A Canadian In Beijing: Turn Up The Volume

by Ember Swift on

Ember Swift is the newest member of Gadling. Over the next three months, this Canadian woman will be living in and exploring China. During her time there, she’ll be posting regularly about her adventures. Check in every Wednesday and Sunday to see what China is like from a Western perspective…

Beijing is less than one week away and my musician self can barely keep the volume down. My excitement is cranking and I haven’t even started packing yet. That’s tomorrow’s task and it brings me that much closer to eventually hearing the lilt of Mandarin spoken nearly everywhere I go for a solid three months.

I am a full-time musician who has logged a lot of travel miles. I’m onto my fifth touring van since 1997, for instance, and only two died of unnatural causes (one fire, one theft) while all the others were just driven to their graves after years of loyal service. But, to give you more résumé-like context, throughout the past eleven years there have been ten different independent releases (nine albums and one DVD), thousands of performances averaging approximately one hundred and fifty per year, eight tours to Australia (our most frequent overseas destination) and lots of changes to my band line-up which I must confess includes six different drummers – yikes! All in all, it makes my résumé sound heavily steeped in experience but lacking in flavour. Of course, résumé bullet points don’t include the stories. These stories weave in and out of the awards and accolades, times of struggle and periods of prosperity, debt and recovery. They are told in songs or between songs; they’re stage material that keeps this crazy journey full of life.


At the University of Toronto, I completed a degree in East Asian Studies and have four years of university Mandarin training lodged in loyal cavities in my brain. In between university and this nearly-in-China moment, I have pursued my music career full blast (as described above). What has been missing is the subtle connection between my education and my career. Now, nine years since graduation, it’s time to bring it all together.

My life seems to be playing out like a long-laboured-over song arrangement; this is the moment when all of the players are gathered in the same space and it’s time to hear if their parts fit together. There’s excitement and tension simultaneously, but all of the amplifiers are humming and ready.

China has always been my dream destination. . . . “when the music thing was over,” as if it really would be “over” one day. It only recently occurred to me that I am the agent in making any and all dreams come true, and that I didn’t have to wait for one part of my life to die in order to birth another. Besides, who says they aren’t related? It also occurred to me that going to Beijing for three months is very much a career decision. And, it will be. Now – well, now that I’ve listened to those occurrences — the potential seems obvious. It’s spinning before me.

Not only will three months in Beijing be a luxurious block of time and space to write more songs away from the rigorous tour schedule and constant business and band dynamics, but being surrounded by the tonal beauty of the Mandarin language will push my ear into new musical territories. For me, speaking or hearing Mandarin spoken is like singing or being sung to. Top that off with the opportunity to explore what is happening in the music scene of Beijing and we alight on the research portion of my trip: I can finally dust off some undergraduate research work that was an investigation of women and music in China and the growing audibility of women’s voices in the outpouring of Chinese music. My undergrad research was limited by my geography and I always envisioned the research continuing there.

Here is the door. This is me walking through it.

I’ll be starting off my trip as a tourist. Just a couple of days in a downtown hotel before moving to the University district and setting myself up in a dorm room. I’ve already scoped some sightseeing tours that will take me to some official tourist destinations and then spit me out into the registration line at the Beijing Language and Culture University. There, I’ll be refreshing my rusty Mandarin in a part-time morning course at twenty hours a week. The rest of my time will be spent opening many live music venue doors to listen, jam, meet people and cultivate the hope that I’ll eventually bring my band to China. We are an internationally touring act, but not yet in Asia, and I do believe that this journey will yield that opportunity.

Isn’t that all potential is? Finding the open doors? Being open to opening them?

Three months in one place is a radical choice for a gypsy. Keep in mind, however, that this is a city of fourteen million people to keep me occupied! I am looking forward to undressing the underbelly of the arts scene — particularly the music world — and I am sure that three months of networking, connecting, befriending and exploring will yield colorful stories.

So, I start as a tourist, morph into a student and then morph nightly into the artist that I am. Already I’m realizing that I’m really all these things all at once; this cacophony, or symphony, is me.

How will it sound?

I don’t know for sure, but I’m turning up the volume knob anyway.

Call it trust.

7-ELEVEN’s Worldwide: A Taiwan Version

by Jamie Rhein on

Oh, how Justin’s post on 7-ELEVENs to help promote the Simpson’s movie brought back memories. Taiwan is a 7-ELEVEN lover’s dream-come-true. They are on every other street corner it seems–with 44,498 of them, it’s no wonder. Taiwan is not that big. One of the 7-ELEVENs was the first place we went shopping right after we arrived in the country to live there. It was after midnight and we had just flown in. The person who picked us up at the airport took us to one in our new neighborhood to shop for groceries so we would have something to for the next few days. In my blurry-eyed jet lagged fatigue, I picked out the differences between the American version and Taiwan’s food offerings. Some were the same; several were different. For example, you can buy peanut butter if you want a fix, but products are much more Asian in scope.

First, there’s the smell of tea eggs cooking in a crock pot. Then there are the beverages and instant noodle variations. Taiwan has more boxed drink flavors than any place I know. Most are variations of flavored teas like durian and melon, with some soymilk brands thrown in. Of course there are Coke products for the western palate. British food items like McVities Digestives are also popular, plus Asian snack foods. Once I lived in Taiwan for awhile, I learned that 7-ELEVENs were the best place to buy wine. If you were heading to a party, this was the perfect stop for a last minute purchase. No super-size bag of chips though. For that, you have to be in the U.S.

The website also has a list of how many 7-ELEVENS are in each country worldwide. Japan has the most–8,478. Guam, with 9, has the least. These are the 2001 statistics. Notice the crockpot at the right edge of the photo? Those are tea eggs. This is the inside of a 7-ELEVEN.

The Human Flower Project

by Adrienne Wilson on

Reading the title above has probably triggered some of you to conjure scenes from the film Little Shop of Horrors or some other dynamic piece of cinema where flowers and plants are seen quite often like in Pane e Tulipani or even American Beauty. However, this is one for those who truly love smelling the bed of roses be it through film or real-life experiences. I’ll describe the site in short as they have nicely done it on their own: The Human Flower Project is an international group, photo album and discussion on how people live through flowers. Live through flowers?

The blog, which I stumbled upon for the first time is really an experience offering a perspective of life in countries as far as Cuba and Uganda and focusing on issues such as art, medicine, society, politics, religion and commerce through flowers. For instance, did you know that the state flower of Texas, the Texas bluebonnet was altered about 25 years ago to bloom in maroon and white, an idea that came about from obsessed Texas A&M folk? Wonder how life is affected by those working in Uganda’s flower biz or why the Ladies in White from Cuba demonstrate holding gladiolus? Whether these things ever ran across your mind or not I’d have to say the Human Flower Project is something definitely worth a glance. Check out shots from Vietnam, Colombia and France in their photo gallery.

Detour Worth Making: Thailand’s Siriraj Museum

by Willy Volk on

The Siriraj Hospital is the oldest and largest hospital and medical school in Thailand. Founded in 1888, the hospital — on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River across from Thammasart University — also houses 10 museums, which attract a widely divergent audience — from art students to Buddhist monks.

Among the many museums available for touring are:

  • The Songkran Niyomsane Forensic Medicine Museum — much like Philly’s Mütter Museum — displays objects from homicide, suicide and accident cases, including the entire preserved body of of Si-oui, a Chinese immigrant who came to Thailand in 1944, and began suffocating and eating children.
  • The Parasitology Museum displays a large collection of “important parasites in this region” including an exhibition of several parasitic life cycles.
  • The Congdon Anatomical Museum displays a complete collection of dissected human body parts, including organs, nervous systems, cardiovascular systems, and musculoskeletal systems. There’s also a collection of human embryos. If you couldn’t make the Bodies exhibit, this is your chance.

Other exhibitions are devoted to subjects like Thai traditional medicine and prehistoric artifacts, so if you have… a gentler stomach… there’ll still be something for you. To learn if Siriraj might appeal to you, why not opt for a photo tour of the Museums; check out a video tour; or zoom around inside the various Museums by having a look at some interior panos.

If you’re interested in attending in person, the Museums are open Monday-Friday, from 9am to 4pm. Admission is 40 baht ($1.25).

Sri Lanka: Just How Safe is Unsafe?

by Jamie Rhein on

So, Sri Lanka is on the list of the 10 most dangerous destinations to visit, according to Willy Volk’s post. Willy’s not fibbing. I read the article myself before I read his post and sure enough, Sri Lanka is a place to think twice about before you travel there. My advice is to think twice, but not that hard. Things change. Perhaps, it will become a bit safer. Who knows? Perhaps, it already is.

We visited Sri Lanka during a time right after political strife created a bit of havoc-I think someone was blown up somewhere. The northern part of the country was off-limits so people didn’t travel there, but because we were living in Singapore, and had friends who raved about the place, we went to a good part of the rest of Sri Lanka anyway. Once there, we could see why the country had such a fan club.

In nine days, because we hired a private driver so we could have easy mobility, we were able to hit areas as varied as: Polonnaruwa, the ancient city built in the 12th century with its reclining Buddha images; Sigiriya, another ancient city that dates back more than 5,000 years and is also a World Heritage Site (Sri Lanka has 7 in all); Galle, the Dutch port on the coast; Kandy, the city that’s considered the arts center and the city with the Tooth Temple where supposedly one of Buddha’s teeth are kept; the beaches of Hikkaduwa, and the mountainous area of Nuwara Eliya and the tea plantations. There was a lot more in between these two or three day stops like a spice plantation and an elephant orphanage.

If you do go, notice the elephants and coconuts. Sri Lankans still use elephants to do work so it’s not uncommon to see elephants getting a bath in a river or being used to transport goods. The coconut industry is labor intensive and you will see more useful items made from coconuts then you ever thought possible. Since the coastal areas were hard hit by the tsunami, I’m sure places like Galle and Hikkaduwa are still recovering. Still, I would hate to think people are scared off from visiting. This is a country that knows how to ensure travelers have a great time. It’s also a place where tourist dollars make a difference. The official tourist website is a great place to start making your list of things to see.