Blood Alley

Old Hollywood movies have a distinct naive charm to them that grants filmmakers significant license. "Blood Alley," from 1955 is such a movie. Hollywood couldn't make this movie today, but not only for the obvious reasons of yellow-face, racism, and sexism. Today, this movie couldn't be made because Hollywood is increasingly reliant on international markets. Recently, "2012" has been a great success here in the mainland, largely because of its positive portrayal of China. But "Blood Alley," a major release from the beginning of the Cold War, is a curious anti-communist movie that could never make it to China, an emerging market Hollywood takes very seriously.

The movie itself is simple: an old China hand Merchant Marine (John Wayne) is busted from Chinese prison and brought to a village where he pays for his freedom by captaining a ferry of villages in a daring escape to Hong Kong. Somehow Lauren Bacall's Cathy Grainger, a woman who lives in the village with her absent, drunk father, manages to fall in love with him. I should add that she falls in love with Wayne's character, Wilder, despite his assertion that he's got "dames all up and down the coast" and a strange incident in which he slaps her in order to make her angry so he can then inform her of her father's death. Oh, old Hollywood!

While the movie is kind of banal, the curious way it flips classic depictions from communist propaganda on their heads, even if the film may not have done this intentionally, is notable. In Shanghai, there is a fascinating gallery of old propaganda posters that I've had occasion to visit twice. 60 years after "Red China's" founding, 50 plus years after this film's release, and 30 years beyond it's initial opening economic reforms, we have more insight into the early years of the PRC via such galleries. The reversal of depictions of various characters in these works of propaganda make "Blood Alley" a more interesting film, retrospectively, than it should be.

First and foremost in the film are Wilder and Grainger, Westerners come to China who become heroes to the people. In 1955, propaganda would have a typical Chinese villager believe that Westerners were greedy, hideous cretins. While Wilder's anti-communist sentiments may have originated in the selfish motivation of lost business and imprisonment, by the end of the movie he has come to side with the villagers, the "bleeding heart of China."

Likewise, the portrayal of the Feng family, villainized as the village's communists, are desperate, selfish people. While the other villagers, fleeing communism for capitalist Hong Kong form a tight, supportive community, the communist Fengs stay apart and indeed try to poison the villagers. The family's patriarch is obese and wears fine garments while other carry him across mud. In any Chinese film, Feng is an archetypal "capitalist roader." The Chinese soldiers, rather than being valiant, strong heroes, are also awful: one attempts to rape Grainger.

The film is commendable for its mostly human portrayal of the villagers and for not giving Wayne a little Oriental plum blossom girl in pigtails and a flowered qipao (at least on screen). However, Susu the maid speaks in awful pidgin (we get it, she likee likee very much) and several Chinese characters are played by white actors. As intentionally bad as Susu's English is, every other character in the movie's Chinese is unintentionally just as bad. This movie is worth watching just to see John Wayne take Mandarin Chinese behind the shed and give it the Old Yeller treatment.

For me, as a China person, this film was an interesting watch and a fun way to spend an evening. But most people will probably pay more attention to Wayne's and Bacall's lack of chemistry and treat it like the middling, goofy old Hollywood action film it is.

Rocking in the Free-ish World

Walking down the street at any given time here in Shanghai, you're bound to hear music blaring from a stereo outside of a small shop. Subway stations, malls, offices and more all play music constantly. Normally, I would love this. I mean, a world saturated with music should be nothing but awesome. Should be, I guess.

Music here in China is pretty much awful. Going through the evolution of music, as we Americans chart it out at least, China apparently skipped bebop, the blues, Chuck Berry, and Elvis. They've started immediately in the 1990s, just after grunge died. Celine Dion and the Backstreet Boys rule here, and Chinese pop stars all emulate this nauseous sound. Talking to my students about what they listen to, they always reply "soft" music. When the Chinese media criticized the new Guns N' Roses album on the sole basis of its name and title track, they mentioned that many people think [rock music] is noisy, and thus don't like it. That reviewer was talking about old men who sit on their porches shaking canes at youth and pretty much anyone in China.

One of my explicit goals in coming to China was to spend two years teaching people how to rock. With that in mind, I went out to ZhiJiang Dream Factory on Saturday with some friends to see SUBS, the preeminent Chinese punk/rock band, and made a point of pulling random people into the mosh pit. Like basically all of the good Chinese rock bands, they come from Beijing, and they managed to skip all those early rock elements, too. Luckily, they somehow found the Ramones and the Sex Pistols, not to mention the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Video From an Earlier Shanghai Show

As great as this band is, and as fun as their concert was, I still insist that the best method to teach these people about rock is not total assault. Remember when Jimmy Page played in Beijing at the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games and it was dead in the arena? Hard rock doesn't fly here, not yet. Thinking back on the evolution of rock, I think that the best approach is to take it slow. Show them more melodic, and less noisy bands, like the Beatles or the Beach Boys. It's rumored that Eagles are coming to Shanghai next year, and they'd be perfect for this task, too. (That goes to explain "Hotel California's" presence in almost every Filipino house band's set) I think if we break them in slowly, they'll get there one day. We can worry about the Guns N' Roses controversy all we want here, but let's remember that there was a time when Elvis was rebellious and controversial, too.

So, let's go, Shanghai. Let's bring out the golden oldies. I'm sick of hearing Christmas songs all year long just because people think the melodies are "nice."

The Opening Band, Out of Shanghai: Pink Berry

(Asian) Glow in the Dark

This monstrous blue blur is not a tragic explosion. It is, in fact, part of Kanye West's "Glow in the Dark" tour, captured via my totally inelegant cell phone camera.

Tonight, I got to see a concert I'll probably be able to talk about forever. Honestly, how often does one get to see the world's hottest pop act while overseas? Tonight's concert was rather short, but memorable. Kanye brought out all his hits, including this summer's latest "American Boy". He also, rather inexplicably, brought out Journey's greatest hit, "Don't Stop Believing". I've never been to a real rap concert before this, and I'm not sure how many more I'll go to. Having said that, Kanye's show had the coolest light show I've ever seen, and this was a stripped down version of what he did in the States. He did something I've always thought more artists should do, which is really coordinate a light show with the music.

As fun as this concert was, it also reminded me of a pet peeve: drunk white girls. Not that I'm hating on my fellow Caucasians, but drunk white girls have to be stopped. Take the one sitting next to me, for example. I'm sorry that you're clearly thirty-five and still single, but that's not an excuse to dress like an eighteen year old, and it's definitely not an excuse to act like a sixteen year old that got invited to junior prom. You should have learned this lesson a long time ago: you probably aren't a good dancer sober, and, after so many drinks, you definitely haven't gotten better. And, please, it's awkward for the rest of us when you sing along more enthusiastically during the parts when the black guy uses the "n-word".

That being said, this totally neon concert was a great reminder of everything that's awesome about this city: lights, action, energy, and completely international.

汽车彩铃： "Car Ringtones"

According to a recent podcast from one of my favorite websites, Chinesepod.com, a new fad in Shanghai is having "ringtones" for your car. In other words, just like your cell phone can now play songs whenever an event happens, such as a call, message, or alarm, your car can now play a song whenever a driver is turning or driving in reverse. While my experience with Chinese traffic says that these kinds of sounds are not altogether gratuitous- any warning a driver can get about another driver is a helpful one- this seems like it could quickly get out of hand. Traffic in large Chinese cities is very dense, and as a result is already loud and obnoxious, and these so called ringtones can only amplify that. Although I am kind of excited to see this for myself, I hope this fad goes the way of the pet rock. I, too, was briefly proud that my phone could play Wu-Tang when someone called, but before I got my $1.99 worth I had already reverted to vibrate. Ringtones simply get annoying. If Chinese drivers are as inconsiderate with their ringtones as they are with their driving, it may be a long, headache-filled semester.