Free Planet Press

Da Vinci boost for Malaysia writer

The phenomenal success of the US thriller novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown has caused an unexpected windfall for feng shui masters. Between chunks of action-adventure, the book powerfully pushes “sacred geometry”: the belief that there are right and correct proportions for things. Where can ordinary fans get advice about this kind of thing? Feng shui masters, of course. Malaysia-based Stephen Skinner, who has made a career publishing Chinese feng shui works in English, has taken to following the thriller writer closely, having recently published a volume called Sacred Geometry. Dan Brown’s next book is called The Solomon Key, titled after a book of magic originally published in the Middle Ages. Skinner’s new book is shortly to hit the stands, and is also a compilation of ancient magic spells from the Middle Ages. Dan Brown has unexpectedly brought eastern and western geomantic sciences together.

Meet the Men in White

Men in Black, meet the Men in White. The former is a Hollywood classic comedy while the latter is a film in production from Singaporean horror director Kelvin Tong. Due for release this summer, it tells the story of a group of Singaporeans who die and return as ghosts. The film is billed as a horror-comedy, with lots of horror-themed slapstick. But industry-watchers say there’s risk in naming a project after a Hollywood hit. First, the title doesn’t quite fit: some of the ghosts are female. And second, does he really want to invite comparison? The 1997 movie Men in Black was written by successful comedian Ed Solomon (John Cleese’s son-in-law), and had a budget of US$90 million.
          Singapore’s Men in White was written by Tong himself and has a budget of just half a million US dollars. The financiers of Tong’s horror movie may well have shivers up their spines.

'Colonialism' fear overshadows Asian prize

Asians submit, but Western expats stand in judgment

November 6, 2007

THE NAME of the Asian author who will receive the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize will be finally revealed on Saturday, November 10 th. But will the names of the people giving out the prize also become more apparent?

                The press release doesn’t give the organizer’s names.  Communications tend to use the term “Administrative Committee”. Even the front pages of their website prefer to use that anonymous phrase, with the actual names tucked away on deeper link.  Why are administrators so shy about revealing who they are?

Disney goes for Asian tale

WALT DISNEY is being Asianified. The US movie maker has moved on from its normal diet of Western fairy tales such as Snow White and looked east for inspiration.

            The newest film is The Secret of the Magic Gourd, a mix of live action and 3D computer-generated characters, based on a novel written by children’s author Zhang Tianyi in China in 1958. It will spread to cinemas in various countries after its summer launch on the mainland.

            A boy has a sentient, wish-granting magic gourd (hey, that’s no more far-fetched than a talking mirror with a beauty fixation).

            Hong Kong songstress Gigi Leung fills the role of the child’s teacher, and provides star power eye-candy on the way.

            Disney is using local partners (the China Film Group Corp. and Centro Digital Pictures) to give it a genuine Eastern flavour.

            You can buy Disney-themed cookies and snacks these days, but I doubt if movie-tie-in gourds will be on sale. Gourds may be related to melons, but kids are unlikely to want to chow down on the latest cute Disney character.

Pop idol to be "ethical"

The producers of hot new Chinese television series Happy Boy are being super-careful with their Mandarin version of American Idol, itself a copy of UK show Pop Idol. Happy Boy is an all-guys version of Super Girl, a competition for Chinese female singers said to have attracted 400 million mainland viewers: that’s more than the entire population of the United States.
            The producers of Happy Boy know they have a winning format. But the broadcasting authorities issued an edict telling them that songs must be healthy and ethically inspiring, judges are banned from humiliating the contestants (which proved to be the big sales point in other versions of the show), and stars must display “no weirdness”. That last point would instantly put the vast majority of Western pop stars out of the running. This isn’t going to be Pop Idol as seen elsewhere on the planet.

Dessert wars break out

Asian dessert wars have broken out in Los Angeles. The latest food fad in West Hollywood is Korean frozen yogurt. People have been queuing for up to an hour to buy the stuff, available in plain or green tea flavours, from a store called Pinkberry. 
            But Korean company Red Mango has cried foul, claiming that they started a chain of yogurt stores in Seoul in 2003. The name, the menu and even the design of the two chains are very similar. They sell the same products in cafes with similar Asian pop aesthetic: plastic seating in bright colours with menus written on glass walls. Now Red Mango is opening stores in the United States so consumers have a choice of outlets.
           Why such a fuss about this east-west dessert? Unlike American “froyo” (the heavy ice-cream-like frozen yogurt of the past), the Korean stuff is light, retains an addictive, yogurt-y sourness, is served with chunks of fresh fruit, and is relatively low in calories. Who would have thought that a dairy dessert sensation would come from Asia, a place where people were until recently intolerant to lactose?

Here comes fish-free sushi

Many people like sushi but don’t like to think about eating raw fish. This is no longer a problem. Western chefs are taking sushi (historically Chinese, but now identified with Japan) and breaking all the rules. The California Roll, made of cooked crabmeat and avocado, has become one of the most popular varieties. Other parts of the US have hit back with their own inventions, such as the Philadelphia Roll, which features cream cheese and salmon, and the Boston Roll, which contains prawns and lettuce. Yo! Sushi, a restaurant in London offers strawberries-and-cream sushi.

           In the meantime, the US government has developed a way to take out the seawood taste, having developed sushi wraps from substances such as broccoli and carrot. Food scientists at the US Department of Agriculture have produced a roast pork sushi rolled in a pineapple-apricot-ginger wrap, which you can follow with dessert: a creamy cheesecake sushi in a blueberry wrap.

            Tang Dynasty chefs must be rolling in their graves.

Europeans meet the Asian comic

OO-LA-LA! Le Manga est arrivé! At first glance, you might think French society and its Japanese counterpart have little in common. But they both share a common love for grown-up comic books -- and have now given birth to a hybrid offspring.

            In Japan, the public buy huge amounts of manga, which are lengthy comic tales usually on domestic themes. Top titles sell millions of copies per issue. In France, bande dessinées, which are illustrated stories often sold as large format hardbacks, are a staple of bookshops.

            Recently, European distributors have been translating manga for consumers in France, who now buy more than 10 million volumes a year, making them the second biggest consumer after Japan. Now the two societies have their own offspring. Nouvelle Manga is a movement credited to Frédéric Boilet, a French artist who became a mangaka -- manga-maker.

            What are the characteristics of the new generation? From Japan we get the sophisticated, low-key tales of modern life and relationships, and from France, the fine art standards of European illustration techniques.

            Meanwhile, as the word manga becomes common in the West, Japanese youth these days talk about collecting komikku.

Japan patents the hot dog

By a correspondent

Japanese inventors have patented the hot dog. Patent JP90109275, filed by Taira Yoshinobu, shows how you insert “food ingredient three” (a sausage) into “food ingredient two” (a “cylindrical housing” made of bread). Japanese boffins also claim to have invented the pizza, according to the patent lists.

We suggest the rest of the world fight back by patenting sushi. Kilo for kilo, a meal of maguro and hamachi is worth a darn sight more than pizza and dogs.

Pic: Stillframe/ Flickr/ Creative Commons 2.5

China learns to rock

By a correspondent

"Are you ready to rock?" Er, no, probably not. The rallying cry of rock stars still gets a half-hearted response in China—but the good news is that the underground scene is starting to hop.