Jul 2023. Melbourne "Boonie Bears" is about two bears Briar and Bramble and their ongoing feud with a logger called Vick who threatens to destroy their forest home. It was screened from 2012 to 2022 and was distributed to 82 countries and also with Netflix, Sony and Disney. I had never actually seen a proper... Continue Reading →
Jul 2023. Melbourne I hadn't flown for five years. I was in an eleven hours' overnight flight from Melbourne to Guangzhou and I couldn't sleep. The seat was uncomfortable and I could feel the metal framework of the seat. I kept shifting my weight and looked at the flight path. It was 3.00am. I browsed... Continue Reading →
Jul 2023. Melbourne I hate flying more than one or two hours and long-distance flights are a nightmare for me. Being strapped to a seat for hours is mentally exhausting. As such a movie screen on a seat is a welcome distraction, especially for a movie fan like me. But movies and television waste a... Continue Reading →
Jul 2014. Shenyang Open a circle of small wooden stools and place a small table in the centre and the men will find their wonderland in the small streets of Shenyang. Playing cards is a very popular past time in China and you can see them playing in the parks and in the small streets.... Continue Reading →
Jul 2014. Shenyang Basketball is a more popular sports and a bigger sponsorship business in China than soccer. One day, they were playing a half-court basketball game right outside a busy shopping centre downtown. The tournament was sponsored by Casio G-Shock watches and the place was packed with spectators. I don't know who the mastermind... Continue Reading →
Jul 2014. Shenyang After relocating from Shanghai to Shenyang, I became interested in keeping fishes. It was something that I had done on and off throughout my life but I was more serious about it in Shenyang. I had more time in my hand as I was living alone and it was really cheap to... Continue Reading →
Jul 2014. Shenyang This is a snap shot of a street poster in Shenyang in 2014. You may be familiar with Disney's 2020 film "Mulan" which is about a legendary Chinese folk heroine who took her old father's place in conscription by disguising herself as a man. Before that Disney had also made an animated... Continue Reading →
Jul 2014. Shenyang An attention grabbling red carpet rolled out with various prizes lined up on it. Cheap water bottles at the front which are easier to win compared to harder bets such as soft toys, sodas and liquors lined up at the back. Storage containers with extra rings and prizes arranged to form a... Continue Reading →
Shenyang. Jun 2014 It has been six months since I arrived in Shenyang and was settling into my new job and my new neighbourhood. I didn't have any video streaming devices. I had not signed up for a VPN service yet. I just had a TV which only showed local channels in Chinese and an... Continue Reading →
Shenyang. Apr 2014 One Saturday morning at about 8.00am, I heard some loud explosions and I peered out of my apartment window to find out what was happening. They were firing up fire crackers into the sky for apparently what looked like a wedding car procession. That was the first time I realised that you... Continue Reading →