meiadeleite.com – Page 288

so-so.

sunday. we enter the elevator with some kids and their parents. the kids (2 boys of around 7) are giggling and mutter “waiguo ren” (foreigners).
they’re talking about us, so i gently correct him and say “putaoya ren” which means portuguese. (and also that we can understand him :P).

he laughs, a bit shy, and conspires with his friend and parents which urge him to speak to us, and then he says “how do you do?”, in english. i say “fine, thank you, and you?”, “just so-so”, he replies and then they leave the elevator.

“just so-so” is the translation of “mama huhu”, the typical answer for a “nihao ma?” (how are you?). the chinese will not usually say they are good, or very good, or any other extreme feelings, and rather settle for a moderate answer.

they are just so-so. it’s a funny detail.

Post author By ana
Post date October 16, 2007
8 Comments on so-so.

in china

you say fog, i say pollution.

this is the view from our living room, at 8 am in the morning.

it’s hard to forget there is a problem when you have this kind of daily reminder.

Post author By ana
Post date October 15, 2007
3 Comments on you say fog, i say pollution.

in china

have a guess.

from the message in the bag above, you would say that its contents came from:

a) a chinese pharmacy
b) a fake dvd’s store
c) a visa agency
d) a veterinarian clinic
e) a carnivore plant shop
e) ______________________ (add your own suggestion)

in china

that time of the year.

october. november. december.
the rest of the year is stretching on sight now as the final trimester is here. i was going to write about how the weather has completely changed and now settled into a summer-autumn interlude, with nice temperatures and less mosquito bites – but today, there’s actually lots of rain (krosa was supposed to miss shanghai, yet, it’s making more damage than wipha, few weeks ago).

nevertheless, i like the rain and the wind, even if i get all soaked on my bike, while my yellow raincoat floats around me. autumn is my favorite season, for the colors and weather, and the creativity flows.

on other news, we’ve moved to a new house, slowly, on the 31st floor of the building next door. after a few days, the cats are still scared at every noise and hide below the couch most of the time. we’ve thoroughly cleaned it and we have managed to buy the contents of our previous apartment to the landlord – a difficult task, involving a couple of hours of discussing prices of items in our basic mandarin, but we did pretty well and in the end, managed to get a decent price out of the lot.

on a small remark, i can’t explain how proud i am that we haven’t given up on chinese classes, unlike many other expats i’ve seen here. no matter what they say, i still maintain that it makes a lot of difference whether you speak the language or not, in the way people treat you and on what you can achieve or understand about this culture. besides, no one can possibly convince me that learning the most spoken language in the world is a waste of time.

speaking of which, it’s been six months since we set foot on this land. maybe i should have blogged more, while things were still fresh, but first impressions are not always the most reliable, at least on this side of the globe.
through it all, i can say that i really like what we have here right now, and how shanghai is turning out to be. never mind the frustrations: the surprises have far outcome my initial expectations, though i think you have to live here for a while to understand what i mean. it’s like finding beauty in the randomness, or the chaos.

it’s not easy, but it sure is rewarding. the same thing can probably be said about the whole china. as josh puts it:

Where else is life a road that can veer off in any direction at any time? Where can you head to one of the biggest cities in the world and end up in an antiquated hotel surrounded by rice paddy fields? Where else can you wake up each morning and think to yourself, ‘something crazy is definitely going to happen today?’

rfc: what would you like me to blog about, regarding china? any questions or hidden doubts? i am by no means an expert in asian issues, but i’ve answered a few emails in the past few months of curious readers, so if you’ve been lurking and itching to ask something, go ahead and leave a comment! :)

photo by lifesucker, on flickr.

in china

中秋节 (zhōng qiū jié)

today is the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the chinese calendar, which is the “middle autumn festival”. it’s a day when families in china gather and eat traditional mooncakes by the full moon. i had never heard of it before, but the story is quite nice, and the mooncakes (like those 2 above, kindly offered by my company) are not that bad. :)
here is the tale that originated this holiday, according to wikipedia:

Houyi himself was an immortal, while Chang’e was a beautiful young girl, working in the Jade Emperor’s (Emperor of Heaven) Palace as the attendant to the Queen Mother of the West (wife of the Jade Emperor), just before her marriage. One day, Houyi aroused the jealousy of the other immortals, who then slandered him before the Jade Emperor. Houyi and his wife, Chang’e, were subsequently banished from heaven, and forced to live by hunting on earth. He became a famous archer.

Now at this time, there were 10 suns that took turns to circle the earth — one every 10 days. One day, all 10 of the suns circled together, causing the earth to burn. Emperor Yao, the Emperor of China, commanded Houyi to shoot down all but one of the suns. Upon the completion of his task, the Emperor rewarded Houyi with a pill that granted eternal life, and advised him: “Make no haste to swallow this pill; first prepare yourself with prayer and fasting for a year”. Houyi took the pill home and hid it under a rafter, while he began healing his spirit. While Houyi was healing his sprit, Houyi was summoned again by the emperor. Chang’e, noticing a white beam of light beckoning from the rafters, discovered the pill, which she swallowed. Immediately, she found that she could fly. At that moment, Houyi returned home, and, realizing what had happened, began to reprimand her. Chang’e flew out the window into the sky.

With bow in hand, Houyi sped after her, and the pursuit continued halfway across the heavens. Finally, Houyi had to return to the Earth because of the force of the wind. Chang’e reached the moon, and breathless, she coughed. Part of the pill fell out from her mouth. Now, the hare was already on the moon, and Chang’e commanded the animal to make another pill from it, so that she could return to earth to her husband.

As of today, the hare is still pounding herbs, trying to make the pill. As for Houyi, he built himself a palace in the sun as “Yang” (the male principle), with Chang’e as “Yin” (the female principle). Once a year, on the 15th day of the full moon, Houyi visits his wife. That is why, that night, the moon is full and beautiful.

happy mid-autumn festival!