Spring springs in ‘jing, brings spring to my step

May 7th, 2010 by Johanna | No Comments | Filed in China, Miscellaneous, Reflections

A friend of mine recently noted that I’ve been in a much happier mood lately. This is true. Here are possible reasons why:

  • The weather. It’s warm and (at times) sunny again!
  • Things to look forward to:
    • Family visit. I started getting excited around the one-month mark.
    • Upcoming trips. Bye-bye China, hello summer vacation.
  • PMS. Instead of making me cranky, my hormones are making me silly.
  • Sex. ‘Nuff said.

Beijing’s bipolarity is swinging to the other pole now. Beijing summers are completely different than Beijing winters. The city is in bloom right now. I’m spending a lot of time outdoors, in the sun and under a blue sky, at parks, reading Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain, which so far is good in a bad sort of way. Whatever faults Beijing (and Beijingers) have, they got one thing right with their many parks. They’re all fantastic, beautifully landscaped and a great place to pass the time. Unfortunately, too many people seem to agree with me — but that does mean that it’s great for people-watching, and the Chinese do many interesting things.

The great weather also means another favorite past time of mine: beer and barbecue at my favorite beer garden.

Random thoughts, Part 2

May 6th, 2010 by Johanna | No Comments | Filed in China, Reflections
  • Are Chinese people selfish? On the one hand, they’re labeled as “community-oriented,” placing the interests of their family, community, country above their own needs — at least, they face huge pressure to do so. On the other hand, they will do anything to get ahead: They don’t believe in lines, and they push and shove their way onto or off of buses and subways just to grab the best seats.  Maybe “impatient” is a better description.
  • In discussing China’s rise and potential as a future superpower, and the U.S.’s concurrent decline, optimists always point out that the U.S. has the creative edge by far. It’s not even an edge, it’s a gulf. And based on what my personal experiences, it’s not going to close anytime soon. But will innovation remain as important as it is now, given China’s ability to imitate?
  • Why do the Chinese imitate? No one tries to sell anything different because it might mean a loss of revenue. It’s a nation of people so averse to risk.
  • Laowai, Chinese slang for “foreigner” that literally translates as “old outsider,” is increasingly sounding like an equivalent of nigger in the U.S. At face value, laowai is an affectionate nickname for foreigners, with lao added in front of people’s names or titles to indicate intimacy or informality. But often, when I hear laowai used, it’s because a Chinese person is pointing out and gawking at some laowaior going on a rant about them. Still, many laowai still refer to themselves as laowai – just like black people refer to themselves asniggas. (That metaphor ran deeper than I thought!)

Food adventures

April 13th, 2010 by Johanna | No Comments | Filed in China, Food

After a glorious weekend during which I discovered American-worthy sandwiches and American-worthy pie, I am going to try my luck for American-worthy pretzels.

I’m going after work in search of Auntie Anne’s, that American pretzel icon, which is located somewhere in my larger neighborhood.

Yay pretzels!

Random thoughts that have been floating around my mind

April 7th, 2010 by Johanna | No Comments | Filed in China, Reflections
  • Why can’t the Chinese invest in some air-freshening products? I know air fresheners aren’t necessities, so they’re reluctant to waste precious monetary resources on such frivolities. But my nose and sense of smell really wish they would indulge for once every time I go to the bathroom.
  • Am I ever again going to be able to wake up and not be freezing? It’s the end of April and Beijing has turned off the heat, but temperatures keep falling. What the hell, BJ, what the hell? I’m cold!
  • It’s been said (by David Brooks, no less) that the U.S. wins in the assimilation category. That is very true based on my experiences. The foreigners here, as foreigners do everywhere, clump in groups, form tight-knit, impenetrable communities. I still can’t decide who is more to blame here, though: Are the Chinese, with their deeply ingrained sense of foreigners as “others,” too unwilling to let us in, or are expats generally reluctant to fully embrace Chinese culture?

The end of 谷歌

March 23rd, 2010 by Johanna | No Comments | Filed in China, Reflections, USA! USA!

And Google has left China.

After finding hackers had violated some of their users’ Gmail accounts last December and threatening to pull out, Google had kept mum about what it’s final decision will be. It shut down its google.cn site yesterday and is redirecting all traffic to its uncensored Hong Kong site in a final dig at the Chinese government. Of course, China can just block the site in the mainland if it really wanted to, but at least Google was able to give them one last middle finger. Sure, Google has just up and left 400 million Internet users — a real loss, according to some business-driven people — but I can’t help but think this may be even worse for China.

The Chinese government may think it’s standing up to the West and not letting some company dictate the rules. Google may have overplayed its hand: it’s not Google’s place to force China to open up, so good for China for not backing down. But good for Google for not backing down, either. It isn’t just “some company,” and China knows this. Google’s got clout, and its pullout highlights how uncooperative China will be and how definitively set it is on maintaining an iron grip on the flow of information.

Predictions of the Chinese people being relegated to a world of darkness are over-dramatic and simply untrue. China will be fine without Google. But it has to know that through the negotiations, it has effectively pushed the company out and rejected the opportunity to become a more open and freer society — despite repeated claims that it is an open country. What China is doing is reinventing what “openness” means, a Herculean task even for such a formidable country as China, and in doing so, making no attempt to hide its desire to be and solidifying its role as “the Other.”

For some reason, even though I never used google.cn, I can’t find my way out of the Hong Kong site now. Help!

Good news

March 22nd, 2010 by Johanna | No Comments | Filed in USA! USA!

Hold up! Is it safe now to move back to the States?

Congress finally passed the health care bill!

Thanks to my former Representative, David Price, for voting yes (I could always count on him, of course). And no thanks to my current Representative, Patrick McHenry, for voting no (no surprises there, either).

Shanghai surprise

March 18th, 2010 by Johanna | No Comments | Filed in China

Taking a surprise trip to Shanghai this weekend. It’s a surprise because I didn’t really plan on it.

Evan Osnos over at the New Yorker also got a surprise. Hongqiao’s giant new terminal opened Tuesday, which somehow — despite being grand and extraordinary and (presumably) for the Expo — escaped the major news of the day.

Beijing has more people than I thought

March 18th, 2010 by Johanna | No Comments | Filed in China

Catching up on the news I missed while in Israel:

  • Beijing’s population has reached 22 million, according to China Daily. That’s a shit ton of people, about the same as New York City and its suburbs.
  • English with Chinese characteristics. Snarky Chinese.
  • This story about two guys who hitchhiked from Beijing to Berlin puts my Couchsurfing adventures to shame.

World Expo is really only about China

March 17th, 2010 by Johanna | No Comments | Filed in China

It’s impossible to escape the World Expo here in China. Billboards everywhere remind you it’s happening this summer. Its scary mascot, Haibao, pops up suddenly when you least expect it. New government regulations remind locals to behave themselves. There is a swell of national pride that makes any foreigner scratch his head in wonder of what exactly the hullabaloo is all about.

Well, the hullabaloo is about China. It’s the Beijing Olympics 2.0. It’s for the Communist government to show its people how great China is and the wonderful things the Party does for them. How can a World Expo be just about one country? Doesn’t its name sort of imply that it’s worldly? Aside from a Chinese truism that says everything is about China, there are several hints that outsiders’ perception of China is secondary to Chinese perception of China.

1) Officials estimate the Expo will attract 70 million visitors, of which more than 5 percent will be foreigners. FIVE WHOLE PERCENT.

2) No one really cares or knows about World Expos.

3) This billboard in New York’s Times Square looks like an afterthought.

What I mean is:

The government has decided the World Expo is a Big Deal, because hey, it’s a World Event that involves people from all over the world. That such a huge event is taking place in China means China must be a Big Deal, too. Such Big World Events provides the perfect opportunity to show off how great China is, which of course, the government wants the world to know, but more importantly, wants its people to know.

The right of the Chinese government to exist and govern is premised on that it makes people’s lives better. It will seize every opportunity to remind its people that their lives are better.

Moreover, the Chinese government seems to have completely reorganized people’s priorities. Unable to compete and lead in arenas that matter to other people in the world, it has invented a different category of Things to Be Proud Of, the source of Chinese nationalism. This is seen in the exact sizes of its lakes and museums, of the number of Guinness Records it holds and its spectacular and ostentatious displays of its culture and history (of which it has 5,000 years’ worth). Not that China doesn’t have anything to be proud of, or that it can’t be proud of those things, but it certainly does highlight the differences in East-West ideologies.

Update (March 22): I’m pretty sure the ratio of Haibaos to Shanghai residents is something like 5:1. Check out the photo gallery for random Haibaos (well, at least in one instance, anyway).

From the Motherland to the Holy Land…

February 23rd, 2010 by Johanna | No Comments | Filed in China, USA! USA!

I’m off to Israel for the next 12 days.

Coincidentally, there is a huge issue tying all three countries — the U.S., China and Israel — together: Iran’s nuclear program.

Israel will be sending a delegation to China later this month to persuade China to sanction Iran so that Iran might decide it’s against their interests to keep trying to make nukes.

China, of course, prefers to just negotiate with Iran. Though Israel has gotten Russia on board somewhat, China is a stubborn little child and is unlikely to back down because of a) their ties to Iran, but mostly b) pressure from the West, which it hates.

Ye Hailin, the international relations professor quoted in the article, showed a keen understanding of how Iran works and China’s position: Iran’s desire to develop “nuclear power” cannot be measured with money, and ties in deeply with their dignity and honor. In the same vein, China will lose face (OH HELL NO) if it bows to Western pressure and get very little appreciation in return. Naturally, articles like this one won’t entice China to come around any more.

China is still a developing country from more than just an economic standpoint. Psychologically, Beijing has developed about as much as a 5-year-old. Note to Beijing: The world will never take you seriously, no matter how fast you develop or how big your economy is, until you start being responsible for goodness’ sake without needing recognition for it.

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »