Ch-infamous » globalpost http://chinfamous.com/blog Notes and Onanistic Scraps from the Smog-strangled Mind of an American Journalist in China Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:38:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ Beijing by way of Nashville by way of Sichuan: Abigail Washburn http://chinfamous.com/blog/2009/02/11/beijing-by-way-of-nashville-by-way-of-sichuan-abigail-washburn/ http://chinfamous.com/blog/2009/02/11/beijing-by-way-of-nashville-by-way-of-sichuan-abigail-washburn/#comments Wed, 11 Feb 2009 02:08:47 +0000 josh http://chinfamous.com/blog/?p=204

This one’s been a long time in coming. Abby is one of that rare but thankfully growing species of artist bridging the Pacific from West to East. She’s probably most famous in the US for her collaboration with Bela Fleck (who appears in the video), but she’s better known over here as the girl who actually, against all odds, made Mandarin bluegrass work. I originally filmed this in August for the Wall Street Journal, but it got lost in the post-Olympics, pre-Election shift away from China coverage. Luckily the GlobalPost took to the story and decided to put it up.

Abby makes a powerful argument both for and against “world music” (a genre I have to say I’ve never much liked): “It’s such an interesting phrase…because it really represents fusion music. It’s about taking this aspect of Arabic culture and this aspect of Eastern European culture [and throwing them together], whereas I think the future of global music is in having human beings spread across two cultures, or several cultures, and combining the music internally before it even comes out.”

I certainly hope so.

Enjoy.

Her website is here. And the website for Casey Driessen, the mind-blowing fiddle player who also appears in the video, is here.

]]> http://chinfamous.com/blog/2009/02/11/beijing-by-way-of-nashville-by-way-of-sichuan-abigail-washburn/feed/ 3 24 hours on a Chinese train, in pictures http://chinfamous.com/blog/2009/01/27/24-hours-on-a-chinese-train-in-pictures/ http://chinfamous.com/blog/2009/01/27/24-hours-on-a-chinese-train-in-pictures/#comments Tue, 27 Jan 2009 09:24:19 +0000 josh http://chinfamous.com/blog/?p=181

Managed to get this little slide show up on the GlobalPost site just in time for Chinese New Year and the inevitable train scandal mayhem. Significantly, the photos come from a trip I took to Chengdu in December, on a train filled with people who’d decided to head home a month earlier than usual. There turned out to be two major reasons: 1) to avoid getting caught up in the aforementioned mayhem; and/or 2) to avoid getting swept out to sea in the financial crisis.

The fact that the global economy’s recent faceplant has forced hordes Chinese people to head home early isn’t news, but I think (or hope, at least) the photos shed some additional light on the story. As always, I invite your feedback. (Check out the full-sized version here and higher resolution versions of the photos here)

]]> http://chinfamous.com/blog/2009/01/27/24-hours-on-a-chinese-train-in-pictures/feed/ 0 New Gig: Global Post http://chinfamous.com/blog/2009/01/19/new-gig-global-post/ http://chinfamous.com/blog/2009/01/19/new-gig-global-post/#comments Mon, 19 Jan 2009 03:25:33 +0000 josh http://chinfamous.com/blog/?p=178 It’s been a long time since I posted anything here and a big reason is a new job I’ve taken as the China multimedia correspondent for Global Post. For those who don’t know about it (and I imagine that’s most of you), GP is a new online news venture founded by Charlie Sennot, ex of the Boston Globe, and Phil Balboni, a journalism business whiz who made his name with New England Cable News. The idea is fill the gaping hole left with the closing of foreign news bureaus over the past few years. You can read more about it here and here.

My first report for them is a video on how people in Beijing see the United States in light of Barack Obama’s election victory, part of a series called “For Which It Stands” outlining the international challenges Obama will face once he takes the oath. Have a gander and let me know what you think:

]]> http://chinfamous.com/blog/2009/01/19/new-gig-global-post/feed/ 3