personal experience or just imagine them out?” When the question comes to historian Andrew Roberts, no sooner had he picked up the microphone right below his jaw than Tung answered for him “Oh you don’t need to bother that, you write about dead people!” Sir Tung is really an astute speaker, but the point I tell this anecdote is that history, seen to many of us, plays with dead people. In another sense, history is always dead, which helps to explain why so many students find it tasteless. However after seven days’ stay in Taiwan I would not agree with that. No matter how much you know about Taiwan, its culture, history even politic, if you haven’t actually stepped on the ground of the island across the strait you will not feel the real Taiwan. It occurs to me our premier Wen Jiabao once said one thing full of human
Du
warmth. I don’t think I need to trouble to do a crappy translation here for everybody should remember it. 2010 is the 99th years of Republic of China(ROC), but for most of the residents on the island their country’s history is not that long; maybe it began in 1950, when Chiang Kai-Shek retreated to Taiwan and resumed duties as President of ROC. When
we open the history book of Taiwan(not textbook), we will see ”Martial Law” “White Terror” “Kaohsiung Incident” “End of Martial Law”…. All of these are alive because they resulted from deaths. Many people have been through this history of hard times and survive, who witness this country walk from dictatorship to democracy; from poverty to prosperity and now stagnation; from uncivilized to civilized. As my guide said “Taiwan is now not as prosperous as mainland; we have been devoting to environmental policy for over ten years and spend billions of NT to help protect our living condition so it is understandable that we are not living well amid such economic downturn. But
we know it is worth carrying out. Look at your mainland, mud avalanche, flood and constructional disasters are not accidents! We have faced such things and Taiwan this small island cannot afford another 1999 earthquake or 8-8 windstorm…..” Indeed, just the week before I went to Taiwan, every single day when I open the home page of Sina I can’t fail to spot the black and bold headline that reports “xx Province has the most serious xxx in the last xx years”. They know what history teaches them and they try to do the right thing. In my Mecca, it strikes me that Hong Kong ha s some “ li beral fighters” and if you check their records you will find that most of them were once members of some most vehement student movements and they were repressed so their living region is not ideal for them now, after several ten-year. One of them is Szeto Wah, currently the chairman of The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China. He is now79 years old and was diagnosed with lung cancer, for which he is undergoing chemotherapy treatment. But he is still appearing on various occasion of democracy movement or broadcasts. The 35th US president JF-Kennedy once said in his Inaugural Addresses 1989:” Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.” I can see the torch in Taiwan.
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MY STORY
MY STORY
2
1 This little kid was an orphan, who stayed in school in summer time with the teachers and principal lama, wearing clothes that are donated by others. 2. Pigsty. At school does not kill the pigs so they kept them either as pets or sell them in the market when the school is short of money.
THE SCHOOL AND ITS CHILDREN NEED YOUR HELP BY Siqi
Zhao
3. Sadly that the ceiling was broken and the students may suffer from coldness and wetness when it rains. More than twenty students live in this little, broken dorm.
3
T
he surrounding clouds are cleared, and the sky is like impressionist back-drop by some insane genius. Short in distances it is the peaks of three mountains that my
eyes were led to irresistibly. All the scenes are serenely poised, as if a child had drawn it. Looked back at my shoes and the dirt on them, I suddenly realized that I am in
north Yunnan, a local primary school held by principal lama ten years ago, just a hundred miles from Shangri-La.
1
14 VISIONARY
November 2010 15
MY STORY
MY STORY
1
2
1/2 Considering the shortage of money the school must plant their own food, which we were there to help this summer. 3 Although void of material, they are still rich in mind, and felt much happier than city drawers. The mountains that encompass them and the brightness of their sky are gifted from nature and bring them the joy that much exceeds what could bring by modern technologies.
3 16 VISIONARY
November 2010 17
MY STORY
MY STORY
2
1 1 A student's pillow, old and dirty, still in use. 2 The principal lama(right at back). He found no patronage for the students at the time he started this school, and went to Sichuan and other parts of Yunnan, even Tibet to beg temples for patronage to ensure that his student could continue to study there. The exercise books are sent by one of the student who graduated from this school a few years ago and are currently attending college. He saved these exercise books and sent it to the school every year, and the school is just like his home and Neverland.
3
3 The unfinished teaching building, due to the shortage of money.
18 VISIONARY
November 2010 19
MY STORY
MY STORY
1 The campus 2 The school’s advertisement for patronage, yet this form is out of use now, since the web site had been shut down by the government due to the strict control of Tibetan regions, the new one will come into use soon. 3 This is actually the bed for eight students, since the school does not have enough beds.
ALTHOUGH WE FACE THE DIFFICULTIES THAT LIES AHEAD, THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE. For donation you can donate books, groceries, medicine.(and anything you think that might be helpful for the students and teachers.) You can also donate money for the student to continue their study, please contact:
email: adoniszsq@gmail.com phone: 08613430995494 address: North Renmin Road, No.18 Shenzhong Street, Shenzhen Middle School
20 VISIONARY
November 2010 21
REVIEW
A journey of self-discovery book review of Eat Pray Love TEXT Annabelle H.
22 VISIONARY
REVIEW
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ilarious. Brilliant. Witty. Unashamedly spiritual. Eat Pray Love definitely deserves such praises. One woman, one yearlong quest to bridge the gulf between body, mind, and spirit, one journey in pursuit of pleasure, devotion and balance of life. This book that tells the story of the author Elizabeth Gilbert herself does not fail its subtitle: One woman’s search for everything.
If the search for pleasure in Rome is a good start for the journey and the search for balance in Bali a happy ending, then right in the middle, this 3 months’ assiduous search for peace in an asylum in India is undoubtedly the quintessential part of the process of self-discovery. To me, that is the most inspiring part. And obviously, so it does to the author herself, which can be concluded from the way
Elizabeth Gilbert organized her book: she ended up structuring it conceptually using japa mala --- the 108 beads used as an aid in many strands of Eastern meditation— as her model. She once revealed that “the idea of the prayer beads kept me on topic emotionally, too, reminding me at every moment that this book was ultimately a spiritual exercise, an offering.” Here I offer a glimpse of Eat Pray Love, using some words excerpted from each three par t of book that have inspired me a lot: Italy: Attraversiamo.--Let’s cross over. India: Om Namah Shivaya---I honor the divinity that resides within me. Indonesia: It’s all about love. This book was, in every way, a “souled out” journey of self-discovery. Italy, India, Indonesia: a coincidence that all these countries begin with the letter I, a fairly auspicious sign on a voyage of finding who I am. Then I started to ask myself the same questions: Who am I? What am I looking for?What do I really want out of my life? As the answers slowly unveiled themselves before the author, they did not come easily to me. But the most amazing part about Eat Pray Love is that it gave me a feeling that I was actually on my own journey of self-discovery along with Elizabeth, finding those answers through my half– real(reading)–half–imaginary travel in Italy, India and Indonesia. And here comes the most difficult and painful, yet inevitable, part of this travel: getting to know myself, accepting the fact that I’m not perfect, embracing the beauty as well as the ugliness, opening my heart to the darkest side of my thoughts and those memories that have haunted me for years, while I have to hold myself together. That turns out to be even harder than I thought. But I can always find relieve in Eat Pray Love because I know that someone had been through the exact same things, that I’m not alone in this travel. What Elizabeth found at the end of her journey is love, the one thing that she really needed to balance her life. And me? My journey has barely begun. Although I’m still trying to find those answers, I’m quite certain that I’ll just wake up one day and know, just like Elizabeth knew she had to go back to that ninth-generation Indonesian medicine man in Bali, just like how every love affair in the world happen. It comes naturally. This may well be another important thing the book Eat Pray Love teaches me: to have faith.
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Life is a journey, not so much to a destination but a transformation. During this journey, in the process of transformation, we all have to complete this ultimate mission: to discover one’s self. It might take years, and there will be painful moments, but after all, I think it’s still worth it. My favorite part of Eat Pray Love is only an Italian word: Attraversiamo. Let’s cross
UT I CAN ALWAYS FIND RELIEVE IN EAT PRAY LOVE BECAUSE I KNOW THAT SOMEONE HAD BEEN THROUGH THE EXACT SAME THINGS, THAT I’M NOT ALONE IN THIS TRAVEL." over. Thinking about life, there’s nothing we can’t simply cross over. Scars will heal, hatreds will fade away, and troubles will pass. We just have to take a step forward to leave behind whatever it is in the past and walk towards the other side of road, where everything is left to be explored. Later when you look back, you can proudly tell yourself: “It’s ok. I’ve been there.” So. Attraversiamo.
Epilogue Eat Pray Love came to me when I was sort of at a critical turning point of my life. Sometimes, I feel that it is more than just a book to me. Rather, it’s a gift, telling me what was the right thing to do when I was deciding where my future lies. I ran across it when I was randomly going through books in my favorite spot. For some reason, it caught my eyes in an instant. Maybe it was because of the neat front cover, maybe it was because of that intriguing title, or maybe, it just felt right. For me, buying books is like picking clothes: I simply trust my instincts. And I can’t tell you how grateful I am to have this book in my struggling, darkest days. Eat Pray Love walked into my life and changed it in a way I barely noticed, until the day I finally pull myself together, stand up and fight for my dreams against the impossibilities. The book shows the gut of a woman to walk out of her life and walk into a new one, to fall out of her love and fall into a new one, and ultimately, to let go of the past and embrace the future. And I believe, that gut is all that ever matters. Hopefully, pretty soon I myself will set off on my own journey in pursuit of freedom, happiness and life. And now, the question is: Will you? Annabelle H. November 2010 23
REVIEW
REVIEW
INCEPTION
MUSIC REVIEW TEXT
REVIEW BY
Da Ying
A
shared theme, two shining albums, some nowhere men
Ac t u a l l y I a m n o t t h a t k i n d o f g u y entranced with non-mainstream. Just like many other people, I love music that makes one reminiscent.
The everlasting theme: Anti-war & Peace While people in China were always saying
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t the time I was watching Inception in the theater, my very first question is, “are these works of Freud?” Afterwards, I found Freud, author of The Interpretation of Dreams, would also be intrigued and pleased to be introduced to those five layers of dream and “limbo”.
as incredible as it sounds, some people are now assuming the whole movie is in a dream stage, even till the very end. But in this case we end up with where we should have started, wondering what the movie is about. What I’ve received from the two-hour movie and people’s remarks are all, no exceptionally, explanation of the symbol, plot points and several layers of world Christopher Nolan preconditioned. “Is the end of film still a part of dream? Did the totem stop spinning?”, “Why Fischer revived? On which layer Fischer saw his father in bed?”, “Where did Cobb and Mal create their own world? Limbo?”, questions and the like as go on again and again. We are all trying to locate the characters (and ourselves) amidst all the complex circuitry. What’s the matter? I’m not going to question those premise of this elegant work like some people, subverting the possibilities that a man can go into another’s dream. I mean, what makes movie a movie is exactly its unstrained and bizarre imagination. Never theless, what does the movie give us besides intricate plots? To my understanding, the movie as a whole told a story about how Cobb loves his wife and children, that’s all because we haven’t reach a consensus on whether in the
“ANY MOVIE WORTH SEEING IS WORTH ARGUING ABOUT, AND ANY MOVIE WORTH ARGUING ABOUT IS WORTH SEEING.” Christopher Nolan is known for directing arresting and thought-provoking films. Admirers of Stanley Kubrick, director of A Clockwork Orange and 2001, will find themselves in good company. I’m not going to talk much about those complex plots or premises, nor a basic summary here. In my idea, summary is only useful for people who are yet behind the movie, but in this case, Inception is far too fat to be put into a summary – thousand words won’t make it. Christopher Nolan has been contemplating the movie for ten years, and as movie technology changed he must have realized that he could do more and more complex things. In the end, 24 VISIONARY
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‘arts and politics should be independent things’, many of the singers in European continent and the U.S. were using their music as media to cry out their protests to the ceaseless wars all over the world. The theme of anti-war has been and still will be an eternal element of music. No matter the peace-keeping soldier with a gun and a guitar strapping to the side of a tank in Kosovo, or the ‘Wisemen’
prescribing a dose of placebo to ‘all the lost souls’; no matter the desperate ‘Jesus of Suburbia’ running away from home for the meaning of survival, or the stereotype Punk group seriously talking about its music faiths, they were all in one voice, voice for the peace. The different music genres had never been the obstacles which prevented them from expressing their concerns with people
end Cobb is in his dream. An interesting review comment on the Internet says, “So Inception is not necessarily the kind of experience you would take to your next shrink appointment.” Indeed! Compared with the A Clockwork Orange of Stanley Kubrick, It is more like a diverting reverie than a primal nightmare, something to be mused over rather than analyzed, something you may forget as soon as it’s over. Unlike the film of A Clockwork Orange that may give you shock and reevaluation, inception is simply an overwhelming fantasy. Which is to say that the two hours passes quickly and for the most part pleasantly, and that you see some things that are pretty amazing, and amazingly pretty: cities that fold in on themselves like pulsing, three-dimensional maps; chases and fights that overthrow the laws that usually applied to space, time and motion. People speak out loud, discussing on the hallway after they finished a good movie. Meanwhile, people walk out quietly, reveling in a masterpiece. Christopher Nolan overcooked the idea. He presents nothing more than original creativity and elegant picture. Like what a critic on The New York Times says: Unless it was a masterpiece. I’m going to have to see it again. November 2010 25
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REVIEW under the affliction of wars. While Green Day was shouting at hegemonism of the U.S., straightly pointing out ‘American Idiot’, James Blunt mainly described the agony of wars, the eagerness to tranquilities and the heaviness of deaths with his appeasing, slightly plaintive voice. The paroxysm of Green Day made one refreshing, and even led them back to the age of passion, raising a thought to battle with the darkness; however, one may be gradually appeased by the mixture of Blues, country music
‘Give me the Novacaine’. At the moment when everyone thought St. Jimmy would lead JOS deeper and deeper into the evil abysm, JOS met a girl ‘Whatsername’ who he had the first impression as ‘She is a rebel’ and an ‘Extraordinary girl’. So here came to the climax of the album, as well as the end, when ‘Whatsername’ loathed JOS, the virtual St.Jimmy, and left him a ‘Letterbomb’. JOS was too painful to keep on the journey that he asked people to ‘Wake me up when September ends’, and after he had waken up, he eventually found himself back. Although he still was entangled by all kinds of chaos, JOS made the decision of ‘Homecoming’. Since Green Day merely provided a general framework of the mainline, which left a lot of space for listeners, the interpretation above was just my personal views indeed. However in lines of lyrics I did heard the Green Day’s dissatisfaction, even resentment towards all sorts of disgusting phenomenon in politics, society and media. Just like JOS had no choice at the end but
MUS IC R and rock & roll styles of James, to gain deep concern with love, death and humanity, the philosophies which could never separated with wars.
Albums that low-keyed, silently flaming
They both kept their fans waiting long since their last albums: ‘All the Lost Souls’ for 3 year, ‘American Idiot’, 4. They both made the album with all their heart, but refused promotion. They both arranged the songs in the album in a special sequence, which brought the whole album as one full story with beginning and ending. Well, Green Day called the ‘American Idiot’ a ‘Rock & Roll epic’. I may say, it is not the least deserved the name of ‘epic’; indeed it should be called an ‘Odyssey’ in Rock & Roll world. Under the circumstance which was filled with ‘American Idiot’s, the epic began with the tormented young man Jesus of Suburbia’s running away from home for his faith of life—the utmost song in the album, ‘Jesus of Suburbia(short for ‘JOS’ below)’, which nakedly cried out Green Day’s indignation to the chaos made by the U.S. government. On the wandering way, JOS’s mood was always changing; it started with the refreshing excitement of JOS as if he was on ‘Holiday’, and then turned to the feeling of skepticism to his dream, ‘Boulevard of broken dreams’, asking himself ‘Are we the waiting’ about whether the dream would be realized or not. However, before he understood the meaning of life, the evil avatar of his soul ‘St. Jimmy’ had already dominated his mind, leaving him with the illusion of 26 VISIONARY
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the first and the second album was James displayed more abundant emotions on more angles of wars. For example, in ‘Carry you home’, James held a rather placid but respectful attitude towards death, singing with the tone of consolation and mourning and a slight feeling of requiem. And ‘Give me some love’ just spoke out his deepest eagerness to be compassed by love rather than the dreadful scenes of war in Kosovo, as he used to served as peace-keeping troops there. Reflecting humanity, ‘One of the brightest stars’ was written for some of his camaraderie who died for their bravery, while simultaneously criticizing the politicians who barely bragged with the accomplishments which actually gained by those soldiers.
This is an antique camera exhibiting in the Jerome Liebling Center.
Men full of stories This par t should not be the minibiography of these men full of stories, because you guys can google it any time you want. I prefer to discuss the impacts of their personalities on their music. People might see Green Day as cavaliers, while describing James as an eccentric (even himself admit his acquaintance with doctors in mental hospital); however their aspiration towards a peaceful world and happy life were more passionate than anyone else’s. Green Day was seemed like a group of cynics just because of others’ indifferences; James Blunt was under affliction of mental problem just because he remained the primary conscience as a human-being. Music became their outlet for their unbearable paroxysms; while they were inspiring or appeasing people with music, they were also consoling themselves.
EW
coming home, Green Day might not able to directly s o l ve any p ro b lem , but at least they did what t h e y c o u l d t o t e a r d ow n the camouflage which covered the bloody facts, arousing people to stare at them. The mood of this album was complicated, as the mixture of disdain, resentment, torment, struggling, desperation, and finally, powerlessness. It seems that I wrote too much about ‘American Idiot’. So let’s look back to ‘All the lost souls’ by James Blunt. Comparing to the apparent anti-war theme in ‘Back to bedlam’, the theme of ‘All the lost souls’ was more obscure that different people might have different interpretations. Some listeners considered that this album mostly concerned about James’s personal attitude towards his past and present experience; nevertheless my perspective was, although ‘All the lost souls’ did not barely discuss war and peace, there were some songs made depiction to various aspects of war such as death and love more profoundly than those pristine songs like ‘So long Jimmy’‘No bravery’ did in ‘Back to bedlam’. In other words, the distinct difference between
Mable J On the midnight of 7th, Aug, 2010
BY
Racky Lo
THE BEST UNIVERSITIES AROUND THE WORLD
FIVE COLLEGES CONSORTIUM
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This is one of the editing rooms in Jerome Liebling Center of Hampshire College. Many workstations are ready for students to use, and all of them are based on Mac OS systems. Gunther, the staff of the center, has told me that there is a trash bin costs 3000 dollars outside the editing room-a paper case of Mac Pro.
This is a memorial movement for 911,which was launched by students of University of Massachusetts in Amherst. This university is the largest school in the Five Colleges Consortium, and its existence has brought the Valley lots of convenience, such as the free bus system-PVTA. 28 VISIONARY
This a little bear with an Amherst T-shirt on, and the Amherst College is the one that has the highest ranking in the Valley. November 2010 29
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PHOTO GALLERY This is a vista in downtown Amherst. And the bus in the scene is operated by PVTA-Pioneer Valley Transit Authority.
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COMIC
COMIC
visualization BY
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Triffy
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COMIC
INFORMATION
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