Volume 137, Issue 8
BY KATHLEEN DONOVAN
Editor
 PHOTO BY DAN ELDRIDGE |
Rain could not drown out the excitement of firecrackers and dragons for the 250,000 people who celebrated Chinese New Year at the annual parade in crowded San Francisco streets.
Tourists and natives of all ages hushed their complaints about the weather once the dancers, kung-fu artists, bands and choruses welcoming in the Year of the Rooster came into view.
Awash in red and gold, the Feb. 19 parade began at Market and Second streets, wound through Union Square and ended on Kearney Street at the gates of Chinatown around eight o’clock.
The largest lunar New Year parade outside of Asia, the San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade (officially the Southwest Airlines Chinese New Year Parade) has been running since the gold rush era. When Brian Shapiro strips down to his underwear in front of a large group of strangers, he is exploring the very foundation of knowledge and understanding.
 PHOTO BY JONATHAN WHEELHOUSE |
The Chinese lunar calendar has a zodiac of 12 animals that rotate on a 12-year cycle. Each animal has traits that influence the year and those born in that year.
The rooster is this year’s animal but the Chinese calendar also has a name, Yiyou. Like the animal cycle, the name of the year is repeated. Unlike the animal cycle, the name of the year repeats on a 60-year cycle.
What does this mean for all you rats, dogs, pigs and dragons?
The rooster is a calmer animal than the monkey, last year’s animal, so the Year of the Rooster will be calmer. Be warned, however, that the Year of the Rooster is a bad year for marriage. The rooster is known for honesty, practicality and vanity, but each sign will interpret this according to their own traits.
Roosters
Birth year: 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005
They are deep thinkers, capable and talented. They like to keep busy and are highly devoted, often beyond their capabilities. They are deeply disappointed if they fail.
Monkeys
Birth year: 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004
They are the erratic geniuses of the cycle. Clever, skillful and flexible, they are remarkably inventive and can solve the most difficult problems with ease.
Rams
Birth year: 1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003
They are elegant and highly accomplished in the arts. They seem, at first glance, to be better off than those born in other years, but Rams are often shy, pessimistic and puzzled about life.
Horses
Birth year: 1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002
They are popular, cheerful, skillful with money and perceptive. They sometimes talk too much.
Snakes
Birth year: 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001
They are deep, say little, yet they possess great wisdom. They never have to worry about money.
Dragons
Birth year: 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000
They are healthy, energetic, excitable, short-tempered and stubborn. They are also honest, sensitive and brave. They inspire confidence and trust.
Rabbits
Birth year: 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999
They are articulate, talented, ambitious, virtuous, and reserved. They have excellent taste.
Tigers
Birth year: 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998
They are given to deep thinking and capable of great sympathy. They can be extremely short-tempered and sensitive.
Oxen
Birth year: 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997
They speak little and are patient. They inspire confidence in others. They do tend to be eccentric, bigoted and quick to anger.
Rats
Birth year: 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996
Noted for their charm and attraction to the opposite sex, rats work hard to achieve their goals and acquire possessions. They are likely to be perfectionists.
Pigs
Birth year: 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995
Whatever they do, they do with all their strength. For Pigs, there is no left or right and they never retreat. They are chivalrous and gallant.
Dogs
Birth year: 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994
They possess the best traits of human nature. They have a deep sense of loyalty. They are honest and inspire other people’s confidence because they can keep secrets.
Information provided courtesy of the Chinatown Community Center.
REVOLUTION IN IRAN: Monajami exposes students to the changing cinema of Iran
BY GABRIELA CAVALCANTI
Staff Writer
DAN ELDRIDGE / GUARDSMAN |
Sirous Monajami, a City College librarian inspired by the idea of exposing students to other cultures, has put together a series of Iranian films that shows the nuances of daily life in Iran.
“The mission of the college is to promote diversity and as a librarian, I feel that this is my mission,” said Monajami, who has spent most of his life studying movies.
Before the series started, teachers from different areas were sending students to see the Iranian films that can be found in the media center. “Teachers from interdisciplinary studies, Islamic studies, and so on send their students to see these movies because it’s an approach to the diversity that is known to exist on the City College campus,” Monajami said.
Monajami studied at the University of Paul Valery in Montpellier, France where he received a master’s degree in Iranian movies and a doctorate in film. “I know cinema, I grew up with the cinema and now the cinema in Iran is changing,” he said.
During the ‘60s and ‘70s, Iran was a dictatorship ruled by the Shah. Iranians were deeply discontented with his rule. They demanded more reforms, human rights and freedom. In 1977, the Shah of Iran relaxed the censorship laws and a new generation of filmmakers was born.
“Before the revolution the cinema had more censorship,” Monajami said. “It was a cinema that explored much more superficial themes and there’s no censorship for stupidity.”
Even though there is a lot of censorship in Iran, Monajami said the new Iranian filmmakers work around it to get their messages out. Sometimes those messages go against the current regime. “They’re peaceful messages, humanistic messages,” he said.
The difference in Iranian cinema, also known as pure cinema, and American filmmaking is stark. “In most of the Iranian movies you don’t find violence; there’s no car chasing. They tell the audience about the daily life of people, their suffering, their struggle,” he said. “This is what makes the Iranian cinema so unique.”
“I can’t compare them to other filmmakers because the cinema in Iran are just spreading out questions that are not really of major importance in other countries,” he said. “It’s a new approach to life, which is kind of [like] living peacefully together and you can see it in the movies.”
These new filmmakers sometimes have trouble getting their message out due to the influence of the fundamentalist government. According to Monajami, most intellectuals in Iran are not religious.
Because of the poor relations between the United States and Iranian government, people may not hear much about the Iranian cinema here. The films are better known in Europe. Iranian films have been shown in universities across the United States, but this is the first time an Iranian film festival has been held at City College.
e-mail: gcavalcanti@theguardsman.com
URBAN FICTION'S GEM: Pamela Johnson
BY ELIZABETH PFEFFER
Staff Writer
LACEY CARROLL / GUARDSMAN |
San Francisco author Pamela Johnson has gained fame as a self-described “unflinching, no holds barred” urban novelist on the front line of hip-hop literature’s transition into mainstream publishing.
Just two years ago Johnson rediscovered her passion for writing and penned her first novel, “From a Hard Rock to a Gem: A Memoir of a Lost Soul.”
“It was inspired by W.E.B. Dubois’ essay, ‘The Souls of Black Folks,’ that discusses the world inside and outside the veil. Inside being the inner city and outside being work and school,” Johnson said. “People of color, in order to be effective in society, must have a dualistic nature.”
Johnson’s novel was written in urban dialect, a type of literature the mainstream has had trouble digesting. “For a long time it was an art form the major publishing houses like Simon & Schuster and Random House shunned,” said Johnson.
When she visited City College campuses during February as part of the Black History Month series, the impact of Johnson’s breakthrough into urban fiction resounded in the voices of her audience.
“Students who have not been accustomed to reading have read her two books and asked when the next one comes out,” said Veronica Hunnicutt, dean of the Southeast campus.
“Some people need temptation to open a book; this is a tempting book right here,” said Marcus Garrett, a student.
Johnson published with her own company Macavelli Press and sold 1, 200 copies of “From a Hard Rock to a Gem” out of the trunk of her car before a major publishing house took notice. “After the novel did well, they began to recruit hip-hop authors like myself,” Johnson said.
She credits her graduate thesis, in which she wrote about the poetry of rapper Tupac Shakur, for focusing her on writing. “A friend of mine read it and said, ‘your money’s in your writing, Pamela.’ ”
Marion “Suge” Knight, the founder of Death Row Records, shared this sentiment after he read her thesis in prison.
“Suge called me and said, ‘Your teacher gave you an A+, but I give you an A++. How do you know how black men feel?’ I said I’m a woman and I listen,” Johnson said.
Johnson is working on a spin off of “From a Hard Rock to a Gem” that deals with HIV. “It’s important to address issues that affect your audience,” she said.
Although it will not be written in urban slang, as long as people will listen Johnson plans to continue creating raw stories about urban life.
e-mail: epfeffer@theguardsman.com