PKU Orientation Video
A work of art indeed. This video was produced for my own entertainment as well as for the use of Shaina Adams, Program Manager at Penn Abroad who is in charge of, among other things, the Peking University exchange programs (including the Wharton-Guanghua business school exchange program). I enjoyed splicing together random shots of my life over the past two months and even managed to get my costar and commiserator Hanghang, a Film Studies and Economics dual major at PKU in her senior year, to chip in with ideas and comments. No man, and no video montage, is an island, and I also roped in my family, as well as friends from all over the world, to both film this video as well as to be a part of it. Because my lifestyle, as I recently noted to a close friend, is not typical of many, I was particularly glad to get help from Evelyn, a fellow Pennite on exchange to the CIEE program at Beida (on reflection, perhaps I should’ve also spoken to Jue about the video to gauge her interest in being a part of it! too late now).
The infamous video after the break (hosted on Facebook).
Interesting production note: the original featured a drinking scene at my recent G3 birthday party, which was promptly rejected and I had to replace it with a milder oh-look-we’re-speaking-chinese clip I happened to have on hand. It was with no small irony that I noted to my French friend Raphael that censorship was not unique to China, a country that does not hesitate to cut off access to all of Youtube because of the posting of one controversial video.
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