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A very good Australian film 'Mao's Last Dancer'. The main character(real one) is now living in Melbourne as a stockbroker. I think the film successfully highlights the contradiction between Communist China and America. Should go and see it.

have you seen it Blaze? Anna said it was brilliant.

Personally, i appreciate this movie so much. Mao's Last Dancer was opened on the same day in Melbourne as another movie called The Founding of A Republic. That was an obvious ideological confrontation. Though the two movies are telling story in the same country. Compared with the Singapore Girl TV Commercial, which was made by Asian for showing oriental spirit to the western in a western way, Mao's Last Dancer was made by Australia for showing their understanding of the age of ideological confrontation. I think for many western audience, there are a lot of languages and ideology during that special years could not be understood forever. But i appreciate the director and adaptor so much. Because sometimes we need others to help us grow.

The parade, in best old school communist tradition, is quite an interesting national display of power at this time. While it is predominantly aimed at the Chinese public (though not all, as access to the event was strictly controlled and limited) broadcast by national TV throughout the "Reich der Mitte" it is reinforcing the identity of a military super power, solid leadership and military state institutions, it also serves in a sense as a means of justification and proof for successful ideology to the ruling elite. And of course the display is aimed at the rest of the world, showing that China is a power to be reckoned with, not just economically but also in regards to it's military - just in case anyone has had any doubt. But is that a message the west needs to be reminded of? With the cold war over, and globalization making a path for cooperation and convergence of east and west in both in the economic and political arena, maybe the display is aimed at old friends eg. Russia and possible future "problems" (from a chinese point of view) such as Iran or N.Korea, who are working towards a stronger military recognition and/or are in strong competition with the market powers China has been able to built up eg: India, Japan.

Is it a propaganda or PR tool?

I think it can be said as a propaganda film because it draws a lot of Chinese to revisit the historical moment, then of cause, the stars in the film are doing a good job in drawing the audience in the first place lol~

Studio Ghibli is the most successful anime production house in Japan. It's persona has captured not only Japanese but also people around the world, regardless of their age. This is one cultural product of Japan which is appreciated by many around the world.

I just thought of sharing this piece of news since half of the journals in our course readers involves food and how it does (or doesn't?) represent a culture or country. Singapore just like Malaysia is interesting and different because of its multiracial and multicultural citizens.

I did my critical case study on Facebook and the significance of the groups created on Facebook. I found this piece of news interesting because it is amazing how a social networking website can carry so much meaning and significance to some users/ individuals.

I know we've already been graded but just thought this was really interesting.

. In the disaster of earthquake (Sichuan Province, China ), Ai Weiwei, one of Bulogger.cn authors, charged that the high number of school fatalities was due to local officials siphoning money from school building costs. Grieving families said the structures were badly built and collapsed easily during the quake. But officials refused to list the names of the dead students, which could be used to unveil a possible cover-up, so Ai formed the "Sichuan Earthquake Names Project" with researchers and volunteers who discovered the names of 5,190 students.

Nowadays, Chinese people are enjoying greater freedom of speech and access to Internet. Both external environment and domestic development contribute to this. As in the new nationalism that forbidden by authorized government, the changing web of Chinese nationalism is such a powerful tool that inspires people to observe and thought independently. It also creates online nationalism, which could be considered as a growing potential turbulence.

I agree what you talked about the online nationalism of Chinese as a growing potential turbulence. In fact, there are a lot of cases showing the trend of the ' growing potentail turbulence'. The debate between Chinese governement and the Melbourne Film Festival on the documentary of Rebiya Kadeer (The 10 Conditions of Love) has led to breakdown of Film Festival's offical site. People believed that the site has hacked by Chinese hacker. I believe that the Chinese nationalism is obviously leading to an online nationalism which may impact on both positive and negative sides.