china chronicles: ghettowood

after getting used to beijing a little bit, i finally got to see a little bit of what i came to see.  my connection Tong was going to take around and see what she does for a living.  my host mom drove me there in the morning.  on the way there, we passed by this neighborhood.  she called it something in chinese and i didn’t understand what it was.  she explained that people around her carry guns.  ahhh, the ghetto.  glad i’m not living here.  15 seconds later, “here we are.”  great, i’m going to be working in the middle of the ghetto.  i’m going to get mugged every day.

Tong works for the chinese army.  they’re not allowed to take american interns.  i wondered if anybody would suspect something if i came here everyday.  apparently i’ll be working somewhere else.  Tong took me to one of her offices and showed me what she does.  she’s a sound person.  she puts voices in the right place and puts sound effects in movies and tv shows.  she took me to the editing room where this lady was editing a movie on the computer.  looked interesting.  i figure that’s part of what i’ll be doing.

the most exciting part was when she took me to an actual sound stage.  an actual set where they were in the middle of filming a chinese opera for television.  it was cool.  i got to see a real shoot.  the best part was that i really felt in place.  i can’t wait to make movies.