Jet Li

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_Li

Li Lianjie was born on April 26, 1963, in Beijing, China. He is better known as Jet Li, because of his ability to perform martial arts very quickly. He is a martial artist, actor, producer, international film star and Wushu champion since age 11. He retired from doing Wushu martial arts when he was 17 and went in to acting, with his first film being Shaolin Temple. In 1998, he got his first role as a villain named Wah Sing Ku in Lethal Weapon 4. And his 1st Hollywood leading role was as a Beijing police man namd Han Sing in Romeo Must Die.

He can actually perform several types of martial arts, such as: Changquan(Northern Longfist style), Fanziquan(Tumbling fist), Baguazhang(Eight trigram palm), Taijiquan(Supreme ultimate fist), Xingyiquan(Shape intent fist), Zuiquan(drunken fist), Yingzhaoquan(Eagle claw fist), Tanglangquan( praying mantis fist). He also has studied some of Wushu's main weapons, such as: Sanjiegun(3 section staff), Gun(staff), Dao(broadsword), Jian(straight sword)

In 1998, he appeared in his first American movie, Lethal Weapon 4, where he played Wah Sing Ku, a villain working with the Chinese Triads. His next movie gave him the chance to play a lead role, that of Beijing police man Han Sing, who woos R&B singer Aaliyah's character Trish O'Day in Romeo Must Die(2000). He lent his voice and martial arts talents to help make the game Jet Li: Rise to Honor, and in 2003, he appeared alongside rap singer DMX in the movie Cradle 2 the Grave. Another good movie he was in was titled Kiss of the Dragon, where he played a Chinese government agent forced to work with a prostitute(Bridget Fonda) to help clear his name. In 2005, he took on a more serious role in the movie Unleashed, where he played Danny, a man who was taken from his mother as a child and raised to be a personal attack dog for a vicious loan shark in London.

Kiss of the Dragon

 Lethal Weapon 4



 Cradle 2 the Grave

In his offtime, he practices Tibetan Buddhism. In 1999, he married Shanghai-born, Hong Kong raised actress Nina Li Chi, with whom they have had 2 daughters, Jane and Jada. When Li was in the
Maldives on vacation during the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, him, his 4 year old daughter Jane and 1 year old daughter Jada had to run for high ground to escape the tsunami that washed upon shore. And that knocked a piece of furniture into his foot, injuring it.  He also enjoys being charitable. He is part of the Red Cross Society of China, and he also helped out during the Sichuan earthquake of 2008, and he established the One Foundation , which helps disaster victims and works with the Red Cross to administer mental health awareness and suicide prevention.

Favorite foods

When it comes to food, I love almost anything, among my favorites are Chinese, Italian, and Mexican. But I'm also the kind of person who will probably also try anything new. I really want to try sushi, I mean, I know it's raw fish, but come on, it sounds kind of good. I guess it's the curious side of me coming out. And if I ever get the chance to visit Japan, that'll be one thing I have to try, sushi made by someone actually Japanese-born.

CHINESE FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, but I love these lil carrying boxes. They're so cool

 Either sweet and sour chicken or orange chicken. Either one is good, especially from this Chinese restaurant near my mom's house.

OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH! Fried rice! Yum yum!! I love this one the most, I almost always get it when I get Chinese food, whether it be steak fried rice, beef fried rice, shrimp fried rice or chicken. I swear, I'll probably be fat one day, lol. but I don't eat this stuff all the time mainly because of lack of money!!!

Italian food

Spaghetti

My stepdad's mom makes the greatest Italian food ever! She's old school Italian and she is the greatest cook ever, and I just love her to death. She's friendly and nice and funny too. And if it wasn't painfully obvious, my stepdad and his family are Italian, which I think is really awesome!

Linguine, not so good with that nasty alfredo stuff on it, too artery-clogging for me!

Pizza anyone? pizza ain't so Italian anymore, more American if u ask me!

Spaghetti and meatballs! OMG!!!!! I'm so craving Italian right now.....

Mexican food!!!!!

Chicken tacos! Every time I get Mexican food when I'm with my mom and stepdad, I always get this! This place by my mom's house, Plaza Vallarte, they make the greatest Mexican food EVER!!!

OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH! More tacos!!

Oh yeah! Enchiladas!!! YUM YUM!

Book Review

Memoirs of a Geisha

This book was written by Arthur Golden, and is about these 2 sisters, named Chiyo and Satsu who live in the village of Yoroido in rural Japan. One day they are approached by someone they know as 'Mr. Tanaka', and he talks to their parents about adopting them and taking them to what they think is a better life because their father is a lowly fisherman and their mother is rapidly dying from cancer. Only the place that Chiyo and Satsu are taken to is an okiya(Japanese term for Geisha house). They are basically sold in to slavery and they become geisha girls. The geisha house that Chiyo is sent to has a resident problem, in the form of a vindictive, manipulative Geisha named Hatsumomo, who's bound and determined to make life for Chiyo a living hell. But through out the book, Chiyo, who becomes known as Sayuri(her geisha name) befriends another okiya owner named Mameha(a kindly woman who runs another okiya). The 2 develop a friendship and Mameha starts coming up with ways to knock the vindictive Hatsumomo down a bunch of pegs because she is not a nice person. The book is really good, but you have to stay with it, it's a tad bit slow in the beginning, but gets good in the middle. They even turned it into a movie, I'll put some pictures from the movie to show you.

Ziyi Zhang as Chiyo and Ken Watanabe as The Chairman. Hmm, Ken Watanabe is pretty cute!

Michelle Yeoh as Mameha, Ziyi Zhang as Chiyo and Gong Li as Hatsumomo

Michelle Yeoh and Ziyi Zhang as Mameha and Chiyo

Shanghai Girls

Now this book has not been turned into a movie, I'm currently reading it and I have to admit that I'm loving every second of this book, I'm even learning a few words in Chinese, and Mandarin, like Jie Jie means elder sister in Mandarin and Mei Mei means little sister in Mandarin. Any way, this book about 2 sisters named May and Pearl Chin. Their father has gambled away all their money and in order to pay off a local gangster named Pockmark Huang, their father, Baba, has arranged a marriage for them, he has arranged for them to marry the 2 sons of a friend of his, named Old Man Louie. They are to go to Los Angeles and live there so he can pay off their debt. Meanwhile all this is taking place during WWII, when the Japanese were invading China. While the 2 sisters are on their way to the ship, Pearl and May stay with a village woman and during the night, Pearl and May find their mother splayed on the floor of the cabin while Japanese soldiers are raping her. Then the soldiers end up raping Pearl and she wakes up in the hospital to find out from the doctors she may be unable to have children, and when the 2 finally reach America, they go to the Angel Island Immigration Center and Pearl finds out that May is pregnant. The story so far is pretty good and I don't think I've ever read a story so good! In the story, you might keep hearing things like dwarf bandits and monkey people, obviously that's what Pearl and May keep calling the Japanese. It's apparent in this story that the Chinese and Japanese do not get along!

Asian Heritage Month

Since the month of May is referred to as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, I thought I would do a blog based on that. On people of Asian ancestry who seem to have made a good name for themselves.

Bruce Lee

• DOB: November 10, 1940
• DOD: July 20, 1973
• American born, Hong Kong actor, philosopher, martial artist, film director and producer, screenwriter and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial art
• He's the one who sparked a major interest in Chinese martial arts in the West in the 1970s
• While a student at Washington University, he met his future wife Linda Emery in August 1964
• In 1965, she gave birth to son Brandon Lee(1965-1993) and daughter Shannon Lee
• He was known for his incredibly physical body, wanting to become as strong as possible
• He unfortunately died from a brain edema on May 10, 1973
• He's buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Seattle.

Man if, that's a Bruce Lee doll, I want it!!!!!!!!!

Yoko Ono

• DOB: February 18, 1933, Tokyo, Japan
• Is a Japanese artist, musician, peace activist, author, best known for her relationship with Beatles member John Lennon
• Big supporter of gay rights, as well as her philanthropic contributions to AIDS research and world peace
• On December 8, 1980, when John was murdered by Mark Chapman, Ono was close by and witnessed the entire thing. Can you honestly imagine being nearby and witnessing your husband getting murdered and not knowing what to do?
• In 1981, she released the album Season of Glass, on the front is a picture of John's glasses, shattered and bloody, next to a half filled glass of water with a window over looking Central Park, almost to suggest John was happiest in New York

It makes me sad to know that John Lennon is no longer around, and it's all thanks to that a--hole Mark David Chapman. He needs to pay for what he did, he took Julian Lennon's father away from him, and Yoko's loving husband away, she must have been devastated by actually witnessing her husband being shot in front of her. She has my sympathy. But he's in peace now, in the great England in the sky. I used pics of John and Yoko, because I have this distinct feeling she was happiest when she was around him

Duke Kahanamoku

• Known as the father of international surfing
• Born in Hawaii
• Was a swimmer at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden
• He also appeared in nearly 30 movies and went on to become the Sheriff for the City and County of Honolulu.
• Died at age 77 but is still remembered for his sportsmanship and athletic talent

Dr. Feng Shan-Ho

• Saved thousands of Austrian Jews during the Holocaust
• In 1937, he arrived in Vienna as a Chinese diplomat, Austria had the 3rd largest Jewish community
• Against all odds, thousands would survive thanks to Dr. Ho
• As a Chinese General Consul in Vienna, he went against his bosses' orders and began issuing Visas to Jews so they could go to Shanghai, China
• He died in 1997, an unknown hero of WWII

Yo Yo Ma

• Is considered to be one of the world's greatest musicians
• At the age of 4 he began studying the cello
• He plays 2 instruments- a 1712 Davidoff Stradavarius and a 1733 Montagnana cello
• Graduated from Harvard University and Julliard School for the Performing Arts
• Recorded 50 albums and won a dozen Grammys

Maya Lin

• 1981 is when this lady rose to fame
• Just 21 and still an architectural student at Yale University, she won a contest to design the Vietnam Veterans Wall Memorial in Washington D.C.
• The memorial is 594 feet long and features the names of the 58,000+ soldiers who either died or were reported missing
• Each year, 4 million people visit the wall to pay their respects to the wall, whether they had a friend, relative in the war or just to be respectful and pay their respects
• She was also the one that designed the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama. Her designs can be found throughout the US in various cities

Amy Tan

• Born in 1952, in Oakland, California
• Daughter of Chinese immigrants who had emigrated to the US 3 years earlier
• In 1989, she got worldwide attention with the release of her book The Joy Luck Club, about Chinese women and their Chinese-American daughters

Lucy Liu

• DOB: December 2, 1968, New York, New York
• Of Taiwanese descent
• Didn't learn English until age 5
• She has a reputation for playing bad girls in movies. Like:
• Pearl, the sadistic dominatrix/hit woman for the Chinese Mafia in Payback
• She can speak Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Spanish
• Also rock climbs
• Also one of my favorite actresses

Ang Lee

• DOB: October 23, 1954
• Directed movies such as Sense and Sensibility, Eat Drink Man Woman, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Incredible Hulk, Brokeback Mountain
• American born, but of Taiwanese ancestry
• It surprised alot of people when he made the switch from directing Taiwanese movies to British movies with Sense and Sensibility
• The movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, that he directed, won Best Foreign Language Film

Jerry Yang

• Native of Taiwan
• Creator of the Yahoo! search engine
• Today Yahoo! is the most frequently visited site, with 237 million followers
• He is also an avid sumo wrestling fan and a golf fan
• He graduated Stanford University
• If you use Yahoo! alot, you got this guy to thank for bringing it around

Michelle Kwan

• She began skating at age 5 and 2 years later, won her first competition
• Wears a Chinese good luck charm around her neck, which was a gift from her grandmother
• At age 22, she is considered a skating legend known for her athleticism and grace on the ice
• Native of California
• With 37 perfect scores, she has the most perfect scores in history

Kristy Yamaguchi

• In December 2005, was inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame for figure skating
• Yamaguchi is said to be Yonsei, meaning 4th generation Japanese American
• Also has appeared on TV numerous times, including a show on PBS called Freedom: A History of Us, portraying Haruko Obata, the first teacher of ikebana in the San Francisco area. Ikebana is the Japanese word for art of flower arranging, and appeared in the movie D2: The Mighty Ducks
• On May 20, 2008, she was on Dancing with the Stars, paired with Mark Ballas and they both won the 6th season, taking home the mirror ball
• In 1991, she took psychology courses at the University of Alberta

To avoid confusion, the websites i got the info from are:

www.wikipedia.com/BruceLee

www.wikipedia.com/YokoOno

www. teacher_scholastic.com
www.wikipedia.com/KristyYamaguchi

My favorite art.....

As the title says, I am a huge fan of art, but it's really Asian art that I am very fond of, whether it be Chinese art of Japanese art, those 2 are the ones I love. And in addition to art, I am also very fascinated by the cultures of those 2 countries, and someday I'd love to visit China and Japan, but first things first-- I'm learning how to speak, read, write Chinese and Japanese. Some say it will not be easy, and I'll probably agree, but what it will be is.....FUN!!!!!!


Chinese artwork

















Japanese artwork





    What's actually kind of cool is that this was the costume I went as last year for Halloween-- a Geisha Girl, sans the makeup and hairdo! Way too expensive at the place where I got the costume! I still have that costume and do not ever plan to trash it or get rid of it, I love it too much!!!!!!









It almost seems like when you look at Asian art, it almost seems to tell a story, maybe about a god, or about something that may have happened. All I know is I really love Asian art, it's so beautiful, so ornate, and so simple yet has this lovely beauty to it. And hopefully someday I can visit the beautiful places where this lovely art comes from.