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