The Hong Kong film industry, once a vibrant and dominant player in the Chinese and Asia cinema, is in a steep decline. It happens that I come across a web entry on Jin Yong (金庸), the most popular and prolific martial art novels writer in Asia. In the entry is a chronological list of all the screen adaptations. Since Jin Yong's novels has been made into TV and movies in regularity, it serves as a proxy to the activity of the entertainment industry.

I have plotted the adaption of each popular novel on a graph, with different colors to differentiate the country of production. The dense chart shows that each novel has been adapted multiple times, sometimes within only a short span of time. Looking decade by decade, you'll see how the pattern has shifted. Jin Yong stories first appear on Hong Kong TV in the 70s. It was the time when most families started to own a TV. 80s is the period when a lot of early and now classic adaptions are made. Taiwan has also started to made Jin Yong stories in this period. 90s continues the frenzy activities. It is also the beginning of decline of the Hong Kong movie industry. The last Jin Yong movie was made in 1994. In 2000s, the 3 decades of restless Hong Kong entertainment production seems to come an end. The last TV made by actors is in 2001 (an animation came in 2003). Instead it is the era of China, where nearly all new productions are now made.

The filmography is not just a list black and white raw text. It comes to life once we carefully render it into a color graph. And the graph tells a story of the rise and fall of the different players in the industry.

2010.08.20 [business, media, design] - comments

I have just rediscovered the Asia Times Online. It is an English news (now available online only) that report with an Asian perspective. I have never paid much attention to this Hong Kong based publication while I was in Hong Kong. But this time I am eager to devour the articles which provide a fresh perspective on many world news.

For example, in this What went wrong in Iraq? Wrong answer article the author make a convincing case that we have overlooked the poor economic policy made by Coalition Provisional Authority in the early days and its devastating effect on the economy. It is the depression and unemployment that fueled the ever escalating insurgency more than anything.

Interesting while many reports use a different angle than the mainstream American media, many contributors are actually US journalists or scholars.

P.S. It is so great to hear that abducted journalist Jill Carroll was finally freed. I wish you all the best.

2006.03.30 [media] - comments

I have written several comments on the BBC news website before. Despite making much effort in writing some original and substantial comments, I have not have luck to have them selected so far. That is until today when I make some Google search and run into one of the comment I have made about Tung Chee-Hwa's resignation. It was silently accepted for half year before I have found out. BBC has highlighted my comment and it wasn't very kind:

Even to the end he has managed to further damage Hong Kong peoples' confidence
Tung Wai Yip, San Francisco, USA

2005.11.20 [media] - comments

It was said that blogging has become so popular that there are perhaps a million people around the world doing that actively. But among these active bloggers I observed a trend, many of them do not prominently post some "About Me" information, some background about the author, your profession, the organization you are affiliate with, what part of the world are you from, etc. In their blog there may be a hundred outgoing links pointing to anything they deem valuable, but the 'About Me' link either does not exist or is tucked in some inconspicuous place far less visible than links to other bloggers.

To blog is to express yourselves and your opinions publicly! It is odd that the author would avoid revealing some of their background at the same time.

I say that not because I am voyeuristic. But because it is not only what you say that is important but also who you are. It is difficult to judge the authority and creditability of a post without really knowing who the author is.

2004.08.20 [media, culture] - comments

Silicon Valley journalist Dan Gilmore's new book We the Media has just published by O'Reilly. As a veteran journalist, he often receives emails or comments from surprisingly knowledgeable readers. The readers know more than he does, he realizes. He see the significance of these kind of feedback that is becoming a new phenomenon in journalism.

Traditionally, mass media's relationship with audiences is one-to-many, producer to consumer. Recent development in technology has altered the landscape. All of a sudden people are speaking via the media of Internet. These former audiences are no more passive recipients. Many are becoming active citizen journalists. Communication patterns can be one-to-one or many-to-many and is much more interactive. The result is the rise of grassroots journalism and the democratization of the media.

Social changes would seldom go without conflict. Corporate media, loosing their grip to channels they have little control, are fighting back. The copyright cartel, as the author called them, are using stringent copyright law and restrictive use term to retain control of distribution. That why it is all more important for us to understand the context and fight for the freedom of speech and the right of fair use, for much innovation would not be possible without openness and sharing.

The author portrayed this phenomenon in this book with much insight. This is a must read for anyone who care about media and journalism.

2004.08.10 [sociology, media] - comments

Well, as least it is dead for me. Last night it was running a special report on the major power outage of eastern United States and Canada. Minutes into the program I became impatient as they were repeating the information. So I turned the TV off and went back to the web for more in-depth report.

So far TV is considered by people the first source to get breaking news. I never watch much TV and have not owned a set for some years. People believe you need TV to get most up-to-date information. Nevertheless I consider myself well informed in public affairs without it.

The breakthrough comes when news media begin to publish on the web, first as an online version of the printed materials, and later serve as real time update on breaking news. This gives printed media the same instantaneousness as other electronic media.

One may argue a picture worth a thousand words. On the scene report let you see things as it happens. I counter that. Seeing things through the camera can only provide one, possibly narrow, perspective. It is not the same as understanding the event. Video is also most susceptible to the sensational, infotainment style reporting. Watching the TV repeatedly replaying the collapse of World Trade Center in the 9/11 terrorist attack provides audience quite little information other than leaving a traumatizing effect. Words can express details and concepts beyond the scene of action that is necessary for true understanding. And when words are not enough it can often supplemented with pictures, illustration and even video clips.

The real power of the web is that users can play an active role as oppose to being a passive recipient. The web provides an immense depth of information and different point of view. One can enrich the understanding by following related-links of the story. Some articles provide reader's feedback, which give extra information or even contrarian's view. One can do their own research on related topics or to seek out alternative outlets.

So what caused the power outage? How can a single incident brought down a power grid that is designed to be robust? There is no definitive answer yet. Some articles points to chaos theory, where in a complex system, a minor incident can trigger much larger effect in the whole system. An interesting topic to pursue.

2003.08.15 [media] - comments

The 7th Webby Awards was presented on June 5th. It has wound down dramatically to become an online only event. The Webby web site itself is rather hard to navigate. It takes me a while to find the winners' 5 words acceptance speeches. Don't miss out Howard Rheingold's animated keynote speech. Now that the venture capitalists have receded from the Internet gold rush, individual innovation and creativity are once again making the web exciting.

Some of my favorites are still winners from previous years. It shows that web as a medium can be fun and artistic.

2003.06.08 [media, culture] - comments