tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56908602258084716132024-02-08T10:00:08.850+08:00professor-in-dalianAn American professor blogs about his experiences in Dalian, China.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.comBlogger153125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-12050198882895141872016-06-23T14:36:00.000+08:002016-06-23T15:46:43.700+08:00The Theft of Benevolence<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="97m4d" data-offset-key="ap35m-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="ap35m-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="ap35m-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ma Lei has been seeping preciously little, of late. Her belly is just too big for her ever to become comfortable, as the big watermelon has grown to become a contender for first prize at the county fair. (Roman is already over 8 lbs., three weeks before his due date. I'm terrible with these sorts of details, but people tend to gasp when I tell them that fact.)</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="97m4d" data-offset-key="7vng2-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="7vng2-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="7vng2-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So around 9:00 this morning, I was very much relieved to hear her snoozing gently. I tried to avoid making a peep, as anything I do in this teeny-weeny apartment inevitably wakes her up.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="97m4d" data-offset-key="udnh-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="udnh-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="udnh-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then came a quiet yet insistent knock at our door. <rap .="" rap.=""> It came once, and we ignored it. It came again. <rap .="" rap.=""> Then a third time. </rap></rap></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="udnh-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="udnh-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By this time, Ma Lei was out of bed and at the door.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="97m4d" data-offset-key="ee8mj-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="ee8mj-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="ee8mj-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Who is it?" She asked. </span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="ee8mj-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="ee8mj-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"It's me!" came the quiet, mysterious response, in an old woman's voice she didn't recognize.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="97m4d" data-offset-key="5445r-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5445r-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="5445r-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Do I know you?"</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="97m4d" data-offset-key="e55dt-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e55dt-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="e55dt-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"I know your cousin," the woman said. "I've come selling blankets for your baby. Let me in so I can show you."</span></span><br />
<br />
<span data-offset-key="e55dt-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If this sounds like the intro to a Disney movie, it's not!</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="97m4d" data-offset-key="fjb6s-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="97m4d" data-offset-key="5bgup-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5bgup-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="5bgup-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We have a little screened door-within-a-door, a foot and a half high and a foot wide, to allow air flow on days when it's not quite hot enough for the air conditioner. Ma Lei opened that little door to see two fifty-something women — but no blankets, no other inventory, and no flyers or other sales materials. Only their giant, Cheshire grins and another request for her to invite them in.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="97m4d" data-offset-key="c5ifu-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="c5ifu-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="c5ifu-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ma Lei freaked out and yelled at the women to get the hell out of here. "I don't know you, and I'm not buying anything from you old crones!"</span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="c5ifu-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="c5ifu-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="c5ifu-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="c5ifu-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(Still sounding like the intro to a Disney movie. Still not.)</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="97m4d" data-offset-key="25ijb-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="25ijb-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="25ijb-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="25ijb-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="25ijb-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For one thing, Disney movies never involve social media, unless you count the seagulls in <i>Finding Nemo</i>.</span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="25ijb-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="25ijb-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="97m4d" data-offset-key="6qim7-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6qim7-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="6qim7-0-0"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ma Lei immediately got on various social media groups for our neighborhood, and after confirming briefly that these women had been pestering various neighbors, she was quickly on the phone with the police.</span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="97m4d" data-offset-key="80k4q-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="80k4q-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="80k4q-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="97m4d" data-offset-key="2avod-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2avod-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="2avod-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I was quite shocked by all this fervor. Granted, these women interrupted her precious sleep, but why call the cops on them? Perhaps I've seen too many Disney movies in which cruelty toward the door-to-door crone turns out badly.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="97m4d" data-offset-key="d252r-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="d252r-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="d252r-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="97m4d" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, it turns out there is a reason for Ma Lei's reaction, which a middle-class, Disney-fed American would never understand.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; direction: ltr; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; direction: ltr; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is a scam in China, in which people come to your door with some reasonable pretense to get you to open up. Once you do, they have two ploys available to them. </span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; direction: ltr; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; direction: ltr; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In one, they simply case you out, quietly inventorying your place for things they can later return and steal. </span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; direction: ltr; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; direction: ltr; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the other, they won't bother with such formalities, getting straight to work: they knock you out with chloroform or some other drug, then take your stuff immediately. An old man in Ma Lei's home village got robbed that way, losing something close to $200. (In a Chinese peasant farming community, $200 is a massive loss. That might be a year's worth of his savings.)</span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; direction: ltr; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The two scams work together. The thieves may be the same ones: if they see that there are two people at home, they'll opt for Plan A, but if it's just a lone housewife, they might go for Plan B. This is what Ma Lei explained to me.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; direction: ltr; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was still skeptical, and Ma Lei could see it on me. So she walked me out into the hall, where someone had stroked a little red hash mark next to our door. I was still uncomprehending as Ma Lei dashed inside to grab a wet rag, then set about aggressively washing it off. When she had finished, she explained a bit more.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; direction: ltr; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The mark would have been put there by someone who observed us and identified us as — literally — "marks." I.e., easy and/or lucrative victims. Foreigner = rich and naive, in the Chinese criminal mind. (In this case, much more the latter than the former.) About to have a baby = vulnerable. Even a Chinese woman might go soft and let her guard down during those last few weeks before birth. The combination is </span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">salivatory, if you're a Chinese criminal.</span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">If only the foreigner is home, he'll be happy to show you in. "Oh yes," he'll answer your question, "we bought that TV just last year. It cost about $400. Why yes, that is my laptop. I take it with me to campus every day. ... No, it doesn't bother me to carry it with me, because I also have my other computer that's always in my apartment. That one is safe from theft or accident." And so on, and so on. Foreigners are stupid!</span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">If only the Chinese wife is home, she won't be so stupid. She might tell you when her baby is due and what she needs to buy, but in the meantime you can case out the place. Already, she's given you too much information, but not as much as her running-at-the-mouth foreign husband.</span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">And of course if neither one is home, you can do your business right away. Hence the rather quiet rapping at our door: the neighbors wouldn't hear it.</span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; direction: ltr; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; direction: ltr; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There's no way to know what their scam was, but the evidence is clear that this was a scam. </span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; direction: ltr; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<ul>
<li style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We'd been marked out (by whom, we'll never know). </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The women knew that we had a baby coming, yet they had no good way to know: they didn't know Ma Lei.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They refused to identify themselves by name. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And they weren't carrying anything to indicate that they were actually selling something. Yeah, I'm convinced that this was some kind of scam.</span></span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; direction: ltr; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; direction: ltr; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span data-offset-key="1emv0-0-0"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Welcome to China! The nice hat-check lady will be happy to take your coat, your umbrella, and your American benevolence toward your fellow human beings. Better give it to her, and get a ticket so you can get it back when you leave China. Otherwise, someone's liable to steal it for good."</span></span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-64309847181340797192016-05-26T23:59:00.000+08:002016-05-27T14:08:51.973+08:00<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5u3pp" data-offset-key="cj1pj-0-0" style="color: #4b4f56; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="cj1pj-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="cj1pj-0-0">For the past several years, I've been developing a Business Ethics class for my students here at my university. Now that I'm leaving this university for another job, I hate to see all that work go to waste. The vast majority of Business Ethics classes are, not to put too fine a point on it, useless for Chinese students (if not for others, as well). Since they were unable to find anyone with an actual ethics background, the department roped in a Finance guy from outside the university to teach the class. I'm sure he'll do his best, but I know what it's like teaching a subject that's so far outside your wheelhouse. Disaster is guaranteed, even with the best of intentions.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5u3pp" data-offset-key="beelt-0-0" style="color: #4b4f56; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="beelt-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="beelt-0-0">I've been working to convert all my course materials into a detailed handbook, so that he can follow my outline and use my readings and PowerPoint slides. I've been assured that my materials will be used only with my © intact, though I'm not sure how carefully that will be policed. (However, there is method to my madness: by incentivizing them to stick with my course outline I maximize the chance that in a year or two when I publish the course as a textbook, it will be a natural fit for them to adopt it. :-) )</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5u3pp" data-offset-key="13tjk-0-0" style="color: #4b4f56; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="13tjk-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="13tjk-0-0">Going back through these course materials has been a great pleasure. It's one thing to go through a course one week at a time, but it's been a couple of years since I've really taken a view of it from 30,000 feet to take in the whole. Of course there are a thousand ways I can improve it (and am doing so in my Course Notes), but still I'm pretty proud of the results.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5u3pp" data-offset-key="8mptc-0-0" style="color: #4b4f56; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8mptc-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="8mptc-0-0">Key concepts for teaching Business Ethics to Chinese students:</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5u3pp" data-offset-key="fvq80-0-0" style="color: #4b4f56; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fvq80-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="fvq80-0-0">1. Absolutely no theoretical/philosophical discussion, except as directly induced from concretes. No section on Utilitarianism or Kantianism or Aristotle. I tried that my first year, and there are no words for the level of failure. 351 people hated life that week: 350 of them being my students and the last one being their errant professor. I rejiggered that introduction to ethical theory five different times for five different classes, and it went "THUD" every time.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5u3pp" data-offset-key="adckk-0-0" style="color: #4b4f56; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="adckk-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="adckk-0-0">2. Keep all controversies within their context. That whole section on Affirmative Action and race relations in our Western textbook is completely useless here.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5u3pp" data-offset-key="1j332-0-0" style="color: #4b4f56; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1j332-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="1j332-0-0">3. Include a balance of Chinese and foreign case studies. However, every negative case study about China must be balanced by one from outside China. Don't do anything to convey the notion that you, the foreigner, are here in China to tell them what's wrong with their country.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5u3pp" data-offset-key="1s65k-0-0" style="color: #4b4f56; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1s65k-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="1s65k-0-0">4. Include one or two important controversies. A section on sexual harassment is extremely important, because the female students haven't any idea how rampant it is, and the male students haven't any idea how wrong it is. The row of guys sitting in the back of the room will try to smirk their way through that lesson, because of the one-child policy: they don't have a sister. </span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5u3pp" data-offset-key="90m0h-0-0" style="color: #4b4f56; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="90m0h-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="90m0h-0-0">If you happen to be teaching in a year when anti-Japanese hatred is on the flare, get in their faces on that one. I have a great lesson plan for that, but this year it was mostly a waste because my students didn't take the anti-Japanese bait. </span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5u3pp" data-offset-key="2aqrl-0-0" style="color: #4b4f56; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2aqrl-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="2aqrl-0-0">5. Limit controversy. In an 18-week semester, 2 or 3 controversial topics is about as much as you can hit them with. More than that, and they'll turn on you. It's not their fault, either, it's yours: too much controversy, in this culture, is seen as another foreign invasion.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5u3pp" data-offset-key="9nars-0-0" style="color: #4b4f56; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9nars-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="9nars-0-0"> 6. Learn the lesson of The Meno. Socrates argued (more or less) that virtue cannot be taught, and he was (more or less) right. Ethics is a matter of choice, and it's for the individual to make in his or her own mind. So what can a Business Ethics class teach?</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5u3pp" data-offset-key="201d8-0-0" style="color: #4b4f56; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="201d8-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<ul>
<li>The real-world importance of ethics. Case studies of companies that have failed because they lost their morals.</li>
<li>That business is not inherently unethical — in fact, ethics is good business practice.</li>
<li>How and why people with good intentions fail at ethical behavior.</li>
<li>Practical guidance: how to create an organization with incentives to ethical behavior, and disincentives to unethical behavior.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="201d8-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="201d8-0-0">For Chinese students, in my opinion that's about it. If you can do that, then you have given them a good framework for thinking about ethics in business. You've given them a warning about the consequences of unethicality. You've given them a heads-up on what leads people astray, and how to a</span>void those mistakes that magnify over time. You've given them management Best Practices.</div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="201d8-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="201d8-0-0"><br /></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="201d8-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="201d8-0-0">They will go home knowing that they got something really great from your class.</span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-24800841927105656542016-05-01T19:06:00.003+08:002016-05-01T19:06:39.522+08:00<div style="color: #141823; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The most welcome news I've heard in months came yesterday, as Ma Lei was explaining to her family how she's planning not to follow the Chinese postpartum tradition.</span></div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">For those who don't know, the Chinese "medical" "wisdom" includes one practice regarding childbirth that tops almost everything else in its repulsiveness. Traditionally, a new mother was not supposed to rise from her bed for an entire month. Getting out of bed might introduce "cold air" into her body, which is regarded by Chinese "medicine" as a main source of disease.</span></div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Most importantly, she was not to bathe. Bathing might make the mother too humid, or something like that.</span></div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Thank God, Ma Lei's doctor knows at least somewhat better than that. She explained to Ma Lei and other patients that obeying this custom means exposing the newborn baby to all manners of infectious agents which the baby isn't prepared to combat. (She didn't mention that it's just vile and repulsive to everyone forced to deal with the new mother during that month, which would have been my line of attack.)</span></div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So I was very glad that Ma Lei accepted the doctor's advice, and admonished her family not to expect her to follow their traditions in that regard.</span></div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But then in the same breath, Ma Lei informed us that she doesn't plan to wash her hair for that entire month. The reason for this is that, once she's washed her hair, she needs to blow it dry. But that might introduce air into her bones, and new mothers' bones are already "loose."</span></div>
<div style="color: #141823; display: inline; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I didn't even fight that battle. I didn't bother to say that there's a reason we have skin, whose sole purpose is to keep "air" and other things out. If she wants to go a month without washing her scraggly hair, I'm okay with that. Just so she doesn't think she needs to spend the entire month in bed without a single shower.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-42244312010743949072016-04-26T15:10:00.001+08:002016-04-26T15:10:20.079+08:00How framing the question makes all the difference: US-Chinese relations<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
Someone on Quora posted a question which I felt compelled to answer at length. I thought the question itself rather bad, but answering it brought out some interesting aspects of the relationship between the US and China. Perhaps most importantly, it illustrated the way in which a poorly-framed question can almost automatically elicit shallow answers, in a form of begging the question.</div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<u>Here was the question: </u></div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<a action_mousedown="QuestionLinkClickthrough" class="question_link" href="https://www.quora.com/Is-the-U-S-trying-to-prevent-China-from-becoming-as-powerful-as-them" id="__w2_pKByIGa_link" style="color: #333333; display: inline !important; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 1.25; text-decoration: none;" target="_top"><span class="question_text">Is the U.S. trying to prevent China from becoming as powerful as them?</span></a></div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<u>And my answer:</u></div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
The question is a rather oversimplified one, because neither the US nor China thinks of itself in those purely competitive terms. </div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
First of all, the phrase "as powerful as..." is extremely vague. "Powerful" can refer to military power, or economic prowess, or cultural influence over average people around the world, or diplomatic influence, and probably lots of other elements. Nor is it a simple equation in any one of those spheres: the US may have more military power overall than Vietnam, but who won the war there?</div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
Secondly, the US and China are not enemies. We are adversaries, but that's not the same thing. </div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
During the Cold War, it was very important for the US and the USSR to compete with each other directly for power in every possible sphere. But the US and China are not existential threats to each other, and so they do not have to think of each other in those terms.</div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
There is something common to both the US and China — a mixture of naïveté and maturity — that makes this kind of "who is more powerful" comparison rather alien to both national characters.</div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
Both the US and China see themselves in rather insular terms. China is "The Middle Kingdom." The US is "A City on a Hill" and "The Land of the Free." Each is self-absorbed. Each tends to ignore the perspectives of the rest of the world. Each thinks its own position is self-evidently correct, and wonders why anyone could possibly disagree. This is their naiveté.</div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
Note that this is very different from the way many other countries see themselves. Other countries may fight passionately, and sometimes militarily, but they don't see themselves as bathed in righteousness the way Americans and Chinese do. If you put one of their statesmen under some sort of truth serum and asked him, "If you were suddenly wearing the uniform of the other side, what would you do," they would tell you "I would fight just as vehemently for them." If you asked the same question of an American or a Chinese leader, they would literally be unable to answer the question. They cannot see that there is another side to any issue, even when there is.</div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
Both the US and China primarily care about whatever it is that they see as being in their interest. They don't fundamentally care who is more "powerful." They care about getting their own way, about pursuing their own interests around the world, but that's different.</div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
And here's where their naiveté becomes maturity: neither one of them is particularly absorbed in that schoolyard bullying about who could beat up whom. Unlike some other countries (Russia?), neither America nor China sees "power" as an end in itself. They're focused on their interests, and of course one has to have the means to pursue one's interests. But if America's interests — or what it <i>believes</i> are its interests — are not threatened by China, America doesn't care who is "more powerful." It's mostly the same for the Chinese.</div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
(Caveat: the Chinese are somewhat more focused on "power," because of their cultural emphasis on "face" — and because of the past century and a half of humiliating powerlessness. But still, the Chinese are far more focused on achieving their specific interests, than on having more "power" than any particular country.)</div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
The question of "power" really only arises because of the often very deep disagreements about what is in our interests. China is a dictatorship, while the US still (mostly) believes in basic rights. China believes its territorial claims are automatically valid, while the US has doubts. China is afraid that America's allies will form a kind of sea wall around it, cutting off maritime routes. China is a mercantilist country that seeks to protect domestic enterprises from overseas competition, while the US is still (mostly) committed to (mostly-)free trade. These disagreements give rise to conflicts, which make the issue of "my dad could beat up your dad" more relevant than it would have to be, given the basic cultures of the two countries.</div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
Of course, there are elements within each country that are indeed focused on the one-on-one comparison. There are the nationalist citizens who seek to gain reflected glory from their country's power. And of course there are national-security professionals whose job it is to prepare for worst-case conflicts. The latter class in each country should, as the saying goes, "hope for the best, but prepare for the worst."</div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
But in terms of the average person <i>or</i> the government in America — which is what this question asked about — they don't fundamentally care if China is "more powerful" than the United States. </div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; padding: 0px;">
Nor, fundamentally, do the Chinese. They want to ensure that their lives are improving, first and foremost. They want to ensure that they never again endure the kind of national humiliation that they've endured in the past. But do they fundamentally care if America is "more powerful" than China? As long as America keeps its nose out of what they see as their own business, they really don't.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-69073864459474464452016-04-24T00:37:00.000+08:002016-04-24T01:02:12.834+08:00Two elevators out<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
When I first moved to China, I met someone who was considering buying an apartment in a brand new high rise building with a beautiful view over the bay. She was disappointed, she said, because the only apartment she could afford was on the 30th floor, rather than the one on the 3rd floor which she’d wanted to buy.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
I was flabbergasted at this. You’ve got a 30th floor apartment with a fantastic view over the water, and you’re disappointed that it’s not on the third floor where the view isn’t nearly as good? What are you thinking of? Her answer was: “What happens when the elevators break down?”</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
And again, I did a double-take. You’re buying a brand new luxury apartment. What is this “elevators break down” of which you speak?</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
Now I understand. This is China.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
Granted, my apartment is not a luxury apartment, but it’s run by the kith and kin of people who run the luxury ones. None of them are to be trusted.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
Tonight we were going out with the dogs, and the second elevator in our building, the one that has been working double-time while the other one was on a ten-week sabbatical, was not working. The light was blinking on the sixth floor. I knew that this did not bode well.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
I told my wife, who as of tomorrow will be seven months pregnant, that she shouldn’t go down 15 floors with me, because we’re going to end up walking back up again. </div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
No worries, she said, in effect. Surely it’ll be fixed by the time we come home. I argued with her. But she wanted to walk, so she walked. Mama rules.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
Normal people really don’t want to walk up or down a staircase anywhere in China. It’s disgusting.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
China is a filthy place, in general. Everyone in China is a generation or two off a farm where they fertilized their fields by spreading their own “night soil” over them every morning, and that “night soil” was collected from the hole in the ground into which every family member spent their effluence. </div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
It shouldn’t be a surprise, and it’s really no fault of their own if they haven’t fully absorbed foreign standards of public hygiene. They didn’t have the luxury until quite recently, and the concept still hasn’t spread.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
Even people who take good care of their interior space, once they walk out into the hallway will hawk and spit, drop their trash wherever they feel like it, and let their dogs pee. </div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
(On our way down, tonight, I actually had to correct a dog right in front of us who was lifting his leg every half a floor. His twenty-something owners sort of laughed, but they stopped letting him do it once I shouted loudly enough. It took two sharp corrections — and I’m not sure if I was correcting the dog, or the owners.) </div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
No one ever mops the floors or cleans the walls. </div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
Men whose wives won’t allow them to smoke inside the apartment, routinely smoke in stairwells. </div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
The stairwell is vile. It’s barely above a cesspit.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
You really don’t want to climb down, and you especially don’t want to climb back up again,. Fifteen floors of a dark, dank, stinky stairway. I didn’t want my wife to do it, especially not with Roman in there.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
So as we were standing out there in the hallway, before we'd made the decision to climb downstairs, Ma Lei said “You go home. I’ll walk the dogs.”</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
Are you kidding me? There was no way on earth I was going to let her risk having to carry those two heavy little creatures along with her pregnant belly up fifteen floors of filth. </div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
I wanted to send her back home, but that was a battle I couldn’t win. Mama wants to walk, Mama walks. The four of us walked downstairs together.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
It was in fact a beautiful evening, and we had a lovely walk around the complex. When we’d finished one lap, we sat for a while on a nice little bench in front of our apartment building. Then we walked again for a little while.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
When we returned to our building, “surely” the elevator had <span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">not</span> been fixed. It was still blinking “6,” so we went back out and sat again for a while. </div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
It was actually very romantic, perhaps the more so because we were both looking at a giant climb ahead of us.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
At some point, Ma Lei remembered that there’s a security office with cameras all over the complex (a thing she reminds me of every time I go to smack her butt or otherwise toy with her on the elevators). So she went in and knocked on the door, to see what the elevator cams had to say.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
As Chinese always do when they are on the defensive, the security guy sounded aggressive, or borderline hostile. When you hear a Chinese low-level employee talk, it almost always sounds as though he’s fighting with someone. He wasn’t talking about anything that was actually his fault, but he was surely heading off anyone else blaming him for it. I believe they call it “deflecting.”</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
We knew it wasn't his fault. Ma Lei even said "I know it's not your fault," more than once. Yet he railed on about how it wasn't his fault. It must suck to be someone whose culture presupposes his guilt long before there's any evidence of it.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
The message was that yes, the elevator is out of order. No, it’s not going to be fixed tonight. It will surely be fixed by tomorrow morning. </div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
In my American opinion, he could have conveyed the same message in a way that didn’t sound as though it were Ma Lei’s personal fault that the elevator was not working. But perhaps in China he’s just too used to people blaming him for what’s not his fault, so he’s got to deflect the blame.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
Anyway, we’d gotten the message. We gave up and climbed the damned stairs.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
On the fourth floor of our building, someone has abandoned a nasty old yellow-and-chrome couch that looks like a prop from the set if someone had made a Jetsons movie in the seventies. Ma Lei stopped for a break there, and the two dogs had probably reached the max of their climbing ability, so I scooped them up and trudged them up the other 11 floors while she rested. To my marginal credit, it was only when I reached the 13th floor that I lost my breath a little and had to take a quick break.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
Ma Lei isn’t in terrible shape, herself, and sat there for not too many minutes.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
She saw two twenty-something young men who’d bought a large mattress, struggling to haul it to the 10th floor. That would suck way worse than carrying two doglets or one fetus.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
What motivated her to get moving was when she heard someone climbing the stairs below her, cursing even worse than I do at the incompetence of our building management, and threatening even worse horrors than my threat of hiring a lawyer. (Mine is toothless, anyway, since there is no functioning court system in this country.)</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
Ma Lei thought this woman must be talking to a friend on her cell phone, but no. Just as I am prone to do, she was cursing into space at the evils of Chinese management. It happened to be our pudgy, forty-something next-door neighbor, so Ma Lei got up and kept company with her on their way up the stairs.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
We’ve been told that the long-errant elevator is going to be working within two days, and tonight we were told that its healthier brother will be back on the job tomorrow morning. I hope it’s true.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
It just occurred to Ma Lei a moment ago, tomorrow morning is going to be interesting. It’s a Sunday, but there are plenty of people who have to go to work. Without a single elevator working, they’re going to be climbing down the stairs like ants down a tree trunk.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
RG</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-13977842037567859052016-04-07T23:28:00.000+08:002016-04-24T00:41:18.381+08:00Resolutely smoking on the elevator<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="n8tc-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="n8tc-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="n8tc-0-0">Smoking is very normal in China. Incredibly normal. For a country that aspires to be among the world leaders in every category, they're killing off their people with cigarettes produced by State-Owned Enterprises. There's no Obamacare, but there is government ownership of tobacco companies... can you see some poorly aligned interests here? Puff away on your government-sponsored cigarettes, but when you're dying of lung cancer, we've got actual bouncers in the hospital to throw your butt out onto the street when you can't pay your bill.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="bho7l-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bho7l-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="bho7l-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="1o4nk-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1o4nk-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="1o4nk-0-0">There have been some feeble attempts to cut down on smoking in public places, along the lines of foreign countries. In Beijing, for example, smoking in a restaurant is generally not allowed. Likewise, everywhere you go in China there are "no smoking" signs (in English and in Chinese) in such places as bathrooms, restaurants, and elevators. Outside Beijing, they are flagrantly ignored except when I'm around.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="3eaac-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3eaac-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="3eaac-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="cbr5j-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="cbr5j-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="cbr5j-0-0">Our apartment building has seen a significant drop-off in smoking in the elevators since I moved in. I suspect it's the "waiguo" effect: people are on their best behavior when they know there's a foreigner in their midst who might — for example — blog about their behavior on Facebook and other foreign media.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="f5snk-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="f5snk-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="f5snk-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="2fh0m-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2fh0m-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="2fh0m-0-0">Today, though, I saw something I'd never seen before, and wouldn't have believed possible.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="731j2-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="731j2-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="731j2-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="2tlof-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2tlof-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="2tlof-0-0">You must understand, before reading the rest of this posting, that in China parenthood is a paramount value — perhaps THE paramount value. A woman who is not yet married is regarded as being in stasis. A young couple, as yet childless, is regarded as a target. "When are you having your baby?" Everyone, with or without any actual relationship to the couple, considers it her right to pry on their status. "When's the baby coming?"</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="kcer-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="kcer-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="kcer-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="e1ukj-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e1ukj-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="e1ukj-0-0">A pregnant woman is like a saint. They'll give up their seat on the bus, they'll make room, they'll do whatever is necessary to accommodate Saint Mama. And if a married woman is NOT yet pregnant, she is regarded as a pariah. It is her duty to get pregnant immediately, and to take passionate care of that baby. That is her one and only job, as a woman.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="7ib7s-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="7ib7s-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="7ib7s-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="5odki-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5odki-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="5odki-0-0">So this morning, we got on the elevator to go walk the dogs, and on the fourteenth floor this young punk, twenty-something, thin, stylishly dressed and with a girly hairdo, got on the elevator puffing aggressively on a fag.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="4r407-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4r407-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="4r407-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="10ffv-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="10ffv-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="10ffv-0-0">Ma Lei politely asked him "I'm sorry, I'm pregnant. Would you mind putting out your cigarette?" He made no response whatsoever, and in fact puffed once more.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="1i1u2-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1i1u2-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="1i1u2-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="f8ukd-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="f8ukd-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="f8ukd-0-0">I told her "I don't think he heard you," so she said it again: "I'm pregnant, is it okay for you to put out your cigarette?"</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="b7q7l-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="b7q7l-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="b7q7l-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="d0o5a-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="d0o5a-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="d0o5a-0-0">This time he actually responded: "No, it's not."</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="5bmji-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5bmji-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="5bmji-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="75s39-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="75s39-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="75s39-0-0">WHAT?!?!</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="dqmng-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dqmng-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="dqmng-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="42hia-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="42hia-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="42hia-0-0">Now I had to get involved. I pointed at the "No Smoking" sign and asked him: "Can you read Chinese? I'm foreign, and I know what that sign says." He made no response.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="dpvvo-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dpvvo-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="dpvvo-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="6gqkd-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6gqkd-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="6gqkd-0-0">I asked him: "Are you a moron?" No response.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="6atd6-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6atd6-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="6atd6-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="e7nqa-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e7nqa-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="e7nqa-0-0">I asked him: "Are you Japanese?" Still no response.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="6mhoi-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6mhoi-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="6mhoi-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="9tv5c-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9tv5c-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="9tv5c-0-0">So I finally just decided to give a lecture, because that's what I do. I'm a teacher, right? I told him: If you think other countries don't like China, you are the reason for it, you little chicken-egg.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="dflcc-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dflcc-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="dflcc-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="8vc2h-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8vc2h-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="8vc2h-0-0">One of Ma Lei's online friends told her not to worry about this kid, because he's clearly beneath a dog. Dogs understand human speech, but this little ben-dan (dumb egg) clearly does not.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="e93iq-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e93iq-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="e93iq-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dqbvc" data-offset-key="d4uoa-0-0" style="color: #373e4d; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="d4uoa-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="d4uoa-0-0">I still can't get it out of my head, though. The nerve of this little twenty-something chopstick ignoring the law, ignoring a polite request, and ignoring his entire cultural history, is impossible for me to ignore.</span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-4072846288982616632016-03-26T01:35:00.000+08:002016-04-07T23:48:23.777+08:00Abortion choice<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="21s6d-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="21s6d-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="21s6d-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">An online acquaintance of Ma Lei's told her one of the most horrible stories I've ever heard. She sprung this on me at dinner in a wonton soup restaurant on the ground floor of our apartment building, and it was all I could do to maintain my composure. I didn't entirely succeed.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="b0k2q-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="b0k2q-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="b0k2q-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="7e4qa-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="7e4qa-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="7e4qa-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ma Lei was somewhat surprised by my emotiveness — but sometimes, the Chinese can be just stunningly blind to emotions.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="adq1s-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="adq1s-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="adq1s-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="dk4bk-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dk4bk-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="dk4bk-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The story came from another woman who has had to go to the fertility clinic for her pregnancy, so she and her husband hadn't just easily gotten hooked up with a little one: they'd worked hard for it, as Ma Lei and I can testify.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="esrgi-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="esrgi-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="esrgi-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="edb8q-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="edb8q-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="edb8q-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The woman is 6+ months pregnant, and she went in for her ultrasound test. The result was a nightmare. </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="ofuq-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="ofuq-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="ofuq-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="e6sbv-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e6sbv-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="e6sbv-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Her son had a massive cleft palate — way more than any Chinese hospital is prepared to deal with.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="6vtqh-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6vtqh-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="6vtqh-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="4rupl-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4rupl-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="4rupl-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I speak as a cleft-palate sufferer for whom my deformity has never amounted to much of an issue. </span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4rupl-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="4rupl-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4rupl-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="4rupl-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">But this woman's child was clearly seen to be missing not just some bone structure, but the entire left half of his nose and all the upper-palate structure that should have underlain it.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="2fht6-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2fht6-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="2fht6-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="9p85d-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9p85d-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="9p85d-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">In America, perhaps this wouldn't have been such a horror story. American surgeons do incredible things. </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="4udbr-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4udbr-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="4udbr-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="51lem-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="51lem-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="51lem-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">My own dear, late Janusz Bardach — Soviet Gulag survivor and later University of Iowa surgeon — pioneered one of the many surgical techniques that allowed my upper lip to look relatively normal. And that was just one of the first among a long line of surgical developments in American treatment of midline cranial-development defects.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="c2jhh-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="c2jhh-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="c2jhh-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="c8oou-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="c8oou-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="c8oou-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">If you ask me, when I'm looking in my own mirror, I emerged from my own cleft palate and harelip as a stunningly handsome lady-charmer. :-) Apparently, my wife doesn't entirely disagree, since she's a very beautiful woman who somehow or other decided I was good enough. In my opinion, if I'm handsome enough to snag a woman that beautiful, I'm handsome enough.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="202q9-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="202q9-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="202q9-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="8ts3k-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8ts3k-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="8ts3k-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I did suffer through a handful of relatively mild operations, years of braces, and a single experience when a bully rode his bike past me and said "Hey! Flat-nose!" </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="f9bm7-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="f9bm7-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="f9bm7-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="5aqf2-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5aqf2-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="5aqf2-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">However, my first girlfriend's parents warned her that if she married me, our children would be "monsters." </span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5aqf2-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="5aqf2-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5aqf2-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="5aqf2-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">But other than that girlfriend, no one has ever held my mouth against me — and indeed, I credit much of my articulateness to the speech therapy I went through as a young cleft patient.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="df1gc-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="df1gc-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="df1gc-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="bvgks-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bvgks-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="bvgks-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">But China isn't America. It's not even the America of 1969, when my treatments began, and it's certainly not the America of today.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="bmbai-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bmbai-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="bmbai-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="7bg70-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="7bg70-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="7bg70-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Even in America today, this baby's reconstruction would be on the extreme end of the current technology. It would be expensive and experimental, and it would require months of work. And then the results would be bad.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="4h3gn-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4h3gn-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="4h3gn-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="f1cba-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="f1cba-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="f1cba-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">In China, it would probably be impossible. to fix a cleft this extreme. There are no hospitals doing this far-end work. (I almost said "cutting edge.") Even to get something done in China, anything at all, would be $20K or more — which they just don't have.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="1ccse-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1ccse-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="1ccse-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="p0rm-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="p0rm-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="p0rm-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Now, suppose that they somehow managed to get the best work done for this child that's available in China. He will have a clearly deformed face, half a nose, and a gaping hole where the left-hand side of his nose should be. </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="e9jpl-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e9jpl-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="e9jpl-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="el3gd-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="el3gd-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="el3gd-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">How will he be treated in school?</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="82hjc-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="82hjc-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="82hjc-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="4rgb6-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4rgb6-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="4rgb6-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Chinese teachers aren't schooled in sensitivity. They won't hesitate to tease him, abuse him, use him as a negative exemplar for other students. "You got that one wrong? You're almost as stupid as the kid with no nose." HAHA! Everyone laughs.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="4v62l-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4v62l-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="4v62l-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="6mab3-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6mab3-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="6mab3-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Suppose that the parents somehow or other manage to bring him up with a reasonable education, via private tutors who don't tease him mercilessly. Suppose he gets a good university degree in China. Now will he get a good job?</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="73gh6-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="73gh6-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="73gh6-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="2fug-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2fug-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="2fug-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">No. In China, a pretty face is part of one's qualifications for a good job, and an ugly face is grounds for denial from a good job. If you're SUPER-ugly, deformed of visage, then everyone you might have to work with will be made extremely uncomfortable. Hence, no one will want to hire you.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="1bvpg-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1bvpg-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="1bvpg-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="ad87-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="ad87-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="ad87-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And in country in which there's already an imbalance between male and female, do you suppose that such a boy would ever get married and bring his parents a grandchild? Not on your life.</span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="ad87-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="ad87-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="ad87-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="ad87-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ma Lei told me straight-up — with tears in my eyes, not so much in hers — that kid could never have a happy life in China. "It's not America," she said. "China is —" and then I think she said a word that means "hostile," or perhaps "inhospitable," but I don't exactly know. It definitely wasn't an endorsement of China.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="ec67t-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="ec67t-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="ec67t-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="d87lc-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="d87lc-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="d87lc-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Meanwhile, the woman made the very rational decision to have a late-term abortion. She made an appointment to go in the next morning and have her baby given a long needle that would put him painlessly to sleep. I cannot in any way, on any level, argue against her decision. I believe she made the exact right one, given the horrible circumstances of her life here in China.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="2ffpj-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2ffpj-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="2ffpj-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="fq5up-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fq5up-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="fq5up-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">But that whole night, the baby in her belly was acting the way any baby in his mother's belly will do. He swam around, he punched her, he kicked. He had no idea that his mother had decided to end his life.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="84rmo-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="84rmo-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="84rmo-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="3aej5-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3aej5-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="3aej5-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Can you, for just one moment, imagine what it must have felt like for that woman to have had her fetus playing his fetile games inside her belly, feeling the connection with him that she must necessarily have felt — yet knowing that 10 hours later, she was going to nod her head to the doctor to inject the giant needle that would terminate his life?</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="dknvc-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dknvc-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="dknvc-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="f3l18-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="f3l18-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="f3l18-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ma Lei's online acquaintances universally condemned the poor woman, as if she weren't already suffering enough. </span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="f3l18-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span data-offset-key="f3l18-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ma Lei stamped her online foot — which I have the feeling bears a lot of weight, because Ma Lei is the kind of woman who makes people take notice of her opinions — and told them to shut the hell up. The others probably fell in line, because in my experience it's only a very few hearty souls who can withstand the wrath of Ma Lei. </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And in this case, it's not as though that woman had made a light and transient decision.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="6b7tn-0-0" style="color: #141823; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6b7tn-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="6b7tn-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3cnq2" data-offset-key="5j3on-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5j3on-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="5j3on-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #141823;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">I appreciate, so deeply, the fact that Ma Lei stood up for this woman. I can't say one way or the other about this woman's decision. In a better China, I would say she should have the baby and let him duke it out with his detractors. But there isn't a better China, there's only this China, in which it's acceptable for teachers to </span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5j3on-0-0" style="color: #141823; direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span data-offset-key="5j3on-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5j3on-0-0" style="color: #141823; direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span data-offset-key="5j3on-0-0"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-25795852342645264852016-03-22T12:27:00.000+08:002016-03-22T13:49:21.228+08:00The question of citizenshipOur little Monkey, Roman Karl Garmong, is due in July, which is approaching with frightening rapidity. One question which an American would seldom understand, a Chinese person would never understand, but foreigners who live in China do, is this: which citizenship will we give him?<br />
<br />
To Chinese people, the choice between US and Chinese citizenship seems like a complete no-brainer. With half of China dreaming and scheming to move to America, why on earth would any couple choose to give their child Chinese citizenship over and above American?<br />
<br />
To Americans, it's perhaps even more incomprehensible: why would one choose <i>any</i> citizenship other than 'Murcuhn? After all, isn't America about to build a Great Wall on the Mexican border to keep out the waves and waves of invading foreigners?! Doesn't everyone in the world long to breathe free in America? Why throw him in with the huddled masses, when he could be born American?<br />
<br />
But the question indeed is a real one, and here's why:<br />
<br />
First, the legal background: while the US accepts dual citizenship (Ted Cruz can tell you about that), China does not. At birth, we must declare the Monkey's citizenship. If he's Chinese, he gets his papers immediately; if he's American, we have to dash to the US Consulate in Shenyang to get his passport within a certain number of days. Either way, it's a decision to be made immediately after his birth.<br />
<br />
Once the choice is made, there's a huge difference in his future options. The US is rather flexible; China is not.<br />
<br />
If we choose US citizenship, that's final: he can, as far as I know, never get Chinese citizenship. He will always be a foreigner in China.<br />
<br />
He could get all the same visas available to any other foreigner: he could come on vacation with a tourist visa; he could get a residency permit if he someday got a job in China; he could get a three-year spousal visa if, like his father, he one day decided to marry a Chinese woman. (I recommend it.)<br />
<br />
But he would always be a foreigner, and subject to the same restrictions as other foreigners in China. He could never own a home here, he would face very high barriers to starting a business here, he would have to register his every movement with the government, he couldn't stay in hotels that are restricted to Chinese-only, etc.<br />
<br />
He would also always be <i>regarded</i> as foreign, even if he stayed in China and became a businessman. He would never have the same <i>guanxi</i>, relationships/connections, as someone with a Chinese passport. He would never be 100% accepted. If you think it's hard in America for a Northerner to move to Alabama and do business, in China it's a thousand times worse.<br />
<br />
If, on the other hand, we choose Chinese citizenship, the US is more accommodating. With one American-citizen parent, he could always apply for, and get, US citizenship. His passport would be issued within a day.<br />
<br />
There are some minor restrictions on it, the most important of which being that he must actually live in the US for a number of years before he turns 18. (I believe that number is two, but I could be mistaken.) So we would make sure to send him to boarding school in the US, just like so many other Chinese-born students. Once that restriction is met, he could — for the rest of his life — walk into any US embassy or consulate, anywhere in the world, and immediately claim US citizenship.<br />
<br />
He would then be a Naturalized, not a Natural-Born citizen, which puts one and only one restriction on him: he could never run for President of the United States.<br />
<br />
In my opinion this is a feature, not a bug.<br />
<br />
The current prevailing wisdom seems to be that, if we declare him to be a US citizen from birth, he could one day be tempted to become one of those creeps running for President — just like Ted Cruz. I'd just as soon foreclose that option right from the start.<br />
<br />
American parents love to tell their kids: "if you work hard enough, you can achieve any goal you want. You could even be President, if you work hard enough."<br />
<br />
I'm kind of inclined to tell my little Roman Karl: "If you work hard enough, you can achieve any goal that's worth achieving. If you work hard enough, you could be the next Steve Jobs." But if you want to become President, you need to drop it.<br />
<br />
So you can perhaps see why it's an open question, not the done-deal that it might immediately have seemed. If there are any advantages to Chinese citizenship, then we should give it serious consideration.<br />
<br />
Now, there's one giant disadvantage to Chinese citizenship: Chinese citizens have no recognized individual rights. Of course they have the same Natural Rights as every other man on earth, but their government systematically refuses to recognize those rights. They may have more <i>permissions</i> within this country than foreigners do, but a permission can be withdrawn — sometimes savagely — at any moment.<br />
<br />
Another disadvantage to Chinese citizenship involves travel to other countries. The US passport is among the most widely-recognized in the world; the Chinese, among the least.<br />
<br />
If he one day wants to travel to Russia, he'd be better off Chinese than American. Ditto, in the unlikely event he wants to move to North Korea to take a lucrative job there. (Hehe.) But pretty much anywhere else in the world, it's far better to present a US passport than a Chinese one.<br />
<br />
However, there are some benefits to Chinese citizenship.<br />
<br />
One is the "social services" he would get in China.<br />
<br />
I regard this one as a minimal consideration, because a) there aren't very many social services in China — which is to the benefit of China, imo. And b) I don't believe in social services, so on a moral level I'd rather we/he pay his own way through life than rely upon them. But we have to consider the practicalities, especially with my low-paying job.<br />
<br />
The most important thing is education. If we're still in China when he enters school, it's a whole lot more expensive to enroll a foreign citizen in a Chinese school than to enroll a Chinese citizen. (By the way, as I understand it the Chinese public schools in fact charge tuition — but the tuition is far higher for a foreign citizen.)<br />
<br />
But the Big Kahuna — the #1 reason to worry about US citizenship, imo — is the ridiculous US tax system.<br />
<br />
The United States is the only country I know of that claims the right to tax the income of its citizens, no matter where that income is earned and no matter whether it had anything to do with America itself.<br />
<br />
Suppose, for example, I were to open a business in China, providing — let's say — educational services to Chinese students. Suppose I were to become unusually successful at that business, such that I made a million dollars at it. Now, this business has no connection to the US government: it falls entirely under the jurisdiction of Chinese law, the money circulates 100% inside China, and it impinges not one iota on the United States economy. I'm not even using a US bank. It's all China, all the way. Nevertheless, the US government would tax me just as if I'd made my money inside the United States.<br />
<br />
This is, to me, crackpot, nut-job crazy. It is despicable. It is a gross violation of the original American idea that government exists as the servant of the people. If the person has left town, and the government is in no way serving him, then by what right does it demand his money? Only on the premise that the individual is the servant of his government. We once fought a Revolution against that notion, but we've brought it right back in again.<br />
<br />
It is among a large and growing category of US government rules widely regarded overseas as — this is their term — "economic imperialism." And they're right: that's exactly what it is. It's the US government's way of taking over the world, not by force of arms, but by force of tax law and banking restrictions and controls on currency exchange.<br />
<br />
If one happens to be financially successful, that US passport can be a very heavy burden, indeed.<br />
<br />
Now I, personally, am in little danger of falling afoul of this problem. The first $80K of income is exempt from this confiscation, and I'm nowhere near that rate of pay. But I would love to think that my son will be. And given that much of the world — including the People's Republic of China — has massively lower income tax rates than the United States — that puts my son at a huge financial disadvantage.<br />
<br />
Hence, as a purely rational calculation, I actually lean toward declaring him Chinese at birth.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, there is the symbolism of it. Both among the Chinese themselves, and among other people of the world, it is symbolically better to be carrying an American passport in your back pocket than to be carrying a Chinese one.<br />
<br />
It will be easier for us to bring him to America to visit his American family, if his passport is American. It might be somewhat easier for him to get into those US boarding schools and universities, if they don't have to treat him as a foreign student. (I'm not certain about that part.)<br />
<br />
There's also a kind of bet on the future.<br />
<br />
30 years ago, I'd never have considered Chinese citizenship for my child, no matter where he or she was born. But in the past 15 years or so, my country has lost much of its luster, while China has gained. Where will the economic opportunities be in the future? That is very much in question, right now.<br />
<br />
I have dim hopes for the United States. We've lurched massively toward statism, and the inevitable closing down of thought and opportunity which that entails.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, the Chinese government hasn't just lurched, it has willfully adopted statism as the policy of its future. For a nation with, supposedly, 5000 years of history, it's been acting with a glaring lack of historical awareness.<br />
<br />
So in an age of uncertainty, perhaps the best bet is to opt for Chinese citizenship at birth.<br />
<br />
I'm not sure I could do it, and I'm not sure my wife would allow me to do it. But that actually is the way I lean right at this moment.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-25281425882020846362016-03-22T10:05:00.001+08:002016-03-22T10:05:49.356+08:00Charged by a a Bull<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
Last Sunday was a first in my many years as a driver: my car was charged by a bull! He'd broken free of his tether at the house next to my in-laws'. When I rounded the corner from their long, narrow driveway he was standing in the middle of the lane. He didn't like our car one little bit.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
They live on a very narrow road filled with obstacles — clearly not designed for vehicular traffic — and I it's not easy to reverse while (to paraphrase Tom Lehrer) staring down a half-ton of angr<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">y pot roast. I did my best to get our of his way, but he came at me very fast.</span></div>
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px;">
Luckily, he veered to the left just as he was about to hit the hood of my car. He was eyeing me with an ornery look, as if weighing the possibility of smashing in my side window to get to me, when I slammed it in gear and gunned it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
If he had gored the hood of my car, he'd have done some serious damage. It would have been the fitting end to a perfectly miserable day. We hadn't planned to go out to the farm today, but Ma Lei's mother had an attack of dementia and needed us to take her an urgent supply of medicine. It was sheer luck that I didn't have anything urgent to do today. I don't know what drug she's on, but it seems to control her symptoms. By the time of our encounter with the bull, she was lucid again. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Next time, maybe we'll hire a delivery guy!</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Incidentally, I will eventually post the dash cam video on YouTube, with the link here.</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-57957602049960017622016-03-22T08:06:00.003+08:002016-03-22T09:18:33.797+08:00The Non-Answer Answer<div style="color: #141823; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A woman of Ma Lei's acquaintance went to the doctor for a new ultrasound. She asked the doctor what the sex is going to be. Chinese docs aren't allowed to say, but they often do anyway. In this case, however, either the doc was unusually law-abiding, or perhaps Ma Lei's acquaintance didn't know she's supposed to slip the doc some extra cash for the information. Maybe the doc just couldn't see, but in that case she probably would've just said so. </span></div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So the woman asked the doctor whether she should buy blue baby clothes, or pink. </span></div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"I think yellow is a nice color," said the doctor.</span></div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Will my parents be disappointed, or happy?" (Older generation Chinese still strongly favor boys, though that attitude is fading among the young.)</span></div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"I'm sure they'll be very happy it's so healthy."</span></div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Finally, the woman asked in exasperation, "Will my baby be described as handsome, or beautiful?!"</span></div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Actually, on a sonogram they all look pretty ugly!"</span></div>
<div style="color: #141823; display: inline; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The patient finally gave up and went home without the desired information.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-10882353118207060012015-11-29T14:51:00.000+08:002015-11-29T15:17:48.073+08:00Russians and Japanese<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
Got on the elevator with the two doglets. A skinny old guy (maybe mid-fifties) was already there, puffing away at a cigarette. He was quite friendly.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
"What country are you from," he asked.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I said, as I always do, "China."</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
He laughed. "No, really!"</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I responded: "Of course I'm Chinese. I can read Chinese, whereas you obviously can't." He laughed again.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Then I pointed to the very prominent sign which reads "Please do not smoke here" in perfectly good Chinese. I scolded him for being a Japanese in China, and I read each character out loud. </div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
(Calling a Chinese person Japanese is like calling Donald Trump a Mexican. YUUge insult!)</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
He laughed a big belly-laugh, and said "You're Russian?" </div>
<div style="color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 6px;">
I said yes, I'm Russian. Then the elevator door finally opened and let some fresh air in.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-4591778176749438782015-11-13T17:39:00.002+08:002015-11-29T14:52:01.060+08:00<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
I believe every foreigner attempting to learn Chinese goes through four distinct phases with regard to the inevitable "<i>Ni zhongwen shoude ting hao!</i>" 你中文说的挺好! ("Your Chinese is so good!") </div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
These are: absurdity, appreciation, acceptance, and annoyance. </div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
1. Absurdity: You manage to utter a "Ni hao" ("hello") or a "zai jian" ("goodbye"). Or perhaps you manage to speak one or two number words without completely bungling them. "er-shi-ba kuai yuan ma?" ("Is this 28 yuan?") Not truly impressive, but some Chinese pretend that you're the US Ambassador to China.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
"<i>Ni zhongwen shouode ting hao!</i>"</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
C'mon, man, you're just being too nice. I spoke five syllables without completely embarrassing myself, and you're giving me some sort of prize for that? Give me a break! I appreciate the kudos, but really... no!</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
2. Then there's Appreciation, which comes usually when you speak just enough Chinese that you're sort of full of yourself about it. This is an early stage. It comes when you can order food from a menu without ending up eating bugs, and ask for directions without winding up in the wrong city.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
A call this "Appreciation," because this is the phase in which you're lapping it up. "<i>Ni zhongwen shuode ting hao.</i>" Yeah! It is kinda good! I worked damned hard to get to this point! Thanks for noticing! </div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Of course, at this point you conveniently forget that the same people used to sing the praises of your Chinese language skills when all you could say was "Hello" and "Goodbye." Now you're singing your own praises: "Yes, I am fluent in Chinese!!!" When in fact you're really just minimally conversant. But really, who cares?</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Stage 2 is partly illusory, but that's fine, because the high you get from Stage 2 is what propels you to reach Stage 3.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
3. Then there's Acceptance, which comes when you really are basically fluent in the language, and "<i>Ni zhongwen shuode ting hao</i>" is the equivalent of "blah-blah-blah." Great, thanks, but let's get on to whatever deal we're transacting here. This is a brief transitional stage on the way to Stage 4, Annoyance.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
4. "Annoyance" comes when you're thoroughly over the pride of having grasped this crazy language, and you really just want to get down to business. Then the "<i>Ni zhongwen shuode ting hao</i>" is just an interruption. </div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
This is also when you first start to focus on the implicit insult embedded in "<i>Ni zhongwen shuode ting hao</i>." It contains an assumption that foreigners can't possibly speak Chinese.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Yeah, I've got a pinkish-white face, my belly is round, my nose is larger than yours, and I'm covered with monkey-like hair. Oh, and you probably think I smell like a sheep, because that's what most Chinese think about foreigners. Nonetheless, I am capable of speaking the language of China, The Middle Kingdom, the center of the universe. Please get over it, and talk to me like a normal human being!</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The good thing is, they do. When you finally get to this point of understanding the language, you actually start to learn what Chinese people think. </div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Most of the time, when they're speaking to you in English, they're giving you the "politically correct" version of their thoughts, or the "tell me what you think I want to hear" version.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
But when you're sitting in the back seat of a taxi, and a student is babbling at you about politics and history and current society as if she couldn't quite gasp in enough air to say everything she wants to say, and you're understanding maybe 80% of her Chinese — you're still getting a whole lot more truth than you would get if you understood 100% of her English.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
A friend of mine once said that English is the language of classes, and formal lectures, and therefore of "What we're supposed to say." And remember that, in China, you tell the professor only what you're supposed to say. There's none of this Mortimer Adler, University of Chicago, discussion-based method: it's pure obedience.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
On the other hand, Chinese is the language that students and Chinese professionals speak while drinking too many beers and shooting the shit at the restaurant a mile away from the university. If we're going to criticize our own government and talk shit about contemporary Chinese culture, we're definitely going to do it in Chinese, not in English. If you want to know what we Chinese really think, you'd better know at least a little of our language.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 6px;">
Mine ain't great, but it's good enough that I've started to get a little bit of personal "vibe" from some of my Chinese acquaintances. I really need to work on it, though, because man, I'd really love to learn what they really think down at the root. It's fun when you start to actually be able to have conversations in this language!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-81091858138870147122015-11-13T17:10:00.001+08:002016-04-26T15:15:24.748+08:00The Monkey<div class="" style="background-color: white; font-family: sfnstext, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">
Ma Lei went to the hospital this Wednesday, eleven days after her second <em class="">in vitro</em> implantation. We both were secretly thinking she probably was pregnant, and it turns out we were right.</div>
<div class="" style="background-color: white; font-family: sfnstext, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="background-color: white; font-family: sfnstext, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">
She'd been having all kinds of abdominal pain, her skin had been breaking out, she was going to the bathroom with unusual frequency, and she was hungry at strange times. (That last isn't so far out of the normal for her. For a skinny thing, that woman can eat!) Anyway, we didn't talk about her various symptoms too much, because we didn't want to get our hopes up, but I'd been thinking for quite a while that her body was doing something. After we'd gotten the news, when I finally told her about my suspicions, I used the Chinese for "home renovation."</div>
<div class="" style="background-color: white; font-family: sfnstext, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="background-color: white; font-family: sfnstext, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">
<span class="" style="font-size: 15px;">Her numbers were high. Very high. High enough to mean she is definitely not only pregnant, but very healthily so.</span><span class="" style="font-size: 14px;"> Her doctor told her to stop taking some of the medicines that other patients have to take for three months.</span></div>
<div class="" style="background-color: white; font-family: sfnstext, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="background-color: white; font-family: sfnstext, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">
<span class="" style="font-size: 14px;">Ma Lei is afraid those super-high numbers suggest she's having twins. Of course we'll be happy either way, but we would both much rather have a singleton.</span></div>
<div class="" style="background-color: white; font-family: sfnstext, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">
<span class="" style="font-size: 14px;"></span><br />
<div class="">
<span class="" style="font-size: 14px;"><br class="" /></span></div>
<span class="" style="font-size: 14px;">
</span>
<br />
<div class="">
<span class="" style="font-size: 14px;">As it happens, next year is the Year of the Monkey. This is fitting, since I've always referred to children as monkeys. If we indeed get two, we'll have enough to fill a small exhibit in the Hall of Monkeys at the Dalian Zoo.</span></div>
<span class="" style="font-size: 14px;">
</span>
<div class="">
<span class="" style="font-size: 14px;"><br class="" /></span></div>
<span class="" style="font-size: 14px;">
</span></div>
<div class="" style="background-color: white; font-family: sfnstext, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">
<span class="" style="font-size: 14px;">I was thinking she's eleven days pregnant, but Ma Lei reminded me about the time her embryos spent in the incubator. In a sense, she's at 30+ days already! I guess that would make her due in July. The doctor actually told her the due date, but she was in shock and literally doesn't remember a single word said to her after that magical number 176. Even though we both rationally thought she was 80% likely to be pregnant, we'd managed to keep our emotional expectations low. The news hit us both like 120 volts.</span></div>
<div class="" style="background-color: white; font-family: sfnstext, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">
<div class="" style="font-family: -webkit-standard;">
<span style="font-family: "sfnstext" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: -webkit-standard;">
<span style="font-family: "sfnstext" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Whatever else ails the Chinese healthcare system, reproductive health is considered to be a bright point. If there's nothing else the Chinese care about, it's having babies. This is an entirely private, non-governmental system, with many of the doctors trained overseas. They make good money, compared with their government-employee counterparts in the general-purpose hospitals. They're not innovators, but they are excellent practitioners. I've been consistently impressed with their professional level, throughout the process.</span></span></div>
<div class="">
<br class="" /></div>
</div>
<div class="" style="background-color: white; font-family: sfnstext, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">
<span class="" style="font-size: 14px;">If this indeed is the last we have to see of the fertility clinic, I got off with quite a bargain. Ma Lei saved every receipt from every trip to the hospital, every medicine she had to inject herself with. Tonight, she brought out the stack for me to tally up the damage — and we were both pleasantly surprised. Converted from yuan to dollars at the current rate, it came to $5000. It could have cost as much as twice that, if her health hadn't been so good all the way through the process. Even at that, I think it wouldn't be bad, compared to what the same treatment would've cost in the US. Nevertheless, Ma Lei fully intends to present the monkey(s) with a bill at some point in the future. It's the Chinese way!</span></div>
<div class="" style="background-color: white; font-family: sfnstext, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="" style="background-color: white; font-family: sfnstext, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">
<span class="" style="font-size: 14px;"></span></div>
<div class="" style="background-color: white; font-family: sfnstext, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">
<span class="" style="font-size: 14px;"></span><br />
<div class="">
<span class="" style="font-size: 14px;">Now we're trying once again to keep our expectations low. We're well aware that the first three months are perilous. However, her health has been off-the-charts good all the way through the process. She's promised not to lift anything heavier than an ankle-biting doglet, and to eat plenty of real food (the ramen noodles she loves so much relegated to snacks to fill her belly). We're going to do everything that's in our control to stack the odds in this (these?) babies' favor.</span></div>
<span class="" style="font-size: 14px;">
</span>
<br />
<div class="">
<span class="" style="font-size: 14px;"><span class=""><br class="" /></span></span></div>
<span class="" style="font-size: 14px;">
</span></div>
<div class="" style="background-color: white; font-family: sfnstext, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">
<span class="" style="font-size: 14px;">I know there's a lot we can't control, so there may be bad news any time. But just in case everything goes well, we've put ourselves on a waiting list for a cage for four in the Hall of Monkeys at the Dalian Zoo.</span><br />
<span class="" style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>
<span class="" style="font-size: 14px;">UPDATE: 26 April, 2016. Ma Lei has indeed been healthy throughout the first seven months of her pregnancy, and it looks as though we'll have a boy monkey in early July. Fingers still are crossed, of course, because there's never a sure thing until the little monkey is actually born. His name, by the way, is Roman Carl Garmong.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-2914182180814903842015-10-22T09:10:00.001+08:002015-10-22T09:10:05.316+08:00The Great Firewall of China — Chinese attitudesTalking with an American friend earlier this morning (yesterday evening in America), I finally found a way to explain the Chinese attitude toward the blocking of foreign websites (such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and others)...<br />
<br />
My American friends often think the so-called Great Firewall of China must chafe horribly on the Chinese. I wish this were true.<br />
<br />
Imagine that the US government suddenly blocked most of the famous overseas websites or internet services, such as WeChat, Alibaba, YouKu, Baidu, and others. (To match the cutesy name "Great Firewall of China," let's call it The American Civil Wall.)<br />
<br />
You've probably heard of WeChat and Alibaba, if not the other names. You've probably never used them, or if you have, you wouldn't miss them very much.<br />
<br />
There are domestic alternatives in the US, so at most you lose some cool functions that the Chinese services have and the American ones don't have. Maybe you lose contact with a few people who use WeChat but not Facebook. Probably those aren't very close friends, anyway.<br />
<br />
Now suppose you could install VPN software to get around the American Civil Wall. But you have to figure out where to find the software, which one works best, how to install it and use it.<br />
<br />
It's also illegal, so there's a slight chance you could get in big trouble for even having it on your computer.<br />
<br />
Not to mention, do you even know you can trust the maker of that VPN? Perhaps it's an NSA front, so everything you do is routed directly to the US government.<br />
<br />
Is the hassle worth it? Probably not.<br />
<br />
This is exactly how most of my Chinese friends feel about the Great Firewall of China. They know it's there, and they abstractly disapprove of it — but it's a relatively small concern for them. They can do everything they need to on the domestic internet. They are not burning with desire for Facebook and YouTube.<br />
<br />
The people who do care are people with strong political interest (generally anti-Chinese-government), or people with strong personal ties or commercial interests overseas, or people who want to get out of China. (Big overlap between that last category and the previous two.)<br />
<br />
If you're in America, the US internet is the end-all, be-all of the online world. After all, the 'net was invented and created in America, and probably every website you go to is American. But the Chinese could say the exact same: for most of them, every website they go to is Chinese.<br />
<br />
To the Chinese, the US internet is about as interesting as the Chinese internet is to an American citizen. And it's almost as daunting, since most Chinese people's English isn't that great.<br />
<br />
So when people think "surely the Chinese people are ready at any moment to throw off this yoke of internet blocking," they're missing the point. The Great Firewall of China is the last thing that will cause unrest, and it's the last thing the government will compromise on.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-75617622482488812592015-03-25T22:01:00.003+08:002015-03-25T22:01:30.813+08:00Unintended-Consequence Hell!Dalian traffic is a nightmare. The city grew from a patchwork of little villages snuggling up against hills and mini-mountains and surrounded by an irregular coastline, so there's nothing remotely resembling a street grid. Indeed, the map more closely resembles a bowl of spaghetti thrown up in the air and allowed to fall to the ground as dictated by chance.<br />
<br />
However, up to now I've been able to avoid too much gnarly traffic as long as I refused to drive at rush hour. It's a nuisance when I have 8AM classes, but if I leave home at 5:30 and drive home between 10AM and 3 PM, all has been well. This semester has been a breeze so far, because almost all my classes are between 3:40 and 8:30 PM. It's not fun working that late, but at least I never had to deal with bad traffic.<br />
<br />
Until today, when traffic was an absolute war zone even in the heart of what is normally smooth sailing. We left home this morning at 9:00, and I didn't make it to campus until 10:30. Coming home again at 2:45, it took a bit more than an hour. (Should've been 45 minutes, tops.) And the time delays tell only part of the story: that's an hour of constant stress and near-misses, as opposed to a leisurely 45 minutes.<br />
<br />
I was scratching my head trying to figure out what was going on. There weren't any accidents anywhere along the route, nor is there any big event going on in town. (At least not that I know of. Government conferences aren't always publicized in this country.)<br />
<br />
Then finally, Ma Lei figured it out: I was stuck in two hours of unintended-consequence hell.<br />
<br />
You see, the local government recently decided to "solve" the traffic problem on one of the main highways into town by instituting alternate-day driving: on even-numbered days, people whose license plates end in odd numbers will get an expensive ticket if they drive on the freeway. Vice versa, on odd days.<br />
<br />
Once she mentioned that, I looked around at the morass I was stuck in the middle of. And sure enough, every license plate I saw ended in an even number (today's date being March 25).<br />
<br />
So thanks a lot, Dalian City Government! You sure did a wonderful job on that traffic problem.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-34448184880063731702015-03-22T18:03:00.002+08:002015-03-22T18:03:03.429+08:00Lihai<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
This morning I took the dogs outside. When we got on the elevator, there was already a dog there, along with an old guy who looked like Wallace Shawn in The Princess Bride. (To be fair, an awful lot of old Chinese dudes look like Wallace Shawn in The Princess Bride.)</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
The dog was a brown poodle, male, un-neutered. Chinese people never neuter their dogs. He was half-again the size of Qizai or Mimi — but they've studied from Ma Lei, so they know how to put someone bigger in his place.</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
The poodle hopped over and tried to get dominant with Mimi, till she went "Yipe!" and nipped him in the ear. He responded to this rejection as all men do, by going to the back corner of the elevator and lifting his leg to pee against the wall.</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
I believe my response-time has been quickened and my inhibitions lowered by living in this particular part of China, because rather than standing there, mouth agape, I instantly whipped out a leg and kicked the dog, just hard enough to stop him from peeing. He only managed to make a little coin-sized mark on the wall before my foot met his butt. (I am not a proponent of kicking dogs, but I'm even less fond of allowing them to stink up a public elevator.)</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
I shot a glance at Wallace Shawn, who was watching the whole thing with his trademarked grinning equilibrium. Of the two logical responses to this situation — either to chastise his dog for pissing in the elevator, or to chastise me for kicking the dog — he chose neither. He just grinned dumbly. So I figured "hey, that's cool!" and grinned right back at him.</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
When we reached ground floor, the old man wanted to go one way, while we were going the other. His dog, of course, totally ignored him to go with us. (Neuter your male dogs, people!!!) At the structural column halfway to the door, the dog again lifted his leg before I could call out HEY! and make him stop.</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
We went on our little ten-minute walk, and as we were coming back toward the building, there once again was the brown poodle with Wallace Shawn. The dog once again tried to make a pass at Mimi, then at Qizai, and once again got nothing but snarls and yipes. </div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
(Yeah, dog, I understand. I've been there, and I feel your pain. But you really need to stop trying. The third time is definitely NOT the charm.)</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
The old man, still grinning, said "Your dogs are really <i class="">lihai</i>."</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<span class="">For my friends who don’t know, </span><i class="">Lihai</i> is a word in Chinese that doesn't translate very well into English. It's as multivalent as the word "pride," and can similarly be used as either a compliment or an insult. A man with a well-deserved position of high authority might be described as <i class="">lihai</i>. A cowardly, nasty man who beats his wife is also <i class="">lihai</i>. The guy who always comes up with the best ideas at office meetings is <i class="">lihai</i>. So is the snarky guy in the back cubicle who cusses everyone out for no reason. Women are almost never <i class="">lihai</i>, except my wife. She’s <i class="">lihai</i> on steroids.</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
But when somebody out of the blue says your dog is <i class="">lihai</i>, it’s almost always in the bad way. Dogs aren’t supposed to be <i class="">lihai</i>, in this country, unless they’re guarding your front door.</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
By this point, I'd had enough of Wallace Shawn's dumb loser grin, and I was feeling just a little bit <i class="">lihai</i> myself, so I unsheathed my rapier tongue. Sometimes it’s nice, but dangerous, to speak reasonably good Chinese. As I used to say of my Spanish, “I know enough to get myself into trouble — but not enough to get myself back out again."</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
I said harshly: "<i class="">Lihai</i>?! You think my wife's dogs are <i class="">lihai</i>?! They don't piss on the elevator, they don't piss in the hallway, and they sure don't bully other dogs. And if they did, I wouldn’t just stand there like a monkey with a smile on my face.” </div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
He just stood and listened, though his dumb grin had slackened a little with surprise.</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<i class="">Lihai</i>, my ass! As the Chinese would say, <i class="">fang ge pi lihai!</i> (No good translation, but it basically comes out as “you say <i class="">lihai</i>, I say fart.”)</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-15871081566464343042015-03-04T10:33:00.001+08:002015-03-04T10:33:32.600+08:00Bar of Babel<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">I had an interesting experience on my way home from work today, the first day of the new semester. </span><br />
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
You may know that I’m now living out in the Dalian Development Zone, about an hour’s drive from the university campus where I teach. My drive home takes me right past Five Color City, the bar district in the Development Zone. Today was my LONG day of teaching (8 AM to 8:30 PM), so I decided to stop in for a beer to reward myself and relax a bit. I’ve only been to that district a few times, so generally when I go I like to have one drink at a bar I already know, and one at a bar I don’t know.<div class="">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="">
The first one I stopped (the bar I know) at was a really nice little bar called Tiffany’s Girl Bar. The name is sadly misleading, as there should be a hyphen between “Tiffany’s” and “Girl." It refers to Audrey Hepburn’s character in Breakfast at Tiffany’s — “Tiffany’s-Girl” — whose pictures are all over the walls. The first time I went there, I was somewhat hopeful that this would be a girl-bar owned by someone called Tiffany. But no, that would have been a very different experience.</div>
<div class="">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="">
The manager is a really cool woman with whom I enjoy conversing in Chinese. In fact, the only reason I went in that bar in the first place, a month or so ago, was that I saw her out front on at opening time on an evening when there’d been an ice storm. She was down on her hands and knees, carefully chipping ice out from between the bricks of the walkway to the bar. That kind of attention to detail is unbelievably, extraordinarily rare in China, a country where the guiding philosophy seems to be “There are too many of you, so who cares if you slip and kill yourself?” I was sufficiently impressed that I decided to reward this fastidious bar manager with a sale. I was even more impressed with her professionalism as I saw how she ran the bar. If I ever had a business that needed a manager, I would try to hire this woman.</div>
<div class="">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="">
Anyway, I had my one beer there, then went to check out the bar just across the street. It was a somewhat intimidating place without any windows, just a big, heavy-looking metal door that looked like it might be the back alleyway door to a warehouse in the Bowery. I almost didn’t want to go in, but I figured what the hell, if it was too scary inside I could always leave.</div>
<div class="">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="">
Inside, it turned out to be a beautiful, inviting space done up in Japanese style, and indeed the only customers were two relatively elderly Japanese guys drinking sake and chatting with two beautiful waitresses. I sat down next to the Japanese guys, and there ensued my strangest Tower of Babel experience to-date.</div>
<div class="">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="">
The younger of the two waitresses (also the prettier — stunning, to be precise) spoke reasonable Japanese, but had forgotten most of her English. The other one spoke a little more English, but not quite as much Japanese. One of the two Japanese guys spoke a tiny bit of Chinese, and a tiny bit more English. The other guy seemed to know little of either language.</div>
<div class="">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="">
The Japanese guys clearly were regulars, and big spenders, but all four of them were happy to have an American join the mix. So the stunner occasionally would interrupt her conversation with the other guys to try to talk to me — but invariably she would bust out with a string of Japanese, the only language in the room that I <u class=""><i class="">don’t</i></u> know. </div>
<div class="">
<br /></div>
<div class="">
The one Chinese guy would then translate her Japanese into broken English. Then the other bar girl translated the first girl’s Japanese into Chinese (which, after all, was BOTH of their native language, so it would’ve been a hell of a lot easier if the first girl had just spoken to me in Chinese!).</div>
<div class="">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="">
All four of them enjoyed trying out little phrases of broken English: “What-a you-ah name-uh?” “Drink-ah wine!” None of them really spoke enough to be conversational, though the one Japanese guy came closest. (He did have that stereotypical Japanese lispy accent, though, with “flied lice” and w’s for r’s.)</div>
<div class="">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="">
I had some reasonable conversation with the two bartenders, especially the one who wasn’t trying so hard to speak Japanese. </div>
<div class="">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="">
Then the other girl with the good Japanese would translate into Japanese, the guy with some English would take a stab at re-translating it into English and/or do his own Japanese translation, and the bar girl would either confirm or deny the accuracy of his translation. Once in a while one of them would turn back to me and ask a question in English or Chinese, to make sure they’d understood. Or the Japanese guy would ask the Chinese girl a question in Japanese or Chinese, when he didn’t know some of the Chinese vocabulary I was using. It was like a linguistic Escher drawing, or an other-worldly echo-chamber.</div>
<div class="">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="">
“You speak-a Chinee welly fast-uh,” the Japanese guy complained teasingly, with a big, complimentary smile on his face.</div>
<div class="">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="">
I’ve had conversations before that were half in English, half in Chinese, because there was some other foreigner there who didn’t understand Chinese. I’ve had plenty of conversations in Chinese that probably should’ve been in English, because the girl I was chatting with had better English than I have Chinese. (I’m often selfish that way: I’d rather work on my Chinese than help her work on her English.) But this was the first time I’ve experienced that bizarre crosshatch of mismatched linguistic incompetencies.</div>
<div class="">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="">
Actually, it was kind of sweet. Everyone was relaxed and playful and having fun. I was beginning to think I should make this a regular hang-out, until I finished my beer and asked for the bill.</div>
<div class="">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="">
The first bar charged me about $4.50 for a single bottle of Qingdao beer — pretty steep, but not totally out of the question. The second bar charged, for the same beer, a whopping 70 rmb — something like $12!!! So sadly, my new Japanese friends will have to drink without me from now on.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-52426431063220321852015-02-24T15:52:00.000+08:002015-02-25T07:03:51.337+08:00<div class="" style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
Now that we're finally back in the slightly more technologically-advanced world of the Development Zone (aka home), I was finally able to upload my movie-producing debut to YouTube. I think the results are okay, considering that it’s a first-time effort.</div>
<div class="" style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Video processing is clearly SLOW work! My Mac is only a couple of years old, and it still took the greater part of an hour to convert the iMovie file to mp4 format, and then a whopping 8 hours to upload to YouTube! Granted, our internet speed isn't that great, but wow! Editing the movie, by contrast, was lickety-split! Even though this was literally the first movie I’ve ever edited together, the whole editing process took maybe four or five hours. Now that I’ve got some experience, I could probably knock it off in half that. In other words, it took considerably less time to create the video, than it did to upload it to YouTube. So much for the computer being faster than the human brain!</div>
<div class="" style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
This is pretty obviously my first-ever video, or at least my first since high school. You can see some pretty awful camera work, especially in the early part of the fireworks display. Still, it's pretty amazing what you can do with an iPhone and a Mac these days. The last time I edited video, it meant endless winding and rewinding of VHS tapes, and the timing was always just a little off. I think to make a video about this long in high school, my buddy Rob Tracinski and I spent two or three entire <i>DAYS</i> editing, from dawn till dusk. Granted, that was with 1985 technology.</div>
<div class="" style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I noticed after uploading to YouTube that I'd left off the first musical credit. It was a song called Stars, from George Winston's Autumn album. (Also of mid-80s vintage, coincidentally.)</div>
<div class="" style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Anyway, this should give you some idea of what Chinese New Year is like in a farm village in Northeastern China.</div>
<br />
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eK4gE5Xin4Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-82226758263837364432014-12-23T16:45:00.003+08:002014-12-23T16:45:34.783+08:00The anti-corruption, pro-Xi juggernautYet another kingpin going down in Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign. (A factional enemy of Xi Jinping's, of course.)<br />
<br />
This one is especially interesting, because he's the first major figure who's still active in the government. The others so far have all been minor officials, or else retired heavy-hitters. That Xi should go after a currently-active government official, signifies a major tipping-point in the anti-corruption campaign. If he's successful in taking this guy down, it's deuces wild for the whole lot of them.<br />
<br />
Part of me thinks Xi Jinping should actually be thanking this guy, not taking him down. If this guy's son hadn't slammed his Ferrari into a restraining wall on one of Beijing's ring roads in the wee hours of the morning, Xi's goal of eradicating the influence of Hu and the other retiring leaders would have been essentially impossible to achieve. After that event two years ago, the entire Hu Jintao faction was massively embarrassed.<br />
<br />
Nonetheless, as one commentator said in the NY Times (I think it was), Xi almost didn't have a choice but to go after this Mr. Ling. Having pushed his hand so far, if he stopped short of going after Ling, he'd have been seen as just another pretend reformer.<br />
<br />
Some evidence is starting to emerge that Xi has run his course, and that the military in particular has lost its patience with his anticorruption campaign. Nonetheless, he's already worked the Chinese political system far better than I would have considered possible. It remains to be seen whether he will be able to hold out against the enemies he has created for himself, but so far he has been incredibly deft and crafty at taking out his rivals inside the Chinese system.<br />
<br />
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/china-investigate-ex-president-hus-top-aide-ling-122915758.htmlAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-73387940120455120042014-12-10T00:21:00.002+08:002014-12-10T00:21:39.490+08:00Peccadillos and evilsPeccadillo is a wonderful word which gets used too frequently. It comes from Spanish, meaning "small sin" or "small error." "Pecado" means "sin," and the "illo" ending means "small."<br />
<br />
Smoking in the elevator is a peccadillo. Forgetting to repay $5 to your buddy is a peccadillo. I don't believe there's an equivalent term in Chinese, but there definitely should be.<br />
<br />
Peccadillos are small things, not evil in themselves, but steps on the road toward much larger evils. And there's a huge amount of empirical evidence that peccadillos in fact metastasize and become full-on evils.<br />
<br />
China is full of peccadillos, and if they want to reduce major corruption, I would submit that the peccadillos are the place to start. Common manners would be a good first step.<br />
<br />
There are many, many examples I could draw from, as I've written about in the past. Today, I had just one other set of experiences that made me think about the issue once again.<br />
<br />
My students sometimes ask me a forlorn sort of question, to the effect of "when will China take its rightful place in the world?" I.e., when will China be a world leader?<br />
<br />
My answer always surprises them.<br />
<br />
China will be a world leader when old men don't hawk and spit on the sidewalk.<br />
<br />
China will be a world leader when children don't pee inside the building.<br />
<br />
China will be a world leader when its bathrooms don't reek.<br />
<br />
China will be a world leader when men stop hitting their wives.<br />
<br />
China will be a world leader when manners become common.<br />
<br />
Here's an example:<br />
<br />
In China, it's quite common for every public doorway to be covered by these huge, heavy, army-looking blankets to keep out the cold air. They work well, but they're filthy-disgusting, and they are really heavy to lift. I always get a little allergy twinge after walking through one, and I definitely feel like washing my hands if there's anywhere to do so. (There seldom is.)<br />
<br />
I try to avoid walking through such doorways as much as possible, but today I had occasion to go through six or eight of them, including one on the way into the Walmart.<br />
<br />
I happened to be doing so during daytime hours, today being my day off teaching, so most of the other customers were women. As an American, I just naturally expected to hold the giant-army-surplus-blanket for women, as we always do in America.<br />
<br />
But that particular bit of manners requires a bit of reciprocality. The woman needs to expect that the man will hold it for her, and quicken her pace to fit with the rhythm of his giant-blanket-holding. She's also expected (in both my culture and the Chinese) to say a quick thank-you.<br />
<br />
My wife gets super-pissed when I hold doors for people and they don't reciprocate in any way. It happens often enough in China, that I'm actually afraid to hold doors for people when my wife is around. If they blow me off, it's just one more little thing adding stress to me... but she gets ready to cuss someone out.<br />
<br />
I think we have the same standards, we have very different ways of processing the frustration. I usually just say "Aw, hell, it's China!" But she goes to rip someone's head off. My way is more peaceful, but the stress gets internalized a lot more. I'll get high blood pressure long before she does.<br />
<br />
Today, of the six or eight women for whom I held the blanket, exactly one quickened her pace and said thanks.<br />
<br />
Three that I can remember were too busy on their phones to pay any attention or quicken their paces, so I gladly dropped the giant thing right into their faces. I'm not going to wait all day.<br />
<br />
Two pushed right past me, ducking under my armpits without so much as a "fare-thee-well." They were at least alert enough to get that I was holding the blanket for them, but not polite enough to acknowledge it.<br />
<br />
So I'd say Dalian's manners quotient for the day was about ⅕. 20% is probably a good estimate of the not-totally-ill-mannered population in this city.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-55111725709768200692014-11-14T22:57:00.001+08:002015-01-21T22:38:55.103+08:00Heating in China<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">They've turned on the heat in Dalian. Actually, in most of China. It's all scheduled by government decree: if you're north of the government-defined Mason-Dixon Line of China, you get heat on such-and-such date, and it gets turned off on such-and-such date. South of that line, there’s no heating. By common assent, the coldest you’ll ever feel is living in an apartment on the wrong side of the heating-line of China.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;" />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">In the old days, the heat was provided by the government, but nowadays it's from a company (probably government-owned or government-sponsored). You pay the equivalent of about $250 by a date-certain, and you get radiator heat throughout the government-defined winter. If it's cold before or after the pre-defined dates, tough noogies. If it's warm before or after the pre-defined dates, open your windows. If you don't pay by that date-certain, you don't get heat. Just like Obamacare, if you don't enroll in time, you pay the penalty: in this case, a long, COLD winter.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;" />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">We paid, of course, and our radiator is nice and warm. But it was making a lot of noise the other day, so Ma Lei opened an escape valve to let some air out. The water that squirted out with it went into a little watering jug, but got quickly poured down the drain. I figured we should use it to water the plants, or give it to the dogs, but she'd already disposed of it before I even had a chance to ask. "It's not safe," she said. I sort of shook my head at that. What do you mean it's not safe?</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;" />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">Ma Lei told me that the residents of her former apartment used to collect water from their radiators to wash their clothes, in order to save a few pennies on their water bill. With the whole building doing so, the company that was responsible for steam heating was losing money, so they started putting antifreeze into the radiator water. The first few people who didn't recognize what they were washing with, ruined their entire wash loads. I hope no one gave it to their dogs to drink.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;" />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">In other heat-related news, Ma Lei's Little Brother told her that the guy at the head of the company supplying heat for the apartment complex just behind where Little Brother lives, absconded with all the money the residents had paid for their heating. By my back-of-the-envelope calculations, that's probably about $150K, perhaps a bit more. Once the money’s been paid and stolen, that’s it: they’re all going to be freezing this winter. And for what?</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;" />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">If the guy managed to escape down one of the tropical wormholes south of here, he could live on that for a while. But really, it's not much of an annuity for the entire rest of one's life. And if he doesn't manage to escape the country, he's going to find it was a very bad bargain. </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">And also, he can never return to China. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">The Chinese government isn't very efficient, but it has a long memory. The papers are full of stories of people who absconded after committing crimes, then 25 years later they returned for what they thought was a brief visit — perhaps a parent's funeral — only to find themselves quickly clapped in irons upon their arrival.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Maybe the guy had already been collecting illicit money for a while, and he just needed $150K to top off his retirement fund. But seriously, I can't believe it was worth it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Nevertheless, the people in the apartment building are well and truly scrod. In China, if your money didn't get to the proper authorities, it's not going to be the authorities who lose out. Get yourself a lawyer, try to raise a court case, protest all the way up to Beijing, and all you'll earn for yourself is an illegal detention for being a troublemaker.</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-60150349596712922952014-11-04T07:36:00.002+08:002014-11-04T07:36:31.976+08:00<div style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
In order to make a little extra money so my wife can open her pet supply shop next year, I recently started teaching a few classes on weekends at a English school for little kids (ages 4-7). It's exhausting work — not exactly what I had in mind when I went for my PhD — but that's where the money is, and we need money to start the business.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The first couple of days, I absolutely hated it. </div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I'm not really teaching English. I'm teaching words, and playing games. "Father." "Grandfather." "Giraffe." "Play." Walk in a circle around flash cards laid out on the ground, until I call out "Shirt!" and they all jump on the right one. Dance around the room to a song that goes "Itchy, Itchy Insect, i-i-i!"</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The most complicated sentence I got to teach them, the one that made them tremble with fear whenever it popped up on the screen, was "I like to do things with my family." (Incidentally, I'm kind of on their side: "do things" is far too vague a verb to be throwing at a five year-old ESL student.) The ones they could manage were things like "I like to cook with my mother" and "I like to play with my sister."</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The job isn't mentally stimulating in the slightest, but it is physically exhausting. At first, I was thinking "why the hell am I doing this?!"</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Eventually, I came to enjoy the work quite a bit, just as I imagine I'll enjoy fatherhood. The kids are adorable, and their personalities are disarmingly simple.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
There's poor William, who enthusiastically volunteers to answer every question, but consistently gets them all wrong. I swear, his percentage of correct answers would be below random, if anyone bothered to conduct a study. But he is undaunted: he jumps up at every opportunity to jab at the wrong answer on the screen. Especially when we get to use the extended magnetic pointer to bang dents in the Smartboard at the front of the classroom. He wields that thing like a monkey with an epee. I expect eyes to be lost at any moment.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Then there's Tony, whose father already taught him the alphabet, so he's at a tremendous advantage. Just as adventurous as William, yet armed with a lot more knowledge. He's got the alphabet down, though when you put it together into actual words, he's not always on the spot.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Little Sir, the youngest of the boys, jumpy and distracted. He's smart as a whip, and gets the material when his mind focuses on it for even half a second. But it doesn't always do so.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Grace, the older girl in her class (at all of 5, I think it is). She's too shy to jump up most of the time, but she usually knows the answer if I ask a direct question.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The one who intrigues me the most, perhaps, is Yun Hang, the tiniest little apple in the class. Her features are exquisitely sculpted, like a classic baby doll — she'll be a model in 15 years, if she wants to be — and she's as silent as a doll in my class. If I ask her to say a word, she mumbles it. A sentence as long as "I like to shop with my mother," she can barely manage even to mumble. Yet she's got a functional grasp on the vocabulary that bests even Tony with his alphabetic advantage. She understands and gets the right answer, even if she can't express it. She never, ever volunteers: I always have to pick on her, but she almost never disappoints.</div>
<div style="color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-top: 6px;">
I look forward to Ma Lei starting the pet supply shop, so I can quit this job and we can focus our attention on something with greater long-term benefits and more intellectual challenges. However, in the mean time I've found out that teaching the little critters can be fun and interesting.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-75686439786316359512014-09-09T04:50:00.000+08:002014-09-09T04:50:06.372+08:00The end of the road<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: start;"><div>
There have been a number of well-publicized cases in recent years of local governments grabbing land from farmers who didn't want to sell, then paying them ridiculously low prices for their land (if they paid at all). The government tried to hush these up at first, but eventually the protests became too big to hide any longer. In response to public outcry, the government (at least in my part of China) has recently been treating reluctant homeowners with kid gloves. Sometimes the results are tragic in their own right.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
There is a new road that makes our trip to the farm much more convenient, shaving twenty minutes or more off the drive. However, in two places along the road you can see where holdouts have forced the government to build the road around their houses. Here's what we saw last weekend on our way home from the farm.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: start;" /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdqPuQnbPwzG9QKGZbGEdmYVdqQtFPQMmvx5CxZvX_65H8MehKnoQLdoNCSmtQ0s3luAMdbAAbVsgPpXbZV-8cfn4Te3PydIvrGQ2uMlxXFtG_vdyjFpJuVa7evfY10PBFYNY-pE3TCYk/s1600/IMG_0683.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdqPuQnbPwzG9QKGZbGEdmYVdqQtFPQMmvx5CxZvX_65H8MehKnoQLdoNCSmtQ0s3luAMdbAAbVsgPpXbZV-8cfn4Te3PydIvrGQ2uMlxXFtG_vdyjFpJuVa7evfY10PBFYNY-pE3TCYk/s1600/IMG_0683.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Here is the newly-constructed road. It's a big, beautiful boulevard about five kilometers long.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">This picture is taken at one end of the new road, standing right where the lane was SUPPOSED to go.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhranHEVEUyaJN_9VuZMXRqYUh3OY9Vi0nMFUTApom95WVIT6g_TZNEiI0mhm_AF4fDKcoakRY5Ct7JzNV8NvcHhBbwZRiST6sbEe0FU1YsWriUAmXuBG3Fbbqtxoww2QQvpg2SxB94NsI/s1600/IMG_0676.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhranHEVEUyaJN_9VuZMXRqYUh3OY9Vi0nMFUTApom95WVIT6g_TZNEiI0mhm_AF4fDKcoakRY5Ct7JzNV8NvcHhBbwZRiST6sbEe0FU1YsWriUAmXuBG3Fbbqtxoww2QQvpg2SxB94NsI/s1600/IMG_0676.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">This is the view 180 degrees behind the last picture. There is supposed to be a lane through this farmer's back yard, to connect with the road off in the distance.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwazQAtd1RgpQqwM8huCFJ32nLRjs3FgxSRM4zVTEjpVQIUmMVgcFHHs4DxcMfqd0mYSkii9fSSzK-2S_wsF2eaLtzdK6KtMqQHfv9wXLUFilWrbinfTvNs4eW9DEi78J0sNyhXyri9Zs/s1600/IMG_0681.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwazQAtd1RgpQqwM8huCFJ32nLRjs3FgxSRM4zVTEjpVQIUmMVgcFHHs4DxcMfqd0mYSkii9fSSzK-2S_wsF2eaLtzdK6KtMqQHfv9wXLUFilWrbinfTvNs4eW9DEi78J0sNyhXyri9Zs/s1600/IMG_0681.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Cars barreling down the road at 80 km an hour have to make a pretty sudden swerve around the farm house. You can see there's just one little tiny blue sign to indicate the sudden end of the road. There's no signage to warn you in advance, no red plastic cones or barrels — nothing.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWfS0UZrm3nq_ZCvW0wAuCpk0UEL01MaX73yHut5IYodKbpcS-CA1pFX_pEOKJb5C6yIhoShj9tpM6f4a2TPzi8Ou1DZQmWl4rOeDEA6p1q9ull7jsi9QujWGCO6LZT4msLK6s7WxamuI/s1600/IMG_0684.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWfS0UZrm3nq_ZCvW0wAuCpk0UEL01MaX73yHut5IYodKbpcS-CA1pFX_pEOKJb5C6yIhoShj9tpM6f4a2TPzi8Ou1DZQmWl4rOeDEA6p1q9ull7jsi9QujWGCO6LZT4msLK6s7WxamuI/s1600/IMG_0684.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Wait a moment. What's that on the side of the house?</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1scTxKQzHQQtoVShVq-3dM2L0DaokKt8zguOx6zO-0zEUpJbXB5YOt7xPdSyR8dG7_gCTxFZ6FyUwBYl7WU0L-QhKSu3FZ3lN__7v_SBBozdejeHrlR_jOeHu1x8a4RUvs8REBAhm7Js/s1600/IMG_0679.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1scTxKQzHQQtoVShVq-3dM2L0DaokKt8zguOx6zO-0zEUpJbXB5YOt7xPdSyR8dG7_gCTxFZ6FyUwBYl7WU0L-QhKSu3FZ3lN__7v_SBBozdejeHrlR_jOeHu1x8a4RUvs8REBAhm7Js/s1600/IMG_0679.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I guess this guy didn't see the little blue sign in time! I'm guess that the black tarp over the truck's cab is not a good sign. It probably indicates that there's stuff inside there that you don't want to see. Given how few Chinese drivers wear seat belts, that's a fair guess.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbZvl5KTxBAh5k-PYb4MuxYHNEO8hsY6INKgTGQtyiD74esigJjIxTmES_82eEmlMvXYZFtqizyjmphAZju8nYvzagagNFeFb6qhW87kf4dXDoJqdvvLIhbiBQ2PnHb96P5VPtmFDwFFk/s1600/IMG_0670.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbZvl5KTxBAh5k-PYb4MuxYHNEO8hsY6INKgTGQtyiD74esigJjIxTmES_82eEmlMvXYZFtqizyjmphAZju8nYvzagagNFeFb6qhW87kf4dXDoJqdvvLIhbiBQ2PnHb96P5VPtmFDwFFk/s1600/IMG_0670.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">You can just barely see it in this picture, but the truck smashed into the wall of the house pretty hard. There's a big cracked-up place right between the two windows.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK4sSgOZFRIAcwPFf2FmJrfJ1iL4KhwOOQ5_6RhG1GY1qNmeRb3CG0dVcGFvhBfiz4aPqwq6h3XhvkQVQV34A3H0qFBL1Vy2f2lMXLDJ825El2roT84ADsN6LD_UIGcnrWqV4k8VAUptg/s1600/IMG_0672.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK4sSgOZFRIAcwPFf2FmJrfJ1iL4KhwOOQ5_6RhG1GY1qNmeRb3CG0dVcGFvhBfiz4aPqwq6h3XhvkQVQV34A3H0qFBL1Vy2f2lMXLDJ825El2roT84ADsN6LD_UIGcnrWqV4k8VAUptg/s1600/IMG_0672.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
I don't know how he got dug in so deep.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCJwFrEr6xGboGj4Sfdd1modv4p57Pjr0iVaK_Ldiv9BvSEvBodHAHX7k7APYIpyQOM7ebOnl6MFjiQb_bDmF9B16NvFRyDeXhRSucFOhG6MupCk9UdqC4gXVeOhiuv75aEket9tSjvXU/s1600/IMG_0673.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCJwFrEr6xGboGj4Sfdd1modv4p57Pjr0iVaK_Ldiv9BvSEvBodHAHX7k7APYIpyQOM7ebOnl6MFjiQb_bDmF9B16NvFRyDeXhRSucFOhG6MupCk9UdqC4gXVeOhiuv75aEket9tSjvXU/s1600/IMG_0673.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Here's the little cut-out where both directions of traffic share one and a half lanes. It's a little unnerving when those giant lorries come rumbling past in the other direction.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuMIK07JyW_tUFRF_pOZ2Mq_ZJRlE5WIv8xUIJKpL60loOfq-z9aZk2WQB-ZId77Wrhgh43YxOddXxJtGAmqn2jZlH31g7-bAqZpPHWzM7-tGtBm55cJHRCXvpF1yzU3tBDoeP5aNuHLU/s1600/IMG_0668.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuMIK07JyW_tUFRF_pOZ2Mq_ZJRlE5WIv8xUIJKpL60loOfq-z9aZk2WQB-ZId77Wrhgh43YxOddXxJtGAmqn2jZlH31g7-bAqZpPHWzM7-tGtBm55cJHRCXvpF1yzU3tBDoeP5aNuHLU/s1600/IMG_0668.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">By the way, we went past the same spot again today. The truck has been removed, leaving no trace except a big smack on the side of the house.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-20105561021563527122014-09-07T13:18:00.001+08:002014-09-07T13:18:24.382+08:00A failure of corporate communicationThis post is completely off-topic, but I can't resist. I hope you won't mind too much.<br />
<br />
In Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs, he recounts Jobs' having told him that the one industry he would most like to have worked in, if not computers, was the automotive industry. Today I watched the online video of the unveiling ceremony for Mazda's 25th-Anniversary MX-5 Miata (<a href="http://www.mazda.com/stories/craftmanship/mx-5/mx-5_25th/thanksday/ustream/" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">http://www.mazda.com/stories/craftmanship/mx-5/mx-5_25th/thanksday/ustream/</a>), and I was struck by how very much Mazda needs the ghost of Steve Jobs.<br />
<br />
For several years during grad school, I drove a cherry-red 1990 Miata. It was the best car I've ever owned, a sheer joy to drive. I miss that car like an old lover.<br />
<br />
It's a common experience. The Miata inspires love in its customers like few products except those made by Apple. Like an iPhone, it's not bare-bones practical — its selling points are style and fun. The Miata makes you want to drive it, and any other car is disappointing. A new edition of the Miata is anticipated by its fan base with the same excitement as a new iPhone.<br />
<br />
So it was that Mazda prepared an unveiling ceremony clearly inspired by Jobs' keynote speeches. Except that they did almost everything wrong.<br />
<br />
First there was the introduction. The designer who did the presentation seemed almost to be downplaying the greatness of the achievement that was the first Miata. In a risky and daring business move, Mazda revived a category that had been dead for ten years. Roadsters were considered a low-volume, no-profit niche market, yet Mazda sold millions. They were the low-cost tail that wagged such giant dogs and Porsche and BMW. It was an act of scrappy corporate audacity on par with the first iPhone.<br />
<br />
Mazda's presentation said some of those things, but in such a jumbled-up, understated way that the message had almost no impact.<br />
<br />
There was a nice little video, reasonably well-done, at the end of which the car quickly rolled onstage. <i>Too</i> quickly: there was no build-up, no drama, no music. Just a few puffs of smoke from the sides. In fact, the sound was still on the video, so you couldn't even hear the car!<br />
<br />
If you're not a Miata fan, you might not be horrified by this omission, but the sound of the Miata is one of its major selling-points. Mazda spent countless dollars and man-hours into carefully engineering a satisfying exhaust rumble in the first-edition Miata. It's one of those perfect, Steve Jobs-like details that make the Miata such a full-body joy to drive. So it's a dreadful failure of communication to have the new edition of the car roll onstage in silence.<br />
<br />
Once the car was there, the designer went on to show off the new look. This is the part I had been looking forward to, because I'd already seen some great-looking photos here: http://www.mazda.com/stories/craftmanship/mx-5/mx-5_25th/movie_photo/<br />
<br />
This car was designed to be aggressive, where the first-generation Miata was bubbly. It's been aptly described as looking like a Maserati. The front end is low and wide, like a race car on the track. It looks fast and hot. It makes all the testosterone in your blood sing like a tuning fork. One look, and I felt an irresistible compulsion to be the one behind the wheel.<br />
<br />
In the entire 23-minute video, there was not one single shot of the car from the front.<br />
<br />
The interior of the car looks to be yet another design masterpiece. It's a gorgeous steampunk union of pre-computer-era knobs and dials with slick high-tech chrome-on-black style. The short-throw shifter in the middle speaks of control, responsiveness, and twisty, wind-whipped mountain roads. The palm of my right hand longed to rock-solid snicker-snack Miata shifting. The calves of both legs felt chills anticipating lightning-fast clutching.<br />
<br />
There was not one single shot of the interior. The designer hosting the unveiling ceremony spoke in adjective-rich prose about the beauty and attention to detail Mazda had invested in the interior of the car, but he did not show it. Not once.<br />
<br />
The car got driven onto the stage, presumably to show that it did in fact have an engine, but otherwise it sat static throughout the demo. There wasn't a turnstile to show it from different angles, nor did it move around at all. There was no video of the new Miata, only the intro video showing older generations. Even the driver seemed awkwardly immobile. This aggressive-looking, nimble little car looked stuck in mud.<br />
<br />
Half the unveiling was spent on a concert by Duran Duran. I suppose this is appropriate to the Miata's sales demographic, but if I were planning the event I'd have skewed a little younger. The whole point of a car like this is to make people feel just a little younger than we are. Perhaps Duran Duran was supposed to remind us of our youth, but to me it was just a reminder of aging. The band has lost a lot of the spring from their step. They had an almost perplexed look about them, as if they, too, we wondering why they were there.<br />
<br />
None of their songs had any obvious connection to the car, which sat forgotten on the opposite side of the stage. Rather than take the opportunity to cut away to exciting footage of the new Miata zooming down the road, the producers stayed glued to the aging rockers for a dozen long minutes.<br />
<br />
I haven't been so disappointed in the work of a highly-paid, supposedly professional communicator since — well, now that I think about it, the Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs. If you wanted to un-sell a car, Mazda just provided a great example of how to do it.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5690860225808471613.post-10891917666387275152014-09-01T15:36:00.002+08:002014-09-01T15:36:24.642+08:00A hitchhiker in my class<div class="tr_bq">
Another first:</div>
<br />
Last week was the first week of classes. In European Civilization class, I gave a general introduction to European Civilization (overall outline, breakdown into Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, Industrial Revolution, and Contemporary periods, with a few very rough dates). Then I gave an introduction to some key themes of the course, by way of a lecture I call "Three Ideas That Made the West Great." The three ideas are Logic, Individualism, and Freedom. It's a very generalized introduction, the purpose of which is to get them thinking about some of the terms and themes that are going to come up throughout the semester.<br />
<br />
At the end of class, I asked the students to write a simple self-introduction with their contact information, something about their background, reasons for taking the course, and a little bit about what they're interested in. Here is one of the responses I got. I'm quoting here in its entirety, with the very slightly rough Chinese grammar (not bad at all, by Chinese standards), so you get the flavor of the student's thinking.<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
So glad to participate in your class, sir. Actually I'm not your "true" student. I am a post-graduate majored in Labor Economics. I was looking for place to read books when you are preparing your class. [The class meets at 6:30PM, and it's common for students to use classrooms as study space in the evenings.] </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Anyway I feel happy, which you said is the most important thing for human being. Western civilization is great and Chinese culture is also special. I want to learn more from you, a foreigner, to see a world in your eyes, if it is allowed. [Allowed?! I'm THRILLED!] </blockquote>
<blockquote>
About the three ideas you talked about tonight, I can't agree more. Logic makes the world scientific and put the way to knowledge, so that we human can know better about everything around us. Individualism makes people live for themselves so that we can realize a harmony society, in which everybody is equal. Freedom is the vital factor to push a country moving on. We Chinese is waking up from the less free past. Though we have a long way to go, we still have lots of problems, we will not stop changing...</blockquote>
In other words, this grad student was sitting in the classroom studying on his own, when our phalanx of 50 students piled into the room. He must have asked one of the students what class it was, and had enough interest in the topic to stick around for the first class. I guess our first night of class caught his interest enough that he wants to keep coming back.<br />
<br />
This sort of thing almost never happens in the US, unless you're lucky enough to be at a superstar university like Chicago, where students are motivated by pure love of knowledge. Nor is it the <i>norm</i> here in China, where the vast majority of students are motivated by pure love of grades and credits. But I have had more auditors in my classes here in China than I ever did in the States.<br />
<br />
Paradoxically, the Chinese focus on "hard sciences" gives my philosophy and culture classes a certain niche popularity. Students who are relentlessly hammered with business management classes sometimes long for something different, and there aren't very many offerings that can satisfy them.<br />
<br />
I've had auditors before, but this is the first time my class has picked up a hitchhiker!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08045289860782357789noreply@blogger.com0