ASIASWEEP 2014

Set by Dibyendu Das & Arul Mani

ASIASWEEP 2014

Rules Three sections Section I: 10 questions Section II: 25 questions Section III: 25 two-pointers 85 points, not counting bonuses

ASIASWEEP 2014 SECTION I 10 questions based on Google Doodles 1 point each Bonus of 2 points if you crack more than 4 Bonus of 3 if you crack more than 7

ASIASWEEP Identify the director to whom this Doodle pays tribute

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Yasujiro Ozu 1

ASIASWEEP This is a tribute to the Duanwu observance, commonly called the ______ ______ festival. Fill blanks.

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Dragon Boat Festival 2.

ASIASWEEP The origins of the name of this festival are traced back to India. The doodles shown refer to two observances—water, symbolising the new, and the freeing of animals, to acquire merit. Either name the festival, or identify the Sanskrit word from which it is derived.

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Songkran Or Sankranti 3.

ASIASWEEP This Doodle pays tribute to a real-life story of fidelity and dedication that inspired mass adulation in a certain Asian country, and a Richard Gere film in A 7-letter name will do.

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Hachiko 4.

ASIASWEEP This Independence Day tribute appeared on 22 November, and contains a representation of the Pigeon Rocks, a natural formation in the Mediterranean Sea, outside the capital. Which city?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Beirut 5

ASIASWEEP This doodle pays tribute to a certain country’s first that did not run to a fairy-tale ending. Who?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Ilan Ramon Israel’s first astronaut, who died in the Columbia crash in

ASIASWEEP The subject of the tribute is Honinbo Shusaku, immortal among followers of a certain pursuit. What pursuit?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 The game Go 7

ASIASWEEP This 2 nd October observance is held to mark UNESCO giving intangible heritage status to a certain tradition. Name either the tradition or the country.

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Batik or Indonesia 8.

ASIASWEEP This Doodle appeared on 9 th October, the date on which a 15 th century monarch announced a script for the language. By what name is this day known?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Haengul Day Hangul Proclamation Day Korean Alphabet Day 9.

ASIASWEEP The subject of this Doodle wrote a book on optics in His work will receive worldwide attention as part of the International Year of Light in Who?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Alhazen aka Ib’n Al-Haytham 10.

ASIASWEEP 2014 SECTION II 25 questions 1 point each

ASIASWEEP Ukichiro Nakaya was a physicist who devoted his career to a fascination with objects that he described as ‘letters sent from heaven’. The museum dedicated to his memory in Kaga, Japan was built so as to pay tribute to this fascination. What did Nakaya study?

ASIASWEEP 2014

ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Snow Crystals/Accept Snow Flakes 1.

ASIASWEEP Abu’l Hasan Ahmad ib’n Ibrahim Al-Uqlidisi wrote a work on the use of decimal fractions in 952 AD. The title of this work is often translated as Chapters in Indian Mathematics. He took (or was given) his name in tribute to whom?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Euclid 2.

ASIASWEEP This building on Zi Wa Ka Street attracts devout local Muslims who believe that the man who died here in 1862 had special powers. The numbers grew after the actual grave was discovered in Either name this person OR the city where the building is located?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Bahadur Shah Zafar/Bahadur Shah II Or Yangon/Rangoon 3.

ASIASWEEP From this visual, you can see that some effort has gone into preserving a particular feature of Sir Charles Pawsey’s residence from the 1940s. Why OR what are we talking about?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Site of the Battle of the Tennis Court, Kohima, between British and Japanese forces during World War II. 4.

ASIASWEEP Ken Jennings, in his book Maphead, refers to an anomaly caused by socioeconomic factors. A certain country, viewed from a spaceship, can seem like an island by night while visibly being part of a peninsula by day. Which country are we talking about? Visuals follow.

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ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 South Korea North Korea, apparently, just disappears at night due to low electrification 5.

ASIASWEEP Andy Kirkpatrick’s book PsychoVertical, Robert McFarlane’s The Wild Places and Audrey Salkeld’s biography of Leni Riefenstahl have all been awarded the Boardman Tasker Prize in the recent past. This prize for a specific book category was set up in memory of Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker who passed away in 1982 while pursuing this interest. For what is the prize awarded?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Mountain Literature/Mountain Writing Boardman and Tasker perished in 1982 while climbing Everest 6.

ASIASWEEP If you look at the areas marked in stand-out colours, these two maps present slightly different accounts of what phenomenon?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Area controlled by ISIS/Accept ISIL/IS 7.

ASIASWEEP These are two similar monuments, located in Baojia Caozi village of Ürümqi city, Xinjiang province, China and Kyzyl, capital of Tuva. What middling distinction are these places battling for? Visuals follow

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Both claim to be at the geographical Centre of Asia and have put up monuments to bolster their claim 8.

ASIASWEEP The Greek word for work is a forgotten unit now, but its Arabic homophone still finds use as the preferred term for areas of mobile sand that stretch beyond 125 square kilometres. What word?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Erg 9.

ASIASWEEP The simple explanation is that the locals figured out a way of using the hollowed out trunks of the betel-nut species to guide Ficus elastica’s propensity to traverse small distances rather elaborately. Each transit may have taken about ten years, and the entire system is thought to be five hundred years old or more. What are we talking about?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 The Umsiang Living Bridges or Cherrapunji Root Bridges 10.

ASIASWEEP The Dalang must sit behind a screen (kelir) made of white cotton stretched on a wooden frame. He sits cross-legged for nine successive hours and cannot get up from his seat until six o'clock the next morning. He must strike a rattle with his right foot almost incessantly. Both his hands are constantly busy; he must speak in different voices, tell jokes, and even sing every now and then. What does the Dalang practise thus, nearly all by himself?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 He runs the puppets in Wayang Kulit, the Indonesian folk theatre form 11.

ASIASWEEP The subject of this painting by Velázquez is an Austrian princess who was married off to her own uncle, Philip IV of Spain. This marriage was definitely responsible for her one deep claim to fame. Just name her.

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Mariana of Austria After whom the Mariana Islands, and by extension, the Mariana Trench are named 12.

ASIASWEEP This company wears its heart not so much on its sleeve as on its tail—the last letter of their logotype is a scrawled heart. Their best-known brand first appeared on a vinyl coin purse, and usually has its height and weight described in a certain number of apples. Name the company or the brand.

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Sanrio OR Hello Kitty 13.

ASIASWEEP For British historian Neil MacGregor, the precariously poised boats symbolise the anxieties of a nation under pressure from foreign gunboats. For local critics, the three boats symbolise serenity under pressure. What are they disagreeing about?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Hokusai’s Wave Alt. The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai 14.

ASIASWEEP When Hu Jintao met George W. Bush in 2006, many believed that his choice of gift was a delicately poised barb aimed at a helplessly over- committed man. The gift was several copies of a 6000-word booklet in expensive Zheijiang silk. This choice drew much comment and analysis. What did Hu give Dubya?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 The Art of War by Sun Tzu 15.

ASIASWEEP Micheline Aharonian Marcom’s book Three Apples Fell from Heaven, set in the years period, is an account of a massacre Raphael Lemkin, a Polish lawyer, was explicitly moved by this annihilation to coin the word genocide. Which massacre is the subject of Marcom’s book?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Armenian Genocide 16.

ASIASWEEP This iconic hotel, believed to be the oldest hotel east of Suez, is named after a five-hectare stretch of ocean-side urban park along the coast of the Indian Ocean. The hotel is in news for the death of its 94-year old popular doorman, Kottarappu Chattu Kuttan, who has graced the cover of numerous travel magazines and has personally ushered famous dignitaries. Name the hotel. Visuals follow

ASIASWEEP 2014

ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Galle Face Hotel 17.

ASIASWEEP His first name means ‘peaceful flight’. Dubbed the Superman, after winning gold at the London Olympics he has earned the reputation as one of the greatest male gymnasts of all time; many even rate him as the greatest. Identify him.

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP Kohei Uchimura

ASIASWEEP This 2013 biopic, directed by Halil Erfat, titled Album 61, is named after the 61 photo albums his father meticulously maintained till the championship match that he lost. Name this person who popularized the sport to a large extent in his adopted country.

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Boris Gelfand Popularised chess in Israel 19.

ASIASWEEP The name of this place literally translates to ‘Father of the Deer’ though some of the Bedouins also referred to it with a name that means ‘Mother of the Deer’. A branch of Beni Yas Bedouins now rules over this place. Name it.

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Abu Dhabi 20.

ASIASWEEP These visuals are projections for the Doha World Cup 2022 and the Baku Olympics 2016 stadiums. Which architect firm, run by the grandson of the chief architect of the Third Reich, has done the designs ? (Visuals follow)

ASIASWEEP 2014

ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Albert Speer & Partners. 21.

ASIASWEEP Considered one of the most dangerous according to a program titled ‘Most Extreme Airports’ (by History Channel), the Lukla airport in Khumbu, eastern Nepal is used primarily by enthusiasts engaged in a particular activity. The airport was renamed in 2008 to honour whom ?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay No halves 22.

ASIASWEEP This chess-set is part of whose first homeware collection, launched at Harrods in 2014, with the chess pieces representing city skylines ?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Zaha Hadid 23

ASIASWEEP The Epic of ___’ is regarded as the most treasured expression of the national heritage of the Kyrgz people. It is considered to be a great example of epic poetry, that is composed and sung entirely in oral form by various singers throughout the centuries. The epic is a biographical cycle of three generations of heroes, ____, his son Semetei and grandson Seitek. Identify this great warrior who united 40 clans of nomads against the Uyghurs. (Pic on next slide).

ASIASWEEP 2014

ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Manas 24.

ASIASWEEP Milky Way-2 (English name) of China leads the latest list published in November, a list that is published in June and November every year. Others in the current Top-10 include Titan, Sequoia and Mira from US, K from Japan, Piz Daint from Switzerland and JUQUEEN from Germany. What is this list about ?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Top 500 Supercomputers of the world. China’s Tianhe- 2/Milkyway-2 tops the list compiled by Jack Dongarra. (Accept most powerful supercomputers, top supercomputers etc.), 25

ASIASWEEP 2014 SECTION III 25 questions 2 points each

ASIASWEEP “ _______ dragged us for 40 years through the desert to bring us to the one place in the Middle East where there was no ______.” This is an iconic former Prime Minister talking about a culture-hero. Who is she talking about? Fill the other blank as well.

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 A: Moses B: Oil/accept close enough variants— petroleum etc 1

ASIASWEEP In 1974, he was arrested and sentenced to five years in a hard-labour camp for ‘homosexual behaviour and trafficking art objects’ and other trumped-up charges. This resulted in a decade-long hiatus from film-making. He busied himself with collages and other artistic experiments before making The Legend of Suram Fortress in Most notable among his artistic experiments is a series titled Episodes in the Life of ____ _____, shown in the next slide. Name the director. Also fill the blanks.

ASIASWEEP 2014

ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 A: Sergei Paradjanov B: Mona Lisa 2

ASIASWEEP His office has released released several pictures in the recent past showing him hard at work, possibly in response to trending images such as this one. Who? What is the trend called?

ASIASWEEP 2014

ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 A: President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III B: Noynoying, a term for protesting while doing nothing 3.

ASIASWEEP This group of 230-odd structures was declared a World Heritage site along with a more well-known location in the Song mountains. What is the common name for this location? What is the more well-known location?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 A: Pagoda Forest B: Shaolin Temple 4.

ASIASWEEP There are at least a hundred different species of this plant genus listed on Wikipedia. It derives its English and Latin names from a Persian word. Botanists/gardening enthusiasts in China found it unusually difficult to access information about the genus for some time after January Which species? Why?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 A: Jasmine B: The Chinese authorities prevented searches using ‘jasmine’ as keyword after the Arab Spring/Jasmine revolution 5.

ASIASWEEP He moved to New York and in 1980 became a photographer for The Times, where he was noted for his imaginative pictures of city scenes and news events. He coined a metaphor to describe events in the country he left behind that has achieved a kind of immortality. When he returned, he found that “the trees had grown taller, and greener”. Who? What phrase? Visual follows

ASIASWEEP 2014

ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 A: Dith Pran B: The Killing Fields 6.

ASIASWEEP There are approximately 1.33 million X in Burma’s Rakhine province, but the country's 1982 Citizenship Law denies them citizenship in spite of the fact that they have lived in Burma for generations. The government calls them “Y" instead-- a way of implying that they are illegal immigrants. Identify the ethnicity X. What term Y does the government prefer?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 A: Rohingya, B: Bengali, suggesting that they are immigrants from Bangladesh 7.

ASIASWEEP The water shortages in this sporadically monsoon- fed country are exacerbated by the fact that 40% of the available water supply is diverted to the cultivation of the species Catha edulis. Which country? How is the species better known?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 A: Yemen, B: Qat 8.

ASIASWEEP This is one of the symbols associated with a sect of Christianity. It symbolises the Trinity, but some people also choose to see it as a representation of the species Cedrus libani, a national/cultural symbol. Which sect? Identify the species. Visual follows

ASIASWEEP 2014

ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 A: Maronite Christians, B: Lebanese Cedar 9.

ASIASWEEP This port city’s name appears at least twice in Shakespeare’s plays—probably because it was on the Silk Route. Read this excerpt and identify the play it is taken from. Also name the port. “Set you down this; And say besides, that in _ _ _ _ _ _once, Where a malignant and a turban’d Turk Beat a Venetian and traduced the state, I took by the throat the circumcised dog, And smote him, thus.”

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 A; Othello, B: Aleppo 10.

ASIASWEEP This 2-hour long documentary takes its title from the Nepal temple which is supposed to grant your heart’s desire. It is split up into eleven 10-minute segments because that's how long each trip on the only mode of transport available takes. It's also the exact amount of time the directors could film their subjects with 16mm film. Name the film/temple. Also name the mode of transport. Visual follows.

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ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 A: Manakamna, B: Cable Car 11.

ASIASWEEP What’s missing? Also explain the left-right connections. ?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 A: Confucius B: China has named their culture/language institutes in other countries after Confucius, just as Germany runs Goethe Instituts 12.

ASIASWEEP According to The Economist, there are probably more people of this ethnicity within one of China’s provinces than in the country that takes its name from people of that ethnic grouping. Name the province and the country.

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 A: Inner Mongolia, B: Mongolia 13.

ASIASWEEP Bloggers in Japan made wry remarks about having to rename a particular group of people flyjin on account of their responses to the events of March Which group of people? Why was this name proposed?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 A; Foreigners/Gaijin/Foreign workers in Japan B: On account of their tendency to flee Japan after the tsunami/Fukushima disaster 14.

ASIASWEEP Who ? Depicted as part of which group ?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Bruce Lee as part of the Umbrella Revolution/Movement in Hong Kong 15.

ASIASWEEP Christopher Doyle is a cinematographer born in Australia, but has spent most of his adult life in Asia. Going by the Chinese name Du Kefeng, he has collaborated with many top-notch Asian directors. But he has worked fully or partially on most of this particular director’s movies. Who ? He was also responsible for the cinematography of the music video titled ‘Dumbass’. Who is featured in the video ? (Stills from the video on next slide

ASIASWEEP 2014

ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Christopher Doyle has worked with Wong Kar Wai extensively. The video features Ai Weiwei 16.

ASIASWEEP These two legendary players shared a famous rivalry from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. Identify both.

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 The squash players Jansher and Jahangir Khan 17

ASIASWEEP The English name of the book may appear like that of a Clint Eastwood-directed, Angelina Jolie starrer. The plot-line deals with the relationship of an author (who has a disabled child) with his brother-in-law, a well-known film director, who allegedly committed suicide, though several sources claim that it was staged by a faction of Yakuza. Actually, the story is a fictionalized account of Kenzaburo Oe’s relationship with his brother-in-law. Name the a) the book and b) the famous director, well- known for films like Tampopo.

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 A: The Changeling, B: Juzo Itami 18.

ASIASWEEP On a trip to Japan in the early 1980s, (a)____ asked Sony's chairman Akio Morita why everyone in the company's factories wore uniforms. After the war, no one had any clothes, and companies like Sony had to give their workers something to wear each day. Sony had gotten the famous designer Issey Miyake to create its uniform. So (a)____ called Issey Miyake and asked him to design a vest for him, "I came back with some samples and told everyone it would great if we would all wear these vests. Oh man, did I get booed off the stage.“ In the process, however, he became friends with Miyake and "So I asked Issey to make me some of his (b) ___ ____that I liked, and he made me like a hundred of them.“ Who and what did Miyake design for him ?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 a)Steve Jobs about his b) ‘black turtlenecks’ 19.

ASIASWEEP a) Who is featured in the ad ? b) Ad for which company ?

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP a) Tony Fernandes of AirAsia b) Credit Suisse

ASIASWEEP Located in the Andaman Sea, this island comprises of a dormant volcano. Some say that its name is derived from the Sanskrit term for ‘pit of hell’. The bird shown in the picture is endemic to this island and is endangered. Name the island and the bird.

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Narcondam (from Naraka+Kunda) and Narcondam Hornbill 21

ASIASWEEP "Pinoy-grams?“ "Here’s how it works. You are an Overseas Contract Worker. Before you leave home for Saudi or Singapore, you buy or rent a little gizmo from us. It’s about the size of a paperback book and encases a video camera, a tiny screen, and a lot of memory. The components come from all over the place—they are shipped to the free port at Subic and assembled in a Nipponese plant there. Whenever you feel like communicating with home, you turn it on, aim the camera at yourself and record a little video greeting card. Then you plug the gizmo into a phone line and let it work its magic. … The difference here is our software. We don’t try to send the video in real time—that’s too expensive. We store the data at central servers, then take advantage of lulls, when traffic is low." Two parts: a) Pinoy is a term for the people of which country ? b) Identify the 1999 techno-thriller by Neal Stephenson.

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 a) Philippines b) Cryptonomicon 22

ASIASWEEP Which famous person with an endangered species that is found only in an island province of Indonesia? Also name the species.

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 a) Jane Goodall b) Bali Mynah/Bali Starling (also accept Rothschild’s Mynah) 23.

ASIASWEEP He began dating her in 1989 and they starred in several films together. In 2008, they got married in Bhutan, after being advised by the 17 th Karmapa. Identify the power couple.

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP 2014 Tony Leung and Carina Lau 24.

ASIASWEEP These two interpretations (roughly) have been at the heart of a controversy that has been raked up by a world leader: Remarking on the position of the river and port, to which he gave the name of San Salvador, he describes its mountains as lofty and beautiful, like the Pena de las Enamoradas, and one of them has another little hill on its summit, like a graceful mosque. October 21, 1492 CE while his ship was sailing near Gibara on the north-east coast of Cuba, he saw a mosque on top of a beautiful mountain. a)What is the controversy about? Also name the world leader

ASIASWEEP 2014 ANSWER

ASIASWEEP The controversy created by the claim that the Muslims reached America before Columbus. The leader is the Turkish PM Recep Erdogan.

ASIASWEEP 2014 Thank you!