big, big rain
Well, yesterday’s weather was pretty good. Clear air, and over the eastern part of the city only streaks of thin, very high cloud. There was more solid cloud to the north, south and west, but even so, clear, clear air, not the thick, humid muck we get so much of in the summer. But as the day wore on the cloud grew thicker and heavier until by the evening it had covered the whole city.
This morning dawned grey and dull and a tad humid, but still reasonably comfortable. Looked like being another cloudy day with a chance of rain. But Beijing usually just threatens rain, and clouds usually pass leaving only a few drops with which to torment us.
Then when I turned the shower off there was a sound coming from outside the bathroom, a kind of humming sound either like a shower running on full in another room (not possible) or the fan going (but I turned it off), or perhaps rain. I got out of the bathroom and it was, of course, rain. Big rain, heavy rain, cascading down like Huangguoshu had decided it had had enough of life in Guizhou and moved to the southeast corner of Beijing. Instant surface flooding kind of rain. A deluge of Biblical proportions- well, as close to Biblical proportions as it ever gets in Beijing. I’ve seen heavier rain down south and in New Zealand- one day in Dunedin my flatmates and I got in the car and on the way home just in time to avoid a thorough soaking, trouble is, we were on the road round the southern end of the harbour when the squall hit and the rain fell so hard we literally couldn’t see past the front of the car. Sure, your driving instructor tells you to look out the side window and use the side of the road as your guide to ease the car over and stop on the verge- but we couldn’t see the side of the road, either.
Anyway, back to this storm. It has passed now, but as occasionally happens in Beijing, the tail end of the storm involved a bit of thunder and lightning. That revealed one big disadvantage of living on the top floor of a building, especially when there are no taller buildings nearby. Twice the lightning struck very close by- there was a bright flash which had my instinctively ducking for cover followed immediately by a huge, huge bang like a very large bomb going off very close by. I am convinced that the lightning did actually hit something nearby- no worries, we’ve still got electricity, and all the buildings have lightning conductors- but, obviously, I didn’t want to spend too much time too close to the window looking to see where the lightning was hitting, lest I get to see it right up close and personal.
Well, the storm has passed, but it’s still raining. Fortunately at a more moderate, reasonable rate.
rambling again
Posted by wangbo in Chinese study, random on July 17, 2008
Thin, high cloud outside, but otherwise it’s looking like a beautiful day. I think, if the weather holds, I might go out and wander round a bit after lunch. I think No. 34 round to Tianqiao, see what can be seen of the Qianmen renovations from the southern end, then….. wander.
Moving apartments was a series of trade-offs, really. We’ve got more space, but the bedroom, bed, and wardrobe are all smaller, for example. The biggest advantage is what was probably designed to be the second bedroom. Bedroom? No, now it’s an office, a study, perhaps even a studio. Well,’studio’ may be taking things a bit far for now, but even so….
Well, whatever, it’s great. In one corner is a large computer desk/cabinet that holds both the university-supplied computer (which works amazingly well for a BeiGongDa-supplied computer), a printer, various electronic bits and pieces and my laptop, CDs, textbooks for work, stationery and some random stuff that needed a home. On either side of the window are the bookshelves on which our non-work books are arranged neatly: novels; poetry; Chinese language resources; Chinese history and philosophy; random non-fiction…. I’ve never been so neat in my life. And then in the corner opposite the computer desk is the cheap and nasty foldaway dinner table that comes standard in the foreign teachers’ apartments. It’s cheap and nasty, but it also happens to be at the perfect height for me to study comfortably. On the table are a black desk lamp, a black gel-ink pen, an HB pencil, an eraser that seems to have acquired a couple of patches of sticky, green paint from the outside of the pencils in the pencil case it was stored in, two notebooks- one for general use, one of those primary school style notebooks with the grids for practicing characters in which I copy down new characters- a dictionary and the books I am currently studying- Twilight in the Forbidden City by Reginald F. Johnston- an absolutely fascinating book, highly recommended- An Intensive Course of HSK (Advanced) from the BLCU Press- dry and boring with two few examples, but it does provide a good breakdown of each section of the HSK Advanced and explanations of the main testing points, difficulties, and things to watch for in each section- and HSK Exam Grammar from the Peking University Press- also dry and boring but necessary because it goes into the grammar in far more detail than the other book. And for seating there are two cheap and nasty fold-up plastic chairs. A colleague who also spends a lot of spare time studying Chinese needs a proper office chair and got one from the Pingleyuan wholesale market two days ago- we’ll see how long it is before he leans back and breaks his latest victim- but these two plastic chairs are more than adequate for me. All I need is enough support for my back to stop me from slouching- something I’ve always been far too good at, ask my parents.
There are a few other bits and pieces. One corner is being used for storage- I think it’s mostly shoes- and leaning against the end of the computer desk beside the door are my small backpack and the satchell I use for class. There’s also a CD player/tape recorder/radio, but the CD player is busted and Chinese radio seems to be pretty much the same as New Zealand radio- mostly ads, about half of which are the radio stations’ own ads boasting how great the station is and how much music they play, and maybe in between all these ads and the mindless blether of the DJs (honestly, do they have a maximum IQ requirement for DJs?) you might be lucky to hear one or two songs every now and then. And if the songs are actually worth listening to then you’re on such a roll of good luck you should go buy a lottery ticket. Noise, in other words. And news and [shudder] talkback radio don’t really interest me. I suppose I should one of those story-telling programmes the old-style cabbies always listen to, they’re pretty cool, and good listening practice. Perhaps I need to find the frequency for this station (the page will load, but you won’t be able to listen to it with Firefox. It cooperates with Explorer, of course (Oh China, when will you end your obssession with Microsoft?!)) and listen to it the old fashioned way.
Tangent: I notice two things about the BJ Radio homepage. A countdown giving us 22 days 10 hours however many minutes and however many seconds to the Olympics- it’s that close? Wow. Time flies when the Olympics have been hammered in your face every day for the last seven years. And this: “文明办网文明上网举报网址：www.bj.cyberpolice.cn；举报电话：85223518”. Hmmm….. Having trouble finding frequencies for their stations, though.
But I’ve found classical music to be quite good as study background music. Well, depends on the composer. So far I’ve found Mozart to be a little distracting, but Bach and Rachmaninov work well. I’m one of those people who is more comfortable studying with a bit of music in the background- just enough to block out the outside world, create a kind of aural coccoon. I drove my mother nuts when I was in high school, she couldn’t see how I could possibly be learning anything with this music blaring, but it does actually help me concentrate. Of course, you don’t want the music to take over or distract, just to sit there in the background and massage your mind. Bach and Rachmaninov, as I said, have proven quite useful in that respect. Mozart is just a little bit too much of a show-off to be helpful, always grabbing my attention and saying, “Hey, check this out!” I’ll have to experiment with other composers to try and find the perfect mix.
I also need to get more classical Chinese music- the real stuff, not that CCTV rubbish which is really Western orchestral pop with a thin veneer of Chinese characteristics.
And right now, as if on cue, somebody outside is playing what sounds like one of the traditional Chinese flutes. I can’t see who or where, and so don’t know exactly which instrument, but along with the cicadas, people going about their lives, that gentle breeze, and even the distant rumble of traffic on Xidawang Lu, it’s providing quite a pleasant backdrop.
But the key thing is: It’s a lot easier to study when you’ve got a space you know you can comfortably study in. Oh sure, there is the library, which is pretty good, but this space I can customise, personalise, and that makes it even more comfortable and therefore much better for study purposes. Of course, there are more distractions here, but….. So far it’s working well.
Yesterday was comparisons. I already know most of this, at least in the practical, everyday, down and dirty get the message across kind of way. But my theoretical knowledge is a bit lacking and HSK likes to ask finnicky little questions in which you have to find some tiny technicality that even educated native speakers would have trouble picking out. This is one of the areas that tripped me up in April. And so I opened up An Intensive Course of HSK (Advanced) and started working through it’s dry, technical explanations of the 比较句 (comparison sentence). It’s alright, and pretty clear, but a little short on detail and desperately lacking in examples. Then I got to the end of that section where it informed me:
另外，现代汉语中也有用文言词语表示比较的。如：
- … …于：胜于、强于、大于、小于、无异于、不亚于、相当于
- … …过：胜过、赛过
- … …似：胜似、深似、恰似
[actually, I’m not sure about ‘赛过’, the character in my book is not very clear and that’s the closest I can find]
And that’s it. No further explanation. No rules for the usage of these 文言词语, no further examples, nothing. And so I opened HSK Exam Grammar to the appropriate section to seek clarification- that book, after all, goes into much more detail and gives much deeper explanations and far more examples. Nothing. Not even a mention of the 文言词语 used to express comparisons. But I decided I could at least work through that section and try and get a better, deeper handle on the various comparison structures.
Lot’s of dry, boring, technical explanations of grammatical structures. Oh yes, I am in heaven.
I am such a masochist.
Well, I’m going to have to get back into those novels that fell by the wayside with HSK and then the end of semester rush. I still haven’t finished 《活着》- bloody hell, that must be taking me nearly two years now- but my wife bought me 《狼图腾》for my birthday. Oh, don’t worry, I’m not expecting great literature from it, I just wanted to see what the fuss was about. And considering I can read it in the original, it doesn’t make much sense to get Howard Goldblatt’s new translation. Anyway, got to get back into the novels to balance the technical stuff and keep the interest level up.
And we plan to get ourselves some calligraphy supplies this weekend. I’ve always been interested, ever since my school in Changsha took us foreign teachers to a calligraphy exhibition at the Hunan Museum only a few days after we’d arrived in China. I got a few informal lessons from one of the art teachers at my school, and at that exhibition I met a guy, a student at one of the smaller universities, who was quite a talented amateur calligraphy who showed me a bit more, helped me pick out books, taught me a little about the different styles and the tools of the trade. But that was it. I should’ve followed it up in Taiyuan and then Beijing, but for whatever reason- sheer laziness, if I’m going to be honest- didn’t. Well, now that I have this little study which is starting to take on the dimensions of a studio, seems like a good time to get back into that. lzh knows a bit of calligraphy and also wants to practice a little more. Should probably also find a teacher…. Anybody want to teach me calligraphy for free?
Well, if this is going to be a studio, it should probably have a name. Any suggestions?
thank you Danwei
Posted by wangbo in ranting, tilting at windmills on July 14, 2008
Thank you, Danwei, for this most excellent collection of links, especially the one exposing one China business celebrity for being the clown I’ve long suspected he really is. Not so long ago a blog post by this guy Perkowski got its 15 seconds of online notoriety- a post in which he boasted about how he’d never learned Chinese and explained why there was absolutely no need for any foreigner coming to China to learn the language.
Well, I didn’t leave a comment on his blog- and I’m not going to link to it. Really, you’ll find more intellectual depth on the horoscopes page of the New Zealand Women’s Weekly– something about casting pearls before swine floated around the back of my brain- but if I could sum up my response to such arguments politely and concisely, I would say:
Sure, a one-legged man can coach running. But if you wanted to be a running coach, would you deliberately cut off one of your legs?
Or a little anecdote: At one programme I worked on, a lot of the other foreign teachers, monolinguals all, were constantly complaining about the incompetence of the secretary who somehow found herself in charge of everything. We’ll call this secretary J. J had to take care of her monolingual boss, do general secretarial stuff, and was the go-to person for every foreign teacher with any kind of problem, no matter how big or small. So she was fairly busy. Anyway, many of the others were constantly complaining about her incompetence. I, on the other hand, never had a problem with her, not even the tiniest little issue. Everything I needed, I told her, I got. Why? Quite possibly because I spoke to her in Chinese. I was friendly and polite and spoke to her in her own language. And I’m in a very similar situation here at BeiGongDa. And monolingual colleagues have commented on the look of relief on, for example, waitresses faces when I start ordering food in Chinese- and speaking Chinese does generally make it much easier to get the things you want. It’s amazing how showing a little bit of basic respect- like actually bothering to learn the language of your hosts, for example- makes life that much easier.
I suspect a similar principle applies to doing business. In fact, Gady A. Epstein’s rather scathing review of Perkowski’s book linked to above casts some pretty hefty doubts on his claims to business success. Or even business ability. Apparently this clown showed up in China with $400 million and not a shred of even the most basic knowledge of the country- judging by Gady Epstein’s review of his book, Perkowski didn’t- and still hasn’t- put terribly much effort into patching up those collossal holes in his knowledge. And it starts with the language. I mean, in that blog post I alluded to (but still refuse to link to for the reason already stated), Perkowski says that one reason why there’s no need to learn Chinese is that so many young Chinese professionals speak such excellent English. True, but if you’re monolingual you have no way of knowing how good their translation skills really are and how effectively they are, or are not, communicating your views, desires and needs to your Chinese business partners. It starts with the language, it’s one of those basic competencies anybody wanting to work here should be prepared to develop. It starts with the language and then goes deeper into knowledge of Chinese culture, society and economy. Check out these two paragraphs:
Many business books on China urge vigilance about corruption, but there is a stunning lack of guile in Perkowski’s accounts of his exchanges with Chinese officials. When he marvels that a People’s Liberation Army officer wields a thick wad of 100-yuan notes and that local officials are willing to give away land to his company at no cost, it seems to elude him that the military man’s gains might be ill-gotten and that land given away for free is often taken from commoners powerless to object. Socially responsible foreign firms, aware of such abuses, insist on paying at least something for land; Perkowski says the local government officials who offered Asimco free land represent “all of the positive things China has to offer” but laments that after recent reforms “it’s no longer possible to obtain free land.”The author may have been so pleased with such friendly government officials because so many others got the better of Asimco in the early years, when his fund rapidly sealed more than a dozen joint ventures with lots of cash but little due diligence. Perkowski does discuss some of the ensuing difficulties but glosses over the most embarrassing details, deflects blame and minimizes his own serious misjudgments. (“In retrospect, we could have done a better job at negotiating some of the early joint venture contracts,” he concedes simply.)
Ouch. Are we to take it that Perkowski doesn’t even meet the minimum competence levels for doing business in his home country, let alone in a country he would seem to know absolutely nothing about? Should we assume that, if he is American or his business has American interests or investments, that by publishing this book he has opened himself up to a serious Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation?
I said it starts with language, and I said language is one of those basic competencies you should be prepared to develop should you want to work here- and by that I mean everything from being a foreign teacher like me right up to being CEO of the China branch of some Fortune 500 company. I’ll stand by that, but I’ll also admit that like most foreigners I know here I didn’t start learning Chinese until I arrived in China. But the process of learning the language has been just as important for my personal and professional development as my current ability to speak it. And at each step of the way the process of learning the language as well as my ability to speak it (at whatever level, from absolute beginners on my first day in Changsha to HSK Level 7 right now) has helped tremendously in my personal and professional life here. The fact that I can and do use Chinese at work (never with students, always with administrative staff) has made life a hell of a lot easier than it would otherwise be. For one thing, speaking Chinese makes it much easier to understand the mistakes my students are making with English and why, and therefore to find ways specific to their situation to help them correct those mistakes. It also means that, when dealing with administrative staff, I can get what I need done much more quickly and easily than I would be able to if I were monolingual. I don’t see how the same principle would not apply to the business world. Sure, it is easy to get through life and work and business in China without learning Chinese, but why would you? As I said already, if you wanted to be a running coach, would you cut off one of your legs?
Well, I really shouldn’t be leaping to so many snap judgements based on a review, especially not this early on a mid-summer Monday morning, but this review has done a lot to confirm the impression I had gotten from Perkowski’s blog.
So, once again, thank you Danwei for the links. And thank you Gady A. Epstein for the excellent review.
haemorrhaging electricity
Posted by wangbo in Environment, life in Beijing on July 13, 2008
Well, we moved in to this place last Monday evening, making it slightly less than a week here, and over that week we’ve been wondering why we seem to be haemorrhaging electricity. Thanks to the pre-pay system and our particular meter, we can monitor just how much electricity we’re using in real time
[quick note: just about every apartment I’ve had in China has been on a pre-pay system, but not every meter will count down how much you’re using all the time. In several places I’ve lived the meter will only start counting down when you hit your last 50 units. Here at BeiGongDa we get a constant read-out of how much we bought last time, how much we’re using, and how much we have left.]
So anyway we seemed to be haemorrhaging electricity, going from a little over 100 units on Monday evening to 65 this morning and 52 at about 3 this afternoon. Ridiculous. I’ve never lived in an apartment that bled electricity so profusely.
And the hot water was at a temperature that was simply absurd and actually quite dangerous, seriously scalding sort of temperature. So there’s something to check….
The fridge, which would ordinarily be one of the biggest power-sappers, is Level-1, the highest grade on the power efficiency scale, and can’t be doing too much damage.
We’ve only turned the aircon on twice, no, three times, and only for short periods when it’s been really, really hot. It’s the huge, freestanding kind, and I have no idea of its energy efficiency, but I imagine it’ll be somewhere up there with the Hummer. Still, short periods to dry the place out and take the edge off the heat, can’t be using too much.
So today I finally climbed up and had a look at the water heater. It conveniently has a dial that shows the current temperature inside the water heater.
70 degrees celsius!!!!!!
No bloody wonder the water was coming out the tap just about hot enough for a cup of tea! No wonder we’re churning through so much electricity!
But wait, there’s more: It has two buttons whose combinations determine the level of heating. Push in the left button only, you get 节能-power saving- 1000 watts. Push in the right button only, you get 标准- standard- 1500 watts. Push in both, you get 速热- rapid heating- 25oo watts. Both buttons were pushed in.
So basically we’re burning through electricity at the rate you’d burn through fuel if you hooked up a Hummer engine to a generator and used it to power a one bedroom, 50 square metre apartment in which every appliance was of the lowest possible energy efficiency and all were left running constantly at maximum capacity- with the windows welded open.
Well, we’ve done what we can to solve that energy inefficiency problem- and we do use a small, simple electric fan for cooling on all but the hottest, most humid days- and tomorrow morning I’m going over to the main campus to buy up what I hope will be enough electricity and internet access (both are prepaid) to get us right through the Olympics (security is getting ever more tiresome, but that’s a whole different story).
confidence building?
Posted by wangbo in life in Beijing on July 11, 2008
So this morning the gas inspectors came. They were supposed to come on Tuesday, but instead of inspecting our gas appliances, they put up notices saying, sorry, the higher-ups ordered us to do something else for Olympic safety. Then a notice appeared saying they’d be here this morning. Based on previous experience, I didn’t believe them and so didn’t bother translating it for the other foreign teachers. And besides, last time I did that somebody tore the translations down…..
Anyway, so they came and pronounced our place safe. Cool. Then I saw they were going into door 6, which we just moved out of, and which Roubaozi will move into soon, into our old place, for which I still have keys, so I ran around there to let them in. It’s leaking, they said, so I left them with my cellphone number and they said they’d call when the repairman came. And only half an hour later the repairman came and they phoned asking why I wasn’t home….. Well, I was home, just in the one it should’ve been fairly obvious I live in, not in the one that was leaking and which was fairly obviously not inhabited. So I ran back over and let the repairman in.
No leak. Great. Well, at least it is officially pronounced safe. And the repairman did show up ready with tools and a length of replacement pipe and did check it properly- well, so far as I can tell he checked it properly.
But I’m not sure how many apartments were checked. Somehow my downstairs neighbour didn’t hear them knocking on his door, and so his place wasn’t checked. Nobody was home on the entire third floor of door 6.
Oh well, at least our and Roubaozi’s apartments are safe.
a delay, and maybe the polluter might pay
Posted by wangbo in Environment, news on July 11, 2008
新京报/The Beijing News’ Wu Di reports that the Beijing Environment Protection Bureau will delay the enforcement of Euro V emissions standards, but is considering the introduction of emissions fees for vehicles:
黄标车拟征排污费
Plans to levy an emission fee on yellow-plate vehicles
市环保局称北京暂不执行欧五排放标准
Municipal environmental protection bureau says it will delay implementation of Euro V emissions standards
Note: In China trucks, buses and similar vehicles have yellow licence plates, hence the “yellow-plate vehicles”.
昨天，北京市环保局相关负责人做客首都之窗时透露，出于技术等问题的考虑，目前北京暂不执行欧五排放标准，但是黄标车排污费事宜将提上日程。
Yesterday, while a guest of Window on the Capital, the relevant leader of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau revealed that, due to consideration of technical problems, Beijing will delay the implementation of Euro V emissions standards, but a schedule for the arrangements for an emissions fee for yellow-plate vehicles will be put forward.
市环保局机动车排放管理处处长冯雨桥介绍，老旧黄标车排放量非常大，造成的污染十分严重。北京市很有可能将对黄标车收取排污费。
Assistant head of the Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau Motor Vehicle Emissions Management Office Feng Yuqiao said emission levels from old yellow-plate vehicles were extraordinarily large, creating an extremely serious pollution problem. Beijing City very well may collect emissions fees from yellow-plate vehicles.
“国外 对机动车的排放采用的方式多种多样，车要排放，所以交排污费也是正常的。”冯雨桥透露，五年前国家环保总局在郑州、吉林、杭州对机动车排污进行试点收费， 实施了好几年。运用经济杠杆的作用，治理或限制北京现有的30万至40万辆黄标车排污问题将会被政府有关部门考虑。因此冯雨桥表示，黄标车收取排污费，“ 早晚会实施的”。
Overseas many methods [fir management] of motor vehicle exhaust are used. Vehicles will emit, so paying an emission fee is very normal.” Feng Yuqiao revealed, five years ago the State Environmental Protection Agency carried out motor vehicle emissions fee trials in Zhengzhou, Jilin, and Hangzhou, which ran for several years. The use of economic levers to control or restrict the problem of emissions from Beijing’s current 300- to 400 thousand yellow-plate vehicles will be considered by the relevant government departments. For this reason, Feng Yuqiao said that the collection of emissions fees from yellow-plate vehicles “will be carried out sooner or later.”
冯雨桥介绍，目前北京执行的欧四排放标准，仅限于公交、环卫、邮政车辆，其他车暂时没有执行，主要是因为排放控制技术问题。“哪种控制技术更适合北京？”冯雨桥表示，要研究后再推广执行，因此暂不会考虑执行欧五标准。
Feng Yuqiao said that currently Beijing only enforces Euro IV emissions standards on public transport, sanitation, and postal vehicles, the standards have temporarily not been enforced on other vehicles, mainly because of technical problems with emission control. “Which control technology is most suited to Beijing?” Feng Yuqiao said that after research enforcement would be made more widespread, and so consideration of enforcing Euro V standards would be delayed.
Well, I like the idea of a polluter-pays principle if that provides a strong economic incentive to get old, dirty vehicles off the streets and keep new, cleaner vehicles maintained so as to keep emissions down. After all, last I heard vehicle exhaust was the largest contributor to air pollution in Beijing. I suspect that on its own it won’t be enough to get old vehicles off the road, though, and perhaps a couple of other carrots (subsidies of some kind to upgrade to Euro V even if Euro V isn’t yet being enforced?) and Big Sticks (confiscation of vehicles that consistently don’t meet standards? Three strikes and your truck is recycled?). I’m not so happy with the delay to Euro V, though. But then again, I have absolutely no expertise in any of the issues- economic, engineering, environmental, whatever- at play here, so I can’t really judge.
All I can say is that so long as they’re taking concrete steps to improve the environment, good. And this, even with a delay to Euro V, looks like progress to me.
repairing the red building
Posted by wangbo in Chinese study, news on July 9, 2008
So Peking University‘s Red Building is going to be renovated in time for next year’s 90th anniversary of the May 4th Movement. 新京报/The Beijing News’ Wang Hui reports:
北大红楼耄耋之年再“修身”
PKU’s Red Building to “cultivate its moral character” in its old age
And no, I don’t get the headline either, and I can’t at this moment make my brain come up with anything better.
修缮完工后外观不改变，明年“五四”前重新迎客
Outside appearance won’t have changed after renovations are complete. Will welcome guests again before next year’s “May Fourth”.
承载着光荣与历史的北大红楼昨日开始了30年来的首次加固维修工程，工程将于明年5月前结束，届时，北大红楼将迎来“五四”运动90周年。国家文物局有关负责人介绍，此次维修以建筑加固和除险为主。整修后的红楼将与楼内的新文化运动纪念馆系列纪念活动一起面世。
PKU’s glorious and historic Red Building began its first strengthening and repair project in 30 years yesterday. The project will finish before May 4 next year, at which time PKU’s Red Building will welcome the 90th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement. The person responsible at the State Bureau of Cultural Relics said the main purpose of these repairs is strengthening and elimination of danger. After the refit the Red Building and the New Culture Movement Museum it houses will hold a series of commemorative activities.
现状
Current Situation
古老红楼已成危险建筑
The ancient Red Building has already become a dangerous structure
从外表来看，位于沙滩的北大红楼虽然历经沧桑，但依然保持着坚挺的身姿。暗红色的墙体，棕红色的窗棂。实际上，由于当时红楼设计上的缺陷，超出使用期限，加上1976年唐山大地震的影响，目前，红楼已成为危险建筑。
Looking from the outside, the PKU Red Building located at Shatan, despite the vicissitudes of time, has still preserved its strong posture. The dark red walls, henna window lattices. In fact, because of flaws in the original plan of the Red Building and that it has exceeded its designed length of service, in addition to the effects of the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, currently the Red Building is already a dangerous structure.
红楼内部，白色墙皮已经脱落不少，红色的木质楼梯时常发出“嘎吱嘎吱”的声音，铺在上面的绿色防滑垫也已破损。保安介绍，楼内一年前已经基本搬空。
Inside the Red Building, already much of the white wall plaster has fallen off, the red wooden stairs often creak, and the green anti-slip mats spread on top are already worn out. A guard said the building has been basically deserted for a year already.
亮点
Bright spots
抵抗腐化标准可达50年
Anti-rot standard to last for 50 years
本次维修始于2004年，当时，国家文物局委托专业机构对红楼现状进行了全面评估与分析，多次召开论证会。去年5月，北京建工建筑设计研究院设计了《北大红楼保护修缮工程设计方案》，得到有关部门的批复。
This renovation started in 2004, when the organisation entrusted by the State Cultural Relics Bureau undertook an evaluation and analysis of the current state of the Red Building and held several meetings. In May last year, the Beijing Construction and Architectural Design Research Institute designed a “Programme for the PKU Red Building Preservation and Restoration Project,” receiving the approval of the relevant authorities.
工程将采用先进的碳纤维加固方法，把 碳纤维包裹在钢筋混凝土柱的外面。对于墙体出现的裂纹及酥碱，采用挖补技术，把残缺的砖替换出来，并将裂缝填平。针对红楼的屋顶及大梁出现的糟朽，工程将 按照抵抗腐化50年的标准进行防腐处理。从外表看，工程不会对红楼的外观产生影响。
The project will adopt advanced carbon-fibre strengthening methods, wrapping the carbon fibre around the ferroconcrete pillars. Where walls are cracked or fragile, they can be repaired by replacement, swapping the broken bricks for whole ones, filling in the cracks. The project will use a 50-year rot prevention standard to deal with the rot in the roof crossbeams.Viewed from the outside, there will be no influence on the appearance of the Red Building.
在楼内设施方面，工程人员将对内部照明设施进行统一处理，综合布线。在每个原有红色玻璃窗的里面加上一层铝合金窗，以便节能。
For the interior facilities, the project workers will install a unified lighting system and integrated wiring. To every window that originally had red glass will be added an aluminuim alloy window to conserve energy.
■ 新闻背景
News Background
北大红楼简史
Quick history of PKU’s Red Building
北大红楼始建于1916年，1918年落成并投入使用，至今已达90年。
Construction of PKU’s Red Building began in 1916, and the building was completed and put into use in 1918, making it 90 years old.
作为原北京大学旧址，北大红楼是“五四”运动的发祥地，马克思主义在中国最早传播的地方。蔡元培、李大钊、毛泽东、鲁迅等人曾在这里工作和生活。
As the original campus of Peking University, PKU’s Red Building was the birthplace of the May Fourth Movement and the first place where Marxism was disseminated in China. Such people as Cai Yuanpei, Li Dazhao, Mao Zedong and Lu Xun worked and lived here.
1961年，北大红楼被国务院公布为第一批全国重点文物保护单位。
In 1961 the State Council named PKU’s Red Building as the first All China Key Cultural Heritage Conservation Unit.
2002年5月，红楼一层和前院内平房被辟为新文化运动纪念馆，正式开放。
In May 2002, the first floor and forecourt buildings of the Red Building were formally opened as the New Culture Movement Museum.
Alright, I think that’s the worst translation I’ve ever done. There are so many problems with it I don’t know where to begin.
So forget the crappiness of the translation: BeiDa and the Red Building have played some pretty huge roles in modern Chinese history, in particular in the resistance against imperialism, the spread of Marxism, and thereby the founding of New China. Regardless of your own particular political beliefs (and I really don’t want politics discussed here, it’s less relevant than it seems), you can’t deny this is a very important place in modern Chinese history. It’s a shame, but hardly a surprise, that the Red Building would have been left to decay so badly, but it’s great to see a restoration project on the books. I only hope the really do get it finished in time for the 90th anniversary of the May 4th Movement next year.
just rambling again
Posted by wangbo in life in Beijing on July 8, 2008
It’s been an odd day, but a strangely odd day.
First up, the inspectors the gas company decided should inspect the gas appliances in all the apartments in our area didn’t show up. On the way out to lunch, that notice was covered with another saying the higher-ups had ordered them on to something else. Aha. Right. Whatever.
Instead of gas company inspectors we had labourers on the small verandahs over each doorway removing the decorative tile in the crudest way possible- with a hammer, sending cascades of broken tile onto the pavement below. To be fair, they had a guy standing opposite apparently- hopefully- watching to warn anybody trying to get out of the building. And they made sure all bicycles were out of the way then swept the tile up into neat piles afterwards.
But those verandahs are very small and didn’t have much of this decorative tile on them, and each one was finished off in a matter of minutes. Now they’re working on the similar but much larger expanses of decorative tile on the roof, and that’s taking a lot more time. They’ve been going for an hour or two now, and have only moved from that above Door 6 to, well, directly above me- the area over Door 5 (we’ve only moved 20 or 30 metres as the crow would fly if there weren’t so many concrete walls in the way). And the rather crude methodology is sending cascades of broken tile falling six storeys to the pavement below at exactly the time when people would be getting back from work or heading out for dinner or evening strolls. Speaking of…. lzh should be getting back from work any time now, and they’re still smashing tile less than ten metres from my head, and directly above the doorway she will need to get through.
To be fair, I can’t think of any better way to do this particular job, and no matter what you do, it will be irritating for bystanders. But I can think of better times for it.
Anyway, at midday-ish I waited until the labourers had packed up and headed off for lunch then ducked round to the BeiGongDa muslim restaurant. Well, it’s a favourite, and I hadn’t been there since late last week, so…. But now they have completely new menus. New, bilingual menus whose English would seem to have come from that new official menu translation. Well, I don’t know for sure the source of the English translations on that particular menu, but they stood out- and not because they were so laughably bad or printed in larger, bolder type.
Nope. They stood out because they were so good and clear and concise. Brilliantly done, if I may say so, having only skimmed through one restaurant’s new menu in search of lunch.
Well, that’s about all I can say about it, really. Like I said, I just skimmed through in search of lunch. But, although I ordered in Chinese (it’s the same old monolingual staff, and just talking to them is always a more efficient method than point-and-click), I did note the English translations and they were very good. And, as has already been reported (see that link above to an earlier post on the official menu translations), they really did render 宫爆鸡丁 as Kung Pao Chicken. And 鱼香 as “Yu Shiang”, which at first this pedant found irritating, but has to admit is much, much friendlier to tourists unfamiliar with Chinese pronunciation in general and the intricacies of hanyu pinyin in particular. And 左宗棠鸡丁 as General Tsuo’s Chicken.
Uh, yeah, for some reason- I guess the proximity of the Foreign Students’ Dorm might help explain things- our campus muslim restaurant has had a presumably halal version of that American dish on its menu for quite some time. Alright, so the story I’ve heard does give the General’s chicken a bit of a Hunan pedigree, but even so…. And I guess the Tsuo instead of what I believe is the usual Tso is either a misprint or a hashing of Romanisations.
So, if any American’s out there miss their General Tso’s Chicken, let me know, and I’ll take you over to our friendly campus muslim restaurant. Bear in mind that being a Kiwi I have no idea what General Tso’s Chicken is supposed to look or taste like and I’ve never tried ordering that particular item on their menu, but I’m willing to show you the way and let you be the judge.
And I spent considerably longer than I expected cleaning out our old place. Holy shit, the amount of dust, dirt, filth and waste I cleaned out was simply disgraceful! We are going to have to make a few lifestyle changes this coming academic year. And now that the labourers outside have stopped and we can venture outside with no more than the usual risk of a tile falling on our heads, we should probably get back over there and finish the job off. The sooner it’s done, the sooner we can settle in to the long, hot summer I’m sure it’s going to be.
wtf?
Posted by wangbo in tilting at windmills on July 8, 2008
Wow. In a comment on this post, Arctosia provides a link to a TVNZ article that suggests maybe Peter Low may have been misinterpreted. But then in a comment on this Public Address thread Russel Brown posts a link to a podcast of Sean Plunkett interviewing Peter Low. As Russel Brown says:
He admits to hiring triad members for personal security (“I got money, I can do anything”) then loses it (“don’t make me angry!”) when Sean Plunket calmly asks him “WTF?”.
Indeed, it is quite a masterful performance. The interview goes well until Low seems to imply that he knows and has perhaps even hired Triads for security. Plunkett seizes this- like any halfway competent interviewer would- and asks why Low associates with criminals. He spends the end of the podcast trying to get a straight answer to the question as to whether or not Low knows and/or associates with Triads, but by that stage Low has descended into completely incoherent rage. Bizarre, truly and utterly bizarre.
Well, first of all it strengthens my impression that Low really is quite naive and inexperienced at dealing with the media. I mean, did he really go into that interview thinking that he could do his ‘hire triads’ thing, and even boast about knowing and having hired triads, without Plunkett asking whether he associates with criminal gangs, and if so, why?
And why does he seem to equate Plunkett describing Triads as criminal gangs- which is something pretty much everybody, including the Triads themselves, accepts- with a personal attack on himself and his Asian Anti-crime Group? Nobody has described the AAG as a criminal gang. Wannabe vigilantes, yes, but there is a slight difference there.
And is this clown really so naive as to think that the Triads really would act as his personal security force? He boasts, by my count at least three times, in that interview that he has money and can do anything. I’m sure the Triads would love to get their hands on that money, and I’m sure once he starts paying them for protection, they’ll be happy to continue extracting protection money. And I’m sure that should Low decide that crime rates have settled back to a reasonable level and the police are as pro-active and responsive enough to satisfy, the Triads will be more than happy to continue extracting protection money. By force, if necessary. Brutal force, the kind that involves thugs armed with steel bars. It’s the oldest Triad trick in the book.
So let’s just get this straight:
- There’s nothing wrong with legitimate self-defence, nor is their anything wrong with demanding a more responsive and pro-active Police force and a crackdown on crime. The Police, after all, are those public servants charged with keeping our communities safe from crime.
- Vigilantism is a very dangerous thing. There may be times and places where it is appropriate (Somalia springs to mind), but New Zealand is very, very, very far from the kind of state where citizens do need to pro-actively police their own communities. And even so, it’s only one very, very small step from vigilantism to organised crime.
- The idea of voluntarily engaging the Triads as a security force is so far beyond stupid that I’m at a loss for words. The Triads have been doing ‘security’ for decades, now. Triad-style security generally goes like this: “Pay me money to protect you.” “Protect me from who?” “Well, pay me money or I’ll send me boys round to beat the shit out of you with steal pipes.” In other words, you pay the Triads to protect you from the Triads.
- Paying criminals to protect you from crime? This is such utter lunacy I have to wonder if Monty Python is running the show.
And no, I don’t believe Low has any Triad connections. If he does, he won’t last very long. I mean, what kind of Triad is going to be happy about all the extra attention Low is bringing their way?
moved
Posted by wangbo in life in Beijing on July 8, 2008
After a marathon effort yesterday, we’re moved in to our new, slightly bigger apartment. Still got to go back and clean up the old place, though.