My bike is my new best friend. It takes me any and everywhere I need to go. Last Friday, I biked from the post office to a photo developer in Dongcheng District. I arrived at 4:25 only to find out that it closed at 4:00. Then I biked to dinner with a friend, and from there home, for a total of around 15 miles. It was a great bike ride, I saw many things. The downside is that I have inhaled an unfathomable amount of smog that blankets Beijing on most days. My bike route Sunset on East Chang’an Ave Chairman Mao is never alone The restaurant Trying to get seated An empty Tiananmen Square
Read more »
Earlier this month, my roommate Julia and I found used bikes online. Problem was, they were across the city and you cannot bring bikes onto the subway. So, we thought we’d go on a bike adventure back from our pick-up spots! Below is a photo of central Beijing. My commute is the blue line, and Julia is the green line. We met up at a point on third ring road and continued together (purple) all the way home. I believe the total distance I biked was around 22 km (13 miles). Although biking many miles in one day after an extended period of inactivity may not be the smartest thing to do, our bike adventure was worth it. I have to say, biking in Beijing is so different from the subway or taxi. In the subway, I see nothing but the faces of the commuters around me and hear nothing but the bilingual droning of the subway voices announcing which stop we are approaching, and how we should prepare to get off. On a bike, I feel closer to the things I pass. I see the expressions on people’s faces as they cross the street, wait for the bus, or
Read more »
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Read more »
On Tuesday, I had this conversation: Woman at camera shop: Are you from (whispers) Xinjiang? Me: No, I’m Chinese-American. You thought I was a Uyghur? Man at camera shop: Uyghur women are very beautiful, you are very beautiful, that is why we asked you. Me: Ummm. I don’t know what goes on in Chinese people’s minds when they get all wound up in determining someone’s ethnic background.
Read more »
From a NYTimes article titled China’s Financial Industry Recruits Abroad: Despite the swelling number of unemployed financial service employees, those qualified to work for Chinese firms is extremely small. Mr. Leggett’s background in Chinese — he studied Mandarin for four years as an undergraduate student at Columbia — made his move feasible. He has shocked many recruiters with his Chinese ability: “They see a tall, white guy and they’ve got low expectations. When they find out I can say a lot more than ‘hello,’ in Chinese, they begin to take me seriously.” Oh that’s great. But when they see an average-height Asian girl they have different expectations. Every time I speak to a Chinese person, they expect me to be completely fluent. Here are five different circumstances I find myself in: 1. I tell them I am Chinese (or Chinese-American). Laughter. Okay, seriously, what am I? Proceed to point out certain superficial features that lend then to believe that I am of a different race. Conclusion: I speak Chinese, but I look Korean or Japanese. Therefore, I am Korean or Japanese. 2. I tell them I am Chinese-American. Disappointment. Believe that as a descendent of Chinese people, my Chinese should be
Read more »
I was listening to a Radio Free Asia podcast about Charter 08 and heard this quote by City University of Hong Kong Professor Yushuo Zheng: “这些…异见分子，其实他们也是爱国的，就是提出不同的意见.” This translates roughly to: “These activists, they are actually patriotic, but they are just putting forward different viewpoints/suggestions.” It used to be that the majority of Chinese people were apathetic or ignorant about politics, but now more and more are becoming interested and active in politics. However, while all of the politically active/vocal Chinese people are patriotic and nationalistic, they are polarized between neoconservatives and liberals. Neoconservatives in China tend to support the current government, distrust foreign states (e.g., Japan, Western democracies), and promote the territorial and political sovereignty of China (e.g., Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang). The New Yorker wrote a very interesting article this summer about Chinese neocons. It profiled one man in particular, Tang Jie, who defends China against criticism, opposes Western political ideals, and supposedly represents the many ?? (angry youth) whose presence seems to increase as China continues to develop. The article seems to show a general trend of Chinese youth who believe that foreign countries have agendas against China’s rise, which incites a nationalistic and defensive reaction. Here is another example of
Read more »
Last week, the central government blocked access to the New York Times. Then a few days later, unblocked access. No one really knows why, but personally I think it has something to do with negative coverage of China on the website. Right after access is restored, the Times publishes an article about releasing a political dissident in China. The site hasn’t been blocked again, but I thought it was ironic that: a. the Times posts a politically sensitive article after it was blocked for political reasons b. the indirectly anti-China article was surrounded by a pro-China advertisement: According to the Shanghaiist, these ads are paid for by the Chinese government to spread their interpretation of Tibetan history and development. I wonder how East-West tensions will escalate (or ease) as a new President transitions into power, as the financial crisis continues, and as China transitions into post-Olympics 2009.
Read more »
Last Saturday was my last day in Harbin for a while. I need a break from freezing my ass off. The American students took the train Saturday night I woke Sunday morning to the melodious voices of propaganda infotainment about the wonderful city of Beijing. After a long haul of heavy, overstuffed backpacks and suitcases to and fro, I was ready to settle in to my new apartment and new life. In the past week I have spent thousands of yuan on rent, furniture, and appliances with my great new roommate and fellow Fulbrighter, Julia. This includes haggling over the prices of plates and bowls, spending about 6 hours at Ikea, and begging the owner to buy me a desk that isn’t 24 inches wide (think about it, that’s tiny). It’s been tiring physically, mentally, and financially, but things should improve rapidly. I also look forward to using our full-size built-in oven that is so coveted in China/Asia. To say the least, I am in love with my new Beijing life (except the air quality part), and hope these next ten months are fulfilling.
Read more »
I started writing an entry about the financial crisis in September (okay, “started” is an overstatement, I just came up with a title), just when everyone thought it was peaking, or at least becoming apparent to everyone. But there were so many news articles, op-eds, and blog posts about it, I couldn’t make one point that hadn’t already been mentioned. So it just sat in my Drafts, waiting for the day when I’d have something to say. In August and September of this year, when all the newspapers and magazines featured cover stories with photos of laid off bankers walking out of Lehman Brothers, of stock markets plummeting, and of traders freaking out, I reveled at the expense of all those greedy Wall Street bankers who, in order to make a pretty penny, approved and executed some outright ridiculous, illogical transactions. I also felt triumphant that, despite pressure from Brown’s career services (which seemed only to push us towards corporate careers), I did not sell out to all the big businesses that flooded to campus last fall. How do you like them apples, Ivy Leaguers? Finally, they can suffer, too. Who am I kidding, they’ll all be better off
Read more »
(image of bicyclists in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square via nytimes) The UN Environment Program released a report last Thursday (side note: good typography, color choices, UN!) about the thick clouds of smog and soot over Asia and the likely effects it has on health, food security, and environmental changes. Due to the unprecedented nature of these noxious brown clouds, the exact consequences of their presence is not confirmed. Regardless of the consequences, it seems like countries are dilly-dallying around until the human/environmental toll is too hard to ignore, which may be years away. By then it will be too late. The world needs to get on this shit, pronto. And seriously this time. On a related note, though I may not be dying, I am still suffering. Now that I have finished consuming about 200 pills in the past two weeks, I don’t feel much better. I don’t really want to continue taking these pills. For one, I can’t bring myself to trust Western medicine produced in China. Second, I don’t like eating too many antibiotics over a long period of time. I mean, what if I created a mutant bacteria and created the next Avian Flu? Anyways, every time I
Read more »