I just finished talking (in Chinese, of course) with another American
studying Chinese at a different summer program at BeiYu. It turns out
she went to college at Bryn Mawr, which is very close to where my
family is. We also had a lot of Romanians going through the hotel
this week; a "BeiYu bubble" definitely exists, separating the rest of
Beijing from the international BeiYu. In fact, one of the teachers
told us in class that BeiYu's nickname is "Little United Nations."
The air pollution here, for lack of a better word, sucks. Yesterday,
a visibly thick layer of smog blanketed the city, and my throat was
actually burning with particles when I went for a run. This might
have been mainly due the construction next to the track, but really,
the smog isn't helping.
Today we had a special opportunity. After the exam this morning,
three other students, two professors and I went to Qinghua university
to interview an Inter-Universities Program (another Chinese program)
teacher who is getting married in two weeks. We got to ask her a lot
of questions about marriage traditions and how marriage is done in
China. One thing I found quite amusing is that the morning of the
ceremony, the bride's family and friends will gather at her house.
When the groom comes to pick her up, they will try to prevent him from
entering or prevent the bride from leaving, for example forcing him to
sing a song to their satisfaction before letting him in or hiding the
bride's shoes. Probably the most interesting part was an exclamation
from our teachers - when we (the students) were explaining the concept
of a gift registry, they burst out, laughing, "Too direct!" (In
China, friends and family often give money to let the bride and groom
decide what they would like and less often give concrete gifts, but
nothing like a list of what the bride and groom would like so that
there will be no conflict/duplicates exists). Afterward, we went to
the mall in Wudaokou for Chinese table (at a pizza place - to be
frank, this pizza has a long way to go, as the kind we had would only
really pass for boxed and frozen pizza in America).
For those of you who have heard the phrase "the omnivore's dilemma",
of the places I've eaten at, this is nowhere better exemplified than
in the street food of Beijing (for those of you who haven't, it means
that omnivores have a dilemma in eating new, untried food - it may be
tasty and provide vital nutrients that you aren't already getting, but
it can also be bad for you or make you sick). There are two
prevailing opinions on street food - that eating it is pretty much a
guarantee of painful digestive tract problems, or that it's not only
the best food around but also cheap to boot. Both have truth. Street
food is very hit-and-miss - some stands are much better than others,
some cover up poor ingredients with an overabundance of oil, and some
are just flat-out unsafe - undercooked and other problems. The good
news is that not only is it fairly easy to tell what tastes good (look
at the number of people trying to buy a stand's food) but also you can
see the entire cooking process and notice if something's not going to
be good for you (for example, I saw a stall that didn't cook it's food
through and duly avoided it). Of course, this doesn't apply when you
can't see the process, but in most cases it is evident. The best meals
I've had have have been street food - specifically malatang
(ingredients cooked in a boiling spicy broth). I don't get the point
of "ma" (numbing flavor found in Sichuan peppercorns) flavor, though;
if you numb your mouth, you can't taste anything, which isn't good.
No planned activity this weekend, so I'm thinking tomorrow I'll go to
either the hutongs (old town), the Forbidden City, or just walk
around. I really need to decide this weekend where I'm going to go
for my post-HBA trip . . . Yunnan's looking good, though I need to buy
plane tickets for that (38 hours by train is really not worth it).
Sichuan's not bad, either.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Ayi
Interesting turn of events at lunchtime today. I went to Wudaokou to
get some Korean fare for lunch, and ate at a table near the big mall.
While I was eating, an older woman (about 50 years old) sat down
opposite me to eat, and we began talking. "Ayi" (aunty) works as an
engineer and lives near BeiYu. She has family in Canada, has studied
English for about as long as I've studied Chinese, and has also
studied ancient Chinese language. After we ate, she bought us each a
glass of beer, and we continued to talk for about an hour and a half,
covering topics from work and school to language and culture to my
plans to travel after HBA ends (like Baba, she says I should not go to
Shanghai, and instead suggested Sichuan and Yunnan, especially the
Giant Pandas. She also suggested I come to Beijing in the fall, when
the weather is nicer, though I like hot weather). We also talked with
a third woman sitting nearby for a bit near the end. I only had to
use my dictionary about twice, and we kept up a sustained and
interesting conversation for over an hour, so I think this marks a new
level in my Chinese ability.
get some Korean fare for lunch, and ate at a table near the big mall.
While I was eating, an older woman (about 50 years old) sat down
opposite me to eat, and we began talking. "Ayi" (aunty) works as an
engineer and lives near BeiYu. She has family in Canada, has studied
English for about as long as I've studied Chinese, and has also
studied ancient Chinese language. After we ate, she bought us each a
glass of beer, and we continued to talk for about an hour and a half,
covering topics from work and school to language and culture to my
plans to travel after HBA ends (like Baba, she says I should not go to
Shanghai, and instead suggested Sichuan and Yunnan, especially the
Giant Pandas. She also suggested I come to Beijing in the fall, when
the weather is nicer, though I like hot weather). We also talked with
a third woman sitting nearby for a bit near the end. I only had to
use my dictionary about twice, and we kept up a sustained and
interesting conversation for over an hour, so I think this marks a new
level in my Chinese ability.
End of 6th Week
Almost everyone took a boat around the gorge, and some went bungee
jumping/zipline-ing, but I climbed to the top of the gorge with
another HBA student – I think we were the only two to do so. This
also marks the first time I have been drawn into having a photograph
taken of me with Chinese people. There was also a temple on the
mountain, but the design was pretty much exactly like every other
temple I've seen so far. Before the climb itself, there was a long
escalator from the bottom of a dam in the gorge to the top, which was
covered by a dragon-shaped enclosure.
I'm reading, bit by bit, the Tao Te Ching, one of the central Taoist
texts, which is quite interesting. This book is highly ambiguous –
not only are there significant translation issues, as this book is
written in an old form of classical Chinese, but the content itself is
subjective and interpretive by nature. This is not a bad thing,
though. The subjective and interpretive nature of the book, along
with its reliance on paradox, challenges the reader to discern meaning
and resolve the apparent paradoxes it presents. Thus, not only are
there many different translations, but there are many different
possible interpretations of each passage; the interpretation depends
on the reader, and the reader's experiences, which the reader draws on
to try to understand the book. For example, one passage states
something to the effect of "when there is no knowledge, then there
will be wisdom," which can be interpreted (in context) as "common
'knowledge' is often wrong, and society at large might not have any
way of realizing," though there are many other possibilities. There
also seem to be several levels of supernatural flavor present in
interpretations, from the interpretation that the book is metaphorical
and does not require belief without evidence to the full-fledged
traditional Taoist pantheon, which came from I don't know where. That
said, parts of the book may just flat-out be wrong – the reader still
needs to use his/her judgment while reading. I'm still not very far
through, so I need to keep reading.
Saw a partial solar eclipse on Wednesday. Apparently Shanghai had a
total eclipse.
I just heard a Chinese woman say "drinking tea is a better habit than
drinking coffee." I am inclined to dispute this, and I did. She
offered no compelling evidence beyond "tea drinkers seem more
relaxed," which may be true, but is really shabby evidence on the
whole. (I'm not drinking coffee or tea anymore – I have to go out of
my way to get coffee, and tea is too much of a hassle to make on a
regular basis.)
Saw acrobats last Saturday. Quite interesting, with a tropical bird
theme, and sections like using springboards to flip onto high objects,
contortionism/balance, a giant ferris-wheel type device that acrobats
navigated around (including blindfolded), a diabolo (Chinese yo-yo)
segment, flipping through hoops, plate spinning, gymnastic static
holds off of other people, bicycles, etc.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Friday - The Ride Back
Reviewed the 3 forms (5-Stance, 2-Change, Stance with Gun) this
morning after the conditioning part of the workout. Packed up and
departed at 9, reaching the station at about 11:30. Had "lunch" at
KFC (really not a bargain at all, as the cost of fast food relative to
other food is much higher in China, and almost nothing is edible), and
got on the train (though getting all of our guns stowed posed a bit of
an issue). It's about 5:00 now, I've been writing these posts for the
last hour or so, several people in front of me have worked out a way
to turn a row of seats around so 2 rows of 3 seats face each other. I
talked with others and read the Chinese military classic The Art of
War by Sun Tzu for a while, others are watching movies on their
laptops or listening to music or sleeping, and the group of 4 in front
of me is playing cards very, very loudly (surprisingly, loudest of all
are the teachers). My battery is dying, but I've finished. I'll post
these when we return to BeiYu.
morning after the conditioning part of the workout. Packed up and
departed at 9, reaching the station at about 11:30. Had "lunch" at
KFC (really not a bargain at all, as the cost of fast food relative to
other food is much higher in China, and almost nothing is edible), and
got on the train (though getting all of our guns stowed posed a bit of
an issue). It's about 5:00 now, I've been writing these posts for the
last hour or so, several people in front of me have worked out a way
to turn a row of seats around so 2 rows of 3 seats face each other. I
talked with others and read the Chinese military classic The Art of
War by Sun Tzu for a while, others are watching movies on their
laptops or listening to music or sleeping, and the group of 4 in front
of me is playing cards very, very loudly (surprisingly, loudest of all
are the teachers). My battery is dying, but I've finished. I'll post
these when we return to BeiYu.
[UPDATE: Saturday morning, July 17th - Finished uploading these
posts, written on the train]
Thursday – Longmen Grottoes, A Vegetarian Meal, and More Wushu
a smaller, poorer city to get there – very dusty, cars, buses, trucks,
motorbikes, scooters, bikes and bike carts, and pedestrians
everywhere, often in the opposite lane and virtually always in the
center of the road between two lanes. Buildings all plain and
concrete, with color coming from large single-color signs littering
the roadsides. The bus driver started playing sing-along music videos
on the TV screen today – began with some very bizzare ones,
opera-flavored songs with happy-go-lucky military themes, though later
transitioning to the more standard sappy easy-listening songs, often
involving loved ones who have died or gone away, etc. Longshan itself
was very interesting – stone openings with statues carved into the
cliff face. Lots of Chinese took photos of (and with) Kogos aka Lin
Ke, our group's "hei ren" (he's from Kenya, and it seems black people
are an unusual sight). Drove back, and ate lunch at a nearby
temple/restaurant. The restaurant's specialty was its only-vegetarian
fare, so besides dishes without meat there were also a few dishes with
fake meat (meatless sausage in celery, fragrant shredded "pork" with
shredded carrot and cucumber, shredded "pork" with pancakes). The
majority of my meals here are vegetarian anyway, but for pretty much
everyone else this was a significant change from standard. Overall
very good.
Writing my report in the afternoon, followed by dinner and a wushu
review session, this time at 8:30. Our group learned relatively fast,
so we didn't need a full 3-hour review session.
Wednesday - Day Two of Wushu
The schedule for today was two 3-hour sessions of wushu again.
Started learning the gun (stick) in the morning, starting with basic
gripping and spinning and then moving into move combinations and a
form. Not as hard on the legs, as we didn't have to stay in low
stances for long periods of time, but still challenging, especially
the mental focus needed to keep hand positions in mind (not only
because moving through the form properly requires awareness of exactly
where your hands are, but also because failure to keep track could
result in you hitting yourself).
Started learning the gun (stick) in the morning, starting with basic
gripping and spinning and then moving into move combinations and a
form. Not as hard on the legs, as we didn't have to stay in low
stances for long periods of time, but still challenging, especially
the mental focus needed to keep hand positions in mind (not only
because moving through the form properly requires awareness of exactly
where your hands are, but also because failure to keep track could
result in you hitting yourself).
Tuesday - Song Mountain
they received on Sunday – although the front of my legs were mostly
recovered, my hamstrings felt just as sore as they did yesterday, and
this is 2 days later. Workout again at 5:30. At breakfast, had some
interesting soybean drink, which was a bit thicker than soymilk.
Wrote some of my report following that.
Scenery on the mountain was beautiful, especially the temples lining
the way up. Very foggy up top in the morning – at some flatter
points, impossible to tell I was on a mountain given the amount of
fog. Also passed an interesting spot where large characters were
painted on the side of a cliff face – I think the painter rappelled
down to it. One thing I gradually noticed was that the great majority
of the path, all the way up to the summit, was paved (with especially
flat stones) and had staircases built in. It must have taken a large
amount of effort to create such a smooth path all the way up,
especially in terms of carrying materials. Passed, was passed by, and
talked with laborers taking bricks and other building materials up and
down. One laborer mentioned it was his job to deliver a load of
materials from the bottom of the mountain to the top, twice a day.
The way down was much easier, especially compared to backpacking
downhill, as I didn't have a large pack. Fogginess cleared up a bit,
could see sun at some points. Got back a bit later than expected.
Overall fun, very interesting. Returned to the school, ate dinner,
worked on my report, and slept.
Monday – Talking with Tagou People, Taoist Temple and Confucian Academy
Really, really sore today. Moving legs difficult. Morning workout
again at 5:30. This time, rainy as we set out, and gradually more and
more as the morning progressed, such that by 7:00, we had to walk
instead of run back – too slippery. Listened to the president talk,
garnered some valuable info for my report about the influences of
Buddhism and Daoism on wushu, and then talked to one of the more
advanced students. Even if I didn't understand everything, highly
interesting. What he taught me about the Buddhism&Taoism/Wushu
connection expanded on what I knew, and he told me plenty I didn't
know as well. Also told me about life at Tagou – running every
morning, then the rest of the day alternates between studying
(broad-based stuff like math) and gongfu for several hours a stretch
each. Also told me that most of the people here go on to do or want
to go on to do "movies, competitions, demonstrations, etc." though
later one of the Chinese teachers on the trip told me a lot end up
working as security guards due to this thing called "supply and
demand" - there are a large number of students at this school,
numbering in the thousands, and a lot are sent here by their parents
for various reasons against their other inclinations (that said, some
genuinely enjoy the wushu lifestyle).
Bought a wushu stick, then took it with me to lunch. While at lunch,
another foreigner came up to us and mentioned how martial arts weapons
are treated more seriously in China – he once drew a sword to show an
official who was interested in it in an airport, and "everybody hit
the floor". He also semi-jokingly offered coffee to those who would
speak English, figuring one of us would be enough of a caffeine addict
to break the language pledge, but he underestimated the true caffeine
addict among us – namely, me – who brought his own coffee. In both
Beijing and here (and all across China), the coffee is either
ridiculously sweet or, more often, nonexistent. I've taken to
drinking black instant coffee (available at select store locations),
or just eating the crystals if I don't have hot water readily
available. Slept, then went to a Taoist temple. Architecture much
the same as the Ming Tombs area, to my view (though a person more
educated in this department could probably tell you otherwise).
Afterwards, went to some sort of Confucian school that was preserved,
which was a bit different architecturally. For dinner, the bus driver
took us to a hotpot place, which was, like other hotpot places,
delicious, though like all other Chinese food I've tasted, severely
lacking in the spiciness department where it is supposed to be a
specialty (double the amount of hot sauce they give you to choose how
much to put in the pot was still not enough). Again with the cultural
differences, the attendants kept trying to put large amount of beef
into my pot (with success one time), which I would find very rude were
I not in China, especially given that they kept doing it after I asked
them to stop (I had to ask several times, which is the custom here to
my knowledge). Especially tasty were the noodles which the attendant
pulled from slabs of dough at the table itself.
again at 5:30. This time, rainy as we set out, and gradually more and
more as the morning progressed, such that by 7:00, we had to walk
instead of run back – too slippery. Listened to the president talk,
garnered some valuable info for my report about the influences of
Buddhism and Daoism on wushu, and then talked to one of the more
advanced students. Even if I didn't understand everything, highly
interesting. What he taught me about the Buddhism&Taoism/Wushu
connection expanded on what I knew, and he told me plenty I didn't
know as well. Also told me about life at Tagou – running every
morning, then the rest of the day alternates between studying
(broad-based stuff like math) and gongfu for several hours a stretch
each. Also told me that most of the people here go on to do or want
to go on to do "movies, competitions, demonstrations, etc." though
later one of the Chinese teachers on the trip told me a lot end up
working as security guards due to this thing called "supply and
demand" - there are a large number of students at this school,
numbering in the thousands, and a lot are sent here by their parents
for various reasons against their other inclinations (that said, some
genuinely enjoy the wushu lifestyle).
Bought a wushu stick, then took it with me to lunch. While at lunch,
another foreigner came up to us and mentioned how martial arts weapons
are treated more seriously in China – he once drew a sword to show an
official who was interested in it in an airport, and "everybody hit
the floor". He also semi-jokingly offered coffee to those who would
speak English, figuring one of us would be enough of a caffeine addict
to break the language pledge, but he underestimated the true caffeine
addict among us – namely, me – who brought his own coffee. In both
Beijing and here (and all across China), the coffee is either
ridiculously sweet or, more often, nonexistent. I've taken to
drinking black instant coffee (available at select store locations),
or just eating the crystals if I don't have hot water readily
available. Slept, then went to a Taoist temple. Architecture much
the same as the Ming Tombs area, to my view (though a person more
educated in this department could probably tell you otherwise).
Afterwards, went to some sort of Confucian school that was preserved,
which was a bit different architecturally. For dinner, the bus driver
took us to a hotpot place, which was, like other hotpot places,
delicious, though like all other Chinese food I've tasted, severely
lacking in the spiciness department where it is supposed to be a
specialty (double the amount of hot sauce they give you to choose how
much to put in the pot was still not enough). Again with the cultural
differences, the attendants kept trying to put large amount of beef
into my pot (with success one time), which I would find very rude were
I not in China, especially given that they kept doing it after I asked
them to stop (I had to ask several times, which is the custom here to
my knowledge). Especially tasty were the noodles which the attendant
pulled from slabs of dough at the table itself.
Sunday - Day One of Wushu
Woke up at 5:15 AM, downstairs at 5:30, running in two lines at about
5:40 to the stone plaza in front of Shaolin Temple. The run itself
wasn't very long. Once we got there, stretched out, did some
exercises (like running, then stopping dead and jumping straight up).
This session was actually fairly easy, a situation that would soon
change. Ran back at 7:15 and ate breakfast at 7:30. Breakfast was an
egg, white rice porridge, some ridiculously salty red tofu intended to
be mixed into porridge which I could not eat, even after mixing,
white-flour buns, and salty vegetables (which I also couldn't eat).
Ate 8:30 was 3-hour wushu session number 1. After warming up
(running, stretching), we worked out – sprints, jumping exercises,
etc. Very demanding pace. Afterwards, learned kicks and stances and
a basic 5-Stance Form – things I've learned (though certainly not
mastered) before with Yale Wushu. Lunch at 11:30. Practice again at
2:30. About an hour of working out, then reviewing 5-Stance Form and
working on 2-Changes Form. At the next break, the shifu talked about
how in 2003 the Shaolin Temple started building other buildings, and
most of the wushu schools in the area (except this one) had to leave.
Finished up by 5:30. Ate dinner, wrote out some questions to ask
Tagou people for my social study report, then we watched the movie
"Shaolin Temple". Entertaining.
Wushu is, quite simply, hard, to the degree that wushu and "gongfu,"
the term for any kind of consistent practice and hard work (not just
martial arts) are synonymous in common usage. The physical standard
required and amount of time spent practicing to attain even a basic
level of competence are both very high, well above the physical
standard of the average person and the amount of "free time" most
people have for their hobbies. Wushu requires high levels of static
strength and explosive power, especially in the legs (for the low
stances), flexibility (for the high kicks), endurance (to sustain the
long hours of practice required), etc.
5:40 to the stone plaza in front of Shaolin Temple. The run itself
wasn't very long. Once we got there, stretched out, did some
exercises (like running, then stopping dead and jumping straight up).
This session was actually fairly easy, a situation that would soon
change. Ran back at 7:15 and ate breakfast at 7:30. Breakfast was an
egg, white rice porridge, some ridiculously salty red tofu intended to
be mixed into porridge which I could not eat, even after mixing,
white-flour buns, and salty vegetables (which I also couldn't eat).
Ate 8:30 was 3-hour wushu session number 1. After warming up
(running, stretching), we worked out – sprints, jumping exercises,
etc. Very demanding pace. Afterwards, learned kicks and stances and
a basic 5-Stance Form – things I've learned (though certainly not
mastered) before with Yale Wushu. Lunch at 11:30. Practice again at
2:30. About an hour of working out, then reviewing 5-Stance Form and
working on 2-Changes Form. At the next break, the shifu talked about
how in 2003 the Shaolin Temple started building other buildings, and
most of the wushu schools in the area (except this one) had to leave.
Finished up by 5:30. Ate dinner, wrote out some questions to ask
Tagou people for my social study report, then we watched the movie
"Shaolin Temple". Entertaining.
Wushu is, quite simply, hard, to the degree that wushu and "gongfu,"
the term for any kind of consistent practice and hard work (not just
martial arts) are synonymous in common usage. The physical standard
required and amount of time spent practicing to attain even a basic
level of competence are both very high, well above the physical
standard of the average person and the amount of "free time" most
people have for their hobbies. Wushu requires high levels of static
strength and explosive power, especially in the legs (for the low
stances), flexibility (for the high kicks), endurance (to sustain the
long hours of practice required), etc.
Friday Night and Saturday - The Shaolin Temple
2nd class, "hard sleeper" seats, which I've heard are the best, as 1st
class is too expensive to justify the benefits and 3rd class is
uncomfortable. There are 6 bunks to a compartment, and each HBA
student had a low bunk. Fairly comfortable sleep.
Woke up on Saturday morning about 6:30 AM. Saw countryside coming
in; lots of flatness and greenery, lots of row crops. Mildly rainy.
Though from the train the buildings looked fairly plain, after
emerging from the train station we arrived in a very colorful square,
though the buildings were still cheaply constructed – lots of
brightly-colored signs and block lettering. Starbucks effect present
here – there were 2 KFCs across the street from each other very close
to the train station. Took a bus (about 1.5 hours) to Tagou Wushu
Academy, passing from the richer part of the city to the poorer part
to the countryside. Bus drivers here will honk under all
circumstances – when other cars are in danger of bumping, when they
want to pass other cars and use the opposite lane (with cars clearly
oncoming), when driving around curves with bad views to warn potential
cars coming the other way they can't see, and sometimes on straight
roads with no cars in sight for good measure.
Tagou Wushu Academy, which is withing walking distance of Shaolin
Temple, is clearly poor. Several buildings in disrepair, roads
uneven, etc., like most of the buildings in the area. By comparison,
the Shaolin Temple itself (and its related property – they obtained a
lot of the surrounding land, held by other wushu schools, in 2003) is
pretty well kept, and the road leading up to it is in very good
repair. After arriving around 9:30 AM, we got our wushu clothes and
went to our rooms. I ended up with a single room through some
confusing housing-draw practices. Ate lunch at the cafeteria (the
food was mostly the same every day, standard Chinese restaurant fare –
rice and/or porridge with dishes of various combinations of meat,
vegetable, and egg).
Went to the Shaolin Temple area afterward. This place is touristy,
geared towards entertaining visitors (like us) – I suppose it would
have to be, given the money they must attract to maintain the good
condition they wish to keep the temple area in. We started by viewing
a wushu demonstration at the exhibition center, which was very
interesting and fun to watch – there were various special
demonstrations, such as weaponry, contortionism, animal styles, feats
of strength (including breaking metal bars on the practitioner's head
and piercing a hole through a sheet of glass to pop a balloon), and a
segment where audience members were invited up to learn a few wushu
moves (HBA student Kong Rui, aka Brian Campos, learned a bit of
scorpion style). When I say touristy, I mean that Shaolin Temple
workers were walking in front and around the stage, trying to sell us
photographs, DVDs, and other things – while the demonstration itself
was in progress.
After looking around the exhibition/practice center, we went to
Shaolin Temple proper, where a guide showed us around. Afterward we
asked temple staff questions about our social study topics. This
wasn't easy, given that not only did I not have a large vocabulary
about Buddhism, Daoism, and Wushu, but also the staff didn't all speak
with the accent I've been listening to for the last 4 weeks, and thus
I often had to ask them to repeat. Afterward, we went to a pagoda
ground with a lot of stone towers whose purpose I am not entirely
clear on. We then returned to Tagou to eat dinner and sleep.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Couple quick things
For those of you I'm writing too, I'll write after a few days of
Shaolin Temple if I'm lucky.
Shaolin Temple if I'm lucky.
Happy Birthday, Siddharth. How's Europe?
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Amassed details over the course of last week
My toilet just clogged for the seventh time. Really, this is getting excessive.
More thoughts on the food here - grain carbohydrate is cheap. Really cheap. About 3 kuai (at most) will buy all of the grain you really need for a single meal. Green vegetables are also pretty cheap. At the Conference Center where I stay, about 5 kuai will buy a meal's worth of reasonable non-oily vegetables.
On that note, my diet has gradually been going more and more vegan, since I'm not the biggest fan of boiled eggs, all the milk is whole milk, and I can't attest to the quality of meat. The biggest problem, food wise, is general lack of variety (especially in the vegetable department).
I recently bought Sun Tzu's The Art of War. Not just a book about fighting, it highlights a lot of Taoist mentality as well (especially "action through non-action" and other such paradoxical ideas; the ideal of war is to "win without fighting" in the same way that, as an anecdote says, the best doctor is never known because cures no one,, because his patients are never ill).
I notice that a lot of the examples we use in class involve using new grammar rules to describe just how busy and tired everyone is. I think it's counterproductive - everyone always talks about how tired they are, but really, there's no reason to keep talking about it. We all know it, it's clearly evident, let's move to a better topic already, preferably one that challenges us to use different words. This goes .double for outside-of-class discussions as well, where others are excessivly wordy about their state of business.
Ate lunch with my Chinese "baba" and his daughter on Monday afternoon. His daughter works at China Mobile, and is very interesting. My Chinese is definitely a lot better - this time around, the conversation wasn't nearly as one-sided as it was last time, and my "backread" time, the time it takes me to comprehend a relatively complex sentence after it is said, is much shorter. That said, though some differences between Chinese and American culture can be considered "politeness" by both sides (like the level of moderation present in Chinese speech), there is a very big difference which, though Chinese people consider their side of the practice "polite", Americans (or at least me) do not. That difference is how Chinese hosts press food and liquor on their guests - not to do so is considered impolite, and not to drink to drunkenness (host and guest) is considered impolite as well. Though Chinese people consider this polite, Americans consider it rude to do so, and so this difference is not one of more or less polite but rather how politeness is defined. Baba asked me if I wanted a beer, which I agreed to out of politeness (despite having class in an hour, I felt that there would be enough time for the effects of half a bottle to dissipate enough). However, since we were at the Muslim restaurant on campus, there wasn't any, and despite his repeated efforts to obtain some, he wasn't allowed to bring bottles in, so I was saved from having to find another excuse to not drink much. He also repeatedly put food on my plate - to deal with this, I didn't say "no" or "I don't want it" (which is impolite) but rather just left it there.
I'm considering a longer stay during my sophomore or junior year (term or year, leave or term(s) abroad), though I'm a little frustrated by the sheer amount of time I spend sitting down here (even less than the last summer spent at Siemens).
More thoughts on the food here - grain carbohydrate is cheap. Really cheap. About 3 kuai (at most) will buy all of the grain you really need for a single meal. Green vegetables are also pretty cheap. At the Conference Center where I stay, about 5 kuai will buy a meal's worth of reasonable non-oily vegetables.
On that note, my diet has gradually been going more and more vegan, since I'm not the biggest fan of boiled eggs, all the milk is whole milk, and I can't attest to the quality of meat. The biggest problem, food wise, is general lack of variety (especially in the vegetable department).
I recently bought Sun Tzu's The Art of War. Not just a book about fighting, it highlights a lot of Taoist mentality as well (especially "action through non-action" and other such paradoxical ideas; the ideal of war is to "win without fighting" in the same way that, as an anecdote says, the best doctor is never known because cures no one,, because his patients are never ill).
I notice that a lot of the examples we use in class involve using new grammar rules to describe just how busy and tired everyone is. I think it's counterproductive - everyone always talks about how tired they are, but really, there's no reason to keep talking about it. We all know it, it's clearly evident, let's move to a better topic already, preferably one that challenges us to use different words. This goes .double for outside-of-class discussions as well, where others are excessivly wordy about their state of business.
Ate lunch with my Chinese "baba" and his daughter on Monday afternoon. His daughter works at China Mobile, and is very interesting. My Chinese is definitely a lot better - this time around, the conversation wasn't nearly as one-sided as it was last time, and my "backread" time, the time it takes me to comprehend a relatively complex sentence after it is said, is much shorter. That said, though some differences between Chinese and American culture can be considered "politeness" by both sides (like the level of moderation present in Chinese speech), there is a very big difference which, though Chinese people consider their side of the practice "polite", Americans (or at least me) do not. That difference is how Chinese hosts press food and liquor on their guests - not to do so is considered impolite, and not to drink to drunkenness (host and guest) is considered impolite as well. Though Chinese people consider this polite, Americans consider it rude to do so, and so this difference is not one of more or less polite but rather how politeness is defined. Baba asked me if I wanted a beer, which I agreed to out of politeness (despite having class in an hour, I felt that there would be enough time for the effects of half a bottle to dissipate enough). However, since we were at the Muslim restaurant on campus, there wasn't any, and despite his repeated efforts to obtain some, he wasn't allowed to bring bottles in, so I was saved from having to find another excuse to not drink much. He also repeatedly put food on my plate - to deal with this, I didn't say "no" or "I don't want it" (which is impolite) but rather just left it there.
I'm considering a longer stay during my sophomore or junior year (term or year, leave or term(s) abroad), though I'm a little frustrated by the sheer amount of time I spend sitting down here (even less than the last summer spent at Siemens).
Sunday, July 5, 2009
July 4th and Karaoke
and so the general consensus was to go to a TGI Friday's located in a
hotel. I must confess, though, that I rather like Chinese food and
I'm not missing anything other than salad, fruit, and PB&J (and I can
get fruit here, it just takes time and water). As my friend Dai Si
Wen wrote on his blog, it seems that the cleanest and/or more
expensive restaurants don't necessarily have the best or safest food –
I contrast the TGI Friday's meal which, though it tasted good (grilled
chicken), wasn't anything special (and messed with my digestive track
a bit, I think), with the hotpot meal eaten with my Chinese Baba,
which probably cost half as much (and this is just for me – I think I
had the cheapest order at TGI Friday's) and was the best meal I've had
in this time zone (and among the safest), though the décor approached
zero (dimly lit, plain and some walls had dirt/stains, small and
just-barely-not-cramped).
For the more interesting part of the night, the group went to
Wudaokou to do KTV Karaoke. This is not the same Karaoke found in
America, where you're in a bar, there's a sign-up list, and one person
sings at a time in front of everybody – here your group gets its own
private room, with two microphones and a large remote and book of
codes you use to add songs to the queue. You can also order food in
your room (we ordered some sort of red bean, fruit, condensed milk,
and shaved ice confection). The most bizarre bit, however, is the
strange videos that play on the lyrics TV in the background. These
sometimes matched the song (animated dancers or scenes of a man and
woman meeting and falling in love/other standard music video tropes),
but often were out of place and thoroughly weird (fat Oceanians
dancing/one climbing a tree and cutting down a coconut, and a frontal
view of young boy playing on a beach, completely naked). Overall it
was fun.
The Ming Tombs, Laconically Speaking
visited three spots - the Sacred Way, which was lined with large stone
statues, and two emperors' tomb areas. The first had a large museum
with artifacts from the period. The second had an underground burial
area that was excavated. Both had large red-lacquer pavillions. They
looked good.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
My Room
that there is no divider between the toilet and shower.
Tea
water only (boiled tap water from my tap still has particles floating
and the water has a grainy texture, so I'm not dead sure on its
safety, and it sounds like many Chinese people, including my tutor,
really only drink bottled), so I had to be careful about boiling times
to make sure I didn't lose much liquid. The result is in the flask,
which has a strainer such that I can drink the tea without the tea
leaves leaving the bottle. The current green tea has a somewhat
toasty flavor, and isn't too bad. It looks like I have finally found
a stable afternoon caffeine source.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Apparently I look like the Slumdog Millionaire guy
So I just had my first "fluent" conversation. It was a bit short
("You are from what country?" "America" "How long have you been
studying Chinese?" "Before coming here, 1 year, after, 3 weeks" "Your
Chinese is fluent" "Thank you"), and I had to close my eyes briefly to
remember something, but I did not pause, spoke at normal speed, and
understood everything that was said.
One of the things I have noticed is the surprising amount of
contradictions and disagreements that the teachers give me regarding
whether a word is suitable or not/is commonly said. I suppose I
should have to "break" the language as much as possible in order to
find out what word usage draws surprised looks from others, and thus
is not quite correct.
I met with a BeiYu student while eating lunch in the cafeteria. He
said, in somewhat broken Chinese (which he to is learning), "Yao Ba
Ling Ling" - 1800 - referring to the fact that China is now like the
American West of the 1800s - given it's developing status, China has
lots of business opportunity, and so he is learning Chinese.
The intense writing is starting to take its toll - not on my mental
state, but on my hands. So far, I've heard no one else have problems
with repetitive stress, but then I haven't really talked about it,
either.
I saw a woman teaching Taijiquan outside. She showed me a bit of
sword-and-tassel work, and was very enthusiastic about having me as a
student. However, I didn't have time to stay and chat for long (about
7 minutes).
Apparently my Chinese tutor's friend thinks I look like the lead from
Slumdog Millionaire, and thus giggles every time we run into each
other (mostly at the place I use the internet). I'm somewhat
flattered. Also, I don't think I look like him, beyond the fact that
I'm of Indian descent, but Indians are fairly uncommon in Beijing
(though I have seen some).
I'm getting behind on current events in America.
The Chinese have a reputation for politeness (discussed in Thursday's
lesson). So far, from what I've seen, it's not really all that
different from the American system of politeness - it's just a matter
of degree, and as long as you know the degree to which other members
of a conversation are moderating their speech, and do likewise,
intentions aren't any more difficult to divine than they are in
America (this view is subject to change if I learn information to the
contrary).
One thing I forgot to mention that's vastly different from America -
umbrellas. The vast majority of girls here seem to carry umbrellas to
protect them from the sun, something I've never seen in America.
("You are from what country?" "America" "How long have you been
studying Chinese?" "Before coming here, 1 year, after, 3 weeks" "Your
Chinese is fluent" "Thank you"), and I had to close my eyes briefly to
remember something, but I did not pause, spoke at normal speed, and
understood everything that was said.
One of the things I have noticed is the surprising amount of
contradictions and disagreements that the teachers give me regarding
whether a word is suitable or not/is commonly said. I suppose I
should have to "break" the language as much as possible in order to
find out what word usage draws surprised looks from others, and thus
is not quite correct.
I met with a BeiYu student while eating lunch in the cafeteria. He
said, in somewhat broken Chinese (which he to is learning), "Yao Ba
Ling Ling" - 1800 - referring to the fact that China is now like the
American West of the 1800s - given it's developing status, China has
lots of business opportunity, and so he is learning Chinese.
The intense writing is starting to take its toll - not on my mental
state, but on my hands. So far, I've heard no one else have problems
with repetitive stress, but then I haven't really talked about it,
either.
I saw a woman teaching Taijiquan outside. She showed me a bit of
sword-and-tassel work, and was very enthusiastic about having me as a
student. However, I didn't have time to stay and chat for long (about
7 minutes).
Apparently my Chinese tutor's friend thinks I look like the lead from
Slumdog Millionaire, and thus giggles every time we run into each
other (mostly at the place I use the internet). I'm somewhat
flattered. Also, I don't think I look like him, beyond the fact that
I'm of Indian descent, but Indians are fairly uncommon in Beijing
(though I have seen some).
I'm getting behind on current events in America.
The Chinese have a reputation for politeness (discussed in Thursday's
lesson). So far, from what I've seen, it's not really all that
different from the American system of politeness - it's just a matter
of degree, and as long as you know the degree to which other members
of a conversation are moderating their speech, and do likewise,
intentions aren't any more difficult to divine than they are in
America (this view is subject to change if I learn information to the
contrary).
One thing I forgot to mention that's vastly different from America -
umbrellas. The vast majority of girls here seem to carry umbrellas to
protect them from the sun, something I've never seen in America.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Thoughts on Language Learning
There exists a stereotype of the tactless American, expecting a
foreigner to understand him when he speaks slower and louder.
Speaking slower and louder, however, can sometimes enable me to
understand a complex sentence that I could not understand at normal
speed (especially by breaking apart commonly elided words).
After finishing a discussion with my tutor (Wen Ting) on Sunday, a
first-year English student at BeiYu approached us, asking for some
help understanding his materials. He was reading the book Twilight by
Stephanie Meyer, and couldn't make out the meaning of "a still
figure." He was translating the words to roughly
"continuing-to-happen reckon/roughly-calculate," which are literal
translations of "still" and "figure" but make absolutely no sense
together when these definitions are used. Later, as I was walking to
lunch with Wen Ting, I found myself completely unable to adequately
describe why many people dislike Twilight – I do not yet know the
translations for phrases such as "flat characters" and "tedious
description" yet, though I can probably get at the individual meanings
of "flat," "character," "tedious," and "description," through long,
roundabout phrasing and luck.
Preserving short-term memory span is critical to learning language –
if you have to waste space in short-term memory on the definitions of
vocab, then you lose the ability to keep track of multiple nested
phrases and clauses, and thus the overall meaning of the sentence
you're trying to say/understand.
I had Beijing Duck at Chinese Table yesterday. Oily. Not really my
thing. I very much enjoy hot pot, though.
We first came across the concept of "face" in Chinese culture
yesterday. I've heard it said that there is no direct translation for
this concept into English (like the Japanese concept of zanshin, which
I came across in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash). This is perhaps so,
but it is possible to accurately describe what face is – I don't have
space/time to go into details here, but from what I've learned, it
roughly translates to one's reputation. Thus, though there is no one
word in English to describe "face," it is certainly explainable to
English speakers, and thus it is possible for members of each culture
to understand one another (as the main character also decides in Snow
Crash). This is a case where language doesn't constrict the
boundaries of thinking – it just makes this line of thought a bit
longer in one language than another.
On that note, I've been wanting to learn Lojban, a constructed
language that is grammatically unambiguous (an English example of an
ambiguous phrase being, for example, "the big dog catcher"). Though
it seems interesting, I have zero time to learn it.
Learning Chinese grammar is pretty easy – to my current
understanding, a given word can be used as several different parts of
speech, depending on where it is in the sentence, and the meaning is
easily understandable. Characters, however, are a major time sink,
especially since a character's appearance does not determine its
sound.
foreigner to understand him when he speaks slower and louder.
Speaking slower and louder, however, can sometimes enable me to
understand a complex sentence that I could not understand at normal
speed (especially by breaking apart commonly elided words).
After finishing a discussion with my tutor (Wen Ting) on Sunday, a
first-year English student at BeiYu approached us, asking for some
help understanding his materials. He was reading the book Twilight by
Stephanie Meyer, and couldn't make out the meaning of "a still
figure." He was translating the words to roughly
"continuing-to-happen reckon/roughly-calculate," which are literal
translations of "still" and "figure" but make absolutely no sense
together when these definitions are used. Later, as I was walking to
lunch with Wen Ting, I found myself completely unable to adequately
describe why many people dislike Twilight – I do not yet know the
translations for phrases such as "flat characters" and "tedious
description" yet, though I can probably get at the individual meanings
of "flat," "character," "tedious," and "description," through long,
roundabout phrasing and luck.
Preserving short-term memory span is critical to learning language –
if you have to waste space in short-term memory on the definitions of
vocab, then you lose the ability to keep track of multiple nested
phrases and clauses, and thus the overall meaning of the sentence
you're trying to say/understand.
I had Beijing Duck at Chinese Table yesterday. Oily. Not really my
thing. I very much enjoy hot pot, though.
We first came across the concept of "face" in Chinese culture
yesterday. I've heard it said that there is no direct translation for
this concept into English (like the Japanese concept of zanshin, which
I came across in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash). This is perhaps so,
but it is possible to accurately describe what face is – I don't have
space/time to go into details here, but from what I've learned, it
roughly translates to one's reputation. Thus, though there is no one
word in English to describe "face," it is certainly explainable to
English speakers, and thus it is possible for members of each culture
to understand one another (as the main character also decides in Snow
Crash). This is a case where language doesn't constrict the
boundaries of thinking – it just makes this line of thought a bit
longer in one language than another.
On that note, I've been wanting to learn Lojban, a constructed
language that is grammatically unambiguous (an English example of an
ambiguous phrase being, for example, "the big dog catcher"). Though
it seems interesting, I have zero time to learn it.
Learning Chinese grammar is pretty easy – to my current
understanding, a given word can be used as several different parts of
speech, depending on where it is in the sentence, and the meaning is
easily understandable. Characters, however, are a major time sink,
especially since a character's appearance does not determine its
sound.
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