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Saturday, October 28, 2006 - Notes from a karaoke bar I was invited to a karaoke night (or KTV, as it’s called today) by a few friends from my Oral Chinese class tonight. I haven’t been in any kind of karaoke situation since my last visit to China six years ago, and that was half an hour in a dingy room, with a raspy VCD player and a microphone that added nothing but a tinny weong sound. The music videos were hopelessly cheesy, all consisting of Chinese couples in pretty places staring into each other’s eyes. Add thereto the fact that I sing like a sniffling duck, and it really wasn’t my pastime of choice. Needless to say, I went more for the curiosity and the hanging out than a sudden passion for making a fool out of myself. The place was pretty sleek, with lots of service people milling around and generally looking important with their walkie-talkies or earpieces. It was quite nicely decorated and shiny, had a dance floor and an OK bar (with a strong preference for Jack Daniels), and free food, soft drinks and snacks throughout the night. I was ushered through well-lit corridors and into the room my friends had rented. It was big. It was classy. It may have had leather sofas, but both the sofas and the tables were black, which is acceptable. It didn’t have a wildly clashing interior. It had a sound system to die for. It had microphones that actually seemed to enhance people’s voices. And instead of the old, nicked VCDs of yore, it was now all digitalized, with a touch-screen computer in a corner. And instead of an old TV, there was a home movie theater screen. And the music! Sure, some songs were still hopelessly cheesy (“You’ll marry me today”, “Shanghai girl”, etc.), but every single music video was cool, touching, funny, engaging or stunningly beautiful – even the cheesy songs seemed to be slight intentional parodies of themselves, which made it much more enjoyable. I honestly became so engrossed in the music videos that I sometimes forgot to listen to the songs; not that it mattered, since they were all in Cantonese, and the lyrics as well. And boy, did people sing. The karaoke events I’d been to before had consisted of one person singing, and all others politely listening to that person and clapping afterwards. Switch person. Repeat. This time, it was a big room, people were talking left and right, but it didn’t matter, because people sang anyway. They sang without knowing all the words or even the melody sometimes, but they sang and had damn fun doing it. (and I had a blast watching them) One guy was actually quite good, for a while I thought he was the background music. What is it with Asians and karaoke? I was the only one entirely uninterested in singing - even people who've grown up in the west, like me, did karaoke with a zeal and enthusiasm that just confounds me. But hey, people are having fun and are in a good mood, and so was I, so who am I to judge? Maybe my hibernating karaoke genes will wake from their slumber and I'll be the star at the next karaoke night. Haha, maybe when I start preferring too cold to too hot. Also, I got to experience ordering Western drinks entirely in Chinese for the first time. At the bars in Sanlitun, the drinks names are always given in English, but here, they were all translated (more or less freely) into Chinese. Even the word cocktail is translated – it’s literally called “chicken tail drink” and encompasses longdrinks, highball drinks and shots. The drinks were insanely cheap though compared to Sanlitun – under 10 RMB for a generous amount of liquor – and the bartenders actually seemed to know what they were doing. I’ve never seen a cooler B-52, for example. I had a lot of fun trying to translate the various drink names, amongst them Cuba Libre, Black Russian, and Tequila Sunrise, but in the end I got something called “Romantic cute” or something. It was sickeningly sweet and strong, so after that I stuck to good ol’ water. Then a friend of mine got drunk, as in “spend more time on the floor than upright but insists on dancing”, and I spent most of the evening trying to prevent her from hitting her head as she was falling over. We all (around 13-14 people) took turns. Still, it was a fun night. Oh, and I got complimented on my Northeastern accent from a fellow Harbiner, yay! Friday, October 27, 2006 - Chinese characters fun It’s been a busy week. It always seems to be a busy week here.. but really, this week was a Busy Week. I had my first exams this week – Oral Chinese yesterday (which I think I screwed up) and Chinese today (which I feel so-so about). I can almost recite the texts we had our exams on. I can write hopelessly stupid/idiot, bonfire and deep pool in Chinese – those three words contain the most difficult characters I’ve had to learn to date: 窝囊 (wo1 nang)，篝火 (gou1 huo3)，沟壑 (gou1 he4)。Incidentally, why is a word for hopelessly stupid so hopelessly difficult to write? I can’t help but think it’s a test of some sort… I should feel exhausted today after studying non-stop for a week and writing a two-hour exam, wanting nothing to do with Chinese the entire weekend. Instead, I like studying Chinese more than ever, and learning characters is like opening one of those Russian wooden dolls – each character is like the biggest doll, with its meaning, history and development over the years as little dolls bundled up inside of each other. It’s absolutely exhilarating when I get the opportunity to open one of those dolls. Examples: 膏 (gao1) – 唇膏 (chun2 gao1) is one of the Chinese words for lipstick, meaning literally lip cream. “cream” (as in lotion, shampoo, etc.) may be one of the definitions of 膏 today, but it originally meant fat, grease, oil, specifically the grease that cooling fat turns into. Mmm, attractive, no? I wonder what lip gloss translates into… Also, the meaning of the character becomes even clearer when one looks at the words it’s made up of – 高 (gao1) indicating the pronounciation and 月 (yue4) indicating the meaning. Apart from meaning moon, it also denotes that it’s a word related to the body – in this case, body fat. Cool, huh? 裹 (guo3) – means to wrap up, or be wrapped up. Same principle here, part of the word denotes the meaning, the other part the pronounciation. But instead of using the normal clothes radical (as in e.g. 衬, the left part of the character is the clothes radical) on the left side and the pronounciation part on the right side, it sticks the pronounciation part (果 guo3) in the middle of the character for clothes (衣 yi1). When I discovered this, the character became a joy to write – it was nigh impossible before to figure out how it should look. Oh, and also the character 裸 luo3, which was my suggestion for how 裹 should look, already exists, and it means to reveal, particularly by taking off clothes. It’s used in words like topless and nudity. I have a couple of other examples nagging me, but I can’t remember them for the life of me, so TBC. I’m sure you guys are on the edge of your seats in anticipation. Oh, and let’s not forget lots of cool set phrases, like 夫唱妇随，”husband sings, wife follows”, describing the traditional Chinese family structure of patriarchy. Although, our Oral Chinese teacher, Mr. Zhao, dryly noted that it’s the opposite with Shanghai women. Wednesday was quite fun – I spent all evening studying for my Oral Chinese class with an American in my class and apart from a few phrases or specific words, we spoke Chinese the entire time. This is rarer than you’d think, since even advanced Western students tend to revert to English after a while. (it’s only with the Japanese and Korean students that I can maintain speaking Chinese, and that’s mostly because their English is hm, not very good) But he kept up the Chinese, and I didn’t mind at all, though it is an effort for me as well – Chinese is still my third language after Swedish and English. The crazy thing is, he’s only been studying for a year. Work that around in your brain for a while. A single year, and he’s at my level of spoken Chinese, occasionally throwing out words I’m unfamiliar with. He gets my Northeastern accent, and I can recall only once where he asked me to clarify a word. I know people can be linguistically gifted, but that’s very, very impressive. Although I’ve yet to meet another person who’s attained the same level of Chinese in that amount of time, I’m constantly impressed and humbled by the Western students in my Oral Chinese class. Unlike Koreans and Japanese, who are used to character-based languages and have an easier time picking up words (a lot of Japanese and Korean words seem to be derived from Chinese, just pronounced differently), the Western students seldom have more than two years under their belts. Nico, whom I consider to be the best in my Oral Chinese class, has studied for two years, and he’s always asking about obscure characters, phrases and literary references that few others have heard of. Sure, it’s a little daunting, but most of all incredibly motivating. (out of context) “We’re HIBERNATING!” Classmate on how he studies for the exams: “I have set phrases taped all over my walls.” You know the expression “to want a piece of the cake”? There’s a similar one in Chinese, though for some unfathomable reason, the expression is “to split a glass of gruel”. Why on Earth would anyone want to split gruel? We joked about this for the better part of an hour during Business Chinese class. Thursday, October 26, 2006 - Blogger I thought China had banned Blogger this morning. Turns out it was a technical problem worldwide. But in a heartbeat, that reminded me that despite the materialism and the capitalism, China is still a dictator regime at heart. It's easy to forget amongst the glitter and excitement. In other news, I may be going to a fetisch party on Saturday. Perfect time to break in my new leather pants, dontcha think? Although, I wonder how fetisch it could possibly get. China's not exactly known for its "alternative life style" scene, or is it..? *Addendum: Blogger may work, but I still can't access any actual blogs hosted on blogspot.com. I'm hoping that's because of a technical problem as well. And just temporary. Wednesday, October 25, 2006 - Brrrrr Signs of cold: - two blankets is barely enough - you wear woolly socks to bed - you wake up wearing woolly socks and your feet are still not warm - you wear your down jacket indoors - when showering, the water is no longer scalding, just warm - indoors, you can’t keep warm in a big knit sweater – instead, you come inside, dive under your covers and proceed to study on the bed, taking care to expose your hands as little as possible when scribbling - in the morning, no matter how tired, you’re instantly awake as soon as you lift the covers. The blast of cold air keeps you awake as you hurriedly put on your clothes – I’ve taken to having an outfit game plan ready before getting out of bed, to avoid the freezing deliberation - you wear woolly socks with your warmest boots - the baozi place is closed during the day, because nobody’s insane enough to eat outside anymore. I swear, the temperature in the air is like Swedish winter already. And just a few weeks ago, it was like 20 C in the sun! And it’s not even windy yet – when the Siberian winds set in, hoo boy. And yet, the locals aren’t overly concerned, instead warning me that when the central heating does get turned on (Nov 1st), I will be sweating to death instead. But lemme tell ya, no matter how uncomfortable that’ll be, I’ll still prefer being too warm to not being able to feel my toes unless I’m showering. (me and Hannah walk past a popcorn stand, the smell of sickeningly sweet, Chinese-buttered popcorn wafting through the air) Hannah: “Do you only have sweet popcorns?” Vendor: “Of course. Salty popcorns 不好吃! (taste bad)” As a secular Swede, that’s the closest to sacrilege I’ve ever heard. (Canadian guy, on his Halloween outfit.) “I’m thinking of dressing up as Harry Potter. (Note: He has messy hair and glasses, so it would work) But I’ve been Harry Potter so many times already, so this time, I want to be Hermione. I’m going to buy a wig and some *explanatory motion over his chest*” Me: “Oh, so you’re going to put on make-up too?” Canadian: “Yes.” Me: “And shave your face?” Canadian: “No.” Me: “Umm.. are you going to wear pantyhose?” Canadian: “Yes.” Me: “And shave your legs?” Canadian: “No.” Me: “… So you’re basically going to dress up as a hairy drag queen?” Canadian: “Yes.” (In Chinese Media Reading class – towards the end of the class, and everyone’s tired and want to go home) Teacher: “’And also..’ *squints at complicated sentence* bla bla bla bla bla bla.” Sunday, October 22, 2006 - "Gay" in Chinese (and other less interesting things) So even though my long-ass post about Xiangshan got no comments… here’s another one, because I feel a little OCD about my lack of posting this week. Monday I woke up completely disoriented after less than four hours of sleep, which in my opinion is the worst amount of hours ever. Above four hours – the more the better, naturally – but around three hours or less will get you through 2-4 hours of school, and then drop you dead. But four hours will leave you slightly nauseous, weak, shaky and dazed, and it doesn’t get better until you’ve had some extra sleep. Trust me, I speak from experience. A lot of experience. Very few people know this about me, but when I’m in a state where it’s nigh impossible for me to stay awake, let alone get up, there’s only one thing that’ll drag me out of bed. Choosing what to wear. Isn’t that the most ridiculous thing ever? Perhaps, but as long as it’s working… appealing to my shallowness works without fail every time, which in the worst case leads to me being late but very dressed up, and in the best case to me being on time and very dressed up. Either way, sometimes, that truly is the only way to get me out of bed. (Unfortunately, I’ve had an unusually difficult time to get up in the mornings this week – it could have something to do with the weather turning cooler – so I’ve arrived clip-clopping on high heels and out of breath almost every morning class this week. Brilliant.) My main memory of Monday is that I had the worst muscle ache ever in my thighs and butt after climbing Xiangshan. Last time I had it that bad was probably after snowboarding last winter. Augh! My first class, Business Chinese, was pretty uneventful. The vocab we learn is useful, but the class itself is pretty standard. My second class was Oral Chinese, easily my favourite course because of the teacher. We learned useful words like 同志 (comrade, literally “same aspiration”), 断袖 (cut-off sleeve) and 分桃 (to share a peach), all slang for homosexuality. All this was inspired by a comment from Nico (the American who knows more Chinese than I do, or should I say, one of them) about “Boys’ Town” in Chicago, where a lot of gays hang out. As he mentioned more and more Chinese slang words for homosexuality, our teacher’s eyes widened in surprise, complimenting him on his thorough knowledge of Chinese and wondering where he’d learned all that. By this time, I was fighting not to burst out in laughter, cuz our teacher doesn’t know that Nico’s gay. (he speaks a little Swedish from having had a Swedish boyfriend, a little Norwegian from having had a Norwegian boyfriend – we joked about him working his way through Scandinavia. He might pass on Denmark though; Danish people aren’t considered very pretty in Scandinavia, whether unfounded or not) It’s most likely better that way – Chinese are more aware of homosexuality today, but still very weary of it. This despite the fact that it’s quite accepted for Chinese people of the same gender to have a lot of physical contact – it’s common to see girls skipping around holding hands on campus, or guys walking with their arms slung across each other’s shoulders. I was a little taken aback at first when girls I’d just met hooked their arms in mine when walking, but it’s just a sign of friendliness and affection. Of course, it would be completely unthinkable for friends of the opposite gender to do the same. After school, I had SUSHI at a place in Wudaokou with QQ and two of her friends. The exterior is crummy and nondescript, but inside, it’s very high-class Japanese. The sushi wasn’t too expensive – 6 RMB/salmon piece, quite reasonable in a country reputed to have no good sushi – and incredibly good. Big chunks of salmon and good rice. Nothing like Swedish sushi of course, but still, a good place to know should the sushi craving become too much. Tuesday started off well I thought – I was up in time, would be a teensy bit late for class, but that was it. Um, yeah. Somehow, I had managed to not only bicycle to the wrong classroom in the wrong building, I had also brought the wrong books. Great way to start the day. (Business Chinese class – an American-Asian girl and an American guy are told to act out a sketch involving haggling between a Chinese and an American company) Teacher: “Who’s the American and who’s the Chinese?” American guy: “Guess!” (Chinese Media Reading class – we’re told to construct sentences using specific words. A guy who talks a lot, usually without thinking, raises his hand) The guy proceeds to spell out a long-winded, boring, badly pronounced sentence, and people quickly lose interest. Finally – Guy: “OK, I’m done.” Teacher: “I didn’t listen to the end of your sentence, but the beginning was wrong already.” (Hannah describing her ritual of buying noodles at that noodle shack, bringing it home in a plastic bag – soup and all – and then pouring it into her bowl. Hard-core take-away, especially since Chinese plastic bags can break if you blow too hard on them) Hannah: “For me, there’s just something immensely satisfying about bringing home my plastic bag and pouring the noodles in my bowl, and see how the bowl is just big enough and fits perfectly. I can’t think of a better feeling.” Me: *arched eyebrow* Hannah: “Shut up.” Three good things happened today (Sunday): 1: I met the lady who’s complained twice about us (read: Patrik) being too loud, and we actually had a nice conversation. I didn’t broach the noise issue, but I’ll try next time. 2: The jiaozi place people uh, long-changed me? Gave me too much change back, because they didn’t have the proper amount. When I insisted on tipping them instead, they firmly declined. Wow! First time a Chinese business establishment has declined my money! I’m going to go there more often. Also, their jiaozi is delicious and cheap – 4 RMB for a whole plate. And they’re nice too! And also, I’m getting a little tired of baozi. 3: My bicycle has already started to rust. This in itself is not a good thing. But it’s uglier now and therefore less likely to be stolen, which is a very good thing. Patrik got his jaunty, cherry red mini-bike stolen from our place last time he was here, so it does happen. Then again, that bike was beautiful (despite the pedal, saddle and left brake falling off within a week) and much more eye-catching than my discreet, metallic blue one. Some times it’s the little things that do it. Like sweet potato chips, my new favourite snack here. Or that it’s always misty after raining. Or the constant factors I encounter every day; annoying perambulation (I like that word!) and bicycling, smoking everywhere, neighbours who stare, chuckle a little and occasionally greet me back when I utter a chirpy hello, liberal amounts of spitting (today I saw a man spit from the top of a stair case down on the ground. It’s so classy I started chuckling), and my beloved bicycle giving off merry clinking sounds going past every uneven patch on the ground – it no longer feels as if the parts are going to come off at any second, inexplicably, it feels like it’ll hold together against all odds, very Chinese. Me being able to read most of the menu in a Chinese restaurant, without spending half an hour scrutinizing it, face screwed up in intense concentration. Bicycling down empty streets at night. Reveling in the choice of tasty, cheap food at the numerous school cafeterias. Or being able to eat my fill of jiaozi for 5 RMB. All the cute stray cats around that I would never touch out of fear of rabies or the like. They’re such little things, but they make my day, even the annoying ones, because they remind me just of where I am. Life is more difficult here than in Sweden – I’m not in a near-constant state of content, I experience more problems here, but more joy and exhilaration as well. Maybe because of the presence or possibility of problems; or because nothing comes easy in this country. But when I think about where I am, I always smile – for all my complaints and sarcastic remarks, this is a country that teaches me the value of things, teaches me not to take anything for granted, and makes me happy all day if I see a squirrel, and make me feel like I’m treating myself when I get melon on a stick for 1 RMB. (a big piece of melon) And even though my complaints and sarcastic remarks will continue, it still won’t change the fact that right now, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be. Saturday, October 21, 2006 - Shopping and Kro's Whoever said money can’t buy happiness, obviously hasn’t shopped in China. (or isn’t me, having the opportunity to shop in China) And yes, this is going to be a post about shopping. In detail. With photos. Anyone not interested, check back tomorrow. (It’s also going to be a post about chilling out at Kro’s, but that’s later) We were around six girls who met up after class at noon, had lunch in the cafeteria that’s quickly becoming my favourite (clean, modern, big and good food), and then we took a cab to the indoors market I went to last week. (Do not make the mistake of equating an indoor market with a mall. A mall’s big, spacious and clean, a Chinese indoors market is big, crowded and not clean, and typically consists of rows and rows of stands, tiny narrow passageways and gazillions of people.) It’s quite amusing really – we’ve all gotten along well in class, but it wasn’t until I brought my brown Chloé bag to school, which they oohed and aahed over, that we decided to get together after class. It’s a little surreal just how quickly girls can bond over bags. Then, I wore some of my other newly-bought stuff to school, more oohing and aahing, and we decided to go shopping together at the place we’d been to. After two minutes inside the indoors market, I had lost sight of all others save QQ, the girl I’d gone shopping with last week. We never found the others, and ended up shopping with each other again. I didn’t mind at all – she’s good fun, we speak Chinese exclusively though she grew up in Austria, and she’s a much better haggler than me. With her, I don’t feel like a foreigner – I feel like a regular Chinese girl, out shopping with her friends. We joke and gossip in Chinese, and when we haggle, she brings out the 东北人(Northeastern Chinese) in me. I don’t know shit about formal, official Chinese, but I the way I talk when we’re haggling, you’d never believe I wasn’t born and bred here. And that’s exhilarating, even without the added high of shopping. Moments like those, I’m not a Western girl masquerading as a Chinese, I am a Chinese girl. Also, the sellers are founts of wisdom when it comes to real-life examples of swearwords I only know in theory – that’s the kind of stuff I just can’t learn in class. Anyways, so for 270 RMB, I bought happiness in form of: zip-up Roxy hoodie – 50 RMB zip-up pink hoodie – 25 RMB (they’ll both come in handy when I’m freezing my ass off in the apartment in winter) black haltertop – 10 RMB underwear set – 25 RMB two underwear thingies – 20 RMB in total four pairs of cotton boy shorts underwear – 25 RMB in total turquoise knit sweater – 35 RMB skirt and belt – 40 RMB 2 necklaces and 1 bracelet – 37.5 RMB Three pairs of thick socks (see comment about hoodies) – 15 RMB And best of all: brown knit sweater – 25 RMB Except it had this tag on…  It says: Åhléns, 299 kr. I kid you not. I’m dead serious. This sweater, that I got for 25 RMB, is sold in Sweden for 299 kr. Price tag, Åhléns tag on clothes, washing instructions tag – everything was there! It was ready to be sold in Sweden! My question now is: how the hell did the seller get it?? It was the last one, on sale, (meaning you can’t haggle, or can only haggle a little) and the thing about that indoors market is that a lot of things are unique to one or possibly two stores. Even one store will only have one or two of each kind. I just have this image of the seller running after the truck transport and picking up the stuff that falls out. I love China =D After the shopping, I bought candied fruit – another reason to love China, you can eat an entire meal from the street vendors (provided you’ve lived here for some time or have taken traveler’s vaccines) – and we took an unlicensed cab back to Beida. The driver was almost having a heart attack over the traffic jams – with unlicensed cabs, you agree on a price beforehand, meaning there’s no meter ticking when the car’s still. Good for the customer, bad for the driver. It cost us 20 RMB in total to get to Beida, but in a normal cab, it would’ve cost us at least 30 RMB during that rush hour. As we pulled up to Beida, we mentioned he could always drive around inside the university looking for passengers. He told us he was too afraid to, because apparently, Beijing is divided up into strictly controlled areas, where the unlicensed drivers operate. A driver can only try to find passengers in his own area, otherwise there’d be violence. Funny, there’s this whole territory scuffle going on right under our noses at high and noble Beida, like stray dog territories in Manhattan. (not that I saw any stray dogs in Manhattan, but in my imagination, there’s a whole bunch) Later, me and Hannah went to a jiaozi place nearby and then to Kro’s to chill out. Amongst the things we saw and experienced were: - a whole table of westerners trying to drink one poor Chinese guy under the table. It’s like stealing candy from egg cells. - said Chinese guy laughing the most maniacal laugh I have ever heard in my life. It sounds deranged, loopy and hysterical at the same time. If only I could’ve recorded it. - a Jamaican guy in a red sweatsuit dancing - REAL good music - a Swedish girl from Uppsala engaged to be married to one of the, uh, most Chinese Chinese guys I have ever seen. She’s been studying Chinese for three years and he’s a TV producer at CCTV (China Central Television). He took a couple of pictures of Patrik and wants to do a commercial with him. - a Chinese guy wearing a Norwegian moose T-shirt All in all, a quiet Friday night in Beijing. *Update: 一分钱一分货 - you get the quality you pay for. Still so worth it though. Friday, October 20, 2006 - This is how good Swedish chocolate is - (me giving Patrik a piece of Swedish Marabou chocolate, him snatching it from my hand and gobbling it up) (Patrik stuffing his face while making inappropriate, ecstatic noises which intensify as me and Hannah are watching bemusedly with eyebrows raised) (noises reach a crescendo and then abruptly stop) After a while – Patrik: “I need to change my underwear.” .... After that, Patrik had his Dad send him Swedish Marabou chocolate. They were supposed to arrive a few days ago, but today, someone had apparently broken into his mailbox (with a fricking crowbar!) and stolen the chocolate. That’s how good Swedish chocolate is. Hell yeah. Thursday, October 19, 2006 - Bokane So yeah, this afternoon was going to be all about me studying and writing my essay. Um, yeah.. I'll be sweating it this evening instead, as usual. Anyways, found a fantastic blog: http://bokane.org/ http://www.bokane.org/chinese/ (his blog in Chinese) This guy is absolutely amazing - a 23-year old from Philadelphia/Ireland, who's been studying Chinese for 5 years and now works as a translator. He studied at Beida too, but two years ago, and before that, he was an English teacher in Harbin. Hobbies including translating Chinese poems for fun. Good God, he makes me want to cover my head with a paper bag in shame over my own poor Chinese skills - reading his Chinese posts is way too much of an effort for me. Oh, and his English blog is both fun and well-written too (and uses words like peristalsis, while cracking me up), check out these posts especially: His plane trip to Philly Obscure Chinese characters fun (yes, that should be an oxymoron, but I find it absolutely fascinating) side-splitting Chinese toilet anecdote and not so fun but very profound: what to expect if you're thinking about studying Chinese. this is what I'm occasionally worried about in China this one breaks my heart a little, especially the ending, beautifully written and last but not least, he shares my views on the Chinese perambulation style These are only a few examples - his writing is brilliant, both humorous and touching, and will be the reason I'll be up past midnight working on the essay I'm putting off writing. it's bittersweet to read his thoughts on Beijing as a foreign student and realize how similar some are to my own, and then realize I'm reading it all in English because I don't have the skills to read it in Chinese. I could be writing this in Chinese - it's sad being able to say this at the age of 21, but I regret shunning that part of my education and upbringing for all those years. But then again... if I was already fluent in Chinese, would I be here now, in a city that confuses, fascinates, frustrates and delights me beyond belief? *Addendum: just found this during my procrastination stint. It's irony piled on top of irony, piled on top of more irony. Like a giant irony pancake cake (Swedish dessert). I’m better now, thanks all who cared. I’ve been crazy busy these past few days – don’t I always say that? – so apologies for not having written as much. I have crazy busy days coming up as well, but I’ll do my best to fill you all in on what’s been happening in my life, one day at a time. 2006-10-15 Sunday – I woke up at nine AM, bleary-eyed and very much not up for a trek up some mountain. Then I looked outside the window, saw the massive greyness and realized I was not at ALL up for a trek up some mountain. But what could I do? One of my newly-found Chinese friends, an LLM student, had gathered a bunch of people essentially on my behalf (unasked for, but I’m grateful anyway) to do something fun together during the weekend, and Xiang Shan (The Fragrant Hills) was my idea as well. Fall is apparently the best time to visit, and I had wanted to go for a while. So I dragged myself up, put on comfy clothes and prepared for a not so fun day, already stressed about homework and work as well. I met up with my Chinese friend and we bicycled to meet the others on the other side of Beida. My God, I’ve noticed this before, but the Chinese are SUCH slow movers. Students my age walk as fast as 80-year old Grandmas, and apart from the small clique that bicycles like maniacs, most people bicycle at a leisurely, barely-rolling pace. I easily outstrip everyone, whether it’s on a bicycle, in sneakers or in high-heels, it’s astounding. I might be a waddling fatty compared to some Chinese chicks, but at least I’m in far better shape. And I don’t even exercise! But I guess when even guys are thinner than I am, I’m bound to appear toned and in shape, not just a waddling fatty – sometimes it’s really freaky, some girls seem to have literally no muscles at all. How do they not faint walking up the stairs? Other Westerners have noticed this as well, so it’s by no means as if I’ve shaped up overnight, but it’s both annoying and bewildering to bicycle at what I think is a normal pace, just to encounter a road full of Chinese students uncertainly paddling along like lost little ducks. Because y’know, if you want to walk as fast as my Grandma, that’s fine with me, but at least have the common sense to walk in a straight line, on the side of the road! But no, Chinese have this mysterious ability to take up all the space available: even if it’s just two people in front of you, you can be sure they’ll be positioned as inconveniently as possible. It’s like gaseous substances. And even if they aren’t at the moment, chances are one of them will suddenly decide to stop/wander around the middle of the road looking lost/turn without even caring about possible traffic. Anyway, that was a major digression on my part. But what can I say? Every other day, I have to swear loudly in Swedish just to keep myself from exploding and mowing them all down. Cuz you know I could with my impressive muscles and them being scrawny little chicklets. Yeah. Um, right. Moving on… We met up with her friends in Beida, six of us in total. They seemed a nice bunch, a fair bit older, around 30, but this only meant they actually had enough life experience and opinions to have interesting, intelligent, mature conversations. We took the bus out to Xiangshan, along with what seemed like half of Beijing. I had heard a lot about Xiangshan and the red leaves it’s so famous for, but we should have gotten the hint from the lack of anything red on the trees in Beida – everything in Xiangshan was still green, except for the huge, tacky sculpted red leaf in front of the entrance. We went inside anyways and promptly started our trek up the mountain, and I promptly starting feeling like Superwoman. I don’t know why I was expecting the Chinese to be able to walk faster uphill than on level ground… anyways, there I was, skipping ahead up the slope, walking at a good exercising pace that made me sweaty but not exhausted. Then I looked back, and realized everyone else had fallen way behind me, even the guys. When I asked if they were tired, they said “No, why?” and looked confused. Why? Because you all walk like my Grandma, maybe? Actually, my Grandma walks pretty fast. More like my Grandpa, then. Despite the exercise culture clash, Xiangshan was quite nice. The landscape wasn’t very impressive with me coming from Sweden – it was green, but the green was still that dusty, grimy green that characterizes all Chinese vegetation. Add thereto throngs of people, narrow, steep stairs and trash everywhere (due to the brilliant lack of trashcans) and it was OK, nothing more. The trek was nice though, and I would go there again just for that, but preferably on a weekday when it’s less crowded. (haha, I just realized I was saying that about China) Though it was quite fun to see the mix of people: old men and women taking step after meticulous step – looking a little like mountain goats – chain smoking young men, women in suit jackets and high heels laboriously climbing the uneven stone stairs, bawling children… it was also interesting to experience a Chinese tourist spot for Chinese people (though there were a few foreigners there as well) – the scenery was charmingly framed by ever-present souvenir stands, people selling ice cream and water bottles out of cardboard boxes every few steps, subtle tackiness in form of tree trunk-shaped cable boxes, and Chinese people in front of every random thing, taking Chinese tourist photos. Every once in a while, we’d stop, have a rest and a chat, and then keep on walking. It was much more fun than I’d imagined really – with my observations of the Chinese, the interesting conversations comparing Chinese and Western law and the steady, mid-intensity workout, I felt like I was getting it all. The weather was also a blessing in disguise – with no sun and a light breeze, it was pleasantly cool once you’d worked up a sweat. Towards the end I did begin to feel really tired, but mostly because I had to stop and pause and walk around people all the time. I’ve hiked very little in my life, but the tips from my high school trip to Crete are very useful to this day: when hiking, maintain a good distance to the people in front of you, so you don’t have to stop, slow down or otherwise adjust your speed to other people. It’ll interrupt your “flow” and you’ll get tired quicker. I don’t think I quite realized how true that was until this trek. Before we knew it, we were at the top. It wasn’t anything special, with no grass to sit on and just crowded everywhere. People were pick-nicking on the gravel or in the shades of the few puny trees there – it felt like a cross between a skiing mountain top and a barren rock with lots of smelly, noisy sea gulls on it. The view from the top was better though, mostly due to the massive smog clearly visible from the height and distance. We chilled out at the top for a while, eating snacks and talking. It was really nice – they’re a fun and interesting bunch, with backgrounds in both public and private employment. One worked as a prosecutor, another as a judge, a third as a lawyer, a fourth as an in-house lawyer at China’s state oil company… they had opinions, dreams and wishes of Chinese law and the future development of both theoretical and practical law. They had questions about the world outside China. They answered my very basic questions about Chinese law. They wanted to know about dating. All this was carried out in Chinese, with a few English words interspersed, either when I didn’t know a Chinese word or they wanted to try their English skills with me. To my surprise, I was having a genuinely good time – I guess I never realized that just because Chinese students my age aren’t on the same maturity level as me, doesn’t mean all Chinese students are my age. Both work and home work was at the back of my mind, but I was on a frickin’ mountain, nothing much I could do about it there… Our day continued in much the same manner, with conversations about everything from Sanlitun (the bar street in Beijing) to abortion rights, and we continued on to a restaurant between Beida and Wudaokou and had a nice meal. The fish tasted like soap though, but everything else was yummy. After that, I kind of started to panic about my stuff back home – it was already past 6 PM and I knew I had a long night ahead of me. I didn’t regret spending so much time with them, since I found out so much, but still, there’s a time and place for everything. Tuesday, October 17, 2006 - alone. Haggling rule number 6: Someone else will always get a better price than you. Just take deep breaths and try not to be pissed about it. I’m in a weird mood today. It could be my four hours’ of sleep last night, class from 8 AM to 5 PM, eating sushi for the first time in almost two months followed by spontaneous evening shopping. Or it could be that for the first time in a long, long time, I’m going to fall asleep in an empty house. I should be used to it – I had my own apartment for over a year before China, and loved not having to talk to people on my way to the bathroom in the mornings. But during the summer, I have always slept with other people in the house, if not in the same room, and in China, I have had other people in the same apartment with me. But now, Hannah is in Shanghai, due to a freak stroke of luck that’ll render her a feature piece in the Times, an all-expenses paid business trip and insane compensation. I was really happy for her and didn’t think much of being alone in the apartment for a few days. But tonight, as I walked up the stairs and unlocked both doors for the first time in a while (they’re unlocked when one of us is home), I suddenly realized how uncomfortable I felt. There was no one to say hi to and no one to talk to, and most importantly, there was no one else but me in the apartment. I hadn’t really realized before just how much I’d gotten used to having people around me – it’s not that I’m afraid of the dark or anything, (I’m mostly afraid of silly things like creepy-crawlies, clowns and Jack in the Box) it’s just that I didn’t realize how comforting it is just to feel someone’s presence and know they’ll be back, if I’m temporarily alone in the apartment. I don’t like being alone. (I'm sleepy and going to bed now. I'll be back to my normal mood tomorrow - lots to tell, lots to write about.) Saturday, October 14, 2006 - Dirt Market and 133t haggling skillz Today was another action-packed day – it’s not even 6 PM and I’m already completely exhausted. Me and Hannah got up bright and early at nine to go to the Dirt Market with Patrik, a place we had wanted to visit for quite some time but just hadn’t gotten around to. Patrik on the other hand had been there several times already, but wasn’t tired of it at all. Let me tell you a little about Beijing: It’s a HELL of a big town. We live in the northwest corner of Beijing – not the suburbs by any means, but quite far from Tiananmen Square and the sightseeing spots. This means that if we want to do anything outside of our little university neighbourhood area (slightly bigger than all of Uppsala), it takes the entire day. And the Dirt Market was literally on the other side of town, in the southeast part of Beijing. Subway: around 50 minutes, including three changes. Walking in the wrong direction (thank you Patrik!): around 15 minutes. Bus: 20 minutes. Walking: 15 minutes. We started off from Wudaokou around 10.20, and reached the market around 12.30, and by then I was so exhausted I just wanted to go home. It didn’t help that there were three big markets in the area (one selling… big rocks, from what we could tell, about as big and tall as a person, and one indoor market selling antiques that we walked past), and Patrik had forgotten what the surroundings of the Dirt Market looked like. Naturally, it was the market furthest away from the bus stop, and as we trudged along I wondered if it was really worth the time and effort to come to such a godforsaken place. What could possibly be so special about yet another Chinese market? Dude, I was so wrong. The Dirt Market (Or Panjiayuan Market, as it’s called in Chinese, and yes, it’s same character for Pan as my Mom’s surname) is first of all HUGE.    And it’s outdoors; more smoking but not as stuffy as indoor markets. And there are rows upon rows upon rows of little stalls, selling every single Chinese knickknack you can possibly imagine. Antique chests and furniture, giant calligraphy brushes as long as my legs, Mao memorabilia, paintings, calligraphy, art, jade, pearls and beads (a lot of the jewellery looked a lot like Native American jewellery, surprisingly enough), silk bags, wine coolers, pillows, clothes and chopsticks sets, figurines, pottery, stones and stone stamps, swords, old phones and cameras… whether things were real or fake I didn’t know, and frankly didn’t care – oddly enough, I didn’t feel an urge to buy any of the knickknacks; just browsing the stalls was overwhelming enough already. And also, most of the things were fascinating, kitschy junk I wouldn’t fill my home with. Amongst the more interesting things I saw though were: - A Mao clock with the second hand shaped like a rocket, and Mao waving with every tick. - wind-chime-like dolls made of sheets of leather, but so fine it was semi-transparent. The details of the doll were carved through the leather, creating a very nice effect against backlighting. - a painting of a girl and uh, a breast-feeding piglet. (quite disturbing, actually) - 100-year old shoes made for “lotus feet”. That was truly unsettling.  As we browsed, we suddenly stumbled upon an intriguing sign: “No smoking.” Entering the roofed area, we realized why: along the entire length of the market, was a never-ending line of book stalls, selling everything from Western books to old booklets with faded texts. Then, I was reminded of my love of books and reading, and how much I wish I could read Chinese fluently. A significant part of a 5000-year old history and culture is closed for me – because of my language skills, or lack thereof, there’s so much I can’t explore and experience. One thing was uplifting though – I finally felt some advantage to being a Chinese at a Chinese market. Usually, I feel handicapped because I look and talk like a Chinese, and therefore can’t ask questions about things I ought to know as a Chinese. But at the market, I got the real prices quoted from start, not the ridiculous starting prices they give foreigners. Well, when I browsed on my own anyway. I looked at a silk handbag at one stall and was told it cost 30 RMB. At the next stall, I talked to Patrik (in Swedish) right before inquiring about the price for the exact same kind of bag, and the saleswoman started at 60 RMB. It felt really good to scoff in her face and walk off – I might have been ripped off buying my red Chloé bag, but that was my tuition fee. I’m not going to be that easily fooled again. So when I angered the saleswoman at the next stall, giving a ridiculous counter-offer, I wasn’t really bothered – I’d rather have them be mad at me for starting off too low, than waste my hard-earned (hrm, well, borrowed or my parents’ hard-earned) cash by paying too much. Because the Chinese sellers always want to sell, and as I returned to the stall an hour after, I got the bag quite amicably for 25 RMB. (I had started off at 10 RMB, and she responded by snatching the bag back and refusing to talk to me. When they do that, or tell you to keep browsing without any haggling, they really mean it. It’s another thing if you haggle and they tell you that, cuz then they’ll probably call you back as you’re walking away) And when I asked about prices for the other bags, she gave me quite exact numbers – i.e. 22 RMB instead of 25/30 RMB – which no one ever does, to make clear it was her lowest possible offer, thus sparing us both the haggling process. And when we chatted about her prices to foreigners, she told me they start at 100-120 RMB, working down to around 50 or 60 RMB. I know they do the same at Silk Market and such, and I never really realized before just how frustrating that must be for Westerners. I think she got a little miffed though when Patrik came round and we started speaking Swedish. But hey, every once in a while, I should get to have the best of two worlds. I’m beginning to see some haggling principles as well, and listing them here will help me improve my skills, so – Rule number one: they will never sell at a loss, (unless they’ve had a severely unprofitable day and they’re desperate, i.e. a rainy day at an outdoors market) which means they will always make a profit off of you. But how much more they earn besides the minimum profit, is up to you and your haggling skills. Rule number two: don’t be afraid to call them on bullshit. If they counter an inquiry about the price with “you tell me how much you think it’s worth”, just act irritated and tell them to give you a straight answer if they’re really interesting in making a deal. Rule number three: knowledge is power. Some things can be unique, but those are few and far between. Some clothes were one of a kind at the market I went to on Friday, and a lot of knickknacks at the Dirt Market as well, but apart from that, compare and contrast. There’s not a single unique thing at markets like Silk Market and Yashow, and if you know what you want, haggle at several different places. If that isn’t possible, you just have to use your own judgment, and ask yourself – how much is this thing worth to a Chinese? Because that’s how much you should pay, Chinese or not. Also, as a foreigner, you're almost always given a higher price, even if we're just talking about buying fruit. Rule number four: As I’ve said already; better to give too low an offer than a too high one. Because unless they’re literally swearing at you (which I’ve seen happen), you can always come back after a few hours’ browsing, with a more realistic view on what something’s worth. They’ll still want to haggle then. Rule number five: No matter how much you know about haggling in theory, it really isn't until you've gained some experience, maybe been ripped off a couple of times, that you really start to get a feel for it. I thought I knew the first few times, but man, it is infinitely harder when you're standing there and the saleswoman is smattering incessantly next to you about the quality and such. (Now I've learned to tune her out except for the relevant phrases) Notes: - Today’s weather was really horrible. It was overcast, but unlike elsewhere, it felt as if you were literally covered in pollution. The haze in the air wasn’t fog, for sure.  The view from the subway station. - I didn’t know this, but apparently, starting south of Tiantan is the slum area of Beijing. I saw my first horse cart in Beijing today, and the streets around the Dirt Market reminded me more of Hegang and Harbin than of Beijing.  A pretty decent building.  The area right on the other side of the building. - Subway is insanely tasty here. It also has sugared ice tea on tap with the other soft drinks. On that note, McDonald's has a hamburger of the week with kimchi in it. And a pie with what I swear looks like green peas. (browsing the art stalls) Patrik: “I’m going to buy pictures of naked girls!” (Me walking two steps and seeing a huge painting in traditional Chinese style, but with a nude woman and some artsy drapes) Me (pointing): "There you go." Patrik: "Wow. You’re good." (Patrik giving his ice tea to Hannah to hold while he eats his Subway sandwich) Patrik: "You can be our cup holder!" Hannah (deadpan): "That's what I'm here for."  Poor guy. He must have a headache. (Hannah eating my grapes) Hannah: *chew* *chomp* "I love grapes!" Me: "Have them! I can't eat them all, and they're gonna go bad otherwise." Hannah: "No, I can't, cuz then I'll just go to the bathroom every five minutes the whole night." Me: "Heh, no seriously, if you like them, have them." Hannah: "No, I have to go to the bathroom now." Me: "Haha" Hannah (as she gets up and walks to the bathroom): "I'm not kidding." Today has been a busy day. A busy day shopping. Ah, let me just savour that for a moment. OK, done. =P So after class I went shopping with a friend from class, and it was really fun. We went to a place that had a decent selection, decent prices, and best of all, the salespeople weren’t the bloodthirsty, jump-on-you-as-soon-as-you-enter-their-line-of-sight kind I’ve met so far in China. I swear, my last time at the Silk Market, it felt like playing HoMM IV with the wandering monsters and all. If you get too close – BAM!! – you’re under attack. But no, these were pretty mellow, not too eager and not too laid back. Also, during the first hours at least, there were relatively few people, which made both browsing and haggling considerably easier. I bought some stuff, and I’m quite satisfied with both the buys and the prices. Then, as we were on the bus back to Beida, Patrik called to ask if I wanted to go with him to the Silk Market. By then it was almost six already, but the Silk Market is apparently open till nine, so we went there. Another pleasant surprise – very few people and tired salespeople (less wandering monsters) made for quite pleasant browsing. Also, shopping with Patrik is the best strategy ever – all the salespeople speak English really well, but nobody speaks Swedish. Hell yeah! Swedish rules! He got a bag and wallet, and I got a bag as well, from this hilarious saleswoman – she gave me a really good price from start, 200 RMB for the biggest Chloé bag there is, and I could only bargain it down to 170 RMB. I would like to think it was because she liked me, cuz really, nobody starts off that low. What I heard last time was 500 RMB for the bag, and she told me her starting price to foreigners was 1400 RMB. When Patrik came over, she literally groaned as he starting speaking Chinese as well, as well as Swedish with me. But what really freaked me out was this: even though she didn’t understand Swedish, she knew we were speaking the language. That’s quite unsettling, even if she said she’s had contact with lots of Swedes and Norwegians. Anyways, after our shopping trip – and yes, I’m still a little high on the successful haggling – we took a stroll around the area before getting the subway back. I wish I had brought my camera – some of the neon lights were really cool. A lot of rainbows and uh, very Chinese. Afterwards, Patrik went home and I went to the building next to him to visit another Swedish friend, Tobias, who was having a party. It was quite nice – didn’t stay long, cuz I was tired and not really in a party mood. So all in all, a busy day. And even though I didn’t go out tonight, I’m still up at 2 AM. What can I say? As soon as it gets dark, I like China infinitely better. There’s just something about Chinese evenings and nights, a feeling that literally anything could happen. Notes: - I finally found out why a lot of young Chinese guys have one really long nail on one pinky finger. It made no sense before, and I always wanted to ask if they knew how many fingers they had, and maybe just routinely forgot about one. But as it turns out, letting one fingernail grow long signifies wealth, as it means you are rich enough not to do manual labor. How did I find this out? One of the workers at Kro’s had one long pinky nail, and explained it to me. On that note, there’s a guy in one of my classes who has insanely long thumb nails. They even look sharpened. He’s Korean or Japanese, and I notice it and wonder every time, but I haven’t yet the nerve to ask. Maybe some day when I’m feeling cheeky. - From my shopping trip: A T-shirt, with a print of Absolut Vodka bottles, including “Absolut Vamilla.” “African & Fitch.” Abercrombie & Fitch seems really popular here, by the way. Annoyingly enough, the clothes look far nicer than the ones I saw in the States. I might just stop resisting and buy that label some day... but not today. I’m a little proud of myself for that. Best headline ever. Thursday, October 12, 2006 - Character fun Envis som en åsna; stubborn as an ox. What's the character for obstinate, stubborn in Chinese? 犟. The radical (part of a character symbolizing its meaning, where as the other part gives its approximate pronounciation) - the bottom part - is the Chinese character for ox or cow. Chinese is fun =) (Pizza) notes: - Three American expats in their thirties walk in to the restaurant, all smartly dressed in button-down shirts and jeans. Five minutes later, one of them has stripped down to a wife-beater, is washing his hands and preparing to make a pizza. Turns out he worked at a pizza place during his college years, and lo and behold, almost ten years later, he still knows how to flip them. It’s kind of special to see a wealthy expat flip pizzas with a concentration and enthusiasm probably never displayed when he actually worked at a pizza place. - The pizzas are so good I even eat the crusts. And if you know me, you know how much of a crust person I’m not. I’ve even eaten cold crusts, but usually I give them to Hannah the crust lover. (there’s a lot of crust going on here.) It could be cuz it’s the best pizza dough I’ve tasted in my entire life. I’ve had better toppings, but man, the dough… - The menu’s getting updated on Friday, and will apparently include something called a “stuffed pizza”. From what I’ve been told, it’s like a double calzone. Also, they’re getting their first batch of Guinness on tap, which should make for a decent crowd Friday night. Me and Hannah’s preliminary plan is to pre-party at the pizza place (which sounds incredibly adolescent… but hey, this is the country where it’s acceptable and appreciated to take people out for dinner at KFC. Sonic must be like the Four Seasons or something =)) and then check out a new, entirely Chinese club just further down the street. We happened upon it yesterday evening, and it looked quite interesting, albeit completely empty. I have a feeling Hannah likes the music better than I do though... - Un-pizza-related: There’s a pair of Danish girls living in the building right opposite ours! We thought we were the only Westerners in our little area. I hope we’ll all get together this weekend, it would be fun to get to know more Westerners closer to us, and not all the way out in Wudaokou. I like that pizza place. It’s just up the road from us, 2 min by bike, and it’s quickly becoming the hang-out place for the Westerners in the area – mostly students, but a fair amount of expats as well. In the afternoons, people come in to study and have a sandwich. In the evenings, people come in for beer and a pizza. And during the weekends, you have a nicely mixed bunch of people – groups of Chinese celebrating birthdays and such, expats, students and odd friends and acquaintances of the owner, Kro. The place itself has a nice, stylish, European design – it could be any slightly up-scale restaurant in Sweden, except maybe for the money pig on one shelf. The pizzas’ are very reasonably priced for Beijing and the music is very good, but I think the most important reason why it’s so popular is because of Kro. He’s a fun, nice, entertaining and makes delicious pizza, but above all, he makes everyone feel like an instant regular at the place. If it was just the pizza, people would still come, but probably not go out of the way for it. Now, there are still a fair amount of expats, even though they probably work quite far away, and it has a kind of local pub atmosphere where you don’t think twice about going on your own, since you’ll probably end up talking and chatting with Kro and the Chinese workers anyway. And if not, chances are you’ll run into someone you know. All in all, it’s a good place to have in your local neighbourhood, kind of a water-hole/local pub for the Westerners in the area. (out of context) “So, had any elephants throw themselves at you lately?” Wednesday, October 11, 2006 - WIKI!!!! I don't know why, how, or how long it will last, but for some reason, WIKIPEDIA IS ACCESSIBLE RIGHT NOW. I feel like I've found about, oh, 1/6th of my brain again. Seriously, I've cried a little every time I see an interesting link that I can't get to. But, I'm not a complete Wiki addict. There are more important things in life; food being one of them. I've been alternating between nauseous and hungry the entire day, and the only thing I've eaten is about 50 g of crackers. Hannah's been feeling nauseous and sick as well, so it's probably a stomach bug or something. I'm going out to get a pizza right now anyways (and yes, I'm salivating a little at the very thought, so sue me), and pray I won't have to regret it later. In Chinese Media Reading class: (coming up with sentences using certain words) "He was driving, and suddenly he didn't want to crash into someone, and then he crashed and became handicapped." Tuesday, October 10, 2006 - Chinese Constitutional Law 2006-10-09 Monday Today, for the first time in months, I felt the thrill of being a Law student again. My Mondays are always gruelling – I have class 8-12, a break from 12-3 PM, and then class again 3-5 PM. The classes themselves were fine – my minimally prepared presentation on the history of Harbin (for my Spoken Chinese class) turned out to be the best-researched presentation of them all, considering that most people had forgotten entirely and thought up the presentation on the spot. Also, strictly speaking, only three other people stuck to the subject, which was the history or culture of a place we’d visited. The teacher cautioned us specifically not to do a presentation of our own trip, since we’re supposed to be an Advanced class and be able to say more than “and then I visited x, and it was really pretty and I liked it”. What do you think happens? Yup, you guessed right. Granted, all presentations were engaging, interesting or at least amusing, but I still heard phrases like “and there was a really long queue and the entrance tickets very expensive” and “we went to a restaurant but I didn’t like the food there”. Though kudos to one guy for an interesting, improvised mini-lecture on symbolism and traditions regarding Chinese paintings, where even the teacher professed to learning things. (our teacher knows everything and is awesome, so that’s quite a feat) Also, he did it on only an hour’s sleep. The places people visited sound really interesting though, and they’ve given me lots of inspiration for my China trip during the winter and summer holidays. Xiamen, Qingdao and Shaanxi are some new places of interest now. Xiamen is reportedly very clean and pretty – “like a European city” – and right opposite to Taiwan, with all sorts of fun, sensitive state issues arising. Qingdao has a beach and is famous for its beer, a legacy from the time it was a German colony. (The Chinese continued using the brewery after the Germans left.) Shaanxi has lots of historical sites, and the poverty is apparently quite striking, despite it being relatively close to Beijing. One guy did a presentation on Xinjiang, where he stayed two weeks last summer, and it sounded fascinating. Hannah has vouched for Kashgar as well, but I think that’ll be one of the places I’ll keep on my to-do list because of the sheer distance. Also, it might not be the best idea for me to go there on my own, since the Uighurs (the minority people of Xinjiang) are quite opposed to being part of China, and almost all of them want Xinjiang to become an independent state. My Chinese History teacher in Uppsala mentioned that Han Chinese are cautious about going out in public, and often have security guards of some sort around them. It was during my Chinese Media Reading class that the opportunity to feel like a Law student again presented itself. I started talking to two people – one of them was a Law graduate from Australia who’s in another of my classes, and the other was a Law student from Ireland. Also, both were like me; second-generation Chinese. Turns out the Irish guy took actual Law classes, where the lectures are open to all, and both me and the Aussie seized the chance to listen to a Chinese Law lecture. I’ve wanted to before, but the timetables are only accessible to the students in the actual year, and so practically impossible for me to come by. The lecture was on Chinese Constitutional Law, this specific one on the history of Chinese Constitutional Law, and it was amazing. Maybe not just the lecture itself, but with the thrill of the whole experience, it definitely was. I went into that kind of hyper-conscious mode where you take in and remember every little detail, and they’re all fascinating. Being in the lecture hall itself, felt like home. It was quite similar to Swedish lecture halls, with a working mike (thus surpassing Magistern) and computer slideshows. Despite the lecture time (7 – 9 PM), the hall was full of people, and that was pretty much the only thing radically different from a Swedish lecture. Everyone had black hair. =) And then the lecture began. And oh my God, what a lecture. If there were more Chinese people like that Law Professor, China would be a better place. He spoke of China’s long history, China’s past greatness and advanced civilization, and how it’s still very much present in the Chinese’s daily lives and culture today. How much the Chinese have achieved in the past. He spoke of the pride Chinese have in their country and its history. And then he likened it to listening to a person only capable of glorifying his past, unable to look forward. “And what do we call people like that? Losers. Do we like listening to them? Not really. So why do we Chinese keep doing it? Think about it.” I was completely floored. Here was a professor at China’s top university who probably has it all – a good salary, a prestigious title, and a CV a mile long. And yet, he spoke with a humility I’ve never encountered before in a Chinese, encouraging self-criticism and focusing on the future. I don’t know how much he influenced the other students, but I was hooked from then. His lecture was about the history of China’s Constitutional Law from the Opium War (1850s) till today. He was funny, entertaining and engaging, and above all, he spoke with a casual, objectively self-critical view on China’s past, present and future problems. He made offhand remarks about Communism, the Communist government and stated that all revolution is bad. He theorized what it would’ve been like had Yuan Shikai remained in power, or Guomindang won the civil war 1946-1949. There was never any outright “blasphemy”, but he made it very easy to read between the lines, and the things he left unsaid spoke volumes. And even then, it was the most blatant criticism of the Chinese government I’ve heard from a Chinese. For godssake, several slideshow headlines contained the word “tragedy”, regarding the development of Chinese Constitutional Law! But he wasn’t overly critical either, just frank, matter-of-fact and objective. And he didn’t just judge and condemn, he proposed solutions, asked questions that encouraged critical thinking, and presented new aspects of historical events. If this is how China’s scholars are today, I have high hopes for the future. Other highlights from that lecture was the sheer fact that I could understand most of it. I kid you not, I could even read about 85% of the slideshows! I never thought that would be possible. And when I understood basically the entire Table of Contents in their course literature, I felt positively giddy. Maybe there’s hope for me after all! (I did use my dictionary, but it wouldn’t have made much difference had I not understood at least most of the words.) Also, some of the differences between Chinese and Swedish students are quite amusing. You’d never see a serious, studious Swedish guy writing meticulously in a baby blue notebook with big puppies on each paper, and the words “Baby Cinnamon” in big bold letters. Also, Swedish students would never talk as much as the Chinese students did. Notes: - Having your teacher give you the finger is a quite special feeling. Having her do it for almost a minute doesn’t make it less so. (She was talking about a fancy word for glittering, and pointed to her ring. Also, using the middle finger isn’t something charged amongst most Chinese.) - The Beijing weather is annoying me. Yesterday I wore long sleeves, boots and jacket, and today I was sweating in a sleeveless top. - I’ve realized I look slightly ridiculous on my bicycle. It’s really small and I can never bicycle with straight legs, making me feel like I’m a paddling clown at a circus. My thighs are getting a great workout though. - Spoken Chinese Class: Girl does presentation on the sights of a city, even showing pictures of her in front of one. Teacher tells everyone he wants focus on history and culture next time. Second girl does her presentation on the sights of another city. I could almost see the teacher mentally smacking his forehead. (out of context) “SHRIMP DRAGON!” (said in a perfectly serious tone) “… there is a difference between movie stars and South Koreans, don’t you think?” (Chat between Hannah and Patrik, with me next to Hannah) Patrik says: (6:57:57 pm) do you want a thing? Patrik says: (6:58:04 pm) to know a thing? h says: (6:58:08 pm) always Patrik says: (6:58:37 pm) you are the worst leier ever Patrik says: (6:58:49 pm) lieer ever h says: (6:58:53 pm) you're the worst speller ever h says: (6:58:55 pm) liar … Patrik says: (7:05:34 pm) lieer h says: (7:05:44 pm) liar Patrik says: (7:05:44 pm) how the fuck do you spell that Patrik says: (7:05:46 pm) lier? Monday, October 09, 2006 - The video of Patrik dancing should work now. And if not, here's a link. Also, update on my baozi place (I know you guys are sick of hearing about it, but um, I'm not =)). Today I didn't have any small change with me, only a 100 RMB note, and they said I could pay next time I eat. Yay me! Sunday, October 08, 2006 - Odds and ends There's an old Chinese saying: "No matter where your Grandpa lives, he will always have fish in his bathtub." I'd been on the train for 18 hours, felt grimy and disgusting, and longed for a nice, hot shower. It would be the normal gesture of welcome to offer me one. Instead, I am greeted by wild splashing and this sight -  Yup, my well-meaning relatives had bought a giant fish to cook to welcome me. Except we ate at restaurants until the night I left, when they finally cooked the fish, which meant I didn't shower for four days. Ah, family.  Hegang's city center. And of course, the promised video of Patrik dancing. And finally- (me going to the train bathroom - and I use that word loosely) Train attendant: Don't go to that bathroom, that's a seating toilet. The squatting toilet is much cleaner. The best thing was, he's completely right. In China, the public squatting toilets are far more sanitary than the seating toilets. Work that around in your head - a hole in the ground is cleaner than a normal toilet. My life could’ve been completely different. Where my friends went travelling to Shanghai, Suzhou and other places, I went up to Dongbei (colloquial for north eastern China, Manchuria) to visit my grandparents. Was it a good trip? It’s such a mundane question, yet difficult to answer. Yes, it was a good trip, better yet, a wonderful trip, but not in the traditional sense when talking about travelling. I didn’t visit any scenic spots, I didn’t take any pictures of beautiful, interesting places, and I spent the entire National Day onboard a train. (Unlike Patrik, who started a successful business and made big bucks.) But I got to listen to stories about my Grandpa’s childhood, learn more about my family history and heritage from my Grandpa and Grandma, look at old photos of my ancestors, and talk about the past, present and future with them. To me, that was a thousand times more important than the dinners and the money spent on me. It’s difficult to explain what it means to feel so connected to people you’ve met three times in your life, to have sudden flashes of insight into their personal history, with the vastness of China’s modern history as a backdrop. Some of the things they went through were so difficult to comprehend, let alone adequately describe – it was a quiet, personal, private kind of trip, and that’s really the best way to describe it. Harbin was quite nice, it felt like a cozy small town (6 million people) compared to Beijing. It was pretty clean and nice (at least the places I went) as well. Hegang on the other hand is a place that has horse carts in the city center, with an extra layer of grime everywhere (mining town) and where people drive like frickin maniacs. The drivers in Beijing appear sedated by comparison. I was relieved to be in Beijing traffic again, that’s how bad it was. Suffice to say, it’s a place everyone wants to get out of, and nobody goes there unless they have to. My Grandparents moved to a new, renovated apartment in Hegang a few years ago, but it was quite humbling to revisit the old place they lived in for 20 years. I went there on my first visit to China in 1996, and still vividly remember how difficult it was for me and my cousin Leilei to adjust to a brick bed (a traditional kang, which is a brick construction with smoke tunnels built in so you can heat up the bed in winter), a squatting toilet and a lack of shower facilities. Also, it makes me appreciate and love my Mom endlessly more for managing to get out of there and actually raise me in a paradise by comparison called Sweden. If this trip has taught me anything, it’s how incredible both my Grandparents are, and my parents as well, and how unbelievable lucky I am. My life could’ve been completely different. I have this  instead of this  |
