Huh?????!!!

It’s okay. I wouldn’t get it the first time either. The truth is I had a great time editing this video, but had a much harder time settling on a title for it.

As you’ll notice, the video begins with a choir of children singing. What are they singing? I haven’t a clue! All I know is that I liked the sound of it so after a little sound editing I decided to use this delightful melody to start off my latest masterpiece! (I continually try to top myself…………most of the time.)

While I originally wanted to use the singing as a backdrop for some “hustle and bustle in the city” footage I had on hand, I decided to challenge myself and instead try to show the busier side of small town/rural life (the city footage will appear in a future vid!) As the video progresses, the choir fades into a blissful melody accompanied by visuals
of the greenery and sculptures of an urban Chinese park.

“But what of the title?” you ask.

Well…..I wanted a title that would illustrate the contrast between the hustle/bustle and the tranquility that China has to offer. I remembered hearing
about “Yin and Yang” some time ago.

For those who are in the dark as to what this means, the World English Dictionary describes it thusly:

n
two complementary principles of Chinese philosophy: Yin is negative, dark, and feminine, Yang positive, bright, and masculine. Their interaction is thought to maintain the harmony of the universe and to influence everything within it.

Ok, so while the video doesn’t exactly balance “dark” and “light” per se, It’s an Asian describing contrasts in harmony and I feel this fits
the video perfectly.

Enjoy!

The time has now come for China Video #4!

When I was putting the previous videos together, I encountered a decent amount of animal footage.
I was tempted to use it right away, but I decided that I had enough to make a standalone video with.

As you’ll see, the animals here are either in capitivity or are used for some agricultural purpose. I wish
there was some footage of them in the wild, but what are ya gonna do?

Despite its simplicity and the fact that it only runs a little over a minute, I found this video quite challenging to finish.

The piece of music that runs under this video (“Ripples” by Kevin Macleod) actually runs  about 3 minutes and 21 seconds. Usually when I’m putting these videos together, I attempt to make the video run the entire length of the musical piece that I’m using.

In this case, I found that I had barely a minute worth of footage where it was raining. My original plan was to try to switch to some other theme or motif but somehow, switching to something else just seemed to be too great of a contrast (Most of the rest of the China footage I’m working with takes place during nicer weather).

At the end of the day I decided to just stick with the rain. I thinks its nice to have a good, solid rainfall every now and then. It gives all the trees, plants, and greenery a chance to replenish, it temporarily solves any dust problems a city might me having. (You ever been caught in the middle of a dust storm? I have). And after the long cold winter we’ve had here in Edmonton, any precipitation is better than snow right?

Well…..maybe except for hail…..

The interesting thing about this video is that it features the mysterious “hanging coffins” found throughout Southern China. Between the Zhou (1027-777 BC) and the Ming(1368-1644 AD) Dynasties, coffins were placed on the face of sheer cliffs as a sort of ancient funeral custom by certain minority groups, especially the Bo people of Southern China.

Just how these hanging coffins were placed this way is a mystery for the most part. However, scientists have found physical evidence that in at least one location, (Sichuan Province), the coffins were lowered by ropes from above.

Stay tuned for the next video!

But before I start sounding too much like a commercial (again), I should
tell you that on last Friday when I was having lunch, I decided to order
one of the most ordinary items on the entire menu: a bowl of white rice.

Not chicken or beef on rice. Not even rice mixed with vegetables. Just
a plain bowl of white rice by itself.

Why just rice you ask? Well, recently I got around to thinking: We here in Canada are extremely to have the find of food selection and choice that we have. I mean, we’re able to head on down to any supermarket within a few blocks, buy enough food to feed at least 5 people and think nothing of it. We all need food, but we don’t often think of it’s true value. (Would you rather have a balanced meal containing all the food groups or a Lexus?) I also remembered that in the 1954 Akira Kurosawa classic, “The Seven Samurai”, the samurai protect a village from bandits.  The villagers are only able to pay the samurai in bowls of rice, and only one per day for each of them.

In the end, thinking about all that made me feel like a bit of a greedy glutton. So I decided, for that on Friday afternoon, that I would just have a bowl of rice and a glass of water for lunch. No more, no less. And you know what? It was actually rather satisfying!

-Shaun Lang

P.S- Some quick fun facts about rice:

-Is the most important staple food for much of the world’s population. (Asia, Latin America, West Indies, and the Middle East)

-Asia accounts for 92% of the world’s rice production.

-Rice helped Africa conquer it’s famine of 1203.

The footage is a little fuzzy, but up on the second floor at Knowledge Construction (Again, see previous post) we’re in the process of editing that footage together into a series of video vignettes that we will hopefully be showcasing on the TV’s down in the restaurant in the near future.

This is the first one entitled Journey. Enjoy!

For those who’ve never had the pleasure of tasting one of these scrumptious beverages, Bubble Tea is a mix of tea base, fruit syrup and sometimes milk. These teas are well shaken to mix the ingredients, which usually creates bubbles on the top, hence the name. Often, small tapioca pearls (sometimes called “boba or sago”) are added to the bottom. For those with an aversion to tapioca, jelly pearls offer a nice alternative.

There seems to be a dispute as to where the drink originated. The first is the Chun Shui Tang tea house in Taichung, Taiwan where Liu Han Chie experimented with cold milk tea by adding syrup, fruit and tapioca balls. The second orgin story concerns Hanlin Teahouse in Tainan, Taiwan. The owner, Tu Tsong He Hanlin, made tea using traditional white fenyuan which have the appearance of pearls.

However it was invented, the drink took off in the 1980s, initially popular among Japanese businessmen. Eventually spreading throughout Southeast Asia, Bubble tea eventually emigrated to Canada and has now made it’s way down to the US.

So the next time you’re in Dumplings, be sure to try one of our many wonderful flavours of Bubble Tea (My favourite’s Coconut!)

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…………….

Not only did we make the front page of the Saturday Style section (see below), but the story brought us some big business over the weekend. People were literally lined up outside the door! (I’m not kidding!)

Our fine proprietors: Robert and Hong Yan Powell.

To be fair, the story was also about local businesses in the Ellerslie area in general. That’s right! It’s not all big box stores and franchises down here! There are plenty of locally run restaurants and shops to visit if you’re ever on this side of town.

Dumplings is proving that it’s a force to be reckoned with and we have no intention of slowing down! We’re planning to introduce a breakfast menu and even some karaoke in the near future! So come on down and check us out. You’ll be glad you did.

Here’s a link to the Edmonton Journal story: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Ellerslie+enticing+need/4309704/story.html

Ok, the first thing you should know is that the name is slightly misleading. We aren’t an actual construction company. All the name means is that we “construct ideas into new media.” Most of what we do involves putting together video, software, or websites for various clients; most of them, ironically, are from the construction industry. I myself was initially hired as an intern last April. Once my intern was up in August, the company decided to keep me on.

Now in case your wondering why somebody from a completely different company is writing on the Dumplings restaurant blog, its because both are owned by the same person: Robert Powell. As such we here at knowledge have ended up working n several projects for the restaurant since it opened last year. For example, the 2 commercials you see on the site were produced by us. In fact, the entire website is the work of Knowledge Construction’s staff!

Now one of the perks of working at Knowledge is that all the great food down in Dumplings is only a staircase away. So you may see us down in the restaurant from time to time (we’re the ones without jackets and with laptops!)

Until then

-Shaun Lang

Knowledge Construction

Dumpings Promo # 2 from Dumplings The Restaurant on Vimeo.