SARS? What SARS?
SARS victims in Beijing are left to cover the crippling costs of medical care, with the government doing nothing to help.
I broke my Chinese
Two years ago, when I told anyone that I was moving to China, everyone responded with, “China? Really? Can you speak Chinese?”
At the time, I could barely string two words together in Chinese — not because I didn’t know the language, I studied it for 11 years at school, ostensibly as a first language (and failing at it most years). Singapore is not a place where I was (or currently am, Thank the sweet, sweet Lord) required to speak Chinese, Australia even less so when I moved there for university. So when I started my life as a working adult, everyone assumed I did not know the language and bitched freely in Chinese in front of me.
Back to my point. Moving to China has, to re-phrase my mother’s wise words, forced me to dredge up rusty memories of Chinese lessons (and private tuition — and still, I failed at it most years) and try to converse with the locals. Being a part-time English teacher in China enabled me to pretend I didn’t understand Chinese, so I didn’t have to speak it.
Too bad I hated being an English teacher. I don’t know how you teachers do it. I do not have the patience that is so necessary in education. Maybe that’s why I failed the Chinese subject most years at school.
My first months in Xiamen, therefore, were an absolute comedy routine for the Chinese people who had to deal with my clumsy, primary-school level, English-grammared attempts. It took me an hour to get a SIM card for my mobile phone because I didn’t know what SIM card was in Chinese, I didn’t know what SMS was in Chinese, I didn’t know how to say international direct dialing in Chinese. Taxi drivers couldn’t reconcile the facts that my pronounciation was good, but I was unable to say much more than I came from Singapore.
Have I told you I failed Chinese most years that I studied it at school?
The boyfriend wishes he would make more of an effort to learn the language, — he can’t even get a haircut without me to say ’shorter there’ or ‘leave that part long’ (no, he’s not got a mullet). He can now understand bits of Chinese, but is nowhere near the level of holding even the simplest conversation. He always asks me to tell him what this or that is in Chinese, but that’s about the extent of my tutoring him.
As for me, my grasp on the language seems a little less tenuous today. No longer am I gulping and stammering as I try to answer someone in Chinese — I can respond in Chinese (that is peppered with English) and most people can understand me! Way to go team!
This morning I found myself thinking about a project I’ve been busy on, working with locals who do not speak English. As I’ve spent almost all my time dealing with this project, I was thinking about it — in Chinese. Now, my conversation and writing skills may have improved, but my vocabulary is still pitifully small, so my thoughts were cut short fairly quickly. And I immediately thought (in English), Oh man, I’m thinking in Chinese. Next thing I’ll be changing my mobile phone system language to Chinese and start singing karaoke or something.
Kicked to the curb
I linked to an AFP story over on What’s On Xiamen, which states that the Chinese government will speed up its passing of an anti-monopoly legislation.
They said that because multinational companies use unfair competition practices and command dominant positions through mergers, brand management and abundant capital, more must be done to protect local players.
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The report cited companies such Coca-Cola, Kodak, HP, Nokia (news - web sites) and Motorola as having too strong a position in the Chinese market.
Nothing like a little protectionism, eh? They sure do learn quickly from their US mentors.
It just might be one of the better cities after all
I’m one of those people who moved to Xiamen and pretty much went nowhere. For one thing, I didn’t have a job, so I had no money. An afternoon spent in Quanzhou, a mere bus ride away, doesn’t really count.
Being told I was going to be travelling around China for two weeks as part of my job was kind of exciting. Two weeks! Cities I’d barely heard of! Now that is the way to see China, right? I’d get a real appreciation of what this country is really like.
I think part of what dulled my response to Hangzhou, supposedly a romantic city for its close proximity to Westlake, was the weather. It was smoggy and grey, with visibility rather low. I thought the traffic was somewhat crazy, although I’d be stuck to think of a single city in China where traffic isn’t. The especially annoying part was not being able to spend more than a few minutes at Westlake, where I was working and did not have any opportunity to see its famed beauty and tranquility. Apart from us, it did seem pretty quiet.
As we headed to Chongqing, we were told that it was the most populated city in the province. Since I took a walk around the town, I can confirm that there are a shitload of people there, many more than Xiamen. An underpass connecting two ends of a major road teemed with so much activity I thought if I went in, it would over-teem and it would burst. None of us could locate a liquor store, which, to some, was a mighty shame.
My memories of Chengdu include the bus trip out to the Giant Panda Breeding Research Facility, where we got to enthusiastically snap away at snoozing and playing pandas. Trishaws, a sight I’ve not seen since Singapore, were welcome, and most of the drivers I met seemed quite nice and willing to take 20RMB to drive me around and show me the town. Chengdu struck me as a city like any other city in China.
I’ll break here to mention that we were in Chongqing and Chengdu (in Sichuan province) just as the heavy rains were falling and the towns and villages flooding. We must have been on very high ground, as we saw nothing more than some rain.
Wenzhou and Zhengzhou were such dreary industrial cities that I can barely remember them at all. Wuhan, on the other hand, had the Eastlake, a rather pale replacement for Westlake. At least we got to spend some time there. The cheesy tourist attractions didn’t make it any better, unfortunately.
I would say the highlight for many on the trip was the time spent in Shanghai. I’d never been to Shanghai before, so I was looking forward to seeing if it was all it cracked up to be. It is, if you have a strong nose. I did not enjoy the pollution that seem to sit in the air, clogging up my sinuses and making me feel filthy. Sure, the shopping’s good, and the restaurants and bars plenty, but I’d trade that kind of lifestyle for clean lungs any day. I didn’t quit smoking to replace it with Shanghai pollution.
In the end, it must be said that for the colour and life of most of these cities, I was glad to come back to relatively peaceful and clean Xiamen. I never thought I’d say it, but it’s true — Xiamen might be one of the cleanest and best cities, environmentally, in China. Let’s hope they keep it up.
Yachting!
The New York Times reports on yacht-making in China:
Having mastered the manufacture of many inexpensive goods for mass consumption here and abroad, the country is getting into luxury goods, the kinds coveted by the world’s most demanding buyers. China’s competitive advantage is that it is doing this at lower cost.
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With yachts, though, China is braving a market where it has little recent experience or demand at home.
There’s a yacht-making factory in Xiamen, too. They’re also into remote-controlled sailboats, and are trying to start up a fortnightly sailing get-together by the lake. As far as I’m aware, the municipal government isn’t at all interested in the yachts, or sailing for that matter, but is perfectly happy to have them demonstrate how modern and progressive the city is.
This paragraph summarises China perfectly:
The economic boom has certainly created plenty of fortunes big enough to afford yachts. But they have never caught on among rich Chinese, who, unlike the boating set in the West, tend to keep their consumption as inconspicuous as possible. And no wonder, considering how widespread tax evasion and dubious dealings are here: few people want their lifestyles to attract official attention.
Everyone walks around in fake Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, and whatever other brands are considered expensive, so no one bats an eyelid. The mafia drives around in large, black, European cars. Young lads drive around in their BMW Z4s and Ferraris. A yacht would be a whole ‘nother ballgame, I suppose.
15 years on
Today is the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, what Beijing leaders termed as crushing a “counter-revolutionary rebellion”.
You’d think after decades in power, the Communist Party would accept that what they are doing is no longer called a ‘revolution’, it’s ‘consolidation’.
While China has changed a lot since then, it also really hasn’t. Here’s to another 15 years of denial.
I find it very difficult to spell ‘manoeuvre’
It sure sounds like China would like more economic concessions from the US.
It’s hard to say how serious the Chinese government is. To employ the cliche, they are not above stabbing and hacking their nose off with fishing hooks to spite their face.
There are a huge number of Taiwanese expatriates working in Xiamen. I wonder what would happen to them if hostilities were to break out over the Strait. At that point I’m sure I wouldn’t give a monkeys since I’d be more interested in hightailing it out of here myself.
Neil had to get a job in Xiamen, didn’t he?
This is China
Or TIC, as my friend here likes to call it.
I forget who told me this, but people do have ‘freedom of speech’ in China. You can talk and complain and discuss all you like, but if the government decides you, with all your talk, are inciting violence and unrest, watch out.
It’s just like being back home!