Jia Ling writes, directs and stars in this boxing drama with a twist: there’s not really very much boxing in it. In this smash hit from China, we’re introduced to Du Leying (Jia) as a no-hoper; the perspective, in fact, of the supporting characters and the film itself is that it would be hard to imagine a bigger loser. She’s 32, lives at home, doesn’t adhere to traditional beauty norms (particularly as regards body weight), and her boyfriend is cheating on her with her best friend. When this affair is…
Tag: Life and style
The Last Year of Darkness review – candid and intimate dive into Chinese club culture
Ben Mullinkosson is a film-maker and skateboarder from Chicago who brings an effortless, freewheeling intimacy to this immersive and sensual study of the underground club scene in Chengdu in central China. The title is enigmatic, but it seems to refer to the imminent closure of a club called Funky Town where his subjects have been hanging out; the darkness is the club’s darkness, which is enfolding and welcoming and reassuring, a neon-detailed night in which nothing matters but youth, beauty and the pleasure of the moment. Mullinkosson is utterly at…
My path to inner peace, via ‘Dalifornia’ in southwest China
Nine months after I moved to Dali, in the autumn of 2020, I finally set off to climb Cangshan, the high mountain which towers over this valley in southwest China. Each morning, I had looked up at the top of its imposing ridge line, 2,000m above the village of Silver Bridge, north of Dali’s historic old town, that for a while I called home. Eighteen glacial gorges separated the 19 peaks, each carved by a running stream. Ever since moving there, I had fantasised about standing on top of that…
A Christmas that changed me: I dragged myself to work – and had one of the best moments of my life
I spent the Christmas of 1998 in Wuhan, working as an English teacher. Everyone has heard of this Chinese city now, thanks to coronavirus, but back then the name meant nothing to much of the world. My knowledge was certainly scant when I arrived in February of that year. Nothing could have prepared me for the heat and humidity of a Wuhan summer, and the odour of fermented tofu deep-frying outside the university gates at 7am certainly took a while to get used to. Ten months later, however, I’d got…
South-east Asia’s quirky, sweary shopping stars cashing in on livestream selling
There are times when other customers browsing the malls in Gifu city, Japan, seem to wonder why Kenneth Gongon Watanabe is buying so many items, and why he is talking so energetically on his phone. But the goods in his trolleys – which can range from hoards of shoes and anime socks, to stacks of Japanese sweets and matcha latte powders – are not for him. They’re actually being bought by dozens of customers in Watanabe’s home country, the Philippines, who follow live on Facebook as he browses the shops.…
Full-time children: the twentysomethings who may never grow up
Name: Full-time children. Age: 21 and up. Appearance: Coming to a doorstep near you. What kind of job is “full-time child”? Just what it sounds like: being someone’s child, the whole time. How does one get into that sort of game? By default. By default? By having no other role or function in life. I don’t understand. Full-time children are young adults who, finding no suitable employment, simply move back in with their parents to retrain as offspring. And what does that entail? Hanging out, eating free food, accepting handouts.…
Weekend podcast: Grace Dent on the love of cheese, Marina Hyde on dull spy ‘scandals’, and a male escort on what women want
Marina Hyde ponders a government so tedious, even the ‘shocking’ revelation of an alleged spy can’t sex things up (1m20s); Grace Dent delves into ‘the great social leveller’, cheese, and what our love for this foodstuff says about us (8m8s); and a male escort reveals what women want when they pay for sex (34m56s). How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know The Guardian
A ‘tourist’ trip to China, 1981
How did a trip to the post-Mao PRC measure up to Western dreams of China? The Observer’s future foreign editor Nigel Hawkes investigated in 1981. Arrival was not via a romantic ‘long boat journey’, with Peking finally appearing ‘As if by sleight-of-hand out of the clinging dust, its swooping roofs of brilliant coloured tiles dazzling the traveller.’ Instead, tourists were unceremoniously ‘decanted’ en masse at Peking airport where Hawkes nevertheless found a little poetry in the ‘distant susurration of teams of ancient American ladies from Seattle, shuffling along in tennis…
‘Facekinis’ become all the rage in China as temperatures soar
In scorching Beijing, “facekinis” are the hottest new fashion as surging temperatures shatter records. With the mercury rising above 35C (95F) and the surface temperature soaring as high as 80C in some parts of the country, residents and visitors have taken to carrying portable fans and covering themselves up to avoid getting a tan. Some hats even have fans built in. Facekinis, or full-face masks with holes for the wearer’s eyes and nose, sleeves to cover arms, as well as wide-brimmed hats and lightweight jackets made out of UV-resistant fabric,…
For better or for worse: is the decline in marriage actually good for relationships? | Devorah Baum
One of the curious things about marriage is the role it’s played in embedding commonly held views about normality. Married people are generally considered normal people. As such, they have possessed inordinate power to dictate the terms of normality in a way that single people rarely can. And yet marriage, clearly, isn’t for everyone. Plenty of people have no desire to do it. Plenty of others have done it and haven’t liked it. The stats only corroborate this. Fewer people over the years have been getting married, while the stresses…