Profile: The 4one1
Welcome to my 100th post on Beijing Baby! One of the rare occasions I get to write in 3rd person.
:: Doesn't drink alcohol.
:: Took over an hour to make the Death Note inspired banner on the picture above.
The Basics
Name: Melanie
Nickname: Mel
Birthday: 3 July 1987
Zodiac: Cancer/Rabbit
Blood Type: O
Email: beijingbaby11@gmail.com
Height: 173cm/5'8
Weight: 50kg after she loses 384329843kg
Nationality: Australian
Ethnicity: Chinese
Languages: English, Chinese and just enough Japanese to understand Manga.
Studying at: The University of Sydney
High School: Sydney Girls High School (Class of 2005)
Favorite Films: Kill Bill 1&2, Battle Royale (Japanese), Saving Private Ryan, My Wife is a Gangster (Korean), The Butterfly Effect, Together (Chinese), She's All That & Cheaper by the Dozen.
Favorite TV shows: The Amazing Race, 24, Desperate Housewives and Sex & the City
Favorite Books: Harry Potter and The Life of Pi
Favorite Sports: Basketball and Volleyball
Loves: Blogging, eating, basketball, films, watching TV, eating, dinosaurs, anime/manga, fashion, singing, shopping, eating, dressing up, photography, Gothic Lolita and magazines.
Personality: Family orientated, congenial, competitive, extroverted, optimistic, loquacious, clumsy, open-minded and fastidious.
The Beginning
Melanie was born on a hot summers day on the 3rd of July 1987 in the city of Beijing (and thus the name of her blog).
Melanie was brought up by her loving grandparents during her first few years in Beijing as her father worked in Melbourne, Australia and her mother was constantly jetting off as a Flight Attendant. At the tender age of 3 years old Melanie and her mother moved to Melbourne as well, where Melanie learnt how to speak English in kindergarten and proceeded to integrate with Australian society. After kindergarten Melanie attended Chatham Primary School for one and half years.
Not long after Melanie's 6th birthday her family moved to Sydney. She attended North Sydney Demonstration School from 1st grade to 4th grade, then changed schools when she moved house. Melanie finished her primary school education at Marist Sacred Heart, Mosman. In the summer of 1997 her little sister, Claudia was born. The two sisters are extremely close despite the different personalities and 10 year age gap. In the year 2000 Mel learnt to travel an hour everyday to get to school at Sydney Girls High School.
During Year 12 (senior) Melanie had to cope with something called the HSC. If she could find a way to time travel, she would go back to the time when the Board of Education were discussing how to torture high school students and she would kill Mr HSC. Melanie would also like to kill Mr Mathematics for forcing her to learn useless information on how to prove that the rate of decay of some random mass is proportional to the mass present at any random time t. During her last year of high school she studied 2u Advanced Mathematics (which she hated), 4u English (in which she spent many coffee fuelled nights finishing off her major work), 3u Chinese (which 她很喜欢) and Ancient History (which she loved learning about, but hated regurgitating for the 3 hour written exams. It made her arm hurt). Apart from being an active student Melanie was also a very enthusiastic basketball player. She played Forward for 6 years on her school team, the Raptors, which she "creatively" thought up back in 8th Grade. Basketball still remains one of her favorite sports.
After Melanie graduated from SGHS in 2005, she decided to defer a year of University to become a school girl once again, only this time in Japan. On the 29th of March 2006 Melanie left her family, friends and Sydney to experience a life completely different from her own on student exchange in Numazu, Japan.
Melanie became a 2nd year (11th grade/junior) student in Numazu Nishi High School. She joined the School Basketball Club for a few months but then decided to change clubs when the coach told her she wasn't allowed to play in the Inter High School Competition (yeah, Slam Dunk style) because she couldn't register as she was an exchange student. Melanie then joined the extremely dynamic English Club in which she sat on her ass and chatted to the Assistant Language Teacher in English during most of the weekly meetings.
Melanie is lived with a rather large host family consisting of a mother, father, 13 year old host sister, 10 year old host brother and 4 year old host sister and a newly bought puppy called Ran-chan. Her host parents were also very strict so Melanie did not have a social life for the 10 months she stayed in Japan. However, that all changed when she was once again able to fraternize with society when she returned to Australia in January 2007.
To read more about her life in Japan please view the label Japan Exchange.
The Fashion
Beijing Baby! is a part fashion blog because fashion is considered one of the most important aspects in Melanie's life. She believes that through fashion, people can learn about a variety of cultures and lifestyles, and she hopes that one day it can break down the racial barriers which stand between different countries. In the words of John Galliano, "Dior Not War". But of course that is all just an excuse she uses to justify her love for such materialistic desires.
Melanie enjoys learning about history, so she combined two things that she loves and developed an ultimate passion for costume history, especially that from the Elizabethan, Rococo and Victorian era, the Tang Dynasty and 1920's Shanghai in China, and the Heian and Edo periods in Japan. Her favorite designers and labels include Blumarine, Dsquared, Versace, Badgley Mischka, Diane von Furstenburg, Michael Kors, Zac Posen, Chanel, Elie Saab, Christian Dior, Viktor & Rolf, Hermès and Vivienne Westwood. Melanie also likes the Australian labels Willow, camilla and marc, Charlie Brown and Alex Perry. Her favorite models are Ai Tominaga, Julia Stegner and most recently Du Juan.
If Melanie had amazing writing and leadership skills she would want to become the Editor-in-Chief of Vogue and put models back onto the cover. If she had charisma she would want to host a fashion, entertainment or talk show on TV. If she had 1 metre long legs and a BMI of 14, she would want to model for Dolce & Gabbana. If she had kick ass Nin Jutsu's she would want to join the Anbu (or Akatsuki). If she had magical powers she would want to become an Auror... her list goes on.
To read more about her Fashion posts, please go to this label.
The Melody
Melanie also enjoys singing very much, she likes attention grabbing antics such as impersonating Shakira during karaoke. It has been a dream of hers ever since she was an embryo to become a famous singer, but Melanie also knows the possibility for that to happen is close to nil so in the meantime she is constantly working hard to improve (especially her ghastly transition-into-falsetto note) and is just enjoying singing as a pastime.
Melanie can't rap or sing rock. But because of her recent fascination with rock music (influenced by NANA of course) she is training her vocal chords to be able to scream on pitch, so one day she hopes she can do the vocals for a band. Melanie enjoys listening to JPOP - Lead, Amuro Namie, Ito Yuna, Angela Aki and Nakashima Mika, CPOP - Jay Chou, Elva Hsiao, F.I.R., Machi Didi and Jasmine Leong, Pop & Hip Hop - Eminem, Missy Elliott, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson and Gwen Stefani as well as tearful heart wrenching ballads.
To listen to Melanie sing, please go to her SoundClick.
The Anime Geek
Anime and Manga has played a crucial role in Melanie's teenage life, especially in 8th Grade when she had no life. She loves to escape into the Manga world from time to time, even if it's war-ridden with the giant robots blowing up colonies with their twin buster rifles while the pilot sits inside the cockpit laughing maniacally. Just as long as there are bishounen to keep her company, everything is grand.
Here she lists her favorite Animes, Mangas and characters:
Manga
Death Note - Yagami Raito
Slam Dunk - Rukawa Kaede & Sendoh Akira
NANA - Nana, Hachi, Shoji & Shin
Naruto - Itachi & Saskue
Lovely Complex - All
Anime
Escaflowne - Dilandau
Gravitation - Yuki Eiri
Full Metal Panic! - Kaname & Sousuke
Evaneglion - Ayanami Rei
To read more about her Anime/Manga posts please go to this label.
Labels: Anime/Manga, Fashion, Flashback, Japan Exchange, Mel, Music
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