Word: materialistic
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Hong Kongers, myself included, love to affect a certain expertise when it comes to feng shui. Because I am otherwise a materialist (as in believing only in physical matter, not as in bling), it has always been self-contradictory of me to discourse on the Chinese system of geomancy and the notion that the arrangement of landscape and objects affects well-being. At dinner parties, I can denounce mysticism - or yogic flying or reincarnation - as shrilly as any Red Guard, and declare that Christians ought to be deprived of the vote. But I'm also capable, at the evening...
...Without overt political intent, Call If You Need Me shows a Malaysia that may shock many. Here's an entirely amoral, unrelentingly materialist nation that's 100% populated by Hokkien Chinese. This is no devout, mostly Muslim society, nor some showcase of the harmonious multiculturalism shown in destination commercials. Instead of being "truly Asia," to quote the country's official tourism slogan, Lee's Malaysia is truly segregated. The film won the silver prize in the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Asian Digital Competition. Too bad the miniDV shooting format, and timid distributors, will keep this instant noir classic...
...photographs tell a tale of what is being lost. Sakamaki wandered through old mud-brick quarters destined to be bulldozed and glimpsed the steel-and-glass materialist world that Chinese planners see rising above the rubble. Much of his work is suffused with a melancholy he allows to be dubbed "poetic." It is the picture, in many instances, of a people resigned to defeat...
...consumer-driven culture, we define relationships with materialist symbols: saccharine cards on Valentine’s Day, long-stemmed roses on anniversaries, and diamond rings at engagements all serve as measures of our devotion to monogamy. However, with social-networking sites such as Facebook commanding an average of 20 minutes of our attention each day, a new standard of exclusivity is quickly divesting chocolates and perfumes of their primary significance. Forget meeting the parents: The ubiquitous Facebook “relationship status” now defines the seriousness of romance with a drop-down menu. We can be straightforwardly...
...Jess soon learns that he has stumbled into a sisterhood of modern mystical sorceresses who, page by page, short-circuit every last one of his ingrained, materialist expectations about the universe and his true place in it. Mysterious potions are drunk, lingering glances exchanged, and the mundane world falls away to reveal a visionary landscape of miracles, marvels and fulfilled hearts - one that, Jess discovers, had been there all along, just waiting for him to stumble on it. "We didn't lead you into an illusion," Dolly explains to Jess as he struggles to find his bearings in this dizzying...