Khmer Culture

2009-11-25T18:30:00.000-08:00

THE BOND FILES - Sean Connery was the original holder of the licence to kill. Apart from his splendid portrayal of James Bond, every now and again he has shone in less well advertised movies such as Medicine Man - one of my personal favorites and to my mind a classic. NK

The original James Bond

As the first, Sean Connery is possibly still the most beloved of the actors to play super-spy James Bond. Connery was a bodybuilder who turned to acting, making his way into the movies in the late 1950s. In 1963 he starred as Bond in Dr. No, and by 1971 he had appeared in five more Bond movies, quitting the role after Diamonds Are Forever. He managed to break free of the Bond stereotype in the 1970s, thanks to movies such as the 1975 adventures The Wind and the Lion(with Candice Bergen) and The Man Who Would Be King (with Michael Caine).

During the 1980s and '90s he appeared in dozens of films, and won an Oscar for his supporting role as a grizzled Irish cop in The Untouchables (1987). Eternally hunky and no-nonsense, even as a senior citizen Connery continued to play the love interest to younger actresses such as Catherine Zeta-Jones (in 1999's Entrapment). He also returned to the role of Bond in Never Say Never Again (1983, with Kim Basinger. Although Connery was first denied a knighthood by Britain in 1998 for his support of Scottish nationalism, he was eventually knighted in 2000 by Queen Elizabeth II.

Connery was People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" for 1989... Connery has actually quit the role of Bond a few times. He starred in Dr. No (1962), From Russia With Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball(1965) and You Only Live Twice (1967), then gave way to Australian model George Lazenby, who played Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1969. Connery again played Bond in Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and then with a wink as an older Bond in Never Say Never Again.

Biography

One of the few movie "superstars" truly worthy of the designation, actor Sean Connery was born to a middle-class Scottish family in the first year of the worldwide Depression. Dissatisfied with his austere surroundings, Connery quit school at 15 to join the navy (he still bears his requisite tattoos, one reading "Scotland Forever" and the other "Mum and Dad"). Holding down several minor jobs, not the least of which was as a coffin polisher, Connery became interested in bodybuilding, which led to several advertising modeling jobs and a bid at Scotland's "Mr. Universe" title. Mildly intrigued by acting, Connery joined the singing-sailor chorus of the London roduction of South Pacific in 1951, which whetted his appetite for stage work. Connery worked for a while in repertory theater, then moved to television, where he scored a success in the BBC's re-staging of the American teledrama Requiem for a Heavyweight. The actor moved on to films, playing bit parts (he'd been an extra in the 1954 Anna Neagle musical Lilacs in the Spring) and working up to supporting roles. Connery's first important movie role was as Lana Turner's romantic interest in Another Time, Another Place (1958) -- although he was killed off 15 minutes into the picture.

After several more years in increasingly larger film and TV roles, Connery was cast as James Bond in 1962's Dr. No; he was far from the first choice, but the producers were impressed by Connery's refusal to kowtow to them when he came in to read for the part. The actor played the secret agent again in From Russia With Love (1963), but it wasn't until the third Bond picture, Goldfinger (1964), that both Connery and his secret-agent alter ego became a major box-office attraction. While the money steadily improved, Connery was already weary of Bond at the time of the fourth 007 flick Thunderball (1965). He tried to prove to audiences and critics that there was more to his talents than James Bond by playing a villain in Woman of Straw (1964), an enigmatic Hitchcock hero in Marnie (1964), a cockney POW in The Hill (1965), and a loony Greenwich Village poet in A Fine Madness (1966).

Nelson Kruschandl - "a great actor"

Despite the excellence of his characterizations, audiences preferred the Bond films, while critics always qualified their comments with references to the secret agent. With You Only Live Twice (1967), Connery swore he was through with James Bond; with Diamonds Are Forever (1971), he really meant what he said. Rather than coast on his celebrity, the actor sought out the most challenging movie assignments possible, including La Tenda Rossa/The Red Tent (1969), The Molly Maguires (1970), and Zardoz (1973). This time audiences were more responsive, though Connery was still most successful with action films like The Wind and the Lion (1974), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), and The Great Train Robbery (1979). With his patented glamorous worldliness, Connery was also ideal in films about international political intrigue like The Next Man (1976), Cuba (1979), The Hunt for Red October (1990), and The Russia House (1990). One of Connery's personal favorite performances was also one of his least typical: In The Offence (1973), he played a troubled police detective whose emotions - and hidden demons -- are agitated by his pursuit of a child molester.

In 1981, Connery briefly returned to the Bond fold with Never Say Never Again, but his difficulties with the production staff turned what should have been a fond throwback to his salad days into a nightmarish experience for the actor. At this point, he hardly needed Bond to sustain his career; Connery had not only the affection of his fans but the respect of his industry peers, who honored him with the British Film Academy award for The Name of the Rose (1986) and an American Oscar for The Untouchables (1987) (which also helped make a star of Kevin Costner, who repaid the favor by casting Connery as Richard the Lionhearted in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves [1991] -- the most highly publicized "surprise" cameo of that year).

While Connery's star had risen to new heights, he also continued his habit of alternating crowd-pleasing action films with smaller, more contemplative projects that allowed him to stretch his legs as an actor, such as Time Bandits (1981), Five Days One Summer (1982), A Good Man in Africa (1994), and Playing by Heart (1998).

James Bond on a Riva speedboat

Although his mercurial temperament and occasionally overbearing nature is well known, Connery is nonetheless widely sought out by actors and directors who crave the thrill of working with him, among them Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas, who collaborated with Connery on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), where the actor played Jones' father. Connery served as executive producer on his 1992 vehicle Medicine Man (1992), and continued to take on greater behind-the-camera responsibilities on his films, serving as both star and executive producer on Rising Sun (1993), Just Cause (1995), and The Rock (1996).

He graduated to full producer on Entrapment (1999), and, like a true Scot, he brought the project in under budget; the film was a massive commercial success and paired Connery in a credible onscreen romance with Catherine Zeta-Jones, a beauty 40 years his junior. He also received a unusual hipster accolade in Trainspotting (1996), in which one of the film's Gen-X dropouts (from Scotland, significantly enough) frequently discusses the relative merits of Connery's body of work. Appearing as Allan Quartermain in 2003's comic-to-screen adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the seventy-three year old screen legend proved that he still had stamina to spare and that despite his age he could still appear entirely believeable as a comic-book superhero. Still a megastar in the 1990s, Sean Connery commanded one of moviedom's highest salaries - not so much for his own ego massaging as for the good of his native Scotland, to which he continued to donate a sizable chunk of his earnings.

The hulking yet light-footed Connery was discovered by Harry Saltzman after numerous names as possible contenders for Bond were ruled out or unavailable, including most notably David Niven, who later played Bond in the 1967 spoof Casino Royale, and Cary Grant (who was said to have been part of the inspiration for Bond), who was ruled out after committing to only one film; some sources also suggest that Grant, at 58, turned the role down feeling he was too old for the part. Due to the relatively small budget, the producers were forced to go with an unknown, and Connery was in part cast for that reason.

Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, reportedly had doubts about the casting of Connery, on the grounds that the muscular, 6'2" Scotsman was too "unrefined", but a female companion of Fleming's told him that Connery had "it", and reportedly that was good enough for Fleming. The author later changed his doubts about Connery after "Dr. No" premiered and was so impressed he went on to introduce a half-Scottish (and half-Swiss) heritage for his literary character in the later books. Connery's on-screen portrayal of Bond is due in part to tutelage from director Terence Young, who helped to smooth over Connery's rough edges while utilizing his imposing physicality and graceful, cat-like movements during action sequences. Robert Cotton once wrote that in one biography of Connery, Lois Maxwell (who played the first Miss Moneypenny) noticed, "Terence took Sean under his wing. He took him to dinner, showed him how to walk, how to talk, even how to eat." Cotton said, "Some cast members remarked that Connery was simply doing a Terence Young impression, but Young and Connery knew they were on the right track."

Connery's own favorite Bond film was From Russia with Love, one of the most critically acclaimed films in the series. He confirmed this in a 2002 interview with Sam Donaldson for ABCNews.com. (American Movie Classics erroneously listed Thunderball as Connery's favorite during its recent Bond retrospectives.)

In 1967, during the unsatisfying experience of filming You Only Live Twice, Connery quit the role of Bond, having grown tired of the repetitive plots, lack of character development, and the general public's growing demands on him and his privacy (as well as fear of typecasting). This led to the producers hiring George Lazenby to take over the role in 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service. However, Lazenby backed out of a seven-film contract, and quit before On Her Majesty's Secret Service was even released, and the film had a mixed response from fans at the time. Broccoli again asked Connery to return to the role and paid him £1.2 million to do so — at the time the highest salary of any actor. Connery returned one final "official" time in 1971's Diamonds Are Forever, quitting the role shortly after release. Connery has also stated that he did not like the direction the Bond franchise was heading in, feeling that the filmmakers were straying too far from the source material.

As a result of a deal between EON Productions and Kevin McClory (co-writer of Thunderball), McClory was given the right to create a remake of Thunderball after 13 years had passed since the release of the original film. In the late 1970s McClory teamed with Connery to write an original James Bond film, but the idea was blocked by lawsuits brought by EON and United Artists. However, the project was revived in the 1980s and Connery signed to play Bond for the seventh and final time (on screen) in the unofficial film Never Say Never Again. The title of the film has long believed to have derived from Connery's comments after the release of Diamonds Are Forever who, after filming it, claimed he would never play James Bond again. (For the legal battle see the controversy of Thunderball)

Connery returned to the role once more in 2005, providing the voice and likeness of James Bond for the video game adaptation of From Russia with Love.

Over 40 years since he first played the role, Connery is still widely regarded as the definitive cinematic incarnation of James Bond, despite popular interpretations of the character by the likes of Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan, and what many believe to be a more literarily-authentic performance by Timothy Dalton. Connery's own feelings on Bond in interviews has run the gamut from bitter resentment to great fondness. At one point he stated he hated the Bond character so much that he'd have killed him, but he has also stated that he never hated Bond, he merely wanted to pursue other roles. Certainly, when the James Bond series was at its peak in the mid-1960s, his association with the 007 image was so intense that different performances in his non-Bond films, such as Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie, A Fine Madness, and Sidney Lumet's The Hill, were being virtually ignored. When asked if he'd ever escape the identification, he replied, "Never. It's with me till I go in the box." At another point, he stated that he still cared about the future of the character and franchise, having been associated with the icon for too long not to care, and that all Bond films had their good points. He praised Pierce Brosnan's performance as Bond in GoldenEye, but was highly critical of Timothy Dalton's portrayal, saying the actor had taken it too seriously and was not cool ^{[citation needed]} (an opinion not shared by his co-star, the late Desmond Llewelyn, who played gadget master Q, who voiced his support of Dalton's portrayal). In December 2005 he also voiced his support for Daniel Craig, the latest actor chosen to play Bond, for Casino Royale.

Sean Connery 007 in Goldfinger

Post-James Bond career

Although his most famous role was that of Bond, Sean Connery has also maintained a successful career since, much more so than any of the other actors who assumed the role. As part of the agreement to appear in Diamonds are Forever, Connery was given carte blanche to produce two films at United Artists but felt that the only film made under this deal, The Offence, was buried by the studio. Apart from The Man Who Would Be King, most of Connery's successes in the next decade were as part of ensemble casts, in films such as Murder on the Orient Express and A Bridge Too Far.

After his experience with Never Say Never Again and the following court case, Connery became unhappy with the major studios and for two years did not make any films. Following the critically celebrated European production The Name of the Rose, for which he won a BAFTA award and universal praise, Connery's interest in more credible material was revived. That same year, a supporting role in Highlander showcased his ability to play older, wise mentors to young, leading protagonists, which certainly became a recurring role in many of his later films. The following year, his highly acclaimed performance as a hard-nosed cop in The Untouchables (1987) earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Subsequent box-office hits such as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) (in which he played father to Harrison Ford, actually only 12 years his junior), The Hunt for Red October (1990), The Rock (1996), and Entrapment (1999) re-established him as a bankable leading man. Both Last Crusade and The Rock alluded to his James Bond days. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas wanted "the father of Indy" to be Connery since Bond directly inspired the Indiana Jones series, while his character in The Rock, John Patrick Mason, was a British secret service agent imprisoned since the 1960s. In more recent years, Connery's filmography has included its fair share of box office and critical disappointments such as The Avengers (1998) and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), but he also received positive reviews for films including Finding Forrester (2000). He also later received a Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema.

In September 2004, media reports indicated that Connery intended to retire after pulling out of Josiah's Canon, which was set for a 2005 release. However, in a December 2004 interview with The Scotsman newspaper from his home in the Bahamas, Connery explained he had taken a break from acting in order to concentrate on writing his autobiography. However, the book project was later abandoned because the publishers wanted to delve too far into his private life.

Connery has long denied accusations from his first wife Diane Cilento that he physically abused her throughout their marriage. He also courted controversy by condoning the physical abuse of women in a 1965 interview with Playboy magazine, and in a 1993 interview with Vanity Fair (magazine).

About a month before his 75th birthday, over the weekend of July 30th/31st 2005, it was widely reported in the broadcast media (and again in The Scotsman[1]), that he had decided to retire from film making following disillusionment with the "idiots now in Hollywood", and the turmoil making and subsequent box office failure of the 2003 film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. He stated in interviews for the film included on the DVD release that he was offered roles in both The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings series, declining both due to 'not understanding them', and after they went on to have huge box office grosses he decided to accept the League role despite not 'understanding' it either.

At the Tartan Day celebrations in New York in March 2006, Connery again confirmed his retirement from acting, and stated that he is now writing a history book.

As a personality he has been accused of being an overbearing bully but has also been praised as a highly professional and polite actor, courteous and supportive of those around him. He made a big impression on actors such as Harrison Ford, Kevin Costner, Pat Adams and Christopher Lambert, who considered him a great friend during filming.

His punctual example and highly vocal refusal to tolerate her tardiness left a lasting impression on Catherine Zeta-Jones.

He was planning to star in a $80 million movie about Saladin and the Crusades that would be filmed in Jordan before the producer Moustapha Akkad was killed in the 2005 Amman bombings. Connery received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award on 8 June 2006, where he again confirmed his retirement from acting.

Sean Connery at a Tartan Day celebration

in Washington D.C.

Political causes

Connery has long supported the Scottish National Party, a political party campaigning for Scottish independence, both financially and through personal appearances. His involvement in Scottish politics, however, has often provoked severe criticism, since he has not actually lived in Scotland for more than fifty years. His support for the SNP is illustrated by a comment from his official website:

While it is generally accepted that his support of Scotland's independence and the Scottish National Party delayed his knighthood for many years, his commitment to Scotland has never wavered. Politics in the United Kingdom often has more intrigue than a James Bond plot. While Scotland is not yet independent, she does have a new parliament. Sir Sean campaigned hard for the yes vote during the Scottish Referendum that created the new Scottish Parliament. He believes firmly that the Scottish Parliament will grow in power and that Scotland will be independent within his lifetime.

—SeanConnery.com on Sean Connery's support of the Scottish National Party, http://www.seanconnery.com/biography/knighthood/

Connery used half of his fee from Diamonds Are Forever (1971) to establish a charity to support deprived children in Edinburgh as well as Scottish Film production. It was suggested in 1997 that the Labour government had prevented him being knighted for his charitable work because of his support for the SNP. At the time a Labour Party spokesman stated Connery's knighthood had been blocked because of remarks the actor had made in past interviews condoning the physical abuse of women. His nationalist beliefs have often been derided by political opponents, especially given his status as a tax exile living in the Bahamas.

Connery received the Légion d'honneur in 1991. He received Kennedy Center Honors from the United States in 1999, presented to him by President Bill Clinton. He received a knighthood on July 5, 2000, wearing a hunting tartan kilt of the MacLean of Duart clan. He also received the Orden de Manuel Amador Guerrero from Mireya Moscoso, former president of Panama on 11 March 2003, for his talent and versatility as an actor.

Sean Connery 007 in Dr No

2009-11-25T18:27:00.000-08:00

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Howard Hughes, who went from wealthy Texas heir — he inherited his father's tool company — to billionaire tycoon. The film follows his career through the late 1920s and into the 1940s, when Hughes directed and produced films and developed innovative airplanes, all while romancing Hollywood starlets.

Leonardo Di Caprio - Golden Globe Awards

OVERVIEW

MPAA Rating
PG-13 - for thematic elements, sexual content, nudity, language and crash sequence

Genre(s)
Drama, Biography, Historical

Running Time
166 minutes

Starring
Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, John C. Reilly, Alec Baldwin

Director(s)
Martin Scorsese

Writer(s)
John Logan

Release
Wide Release

Leonardo Di Caprio as Howard Hughes

However conventional Martin Scorsese might be in directing the biopic about Mr. Hughes, he wisely chooses key incidents (set down by scripter John Logan) in the man's life to give us new insight into what makes one of the most interesting figures of the 20th Century tick. A Renaissance man who. having early on inherited a dominant position in his deceased father's prospering tool business, he refuses to spend his life making mundane implements but instead takes great risks that threaten to bankrupt him should his grandiose ideas not pan out–as they often do not. Fascinated by Hollywood particularly at a time that sound features are coming out for the first time, Hughes directs a World War I epic in 1930 called "Hell's Angels," a slow-moving corny story that introduces the world to Jean Harlow, a movie until then unmatched for visual spectacle. His "Scarface" introduced Pul Muni to the screen while "The Outlaw" in 1941 featured Jane Russell in a role that has Hughes face a panel of motion picture censors concerned about the extensive "mammaries" of the celebrated actress.

His activities in buying the RKO Pictures Corporation are skipped over by Scorcese to give the film audience time to watch the man in action as the founder of the Hughes Aircraft Company, personally flying to set a landplane speed record of 352 miles per hour, then lowering the transcontinental flight time record to 7 hours 28 minutes. Ultimately he would work on an eight-engine, wooden flying boat intended to carry 750 passengers, piloting the machine personally in 1947 for one mile.

Key scenes in Scorsese's film at times glorify this larger-than-life figure, making us in the audience root for him when he lands in conflict with those out to crush his company (by now he had purchased TWA) and his spirit. The film is dominated by two major aspects of his adult life: 1) his affairs with Hollywood actresses Katherine Hepburn and Ava Gardner; 2) his fanatical energy both in coming up with ideas and trying to put them into operation.

In the role of Howard Hughes, Leonardo Di Caprio presumably hopes to pick up an Oscar trophy but which, though more than competently performed falls short of the kind of imaginative leap and sympathetic pull on the audience that can be attributed to, say, Don Cheadle as the hotel manager who saves 1,200 members of the Tutsi tribe from Hutu massacre in "Hotel Rwanda." Occasionally shown in extreme close-up, Di Caprio's Hughes comes off as a man whose eyes flash the fire of one possessed, an impatient businessman given to shake his legs impatiently when seated and, strangely enough in two instances to repeat the same words over and over at least a dozen times when he appears not to be under any particular stress. In fact the man comes off best when questioned by the chairman of U.S. Senate committee led by the senator from Maine (played winningly by the always excellent Alan Alda), speaking clearly and strongly without the aid of a lawyer in getting the spectators on his side when accused by the senator of war profiteering.

The Aviator - poster

Scorsese also shows Hughes' fascination with liberated women who come off just short of being attainable. Cate Blanchett in the role of Katherine Hepburn speaks boldly to Hughes as she beats him at golf: close your eyes and listen to her voice and you'd swear that Blanchett is merely lip-synching the words of Hepburn herself. The film's best comic scene takes place in Hepburn's home where each member of her eccentric, extended family blathers on at dinner about a subject of his or her own choosing without focus. When one diner expresses the view that "we don't care about money," Hughes replies, "That's because you have it," an obvious retort but one which does not go over too well with these Connecticut aristocrats.

After Hepburn dumps Hughes because she is in love with the already married Spencer Tracy, he meets his match in an even stronger-willed Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale) who, insisting that she is "not for sale" refuses his offer of one of the most exotic sapphire necklaces ever made. "You can buy me dinner," sums her up, but despite her penchant for putting Hughes off, she turns up when the man needs support the most–when holed up in his home, adhesive tape setting the boundaries of almost every square inch to delineate a "germ-free zone."

"The Aviator," which also features Alec Baldwin as the dapper owner of Pan Am seeking to buy Hughes's TWA and John C. Reilly taking care of the business end, is a must-see for students and holders of Master's degrees in Business Administration and by extension for major executives everywhere. Whether it can be sold in the youth market given how young people seem to make heroes out of Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan, is an arguable point, but surely "The Aviator," which, if ever shown on airlines will surely cut a segment that finds Hughes severely injured in a graphically shown crash of his Hercules plane, is a mature, professionally made film, well cast and showing off John Logan's often crackling dialogue–an epic adventure and a solid entry into the film world for the year 2004.

Now He's The King of the Skies!'

His name allegedly derives from his German mother Irmalin's having experienced a sudden kick from her unborn boy while enjoying a DaVinci painting at the Uffizi! In the year following his birth, she and his Italian father George were divorced. He grew up in Echo Park, then a particularly seedy, drug-dominated area of Los Angeles. At five he appeared on his favorite TV show, 'Romper Room,' and was nearly thrown off for misbehaving!

The Aviator - Leonardo Di Caprio takes to the skies

After a string of commercials, educational films ('Mickey's Safety Club'), occasional parts in TV series, a debut film role as Josh in 'Critters 3' (1991), a continuing role as the homeless boy Luke in the TV series 'Growing Pains,' he got his break-through part as Toby in 'This Boy's Life' (1993), co-starring with Robert De Niro and Ellen Barkin. The part led the New York Film Critics and the National Society of Film Critics to name him runner-up for Best Supporting Actor.

His first Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations came for the difficult role of Arnie in 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape' (1993). Equally challenging parts were a drug-troubled Jim Carroll in 'The Basketball Diaries' (1995), the tormented homosexual poet Rimbaud in 'Total Eclipse' (1995) and the male lead in a very updated 'Romeo + Juliet' (1996). True superstardom came to DiCaprio playing Jack Dawson in 'Titanic' in 1997.

Chatting with the young man this afternoon, he is noticably tired due to the premiere last night of his new film, 'The Aviator' - in which the actor assumes the role of the young and complex Howard Hughes. Wearing a black t-shirt, black casual jacket, with his hair slicked back, the perennially youthful 30-year old star, has remained intensely passionate about bringing Hughes' life to the screen for several years. "As an actor, you're constantly searching for that great character," DiCaprio explains, when asked why the fascination for Hughes.

"Also, being a history buff and learning about people in our past and amazing things that they've done, I came across a book about Howard Hughes and he was set up as basically, the most multi-dimensional character I could ever come across. Often, people have tried to define him in biographies, but no one seems to be able to categorize him. He was one of the most complicated men of the last century and so I got this book, brought it to Michael Mann and John Logan came onboard and really came up with the concept, saying, 'you can do ten different movies about Howard Hughes. Let's focus on his younger years.

Let's watch his initial descent into madness but meanwhile, have the backdrop of early Hollywood, these daring pioneers in the world of aviation that were like astronauts that went out and went out and risked their lives to further the cause of aviation. [He was] the first American billionaire who had all the resources in the world but was somehow unable to find any sense of peace of happiness'. It's that great see-saw act in the movie that goes on. On one side, he's having all the successes in the world and on the other side the tiny microbes and germs are the things that are taking him downwards."

What level of admiration do you have for this great man?

"I think he certainly took things farther than I could ever imagine," the actor insists. "He was such an obsessed human being and remained so obsessive about everything he'd gotten involved with, whether it be planes, women or films, he made."

While DiCaprio has remained as ferociously guarded about his private life as Hughes was intensely shy, the actor says those two apparent parallels are miles apart from each other. "I have to say, that for the most part, I am a pretty private person while his came from a genuine mental disorder and I'm just fundamentally not like that. My reasons for being a private person are different from Mr. Hughes, in that because I'm an actor and want people to believe me in different roles and not necessarily know way too much about me. I want to be around in the business for a long time, while he had an intense fear of being around people and germs."

While 'The Aviator' is a film about the early youthful ambitions of Howard Hughes, when it comes to DiCaprio's own childhood dreams and obsessions, the actor says there was really only one, "... ever since I got into this business at around 13 years old and that was to be in this business forever. Once I did my first television commercial, I caught that itch, that bug, and said, it is possible to make a living doing this for the rest of my life, that is the only thing I really want to do. He had multiple dreams. I look at film and cinema as legitimate an art form as sculpture, painting or anything else. We're in the first hundred years of cinema, which is still in its infancy and I'm very curious to see what types of films last into the next thousand years, just like what paintings people still look at. I want to be a part of pieces of art as far as cinema is concerned, that people will want to see for generations to come."

Who was one of your greatest influences during your formative years?

"I remember the casting session that I had where I was a break dancer, having this punk hair cut. They rejected me and I became really disillusioned with the business and said well this is what it's all about, and I haven't even got in to read a line. My father said don't worry, some day we're going to get you back into this and it's going to happen for you, which I kind of took to heart," DiCaprio recalls. "It was one of those situations where I was lucky and fortunate enough to be at the right places at the right time", he adds, referring to his early television breaks that included the likes of 'Parenthood' and 'Growing Pains.' "All of a sudden I was on the set of 'Growing Pains' and got this audition for 'This Boy's Life' and was able to jump into the feature film world. It's really been just simply the fact that I'd been able to work, you know what I mean? I would probably still be trying to be an actor even if I was out of work, but I would probably become a little disillusioned at some point and move on to other things. But it's the one thing that I know that I love."

As for future projects, DiCaprio says they do not include 'Alexander the Great,' which at one time was going to be a Scorsese project. "Alexander The Great was one of those things where Scorsese and I just share the same taste in similar things. We were both fascinated with Alexander The Great as well as Howard Hughes. They're completely different time periods and different men, but similar dynamics, men that keep on reaching for their ultimate goal and stop at nothing until they achieve that. It just happened to be that this script and project was way further advanced in the development stage than the script that landed in our lap from 'Alexander' and we wanted to go forth - we had an intention at one time of doing them both, but you don't get everything you want all the time."

Director Martin Scorsese puts the disappointment of Gangs Of New York behind him to breathe life into complex American playboy Howard Hughes.

A legend in American history, the range and depth of his character needed a resourceful actor to capture his essence - Leonardo DiCaprio. Only lingering on Hughes' childhood to cast light on his cleanliness obsession (his mother terrified him with tales of cholera), Scorsese skilfully sketches in the character of the man courtesy of his sideline as movie producer.

So we see the young movie mogul blowing millions on the World War I flying feature Hell's Angels, badgering a rival studio for cameras and ordering Ian Holm's meteorologist to "find clouds". The movie had to be re-shot to accommodate the new-fangled soundtrack and also cost the lives of three stunt pilotsbut proved a box office smash. Unencumbered by doubt and driven by an uncompromising quest for perfection, the obsessive maverick would go on to apply his obsessive standards to the Hughes Aircraft Company, and subsequently TWA.

The aircraft-obsessed mogul also enjoyed a high-flying personal life, squiring the likes of Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow and Bette Davis. The spikily intelligent Katharine Hepburn (Blanchett, superb) is the irascible love of his life, while Kate Beckinsale gives good hair-toss as Ava Gardner. Focused and beautifully paced, this doesn't disappoint visually, with some stunningly shot aerial shots, particularly Hughes' roof-tile shattering crash-landing in the Hollywood Hills. Hughes was such a larger-than-life character that he needed a director with larger-than-life skills to capture his spirit. Scorsese is well up to the task.

THE AVIATOR

(Cinematografo.it/Adnkronos) - The Aviator è il miglior film del 2004. A incoronare il kolossal di Martin Scorsese sulla vita del miliardario produttore Howard Hughes è stata la Conferenza Episcopale degli Stati Uniti (Usccb) che ha premiato, oltre al valore dell'opera, l'impegno del regista nel diffondere un messaggio allo stesso tempo didattico e ludico. Nella top ten stilata dalla Usccb compare, all'ottavo posto, anche il discusso film di Mel Gibson sulle ultime 12 ore di vita di Gesù, La Passione di Cristo.

Drame biographique réalisé par Martin Scorsese. Avec Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, John C. Reilley, Kate Beckinsale.

ÇA RACONTE : Les 20 premières années de la carrière professionnelle du milliardaire Howard Hughes, passionné de cinéma, d'aviation, et de femmes.

ON NOTE : Tournée en grande partie à Montréal, cette imposante production est née grâce à l'entêtement de Leonardo DiCaprio qui, après avoir travaillé un temps avec le cinéaste Michael Mann, a ensuite fait appel à Martin Scorsese (celui-là même qui l'a dirigé dans Gangs of New York) pour assurer la réalisation de ce drame biographique. Un parfum de l'Hollywood des années de gloire.

FR : * * * *

Howard Hughes and the Spruce Goose

Di Caprio Flying High

Leonardo DiCaprio/The Aviator Interview by Paul Fischer in Los Angeles.

Leonardo Di Caprio apologised for appearing so tired. "It was the premiere last night", he says, with a sheepish grin, referring to the screening of The Aviator, in which the actor assumes the role of the young and complex Howard Hughes Wearing a black t-shirt, black casual jacket, with his hair slicked back, the perennially youthful 30-year old star, has remained intensely passionate about bringing Hughes' life to the screen for several years. "As an actor, you're constantly searching for that great character,"Di Caprio explains, when asked why the fascination for Hughes. "Also, being a history buff and learning about people in our past and amazing things that they've done, I came across a book about Howard Hughes and he was set up as basically, the most multi-dimensional character I could ever come across. Often, people have tried to define him in biographies, but no one seems to be able to categorize him.

He was one of the most complicated men of the last century and so I got this book, brought it to Michael Mann and John Logan came onboard and really came up with the concept, saying, 'you can do ten different movies about Howard Hughes. Let's focus on his younger years. Let's watch his initial descent into madness but meanwhile, have the backdrop of early Hollywood, these daring pioneers in the world of aviation that were like astronauts that went out and went out and risked their lives to further the cause of aviation. [He was] the first American billionaire who had all the resources in the world but was somehow unable to find any sense of peace of happiness'. It's that great see-saw act in the movie that goes on. On one side, he's having all the successes in the world and on the other side the tiny microbes and germs are the things that are taking him downwards."

Di Caprio says that while there are parallels between himself and Hughes, "I think he certainly took things farther than I could ever imagine," the actor insists. He was such an obsessed human being and remained so obsessive about everything he'd gotten involved with, whether it be planes, women or films, he made." While Di Caprio has remained as ferociously guarded about his private life ass Hughes was intensely shy, the actor says those two apparent parallels are miles apart from each other. "I have to say, that for the most part, I am a pretty private person while his came from a genuine mental disorder and I'm just fundamentally not like that. My reasons for being a private person are different from Mr. Hughes, in that because I'm an actor and want people to believe me in different roles and not necessarily know way too much about me. I want to be around in the business for a long time, while he had an intense fear of being around people and germs."

But is Hughes' celebrity that still offers a certain degree of parallel in the young life of Di Caprio, but while Hughes' female conquests remain fascinating as an almost historical legacy for Hughes, Di Caprio laughs when asked about his own place in history when he dates someone. "No, those aren't my intentions going into a relationship," and unlike Howard, Di Capriois not a collector of women. "I honestly feel that as much as he had love and adoration for these women and genuinely cared for them, he kind of looked at them like airplanes. He was a technical genius and obsessed with finding the new, faster, bigger airplane," he adds, laughingly, "and that was simultaneous with women. He was constantly finding the new hotter female to go out with, which all related back to him being orphaned at a very young age and having this empty hole in his soul, which I think he was always trying to fill with new, more exciting things in his life. He ended up, obviously, not a very happy person. I don't know if he was think about whether, historically, he was going to become a legend. I'm sure he had that sort of cat and mouse things going on in his mind where he wanted to be famous but it was more like 'look at me! Look at me! No, don't look at me'."

Dreams do not come true to all who have such lofty ambitions, and in an industry riddled with rejection, the actor says that his father was a great influences during his formative years. "I remember the casting session that I had where I was a break dancer, having this punk hair cut. They rejected me and I became really disillusioned with the business and said well this is what it's all about, and I haven't even got in to read a line.

Leonardo Di Caprio and Cate Blanchett

26 January 2005

Scorsese's 'The Aviator' takes off with 11 Oscar nominations

BEVERLY HILLS, California : "The Aviator" soared high above Tuesday's Oscar nominations, snatching 11 nods, including best picture, best actor and best director for the epic story of US billionaire Howard Hughes.

In a year dominated by real-life stories but filled with few surprises, the film dominated the nominations for the 77th annual Academy Awards when they were unveiled by Oscar-winner Adrien Brody and Oscars chief Frank Pierson at a pre-dawn ceremony.

Tying for second place in cinema's great race were "Finding Neverland," the story of Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie, and Clint Eastwood's drama "Million Dollar Baby," with seven nods each, including best picture.

Red-hot star Jamie Foxx, 37, became the early leader in the best actor competition after winning an expected nomination for his acclaimed performance as blind soul legend Ray Charles in "Ray."

"The Aviator" snagged a best actor nod for "Titanic" heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio in his role as the eccentric Hughes, best director for long-overlooked Martin Scorsese and best supporting actor nominations for Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn and for Alan Alda.

"'The Aviator' is flying high and is hoping to become the first movie about Hollywood to win Hollywood's top award," awards pundit Tom O'Neil told AFP of the 110-million-dollar picture.

The film also picked up nods for best cinematography, costume design, art direction, film editing, sound mixing and original screenplay.

"Bringing 'The Aviator' to the screen took years of effort by an extraordinary group of individuals," Scorsese said in a statement, adding that he wwas thrilled at the recognition.

Historically, the film that led the Oscar nominations has gone on to win the best picture statuette in 18 of the last 20 years.

Following "Aviator," "Neverland" and "Baby" in the nomination stakes were "Ray," with six nods, including best picture, best actor for Foxx and best director for Taylor Hackford; the bittersweet California road movie "Sideways," with five, including best picture and best director for Alexander Payne; and Disney-Pixar's animated "The Incredibles," with four.

Four out of the five best actor nominees played real-life characters, including Foxx, DiCaprio, Johnny Depp as J.M. Barrie and Don Cheadle as hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina in the genocide drama "Hotel Rwanda."

The only one to play a fictional character was veteran screen icon Eastwood, 74, who won a nod for his role as tough old boxing coach Frankie Dunn in "Baby," for which he also won a best director nomination.

But Liam Neeson missed out on a nod for his role as a famed sexologist in "Kinsey," and "Sideways" star Paul Giamatti was also notably snubbed.

The competition is stiff for best actress, as previous Oscar-winner Hilary Swank, nominated this year for her role as a tragic female boxer in "Baby," faces off against Annette Bening for her portrayal of an aging actress in "Being Julia."

They are pitted against Britons Imelda Staunton, for the 1950s abortion saga "Vera Drake," and Kate Winslet, for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," as well as Catalina Sandino Moreno, for the Spanish-language drug-running story "Maria Full of Grace."

Swank, 30, won the best actress Oscar for playing a sexually conflicted woman in 1999's "Boys Don't Cry."

A heavyweight lineup also dominates this year's directing race, with Eastwood facing off against "Taxi Driver" filmmaker Scorsese, 62, Hackford, Payne and "Vera Drake" filmmaker Mike Leigh. "Neverland" director Marc Forster was shut out.

Scorsese, who has been nominated for a total of six Oscars in the past but has never won, is tipped as the favourite in the category.

Foxx won a second nod as best supporting actor for the Tom Cruise thriller "Collateral," becoming only the 10th actor to be recognised in both categories in the same year.

He is now locked in a showdown for best supporting actor with Thomas Haden Church for "Sideways," Alda for "The Aviator," Morgan Freeman for "Million Dollar Baby" and Briton Clive Owen for the sexual intrigue "Closer."

Australia's Blanchett won a best supporting actress nod for playing screen legend Katharine Hepburn in "The Aviator," joining Britain's Sophie Okonedo for "Hotel Rwanda," Laura Linney for "Kinsey," Virginia Madsen for "Sideways" and Natalie Portman for "Closer."

Human tragedy pervaded the best foreign-language film category, with Spain's "The Sea Inside," a drama about a paraplegic's fight to die, and South Africa's AIDS drama "Yesterday" leading the nominations.

They face competition from France's "Les Choristes," Germany's "Downfall," a recreation of the last days of Adolf Hitler, and "As It Is In Heaven," from Sweden's Kay Pollak.

The Oscar nominations formally shift Tinseltown's annual awards season into high gear as studios and stars jostle to win the hearts of the 5,800 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voters.

The 2005 golden statuettes will be handed out at a glittering ceremony in Hollywood on February 27

2009-11-25T18:24:00.000-08:00

Keanu Charles Reeves (born September 2, 1964) is a Canadian actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as Neo in the action film trilogy The Matrix and also for roles in Speed and comedies such as Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. He was also a member of a grunge band, Dogstar, during the 1990s, as a bassist.

Kim & Keanu Reeves

BIOGRAPHY - Early life

Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon to Samuel Nowlin Reeves, Jr., an American geologist, and Patricia Taylor, an English showgirl and costume designer who was working in Beirut when she met Reeves' father at a local nightclub.

His paternal grandfather, Samuel Nowlin Reeves, was born in Hawaii to Charles Armistead Reeves, a Tennessee-born Irish American, and Rose Lokalia Miguel, who was of Portuguese and Hawaiian descent. His paternal grandmother, Sarah M. Victor, was of part Chinese descent. Reeves was named after his uncle Henry Keanu Reeves. The name originated with Reeves' great-great-uncle Keaweaheulu, whose name means "cool breeze over the mountains" in Hawaiian. When Reeves first arrived in Hollywood, his agent thought his first name was too exotic, so during the early days of his film career he is sometimes credited as K.C. Reeves, Norman Kreeves or Chuck Spadina.

Reeves has a sister, Kim (born 1966 in Beirut, Lebanon), a half-sister named Karina Miller (born 1976 in Toronto, Canada) and another half-sister named Emma Rose Reeves (born 1980 in Hawaii). Kim Reeves is a devoted horse breeder, as well as an actress.[1] She presently lives in Anacapri, in the north of the island of Capri.

His parents divorced in 1966, and his mother moved to New York City with Reeves and his sister in 1969, where she met, and subsequently married, Paul Aaron, a Broadway and Hollywood director. The couple, who divorced in 1971, then moved to Toronto, Canada, where Reeves grew up.

Reeves' mother was later married to Robert Miller (between 1976 and 1980) and he has a half-sister, Karina Miller. Reeves grew up in Toronto, and worked at a pasta shop, sharpened skates at an ice rink, and was voted MVP on his high school ice hockey team. Within a span of five years, Reeves attended four different high schools, including a performing arts school from which he was expelled. Reeves began his acting career at the age of 15, appearing in a stage production at a local Jewish community center. After leaving the Catholic boys' high school where he played hockey, he attended a free school which allowed him to obtain an education while working as an actor; he later dropped out, never obtaining his high school diploma.

Citizenship

Keanu Reeves inherited U.S. citizenship through his American father and British citizenship through his English mother [3]. While living in Canada, Reeves became a naturalized Canadian citizen. All three nations—U.S., Britain, and Canada—accept the concept of multiple citizenships, so he is able to bear all three contemporaneously. In general, however, Reeves considers himself a Canadian; Canada being the country where he grew up, went to school, and got his start in show business. Although Keanu Reeves was born in Lebanon, he is not a Lebanese citizen, because his parents were only temporary residents of Lebanon and were not themselves of Lebanese descent (cf. jus soli and jus sanguinis).

Career

Reeves made his screen acting debut in Canada, in a 1979 CBC production, Hanging In. Throughout the early 1980s, he appeared in commercials (including one for Coca-Cola), short films and stage work in Toronto. His first studio movie appearance was in the Rob Lowe hockey flick Youngblood which was filmed in Canada. In it he played a Hockey goalie. Shortly after the movie release Reeves obtained a green card and drove from Toronto to Los Angeles in his 1969 Volvo. His ex-stepfather Paul Aaron, a stage and television director, gave him a place to stay and got him a manager, Erwin Stoff, and agent before he even arrived in LA.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

After a few minor roles gained the notice of the critics in 1986's River's Edge, a teenage drama which received positive reviews. Following the film's success, he spent the late 1980s appearing in a number of movies aimed at teenage audiences, including Permanent Record, a dark film about teenage suicide, and the successful 1989 comedy, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, which typecast Reeves somewhat during the next few years, as much of his subsequent portrayal in the press has been influenced by his portrayal of the comically airheaded character, "Ted". Reeves was originally offered the role of Pvt. Chris Taylor in Platoon (1986) but turned it down as he disliked the violence involved and the role went to Charlie Sheen.

During the early 1990s, Reeves appeared in both high-budget action films like Point Break and lower-budget independent films, including the well-received 1991 film, My Own Private Idaho, and the critically-hated 1994 film, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. In 1994, Reeves also starred in the action film Speed, which was a commercial success and raised his profile, leading to his casting in films like Johnny Mnemonic and Chain Reaction, both of which failed at the box office.

Hitting a low in his career, Reeves then did the unthinkable and turned down the role of Jack Traven in the Speed sequel. He was reportedly offered $11 million dollars for the sequel but opted instead to star in the horror/drama The Devil's Advocate with Al Pacino and Charlize Theron. Reeves deferred his salary for The Devil's Advocate so Al Pacino would be cast, and did the same for The Replacements, guaranteeing the casting of Gene Hackman. In 1995 Reeves performed the title role in a Manitoba Theatre Centre production of Hamlet in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

His 1999 science fiction hit, The Matrix, re-established him as a Hollywood leading man, after a few years of films that received only moderate box office and mixed critical reception.

In between the first Matrix film and its sequels, Reeves appeared in several films that received mostly negative reviews and average box office grosses, including The Watcher, Sweet November and Hardball. However, the two "Matrix" sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, as well as his 2005 horror-action film, Constantine, proved to be box office successes, and brought Reeves back into the public spotlight.

On January 31, 2005, Reeves received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Reeves accompanied Sandra Bullock to the 2006 Academy Awards, which caused some controversy as Bullock is married to bike builder Jesse James. It was later revealed to be a publicity stunt to coincide with Bullock and Reeves having a movie rolling out that same year.

His upcoming film A Scanner Darkly is set for release on July 7, 2006, shortly after the June 2006 release of The Lake House in which he played a starring role.

Keanu Reeves in Speed

Private life

In December 1999, Reeves' girlfriend, Jennifer Syme, gave birth to a stillborn daughter who was named Ava Archer Syme Reeves. In April 2001, Syme was killed in a car accident. She was buried next to their daughter in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

Reeves has never reconnected with his estranged biological father [5], who served time in prison; he was paroled after serving two years of a 10-year sentence for selling heroin at Hilo Airport in 1992.

Reeves enjoys riding motorcycles and coined the term "demon ride" to describe how he often rides with no headlights at night. On one of his demon rides in 1988, he crashed near Topanga Canyon and broke several ribs and ruptured his spleen; he has had an abdominal scar ever since – when the paramedics arrived, an emergency medical technician trainee dropped one end of the stretcher by mistake.

For nearly a decade following his initial rise to stardom, Reeves lived a vagabond existence in hotels, opting not to buy a house or find a permanent place of residence, despite earning millions. Reeves has lived in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles since 2003, but also has an apartment in New York City. He does not formally practice any religion, although he has a Christian background and is interested in Buddhism.

Reeves is fond of chess, motorcycles, ice hockey, and table tennis. He is left-handed, but plays the bass guitar right-handed and loves punk rock bands such as The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, and The Clash, as well as legendary R&B singers such as Stevie Wonder and Otis Redding. In a 1992 New Year's Eve party show, Reeves filled in on bass for punk rock band The Vandals while bassist Joe Escalante was at a wedding. He began playing the bass with the rock band Dogstar, which has now gone "into hibernation." Reeves also had a part in New York thrash metal band Anthrax's "Safe Home" music video. More recently, he played bass in a band called Becky with former Dogstar drummer Rob Mailhouse, guitarist Paulie Costa and singer Rebecca Lord. In early 2005, he announced that he is leaving the band and his musical career for good.

Reeves is reported to be very generous with his time and money, lending both to a variety of causes. He took a significant amount of the profits from his Matrix series and treated the twelve stuntmen who worked on the films to motorcycles, among other things.

His sexual orientation is matter of dispute - bisexual or heterosexual - according to some interviews he has given. Keanu Reeves had always been subjected to the rumors of being homosexual or bisexual, but has always kept a very tight lid on his romantic and private lives. He has denied being homosexual, but refuses to answer if he is bisexual or heterosexual. [6] [7] In June 2006, he said that he would like to get married and to have children.[8]

2009-11-25T18:21:00.000-08:00

Miss Congeniality is a 2000 comedy film/thriller film directed by Donald Petrie, starring Sandra Bullock. A sequel, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous was released in 2005.

Plot summary

Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock) is an FBI agent who goes undercover in the fictional Miss United States scholarship program/beauty pageant, on the lookout for a serial bomber. She is a feminist who is not traditionally attractive, and is turned into a drop-dead gorgeous woman going by the name of Gracie Lou Freebush... with the same tomboyish habits. She is seen overreacting to a gun-toting Texan, wearing a Tyrolean for her talent competition, much to the dismay of her mentor, Victor Melling (Michael Caine) and the director of the competition and former queen, Kathy Morningside (Candice Bergen).

In Germany, as well as Norway, the movie was published under the English title "Miss Undercover" (as the meaning of undercover would be better known), in Denmark under the title "Agent Catwalk", and in Italy and Portugal under the English title "Miss Detective". In Sweden the movie went by the name of "Miss Secret Agent".Also, William Shatner and Candice Bergen star in this together, and they star on the legal dramedy Boston Legal.

Sandra Bullock	Gracie Hart
Michael Caine	Victor Melling
Benjamin Bratt	Eric Matthews
Candice Bergen	Kathy Morningside
Ernie Hudson	FBI Asst. Director Harry McDonald
William Shatner	Stan Fields
John DiResta	Agent Clonsky
Heather Burns	Cheryl Frasier, Miss Rhode Island
Melissa De Sousa	Karen Krantz, Miss New York
Steve Monroe	Frank Tobin
Deirdre Quinn	Mary Jo Wright, Miss Texas
Wendy Raquel Robinson	Leslie Davis, Miss California
Asia De Marcos	Alana Krewson, Miss Hawaii
Ken Thomas	FBI Agent Harris
Gabriel Folse	FBI Agent Jerry Grant

Mistakes

Miss Rhode Island (Cheryl Frasier, played by Heather Burns) gets into the finals at the beauty pagaent. As her 'talent', she twirls batons: but with a twist, they are set on fire. After the performance, the soot and marks that were on the end of the batons previously disappear as she walks off stage.
In a possibly intentional move, every character's hotel room is room 103.
Candice Bergen mistakenly calls the character of Frank Tobin by his real name - "Steve" as she is trying to open a bottle of pain killers prior to the pageant.
When Miss Rhode Island is crowned Miss United States,she beats Gracie with her flowers and all of the red buds are gone. Then when they cut to her holding them again there are still red buds on them.
There are only 7 finalists in the top 10.
When Gracie brings pizza into the gym, Rhode Island takes a bite of a slice. The next clip then shows Rhode Island and the rest of the girls without any pizza and them all grabbing a slice from the box.

LINKS

Miss Congeniality at the Internet Movie Database

A - Z FILMS INDEX

2009-11-21T22:33:00.000-08:00

The Aztecs, or more properly, the Mexicas, for whom the later Republic of Mexico was named, were a Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. They were a civilization with a rich mythology and cultural heritage. Their capital was Tenochtitlan, built on raised islets in Lake Texcoco – the site of modern-day Mexico City. The Aztec empire produced the biggest demographic explosion in Mesoamerica: the population grew from an estimated 10 million to 15 million.

Aztec warrior

Nomenclature

Aztec is usually used as a historical term, although some contemporary Nahuatl-speakers would consider themselves Aztecs. More particularly, the term refers to the empire of the Mexicas as distinguished from the Mexicas alone. This article deals with the historical Aztec civilization, not with modern-day Nahuatl speakers.

In Nahuatl, the native language of the Mexicas, Azteca means "someone who comes from Aztlán", a mythical place commonly believed to be located in northern Mexico or the Southwest U.S. (though there is great doubt about this, see current debates in Mexica scholarship), so this name was applied to other cultures of the same cultural group. However, the culture we call now Aztec referred to themselves as Mexica (IPA: [meihkah]) or Tenochca and Tlatelolca according their city of origin. Their use of the word azteca was like the modern use of Latino, or Mediterranean: a broad term that does not refer to a specific culture.

Alexander von Humboldt originated the modern usage of Aztec as a collective term applied to all the people linked by trade, custom, religion , and language to the Mexica state, the Triple Alliance. The term was adopted by Mexican scholars of 19th century, as a way to distance "modern" Mexicans from pre-conquest Mexicans. This has become controversial in more recent years, and consequently, the more proper usage "Mexica" is increasingly applied.

Mexica, the origin of the word Mexico, is a term of uncertain origin. Very different etymologies are proposed: the old Nahuatl word for the sun, the name of their leader Mexitli, a type of weed that grows in Lake Texcoco. The most renowned Nahuatl translator, Miguel León-Portilla, suggests that it means "navel of the moon" from Nahuatl metztli (moon) and xictli (navel) or, alternatively, it could mean navel of the maguey (Nahuatl metl).

Aztec pyramid

Government

The Aztec Empire is not completely analogous to the empires of European history. Like most European empires, it was ethnically very diverse, but unlike most European empires, it was more a system of tribute than a single system of government. Arnold Toynbee in War and Civilization analogizes it to the Assyrian Empire in this respect.

Although cities under Aztec rule seem to have paid heavy tributes, excavations in the Aztec-ruled provinces show a steady increase in the welfare of common people after they were conquered. This probably was due to an increase of trade, thanks to better roads and communications, and the tributes were extracted from a broad base. Only the upper classes seem to have suffered economically, and only at first. There appears to have been trade even in things that could be produced locally: love of novelty may have been a factor. There was even trade with cities considered enemies. The Purepechas, the only people who defeated the Aztecs, were the main source of copper axes.

2009-11-21T22:29:00.000-08:00

For millennia the practice of human sacrifice was widespread in Mesoamerican and South American cultures. It was a theme in the Olmec religion, which thrived between 1200 BC and 400 BC. Later the Inca and Maya also made human sacrifices, but the Aztecs practiced it on a particularly large scale.

For the reconsecration of Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, the Aztecs reported that they sacrificed about 84,400 prisoners over the course of four days, This would mean almost 15 per minute for 24 hours a day. Tenochtitlan itself had an estimated population of 80,000 to 120,000 in that time, with as many as 700,000 in the cities immediately surrounding Lake Texcoco. Since the Aztecs reported the number of sacrifices themselves, they could have inflated the number as a propaganda tool especially if, as reported, Ahuitzotl sacrificed them personally.

Aztec sacrifice

The Structure of Aztec Society

Class structure

The society traditionally was divided into two social classes; the macehualli (people) or peasantry and the pilli or nobility. Nobility was not originally hereditary, although the sons of pillis had access to better resources and education, so it was easier for them to become pillis. Eventually, this class system took on the aspects of a hereditary system. The Aztec military had an equivalent to military service with a core of professional warriors; only those that had taken prisoners could become full-time warriors, and eventually the honors and spoils of war would make them pillis. Once an Aztec warrior had captured 4 or 5 captives, he would be called tequiua and could attain a rank of Eagle or Jaguar knight, sometimes translated as "captain", eventually he could reach the rank of tlacateccatl or tlachochcalli. To be elected as tlatoani, one was required to have taken about 17 captives in war. When Aztec boys attained adult age, they stopped cutting their hair until they took their first captive; sometimes two or three youths united to get their first captive; then they would be called iyac. If after a certain time, usually three combats, they could not gain a captive, they became macehualli; their hair would still be quite long, indicating that they had not gotten a captive yet. That was rather shameful.

The abundance of tributes led to the emergence and rise of a third class that was not part of the traditional Aztec society: pochtecas or traders. Their activities were not only commercial: they also were an effective intelligence gathering force. They were scorned by the warriors - who nonetheless sent to them their spoils of war in exchange for blankets, feathers, slaves, and other presents.

In the later days of the empire, the concept of macehualli also had changed. Eduardo Noguera (Annals of Anthropology, UNAM, Vol. xi, 1974, p. 56) estimates only 20% of the population was dedicated to agriculture and food production. The chinampa system of food production was very efficient; it could provide food for about 190,000 people. Also, a significant amount of food was obtained by trade and tribute. The Aztec were not only conquering warriors, but also skilled artisans and aggressive traders. Eventually, most of the macehuallis were dedicated to arts and crafts. Their works were an important source of income for the city (Sanders, William T., Settlement Patterns in Central Mexico. Handbook of Middle American Indians, 1971, vol. 3, p. 3-44).

Excavations of some cities under Aztec rule show that a sizeable number of luxury items were produced in Tenochtitlan. More excavations are needed to show if this was true in other Aztec provinces, but if trade was as important as it seems, this could explain the rise of the Pochteca as a powerful class.

Aztec pyramid Cholula

Slavery

Slaves or tlacotin (distinct from war captives) also constituted an important class. This slavery was very different from what Europeans of the same period were to establish in their colonies, although it had much in common with the slaves of classical antiquity. (Sahagún doubts the appropriateness even of the term "slavery" for this Aztec institution.) First, slavery was personal, not hereditary: a slave's children were free. A slave could have possessions and even own other slaves. Slaves could buy their liberty, and slaves could be set free if they were able to show they had been mistreated or if they had children with or were married to their masters.

Typically, upon the death of the master, slaves who had performed outstanding services were freed. The rest of the slaves were passed on as part of an inheritance.

Another rather remarkable method for a slave to recover liberty was described by Manuel Orozco y Berra in La civilización azteca (1860): if, at the tianquiztli (marketplace; the word has survived into modern-day Spanish as "tianguis"), a slave could escape the vigilance of his or her master, run outside the walls of the market and step on a piece of human excrement, he could then present his case to the judges, who would free him. He or she would then be washed, provided with new clothes (so that he or she would not be wearing clothes belonging to the master), and declared free. Because, in stark contrast to the European colonies, a person could be declared a slave if he or she attempted to prevent the escape of a slave (unless that person were a relative of the master), others would not typically help the master in preventing the slave's escape.

Orozco y Berra also reports that a master could not sell a slave without the slave's consent, unless the slave had been classified as incorrigible by an authority. (Incorrigibility could be determined on the basis of repeated laziness, attempts to run away, or general bad conduct.) Incorrigible slaves were made to wear a wooden collar, affixed by rings at the back. The collar was not merely a symbol of bad conduct: it was designed to make it harder to run away through a crowd or through narrow spaces.

When buying a collared slave, one was informed of how many times that slave had been sold. A slave who was sold four times as incorrigible could be sold to be sacrificed; those slaves commanded a premium in price.

However, if a collared slave managed to present him- or herself in the royal palace or in a temple, he or she would regain liberty.

An Aztec could become a slave as a punishment. A murderer sentenced to death could instead, upon the request of the wife of his victim, be given to her as a slave. A father could sell his son into slavery if the son was declared incorrigible by an authority. Those who did not pay their debts could also be sold as slaves.

People could sell themselves as slaves. They could stay free long enough to enjoy the price of their liberty, about twenty blankets, usually enough for a year; after that time they went to their new master. Usually this was the destiny of gamblers and of old ahuini (courtesans or prostitutes).

Motolinía reports that some captives, future victims of sacrifice, were treated as slaves with all the rights of an Aztec slave until the time of their sacrifice, but it is not clear how they were kept from running away..

Aztec pyramid of the sun

Daily Life

Diet

The Aztec created artificial islands or chinampas on Lake Texcoco, on which they cultivated crops. The Aztec staple foods included maize, beans and squash. Chinampas were a very efficient system and could provide up to seven crops a year, on the basis of current chinampa yields, it has been estimated that 1 hectare of chinampa would feed 20 individuals, with about 9,000 hectares of chinampa, there was food for 180,000 people.

Much has been said about a lack of proteins in the Aztec diet, to support the arguments on the existence of cannibalism (M. Harner, Am. Ethnol. 4, 117 (1977)), but there is little evidence to support it: a combination of maize and beans provides the full quota of essential amino acids, so there is no need for animal proteins. The Aztecs had a great diversity of maize strains, with a wide range of amino acid content; also, they cultivated amaranth for its seeds, which have a high protein content.

They cultivated chia, also high in protein. More important is that they had a wider variety of foods. Chilis and tomatoes, prominent to this day, were cultivated. They harvested acocils, a small and abundant shrimp of Lake Texcoco, also spirulina algae, which was made into a sort of cake that was rich in flavonoids, and they ate insects, such as crickets (chapulines), maguey worms, ants, larvae, etc. Insects have a higher protein content than meat, and even now they are considered a delicacy in some parts of Mexico. Aztecs also had domestic animals, like turkey and some dog breeds that provided meat, although usually this was reserved for special occasions. Hunting was also another source of meat—deer, wild hogs, ducks etc.

A study by Montellano (Medicina, nutrición y salud aztecas, 1997) shows a mean life of 37 (±3) years for the population of Mesoamerica.

Aztecs also used maguey extensively; from it they obtained food, sugar (aguamiel–honey water), drink (pulque), and fibers for ropes and clothing. Use of cotton and jewelry were restricted to the elite. They also kept beehives and harvested honey. Cocoa grains were used as money but also to make a chocolate drink much like beer. Subjugated cities paid annual tribute in form of luxury goods like feathers and adorned suits.

After the Spanish conquest some foods were outlawed, particularly amaranth because of its central role in religious belief, and there was less diversity of food. This led to chronic malnutrition in the general population.

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The most important collection of these poems is Romances de los señores de la Nueva España, collected (Tezcoco 1582), probably by Juan Bautista de Pomar. This volume was later translated into Spanish by Ángel María Garibay K., teacher of León-Portilla. Bautista de Pomar was the great grandson of Netzahualcoyotl. He spoke Nahuatl, but was raised as Christian and wrote in Latin characters.

The Aztec people also enjoyed a type of dramatic presentation, although it could not be called theater. Some were comical with music and acrobats, others were staged dramas of their gods. After the conquest, the first Christian churches had open chapels reserved for these kinds of representations. Plays in Nahuatl, written by converted Indians, were an important instrument for the conversion to Christianity, and are still found today in the form of traditional pastorelas, which are played during Christmas to show the Adoration of Baby Jesus, and other Biblical passages.

México-Tenochtitlan

Education

Until the age of fourteen, the education of children was in the hands of their parents, but supervised by the authorities of their calpulli. Periodically they attended their local temples, to test their progress.

Part of their education was a collection of sayings, called huehuetlatolli ("The sayings of the old"), that represented the Aztecs' ideals. It included speeches and sayings for every occasion, the words to salute the birth of children, and to say farewell at death. Fathers admonished their daughters to be very clean, but not to use makeup, because they would look like ahuianis. Mothers admonished their daughters to support their husbands, even if they turn out to be humble peasants. Boys were admonished to be humble, obedient and hard workers.

Boys and girls went to school at age 15. Probably this was one of the first societies that required education for all its members, without regard of sex or social status. There were two types of educational institutions. The telpochcalli or House of the Young, taught history, religion, military fighting arts, and a trade or craft (such as agriculture or handicrafts). Some of the telpochcalli students were chosen for the army, but most of them returned to their homes. The calmecac, attended mostly by the sons of pillis, was focused on turning out leaders (tlatoque), priests, scholars/teachers (tlatimini), healers (tizitl) and codex painters (tlacuilos). They studied rituals, ancient and contemporary history, literacy, calendrics, some elements of geometry, songs (poetry), and, as at the telpochcalli, military arts.

Each Calpulli was specialized in some handicrafts, and this was an important part of the income of the city. So the teaching of handicraft was very apreciated.

Also, the healers or Tizitl had several specialities. Some were trained to just look and classify medicinal plants, others were training just in the preparation of medicines that were sold in special places (Tlapalli), more than a hundred preparations are known, including deodorants, remedies for smelly feet, dentifric paste etc. Also there were Tizitl specialized in surgery, digestive disease, teeth and nose, skin diseases etc.

Aztec teachers or Tlatimine, propounded a spartan regime of education – cold baths in the morning, hard work, physical punishment, bleeding with maguey thorns and endurance tests – with the purpose of forming a stoical people.

There is contradictory information about whether calmecac was reserved for the sons and daughters of the pillis; some accounts said they could choose where to study. It is possible that the common people preferred the telpochcalli, because a warrior could advance more readily by his military abilities; becoming a priest or a tlacuilo was not a way to rise rapidly from a low station.

Girls were educated in the crafts of home and child raising. They were not taught to read or write. Some of them were educated as midwives and received the full training of a healer and they were called also Tizitl. All women were taught to be involved "in the things of god", there are paintings of women presiding over religious ceremonies, but there are no references to female priests.

There were also two other opportunities for those few who had talent. Some were chosen for the house of song and dance, and others were chosen for the ball game. Both occupations had high status.

Tenochtitlan

Tenochitlan was the capital city of the Aztec empire, and the site of modern-day Mexico City. Aztec priests received a vision of the Aztec god Huitzilopochtli, who told them to settle where they saw an eagle perched on a cactus full of fruits (Tenoctli), and eating bird of precious feathers (Florentine Codex). The priests found this place on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco. Modern historians, estimate of the peak population of Tenochtitlan to be between 60,000 to 130,000 inhabitants at its peak, surpassed in population only by Constantinople with about 200,000 inhabitants, Paris with about 250,000, and Venice with about 160,000.

Antropologist Eduardo Noguera, estimates the population at 200,000 based in the house count and merging the population of Tlatelolco (once an independent city, but later became a suburb of Tenochtitlan). If one includes the surrounding islets and shores surrounding Lake Texcoco, estimates range from 300,000 to 700,000 inhabitants.

The city had very good symmetry. It was divided in four city sections called campan, each "campan" was divided in 20 towns called "calpulli". Three wide avenues cross the city from one side to the other, these avenues were extended to firm ground. The "calpullis" were divided by canals called "tlaxilcalli". There always was a wide street parallel to these canals. People cross "tlaxilcalli" using wood bridges that were removed at nights.

The canals were useful for transportation with rafts made with "totoras". There were rafts for collecting garbage and other ones to collect excrement that was used for fertilization at "chinampas" (aztec agriculture technology). About one-thousand people were employed for street cleaning. Bernal Díaz del Castillo wrote about how he was surprised at finding latrines in homes, public markets and on the paths.

Aztec Sun Stone, often mistakenly called the Aztec Calendar Stone

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The Statue of Zeus at Olympia

The Colossus of Rhodes

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Temple of Diana

The hanging garden of Barbylon

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The Pharos of Alexandria

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Imhotep lived during the reign of King Djoser (2630-2611BC) and was the architect of the step pyramid at Saqquara, the first pyramid ever built in Egypt. Born a commoner, he quickly rose through the ranks of the temple and court to become a vizier and high priest. As a member of the Pharaoh’s court he was an architect, scribe, priest and physician. He pioneered the building of pyramids and was later deified.

His legacy is found in the past achievement and present potential of generations of people of African descent.

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Jiuzhaigou valley is dominated by three drainages, Rize and Zechawa streams which flow from south to north, meeting at the centre of the site to form the Shuzheng which drops 1,000m to the north end of the reserve. There it meets the Zharu stream flowing north-west from the eastern boundary to form the Jiuzhaigou river, one of the sources of the Jialing river, part of the Yangtze River system. Most of the park boundaries follow the high mountain ridgelines defining the watersheds of these rivers. There are 114 lakes, 47 springs,17 groups of waterfalls, 11 rapids and 5 tufa shoals within the reserve.

Many of the lakes there are classic ribbon lakes in glacially formed valleys, dammed by avalanche rock-falls and stabilised and terraced by carbonate deposition. Above or below some of the lakes are calcareous tufa dykes and shoals. Shuzheng Lakes and Nuorilang Lakes, with 19 and 18 lakes respectively and much larger in size. There is a number of large and spectacular waterfalls, including Xionguashai (Panda Lake) Fall which drops 78m in three steps, and the Zhengzhutan (Pearl Shoal) Fall, which drops 28m in
a 310m-wide curtain of water, both in the Rize valley.

CLIMATE

The area has a subtropical to temperate monsoon climate, with a succession of zones cooling with altitude. Valleys are warm and dry, the middle mountain slopes cold and damp. At Nuorilang at 2,400m in the Shuzheng valley the mean annual temperature is 7.3Â°C, the mean January temperature is â€“3.7Â°C and the mean July temperature is 16.8Â°C. The total annual rainfall there is 761mm but in the cloud forest between 2,700m and 3,500m it is at least 1,000mm. 80% of this falls between May and October as the monsoon moves up the valley giving mild, cloudy, moderately humid summers. Above 3,500m the climate is colder and drier. Snow falls between October and April . Monthly precipitation totals are: January 15mm, February 24mm, March 36mm, April 43mm, May 87mm, June 96mm, July 104mm, August 82mm, September 86mm, October 54mm, November 26mm and December 18mm .

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The Temple of Heaven is the most holy imperial temples in Beijing. For this is where the Emperor came every winter solstice to worship heaven and to solemnly pray for a good harvest. Since his rule was legitimised by a mandate from heaven, a bad harvest could be interpreted as his fall from heaven's favour and threaten the stability of his reign. So it was not without a measure of self-interest that the Emperor fervently prayed for a very good crop.

In line with the Confucianist revival during the Ming dynasty, the sacred harvest ceremony was combined with the Emperor's worship of his ancestors. This embellishment was also, in effect, self-interested. According to the Confucian pattern of social organization, just as the Emperor respected his ancestors, so a younger brother should respect an elder brother, a wife with her husband, a son with his father, and a nation's subjects their ruler. Incorporating ancestor worship within the most solemn ceremony of the Imperial ritual calendar, indirectly reinforced the social philosophy that perpetuated the Emperor's power.

The design of the Temple of Heaven complex, true to its sacred purpose, reflcts the mystical cosmological laws believed to be central to the workings of the universe. Hence, complex numerological permutations operate within its design. For example, because the number nine was considered to be the most powerful digit, you will see that the slabs that form the Circular Altar have been lain in multiples of nine. Similarly within the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, the interior twenty-eight columns are divided into four central pillars to represent the seasons, twelve inner columns to represent the months and twelve outer columns to represent the two hour tranches that make up a day. There are many such examples of this intense numerology at play.

Whereas in Imperial times commoners were not allowed to enter the enormous park, now for a minimal fee Chinese citizens can enjoy it all day long. Were you to visit at dawn you'd be surprised by the number of people there performing their morning exercises. Next to an older person practising the slow and flowing movements of Tai Qi there might be a younger one performing vigorous karate-like punches and kicks. One group might be learning the ancient martial art of sword-fighting, while another might be practising a traditional dance. Should you have the energy and the inclination, it is well worth waking up early one morning and visiting this park to watch such events take place.

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0 kilometers northwest from Beijing City lies the Ming Tombs - the general name given to the mausoleums of 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). The mausoleums have been perfectly preserved, as has the necropolis of each of the many emperors. Because of its long history, palatial and integrated architecture, the site has a high cultural and historic value. The layout and arrangement of all thirteen mausoleums are very similar but vary in size as well as in the complexity of their structures.

It was originally built only as Changling, the tomb of Emperor Zhu Di and his empresses. This is the most magnificent of the tombs. The succeeding twelve emperors had their tombs built around Changling.

Only the Changling and Dingling tombs are open to the public. Changling, the chief of the Ming Tombs, is the largest in scale and is completely preserved. The total internal area of the main building is 1956 square meters. There are 32 huge posts, and the largest measures about 14 meters in height.It inhumes Emperor Zhudi, the fourth son of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. Travel China Guide recommends the Lingsi Palace in its second yard as really deserving a visit. This is unique as it is the only huge palace made of camphor wood. It covers about 1956 square meters. The ceiling is colorfully painted and supported by sixteen solid camphor posts. The floor was decorated with gold bricks.

Unlike Changling, Dingling is under ground and about 27 meters deep. It is the mausoleum of Emperor Zhu Yijun, the thirteenth emperor who occupied the throne the longest during the Ming Dynasty, and his two empresses. The main features are the Stone Bridge, Soul Tower, Baocheng and the Underground Place, which was unearthed between 1956 and 1958. The entire palace is made of stone. The Soul Tower is symbolic of the whole of Dingling and it forms the entrance to the underground chambers. The yellow glazed tiles; eaves, archway, rafters and columns are all sculptured from stone, and colorfully painted. The entire construction is stable and beautiful!

Served by three stone doors, it is divided into three Halls consisting of five high palaces - the front, the middle, the rear, the left and the right palaces. The Gate of the Tomb, the Gate of Eminent Favor and the Lingxing Gate all have the same structural form.

The front hall, considered the square of the Palace, has no building within it. No special artifacts remain in either the left and right palaces that are about 7 meters high, six meters wide, and 26 meters long. However, each has a centrally placed white marble coffin bed, the surface of which is covered with gold bricks. On each bed there is a square hole filled with loess. This is the so-called "Gold Well". A paved path leads to the central hall where there are three white marble thrones. Incense, candles and flowers were set in front of the thrones. Before each of them, there are glazed 'Five Offerings' and a blue china jar that would have been filled with sesame oil to be used for lamps. The rear hall is the main and biggest part of the Palace. The coffins of Emperor Zhu Yijun and his two empresses are in this palace. There are also some precious items displayed with these coffins; among them is the gold imperial crown, one of the world's most rare treasures.

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The Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing, is said to be the biggest square in the world. It is 880 meters from north to south, and 500 meters from east to west, with total area of 440,000 square meters and can hold one million people. The Tiananmen Gate Tower sites at the north, the Five-Star Red Flag flies high on the square, the Monument to the People's Heroes dominates the center, the Great Hall of the People and the Museum of the Chinese Revolution and the Museum of Chinese History to the east and west of it, as well as The Chairman Mao Memorial Hall and the Qianmen gate, sit in the south of the square. Over several hundred years, in front of the Tiananmen, many democracy meetings and demonstrations are held. Tens of thousands of people visit daily. The Square is listed top among Beijing's 16 scenic spots.

At the north end of the Square is Tiananmen Tower. Initially built in 1417 during the Ming Dynasty (1368 A.D.- 1644 A.D.), the Square was the front door of the Forbidden City. The most important use of it in the past was to declare in a big ceremony to the common people who became the emperor and who became the empress. Until 1911 when the last feudal kingdom was over, no one could enter the Tower except for the royal family and aristocrats.

The granite Monument to the People's Heroes is just at the center of the Tiananmen Square. Built in 1952, it is the largest monument in China's history. ' The People's Heroes are Immortal' written by Chairman Mao is engraved on the monument. Eight unusually large relief sculptures show to the people the development of Chinese modern history. Two rows of white marble railings enclose the monument, simple and beautiful.

West of the Square is the Great Hall of the People. This building, erected in 1959, is the site of the China National People's Congress meetings and provides an impressive site for other political and diplomatic activities.Twelve marble posts are infront of the Hall which has three parts--the Central Hall, the Great Auditorium and a Banqueting Hall.The floor of the Central Hall is paved with marble and crystal lamps hang from the ceiling. The Great Auditorium behind the Central Hall seats 10,000. The Banqueting Hall is a huge hall with 5,000 seats.

Mao Zedong Memorial Hall is at the south side of the Square. This Hall is divided into three halls and our dear Chairman Mao's body lies in a crystal coffin in one of the halls surrounded by fresh bouquets of various famous flowers and grasses.

Another important place for the tourist to visit is the China National Museum at the east side of the Square. It just came into existence in 2003 and is a combination of Chinese History Museum and Chinese Revolutionary Museum. This National Museum faces the Great Hall of the People. Inside the Chinese Revolutionary Museum are a lot of material objects, pictures, books and models to present the development of modern China. The Chinese History Museum shows a large number of cultural relics illustrating the long history and glorious culture of China from 1,700,000 years ago to 1921 when the last emperor left the throne.

Five Star Red Flag-the Chinese national flag, flies high in the sky above the Square. To see the guard of honor raise the Flag is a must for the tourist visiting Beijing City. You have to get up very early and arrive at the Square before sunrise. Only by doing so can you see the ceremony clearly as there are crowds of people attending the ceremony every day.

The present Tiananmen Square has an area of 440,000 square meters and has become a relaxing place for the common people to fly kites and walk. On a holiday, the whole square is covered with fresh flower

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The Summer Palace -- the royal garden, is located ten kilometers to the northwest of Beijing and used to be a summer residence of Qing Dynasty emperors and is now a public park. It is an imperial garden famous for its architectural grandeur and gorgeous natural scenery.

Construction of the SummerPalace started in 1750. The northern part of the SummerPalace is the 60-meter-tall Longevity Hill. Its southern part is a wide expanse of water called Kunming Lake. The whole garden covers 290 hectares, with the lake taking up four-fifths of its total area.

A cluster of grand buildings adorn the middle section of the Longevity Hill. On the slope from the lakeside to the hilltop stand a decorated archway called Jade-Like Firmament in Bright Colors, Cloud-Dispelling Hall, Hall of Virtuous Brilliance, Pavilion of Buddhist Incense and Temple of the Sea of Wisdom. Standing on the top of the hill, visitors command a spectacular view of buildings of different shapes and sizes below. Their golden roofs glittering under the sun; the placid, huge Kunming Lake dotted with rowing boats. A 17-arch bridge that connects an island with the lake's southern bank. The long, winding west bank of the lake is joined by six bridges and the distant West Hills.

Along the northern bank of Kunming Lake runs the Long Corridor with a total length of 728 meters and 273 sections. It is like a necklace for Longevity Hill. Strolling in the corridor, a visitor sees an endless lineup of corridor stands stretching into the distance or curving away elegantly at soft angles as well as KunmingLake sparkling under the sun. The crossbeams of the Long Corridor are decorated with more than 8,000 color paintings with Chinese landscape and historical stories as their themes.

The 17-arch bridge on the southern bank of Kunming Lake is more than 150 meters long. Carved stone lions, of different sizes and postures, sit on top of the bridge's stone columns. An octagonal pavilion stands at one end of the bridge and near the pavilion lies a bronze ox with its head raised toward the lake. On the back of the ox is engraved a line from Emperor Qianlong stating that the ox is used to control flooding of the lake.

A Ming-style street winds along a stretch of water on the back side of Longevity Hill.

The Suzhou Street, 300 meters long, is lined with more than 60 shops and decorated with archways and gateways. The shops with different shapes and sizes, are built with bluish gray tiles and bricks. The market place lends a folksy flavor to the imperial garden.

Detailed introduction to the Summer Palace, the second largest imperial garden in China.

Equally famous as the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace is called "Yiheyuan" (Garden of Nurtured Harmony) in Chinese. It is up to now the best preserved and the largest imperial gardens in China. You may regret it if you come to Beijing and miss visiting these gardens.

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In the central heart of Beijing, the Forbidden City (Imperial Palace) remained the residence of the emperors for nearly five hundred years, from the 15th century to the early 20th century, and was the actual and symbolic seat of imperial power. Popularly known as the Forbidden City, it was built in the Ming Dynasty between the 4th and the 18th years of the Yongle period (1406 - 1420 AD). Many of the buildings of the Palace have been repaired and rebuilt, but their basic style and layout remain in their original state.

This magnificent, palatial architectural complex covers an area of over 2,350,000 square feet and contains 9,999 rooms. It is surrounded by ten-foot-high walls which are crowned by four observation towers and flanked by a deep moat. The walls are pierced by four large gates, each with three openings and a broad crowning pavilion.

The layout of the Forbidden City is based on a Chinese cosmic diagram of the universe that clearly defines the north-south and east-west axes. The buildings represent the largest and best-preserved examples of Chinese traditional architecture found today. The overall layout is centered on the three primary Halls of State: The Hall of Supreme Harmony (Taihedian), The Hall of Middle Harmony (Zhonghedian) and The Hall of Preserving Harmony (Baohedian). State ceremonies were held in the Outer Court (Wai Chao) of the Forbidden City. Here the emperors governed from their thrones, holding court sessions with their ministers, issuing imperial edicts and initiating military expeditions. The Outer Court was also the site for important ceremonies: the accession of a new emperor to the throne, birthdays and weddings. The Inner Court (Nei Ting) was the residential area of the emperor and the imperial household, as well as the place where the emperor dealt with routine state affairs.

The Forbidden City was the scene of many significant events affecting the course of Chinese history. Secret World of the Forbidden City: Splendors from China's Imperial Palace explores the objects housed in this important complex, lending insight into the mysteries of the imperial court under the Qing Dynasty, from the entry into the city of Manchurian troops led by Li Sicheng to the pinnacle of artistic creativity under Qianlong to the decline of the dynasty and the abdication of the last Emperor Xuantong in 1912.

Today, the Forbidden City is one of the world's foremost museums of Chinese art. Its palaces and halls are filled with innumerable works of art and cultural artifacts, including gifts of state, military campaign loot and furnishings and possessions of members of the imperial households. A great number of these treasures represent the peak of artistic and inventive genius exhibited by the countless artisans who worked exclusively for the imperial court.
Nine Dragon Screen

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The Great Wall is one of the cultural heritages of China, which is one of the most magnificent man-made project in the world, it lies across the northern part of China like a great dragon, winding its way through the vast territory of China streching over 6000km. It is also the only human work that can be seen from the moon.

It was originally built as the fortification for the ancient empires. Up to now, large parts of the wall are in ruins or have disappeared, however, good view points can be reached near Beijing, like Badaling Section, Simatai, Jinshanling and Gubeikou etc.

The northern part of the Great Wall in Beijing becomes the tourist spot today which was reconstructed. No one can tell when the ancient Great Wall started, It is said that the oldest ones are fortification walls of China erected between the kingdoms of the Warring States period from the 5th to the 3rd century BC: the walls of Qi (Shandong Province), Chu (Hubei Province), Qin(Shanxi Province), Yan ( Hebei Province), Zhao (Shanxi Province), and Wei( Henan Province).

Badaling Great Wall is located more than 70 kilometers northwest from the center of Beijing City, occupies a commanding and strategic position. Badaling is the best-preserved section of the Great Wall. It was built in the 18th year of the Ming Hong Zhi reign (1505). The wall was built with high stone slabs outside, it is 7.8 meters high on average, some even reaches 8.4meters. The base of the wall was built with more than 2000 large rectangular slabs of granite stones. It is about 6.5 meters wide and 5.7 meters wide on average on the ramparts. The wall is wide enough for five horses to gallop abreast and ten people to advance shoulder by shoulder. The outside of the wall is called rampart wall. The rampart wall was built with bricks as 1.7 meters high. For the purpose of defense, there are holes on the tip of the wall called watch-hole, and peepholes under the wall called embrasures. Inside the wall, there are low walls with one meter high called parapets, which can be used as railings. There is a scroll door not far from the inside wall, with is a stone ladder for climbing up and down. The wall is narrow on the top and broad on the bottom forming an adder-shape structure. This made the wall stands firmly on the rise and fall ridges. The wall was built with 10-14 rectangular slabs of stones surround its outside, filled with soilsand stones in the middle, and paved with square bricks on the top between the bricks were stuck with lime stones. This makes the wall tidy, beautiful, and firm. There are gutters with gargoyles to drain rain-water off the parapet wall.

The landscape of Badaling Great Wall changes every season, with numerous scenery to catch your attention. A sunlit and enchanting scene of spring, the valley covers with greens. When the rain comes, the vista will look vast and hazy. The sky in autumn is high with unsoiled stratosphere, while the maple forest is dyed in golden colour. White snow covers the whole scene in winter.

Transportation: If you take a taxi to get to the Great Wall from Beijing city centre, it generally costs 400RMB(about 50USD), the round way will cost 800RMB(about 100USD).

Entrance Fee: 45RMB(about 6USD)

Mutianyu Great Wall is located in Huairou County, Beijing. Northern Qi (550-577) started to construct a wall here. During the Ming Hong Wu reign (1368-1398), General Xu Da built the Great Wall on its foundation. The Mutianyu Pass was erected in 1404 (the 2nd year of the Ming Yong Le reign). Construction continued when General Qi Jiguang was transferrel to Jizhou to command the garrison area in 1568 (the 2nd year of the Long Qing reign).

The fortifications and the Great Wall here are characterized by many watchtowers on overlapping mountain ranges. The wall was built with slabs of stones, is crenellated on both sides with bricks. Horsetrapping snares outside the wall offer better protection and ward off attacks. With Juyongguan in the west and Gubeikou in the east.

Mutianyu serves as the northern barrier defending the capital and the imperial tombs. With vegetation, green pines and cypresses covering 90 percent of the area, the sceneries here are beautiful all the year round.

Simatai Great Wall is located at GubeikouTown in the northeast of Miyun County, Beijing, 120 kilometers from the city center. Its construction started in the early Hongwu years (1368-1398) of the Ming Dynasty. Like most sections of the Ming Dynasty Great Wall often visited today, this section was also built under the supervision of General Qi Jiguang.

The Simatai Great Wall is 5.4 km long with 35 watchtowers. As the east section of the Gubeikou defense line, this magnificent section features great strategic significance. Built hundreds of years ago, the Simatai Great Wall still retains all its original appearance. It not only incorporates a variety of styles of other parts of the 10, 000-li-long wall, but also displays some unique characteristics. This section of the Great Wall is often described with the following five words: perilous, dense, diverse, ingenuous, and peculiar.

With its fantastic scenery and precipitous topography, the Simatai Great Wall is a remarkable place for sightseeing, hiking and exploration.

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The temple is an active one, with 70 resident monks at last count. It was built between 1911 and 1918. The exterior is readily identifiable by the bright saffron walls. Inside, the centerpiece is a 1.9-metre-high white jade Buddha, which was installed here after a monk has brought it from Burma to Zhejiang Province in 1882. The seated Buddha, encrusted with jewels, is said to weigh 1,000 kg. A smaller, reclining Buddha from the same shipment lies on a redwood bed. In the large hall are three gold-plated Buddha's, and other halls house ferocious-looking deities. Artifacts abound, not all on display, and some 7,000 Buddhist sutras line the walls. Also in the precincts is a branch of the Antiques & Curio Store that sells miniature sandalwood drums and gongs, replicas of the large ones used in ceremonies. No photography of the Jade Buddha is permitted, but postcards are available.

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Shizilin (Lion Grove) was built in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) by Monk Tian Ru to commemorate his teacher, Monk Zhong Feng. The garden's mane comes from the rocks' resemblance to lions.
Covering just over one hectare, Lion Grove, another of the four renowned gardens in Suzhou, is adjacent to Zhuozhengyuan. Its lake rockeries of various shapes and sizes are so famous that it is reputed the "kingdom of rockeries". Qing Emperor Qianlong once paid a visit to Lion Grove and was impressed by the intricate labyrinth of caves there.

Canglangting

Not only one of the four most renowned Suzhou gardens, Canglangting is also the oldest existing garden in the city and a mode of Song-dynasty gardens. It was first constructed in the 10th century, and Su Shunqin, a poet of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), gave it this name, meaning Surging Wave Pavilion.
Its layout broke away from the traditional style of encircling tall walls. The garden is also an excellent illustration of "borrowing scenes" with the distant views seemingly within the garden. The rocks, winding corridor and flowery walls are the three characteristic features of Canglangting.

Wangshi Garden (Net Master Garden)

Also called fisherman's Garden, this 0.6-hectare garden is an elegant structure of a typical official's residence of the Qing Dynasty.
The present garden is found on the former site of a Song dynasty official's mansion. Its owner, an early Qing-dynasty official Song Zongyuan, gave its present name based on the earlier one, "Fisherman's Retreat".
Wangshi Garden consists of a residential quarter and the garden proper. Inside the refined residential quarter, the halls are linked closely by a corridor. The garden, petite but substantial, is focused on a pond and decorated with plants, rocks, pavilions, and stone bridges.
Wangshi Garden is especially fancied by overseas visitors and is praised as the most ornate and intact private gardens in Suzhou. Some tourists even offer a huge amount of money to buy it.

2009-11-15T03:14:00.000-08:00

Connect with “efluencers”. Just like a business person maintains mutually beneficial relationships with traditional business contacts, marketers must also remember to maintain similar relationships with “effluencers”, or influencers.

Find your voice and use it. Engage consumers by listening and communicating with them online, not just in times of crisis, but also as a regular activity, such as providing advice on a specific topic or recommendations on the use of the company’s products. In discussing the challenge faced by computer manufacturers like Dell and Lenovo “is to find an authentic voice to talk back and participate in the conversation,” Flemming said. He added that Dell has multiple blogs, including one in Chinese, along with microblogging accounts on Twitter and the Chinese site Fanfou. (The latter was not available at the time this post was published.)

The Great Wall of China. Government efforts to monitor and censor the Internet are sometimes referred to as "the Great Firewall of China". Photo credit: National Geographic

Marketers should also remember that, with the high engagement and high participation also comes significant government monitoring and censorship.

As evidenced earlier this month after the Xinjiang riots, the government can swiftly block or limit Internet and cell phone access as a means to control information flow to and from all or part of the country.

2009-11-15T03:10:00.000-08:00

Despite reports of the various problems in China, the country’s economy continues to grow, serving as an enticing target to local and foreign entities wanting to expand there.

The country is positioned to surpass Japan as the world’s second largest economy (after the recession-stricken U.S. economy) at the end of this year, according to Tom Rauch of the Associated Press.

Although the use of the Internet and various forms of social media are heavily censored and monitored, Internet and mobile phone use in China is on the rise. This provides organizations willing to make some investment in social media as part of their strategy with plenty of opportunity to make inroads into the Chinese market.

Much like in the U.S. market, being informed, being authentic and engaging in conversation would serve a company well. But to successfully carry out a social media campaign in China, companies should also recognize the differences in the Chinese market, and tailor their strategies and choices of social media tools to the conditions of that market.

In a recent article, Forbes stated that Chinese Internet users, also known as netizens, spend nearly two billion hours online each week, compared to 129 million hours per week for users in the United States. These numbers reflect only a limited portion of the population, not a majority, so the growth could be significantly higher in years to come.

The 298 million people online only account for 23 percent of the Chinese population and may not offer the greatest reach cities beyond a certain tier, according to Sam Flemming, CEO and co-founder of CIC, a leading Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) Research and Consulting firm in China.

2009-11-15T03:05:00.000-08:00

2009-11-15T03:01:00.000-08:00

Be met from your hotel at 7:50 ~ 8:30am and transferred to Lijiang pier at 9:30am, and then take cruise (4.5 hour) to Yangshuo with lunch aboard. Disembark at Yangshuo in the afternoon and take a short exploration to the old town before bejing transferred back to your hotel in Guilin (18:00). (Lunch)

2009-11-15T02:52:00.000-08:00

2009-11-15T02:49:00.000-08:00

2009-11-15T02:15:00.000-08:00

China City Tours

2009-11-08T00:25:00.000-08:00

Beside Beijing tours, Tour-Beijing Travel Service also offer China single city tours, like Shanghai Tours, Xian Tours, Guilin tours, Harbin Tour, Chengde Tour, Datong Tour, Luoyang Tour, Qufu Tour, Inner Mongolian Tour, Hong Kong tours and etc. These are China single city private city package tours with personal local tour guide and private vehicle with driver + hotels + entrance fees and meals as listed + intercity transportation for your party based on 1-10 travellers up. These escorted tours are customized for you, your family or your friends exclusively. No other travelers will join in your group. If all the China single city tours listed here are not what you like, please contact our Beijing China trip advisors to organize for you the customized China single city tours.

Top Tour Destinations

Xian City Tours	Shanghai City Tours	Guilin City Tours
Harbin City Tours	Yangtze River tours	Chengde City Tours
Datong City Tours	Inner Mongolia Tours	Shandong Tours
Luoyang Tours	Beidaihe Tours	Tianjin Tours
Pingyao Tours	Hong Kong tours	Lhasa City Tours
Hangzhou Tours	Huangshan Tours	Chengdu Tours

Beijing, Capital City of China

2009-11-08T00:05:00.000-08:00

As the capital of China, Beijing is one of the world's truly imposing cities, with a 3,000-year history and 15.3 million people (2005). Covering 16,808 square kilometers in area, it is the political, cultural and economic center of the People’s Republic.

Bird's View of the Forbidden City

Situated in northeast China, Beijing adjoins the Inner Mongolian Highland to the northwest and the Great Northern Plain to the south. Five rivers run through the city, connecting it to the eastern Bohai Sea. Administratively, the Beijing municipality equals the status of a province, reporting directly to the central government.

Location of Beijing

Rich in history, Beijing has been China’s primary capital for more than seven centuries. China’s imperial past and political present meet at Tiananmen square, where the Forbidden City palace of the emperors gives way to the Great Hall of the People congress building and the mausoleum of Chairman Mao Zedong. The old city walls have been replaced by ring roads, and many of the old residential districts of alleys and courtyard houses have been turned into high-rise hotels, office buildings, and department stores. Beijing, a dynamic city where the old and new intermingle, remains a magnet for visitors from inside and outside China.

Beijing is a city of broad boulevards, now full of traffic and pulsating to the rhythms of commerce and entertainment. Museums and parks abound, including the Palace Museum of the Forbidden City and Beihai Park in the center of town. Nearby, the China Fine Arts Museum (Zhongguo meishuguan) exhibits the work of contemporary artists. China’s ancient past and recent history are on view at the Museum of Chinese History and Chinese Revolution at Tiananmen. Antiques, crafts, and books can be found at Liulichang, an old antique market district remodeled in the 1980’s to reflect the style of the old city. Some of the spirit of Old Beijing is also preserved at Qianmen, south of Tiananmen, with stores that date to the early 20th century and beyond, including the Tongrentang Traditional Medicine Shop, first established in 1669. Beijing Opera performances and acrobatic troupes keep those traditional entertainment forms vital, while contemporary music clubs and discos thrive in an era of liberalization and prosperity.

An Old Street in Downtown Beijing

The Forbidden City (Imperial Palace, Palace Museum, Gugong)
At the city center is the imperial palace complex of 24 Ming and Qing dynasty emperors. In imperial times it was called as the Purple Forbidden City from the association of the emperors with the color of the Pole Star. Surrounded by 10 meter (32 feet) high walls and gates and a 50m (164 ft.) wide moat, it was inaccessible to ordinary people, but well populated by imperial family members, their servants and staffs, officials, and guards.

The major ceremonial buildings of the palace are aligned on a north-south axis that extends beyond the walls toward the Temple of Heaven complex and Yongding Gate in the south. The main entrance to the palace complex is via the Meridian Gate (Wumen), from which the New Year was announced each year by the emperor, proclamations were read, and the fate of prisoners decided. Past five white marble bridges and the Gate of Supreme Harmony, a great courtyard could accommodate up to several thousand people for state ceremonies such as the imperial weddings.

The three most important ceremonial buildings are on the north-south axis, raised on a high white marble terrace, and accessed by ramps carved with ornate dragons over which the emperor was carried in a palanquin. The three main halls and associated side buildings formed the outer courtyard of the Forbidden City, devoted primarily to official and ceremonial functions, but including imperial libraries and studies. The inner chambers at the rear of the Forbidden City included private living and sleeping quarters of the imperial family, divided into three palaces and twelve courtyards. The Western Palaces were the residences of empresses, concubines, and princes. The Eastern Palace halls are now used as museum exhibition spaces, devoted to ritual bronze vessels, ceramics, craft objects, antique clocks, and paintings, including objects from the imperial collections and archaeological finds. The back precincts include the Palace of Aging Peacefully (Ningshou Gong) where the Qianlong Emperor of the late 18th century spent his retirement years.

Official Site of The Forbidden City :

The Forbidden City of Beijing (with English and Japanese language links)

Tian'anmen Square - the world largest

Tiananmen Square
Just south of the Forbidden City is Tiananmen Square (The Gate of Heavenly Peace Square), the largest inner-city square in the world that can hold up to a million people. It was cleared in 1958 to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic, replacing an older open space in front of the Gate of Heavenly Peace, the main entrance to the imperial city, that had a longer history of political importance. On May 4, 1919, students demonstrated here against provisions of the Treaty of Versailles following World War I that were considered unfair to China. The May Fourth Movement spawned here was a widespread movement for political and literary modernization that impacted the rest of the century.

Bird's view of Tianan'men Square. Forbidden City on the top of the picture.

After the founding of the People’s Republic, Tiananmen Square became symbolic of the socialist state through the construction in 1959 of the Great Hall of the People on its western side, and the Museums of Chinese History and the Chinese Revolution on its eastern edge. In the same period, a Monument to the People’s Heroes was erected in the center of the square. In addition, following Chairman Mao Zedong’s death in 1976, a Chairman Mao Mausoleum building was erected directly on the main north-south axis of the square. It contains the preserved body of Mao in a crystal sarcophagus, along with a standing marble statue of the Chairman. China’s imperial past, revolutionary history, and political present are all represented vividly in Tiananmen Square.

Temple of Heaven
Located in the southern part of the city, close to the main north-south axis leading to the Forbidden City, is the Temple of Heaven complex of ritual buildings. The halls and altars here are round, symbolic of heaven. A counterpart Earth Altar in the north of the city uses the square profile symbolic of earth; temples of the sun (in the east) and moon (west) complete a ceremonial surround for Beijing that made it not only a political capital but also a ritual center, shaped in the form of a cosmic diagram.

The emperor, as Son of Heaven, performed priestly as well as ruling functions. Each year on the day of the winter solstice, following three days of fasting and meditation, the emperor would offer sacrifices and pray for a good harvest at the Altar of Heaven, a three-tiered round white marble structure, built in 1530 and reconstructed in 1740. The round altar sits on a square base, symbolic of the meeting of heaven and earth, a theme carried through in the shape of the complex as a whole, a semicircle atop a square.

Just north of the Altar of Heaven is the octagonal Imperial Vault of Heaven building, which contained tablets of the imperial ancestors and astronomical plaques of the constellations and meteorological occurrences. The outer wall of the Vault of Heaven Hall is known as the Echo Wall, from its ability to transmit even whispered voices around its length. Farther north is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, originally built in 1420, remodeled in 1545, destroyed by lightning in 1889, and rebuilt in the following year, in part using Oregon fir wood for the supporting pillars.

West of these buildings is the Altar of Farming, where each year in spring the emperor personally ploughed eight furrows to symbolically assure a good harvest. The Hall of the Year Gods (now housing the Museum of Chinese Architecture) was where the emperor sacrificed to the gods of the year and asked for a good harvest.

Official Site of Temple of Heaven:

Temple of Heaven, Beijing (with English, Japanese, Korean language links)

Summer Palace

Summer Palace
Fifteen kilometers (9 miles) to the northwest of Beijing is the Summer Palace. Now a large park of 716 acres, it was formerly the imperial garden retreat from the summer heat of Beijing. Surrounding hills shelter the site, and the Kunming Lake provides a cooling effect. The site was used as an imperial park as early as the mid-12th century, and continued as an imperial garden in the Ming and Qing dynasties. In 1860 Anglo-French forces burned the site to the ground. It was reconstructed by the Empress Dowager Cixi in 1888, using funds that had been reserved for building a modern naval force. The large marble boat that sits immobile by the edge of the lake is an ironic reminder of the waste and mismanagement that led to the decline of the imperial state.

Official Site of Summer Palace:

Summer Palace of Beijing (with English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Russian language links)

The Great Wall
The Great Wall is perhaps China’s most famous and most mythologized site. Several sections are conveniently visited from Beijing, including at Badaling, the most popular site, about 70 km (43 mi.) northwest of Beijing and at Mutianyu, 90 km (56 mi.) northeast of Beijing. These impressive brick and earth structures date from the Ming dynasty, when the wall was fortified against Mongol forces to the north. The Ming wall is about 26 feet tall and 23 feet wide at the base, and could accommodate up to six horsemen riding abreast. Watch towers were built on high points every 200-300 meters or so with small garrison forces that could communicate with fire signals or fireworks. These stretches of the wall are part of a system that extends from the Shanhaiguan fortress on the Bohai Gulf in the east to the Jiayuguan fortress in the west, altogether some 6000 km (3700 mi).

The Ming sections of the wall are only a late stage in a long history, much of which has little to do with the present structures. The wall is most often associated with the First Emperor of China (Qin Shi Huangdi, reigned 221-210 BC), who after unifying China by conquest undertook to link up previously existing sections of walls belonging to conquered states, but on a course far to the north of the present wall. The First Emperor mobilized massive conscripted labor forces, including convicts and prisoners, by some accounts up to a million strong, to conduct this building campaign.

While the Great Wall in its various versions had real military defensive functions, it also served symbolic purposes. For long periods Chinese populations lived north of the wall and nomads or semi-nomads lived south of it. The wall served as a symbolic reminder of dynastic authority and also of cultural distinction between settled agrarian culture and cities on the Chinese side and pastoral horsemen on the other. It continues today to serve as a marker of cultural and national identity.

Beijing Hutong (Alleys)
Beijing has about 4,550 alleys, which were scattered around the Forbidden City. Most of the alleys came into being during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. On both sides of the Hutong (alleys) are traditional siheyuan, the traditional Chinese compound with houses around a courtyard. The face-in structure has been seen as manifestation of the introspective Chinese culture. One of the best ways to visit the alleys is to go by pedicabs. With someone else pedaling for you, you just relax and take a good look at the alleys. The best route for a pedicab tour is around the Prince Gong’s Residence, where there are quite a few interesting alleys like the Dajinsi (Big Golden Line), Xiaojinsi (Little Golden Line), and Liuyin (Willow Shade) alleys.

Hutong in Shishahai, Xicheng District, Beijing

Bird's View of the Forbidden City

Location of Beijing

An Old Street in Downtown Beijing

Official Site of The Forbidden City :

The Forbidden City of Beijing (with English and Japanese language links)

Tian'anmen Square - the world largest

Bird's view of Tianan'men Square. Forbidden City on the top of the picture.

Official Site of Temple of Heaven:

Temple of Heaven, Beijing (with English, Japanese, Korean language links)

Summer Palace

Official Site of Summer Palace:

Summer Palace of Beijing (with English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Russian language links)

Hutong in Shishahai, Xicheng District, Beijing

2009-11-06T20:59:00.000-08:00

Life in Cambodia

2009-11-06T00:00:00.000-08:00

Changing Culture in Cambodia

18 May 2009

Recently I have noticed more and more women wearing some sort of socks or hose. The women who do tend to stand out because the common footware in most of Asia is either nothing or a simple flip-flop or slip-on sandal. I'm not sure what is precipitating the style change. Maybe it's just a fad but maybe it's another instance of Western values creeping into Asian culture.

Socks for motorcycling

Socks for bicycling

Socks for going to school

Socks for going to work

Knee-highs

or anklets

Mostly younger women wear socks

but sometimes their mothers do, too

Water Festival: Boats and Crews

2009-11-05T23:49:00.000-08:00

The colorful T-shirts and matching caps identify most of the boat racing crews, although some of the crews are so poor that they don't have the uniform shirts.
These crew members are luckier than most; they have someone to ride them
around in atruck.

400 boats were entered in this year's races. They competed in heats, two at a time, all day long to narrow down the field to the final boats that race in the late afternoon on the last day. In between the heats, there is a lot of sitting around and watching the competition.

Every year there are at least one or two boats sponsored and crewed by foreigners, usually ex-pats who live in Phnom Penh. They are easily identified by (1) their light skins, (2) their life jackets which few local racers can afford, and (3) a mixed crew of both women and men.

The boats in the foreground have finished their heat and are making their way back upstream to the staging area, hugging the riverbank to be out of the way. In the middle of the Tonle Sap River are two pairs of boats racing. The course is about 1.5 miles along and takes about 8-10 minutes to complete

Two boats in a close race. The boats are matched according to crew size which can range from 30 to 100 paddlers per boat. More than 20,000 crew members paddled
the 400 boats.

More emphasis was placed on safety, a really big weak point in Cambodian activities. Two years ago several crew members on a Singapore boat drowned and a local man drowned last year. Very few of the paddlers can afford life jackets.

The government has been reconstructing the riverfront in Phnom Penh and this year a concrete embankment was available for the spectators instead of the previous mud and weeds. The rebuilt levee was just opened to the public a month or so ago.

From the fifth floor of the Paragon Hotel, the expanse of the Tonle Sap River race area can be seen. The opposite shore is a peninsula with the Mekong River on the other side.

The Church Celebration

2009-11-05T23:39:00.000-08:00

oday, Sunday, was celebrated as All Souls Day in Cambodia. For most of the Western Church, it was the 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time, but because Cambodian culture and society honors their ancestors and deceased family members at this Pchum Ben time, the Church has given permission for All Souls Day to be moved to this festive period so that Christianity is not seen as "foreign" and at odds with the local customs and mores.
	At the rear of the Catholic Church compound is this small stupa, of traditional architecture, where the ashes of cremated persons are kept. Most people are cremated in Cambodia and for the Catholic Cambodians a sacred place to keep the ashes of their relatives is important.
	Inside the stupa—which is always open and never locked—families have placed small urns with the ashes and pieces of bone from the cremation of their loved ones. A variety of containers and arrangements are evident. Some show Chinese influence, others just more money in the family. Note the can of Coca-Cola left as an offering by one urn.
	Because two of the three Pchum Ben holidays fell on the weekend, the government granted another day off on the following Monday. So even though people have had three days off from work, the streets are still empty because most people will not return to town until Monday.

Life in Cambodia

2009-11-05T23:36:00.000-08:00

This man has baguettes on the handlebars and a variety of other breads in the basket in back.

A real drive-by food experience: the vendor going one way is stopped by two girls on a motorcycle going the other way.

"What kind of bread did you guys want?" Two women buying bread for their colleagues. The bread is just eaten plain.

Another popular cooked street food is corn on the cob. The corn is sweet and is eaten without salt or butter or anything.

Two women selling rambutans, a red, hairylike fruit. Like the corn, this is a seasonal offering.

This man is selling small limes in the bags and another fruit with an unknown name in the basket.

The basket on this bicycle is full of some sort of tuber.

More corn on the cob for sale.

Preparation for the Lunar New Year Celebrationa

2009-11-05T23:22:00.000-08:00

Preparation for
the Lunar New Year Celebration

The Lunar New Year--called Tet in Vietnam--is the most important celebration of the year for Chinese and Vietnamese people. This family has decorated their tire and battery store for the festival.

Visiting family and friends is an important part of the new year, and this vendor sells the gifts of oranges and other fruits and tins of biscuits that are given to those visited.

An important part of the celebration is the family reunion dinner on new year's eve. Roast pork is a traditional dish.

Everything must be made new for the new year celebration. Houses are cleaned and painted; broken dishes are thrown away; people buy new clothes and get haircuts; traditional flowers and peach tree branches decorate the houses. And all of this at greatly inflated prices during the two weeks before the big celebration!

There is a spiritual side to the New Year celebrations also. On new year's eve, throughout the city families burn stacks of imitation paper money for their deceased ancestors to use for whatever they need in the next life.

Water Festival Crowds

2009-11-05T23:21:00.000-08:00

Water Festival Crowds
Phnom Penh's population more than doubles during the Water Festival as a million and a hlaf people stream into the capital from all over the country. Here people walking to the river rest in the shade on the steps of the Independence Monument. The traffic these days is totally chaotic.	The roads leading to the river are blocked off. This policeman is in trouble because the car has a military card on the dashboard, and the officer is wondering whether it's actually somebody important or just one of the arrogant military people who can't imagine that such mundane retrictions should apply to them.
Coming to Phnom Penh for the Water Festival is like an earlier time in the United States when people from the rural counties went to the annual state fair. Here some young people get their picture taken in front of a portrait of the king to show the people back home.	To lessen the horrendous traffic, the government blocked all buses and trucks from entering the city. People like these have walked sometimes for miles from the outskirts of the city. But there are tens of thousands of others just like them, all taking in the sights of the big city.
As they get closer to the river, the streams of walkers converge and the crowds get denser and denser. These people just have a couple blocks to go.	Finally the vistas open up and they are at the river, just behind the row of flags. This is late morning. In the evening these streets are literally blocked with people.
Kids here are like kids everywhere and a trip to the Water Festival isn't complete without a special hat or headband.	Wat Phnom is the spiritual center of the nation, and its location near the river draws thousands of people to its slopes. "Phnom" means "hill."

Main article: Sport in Cambodia

2009-11-05T23:17:00.000-08:00

Cambodia has increasingly become involved in sports over the last 30 years. Football is popular as are martial arts, including Bokator, Pradal Serey (Khmer kick boxing) and Khmer traditional wrestling.

Bokator is an ancient Khmer martial art said to be the predecessor of all Southeast Asian kickboxing styles. Depicted in bas reliefs at Angkor Wat, Bokator was the close quarter combat system used by the ancient Angkor army. Unlike kick boxing, which is a sport fighting art, Boxkator was a soldier’s art, designed to be used on the battlefield. When fighting, Bokator practitioners still wear the uniforms of ancient Khmer armies. A kroma (scarf) is folded around their waist and blue and red silk cords are tied around the combatant's head and biceps.

Young Cambodian boxers

Pradal Serey, or traditional Khmer boxing, is a popular sport in Cambodia. Victory is by knockout or by judge's decision. Styles of boxing have been practiced in Southeast Asia since ancient times. In the Angkor era, both armed and unarmed martial arts were practiced by the Khmers. Evidence shows that a style resembling Pradal Serey existed around the 9th century. There have been heated debates between nations about the true origins of South East Asian kickboxing.

Khmer traditional wrestling is yet another popular Cambodian sport. Wrestling match consists of three rounds, which may be won by forcing an opponent to his back. Traditional matches are held during the Khmer New Year and other Cambodian holidays.

The Cambodian Football Federation is the governing body of football in Cambodia, controlling the Cambodian national team. It was founded in 1933, and has been a member of FIFA since 1953 and the Asian Football Confederation since 1957.

Phnom Pehn National Olympic Stadium is the national stadium with a capacity of 50,000 in Phnom Pehn.

Main article: Courtship, marriage, and divorce in Cambodia

2009-11-05T23:15:00.000-08:00

In Cambodia, premarital sex is deplored. The choice of a spouse is a complex one for the young male, and it may involve not only his parents and his friends, as well as those of the young woman, but also a matchmaker. In theory, a girl may veto the spouse her parents have chosen. Courtship patterns differ between rural and urban Khmer; romantic love is a notion that exists to a much greater extent in larger cities. A man usually marries between the ages of nineteen and twenty-five, a girl between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two. After a spouse has been selected, each family investigates the other to make sure its child is marrying into a good family. In rural areas, there is a form of bride-service; that is, the young man may take a vow to serve his prospective father-in-law for a period of time.^[4]

Bride and groom at a Cambodian wedding

The traditional wedding is a long and colorful affair. Formerly it lasted three days, but in the 1980s it more commonly lasted a day and a half. Buddhist priests offer a short sermon and recite prayers of blessing. Parts of the ceremony involve ritual hair cutting, tying cotton threads soaked in holy water around the bride's and groom's wrists, and passing a candle around a circle of happily married and respected couples to bless the union. After the wedding, a banquet is held. Newlyweds traditionally move in with the wife's parents and may live with them up to a year, until they can build a new house nearby.^[4]

Divorce is legal and relatively easy to obtain, but not common.^[4] Divorced persons are viewed with some disapproval. Each spouse retains whatever property he or she brought into the marriage, and jointly-acquired property is divided equally. Divorced persons may remarry, but the woman must wait ten months. Custody of minor children is usually given to the mother, and both parents continue to have an obligation to contribute financially toward the rearing and education of the child.^[4]

[edit] Social organization

Main article: Social organization in Cambodia

Khmer culture is very hierarchical. The greater a person's age, the greater the level of respect that must be granted to them. Cambodians are addressed with a hierarchical title corresponding to their seniority before the name. When a married couple becomes too old to support themselves, they may invite the youngest child's family to move in and to take over running the household. At this stage in their lives, they enjoy a position of high status.^[4]

The individual Khmer is surrounded by a small inner circle of family and friends who constitute his or her closest associates, those he would approach first for help. The nuclear family, consisting of a husband and a wife and their unmarried children, is the most important kin group. Within this unit are the strongest emotional ties, the assurance of aid in the event of trouble, economic cooperation in labor, sharing of produce and income, and contribution as a unit to ceremonial obligations. In rural communities, neighbors—who are often also kin—may be important, too. Fictive child-parent, sibling, and close friend relationships Cambodia transcend kinship boundaries and serve to strengthen interpersonal and interfamily ties. Beyond this close circle are more distant relatives and casual friends. In rural Cambodia, the strongest ties a Khmer may develop—besides those to the nuclear family and to close friends—are those to other members of the local community. A strong feeling of pride—for the village, for the district, and province—usually characterizes Cambodian community life.^[5]

Legally, the husband is the head of the Khmer family, but the wife has considerable authority, especially in family economics. The husband is responsible for providing shelter and food for his family; the wife is generally in charge of the family budget, and she serves as the major ethical and religious model for the children, especially the daughters. Both husbands and wives are responsible for domestic economic tasks.^[5]

[edit] Customs

Sampeah (Cambodian greeting)

In Khmer culture a person's head is believed to contain the persons soul--therefore making it taboo to touch or point your feet at it. It is also considered to be extremely disrespectful to point or sleep with your feet pointing at a person, as the feet are the lowest part of the body and are considered to be impure.

When greeting people or to show respect in Cambodia people do the "sampeah" gesture, identical to the Indian namaste and Thai wai

Customary Cambodian teachings include: that if a person does not wake up before sunrise he is lazy; you have to tell your parents or elders where you are going and what time you are coming back home; close doors gently, otherwise you have a bad temper; sit with your legs straight down and not crossed (crossing your legs shows that you are an impolite person); and always let other people talk more than you.

Childhood and adolescence

2009-11-05T23:13:00.000-08:00

Cambodian girls on a bicycle

Main article: Childhood and adolescence in Cambodia

A Cambodian child may be nursed until he or she is between two and four years of age. Up to the age of three or four, the child is given considerable physical affection and freedom. Children around five years of age also may be expected to help look after younger siblings. Children's games emphasize socialization or skill rather than winning and losing.^[4]

Most children begin school when they are seven or eight. By the time they reach this age, they are familiar with the society's norms of politeness, obedience, and respect toward their elders and toward Buddhist monks. The father at this time begins his permanent retreat into a relatively remote, authoritarian role. By age ten, a girl is expected to help her mother in basic household tasks; a boy knows how to care for the family's livestock and can do farm work under the supervision of older males. Adolescent children usually play with members of the same sex. During his teens, a boy may become a temple servant and go on to serve a time as a novice monk, which is a great honor for the parents.^[4]

In precommunist days, parents exerted complete authority over their children until the children were married, and the parents continued to maintain some control well into the marriage. Age difference is strictly recognized with polite vocabulary and special generational terms for "you".^[4]

Culture of Cambodia

2009-11-05T23:02:00.000-08:00

Traditional Khmer dance

The culture of Cambodia has had a rich and varied history dating back many centuries, and has been heavily influenced by India and China.^[1] Throughout Cambodia's long history, a major source of inspiration was from religion. Throughout nearly two millennium, Cambodians developed a unique Khmer belief from the syncreticism of indigenous animistic beliefs and the Indian religions of Buddhism and Hinduism. Indian culture and civilization, including its language and arts reached mainland Southeast Asia around the 1st century A.D. Its is generally believed that seafaring merchants brought Indian customs and culture to ports along the Gulf of Thailand and the Pacific while trading with China. The first state to benefit from this was Funan.

Angkor and the Temples

2009-11-05T07:26:00.000-08:00

There is nothing like Angkor anywhere on this planet.
The 12th century city covered an area of over 100 Sq Kms with a population of over 1 million.
At its core, the Great City, of Angkor Thom, is contained with high walls with huge faces carved in the gateways.
Angkor Wat; the Worlds largest religious building covers one and a half square Kms and contains more stone than was used to build the great pyramid of Giza.


The Royal pyramid of Phiminakas	Small part of the Elephants Terrace
Map area approx 20 kms x 12 kms

Angkor thom South Gate

The great Temple

city of

Angkor Thom

Bayon Faces

Royal Palace gate

East Gate of Angkor thom

Huge stone faces adorn the main gates of Angkor Thom and other temples.

Angkor Thom Moat with demon figure on Naga Balustrade

Angkor Thom is is just the starting point. Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world is so big as to be hard to take in at once.
The 200metre wide moat and causeway with the 350 metre entrance portico is impressive enough, but the grandeur within its walls is truly stunning.
Over 1 kilometre of spectacular carvings lie within its outer galleries and a vast labyrinth of passages, courtyards and the five lotus flower towers at its centre.
More on Angkor Wat

Offerings Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat South Gate taken from across the moat

Cambodia is one of the few countries in the world to depict a building on its flag

Multi Armed Vishnu at Angkor

Apsara Angkor Wat	Angkor reflected in pool at sundown

Other Temples within Angkor

	Ta Prohm "This huge temple complex looks much the same as when it was first discovered. The high lichen covered walls are distorted by the movement of the earth beneath. 800 years of history lie twisted and broken, with sinister root systems of huge trees enveloping doors and windows in a stranglehold. The distinction between organic and non-organic become blurred in the green pallor of light from the jungle canopy. The intensity of the jungle sounds here can be almost deafening. It must be one of the most atmospheric places on Earth". These words were penned by myself after visiting Ta Prohm for the first time in 2002. Things have changed a lot in 5 years. Tourist numbers have now reduced the ambiance somewhat. It its however a spectacular sight not to be missed! More on Ta Prohm
Preah Khan: The Temple of the Sacred Sword This is the second largest temple enclosure in Angkor. Within its square kilometre enclosure lies a temple complex which is almost as atmospheric as Ta Prohm. It is very much better preserved; though still has some eerie root formations; the most impressive being shown here. Preah Khan had an army of 80,000 to service and maintain it. It must have been an amazing sight.	One of the many strange trees on the walls of Preah Khan

Ta Keo	Pre Rup Central Tower	Thommanon

Banteay Samre	Spean Thma (ruined stone bridge)	Phnom Bakheng hill Temple

Ta Keo and Pre Rup are temple mountain pyramids which had five towers, which like Angkor Wat, represent the mythical Mount Meru the centre of the Hindu Universe. Spean Thma is an old stone Bridge which was laft high and dry After the Siem Reap River changes its course.

The Hill Temple of Phnom Bakheng is one of the most ancient of all the Angkor temples. It is popular as a sunset viewpoint; an average of 3000 people climb to the top each evening. Visit at other times and it will be almost deserted.

East Mebon	Banteay Srey

East Mebon
Situated at the centre of the huge reservoir of Eest Baray (now dried up), the island temple of East Mebon was built by Rajendravarman II at the end of 10th Century. It has five brick towers and elephant statues at each corner. It is a contemporary of Pre Rup (Turning of the Body) a funerary temple with a similar plan.

Banteay Srey
A favourite of whoever visits it; this small Hindu temple around 45 mins drive from Siem Reap, has the finest of all the carvings of the temples of Angkor. Banteay Srey is a place of breathtaking beauty. Get there early to avoid the crowds!

Yuka got tired of temples before I did

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The Angkor Wat area gets extremely hot around noon, and then it is nice to escape back to Siem Reap for a shower or some sleep. Most of the temple pictures that you will see were therefore taken in the early morning or late afternoon.	After arriving in Siem Reap, we took a cab to our hotel from the airport. Since the driver turned out to be a nice guy, we hired him for the rest of our stay. While an alarm bell rang in my head when I decided to do so, it turned out to be a great decision. During our time in Cambodia, we discovered that Cambodians generally are trustworthy.


Yuka got tired of temples before I did, but she did her best pretending to be interested in old buildings even though it was extremely hot.	If you go to Angkor-Wat looking for an adventure, you will be sorely disappointed. There were bus loads of people from across the Vietnamese border, Disneyland can seen empty in comparison.

Phnom Bakheng at Angkor

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As Wikipedia writes, "Phnom Bakheng at Angkor, Cambodia, is a Hindu temple in the form of a Temple mountain, dedicated to Shiva and built at the end of the 9th century, during the reign of Yasovarman (from 889-910). It is nowadays a popular tourist spot for watching sunsets, also offering a good view of Angkor Wat lying amid the jungle some 1.5 km away to the southeast".	The sunset was beautiful, don't get me wrong, but some things are better enjoyed alone or with really good friends


After the sun went down, we stumbled down the wheelchair inaccessible temple and found our driver.	This was formerly a Chinese restaurant, and formed part of the old Chinatown in Angkor-Wat.

Temples of Angkor

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Tourists coming and sellers walking the other way.	The "Ta Prohm" temple was "was used as a location in the film Tomb Raider. Although the film took visual liberties with other Angkor temples, its scenes of Ta Prohm were quite faithful to the temple's actual appearance, and made use of its eerie qualities" (per Wikipedia).

"Ta Prohm is a temple at Angkor, Cambodia, built in the Bayon style largely in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Located approximately one kilometre east of Angkor Thom and on the southern edge of the East Baray near Tonle Bati, it was built by King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university. Unlike most of the other Angkor temples, Ta Prohm has been left in much the same condition in which it was found: the photogenic and atmospheric combination of trees growing out of the ruins and the jungle surroundings have made it one of Angkor's most popular temples with visitors".

"Ta Prohm was one of the first temples begun in Jayavarman VII's massive building program. The temple's modern name means "old Brahma", but the original name was Rajavihara (royal temple). It was centred on veneration of the king's family: the main image (of Prajnaparamita, the personification of wisdom, installed in 1186) was modelled on his mother, while the two satellite temples in the third enclosure were dedicated to his guru (north) and his elder brother (south ). Expansions and additions continued as late as the rule of Srindravarman at the end of the 13th century. The temple's stele recorded that the site was home to more than 12,500 people, with a further 80,000 in surrounding villages helping to supply the institution. The temple amassed considerable riches, including gold, pearls and silks".

When you can’t decide how you want to process a particular image, the easiest thing to do is to make a number of Virtual Copies and apply various settings or presets to the individual images. At any point you can then go back to the Library Module and select all your various versions, click on the Survey View icon in the tool bar and compare all the selected images side by side.

Since all the Virtual Copies and their settings are created with non-destructive editing tools, you can experiment to your hearts content on all the Virtual Copies (without affecting the original image) and keep comparing them until you get an image (or images) that you really like.

The Survey View of the original image and three variables.

Ta Prohm temple ruins, built in mid 12th century by King Jayavarman VII to honor his mother, the temple is located in the Angkor Archaeological Park, a few kilometers from the Angkor Wat temple complex.

The Ta Prohm temple ruins are immensely popular with tourists and photographers visiting the Angkor temples, because they were used in the 2001 Lara Croft Tomb Raiders movie starring Angelina Jolie.

Tepmonorom Phnom-Penh (Hanumann)

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Robam Makor

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Dance of Ream EySo and Moni Mekhala - New

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MoNorSonChetTaNa Dance

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Agangamasor & His Magic Power, A New Cambodian Classical Dance Drama

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Khmer Culture

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How Cambodian culture re-emerged after the devastating Pol Pot years

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The awesome grace and meticulous movements of the performers have entranced audiences since ancient times, an experience now shared with plane-loads of tourists descending on Siem Reap in western Cambodia, the jumping off point for the world's largest temple complex - legendary Angkor Wat.

Dating back to the days of the great Angkor empire that flourished from the 9th to 15th centuries, Cambodian dance is a celebration of the gods, mythology, and the world of the royal palace.

This 144-page, lavishly-illustrated, coffee-table book authored by Denise Heywood, a lecturer on Asian art, brings the reader a fine appreciation of Cambodian dance intertwined with the turbulent history and how it has always been at the core of Khmer culture and identity. The book details and explains the origins and development of the dances, music, and shadow puppetry, all in the context of their spiritual importance as a medium for communicating with the gods.

But Cambodia's recent tragedy brought its great tradition of dance near oblivion. The "Killing Fields" regime of the Khmer Rouge not only killed through slave labor, starvation, and slaughter nearly 2 million people, including 90 percent of artists, dancers, and writers, but it also came close to extinguishing Khmer culture and tradition. Pol Pot's brand new agrarian dystopia had no place for the arts, culture, or any other kind of entertainment except xenophobic songs and Pol Pot propaganda.

Heywood first arrived in Cambodia as a freelance writer in 1994, and her interest in dance was heightened by the extraordinary tale of how a few dancers and choreographers survived the genocidal years from 1975 to 79.

In January 1979, a new Heng Samrin government backed by Vietnam proclaimed the restoration of normal society after four years of the Pol Pot regime had trashed most aspects of family life and the previous society.

A handful of survivors emerged from the darkest era in Cambodian history dedicated to resuscitating their cherished traditions of dance. Actor, poet, and director Pich Tum Kravel and former director of the National Conservatory Chheng Phon were among the cultural stars who miraculously survived.

They became the key people enlisted by the new Ministry of Information and Culture under Keo Chenda, charged with the critical mission of bringing all the surviving dancers together.

The expertise was handed down through the generations from master to pupil and never documented in written form, so everything depended on human memory. The late Chea Samy became the leading teacher at the re-established School of Fine Arts in 1981 (ironically Pol Pot was her brother-in-law).

Piecing together the collective memories of survivors and much of the vast repertory, the performing arts were revived.

When this reviewer saw the post-Pol Pot Cambodian National Dance Company perform in Phnom Penh in 1981, it was a highly-emotional experience. Members of the audience wept. This outpouring of raw emotion encompassed both tears of sadness for those loved ones they would never see again - and tears of joy that Khmer dance was alive again and had risen from the ashes of nihilistic destruction.

Nothing had greater significance for the Khmer people in this process of rebuilding than this revival of the nation's soul and psyche in which dance plays a central role.

While Heywood is to be commended for her documentation of the revival of dance in the 1980s, it is a pity she has wrongly contextualized this cultural renaissance by claiming that "Heng Samrin's Vietnamese government" organized a national arts festival in 1980.

In fact, President Heng Samrin and everyone else in the new government were all Cambodians and not Vietnamese. Somehow the author has been infected with the cold war propaganda emanating from Asean governments and US embassies in the region.

The reality was more complicated. The cultural revival depicted in this book makes it clear that Vietnamese control over security and foreign policy, despite tensions and differences with their Cambodian allies, did not block the re-emergence of Khmer culture that at the same time planted the seeds for future independence.

In 2003, Unesco bestowed formal recognition proclaiming the Royal Ballet of Cambodia to be a masterpiece of oral and intangible heritage. And one year later, Prince Norodom Sihamoni, a former ballet choreographer and dancer, was crowned king.

Thai classical dance borrows much from the dance traditions of Angkorian times. After Siam's invasion of Siem Reap in 1431, hundreds of Cambodian dancers were abducted and brought to dance in Ayutthaya, at that time the capital hosting the royal court of the Thai king.

This timely book also mentions that Cambodian choreographer Sophiline Shapiro has, among many other projects, adapted Mozart's Magic Flute to Khmer classical dance as part of a 2006 festival to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the great composer's birth.

This production with many innovations caused a stir among the purists. Shapiro passionately defends her new productions against the critics, telling the author "increasing the repertory of dance will help to preserve it and prevent it from atrophying or becoming a museum piece."

Brief Description of Cultural Dances

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	Chhayam: This is a comic, improvised dance accompanied by long drums which often precedes a ceremonial parade.
	Monkey Dance: (Prathom Sva Pol): A dance which demonstrates movements of a certain kind of "monkey" character in Cambodian dance-dramas. Watch closely to see them picking fleas and scratching.
	Tivea Prapey: A group of young children dance while the lyrics speak of a holdiay celebration honoring the glory of Cambodia. This is part of the classical dance repertoire.
	Blessing Dance: (Chuon Por): In this classical piece, "The Blessing Dance" flower petals are tossed gently from small silver or gold trays as a way of blessing the audience and the event.
	Good Crops Dance: (Pok Pal or Tonitine): This folk dance represents the upland rice planting and harvesting activities of ethnic minority residents of Cambodia's mountainous northeast.
	Pestle Dance: (Angres): The "Pestle Dance" presents peasants celebrating their harvest on a night lit by the full moon. The villagers use a long pestle to pound the rice. Such pestles serve as props in this dance

Where is Khmer culture going?

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With such rapid pace of progress, Cambodia eagerly embraces a bright future. That's the upside. What's disheartening is that it's a future that chases inspiration externally-- specifically from the West, while rejecting its own rich legacy and heritage.

Silence about the Khmer Rouge period

With the KR trials commencing, spotlight is on the reaction of the Khmer population. But collective suppression of this period in history is the prevailing practice. Even the international community avoids the issue: aid funding for mental health has been nil, despite numerous requests and rampant indication of need. What little dialogue is had about tribunal activities is mostly aimed at foreigners and international scholars, researchers, interns.

Khmer kids have not an inkling of the import of the Khmer Rouge period. It's not taught in school, barely mentioned in the home, and no discourse is had in the public sphere. To be ignorant of it is one thing, but I was shocked on arrival that my new friends flat-out deny these atrocities ever even occurred. They say it's just old people talking to scare them... Here Seth Mydans reports on how Cambodia's youth know little about the Khmer Rouge atrocities

Some older people get so upset at their children for not believing that they say, ‘I wish the Khmer Rouge time would happen again; then you’d believe it,’ Mr. Ty Leap said.

Thought leaders, influencers and the professional cadres were largely eliminated during the KR period, true. But a complete dismantling of the Khmer social infrastructure is reinforced by this large-scale avoidance of the topic. It is a rift, chasm, disconnect that winds and rends through the entire fabric of Khmer society.

Frayed social networks

For thousands of years Buddhism has been the pillar of social cohesion-- a vanguard of Khmer culture and moral authority in matters of social and even political affairs. But the abbots' and monks' relevance has deteriorated, largely from decimation of the top ranks of the Buddhist order. This left a fragmented social system and a void, at a time it is most needed.

We're witnessing the extinction of many art forms, from music to fine arts, with little local advocacy. Such cultural expressions usually boom after conflict periods; it is part of a society's healing process to document memories. But the arts are unsupported, even from the royal family, many of whom including the King are gifted artists. This point is very telling by itself. The royal family does not reside in-country, and the King is (was?) a dance professor in France who spends little of his life here. What better way to convey the message to your people that Khmer culture is sub-par than to abandon the very channels for social expression.

My colleague's father was a renowned painter prior to the Khmer Rouge period, and his works hang in the National Museum in Phnom Penh. Thoroughly impressed, K requested an interview. Her response? His art is so old, why would he be interested in it when she can introduce him to more exciting contemporary artists instead. She was sure to add that good artists have had training in the West or from Westerners-- her father "only" knew Angkorian style.

These are just a few instances of the absence of pride among Khmer for anything Cambodian.

Foreigners' role in advocating Khmer culture

The generations after the KR only ever knew to aspire to the whims of endless armies of westerners bringing our ideas to them, experimenting on a societal scale at will and for the most part unchecked. Khmers are conditioned to worship the power of the dollar. They're exposed to and want the excesses they see on the pirated Hollywood blockbusters: fast cars, fast money, throwaway relationships, soundbyte politics and a consumption lifestyle-- all a complete flip of the essence of Cambodian philosophy towards life. China, India, Thailand, etc, have all chosen to embrace modernity. But their quest for progress is continuously negotiated against the substance of their cultural identity. Khmers seem not to have this.

Instead of coming from within, foreigners (for lack of elder Khmer mentors) are showing the youth what's cool about their own Khmer culture. Through the filters of foreign taste, Khmer are learning to appreciate the finer elements of their own traditions. The context is displaced, disconnected, inorganic.

For me, growing up in the US, I was taught the essence of my Filipino heritage in the home, and learned my new country's cultural nuances through social situations. Most of us have the luxury of this foundation from which to forge our identity, whichever direction that may go. I reject some Filipino and American traditions on the basis that I had grasp of the context. Cambodian kids are given little context from which to move forward.

So what's in store for Cambodian culture?

Mentors from within the country are still few relative to the boomer population post-KR, but this cadre is steadily growing, (thankfully) embracing their Khmer identity and taking the lead to advocate for it. Ever so slowly, foreigner guidance will give way to this new generation of elders. But it'll take entire lifetimes. In the meantime, a cultural schizophrenia guides the direction of progress in Cambodia...