What shop is that?

How difficult is it to exist in China without understanding Chinese? Earlier I promised to post a range of photos showing shop fronts. I defy anyone who has no Chinese to identify these shops. Hint: most of them are restaurants and liquor/gift stores. And one is a foot massage shop - look for the feet!

Photos the Chinese do not see

This photo was on the front page of the International Herald Tribune, the first image I saw as I was stepping onto the plane leaving China. "Jiang Guohua, the Communist Party boss of Mianzhu, pleading for an end to the protest by parents whose children were killed in a school collapse during the earthquake". Source: Shiho Fukada, for the New York Times.

Kids and tops

Ultimate day

Penultimate day

My favourite student Roy presents a gift of plaques of a dragon and a phoenix; the mandatory class photos; and a banquet with the University officials.

Seated on my right is George Galanis (VU coordinator), on his right is the host, Prof Wang Xinping, Dean of Office of International Exchange and Cooperation. On my left is Prof Jiang Zhenjian, Vice Dean of the School of Business. In the standing photo, on the far left is Prof Wang Haizi, Dean of the School of Business, on his right is James Forsyth, another Melbourne teacher.

Soundscape on a Sunday morning

Thwack! Whoosh! A father practises badminton with his six year old son.
Tinny Chinese music. A dozen elderly people doing Tai Chi.
Murmur, shuffle, murmur. The older woman's walking group managing a few words as they walk past with exaggerated arm movements.
Melodious humming. A women walks past, backwards.
Sound of pee on pavement. Toddler relieves himself holding on to Grandma's hand.
Put put put. A motorised tricycle laden with large bottles of drinking water.
Hack hack! Lungs protesting.
Hoik! Ptui! Phlegm up and out.
No sound. An electric bicycle comes from behind and nearly knocks me over.
Bird call. Hadn't heard that one before. Delightful! There it is! It has a long tail.
Giggle. Coo. A silly frilly filly in an embrace with her uni boyfriend. Gender equality is in reverse in modern China. Mao would mourn.
Off campus - the distant sounds of traffic, and never ending building construction work, interspersed with ther sounds of fireworks at any time of the day or night. Poor dogs.
BEEP! BEEP! A car with a very important person in it drives along the footpath and scatters the pedestrians.

Getting things into perspective

My previous post on being miserable in a dumpling restaurant reeks with maudlinness. Let's put things into perspective.

• At least I am not one of the 62,664 people who died in the Sichuan earthquake two weeks ago.


• Or of the 350,000 who were injured.


• Or of the 23,775 who are missing, believed dead.


• Or of the 45 million who have been adversely affected.

Bad weather, impossible terrain, "quake lakes", landslides, and hundreds of aftershocks hamper the concerted rescue efforts. Only this afternoon, an aftershock measuring 6.4 occurred - just imagine the fear this would generate to the fortunate survivors who are so traumatised anyway.

There are remarkably poignant and harrowing stories emerging. Like under the rubble of a school, the bodies of two teachers, each found protecting three students below them. Those students mercifully lived. Now those teachers are heroes.

What is noteworthy is the apparent openess and round the clock reporting by the government news media channels prompting considerable ongoing international aid which is being gratefully received - this of course is in stark contrast to the the 1976 earthquake at Tangshan which killed about 200,000 and at that time the government refused to acknowledge that any earthquake had occurred.. Ah, the days of the Bamboo Curtain.

It was interesting to note that one report grimly notes that two provincial officials were remiss in carrying out their official duties and were "punished". (That'd be the end of them.)

Three days of mourning were declared last Monday, and three minutes of silence at 2:47pm competed with the proclamation that trucks, cars and ships should sound their horns as a mark of respect. I was in Qindao at the time - the effect was quite eerie. There now exists a remarkable sense of nationalism, which will culminate in the Olympic Games in August.

Although 45 million people have been adversely affected, the other 1.255 billion in China are now getting on with their lives.

A worthy slideshow can be found at the China Daily website. Photo: China Daily

Alone in a dumpling restaurant

Or ... "Down in the dumplings"

It's the last weekend in Jinan. My student has given me a map of an "excellent" dumpling restaurant. The taxi driver couldn't find it and charged me 50% more than he should have. I eventually found it myself. It was noisy, busy and brash. Maybe 50 staff. I was given a table near the door and two waitresses spoke Chinese and waited for my Chinese menu selection. "No Chinese! Only English." I pointed to a dumpling dish on another table. Giggles of embarassment. I produced a specially prepared paper with Chinese translation of my food likes and dislikes. More giggles. The submanager was summonsed. He spoke to me in Chinese. "No Chinese! Only English." He spoke louder Chinese. The girls giggled. The neighbouring tables were beginning to participate in this sport. An employee who allegedly could speak English was summonsed. No joy. More giggles. A more senior manager was summonsed. By this stage there were no less than ten curious staff hovering, plus four neighbouring tables eaves-dropping. I once again showed my Chinese translation sheet showing my likes and dislikes, and mimed that I only wanted one plate of dumplings, just like that one on the next table. He read the sheet gravely, then opened up the sheet to read about my likes and dislikes for hotel rooms, where I needed to get a taxi to return home, and my request for a foot massage. I snatched the sheet back and folded over to the relevant paragraph. But he immediately opened up the sheet again - he was more interested in my life story. I snatched it back and made to leave. "Sorry, sorry!", he muttered. And snapped a few orders at the inanely giggling waitresses. I was also able to order a beer, perhaps unwisely, as I received a whole jug of draught beer. An extraordinary thing: anybody and everybody on staff (I swear even the cleaner did once) would top up my glass after every sip. I was not allowed to lift the jug. Eventually I received the spinach/egg/chili dumplings specially chosen for me by the senior man. I called him back and graciously invited him to read everything else on the translation sheet. He then understood, and we forgave each other. Perhaps it was the beer.

I looked around - some men were only wearing singlets instead of shirts. I watched the groups and families feasting, sharing varieties of wonderful dishes on their table. Hubbub and happiness.

I'm sure that Confucious himself would agree that eating dumplings alone in a Chinese restaurant is not happiness.

(The dumplings were ... excellent.)

Cheap haircut

The woman on the wall behind thinks that the hairdresser's top-knot is quite cool!

(Note the leather belt holding all his tools of trade.)

A head wash and head massage before and after 20 minutes in the chair for 10 kuai AU$2.50

A cheap haircut? Well, there's not that much hair, after all ....

HIV in China

China has 200 million migrant (Chinese) workers, of which more than 120 million work in cities. The remainder work in towns. China is at a key stage in its fight against AIDS/HIV. A report from the International Labor Organization estimates that China could lose five million laborers by 2015 if it doesn't take effective measures to address the grave problem.
(Xinhua News Agency January 27, 2007)

Not until 1998 did China have a national, long-term plan to combat HIV. The notion of condom ads was quickly shot down by the Chinese government after an ad played one time on the national television network in 1999. Condoms were viewed as illegal sexual tools by China’s State Administration of Industry and Commerce and were banned from the airwaves. That ban persisted until 2001 when the Chinese Ministry of Health reclassified condoms as “medical devices” instead of a sexual commodity. Still, condoms are not an acceptable part of mainstream China, they are in short supply and are of poor quality.
About.com

China is estimated to have about 700,000 HIV/AIDS cases, with tens of thousands of new infections each year, the government said Thursday, but activists warned the problem was far greater. "The result of estimates is that at the end of 2007, China will have about 700,000 HIV/AIDS cases, and 85,000 with AIDS," Health Minister Chen Zhu told a press conference in Beijing. Chen said there were an estimated 50,000 new HIV infections in 2007, when 20,000 people died from AIDS, figures he described as a slightly better than previous years. ... But independent AIDS activists have long warned that these figures underestimate the rampant spread of the disease. Read more at http://www.terradaily.com/reports/China_says_estimated_HIVAIDS_cases_rise_to_700000_999.html

Weekend in Qindao

I've just had an excursion to Qindao (pronounced tChindao), the coastal city for the Olympic Games yachting in August, and ate too much food and drank too much beer.

A slide show can be seen by clicking here. (No titles yet, sorry!)

And here is a lovely video - first of school children at recess, then a bird man I found in the park, teaching his birds how to sing.

And another video of a the train ride from Jinan to Qindao.

And I thought it was just a moisturiser

One Minutes Dispel Horniness

Xi'an

I flew to Xi'an this weekend (and survived an earthquake!) Xi'an (pronounced "Shjiaan") was great. Here's me with the terracotta warriors. And a special video of the fabulous Muslim Quarter in the old walled city - Beiyanmen Street. Most of my wants from visiting China were fulfilled in this one city! There are no less than 65 photos in a slideshow, if you click here.