Word: dais
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...even the bitterest of adolescences can turn sweet with the passage of time and the onslaught of nostalgia. Author and filmmaker Dai Sijie proved this when he hit literary gold in 2000 with Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, his semi-autobiographical tale of discovering literature and love as a member of China's lost generation. Now Dai, who spent 1971 to 1974 exiled in a village in the mountains of Sichuan province, has directed a big-screen version of his fable, The Little Chinese Seamstress (naming it "Balzac," one suspects, wouldn't sell tickets...
...Because Dai uses Ma's voice-over narration sparingly and because the act of reading is tough to dramatize, his film loses some of the novel's eloquent and original meditations on the power of books. The Little Chinese Seamstress too often falls into the well-worn treads of a traditional coming-of-age tale. It doesn't help that Dai seems to forget that the boys are living in the middle of the Cultural Revolution; with its postcard-perfect vistas and the endless free time the trio enjoys, life in Phoenix on the Sky seems less re-education camp...
...When Dai-ichi Kangyo bank, Fuji Bank and Industrial Bank of Japan merged in 2000 to create the world's largest bank, managers wanted to christen the venture with a hopeful name, a word to signify a new era of Japanese banking free from the backward ways that have helped to cripple the world's second largest economy. The name they chose was Mizuho, meaning "a fresh ear of rice...
...means to be a Chinese author, to the point where much of the most robust "Chinese" literature is no longer even written in Chinese. In just the past decade, Chinese émigré authors who have adopted other languages have gained prominent seats in the world's literary pantheon. Dai Sijie's Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, written in French, was an immediate best-seller in France and won five prizes. Anchee Min's 1994 English-language memoir, Red Azalea, was named a "Notable Book" of the year by the New York Times, and Ji-li Jiang...
...LIVING COLOR Psychologist Alexander Schauss, who pioneered the idea that different colors induce different moods, once advised mental institutions to paint their walls pink, claiming the hue had a calming effect. Schauss might go a little crazy himself trying to figure out what the d?cor of the Cao Dai Holy See cathedral is meant to inspire. Every inch of wall and ceiling is covered in lurid Technicolor, from fuchsia lotuses to virulent green dragons and a psychedelic divine eye floating in baby blue skies...