A thing or Two About Chinese Love Songs

China is such an ancient country with billions of people cultivated by lots of old philosophies as well as radical new changes coming with the political system.

It maybe hard for others to fathom the contemporary Chinese romance. But from these love songs, you can see the Chinese vulnerability regarding love. Maybe even get some insight into the generation grew up with such influences.

These songs have melodramatic and romantic lyrics like:

"Don't tell him that you are afraid in the dark; that you like the roses he gave you the most; that you like him to wait in the rain ... because those are my most precious memories."

"I used my happiness as a wager (for you) ... losing you, I lost everything."

"I am a playful and free kite, everyday making you worry. If one day, you become a kite, how do I get back to you? ... Because I know you are a worrying little girl, so before the rain cloud comes, I come back to your arms ..."

What Melodramatic

If Shakespeare tragedies are dramatic, then Chinese contemporary dramas are melodramatic. My definition of melodramatic is, the story has a bad ending, but it is so depressing that you feel like you fell into the mud and stuck there forever, until you stop thinking about it.

I'm not saying only the Chinese dramas has the capability to be melodramatic, because I'm sure Japanese literature and art has the potential well exceed the Chinese. But my statement was just merely my observation of a couple Chinese contemporary dramas.

Don't Read News

One thing that's hard to bear about the work week for me is the fact that I work at the computer all day, and it gives me plenty of opportunities to go on the online news media to check daily news. To me, most news are toxic in different ways.

Is news reality or reality check or distraction? Most news are negative. Someone's misfortune or misconduct stirred up interests of the mess, and every news agency starts chiming in on the latest development as well as detail breakdown analysis. The media grows on others' misfortune.

How about the readers like me. Am I encouraging the media? I would have to say guilty as charged. However, bad news is so draining and depressing. Why do I take it upon myself to endure such negativity?

The solution? Stop dwelling into news, and focus on the now and what's around me.

My Meditation

How do you meditate? How do you learn to do it? I have some Yoga and relaxation books that talk about meditation, but I don't think you can learn how to meditate by reading books. Just like it's hard to learn how to dance by reading a book, eventually you have to do it.

I've been to Yoga classes where the teacher teaches meditation. The idea is to keep the mind focus on one thing, one phrase or one idea. When you realize your mind drifts away, you catch yourself and put the mind back to the original thing. Slowly over time, your mind is calm and peaceful focusing on the one idea, without drifting away.

One night I was awake until late, because I played on the computer until late and had some strong tea at dinner. It kept my mind restless. I was tossing and turning thinking about many random things. When the clock showed 2 AM, I decided it was time to try falling asleep, so that I could have a normal work day tomorrow.

To calm down my mind, I lied on my back with Savasana pose, and started breathing deeply. In my mind I wrote the Chinese character date - 日 - and I breathed slowly once with every stroke. Every time when I finished writing the character in my head, my thought would already be wondered away from the writing, and thinking about plans or fantasies. So When I started writing the character again, I intentionally brought my thought back to the character. The first ten to fifteen times when I wrote the character 日, my mind continued to wonder away somewhere in the middle of the writing. However after a while, my mind slowed down, and I was able to stay with the character. Slowly, the character morphed into a donuts, then it morphed again into a piece of cloud. All the ideas became irrelevant for the moment, and I eventually fell asleep.