Think Chinese art is limited to calligraphy and Mao posters?

Think again.

This evening, I attended a film festival in the 798 District, a super-trendy art and cultural space in Beijing. A gallery there was showing films from The 48 Hour Film Project, an international city-by-city contest in which filmmakers have exactly 48 hours to write, shoot and edit a short film. The best films go to Cannes.

I met up with Beijing resident and fellow Iolani grad Nelson Quan, who produced one of the films that was being shown, called "Monkey Love." Quan studied at the University of Hawaii's Academy for Creative Media (ACM) and interned on the set of Superman Returns. He has been working on different projects in China for the last year and a half.

The 798 District is awash in cafes, sculptures, galleries and lofts, most set up in defunct factories (the area used to be an enormous joint factory project between China and East Germany). Gigantic red Mao-era slogans can still be seen in some places, but the area is very different from what it was 30 years ago.

The dozen or so films were being shown in the Yan Club Arts Centre.

Inside, there was no air conditioning, and although temperatures were in the high 90s outside, the inside was even worse. We were granted an intermission halfway through the screening and fled outside to escape the sweltering heat.

"Monkey Love" was produced by Quan and directed by Jay Hubert, who also studied at UH's ACM. It tells the tale of a musician and his stuffed animal friend. The film was a definite hit and was warmly received by the audience.

All the films are shot over the same weekend. And all must be built around a few specified elements; for example, each film had to include Chinese alcohol and a character who was a musician.

I was very impressed by the quality and creativity of the films, considering the film crews only had 48 hours to put them together (Quan said he slept 8 hours total during the 2-day project). Although, some were too dark for my taste, and I probably couldn't fully appreciate some of the Chinese ones because of the language barrier. Some had lighter themes; others had darker political and social undertones.

Here are the faces behind "Monkey Love" (Quan is third from R, Hubert fifth from R). If the film wins, the group wins a bunch of different prizes, and their film is put in the running for "Best 48 Hour Film of 2009" and a $3,000 prize. The top 10 films of the 2009 Tour will be shown at the Cannes Film Festival's Short Film Corner in 2010.

The 48 Hour Film Project comes to Honolulu the weekend of August 7. See their web site for details.

--------

Speaking of the arts: I was utterly shocked this morning to hear that Michael Jackson had passed away at age 50. It is testament to the King of Pop's international stature that the news of his death was the very first thing my Chinese teacher asked me about in our 9 a.m. class.

On Wednesday evening and for much of Thursday, I couldn't access Google, Gmail or other Google Apps from my laptop. A quick Yahoo! news search told me that I wasn't alone -- internet users throughout China were suddenly unable to get to Google.

The disruption came amidst stepped-up Chinese criticism of Google for allowing users access to "vulgar content." The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Thursday accused Google of spreading obscene images, although it is not clear whether the Google outage and the scuffle over online content were related.

I was able to use Google's search engine when I returned from dinner tonight (Thursday).

I remember internet complications when I lived in Beijing in 2005, but I don't remember them bugging me as much as they do now. I'm sure part of it is due to the fact that I'm here on my own this time around, so staying connected to the people I love is extremely important.

Another part of it, though, is probably because applications like Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and even this blog, have so tethered me to the web that blocking my email access is like yanking the IV from my arm.

I've written before about how I sometimes feel addicted to the internet. It's part of the reason why I've never had a phone with internet capabilities -- I'd never put it down!

But I also feel like the addiction is being fed by the expectations of others; for example, the expectation that if I don't answer an email within 24 hours, I'm either dead, snubbing the sender, or in Antarctica. I recognize the need for a quick reply, but seriously -- can't you just call me?

While slow connections and random internet outages are frustrating, maybe this year in China will wean me from the internet. At the same time, I can't help but fear that I'll somehow miss opportunities, become detached from the news or, worse, lose touch with people.

Maybe people trying to contact me will just have to lower their expectations. At least the occasional total Google blockade is a pretty good excuse for not answering an email within 24 hours.

----------------------

In the meantime, I've been meticulously documenting all of my meals.

Here's something cool -- Make Your Own Sushi Box.

A friend and I discovered this in the enormous food court of one of Beijing's huge malls, in the Xidan shopping area.

Each sushi piece is individually wrapped, so you can just select which ones you want and put them in your plastic container. It's probably not the freshest way to eat sushi, but it's certainly convenient!

The inari was really good. A box of six assorted pieces, including some salmon and tuna rolls, cost about $2.

On Friday, a friend and I decided to check out the Summer Palace in the northwest outskirts of Beijing.

Unfortunately, we picked a bad day to go -- the skies were very overcast and there was a strong wind blowing. But apparently, that didn't stop 11,000 people from visiting the palace that day. (General admission is 30 RMB - about USD $5.)

The Summer Palace, an elaborate collection of pavilions, temples, walkways and gardens, was built around Kunming Lake. The site was previously a royal garden before Emperor Qianlong enlarged and expanded it in the 18th century. Only a panoramic photo can really do the place justice.

The main visitor entrance is near the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity, which is fronted by a courtyard with a collection of mythical animals made of bronze. This is the qilin, which is supposed to only appear on Earth during times of harmony.

The Summer Palace was used as a retreat by the royal family to escape the sweltering heat of Beijing around this time of year (the temperature today nearly reached 100 degrees).

On Friday, it was being used by hundreds -- thousands? -- of people for the same purpose.

Normally you can rent a boat to take out on the lake. But the wind was so strong that staff in motor boats were going out every few minutes to tow people in.

For an extra 10 RMB, we got to ascend a few long corridors of stairs to the Buddhist Fragrance Pavilion and the Cloud Dispelling Hall that sit on Longevity Hill. (Chinese royalty must have been extremely fit.)

Here's the view from the top -- again, I'll have to go back on a nicer day...

At the very top, a few statues of Buddha that adorn the Temple of the Sea and Wisdom were missing their heads. Signs attribute the damage to Anglo-French troops, who left their mark on many of the structures during the Second Opium War (1856-1860). The crest of Longevity Hill are more temples, walkways and gardens, all with spectacular views (on a clear day).

Continuing around the lake ... the Empress Dowager Cixi again expanded the Summer Palace in 1888 -- using funds that were supposed to pay for a modern navy. This extravagant marble boat was one of her additions.

I also tried some green bean ice cream from one of the dozens of vendors hawking snacks and toys inside the Palace. It wasn't tasty. I suppose the royal family ate better back in the day.

What a difference a week makes.

This photo was taken on Tuesday from the window of my apartment in Beijing. A thunderstorm engulfed the city that morning, but even after the rain, the city's notorious air pollution can be seen clearly.

Here's the same shot, taken this morning:

(Wow. So that building is actually YELLOW. Didn't realize that until this weekend...)

Air pollution was one of the biggest issues of the Beijing Olympics and, as you can see, it remains a big problem. In 1998, Beijing launched the "Defending Blue Sky" campaign and began publishing weekly -- later daily -- air quality data. Blue Sky Days are determined by daily Air Pollution Index (API) readings, which measure four atmospheric pollutants: sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and particulate matter. The higher the API, the greater the pollution.

During the Olympics, Blue Sky Days (days with an API less than 100) became a somewhat politically charged measure of how Beijing was doing on air quality improvements. According to data at least, things appear to be getting better. In April 2009, Beijing reported 23 Blue Sky Days and its best month of air quality since 2000.

Greenpeace China lists Beijing's daily API readings on its website. The data is published daily by the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Today's API is 42.

Many measures were taken to address air quality and avoid embarassment ahead of the Olympics. Beijing closed factories or moved them out of the city; the government also only allowed drivers to use their cars on certain days of the week -- taking a portion of Beijing's 3 million cars off the roads -- and made an ambitious effort to adopt higher emissions standards.

Although many of these measures were temporary, some, like cars bans, have lasting policy implications for Beijing and other Chinese cities, like Shanghai, which is hosting the World Expo next year, and Guangzhou, which will host the Asian Games.

Still, almost a year after the Games, any visitor to Beijing can see -- and feel -- that the city has a long way to go in combatting pollution. I've been here a little less than a week and have already developed the dreaded "Beijing Cough," which TIME describes as "a hacking, lung-ripping cough that leaves the sufferer unwilling to draw a full breath for fear it might set off another bout[.]" Believe me -- it's not pleasant. I was up very late last night coughing.

Experience tells me that my Beijing Cough will go away once I leave the city -- but those who called the capital home aren't so lucky. For the sake of Beijing's residents, and those in cities with far dirtier air, I hope that more permanent steps will be taken and that Blue Skies become more than just a rare occurrence in Beijing.

My internet connection went down again for all of last night, because of the rain. At least that's what I was told by the front desk. Apparently, in Beijing, rain wreaks all kinds of havoc on internet connections.

When I came to Beijing in 2005, I expected all kinds of things as an American. For one, like many Americans traveling abroad, I expected more people to speak English. But with the Olympics a mere three years ahead, it was evident then that even a campaign to teach Beijing cabbies English basics hadn't made Beijing a friendly place for non-Chinese speakers.

There were other frustrations, too. This may sound odd, but there aren't a whole lot of food options other than ... Chinese. Sure, you can get Japanese, Korean and American (KFC, McDonald's) -- but those are often 5 or 6 times more expensive than your average local restaurant. Our language program allotted us the equivalent of about USD $3 for food per day. That's easy when you're only eating Chinese food; but one value meal at McDonald's would probably eat up your entire food budget for that day.

Although it's important to taste the local cuisine, Chinese food can be laden with MSG and oil (I gained 10-15 lbs the last time I was here!), and though you feel full just after you eat, an hour later you're hungry again. When you're living in China for an extended period of time, sometimes you just want a sandwich!

Oh, and don't even get me started on the squat toilets. It's the oddest thing to go out to a nice restaurant or club and imagining all the women there, wearing their best dresses, trying to manuever over a hole in the ground.

At first I thought: maybe I'm not supposed to live abroad. But facing these and other frustrations, and learning to deal with them, was actually a very positive experience in my life. I'd even say that my first experience living abroad was a life-changing experience -- it made me realize just how privileged we are as Americans, and how few people in foreign countries can expect the same basic amenities that we demand every day.

So when I saw that my room for the summer had a Western-style toilet, I jumped for joy. Even though the internet may not work and I may not have had anything to eat except noodles and dumplings since I arrived, in China, it's the small comforts that really make your day.

---------------------

Speaking of accommodations, check out this interesting tiling in my bathroom:

The words read: "Christians and Muslim," "worship Muslim," and "antiquity and the love" -- although my friend pointed out that the last word could be "have" or "laws." Not that that would make more sense than "love."

(This isn't writing on the tiles -- this is the actual tile pattern!)

Odd, for sure; although I guess I appreciate the spirit of religious ... unity?