The Post Where I Use the Word “Gangnam”

To be fair, they asked me, so it’s not like I went fishing for reasons to drop one-billion-click words into this humble blog… When the Asia Society had me up to their NYC headquarters for an on-camera chat, the talk turned to Psy, the Korean mega-star, and his and “Gangnam”‘s implications for yaogun. So I try to yaogunify things.

Video, below the jump.

Continue reading “The Post Where I Use the Word “Gangnam””

Hanggai, Toronto Part II

CBC Music, the online musical companion to the national broadcaster, asked me a few questions about why the world Must Hear Hanggai, in advance of their Toronto performances. I answered them, and you can read ’em, here (or by clicking the nice image at right). Find out more about Hanggai’s performances at Harbourfront Centre‘s Planet IndigenUS Festival by clicking the magic words. Hanggai is coming back to North America in September, so stay tuned…

Red Rock: China Tour 2012 – Updated!

In which the tour manager becomes the tour-er
(while also, still, being the tour manager)…

Red Rock is returning to the Motherland. Thanks to an invitation from the Canadian Consulate in Shanghai, author jWc will hit the Shanghai International Literary Festival and the Bookworm International Literary Festival in March, 2012.

Details are still coming, as you’ll see. Updated on March 6:

Red Rock China Tour 2012

2012.03.10 Saturday
Shanghai
Shanghai International Literary Festival
Glamour Bar
17.00

2012.03.11 Sunday
Suzhou
Bookworm International Literary Festival
Bookworm Suzhou
In conversation with critic/blogger/then-some Andy Best
18.30

2012.03.12 Monday
Shanghai
Shanghai International Studies University
Round-table discussion with students at Intercultural Institute
Speak at SISU Journalism School

2012.03.13 Tuesday
Nanjing
Nanjing University of Arts, College of Pop Music
Lecture

2012.03.16 Friday
Beijing
Bookworm International Literary Festival
Beijing Bookworm
As part of Pop-Up Magazine

2012.03.17 Saturday
Beijing
Bookworm International Literary Festival
Beijing Bookworm
In conversation with critic and former Rolling Stone (China) editor Hao Fang
Part of the JUE festival

2012.03.18 Sunday
Beijing
Bookworm International Literary Festival
One Way Street Library
Panel discussion (Chinese), details TBD

2012.03.19 Monday
Hong Kong
Asia Society (more info)
Author talk

 

Expect updates as new information comes in. Also updated regularly is Check in regularly at this here page on upcoming Red RockĀ events in a city or town near you, wherever you might be.

News @ jWc.com

Ladies and Gentlemen…

As you have likely discovered, there is a whack of information and fun at jWc.com, including timelines, mixtapes, notes on and addenda to Red Rock: The Long, Strange March of Chinese Rock & Roll, and much more.

The Bonus Tracks section is, now, complete: Six chapters’ worth of notes of a multimedia sort to both enhance and encourage the reading experience. The Liner Notes, more source-material-type material, has long been up and you’ve all already noticed that, surely.

Red Rock: The Long, Strange March of Chinese Rock & Roll is, officially, a textbook. But in a good way. Because if you’re going to be told what to read, it might as well be about the adventures of yaogun. University of Minnesota students takingĀ Professor Jason McGrath’s ALL 3337 Chinese Literature and Popular Culture Today are among the first to be forced to read Red Rock. Go you Golden Gophers!

Other things to look out for…

jWc will appear on Fairchild TV‘s Leisure Talk program, for those in Canada with access to the channel and interested in hearing jWc blather on in Mandarin. Airdate is Monday, Feb 13, check their listings for the scoop.

jWc will appear, in person and in English, around Toronto in the near future:

On Thursday, Jan 26 at 7.00pm, University of Toronto’s Pan-Asia Student Society presents a Pan-Asia Cultural Showcase: A Night to Celebrate Diasporic Arts in Music, Film, Dance, & Literature. jWc has been asked to address the gathered masses at Hart House’s Music room: All the details are right here.

 

At the Toronto Reference Library‘s Elizabeth Beton Auditorium (789 Yonge St, just north of Bloor), speaking, in his most romantic tones, on Tuesday, Feb. 14 at 2.00 pm. Is there a better way to say ‘I love you’ than with yaogun? (No, there isn’t.)

 

Stay tuned, also, for more Red Rockrelated news in the near future.