Sunday, August 15, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Public Humiliation
Another article from the NYTimes about China and their ever-changing society.
For a long time, the Chinese government has been cracking down on gambling, prostitution, drugs, violence, etc. While this is a great effort to clean up the streets, China's not clean.
I say this with a fascination for the country, a curiosity about what the future will bring. China's festering with corrupt public officials, corrupt people with lots of money. Not everyone is "equal" in their Communist society, sadly. As a result, jobs are harder to find, money is hard to come by. That's not why we should support the gambling, prostitution, drug-dealing, but, it's not hard to see why those activities have been growing.
Of course, the public officials can just do what ever they please. Like, for instance, parade criminal suspects in front of crowds of Chinese.
For a long time, the Chinese government has been cracking down on gambling, prostitution, drugs, violence, etc. While this is a great effort to clean up the streets, China's not clean.
I say this with a fascination for the country, a curiosity about what the future will bring. China's festering with corrupt public officials, corrupt people with lots of money. Not everyone is "equal" in their Communist society, sadly. As a result, jobs are harder to find, money is hard to come by. That's not why we should support the gambling, prostitution, drug-dealing, but, it's not hard to see why those activities have been growing.
Of course, the public officials can just do what ever they please. Like, for instance, parade criminal suspects in front of crowds of Chinese.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
If You Are The One
So, I just read a NY Times article about a Chinese reality TV show that I find really funny.
Background: There's a Chinese reality TV show called "If You Are The One" and a man will be the lucky bachelor who comes up in front of 24 women. He presents himself through various levels, and the women will scrutinize him and at each level, women will buzz out, meaning they find the man undesirable. If there are any women who still want him by the end of four levels (I think), then he gets to choose his next date!
Most of the time these women are really picky. If some guy is not so good-looking at first glance, several will buzz out like crazy. More importantly, if he doesn't have a good job (and they do mention his salary in the show) or salary, then he really doesn't stand a chance.
The show really exemplified how many Chinese girls seek men nowadays. In essence, they search for the "big three": big bank account, big in stature, and big brain. That's the truth. In a time when China's gap between the rich and the poor is just getting bigger by the day, people need financial security.
The extreme materialism expressed by the women on the show made the Chinese government take action and change the way the show works. I haven't seen the show after these changes, but apparently are "[maintaining] core Socialist values" and that isn't too bad if they're trying to let the Chinese masses feel: "Hey, maybe money isn't that important...we should be with good people with admirable values."
Even though the show isn't as juicy as before, the show doesn't show Chinese society as being as vulgar and materialistic as before. It's a good way to promote the values that are slowly vanishing in contemporary Chinese society.
Background: There's a Chinese reality TV show called "If You Are The One" and a man will be the lucky bachelor who comes up in front of 24 women. He presents himself through various levels, and the women will scrutinize him and at each level, women will buzz out, meaning they find the man undesirable. If there are any women who still want him by the end of four levels (I think), then he gets to choose his next date!
Most of the time these women are really picky. If some guy is not so good-looking at first glance, several will buzz out like crazy. More importantly, if he doesn't have a good job (and they do mention his salary in the show) or salary, then he really doesn't stand a chance.
The show really exemplified how many Chinese girls seek men nowadays. In essence, they search for the "big three": big bank account, big in stature, and big brain. That's the truth. In a time when China's gap between the rich and the poor is just getting bigger by the day, people need financial security.
The extreme materialism expressed by the women on the show made the Chinese government take action and change the way the show works. I haven't seen the show after these changes, but apparently are "[maintaining] core Socialist values" and that isn't too bad if they're trying to let the Chinese masses feel: "Hey, maybe money isn't that important...we should be with good people with admirable values."
Even though the show isn't as juicy as before, the show doesn't show Chinese society as being as vulgar and materialistic as before. It's a good way to promote the values that are slowly vanishing in contemporary Chinese society.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Moment of Zen
(long live Mao)Often times in Beijing parks, you'll see a congregation of old men gathering to play Mah Jong or Qi. Along with them, they'll bring their best friends: birds.
Tweet, tweet, tweet! Once I actually heard one say "Ni hao!"
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Friday, September 25, 2009
The Multi-Lingual Man
Today I was at The Bookworm for the first time to get some inspiration. It was all that I expected it to be, except the coffee was a tad bit expensive for my taste.
In any case, I spent three hours trying to draft a personal statement, but failed miserably.
As I was leaving, I saw a stand full of Time Out China magazines. There was no price, so I assumed they must be free, but I just stood there by the doorway reading the latest issue about what to do for National Day. Since I didn't want to write anything down or take the magazine, I noted down some things on my blackberry that can't read or write Chinese.
Suddenly this Chinese man says, "你在练习你的英文啊？" Then I turn around and say to him back in Chinese, "不是！我只在看看。 我是美国人." Suddenly it didn't even matter that I spoke Chinese because the man started just speaking in English to me. He spoke quite well.
"Oh, I thought you were practicing your English. Ha, ha." He takes the magazine out of my hand. "I saw you writing down notes"
"我只是在看看。。。"
No matter. Then he says, "Oh I see. So you know English and Chinese?"
I gave up and just spoke English. "Yeah."
"What other languages?"
"Um, I guess I do know French too."
Then all of a sudden he starts speaking some really fabulous French and I tell him, "wow, vous parlez très bien! quand je parle j'ai un accent americain."
"Non, non...en fait quand tout le monde parle, on a un accent. Comme les Canadiens, les Belges..."
I was mystified. This multi-lingual man is so multi-lingual. WHAT DOES THIS MAN WANT FROM ME? He asked me if I spoke Spanish, and then used a bit of Spanish on me (I said I didn't know any Spanish!) and then he asked if I knew German, and tried that on me too. We spoke for a little while, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to read the Time Out magazine anymore, nor was I going to be able to not feel inadequate.
"OK, so, I'm going to go," I told him. Then he bid me farewell.
Whatever.
Good thing about Beijing, though, is that there are SO MANY UNIQLO SHOPS AND MUJI SHOPS TOO! AHHHHH!
Oh, and today I noticed that in my classroom's map of China, Taiwan is included. I'm not saying anything else.
In any case, I spent three hours trying to draft a personal statement, but failed miserably.
As I was leaving, I saw a stand full of Time Out China magazines. There was no price, so I assumed they must be free, but I just stood there by the doorway reading the latest issue about what to do for National Day. Since I didn't want to write anything down or take the magazine, I noted down some things on my blackberry that can't read or write Chinese.
Suddenly this Chinese man says, "你在练习你的英文啊？" Then I turn around and say to him back in Chinese, "不是！我只在看看。 我是美国人." Suddenly it didn't even matter that I spoke Chinese because the man started just speaking in English to me. He spoke quite well.
"Oh, I thought you were practicing your English. Ha, ha." He takes the magazine out of my hand. "I saw you writing down notes"
"我只是在看看。。。"
No matter. Then he says, "Oh I see. So you know English and Chinese?"
I gave up and just spoke English. "Yeah."
"What other languages?"
"Um, I guess I do know French too."
Then all of a sudden he starts speaking some really fabulous French and I tell him, "wow, vous parlez très bien! quand je parle j'ai un accent americain."
"Non, non...en fait quand tout le monde parle, on a un accent. Comme les Canadiens, les Belges..."
I was mystified. This multi-lingual man is so multi-lingual. WHAT DOES THIS MAN WANT FROM ME? He asked me if I spoke Spanish, and then used a bit of Spanish on me (I said I didn't know any Spanish!) and then he asked if I knew German, and tried that on me too. We spoke for a little while, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to read the Time Out magazine anymore, nor was I going to be able to not feel inadequate.
"OK, so, I'm going to go," I told him. Then he bid me farewell.
Whatever.
Good thing about Beijing, though, is that there are SO MANY UNIQLO SHOPS AND MUJI SHOPS TOO! AHHHHH!
Oh, and today I noticed that in my classroom's map of China, Taiwan is included. I'm not saying anything else.
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