THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL

 Right, if some murderous thingy had happened yesterday night, I bet half of the World could be excused thanks to the same event - who was not watching the Olympics opening ceremony? 

Right, Mr.Bean won cheating. WTF?

Honestly, I was waiting indeed for Danny Boyle's show. At first, I saw a happy green place, with hard-working but smily farmers - and I was like WUT? But then Boyle's style came out, and I was glad he portrayed a rich humanity, reflecting his Trainspotting view more than the latest Slumdog's style. A colourful reality that is a result of beastly impulses, neurosis and controversies rather than an outcome of sympathy and loooove. My mother kept saying how beautiful and encouraging was his view, a positive insight of mankind's best - sorry, where did you see that? For at least the first half I saw destruction, a progress that claimed a really harsh payment in both environment and social relationships. Few men looking up their future, pretending it'd be bright for everyone else, that instead came out to be our own destruction: a tough analysis, a criticism of today's world. The inferno-like kilns embedded the metaphor, and I was both delighted by the insight and scared that the whole ceremony would have kept this path, not really in line with the Olympics' morale.
The message, to me, was crystal clear: if we really want to forge a brighter future, we can't forget our past mistake, neither we should hide them. The future is built on our past, regardless of how bad were our actions. A reflection on what hopefully is going to be our past, and as our ancestors worked hard for a dream we should as well forge our hopes into reality, create peace from war, and mould new principles, from a muddy now to a bright tomorrow. Like the Olympic circles lifting up from kilns. 

One ring to rule them, One ring to find them, One ring the bring them all...

away from Mordor-like kilns?

A ceremony embedding both seriousness (who else would tribute NHS? That was awesome) and a lot of fun. I have never laughed because of a ceremony - I felt amazed, concerned, renewed, informed, but never amused. Starting from a 40 feet tall Voldemort, passing through super-heroines with Mary Poppins's shape, till the kiss that pretty much shut the whole room down.

I laughed my ass off watching that. GO MARY!!

Compared to the we-have-to-be-seriously-awesome-goddamn engaged by Beijing few years before, this was much more relaxed. Take it easy, man. It quite sounded like a message to Asian-feeling driven nations: okay, you gotta be perfect and disciplined, but a laugh sometimes? 

For someone constantly divided between her western inheritance and a deep love for Asia (aka, me) this was too much of a comparison. Two different thoughts crashing together, a serious clash of civilisation brought on within four years time and in a neutral stadium. Which one will be victorious, taking up the lead of the world? Discipline and greatness China-style or Enjoy-it-and-it'll-be-better UK way?

NONSENSE.

 It's not wrong, it's not right, it's just different. A concept that perfectly applies in this context, and it's confirmed by athletes' behaviors I've seen so far. Cultural differences pushed far away for a fair competitions. The greatest thing I've seen was a Chinese swimmer hugging a USA competitor; a warm hugh to genuinely congratulate for her triumph. SOWHAT? That's the awesome Olympic feeling. 

I'm just sorry for the Korean fencer kicked out twice by Italians...lol

OH MYYY? EXOs.

At first, I saw this. And my first reaction was "Oooh myyy, hey gorgeous!"

The second feeling was, needless to say, relief. Just look at these guys. Try to guess who's Korean, and who's Chinese. I might as well write one post about my methods to recognize whether an Asian is Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Thai or Ect: but I'm positive I'd sound quite racist. Even if it really works. Anyway, the second though was "God, when Chinese guys are beautiful, Koreans can't stand comparison." I mean, look at those guys at the bottom, they're particular, beautiful, hot, and definitely out of the pedophilia/androgynous zone so widely spread in Asian Pop culture. YAY!

Then, this. The VIDEO. 

I can image the producer ticking his checklist. English Epic Intro, done. Cute and hot singers, done. Quotes from Sailor Moon's Exoplanets, done. Sailor Star Fighter Chinese and Korean version, done. Tree of life legend, done. Super-bad villain yet-to-be-uncovered, done. Innovative one market two countries two (or one?) boy band strategy, done. (Which was a stroke of pure genius). 

I wasn't too shocked or surprised. There was the same basic lack of originality, good dancing skills, good-looking boys, and then what's more? It was just a fusion between ShinEE and TVXQ. Don't get me wrong, I love pop-art, pop-life, pop-flashing and saturated colours. Pop-levity. I simply can't stand Pop music. Until 4:19, when the story changed, and a wild Chinese-Canadian appeared:

I can't find or ctrl+stamp the skeleton make-up, he or his producers must regret performing that. But, still. What's that, Aladdin Sane Asian version? I am amazed and horrified at the same time. Horrified because... well, there's not really a because. I can't - to put it simply - accept crossovers and mixture of music genres, especially when you have a pop song and producers decide to randomly insert some rock-rap-alternative-soul-emo details. And wushu. And Flying kicks. Which was awesome, btw.

But. On the other hand, it is true that originality comes from audacity. The big problem is that not always results are as stunning as we imagined it. Anyway, I have never seen something like that in Asia. Something that goes beyond the pretty boy imagery, and introduces the artist in the shiny and glittery pop world. We're far from a true achievement, but this, for Asian markets, it's a breath of fresh air. It's new, it's breaking the brick wall between art and Confucian regime/tradition. And the damn Chinese boy band leader is half Canadian. Are we seriously seeing a true opening of the Asian Great Wall? After Kim Jong-un dancing with Daisy and Mickey Mouse, everything is possible. A unpleasant feeling of fear ignited after half an hour of reflection: they're on the way of perfection. They dance, sing, look (naturally?) beautiful. Producers, through idols, are starting to let go their conception of art, and they are starting creating a new wave, a mixture of old tradition and new ideas combined to form the perfect performance. It's amazing, and once more, I'm glad I'm trying to keep up with the Asians. I'm truly starting to believe that soon they'll take over the world, with a Sino-Korean-Chinese alliance, and in couple of decades we're gonna see the first Hunger Games, contestants: round-eyes. 

The tiny little inner-me feels like Jun-pyo. Imma upset. 

  

LAME

Shit just got real. 

AFS Korea does exist!

Which completely destroyed my dreams of becoming AFS Korea founder. I'm kinda joking about the issue, but deep deep inside I was sad indeed. I still am. Slowly this stupid idea was starting to overcome every realistic future prospective, and creating an AFS office from zero was truly becoming a dream I would have done everything to accomplish.

So, now, I find myself again being at the mercy of the waves, with no goal, no ultimate purpose to pursue, no vaguely precise plan ahead. I'd say I am screwed.

YAY!

Luckily there's still DPRK that needs an AFS office. 

加油！Fighting！ 

God, I'm seriously getting Drama addiction.

YOLO

As this nonsense sentence quickly gains the cool status among teenagers' vocabulary, I'm stuck here back in my hometown, witnessing the cutest mixture of extensive farming and huge polluting factories, which btw inhabitants genuinely define it "home sweet home". BAZINGA!

Uhm, lame. 

Mother keeps pointing out how much money she spends on my education, that I should lose some weight before I go back to China; my car does not follow my orders and instead tries to run over innocent pedestrians; an unknown dialect is spoken pretty much everywhere, and now I'm unable to understand a word. God, that used to be my dialect, I could at least grab a dozen words out of a sentence, enough to make my granny think I could speak bresciano.
Oh, yeah, pressures on "you should stop volunteering and start looking for a job", candidly ignoring the fact that I chose to spend these few weeks in my family's company instead of serving margaritas to enriched tourists on white beaches nearby crystal seas. I would have ended up with money, suntan, maybe sexual fulfillment. Instead, I'm dying trying NOT to incite slaughterous instincts in my mother. 

Life is good, but with this scenario thank God we only live once. So I'm trying to genuinely find anything that can keep my mind busy - not as easy as it may seem, when the only distraction is...my laptop. I spend half of my day studying Korean (when I should study Chinese) and the other half trying to drive a car properly. I even considered the idea of reconciling with other peers in town, but the idea of being treated as a freak that never stays home and just grabs the first occasion to leave is everything but tempting. And I'm positive I'll spend the whole summer trying to teach a few chinese or korean words to people who have the least intention to learn and the greatest need to confirm that these languages are way to complicated to be learned. Which, btw, is true. I'm the stupid one.
A week spent in Pisa with those amazing volunteers and pax for the summer program raised a bit my morale, but now I'm in the desperate need of a talk in Brit English, or - jeez, at least in English. Which, as mentioned before, is kinda impossible, considering that even our official language is an uncommon and mysterious tool...

God, where am I?

Feels like the third world.

Oh, wait. Berlusconi's still trying to gain power and rule Italy.

We still are a third world country.