The China Lover is the 2008 novel by Ian Buruma, a Dutchman now living in New York and teaching at Bard College. I’ve included the novel as the introduction to this article because the book jackets cover art are really eye catching.
The subject of the novel, or maybe it should be called a historical-fiction book based on real life events, is Yoshiko Yamaguchi who was also known as Shirley Yamaguchi, Li Xianglan, and Ri Kouran. Yoshiko was born in Manchuria in 1920 to Japanese parents.
Following the Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese had set up a puppet Manchurian government. By the late 1930’s, she’d grown into a very pretty and talented young woman who soon caught the eyes of the Japanese working there. Yamaguchi wanted more than anything else to be a singer and a movie star. The Japanese believed they had struck gold with this talented young woman, because she was fluent in both Mandarin and Japanese. Her movie career began and her career seemed to be fast tracked. But there was a problem.
Yamaguchi, was asked to pose as a Chinese girl by her Japanese handlers. Though born in China, and raised in China, she was Japanese. She was even given a Chinese name, Li Xianglan, to attract the Chinese audiences.
The agent makes a pitch to the director
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Currently airing on Japan’s Fuji TV Network is the lively and entertaining Tsuki no Koibito or Moon Lovers. It just started a few Monday’s back on May 10th, so it’s 3rd episode has already aired today, the night of the 24th in Japan.
The lead role of Rensuke Hazuki is played by the Japanese superstar, Takuya Kimura. He’s the CEO of the Regolith Corporation. Under his guidance, Regolith is about to pass the Mastpole Company, and become the number one brand name in interior design.
Simply described, he is in the furniture business and he’s very smart about it. So he’s successful, rich, and ambitious for more, much more.
Takuya Kimura and Chi Ling Lin
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A while back, our fellow member la brought up an interesting observation when he was checking out the most downloaded files from his uploads to the SLF File Server. Out of all of the files that he had uploaded, the top three most downloaded files were the ones containing photos of women who have been completely photoshopped.
When I first started collecting photos, fakes just consisted of someone taking someone’s head and slapping it on someone else’s body. Now it’s to the point where people can’t tell if they are looking at an actual person because of the amount of work done to the photo itself.
I don’t mind looking at fakes, but I prefer to look at a real person. What I am really interested in is how others feel about this phenomenon since I have only seen this done for photos of Asian women. Do you like fakes? Are you someone who makes them? Would this be considered an appreciation of Asian beauty when none of these women are real? Let’s hear it.
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A recent article in Japantoday.com was a short piece about beautiful actress Akiko Yada and her marital woes. You can read the piece here, but the long and the short of it is that hubby Manabu Oshio is currently being detained, as in held in custody, by the Tokyo police, while facing a charge of failing to exercise due care resulting in a death.
It seems, per the article, that Akiko long suspected her husband of infidelity, but she is surprised that drugs are also involved. She filed for divorce four days after Oshio’s arrest.
I’m not going to comment further on the arrest, the alleged crime, the alleged drug use, or infidelity. Those things will work themselves out with or without press coverage and definitely without my opinions.
Maybe it is part of the press campaign for her next motion picture. In a more recent Japantoday.com article, they’ve announced that Akiko will play a police detective along with Kenji Sakaguchi doing the Bruce Willis role in the Japanese version of Die Hard.
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Ordinary Miracle is a story about two people who meet by chance on a train platform. They’re total strangers and unrelated to each other in any way other than both are coming or going either from or to their work while passing through this one station.
The event that caused them to meet was anything but romantic. On their own, they each consider or think that a third person, a man standing by himself at the far end of the train platform, may be going to take his own life by leaping in front of an oncoming train.
Independently they watch him, and as the train approaches, this man edges toward the side of the platform of the oncoming train. They spring into action and barely pull this man back to safety from a sure death by punching him and wrestling him down to the platform’s surface.. Read more…
” I’m not perfect “, Kim Yu-Na was recently quoted as saying. Well, if not yet perfect, she is as close to perfection as humanly possible. While Miki Ando is sultry enough to melt ice, Kim Yu-Na is the girl next door, cute, but with flashes of glamor and naughtiness. Fortunately, in skating, there is room for both personalities, but there is only room for one champion, and that is the awesome Kim Yu-Na.
She was born September 5, 1990, and began skating at 7, then went on to win the Junior Grand Prix Finals for 2005-2006. She was the World Junior Champion in 2006, and a three time Grand Prix Final champion, for 2006-7, 2007-8, and 2009-10, and is currently the 2009 World Champion and the reigning Four Continents Champion. She is also a four time South Korean Champion, and is ranked # 1 in the world by the ISU. How ” perfect ” can you get? Read more…
I have always had a special fondness for the lovely ladies of professional figure skating, especially the Asian ones. But ever since Chen Lu and Yuka Sato retired (Yuka Sato is a coach now), and even Kristi Yamaguchi and Michelle Kwan, I have not seen any who have caught my eye until now; and that is Miki Ando, who personifies beauty and hotness on ice.
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Lately, I have been looking through the forum to find a beauty that I wasn’t familiar with to write about. It hasn’t been easy to find someone to choose to write about for this blog, especially with the sheer number of beauties that exist within the forum.
Then I came across the thread for Hitomi Furusaki. I don’t know much about her besides her being a Japanese race queen. If you have any additional information, it will be added to this post. What I do know is that she is very cute, so make sure you click the Read More link for some sample photos and video. And do be sure to check out her thread in Beauty Boutique and her photosets in Image Sets.
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Recently a comment was posted about Oppai Volleyball. The reader agreed that Haruka Ayase is indeed nice to look at and suggested that she is now appearing (and looking good) in an ongoing and most worthwhile Japanese TV drama series called JIN. The series has a wonderful 9:00 PM on Sunday night prime time slot. Its broadcast can be seen on the TBS channel in Japan.
That was enough of cue for me. In the simplest of terms, a modern day brain surgeon, Dr. Jin Minakata played by Takao Osawa, is transported back in time. He takes a tumble down some steps in a Tokyo hospital and when he awakens, he finds that he is in Edo (now called Tokyo) in 1862. He will meet Haruka Ayase who plays the daughter, Saki Tachibana, of a noble household. This story could be described best as Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court meets the US TV Series House in the Japan of almost 150 years ago.
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This morning, while doing some moderating on the forum, I noticed that Sobaskasu has received a name change to Silverfox. I also took notice to the beauty that he is using as his current avatar. So naturally, I wanted to know who she was because I was not familiar with her along with where I could go to find more photos of her.
With my inquiry quickly answered, I found out that her name is Nanao and that she is a Japanese race queen. I think she is pretty cute, especially in knee-high socks. Check her out.
Stats:
Birthdate: October 28, 1988
Height: 172cm
Measurements: B:80cm/W:57cm/H:83cm
Blood Type: O
Hometown: Saitama
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The China Lover is the 2008 novel by Ian Buruma, a Dutchman now living in New York and teaching at Bard College. I’ve included the novel as the introduction to this article because the book jackets cover art are really eye catching.
