{"id":894,"date":"2013-06-15T03:16:11","date_gmt":"2013-06-15T03:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/?p=894"},"modified":"2017-04-25T19:42:45","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T19:42:45","slug":"exploring-culture-craft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/exploring-culture-craft\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring Culture & Craft: Day 2 of “Burma Telling Its Own Story”"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the second day of the “Burma Telling Its Own Story” Cultural Exchange and Reporting Fellowship<\/a> in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), the fellows had an opportunity to get out of the Savoy Hotel and visit one of Yangon’s most notable holy places–and\u00a0tourist attractions.<\/p>\n

\"DSC00107\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Shwedagon Pagoda, a glistening stupa made from four tons of gold, shines like a beacon in the center of what used to be Myanmar’s capital. On the very tip of its spire are \u00a0thousands of precious gems, such as diamonds and rubies, which are found naturally in Myanmar.<\/p>\n

The 20 reporting fellows set off just after sunrise to visit the pagoda on what was an auspiciously clear, sunny morning during the rainy season. They took photos and filmed video, and interviewed visitors at the famous locale.<\/p>\n

\"Neena<\/a>
Neena Pathak and Kyaw Myo Min strike a pose for the camera.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After some cultural exposure, it was back to the workshop space for a visit from one of the most highly regarded historians and scholars on Myanmar: Thant Myint-U, author of “The River of Lost Footsteps”.\u00a0Thant Myint-U is also a key actor in \u00a0the preservation of Yangon’s architecture as Chairman of the Yangon Heritage Trust. In addition, he is a special advisor to the Myanmar Peace Center. With a strong knowledge of the country’s history, development, economy, political and social issues, Thant Myint-U was able to provide the fellows with a sound grounding in the country’s most pressing issues of both past and present.<\/p>\n

\"DSC01311\"<\/p>\n

After an in-depth presentation and an interview with Thant Myint-U<\/a>, the instructors shared examples of their personal work, through audio clips, photo montages, and video clips. More importantly, they bestowed their experiences about what it has been like working as a foreigner in the country.<\/p>\n

Finally, the young reporters had a chance to start delving into how they would develop their technical skills in the next day’s assignment. Each fellow joined their respective leader in a personalized breakout session. For example, Marc Laban conferred with the videographers, pointing out various ways to create \u00a0compelling story lines and how to build a narrative through movement, sound, and imagery, while Philip Blenkinsop and Gary Knight discussed storytelling through visuals with the photographers.<\/p>\n

\"DSC01318\"<\/p>\n

In the end, it was a day full of discovery of both culture and craft. Stay tuned for more updates from Open Hands Initiative in Burma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the second day of the “Burma Telling Its Own Story” Cultural Exchange and Reporting Fellowship in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), the fellows had an opportunity to get out of the Savoy Hotel and visit one of Yangon’s most notable holy places–and\u00a0tourist attractions. Shwedagon Pagoda, a glistening stupa made from four tons of gold, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,44],"tags":[77,83],"class_list":["post-894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-myanmar","category-reporting-fellowship","tag-burma","tag-journalism-fellowship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1495,"href":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions\/1495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.openhandsinitiative.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}