Icy Flame

In South China, espeically in the cantonese cities like Guangzhou, Hongkong, Macau, Shenzhen ,they would say they'd eat everything that has four legs except the dinner table and everything that has two wings except a plane. Many of the dishes served in China may really surprise foreigners. Apart from seafood and animals, insects and worms, flowers and weeds are all made into dishes.
Btw, I never eat dogs or cats. I think it is awfully cruel to do that. I've kept two cats and a dog as my pets--actually they are more like my close friends in my life.:)
Snake soup is among the most treasured soups in China. Then, there is snake gall and blood mixed in liquor that supposedly will brighten your eyes. Some "westernized" Chinese would suggest that if Adam and Eve had been Chinese, we humans would still be in the Garden of Eden because they would have eaten the snake.

Here is the beancurd snake soup.Don't get scared:p. the cantonese people do think it is very yummy.

The book leading me to the road of mass communication is Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man
by Marshall McLuhan, Lewis H. Lapham
I am majoring in journalism and mass communication and I am really interested in this subject:)I am sociable, easy-going and have great curiosity, always like to meet different kinds of people and learn different culture. Also I am so fascinated by the media.
Have you heard of Marshall McLuhan? OK, maybe not. However I bet you've learnt about some terms and prhases such as "the global village","Media is message","hot media and cold media" in your daily life so far.
The book is challenging and it is scattered and chaotic but there is a cohesiveness to it.

Here is a review of this book written by one reader Anthony M. Testani"mygotta from Amszon.com :

Marshall McLuhan is perhaps one of the most influential authors I have read along with Timothy Leary, Alan Watts and Eliphas Levi. What McLuhan does like the authors stated is not explain in descriptive terms the media, but process oriented direction of experience. I will explain that momentarily.
This book, "Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man" is by far McLuhan's greatest book. It is set up like any useful text with the first part being the theory, while the second part contains the practice. He explains in the theoretical part that media is the extension of man. That all things created by man have come from man's own experience. This is like a dream, in one sense, where one must determine at some point that they are creators of the dream, and therefore, all content of the dream must apply to the dreamer's existence, and no one elses. Likewise, all inventions and discoveries are aspects of human dimensions that have been created by man, and therefore must come from man's inner experiences. These inventions are ultimately what McLuhan calls extensions, as they extend our human capacity for that movement or experience. The foot can travel so fast, while the tire is the extension of the foot, and therefore can move at a much higher rate of speed than the foot.

It seems that the most confusing aspect of McLuhan's theories is the idea of content versus context. The assumption of media study is to psychologize advertisments or the like. This way of approach is far from his point. He says, "My own way of approaching the media is perceptual not conceptual." What he is saying is that he uses his senses to gain understanding of the media, not theoretical concepts. This is what I mean about process oriented experience, where McLuhan discusses the experience one has by, say watching television, the mode of thought one has, the patterns of thought and behavior created by television.

In other words, we become the media that we have been shaped by in our culture and time. The spoken word, the written word and the telegraph, McLuhan noted, has had the largest impact on our society. Not because of their usefulness, or whether they work or not, but because society has patterned themselves after the respective media. Are not we becoming a computerized society? Does this mean we have lots of computers that run things? Or are the people becoming computer like in their behavoir and thinking? The latter expresses more accurately McLuhan's ideas.

The second part runs over a select group of specific media and their implications on the human mind. The context in which they were placed in is by far the most important aspect as it predicts when a new media might arise. All media have their logical origins. If one determine the state of the world now, as it is, one can determine the way of the media. McLuhan discusses the written and printed word, automobile, telegraph, aeroplanes, bikes, routes, newspapers, automation, games, weapons, and many others that make for a highly evocative read.

Is McLuhan a modern mystic? It might be a heavy title for some. If one reads well enough into his work, they may get the sense he is not talking about media at all.

Understanding McLuhan's approach is about upsetting the whole sensory environment. The appeal McLuhan has had on the ages from 1964, when the book was published, is in his aphorism, "Media is the message." This little phrase scratched many heads. Most of McLuhan's writings are like this. It is not about explaining it, but involving the reader to think for himself. To evoke, as in, evocative. So the conclusions must be the readers choice, either by intuition, study, assumption, or first hand experience. One thing is for certain, if you take the time to read the book twice, it will be different than the first read.

I can say, "if you only read one book..." but those that read this book are usually of the literate group. But for me, this book has not been an informative text, but a work book, a guide, an insightful prayer book, a reference, a resource, a magical text. I cannot reccomend this book highly enough.

Bidding the lovely scenes at distance hail!
　　向远方的美景欢呼！
　　
　　See no end to the landscape,new objects presenting themselves as we advance;so,in the commencement of life,we set no bounds to our inclinations.nor to the unrestricted opportunities of grastifying them.we have as yet found no obstacle,no disposition to flag;and it seems that we can go on so forever.We look round in a new world,full of life,and motion,and ceaseless progress;and feel in ourselves all the vigour and spirit to keep pace with it,and do not foresee from any present symptoms how we shall be left behind in the natural course of things,decline into old age,and drop into the grave.It is the simplicity,and as it were abstractedness of our feelings in youth,that(so to speak)identifies us with nature ,and(our experience being slight and our passions strong)deludes us into a belief of being immortal like it.Our short-lives connexion with existence we fondly flatter ourselves,is an indissoluble and lasting union-a honeymoon that knows neither coldness,jar,nor separation.As infants smile and sleep,we are rocked in the cradle of our wayward fancies,and lulled into security by the roar of the universe around us0we quaff the cup of life with eager haste without draining it,instead of which it only overflows the more-objects press around us,filling the mind with their magnitude and with the strong of desires that wait upon them,so that we have no room for the thoughts of death.
　　
　　此时，但觉好风光应接不暇，而且，前程更有美不胜收的新鲜景致。在这生活的开端，我们听任自己的志趣驰骋，放手给它们一切满足的机会。到此为止，我们还没有碰上过什么障碍，也没有感觉到什么疲惫，因此觉得还可以一直这样向前走去，直到永远。我们看到四周一派新天地——生机盎然，变动不居，日新月异；我们觉得自己活力充盈，精神饱满，可与宇宙并驾齐驱。而且，眼前也无任何迹象可以证明，在大自然的发展过程中，我们自己也会落伍，衰老，进入坟墓。由于年轻人天真单纯，可以说是茫然无知，因而将自己跟大自然划上等号；并且，由于经验少而感情盛，误以为自己也能和大自然一样永世长存。我们一厢情愿，痴心妄想，竟把自己在世上的暂时栖身，当作千古不变、万事长存的结合，好像没有冷淡、争执、离别的密月。像婴儿带着微笑入睡，我们躺在用自己编织成的摇篮里，让大千世界的万籁之声催哄我们安然入梦；我们急切切，兴冲冲地畅饮生命之杯，怎么也不会饮干，反而好像永远是满满欲溢；森罗万象纷至沓来，各种欲望随之而生，使我们腾不出工夫想死亡。