I’m having trouble linking directly to my episode, but here are the podcasts for World Have Your Say program. Look for the February 14th one!
Edit: Here is it!
Have Your Say Podcast
Posted in New York City
Tagged BBC, Chinese life, mail, New York City, podcast, World Have Your Say
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On My Soapbox, With Cliches About China
If we are to see the Olympics as (good heavens, it hurts to type this) China’s big coming-out party, then China cannot hide behind the “developing country” defense much longer. When the international community pressures China on the environment or human rights, China needs to play by the rules for the big kids.
I wrote this post for Beijing Olympics FAN! yesterday about Spielburg withdrawing his support from the Olympics, and I got the chance join in the discussion on BBC’s World Have Your Say program last night (podcast link in a bit). I do think China should use it’s famed soft power with Sudan, which is exactly Spielburg’s point, BUT I think Spielburg’s protest isn’t the right way to do it, and can easily cause more harm than good.
I worry that average Chinese people will see Spielburg’s protest either as an insult to Chinese decision-making or an anti-Chinese Westerner, not a stand for human rights. When World Have Your Say discussed this on their site, someone wrote in that criticisms of China are only made by Westerners afraid of China’s rise to power.
It’s a bit of a cliche (although not quite as bad as calling the Olympics China’s coming-out party) to say that the Chinese are face-conscious, but I really feel that any political statement that embarrasses or insults China won’t have a good result. In the US, we love to criticise our government, we love to talk about what those idiots in Washington should do.
But criticism of Chinese decisions — especially criticism from an outsider — is much more likely to cause hurt, anger and offense. A foreign protest/boycott won’t cause China to suddenly change it’s policies, and I’m actually afraid that it will have the opposite effect, and create more tension in relations between China and the US.
Another cliche about China is that everything you want involves bargaining. To effect change, Western activists and politicians need to keep haggling with China, not just walk away.
Edit: Other (more eloquent) China bloggers on the same theme:
OneManBandWidth sounds off on the Olympics boycott
Imagethief on dissent in China and the US
Mad Dogs And Englishmen
Posted in Beijing
Tagged BBC, bloggers, China, China blog, chinese, Chinese life, mail, podcast, soapbox, World Have Your Say
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Sparkly Like a Holiday
Stick went out to get that typical American gift, a dozen red roses, but in China nothing is mundane. The roses came with glitter, tinsel, rose-printed cellophane, magenta tissue paper, and purple curling ribbon. Did you ever see that part of Love Actually, when Mr. Bean wraps up the Christmas necklace? Like that but with more glitter. Way more more glitter. Stick said he adamantly refused — via charades — a plastic skewer decorations, but he was too late to stop the florist from chopping off the lovely long stems.
12 roses in a tiny apartment is a lot. It’s gorgeous… roses in the vase with the bamboo, roses in an empty wine bottle next to my computer*, roses on the coffeetable, roses by the window.
When I was a kid, my mom would never let us buy or use glitter. As I look around my rose and glitter filled apartment, the reasons behind this rule have now become quite clear.
*Just to clarify, I put the bottle there to hold the flowers, I didn’t have an empty bottle from a late-night blog-reading and binge drinking session.
Posted in New York City
Tagged China, Chinese life, coffee, e3, Eric, mail, New York City, reading, red rose, Stick, wine
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No, Alanis, It’s Unfortunate.
I had to run some errands the other day, and I stopped into UBC Coffee afterwards for a cup of almost-coffee. Eating alone in restaurants is a weird guilty pleasure of mine. I really like it, but I also think it’s kind of antisocial, and it makes me worry that I’m crossing the line from slightly quirky into actively eccentric and from there? It’s just a slippery slope down to crazy old lady.
Anyway, I read my book with a cup of semi-coffee and some kind of fruit-filled almost-pastry. UBC is chain of close-to-Western food, and although I’ve adjusted to Chinese food better this year, I just can’t curl up with a novel and a bowl of dan chou fan. Plus they have really comfy couches, which makes up for what they lack in American ambiance and culinary pursuits. Sometimes a girl needs a little of home comforts, even if that’s a cup of almost-coffee.
I left the coffeeshop after I felt suitably recharged, and ready to face the laowai-shouting world again, and I starting walking towards the subway stop.
Not even one block down, I saw a real live Starbucks.
Posted in New York City
Tagged chinese, Chinese food, Chinese life, coffee, Eric, New York City, Starbucks, subway, Western food
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Discworld Fans
This is not where I would have filed Terry Pratchett, but then what do I know?
Edit 2/16: Mental Floss trackback today!
Snacking With Trimalchio
When I lived in Yantai, I believed I had been offered every bit of sealife imaginable. Like most theories I had about China, this turned out to be inaccurate.
I think the seahorses might have been a novelty item even for locals, but we saw three or four people chowing down on starfish kabobs.
It was almost a relief to see the usual squid bits and skewered organs.
I got these pictures at Wangfujing snack street tonight. Sadly, my admirer wasn’t there, or at least he didn’t call out his undying love to me. Maybe he ran away with Penglisha.
Stick and I had some fried dumplings, fried noodles that tasted like mall foodcourt lo mein (and I mean that in the most flattering way possible), Stick also got a pork bun, and we were looking for some fruit skewers to finish up our meal. Stick asked a vendor for a strawberry kebab.
“35,” he told us.
“What?!?” Stick asked.
“35,” the vendor said, pointing at a price list in Chinese. “See, it’s 35,”
Something didn’t look right on the sign… I knew those characters, but they didn’t mean strawberry… “No! That says one large bowl of fried noodles for 35!” I cried. I was half filled with pride that I’d read a whole line of text on an actual sign, and half furious that he was trying to rip us off.
“Ok, ok, 30.” he said. Annoyed, we turned to the next vendor, who offered us 2 fruit skewers for 20. Free market in action.
Posted in Yantai
Tagged 404, China, chinese, Chinese life, e3, noodles, Stick, Yantai
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Baiyunguan Temple Fair
Today Stick and I visited the temple fair at Baiyunguan, the White Cloud Temple. It’s right by the Muxidi subway stop and the Capital Museum. If you’re planning a visit, the White Cloud Temple is NOT on White Cloud Street, Bai Yun Lu, as one might foolishly believe, but on Bing He Lu.
When we arrived, the temple was full of uniformed security guards, laughing, teasing each other and giving each other piggy-back rides. I’m not saying this to mock them, but trying to describe the amazing holiday atmosphere.
I saw more public affection today that I have in the last 5 months in China.
The temple was full of families walking around, laughing, talking, eating, offering incense and playing games. Oddly enough, they weren’t lighting the incense and putting them in the burners, but laying it in front of the buddhas instead. I don’t know if there’s something special about New Years’ celebrations or if it’s a precaution to keep huge swarms of people from waving fire around.
I’ve heard that the White Cloud Temple is supposed to be the inspiration for the cloud designs on the Olympic torch. We found this mural that definately seemed like it!
(I’ve got another picture of this wall up on BeijingOlympicsFan as well.)
There was also a game in the temple that seemed to involve throwing coins and hitting a bell to make the bell ring. I think that’s what was going on. As proud as I am of my survival language skills, it’s just that: Survival level. I don’t have the ability to strike up a conversation or to ask people about what they’re doing.
When the temple closed, we caught a bus across town. We were planning on going up to Dongzhimen for dinner, but the bus took us past Houhai. We saw ice skaters on the lake, and decided to eat at one of the many cute restaurants overlooking the lake… we’ve been meaning to do this since there were swimmers in the lake.
Unfortunately, when we hopped off the bus in the spirit of exploration and adventure, we neglected to take into account just how cold it needs to be for ice-skating.
* * *
Coming up next: Starfish are apparently edible, and China is actually Discworld. Unrelated photos to prove both statements.
Rose-Colored
My student Melissa stopped by yesterday to give me a New Year’s gift… she brought over two gorgeous red rat-shaped papercuts so Stick and I could decorate for the year of the Rat!
When she came in, I noticed she’d gotten her new glasses. At our last lesson, Melissa had just found out she needed glasses, and told me how much she wasn’t looking forward to wearing them. Of course, I made my usual speech about how men do make passes at girls who wear glasses. When Hollywood wants to show that a girl is intelligent, they put glasses on her. (I stopped just short of telling her there are fetish sites for glasses-wearing girls.) I don’t know how much of it sank in, because I was doing karmic penance for every time my mother tried to talk to me and I looked at my fingernails.
Anyway, when Melissa stopped by yesterday, she was wearing her new glasses, and she’d picked out boxy silver metallic frames! They looked cute with her short punk hair, and I was so proud!
Partying Like It’s 4706!
Here’s the view out our living room! Gorgeous fireworks of all different shapes and colors are exploding in every direction!It’s been going on since yesterday afternoon and our jokes about the Mardi Gras fireworks have devolved into shouting “What?” at each other.
Russian Mirage
Stick and I went exploring down the Russian street between the Ritan Park Jenny Lou’s and The Place. It’s at the eastern end of Ritan Bei Lu, where it meets Dongdaqiao Lu. The last time I was at The Place, it was all done up for Christmas. I thought it was fairy-light overload then, but the Chinese New Year decorations this week put those wimpy lil’ Christmas lights in their place.
(By the way, I’m not using The Place as a clever euphemism, like when I say “Some Guy” but I really mean Eric, and you know I mean Eric, otherwise I wouldn’t say it with such capitalization and emphasis. But this place is actually called The Place.)
(Not my own pic, from Jan & Felix’s Beijing photo page)
We found a cool Russian restaurant, the name on the outside is Time Bar. The English name on the business card is Mirage Bar and Restaurant, the Russian name is Russian Restaurant, and the Chinese name is Squiggly-Cross Line-Dash-Hyphen West Swirly-Dash Bar. I think reading 2 characters out of 5 is doing well.
I love going to foreign restuarants in Beijing. It’s a trip to see how worlds collide, I love reading the descriptions of the dishes for non-natives and I love seeing what parts of Western cultures make it to China, and which don’t. Chicken Kiev with yangzhou rice? Why not? It also keeps me from that tragic separation from Western food when I start to dream about cheese sandwiches.
The menu had English, Russian and Chinese (and pictures!), although our waiter didn’t speak English. It’s fine because “I want this one” and “2 beers, please!” are in my Chinese vocab. We heard the waitstaff speaking Russian at other tables, though. We were seated at a comfortable green-leather booth, raised up a few steps and separated by a railing from the cellphone-chatting crowd in the center of the room. Our table had a Tiffany-style ceiling lamp and old-fashioned sepia photos on the wall. There was a bit of tinsel wrapped around, oh, everything that wasn’t a customer, but I think that’s for Lunar New Year and not an everyday occurance. The food was good, and arrived quickly, and the beer was cold.
There is one thing about half-Western dining that troubles me. I don’t mind a resonant Fuwuyuan! at Muslim noodles, but I have trouble yelling for more beer when I have linen tablecloths and pretty china in front of me.
As we were finishing our dinner, a scowling waitress brought candles in red glasses. The main lights were dimmed and the TVs, which had been playing dueling episodes of Cyrillic-subtitled MTV, were silenced. After a short introduction in Russian, a saxaphonist began to play. Sometimes our wanderings work out just right, and we stumble into a new place to find a good dinner and nice music.
Later, we stopped in a coffee shop at The Place for lattes.
“Would you like these for here or to go?” the barista asked.
“For here,” Stick said.
“You can’t have them here, we’re closing.”
