Jessica Kneipp

Healthy Vibrations: Does Playing Music Make Plants Grow Better?

The positive effects of music on people are well-documented. Hearing classical, soothing melodies has been found to decrease stress levels and increase calmness in people. However, it seems to not only have an effect on human beings, but also on plants. Several studies in this area have found that plants exposed to classical music tend ...

Jessica Kneipp

Balsam flowers.

Predicting the Fate of a Person Through Musical Vibrations

We know that palm reading, fortune telling, divination using words or oracle bones, and so on can predict the fate of a person. However, it is rare to hear that the fate of a person can be predicted through the rhythm of their music. This story took place during Emperor Dezong’s time in the Tang ...

Jessica Kneipp

Chinese physics behind music.

Ai Weiwei’s Segment Cut From Movie Anthology to Appease Beijing

Chinese political dissident Ai Weiwei’s segment from the movie anthology Berlin, I Love You was cut from the film’s American release after producers were concerned about a backlash from Beijing. Producers were worried that including Weiwei’s segment would harm their prospects to secure funding for future movies. Censoring Ai Weiwei “The reason we were given ...

Jessica Kneipp

Ai Weiwei.

Song Dynasty Painting: Children at Play in Winter by Su Hanchen

In Chinese paintings, one important genre is figure painting. Nevertheless, images with children as the main subject are relatively rare. It was not until the time of the Six Dynasties (220-589) that children became the main focus in paintings, and scenes of children playing joyfully became popular during the Song Dynasty (960-1279) by such painters ...

Jessica Kneipp

Anthony Bourdain Posthumously Nominated for 2018 Emmy Awards

It’s been over a month since culinary TV show host Anthony Bourdain died, yet his CNN series Parts Unknown has just received six nominations for the 2018 Emmy awards. The Emmy nominations The show had received nominations in the following six categories: outstanding cinematography, outstanding informational series or special, outstanding picture editing, outstanding sound mixing, ...

Jessica Kneipp

The Oscars: Do They Really Matter?

On March 4, 2018, Americans, and folks all over the world were treated to the 90th annual Academy Awards, more popularly known as the Oscars. With 26.5 million viewers, the Oscars certainly dominated Sunday evening at most homes, however, they were also the least-watched Oscars to date. The viewership has dropped by 19 percent in ...

Jessica Kneipp

The Lyrical Video Art of Yang Fudong

Shanghai-based Yang Fudong is a moving image artist whose works have a poetic, dreamlike feel that focuses on China’s youth. His work is influenced by directors like Federico Fellini, Jim Jarmusch, Jean Luc Godard, and Jia Zhangke (a director from the Sixth Generation Movement in Chinese cinema.) Yang Fudong started his training by studying painting ...

Jessica Kneipp

Metal: The Purist Understanding of This Element in TCM

The ability to let go is related to the strength of the metal element in your body. The lungs and the large intestine are the organs that correspond with the metal element. These are the only two organs that open to the outside world, and allow for the release of waste from the body. Teaching ...

Jessica Kneipp

metal door - metal in traditional chinese medicine

Pumpkin Seeds Pack a Punch

Every year, come late November, cooks in small towns and big cities all over America scoop out precious pumpkin seeds and toss them away, with only the very committed cooks setting the seeds aside to serve later as snacks. This is because most Americans are unaware that pumpkin seeds, Cucurbitae moschatae semen, in Latin, or ...

Jessica Kneipp

pumpkin seeds

‘In This Country, We Can Only Hibernate’: The Story of Li Bifeng

Li Bifeng, Chinese author, poet, and activist, has been working toward democracy in China for decades, where free speech is not tolerated. He wrote a report in 1998 about a courageous sit-in of a group of textile workers on a Chinese highway. This report on the workers’ protest, along with his involvement in the Tiananmen ...

Jessica Kneipp

back of soldier walking in street in china with snow on pavement