Everyone in China is on vacation for the National Day Holiday-a celebration of the founding of the PRC. Everyone is off from work for a full week. I will be heading to Fujian province later today for 6 days to visit with a Chinese friend of mine. Here is a map of China and its 23 provinces (click to enlarge). You can also see the 2 Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau. National Day is celebrated by everyone except the 23rd province...that rebellious child Taiwan. I live in Jiangxi (pronounced Jiangshi) province in the capital city of Nanchang which is for some reason not on the map and I will be heading to Fujian province later today for 6 days to visit with a Chinese friend of mine. We will go to Fuzhou (pronounced Fudzjou), the capital city of Fujian, also not on the map, and we will go to Xiamen (pronounced Shiamen) which is on the map and purportedly has beautiful beaches--though most Chinese do not know how to swim and think it's very dangerous to swim and as you may recall my earlier post, they aren't too fond of the sun either, so the beaches may be empty. I also plan to climb the famous Wuyi mountain range in Fujian. If any of you have seen Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and remember the last scene in the movie where the girl jumps off the top of a mountain where there is a temple, apparently I will get to see several Buddhist temples just like it on these mountains. In honor of National Day, here are a few pictures from the Bayi Square in the center of Nanchang-my city and the birthplace of the Chinese Red Army. There is a big flag monument you can see in 2 pictures, some red flags, a big red star, and a big Wal-Mart...all appropriate symbols of China.
I got a chance to discuss some interesting things about family relations in China. Some things you probably already know, most Chinese parents work long hours so they are raised by the grandparents. Many if not most Chinese fathers and mothers do not live in the same province b/c it's very difficult to find jobs in general, so the husbands and wives only see each other 2-3 times a year (perhaps this explains the proliferation of pink houses...). B/c of the extreme level of competitiveness in the job market, children starting at age 12 are often sent off to a different province (i.e. state) for middle and high school-boarding schools. But even with all this, the level of family respect is very interesting. I asked what would happen if a girl became pregnant and she was not married. The girl's and boy's parents would discuss together on whether they agree that the girl and boy should get married. Most importantly, the boy's parents would decide whether they think the girl is good enough for their boy. If they don't think so, they will tell her to get lost. At this point, the girl's parents would usually try to pressure her to get an abortion unless they want her to keep the baby. If she does not want an abortion, they will kick her out and never talk to her again. If the boy and girl do not agree to all this, and instead want to get married--this is unheard of, the idea of not agreeing with your parents but I had to inquire for sake of full disclosure and understanding--then they would be cut off from both families who would never speak to them again. If a girl has the baby, the next decision comes, whether to keep the baby. A certain Houdini may find this interesting. Very often, the girl would be against an abortion but would not want to keep the baby so they will often just drop off the baby at the train station or hospital or bus station or police station or in the middle of the street. This is very convenient b/c then people that want to have a child but cannot can just pick it up, fill out some forms that take 30 minutes to do, and it's their baby. I asked if there is any legal concerns for the new mother, and was faced with blank expressions and finally explanations that no, of course not, this is normal. You gotta love the efficiency, in America, if someone wants to abandon their baby, they gotta give it to DCFS which will stick it into a foster home for probably 3 years while they process paperwork or whatever it is they do and then they will spend a long time hassling prospective adoptive parents with interviews and home visits b4 they can adopt the baby...
Well I don't have a pic of this one but it sounds very fnucked up. So apparently at the most high end restaurants you can get a true delicacy. Have you ever seen Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom?--the scene where they are served monkey brains? Well apparently, that's not good enough for China, b/c monkey brains are not tasty when they are not fresh...You can go into a restaurant, they have round tables with several holes in the table. They stick live (!) monkeys under the table, they are tied up and they affix their heads through the holes and cut off the top of the skull (now we are talking more Hannibal Lecter style) so you can take a knife and your chop sticks and start munching away at the live monkey brain. When I commented that perhaps this is a little inhumane to the monkey, I was informed that it's very humane b/c the way they cut off the top of the skull makes it to where the monkey does not feel any pain and it's basically paralyzed, it just looks at you, so it's ok. I did not get a chance to get any comments from the monkeys...
Eating in China is very interesting. It's a communal affair. Many dishes are ordered and are brought to the table and placed in the middle and everyone reaches with their chopsticks and gets all they want and either puts it in their mouth or puts some on top of the rice that's in the little bowl in front of everyone. So you do get your own little bowl of rice. Since you lick the chopstics, this may be a bit unsanitary, but I've not gotten sick yet. The food is amazingly good and bears very little resemblance to Chinese food in the US. I don't know if I could even eat at Chinese restaurants again in the States. I don't eat meat, but those that do run into one unfortunate practice of Chinese cooking. When an animal is cut into pieces, it is literally cut into pieces--meaning that a big knife is used to chop a chicken into whatever size pieces are desired, with no care as to the location of the bones. So if you order any meat dish, you will find randomly assorted pieces of bone throughout your food. And yes, some foods are a little exotic, at least for those eating meat. I've been in one restaurant which for various reasons which will become clear, was hidden from view and you had to knock on the door to be let in. Once inside, you may order a number of unusual meat dishes, such as dog, donkey, scorpion, silk worm and various endangered birds. The endangered birds are illegal to kill and hence the restaurant is hidden from view, but the other members of my party apparently liked the bald eagle or whatever it is that they ate. Another popular delicacy are "Century Eggs". See the picture below of century egg and cow stomach soup. These are normal chicken eggs that--while still raw--are buried into the ground for 100 days. At that point they are nice and black as you can see and then they are finally cooked. Apparently the flavor is rather foul and sulphuric but is very delicious?!
Some things that are similar and some things that are different about the college life here...the dorms are very similar except that students must get in before 11pm every night when they lock the outside doors. Also guys are never allowed in the girls' rooms unless it's "you brother or he only stays for 20 minutes to get something done". When I said that should be enough time to "get something done", they didn't really understand...There is no drinking age so everyone can drink, but all the students seem to be too focused on studying to get hammered all the time like they do in the U.S. Parties are pretty rare. Many boys don't want a girlfriend b/c it costs too much to have one and takes too much time away from studying...Some other things...I played basketball today with several guys I met at a nearby college. There are about 20 outdoor courts there and no one ever keeps score, and I am actually a very good player here! I am almost always the tallest one and can drive through everyone since I always have at least 50 pounds on anyone. Things that are different about basketball here: no one keeps score, if a cell phone rings, all play stops and you must check who called, a break may randomly be called b/c someone gets tired, when a water break happens, several guys will smoke a cigarette. It seems about 30-40% of the guys smoke and no girls ever smoke, that would be very unattractive and terrible. Girls generally don't like to drink beer but if they do drink they try to drink very little b/c of a very important reason: they are afraid their cheeks will turn red!?
Who says China is not super environmentally friendly? For one thing, you can't get a plastic-or any other kind-of bag at any supermarket or Walmart without paying 10 jiao for each one. For another, take a look at this to-go method. Chinese restaurants don't waste cardboard or styrofoam boxes and instead just shove everything you ordered into one little plastic bag (that you hope has no hole in it)...
Well my trip to the DVD store was rather interesting. An American I met here showed me the DVD store downtown. At first it looks like a normal store, just extremely small with only about 30-40 movies for sale and they all seem rather expensive (about 40 yuan each or $6, so perhaps that's not all that expensive). No one seems to be interested in any of these movies. But for some reason one wall of the store has no movies on it, but instead has a very large hanging painting. The American pulls back the cloth painting and we see a much larger back room with many more movies and many people perusing. Here the movies are only 8 yuan or $1.25 each and many new releases are available, including Dark Knight and others that are still in theaters in the States. All are very professionally wrapped and sealed as you can see on the pictures below. And all are available in English with Chinese subtitles. One thing is different though...click on the Evan Almighty picture below and you will note that the movie description must have been translated from Chinese. I wonder why they keep all their newest releases that cost so little in a hidden back room? I am sure there's no reason besides keeping away the thieves or perhaps pirates.
