All things China

New China Blog

2007-09-03T21:05:00.003+08:00

New China Blog

Moved once again...

2007-07-12T16:54:00.000+08:00

I'm temporarily moving my blog to www.tabulas.com/~genghiskhan until blogger is once again viewable without a proxy in China.

My work blog can be found at www.tabulas.com/~shaankhan

Cheers

Why isn't there more outrage about this?

2007-06-21T17:44:00.000+08:00

Chinese manufacturers are totally getting away with murder here, why isn't the US calling for an immediate all-out ban of Chinese pharmaceutical products? Business interests? Bull shit.

update: add this one to the list:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/19/business/worldbusiness/19toys.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print

First it's the drugs, now it's the toys.

"The outrageous pimping content in some websites is very shocking"

2007-05-30T09:31:00.000+08:00

I had to blog this just for that outrageous pimping line. Good stuff Xinhua!

Jazz 2

2007-05-27T23:37:00.001+08:00

Jazz 2
Originally uploaded by rrskda

I will be on that stage one day, she muttered.

Jazz

2007-05-26T20:23:00.001+08:00

Jazz
Originally uploaded by rrskda

Basking in the glow of the deep blue light

Your Guess is as Good as Mine

2007-05-21T21:25:00.001+08:00

Your Guess is as Good as Mine
Originally uploaded by rrskda.

I'm really, really not sure what will be going on here (It's still under construction).

Evasive Action!

2007-05-18T10:12:00.000+08:00

Saw this message swirling around the Internet the other day:

由于美国最近要针对中国上诉WTO知识产权保护问题，微软正在为美国政府搜集相关证据，在最近自动更新中包含检测盗版副本程序，为了咱中国利益，请大家不要开启自动更新。已经开启当提示要你安装正版增值计划请别安装！安装后会在任务栏右下角出现一个蓝色五角星符号！！！这样就会被微软追踪锁定，以向美国政府提供证据！！！

Translates as something like:

Since the US is now appealing to the WTO regarding IPR, Microsoft is using automatic updates to detect pirated MS software as evidence for the case. For the benefit of China, please turn off automatic updates. If you've seen the notice to install the Genuine Value Plan, please don't install it! If installed you'll see a five-pointed star in the lower right corner of the task bar!!! This is how Microsoft can track you and send the evidence to the US Government!!!

Seems instead of coughing up the dough for real copies of software, it's better to cover up what you're doing? Sure, I guess. Even though Microsoft, I thought, has done a lot for China in terms of investment, research and development. Nice way to thank them...

The Natives

2007-05-17T22:12:00.001+08:00

The Natives
Originally uploaded by rrskda.

"It's cold, sister. Can I offer you some warmth?"

"Don't worry about me, brother. I got mine."

Night Wanderer

2007-05-16T21:36:00.001+08:00

Night Wanderer
Originally uploaded by rrskda.

Every night an old man in blue wanders the back streets around Houhai lake, drifting from one cold circle of light to the next. What are you doing?

Rumble in Beijing

2007-05-16T21:18:00.000+08:00

First someone throws a burning object at Mao's portrait looming over Tiananmen Square, then a police officer is stabbed at the Square a few days later. Probably just a coincidence, but still... why do I always miss out on the exciting stuff?

Beneath the City Rail

2007-05-15T23:29:00.001+08:00

Beneath the City Rail
Originally uploaded by rrskda.

It was dark and warm that night beneath the City Rail, and wind came in halting gusts. Cool blue and yellow taxis blurred by, a red banner with white characters flapped in the breeze. Glowing sparks from a rickshaw driver's falling cigarette ash. The lights were bright and cold. Where was he?

Under the Overpass

2007-05-14T22:25:00.001+08:00

Under the Overpass
Originally uploaded by rrskda.

Across from the subway stop I waited for my girlfriend. In front of me the huge 3rd ring road overpass loomed high above, and underneath this old man sat on his three-wheeler, making his way through unforgiving traffic.

Exporting Idiocracy

2007-05-14T22:06:00.000+08:00

No, not the film, but the American education system, which Harvard among others is trying to send out to the world, to places such as... China! And of course China is looking for education reform, but this article points out why that might not be such a great idea for the Chinese economy:

It took nearly a century for the “reforms” of Dewey’s progressivism to make American schools into places that cultivate self-assurance over knowledge, co-operation over achievement, blandness over distinction, and dullness over everything. Gardner is widely recognized as one of Dewey’s most important heirs, and we need to give his ideas some time to turn China into a nation of self-satisfied ignoramuses.

Sounds good to me...

Between the Lines

2007-05-13T22:34:00.001+08:00

Between the Lines
Originally uploaded by rrskda.

Passed by a construction site--one of many--and this is what I saw.

Houhai Zoo

2007-05-12T16:18:00.001+08:00

Houhai Zoo
Originally uploaded by rrskda.

I'm going to start trying to post one photo a day from a collection of my favorites. We'll see how long I can keep this up

Pig Flu? and yet another editorialist with a myopic sense of history

2007-05-09T15:43:00.000+08:00

Concerns raised on China's global health disclosures

writes Keith Bradsher:

HONG KONG: The international and Hong Kong authorities said Monday that they had received little information from mainland Chinese officials about a mysterious ailment killing pigs in southeastern China or about Chinese wheat gluten contaminated with plastic scrap, raising questions again about whether Beijing is willing to share data on global health issues.

Hm... well lucky me I don't eat pork, and I'd now absolutely recommend no one else living in China eat it either. In fact I'd recommend everyone stop eating it altogether. There are some diseases that only eating pork can give you, and they're pretty nasty.

In other news, the Washington Post published a book review (if you could call it that--the reviewer, Steven W. Mosher, never even mentions the name of the book he's reviewing, only mentioning it's the third by "principled China watcher" James Mann) about a book that addresses the problem of China watchers falling for the "China Fantasy," that China's economic reforms will lead to political reform. It's been almost thirty years, and hey, where's the democracy, the open elections, the rule of law, Mosher wonders.

But this so-called "book review" quickly devolves into a polemic of Mosher's own views, using the subject matter of Mann's book as a catalyst to kick-start a rant about how most China watchers are "cowardly and self-interested," a phrase he borrows from Mann. On this point they may agree, but it's impossible to tell just what exactly Mann's book is about since Mosher then proceeds with paragraphs that go something like this:

If the China Fantasy were true, American ways would already be coming to dominate in China. Democratic sentiments would be growing apace with the swelling Chinese middle class. Chinese youth (dressed in Levi's) would meet (at McDonald's) to discuss human rights. Internet chat rooms would be devoted to setting up opposition political parties. E-mails and faxes would encourage people to turn out for political rallies. Before we knew it, China would be abiding by the rule of law, enacting a written constitution and holding free elections.
There would be talk of returning the Goddess of Democracy to her throne in Tiananmen Square. China would be following America's lead in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) and cooperate with the American-dominated World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Beijing would dismantle its missiles ponted at Taiwan, recognize that democratic republic as a separate and equal state, and give up its smash-and-grab operations in the South China Sea. And as a result of all this, the United States would enjoy a true "strategic partnership" with a China that was evolving into a free market democracy.

Oh, where to begin, Mr. Mosher? Forgive me if I see a bit naive, I'm only 27 years old, you see, but please tell me on what historical basis do you think all these sort of democratic reforms would be taking place in just thirty years? How long did it take our own system to develop? How many centuries of monarchic rule did the people who rebelled against England suffer before setting up their own democracy?

But I shouldn't be comparing histories, it's not really fair. Consider for a moment that China has experienced in the past century more physical, emotional and political chaos than any major country on the planet. Actually I hate even mentioning this point because it's rather cliche now, but it's still true. Students I have taught have grandparents who lived in such vastly different conditions than those in which we live today, far more different than my grandparents lives were from mine. It's generation gap times ten.

Consider too that most of the country is still living in something like Middle-Age conditions, 800 million people or so who have no concept of what democracy is and why it's important. What do you think they care about, having food to eat or the right to vote for their leaders? Which would you care about more?

And what does democracy look like to the world today? According to the American Way, inevitably Imperialistic, in large part to the war in Iraq--whether it's a just war or not, this is a fact: countries such as China see us as more of a threat than before, and force-feeding democracy, even to those who want it, does nothing to assuage those fears and nothing to promote peace in countries that don't develop the democratic system from within. No dictatorship in all of history has ever lasted, but the best way to prop one up is to attack it, militarily or politically.

I hate to use this line, but unfortunately it seems neither Mosher nor Mann understand China well enough to make any constructive critique of the current situation and so I must: you don't understand China. I hate it when Chinese people tell me this as it seems to be a catch-all phrase for any situation in which they don't have a rational response to criticisms of China, but here it seems true.

One thing I have noticed about China is that its leaders almost always will refuse to bow to any sort of publicized pressure to make changes to their government, but when the changes do come, they occur quietly, through negotiations that are kept quiet. Unfortunately the US likes to make its human rights violations announcements on the world stage instead of dealing directly with China behind closed doors, and to what end? China then refutes the reports, and nothing changes.

Why? Face. It's a bitch for us Westerners to understand and deal with, but China, like Japan and Korea, need to have face, keep face, save face, etc. And the best way to do this is to give it to them, especially when you're criticizing. This means negotiation and compromise, and putting pressure in private, not in public. But as far as political strategy, that change can only come from within, and it can only come with time. As the Mao generation ages and dies out, and if the Western provinces can be economically improved, it is inevitable that the political system will change; we just can't expect it to ever bear a striking resemblance to our own.

Pigs dying mysteriously: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/07/news/pigs.php

Mosher's article/review of Mann's book (which he finally does say at the end is titled The China Fantasy): http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20070505-101331-9766r

May Holiday and China still has a long way to go...

2007-05-08T13:06:00.000+08:00

Photos are up from my recent holiday trip with Lingying to Beidaihe, a beach town resort in Hebei. Click here:

May Holiday - Beidaihe

And I just read this extensive article on yet another product pirated/counterfeited in China: pharmaceutical solvents

China still has a long, long way to go in regulating its industries. The runaround given to the reporter of this article by the two departments supposedly responsible for investigating the matter reads like such a cliche of China, and yet it's still so true.

Photo updates...

2007-05-01T21:24:00.000+08:00

Updated Auto Shanghai with pics of the kiddies driving toy Mercedes cars (yes, we corrupt them young), some pics of an MB Zippo, and Shanghai at night:

Auto Shanghai

And some photos from today out on Chengfu lu, street vendors:

Cheng Fu Lu Street Vendors

Photos from Beihai Park with the gf and her colleague Suki soon to come

Auto Shanghai

2007-04-26T16:11:00.000+08:00

So I said I'd write something about Auto Shanghai... went for a week to work for my PR company at the Mercedes-Benz stand in hall W5, mostly to help receive members of the various media who came to the event. We arrived on Sunday the 15th, and the event officially opened to the media on Friday the 20th. Friday and Saturday it was only open to the media, and starting Sunday tickets were available to the public.

Timeline (not that interesting)

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we were relatively free. I've only been to Shanghai once before back in 2003, but I hardly remembered it, and had nothing to compare it to. Now having lived in Beijing for a year, the situation is a bit different, and differences in culture are clear--something like New York and Los Angeles, I think (though I've now spent way more time in Beijing than I ever have in New York, and more time in Shanghai than in L.A.). In China these two cities are rivals in a sense, neither showing much respect for the other, and probably only agreeing that they are superior to the rest of China (as well as the other).

My girlfriend Lynn, who works at another PR company near mine, was also in Shanghai working on several events for Dodge, which has recently made its official entry into the Chinese market this year, I believe. Since Dodge is Chrysler is DaimlerChrysler, the Jeep, Chrysler, and Dodge stands were all next to each other right across from ours. Lynn was managing an event at the Bar Rouge, and upscale place just across the Bund in Puxi, from which the Pearl TV tower and Jinmao Tower are visible at Shanghai's most photographed area. (And more on romantic follies at the Bund later!) Despite working in close proximity, we didn't get to see much of each other until the day before we left. I caught a few glimpses of her working at her stand before the press conferences, but that was about it--I'm sure you can imagine my frustration, so close and yet so far.

As I said, the first two days were media only, which was nice since it meant the hall was relatively calm, not too crowded, and everyone (except for one 会虫) was pretty professional. Mercedes-Benz's stand was set up pretty much the same as it was in Beijing last year, so I hear, which you can see in my photos is all black with wooden alcoves and silvery words splayed across both. On the stage itself, several bunches of bamboos were set up to give it what they called in their press-release, 'elements of Chinese aesthetics' to somehow show the close attention they are paying to the Chinese market. Frankly it looked like bunches of bamboo sticking out of the stage, held up only by the netting above through which it was stuck. Compared to their Detroit '06 showing, which had an ice rink on which they drove a 4MATIC vehicle to show off its performance, pretty bland.

Press Conference--speech writing, article writing par moi!

On the opening day Mercedes-Benz held their press conference, for which I helped to write the speeches of both Klaus Maier and Claus Weidner (why one is spelled with a K and the other a C is beyond me), the former being the CEO of Mercedes-Benz (China) and the latter being in charge of sales and marketing I think. I even got to help out in rehearsal for the camera crews by reading the speeches for Walker (DaimlerChrysler CEO of Northeast Asia) and Weidner, my first time reading off a teleprompter. Feels funny because you're looking past the audience to read it so you have to remember to look down from time to time. And I definitely did a way better job than Maier or Weidner--especially Weidner. Granted, English is not their first language, but Weidner sounded like a robot.

There was an interlude with eight Shanghai primary school girls in angelic outfits singing Happy Birthday to celebrate the 100th anniversary of AWD at Mercedes-Benz, after which Weidner thanked them mechanically, "Thank you for that wonderful performance" (imagine Stephen Hawking but with less feeling). Ruined my beautiful speeches!

Dodge had much more entertaining press conference, but it was too loud. At least the Viper was on display.

Besides welcoming the media and handing out press kits, I also had to help revise some press releases and most peculiarly, write an article about the press conference to be published in Shanghai Daily. Peculiar why? Because it was meant to be written by a journalist, not by Mercedes-Benz. The most amusing bit is that I wrote the speeches, and then I was supposed to be writing a complimentary but not sycophantic (has to sound objective, after all) article in reference to those speeches! Oh the media in China is quite a circus... literally. It has you going in circles.

Damn you, Hong Bao

While I'm on the subject of media in China, I need to rant about the situation here, which is pretty bad. It's all because of the Hong Bao (红包). Hong Bao means 'red packet' literally, which traditionally are little paper envelopes filled with money given out by parents and grandparents to their kids at Spring Festival. In this context, however, it refers to one of the big perks of being a journalist in China--when companies have events they want media to attend, they send out gifts to the invited media. Without these gifts (a.k.a. Hong Bao), the media won't show up, simple as that. What started out as a reimbursement for smaller media who couldn't necessarily afford transportation costs has turned into outright bribery that all media big or small demand or refuse to show up.

This 'gift-giving' as it's euphemized, has created what I earlier referred to as 'hui chong' (会虫), or 'conference worms'. These are people who nab some journalist's business cards and come to an event just to try to get the gifts. One showed up at are our stand, presenting his business card, saying he forgot his invitation and forgot who sent it (not likely since media relations are quite important here). My colleague, looking at the business card, wisely asked, "what's your family name," and the idiot who presented it couldn't tell him. You'd think he'd at least have gone to the trouble to remember that one bit of info. The gifts, by the way, were a Samsonite toiletry bag and a model of Mercedes-Benz first ever automobile.

Incidentally Ferrari got itself in trouble its first year in China by refusing to give out Hong Bao, taking offense at the very idea. Not surprisingly, no domestic media showed up at their event that year.

Shanghainese lose themselves, Autoshow models hot or not? (Kinda not.)

Media reception is a pretty boring job that involves mostly waiting, and then if its not handing out the press kits, its trying to answer questions you don't have the answers to. But once the show opened to the public, I could quite easily see hell on the verge of breaking loose. Shanghainese, known for their relative level of civility, became a lot more Beijingerish at the autoshow: people packed into the halls, everyone clamoring to take photos of each other posing awkwardly next to the cars, sometimes groping them in bizarre ways--maybe they were trying to be funny? Even the professional models were a mixed bag. The one in my photos who appeared with Peter He (some Asian pop star I've never heard of) was pretty hot, but there are others, at Ferrari's stand surprisingly, that could have been men in drag. Not sure what was up with that. Foreign models graced the stages of some brands as well, though most seemed to be Eastern-Eurotrash dressed probably less promiscuously than they're used to. Okay, I'm exaggerating a little, but the models overall... not so hot from the neck up.

Freelance Photgraphy (emphasis on free, unfortunately)

Fortunately we didn't have to stay for the public, but we were there for the first day the show was open to them, and I was asked to take photos of the cars with people swarming around them, but to make sure the car and its logo(s) were visible. I learned a few things about photo taking, particularly about the requirements for PR photos--the logo must be clear and no other brands logos, names, cars, etc. should be visible. Makes sense, I just never thought about it before. The head of my team liked a few I took, though I don't know if any made their way into the media. It'd be nice to put that on my resume...

Romance, China-style

Of course, finally Lynn and I did get a chance to spend some time together, that night after the final day of auto show work and one night before going back to Beijing. After having dinner with my colleagues, she and her colleagues met up with us at The Ark, a bar somewhere in Puxi. We played drinking games for a while (first dice, then truth or dare). About one o'clock we headed out, some for KTV (karaoke) and me and Lynn for a walk along the Bund.

In case anyone doesn't know, the Bund is the site of every tourists photograph in Shanghai, the peninsula of buildings that gives Shanghai its famous skyline--the Pearl Tower being the most prominent, looking like some kind of rocket ship read to take off. It's lit up beautifully in the evening, but by midnight most of the lights are off, except for the flashing red beacons, leaving only a dark impression of the buildings. That late at night Shanghai is totally quiet, a silence that seems incongruous with the skyscrapers standing there, massive both in size and number. It's as if you should be able to hear them breathing as they sleep, but there's only the hollow rushing sound of the occasional taxi, or barges groaning up the river, visible only as slow-moving shadows on the water.

The rain had stopped now (it had been raining all day), and I took a couple long exposure photos. Besides us there was only the occasional passersby, a few dark figures huddles on curbs; we paid them little attention. For the moment we were concentrating on each other. At one point a man selling his services as a photographer stopped his bicycle near us; we refused politely, and I joked with him for a moment about something I can't remember. He came back moments later (if he'd even left in the first place) now trying to sell me a watch, and I couldn't help laughing--he was nothing if not persistent, but he went on his way, and it became quiet again.

The rain had gone but their was still a chill; a wind blew and we held each other tight.

Sometime around then a little old beggar woman gripping flowers in dirty hands accosted us, first trying to sell us the flowers (to which Lynn adamantly refused) and then resorting outright begging. I might have had change on me, but I was too annoyed at her spoiling the romance to feel generous, and finally she shuffled off. And it became quiet again.

Inevitably the embrace became intimate, and for several minutes (it seemed) I couldn't think of a more romantic moment--kissing on the Bund in the silence of the after-midnight night? It couldn't have been better. What if I had flowers to give her, just then, appearing magically out of nowhere? Would that have been better?

No, not the beggar lady, but an old man with the same purpose seemed to think so. I heard his shuffling (they really like to shuffle) feet approaching, but at that moment I was checking Lynn's teeth for cavities (none!) and didn't feel like paying him any mind. He got close enough and then spat out the English he knew--all I remember, however was, "good luck, good luck!" as he pushed flowers at us.

His persistence outmatched ours. We let go, looked at each other, laughing. What a week, what a night. It somehow seemed so fitting that our one moment together after a almost a week without seeing one another would reach this anticlimax. All I could think was, well, that's China for you.

Not that China is a constant spoiler of beautiful moments, but I do feel like this place is constantly throwing curveballs at you, final acts of movies that end up sort of how you expect but with a twist, at least peculiar but sometimes extreme enough to be completely non sequitur. These are the kind of moments that if you're telling a friend about it later over a cup of coffee, trying to explain why it annoyed you so much, you'll find yourself laughing because that's all you really can do, isn't it?

Early shots from Auto Shanghai

2007-04-21T23:24:00.000+08:00

Auto Shanghai

Pics here from Auto Shanghai 2007. I was working at the Mercedes-Benz station, will give more details when I get back to Beijing... PR is a lot of BS, in case anyone didn't already realize that, but it's even more true in China than in other places.

A few pics here:

Chinese Communist Party makes Mephistopheles jealous

2007-04-12T13:31:00.000+08:00

That's what Mr. Holz of HK University is saying, anyway. He claims now Westerners, even academics (supposedly paragons of free thought), are bowing to the will of the big ol' CCP,

Our use of language to conform to the image the Party wishes to project is pervasive. Would the description “a secret society characterized by an attitude of popular hostility to law and government” not properly describe the secrecy of the Party’s operations, its supremacy above the law and its total control of government? In Webster’s New World College Dictionary, this is the definition of “mafia.”

And why? To gain access to China, to collaborate (oh, sensitive word!) with Chinese researchers on whatever researching there is to be done legally in China, all based on a dearth of information that mostly comes from the Party anyway. The brief moments of exciting insights come from the occasional cracks in the Great Wall of Silence (bad metaphor, I know), when corruption reveals something deeper, or when one of the 200 (TWO HUNDRED) daily events of social unrest leak out into the Western media.

The Mafia comparison is based not just on ol' Webster, but consider what happened to Mr. Holz himself, on a research trip to China:

A local Party committee, at one point, helped me out by providing a car, a Party cadre and a local government official. They directed me to enterprise managers who, presumably, gave all the right answers. The hosts were invariably highly supportive, but I ended up working in exactly the box in which they were thinking and operating.

And the usual corruption stats:

Article after article pores over the potential economic reasons for the increase in income inequality in China. We ignore the fact that of the 3,220 Chinese citizens with a personal wealth of 100 million yuan ($13 million) or more, 2, 932 are children of high-level cadres. Of the key positions in the five industrial sectors—finance, foreign trade, land development, large-scale engineering and securities—85% to 90% are held by children of high-level cadres.

And questions whether the CCP should be privileged to wear the title of 'government':

Does China’s government actually govern China, or is it merely an organ that implements Party decisions? By using the word “government,” is it correct to grant the Chinese “government” this association with other, in particular Western, governments, or would it not be more accurate to call it the “government with Chinese characteristics” or the “mafia’s front man”? Who questions the legitimacy of the Party leadership to rule China, and to rule it the way it does?

Comparing the Chinese government to a kind of mafia is a spin I haven't heard before, and I think at the local level Holz is definitely correct. Provincial and city governments, from the stories I've heard, do operate in this fashion with petty officials more interested in their own well-being than than of their nation's. The central government has relatively little power in local matters, especially the farther one travels from Beijing, this seems to be a point Holz is neglecting to make.

There also seems to be a tinge of paranoia surrounding this argument, as well as a kind of "Bushy" logic--if you accept anything the Chinese government/mafia says, you are instantly supporting them. I agree with the points made about Tiananmen Square and "Harmonious Society" because there is indeed a lot of bullshit going on here that I don't see, but has anyone compared the rise of other civilizations to that of China? Because that's what's going on, isn't it? And a huge one at that with larger, more isolated minority cultures than India, plus a legacy of instability far surpassing that of it's South Asian neighbor, not to mention much less influence from foreign powers that might have given it the ground for establishing a more democratic form of government.

It's an old argument now, but considering where China was thirty, forty, fifty years ago, shouldn't we be astonished by the level of development, by the number of people raised out of poverty, even in rural regions still in desperate need of development and modernization?

I think China's plan is to introduce democratic reforms gradually, starting at the most local levels for elections that don't really matter, but perhaps to get people used to the idea of voting before suddenly springing it on the entire governmental system. Considering how corrupt everything is, dramatic democratic reforms would be manipulated to no end and the result would be a sham system that is then much more difficult to fix.

My main concern is how willing the CCP will ever actually be willing to give up its authoritarian control of the government. It ultimate goal is legitimacy, and legitimacy means giving the Chinese people a reason to believe that it can do the job better than anyone else, whether it's actually true or not. So on the one hand this forces them to actually serve the people, simply because ignoring them would throw China back to the 60's. But on the other, they ought to be willing to cede power when they see their way is not working, and they've shown no signs of doing that--instead they either kick-start nationalism (like every time Toyota makes an offensive advertisement or Chen Shui-Ban makes a move for Taiwan independence), lock-up reporters on fraudulent charges of 'threats to state security', kill any and all reports on social unrest before it his the global media (and if the story does get out, they quickly publish bs reports saying how so-and-so instigated the event by manipulating those poor [stupid] peasants), or starts spewing out a litany of propagandistic slogans, a tradition that doesn't seem to be dying out any time soon (those white-on-red banners are EVERYWHERE).

The worst of it all is the benefits one gets by becoming a member of the Party--sounds like The Wave (8th grade reading, remember?? Made for ABC after school special!) to me... oh, and if you're Christian (not sure about the other religions, forget it, you can't be a Party member. And of course if anyone from the outside criticizes China, you get either the "don't get involved in our internal affairs" reply, or even more dreaded, the classic "you don't understand China." (While the internal affairs point has some merit, the latter is the equivalent of intellectual bullshit. I'm sorry, but I don't think a lot of Chinese understand their own country, or if they do, they just don't care, which is the scariest thing of all.)

龄莹介绍一下

2007-04-10T13:05:00.000+08:00

一个月之前, 我认识一新的朋友,她叫龄莹. 钟龄莹. 我和她的工作一样的行业, 公关的. 第一次见的时候是一个计划公关活动的开会: Benetton公司要促进一个艺术杂志刚刚到达了中国市场叫Colours. 所以我和她的公司一起合作, 位于在Yen club里, 七九八art district的地方.

那, 在活动的期间有一些好运--我和她一起在外媒体登记桌子责任. 活动花几个小时, 所以我们也花几个小时聊天. 起先, 她想来有点羞的, 但是对我来说很认真, 有爱的, 比较聪明, 而且她的外形很不错. 更好好运是那天晚上，正巧，我过去了韩国饭店，突然在玻璃墙对面看见她！她也看我，所以我进入了，我们有几分之第一约会。

自那天的时候, 我们每天在上网聊天, 每个几天一起去吃饭, 曾一起去我前的老师的讨论...我们去做什么事情, 我们老说话很多, 很自然, 很舒服. 我开始了解好久没认识这样的女孩, 觉得很特别. 越认识越喜欢.

那, 当然我也开始害怕. 原来的时候, 每个我喜欢的女孩都没互给...我以为为什么本次应该有什么区别? 所以, 我不要跟她谈恋爱, 不要伤心. 不过, 我们继续每天说话, 我就觉得她也喜欢我, 但是当然无确定无自信. 很多次我们去吃晚饭, 我真要说"什么什么"的恋爱的词, 但是说不去来. 好可怜是我?

然后呢, 一个机会到了. 上个星期她邀请我吃她自己做的饭, '当然, 我好期待,' 我说. 周日, 我们决定, 虽然我的周末比较忙. 周日下午我已经有计划很好的韩国女的朋友一起去中山公园拍照片, 还有周六周日上午给别的朋友帮助. 反正时间够了, 没问题. 韩国朋友帮我忙了买礼物给龄莹送--一个项链根石头的观音联系. 观音背部能放一个雕刻术, 所以我问了服务员雕刻"钟龄莹".

7点左右终于她的房子到了, 她做马拉西亚的采: 唐杜里鸡胸, 米饭跟coconut奶, 虾, 还有几些很好吃的食物. 吃完以后, 她给我看一下一辈子的照片! 那么多。。。虽然我有点累, 我很喜欢看她和她的家人的照片.
突然我们发现了, 好晚, 时间过去太快了. 我仍然没给她送的礼物. 我等到回家的时间送她, 因为我以为同时送她和给她解释我为了她有什么感情. 那, 如果她说对不起, 你很笨, 不要再看你, 至少我吃到好吃的晚饭 :).

不过, 我真不要害怕了. 送她礼物, 看到她真感动. 我们都说, '好,' 拥抱. 很长时间拥抱, 我在手中放她的头, 眼睛关起来, 吻. 好暖和,好舒服, 完美的片刻. 后来, 有的人说, 是历史吧 :)

my new toy

2007-04-08T07:34:00.000+08:00

mmm tasty

Another one of those "Only in China" moments

2007-04-05T19:58:00.000+08:00

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese woman survived a plunge from a sixth-floor balcony thanks to a convenient pile of excrement which broke her fall, local media said.

What about Malaysia

2007-04-02T12:20:00.000+08:00

This really has nothing to do with China, but Malaysia's not far away. And my comments are just a response to those out there slamming Islam for causing all the violence in the world today, conveniently picking on the countries in which Muslims are engaging in violence against other religious groups, somehow ignoring those where they've maintained a stable, prospering society. I need not mention India, which, considering how many fucking people live there, has done reasonably well with its relations between Muslims and Hindus since Independence, but look at Malaysia: a growing economy and religious diversity somewhat like the US--except a Muslim majority rather than Protestant. And I'd say they have about the same level of religious tolerance that we do--a bit of pity for those who are not Muslim, but they're not going to firebomb your house because of it. According to the CIA factbook it actually sounds like a decent place to live, whether you're Muslim or not.

House of Flying Bananas

2007-03-27T11:05:00.000+08:00

Vermont-grown Chinese humor... Middlebury College language program students, I'm pretty sure.

Whale Explodes in Taiwan, but that's not the half of it...

2007-03-26T12:10:00.000+08:00

The article linked above seems to be about an exploding whale, but by the end the topic takes a somewhat expected twist. Some kind of envy, perhaps? Admiration?

Can I do it...

2007-03-21T10:19:00.000+08:00

go a whole day without using MSN? Can I?? I will if it kills me... the addiction must end...

update: ...crap I have to use it for work. Perhaps another day

My Apartment Complex

2007-03-18T14:25:00.000+08:00

That's (pretty much) where I live

I bet a lot of guys from chinadirt will want to work here...

2007-03-13T10:50:00.000+08:00

New office tower under construction in Shanghai

Chine censors blogs during "Two Meetings"

2007-03-13T10:46:00.000+08:00

First LiveJournal was shut off, now Xanga. Blogger is next? Presumably they'll be back up and running after the meetings are over...

Leave it to China...

2007-03-13T09:56:00.000+08:00

Apparently this guy didn't want to move out. What's interesting is that the land developer didn't bulldoze the building, which suggests as the blog entry notes, the owner of the building has some major 关系. This occurred in Chongqing city, next to Sichuan province.

Watch out expat men in China!

2007-03-11T09:08:00.000+08:00

For it may be you who is next to end up a victim of chinadirt.blogspot.com. Keep your fingernails clean and the conversation PG, else risk the wrath of fickle expat girls who for some reason don't want to get laid ALL THE TIME EVERY TIME. Seriously, why wouldn't they?? (it's rhetorical)

Facetiousness aside, it's not a bad site as there is a great degree of truth to what they girls have to say, and I imagine for Chinese girls it's even worse.

Interesting to see, however, a little blog spat begin thanks to A Peking Man who takes umbrage with Chinadirt's latest entry, "Hardass Western Girls". HWG seems to think APM shouldn't be surprised that she wouldn't want to go home after 'a lousy 60 kuai dry martini', whereas APM seems to think, well what did she expect, wanting to meet up at a place like Centro.

Ultimately, no, APM shouldn't have been surprised, but he wasn't wrong for making the suggestion either, which HWG implies by saying 'Since when did buying a girl one martini entitle a man to public groping and an assumption of sex? Oh yea, in China.' This kind of behavior is global, and I find HWG thinking a little too much of herself by suggesting that somehow her situation in distinct from any other. APM, however, should have accepted her rejection with greater tact--it's all a game anyway, and you have to know how to lose gracefully.

Chinese Media -- 中国政府的bitch?

2007-02-27T13:44:00.000+08:00

I'm not wrong; Miss Media has to do whatever her Big Daddy tells her to. It's a politically sensitive season Big Daddy says. It's time to promote social stability and sing the praises of the Communist Party he says. Miss Media has no choice but to play lapdog, licking up whatever urine Big Daddy pisses out...

Good work China!

China Daily captures Essence of Hillary Clinton

2007-02-21T10:57:00.000+08:00

okay, technically it was Reuters, but I have a feeling most Western papers which consider themselves to have a shred of respectability won't be publishing this particular photo...

1 dead, 270 injured in Beijing during Spring Festival celebrations

2007-02-20T11:18:00.000+08:00

I'm just surprised it wasn't more. Millions of fireworks were set off in the city--I put up videos of where I was that night, and you can see they're going off in every direction.

Chinese Art films making it abroad... slowly

2007-02-19T14:51:00.000+08:00

It's good to see art house films getting a wider viewing, unfortunately not in China. Not that different from most places I figure, but the difference seems more drastic here. There aren't any art house theaters that I know of in China, though I imagine there must be a few. But seeing how these films tend to question the status quo, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't appear on the mainland at all. Especially "Lost in Beijing" which wasn't vetted by the censors before entering the Berlin competition, possibly putting filmmaker Fang Li at risk of being banned from film making for several years.

The year of the Golden Pig has begun!

2007-02-18T14:49:00.000+08:00

Expected to be a baby boomer year for China, the celebration bringing in the new year contains quite a bit of booming itself:

The 11th of every month is 'Stand in Orderly Line' Day

2007-02-11T09:38:00.000+08:00

Yes, this is how China's newest Cultural Revolution shall proceed--in an orderly line, decreed by the government (surely at the highest levels) to occur on the 11th of every month. So, please, people: 先下后上! 先下后上! Let the revolution continue!

Organs of dubious origin

2007-02-03T01:30:00.000+08:00

need a dubious kidney? get in touch with the PLA! The People's Liberation Army, once protectors of freedom, justice and the Chinese way, have now turned to liberating convicts of their organs! Let's start a revolution of the organs, free them from their prisons, give them liberty to take care of rich alcoholics in New Hampshire and Ottawa who've killed their livers and kidneys, because I'm sure that is way preferable to a Chinese prison

Wow, China being... innovative?

2007-01-30T14:19:00.000+08:00

Sort of, it seems. A 4G cellular network? Sweet. Forget broadband...

China's Divorce rate gets halved

2007-01-28T09:57:00.000+08:00

Adjusted from 2.76 per 1000 down to 1.3, why? Because they were counting the number of people getting divorced rather than the number of divorces, as per the international standards. So in fact they still have a ways to go to reach the divorce rates of developed countries. Don't worry China, you'll get there!

He has a job!

2007-01-27T19:31:00.000+08:00

Yes he does... he being me of course. Full-time office job in the SOHO district of Beijing, 28th floor. Working for a PR company as a "consultant" for their English. Sometimes this will mean translation, sometimes helping them prepare presentations to be give to their client, Mercedes-Benz. Never thought I'd be looking forward to such a thing, and maybe I'll get bored of it very quickly, but to be honest I need money and they pay more than 3x what I spend a month (including rent), so... we'll see what happens.

Aiya! The Internet tubes are overfilled

2007-01-22T08:32:00.000+08:00

Filled to the max thanks to that stupid earthquake and Asia's stupid inability to fix the line. You'd think they'd at least have considered the possibility that have a total of six lines (I think) all running TOGETHER would put the internet in a bit of a vulnerable position, dontcha think?

All sites across the Pacific running so so so slowly now...

email change

2007-01-15T10:34:00.000+08:00

So I've decided to give up beermail. Below are the following email addresses you can use to reach me, and I really don't care which one you use.

Happy T-Day

2006-11-24T10:40:00.000+08:00

Mm... Thanksgiving. And for the first time in three years (does 'in three years' mean I haven't had turkey since Thxgiving 2002 or Thxgiving 2003? Does it include the current year? Anyway I mean since 2003) I had a proper Thanksgiving dinner--turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing, candied sweet potatoes, veggies... a salad to start and a piece of carrot cake to finish. All for about $12. Thank you China!

Feels like Christmas!

2006-11-07T23:26:00.000+08:00

Why? Because when I wake up in the morning the election will be finishing, and the results coming in will be like gifts from Santa Claus. Why? Well, I'm just hoping the Democrats pull off something, like taking over both House and Senate. What better gift could Santa deliver than that?

China saves Africa... maybe. No, doubt it. But still.

2006-11-04T18:05:00.000+08:00

At least they seem to be helping. Yes, give them flack for propping up nasty governments, but after seeing how things have gone with Iraq, who can blame them? The only reason the States haven't fallen into an economic and political civil war is that our economy was/is so strong going into the war--China's is not. If they fuck up, their people won't take it so easily as we have.

And while giving money to the countries in need will probably be a huge waste, I do like that China is sending some of its own people in directly to do work, that should ensure that the work gets done and less money is lost to corruption.

It's time for another revolt by the masses

2006-10-24T10:24:00.000+08:00

Because Chinese landlords suck. They are complete assholes, still paranoid about foreigners, like mine is now, who "coincidentally" after finding out a FOREIGNER was one of her tenants (I let my Chinese housemate deal with her, so we never met) decided she needed the apartment for other reasons and now I have to find a new place to live for three fucking stupid weeks before my flight back to the States. So, the first landlord I had was simply a crazy bitch who thought we'd be turning her place into a brothel by letting our boyfriends/girlfriends spend the night, now this one is stuck in a 1920's state of paranoia that foreigners always cause trouble and therefore need to be removed. It's time to revolt people, because the landlords in China, as they have always been, are ASSHOLE BITCHES.

Kim Jong Il SORRY?

2006-10-20T11:15:00.000+08:00

Wow. If this report is true, China has suddenly earned a much bigger role at the negotiating table. WTG, China.

Beijing pics, weee

2006-10-20T00:39:00.000+08:00

view of Wudaokou from the City Rail

nice boots...

You know North Korea must be a pretty crappy place when...

2006-10-19T16:00:00.000+08:00

“After spending a few months in China, they change their minds about the United States,” said a South Korean missionary who regularly visits the North Koreans at the detention center. “In China, they have access to so much information. They look at Web sites and exchange instant messages with people in South Korea.”

Great hourly rate...

2006-10-19T13:13:00.000+08:00

BDSM lovers, click on the title!

Nice dream

2006-10-19T07:46:00.000+08:00

Sweet. I dreamed last night that I was with several high school classmates last night, maybe 30 altogether in Beijing. Several of them for reasons I can't remember had been convicted of a crime and were sentenced to death by hanging. The hanging was to take place in some kind of a study of a building that had a stairwell sorta like the one in a hostel I stayed at in Slovenia this summer. Anyway, the judge/jury/executioner was George Lucas, and he was forcing those found guilty (I wasn't, luckily!) to hang themselves. I don't think I actually saw anyone go through with it--one girl panicked I think, and had a breakdown. The only face I actually remember is Martin Desch's, because he put the noose around his neck but when he let go his neck muscles were strong enough that nothing happened, and he was just like, 'ok, whatever.'

George Lucas of course was getting increasingly angry, but finally I couldn't take it anymore and went on a huge rant (never did that before in a dream) about the injustice of what was happening, ending with something about how I saw no reason to take judgment from a man who made three terrible Star Wars prequels, and finished by lifting up a newspaper with his face splashed across the back page and ripped it apart.

Then a man came to the room we were in, he's a film actor, and I know his face, but I can't remember his name or what movies he's been in. But he came asking for Lucas and wanted to talk to him in another room, and I smelled trouble. As soon as they went in that room I ran out the door and when I reached the stairs I heard shots fired and my classmates screaming. I ran faster, found myself out in Wudaokou not far from my apartment, which I ran back toward. I started thinking what my escape plan would be if he showed at my door, but then I woke up...

中国朋友们!赶快!登记!

2006-10-18T22:40:00.000+08:00

同志,

马上登记吧.我觉得，要是几个百万多中国人开始用Second Life，中国政府没办法block那个website.为什么他们想block它？因为在那所有人真equal，那个经济镇自由，所有的人能互相给一起什么主义没问题。如果那么多人用的话，政府真没办法！自由自由！哈哈

Please pass this on...

2006-10-16T00:11:00.000+08:00

Chinese kids are so cute

2006-10-07T01:49:00.000+08:00

A couple nights ago I was waiting at the Guomao subway platform to catch the train back to Wudaokou. Besides the scattering a few Chinese, a tall skinny white guy was standing near me. A little Chinese girl came over to me from the other side of the platform and started talking to me in English. She didn't look directly at me, but she wasn't shy either. She had good pronunciation, better than many of my students. Asked me where I was from, where I was going, and I asked her how old she was and where she was going. then she pointed at the tall skinny dude and asked me if he was my friend. I said I didn't know him and then she asked me something else about him and I said you can ask him yourself. She laughed and gave me a surprised look like, 'are you kidding?' and said, noooo way. Why not I asked. She said, He's too tall!

Moral Authority, Schmoral Schmathority.

2006-09-30T12:08:00.000+08:00

We criticize countries like China for their authoritarian governments, and yet what are our lawmakers and president but to turn ours into just that, an authoritarian government, no longer accountable to its people? Chinese see the American democratic system as broken and corrupt, and if you live outside the country long enough, it's hard not to see why. Special interest groups, the electoral college, discriminatory voting laws, voting "irregularities", Diebold voting machines, polling up the ass; all these and probably many more factors contribute to this image of a broken system. I don't think it's as broken as Chinese papers like to make their people think, but it's definitely on its way.

Organ Harvesting in China--but they're dead anyway!

2006-09-29T21:19:00.000+08:00

I'm being ironic of course. China takes organs from the prisoners it executes and sells them to foreigners in need. China executes more people per year than the rest of the world combined, which means one thing: the rest of the world has some serious catching up to do; there's a goldmine to be made of the bodies of dead criminals, so come on, let's reinstate the death penalty with vigor and perseverance!

What was that last night in Xiwangzhuang...

2006-09-26T10:51:00.000+08:00

Last night, in the community where I live Xiwangzhuang I was watching Firewall, a decent suspense flick. At about 1am, someone screamed (not in the movie, outside somewhere in Xiwangzhuang. My window was open). And screamed again, and again and again. If there ever was a scream of death, that had to be it. I stopped the movie to listen more carefully, and it was definitely a girl or woman, not old, and it didn't even sound Chinese--I thought I heard some English words in there, but couldn't really make them out. She wasn't stopping for air or anything. I put on a shirt and was going to go check it out, but then the screaming stopped, and I decided being a foreigner out alone at that moment might not be in my best interests. It was totally silent for several minutes, then the screaming started again, but only for a second or two. A bit later I heard footsteps and someone whistling. Today I didn't notice anything unusual, but then again I usually don't.

Creepy...

Holy batcrap Batman!

2006-09-22T22:23:00.000+08:00

There's a fuckwad load of white people in Wudaokou now. WTF. I used to be special...

Shouting Man in Window!

2006-09-19T19:08:00.000+08:00

The other day was walking out of my apartment complex and I heard a cell phone ring from somewhere on high. The window must have been open. The ringing stops and then I hear "WEI!? GAN MA NE?!" except it was more like, "WEI?! GAN MA NE?!"and the very one-sided conversation went on like that till I left the complex--one dude shouting at what was probably nowhere near the top of his lungs into his poor little nokia or LG Chocolate or whatever. The mic has probably lost sensitivity over time thanks to his earthquakian voice.

Rush hour time!

2006-09-15T19:04:00.000+08:00

Yay, it's 7pm, and about this time every evening in Wudaokou, the intersection in front of the Cheng tie station turns into utter chaos. Horns honking as if China had won the World Cup, but we know that'll never happen ;)

Fashion police

2006-09-15T13:58:00.000+08:00

WHOOoooOOOOoooo
(well I wanted a better pic but was heading away from her at the time.)

Oh EMS, just what was that package slip for?

2006-09-15T08:11:00.000+08:00

Oops. Okay, so EMS didn't send me a package and then return it to owner, at least not the package I was thinking it was. My credit card came today... unfortunately I'd already canceled the stupid thing thinking it might be lost in the mail on its way back home, and asked Chase to send me a new one. Add this to my lengthy phone conversation with Chase to make sure they had my address in Beijing correct before sending the new card, and then they sent it to my address in the States anyway... ah what the hell does it take to get a stupid credit card sent to me? And why does global priority mail take so damn damn long?

I don't post no more

2006-09-12T00:45:00.000+08:00

Yeah I don't blog much now, no time. But, check this out:

Oh EMS, why are you so gay?

2006-09-06T08:32:00.000+08:00

And I'm not talking about Eastern Mountain Sports--EMS in Asia is the fucking stupid ass express mail delivery service, something like Fedex or UPS, only much gayer and fucking more retarded than Corky from Life Goes On. My dad sent me a package a couple weeks ago, arrived on August 27th. I didn't have time to call them back about it till yesterday, and they told me they'd be by in 20 minutes. Now of course I didn't actually expect them to be there in 20 minutes, but I certainly didn't expect them to bullshit me about having the package at all. They didn't show up all morning, I had my housemate call them back (because they're too retarded to learn English and I'm almost too retarded to speak Chinese very well), and they told her to call back at 1:30 that afternoon. I did that, but the girl who answered the phone, not surprisingly, was also quite retarded and didn't know anything about my package either, so she told me to call back this morning. I did that, and finally they said they didn't have the package, I gave the phone to my housemate again (the only non-retarded person in this whole equation), and they told her, and here is the seriously down syndrome genetic defect part, that since it was no longer August and they had tried to deliver the package twice (only one notice was ever left on our door, however) and I hadn't called them before September came around (a whopping five days later), they decided to sent the package back to the US.

Who the fuck what gay cock and bull shit is this? Last I remembered normal companies who work in normal places might actually try to contact the person they are delivering the package to before whimsically (or I should say retardedly) deciding to return the package to its sender, especially if it's all the way back to the fucking USA. Stupid fucking gay retards.

(no offense to gays or retards. Except those who work for EMS.)

Anyone looking for an au pair from China?

2006-09-05T21:35:00.000+08:00

Get the hook up:

September 5, 2006

To Give Children an Edge, Au Pairs From China

By GINIA BELLAFANTE

In a conference room at a Holiday Inn last week in Connecticut, 167 young women from 22 countries received a tutorial in catering to the needs of the affluent American child. (Lesson 1: Turn off the television set.)

Many of the women were German. But two drew particular attention, Kunyi Li, 23, and Man Zhang, 24, among the first au pairs from China.

Their services are in great demand, in part because so many Americans have adopted baby girls from China. Driving the need more aggressively is the desire among ambitious parents to ensure their children’s worldliness, as such parents assume that China’s expanding influence will make Mandarin the sophisticates’ language decades hence.

“Our clientele is middle and upper middle class,” said William L. Gertz, chairman of the American Institute for Foreign Study, which oversees Au Pair in America. “They see something really happening, and they don’t want to be left behind.”

The last two years have seen an astonishing increase in the number of American parents wishing to employ Mandarin-speaking nannies, difficult to find here and even harder to obtain from China.

Au Pair in America, the 20-year-old agency that sponsored the two young women in Connecticut, had received no requests for Chinese au pairs until 2004, said Ruth Ferry, the program director.

Since then, it has had 1,400.

The agency said it expected to bring 200 more au pairs to this country before the end of 2007, and other companies in the business are beginning to recruit in China, all taking advantage of relaxed standards for cultural-exchange visas for Chinese.

Hongbin Yu, 23, of Harbin, north of Beijing, who like many other Chinese college students studying English gave herself an Anglophone name, Cecilia, was the first Chinese au pair to land in the United States.

She arrived in March through Go Au Pair, one of the 11 such agencies sanctioned by the Office of Exchange Coordination and Designation at the State Department.

Her employer is Joan Friend, a former president of a technology company in northern California who had been having her two children, Jim, 5, and Paris, 6, tutored in Mandarin for several years.

“The tutors just played with them,” Ms. Friend said from her house in Carmel Valley, Calif. “They thought I was crazy because the children were so young.”

After her son and daughter began to learn the sounds of Mandarin, Ms. Friend sought more intensive training and repeatedly asked Go Au Pair for a Mandarin speaker to live with the family. But visa problems and a lack of contacts in China left the agency unable to place anyone with her.

Ultimately, Ms. Friend found Ms. Yu on her own, through an acquaintance in China, and Go Au Pair handled the paperwork.

“I’ve never been to China,” said Ms. Friend, a single mother who is retired.

She added that she considered China central to the future of global economics, saying, “I think China will rule the banking world in my children’s lifetime, and I want them to be able to participate in that if they want to.”

Like Ms. Friend, Jean Lucas, who lives outside Tampa, Fla., had been frustrated in finding a Chinese au pair for her four children. She is now obtaining one through Au Pair in America who will arrive in a few weeks.

Ms. Lucas said her husband, Sky, a manager of a hedge fund, initiated the search because he did not want to raise culturally narcissistic, monolingual children.

“My husband had been following China for some time,’’ Ms. Lucas said, “and he simply believes that it would be better for international relations if we all put some time and effort into learning Chinese. I’m not expecting this girl to come in and lecture. My children wouldn’t put up with that. But I want them to have an introduction, and I want it to be fun.”

Since she has been with the Friends, Ms. Yu, who studied English and tourism in college in China, has been reading to the children in Mandarin and teaching them to count. In turn, Ms. Friend, in addition to paying her expenses and a monthly stipend, has taken her on trips to Arizona, San Francisco and farther down the coast to Newport Beach.

Begun in 1986, the State Department Au Pair program requires that young nannies work no more than 45 hours a week and return to their home countries after one year. Host families have to provide their charges with a window into the American experience. It is only in the last few years that au pairs have been actively recruited outside Western Europe.

Among Chinese-Americans, it is difficult to come upon young women interested in child-care careers, nanny agency representatives say.

“This is not a field they evolve into,” Amy Hardison, founder of Nanny on the Net, said. “We just have a very hard time finding Chinese nannies.”

In China’s new culturally progressive climate, biases against such domestic work prevail. Ms. Zhang, one of the au pairs who arrived last week and moved in with a family in New Hampshire, said her parents had initially disapproved of her decision, especially because she was then working in customer service for Continental Airlines in Beijing.

“There are prejudices about being a baby sitter,” she remarked. “They said: ‘You have a great job coming out of college. Why would you want to go to America to take care of children?’ ”

It is Ms. Zhang’s hope to open a nursery school in China. And she would like to immerse herself more deeply in American culture, she said, beyond the knowledge she has acquired of it from watching “Friends.”

As for American cooking, she foresees it as a challenge.

“I don’t hate it but I don’t like it,” she offered. “I had pizza yesterday. It’s better at home.”

I'm famous.

2006-08-29T02:50:00.000+08:00

Sort of. I helped CCTV 6 figure out how to translate Conan's monologue and song routine a few of the speeches into Chinese for their rebroadcast of the Emmy Awards. Here, if you pause it and look closely, you can see my name go up the credits. Whohoo. (Second English name to appear, at about 14-15 seconds in.)

OMG Chinese girls are having SEX with a FOREIGNER

2006-08-26T23:55:00.000+08:00

Jeezus, stop the fucking presses. This blog (click on the title) is creating quite the uproar amongst Chinese as can be seen here :

http://fad.mop.com/read,ylqx,338577,0.html

I only understand the general jist of this chinese blog, but the word 垃圾 is repeated many times, which means trash/garbage. Now from a writer's point of view, I completely agree. The writing is crap. No better than Star Trek porno fan fiction. But this is creating such an uproar for two reasons: one, he's a foriegner, thus creating the perception that his sexual escapades are yet another form of foreign invasion. Two, the Chinese criticizing him are not being introspective AT ALL. Do they somehow thing this guy is any worse than their own typical Chinese men? Is he putting them to shame because he's better in bed? Maybe, but he's also become a catharthis for Chinese (those who criticize him, anyway) because he's allowing them to forget how terrible they are. I'm sorry, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but are there entire apartment complexes in the West devoted to 二手妻子, second wives? Of course these men are not actually married to them, but they are essentially concubines, young attractive Chinese women who are taken care of (naturally these must be men of some means) by these men in return for sex and companionship because these dudes got bored with their wives. Now, this "chinabounder" is doing nothing of the sort. He may be an asshole, but certainly no worse than the Chinese dudes, and therefore I see nothing to criticize him about except his poor writing skills.

Why isn't China trying to take back Mongolia?

2006-08-24T15:35:00.000+08:00

Funny, innit?

China ruled Mongolia from the Qing dynasty until its collapse in the early 20th century.

They ruled Mongolia for hundreds of years and yet now they don't give a crap about claiming Mongolia in their attempts to reunite the country--why oh why would that be?? Can't imagine... gee, what makes Tibet and Taiwan, over which China has much more questionable claimes to rule, so much more important? I wonder...

Can't see Wikipedia because you're in China? Fear not and click on me!

2006-08-22T21:06:00.000+08:00

Gollem allows users to view any Wikipedia pages from China--it's a sort of proxy browser only for Wikipedia. It's quite nice--the only thing is that it doesn't let you edit articles, I'm told. Ah well, reading the Wiki is good enough for now.

Make it stop -a prisoner in Quake II

2006-08-21T15:16:00.000+08:00

Pain in my right hand shooting up from my palm into my fingers... tendinitis perhaps? I looked up CTS and contrary to popular belief, there are no strong ties between this disease and repetitive motions, like typing (which is the cause of the pain). But I can't stop typing... ow. It's in my thumb now too.

My 'hood, if you will

2006-08-21T12:06:00.000+08:00

Click to make it bigger. The thing circled in the upper part of the image is my apartment building, which is not so clear here because the image has been shrunk by blogger and reduced in jpeg quality.

3-year-old alcoholic ruins beer festival!

2006-08-20T18:22:00.000+08:00

Understanding hypotheticals

2006-08-17T14:27:00.000+08:00

A common problem I've noticed for Chinese learning English is understanding hypothetical questions. Below is a conversation I had with a Chinese friend on MSN today:

Shaan says: yeah. but i'd focus on just making more friends firstit's always better to have friends than a boyfriend

も一度 says: e, i am anti-social too

Shaan says: don't need more than a couple

も一度 says: yes, hehehehehehe i just want two people's world

Shaan says: but then who do you talk to when you're angry about your bf?

も一度 says: bf? who is my bf?

Shaan says: it's a hypothetical question.

Now I'm pretty sure any native speaker would catch that my last question is a hypothetical, but Chinese seem not to get this, even someone with English as good as this girl's is. And she studied in England for a while, too. I'm not sure why it's such a problem...

China Daily in desperate need of proofreaders!

2006-08-16T21:17:00.000+08:00

The following quote appeared in a Chinadaily article (though they cite another source, they still should have checked it) about how Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes stopped their car on the way back from a soccer match to check on a couple who'd been in a car accident, and as a sidenote, that their baby had yet to make its debut:

The tot has rarely been out in pubic since she was born three months ago, but Remini has revealed she saw her several weeks ago and insists she is healthy and beautiful.

Oops.

Two great shirts

2006-08-16T09:32:00.000+08:00

You might find these in a store like Hot Topic in the States, but now we got 'em in Beijing, sans irony

Me and Christine going to 中山陵

2006-08-16T01:43:00.000+08:00

Xanga now has video support, and I can embed it! Thanks for helping me use your services without using your blog, Xanga!

Youtube.com down??

2006-08-15T22:31:00.000+08:00

if you're in China, tell me if you can access youtube.com. As of about 10pm I could no longer reach it. www.danwei.org posted an article today about SARFT's crackdown on Chinese videohosting sites, so I wouldn't be surprised if this were the case.

UPDATE: no, not China's fault. Looks like youtube's servers are just having capacity issues.
http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/tracert.ch?ip=youtube.com
http://www.youtube.com

So about my weekend

2006-08-15T20:23:00.000+08:00

I think it was Thursday I got a call from a good friend who lived in Beijing till May of this year. He's back in Minnesota now, preparing to teach Chinese to a bunch of high school kids--pretty amazing considering he's not Chinese.

Matt called me and asked me for a favor. A friend of his, a woman he was seeing in Beijing was preparing to move to a new apartment. She was moving because her current place was too expensive. A guy from Hong Kong took it and was going to move in on Sunday, so she and her housemate had to move out by Sunday morning at the latest. Problem was, she and the housemate hadn't been getting along recently. I really feel sorry for this woman, Matt's friend, because she's had a string of tough luck the past year or two, starting with a divorce from an abusive, cheating husband to a near kidnapping that Matt saved her from (wrote about that in a previous post on Xanga), and now this housemate problem.

Suspicions were aroused about the housemate when they had gone together to the police station, I think, about some issue regarding her near kidnapping, but I'm not sure. In any case, the police asked to see the housemate's ID card, which said she's a Beijinger. They checked her ID number however, and discovered it was a fake ID, much to the astonishment of the housemate. Not that I actually think she was surprised, I think she argued with them about showing her ID before she gave it up, and how anyone could not know they were holding a fake ID is far beyond me. I think she's a pathological liar and a backstabber. Let me explain.

The fake ID thing was just the beginning of the weirdness. Later, after the two of them found a new apartment, Sophia (Matt's friend) went back to the real estate agent (in China you go through a real estate agent to rent apartments as well as buy them) to talk about the details, and the agent told her that her housemate had come back on her own to try to make a deal with them to let her have the larger room but pay less rent than Sophia. This was, obviously, the last straw for Sophia, so she decided she wouldn't live with this crazy woman after all. The thing was, she (I think) didn't tell the housemate till kinda the last minute--with good reason I think. The housemate, as Sophia witnessed at the police station, is bipolar, and Matt knew this as well. So he was calling me to ask me to go to Sophia's on Saturday to just be there while the housemate moved out, so as to prevent crazy housemate from doing anything vindictive to Sophia--probably not violence, but maybe try to take some of her stuff. I said sure, no problem.

Except for one thing, that I had to teach in the afternoon, and had to find someone to cover Sophia's place for me until I could come back. For that I turned to Jason, a Chinese American guy also working in Beijing who I met through Matt and is a pretty cool guy. He also said no problem, he could make it. So everything seemed set to go smoothly--Matt figured that as long as someone else was there, the crazy bipolar housemate wouldn't try anything.

Oh, one would wish that were true... part 2 coming soon.

What a weekend...

2006-08-13T09:03:00.000+08:00

I'll be posting more a bit later about my Saturday... for now I'll just mention to anyone interested, I graduate on January 7th barring any unforeseen circumstances, and this relates to China only in that I've been working on my MFA from here for the whole two years of it. Also, a photo show is in the works down at La Brioche, and that will be in January as well, nicely coinciding with graduation. Photos are from China of course, chosen by me and my mom. Mom's also helping me to get the photos mounted and figure out the best way to display them. Thanks, Mom!

Taiwan and China, and other complicated relationships

2006-08-12T01:22:00.000+08:00

So Taiwan is once again making a bid to join the UN under its own flag, instead as the official government of China. They will fail, to be sure, because no one wants to make China unhappy these days, i.e. lose face. What's interesting to me is that there are still 24 countries in the world that recognize Taiwan as the legitimate government seat of China. That's so bizarre I can't quite put it into words--anachronistic? I dunno.

Speaking of complicated relationships, it seems like so many people around me are involved in either extramarital affairs or a weird sort of landlord/concubine thing, except it's totally voluntary and really at the will of the girl, not the guy. Extramarital affairs are nothing too weird, but I never knew anyone in the states who was "the other" in the relationship--I'm not sure I even knew any couple in which one member was having an affair. Seems more common here, that's for sure... doesn't surprise me in a way, since divorce is only now becoming in vogue. I'm not judging any of my friends for the decisions they've made, I just find it interesting because it's hard for me to imagine myself falling in love with someone whom I knew would never leave her husband. Sometimes I think about how much fun it would be to seduce someone's wife, but I'd never actually act on it. Anyway, the weird concubine/landlord relationship regards a friend of a friend who shall remain nameless--the funny thing about that is that her two close friends are having affairs with married men and they look down on her for the relationship she has--I guess if we're moralizing then the fact that she's basically got a rich guy on her leash paying for whatever she wants him to despite the fact that they broke up long ago would put her in a morally more corrupt position than her friends who are merely having affairs. At least they are in love; this girl's just prostituting herself--actually I don't know that. I think the guy might just be so pathetic that he thinks she'll some day accept him but isn't even getting any action from her right now--but in any case her relationship with the guy is business-like from her perspective, using him for his money and really not giving anything in return except maybe some pity.

The wonderful forecast...

2006-08-10T15:04:00.000+08:00

forecast has been the same for more than a month...

Gray days in Beijing

2006-08-10T09:43:00.000+08:00

Officials claim 29 "Blue Sky Days" in July, but that's a load of tortoise crap. Here's my sky today at 9:30, and this is how it's been almost every day for a month (no I'm not in prison, that's just my jail bars protecting me from the thieves who are always trying to climb into my third floor window. I have to beat them off with a stick sometimes):

On The Cultural Revolution

2006-08-10T07:28:00.000+08:00

Click on the title for a link to a Chinese blog about the Cultural Revolution. I haven't spent the time to actually try reading it, but if you're Chinese or understand Chinese it might be of interest to you, especially the audio clip of some guy announcing the beginning of the Revolution (correct me if I'm wrong). Even if you don't understand, it's interesting to listen to. I can catch pieces of meaning, but my Chinese still sucks, so I dunno much more than you do!

Blogspot's back!

2006-08-10T07:11:00.000+08:00

Yay, blogspot is back up in China. Let's see how long it lasts this time...

2006-01-30T06:24:00.000+08:00

until china allows me to use blogger again, i'll be posting at www.xanga.com/shaankhan

Stop it China. You're going to lose.

Ingenious

2005-12-09T17:52:00.000+08:00

What won't those Chinese entrepreneurs think of next?? I want to get in on this...

stupid bi!

2005-12-01T23:05:00.000+08:00

I'm going to give you some color to see see

2005-11-30T10:13:00.000+08:00

I don't like to get angry. I'm not good at it. I shake, get nervous, can't think, and want to shout out like a man with Tourette's. But I don't do that. Instead I become very quiet.

It has been more than a month now, and our Foreign Affairs Office has neither paid us nor given any sort of response to our request that they pay for the damage caused by the faulty wiring to our electronic products--in my case, a computer adapter, digital camera adapter, cell phone charger, and external hard drive adapter. Today they will finally respond, but according to what my teaching assistant has told me, they are going to try to say that the damage was our fault, that perhaps (or maybe, they love those conditional words) we were using high-powered electronics that busted the wire.

Funny thing about that. The only high-powered electronics we have are what they provide--fridge, hot water heater, microwave. The combined wattage of my damaged products is about 100 watts. Whoever is in charge is, as Chris would say, a fuckhead.

So, I'm preparing for a fight. The money isn't that significant though it is a fair amount (about $100, which goes far here), but the fact that Qiao (the FAO liaison, sort of our boss) has given excuses time and again, said things about the matter in Chinese when he thought we couldn't understand, and at least once told one of us an outright lie has me itching for blood. Metaphorically of course, but I'm afraid I'll lose my cool when we go to see him this afternoon. I told him before that I would stop teaching if we didn't resolve this issue to our satisfaction today, and I will certainly do so if it comes to that. First, however, I'll be as stubborn as a mule and try to give him all the shit that needs to be given.

It's frustrating that he's Chinese and that his English isn't very good, because it means I have to speak slowly and clearly. Ever try to do that when you are pissed off? Not easy. But visible anger isn't the answer. Kind obstinancy, on the other hand, will probably be the only way to get anything out of this.

Sometimes the distance is just too far

2005-11-30T00:24:00.000+08:00

Yesterday a student came to visit me. Alice is a very kind, sweet girl, and almost unique in two ways: she's left-handed (very unusual in China), and doesn't have her right arm. She lost it when she was six, playing near or in the road and a car hit her. Being a girl in China is hard enough; being a girl from a village is even more difficult; being a girl from a village with one arm must seem utterly hopeless. And this is why she is so strong-minded.

I have a distant cousin in a similar situation, who grew up with only one useable arm, and like her, Alice doesn't like being helped by others who think she can't do certain things herself because she's handicapped. Just to keep up with others she's always had to try harder and has developed a tough streak in her character. It's her first year at Binhai and she is her class's monitor. She is fortunate to have a very lively class, and as far as I know, she hasn't received much discrimination because of her armlessness. I admire her for her strength.

Because of her left-handedness, however, I think she feels a special connection with me, a lefty myself. She treats me well, too well, really, giving me gifts and photos and offering to help me any time I need it. It's a sort of respect not just for a teacher, but for a good friend, that I've noticed is more prevalent, in my opinion, amongst villagers than city-dwellers.

This respect is a problem for me. I know Chinese tradition values teachers highly, and what I might take to be undeserved flattery or even benign bribery might just be my students showing me respect. The problem is, and I think this also seems to be true more from villagers, is the expectation that I will reciprocate the respect they show me, and that it will be reciprocated according to their idea of how it should be reciprocated rather than how I feel most comfortable doing so. For example, a couple days after the first visit Alice paid me I ran into her in the student dining hall as I was going for dinner with another student who'd invited me. It was crowded and I was in a hurry as my student was moving quickly, and I didn't have time to stop and talk to Alice. I said a quick hi and moved on.

Later that evening, she called me in tears, angry that I brushed her off, as she saw it. She felt I hadn't treated her like a friend. I was a bit abrupt, but I hardly thought it was a big deal, especially in China where every public place is crowded and people hardly have time to stop amidst it all. But she was upset that I had not shown the proper respect one friend should show another. In fact she thought I didn't acknowledge her at all, though I remember very quickly saying 'hi,' before moving on, and I told her that I did say hi and she must not have heard me. I didn't realize such a slight would become such a huge deal to her, much less anyone ever. After all, I'd only just met her--did she already consider us friends? How quickly do two people actually become friends? I've always been slow to develop friendships. (I admit that I'm more tolerant of a girl if I find her attractive, but that tolerance will wear off if she's annoying.)

Last Saturday she came to visit me again, and this time she had not called first and showed up with a friend. I was a little annoyed that she hadn't called first, but I was also leaving in ten minutes to make dumplings with one of my classes. When I opened the door I told her I was about to go out and didn't have time to see her, which was true even though I didn't feel like seeing her just then (my apartment was a total mess, besides just not wanting to see her), and told her we could meet tomorrow and said good-bye. I saw no problem with this, but of course there was--I hadn't let her come in.

Alice did come to visit yesterday (Monday), and she told me that she felt I was rude for not letting her and her friend come in, even if it was just for a short time. After I'd turned them away, her friend told her I was not very polite! I think Alice was more concerned with the fact that she lost face than that I was rude by not letting them in. (Actually I hate it when students or anyone who thinks they are my friend shows up with their own friend without telling me this person would come. I feel like they want to show off their relationship with me to their friends.) I told her there are some cultural differences between us, and that she has to understand that it's not okay to show up at my door unannounced because, exactly as had happened on Saturday, it may be inconvenient for me. I'm still not sure she understands this.

I try to keep it clear that though we are friendly with each other, she is still my student and that until I leave her, it will remain a student-teacher relationship rather than friend-friend. This is not just because I am her teacher; there are some students I am happy to call friends, simply because I get along with them better. Alice is a nice person, but she is too sensitive, I think, and too strict about tradition, and the way she laughs at almost everything makes me nervous. People shouldn't laugh so much. Maybe she's just nervous, too, but that's not my problem.

I hate the position she has put me in by being nice to me in superficial ways (the gifts, the photos), because now I feel that she expects me to treat her more favorably than others, and I don't want to do that. She's just not that much fun to be with.

This is not to say that I can't stand her. There have been moments of something like enlightenment as well. Little things.

I tell my students that email is the best way to keep in touch. When I leave next term, my phone number will change. I don't realize that at Binhai they don't have many opportunities to use computers, even fewer opportunities to use the internet, and some students have never even used email before. Alice has never used it before. She shook her head when I asked her if she knew what Yahoo was.

Yesterday evening I took her through the steps to create an email account and showed her how to send me an email. I wonder if Binhai will make an exception for her, because they require students to acquire a certain typing speed to graduate, and she will never reach it. She is quick to learn and it didn't take long to register her with yahoo.cn, after which she immediately sent me two emails from my room: "hi, what are you doing?" in the first, and "hey, I miss you!" in the second. I suppose the closest experience I've had would have been my own introduction to email about ten years ago, when my brother entered college and we used telnet to send email back and forth. I can't remember what that felt like, if anything at all, but Alice seemed pretty excited about it, so maybe I was, too.

Some traditions die hard

2005-11-24T15:30:00.000+08:00

RUFFLING LOVE NESTS: Wei Wujun, a detective known for his prowess for uncovering illicit relations between men and their mistresses, stands in front of a "concubine village" in Shanghai.
(Don Lee / LAT)

Concubine villages anyone? Some people will do anything for love... or something like it.

ICUP

2005-11-22T21:48:00.000+08:00

My old uni in Dongying, University of Petroleum was once known as UPC (University of Petroleum, East China). But now now they've changed their name to China University of Petroleum, and changed the acronym to CUP. You would think they might consult an English speaking person before changing the name?? How does this sound?

"Where do you study?"

"I go to C-U-P"

"No you certainly will not!"

Idiots in charge...

Condom in a bottle!

2005-11-21T21:18:00.000+08:00

Sweet! A woman's condom in a pressurized can. What won't those crazy Chinese think of next!

Ai... I mean 爱

2005-11-20T17:15:00.000+08:00

Heat is finally on, but doesn't seem to be making a load of difference.

Birthday was last Friday. Good to see old friends, but I wish I'd spent it with Ning Ning instead. Anyone reading this doesn't know her, but I think I'm in love with her, though maybe I've told her too late. She's gone to Hongzhou, a large city in another province and I don't know when she's coming back. I miss her.

JUNK FOOD

2005-11-16T10:59:00.000+08:00

God, it's been awhile. Uncle Mark is THE goto guy if you need a care package, as you can see below:

Joanna's coming!

2005-11-13T11:40:00.000+08:00

Joanna's coming! 1 hour!

"There's no hurry. After all, it's a life sentence."

2005-11-12T21:13:00.000+08:00

A chilling look at how a typical criminal court case quickly became a Kafkesque nightmare for the defendant and his father.

The son is accused of attacking a woman and her daughter; the motive is that the woman's husband had had a money dispute with the accused's father.

The intermediate court finds him guilty, as Chinese courts do of all defendants about 99% of the time. Loopholes and politics undermine the few laws that exist to protect defendants' rights.

The father studies law on his own, uses the inconsistencies to present his appeal to the provincial high court which overturns the verdict, but instead of releasing the defendant, return the case to the intermediate court for retrial, and give advice to the prosecutors on how to improve their case, which almost solely relies on a single shoeprint.

Inevitably the son is found guilty again, the father appeals to the high court again, and this time he is overruled. His son will serve a life sentence. In a desperate last attempt, the father serves a petition in the feudalist style of old China after prostrating himself at the feet of a law student to help him talk to the officials.

The officials are two of the judges from the high court, both of whom had ruled against the father. They suggest the burden of proof is on the father and his son; they suggest that the father doesn't know his son well enough; they suggest that the father should relax because he has plenty of time; after all, it is a life sentence.