China Love Movie
Rode Strawther
"China is at the junction of the past and the future, but the past and the future are rubbing and colliding with each other at a high speed, so that China is now in a very fluid state, like a place close to a dream."
Olivia is deeply fascinated by the Chinese people's behavior of constructing dreams in a flourishing environment. She believes that China has only emerged from a painful history in a very short period of time and at a very fast speed. The conflicts between contemporary youth and the older generation burst out through exquisite wedding photos; and the interesting act of taking wedding photos has become a unique platform for every Chinese to build new dreams and create memories.
China Love, a documentary released last year by Australian filmmaker Olivia Martin-McGuire, takes a close look at China's pre-wedding photo industry. We meet couples young and old who celebrate love while also being honest about their anxieties. What if, the second the shutter snaps, is the best moment of their life?
In 21st century China, it's custom for bethrothed couples to spend small fortunes on glamorous portraits, taken months in advance of their wedding. China Love invited viewers on a tour of this weird and wonderful world.
Olivia Martin-McGuire, director of the China Love documentary, believes Chinese people are now displaying their wealth because it hadn't been possible in the past, particularly for people who lived through the decade-long Cultural Revolution.
Host Cyrus Webb welcomes photographer, director and producer Olivia Martin-McGuire to #ConversationsLIVE to discuss what led her to want to tell the story that is i the film CHINA LOVE and what it's been like to see the response.
On initial blush, it sounds like quite a narrow focus; however, Olivia Martin-McGuire's documentary goes wide, encompassing the changes that have swept through China over the past few decades, and how that's affected its citizens.
China Love is her first feature length documentary and the film is currently in competition at the Sydney Film Festival. The director is supported by a crew of considerable female power, including editor Bernadette Murray and producers Rebecca Barry and Madeleine Hetherton, founders of Media Stockade and directors of award winning documentaries in their own right.
SYDNEY, June 13 (Xinhua) -- A new documentary showcasing Chinas profound love of wedding photography will premiere at the Sydney Film Festival on Wednesday evening, with audiences buzzing about the behind-the-scenes look into the multi-billion dollar industry.
I was working as a photojournalist and I arrived early for a job for The Australian Financial Review (AFR). I was actually shooting the director of Red Obsession in Shanghai at The Roosevelt Hotel on the Bund. I was taken aback by handfuls of bridal couples being photographed against the sandstone walls, and then picking up their dresses to reveal white sneakers and running to another wall to set up another photo.
During his address, the U.S. president gave the gathering of elite policy-makers and business people a laundry list of economic achievements, including what he described as confronting "China's predatory practices" in trade with America. Trump said these had become "worse and worse and worse" under his predecessors. "Under my leadership America confronted the problem head on," he said.
"Our relationship with China has now probably never, ever been better," Trump said, adding that he gets on well with President Xi Jinping. "He's for China, I'm for the U.S., but other than that, we love each other."
In a review of the domestic policy decisions he has made since taking office in 2017, the president claimed the U.S. has experienced an "economic turnaround that has been nothing short of spectacular."
The news came a week after police raided and sealed off so-called house mosques in Mamichang and two other villages in rural Yunnan, and violent videos of the raids leaked internationally across Twitter and other social media platforms. A series of interviews in Mamichang and Huihuideng, where two of the raids took place, reveal a state determined to maintain social stability and worshippers torn between their love of God and country. Or, as the party would say, their love of country and God.
In January, China passed the five-year plan to Sinicize Islam at a meeting with representatives from Islamic associations from eight different provinces and regions. Few details have been released about the plan, but it is clear that shaping doctrine and traditions to conform to party objectives is central. Similar plans to Sinicize Protestantism and Catholicism in China have already passed, and swift implementation is expected. In Xinjiang, anti-religious efforts have been incorporated into a massive regional crackdown, including the mass detention of Islamic minorities.
Ruth Silbermayr-Song, the author of the blog China Elevator Stories, was separated from her children in 2019. In 2020, all contact to her children was cut off by her ex-husband, as detailed in an interview on this blog.
A few days ago, the court in Austria has declined my request for receiving sole custody of my children and has declined my request to see my children in their summer holidays. I have been allowed a call with my children two days a week, which is much less than the daily calls I have requested. (I have appealed the decision on January 23rd).
The water bristled with the umbrella-like leaves of lotus plants, a grand gathering of bright green parasols under the summer sunlight. Behind them, the gentle slope of a long stone arch bridge balanced a white car and a handful of pedestrians. Willow trees bowed before the shoreline, while a mountain silhouette traced the horizon.
One year of absence, give or take a few months, was about all I could bear when I first came to China. And once, while working in Shanghai, the one and a half years I ended up waiting to see my family already tested me, and left me aching within.
Why are couples of Chinese men and Western women so rare? This question, which I had first posed many years ago, fired up this blog, and fueled an interest that pushed me to do a deep dive to fully understand, through posts about everything from stereotypes to sex appeal.
ChatGPT offered little insight into the dynamics in Chinese/Western relationships, but it did teach me something: AI still apparently has much to learn about race, ethnicity and culture, and how it plays out in relationships and marriage.
Those of you who have studied the US labor movement probably recognize the 1886 Haymarket Affair, when a bomb exploded just as the police were breaking up a labor protest rally ignited by a nationwide push, which began May 1, for the eight-hour workday. Years later, at an international labor conference in Paris, an American delegate proposed setting aside May 1 as a day to remember this injustice.
What do you think about this? Are you surprised by the US connection to International Workers Day? Do you think Americans are missing out by celebrating Labor Day in September, instead of May, like here in China?
Ruth built a following by distilling casual encounters and conversations in her daily life in China into fascinating blog posts, which also offered glimpses into her courtship with and eventual marriage to a local Chinese man. Over the years, readers like me followed the adventures of her seemingly perfect cross-cultural family with two lovely kids.
I have been fighting to re-establish contact with and see my children for almost 3 years now. In these past years, I had to realize that discrimination against women and mothers is just as extreme in Austria as I have experienced it in China. Austria has been regressing in this regard in recent years. It took me years of having to deal with authorities and courts on a regular basis to realize how bad the actual state of discrimination against women in Austria currently is.
I find myself having to argue over basic human concepts I consider should be common sense and easy to grasp, simply because people I meet are favoring men and seniority or seek dominance over women. It almost forces you to become a feminist, even if you are not into politics, simply because you were born female.
Thankfully, I dodged COVID then, but would still brace for the threat of more cases in the office, including two other people beside me who were infected. By then I was wearing N95 masks, and altering my work routines, such as having breakfast and lunch at home instead of in the office.
China Daily recently published my column titled China Feels Truly Like Home With Chinese Green Card, where I shared my reflections after becoming a card holder. Here are some excerpts from the column, along with a video I made:
China has always been close to my heart, especially since my husband Jun joined hands with me in the marriage registration office years ago in Shanghai. But it was only later, after the two of us had spent years in the United States, that we made a new vow: to live the rest of our lives in China.
Janet had written the song about her own prior identity in another time, in which she was told to be the daughter of an emperor in love with a warrior, unable to sustain relations when forced to marry into royalty.
When their plane landed, the media mobbed Ruth and Su Lin, the first giant panda in America. Ruth kept her panda puppy for a month, then sold Su Lin to the Chicago Zoo for $9,000. Unfortunately, the panda only lived a year.
The Chinese government and the international community of panda lovers intervened. People from all over the world sent money to ship bamboo to pandas. Mei recalled that a friend who was seven years old at the time broke her piggy bank and donated all her money for panda food.
The construction of the Great Wall spanned over two millennia, according to historical records, beginning with the Square Wall built by the Chu state in the 7th century BC, continuing until the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). During this time, over 20 feudal states and dynasties contributed to its construction, with the lengths of the wall built during the Qin, Han, and Ming dynasties each exceeding 6,000 kilometers.
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