families
I still haven’t taken lzh to New Zealand- I know, I know, I’m long overdue for a trip home, and she needs to see my homeland and meet my family- and so the only other Waughs she has met are Shushu and my parents. They’re the only other Waughs to have visited Beijing.
Well, Mum’s youngest brother used to do business here, but we never saw him when he was in Beijing, most we ever got was a phone call. But that’s beside the point.
So, because we were chatting with Mum and Dad this afternoon, we were talking about the family, and we noticed: My oldest brother and I are almost complete opposites, two extremes. lzh said “一个是文，一个是武.” (One is wén (culture, literature, the intellectual pursuits), one is wǔ (physical development, the martial arts, etc)- we’re the two opposite aspects of cultivation, which the ideal man should possess- Bruce Lee is the closest example I can think of, but you’ll need to watch his films really closely to see the wén). My brother is only 18 months younger than me, but while I spent as much of my childhood in my room reading as possible (i.e. apart from those occassions when my parents dragged my outside and made me get some exercise), he spent as much time as possible playing sport. I’m a teacher, he’s a cop- and not just a cop, but Armed Offenders Squad (kinda SWAT equivalent). I live in Beijing, he’s never strayed far from home. He’s loud and assertive, I’m quiet and shy. You get the picture. I’ll leave you to guess which of us gets the wén and which gets the wǔ.
Then lzh said my sister (five years younger than me) is 艺 (yì- art- she’s an extremely talented musician).
But what about my youngest brother (two years younger than my sister)? 工 (gōng- work, industry- he completed a carpentry apprenticeship then decided he wanted to be a paramedic. He’s in his last year of paramedic training now, and by all accounts he’s been working very hard all the way through both the carpentry apprenticeship and paramedic training) was the best we could come up with. Well, most of the time he was growing up, I was somewhere far away, either at university or here in China, so I’m not sure I actually know him all that well.
No, there was no point to this post, just thought I’d let you in on this rather random conversation. I thought it was fun.
open your eyes
Posted by wangbo in life in Beijing, random on March 11, 2008
Uh, actually, some of the trees around here are blossoming…
I looked out the classroom window today, out over the quad at the centre of the university’s original buildings, and saw, way out in the middle, one tree covered in pale pink blossoms. It was too far away for me to see what kind of tree it was (not that botany was ever one of my strong points), but there it was, surrounded by the grey-ish, I-just-got-through-winter-looking evergreens and the more stubborn deciduous trees.
And the trees along the wall of the building that ‘shelter’ the bike park- shelter it from the summer sun, but not from the birds- which I noticed last week had these rather solid-looking ‘buds’ on their branches had replaced those buds with soft, fluffy seedpods which would periodically fall in the breeze, covering the bike park in something rather more pleasant than the birds’ contributions.
But this afternoon class was in the opposite, eastern end of the building, but on the same southern side overlooking the quad. The trees there had the same seedpods dangling from them, but looking down at the ground all I could see was bare concrete. So is the western end of the building somehow warmer? Or the breeze there stronger? I doubt that, considering the eastern end of the quad is open, while the western end is blocked off by Building 2 (oh, yes, they were very creative when they were naming the buildings back in the ’50s when they built this place). Or perhaps had the cleaners gone through and swept the place up?
It was a bit cooler today, perhaps because of that thin, high cloud, but the air was a bit clearer- or should I say less murky. My Dad asked me just now if they were going to get the air clean for the Olympics. I’m sure they will, or at least do all that is humanly possible and then some, but it’ll be interesting to see just how they go about it.
So, yeah, I open my eyes and realise that spring is a little further along than I first realised. Kinda fits in with one of the texts we studied in class today.
bullshit
Posted by wangbo in ranting, tilting at windmills on March 11, 2008
I don’t mean to demean or belittle anything George Hogg did. The man made a huge contribution to China during the war against Japan. But this article has me, well, irritated to put it mildly.
We’ll start with the irritating little things:
- Spelling. First of all, choose one: Wade-Giles (or Yale or whatever it was he was trying to use) or Pinyin. Preferably Pinyin, but it doesn’t matter, so long as you’re consistent. But then, get it right: ” Here, at the crossroads of the Tsin-gling mountains in Shanxi province, he found his destiny.” “Tsin-gling”? I hope that’s the subeditor’s fault. Somebody whose relationship with China seems to go as far back as 1984, at least, should not be making a mistake like that. Fortunately, later on he gets the Pinyin right: “Qingling”.
- Basic fact checking: To get from Shuangshipu to Shandan, George Hogg did not pass the western end of the Great Wall. To do so would require one hell of a detour, and a very stupid detour too. I mean, either he goes from Lanzhou up into Qinghai and along to Golmud then down to Dunhuang, Jiayuguan and back down the Hexi Corridor to Shandan, or something equivalent and even stupider but going northwards through Inner Mongolia, or he goes up the Hexi Corridor past Jiayuguan, then turns around and goes back the way he came. The third one makes the most sense, considering the Hexi Corridor marks the old Silk Road and was used as the Silk Road because it’s the only sensible way westwards from Lanzhou. But it’s only sensible for a modern-day tourist, and a bloody stupid thing to do if you have a school-load of young boys and all your school’s equipment on a mixture of donkey carts and old trucks to take care of. Oh, and there were the Ma warlords out there, too. So no, he did not go past the western end of the Great Wall, he went straight from Lanzhou to Shandan, which is roughly halfway between Lanzhou and Jiayuguan.
But what’s got me so fired up to be writing this at such a ridiculously early hour is this: Where in this story is Rewi Alley? Alley played a huge role in the CIC and was the driving force behind the schools at Shuangshipu and Shandan. Sure, in the early days Alley spent a lot of his time travelling around China, often on foot or by bicycle, on CIC work, leaving Hogg to take care of the school, but still: Alley and Hogg built those schools together. Alley was there when Hogg died of tetanus in Shandan, lead Hogg’s funeral, and took over the running of the school. And yet this man, so important to the story of Hogg’s life in China, is not mentioned at all in the article.
liberal nz?
And via No Right Turn (a blog name I approve of wholeheartedly), I hear news of the founding of the Liberal Party of New Zealand. The rhetoric in that Scoop article sounds very fine indeed, for example:
“We also believe when New Zealanders voted for MMP, we voted for more accountable government.” Mr Lee added. “A decade later, we’ve got much less accountability. This Government has enacted laws under urgency to stifle free speech and misappropriate public money for party political purposes. And there’s nothing but token resistance from the Opposition because it knows laws like the Electoral Finance Act benefit the incumbent parliamentary parties.
But this style of managerial politics is causing rifts even within those parties.” “Of great concern to us has been the undermining of the independence of our Public Service by this Government with or without the tacit or explicit acquiescence of the most senior Public Servant.” Mr Lee said. “And while our democratic institutions are being damaged, the Auditor General and the Ombudsman have proven impotent, incapable or unwilling to rise to the defence of our democracy, largely because they have no fundamental duty to do so.”
“It’s the time for the people of New Zealand to stand up and be counted. A codified constitution delimits the power of the Prime Minister, their control of the Cabinet, the Cabinet’s control of Caucus, and Caucus’s control of the House of Representatives.” Mr Lee said. “Under the guise of
‘The Sovereignty of Parliament’, our existing parties have created a Leviathan in the premiership more powerful than the President of the United States—and we must put an end to it. Codified constitutions are only ‘inflexible’ because the politicians have to put the changes they want through the people.”
“The forthcoming election will be the last chance—if the opportunity has not already eluded us— to have a codified constitution.” Mr Lee warned. “After this, no new party will be able to summon enough funds to take on Labour and National, both of which prefer to contest for unlimited patronage than be subject to proper constitutional government.”
and:
“There is no mention of HM The Queen; the President, who has no power but some influence, is quite deliberately described as the Head of the Government, not of the State. Queen Elizabeth is greatly admired by many people in New Zealand—with just cause. The Irish retained the King, as King of Ireland, from the inauguration of the Free State in 1922 until 1937, following the death of King George V, when they passed a short Public Act adopting the President as Head of State.”
Well, personally, I’d just plain prefer a republic, but this is perhaps a little more realistic given the nature of New Zealand society.
But No Right Turn’s Idiot/Savant is rather more sceptical:
That historic link to the (right-wing) SDP ought to be a warning sign. The original liberals were progressive and pragmatic socialists. But despite praising their historic links to the Fabians, this new incarnation is not. Yes, they believe in a mixed economy, with government provision of health and education. But at the same time, they also want to limit government spending (or revenue, or taxation – they seem to make no distinction) to 40% of GDP. Given their vagueness, this could either mean the status quo, or it could require significant spending cuts (total crown revenue is ~44% of GDP, and expenses ~42%, with core crown figures ~10% lower; see the 2007 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update). Either way, its not in line with the traditional liberal pragmatism.
Well, I consider myself warned, and it is a fair warning, too. These are, after all, politicians we’re dealing with. Still, I will be interested to see just how far this new Liberal Party gets and what shape it eventually takes (if any). I doubt, though, that it’ll take a shape that I feel represents my politics.
热
It’s getting warm here in Beijing. Has been for a while now. I think we’re in for a long, hot summer. It’s much warmer now than I was expecting for this time of year. We’ve had some of the spring winds already, but we’re back to still air and the murk that brings. Fortunately, although I did read a report of dust hitting Beijing a week or two ago, that report mentioned only Yanqing and Mentougou, so the dust must have passed down the outermost western districts of Beijing then out into southwestern Hebei, we haven’t had any dust or sandstorms so far.
Fingers crossed.
Anyway, we’ve been cutting back on the clothing, but not too much…. I mean, it’s really quite warm during the day, but still chilly overnight, and there’s always the big what if: What if a wind comes in off the Gobi, as it inevitably will several times between now and May. That, in addition to bringing the desert with it, will drop the temperature.
In a couple of weeks the poplars, or whatever tree they are, are going to dump their horrible fluff everywhere.
Not long after that it’s going to be torridly, horribly, suffocatingly hot.
And not long after that I’ll be escaping up a mountainside in Yanqing to avoid the Olympics hullabulloo… at least the temperatures will be close to tolerable up there.
I dunno, at least the autumn is tolerable and promises cold weather to come. Spring means sandstorms and promises only stifling heat and humidity.
clean, green my arse
Posted by wangbo in news, ranting, tilting at windmills on March 8, 2008
Alright, despite the sheep-loving stereotype, New Zealand’s biggest industry is actually dairy. And dairy could well be its most destructive industry, too, especially in terms of water resources, sucking up obscene amounts of water then dumping amounts of pollution into what little water is left that can only be described as offensive.
Alright, that report is from Critic, which is nowhere near as good as Salient despite being the newspaper of Otago University, and it is just a teensy, weensy bit polemical in that way only undergrads and talentless journalists can be (no offense intended to either undergrads or that rarest of species, talented journalists), but it’s still better than what passes for mainstream media.
Still, reading about people and companies (and apparently it’s more and more companies instead of the traditional family farm) setting up dairy farms in already arid, drought prone areas, areas that are projected to only get drier as global warming progresses, areas like Canterbury or the Mackenzie, only strengthens my suspicion that the brain drain has had a far more drastic effect on New Zealand’s collective IQ than most people suspect. Sure, Muldoon famously quipped that he wasn’t worried about New Zealanders migrating to Australia because such migrants improved the national IQ of both countries, but Muldoon was a fool who should’ve been strapped into a giant catapult and fired in the general direction of Australia before he could have ever entered parliament, even as a primary school student on a field trip- and preferably on a trajectory that would drop him in the Tasman Sea roughly half way in between the two countries. But really, I have to seriously wonder about the IQ, or lack thereof, of people who decide to install dairy farms in areas that just plain don’t have enough water for anything more intensive than sheep farms run the traditional Kiwi way. I mean, large parts of the South Island do very closely resemble the mountain areas north and west of Beijing in terms of environment and climate- dry’s a bone, dry as the coats that take their name from that phrase will keep you even in the midst of a monsoon (yes, I know the coats are Aussie, but they’re popular in New Zealand, too, like Holdens, because they’re bloody useful and designed for life in the south of the South Pacific), far too dry for dairy.
Reminds me of the last time I was in Wellington, showing around two friends of a friend, Belgians (they loved Kiwi beer, but that may well be because they’d just come from a month in Australia). These two, after only two weeks in Aotearoa, one night in the pub over pints of Dunedin’s finest (well, almost), turned to me and said: “You Kiwis have this reputation for being clean and green, and you talk about it, but it’s bollocks. The way you treat your environment, if you had anything like Europe’s population, your country would be a mess.” Or words to that effect. Sadly, I could not argue with them. No sane, honest Kiwi could’ve. Sometimes it takes an outsider to show you the truth of your own country, and sometimes that outsider has only just got off the plane.
And it’s things like this (environmental issues, not necessarily beers brewed in Dunedin) that would make me vote Green if someone held a gun to my head and forced me to take part in New Zealand’s coming election. Much as I despise politicians in general, and as much as I loathe the Greens’ positions on such things as China and their ridiculous PC moralising on things like “human rights” (pull your heads out your arses and start looking at human responsibilities, please), New Zealand needs some serious environmental arse kicking in parliament.
That last paragraph was not in kind of endorsement of or encouragement to vote for or to not vote for any political party. If you’ve read this far you’re smart enough to make up your own mind.
Although I will say that New Zealand needs an expat constituency- a system that allows us expat Kiwis to cast a party vote without having to enroll in any particular electorate. I’m sure I’m not the only one with no permanent address in New Zealand, and don’t tell me to enroll in my parents’ electorate: I have never seen the house they currently live in, nor the one they lived in before that (although I do have ties, of a kind, to that neighbourhood- I mean, I was born within a 10 minute walk of that house, and we lived not too far up the road until I was two, and the church we attended while I was in high school was just as close by, and…).
Alright, too many tangents upon tangents, time to stop.
recommended, at least for those who read french
Cos I’m too lazy to translate such a long piece. But anyway, if you read French and you’re interested in China, this piece in Le Monde will be of interest to you. Personally, I’m finding it a tad on the emotional side, and excessive emotionalism tends to get in the way of proper journalism, but still, worth a read.
finally
Posted by wangbo in Chinese study on March 8, 2008
And finally I start writing stuff in Chinese again. Yesterday, having just about torn up the textbook in frustration with its sappy, sentimental, saccharine-laden texts, and having reviewed and then studied a few paragraphs of 《活着》/To Live (yes, I know, I’m taking a long, long time about it), I decided to see how much I could write and how often I needed to reach for a dictionary to remind myself what the characters were supposed to look like.
Well, apart from a few mistakes (including one I seemingly can’t stop making: leaving that little pie off the top-left of 知) and one buggered-up sentence (the last one), I seemed to do alright. I only needed the dictionary a few times, and I was impressed with how many characters I could write without checking (mistakes included). So here it is, with corrections by lzh (and as always, constructive criticism is welcome):
我今天学了一个特别有用的单词：闯荡。我看余华写的《活着》的时候，读了这句话：“龙二说话时南腔北调，光听他的口音，就知道这人不简单、是闯荡过很多地方、见过大世面的人。”
那，我不是龙二的那种人。我不赌博，我又不是骗子。可是我年轻的时候离开了家在非常远的地方找工作了。好像是入了一种“江湖”里。
我在长沙，太原，天津闯荡过，现在在北京。我也流荡过香港，深圳，广州，桂林，阳朔，昆明，大连，挪威… 光听我的口音，很少的人能听出来我是哪的人。有的时候我也是差一点忘了我是从哪来的。看一下我的护照，就知道我是新西兰人。
呵，我在新西兰长大好像是前生。
And after looking over my messy characters, lzh tells me that “闯荡” (chuǎngdàng, to work away from one’s hometown) is something done by people of some kind of heroic stature, and that all I do is 流浪 (liúlàng, to roam about, to wander). I said, no, I’m 乱七八糟 (luànqībāzāo, messy and chaotic). She said, yes.
Anyway, gotta ditch that textbook and start using these HSK books and practice tests I have sitting on my bookshelf, and if the HSK I sit is the new one, then I’ve really got to keep writing in Chinese (and remembering to put that little pie on the top-left of 知- sure, my wife understands what I mean, but HSK examiners are going to deduct points for that sort of sloppiness).
Oh, and yesterday morning I finally followed up on a colleague’s suggestion and joined him in the BeiGongDa library to study. Now there’s one huge problem solved: the tables in the main lobby area around the huge fake tree next to the main service desk are big and wide and comfortable and it was quiet and a long, long way from crowded, and it was generally a good place to study. The only worry I have is that I saw students taking their laptops there: If that’s a sign that the library has wifi, then it could still prove to be dangerously distracting. And even if it doesn’t, my colleague said that it had broadband-looking sockets in the floor on another storey. Yeah, I know, just don’t take the laptop. Anyway, one huge problem solved: I now have a comfortable study spot. And another problem taken care of, provided I can drag my lazy arse out the door on the Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings I don’t have class: A lack of distractions.
Now, get into the habit and go those mornings and mix up textbook, novel and writing….
sanba
So just in time for International Women’s Day, we get some middle-aged woman who seems to be roughly half a dozen cans short of a six-pack banging on our door looking for someone we’ve never heard of…. And then she runs up and down the stairs trying every other apartment in the building.
Anyway, that’s not the point….
Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day, and to celebrate, yesterday lzh got 100 kuai and a trip with her colleagues to the Botanical Gardens.
And International Women’s Day also marks the anniversary of Russia’s February Revolution. It’s a fascinating revolution, having happened apparently spontaneously, with no apparent leadership from any party or organisation.
Of course, I have heard those of more Bolshevik leanings describe it as a “bourgeois revolution”. Right, whatever. Workers and soldiers rebelling is not bourgeois.
oh, and..
While I’m rambling about the Kiwi blogosphere’s blogspot obssession, check this out.
Alright, yes, it’s on wordpress, which is just as blocked as blogspot, although not quite as obssessed over, but the point is this: It’s an interesting glimpse at how New Zealand seems to have moved way beyond emancipated.