One-Eyed Panda’s Journal

The People’s Republic of China turned 60 yesterday and the country celebrated in lavish style with a three-hour parade in Beijing, fireworks and – best of all – an eight-day long holiday.

Betty and I got out Shanghai and avoided the festivities – something I am very happy to do since the only thing I’d consider staying in town for was cancelled. We’re in LeShan in Sichuan province for the wedding of some of my best friends. The wedding is this evening and it’s going to be a blast, but we’re also enjoying being able to relax and just chilling out in the hotel.

I’m enjoying taking a break from the story on renewable energy that I’m working on for our November issue. I spent a lot of time on it over the last week and a half and I really need to recharge my batteries.  I’m going to be doing some work on it next week during the holiday but I am still going to make sure I give myself enough time to relax. 

And I’ve been pretty successful so far. I’ve finished Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers and I’m really enjoying Sarah Rose’s For All the Tea in China - an account of how Scottish Bottanist, Robert Fortune, stole tea plants from China and transplanted them to India to guarantee a stable supply of the drink for British tea drinkers. 

Musically, I’ve been listening to NPR’s All Songs Considered Live Concerts podcast and filling my time with Yo Le Tengo, Raphael Saadiq and the Tallest Man on Earth – making it a great holiday so far, which is just what I need to recharge my batteries.

J.

Well it’s after 10pm and I should probably be heading to bed, but I’ve had such a great last couple of days I had to blog about it first. 

First thing is that we’ll be moving by the end of the month to this apartment in the French Concession. It’s like something out of Lust Caution and I think we’ll really enjoy living there. There are cafes all around the building and it’s close to my office. I’m looking forward to walking Roger in the area.

Secondly things at work are going really well. I think things are finally coming together for me. My cover story in our April issue got a lot of great feedback (the link to the main story is here). The book review I wrote for the April issue was on James Fallows’ Postcards from Tomorrow’s Square. Today I woke up to find that James had linked to the review on his blog with some very flattering comments.

Finally I’ve been listening to a lot of good music recently. I went to the Battles show at the Dream Factory about two weeks ago and then to Hard Queen’s CD release party last week. Right now, I’m listening to the first of Aric S. Queen’s Rough Sunday shows and I can tell that this show will become a big part of my Sunday mornings.

That’s it for now. I’ll keep this space updated with new developments.

J.

Well I got back from my trip to Anhui on Thursday and it went amazingly well. I got some really good interviews with farmers who lived near the town of Yuexi and in Henghe Village – both of which are on Ming Tang Shan (about four hours south of the provincial capital Hefei). 

I didn’t know the town and the village where on a mountain until my colleague told me when we were sitting at the McDonald’s at the Hefei train station. Thankfully I’d packed warm clothes as there was snow and we couldn’t get up to Henghe Village on Monday but we succeeded at reaching the mountain on Tuesday. 

It was a long trip travel wise – about eight or nine hours by a combination of bus and train each way, but well worth it – I had an amazing time personally and professionally.

One thing that bothered me when I was there though. The farmers I interviewed kept telling me that they didn’t have any culture. They weren’t referring to the 5,000 years of Chinese culture that you hear trotted out everywhere. They meant manners. 

Their claim disturbed me because it’s one I have heard Laobaixing (old 100 names – common people) use before. But it’s not true at all. They are some of the friendliest and most hospitable people I know. They could’ve just been being modest but when you tell them that they have manners about five or six times over the course of an hour and they still tell you it’s not true then I tend to think they believe it themselves.

For the rest of what I learned you can wait until my story comes out on April 1st or check out another blog post I did on the trip here.

J.

Well it’s a rainy post-Christmas Sunday. For me that means spending the day with a book and iPod. But for those that want a bit more of sensory experience try these links from Adam Schokora’s 56minus1 blog:

• Adam is producing a series of videos of his 93-year-old Chinese teacher,  Teacher Gui as she recounts her life in Shanghai. Very interesting stuff.
• Adam also posted an interview that UVic’s radio station did with former Shanghai expat Aric S. Queen about his time and escape from Shanghai. It’s about 30 minutes but well worth the listen as Aric is just an amazing guy.

I hope these stories brighten up your Sunday.

J.

I ask this question and discuss it at a post on Lost Laowai.

J.

Guo Jingjing

I’m probably a little late on this issue, but I was surprised to hear that Chinese diver Guo Jingjing had symptoms of detached retinas in both eyes (due to the impact of repeatly diving). I was shocked to also hear that this was the second time she had done this. 

As somebody who has detached their retina before, one of the things that I have always been told is to avoid sports. Therefore I am really surprised that Chinese diving officials — and doctors — allowed her to continue after detaching her retina the first time.Was the Chinese government after a gold so badly that they were willing to possibly blind their athletes for life? I sure hope not.

I’m also a bit surprised that Guo Jingjing wanted to keep diving. I’m sure she was driven by the desire to succeed in front of the home crowd and wanting to gain another gold medal, but risk your vision even for that? I sure wouldn’t want to do it. It would mean the more than just the end of a person’s career, one would have very few opportunities here. I don’t see blind people working in offices or really doing anything but begging on the street. Now I don’t know any famous Chinese blind people so maybe things are different with them, but something tells me they aren’t.

And if Guo wanted a seeing-eye dog here she might get one but I don’t think she’d be able to take it anywhere. Seeing-eye dogs here are treated the same as pets and are not allowed on buses or public transport. I used to see a man training with one on my way to work everyday during the Olympics, he was so proud of the progress he and dog made everyday when they walked along Nanjing Xi Lu — and they should be — I hope China is making progress to recognize his rights to have his dog assist him in everyday life too.

As for Guo Jingjing I hope she is really thinking things over during this resting period and will really weigh the pros and cons of continuing with her diving career vs. losing her sight. Just a word of advise from someone who has been in her situation. Go for the sight! You’ll feel better later.

On another note, I am currently recovering from some emergency laser surgery on my left eye to mend some holes in my retina. Hopefully I’ll be back to full steam after the National Day holidays.

J.

Market on Dongtai Lu (Image courtesy of GQ)

I’ve been spending this evening catching up on my reading and I came across this great fashion spread on seersucker suits in the June issue of GQ. It was shot in Shanghai and shows the best parts of old and new Shanghai simultaneously. At the same time it still makes the clothes look great.

Check it out online here. This is one of the better shoots that GQ has done in the five-plus years I’ve been reading the magazine.

J.

After five years in China there is one thing I don’t understand, Chinese store keepers reluctance to change 100 kaui notes. This morning I paid for my RMB 20 breakfast with a 100 kaui note. The waitress response was “YI bai kuai ayah!” It was like I presented her with an impossibly large amount of money. She did change though without much fuss which is more than I can say for the ayi at my local C-store.

I could see this if the notes were rare, but this is the standard denomination of notes that you get when you go to any ATM in China. It’s the equivalent of getting CDN$20 from an ATM in Canada. You would think that stores would be prepared to change a 100 kaui note because of this. And I think the worst thing is that I will buy more things sometimes to get around the store keeper’s whining particularly if it is an old lady as she seems to make feel as though I am personally responsible for the Opium Wars and the century of humiliation the Chinese endured just because I brought a 100 kaui note with me.

Any one else experience this?

J.

Damage in Myanmar (Source: IHT)

Yesterday I read an article on the aftermath of last spring cyclone in Myanmar that really touched me.

It mentioned the destruction and the more than 100,000 people dead, but it was these lines that stuck in my head:

there are the stories of wandering ghosts, whose cries for help can be heard at night in haunted places that no villager dares to enter.

Relief after being long delayed is now getting to the people, but what about their psychological needs? There is some obviously unrecognized damage there. How are they going to be fixed? Is the government or the medical system going to do it? Do they even care? Or is this something people are going to have to slow themselves?

I have a feeling that it is the latter is the solution to the problem. The same can be said of the suffers of the Sichuan earthquake. Assistance has been given to deal with the physical losses but what about the suffers’ mental problems?  Maybe those who showed signs of trauma at the time, but what if the trauma didn’t surface at the time but a year from now when people wake up with constant nightmares of watching their colleagues and classmates crushed all around them?

I thought maybe that the Chinese government would invest in psychological care after the earthquake but they haven’t. But investing in care for the people of the earthquake would have a lasting effect to all the drunks, drug addicts and abused wives that fall through the cracks. Many of these people end up in jail when they could be getting help in a mental institution or maybe even better served with medication and regular outpatient care. That would be such a big savings to the Chinese government and maybe help China get closer to the socialist paradise that it has always wanted to be.

Just my two cents.

J.

I’ve kept my eye out for any more information on the Turkistan Islamic Party and so far the only piece of news that I’ve come across in the Chinese blogosphere is this post from Michael of Opposite End of China.

Michael like me doesn’t see much truth behind the group’s claims, but he also had stories from the South China Morning Post in the post I linked to above. The second stories has a source that says maybe the Chinese government or the Xinjiang provincial government was behind this video so they can justify a crackdown in Xinjiang.

But to be honest I am not sure that the Chinese government is behind it either. So who is?

J.