麻烦 My day of annoyances

There is no English word like 麻烦. It basically means annoying or to annoy, but really those words do not live up to how great the word 麻烦 (ma fan) is. And really, today has all been about 麻烦.

First there was the 事情 that began yesterday. In trying to get a visa for the summer, I've been working though connections of connections, which means I need to go to 无锡 Wuxi, a city in Jiangsu, China. It also means the people who are helping me with this don't give a damn about me or my schedule. After I called them, they told me I need to go to Wuxi this Sunday. Which is great except that I have final exams scheduled for students this Monday. And apparently the time they schedule to process this visa cannot be changed. So now I need to change exam times for 50 students from about 5 different classes, some of which I don't have contact information for.

Then there's the little things: the student who called me this morning saying he can't make his exam time on Thursday and therefore he needs to take it on Monday (I think I forgot to tell him i'll be in Wuxi...). Another student just called, asking where I was. This is a student who I think may have come to class once before the final exam. Maybe. She's the only English major student who I did not recognize. Which means she never gave a speech, which means she needed to give one this Thursday. Apparently when I said Thursday she heard Wednesday. I would feel sorry for her but she never came to class.

Then there's the random person who had added me on MSN awhile ago. I said yes cuz I figured I must know this guy from somewhere. So he ims me today asking who I am. He thought I was Joseph Haskell, a common mistake with my email address. Everyone thinks i'm someone else. He keeps bothering me asking for Joseph's email address. Obviously I have absolutely no idea who Joseph is. It turns out this guy is a 12 year old from Canada. Before I found that out, he had asked my age and if I was married.

挺麻烦·

美国选举 Presidential Politics

So the primary is finally over, and as we have known for awhile, Obama emerged the victor. Ever since Bill Richardson (hands down the most qualified candidate) dropped out of the race, I have been a Clinton supporter. Her policy positions are so similar to Obama's, and on policy, I am split between the two, but I honestly believe that Clinton would be a better leader and president than Obama would, and I greatly admire her perseverance.

Still, I am not an avid Clinton supporter. I did not request an absentee ballot and vote in the Pennsylvania primaries (even though I see it as my civic duty to do so) because I was tired of the long horse race, as well as some of the tactics her campaign used. I admire Obama and understand how he inspires so many people. And I will happily vote for him in November.

And yes I think there was an implicit element of gender in the race, and as a feminist I find this disappointing and insulting. And yes I think Hillary should have addressed this, as Obama addressed the racial element. Women still have a long way to go to actually achieve equality, and I will forever look up to Clinton as a model for what strong women can achieve, as well as a symbol for the barriers women face.

Still, I do not think Obama is sexist. If he is, he is still much less so than McCain is, plus his policies are obviously more progressive and in the interest of the common people than McCain's. That's why I find it disappointing that some Clinton supporters are saying that they will not support Obama in the fall. I hope that they take the time to consider the policies and histories of the two candidates and realize that Obama is the smarter choice. Yes, women often lost opportunities to others, but we should also be able to celebrate Obama's historic achievement as well. Let bygones be bygones and support the Democratic Party's chance to take back the White House.

纪念日 Anniversaries

Chinese remember anniversaries with dates.

5/4 is the May 4^th Movement

10/1 is the founding of the PRC,

8/1 is the founding of the PLA (the CCP's/China's army)

Of course there are dates that aren't remembered publicly. For decades, people in Taiwan could not speak of 2/28, when KMT forces crushed pro-native Taiwanese protesters. And of course there is today: 6/4.

The beginning of the disconnect between Chinese and Westerners about this date is the name. If you refer to “Tiananmen” to a Chinese person, he or she will think of the Gate of Heavenly Peace and Tiananmen Square – symbols of national pride. If you refer to the “Tiananmen Square Massacre,” he or she will might not know what you are talking about. If you refer to the “Tiananmen Square protests,” he or she will probably wonder which protests you are referring to (there were protests in front of the gate in 1919 and in the square in 1976 and 1987 as well...and i'm probably forgetting some). However, if you say 6/4, he or she will (probably) know exactly what you are talking about.

Similarly, while today's Chinese students may not recognize the “guy in front of a tank” picture, which to the West is symbolic of 6/4, they still talk about and care about this event, even if they were not born at the time. I've talked to Chinese students from the high school camp this past summer about it as well as current college students. They've told me their parents' experiences and are interested in the ideas that 6/4 brings up, even if they realize that such a movement would not be possible today.

While I will readily admit that the Western media over uses this incident as proof of the Chinese government's brutality, etc, I also firmly belief in the right to peaceful protest and am firmly against the covering up of history. So...

永远不要忘记 – Never forget.

迷信 Superstition

All countries have superstitions, I just happen to find China's more interesting, not just because I live here but also because they tend to use language in interesting ways (with the exception of the superstitions or 谣言 – rumors as the government has called them – about ways in which the earthquake should be been prevented). For example, the number 4 is bad because it sounds like death, while 8 is good because it sounds like becoming rich. You should never split a pair (分梨) because you don't want to split up (分离) – they also sound the same).

As I said, the number 8 is good. In fact, its auspiciousness is so ingrained in Chinese thinking that the non-religious, anti-superstition Communist government planned the beginning of the Olympics for 8/8/2008 at 8pm. Though now people are beginning to doubt the traditional thinking that 8 is lucky. Note the following dates:

1/25 snowstorm

3/14 Lhasa riots

5/12 Sichuan earthquake

If you add up the digits in each date, they each add up to 8. I usually stack this stuff up to coincidence (and as noted in a blog entry I read today, the Shandong train crash doesn't fit this pattern), though it still does make you wonder.

I'm not superstitious. Most of the time. As a die-hard sports fan though, one always believes that things one does ruin opportunities for their favorite teams. Additionally, when I was told that in your 本命年 – every 12 years or the year that is associated with the same animal of the Chinese zodiac as the year you were born in – you are supposed to wear red every day, I bought a red bracelet that I have worn ever since. I don't believe in anything, so why not “believe” in this? One day a few weeks back, I was having a really bad, annoying day. About halfway through said annoyingness, I looked down at my wrist and realized that I had forgotten to put on my red bracelet after taking a shower. Let's just say I've been extra careful to make sure i'm wearing it ever since.

灾难与奇迹 Disasters and Miracles

A lot has happened since I last posted, especially in regards to China vis-a-vis the international system (which, if you know me, you know that I might care about this topic...just a little). First there were riots in Tibet, then the mess that was the international leg of the Olympic torch relay, and then a disastrous earthquake in Sichuan. I've had a lot to say about all of this but had difficulty putting it into writing.

In China, as the rescue efforts progressed, the press and the people were constantly looking for miracles - inspiring stories that could provide a glimmer of hope in an otherwise depressing situation. People who lived for over 100 hours buried under rubble; teachers who died saving their students; young children who carried their younger siblings to safety after losing both parents. The stories go on and on. The West is also searching for its own miracle within this disaster - a freer China. In the free reporting allowed on the earthquake and the government's relief efforts, the Western media sees a glimmer of hope of happy, democratic, free days to come. (For one example of this view, see Nicholas Kristof's recent op-ed in the Nytimes that compares China today to Taiwan in the 1980s).

Before I address this topic, I first want to say that I have found the Chinese government's and the Chinese people's response to the earthquake nothing short of impressive. The government certainly learned from its past mistakes as well as the mistakes of other countries (see not only Myanmar but also Katrina, Hurricane). And if I were Chinese, I would be full of praise for Wen Jiabao right now too. Was jumping on a plane less than 2 hours after the disaster somewhat politically motivated? Yes. Does "Grandpa Wen" seem to genuinely care about the people? Also, yes - especially compared to his boss, Hu Jintao, and certainly compared to President Bush. I'm not Chinese, and I still felt incredibly moved by his compassion. And the decision to - eventually - permit open reporting on the disaster relief was also impressive. I believe that it was somewhat politically motivated and also somewhat beyond the control of the government, but it certainly worked to increase Chinese confidence in their own government as well as Western confidence in China. (As one of my students said, "For the first time, I actually like the government.")

Still, I think the Western media is overreacting for a few reasons. The first is obvious - the media loves to sensationalize. Sensationalism sells. Additionally, as much as the Western media loves to criticize China, they also love to find that glimmer of hope that change is on the way. The second reason is that I don't find the earthquake response as such a huge departure from the norm. No one would characterize the Chinese media as anywhere near free, but there's a lot that goes on online and even in print (see: Southern Weekend) that challenges the boundaries that traditionally confine the Chinese press. For example, the fact that Chang Ping was even allowed to publish his controversial article says something (long story short, Chang Ping, as a deputy editor, wrote an editorial calling for a freer press as well as a re-thinking of Han relations with minorities, which caused him to be branded a traitor and eventually demoted). So in many ways, I see the open reporting on the earthquake as more a part of China's current trajectory than a sudden, random anomaly.

The final reason is that the open reporting was part politically motivated and part unavoidable (this seems to contradict my last statement but let me continue...). The media has pushed the envelope before (see: nailhouse, 2007), but in most circumstances, the government puts the lid on open reporting. However, this time the government realized that not only would it be next to impossible to stop the open reporting on the disaster but that it would work in their own interests (at least the interests of the central government...) to allow it to continue.

So, although I think the Western media is overreacting and drawing somewhat far-fetched conclusions, I still remain hopeful myself. My firm belief that while this was a sudden bout of extreme openness but that it also fits into the general trajectory towards more media freedom actually makes me more optimistic than those who are hoping for sudden change. After all, gradual reform tends to work better than glasnost.

选词 Word Choice

Anyone who has done any sort of direct translation knows how difficult it is. You may understand the article, story, whatever that is written in your second language, but portraying the ideas accurately in English is pretty difficult. This becomes doubly hard if you are translating from English into your second language (essentially impossible for me).

Phrasing matters. Sometimes even individual word choice is even more important. I was reminded of this when reading about the recent incidents in Tibet (my site is blocked in china anyway...). When reporting in English, the Chinese government talks about the "Dalai clique" that supposedly fueled the riots. However, in Chinese, the government talks about the "达赖集团." The second word, ji tuan, in most cases I would translate as "group." It doesn't have the negative (or 12 year old girl) connotation that clique has. Why translate it as clique? The CCP does a good job of portraying the Dalai Lama in a negative light within its borders, but I personally think that's a lost cause on the international stage. Most who read English reports already think DL is a pretty good guy, and condescending words by the Chinese government are the last things that are going to change such opinions. (Zi suggested that a clique sounds smaller - and more ridiculous. this definitely could have been the reason behind the word choice, but i still think it's a bad idea).

Furthermore, the Chinese government has a history of shooting itself in the foot with bad word choice. The word 宣传 can mean a lot of different things depending upon the context - publicity, public relations, or propaganda. For some reason, for many years, this was always translated as "propaganda." So China had a Propaganda Department (or ministry or something - i'm not sure of the full name). And most Chinese would not realize that the word "propaganda" has a bad connotation. It's nothing like shooting yourself in the foot before you start...

中国的交通经历 Transportation in China

You know, it really doesn't feel like i'm riding the subway in Beijing unless i am literally packed liked sardines against lots of Chinese people to the point where I can't lift my hand up to the read the newspaper its holding let alone grab a handlebar. Otherwise I could be in, you know, a city with a few million less people. But actually, I've grown accustomed to rush hour traffic on the subway, as I commute literally across the city at rush hour twice a week if not more. And it's great to have a cheap, convenient, if not luxurious public transportation system that can take me anywhere I want to go. Chinese people don't believe me when I tell them that the public transportation system in the US sucks. And it does.

The point of this entry is actually to tell you my transportation stories from my travels. Traveling around the country is also cheap (minus the two plane tickets) and convenient, though definitely not luxurious either. I'm just thankful that I left Beijing and Hunan before unusually cold, snowy, and icy weather left hundreds of thousands stranded, waiting for trains (800,000 alone in Guangzhou). Camille and I did miss out on going to two places due to icy roads - Shaoshan, Mao's hometown (we found out that every long distance highway out of Changsha was iced over and not passable in the cab ride *back* from the bus station. we really should have guessed beforehand as every road near her house was in a similar state) and the Dragon Bone Rice Terraces in Guangxi. Otherwise we were pretty lucky.

Our first leg was an uneventful though freezing overnight train from Changsha to Guilin with two of my students . We were just thankful not to sleep through our stop, which came at 4am. Around Guilin, we took a number of buses, which were supposedly "fast" and "direct" but ended up stopping every 2 minutes or so along the way to pick up people on the side of the road until there was not a single place to stand, let alone sit, on the bus. After a bus ride to Nanning, we took our most interesting train ride, to Ningming, a small random town near the Vietnam border that we assumed would be warm (cuz, you know, it was south of everywhere else we had been to) but ended up being just as cold. There were no seats left when we bought tickets, and it was only a 3-4 hour ride so we bought standing room tickets. Apparently half the train is standing room, and there are cars with a long bench lining each side of the car. If you get there early, you get a seat. Otherwise you stand with a hundred other people. We found a relatively nice standing spot in a small space in between cars that looked like it might have been someone's office until passengers had taken a part the desk to sit on the drawers. And we actually ended up with seats on the desk after a PLA soldier came in and efficiently organized the space. It actually ended up being a nice ride, as we talked to a high school student and a university student who ended up helping us find a hotel when we arrived in Ningming.

Our train rides back and forth from Beihai were, in comparison, pretty luxurious (real seats!). As was our flight to Kunming. In Yunnan, however, you have to travel by bus because there are no trains due to the mountainous terrain. Our many bus trips included 3 sleeper buses, which is an experience in itself. Sleeping on a train is not so bad, but on a bus? Our trip from Dali to Xishuangbanna was not on the worst paved roads in Yunnan. However, that is only evident once you take other bus trips in Xishuangbanna or hear about others' experiences. There are some pretty bad roads in Yunnan, and trying to sleep while you are constantly jolted back and forth and up and down is an interesting experience. For a while, I gripped the side of my bed in an attempt to keep my body from going airborne to little avail. At least on that trip we had our own beds (for the most part). On the trip from Kunming to Lijiang, even though our tickets said otherwise, our group of three (Zi, Camille, and I) was shepherded to the back of the bus where there were 5 beds with no separation between them. A Chinese family (mom, dad, little kid) was occupying two of them, and we were given the other three. It's nothing like sleeping with complete strangers, especially when said little kid decides that 4:30am is a great time to have a conversation.

My flight back to Beijing from Kunming was also a nice change. I had actually hoped to buy train tickets, but nearly all trains out of Kunming for the next ten days (they begin selling tickets 10 days in advance) were sold out (Kunming is the end of the rail line so there aren't many trains leaving or going there, and it takes at least one day to get anywhere near the east coast of china from yunnan by train) - the one downside of China's convenient transport system is that it is often extremely difficult to get tickets during the Spring Festival season.

Beijing bicycle

In terms of many factors, I liked many of the cities I visited more than Beijing. Nanning was clean and easy to navigate around. Kunming had beautiful weather and a laid back feel, while Dali and Lijiang had clear skies and beautiful scenery. Jinghong was an interesting blend of SE Asia and China, with warm temperatures and roads lined with palm trees. Yet, I'm glad to be back in Beijing, with its familiar Mandarin (see last entry), familiar bus and subway system, familiar streets, and familiar atmosphere.

I finally did something very "Beijing" yesterday and rented a bicycle. Camille and I had rented bikes in Dali (where I ended up with a sore bottom) and in Jinghong. The latter experience was particularly entertaining, as Camille sat on the back of my bike in Chinese fashion, and I learned to balance correctly (actually not as hard as it looks). I'm sure we looked ridiculous.

Beijing may no longer be the bike capital of the world - its easy and cheap to buy a car, at least compared to Shanghai, which accounts for some of the pollution and much of the traffic. But the apeall of whizzing down the city's long avenues and tiny hutong streets has not lost its appeal. I didn't do much of the latter due to distance, but I did bike most of the way to Tiananmen Square, a long round-about way, stopping in Ritan park. I now know where the North Korean embassy is (you know, in case i ever need to go there), as well as the Russian section of town, whre signs are in cyrillic script and i saw a few guys that if they weren't in the Russian mafia or at least the smuggling business than they should have been.

I'm, again, considering buying a bike. I had thought about it when I first arrived, but the problem is (other than the high likelihood of it being stolen) that most places I go to on a daily or weekly basis are within walking distance (2 grocery stores, the one campus of my school) or too far to bike to(my school's other campus, Zi's apartment). Maybe its nostalgia for Stanford, but I still dream of seeing the city and navigating rush hour traffic on two wheels.

“我恨方言”

The title of this post was the content of a text message Alex sent me late one night (ok, not that late but we were in the gorge and sleeping early...). Translated it means "I hate dialects." Like in France, Germany, and other European countries a few hundred years ago, Chinese people do not all speak the same language. A good majority, now, are competent in 普通话 (pu tong hua), or "common speech," or to most Americans, "Mandarin Chinese." This is the language that is spoken in schools, and what an educated person from Guangzhou would speak in while having a conversation with a colleague from Hebei. However, while it is the common language, in many places it is not at all common.

When leaving Beijing, I was relatively confident about my Chinese ability. For the most part, I could understand what was said to me and could also pick up bits and pieces of others' conversations around me. Everyone in Beijing speaks pu tong hua for two reasons: 1. the language is based on the native language of Beijingers. 北京话 is only different from standard mandarin in that the 儿 (er) sound is often added at the end of words. 2. people in Beijing are really from all over the country, so in order to communicate, one must speak Mandarin.

When I got off the train in Changsha, it was like arriving in a totally different country - I didn't understand anything that was being said around me. And in Hunan, even when people would talk to me in Mandarin, it was difficult to understand, as the accent was different, word usage tendencies were different, and often some Chansha hua would slip in. Changsha hua is not entirely different from Mandarin. While there, I attended Camille's end of the semester banquet with her. I spent most of the time being thankful that my end of semester dinner wasn't like this, as we sat through 2 1.5 hour speeches. Yes, really. CCP officials can really talk. I understood the main idea of the first woman's speech and a good portion of what she said, but during the second speech, I struggled to pick up whole phrases, let alone ideas. It sounded enough like Mandarin to have me perplexed as to why I couldn't understand his accent, but I found out later that he was speaking entirely in dialect.

Then when we moved on to Guangxi, things became even more complicated. In Beihai, my student told me that the dialect (basically the only language her parents speak) is basically Cantonese, as Beihai used to be a part of Guangdong. And Cantonese is basically a different language.

A cab driver who I had a long discussion with in Kunming, tried to teach me a few phrases of Kunming hua, if only to demonstrate that it was one of the most difficult dialects in the country. And while trekking in Xishuangbanna, we heard a bunch of different languages, Dai for example, that are much closer to South East Asian languages than to Mandarin. Thankfully, most of the people in the villages speak at least some Mandarin, learned, as our guide told us, by watching TV.

Now, back to Alex's comment. In many ways, I hate dialects too. Mandarin Chinese is an extremely difficult language in itself, and throwing in variants of that language only makes life more frustrating. Pu tong hua allows people from different parts of the country to communicate with each other, just as standardizing French (was that under Richelieu?) allowed people from all over France to communicate with each other. And, obviously, this is something that is increasingly important today. However, there is also something to be said for preserving dialects. There are entire languages lost at astonishing rates; only a few hundred people speak Manchurian. And with a language, goes many elements of a culture. So, its a difficult balance as are most questions about modernity and tradition are.

我回来了！

I am now back in Beijing after about 6 weeks on the road, and it is actually good to be back (of course if the weather weren't so mild, 15C, I might not be saying that). Of course, I have weeks worth of stories to share, and I plan to slowly post them. Below is a (very) brief outline of my trip, so you know where I was and when. Memory is often not linear and connections never are, so my blog posts may jump around a bit. Refer to the timeline or send me an angry email when confused.

Cheers!

PS. I will slowly be posting pictures, but that will be haphazard as well, as my camera had some problems during the trip, so I'll have to steal a bunch from Camille and Zi.

1/19-20: train from Beijing to Changsha, Hunan

1/20-23: stay with Camille in Changsha

1/23-24: overnight train to Guilin, Guangxi

1/24: Guilin

1/25-28: Yangshuo, Guangxi

1/28-30: Nanning, Guangxi

1/30-2/1: Ningming, Guangxi and surrounding area

2/1-2: back in Nanning

2/2 - 5: Beihai, Guangxi, visiting a student of mine

2/5: back in Nanning (again!) for a few hours, plane to Kunming

2/5-7: Kunming, Yunnan (Zi arrives)

2/7-8: overnight bus to Lijiang, Yunnan

2/8: Lijiang

2/9-10: hike in Tiger Leaping Gorge (near Lijiang)

2/11: Camille and I take a bus to Dali, Yunnan; Zi goes back to Beijing

2/11-13: Dali

2/13-14: overnight bus to Jinghong, capital of Xishuangbanna prefecture (still in Yunnan)

2/14-15: Jinghong

2/16-18: trek in Xishuangbanna

2/19: bus to Menghai

2/20: bus to Xiding

2/21: Xiding market, back to Jinghong

2/22 - 23: overnight bus back to Kunming; Camille flies back to Changsha on 23

2/23-25: Kunming; night flight back to Beijing