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#Chinese Chronicle in the Forbidden City
slenderpinkbook · 8 months
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From Wikipedia: At the age of 13, she took Zhou Xuan as her stage name, 'Xuan' (璇) meaning beautiful jade in Chinese. Zhou began acting as a member of Li Jinhui's Bright Moon Song and Dance Troupe. When she was 12, she won second prize in a singing contest in Shanghai and was given the nickname "Golden Voice" (金嗓子) for her effortless high-pitched melodies.[1]
Zhou began her film career in 1935, and she achieved stardom in 1937 when director Yuan Muzhi cast her as one of the leads as a singing girl in Street Angel. Zhou rapidly became the most famous and marketable popular singer in the gramophone era up to her death, singing many famous tunes from her own movies.
Between 1946 and 1950, she often went to Hong Kong to make films such as "All-Consuming Love" (長相思), "Hua wai liu ying" (花外流鶯), Sorrows of the Forbidden City, and "Rainbow Song" (彩虹曲). After introducing "Shanghai Nights" (夜上海) in 1949, Zhou returned to Shanghai. She spent the next few years in and out of mental institutions owing to frequent breakdowns. Through the years, Zhou led a complicated and unhappy life marked by her failed marriages, illegitimate children, and suicide attempts. Zhou's first husband was the composer Yan Hua (嚴華, 1912–1992), who wrote and sometimes also performed songs with her.
Street Angel (馬路天使), also known as Street Angels,[1] is a 1937 left-wing Chinese film directed by Yuan Muzhi (袁牧之) and released by Mingxing Film Company. Starring popular Chinese actor Zhao Dan (赵丹) and iconic Chinese singer Zhou Xuan (周璇), the story is set in the slums of Shanghai, chronicling the lives of a band of downtrodden underclass outcasts: a tea house singer, a trumpet player, a newspaper hawker, and a prostitute. By blending elements of romance, comedy and melodrama into the storyline, the characters find themselves in a variety of difficult situations as they try to navigate the hardships of the city during the 1930s. Released towards the end of the golden age of Shanghai cinema, the film is regarded as a masterpiece of the Chinese left-wing movement.[2] Taking place during a time of national tension within the country, issues such as economic policy and military conflict are explored to raise awareness about some of China's most pressing concerns.[3] Additionally, the depiction of an impoverished neighborhood in the midst of a contemporary city is a compelling examination of how modernization had affected China during this era. This fusion between the two also provides a commentary on the combined effects that modernization and colonialism had on Shanghai specifically.
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rynnie-rynn · 3 years
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Top 5 books
Ooooooooooh this is VERY difficult. I honestly have no idea how I’m going to answer this LOL though I will attempt to not cheat and use a whole book series as a choice LOL
In no particular order:
Charmed Life - Diana Wynn Jones (Part of the Chrestomanci books, a magic based book series)
The Night of the Solstice - L.J. Smith (the second book is Heart of Valor, again based on magic and witchcraft. The second book gets into Arthurian legend and has a really cool interpretation of it and maaaaaaaaaan gets me every time. But you can’t have the second book without the first)
Forbidden City - William Bell (A book about the son of a Canadian journalist who gets caught up in the horror of the Tian An Men Square massacre. My grade 4 teacher read it to us and it was pretty much what started my interest in post-modern Chinese history which was what I ended up studying in University)
The Book of Three - Lloyd Alexander (first book of The Chronicles of Prydain. Again fantasy, magic, you know the kind. It’s funny because the Disney movie Black Cauldron is actually kind of a mix of The Book of Three and The Black Cauldron)
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak (about WWII Germany. I was reading the book while on a bus, like not a city bus one travelling for like 7 hrs, and I was openly bawling in public. This book hit so hard)
This was very hard to pick just top 5 and even now I’m struggling to decide if I made the right decision lol
Honourable Mentions:
The entirety of Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Hero’s of Olympus series by Rick Riordan
It Seemed like a Good Idea at the Time - Martyn Godfrey
Ms. Teeny Wonderful series - Martyn Godfrey
Dragon song - Anne McCaffrey
The Rood Cellar - Janet Lunn
Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson
The Giver - Lois Lowry
Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins (actually all 4 of the Hunger Game world books are good but this one is just a particular favourite)
The Forbidden Game Trilogy - L.J. Smith
I could go on, there are so many books that have had an impact on my life. I absolutely used to LOVE reading. Unfortunately now I don’t have a lot of time nor energy for reading. But there have been a lot of books that I’ve loved over the years and still love to this day ❤️
Thank you for the ask!
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trishmilburn · 5 years
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An Exploration of The Untamed’s Romance & Mystery, Episode 4
Disclaimer: This post and others in this series will be filled with loads of spoilers if you haven’t seen The Untamed, the Chinese drama based on Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s novel, Mo Dao Zu Shi (The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation). My chief interest in doing this series as I re-watch the drama is to chronicle the development of the romance between Wei Ying and Lan Zhan, but I also highlight the progression of the mystery that helps bring them together. Keep in mind that I’m writing these posts with the knowledge of what’s going to happen throughout the series and having read the novel. If you’d like to read my examinations of previous episodes, links are provided at the end of this post.
On to Episode 4...
This episode starts off with the camera panning piles of scattered papers with phrases such as “Banish Demons,” “Establish Laws” and “Immortalize Dao” written on them. A gong sound is heard in the distance, and suddenly Wei Ying sits up from underneath some of these papers and we realize he fell asleep while writing out his punishment from the previous episode. Because, of course he did. This Wei Ying, he’s easily bored.
There’s a lot of rules stuff in this episode, so no surprise that the next thing we see is a carved stone that says, “Propriety suggests reciprocity. It is impolite not to reciprocate.” Oh, Wei Ying is so going to break this rule, too, because he’s a little nonconformist and isn’t afraid to challenge the norm.
All the disciples from the various clans are sitting in class and one of the white-clad Lans starts reading out the list of Gusu Lan Sect’s more than 3,000 house rules. Honestly, how can anyone memorize all that? Do the Lans have eidetic memories? Anyway, Lan Zhan looks tense. (Hmm, is that because a very attractive but irritating person has unexpectedly grabbed your attention and you know he’s in the room, and if you turn just a little to your right you can see him?) Wei Ying, as one might expect, looks bored. I’m with Wei Ying on this one. Probably because he’s so hyperaware of Wei Ying’s position in the room, Lan Zhan becomes aware of Wei Ying’s restlessness and looks at him out of the corner of his eye.
Of particular interest during all this rule reading (not to mention foreshadowing) are these three rules:
1.       Your forehead ribbon (which all the Lans wear) reminds you of self-restraint.
2.       You are not allowed to use other people’s headbands without authorization.
3.       You cannot use your headband in any other ways.
Oh, how both Wei Ying and Lan Zhan are going to fail to obey these particular rules!
Bored Wei Ying becomes aware of a chirping sound and starts looking around to see where it’s coming from. Turns out Nie Huaisang is pretty bored, too, and shows Wei Ying what he literally has up his sleeve – a pretty little goldfinch in a wee cage. They start whispering back and forth, until Huaisang sees that Lan Zhan has noticed them. Huaisang immediately stops talking, followed by Wei Ying, who wears one of those expressions seen on the face of many a little boy when he’s caught misbehaving, as if it say, “Who me? I wasn’t talking.” Lan Zhan responds by giving Wei Ying the patented Lan Wangji Death Stare.
All this reading of rules that is going on throughout isn’t totally random. Some of them have deep meaning for what is to come. For instance, there is one about not belittling or taking advantage of the weak. Eventually, Wei Ying is going to stand alone in protecting the remnants of the Wen clan who had nothing to do with all the horrible things their relatives did.
But back to Wei Ying’s current antics. He smiles the patented Wei Wuxian Mile-Wide Smile and waves at Lan Zhan (Wei Ying really is like a puppy who just wants you to be his friend), but Lan Zhan turns away in annoyance. (I’d like to pause for a moment here to say how much I love romances where the couple start out as adversaries, then become friends, then friends become lovers, which is the track these two are going to travel.)
After all the many, many rules have been read, amazingly the students are not all comatose. In fact, thus begins the next stage of the most boring first day of school ever – the official greetings of each clan to their teacher, Lan Qiren, in which they give him thoughtful, fancy gifts. When Meng Yao accompanies Nie Huaisang to the front, carrying the Nie sect’s gift, a couple of unnamed dudes in the corner start whispering about how Meng Yao is the illegitimate son of the Jin clan’s leader and how after he was kicked out of the Jins’ Golden Unicorn Tower (this place also has several names, depending on the translation), he was taken in by the Nie sect. Seeing Meng Yao and Nie Huaisang here together is sad because I know what is coming farther down the road between these two.
Seeing this, sweet Lan Xichen comes forward and compliments Meng Yao as he accepts the Nie sect’s gift. Though Mo Xiang Tong Xiu has said the only gay couple in this story is Wei Ying and Lan Zhan, there are lots of shippers for a Lan Xichen and Meng Yao pairing, and I feel like the creators of The Untamed totally tossed those shippers some delicious crumbs by the way these two look at each other here and how Xichen’s fingers linger over Meng Yao’s as he accepts the gift from him. You can also interpret this interaction as Xichen simply offering support and friendship in an embarrassing moment for Meng Yao, but it’s definitely one of those scenes that are open to fan interpretation.
Next up the red-clad Wen clan shows up outside the entrance to the Cloud Recesses, led by the odious Wen Chao. (Have I mentioned I hate that guy?) As happened with the Jiangs when they arrived, the Wens are asked for their invitation. This, like most things, makes Wen Chao mad. He’s really full of himself and is offended that the Wens would be asked for such a thing, and he proceeds to set one of the Lans on fire with his fire magic. Wen Qing steps forward and puts out the fire, then tells Wen Chao to, basically, chill because the Chief Cultivator (Wen Ruohan, Wen Chao’s father) told them to not make a scene. Wen Chao snarls, tossing out that this was nothing, and walks right into the Cloud Recesses like he owns the place. Much like Lan Zhan has before, we see Wen Qing gripping her sword tightly. Yeah, she doesn’t like Wen Chao either.
Wen Chao strolls into the lecture room, interrupting Jiang Cheng’s greeting to Lan Qiren on behalf of the Jiang sect. Everyone is surprised to see them since the Wens have never attended any of the previous lecture series. When this is pointed out, Wen Chao says there is no need, implying the Wens are smarter and above such teachings. And yet, he’s there to deliver someone to attend.
Lan Zhan is pissed at his rudeness and starts to step forward, but Xichen shakes his head, telling him silently to let it go. Wei Ying, however, is not one to stay quiet in such a situation and calls Wen Chao out on his arrogance. Wen Chao has a typical overreaction, and even Jiang Cheng says it was a simple disagreement. But Wen Chao is determined to teach the Jiang clan a lesson and his henchmen rush in with swords drawn. Really, Wen Chao is the king of overreaction. Wei Ying, Jiang Cheng and others draw their own swords in response. To end this standoff before it turns bloody, Xichen pulls out Liebing, his xiao (a vertical, end-blown flute) and starts playing. Suddenly, all the drawn swords are magically pulled up toward the ceiling before falling and stabbing into the floor (RIP, lovely floorboards).
Meng Yao, who had positioned himself in a protective stance in front of Nie Huaisang (again, sad because of my knowledge of what is coming), looks at Xichen after he stops playing, and his expression indicates at the very least admiration for Xichen.
After the Wens depart and the lessons end for the day, Wei Ying walks out with Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang, and Huaisang compliments him on how he stood up to Wen Chao, saying, “Brother Wei, if I had your guts, wouldn’t that be great for me?” He doesn’t, however, and that will play into future decisions that will affect not only Wei Ying but also a great many other people.
Wei Ying sees Lan Zhan and calls out to him, calling him Brother Ji, but once again Lan Zhan ignores him. You can almost see the speech bubble above Lan Zhan: Why is this guy so weird and loud? LOL.
Cut to Lan Xichen, who is telling his uncle Qiren that he fears the Wens have ulterior motives for attending the lectures when they never have before. He also wonders if there is a connection between the Wen clan’s fire magic and the ghost puppets. Qiren says that since the Wens took over the Chief Cultivator seat, they’ve been acting weird, oppressing the weak, taking in countless retainers and making their main clan manor, Heavenly Nightless, into a city more than a manor. Interesting he says that last part since it eventually becomes known as Heavenly Nightless City.
When Xichen leaves and heads outside, he encounters Meng Yao, who has been waiting for him before he leaves to go back to the Nie sect’s home. He wanted to thank Xichen for saving him from embarrassment earlier, but Xichen says there’s no need because they are peers. This is likely something Meng Yao has never heard from anyone before, and thus it cements his affection for Xichen, no matter what kind of affection it is.
While exploring the back of the mountain at the Cloud Recesses, Wen Qing discovers an invisible barrier. Wei Ying, who had been in the stream nearby goofing off with Huaisang, trying to catch fish, hears Wen Qing and goes to intercept her. He sees she is holding a needle and learns she’s the Wen sect’s female physician he’s heard of, but when he asks her why she’s in this forbidden area (no matter that he’s also there, that’s just how he rolls), she refuses to tell him and walks away.
Next we see Jiang Yanli coming into a courtyard with a big pot of soup she’s made, and nearby Jiang Cheng is practicing sword movements. He’s talking to his sister about his worries about Wei Ying causing problems, and Yanli takes up for Wei Ying because she has a big soft spot for him. This doesn’t go unnoticed by her brother, who also notes how his father likes Wei Ying more than he does his own son. When Wei Ying shows up with grilled fish on sticks, he teases Jiang Cheng. Yanli, always the peacemaker, plays that role between these two yet again.
Oh, and we’re back to more boring lectures and rules, rules, rules. One pair of those rules is: Feel sorrow for being evil. Be happy for helping others. In the future, Wei Ying is going to be accused of being evil while he’s helping others. Once again, Lan Zhan gives Wei Ying a death stare when he catches him cutting up in class. Wei Ying responds by sending one of his magical paper men sailing over to Lan Zhan, who wastes no time crumpling it in his fist. Ah, there will be a time in the future when you don’t mind Wei Ying’s little paper men at all, Lan Zhan.
Qiren also notices Wei Ying misbehaving and puts him on the spot, asking him a series of questions, all of which Wei Ying answers correctly. This seems to annoy and impress Lan Zhan at the same time, though he would never admit that last part. Qiren isn’t so impressed though, saying that the mere fact that Wei Ying grew up with the Jiangs had been enough to be able to answer those questions so his ability to do so is nothing to be particularly proud of. So he poses a more difficult hypothetical, and when Wei Ying doesn’t provide an answer Qiren turns to Lan Zhan, who provides what is a textbook perfect answer that has no doubt been drilled into his head repeatedly during his entire life. But then Wei Ying says that there might indeed be another way to deal with the situation, using resentful energy the same way that spiritual energy is used to deal with vengeful wraiths. This idea of using an “evil path” of cultivation infuriates Lan Qiren, who tells Lan Zhan to take Wei Ying to the library and have him copy something called Proprietary Regulations 1,000 times. If he’s not careful, all Wei Ying is going to get out of this lecture series is carpal tunnel syndrome.
Instead of going to the library, Wei Ying hies off to the back area of the Cloud Recesses again, where he finds cutie pie cinnamon roll Wen Ning practicing his archery. (Yu Bin was another bit of brilliant casting in the role of Wen Ning.) Wei Ying compliments his talent but says he needs to work on his posture and proceeds to help him. Wen Qing shows up and is irritated her sweet brother is being friendly when they are not there to make friends. While she just seemed shrill and unfriendly on the first viewing at this point, now I know that she is dealing with the knowledge of the precarious situation she and her brother are in with Wen Ruohan, as we’ll see later on. She interrupts them just as Wen Ning lets loose another arrow, and it causes him to turn and the arrow to fly straight for her. Wei Ying jumps in to save the day, deflecting the arrow with a paper talisman, and then asks why he’s always running into Wen Qing at the back of the mountain. He teases her, asking if she’s following him or looking for something. She accuses him of talking nonsense, then takes her brother and leaves.
Wei Ying, left alone, wonders if the Cloud Recesses really is hiding secrets. A sound from behind him has him pulling his sword and battling a potential assailant until he recognizes that it’s Lan Zhan, who has come to take his delinquent butt to the library. The episode ends with Wei Ying sheathing his sword and giving Lan Zhan another one of those big, happy smiles that are never reciprocated.
These two, they are so obviously drawn together, but neither of them recognizes the true reason why. And while Wei Ying is likely just thinking, oh cool, I’d like to be this guy’s friend, I can wear anyone down with my exuberant personality, Lan Zhan is just resisting the pull that he probably doesn’t even realize is a pull. Fight it all you want, Lan Zhan, you’re going to fall for him anyway.
Previous posts in this series:
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
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biblioncollection · 4 years
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Two Years in the Forbidden City | Der Ling Yu | *Non-fiction, Biography & Autobiography, History | Audiobook full unabridged | English | 1/6 Content of the video and Sections beginning time (clickable) - Chapters of the audiobook: please see First comments under this video. THE author of the following narrative has peculiar qualifications for her task. She is a daughter of Lord Yu Keng, a member of the Manchu White Banner Corps, and one of the most advanced and progressive Chinese officials of his generation. she became First Lady-in-Waiting to the Empress Dowager, and while serving at the Court in that capacity she received the impressions which provide the subject-matter of this book. Her opportunity to observe and estimate the characteristics of the remarkable woman who ruled China for so long was unique, and her narrative throws a new light on one of the most extraordinary personalities of modern times. Yielding to the urgent solicitation of friends, she consented to put some of her experiences into literary form, and the following chronicle, in which the most famous of Chinese women, the customs and atmosphere of her Court are portrayed by an intimate of the same race, is a result. (Summary adapted from the Foreword) This is a Librivox recording. If you want to volunteer please visit https://librivox.org/ by Priceless Audiobooks
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travellerfufi-blog · 5 years
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The Top Attractions In China That Are A Must Sight To See
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The most populated nation on the planet China is a spot loaded up with social and chronicled significance It is likewise the worlds second biggest nation as far as zone beaten uniquely by Russia in such manner Despite the fact that amid ongoing years China has picked up a ton of exposure because of large amounts of air contamination however there are as yet numerous spots in the tremendous terrains of China that you can visit without being influenced by the regular exhaust cloud Here is our rundown of vacation spots in China that are an absolute necessity spot to visit Add these to your basin rundown and begin arranging your excursion at the present time!
1 The Great Wall of China
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The Great Wall of China is potentially Chinas most prized ownership and is a spot for a huge number of individuals to visit all around the globe One strength of this spot is the way that it is maybe the main structure on our planet that can been seen from the moon without the guide of a telescope This was worked by the Ming Dynasty of China and it took them more than 2 decades to see its finishing Other then this the Wall has a great deal of fantasies and legends connected to it Furthermore youre somebody who has faith in departed stories then you would appreciate going here and associating with local people
2 Prohibited City
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The Forbidden city is the biggest piece on antiquated human advancement that has made it to our occasions This hauntingly delightful piece of China is an UNESCO World Heritage Site and is a spot that is visited by a large number of individuals all the all year This city was home to Chinas decision families for over 500 years It has just about 1000 rooms which are loaded up with old antiquities and other such extremely valuable things which are agents of Chinas broad social history The castle likewise has a worked in exhibition hall that is said to one of the biggest social historical center on the planet related article
3 Potala Palace
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This royal residence is likewise an UNESCO World Heritage Site and its development took over 50 years This castle is sub isolated into two segments - the white and the red royal residence The white royal residence was the home of the Dalai Lama and has said to house a significant number of Chinas most noteworthy heads This spot can hypnotize its guests and furthermore gives you the pleasureful understanding into how the old Chinese human advancement lived previous article
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startreadingdiverse · 7 years
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Looking for some cheap, diverse books?
This weekend, we’re highlighting four historical/steampunk books which are available for 99c.
Murder in the Forbidden City by Amanda Roberts is a historical mystery set in China.
The Complete Lady Ruth Constance Chapelstone Chronicles by L.C. Mawson is a collection of steampunk novellas following an ace/aro, autistic heroine. (#OwnVoices for neurotype)
In the Horde's Way by S.A. Gibson is a steampunk book following an interracial f/f couple.
Frozen Beauty: Books 1-3 by Steve Turnbull is a collection of steampunk books with a Chinese protagonist.
Get all of these books for just 99c!
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itunesbooks · 5 years
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The Tragedy of Liberation - Frank Dikötter
The Tragedy of Liberation A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957 Frank Dikötter Genre: History Price: $11.99 Publish Date: September 24, 2013 Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Seller: INscribe Digital A groundbreaking chronicle of the violent early years of the People's Republic of China, by the author of the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize–winning Mao's Great Famine . "The Chinese Communist party refers to its victory in 1949 as a 'liberation.' In China the story of liberation and the revolution that followed is not one of peace, liberty, and justice. It is first and foremost a story of calculated terror and systematic violence.†? So begins Frank Dikötter's stunning and revelatory chronicle of Mao Zedong's ascension and campaign to transform the Chinese into what the party called New People. Following the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek in 1949, after a bloody civil war, Mao hoisted the red flag over Beijing's Forbidden City, and the world watched as the Communist revolution began to wash away the old order. Due to the secrecy surrounding the country's records, little has been known before now about the eight years that followed, preceding the massive famine and Great Leap Forward. Drawing on hundreds of previously classified documents, secret police reports, unexpurgated versions of leadership speeches, eyewitness accounts of those who survived, and more, The Tragedy of Liberation bears witness to a shocking, largely untold history. Interweaving stories of ordinary citizens with tales of the brutal politics of Mao's court, Frank Dikötter illuminates those who shaped the "liberation†? and the horrific policies they implemented in the name of progress. People of all walks of life were caught up in the tragedy that unfolded, and whether or not they supported the revolution, all of them were asked to write confessions, denounce their friends, and answer queries about their political reliability. One victim of thought reform called it a "carefully cultivated Auschwitz of the mind.†? Told with great narrative sweep, The Tragedy of Liberation is a powerful and important document giving voice at last to the millions who were lost, and casting new light on the foundations of one of the most powerful regimes of the twenty-first century. http://dlvr.it/R0kYg7
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floatingeye · 7 years
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THE LAST EMPEROR (1987)
Dir: Bernardo Bertolucci
China | Italy, 163m
HALL OF PRESERVING HARMONY
I saw this because I saw another Chinese film the other day, quasi- historical and lush, and wanted to see what a European would bring. You can see what attracted Bertollucci to this project. Here's a film about an emperor, ruler of a quarter of the world in his time, who died a common gardener. It offers unlimited possibilities for visual splendour, of course—the Forbidden City above all, closed off for centuries but here open to our gaze. And it is a history of millions, it seems in the West we can't comprehend China unless it has swathes of conflict. The main narrative device is so good, it boggles the mind that more wasn't accomplished—not just history but a chronicle recalled from many pairs of eyes as our film, Citizen Kane- style. A deathdream, a memory triggered by a newsreel, a contrasting testimony perhaps offered to please. A fancy Scottsman's memoirs, perhaps embellished? Perhaps read by the prison warden to confirm preconceived guilt? A confession before a tribunal, but one we could trust in any way? A truly imaginative mind would've done so much more with the triggers and stirring of untrusted narration. He would've done more with the second consort's disappearance and simultaneous appearance of the spy woman, introducing opium and deluded ego. More, in general, with the shifts inside the memory from gilded childhood where sight begins to dim to the self-delusion of power to loss and humility. To its credit, it's more interesting than I thought it would be after the first hour. But as in Kundun we get for the most part an operatic sort of beauty. Oh there are a few unforgettable images in there, most to do with fabrics and colors. But the eye of the camera is much like the emperor, a dull observer of fancy things. There's no real difference between different voices telling the story, the many concealed desires and quashed dreams that may be pushing through the fabrics, conscious or not, changing what we see as we see it. There's just so much to play with here, it's a shame we end up with merely preserved harmony. But that's also how the Chinese would have it. I can only imagine what transcendent dragons of self Malick and his floating eye would have seen in the flowing silks.
★★★☆☆
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huttson-blog · 4 years
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IDW Chronicles A Protest that Changed the World with Tiananmen 1989 — Bleeding Cool
IDW Chronicles A Protest that Changed the World with Tiananmen 1989 — Bleeding Cool
Read more at Bleeding Cool
— by Mark Seifert: The Tiananmen, or what is commonly referred to in English as “The Gate of Heavenly Peace,” is an enormous gate in the center of Beijing. Originally named Chengtianmen, the gate was constructed in 1420 as the entrance to a section of Beijing called the Imperial City, which itself contains the Forbidden City — which was the location of the Chinese…
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bigyack-com · 4 years
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Muting Coronavirus Anger, China Empowers Its Internet Police
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SHANGHAI — As China tries to reshape the narrative of its fumbled response to the coronavirus outbreak, it is turning to a new breed of police that carry out real-world reprisals for digital misdeeds.The internet police, as they are known here, have gained power as the Communist Party has worked to seize greater control over the thoughts, words, and even memories of China’s 800 million web users. Now, they are emerging as a bulwark against the groundswell of anger over governance breakdowns that exacerbated the epidemic.Officers arrive with an unexpected rap at the door of online critics. They drag off offenders for hours of interrogation. They force their targets to sign loyalty pledges and recant remarks deemed politically unacceptable, even if those words were made in the relative privacy of a group chat.In the central city of Chengdu, a recent law school graduate, Li Yuchen, said he was pulled from his home in early February after writing a sarcastic treatise in classical Chinese about censorship. The police questioned him from late afternoon until midnight, first asking him whether he loved his country, to which he said yes. Mr. Li said he was forced to sign a statement disavowing his views and pledging loyalty to the party.The experience mirrored what happened to the hero of Mr. Li’s essay, a Wuhan doctor named Li Wenliang, who tried to alert colleagues about the spread of a mysterious virus in a chat group, only to be called to a police station and forced to sign a confession for spreading rumors.When Dr. Li died of the coronavirus, waves of mourning and anger swept across China’s internet.“Li Wenliang said that a healthy society shouldn’t have only one voice,” wrote Mr. Li, who is not related to Dr. Li. “I think the best way to mourn him is to continue to be a citizen” and continue writing, he wrote in a later post on WeChat.That has become more difficult. To stanch anger over Dr. Li’s death, and the deaths of the many others his warning might have saved, authorities have doubled down on the very tactics that drove the fury in the first place: using the internet police to muffle the most outspoken.Little is known about the group, formally part of the Cybersecurity Defense Bureau, which has long policed hacking and online fraud. But occasional government releases offer clues. In 2016, the 50-million person region of Guangxi said it had almost 1,200 internet police officers. The goal was to have one internet police officer for every 10,000 people in the region, a sign of the force’s ambitions.In the early years of Chinese social media, punishments doled out to critics were rarely severe. As millions took to clones of Twitter and Facebook, which are banned in China, censorship usually meant disappearing posts and inaccessible foreign websites. Now the police actively pursue the authors of forbidden material, and irritation has been replaced by fear.Friends and families warn each other not to speak too openly in group chats. The changes have come as China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has pushed hard to extend the party’s iron-fisted rule over the internet.Mr. Xi has given new resources to domestic security forces. The internet police’s uncanny speed in finding people, who might believe they are hidden among the internet’s hordes of anonymous grumblers, is the result of billions of dollars in new spending on surveillance technology.China’s Ministry of Public Security, which controls the police, did not respond to requests for comment, including the role of the internet police in silencing Dr. Li. But experts said the statement he signed and later posted online matched the types of letters the internet police force online critics to endorse.“One reason for the online outrage after Li Wenliang’s death was because people know that what he encountered is just a normal Chinese person’s experience,” said Xiao Qiang, a research scientist at the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley. “It’s not the local police’s fault. It’s Xi’s error that this kind of thing has become a part of daily life.”Mr. Xi moved quickly to coordinate online oversight after he took over in 2012. He created a new organization, the Cyberspace Administration of China, to coordinate censorship online and suppress social-media influencers who didn’t always toe the party line.The 2015 emergence of the internet police signaled Mr. Xi’s ambitions to take online suppression to an even greater level. That year local police stations created social media accounts to highlight internet arrests.Before long, the internet police became the state’s sharpest tool for prodding online rabble rousers into silence. Often hanging back and monitoring, officers would tap local law enforcement to pull offenders in and question them — what they called “touching the ground.” Placed at increasingly local police stations, they have carried out campaigns cracking down on everything from telecom fraud to use of Twitter.Before the coronavirus epidemic, their focus was the protests in Hong Kong.Bole Cheng, a 45-year old financial worker, got called in last autumn. He had lost his cool during a debate about Hong Kong and referred to Mr. Xi with a pun that means “Little Wicked.” Two days later, two officers were at his door.“They said I was talking drivel on WeChat and there was a problem, so I had to go to the station with them,” he said. During five hours of interrogation, they told Mr. Cheng they used an artificial-intelligence powered search engine to find him.In the coming months, they contacted him twice more. Once they bragged that their powers were expanding, and they had been given new national security responsibilities. Another time, Mr. Cheng discussed George Orwell with a young officer, who sought to distance his work from what is described in “1984.”“He was trying to show that he read books, and that the stories weren’t about China. That Orwell wasn’t talking about us,” he said.When the police threatened to make it difficult for his son to attend school, Mr. Cheng gave in and signed a letter promising to refrain from discussing Hong Kong and to stop insulting the country’s leader.Mr. Xiao, of Berkeley, said internet police activity has only intensified during the coronavirus outbreak. Sporadic government reports attest to this. In the first weeks of the year, the police in the region of Guangxi investigated 385 people for spreading rumors. In Qinghai Province, they pulled in 72. In the Ningxia region, another 66.Online censors have been working overtime too. Since Dr. Li’s death, he has become a censored topic. Huge numbers of posts and accounts have disappeared from social media.“Since social media has existed in China, there’s been nothing like the current explosion of speech,” said Hannah Yeung, who runs an online group dedicated to preserving posts, which she calls the cyber graveyard. So tight has the censorship become in recent weeks, she said she feared Chinese people were losing the ability to chronicle the past.“After people scream and shout, their posts get deleted and there’s no more voice of opposition. Nothing gets fixed,” she said.Early signs indicate the campaign has at least partially succeeded. The Chinese internet is filled with apparently sincere praise for the government’s efforts. Records of early missteps are mostly gone.That success poses its own threats. If local or regional officials bury problems, the country’s leaders could miss early warnings of major crises, like the warnings doctors in Wuhan issued in early January.When Miles Zhang went on a business trip in early January to Wuhan, he was one of the few ready for the outbreak. He wore goggles and a mask at the insistence of his wife, who had read online about the crackdown against Dr. Li before the news was censored.“I really stood out,” he recalled. The precautions may have saved him from getting the coronavirus, which was then quietly spreading across the city.Such interest in blocked information had gotten Mr. Zhang in trouble only the year before. In September, the police dragged him in for questioning over his use of a software to thwart the government’s internet filters. After hours of interrogation, they threw him out onto the street. Stunned at the experience, he walked the several kilometers home to his worried family.Just back from a trip to Canada, he began planning to leave China for good.“I used to think the censorship was a technical problem that could be overcome,” Mr. Zhang said. “But this time was like a smack to the head. This is state terrorism.”Lin Qiqing contributed research from Shanghai. Read the full article
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newyorktheater · 5 years
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Novenas for a Lost Hospital
Peter Dinklage, Cyrano
The Second Woman, a 24-hour play at BAM
Playwright Stephen Adly Gurigis
Cole Porter at the York
Tony Kushner at the Public
Samuel D. Hunter
Mfoniso Udofia
Ntoszke Shange
Some of the most thrilling theater in New York this Fall, and certainly much of the weirdest, promises to be Off-Broadway. There are revivals of Tony Kushner’s first play, and Ntozake Shange’s best known “choreopoem,” new musicals with books by David Henry Hwang and Enda Walsh, a wild new 24-hour play, and a modern rewrite of Medea starring Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale. There are new plays by Harvey Fierstein, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Lucas Hnath Samuel D. Hunter, Martyna Majok, Richard Nelson, Jack Thorne (of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”), Mfoniso Udofia, and Meow Meow.
Like Broadway, Off-Broadway has its share of stars — among them this season, Peter Dinklage, Raúl Esparza, Jonathan Groff, Judith Ivey… and every star on Broadway, in caricature, thanks to the return of Forbidden Broadway. Unlike Broadway, Off-Broadway doesn’t come neatly packaged. (See my Broadway 2019-2020 Preview Guide.) Instead of 41 theaters within a few blocks of one another, there are hundreds of Off-Broadway theaters and theater companies spread out throughout the city.
So how to sort it all out?
The shows I just mentioned are being presented by the Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop,  Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center, and some of the  other theaters that have proven reliable season after season, presenting shows I’ve consistently found satisfying, or at least worthwhile.
That is why, below, I present the Off-Broadway Fall season largely by grouping the shows together with the theater that’s presenting or producing them. I order the list of theaters more or less according to my preference for them (determined by such factors as their recent track record, the promise of the new season, and by the overall experience I’ve had with the theater as theatergoer and critic.) There is an added advantage to looking at the Off-Broadway season this way: Most of these theaters offer memberships or subscriptions. (Keep in mind this preview just lists the first half of their 2019-2020 seasons. I’ll put together a Spring preview in January..)
After my favorite theaters, I list some individual shows from other venues that look particularly intriguing.
Click on the theater’s name for more information about the theater, and on the show title for more about the individual production.
(The asterisk *, explained more fully at the bottom, indicates the four theatrical empires that are both on and Off Broadway. Listed here are only their Off-Broadway offerings. Again, go to my Broadway preview guide for the rest)
I’ve put a red check mark — √ — besides a few shows about which I’m especially curious, and at least hopeful. (I’ll only know if I was right to be interested once I see them.)
THE PUBLIC THEATER
425 Lafayette Street and in Central Park. Twitter: @PublicTheaterNY
From A Chorus Line to  Hamilton, the Public has served as a kind of feeder theater for Broadway (Seawall/A Life and Girl From The North Country this season alone) but the downtown empire that Joe Papp created half a century ago is not successful because of its commercial aspirations, but largely in spite of them.  It often takes artistic risks that many institutions its size avoid.
Hercules
This staging of a 1997 Disney cartoon was the latest of the Public Works’ “pageants” involving hundreds of amateur performers who belong to community partner organizations from all five boroughs. My review.
Soft Power
An odd and hilarious fever dream imagining an American musical as created by theatermakexs in a future dominant Chinese society, created by David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly, Yellow Face) and Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home; Violet; Caroline, or Change)
For Colored Girls
October 8 – November 24. Opens October 22nd.
A revival of Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow is Enough,” an unlikely Tony-nominated  hit on Broadway in 1976 that Shange (who died last October) called a “choreopoem.” It tells the stories of seven black women using poetry, song, and movement.
The Michaels
October 19 – November 17. Opens October 27
Richard Nelson, best-known for his multi-part, low key, in real time family sagas The Apple Family plays and The Gabriels:Election Year in the Life of One Family, brings us another one. In the kitchen belonging Rose Michael, a celebrated choreographer, she and those around her cook dinner, rehearse modern dances, eat and talk — about art, death, family, dance, politics, and the state of America. The seven-member cast includes Nelson regulars Jay O. Sanders and Maryann Plunkett.
√ A Bright Room Called Day
October 29 – December 8
A revival of this 1985 play by Tony Kushner, which was his first, and which he partially rewrites. Agnes, an actress in Weimar Germany, and her cadre of passionate, progressive friends, are torn between protest, escape, and survival as the world they knew crumbles around them. Her story is interrupted by an American woman enraged by the cruelty of the Reagan administration, and a new character, facing the once unthinkable rise of authoritarianism in modern America.
  BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC
Three buildings in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, including BAM Harvey at 651 Fulton St. Twitter: @BAM_Brooklyn
BAM dates back to 1861, but for decades now it has been known for its avant-garde offerings in dance, music, opera, film, and, yes, theater, primarily in its  Next Wave Festival  presented annually in the Fall.  The theater pieces — some are too sui generis to be called plays or musicals — have consisted largely of imports from Europe, and have short runs (sometimes just a day or two.) I list BAM high up this year because it’s under a new artistic director David Binder (indeed the first head of BAM with that title.) Binder is both a Tony-winning Broadway producer (a dozen shows starting with the 2004 revival of “Raisin in the Sun”) and an adventurous impresario — the original as well as the Broadway producer of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” and producer of festivals featuring such groundbreaking theater artists as Anna Deavere Smith and Taylor Mac.
Swan Lake
October 15-20
Ireland’s Michael Keegan-Dolan deconstructs the classic love story between a prince and a female who’s a swan by day and a human by night.
The Second Woman
October 18
An only-at-BAM kind of show. Over a period of 24 hours, one woman and 100 men preform repeat the same scene 100 times, with different results. It’s inspired by Cassavetes’ meta-theatrical 1977 film Opening Night. Stay as little or as long as you want.
What If They Went To Moscow
Oct 23-27
Based on Chekhov’s Three Sisters,but experimental with audience reactions to two different media. Two audiences in different BAM theaters watch the live performance of the show — one on stage, the other as a film — and then switch at intermission.
√ Hamnet
October 30 – November 3
Irish theater company Dead Centre, inspired by Shakespeare’s son Hamnet, who died at the age of 11, creates a play about a boy searching for his father
User Not Found
Nov 6-16
A site-specific work that invites you to be a voyeur, and asks the question: What happens to your digital life after you’re gone?
The End of Eddy
Nov 14-21
A stage adaptation of the autobiographical novel by Édouard Louis, written when he was 21 years old, about being bullied for being gay. Part of a series of events celebrating Édouard Louis in collaboration with St. Ann’s Warehouse (See below.)
Barber Shop Chronicles
Dec 3 – 8
Nigerian-British playwright Inua Ellams weaves a rich tapestry of unfiltered stories about father-son relationships and black masculinity, set to an Afrobeat score, and set in barbershops in six different cities (none of them in the U.S.)
In Many Hands
Dec 11 – 15
Exploring our relationship to touch, New Zealand-bred artist Kate McIntosh does away with the stage and performers, convening a small group of spectators for an intimate shared adventure through the particularities and nuances of our tactile sense
A Very Meow Meow Holiday Show
Dec 12-14
Using satire and music, the performer known as Meow Meow meditates on the perils, pleasures, and actual point of the season
√ Medea
Jan 12 – Feb 23
(Technically not in the Fall season, but hard to omit) Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale star in writer-director Simon Stone’s rewrite of the Euripides tragedy.
LINCOLN CENTER THEATER*
@LCTheater
The shows at Lincoln Center’s Off-Broadway venues are inexpensive (especially at the Claire Tow theater, where initial-run tickets cost $20) and often rewarding. I’m hoping that someday they will be literally more inviting to independent New York theater critics. The two offerings this Fall look especially exciting.
Power Strip
October 5 – November 17. Opens October 21.
In this new play by Sylvia Khoury, Yasmin, a young Syrian refugee, spends her days tethered to an electric power strip in a Greek refugee camp, discovering that she must forget everything she values in order to survive.
√Greater Clements
November 14 to January 19. Opens December 9.
Samuel D. Hunter’s new play takes place in the fictional town of Greater Clements, Idaho, a mining community where properties are being purchased by wealthy out-of-state people, forcing out lifelong residents. Judith Ivey portray Maggie, ready to shut down her family-run Mine Tour and Museum, when an old friend pays a visit. Although I’ve never been to Idaho,  I’ve liked every Hunter play I’ve ever seen, from Whale to Lewiston/Clarkston.
NEW YORK THEATER WORKSHOP
79 East 4th Street. Twitter: @NYTW79
NYTW has gotten much attention this past year for presenting three shows that (eventually) moved to Broadway, Heidi Schreck’s “What The Constitution Means To Me,” the multi-Tony winning  “Hadestown”  and now “Slave Play” — quite a roll.
In the new season, there are no dates listed yet for all but the first two of their 2019-2010 shows
Runboyrun & In Old Age
September 4, 2019—October 13, 2019
The latest two chapters from Mfoniso Udofia nine-part saga, The Ufot Cycle, about a Nigerian-American family.  (Sojourners and Her Portmanteau from the cycle were seen at NYTW in 2017). The two dramas are performed as a single evening of work,
Sing Street
The same team that turned the movie “Once” into a beloved musical have now hope the reaction will be the same for their new musical based on a movie. With a book by Enda Walsh, “Sing Street” takes us to Dublin in 1985 and focuses on 16-year-old Conor and his schoolmates, who turn to music to escape troubles at home and impress a mysterious girl. Rebecca Taichman (Indecent) will direct.
Endlings
On the Korean island of Man-Jae, three elderly haenyeos—sea women—spend their dying days diving into the ocean to harvest seafood. Across the globe on the island of Manhattan, a Korean-Canadian playwright, twice an immigrant, spends her days wrestling with the expectation that she write “authentic” stories about her identity.
Sanctuary City
What are we willing to sacrifice for somebody we love?  This is a new play by Martyna Majok, Putlizer winning playwright of “Cost of Living.,” who in such dramas as Ironbound and “queens” has given a voice to the new immigrant.  NYTW has put this play on its schedule twice before. Let’s hope it’ll be ready this time, though surely not until the Spring.
  PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS
416 W. 42nd St. Twitter: @PHNYC
Annie Baker’s “The Flick” is one of six plays that originated at Playwrights Horizons that have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The theater offers new plays and musicals that are consistently worthwhile, in an environment that feels dedicated both to the theater artists and the theatergoers.
Wives
Opens September 16
From the brawny castles of 16th Century France, to the rugged plains of 1960s Idaho, to the strapping fortresses of 1920s India, all hail the remarkable stories of Great Men! — and their whiny, witchy, vapid, veng
Heroes of the Fourth Turning
September 13 – October 27
Set in Wyoming a week after the deadly 2017 Charlottesville riot, the new play sees four young conservatives reunite for a backyard barbecue in Wyoming. Written by Will Arbery (“Plano”)
The Thin Place
“November 22” (dates unclear)
Lucas Hnath’s play transforms the theater into an intimate séance, c
  ATLANTIC THEATER
Cofounded in 1985 by David Mamet and William H. Macy, this theater entered in a whole new realm of achievement in my eyes with the acclaimed musical The Band’s Visit
Sunday
A new play by Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts 1 & 2), directed by Lee Sunday Evans. Friends gather for a book group, anxious to prove their intellectual worth, but that anxiety gets the better of any actual discussion as emotional truths come pouring out
√ Halfway Bitches Go Straight To Heaven
November 14- December 22
Stephen Adly Guirgis (“Between Riverside and  Crazy“)  explores the harrowing, humorous, and heartbreaking inner workings of a women’s halfway house in New York City, helmed by John Ortiz (LAByrinth Artistic Director) in his off-Broadway directing debut.
MCC THEATER
 Twitter: @mcctheater
They moved from downtown to midtown, but I don’t hold that against them.
  The Wrong Man
September 18 – October 27
With book, music and lyrics by Ross Golan, direction by Thomas Kail (Hamilton), this musical is set in Reno, Nevada, and tells the story of Duran, a man just scraping by who is framed for a murder he didn’t commit,
September 18 – October 27
Seared
October 3 – November 10
Theresa Rebeck’s play about a talented by temperamental chef who scores a big mention in the press for his signature scallops,  but, much to the frustration of his business partner, refuses to repeat himself for the masses. Cast includes Raul Esparza and Krysta Rodriguez
PARK AVENUE ARMORY
Although the Armory has been presenting theater for a decade, it only became must-see for me in the last few years, thanks to. A Room in India,  The Damned and The Lehman Trilogy (which is transferring this season to Broadway.). The theater they present is largely European, cutting-edge, often hybrids, and they require patience and a willingness to be lost. They also just have a handful of shows per season. But, offered in the vast expanse of the Armory’s Drill Hall, these aren’t just shows; they’re events. This year, for the first time, they have commissioned a play “from the ground up.”
Antigone
September 25 – October 6
Acclaimed director Satoshi Miyagi creates a new vision of Sophocles’s fabled mythology through the prism of Japanese culture: Noh Theater, Indonesian shadow play, and Buddhist philosophy.
Black Artists Retreat
October 11th and 12th
Bridging the gap between fine art and social activism, Theaster Gates hosts his renowned Black Artists Retreat for the first time outside of Chicago
Judgment Day
December 5 – January 11
Directed by Richard Jones (Hairy Ape) and adapted by Chris Shinn (“‘four”)  rom Ödön von Horváth’s 1937 play, this productions marks the Armory’s first theatrical commission “from the ground-up” It explores morality and guilt in a small town.
  ST. ANN’s WAREHOUSE
Although it primarily presents avant-garde European exports,  this Brooklyn theater climbed up in my preference thanks to Taylor Mac’s homegrown   24-Decade History of Popular Music   and then “Oklahoma!” which transferred to Broadway.
History of Violence
November 13 – December 1
A German-language stage adaptation of Édouard Louis’s autobiographical novel about a traumatic event that began in desire. Louis is also the basis for BAM’s The End of Eddy.
Keep
December 4 -19
British storyteller and comedian Daniel Kitson’s latest solo piece
    OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
Forbidden Broadway The Next Generation (The Triad)
September 18 – November 30
After a five year absence, Gerard Alessandrini is back, roasting everything you’ve seen on Broadway since the last edition of Forbidden Broadway.
Photo Credit: Julieta Cervantes
√ Novenas for a Lost Hospital (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater)
September 5- October 13. Opens September 19
A play by Cusi Cram starring Kathleen Chalfant that serves as an homage to the women nurses over the 161 year history of St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village, which was at the epicenter of a cholera epidemic in the 19th century and the AIDS epidemic a century and a half later. The show features a prologue, in which theatergoers visit the garden of St. Johns in the Village, in the sight of the hospital site, now turned into condominiums, and an epilogue visiting he NYC AIDS Memorial Park.
Cyrano (The New Group at Daryl Roth)
October 11 – November 24
Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) stars in this musical version of Edmond Rostand’s  tale of unrequited love and ghostwritten letters,
Little Shop of Horrors (West Side Theater)
A revival hard to argue given that its cast includes Jonathan Groff, Tammy Blanchard, Christian Borle,
A Celebration of Cole Porter (York Theater)
September 28 to November 3
Eleven performances each of “Fifty Million Frenchmen ,” The Decline and Fall of the Whole World As Seen Through the Eyes of Cole Porter” and “Panama Hattie”
√Bella Bella (Manhattan Theater Club)
October 21 – December 1. Opens October 22.
Harvey Fierstein stars as Bella Abzug in a solo-play he’s written set in 1976, on the eve of her bid to become New York State’s first female Senator,
Scotland, PA (Roundabout)
September 14 to December 8
A new musical adaptation of Billy Morrissette’s 2001 film riffing on Macbeth, set in a sleepy Pennsylvania town, involving the manager of a burger joint and his ambitious wife.
Other companies and theaters worth checking out:
Ars Nova
Classic Stage Company
Mint Theater
Mayi Theater Company
National Black Theatre
  There are also commercial shows put together by independent producers that are presented in theaters for rent, such as:
Cherry Lane Theatre Daryl Roth Theatre Gym at Judson Lucille Lortel Theatre New World Stages Orpheum Theater The Players Theatre Snapple Theater Center Theatre Row Union Square Theater Westside Theatre
*THE ASTERISK: Off-Broadway AND Broadway
*Just to complicate matters, several of the resident theaters also present shows in Broadway theaters they own  –  Lincoln Center (Vivian Beaumont Theater), Manhattan Theater Company or MTC (the Samuel J. Friedman), the Roundabout Theater Company (American Airlines, Stephen Sondheim, Studio 54), and starting this season, Second Stage Theatre, which has bought the Helen Hayes. Their Broadway offerings are listed in my Broadway 2017-2018 Season Guide
What Is Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway?
Off-Broadway theaters, by definition, have anywhere from 100 to 499 seats. If a theater has more seats than that, it’s a Broadway house. If it has fewer, it’s Off-Off Broadway.
There are some terrific Off-Off Broadway theaters, sometimes confused for Off-Broadway. These include (but are not limited to)
 The Flea
Labyrinth Theater
 LaMaMa ETC.
New theaters and theater companies crop up all the time.
Monthly Calendar of Openings
Because there are so many shows Off-Off Broadway, and their runs are so limited, I include them in my monthly theater preview calendar (along with Broadway and Off Broadway openings) posted near the beginning of each month.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information about Off-Broadway, go to  The League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers (aka The Off-Broadway League).  This should not be confused with the Off-Broadway Alliance, which is a separate organization (though they should probably merge, no?)
What’s Off-Broadway Dough? Does that mean there’s not much of it? pic.twitter.com/KHH1kApUzb
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) September 4, 2016—-
Some might argue there is little distinction anymore between Broadway and Off-Broadway, especially in a season when so many downtown darlings are moving to Broadway, such as Taylor Mac,Tarell Alvin McCraney, Dominique Morisseau, Anais Mitchell (See Spring 2019 Broadway Preview Guide: A Season of Theater Geniuses Making Their Broadway Debuts)  
Yet, Off-Broadway remains less expensive  and, frankly, potentially more rewarding. It’s also more sprawling — not quite possible to present all the riches of a season in a single post.
I’ve put a red check mark — √ — besides a few shows about which I’m especially excited or intrigued. (I’ll only know if my excitement was justified once I see them.)
Click on the theater’s name for more information about the theater, and on the show title for more about the individual production.
(Also check out my monthly calendar of openings)
a surreal errand. “He gets mixed up with a giant lobster, Roman Polanski, a pornography ring, Walt Disney, stranded children, a murder, and Jorge Luis Borges…”
ROUNDABOUT* LAURA PELS
The empire that is now Roundabout includes three Broadway theaters, and that’s where most of the attention is focused, mostly on star-studded revivals, especially musicals.  But its fourth building houses two Off-Broadway theaters (one of them a tiny “Black Box” theater.) It is in its Off-Broadway facility that Stephen Karam’s The Humans originated, which went on to Broadway and Tony love. The Roundabout’s “Underground” series discovers new playwriting talent, with tickets priced at $35.
Merrily We Roll Along
January 12 – April 7. Opens February 19.
Fiasco Theater reimagines Stephen Sondheim’s musical about a trio of showbiz friends who fall apart and come together over 20 years, going backwards in time.
Something Clean
May 4 – June 30. Opens May 30.
Playwright Selina Fillinger’s new drama slips into the jagged cracks of a sex crime’s aftermath—the guilt, the grief, and the ways we grapple with the unthinkable.
√ Toni Stone
May 23 – August 11. Opens June 20
Uzo Adubi stars as the first woman to go pro in the Negro Leagues, in this play by Lydia Diamond directed by Pam McKinnon, based on a true story.
MANHATTAN THEATER CLUB*
This looks like a good lineup, but It’s hard to embrace a theater completely when you don’t get to see many of its plays.
The Cake
February 12 – March 31. Opens March 5
In what sounds like a recent Supreme Court case, Debra Jo Rupp portrays a baker in North Carolina who refuses to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The difference — one of the brides is the daughter of a dear friend, now deceased. The play is by Bekah Brunstetter (who writes for the TV series This Is Us.)
Continuity
May 7 – June 9. Opens May 21
Though the description doesn’t tell us very much —  a comedy “in six takes where storytelling and science collide…” — it is written by Beth Wohl (playwright of the odd but satisfying Small Mouth Sounds) and directed by Rachel Chavkin (Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812).
Long Lost
May 14 – June 30.  Opens June 4.
A play by Donald Margulies (Dinner with Friends) directed by Daniel Sullivan. “When troubled Billy appears out-of-the-blue in his estranged brother David’s Wall Street office, he soon tries to re-insert himself into the comfortable life David has built with his philanthropist wife and college-age son. What does Billy really want?”
  SECOND STAGE*
This 40-year-old theater has became the fourth “non-profit” to produce theater both on and Off Broadway.
Superhero
January 31 – March 24.Opens February 28.
A musical, with music and lyrics by Tom Kitt (Next to Normal) and a book by John Logan (Red), about “a fractured family, the mysterious stranger in apartment 4-B, and an unexpected hero…”
Dying City
“Begins May 2019”
Christopher Shinn’s play is set in a spare Manhattan apartment, where a young widow receives an unexpected visit from the twin brother of her deceased husband. Dying City explores the human fallout of global events, including the Iraq War and the terrorist attacks of 9/11, through the interwoven stories of three characters
  OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish moves to Stage 42, opening February 21st.
Alice By Heart (MCC). January 30 to March 10. Opens February 26 Two friends who escape in the cherished story of Alice in Wonderland during the London Blitz of World War II. The musical is by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater, the team that came up with Spring Awakening.
Fleabag (Soho Playhouse) February 28 – April 7 The play by Phoebe Waller-Bridge that inspired the BBC television series currently being shown on Amazon Prime.
Daddy (Vineyard/New Group at Signature) February 12- March 24. Opens March 5. In the second Off-Broadway play by Jeremy O. Harris (who gained some notoriety with his Slave Play in the fall), Alan Cumming plays Andre, an older white art collector who befriends Franklin, young black artist on the verge of his first show. Their bond creates a battle of wills with Franklin’s mother.
Diary of One Who Disappeared (BAM) April 4-6 In 1917, Czech composer Leoš Janáček became obsessed with a married woman 40 years his junior. In the throes of despair, he penned more than 700 love letters and a haunting 22-part song cycle called Diary of One Who Disappeared, about a village boy who falls in love with a Romany girl. Director Ivo van Hove, in collaboration with Flemish opera company Muziektheater Transparant, brings his trademark physicality and stripped-down aesthetic to bear on Janáček’s opera.
Octet (Signature) April 30 – June 9 Dave Malloy, composer and conceiver of Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812, is not through experimenting.  His new musical is scored for an  a cappella chamber choir and explores high-tech addiction, his libretto inspired by Internet comment boards, scientific debates, religious texts and Sufi poetry.
  Other companies and theaters worth checking out:
Ars Nova
Classic Stage Company
Mint Theater
Mayi Theater Company
There are also commercial shows put together by independent producers that are presented in theaters for rent, such as:
Cherry Lane Theatre Daryl Roth Theatre Gym at Judson Lucille Lortel Theatre New World Stages Orpheum Theater The Players Theatre Snapple Theater Center Theatre Row Union Square Theater Westside Theatre
*THE ASTERISK: Off-Broadway AND Broadway
*Just to complicate matters, several of the resident theaters also present shows in Broadway theaters they own  –  Lincoln Center (Vivian Beaumont Theater), Manhattan Theater Company or MTC (the Samuel J. Friedman), the Roundabout Theater Company (American Airlines, Stephen Sondheim, Studio 54), and Second Stage Theatre, which has bought the Helen Hayes. Their Broadway offerings are listed in my Broadway 2017-2018 Season Guide
What Is Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway?
Off-Broadway theaters, by definition, have anywhere from 100 to 499 seats. If a theater has more seats than that, it’s a Broadway house. If it has fewer, it’s Off-Off Broadway.
There are some terrific Off-Off Broadway theaters, sometimes confused for Off-Broadway. These include (but are not limited to)
 The Flea
Labyrinth Theater
 LaMaMa ETC.
New theaters and theater companies crop up all the time.
Monthly Calendar of Openings
Because there are so many shows Off-Off Broadway, and their runs are so limited, I include them in my monthly theater preview calendar (along with Broadway and Off Broadway openings) posted near the beginning of each month.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information about Off-Broadway, go to  The League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers (aka The Off-Broadway League).  This should not be confused with the Off-Broadway Alliance, which is a separate organization (though they should probably merge, no?)
What’s Off-Broadway Dough? Does that mean there’s not much of it? pic.twitter.com/KHH1kApUzb
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) September 4, 2016—-
Off Broadway Fall 2019 Preview Guide Some of the most thrilling theater in New York this Fall, and certainly much of the weirdest, promises to be Off-Broadway.
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courtneytincher · 5 years
Text
How Trump’s trade wars are fueling the Amazon fires
Brazil is now the top exporter of soybeans to China – and that is leading to the rainforest being burned down at an extraordinary rate ‘The number of fires increased more than 80% this year as the US trade war with China peaked.’ Photograph: Paulo Whitaker/ReutersThe so-called “lungs of the world” are belching smoke as farmers set out after 10 August in a “day of fires” to clear forest for grazing cattle and planting soybeans. The result was more than 10,000 new fires spreading in the Brazilian rainforest, kindled by drought that drives wildfires raging from Russia to Africa.Brazilian deforestation is no act of non-government organizations, as the president, Jair Bolsonaro – who called himself “Captain Chainsaw” – absurdly claimed. He ran for president last year exhorting homesteaders to stake their claim by cutting or burning. They scoff at scientists and outsiders alarmed that the planet could cook that much faster if the rain forest is torched, and have openly stated their goals shielded in sovereignty.The number of fires increased more than 80% this year as the US trade war with China peaked. The Day of Fires was called just as China declared it would no longer buy US agricultural products. The biggest import from China was soybeans, accounting for over half Iowa’s annual crop.This is part of a long-term development that has seen China invest in production capacity in Central and South America to shift its soy dependence away from the US.Brazil is now the top exporter of soybeans to China. It is also building its beef export business in Asia as an African virus cut the Chinese hog herd in half, which will take years to rebuild.As Brazilian savannas that grazed livestock give way to soybean cultivation, cattle move into the rain forest along with row-crop production.As if the world were not already awash in soybeans, and corn. Upper midwest farmers have watched their soy prices drop by a third as Donald Trump and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, ratchet up their rhetoric and tariffs.Iowa soybean growers carefully cultivated China for decades to open up new export markets. Since the days that Nixon’s agriculture secretary, Earl Butz, commanded farmers to plant fencerow to fencerow to feed the world, China became Iowa’s top soy customer. When the state’s governor, Terry Branstad, was appointed ambassador, Iowa farmers thought the key to the door of the Forbidden City had been given to them. Then Trump, who said he loves farmers, started the trade wars with China, Mexico and Canada.“You will never see the Chinese market the way you had it,” former Mexican ambassador to China Jorge Guajardo told me. “They will never make the mistake of depending on the United States again.”He adds that Mexican buyers also are leery of counting on US agriculture suppliers. They have a free trade agreement with Brazil. They do not have one with the US.Arrangements have been made. The supply chain has been twisted another direction. Now, Brazilians are using that language of feeding the world, and planting every last acre by expropriating rain forest from indigenous people if Chinese demand dictates it. And it does.The soybeans sit in the bin in Iowa and Illinois awaiting a better day, as a harvest fast approaches, while the rain forest burns. In the rolling hills of southern Iowa painted in green pasture you can’t scare up a cattle buyer anymore. The beef slaughter plants in Fort Dodge and Denison are closed now, as the action moves to South America’s new frontier. We are growing so much soy and corn that the Gulf of Mexico is choking from excess fertilizer streaming down the Mississippi River. What we can’t feed to hogs and poultry we burn for ethanol, competing with the Brazilian cane growers who create environmental disasters all their own. Because of the trade wars, Trump has doled out $30bn over two years in disaster payments to make up for depressed soybean markets. We can’t seem to give it away. It has many Iowa farmers talking with presidential candidates about doing things differently – like growing less corn and beans, and instead fighting the climate crisisby planting crops that capture carbon while restoring soil.Yet the forest burns, and its carbon-capturing capacity goes up in smoke. All for some cheaper soybeans and hamburger. Trade wars may end, but supply chains are hard to bend back. * Art Cullen is editor of the Storm Lake Times in north-west Iowa, where he won the Pulitzer prize for editorial writing. He is author of the book Storm Lake: A Chronicle of Change, Resilience and Hope from a Heartland Newspaper (Viking, 2018)
from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines
Brazil is now the top exporter of soybeans to China – and that is leading to the rainforest being burned down at an extraordinary rate ‘The number of fires increased more than 80% this year as the US trade war with China peaked.’ Photograph: Paulo Whitaker/ReutersThe so-called “lungs of the world” are belching smoke as farmers set out after 10 August in a “day of fires” to clear forest for grazing cattle and planting soybeans. The result was more than 10,000 new fires spreading in the Brazilian rainforest, kindled by drought that drives wildfires raging from Russia to Africa.Brazilian deforestation is no act of non-government organizations, as the president, Jair Bolsonaro – who called himself “Captain Chainsaw” – absurdly claimed. He ran for president last year exhorting homesteaders to stake their claim by cutting or burning. They scoff at scientists and outsiders alarmed that the planet could cook that much faster if the rain forest is torched, and have openly stated their goals shielded in sovereignty.The number of fires increased more than 80% this year as the US trade war with China peaked. The Day of Fires was called just as China declared it would no longer buy US agricultural products. The biggest import from China was soybeans, accounting for over half Iowa’s annual crop.This is part of a long-term development that has seen China invest in production capacity in Central and South America to shift its soy dependence away from the US.Brazil is now the top exporter of soybeans to China. It is also building its beef export business in Asia as an African virus cut the Chinese hog herd in half, which will take years to rebuild.As Brazilian savannas that grazed livestock give way to soybean cultivation, cattle move into the rain forest along with row-crop production.As if the world were not already awash in soybeans, and corn. Upper midwest farmers have watched their soy prices drop by a third as Donald Trump and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, ratchet up their rhetoric and tariffs.Iowa soybean growers carefully cultivated China for decades to open up new export markets. Since the days that Nixon’s agriculture secretary, Earl Butz, commanded farmers to plant fencerow to fencerow to feed the world, China became Iowa’s top soy customer. When the state’s governor, Terry Branstad, was appointed ambassador, Iowa farmers thought the key to the door of the Forbidden City had been given to them. Then Trump, who said he loves farmers, started the trade wars with China, Mexico and Canada.“You will never see the Chinese market the way you had it,” former Mexican ambassador to China Jorge Guajardo told me. “They will never make the mistake of depending on the United States again.”He adds that Mexican buyers also are leery of counting on US agriculture suppliers. They have a free trade agreement with Brazil. They do not have one with the US.Arrangements have been made. The supply chain has been twisted another direction. Now, Brazilians are using that language of feeding the world, and planting every last acre by expropriating rain forest from indigenous people if Chinese demand dictates it. And it does.The soybeans sit in the bin in Iowa and Illinois awaiting a better day, as a harvest fast approaches, while the rain forest burns. In the rolling hills of southern Iowa painted in green pasture you can’t scare up a cattle buyer anymore. The beef slaughter plants in Fort Dodge and Denison are closed now, as the action moves to South America’s new frontier. We are growing so much soy and corn that the Gulf of Mexico is choking from excess fertilizer streaming down the Mississippi River. What we can’t feed to hogs and poultry we burn for ethanol, competing with the Brazilian cane growers who create environmental disasters all their own. Because of the trade wars, Trump has doled out $30bn over two years in disaster payments to make up for depressed soybean markets. We can’t seem to give it away. It has many Iowa farmers talking with presidential candidates about doing things differently – like growing less corn and beans, and instead fighting the climate crisisby planting crops that capture carbon while restoring soil.Yet the forest burns, and its carbon-capturing capacity goes up in smoke. All for some cheaper soybeans and hamburger. Trade wars may end, but supply chains are hard to bend back. * Art Cullen is editor of the Storm Lake Times in north-west Iowa, where he won the Pulitzer prize for editorial writing. He is author of the book Storm Lake: A Chronicle of Change, Resilience and Hope from a Heartland Newspaper (Viking, 2018)
September 01, 2019 at 07:00AM via IFTTT
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isearchgoood · 5 years
Text
February 01, 2019 at 10:06PM - Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China (100% discount) Ashraf
Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China (100% discount) Hurry Offer Only Last For HoursSometime. Don't ever forget to share this post on Your Social media to be the first to tell your firends. This is not a fake stuff its real.
Assassin’s Creed® Chronicles: China takes place in China, 1526, as the Ming dynasty starts to crumble. You embody Shao Jun, the last remaining Assassin of the Chinese Brotherhood, returning to her homeland with a vendetta. Newly trained by the legendary Ezio Auditore, she is hell-bent on exacting vengeance and restoring her fallen Brotherhood.
Key Features Witness an empire crumble Travel across China and its legendary landmarks. Stalk enemies from the roofs of the Forbidden City, hide in the shadows of the Great Wall, meet iconic historical figures and discover this Great Empire.
Immerse yourself in a unique art direction Brought to life by fusing the essence of Chinese 16th century traditional brush strokes with more contemporary, impressionistic styles, Shao Jun’s adventure will keep you awed in an evocative and truly living painting.
Stealth takes a new dimension Assassin’s Creed Chronicles brings the thrill of being a master Assassin into 2.5D. Scout, sneak and hide to avoid detection. Fool enemies using whistles and disguises. Find your target, kill and escape.
Experience fast & fluid “Assault Course” As in all Assassin’s Creed experiences, freedom of movement is essential. Whether you’re running from danger, scaling obstacles or climbing stealthily, you will feel that you really can do anything.
Shao Jun’s arsenal is in your hands Should you fail to go undetected, you can always takeout your enemies with style using Shao Jun’s empowering combat arsenal: close-combat martial arts, a powerful Kian Sword and her unique hidden shoe blade.
Navigate multiple planes Switch between fore, mid and background environmental layers and choose between different path accordingly to your need: opening up new pathways, completing side-missions, grabbing hidden collectibles, or taking the quickest path to your target.
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biblioncollection · 4 years
Video
youtube
Two Years in the Forbidden City | Der Ling Yu | *Non-fiction, Biography & Autobiography, History | Audiobook full unabridged | English | 2/6 Content of the video and Sections beginning time (clickable) - Chapters of the audiobook: please see First comments under this video. THE author of the following narrative has peculiar qualifications for her task. She is a daughter of Lord Yu Keng, a member of the Manchu White Banner Corps, and one of the most advanced and progressive Chinese officials of his generation. she became First Lady-in-Waiting to the Empress Dowager, and while serving at the Court in that capacity she received the impressions which provide the subject-matter of this book. Her opportunity to observe and estimate the characteristics of the remarkable woman who ruled China for so long was unique, and her narrative throws a new light on one of the most extraordinary personalities of modern times. Yielding to the urgent solicitation of friends, she consented to put some of her experiences into literary form, and the following chronicle, in which the most famous of Chinese women, the customs and atmosphere of her Court are portrayed by an intimate of the same race, is a result. (Summary adapted from the Foreword) This is a Librivox recording. If you want to volunteer please visit https://librivox.org/ by Priceless Audiobooks
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terryblount · 5 years
Text
Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China is currently available for free on UPLAY
Ubisoft is currently offering Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China for free on UPLAY. All you have to do in order to acquire your free copy is visit the game’s UPLAY store page, add it to your cart and check out.
In case you haven’t purchased anything from UPLAY, it will ask you for some additional details (like your preferred payment method and your address). We can confirm that this free offer works so there is no reason to worry about providing these details.
In Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China, players pick up Shao Jun’s story as she returns to China hell-bent on revenge. Her story will take players across China, to famous locations including the Maijishan Grottoes, Port of Macau, The Forbidden City and The Great Wall. Armed with stealth, agility, and a combination of deadly weapons and equipment including a sharp and swift jian, a secret shoe blade and lethal rope darts and daggers, players will deliver payback to those who decimated the Chinese Brotherhood of Assassins.
Developed by Climax Studios in collaboration with Ubisoft Montreal, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles brings the thrill of being a Master Assassin to 2.5D. Brought to life by fusing the essence of Chinese 16th-century traditional brush strokes with more contemporary impressionistic styles, Shao Jun’s adventure will immerse players in a living painting as they traverse undetected across China’s historical landmarks.
Those interested can acquire their free copy from here (for US gamers) or from here (for EU gamers). This offer will last until February 5th.
Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China is currently available for free on UPLAY published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/
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cryptobully-blog · 6 years
Text
Bay Area farmers’ markets have a ruff time keeping dogs out
http://cryptobully.com/bay-area-farmers-markets-have-a-ruff-time-keeping-dogs-out-2/
Bay Area farmers’ markets have a ruff time keeping dogs out
Photo: Sarah Fritsche / The Chronicle
The new puppy parking stations at the Fort Mason Center Farmers’ Market.
The new puppy parking stations at the Fort Mason Center Farmers’ Market.
Photo: Sarah Fritsche / The Chronicle
Response has been positive to dog-friendly zones around the Fort Mason Center Farmers’ Market, but not all are satisfied.
Response has been positive to dog-friendly zones around the Fort Mason Center Farmers’ Market, but not all are satisfied.
Photo: Sarah Fritsche / The Chronicle
A sign at the Fort Mason Center Farmers’ Market.
A sign at the Fort Mason Center Farmers’ Market.
Photo: Sarah Fritsche / The Chronicle
Prince, a red iguana from Ecuador, meets curious customers at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Mar ket. “You receive so much love. Of course I bring him out,” says Anthony Caldwell, his owner.
Prince, a red iguana from Ecuador, meets curious customers at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Mar ket. “You receive so much love. Of course I bring him out,” says Anthony Caldwell, his owner.
Photo: Sarah Fritsche / The Chronicle
The new puppy parking stations at the Fort Mason Center Farmers’ Market.
The new puppy parking stations at the Fort Mason Center Farmers’ Market.
Photo: Sarah Fritsche / The Chronicle
The new puppy parking stations at the Fort Mason Center Farmers’ Market.
The new puppy parking stations at the Fort Mason Center Farmers’ Market.
Photo: Sarah Fritsche / The Chronicle
Bay Area farmers’ markets have a ruff time keeping dogs out
The signs are everywhere at Bay Area farmers’ markets these days.
“No pets.”
“No dogs allowed in the farmers’ market.”
“No dogs.”
Yet there they are, right next to the farm stands: dogs on leashes, dogs off leashes, dogs in buggies, dogs in designer bags. San Franciscans seem dead-set on ignoring the signs, and it’s not uncommon to see a dozen or more dogs over the course of an hour at the city’s major markets, be it at the Ferry Plaza or Civic Center.
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“Farmers’ markets provide such a relaxed environment that it’s hard to think of them as having rules,” said Jessica Wyatt, Fort Mason Center Farmers’ Market operations manager.
But the signs are there for good reason, their authors say.
“Pee and poop. Those are the biggest concerns,” said Steve Pulliam, ground manager for Heart of the City Farmers’ Market at San Francisco’s Civic Center.
On market days, Pulliam will spy upward of 20 dogs with their humans at the market — sometimes more.
Health codes state that with the exception of service animals, pets aren’t legally permitted within farmers’ markets, or even within 20 feet of food stands or stalls.
But “enforcing that is a whole different ballgame,” Pulliam said.
Health violations are the main concern, but there are other problems that can arise, said Beth Schecter, interim CEO for the Agricultural Institute of Marin. At crowded markets, dogs often get stepped on, and both people and dogs can get tangled in leashes. Sometimes, dogs aren’t the only animals you’ll see.
At the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, this reporter ran into a red iguana from Ecuador name Prince.
Prince’s owner, Anthony Caldwell, said that in addition to trips to the farmers’ market, he takes his pet to protests and marches as a way to bond with people.
“You receive so much love. Of course I bring him out,” said Caldwell, who, as he walked the market, was stopped by dozens of children and adults asking to take selfies and pet the iguana.
Caldwell has seen the signs but said he’s never been stopped or asked to leave. He does, however, recall security officers asking to take a photo with Prince a few years back.
It’s hard to put the kibosh on animals that seem to bring joy to those around them, but market managers said the most challenging part is navigating whether a dog is, in fact, a service animal.
According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, in cases where it’s not obvious whether the dog is a service animal, staff members are legally allowed to ask just two questions: Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability? And: What work or task has the dog been trained to perform?
No documentation may be requested, nor can the dog be asked to demonstrate the task. It’s also, understandably, forbidden to inquire about the nature of the person’s disability. Adding to the challenge for market workers, the ADA does not require service animals to wear a vest, ID tag or specific harness.
Misrepresenting oneself as the owner of a service animal is a misdemeanor. But, let’s face it, the lines for what constitutes a service animal (Google “emotional support peacock”) have been stretched in recent years.
It can be seen as offensive to even approach someone with a dog, Pulliam said, so he and his team rely on the signage and making sure all dogs passing through are at least on leashes.
At Fort Mason Center, however, they’re tackling the problem in a different way.
Photo: Sarah Fritsche / The Chronicle
A sign at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.
A sign at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.
Pet owners bringing their four-legged friends to the weekly market had become such an issue that about a month ago, the management decided to try new signs: “Puppy Parking.”
Each Sunday, the team sets up dog-friendly zones around the perimeter of the market that feature metal railings for strapping leashes, plus water bowls to keep dogs hydrated.
This is the first such setup for the California Farmers’ Markets Association, which operates more than a dozen farmers’ markets around the Bay Area.
Response to the puppy parking stations has been overwhelmingly positive. Furthermore, customers have started to self-police, reminding any potential scofflaws to park their pooch, Wyatt said.
Still, not everyone is satisfied.
Parked at a bench next to one of the puppy centers, Fort Mason regular Sheila Finn and her black terrier mix, Jimmy Mac, were taking in the crowds waiting for a friend to bring back some chicken dumplings to snack on. Finn hadn’t been to the market in a couple of months, and it was her first time encountering the new signage. Her critique of the setup: It needs to be in the shade. (Adding large umbrellas is on the to-do list for summer, Wyatt said.)
“In Europe, there are dogs walking into restaurants all the time,” Finn said. “It’s much more relaxed.”
Sarah Fritsche is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter/Instagram: @foodcentric
Markets
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