Tuesday, November 29, 2005
XI'AN, BEIJING, FOREIGNERS & BIRD FRU
On our last day in Xi'an we went to see the Terracotta Warriors. Erected 2000 years ago, these 6000 life-sized statues all have different faces. They were discovered in 1974 by farmers digging a well. Now they are the 2nd biggest tourist draw in China after the Great Wall. China proclaims them to be the "8th wonder of the world." However, since I can think of a half dozen "8th" wonders of the world, let's call it the 14th wonder of the world. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is flooded with tourists and people hawking little warrior souvineers.
It was then on to a 12 hour train ride to Beijing. I really like overnight trains. You get to meet lots of cool Chinese people (and a few crazy Dutch expats.) There are six people to a sleeper car and surprisingly, unlike anything else in this country, the beds are big enough for me. And comfortable. Arriving in Beijing at 8am, we checked into the Beijing Jade International Youth Hostel. It's really fancy for a hostel and located right near Tiananmen Square.
That morning we went to Tiananmen and wandered around the largest public square in the world, overlooked by a giant poster of Chairman Mao. Those who don't know the story of Tiananmen, I'll simplify it for you...student protests turn into a citywide protest with 1 million people...Deng Xiaoping declares martial law...the army opens fire on the crowd killing anywhere from 800-10,000 people (depends on the estimate, no one knows)...Time magazine photographer takes the 1989 Photo of the Year that I hope all of you have seen, of the lone man standing in front of a line of tanks (If you haven't seen it, look it up online.)
My next few days have been exploring Beijing. We saw the Hutongs - little side streets, many of which are being demolished for the Olympics; The night market - where one can sample delacasies ranging from snakes to bees to scorpions (by the way, starfish is gross;) and an open market where I bought some propaganda posters with Russians killing Japanese and Nazis and Chinese killing Nationalists (Taiwanese.)
The weather in Beijing has been quite nice, around 50 degrees. The only problem is one can't see the sun here, due to all the pollution. Living in Beijing is equivilant to smoking 70 cigarettes per day. Lovely.
Last night I hung out with Kev, my soon to be cousin through marriage. We went out for pizza and he told me about his being a filmmaker here. He just did a documentary on an orphanage in the south, and the government, realizing what he had shot, tried to take away the film. They destroyed his tape in front of him, but he had already swiched the tape. He then smuggles the films out of the country and puts a different name on them so they don't track him down. He has been living here for 3 years and gave me some tips for living in China.
Other people I've been hanging out with include: a French Canadian who keeps garlic with him due to fear of vampires; a black Nigerian Brit who came to China during SARS because tickets were cheap and never went home and who now writes plays and poetry and parties a lot; 3 vegetarian Finns trekking through Asia on the way to a monastery in India to learn yoga for 2 years; and some other interesting people. What is it about me that I attract crazy people.
I had Peking duck the other night. $5 for a whole duck. No one seems to realize that you can't get bird fru if the poultry is cooked. A World Health Organization scientist from Japan has claimed that China has had over 300 bird fru deaths so far and about 1000 cases, but that, in a repeat of SARS, the government has systematically covered this up. People have been arrested who were supposed to do the documenting of cases, and the government continues to blatently lie, anolg with praying that the first human-to-human transmission doesn't occur here.
On our last day in Xi'an we went to see the Terracotta Warriors. Erected 2000 years ago, these 6000 life-sized statues all have different faces. They were discovered in 1974 by farmers digging a well. Now they are the 2nd biggest tourist draw in China after the Great Wall. China proclaims them to be the "8th wonder of the world." However, since I can think of a half dozen "8th" wonders of the world, let's call it the 14th wonder of the world. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is flooded with tourists and people hawking little warrior souvineers.
It was then on to a 12 hour train ride to Beijing. I really like overnight trains. You get to meet lots of cool Chinese people (and a few crazy Dutch expats.) There are six people to a sleeper car and surprisingly, unlike anything else in this country, the beds are big enough for me. And comfortable. Arriving in Beijing at 8am, we checked into the Beijing Jade International Youth Hostel. It's really fancy for a hostel and located right near Tiananmen Square.
That morning we went to Tiananmen and wandered around the largest public square in the world, overlooked by a giant poster of Chairman Mao. Those who don't know the story of Tiananmen, I'll simplify it for you...student protests turn into a citywide protest with 1 million people...Deng Xiaoping declares martial law...the army opens fire on the crowd killing anywhere from 800-10,000 people (depends on the estimate, no one knows)...Time magazine photographer takes the 1989 Photo of the Year that I hope all of you have seen, of the lone man standing in front of a line of tanks (If you haven't seen it, look it up online.)
My next few days have been exploring Beijing. We saw the Hutongs - little side streets, many of which are being demolished for the Olympics; The night market - where one can sample delacasies ranging from snakes to bees to scorpions (by the way, starfish is gross;) and an open market where I bought some propaganda posters with Russians killing Japanese and Nazis and Chinese killing Nationalists (Taiwanese.)
The weather in Beijing has been quite nice, around 50 degrees. The only problem is one can't see the sun here, due to all the pollution. Living in Beijing is equivilant to smoking 70 cigarettes per day. Lovely.
Last night I hung out with Kev, my soon to be cousin through marriage. We went out for pizza and he told me about his being a filmmaker here. He just did a documentary on an orphanage in the south, and the government, realizing what he had shot, tried to take away the film. They destroyed his tape in front of him, but he had already swiched the tape. He then smuggles the films out of the country and puts a different name on them so they don't track him down. He has been living here for 3 years and gave me some tips for living in China.
Other people I've been hanging out with include: a French Canadian who keeps garlic with him due to fear of vampires; a black Nigerian Brit who came to China during SARS because tickets were cheap and never went home and who now writes plays and poetry and parties a lot; 3 vegetarian Finns trekking through Asia on the way to a monastery in India to learn yoga for 2 years; and some other interesting people. What is it about me that I attract crazy people.
I had Peking duck the other night. $5 for a whole duck. No one seems to realize that you can't get bird fru if the poultry is cooked. A World Health Organization scientist from Japan has claimed that China has had over 300 bird fru deaths so far and about 1000 cases, but that, in a repeat of SARS, the government has systematically covered this up. People have been arrested who were supposed to do the documenting of cases, and the government continues to blatently lie, anolg with praying that the first human-to-human transmission doesn't occur here.
Thursday, November 24, 2005
TRAVEL, CHINESE THANKSGIVING, AMERICAN CENSORSHIP
Despite my being in a country that censors what I write, I wouldn't have guessed the problem would come from America. Last post I wrote,
"We walked into a little room with about 15 people sitting in it, some of whom were smoking opium. We joined them in the room and they offered us tea. After each drinking a cup, the one guy who could speak Chinese (everyone else only spoke Lahu) told us "the tea will do something to you." A leader who will not be named made up that it was opium tea and we all departed. I don't know what the tea really was but I had crazy dreams."
Today I got an email from the Program Director of Where There Be Dragons, the program I'm on until Dec. 9th:
Ben,
We very rarely edit yak yaks [postings on their website] or fail to post yak yaks that students write, but I felt that your mention of opium in your latest yak yaks merited checking with your leaders. In most cases the only edits we make are when there is something written that is contrary to our safety policies. Clearly drinking tea with opium, whether real or implied is contrary to our policies and I therefore, after checking with your leaders, decided to edit that part.
Regards,
Doug Sandok
This is the second time I've been censored. Bah. The worst part was on their website, he rewrote my paragraph instead of deleating the content he disliked (Doug's additions in bold):
"We walked into a little room with about 15 people sitting in it, with 3 very old locals in traditional clothes smoking tobacco from their long pipes. They invited us into the room and offered us tea. Only one man could speak Chinese and everyone else spoke Lahu. The tea was very bitter and according to the man locally produced."
The tea was very bitter, and the 3 ladies in traditional dress were smoking (albeit opium) but I didn't say that in my post. Hmm.
First we took an overnight train to Chengdu. 1 1/2 days there, saw pandas and went to McDonalds. Didn't do too much else, it was really just a transit stop.
For as long as I can remember, almost every Thanksgiving my family and I would travel to visit relatives in Brooklyn. The highlight of the meal, aside for the turkey was always the macaroni & cheese. After the meal we usually play Scrabble. The next day we go eat lamb kebobs at a Turkish restaurant. Too no one's great surprise, old habits die hard.
Last night, with my Chinese leader we celebrated the slaughter of indigenous people. While the Chinese are pretty good at it, Americans are far more efficient. We celebrated Thanksgiving on the 23rd since we were travelling on the 24th. In Chengdu, we went to Grandma's Kitchen, a western restaurant in the foreigners section of town. At Grandma's I had a turkey club sandwich and mac & cheese followed by apple pie. We then went to the train station for our 16 hour train to Xi'an. While on the train we played Scrabble (the portable travel kind.) Arriving in Xi'an at around 2pm, we visited the Muslim district, saw the Great Mosque and ate lamb kebobs. So yeah, Thanksgiving can be done, even 8000 miles away.
Tomorrow it's the Terra Cotta Warriors, then Beijing in a few days. I'll keep updating when I can.
Despite my being in a country that censors what I write, I wouldn't have guessed the problem would come from America. Last post I wrote,
"We walked into a little room with about 15 people sitting in it, some of whom were smoking opium. We joined them in the room and they offered us tea. After each drinking a cup, the one guy who could speak Chinese (everyone else only spoke Lahu) told us "the tea will do something to you." A leader who will not be named made up that it was opium tea and we all departed. I don't know what the tea really was but I had crazy dreams."
Today I got an email from the Program Director of Where There Be Dragons, the program I'm on until Dec. 9th:
Ben,
We very rarely edit yak yaks [postings on their website] or fail to post yak yaks that students write, but I felt that your mention of opium in your latest yak yaks merited checking with your leaders. In most cases the only edits we make are when there is something written that is contrary to our safety policies. Clearly drinking tea with opium, whether real or implied is contrary to our policies and I therefore, after checking with your leaders, decided to edit that part.
Regards,
Doug Sandok
This is the second time I've been censored. Bah. The worst part was on their website, he rewrote my paragraph instead of deleating the content he disliked (Doug's additions in bold):
"We walked into a little room with about 15 people sitting in it, with 3 very old locals in traditional clothes smoking tobacco from their long pipes. They invited us into the room and offered us tea. Only one man could speak Chinese and everyone else spoke Lahu. The tea was very bitter and according to the man locally produced."
The tea was very bitter, and the 3 ladies in traditional dress were smoking (albeit opium) but I didn't say that in my post. Hmm.
First we took an overnight train to Chengdu. 1 1/2 days there, saw pandas and went to McDonalds. Didn't do too much else, it was really just a transit stop.
For as long as I can remember, almost every Thanksgiving my family and I would travel to visit relatives in Brooklyn. The highlight of the meal, aside for the turkey was always the macaroni & cheese. After the meal we usually play Scrabble. The next day we go eat lamb kebobs at a Turkish restaurant. Too no one's great surprise, old habits die hard.
Last night, with my Chinese leader we celebrated the slaughter of indigenous people. While the Chinese are pretty good at it, Americans are far more efficient. We celebrated Thanksgiving on the 23rd since we were travelling on the 24th. In Chengdu, we went to Grandma's Kitchen, a western restaurant in the foreigners section of town. At Grandma's I had a turkey club sandwich and mac & cheese followed by apple pie. We then went to the train station for our 16 hour train to Xi'an. While on the train we played Scrabble (the portable travel kind.) Arriving in Xi'an at around 2pm, we visited the Muslim district, saw the Great Mosque and ate lamb kebobs. So yeah, Thanksgiving can be done, even 8000 miles away.
Tomorrow it's the Terra Cotta Warriors, then Beijing in a few days. I'll keep updating when I can.
Monday, November 21, 2005
SERVICE, CHURCH & TRAVEL
A 2 hour bus ride from Shuongjiang we arrived in a little village where we had lunch. We then boarded a tractor for the 13km ride to Papuh the town of our servce project. Papuh has 34 houses, of whom 97% of the people are Lahu, a minority group. Once in Papuh we began digging a 100m long knee deep trench to lay he last of the pipes (which had been prevously started by the villagers.) We finished around dinner, ate goat (which was slaughtered for us) and then wandered over to the village down the road. We walked into a little room with about 15 people sitting in it, some of whom were smoking opium. We joined them in the room and they offered us tea. After each drinking a cup, the one guy who could speak Chinese (everyone else only spoke Lahu) told us "the tea will do something to you." A leader who will not be named made up that it was opium tea and we all departed. I don't know what the tea really was but I had crazy dreams.
We stayed in the house of one of the wealthiest families because they had 2 extra rooms where we could sleep on the floor. Let me clarify wealthy here: the average village income was about $100 per year or $0.33/day. That's impoverished by Chinese standards but not severely impoverished ($75/year.) By contrast, most international orgazations place the poverty line at $1/day.
The second day I was in the group that attached the water meters and faucets to peoples houses. Each house had to purchase their own water meter and pay for water (a nominal fee) because the NGO beleves that this promotes ownership of the water project. Basically, when a pipe breaks, the villagers will fix it themselves rather than calling the NGO and saying "hey, your water system broke." Attaching the pipes consisted of cutting the pipe, dipping it in hot oil, stretching it with a stick, and attaching it to the water meter. The process was repeted again for the faucet and then repeated for all 34 houses.
That afternoon we walked 2km to the local school (which served 3 villages and had 140 of the 185 kids in the area attending.) The principal told us about the school and what they study (the only class I remember was the Society/Morals class which is code for Communism class.) After the talk, we gave the kids candy and jump-ropes and played with them for a while. Most of the little kids had never seen white people and wre afraid of us at first but quickly warmed up. It was still funny saying hello to someone in Chinese and having them turn and run away. In the evening, there was a party, where everyone in the town showed up (plus a neighboring town) and they sang for us, we sang for them, then we all circle danced.
Day 3 we finished up the last of the pipes, burried them and did the last of the attachments. When I was done, I tried to find the rest of the group to help them finish the well. I walked down the road in the direction they went until I found a villager. "Lao wai zai nar (where are the foreigners?)" I asked. He pointed up the hill, so I stared walking up. After about 10 minutes I was in someone's field and I turned around. Walking back I saw the same guy, asked him again and this time he motioned for me to follow him. I followed for 30 minutes, trekking uphill as he pointed to different plants and told me their Chinese names. We arrived at the top of the hill and he pointed to a plant saying proudly, "lao wai." After tome charades with me trying express digging the well, he ripped up the plant and handed it to me. It was at that point I realized neither he nor his buddies there spoke Chinese. The plant he showed me was not native to China so it was "lao wai," just as we were. They led me back, stopping on the way to grab some sugar cane for me. The Chinese word for sugar cane is ganja. Needless to say, this confused me as the cane plant was sitting in a field of marijuana plants (apparently used for hemp.)
After finally arriving back muddy and tired, sugar cane in hand I took a nap. After dinner we had church service. Church was entirely in Lahu. Converted about 100 years ago by Baptists, the prayer books were in Latin characters wth tones, a missionary attempt at giving the Lahu language written script so they could learn the bible. After the 20 minute service was done I went up with Michelle (the project coordinator) and we sang Amazing Grace in English as the congregation joined in in Lahu. Afterwards everyone went outside and circle danced while singing. I picked up the tune easily enough but couldn't seem to pick up the words. After a minute I realized they were singing solfege: Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do and I quickly picked up the words. All those years of singing have payed off.
We then took a 4 hour bus to Lincang, showered and took an overnight bus back to Kunming. Chinese people are too small, so I couldn't fit into the bed. Despite my having lost 20lbs, I am still 6'3". Trevor has now officially left the group. We said goodbye in Shuongjiang. Megan changed her mind again and is going south tomorrow. Dean will stay in Kunming. Sar, Julia and I, accompanied by our Chinese leader Christina will be headed to Beijing. We take a train tonight to Chengdu in Sichuan. After that we have given ourselves a week to get to Beijing by train with a few day stop in Kaifeng, the town with Chinese Jews.
A 2 hour bus ride from Shuongjiang we arrived in a little village where we had lunch. We then boarded a tractor for the 13km ride to Papuh the town of our servce project. Papuh has 34 houses, of whom 97% of the people are Lahu, a minority group. Once in Papuh we began digging a 100m long knee deep trench to lay he last of the pipes (which had been prevously started by the villagers.) We finished around dinner, ate goat (which was slaughtered for us) and then wandered over to the village down the road. We walked into a little room with about 15 people sitting in it, some of whom were smoking opium. We joined them in the room and they offered us tea. After each drinking a cup, the one guy who could speak Chinese (everyone else only spoke Lahu) told us "the tea will do something to you." A leader who will not be named made up that it was opium tea and we all departed. I don't know what the tea really was but I had crazy dreams.
We stayed in the house of one of the wealthiest families because they had 2 extra rooms where we could sleep on the floor. Let me clarify wealthy here: the average village income was about $100 per year or $0.33/day. That's impoverished by Chinese standards but not severely impoverished ($75/year.) By contrast, most international orgazations place the poverty line at $1/day.
The second day I was in the group that attached the water meters and faucets to peoples houses. Each house had to purchase their own water meter and pay for water (a nominal fee) because the NGO beleves that this promotes ownership of the water project. Basically, when a pipe breaks, the villagers will fix it themselves rather than calling the NGO and saying "hey, your water system broke." Attaching the pipes consisted of cutting the pipe, dipping it in hot oil, stretching it with a stick, and attaching it to the water meter. The process was repeted again for the faucet and then repeated for all 34 houses.
That afternoon we walked 2km to the local school (which served 3 villages and had 140 of the 185 kids in the area attending.) The principal told us about the school and what they study (the only class I remember was the Society/Morals class which is code for Communism class.) After the talk, we gave the kids candy and jump-ropes and played with them for a while. Most of the little kids had never seen white people and wre afraid of us at first but quickly warmed up. It was still funny saying hello to someone in Chinese and having them turn and run away. In the evening, there was a party, where everyone in the town showed up (plus a neighboring town) and they sang for us, we sang for them, then we all circle danced.
Day 3 we finished up the last of the pipes, burried them and did the last of the attachments. When I was done, I tried to find the rest of the group to help them finish the well. I walked down the road in the direction they went until I found a villager. "Lao wai zai nar (where are the foreigners?)" I asked. He pointed up the hill, so I stared walking up. After about 10 minutes I was in someone's field and I turned around. Walking back I saw the same guy, asked him again and this time he motioned for me to follow him. I followed for 30 minutes, trekking uphill as he pointed to different plants and told me their Chinese names. We arrived at the top of the hill and he pointed to a plant saying proudly, "lao wai." After tome charades with me trying express digging the well, he ripped up the plant and handed it to me. It was at that point I realized neither he nor his buddies there spoke Chinese. The plant he showed me was not native to China so it was "lao wai," just as we were. They led me back, stopping on the way to grab some sugar cane for me. The Chinese word for sugar cane is ganja. Needless to say, this confused me as the cane plant was sitting in a field of marijuana plants (apparently used for hemp.)
After finally arriving back muddy and tired, sugar cane in hand I took a nap. After dinner we had church service. Church was entirely in Lahu. Converted about 100 years ago by Baptists, the prayer books were in Latin characters wth tones, a missionary attempt at giving the Lahu language written script so they could learn the bible. After the 20 minute service was done I went up with Michelle (the project coordinator) and we sang Amazing Grace in English as the congregation joined in in Lahu. Afterwards everyone went outside and circle danced while singing. I picked up the tune easily enough but couldn't seem to pick up the words. After a minute I realized they were singing solfege: Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do and I quickly picked up the words. All those years of singing have payed off.
We then took a 4 hour bus to Lincang, showered and took an overnight bus back to Kunming. Chinese people are too small, so I couldn't fit into the bed. Despite my having lost 20lbs, I am still 6'3". Trevor has now officially left the group. We said goodbye in Shuongjiang. Megan changed her mind again and is going south tomorrow. Dean will stay in Kunming. Sar, Julia and I, accompanied by our Chinese leader Christina will be headed to Beijing. We take a train tonight to Chengdu in Sichuan. After that we have given ourselves a week to get to Beijing by train with a few day stop in Kaifeng, the town with Chinese Jews.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
SHUANGJIANG, CHRISTIANS AND CHICKEN
OK, so we're in Shuangjiang (Shuang means pair...I have a feeling jiang is river based on the character, but I haven't seen one, let along 2 rivers here.) After 15 hours on a bus we arrived at 8 this morning. We stay here today, then go to the village. This afternoon we met the engineer in charge of our project. The first question he asked us was "ok, so who's Christian?" Since nobody came forth and Chay figured the question was "who's Californian" he pointed to Megan. So Megan is our group Christian. Katie and Dean will also be representing the Gentile team. Apparently the village we're going to is all Christian already...god forbid a CHRISTIAN group help someone they hadn't already converted. Apparently our project will be digging holes to install pipes for running water, since the village currently has no running water or electricity. A member of each family currently has to spend about 6 hours gathering water per day.
For those who haven't been following bird flu, China has been quite ridiculous lately. Things going on with birds in China:
1) Today the government announced plans to vaccinate all birds in the country. Thats a nice idea, except with a few problems. There are 14 billion birds, the government has 40 million vaccines. Many birds live in peoples houses or roam wild.
2) Chinese consume about 10 billion birds a year. Most of these are consumed in a way I like to call "Chicken a la Lawnmower." Lawnmower Chicken is chicken that has been hacked into tiny pieces with the skin and bones still attached...as if run over by a lawnmower. Apparently at one time Chinese people could cut meat well, since there are some old Daoist sayings about cutting chicken, but that skill must have been lost somewhere a few thousand years back.
3) According to the "experts," bird flu can't be transferred by eating cooked poultry. Well, the 12 year old girl who died a month ago and her brother who died a few days ago in China beg to differ. After quickly proclaiming that the girl's death was NOT bird flu and creamating her body, her brother got sick too, and the government has been forced to acknowledge that not only is it very likely that the boy has bird flu, but its almost certain his sister had it too. Oops. Maybe this explains why the price of chicken in China has fallen 1000% this month, from $2.50/kg to $0.25/kg. That having been said, poultry is a main food staple here and due to lack of other choice I will continue to eat it. Plus, Peking Duck is so tasty. Here's to hoping Tamiflu works.
Apparently the soap opera died as quickly as it had started, with everyone now wanting to go north. It will either be Beijing or Shanghai and Kaifeng (the town with Chinese Jews claiming to be a lost tribe.) Trevor is still leaving after the service project and while I continue to think he's insane for village-hopping up along the Burmese border by himself, I've done some crazy things too. I just hope he stays alive long enough to tell us about his solo trek.
OK, so we're in Shuangjiang (Shuang means pair...I have a feeling jiang is river based on the character, but I haven't seen one, let along 2 rivers here.) After 15 hours on a bus we arrived at 8 this morning. We stay here today, then go to the village. This afternoon we met the engineer in charge of our project. The first question he asked us was "ok, so who's Christian?" Since nobody came forth and Chay figured the question was "who's Californian" he pointed to Megan. So Megan is our group Christian. Katie and Dean will also be representing the Gentile team. Apparently the village we're going to is all Christian already...god forbid a CHRISTIAN group help someone they hadn't already converted. Apparently our project will be digging holes to install pipes for running water, since the village currently has no running water or electricity. A member of each family currently has to spend about 6 hours gathering water per day.
For those who haven't been following bird flu, China has been quite ridiculous lately. Things going on with birds in China:
1) Today the government announced plans to vaccinate all birds in the country. Thats a nice idea, except with a few problems. There are 14 billion birds, the government has 40 million vaccines. Many birds live in peoples houses or roam wild.
2) Chinese consume about 10 billion birds a year. Most of these are consumed in a way I like to call "Chicken a la Lawnmower." Lawnmower Chicken is chicken that has been hacked into tiny pieces with the skin and bones still attached...as if run over by a lawnmower. Apparently at one time Chinese people could cut meat well, since there are some old Daoist sayings about cutting chicken, but that skill must have been lost somewhere a few thousand years back.
3) According to the "experts," bird flu can't be transferred by eating cooked poultry. Well, the 12 year old girl who died a month ago and her brother who died a few days ago in China beg to differ. After quickly proclaiming that the girl's death was NOT bird flu and creamating her body, her brother got sick too, and the government has been forced to acknowledge that not only is it very likely that the boy has bird flu, but its almost certain his sister had it too. Oops. Maybe this explains why the price of chicken in China has fallen 1000% this month, from $2.50/kg to $0.25/kg. That having been said, poultry is a main food staple here and due to lack of other choice I will continue to eat it. Plus, Peking Duck is so tasty. Here's to hoping Tamiflu works.
Apparently the soap opera died as quickly as it had started, with everyone now wanting to go north. It will either be Beijing or Shanghai and Kaifeng (the town with Chinese Jews claiming to be a lost tribe.) Trevor is still leaving after the service project and while I continue to think he's insane for village-hopping up along the Burmese border by himself, I've done some crazy things too. I just hope he stays alive long enough to tell us about his solo trek.
Monday, November 14, 2005
HOMESTAY ENDS, BEN GETS ANOTHER HAIRCUT, OUR VERY OWN SOAP OPERA
Let me start off by saying that my hair is now blonde. I bleached it for no particular reason other than we were at a hair salon and I felt like it. 2 side notes though...1) the guy bleaching my hair was so amused that I was doing it and it attracted such a crowd that it was free; 2) Chinese people really aren't all that good at dying hair: it's the right color, but not exactly even. I figure that since people already stare at me here, I might as well accentuate it.
After 5 weeks here, our homestay ended this morning. It was a lot of fun, one of the better homestays I've done. Since I will still be living in Kunming for a while, I will continue to visit them. We now set off for a weeklong service project near Lincang in southern Yunnan. We will be working with the villagers and a Christian NGO putting in pipes so that they can have running water. I'm looking forward to this, but have some concerns about how Christian the NGO will be. If there's no invoking Jesus I'll be fine. If there is, I'll be on a bus to Kunming to start my Thailand holiday a few weeks early.
The group has descended into a soap opera of sorts. Trevor is leaving because he wants to see other parts of Yunnan, bringing the group down to 5 people. I want to go north, as did Sar, Julia and Dean. Megan through a hissy fit when she found out we wanted to go somewhere cold (she's a Californian.) Now no one knows what we'll do but the group will probably split up to travel. We'll decide this afternoon. The group leaders...the ones being payed to manage things are standing by idly watching this all happen. One of the leaders is completely oblivious of all things around her and instead having us use our time to decide where to go, she had us spend an hour trying to come up with a broad definition of service "to help us reflect on the upcoming project." Well that's useful.
Quite opposite of Americans, Chinese people say "I'm sorry" for everything and hardly say "thank you." In Chinese if one says xie xie, "thank you," there does not exist an exact phrase for "your welcome." There are a number of ways Chinese people will respond:
1) Bu yong xie - no use thanks
2) Bu keqi - no so polite
3) Mei guanxi - don't worry
4) Mei wenti - no problem
5) something which means "it's my job"
The problem with mei wenti is that it uses the word wenti (problem) using Chinese logic, (remember logic is a word that didn't exist in Chinese) it is not good to say "no problem" since it has the word problem in it. It is not good to use the word problem because it implies there is a problem, even if you are saying "no problem." Anyone follow? It took me a while to comprehend this one. However, now I say suay bien meaning "whatever."
Let me start off by saying that my hair is now blonde. I bleached it for no particular reason other than we were at a hair salon and I felt like it. 2 side notes though...1) the guy bleaching my hair was so amused that I was doing it and it attracted such a crowd that it was free; 2) Chinese people really aren't all that good at dying hair: it's the right color, but not exactly even. I figure that since people already stare at me here, I might as well accentuate it.
After 5 weeks here, our homestay ended this morning. It was a lot of fun, one of the better homestays I've done. Since I will still be living in Kunming for a while, I will continue to visit them. We now set off for a weeklong service project near Lincang in southern Yunnan. We will be working with the villagers and a Christian NGO putting in pipes so that they can have running water. I'm looking forward to this, but have some concerns about how Christian the NGO will be. If there's no invoking Jesus I'll be fine. If there is, I'll be on a bus to Kunming to start my Thailand holiday a few weeks early.
The group has descended into a soap opera of sorts. Trevor is leaving because he wants to see other parts of Yunnan, bringing the group down to 5 people. I want to go north, as did Sar, Julia and Dean. Megan through a hissy fit when she found out we wanted to go somewhere cold (she's a Californian.) Now no one knows what we'll do but the group will probably split up to travel. We'll decide this afternoon. The group leaders...the ones being payed to manage things are standing by idly watching this all happen. One of the leaders is completely oblivious of all things around her and instead having us use our time to decide where to go, she had us spend an hour trying to come up with a broad definition of service "to help us reflect on the upcoming project." Well that's useful.
Quite opposite of Americans, Chinese people say "I'm sorry" for everything and hardly say "thank you." In Chinese if one says xie xie, "thank you," there does not exist an exact phrase for "your welcome." There are a number of ways Chinese people will respond:
1) Bu yong xie - no use thanks
2) Bu keqi - no so polite
3) Mei guanxi - don't worry
4) Mei wenti - no problem
5) something which means "it's my job"
The problem with mei wenti is that it uses the word wenti (problem) using Chinese logic, (remember logic is a word that didn't exist in Chinese) it is not good to say "no problem" since it has the word problem in it. It is not good to use the word problem because it implies there is a problem, even if you are saying "no problem." Anyone follow? It took me a while to comprehend this one. However, now I say suay bien meaning "whatever."
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
MMM DOG, A WEEKEND IN CHINA & SOME CORRUPTI0N
So I've finally eaten dog. It was interesting. A red meat that tasted sort of like beef, but also like really fatty Chinese pork. Yum. As the father was munching on the jawbone, we had a discussion about how Chinese people eat all parts of every animal they can find. The father agreed and was amused that I want to eat xiongmao (panda,) however I agreed to wait until they were no longer endangered. I'm glad I tried dog but don't need to ever again. Maybe it was how it was cooked, but afterwards my stomach was really barking at me.
My name here is Benjamin, not Ben. Apparently, Chinese people can't say Ben; It comes out as "bun." This wouldn't be a problem, except bun means stupid in Chinese. This wasn't working for me, so I decided to go with my given name, which now comes out as "Bunjamee." This is fine since there is no Chinese meaning and my family doesn't like the Chinese name my teacher gave me: Guo Jun Xi. I was told it means something like big, strong, handsome...right I'll believe that.
Things I did this weekend:
1) multiple hours of karaoke, which would've been fine for 15 minutes, but 3 hours was too much. I sang the 3 English songs they had and my family sang some Chinese songs, but then we sat around listening to random people sing. Think of the worst karaoke you can imagine, multiply it by 10 and translate it into Chinese. Yeah.
2) climb a mountain: at 7am Sunday my family woke me up, "Bunjamee, get up please" where we climbed Xi Shan, a mountain overlooking Kunming. Fortunately, only the father wanted to do it & the mom and daughter went slowly so we only hiked 4 miles.
3) Harbin Ice in Snow in Kunming World: at this park there was a display of ice sculptures indoors. All the Chinese people were freezing and were given huge winter coats. I walked in in a tshirt. I didn't get cold until I started throwing snowballs. There was a 20ft. tall ice Buddah and a Statue of Liberty. It was pretty cool. Immediately outside was an upside-down roller coaster. i rode this and was looking forward to the ride until we started. At that point the thought flashed through my mind, "oh shit! this is a Chinese roller coaster. What did I get myself into?" A whiplashed 45 seconds later (it's Chinese) we were returned to the ground, me having had fun, my homestay sister terrified.
This next section will have some spelling modifications, so that I bypass the filters and censors here and don't get deported.
In History class, we discussed a book "China Wakes" by William Krist0f. It discusses the Pe0ples Liberati0n @rmy and the c0rruption that is rampant within the g0vernment. The @rmy is a self-sustaining entity here. With 2.3mln members and in control of 70,000+ factories they can produce everything they need. Under Deng Xia0ping, the @rmy "privatized" some of the companies, and now they produce consumer goods for the people, with the money running into the coffers of the PL@. The facilitate all illegal imports into the country: from $26bln in illegal car imports last year to $muggling in all the her0in to H0ng Kong. They support the Burme$e rebels who farm poppies. they traffik them through Yunnan to Central Europe and HK. They own all the br0thels, casin0s and nightclubs in most major cities. All the gay bars in Beijing are controlled by them...after all who else could get away with something like that in a country where h0mosexuality is illegal? Apparently they even own casin0s in the US. Ji@ng Zamin was even behind bulletproof glass when he visit their headquarters. No one takes power without their express consent. Hu Junta0 is on their Standing Committee. Deng Xia0ping never officially had the titel of Chairman, but the @rmy kept him in power since he was well liked by them (in the revolution he commanded 1mln men.) So yeah, China is still a p0lice state, ruled by a c0rrupt army, controlling a vacuum of p0wer in the top levels of g0vernment. Makes America not look so bad. I almost feel patriotic. Almost.
So I've finally eaten dog. It was interesting. A red meat that tasted sort of like beef, but also like really fatty Chinese pork. Yum. As the father was munching on the jawbone, we had a discussion about how Chinese people eat all parts of every animal they can find. The father agreed and was amused that I want to eat xiongmao (panda,) however I agreed to wait until they were no longer endangered. I'm glad I tried dog but don't need to ever again. Maybe it was how it was cooked, but afterwards my stomach was really barking at me.
My name here is Benjamin, not Ben. Apparently, Chinese people can't say Ben; It comes out as "bun." This wouldn't be a problem, except bun means stupid in Chinese. This wasn't working for me, so I decided to go with my given name, which now comes out as "Bunjamee." This is fine since there is no Chinese meaning and my family doesn't like the Chinese name my teacher gave me: Guo Jun Xi. I was told it means something like big, strong, handsome...right I'll believe that.
Things I did this weekend:
1) multiple hours of karaoke, which would've been fine for 15 minutes, but 3 hours was too much. I sang the 3 English songs they had and my family sang some Chinese songs, but then we sat around listening to random people sing. Think of the worst karaoke you can imagine, multiply it by 10 and translate it into Chinese. Yeah.
2) climb a mountain: at 7am Sunday my family woke me up, "Bunjamee, get up please" where we climbed Xi Shan, a mountain overlooking Kunming. Fortunately, only the father wanted to do it & the mom and daughter went slowly so we only hiked 4 miles.
3) Harbin Ice in Snow in Kunming World: at this park there was a display of ice sculptures indoors. All the Chinese people were freezing and were given huge winter coats. I walked in in a tshirt. I didn't get cold until I started throwing snowballs. There was a 20ft. tall ice Buddah and a Statue of Liberty. It was pretty cool. Immediately outside was an upside-down roller coaster. i rode this and was looking forward to the ride until we started. At that point the thought flashed through my mind, "oh shit! this is a Chinese roller coaster. What did I get myself into?" A whiplashed 45 seconds later (it's Chinese) we were returned to the ground, me having had fun, my homestay sister terrified.
This next section will have some spelling modifications, so that I bypass the filters and censors here and don't get deported.
In History class, we discussed a book "China Wakes" by William Krist0f. It discusses the Pe0ples Liberati0n @rmy and the c0rruption that is rampant within the g0vernment. The @rmy is a self-sustaining entity here. With 2.3mln members and in control of 70,000+ factories they can produce everything they need. Under Deng Xia0ping, the @rmy "privatized" some of the companies, and now they produce consumer goods for the people, with the money running into the coffers of the PL@. The facilitate all illegal imports into the country: from $26bln in illegal car imports last year to $muggling in all the her0in to H0ng Kong. They support the Burme$e rebels who farm poppies. they traffik them through Yunnan to Central Europe and HK. They own all the br0thels, casin0s and nightclubs in most major cities. All the gay bars in Beijing are controlled by them...after all who else could get away with something like that in a country where h0mosexuality is illegal? Apparently they even own casin0s in the US. Ji@ng Zamin was even behind bulletproof glass when he visit their headquarters. No one takes power without their express consent. Hu Junta0 is on their Standing Committee. Deng Xia0ping never officially had the titel of Chairman, but the @rmy kept him in power since he was well liked by them (in the revolution he commanded 1mln men.) So yeah, China is still a p0lice state, ruled by a c0rrupt army, controlling a vacuum of p0wer in the top levels of g0vernment. Makes America not look so bad. I almost feel patriotic. Almost.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
A NEW ROMANCE LANGUAGE & BUSINESS
First off, before I have people correct me, I know "Romance" Languages are descendant from Latin and their name doesn't mean they are romantic. That having been said, when people think of romantic languages, many times French or Italian comes to mind. For a language that is according to Chinese people, "very eloquent" and "the most romantic language in the world," I fail to see what they're talking about. Yes, there are 100 words for the color blue, but hear/listen/sound (ting) and look/watch/read (kan) are all the same words in Chinese. I think the Chinese are lacking in descriptive abilities too. Panda is xiong mao (bear cat,) bear is gou xiong (dog bear,) and yak is mao niu (hairy cow.) Also with the proper Beijing accent most of the words are supposed to end with the sound ARRR. Wan (fun) becomes warrr. Chi (eat) becomes churr. Chinese is almost as romantic as Welsh.
We talked about Chinese business with our new history teacher, Lee. Despite his name is not Chinese, but British with a mowhawk and eyebrow piercing. He spent 2 hours convincing us of the pending economic collapse of the country. Apparently, any statistic the government reports is a lie. This has been demonstrated countless times, from the front page of China Daily proclaiming that of the 3800 cases of bird flu only 50 have been in China, to the government reporting wrong numbers of economic growth. The problem is compounded by the banking system here. The average Chinese person saves 40% of their income (for comparison, the average American saves -0.2% - spending more than they earn.) This is great for the banks here, loads of incoming money. The problem comes when the banks lend out more money than they have. 30% of all loans here are bad (i.e. will never be repayed) and the banks cover the costs. Since the government can't have businesses going bankrupt they bail out the banks. There is also a huge culture of corruption here in which it is better to have your company lose money than to make a profit (so it will be bailed out by the government instead of having to pay back its debts.) My understanding of economics in minimal, suffice to say, China is screwed.
First off, before I have people correct me, I know "Romance" Languages are descendant from Latin and their name doesn't mean they are romantic. That having been said, when people think of romantic languages, many times French or Italian comes to mind. For a language that is according to Chinese people, "very eloquent" and "the most romantic language in the world," I fail to see what they're talking about. Yes, there are 100 words for the color blue, but hear/listen/sound (ting) and look/watch/read (kan) are all the same words in Chinese. I think the Chinese are lacking in descriptive abilities too. Panda is xiong mao (bear cat,) bear is gou xiong (dog bear,) and yak is mao niu (hairy cow.) Also with the proper Beijing accent most of the words are supposed to end with the sound ARRR. Wan (fun) becomes warrr. Chi (eat) becomes churr. Chinese is almost as romantic as Welsh.
We talked about Chinese business with our new history teacher, Lee. Despite his name is not Chinese, but British with a mowhawk and eyebrow piercing. He spent 2 hours convincing us of the pending economic collapse of the country. Apparently, any statistic the government reports is a lie. This has been demonstrated countless times, from the front page of China Daily proclaiming that of the 3800 cases of bird flu only 50 have been in China, to the government reporting wrong numbers of economic growth. The problem is compounded by the banking system here. The average Chinese person saves 40% of their income (for comparison, the average American saves -0.2% - spending more than they earn.) This is great for the banks here, loads of incoming money. The problem comes when the banks lend out more money than they have. 30% of all loans here are bad (i.e. will never be repayed) and the banks cover the costs. Since the government can't have businesses going bankrupt they bail out the banks. There is also a huge culture of corruption here in which it is better to have your company lose money than to make a profit (so it will be bailed out by the government instead of having to pay back its debts.) My understanding of economics in minimal, suffice to say, China is screwed.
