Asia Blog: China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam

I just got a chance to listen to Soulhead’s Crystallized, a remix album of their favorite songs. Here’s the track listing:

1. Sparkletrain [MARK DE CLIVE-LOWE]
2. At the party [OCTOPUSSY]
3. You can do that [REEL PEOPLE]
4. Got to leave [GOTA YASHIKI]
5. Fiesta [PE’Z]
6. For all my ladies [ICEDOWN]
7. XXX [KODA KUMI and SA-RA]
8. Whatchagonnado? [D.O.I.]
9. Pray [KENNY DOPE]
10. No Way [DJ MITSU, THE BEATS]
11. One more time [OCTOPUSSY]
12. Furusato [SEIKOU NAGAOKA]

It’s actually quite an excellent album, so pick one up on Amazon today. Their remix of DDD with Koda Kumi is particularly good. Everything’s incredibly upbeat and poppy. Their music videos are quite hard to find online, but I shall never give up the hunt…

This is not a KFC, but at first glance, I thought it was. The logos are so similar! Nope, it’s Yonghe Dawang, apparently a good dim-sum place.

Meng Nishi (101) and Meng Qingrong (100) share an orange in their home Dalian. They have been married for 80 years, in 1927.

Wow, I hope we’re that cute when we’re old!

Foreign Policy Passport have unearthed the top search terms for Baidu’s question service–those “why do …” or “how to …” queries. This is interesting because it directly answers the questions “What do Chinese people want to do?” and “What are Chinese people interested in?”

Here are the results, by category into a few different classifications:

Just like everyone else, the Chinese are looking to solve scientific and technological problems, find love online, improve their business, or wallow in despair. The 27% of queries that challenge established Chinese tradition are also interesting–most focus around the long march, the Confucian tradition of the classics, or test-taking.

But, it’s the Love queries that are the most cute:

• Why do we love?
• Why get married?
• How to get pregnant?
• How to kiss?
• What is love?
• What is happiness?
• Should I have a child?
• Should I see an “internet friend” in person?
• Should I get married?

Hopefully everyone will have the chance to find the answers to these questions!

Technology doesn’t always facilitate a good relationship. The French Press reports:

A 17-year-old boy in northeastern China was so disappointed with the looks of a woman he met over the Internet that he hanged himself after seeing her face-to-face, state media reported Friday. The girl described herself as a beautiful 19-year-old and the pair chatted on the Web for weeks before arranging a December 26 rendezvous in the nearby city of Mudanjiang, in far northeastern Heilongjiang province. The boy arrived to discover the woman far less attractive than advertised and 10 years older than him, Xinhua said. The boy immediately returned home, lost his appetite, and four days later hanged himself from a tree.

With a name like Qunjiaofeiyang (Flying Skirt), he should have known better.