WGBH - Asia RSS

Dreaming of an Air Travel Boom

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 18:29 PM +0000

Mar. 6, 2012

BOSTON — It's an aviation milestone for Boston: Japan Airlines is about to begin nonstop service from Logan to Tokyo featuring the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Because the plane is made of carbon, it's 20 percent more fuel-efficient, making direct flights from Boston to Japan feasible for the first time.

Bob Weiss, the former editor of "Boston Airport Journal," predicts the high-tech plane will give Boston's tourism industry a major boost. The estimates put the number of Asian visitors to Boston at 50,000 annually.

Asians love to travel, Weiss said. "So what I think is going to happen is a lot of people are going to come to Boston — they know a lot about Harvard and MIT and business here and everything — and then I think they're going to go on to New York and then come back. I think it's going to expand the entire travel business here in Boston."

(And just think if it had been around when the Sox first acquired Daisuke Matsuzaka.)

The Dreamliner starts flying the Boston-to-Tokyo route on April 22.

See the Dreamliner on "Greater Boston."

Wild Swans: A Memoir Brought To The Stage

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:35 AM +0000

Feb. 22, 2012

Watch the segment and discussion on "Greater Boston."

BOSTON —Wild Swans, a 1991-memoir by Jung Chang about her family’s survival during much of 20^th century China’s upheaval, has long been a global bestseller, with over 30 million copies in print. For years, Chang refused attempts to adapt her story for film or television. For theater, however, she gave the go-ahead. Its premiere production is now playing at the A.R.T.

The play covers a wide swath of time in China during the 20^th century, a period of extraordinary upheaval and ferocity. Idealism is wrenched into oppressive ideology under Mao Tse-tung. This is the first and only adaptation of Jung Chang’s phenomenally successful 1991 memoir of the same name, which recounted how three generations of her family endured China’s transformation from fledgling communist state to world superpower.

“Wild Swans is a personal book,” said Chang. “China is the background. And of course when I wrote Wild Swans I made sure the personal descriptions were absolutely accurate and what I wrote about China was accurate. It has stood the test of time.”

Chang’s story is often the stuff of horror. She relays such events as her grandmother made a concubine of a warlord general, rendered on stage in puppets. She tells of her parents’ relationship, shredded by the Communist Party and Chang’s own efforts to withstand her family’s traumas.

“This is my personal story and my mother is still alive and everything is in my heart. I so fear that something will go wrong and the portrait is not going to be accurate, and the description of the times is not going to be accurate. So I was very reluctant to let go,” said Chang.

But when David Lan, Artistic Director of renowned British theater Company The Young Vic, approached to adapt her story, Chang finally acquiesced.

“It took me quite a while to persuade her to let us do it. And I still don’t know why she did,” Lan said.

In response, Chang said, “What they’re trying to do is be faithful to the spirit of the characters and the spirit of the times. I help them be accurate to these issues.”

"What’s distinctive about this story is it’s about a woman who really is so clear about who she is and is so committed to trying to work out a good way to live. The whole family is like corks bobbing on a very troubled sea. We tried to find scenes which are resonate in every way, and which when put together are coherent and give you the most you can expect,” said Lan.

In partnering with the American Repertory Theatre, the Young Vic took a huge risk, adapting Chang’s 800-page book for the stage. The result is a remarkably streamlined production. At just 90 minutes, it still feels epic. It begins in 1948 in a Manchurian marketplace, then moves to a peasant-filled field. From there it glides into the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and onto 1978, a modern China.

“The book is very critical of the experience people went through before the cultural revolution immediately afterwards. But it’s not about China now. It’s about how China got to be, how it is,” Lan said.

We are treated to glimpses of how Chinese policies affected the individual and how initiatives like Mao’s great purge—stripping homes of writings and books—affected people and families.

"It made me realize on a personal level how grateful and how lucky I am to be in this generation and away from all the politics of China and stuff, because my gran emigrated from there to Britain, eventually, and one can see why she did that,” said Katie Leung, who plays Chang on stage and is already known for playing Harry Potter’s love interest, Cho Chang, in film.
Leung says she had concerns about tinkering with Chang’s already beloved book.

“It’s not as big a pressure as being introduced as Harry Potter’s first girlfriend, but certainly it’s a big thing as well, and I think we just want to make sure that we get it right,” Leung said.

As for Chang, she’s maintained a respectful distance from the production. To her, the play is a new work of art. “I did whatever I can. What I have, what is my baby, is my book. And now they’ve created Wild Swans on stage,” she said.

Participate in the Wild Swans Community Memior project, created in collaboration with Harvard's metaLab and Zeega. The memior is an immersive experience of the community's relationship to China or Chinese culture. Meet new people and explore their stories in any order you choose.

Epilogue: Traveling Home, Reflecting on Our Experiences

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:54 PM +0000

In the final episode, Ava and Sofie reflect on their experiences on the other side of the world as they make the long journey back via Vancouver, B.C. Their world has certainly become larger, now that they have traveled so far from home. How has their journey changed them? The girls look back on their questions and expectations at the adventure’s beginning. How did China surprise them? How has their adventure expanded their world? What ideas, goals, and questions have they brought home with them? What were their favorite parts? What will they never forget? And where would they like to visit next?

Macau: Visiting the Temple of a Goddess and a Maritime Museum

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:50 PM +0000

In episode twelve, Sofie and Ava seek out the goddess A-Ma, or Matsu, believed to be the namesake of Macau. The girls visit the A-Ma Temple, one of the oldest and most famous Taoist temples in existence, built in 1488 to honor this important goddess of fishermen and seafarers. Ava compares and contrasts her experiences in theater classes back home as the girls take in a bit of traditional Chinese opera in an outdoor theater. Later, they try out a real rickshaw, then learn more about the goddess A-Ma at the nearby Macau Maritime Museum, filled with models of vessels, examples of local traditional costumes and fishing techniques, a small theater telling the story of the goddess A-Ma with moving dioramas, and even an aquarium.

Easter at the Macau Tower

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:47 PM +0000

In the eleventh episode, Ava and Sofie spend Easter Sunday at the Macau Tower, the 1,109-foot tall place to be for panoramic views of Macau and the surrounding waters. They stroll across dizzying clear observation panels in the floor as daredevils plummet past, enjoying one of the highest commercial skyjumps on earth. Later, while decorating plastic Easter eggs at a table provided by the Macau Tower Entertainment Centre for visiting children, the girls are spirited away to take part in a dance competition, in which they must bridge a language barrier as they try to follow the moves of a cowgirl-clad dance instructor. Yee-haw! That’s Easter in Macau!

Guangzhou: Visiting A Chinese Zoo

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:42 PM +0000

In the ninth episode, the girls climb into another Chinese taxi and travel with a guide to the Chime Long Xiangjiang Safari Park, the largest animal park in Asia and home to over 20,000 animals, including giant pandas and over half the world’s population of white tigers. A visit to the tiger cub nursery with litters of gamboling striped babies is an experience that will never be forgotten. Sofie and Ava view creatures from around the world from the Safari Train, winding ever-closer to the piece de resistance, the bamboo-munching giant panda, animal ambassador from China to the United States since pandas Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing were given to the U.S. by the Chinese government in 1972 following President Nixon’s historic visit to China, a bit of history as ancient to the girls as China’s gift of pandas to Japan in the Tang Dynasty.

Guangzhou: Exploring a Park and Historic Cemetery

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:39 PM +0000

In episode eight, Ava and Sofie visit the Guangzhou Museum, located within the Zhenhai Tower, also known as the Five-Story Pagoda and originally built in 1380, in the heart of Guangzhou’s Yuexiu Park. The girls have fun with a three-dimensional model of modern day Guangzhou, make their own unique child’s-eye observations on 2,000 years of Chinese history, and enjoy a view of the city from the fifth floor balcony. In a hillside park, Ava, a violin student back home, observes a musician playing a similar-looking traditional Chinese stringed instrument in an outdoor performance. A journey to an historic cemetery where European travelers of long ago are buried offers the girls a chance to reflect upon their own adventures far from home while climbing among flowers and monuments in a lush green setting.

Guangzhou: A Trip by Train, Dinner with New Friends

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:34 PM +0000

In the seventh episode, Sofie and Ava board a train for the 75-mile journey to Guangzhou, Southern China’s largest city. Entering Mainland China for the first time, they notice how it differs from Hong Kong and how things compare to their familiar surroundings back home in the United States. Here, drivers sit on the left side of the car and cars drive on the left side of the road, just like back home. How confusing — after several days in Hong Kong, they had just become used to the right side! After settling into their new home base, complete with a view of the Canton Tower, the girls enjoy a Chinese meal with new friends.

Hong Kong: Victoria Peak and a Beach Day in China

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:24 PM +0000

In episode six, Ava and Sofie take a steep ride up the historic Peak Tram to the top of Hong Kong’s Victoria Peak, the highest point on the island, at over 1,800 feet. After enjoying panoramic views of the city they have spent several days exploring, they return to sea level, cooling their toes in the South China Sea at an Aberdeen beach. Does the beach remind them of their seaside homes on Cape Cod? How is it different?

Hong Kong: Exploring Tai O and Aberdeen

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:21 PM +0000

In the fifth episode, the girls journey by bus to Tai O, a fishing village on the western side of Lantau Island. Here Sofie and Ava let off some steam playing alongside fishing boats, practice some moves at a Shaolin Temple, hunt through the village market and learn about the city’s long relationship with the sea as they explore the Hong Kong Maritime Museum.

Macau: A Journey by Bus and Exploring

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:18 PM +0000

In episode ten, Sofie and Ava travel by bus over the farmland of southern China bound for Macau, a former Portuguese colony with a fascinating mix of cultures. How does this place look, sound, smell and taste different from Hong Kong? From Guangzhou? From home? The girls take a long hike through the streets and parks of Macau, noticing the colorful Portuguese architecture, black and white tiled streets and a swirl of tourists from around the world. They take to a cable car, taxis and their feet to explore this unique destination filled with natural beauty, historic ruins, public square teeming with people, tiny shops in winding streets and a casino district which lights up the night sky.

Hong Kong: Lunch With A Local Family

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:13 PM +0000

In episode four of this WGBH travel and history series for kids, Ava and Sofie go on a scenic Hong Kong ferry ride to meet Castor and Pollux, a brother and sister, and their family for a Sunday lunch, Hong Kong style.

Jennifer 8. Lee: Author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 13:19 PM +0000

Jennifer 8. Lee is a former staff writer for The New York Times and author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. In this conversation with María Hinojosa, she shares stories about growing up Chinese American in New York and the roots of “Chinese” food in America.

Walking in China

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:35 AM +0000

by Carlo Rotella, 89.7 WGBH

My wife and I took our adopted daughters to China for a visit, to see the country they come from, including their hometowns and the orphanages in which they spent the first year of their lives. They’re nine and seven now, old enough to remember what they see. We thought of it as a trip to put some tools in the tool box for later in life, to turn China from a half-mythological place into something more real to them.

One of the small daily pleasures the girls enjoyed during the trip was walking ahead of us, having people react to them--or not react to them--as if they were local. There was a distance at which the relationship between the two Chinese-looking girls walking in front and the two foreign adults walking behind them became ambiguous, then temporarily invisible. At two or three feet ahead, the girls were clearly our daughters, and everybody stared. At four or five feet they were advance scouts; at six feet, maybe related to us and maybe not; and beyond six feet they began to become just two girls going somewhere on their own, like the many parentless adventurers in the fairy tales and chapter books they love so much. People spoke to them in Chinese, which they didn’t understand, or took no notice of them because there were Westerners to stare at coming down the sidewalk in their wake. The pleasure of it for the girls was layered, but at its core was the pleasure of sampling an alternative existence without giving up the one you know best.

Sometimes we had to keep them close, so as not to lose them. One brutally hot day we were in a train station in Wuhan, in a surging crowd of travelers. I had Ling-li, our older daughter, by the hand, dragging a rolling suitcase with the other. I was looking up ahead, where my wife was trudging with Yuan, our younger daughter, and the other suitcase. Some change in the pressure of Ling-li’s grip caused me to look down at her: a woman had appeared out of the crowd and taken her other hand. I had noticed this woman before, on the train, because she stood out. She was tall, broad-shouldered, all in black: black tights, black high heels, snug black top, very short black skirt figured in a gold pattern. She wore a lot of makeup and had spiky long hair and walked with a little extra swing in the hips. She kept her eyes on the way ahead, her hand around Ling-li’s, and the three of us walked like that through the station, an alternative family group. When we got to the exit the woman smiled down at Ling-li and disengaged her hand, opened a little yellow parasol, and went off down the street.

I exchanged a look with my daughter. She shrugged and said, “That was strange, and I felt a little sad, but it was good.”