False Positives

as we hit another Lunar New Year, in this case Year of the Rat/Mouse. (where’s my cheese?  Probably somewhere under this 30 cm of snow!)

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Restaurants and Cafes devoted to “costume play,” or cosplay as the Japanese call it, first appeared in Akihabara, Tokyo’s discount electronics store district, in the late 90’s.

Well during the summer, iMaid Cafe opened in Toronto’s east end at 1883 McNicoll Ave. (at Kennedy Rd close to Pacific Mall.), to provide the french maid variation of CosPlay Cafe. (There is at least one famous “Butler Cafe” in Tokyo called Swallowtail, where the staff are very well-dressed males in a waiter’s uniform or an elegant butler suit severing the female clients.)

The Star did a food review : French maids, Asian food and the Globe and Mail noticed : In a Scarborough café, it’s maid to order.

This trend has spread to South Korea, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, but is the first in Canada (amusing comment on MegaToyo site :Maid Cafe In The Great White North? Yes!). (are there any in the US?) Once again proving we are a suburb of Hong Kong.

If you can’t visit anytime soon, checkout this YouTube CosPlay Cafe video, to get an idea. (Welcome Boing Boing & Sea Slug readers!)

Update : The National Post now has also a story: Scarborough cafe takes customers ‘inside the cartoon’, as of Tuesday December 05.

Cory’s away and this story got re-posted to Cosplay restaurant in Toronto on BoingBoing, leading to SlashFood which looks to have been sparked a Reuters story : via New Zealand, and China .

See also a video visit to Singapore’s Maid Cafe on Zer0’s blog

Update Feb 1st 2007 : CBC’s TV The Hour did a piece on Imaid Cafe on January 15th, and has a video clip up :

It’s not your ordinary cafe, it’s kinda like Hooters. Except instead of tank tops and shorts, the staff dress up in French maid outfits.It’s a weird phenomenon in Japan, now, they’ve set up shop in Toronto.

The Hour takes a look at this new genre of cafe.

and today, Metro Morning (CBC Radio) just covered it in it’s food column Beyond Burgers, where Catherine Jheon (CJ) gave the thumbs up for the food, even if Andy couldn’t quite get over the imagery. CJ’s comments are on her FoodTV.ca blog as well as the Beyond Burgers site (with a Mp3 of segment).

Update : Scott Frye’s AnimeLife blog has moved and his iMaid posting is now at Toronto Maid Cafe

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Omini’s listing for Super Cinema have been update till the labour day weekend. As they have done in past summers, it’s slightly warmed up leftovers from the past year( and older). They have also have messed up the listing for August 28th:

DRIVING MISS WEALTHY (2004) - COMEDY - 14+
A police superintendent determined to get rid of a dangerous triad chief dispatches three undercover officers to Infiltrate the underworld. Things do not go as planned when three sexy policewomen are sent to look after the men.

No! That’s not Driving Miss Wealthy is a 2003 film (shown on Omni TV in December 2005) review here by I Love Hong Kong Flim. So, wrong title or wrong description? Either way copy and paste gone bad, and less editorial oversight, and knowledge, than yours truly.

Past listings start here for Spring 2006

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Omini’s listing for Super Cinema have been update till the end of June. Past listings start here for Winter 2006

The pickings look slim, but there are a couple look worth watching such :

Kung Fu Mahjong 2 (Saturday, June 3) is an sequel to last year better than expect funny love story, playing off of a “Kung Fu Hustle” theme.

China’s Next Top Princess (Saturday, June 17) which is not the Comedy which Omini thinks it is, Starting “2R” : Race Wong and Rosanne Wong, is from December 2005, not 2006! (If Omini needs me as a fact checker they have problems!).

Last summer’s Omini’s film run was a bad re-hash. Looks like I’ll be watching more direct from HK dvd’s rather. Films like “2 Become 1″ ( Miriam Yeung), ” Election 2″, “All About Love”, “Cocktail”, “Fearless” (Jet Li’s final martial arts film), “Isabella”, “The Shopaholics” (Cecilia Cheung and Sean Lau Ching-Wan)

update : here’s Summer 2006

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In today’s New York Times is a great travel piece about hiking in Hong Kong’s, not something that first comes to mind we someone thinks of Hong Kong, in Green Trails Along a Chinese Frontier, which also introduces Danish Michael Hansen and his website Hansens Hikes for many beautiful images as well a info on the hiking excursions he runs.

Wired Magazine (Issue 14.04 | April 2006) has a article on “The Mandarin Offensive” (Inside Beijing’s global campaign to make Chinese the number one language in the world) (Not online yet now online), and the LA times has a story Cantonese Is Losing Its Voice from January 3rd, about the underside of the story.

Both the New York and LA Times story hint at the expressive richness of expression of Cantonese. For more look over BWG’s Hong Kong Terms

Ai yah , such a dilemma! Improve my (poor, below 3 year old level) Cantonese - the better to catch dinner table gossip; Mandarin - the better take the orders of (and Kowtow to) our new overlords; our the improve my skills at the latest object oriented Meta programming language; the better to stay gainfully employed (and stay the “Golden Chicken”)?

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Update : Spring 2006

After an absence on my part since the Fall of 2005, exasperated by Omini TV’s changing of url (while keeping the old page up!), I’m back.

Omini’s 2 listing are ok for a quick advance glance over at Super Cinema. All Movies run on Saturday’s at 9:00 PM and go for 2 hours till 11:00 PM. Most films are Cantonese with English subtitles, although not all of the Korean, Mandarin language film include English as well as Chinese subtitles. They have marking some of them with footnote “Korean Movie With Chinese Subtitles And Lip Sync in Cantonese”.

If you’re looking for more Hong Kong films check past postings and Love HK Flim, or Koreanfilm.org

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March 18
Drink, Drank, Drunk
Romantic Comedy, 2005 
Miriam Yeung Chin-Wah, Daniel Wu;  
Saw this in the Fall (September?) and it is a surprisingly good and enjoyable movie, with Miriam Yeung as a HK beer girl.

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March 25
I Love How You Love Me
Taiwanese (?) Romantic Comedy 2005
Jimmy Lin, Hsu Ambrose, Yang Kung Ru, Liu Yi Fei; director: Chu Yan Ping

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April 1
Oh! Soo-jeong (Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors)
Korean Romance, 2000 (NOT 2005, as claimed by Omini tv) -
Lee Eun-joo, Jeong Bo-seok, Moon Seong-geun; director: Hong Sang Soo.
Based on the review on Koreanfilm.org, it sounds interesting, but we may not have any English subtitles.

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April 8
Bug Me Not!
Comedy, 2004
Isabella Leong (Leung Lok-Si), Wilson Chen Bo-Lin, Kenny Kwan Chi-Bun, Steven Cheung Chi-Hung, Gillian Chung Yun-Tung, Charlene Choi Cheuk-Yin
A CGI Comedy vehicle for various Cantonese pop stars (including the “Twins”).  Prepare for sugar shock! Isabella Leong did get a 42nd Golden Horse Awards Nomination for Best New Performer.

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April 15
Love Message
Romance, 2005
Leo Koo Kui Kei, Angela Chang (Chiu Ham), Ren Quan (Yan Cheun)
Stars Hong Kong’s super star Leo Koo, Taiwanese Angela Chang, and from Mainland China Ren Quan.

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April 15
Please Teach Me English (Yeong-eo-wan-jeon-jeong-bok)
Korean Romance, 2003
Jang Hyeok,  Lee Na-young, Nah Moon-hee, Kim In-moon, Kim Yong-geon, Jeong Sang-hoon, Jeong Doo-hong (Cameo), Jeon Jae-hyeong.
Korean Film.org calls it “Goofy”, so you’ve been warned. And again we may or may not have any English subtitles.

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The Globe and Mail story Globetechnology: Chinese ban on Wikipedia prevents research, users say

Wikipedia, which offers more than 2.2 million articles in 100 languages, has emerged as an important source of scholarly knowledge in China and many other countries. But its stubborn neutrality and independence on political issues such as Tibet and Taiwan has repeatedly drawn the wrath of the Communist authorities.

The latest blocking of the website, the third shutdown of the site in China in the past two years, has now continued for more than 10 weeks without any explanation and without any indication whether the ban is temporary or permanent.

Can someone confirm this? (The shanghaiist posted about this on Oct 20th, and The Wikipedia itself says)

I’m not in the “Wikipedia can do no wrong” camp but, it is a valuable, fast moving (updating and error correcting), reasonable accurate source, that is complementary to and confuses tradiation media, with resonable key policies, and which will continue to evolve as it passes it 5th birthday.

The Wikipedia currently has 910,469 english articles, and - as of Oct 2004 - the database was ~ 170 GB (excluding images and multimedia) and - as of September 2005 - a compressed full database dump (text only) english only is about 40GB., so my Dream of “Wikipedia on a Stick” i.e. Wikipedia on a USB flash drive (see Barenaked on a Stick) is still a couple of years off. Although having local mirror version is not.

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The Winners for the 2005’s 42nd Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival the winners have been announced, and Stephen Chow’s ‘Kung Fu Hustle’, the story of hidden kung fu masters who resurface to battle gangsters, won five Golden Horse awards. (A sequel is in the works.)

other films of note:

‘Election‘ , a gritty take on triad warfare, won for only won for “Best Original Screenplay” and “Best Sound Effects” after having 11 nominations.

Miriam Yeung (in the very good ‘Drink Drank Drunk‘, a romance in which she plays a beer promoter who falls for a chef) lost to Shu Qi for Best Leading Actress in the Taiwanese Film of the Year ‘Three Times‘ (three love stories set in 1911, 1966, and 2005). Qi Shu is most well known to norther Americans for her role in 2002’s ‘The Transporter’.

The amusing ‘Initial D‘, a movie based on a Japanese manga about street car races, won Anthony Wong a well deserved Best Supporting Actor award.

A World Without Thieves, staring Andy Lau and Rene Liu as slick thiefs, won for Best Screeenplay Adaptation.

really all the winners and nominees are worth a viewing. Love Hong Kong Film has more

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Here’s the Front Page on Saturday Oct 29th’s Globe and Mail

(view the image to see it larger)

Last Year the G&M did a major set of Stories on “China Rising”, so this is a interesting followup. Also keep in mind China is increasing looked at as an alternative market, in the context of our issues with the USA, Softwood lumber and NAFTA. A bit more balance the last months Hong Kong is Booming again, but it’s democracy languishes., although it looks like politics and human rights did not get a mention.

Staring with : The Canada Syndrome (with a side bar with links into the orther related story) : It doesn’t amount to much. Of all the countries that invest in China, Canada is a bit player, with roughly 1 per cent of foreign direct investment. But it doesn’t have to stay this way. Companies of all sizes must develop strategies to profit from the opportunities China offers — even the smallest player needs to be aware of its place in the competitive landscape. Take it from David Anderson, president of Phoenix Performance Products, a small hockey equipment manufacturer in Mississauga

Canada’s New World : Report on Business flash presentation

Battle for the brains grows more intense : Staffing another challenge Nortel faces in China

For Nortel, it’s veni, vidi, build strong R&D, then vici : THE CHALLENGE Create competitive presence in China THE LESSON Enter for the lower costs; stay for output quality; expand for innovation.

Business “FACTS”, and where we are at , a statistical portrait of two countries, and two economies.

Is trade with China mission impossible? : Try as it might to crack the booming Chinese market, Canada only seems to be falling behind. (Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty sets off on a trade mission to China on Friday)

Canada: Nice place, but a tad too boring. : Despite a lengthy history of warm relations, most Chinese know very little about the country that gave them the heroic Norman Bethune

‘I still miss Second Cup coffee‘ : The “reverse culture clash” is perhaps most daunting for people returning to China who don’t actually come from here.

Mystic river :
The Yangtze River delta is now China’s most vital and contentious economic region, with a mega-dam displacing over a million people. JAN WONG took a queasy ‘five-star’ cruise to see (and smell) its miracles and misery first-hand. by China Cheerleader, Comrade Jan Wong

No longer the conquering hero : They used to be called ’sea turtles’ — young Chinese who earned their stripes abroad before coming home to show the locals how it’s done. Now, the money is drying up and they’re mocked as ’seaweed.’ The Chinese government is getting worried.

A diplomatic exchange : When The Globe’s JAN WONG meets new Chinese ambassador Lu Shumin, she discovers he has a long history with Canada — and, in particular, with her.

Mao’s ‘hundred schools’ in a hurry : Soon China will have as many university students as Canada has people — which has sparked an unprecedented expansion of its education system. Not only are billions being poured into bricks and mortar, JAN WONG reports from Hangzhou, new joint ventures are taking flight, one of them with a Canadian partner.

‘I wanted a challenge‘ : Cynthia Lee and Will Staiger are preparing to help reverse the flow — slightly — of a major brain drain. Every year, thousands of Chinese students come to Canadian colleges and universities, but next spring Ms. Lee and Mr. Staiger will head the other way.

More Facts.

Updates :

• Simon’s World has inculded me in his Daily linklets of October 31st
• The China Digital Times and Andrea at T-Salon also noted the Globe and Mail: China Rising - “Are We Missing the Boat?” special issue. She found it unlinkable, which is not true - the links are just very very well hidden. The best places to start - apart from my own posting - is the sidebar in The Canada Syndrome story. Andrea also has her own, fair and true, remarks. Part of the problem of having the USA market (and culture) so close is we frequently do not bother to look to other markets like Europe, China or India (even with all of Canada family ties to these regions).
• Interesting connection : Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty sets off on a 10-day trade mission to China (Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Nanjing). In Jan Wong’s interview with new Chinese ambassador Lu Shumin, she missed the fact that he and 2 other Chinese exchange students boardered at the McGuinty house! This is mention in the G&M column Premier to highlight old ties on China visit (which might be behind the paywall, or try this pdf). No memtion of the position of the 2 boarder, or where the 3rd one is.

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Via Lossless and wongkarwai.net, we have the Wong Kar-Wai calendar, Wong Kar-Wai being the Hong Kong producer/director/writer of 2046, In the Mood for Love, Chungking Express - my favorite - , and many more.

Image of Maggie Cheung - who was amazing in Clean - and the thrilling Tony Leung Chiu Wai - go see Infernal Affairs - via http://www.wongkarwai.net/

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