Suzhou's sickos...

I was talking with some friends on the weekend about some of the more unusual "things" we'd seen in Suzhou. The conversation soon degenerated into some of the more 'out-there' things. Here's some I've seen:

Just this Sunday, a guy throwing up out the side of the front passenger seat of a car (while driving). This was down Gang Jiang Jie - the busiest street in the city. It went on for about 4 blocks, until we passed the car, and by that stage there was an incredible amount of spew all over their new BMW...

A while back I saw an old guy - about 60 or 70 years old taking a wizz into a canal, on the same street - in front of everyone. The thing was, he didn't seem to make any effort to be discreet (like going down a few of the steps leading to the water and away from everyone's view) - he just got it out in front of everyone. Everyone, kept going about their business - no problems...

Regularly, we see kids walking around taking a dump, or having a wizz through Chinese designed pants - that are pants for kids with a huge hole at the bottom. Why bother with nappys when you can just let it all out anywhere - and I mean anywhere, with reports of this occurring in supermarkets and shops... Must get cold down there, mind you...

Possibly the best, was one I didn't actually witness - a friend of ours saw a completely naked man on the side of the road selling his wares on a blanket as others do. Apparently, he was just acting normal, and everyone else was too - just totally ignoring the fact that he was just standing there naked. In the West, if you saw this, you'd realise it was probably some sort of dare underway, and secondly you'd probably yell something out to them... but here, you just apparently do that stuff, and you ignore it when you see it...

metal

Metal music - what's it all about? I don't know... Anyway, I've been discussing this a bit on a few forums lately, check this out if you're interested.

turning things off

This photo and the photo from the last post are both from the area within Shanghai known as the French Concession. I don't think there were ever actually many French people living there - but there were Russians and other Europeans once. Anyway, it is heavily European influenced and looks quite beautiful.

One unusual Chinese characteristic very noticeable at my work, is the perceived importance of turning electrical things off to save money. It starts off with things like photocopiers and printers, which are constantly turned off as the Chinese staff walk past them. That's kind of bearable, but it still means that I have to get up and turn the printer on and boot up the computer connected to it nearly everytime I print something - 5 minutes of wasted time...

Then there's the lights - lights are never used, unless its absolutely necessary. At times I'm working away at work in the dark, but if a couple of dollars can be saved by turning lights off then, that seems to be the preferred approach.

But it gets worse. If you leave your desk for 30 minutes or an hour, someone will come along and turn your computer off - even if you have documents up etc. Now in winter, it's really cold - probably no more than about 10 degrees in the office... the Chinese staff will turn on the faulty old airconditioners (that cut out at 18 degrees) to warm the place up (read: blow luke warm air around the room for a short while), and then turn them off again. Probably about two bursts every hour of about 10-15 minutes. Consequently, I wear a heavy millitary jacket, scarf and about 3 layers of clothes at all times in the office. I do take my beannie off just so I look a little less 'outside'...

Everything is about turning stuff on then off... on then off... saving money? Who knows. I tried to find information on the internet about how turning lights on and off and booting computers up 3 or 4 times a day is not good use of energy, but, I don't know if that's still the case - computers have improved a lot in recent years...

So this is just one thing, I think I'll have to live with...

Westerners are all the same

As Morrissey once said on that infamous album by the Smiths, "I was shocked and surprised to discover..." that Asian people think that all Western people look the same, and that they can't tell the difference between us often. Weird heh? Maybe it's a bit of a generalisation (which is something I'm good at dealing with in), but a few Chinese people have now confirmed this. Many Westerners here have made comments to that effect all along, but I kind of didn't believe them. But our young, educated Chinese tutour just this week said to me, "yes, we Chinese people cannot tell Western people apart"...

Of course that raises the Asian stereotype, that all Asian people look the same - same coloured hair, same straight hair (and usually the same style here in China), same colour eyes, similar complexion, almost no variation in their height (ie small), no fat people - everyone is the same build... So then, if Western people range from tiny, thin to tall and obese.... with different complexions, hair colours, styles of hair, different eye colours etc - and to make another generalisation allowing for a lot more individuality through the development of sub-cultures etc (goths, punks, yuppies, 2nd hand clothese buyers, power dressers, indy types etc etc) - which just doesn't seem to be all that much developed here.... then how come Chinese people can't tell us apart??

To put this theory to the test, I borrowed an American friend's swimming membership card complete with photo. I think this guy looks different to me, but would Chinese peopleagree? He's taller, a different build, and I don't know - just looks quite different. Turns out that when I went to use his card, the person barely looked at it. So I got in on his membership... but I don't think my test was conclusive...

more backtracking

This is a photo of Sapporo's airport where we landed a few week's back. It was supposed to be a 3 hour flight, but became 4 hours after we circled for an extra hour, as there was snow on the runway. After we landed, I remember thinking, how the heck did we ever land with all that snow everywhere? The landing was actually really smooth...

After living in China for over 5 months, Japanese people seemed extremely friendly and polite to us. That's not to say that Chinese people are rude, but just that there are some cultural differences involved in welcoming people and serving people etc. Some of it is clearly language based, as the Japanese language has developed with inbuilt words that relay respect and service that are common in everyday situations. Even the way they say 'hai' is very polite and welcoming... Speaking to an Australian who has lived in Japan for 4 years, and an American for 8 years, though, gave a different perspective on Japanese people. They both basically said that they couldn't stand the overwhelming politeness that accompanies any conversation. In fact, it was explained to me that the difference in cultures between willingness to express what people actually think is vastly different in Japan, and that essentially this is the difference - that the extreme friendliness encountered is a cultural and language aspect that actually masks true feelings... interesting...

Anyway, you don't get that here in China, so it was welcomed. The Japanese language also struck us as being really cute sounding, even beautiful. It's more smooth flowing than Chinese and very childlike. In fact, I kept remarking to Nancy and others how it sounds like a kids' language... Of course the Japanese fascination with child like qualities (from the girly pigtails, to the short skirts, and kitschy products) - particularly in women is a whole other story...

Japan and other stuff

I've been offline for sometime due to a week's vacation in Japan, and trouble with accessing the internet. The recent earthquake in Taiwan severed some undersea cables, and since late December, our already slow internet access has gotten much worse. I can't access many sites from Australia or North America at the moment, and if we can they are usually painfully slow at uploading.

Like Nancy said in her blog, many things have happened, and I will try to mention some of these over the next few weeks. We left for Japan on 23 December and stayed until 31 December in Niseko, a ski village on the island of Hokaido. It was lots of fun and very tiring - the good thing about skiing is that it keeps you fit, while you're also relaxing. So we had Christmas together there - it was pretty much just another day, though. We bumped into Tara and Oogs - Tara best friend of Renae - some of you will remember/know her... We made a few other friends there - people we mostly kept bumping into.

New Years was quiet, but we enjoyed a brunch meal at the Suzhou Sheraton. It was astounding the amount of food there...

I'm really feeling more positive about China since returning. Maybe my 6 month culture shock period is drawing to a close. Everyday now it seems I get complimented by Chinese people about how good my Chinese is, which is really satisfying and good for motivation. And I think I'm also getting a lot more comfortable with being stared at, and at being an outsider here...

Chinglish

I was just helping a Chinese friend today to translate a menu into English. She'd had a go at it, and then I checked it and used my basic knowledge of Chinese characters to see if it made sense. It was pretty funny, but I tidied it up as much as I could. I must say though I felt really tempted to throw in the odd surprise word like 'penis' or 'nose' or something... mind you, those sort of delicacies could be pretty believable here anyway.

Anyway, I just did a quick google search on Chinglish menus and found this nice surprise!!

cute kids

These kids are so cute. These are my grade 4 students - there's 18 of them and I may only get to teach them one more time, so I thought I'd take a photo... My other group of school kids are grade 5 students, and I don't like them anywhere near as much - I'll be happy when that course ends. But this group is really special, they are cute and usually eager to learn English. And when they don't understand something, they have this funny looking confused look on their faces that is priceless.

I know this is an obvious statement, but it's fascinating observing them all and seeing their different personalities at such a young age... you can see the smart ones, the funny ones, the loner types, the ones that are quiet and studious, the ones who are bored, the ones who try to get the teacher's approval all the time... it's a tiny snapshot of society, which is pretty cool.

Merry Christmas

etc

people

All it takes is a trip to our biggest local supermarket, Auchan, to realise (in case I'd forgotten) that China has a lot of people. Too many people really - a ridiculously unfathomable amount of people actually... This supermarket is crammed... I was there on a Wednesday morning at 10.30 - evidently that was a peak hour. There's no way of knowing when peak hour is for this place, as its opened Monday to Friday until 9pm, but always seems to be overloaded. In certain places within the shop, trolleys were at a standstill, one massive traffic jam with people almost crushed in there.... that still doesn't stop the old people especially, from ramming their way through somehow...

I tried to do a rough estimate of people in the shop so that you could get an idea, I'd guess that in any 5 by 5 metre space in the shop, they'd be at least 30-50 people... I'm guessing there was probably over 5000 people in that shop when I was just there (that's far bigger than most concerts I've ever seen).... but who knows... people are trying to move everywhere, but it's a bit like a slowly moving stream of lava... once you enter the place, your direction is guided by those around you... you don't really have a lot of control.... it's incredibly frustrating for a non-shopper like me...

I'm just constantly thinking that it's unbelievably incredible the numbers of people here.... Suzhou itself - a city of 6 million + people is not even in the 20th largest cities of China... it's about an hours drive outside of Shanghai, which in most Western cities would make it an outer suburb of Shanghai... that's a scary thought considering that Shanghai itself is supposed to have anywhere between 13 million - 16 million people...

You see a lot of massive restaurants in China - 3-5 level restaurants that could probably fit about 500 + people on each floor... these restaurants are nearly always full - that's thousands of people all eating at the one place - how many cooks must they have??? Where does all the food come from???

blogs

(this is another picture from the Pudong area of Shanghai)... I don't feel I'm a blog person. I just don't feel this medium really suits me. I rarely read other people's blogs, although I have been reading some friends' blogs a bit more regularly, but that's probably because I'm no longer in Brisbane. I was just thinking about the format and type of audience a blog is devised for. It kinda feels like you're talking to no one... perhaps this is the part I find difficult. It's like you're an actor practising your lines in a big empty performance hall. Every now and then you see a cleaner in the back of the theatre walk in and out, but largely you're by yourself.

I contribute to a few forums as some of you will know - mostly music related... Actually mostly Stereolab related to be exact. And I'm still emailing some friends quite regularly - almost every day, just like I used to do in Brisbane. But even all of these electronic forms of communication are subtlely different. At a forum and via email, I'm used to getting quick responses, so it become quite like chatting. But here, there's really this monologue effect and no audience to receive it... but then sometimes people come in and leave comments - which is nice, but it's like someone going to see a performance, seeing that it's already happened and leaving a note for the performer...

It's not like I don't have much to say, as I'm seeing new things or thinking about things in a different way quite regularly. Actually most of the time, I feel like there is too much going on, that I can't properly explain it, and can't be bothered... I think other blogers will know this feeling. So you only capture little snippets here and there. When I flick through my blog, I feel that there is not much here to give a sense about my life here in China and many, many things I haven't mentioned at all that I would like to talk about (such as my view of Chinese people's attitudes to their government, their view of the West, and what's true and what's perhaps not true about the West's view of China)... Of course, there is never a way that an experience can be completely shared, it must always just be someone's interpretation of what it is like...

Any thoughts anyone? I guess I'm mostly talking to Matt, Murray, Nick, Jonno etc - who may be able to share my blog frustrations. There's been many times, when I think I might just end this blog, but then I change my mind.

Weekend in Shanghai

Trace and I had a weekend in Shanghai this weekend. It was pretty cool except for a few problems with trains and dealing with people hassling us in the street. In Shanghai, we managed to make it to Cloud 9, an exclusive bar/restaurant on the 87th floor of a building that is apparently the 4th largest building in the world. This was a highlight of the weekend.

We had problems getting to Shanghai, which is crazy as its only 1 hour away (by train), or slightly longer by car. Suzhou Train Station is a real sh*t hole... looks part like a war zone, part train station, part freak show... you get hassled lots and stared much much more than you do anywhere else in Suzhou. There's rubble, dirt and all kinds of other stuff all over the ground around the place and it's not clear whether they're rebuilding or destroying the place. Trying to find a taxi is harder than trying to explain why "The Office" is funny to a Chinese person - and that my friend, is pretty hard...

It took a while to even book tickets for the train. You can only do this 7 days in advance of the train leaving, and its advisable to prebook as Chinese trains can get packed. The problem is, the train system is convoluted and highly confusing - there are hard seat tickets, soft seat tickets, standing, and then there are fast trains, slow trains and the really fast trains. It's a bit of a guess as to which ticket you get, there doesn't seem to be any system to naming of trains, and no timetable available online or at the station. So, after being issued standing tickets we decided to arrive about 3 hours before our train left to see if we could exchange them for sitting ones. We couldn't - it was all booked. The military apparently decided to travel by trains all weekend. So we sat down on cold metal chairs and waited about 2 hours, and then found out that our train was delayed another hour... We had to be in Shanghai for an appointment, so then we had to negotiate with taxi drivers on the street to take us there. We paid 350 kuai (maybe about $60 Aust dollars) to then travel to Shanghai by cab... and half way there realised we'd both forgotten our passports (which are essential to stay anywhere here).

It's been frustrating. Frustrating that for a city that is an hour away, it can take all up about 4-5 hours to get there and a lot of money (about 450 kuai including all the taxi tickets to the train station in order to buy tickets that we then didn't use...). I think I'm going through my critical 3 month to 6 month period of culture shock (according to some theories)... This is the time more than any other when you're likely to completely lose it, because you're frustrated at how things work or don't work in your new environment...

Our weekend had some highs though - it was nice discovering upon the French Concession area of Shanghai - leafy European like streets with trendy restaurants and shops. We also saw some more interesting structures on the Pudong side of Shanghai (the new area).

language

Language is an infinitely fascinating concept to me. It's one of the basic fundamental building blocks of life along with time etc...Right now language occupies my thoughts constantly. I'm teaching language, I'm learning language, and when I'm not doing either I'm either communicating by language or thinking about how I can teach language better, and learn language more effectively... It's kind of all consuming. Sometimes I'm teaching my students, and I put myself in their place imagining how useful the lesson is... and then I'm a chinese language student and I'm both analysing my teacher's teaching techniques as well as identifying things that I could use in my classes, and of course trying to actually learn the language.

I'm also reading about language - particularly the study of languages - linguistics and similar fields like semiotics - the study of signs. Language is essentially a set of signs that signify things to those who can understand. It's through language that we create a shared understanding of meaning. This is very academic and I'm actually re-reading some university texts I've previously studied in my communication and cultural analysis subjects at university. I know, nerd, nerd, nerd...

One of the things I actually ask my students from time to time, is "how do you learn a language?" - ie what works for you? and do you have any tips. One approach I'm trying out at the moment is to paste sheets of Chinese language all throughout the house - mostly in places like the shower, toilet and kitchen... I think it's helping.

cold and rainy

Blogger is back and working again after the 40,000 - 80,000 reported 'scanner' employees spent the last three weeks checking for inappropriate posts. At least that's what I can only assume. So evidently, my blog has passed the test? Because it's still alive.

There have been many things I could have mentioned here over the last 3 weeks, and some of it I've put in emails and other forums etc. Tracey has been keeping her blog up to date, so check hers out as well. I'm hoping to make more of an effort to phone a few people and not spend as much time online. But now I'm working every night of the week (except Saturday and Sunday of course), so it will be more difficult to find a good time to phone.

It's been really cold and rainy for the past three or four days. But everyone says it will get really cold when the rain goes away. Right now, I think our maximum daily temperatures couldn't be any higher than about 12/13 degrees. We've finally worked out how to run the air conditioners as heaters at home which is helping a bit. But I have a big list of necessary clothing items to buy: gloves, scarf/s, beanie, slippers (that's right, not afraid of 'em), raincoat for my bike... I bought a heavy duty jacket the other day. It's kind of a cross between a military overcoat and one of those horrible jackaroo Australian jackets - what were they called again?

My Chinese is getting a little better. I now have 3 morning lessons a week with a Chinese student tutour and am also trying out a lot more stuff with the 2 Chinese staff here at work, and all the other people I meet in our daily life.

The other day I bought the complete series of Black Adder on DVD. My goal was to convince Tracey that Rowan Atkinson is funny. Tracey only knows him as Mr Bean and as that feeble wimpy character he often plays in movies (largely based on Mr Bean). Unfortunately, we sat down and watched the whole first series - which is really ordinary, and no where near as funny as series 2, 3 and 4. So now she's even less convinced...

censorship II

"woh woh, woopsy daisy"

From Murray:

"In China, we don't have software blocking Internet sites. Sometimes we have trouble accessing them. But that's a different problem...I've heard people say that the BBC is not available in China or that it's blocked. I'm sure I don't know why people say this kind of thing. We do not have restrictions at all."
-- Chinese official at UN summit in Athens, denying the existence of the well-documented Great Firewall of China

(by the way, this image isn't related, it's just funny)

the latest

The latest news with this site is that Blogger is still down - meaning we can post, but can't view our sites or other sites... It's really annoying. There is a way around it by going to one of the illegal sites that let's you search for anthing on the net (blocked or unblocked), but these are often slow and unfriendly and usually I can't be bothered with the whole process. So I don't think I'll post much until it's back and running again.

About 3 weeks ago Tracey and I bought bicyles, which has been a great investment. I've been riding to and from work everyday which is lots of fun and helps me stay fit.

I'm starting to become more aware of the grime and dirtyness of this place. I often go outside and within a few hours feel dirty - dirty hands and face and your clothes can look and feel a bit dirty. The pollution - hazy sky thing has been a bit more noticeable over the last month. There's not really bad smells in the air, but there must be a lot of pollution. Although I'm sure it's nothing like some of the industrial Chinese cities.

The Chinese language is improving ever so slightly. I get frustrated at times that I'm not already an expert!! But, have to reassure myself that it's a long process to learn a language and it won't happen over night. I feel that my listening is improving, but my speaking is very ordinary. I now have a tutor (a Chinese student) who comes to our place 3 mornings a week, so I'm sure this will help me to improve. I'm also seriously considering enrolling in the university course which is 5 mornings a week for 4 hours each day, but I don't think this starts until February.

Other than all of that, we're both looking forward to going to Hokaido, Japan to ski for the Christmas week, which isn't all that far away.

blogger's down

bathroom scene
Originally uploaded by Wurly.

Bloggin' hell... Blogger's down again - has been for about 4 or 5 days. Damn you people (raises fist in the air)!!! I can evidently post, but can't view the site. Luckily that will still allow me to put a coded message in my blog entry, to let everyone know that “capitalism is your best friend”... he he he...

In the meantime, why not join our new Flicker group - "the Everyday Mundane" - it's not inspired by the everyday beautiful, in fact it's not inspired at all. If you have photos that are unimaginative, banal, mundane, worthless, boring or craptacular (as Jonno put it)... then feel free to jam up that site with photos. The photo that accompanies this post is one I've submitted. It's a stunning photo in my mind, imaginatively titled “bathroom scene”...

I'm out!

summer's ending

As I mentioned a few posts back, the temperature can very quickly drop here in Suzhou. In the last couple of days, we've gone from quite warm, humid days where we've used the air conditioning regularly, to a drop of at least 5 degrees cooler. It's days like these when you realise how cold Suzhou can get, and that when people keep telling you that it gets really cold that you start to believe them.

On another topic - here's an interesting widipedia article on funny words. Apparently words like underpants (and simply pants), duck, megaphone, weasel, spleen and the 'Wankel rotary engine' are inherently funny... if you're not laughing now as you read this, there's something wrong with you!!

more on photography

After finishing reading Sontag’s, book On Photography I feel that it has affirmed my belief in the importance of being present in the moment, of living each moment, taking it in and living life to the full. Photography is a type of consumption – we consume photos quicker as technology improves. With the advent of digital cameras and iPhoto and computerised documenting of photos, we are taking more photos and keeping more. But we can never reach our need for the consumption of photos – “As we make images and consume them, we need still more images; and still more”, says Sontag. She describes it as a lust, which cannot be satisfied: “first, because the possibilities of photography are infinite; and second, because the project is finally self-devouring”.

The consumption of photography is also due to the accessibility of it – it is both easy to participate in (to take photos or be in them) and easy to appreciate them. This makes photography quite different from other art forms such as painting and literature, which require greater time, and an often more advanced understanding of how to see (ie cultural literacy).

Some other thoughts from Sontag’s book: “One can’t possess reality, one can possess (and be possessed by) images… one can’t possess the present but one can possess the past”. It’s almost as though by taking a photo we are ignoring the present, but documenting the past… an interesting thought. Garry Winogrand has said, “I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed”.

I like Jonathan’s idea of a challenge to take the most boring, uninteresting, or worthless photo – perhaps this could be our new challenge for a flickr group? My photo for this post is an example…

film

more later