The Ketchup Song (Hey Hah!)

Chinese music actually exposes its audience to many beats from around the world. I’ll give you one example.

“Aserejé” became a phenomenon in Europe and Latin America in summer of 2002. The all-girl group Las Ketchup from Spain became overnight superstars, and the song became popularly known as “The Ketchup Song“. The song was re-made in Chinese by an all-boy group Comic Boyz [可米小子], who also became overnight idols in the Chinese music scene after releasing the song as their debut song. This version was released not more than four months after the Spanish song.

This is the original song by Las Ketchup.

This is the Chinese version, “Hey Hah!”, by the boy band Comic Boyz.

Indonesia’s New Hope

Since Susi Susanti won the gold medal in the Olympics at Barcelona when badminton first appeared as an official event, not many Indonesian women have done well in the women’s singles event.

This year, it appears that someone finally has the chance to bring back Indonesia’s pride in women’s badminton.

Maria Kristin Yulianti is the only player not from China in the semifinals of the women’s singles event, soon to face Athens gold medalist Zhang Ning. Despite being a relative newcomer to the badminton scene, she has defeated Tine Rasmussen of Denmark, one of the world’s best players. Maria Kristin carries the hopes of Indonesia for her to become the next Susi Susanti. Since Susi’s retirement in 1997, only Mia Audina has made a strong appearance for Indonesia in the event before she moved to the Netherlands.

From watching her matches, she has a playstyle like nothing I’ve seen before. Her shots are well-placed though laidback. Said one newsmagazine of her match against Rasmussen: “Her nonchalant game was surely the most appropriate way to control Tine’s attacking play.” She manages to set the pace of the game despite her opponents’ attempts to speed it up. She also takes her own mistakes lightly without getting frustrated. After losing the first game of the quarterfinals to Indian opponent Saina Nehwal, Maria Kristin took control of the match and won two straight games to seal her position in the semifinals.

She will face Zhang Ning, Chinese gold medalist at Athens, on Friday at noon Beijing local time. Indonesia and her fans are counting on Maria Kristin’s slow pace of the game to frustrate Zhang and defeat her once again as she did at the Indonesia Open earlier this year.

Song Of Hope

Coverage of the Passion World Tour stop in Jakarta is starting to flood the Internet. Photos and videos are being uploaded. It’s really amazing to see them all. 7000 students gathering at an indoor stadium. They had apparently oversold tickets and had to schedule a new location for the event.

More videos inside the cut.

A Generation Shifts

I am ethnically Chinese. I am Christian. But most of all, I am Indonesian.

The Cathedral (left) and Istiqlal Mosque (right) decorate the skyline of central Jakarta, down the road from each other.

For years, I’ve struggled in finding a way to reconcile these three parts of my identity. I grew up in a Catholic family and went to a private Catholic elementary school, just like many other Chinese families who wanted their children to have a better education than the one provided by the government. Christianity provided the freedom that was stripped away from the Chinese due to legislation. For the younger generation, any sense of identity of being Chinese is faint if non-existent.

To someone outside Indonesia, it may seem inconceivable that a country with more practicing Muslims than any other nation in the Middle East or other countries in the world would have such a passionate group of people devoted to God. But in truth, Indonesia is proud of its tradition of religious freedom, something that is held sacred here. The fact that religion remained unregulated drew more and more Chinese to identify themselves with this group.

“Of the estimated five million ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, well over 70 percent are now Christian. The ebullient and staggeringly rich charismatic churches are thriving by spreading a message of personal confidence and material success that seems to hold special appeal for young Chinese.”
—International Herald Tribune, April 27, 2006

Jakarta’s Passion

How I wish I could be back at home right now.  This is why.

The Passion World Tour is making a stop in Jakarta on August 5. They’ve already visited Manila and Kuala Lumpur, and Jakarta will cap its Southeast Asia tour. They have even gone to the extent of making a version of the event information page in Indonesian.