Category: in china

Categories
in china

sichuan earthquake, donations and a pack of postcards

to help the victims of the sichuan earthquake, postcrossing is raising donations which will be sent to the red cross society of china. as a bonus, we will send a set postcards to the first 100 people who donate over 15 US dolars or 10 euros.

the postcards are part of a set called “no man’s view” by chinese photographer phoebe jin who kindly offered the packs to postcrossing. “no man’s view” is a collection of 25 photographic postcards, with images in black and white or muted colors, taken in china and abroad.

all help is appreciated. thank you!

Categories
in china

word of the day: 地震 = dì zhèn = earthquake

during today’s chinese class, 2:30pmish:

me – teacher, can we stop a bit? i’m feeling dizzy.
heidi – me too, strange.

a little silence followed, while we realized that the whole apartment on 31st floor was gently swaying back and forth.

heidi – is it an earthquake?
me – hum, you’re probably right.

scary mixed feelings: the urgency of getting cover and feeling safe ground, the panic of being too high to reach safe ground quickly, the fear of the building just collapsing on us (i don’t think many of the buildings in shanghai would resist a serious earthquake).

so after a bit of hesitation, we got our shoes on, ran downstairs and rested a bit in the park until we felt calmer… and eavesdropped on passerby’s who seemed to have either felt it too and seen the buildings moving – or not felt it at all.

i ended up canceling the rest of the class because afterwards i didn’t feel too safe up there and took a taxi towards a coffeeshop on nanjing. the driver had heard about the earthquake on the radio, but didn’t feel anything and proceeded to reassure me that in shanghai, earthquakes were very rare.

good.

Categories
in china

blind dating

the description on the back:

It’s amazing to me that a society which has mastered the concept of fire is capable of making a film this bad.

Too insipidly, cloyingly cutesy to be edge, too crass, juvenile and vulgar to be cute, and not funny enough to be either. Additionally, there is not one single iota of genuine wit, emotion, or originality in even one frame of this odious film.

It’s as if someone took “At first sight”, “Daredevil”, “My big fat greek wedding” and “Bend it like Beckham” (among others) and threw them in a blender. Worse than that the film is insulting to every group it portrays: blind people, Italian-American, African-American, Indian-Americans, limousine drivers, therapists. Even the portrayal of prostitutes is somehow beneath the dignity of the profession.

The ludicrous, predictable plot would be easily forgivable. After all, this is a romantic comedy. We’re here to have fun and feel good.

what would your reaction be, if the movie you were about to pick had this (brilliant) synopsis? :D

Categories
in china

your daughter’s (olympic) graduation

“…those concerns about China’s human rights are legitimate and justified, but this is not the right time to over blow it into serious confrontation. …… to highlight these problems in the run up to the Olympics is inappropriate. It’s like on your daughter’s graduation ceremony, one of your friends tries to point out the fact that she is actually three months pregnant and doesn’t know who is the baby’s father.”

Great analogy! Unfortunately though, there are a whole bunch of people who are absolutely determined to use this moment to bring their concerns about Tibet, Darfur, human rights etc etc to the attention of the world. They see this as their only opportunity to exert pressure on Beijing and not only will laugh and point and catcall at your daughter, they’ll claim to have impregnated her themselves if it gets people to take notice.

again, from the time: blog.

Categories
in china

piece of advice

Hmmmm……. I think for once, I’ll leave it to the Xinhua to say it for me. Here’s part of a recent editorial from China’s official news service:

“We are on our way to becoming a powerful country, and we should also learn to think like citizens of a big country. A strong country not only has a strong economy, but also a mature mentality. This includes the ability to take pressure in stride, and face difficulties in a rational way.”

seen on the Time: China blog. go ahead and read the whole post, for some insight on the “high emotions” running in china these days.