I really don’t know where some of my ideas come from. For example, in order to keep from growing a resistance to medicine’s effectiveness and subjecting my body to unnatural chemicals, I have adopted the take-if-you-really-need-it approach to medicine. It’s as if my taking a few days or weeks of medicine will change human DNA for generations to come. But seriously, it’s not a bad idea, right? But recently, I have found that bad things (be it sickness, bruises, or men) don’t go away by themselves. I thought I could trust my body or time to heal blemishes and wounds, but I was wrong. I. Sickness Last winter in Harbin, I made my third trip to one hospital (fourth trip overall) after the doctor made me take a CAT scan and a breathing test. I was suffering from breathing problems. She told me that I needed to spend at least one week living in the hospital to get medicine administered via IV for my sickness. Excuse me, what? Are you just trying to milk me for my money? I refused to pay exuberant amounts of money for something that can be solved without needles. Upon arriving in Beijing, I saw
A Little Privacy, Please?
The situation for young Chinese couples is pretty bleak. That is, if they want to have a sex life. Many young Chinese couples, such as university students, if not living in 4-8 person dormitories at school, are living with their parents at home. If they have a boy or girlfriend, where are they to spend time together? Some opt for hotels that have hourly rates (often dubbed “love hotels,” a popular term in Japan and Korea), some alienate their roommates by fooling around in their dorm room, some wait until their parents aren’t home, and others opt for public spaces such as parks or behind buildings. It’s amusing (albeit also troublesome) that actions meant to be done in private are now done in public. The dearth of privacy in China was aptly pictured last night on my bike ride home, when I saw a couple on one of the largest streets in Beijing, 建国门外大街, doing it behind some scaffolding. Nevermind all the cars driving by, but there were even construction workers working not even 100 meters away from the couple. Photo via douban.
Only in China
does your professor respond to your e-mails by SMSing you.
Save
It is almost inevitable that when you mention “America” to an older generation of Chinese people (30 and up), a discussion of differences between their motherland and the West will come up. There is a story that Chinese people like to tell about the differences in 消费 (xiao1fei4, consumption) between the U.S. and China: There are two old women, one is Chinese and the other is American. The American put out a mortgage for her home, lived in it, and right before she passed away, she finished paying her mortgage. The Chinese woman saved until she was about to pass away, and finally saved enough money to buy a house. China Journal reports that China’s economy is a rare case in the world right now, in that it has a “relatively robust banking system and sound government finances.” However, The problem is too little private consumption, despite encouraging signs from shoes to appliances that retail sales are holding up well. Instead of unlocking the buying power of its 1.3 billion people, for instance by deregulating services like health care or media, the government takes the lead with often billion-dollar bets. It was a good strategy to get infrastructure built, but
Dear Chinese People,
Please do not lean against and touch pieces of artwork in museums. Seriously? Come on. Do you have any respect? Would you want to spend months/years on a report and then have some person piss all over it? Yeah, that’s what it’s like. The culprits Sincerely, Girl who would kick your ass if you touched her artwork
Americans in Wuhan
My roommate and I arrive in Wuhan (Wuchang, specifically) and try to find a cheap place to stay that’s close to the train station (unfortunately we both ended up taking trains from the other train station on the other side of town, about a 40 minute drive away). We find this “hotel” (after seeing the bathrooms/showers at this place, though, I don’t know what to call it) that must not see many foreigners. Here is a conversation I had with employees at check-in: Hotel staff (Chinese): May I have your 身份证 (shen1fen4zheng4, identity card)? I hand over my passport. Hotel staff: What is this? Where is the number? Me: I don’t have a national identity card; that’s my passport. I’m an American citizen. Hotel staff (to a co-worker): What do we do? Where’s the number? Where’s her name? What should we put? Me: Can’t you just input my English name and passport number? Hotel staff: You’re sure you’re not Chinese? Do you have any other form of identification? What’s your Chinese name? I go on to show them my school ID from last semester, as well as my work ID, neither of which are acceptable. I have no idea what
TVCC Fire
My photographs of the aftermath of the TVCC fire in Beijing in February have gotten the attention of Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER), and they’re going to feature some of my photographs on their slideshow about it soon. I will report back when it’s up. Unfortunately I’m not paid for it, but I’m happy for any publicity.
Y.S.L. vs. P.R.C.
This past week, Yves St. Laurent’s art collection was auctioned off, including two fountainheads (for $39 million) that were supposedly looted from the “Old Summer Palace in Beijing in 1860 when it was sacked and burnt by French and British armies during the Second Opium War.” China tried to stop the auction last Thursday, but was rejected by the Paris court. During this quarrel, St. Laurent’s partner, Pierre Berge, insisted that the artifacts were acquired legally. He is also reported to have said he “would agree to give them back – if Beijing gave Tibet its freedom.” He is quoted in the Telegraph as saying: “All they have to do is to declare they are going to apply human rights, give the Tibetans back their freedom and agree to accept the Dalai Lama on their territory. “If they do that, I would be very happy to go myself and bring these two Chinese heads to put them in the Summer Palace in Beijing. It’s obviously blackmail but I accept that.” Are you kidding me?! I have to agree with Xinhua here in saying that that is an incredibly stupid thing to say. First, you cannot mix two political messages together
Thief
Two days ago, I went to the bathroom at a mall in Wangfujing. As I came out to wash my hands, an elderly woman was hunched over next to the toilet paper dispenser (some classier malls provide toilet paper for their bathrooms, though there is only one large dispenser before you enter the stalls). I continued to lather and rinse my hands and watched in the mirror as this woman continued to pull toilet paper out of the dispenser. Even after I finished washing my hands, she continued to pull on the seemingly endless roll. Finally, she had accumulated about 1000 feet and was satisfied, so she head into the stalls. Another woman was waiting to grab some toilet paper. She looked at me with astonishment and said, “What is she doing with all that toilet paper? Is she going to eat it?” Well, it was funny to me at the time…
CCTV Fire in Beijing
As most of the world knows by now, part of the CCTV complex (Mandarin Oriental Hotel, TVCC) burst into flames after an illegal fireworks show on February 9. The building ablaze as seen from my apartment window The aftermath Only a skeleton remains Official business (note how the official/guard has three walkie-talkies) A few thoughts: If something like this happened in the U.S., CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, local news, the Twitterati, everyone would be on it. CCTV, on the other hand, is infamous for controlling what news gets broadcasted, though it is clear that with the Internet, news dissemination has become increasingly difficult. As the fire blazed into its third hour, my friend and I turned on CCTV to look for any breaking news regarding a fire. Nothing. Chinese Lantern Festival performances, sports, talk shows, television series, commercials. What if there had been people in that building? How would the news broadcasting companies (including Xinhua) reacted? What were they worried about in the first place? I’m a little worried that, if a fireman died from toxic fume/smoke inhalation, how will the rest of us be affected? Granted, he was on-site and probably inhaling a lot of it, but the smoke