Youtube has returned to the Middle Kingdom, so I'll celebrate with a non-China post.
Where the Wild Things Are, the movie, is coming! This is a convergence of many of my personal interests:
1) Who doesn't love fantasy stories with monsters? It was books like this that sparked my interest in different worlds. This may be a contributing factor to why I'm in a country where sticking burning hot cups on your back is considered normal medical practice.
2) Spike Jonze is directing. Being John Malkovich and Adaptation were two of the most creative and interesting movies of the 90s, it will be great to see Jonze behind the lens of another movie that mixes fantasy and reality.
3) Arcade fire is doing the music. This band may be more concerned with putting as many musicians as possible on a stage (or in an elevator) and proving that they can play six instruments each than putting it all together to make coherent music, but they still can produce some interesting sounds.
Release date for Mainland China has not yet been announced.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Obama in China
Yesterday, I bought a copy of Barack's autobiography, Dreams of My Father, for about three bucks. There may be something wrong with buying an illegal copy of the president's book, but I couldn't afford the 20 dollar real imported version. I haven't started reading the book, but it looks like someone just scanned it into a computer page-by-page and then formatted it poorly and printed it out on thin paper using pretty weak ink. It's readable. I imagine not much of my 3 bucks will make it back to the poor bastard who stood over a scanner for hours digitizing the thing.
Barack never really got much love from the Chinese, who would prefer a stable, predictable president (Mao said always go with the Republicans), rather than an unknown liberal who might grill them over human rights. On top of this, China remained one of the few countries where Bush's approval rating was higher than America (in fact it was over 50% positive). A country that's okay with Bush couldn't be too excited about a new president talking about 'change.'
One of the best things that's happened since Barack's election is my ability to deal with the "American" question here. I've heard many Chinese say: "you don't look American." More than a dozen have thought I look Iranian. Now I just shoot back, "What's an American look like, anyway? Does our president look American?" Another wonderful thing is debunking decades of anti-American propaganda. Since 1949, the CCP has portrayed America as a horribly segregated, racist country where blacks are oppressed and have no hope. We still have a long way to go before racism fades and people stop making juvenile movies like "Crash" and start trying to get at the roots of black/white inequality. But whenever a Chinese person asks (as happened to me just yesterday during a failed haircut attempt), "Aren't black people all second-class citizens over there?", it's great to be able to respond, "Is our president a second-class citizen?"
Excitement over Barack still hasn't picked up, and while I don't agree with many of his policies, and he's obviously waffling on the banks, the utter lack of enthusiasm for such an historic election has been somewhat disconcerting. To combat the malaise, I bought two Obama/Hope T-shirts made in Guangzhou and I've been wearing them around. Chinese people always comment on it and often I get a chance to proselytize. Barack fever may never sweep China, but after seeing his address to the Iranians, I believe that a similar PR strategy could work incredibly well here too. A couple weeks ago, Wen Jiabao, the Premier, addressed netizens in what was an obviously coordinated series of silly pre-picked questions (how much do you sleep everday?). Still the event was a huge success. If Barack wants to get on the Chinese people's good side (and considering their fear of the dollar's stability, he should), a similar youtube-conversation, although freer than Wen's, could go a long way. Now we just have to wait for youtube to be unblocked.
Barack never really got much love from the Chinese, who would prefer a stable, predictable president (Mao said always go with the Republicans), rather than an unknown liberal who might grill them over human rights. On top of this, China remained one of the few countries where Bush's approval rating was higher than America (in fact it was over 50% positive). A country that's okay with Bush couldn't be too excited about a new president talking about 'change.'
One of the best things that's happened since Barack's election is my ability to deal with the "American" question here. I've heard many Chinese say: "you don't look American." More than a dozen have thought I look Iranian. Now I just shoot back, "What's an American look like, anyway? Does our president look American?" Another wonderful thing is debunking decades of anti-American propaganda. Since 1949, the CCP has portrayed America as a horribly segregated, racist country where blacks are oppressed and have no hope. We still have a long way to go before racism fades and people stop making juvenile movies like "Crash" and start trying to get at the roots of black/white inequality. But whenever a Chinese person asks (as happened to me just yesterday during a failed haircut attempt), "Aren't black people all second-class citizens over there?", it's great to be able to respond, "Is our president a second-class citizen?"
Excitement over Barack still hasn't picked up, and while I don't agree with many of his policies, and he's obviously waffling on the banks, the utter lack of enthusiasm for such an historic election has been somewhat disconcerting. To combat the malaise, I bought two Obama/Hope T-shirts made in Guangzhou and I've been wearing them around. Chinese people always comment on it and often I get a chance to proselytize. Barack fever may never sweep China, but after seeing his address to the Iranians, I believe that a similar PR strategy could work incredibly well here too. A couple weeks ago, Wen Jiabao, the Premier, addressed netizens in what was an obviously coordinated series of silly pre-picked questions (how much do you sleep everday?). Still the event was a huge success. If Barack wants to get on the Chinese people's good side (and considering their fear of the dollar's stability, he should), a similar youtube-conversation, although freer than Wen's, could go a long way. Now we just have to wait for youtube to be unblocked.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Youtube is Blocked!
I noticed something odd when I tried to watch a harmless music video. When I switched to my browser that was running out of Germany (a country full of the most responsible netizens you can find), I had no problem accessing Youtube, which means it was blocked. Apparently the reason for the blockage is this video of Chinese soldiers beating the hell out of Tibetans last year. Xinhua has reported that the video is faked by the Dalai Lama, a/k/a the Tibetan John Carpenter. Obviously a fake video is a threat to internal stability. To be perfectly honest, this video wouldn't convert a single Chinese person to the Dalai Lama's cause even if it were run on a non-stop loop on Chinese Central TV for days on end. You don't stay in power for 60 years without being cautious.
The Great Firewall gets a lot of publicity outside of China, and most Chinese internet users are aware of its existence. Surprisingly, it's very easy to circumvent, but that's not the point. This site teaches you (in Chinese!) how to jump the wall and rock on in the free world (at least online). This site is not blocked. So what's the point? According to James Fallows of the Atlantic (annual subscription for under 50 bucks, do it now!), as long as the government makes it slightly difficult to get to that information, only people with a bone to pick with the government already will bother to hop over the firewall and bathe in the soothing, unfiltered waters of freedom.
I agree with Fallows's conclusion, but would also add that the internet has created much more access to information than the government would like and people like all the Chinese blogs on my blogroll routinely criticize the government online without being blocked or facing retribution. (That much cannot be said for Zan Aizong, whose blog is blocked and he is prevented from leaving the country.)
Currently Ai Weiwei, former artist and now full-time activist, is roiling the government over its negligence in building supervision of Sichuan schools that collapsed killing thousands of students.
I think in the end the Great Firewall, like the Great Wall itself will fail. People won't put up with it forever. The only question is: "when?"
The Great Firewall gets a lot of publicity outside of China, and most Chinese internet users are aware of its existence. Surprisingly, it's very easy to circumvent, but that's not the point. This site teaches you (in Chinese!) how to jump the wall and rock on in the free world (at least online). This site is not blocked. So what's the point? According to James Fallows of the Atlantic (annual subscription for under 50 bucks, do it now!), as long as the government makes it slightly difficult to get to that information, only people with a bone to pick with the government already will bother to hop over the firewall and bathe in the soothing, unfiltered waters of freedom.
I agree with Fallows's conclusion, but would also add that the internet has created much more access to information than the government would like and people like all the Chinese blogs on my blogroll routinely criticize the government online without being blocked or facing retribution. (That much cannot be said for Zan Aizong, whose blog is blocked and he is prevented from leaving the country.)
Currently Ai Weiwei, former artist and now full-time activist, is roiling the government over its negligence in building supervision of Sichuan schools that collapsed killing thousands of students.
I think in the end the Great Firewall, like the Great Wall itself will fail. People won't put up with it forever. The only question is: "when?"
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Security Guard Marries American Woman
A few weeks ago, Cai Xiaohua, a 35 year old security guard with no high school education married 26 year old Daphne, a native of New Jersey. Xiaohua worked at the gate of the school where Daphne taught English. The relationship began with Daphne entering the guard house and demanding to talk to him. When her Chinese wasn't good enough, they would communicate by drawing pictures. They are currently on their honeymoon. (Full story in Chinese)
This story has appeared around the country and is unusual not just because of the differences in the couple's backgrounds, but also because of their sexes. Of the 58,000 foreign-Chinese marriages that took place here last year, I would guess (hard statistics on this were surprisingly hard to track down) that more than 40,000 of them involve a foreign man, who is probably old, bad-looking, dorky, or rich, and a Chinese woman. I've only ever seen three or four couples in which the woman was foreign in my two years in Beijing, but I've seen hundreds the other way around.
The netizens' reactions to this news item were mostly positive (here in Chinese):
"What a badass [the security guard is]!"
"What a lucky couple!"
"What a pretty bride!"
"I wish you luck!"
Compare these congratulatory statements to the reaction netizens have to a foreign man marrying a foreign woman. (These from a post about Zhang Ziyi and her boyfriend via lostlaowai blog.)
“She is so cheap in the Chinese people’s minds. She’s dead to the Chinese people and should leave China forever.”
“Women who marry foreign devils should be hung.”
“She is shameless and cheap. He will leave her soon. Can’t she find a Chinese man to please her? After the foreign devils f- her she will be useless.”
“After the foreigner tastes her snatch they will know she has a decaying one!”
“The old man just wants to have sex with her.”
“Zhang Ziyi is just a high level prostitute that only likes foreign d--k!”
It is disturbing to see that the nationalist overtones also bear strongly sexist ones too. It is okay for Chinese men to marry foreign women but not the other way around. Many people say that a lot of the rage Chinese netizens express for foreigners comes from both racism and an inferiority/superiority complex.
Interestingly enough, the only negative comments I found on the Security Guard/American Woman story seem to support this theory:
"What happens when she finds out his d--k isn't long enough?"
"What a brave girl. It would be like a Chinese moving to Africa and marrying an African."
"He wouldn't dare marry an African."
"They'll get divorced after she realizes that their sexual relations aren't harmonious."
One of the main reasons the Chinese-as-husband marriages are acceptable is the general view of women, not just in China of course, as being weaker. For the last two centuries, many Chinese have felt that their homeland is the woman to the West's man, and for some, reminders of that imbalanced relationship can provoke visceral reactions. When foreign men marry Chinese women, it reminds the angry youth, the majority of whom are boys, of foreign exploitation. The act of Western men stealing innocent Chinese women away expresses what many Chinese perceive as Western superiority over their own country in a concrete, physical and sexual way. A Chinese man marrying a foreign women, therefore, is role reversal. The Chinese man is the strong, dominant person in the relationship, and the West is put in its place. Under this framework, Chinese women are expected to eschew the advances of Western men while Chinese men are free to do whatever they want.
Given the number of Chinese women who still marry foreigners, however, it is clear that this mindset has not taken over mainstream Chinese thought. But as the angry youths' voices grow louder, it will be interesting to see how this nationalist-tainted form of sexism continues to develop.
This story has appeared around the country and is unusual not just because of the differences in the couple's backgrounds, but also because of their sexes. Of the 58,000 foreign-Chinese marriages that took place here last year, I would guess (hard statistics on this were surprisingly hard to track down) that more than 40,000 of them involve a foreign man, who is probably old, bad-looking, dorky, or rich, and a Chinese woman. I've only ever seen three or four couples in which the woman was foreign in my two years in Beijing, but I've seen hundreds the other way around.
The netizens' reactions to this news item were mostly positive (here in Chinese):
"What a badass [the security guard is]!"
"What a lucky couple!"
"What a pretty bride!"
"I wish you luck!"
Compare these congratulatory statements to the reaction netizens have to a foreign man marrying a foreign woman. (These from a post about Zhang Ziyi and her boyfriend via lostlaowai blog.)
“She is so cheap in the Chinese people’s minds. She’s dead to the Chinese people and should leave China forever.”
“Women who marry foreign devils should be hung.”
“She is shameless and cheap. He will leave her soon. Can’t she find a Chinese man to please her? After the foreign devils f- her she will be useless.”
“After the foreigner tastes her snatch they will know she has a decaying one!”
“The old man just wants to have sex with her.”
“Zhang Ziyi is just a high level prostitute that only likes foreign d--k!”
It is disturbing to see that the nationalist overtones also bear strongly sexist ones too. It is okay for Chinese men to marry foreign women but not the other way around. Many people say that a lot of the rage Chinese netizens express for foreigners comes from both racism and an inferiority/superiority complex.
Interestingly enough, the only negative comments I found on the Security Guard/American Woman story seem to support this theory:
"What happens when she finds out his d--k isn't long enough?"
"What a brave girl. It would be like a Chinese moving to Africa and marrying an African."
"He wouldn't dare marry an African."
"They'll get divorced after she realizes that their sexual relations aren't harmonious."
One of the main reasons the Chinese-as-husband marriages are acceptable is the general view of women, not just in China of course, as being weaker. For the last two centuries, many Chinese have felt that their homeland is the woman to the West's man, and for some, reminders of that imbalanced relationship can provoke visceral reactions. When foreign men marry Chinese women, it reminds the angry youth, the majority of whom are boys, of foreign exploitation. The act of Western men stealing innocent Chinese women away expresses what many Chinese perceive as Western superiority over their own country in a concrete, physical and sexual way. A Chinese man marrying a foreign women, therefore, is role reversal. The Chinese man is the strong, dominant person in the relationship, and the West is put in its place. Under this framework, Chinese women are expected to eschew the advances of Western men while Chinese men are free to do whatever they want.
Given the number of Chinese women who still marry foreigners, however, it is clear that this mindset has not taken over mainstream Chinese thought. But as the angry youths' voices grow louder, it will be interesting to see how this nationalist-tainted form of sexism continues to develop.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Three Things
I am sick today, so I will keep the post brief.
1) I attended a lecture given by two French-language authors, one from Haiti and one from Madagascar. The Alliance Francaise (the French Cultural Center) paid for the two authors to come and give free speeches in China with funds from the French government. The two men occasionally bump into colonialism in their works and had harsh words for the French government. When will the American Cultural Center follow suit and send Noam Chomsky to Beijing so I can see him before he passes away?
The author from Madagascar said that the authoritarian regime on that island country receives military supplies from China. I haven't been able to confirm this, but given the government's involvement with Sudan, Burma, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, I wouldn't be surprised.
2) This is how I feel occasionally as an expat in China. If anyone knows what the knight is doing in the frame at the end, please let me know.
3) I am learning how to whistle so I can properly pronounce "fish" and "go" in Chinese. Tips would be appreciated.
1) I attended a lecture given by two French-language authors, one from Haiti and one from Madagascar. The Alliance Francaise (the French Cultural Center) paid for the two authors to come and give free speeches in China with funds from the French government. The two men occasionally bump into colonialism in their works and had harsh words for the French government. When will the American Cultural Center follow suit and send Noam Chomsky to Beijing so I can see him before he passes away?
The author from Madagascar said that the authoritarian regime on that island country receives military supplies from China. I haven't been able to confirm this, but given the government's involvement with Sudan, Burma, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, I wouldn't be surprised.
2) This is how I feel occasionally as an expat in China. If anyone knows what the knight is doing in the frame at the end, please let me know.
3) I am learning how to whistle so I can properly pronounce "fish" and "go" in Chinese. Tips would be appreciated.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Zhang Yimou and History
In my last post, I made a fleeting reference to Zhang Yimou being a sellout. This, as many things in China seem to, has to do with history. Most Americans are familiar with Zhang Yimou through Hero, a movie that would not have been released in the US without the help of Quentin Tarantino, an interesting, but less talented director than Zhang (I often wonder how Zhang Yimou feels about that).
After Tian Zhuangzhuang released Blue Kite overseas to critical acclaim, he was blacklisted. The government banned him from directing for nearly a decade. Blue Kite is one of the best movies made about the Cultural Revolution that I've seen (perhaps second only to Zhang Yimou's To Live). When Zhang Yimou's own picture on that subject was subsequently banned, he must have surely feared that what happened to Tian, his film school classmate, would also happen to him. He escaped the directing ban by shying away from politically-sensitive topics, but years later, he would address them head-on, only with a different bent.
Since Hero is the most watched of Zhang Yimou's movies in America, I'll assume you've seen it and I won't care if I spoil the ending (people who took Chinese History knew the ending anyway). The soon-to-be emperor whom Jet Li is planning on assassinating, Qin Shihuang, is credited with uniting China under one dynasty after centuries of petty squabbles between small, weaker kingdoms. (Qin China looked like this.) After conquering all the various local rulers, Qin Shihuang imposed a strict legalist code that overturned the Confucian system and resulted in the draconian suppression of his opponents. The Qin dynasty was so harsh and repressive that it only lasted 14 years. In Hero, Jet Li chooses not to assassinate Qin Shihuang (at this point he was not called Qin Shihuang yet) because he remembers those two characters， 天下 (everything under heaven), that took Tony Leung an absurdly long time to write (I'm pretty sure 天下 was only seven strokes even in 200 BC). Viewing the unification of China as more important than anything else, Jet Li leaves the blood thirsty tyrant alone. It is pointless to speculate about what history would be like if the assassin had succeeded (would the glorious Han have emerged and ushered in a golden age?).
You are probably wondering, so what? How does this make Zhang Yimou a sellout? Before he started considering himself made of the same stuff as Sun Wukong, the fabled Monkey King, a recent Chinese leader liked to imagine that he was the reincarnation of Qin Shihuang. His real name was Mao.
Note: Chen Kaige, another classmate of Zhang's and Tian's, directed a good version of the same assassination attempt starring Zhang's ex-girlfriend Gong Li. It's not a kung fu movie. The Emperor and the Assassin.
After Tian Zhuangzhuang released Blue Kite overseas to critical acclaim, he was blacklisted. The government banned him from directing for nearly a decade. Blue Kite is one of the best movies made about the Cultural Revolution that I've seen (perhaps second only to Zhang Yimou's To Live). When Zhang Yimou's own picture on that subject was subsequently banned, he must have surely feared that what happened to Tian, his film school classmate, would also happen to him. He escaped the directing ban by shying away from politically-sensitive topics, but years later, he would address them head-on, only with a different bent.
Since Hero is the most watched of Zhang Yimou's movies in America, I'll assume you've seen it and I won't care if I spoil the ending (people who took Chinese History knew the ending anyway). The soon-to-be emperor whom Jet Li is planning on assassinating, Qin Shihuang, is credited with uniting China under one dynasty after centuries of petty squabbles between small, weaker kingdoms. (Qin China looked like this.) After conquering all the various local rulers, Qin Shihuang imposed a strict legalist code that overturned the Confucian system and resulted in the draconian suppression of his opponents. The Qin dynasty was so harsh and repressive that it only lasted 14 years. In Hero, Jet Li chooses not to assassinate Qin Shihuang (at this point he was not called Qin Shihuang yet) because he remembers those two characters， 天下 (everything under heaven), that took Tony Leung an absurdly long time to write (I'm pretty sure 天下 was only seven strokes even in 200 BC). Viewing the unification of China as more important than anything else, Jet Li leaves the blood thirsty tyrant alone. It is pointless to speculate about what history would be like if the assassin had succeeded (would the glorious Han have emerged and ushered in a golden age?).
You are probably wondering, so what? How does this make Zhang Yimou a sellout? Before he started considering himself made of the same stuff as Sun Wukong, the fabled Monkey King, a recent Chinese leader liked to imagine that he was the reincarnation of Qin Shihuang. His real name was Mao.
Note: Chen Kaige, another classmate of Zhang's and Tian's, directed a good version of the same assassination attempt starring Zhang's ex-girlfriend Gong Li. It's not a kung fu movie. The Emperor and the Assassin.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Chuck Norris sues, Gong Li kicks ass
When I saw this headline, I thought it must be from the Onion: "Chuck Norris Sues, Says Tears No Cancer Cure." The joke all American college students have heard has made its way into a book entitled The Truth About Chuck Norris.
"Chuck Norris's tears can cure cancer. Too bad he never cries."
Apparently, Chuck Norris thought this was believeable enough to harm his image and worthy of a lawsuit. When I was studying Chinese in Beijing a couple years ago, we had a lesson to remind us that America is the most litigious society in the world. The text talked about the McDonalds' coffee burning incident and gave other examples of how ridiculous Americans are when it comes to going to court. I, the neophyte that I was, wondered why Chinese people don't go to court and my teacher recommended Zhang Yimou's (pre-sellout) movie, the Story of Qiuju . Plot summary: An official kicks Qiuju's husband in the groin, possibly causing damage to his reproductive organs (one hell of a kick!), and then she spends the rest of the movie attempting to get payment for this barbarous act. The normally ravishingly beautiful Gong Li kicks ass as the stubborn, determined Qiuju.
My teacher's point was that going through the courts can be a long, convoluted process that sometimes leaves you worse off than you were before. This was a topic at the UN Human Rights hearing on China this year. When people seek redress for wrongs committed by government officials, they often end up in "black jails" that exist outside the law. They have no rights to have their cases heard and can be detained for an indefinite period of time.
So, for now, I'll gladly accept Chinese people's criticisms of American frivolity.
Note: Chinese law has indeed been getting better. Recently women won the right to sue their husbands' mistresses for damages. I don't know what this says about infidelity, but it sounds like progress. (Here for details)
"Chuck Norris's tears can cure cancer. Too bad he never cries."
Apparently, Chuck Norris thought this was believeable enough to harm his image and worthy of a lawsuit. When I was studying Chinese in Beijing a couple years ago, we had a lesson to remind us that America is the most litigious society in the world. The text talked about the McDonalds' coffee burning incident and gave other examples of how ridiculous Americans are when it comes to going to court. I, the neophyte that I was, wondered why Chinese people don't go to court and my teacher recommended Zhang Yimou's (pre-sellout) movie, the Story of Qiuju . Plot summary: An official kicks Qiuju's husband in the groin, possibly causing damage to his reproductive organs (one hell of a kick!), and then she spends the rest of the movie attempting to get payment for this barbarous act. The normally ravishingly beautiful Gong Li kicks ass as the stubborn, determined Qiuju.
My teacher's point was that going through the courts can be a long, convoluted process that sometimes leaves you worse off than you were before. This was a topic at the UN Human Rights hearing on China this year. When people seek redress for wrongs committed by government officials, they often end up in "black jails" that exist outside the law. They have no rights to have their cases heard and can be detained for an indefinite period of time.
So, for now, I'll gladly accept Chinese people's criticisms of American frivolity.
Note: Chinese law has indeed been getting better. Recently women won the right to sue their husbands' mistresses for damages. I don't know what this says about infidelity, but it sounds like progress. (Here for details)
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
折腾(zhe1teng)
A few months ago, I learned a new Chinese word from Hu Jintao （胡总). In a speech on how to face the current crisis, Hu said (according to his interpreter): "Don't sway back and forth, don't relax our efforts, and don't zheteng." The interpreter had no idea how to translate this on the spot so I looked for the paper edition. According to danwei, the official translation rendered zheteng into English as "don't get sidetracked." Get sidetracked from what? nciku.com translates zheteng as "to spend freely; to squander" Throw these translations into the speech and they make even less sense than "don't get sidetracked."
Xi Jinping, Hu Jintao's heir apparent, used zheteng in a speech when he was in Mexico last month:
Sometimes it takes a couple months to learn even a common Chinese word.
Xi Jinping, Hu Jintao's heir apparent, used zheteng in a speech when he was in Mexico last month:
“有些吃饱了没事干的外国人，对我们的事情指手画脚。中国一不输出革命，二不输出 饥饿和贫困，三不去折腾你们，还有什么好说的.”
“There are some foreigners who had eaten their fill and had nothing better to do, pointing their fingers at our affairs. China does not, first, export revolution; second, export poverty and hunger; or third, zheteng you. What else is there to say?” Now zheteng is a transitive verb, making "get sidetracked" no longer a possibile translation. I was satisfied with the China Digital Times' translation: "cause trouble for you." But then I saw this translation (vulgar) of both transitive and intransitive uses of zheteng, which would fit both Xi Jinping's and Hu Zong's speeches perfectly.Sometimes it takes a couple months to learn even a common Chinese word.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Hutong Companions
As a foreigner living in a hutong, a traditional alleyway made up of one-storey brick structures, I am not a path breaker. These ancient buildings, some of which date back many centuries (mine's at least 81 years old as my next door neighbor attests), have hosted several China hands. Peter Hessler, formerly the New Yorker's China correspondent, wrote Oracle Bones while living in Ju'er Hutong. Hessler's successor, Evan, keeps his blog from Mianhua Hutong. Michael Meyer (not the funny guy or the murderer) penned the Last Days of Old Beijing in the 800 year-old Dashilan'r business district. Jeremiah, proprietor of the Granite Studio, updates his Chinese history blog from a hutong somewhere near Dongsi. I'm in good company.
Every morning, I cling to my covers and summon the courage to get out of bed. I sleep under two comforters. The small space heater, kept closer to the bed than fire safety enthusiasts would recommend, is useless. My bedroom's air is harsh, cold and when I'm in a good mood, refreshing. After I boldly step forward into the freezing air, the most interesting challenge of hutong-living comes: the daily constitutional. The public toilet is a place of social interaction. Mr. Yin, a sixty-year-old recent retiree, who was born in the year Ox, seems to time his daily bowel movements to coordinate with mine. The bathroom designer somehow forgot to put dividers between the toilets, which has made me more closely acquainted with some of my neighbors than I was expecting.
Squatting, newspaper in hand and cigarette in mouth, a feat I'm somewhat envious of, Mr. Yin tells me that he's found a marriage prospect for me. "I'm already fine on that front," I reply, to no avail. "Chinese girls make better wives than your American girls, you know." My girlfriend being Chinese-American doesn't sidetrack the rant. "They're quiet, obedient, and good homemakers, ya know," he informs me as a gust of wind blows through the bathroom, my naked butt unprotected. Suddenly, a muscle in my left leg, which I believe is called the soleus, begins to remind me that I was not made for squat toilets and I take my leave. These toilet talks, surprisingly, have been pretty enjoyable so far. I've learned the courtyard kids' names (which I immediately forgot) and occasionally someone decides to sing. And I can forget about the cold.
Every morning, I cling to my covers and summon the courage to get out of bed. I sleep under two comforters. The small space heater, kept closer to the bed than fire safety enthusiasts would recommend, is useless. My bedroom's air is harsh, cold and when I'm in a good mood, refreshing. After I boldly step forward into the freezing air, the most interesting challenge of hutong-living comes: the daily constitutional. The public toilet is a place of social interaction. Mr. Yin, a sixty-year-old recent retiree, who was born in the year Ox, seems to time his daily bowel movements to coordinate with mine. The bathroom designer somehow forgot to put dividers between the toilets, which has made me more closely acquainted with some of my neighbors than I was expecting.
Squatting, newspaper in hand and cigarette in mouth, a feat I'm somewhat envious of, Mr. Yin tells me that he's found a marriage prospect for me. "I'm already fine on that front," I reply, to no avail. "Chinese girls make better wives than your American girls, you know." My girlfriend being Chinese-American doesn't sidetrack the rant. "They're quiet, obedient, and good homemakers, ya know," he informs me as a gust of wind blows through the bathroom, my naked butt unprotected. Suddenly, a muscle in my left leg, which I believe is called the soleus, begins to remind me that I was not made for squat toilets and I take my leave. These toilet talks, surprisingly, have been pretty enjoyable so far. I've learned the courtyard kids' names (which I immediately forgot) and occasionally someone decides to sing. And I can forget about the cold.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Friday the 13th
Today is the second Friday the 13th in 2009, and so I've decided to learn about unlucky numbers in China. 13 is not considered to be especially lucky or unlucky although, thanks to contact with Western countries, I've been in buildings that skip from floor 12 straight to 15 (14 containing the unlucky number 4).
The Chinese number 4 is considered unlucky because of its similarity in pronunciation with the word for death. Although 4 is pronounced fourth tone and death is third tone, it seems that Chinese don't take any chances and try to avoid the number at all costs. When newspaper stands sell phone numbers, they have a big board and cross out the ones that have already been sold. The numbers with fours are always the last to go, and I know one person who bought a phone number with four fours for fifteen rmb (roughly $2) less than my four-free number.
But the number four also pops up in many good things, which has been perplexing to me. There are the Four Beauties of Ancient China, the Four Classic Novels of Chinese Literature, the Four Great Inventions of Ancient China, and chengyu(in chinese), ancient Chinese idioms that are almost all made up of four characters. It turns out that despite its pronunciation, the number four also represents a very important concept throughout Chinese history: harmony. Something composed of four characters is completely balanced because of the square (or four-sided) nature of Chinese characters. You don't have to be able to read 卸磨杀驴(xie4mo4sha1lv2 killing the donkey as soon as it's left the mill-getting rid of someone as soon as they've outlived their usefulness), to see the balance in the four characters.
Even phrases that aren't standard chengyu always try to fit into four characters. Hu Jintao's ambiguous concept 'harmonious society' is 和谐社会, four characters, in Chinese. (For more information on 'harmonious society and the grass mud horse see CDT. Note: obscene and blocked in China.) There's an interesting reference to the Chinese musical conception of harmony here at NPR (via Granite Studio). Excerpt:
I found there's even double harmony in the bathroom as I took my morning constitutional (on a public squat toilet):
来也匆匆
去也冲冲
"If you're a-rushin' when you pop a squat,
Please be a-flushin' when you leave the pot."
The Chinese number 4 is considered unlucky because of its similarity in pronunciation with the word for death. Although 4 is pronounced fourth tone and death is third tone, it seems that Chinese don't take any chances and try to avoid the number at all costs. When newspaper stands sell phone numbers, they have a big board and cross out the ones that have already been sold. The numbers with fours are always the last to go, and I know one person who bought a phone number with four fours for fifteen rmb (roughly $2) less than my four-free number.
But the number four also pops up in many good things, which has been perplexing to me. There are the Four Beauties of Ancient China, the Four Classic Novels of Chinese Literature, the Four Great Inventions of Ancient China, and chengyu(in chinese), ancient Chinese idioms that are almost all made up of four characters. It turns out that despite its pronunciation, the number four also represents a very important concept throughout Chinese history: harmony. Something composed of four characters is completely balanced because of the square (or four-sided) nature of Chinese characters. You don't have to be able to read 卸磨杀驴(xie4mo4sha1lv2 killing the donkey as soon as it's left the mill-getting rid of someone as soon as they've outlived their usefulness), to see the balance in the four characters.
Even phrases that aren't standard chengyu always try to fit into four characters. Hu Jintao's ambiguous concept 'harmonious society' is 和谐社会, four characters, in Chinese. (For more information on 'harmonious society and the grass mud horse see CDT. Note: obscene and blocked in China.) There's an interesting reference to the Chinese musical conception of harmony here at NPR (via Granite Studio). Excerpt:
"The idea of harmony as a combination of different chords and notes was a foreign notion.
Today, China's rulers once again espouse a "harmonious society." Of course, not everyone buys into this orthodoxy, even at the risk of being branded a dissonant dissident."
Today, China's rulers once again espouse a "harmonious society." Of course, not everyone buys into this orthodoxy, even at the risk of being branded a dissonant dissident."
Liang Jingyu(in Chinese), an architect I heard give a lecture the other day, explained his thoughts on harmonious society: It's not about singing with the same voice, “it's about each voice singing on its own but still sounding pleasant." (声音不一样,但放在一起他们还不刺耳，my translation)
I found there's even double harmony in the bathroom as I took my morning constitutional (on a public squat toilet):
来也匆匆
去也冲冲
"If you're a-rushin' when you pop a squat,
Please be a-flushin' when you leave the pot."
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Caveat
Samuel P Huntington wrote that after the end of the Cold War "the great divisions among humankind...will be cultural." He went on to put most of his emphasis on the struggle between the West and Islam. Nearly a decade later, after 9/11 awakened Americans to the clear and present danger that terrorism posed, the Economist hailed Huntington's words as prescient, saying his theories were "cruel and sweeping, but nonetheless accurate."
The "Islam" that carried out the attacks on September 11 was a form of religion as perverse and distant from its true precepts as the form of Christianity that engaged in the crusades. The only difference is that the crusades represented the majority opinion of Christendom, while bin Laden is not a spokesman for the Muslim world. When writing about any culture (even your own), as I am doing with this blog, it is always important to avoid making cruel and sweeping generalizations. (Chinese do it to us too.)
Here I am reminded of a blog entry written by a friend of a friend on his trip to China. In it he mentions an encounter with waitresses who covered their mouths while they laughed (full entry). He said that they were "physically acting out saving face." Face is indeed a unique concept of importance in China that makes it different from ideas like honor or respect, but nonetheless, what was going on here was not 'saving face.'
The Chinese have a saying "Don't show your teeth when you laugh" (笑不露齿). To many Chinese, a woman baring her teeth when she laughs is uneducated and being impolite. While this is clearly not an American practice, it has nothing to do with face and by imagining it to be so one exhibits an ignorance both of the practice of mouth covering（捂嘴）and face, which should not be used as a blanket answer for everything the foreigner does not understand. I don't know how many foreigners have told me that they were given wrong directions because the Chinese person didn't want to lose face by saying they didn't know the way.
I am afraid that in the course of this blog, I will be guilty of generalizations (although hopefully note as grotesque as Huntington's), and in those cases, I hope you (尤其是我的中国网友）will correct me. The true Twenty-first Century conflict is a "clash of definitions," as Edward Said called it. I hope that this blog can add to the definition of "China" without creating more misunderstanding (although as an American, Said would say that I am incapable of defining an Eastern culture).
With that in mind, take my comments on China with a grain of salt, and when I mess up, just laugh and set me straight.
The "Islam" that carried out the attacks on September 11 was a form of religion as perverse and distant from its true precepts as the form of Christianity that engaged in the crusades. The only difference is that the crusades represented the majority opinion of Christendom, while bin Laden is not a spokesman for the Muslim world. When writing about any culture (even your own), as I am doing with this blog, it is always important to avoid making cruel and sweeping generalizations. (Chinese do it to us too.)
Here I am reminded of a blog entry written by a friend of a friend on his trip to China. In it he mentions an encounter with waitresses who covered their mouths while they laughed (full entry). He said that they were "physically acting out saving face." Face is indeed a unique concept of importance in China that makes it different from ideas like honor or respect, but nonetheless, what was going on here was not 'saving face.'
The Chinese have a saying "Don't show your teeth when you laugh" (笑不露齿). To many Chinese, a woman baring her teeth when she laughs is uneducated and being impolite. While this is clearly not an American practice, it has nothing to do with face and by imagining it to be so one exhibits an ignorance both of the practice of mouth covering（捂嘴）and face, which should not be used as a blanket answer for everything the foreigner does not understand. I don't know how many foreigners have told me that they were given wrong directions because the Chinese person didn't want to lose face by saying they didn't know the way.
I am afraid that in the course of this blog, I will be guilty of generalizations (although hopefully note as grotesque as Huntington's), and in those cases, I hope you (尤其是我的中国网友）will correct me. The true Twenty-first Century conflict is a "clash of definitions," as Edward Said called it. I hope that this blog can add to the definition of "China" without creating more misunderstanding (although as an American, Said would say that I am incapable of defining an Eastern culture).
With that in mind, take my comments on China with a grain of salt, and when I mess up, just laugh and set me straight.
Blog Name
There seems to have been some confusion on the name of the blog and the BMW logo on the side. "Don't touch me" was the first thing I thought when I got onto the overcrowded bus in Beijing. Since this is a blog about learning about and adapting to new situations, emphasizing the adjustment process required to overcome the average American's need for personal space seemed appropriate.
"Don't touch me" (别摸我) comes from a scene in the funny heist flick, Crazy Stone, which is often compared to Guy Ritchie's films. In this scene（in Chinese)， one of the character's car runs into another's car. The second car is a BMW. “你没看见么？别摸我！” "Didn't you see," the BMW driver says, "BMW is an acronym for 'Don't touch me!'" (In Hanyu Pinyin, the official Chinese romanization system, 'Don't touch me' is spelled bie mo wo, hence BMW.) This expression quickly swept the nation as one of Will Farrel's non sequiturs do in America. I came to China just after this movie came out and this was the first Chinese pop culture reference I ever learned. This movie is worth a look for anyone interested in good, plot-based humor (unlike Family Guy), and it gives you a good look at the grimy side of modern China.
Crazy Racer, a sequel to Crazy Stone in the way that Snatch was a sequel to Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (i.e., same director and cast, similar plot, but different characters), just recently came out, and I will review it here when I see it.
The Chinese part of the blog name is Three Wells Alley, my address. The thing called "Palace Museum" is the Forbidden City, which is right smack dab in the middle of Beijing.
Note: The links to the two movies will take you to imdb, which still has the annoying habit of flipping the order of Chinese and Japanese names. The director's name is 宁浩 Ning Hao, not Hao Ning.
"Don't touch me" (别摸我) comes from a scene in the funny heist flick, Crazy Stone, which is often compared to Guy Ritchie's films. In this scene（in Chinese)， one of the character's car runs into another's car. The second car is a BMW. “你没看见么？别摸我！” "Didn't you see," the BMW driver says, "BMW is an acronym for 'Don't touch me!'" (In Hanyu Pinyin, the official Chinese romanization system, 'Don't touch me' is spelled bie mo wo, hence BMW.) This expression quickly swept the nation as one of Will Farrel's non sequiturs do in America. I came to China just after this movie came out and this was the first Chinese pop culture reference I ever learned. This movie is worth a look for anyone interested in good, plot-based humor (unlike Family Guy), and it gives you a good look at the grimy side of modern China.
Crazy Racer, a sequel to Crazy Stone in the way that Snatch was a sequel to Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (i.e., same director and cast, similar plot, but different characters), just recently came out, and I will review it here when I see it.
The Chinese part of the blog name is Three Wells Alley, my address. The thing called "Palace Museum" is the Forbidden City, which is right smack dab in the middle of Beijing.
Note: The links to the two movies will take you to imdb, which still has the annoying habit of flipping the order of Chinese and Japanese names. The director's name is 宁浩 Ning Hao, not Hao Ning.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Two Meetings
As everyone in China knows, the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference are gathering for their 2009 session, known as the "Two Meetings." These two political organizations are often called rubber-stamps, but here is something interesting to read that might combat that myth.
Yesterday Southern Metropolis Daily (one of the best papers in the country) interviewed Shen Jilan, the only member of the NPC to attend ever meeting to date. "In 55 years," she said, "I've never once voted 'no.' I'm very supportive of the Chinese Communist Party. If you're going to be a representative, you have to do what the Party says (听党的话)."(via 道路blocked on the mainland) Perhaps the sarcasm was lost in translation.
When major political meetings like this are held in Beijing, parts of the city shut down. Since I live right around the corner from Tian'anmen Square, it's been all but impossible to catch a cab and the crowds for the normally packed daily flag-raising have shrunk dramatically. (I was going regularly the weeks before the Meetings, so I can tell the crowds aren't scared away by the cold weather.)
Fortunately, the old folks pay no heed to this political nonsense and were out doing Tai Chi like normal.
Yesterday Southern Metropolis Daily (one of the best papers in the country) interviewed Shen Jilan, the only member of the NPC to attend ever meeting to date. "In 55 years," she said, "I've never once voted 'no.' I'm very supportive of the Chinese Communist Party. If you're going to be a representative, you have to do what the Party says (听党的话)."(via 道路blocked on the mainland) Perhaps the sarcasm was lost in translation.
For a better account of improvements in the Two Meetings check out Evan's post.
When major political meetings like this are held in Beijing, parts of the city shut down. Since I live right around the corner from Tian'anmen Square, it's been all but impossible to catch a cab and the crowds for the normally packed daily flag-raising have shrunk dramatically. (I was going regularly the weeks before the Meetings, so I can tell the crowds aren't scared away by the cold weather.)
Fortunately, the old folks pay no heed to this political nonsense and were out doing Tai Chi like normal.
First Post
It seems very unlikely that anyone who is not personally acquainted with me will stumble across this blog, which begs the question: "Why are you writing it?"
First, since all of you are my friends and I don't email you as often as I should, you can see what is going on in my life, even if we have been out of touch for sometime. For those lucky few who I email regularly, this blog will supplement our correspondence and save me the time of writing the same thing multiple times to different people.
Second, I am constantly thinking about things that are only tangentially related to each other. My thoughts are like two logs floating in the Atlantic. They're in the same ocean, but they most likely won't run into each other. This is probabaly google's fault. I hope to synthesize these disparate thoughts for the benefit of humankind.
Third, while there are already a lot of great voices out there (see blogroll), I hope that I will be able to put in my two cents, and maybe every once in a while, contribute something to your understanding of China, or at least your understanding of the lone foreigner living in Three Wells Alley.
First, since all of you are my friends and I don't email you as often as I should, you can see what is going on in my life, even if we have been out of touch for sometime. For those lucky few who I email regularly, this blog will supplement our correspondence and save me the time of writing the same thing multiple times to different people.
Second, I am constantly thinking about things that are only tangentially related to each other. My thoughts are like two logs floating in the Atlantic. They're in the same ocean, but they most likely won't run into each other. This is probabaly google's fault. I hope to synthesize these disparate thoughts for the benefit of humankind.
Third, while there are already a lot of great voices out there (see blogroll), I hope that I will be able to put in my two cents, and maybe every once in a while, contribute something to your understanding of China, or at least your understanding of the lone foreigner living in Three Wells Alley.
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