Section B
4. How and why did the late Ming courtesans become fashioned as a cultural ideal at that period? Name at least two or three famous courtesans in the late Ming period and describe their features to demonstrate your ideas. What fundamentally changed the position of the Courtesan culture in late imperial China? What did these courtesan figures symbolize? How was the idealisation of the late Ming courtesans connected with the political and social background of this period?
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…what the eff? what kind of literature essay qn has five questions squeezed into one? which all basically ask the same thing but in a slightly different way so you end up repeating ‘barbaric invasion by the Manchus’ till it starts sounding sarcastic, like brutus the honourable man, oh the poor literati were so shocked and grieved by the demise of the Great Ming Dynasty that their pure and true love for their country was displaced onto fornication with women of questionable morals. i swear, if i get a horrible little U instead of a nice anonymous S on my transcript i will take my GEK notes and tear them up into tiny little pieces, and then EAT THEM ALL so i can have the pleasure of flushing them down the toilet when they reappear.
but two days and my exams are already more than half over! it be time for rejoicing! and weeds-watching! definitely not studying and revising, because that kind of stuff is boring.
to xia: no stirring!! the pot will remain unstirred!! and heads-up, the butt can usually be found in the upper pant region, but be sure to look round the back and not in front or else you will see THE WORM which might be black and shriveled, although in james’ case it might be otherwise EH EH *rows and rows of pervy eyebrows being pervy at you*
things i do to distract myself from the pain and torture of chinese history and literature (click to enlarge if you so wish):
1. wander around the house looking for things to eat, and then discover a sad forgotten little bag of potatoes that are earnestly growing new potatoes to keep themselves company
2. stare sadly out through the bars of my window and pretend im in jail/take sneaky pictures of the topless and non-hot man opposite doing the same thing
3. make a foray into the fridge for food that isn’t in the process of reproduction (no such luck there, the jar that says ’spreadables’ expired last september. my family is quite disgusting.)
4. look for videos online that teach me how to do really useful things like get eggs into milkbottles and french-braid hair (this done last night, when i gave up on the history and vowed to continue this morning, only its afternoon now and all ive done so far is come up with a stupid thingy on how to remember the order of the dynasties – injured porridge loves sweat fully fed – which makes zero sense)
5. check the fridge again in case the fridge fairy brought interesting food in the past ten minutes
nope.
im not going to do very well.
nothing to say, just that it took me a fair bit of time to find a gemstone that starts with a C and i cannot believe how bored i am. sexual reproduction is a lot less interesting than it should be, practical sessions should be incorporated into the syllabus! then maybe those poor schmucks who think theyre infertile but really just have poor coital technique can get a clue. how does one have poor coital technique anyway? apart from the one story i read eons ago where the husband was sticking it into his wife’s urethra (OW) there’s really not a lot to sexual reproduction in humans.
*crystal! also starts with a c! and it’s shiny and transparent like diamond. chrysoprase just makes me think of trolls and testosterone, and then tammy makes me think of nanyang poly, and what with them being in the hedge together the whole title just slides downwards into muck**.
**along with the rest of this post. because i spent the whole day wondering about poor coital technique.
not studyinggggggg
*flails around*
but at least im not watching gossip girl…because i started on weeds! wtfbbq. but the music is fantastic, theres a freaking song called ganja babe AHA LOVE
i want me some weeeeed. seriously. it is my goal in life to find a bag of marijuana and finally find out what getting stoned feels like.
i need help
220408
so im doing jap reading practice in my textbook, and i come across a passage that says
山田さんはダンスが好きです。毎晩ダンスの学校へ行きます。ダンスの先生はきれいです。山田さんはじょうぞでわありませんが、きれいな先生にならいますから、毎日楽しいです。先生の誕生日にコンサートのチケットをあげました。先生は友達と行きました。山田さんはとても残念です。
which translates into
mr yamada likes dance. he goes to a dance school every night. the dance teacher is pretty. mr yamada is not good at dance, but because the teacher is pretty, every lesson is enjoyable. on the teacher’s birthday he gave her concert tickets. she went with a friend. mr yamada is very regretful.
teh LOL!
obviously i get very bored when studying. finished the very last episode of the very last season of the o.c. at about three pm today (!!!!!) and promised myself i wont start on gossip girl till after the bloody exams so until the 7th i have only The Deadpan Escapades of Mr Yamada to keep me from pulling all my hair out, i fear for the shaggy dog-like mop atop my head
sometimes i delete my posts, and this might be because i read through it and i think ‘what the hell kind of rubbish am i writing’, or ‘yawn’, or because i dont want people to get the wrong ideas.
ahem.
anyway on a side note my dad said in the car, ‘hey look there’s a little singh boy with a potato on his head’ HAHAHA my daddy is so cute, and my mom just sprayed the entire house with listerine because she heard somewhere that it keeps mosquitoes away, now everything is minty-fresh and slightly sticky
got my first ever round of GST credits. first time im happy about being old, free money is so exciting!
MARISSA DIED! and i only have sixteen episodes left to distract myself with before im left all alone with my notes and pens and empty sheets of paper that im supposed to be filling up with coherent writing and neat summaries fark. i know the oc is about the most bimbotic show to be addicted to but i cant help it, i live for the melodrama and ridiculously unrealistic situations and marissa DIED just when life was actually getting better for all of them oh man oh man
ok seriously i have to start studying for real. my three hour break in the YIH study room yesterday resulted in the reading of one (1) neuro lecture and the blowing of countless saliva bubbles to keep myself awake, WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME.
m scared :[ probably shouldnt have watched red dragon alone in my room with all the lights off, now i have my blanket rolled up into a cylinder and balanced at the open edge of the bed to block any possible attack from the scary darkness. havent done that since primary school, when i would put my bolster on one side and blanket on the other and keep all my extremities well within the edges of the bed, because if i let a toe or elbow stray over the side then Monsters would pounce and use it to drag me under the bed to eat.
i have no idea where i got the idea that there were Monsters under the bed, i dont know how any kid gets such ideas, i bet it’s from all those childrens’ books they (we) read that tell stories about how other kids just like us get scared of Monsters Under The Bed Or In The Cupboard.
book: so kids, it’s perfectly fine to be scared of Monsters but soon you’ll realise that that scary shadow behind the door is just your bicycle!
kid: monsters? what monsters? but hey theres a scary shadow under my bed and theres no bicycle there! *proceeds to develop life-time aversion to moving while sleeping*
yes i got out of bed at two just to type that drivel.
imu
bah, exams are coming i have no idea what a polymerase chain reaction is (and seriously i dont give a flying fuck, as long as it works leave me out of it i say) spent the entire day watching eddie izzard and getting very disappointed by Dress To Kill and his strange unappreciative audience, stupid american-tailored dialogue that they didnt even get, they were laughing mostly at his accent. i could tell he was fed up with the audience by about halfway through the gig, why why sell out to america!
anyway.
there, i can’t think of anything else to write. except that oooh i want to be at the cK underwear show
oh and sne if you still read this happy birthday again! first of the losers to turn twenty-one, my we are getting old.
