Author Archives: Baobao Zhang

Like it or not, Mark Zuckerberg has become Mr. Harvard these days — thanks to Facebook and now to the film “The Social Network.” He has become the Bill Gates of our generation. And as we all know, Gates also attended Harvard as an undergraduate, only to drop out. While “The Social Network” paints a »

The East Village is alive with the sound of rock. The Yale Dramat’s mainstage production of “Rent” rattles you like a stadium rock concert. The lights, the spectacle, the electrifying music culminates in a theatrical production. But the performance lacks a certain human touch, making it feel too much like art and not enough like »

Journalist and Yale trustee Fareed Zakaria ’86 defies convention. An intended science major, he became president of the Yale Political Union and quadrupled its membership. He entered the world of journalism and, at 28, became the managing editor of Foreign Affairs Magazine. During his career, Zakaria crossed and recrossed the lines between print, magazine and »

Katy Perry’s single “California Gurls” was supposed to be the high-fructose answer to J-Zay’s “Empire State of Mind,” the tabloids declared in May. I just laughed back then. After watching the music video, in which Perry shoots whipped cream from her bra, I laughed some more. But I stopped laughing when one evening this summer, »

The filming of Kurt Schneider’s ’10 “College Musical the Movie” this summer at Yale finished on time, but the project had its share of hiccups. Flat tires, equipment breakdowns and New Haven thunderstorms were just the beginning. As assistant producer and marketing head T.J. Smith ’10 tells it, Schneider, who gained fame as a YouTube »

During my childhood, I hated England. It’s a post-colonial thing. The Opium War left a bitter aftertaste in my cultural memory. If you grew up in America reading about the exploits of Paul Revere, you thought of the British as the redcoats. But since I grew up in China, I thought of them as top »

“I’m not gonna be in no damn convent with these people. These people don’t even have sex! ” — as Deloris Van Cartier/Sister Mary Clarence in “Sister Act” “I’m poor, black, I might even be ugly, but dear God, I’m here. I’m here.” — as Celie Harris Johnson in “The Color Purple” Q. Which is »

My dad, who speaks German, Russian, French and English, in addition to his native Chinese, once told me that English is the ugliest language. By that he means English sounds bad when it is sung. When I heard this, I immediately jumped to English’s defense. What about Thomas Tallis or John Dowland? I argued. What »

I have an odd fascination with geography — particularly weird geography. One of my favorite things to do is look at satellite maps of where humans drastically change the landscape. Sure, you can see the impacts on the ground, but it’s more shocking when you look at a Google map picture. The Aral Sea, in »

Before the Brooklyn Rider gave chamber music a globalized hipster cool and before the Australian Chamber Orchestra dabbled with the Egyptian lute, the Kronos Quartet had already set out on a quest. Their mission: to play the most avant-grade chamber music by incorporating influences from all over the world. Mexican folk, Inuit throat singing, Thomas »

So, after your amazing (or not-so-amazing) haircut, you want to keep it nice and pristine. The shampoos, conditioners and magical gels/sprays/mousses at the salon may seem nice. Then again, of course, you could save some money by visiting your local drugstore. Don’t dis RiteAid here; they sell great hair products, if you know where to »

Let scene tell you, most Yalies prefer to get their hair cut from the same person at HOME who’s been doing it forever, that magic man or woman who knows exactly how to work your layers or how to not make your ears stick out. But sometimes you need a cut FORTHWITH. Maybe you’re ready »