30 June 2010

Confucious school

Dear TCG,

Im going to be a High School Senior next year and I want to leave a lasting impact on my school. There is so much Confucianism, Taoism, and Chinese culture has taught me, and I want others to experience it as well. I want to know how I can find out more about the Confucius classroom program. Were various organizations along with the Chinese government, fund a Chinese language and culture elective at foreign schools. I want to know if and how I can get my school involved in this.

Kevin


PS: I dont know if this is viewable in the UK, but heres a link to a story about it on the Daily Show. Please note this does not accurately represent the American people, only the ignorant ones.


http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-june-7-2010/socialism-studies



Dear Kevin

I have no idea how you would get your school to join up to this scheme. Or how to set up such a scheme, I was briefly asked if I would participate in one nearby here but I declined.


28 June 2010

Monday afternoon comedy

So England were absolutely humiliated last night...

Not as bad as these folks though



Meh even parking spaces are made in china




Also a Korean advert Safe for work!

Mao!

Dear TCG

Why is Mao so respected in China? I recently went to Beijing and almost everyday there are long queues to see his preserved corpse.

B

Dear B


Hey what man wouldn't envy Mao? He was in essence a champagne socialist. I.e. while the people were starving and sent to die in Korea Mao lived like the old emperors did. He would spend all day having sex with as many women as possible. He had so many notches on his bedpost when his bed was like a tooth pick. The rest of the time he would spend drinking and smoking and living the high life.

As he got older he put Hugh Hefner to shame and would shag 4-6 women AT THE SAME TIME. (cite here).

Anyway the reasons are he managed to steal the glory for doing a Lawrence of Arabia

"Arabia for the Arabs," said TE Lawrence in the film Lawrence of Arabia.

Mao did the same thing and said China for the Chinese, which at the time was something which was exploited and used ruthlessly. Though he did have a point because China was humiliated by the three unequal treaties which carved China up into fiefdoms. He exploited the anti Japanese and foriegn sentiment and claimed much of the credit himself. As well as the force of arms.

And the rest is history, granted I could tell you in uber depth as to many of the reasons but it would take me a life time to tell you. You may find this book interesting however this book is unfortunately biased as much of Jung Chiang's virtrol and bile for Mao (who directly suffered as a result of his policies and actions) has made the book a rather long rant.

Though she is right he was a monster.





The bizarre thing is he was a monster yes, but much like the Italians said with Mussolini about at least he got the trains running on time. Really he did start the Catalyst for Change in China the process of which was changed by his buddy Deng Xiao Ping. Much like Stalin, he killed 10000000s of people but changed Russia (for a while anyway) from a nation without a pot to piss in to a massively industrialised society in a couple of decades.

Without him not forgetting all the people who died, China might still be a piss poor nation without a pot to piss in and carved up by imperialists. As a few people believe Hong Kong would never have been given back had China not risen in the past 20 years to its current status. In this world MIGHT appears to be RIGHT.

The way the US and UK stole Diego Garcia is a prime example.

27 June 2010

bicycle!

Dear TCG

I am about to relocate to Hong Kong from the UK for a year or two and I am an enthusiastic cyclist. I own a very expensive bike in the UK and I am thinking of shipping them over for my stay there. I have a place to store them so that's no problem. However loads of people say to me that I won't have a chance to use them what are the cycling opportunities in HK? I would be grateful for advice.


Tolsky

Dear Tolsky


You're kidding right? You want to ride a bicycle in Hong Kong? There are two maybe three things against this:


#1 It's frigging hot in Hong Kong, even in Winter it doesn't drop below 14C and it is humid. I'm supposed to be from round there but merely WALKING makes people ask me if I've been swimming. The need to shower at both ends will probably destroy your skin.

#2 The pollution seriously, when I ride a tough section on my bicycle I take in huge deep gulping breaths though granted my speed up hill and on the flat is barely any different much to the annoyance of other cyclists as I use the cogs pretty effectively. The pollution in HK is horrible some of the scenic routes are hilly and you will be gulping in incredible amounts of crap into your lungs. Granted you can of course use one of those anti pollution masks but you can never get enough air into your lungs. In Beijing which is pancake flat I rented a bicycle and returned it about 5 minutes later due to the incredible pollution there.

#3 Cars, ok so in HK there are many separated cycle lanes which are built into the pavement, but these do not go everywhere. In HK the driving is aggressive not quite as bad as driving in Seoul but when you see minibuses go down roads which are 30mph going down them at 75mph you think hmm. Or the way people do not pay attention to the road is worrying. A taxi driver I always have the misfortune to encounter uses not one but 5 mobile phones and 2 net books in his taxi while driving. No doubt he'll be using an Ipad too.

As a side 4th the public transport in HK is cheap anyway so this is hardly a need to cycle to cheap out on transport is there? I mean a fare in the UK which'd cost you £4 costs £1.20.


As a 5th you don't tell me where exactly you live, as it is troublesome to get a bicycle across the Harbor and or Lion Rock. Yes I know there is a guy who cycles from Fanling to Mongkok daily (he spends 4 hours a day doing it). But better him than me.


Crap forgot to answer the question at hand. Yes in the New Territories and Lantau Bicycles will be useful due to the cycle lanes everywhere. But the closer you get to Kowloon and HK Island the less useful they will become as there is nowhere to store them. Parking on the street bicycles have a tendancy to be removed especially during festivals etc. Not to mention the above hazards.

Material girls?




There has been debate online recently about the rise of materialism in girls these days in China people blame this on the imbalance between men and women in China while others blame it on insane high house prices (a nod to me HPC home boys) heh High house prices infect everything!

However this is hardly a new phenomenon though if anybody has read previously about Chinese weddings where there is a pretty overt negotiation then this is nothing really new.

My own thoughts are a bit mixed on this in that TCG has often been a target for mainland Chinese girls who make offers of marriage to me (if only they knew I was absolutely broke heh). I think it'll end in tears really. Love? Financial security? I'm not even sure those things can really last forever.



The bit near the end describes it quite well about expiry dates.


However why is everybody acting all surprised about it then if it has been normal and perfectly natural thing for centuries?

25 June 2010

Learn me Chinese.


Dear TCG,

Whats the best way to learn Mandarin Chinese?

Kevin


Dear Kevin.

Sorry I'm not particularly lucid today I just had a massive 3 hour argument over the phone with TCG's dad about the fact I'm unwilling to settle down and I am a bit of a 王子 (a playboy type) TGC's dad is upset that I'm, late 20s and have nowt much like my peer group to show for it. Though I do have some exotic highly modified motorcycles and a enough memories to last a life time.

Anyway enough of my uninteresting life and my woes.

Speaking? Reading? Listening? Writing?

There is no best way to learn languages, you merely have to find a method which works and stick to it.

Jackie Chan for instance is famous for being self taught English. Granted when he became famous he invariably had a private tutor to help him learn more. But he used to watch English films with subtitles (in Chinese) and hold his hands in a way to cover the subtitles and attempt to figure out what they were saying. He still has an accent which is noticeable. Though Jacky Chan is somebody I look up to not a hero per se but somebody who started from humble beginnings. His mate Sammo Hung sounds similar too.

I speak some limited Japanese due to a similar technique watching Japanese films without subs and therefore can say some limited things (though Japanese people think I talk like a girl though).


While some people prefer one to ones and some people like audio CDs and YouTube videos.

This is spoken Chinese and listening I suppose.

Reading and Chinese written work is a little more difficult, there is this book on amazon I can't remember the name of currently. But it uses a perfect flaw learning system in that look up most Chinese learning books and you invariably will find Pinyin underneath the Chinese character in question. The book played it differently as it would concentrate on the meaning and how to write it only and the meaning of the word. I think this does a nice job of splitting up the spoken and
the meaning elements of things.

In essence there is no best way just find a way that works for you. As an anecdote my Russian was terrible, spending 2 months traversing Russia and talking to locals on me motorbike, well not at the same time. I found I picked up on words I had to use all the time like Kafe or Khlep for bread. It was a matter of survival though which is different. You know perhaps you should go to Tonghua or Zhejiang University and study there. The prices are fairly reasonable I cannot find the direct link but they put you in a class for for 4 weeks for $250US and intensively teach you Mandarin reading, written and speaking. It went up to 3 months for $700US. It's not bad besides the airfare costs of $1K you'll have to stump up as the digs there are reputed to be cheap. My acquaintance Ollie went there and did a 3 month intensive course and puts me to shame sometimes, (he is originally from Wales).

Maybe going on gumtree (does it exist in the USA) or Craig's list community chest type pages and finding your Chinese for my English type adverts maybe useful as native speakers can correct where you go wrong and you both get something out of it and usually have to pay nothing more than a cup of coffee or a slice of pizza. In Korea TCG was accosted by many Koreans wanting impromptu conversational practice lessons. Though TCG was often mistaken for a kyopo type and they would usually buy me a beer afterwards.

24 June 2010

Whats new?




Blah blah, Chinese people overseas protesting against violence...

Um this is hardly a new phenomenon, you live in a country as a minority you can expect to be treated negatively. I am not saying it is right but it is just something which is normal and has been going on for decades. So why the outcry now?



23 June 2010

One child policy


Dear TCG

What happens with the Chinese one child policy when twins are born? Do they still get fined or what?

Ramen.

Dear Ramen

The one child policy only really applies to cities outside the big cities nobody really cares, and tbh the one child policy is being relaxed as an experiment in a suburb of Shanghai somewhere. Due to the babyboomer demographic effect that almost all western nations are suffering right now. Anyway back on topic. If you are non Han Chinese nothing happens to you.

If you are Han Chinese and you have twins, nothing happens to you as it is one pregnancy and one birth and it is a circumstance which is beyond your control anyway. And tbh with the ever increasing cost of raising children in China two children is a big enough fine anyway so you won't get fined.


The Korean Disease!

Yes you read what I wrote the Korean disease! The Korean might be pissed off at this but I think he may share some of my sentiment regarding this.

Myself and Simon in Seoul in 2009 used to sit on the green line of Seoul metro and be saucer eyed at the incredible amount of plastic surgery which has gone on in Seoul. This disease it appears um appears to be spreading into China. What the hell is wrong with normality? I mean hell much to their chagrin their children will have the same 'defects' too, not that they are defects

Carol Cheng

For instance has had more surgery than Michael Jackson

Link

Infact she had so much surgery she was once refused entry into Hong Kong because they took off her face and ground down her jaw. Eww.

Now Angela baby is going through the same process

Link



Granted TCG has had unplanned plastic surgery by totally unlicenced surgeons..... but in an unorthodox manner. I.e. TCG used to get into a lot of fights and the bastards would always aim for my nose. Cue me getting familiar with a doctor who would knock it back into place every few months. It's been broken so many times I can't breathe out of it as they couldn't repair the damage.

But for China to go all Korea is a bit hmm...


I think really this just shows an under belly of the total lack of confidence in Chinese women these days perhaps from advertising and photoshopping. TCG very nearly sold his soul to an advertising company.

On one hand this allows TCG to clean up and pick up easily in China, OTOH it is terrifically dissappointing to see all the low selfesteem issues in China. You should have seen it growing up in the UK, regular hand to hand combat and the fact that parents use the totally discredited constantly undermine the confidence of your children raising technique.





Most of all TCG doesn't want to be walking around China in 2020 with all the women looking like Ms Wilderstein here... Older Chinese women though do have a tendancy to tattoo their eyebrows once they get to a certain age though. But this had been going on for centuries.

Bettle nut

Dear TCG

What is a bettle [sic] nut culture?

I've never seen it in China so what is it all about?

Andre

Dear Andre

I am not surprised you have never heard of or seen Betel nuts, as it is a Taiwanese thing and this blog isn't really ask the Taiwanese guy and I dunno. However since my on off gf is from Taipei I might as well have a crack at this.



Essentially a Betel nut is a carcinogenic chewy nut thing which is like wired chewing gum sort of thing a mild stimulant Back in the 1970s or 1980s somebody selling them decided to put the girls selling them into skimpy costumes. A car stops beside the road a guy leans out and a Betel nut beauty steps out in skimpy clothing (in all weathers) and hands them a nut wrapped in its leaves sort of like a small 粽 a few NT$. She bows (TCG is non Han Chinese btw and just to give you a clue can never bow or get on my knees EVER) and the guy usually attempts to cop a feel.

Today they are smarter and give them to you at arms length so you have to reach out at arms length to be able to get them.

This has consequently spread through all tiers of society so you get cigarette sellers, newspaper sellers all sold by skimpily dressed women. Which I reckon is more sucessful than old ladies who used to sell them. Way back when I had to visit a place called Hualien they had old women selling stuff.... but like Seoul really as you get old ladies walking around pushing a cart of Yogurt you don't tend to get that anywhere else.

Consequently it feels strange like you are driving through de wallen in Amsterdam or something but EVERYWHERE. But its not actually sexual at all, they are just costumes and they are just trying to make a living. Compared to farming etc it is high paid and thus you get swathes of pretty girlies doing this by the roadside. Sure sure real working girls exist in Taipei but this is several notches up in terms of face/respectability than being a WG.








22 June 2010

The Longer march?

Dear TCG

I have seen your motorbike trip and I want to do something similar. I want to walk the great wall of China.

[cut out lots of plans and stuff which is/was irrelevant)

Bryan.

Dear Bryan.

Erm How long have you got? The damned thing is 5000km long this does not include trenches the rivers and lakes as well not to mention it is built along the spine of mountains though the length is not the problem (more later).

Actually let me tell you about the cyclists I met in Russia. Cyclists are a crazy bunch I met loads of them (and towed loads of them) across Russia as their bicycles are slow. So while I could cruise at 40-50mph effortlessly and manage a respectable 300-600 miles a day bicycles had to ride for 16-20 hours a day at 10-18kmh and even then they would almost all overstay their tourist visas as they would crack 160-200km a day and be exhausted.

Around Chelyabinsk most of them were utterly fucked due to the steep 1st gear (on a motorbike ) hills.

On foot you'll manage what 30km a day and it'll take you 170+ days. And that is being HIGHLY optimistic as the Great wall is not what you see in pictures. on a million postcards and Internet pictures. The pictures you see on postcards and online are the bits you see near Beijing. These are not authentic they are rebuilt sections much like everything else in China (in China if you go to a temple there is a very high chance it is not authentic as most temples were rebuilt in the 1980s after being ransacked in 1970s Cultural revolution)

You go a 100km west and the walls are crumbling and falling apart. Much like the Roman Coliseum people over time saw it as a source of building materials and took bricks away from it because they could.



I'm not saying don't do it or it'll be dangerous. Simply that it isn't as simple as I can walk X miles a day the wall is Y miles long therefore I can walk it all in Z number of days. Hell if you do that all you'll be doing is walking all day anyway and what's the point of doing that? Added to the fact that once you get past Hohot it becomes really dry and civilisation begins to fizzle out markedly. Which means you have to travel away from it and back for food and supplies which will increase the amount of time needed to travel.

Have you considered this alternative?

Cycling alongside the wall? You can cycle in its shadow for much of its length passing through fairly decent roads and villages where you can get food and help daily. You will be able to keep up a higher speed and if you are reasonably fit manage it in about 75-90 days (the longest visa you can easily get for China). Maybe as well as the bicycle carrying stuff you'll need like food water etc.

I'm not saying don't do it. By all means go and have a try at it. I'm not saying it'll be dangerous as simply I doesn't know TCG ain't like the Korean the Korean knows all about Korea as Korea is a tiny country. China is massive.

However something to inspire you or scare you off even.








21 June 2010

Fun with firecrackers

Firecrackers in HK are completely illegal, this however means absolutely NOTHING as the police generally don't care.

They are probably illegal from the 1967 pineapple bomb incident where after several protestors were killed in 1966 they made grenades from firecrackers and managed to kill 5 cops in 1967.

However sack all this cultural shit and get on with the videos for some Monday comedy





However thats not so impressive




Dumass

YGTBSM!

Atlas Shrugged?

This is like an earth quake! China has been fucking over the US economy by keeping a low peg to the US$, and it looks like they are starting to relent at last In 2008 the Chinese actually let the currency appreciate by 21% two years ago? It has since only moved 5% in the past two years. It looks like the CCP isn't going to let Obama sink down yet (and potentially drag them down with them) of course thats if they aren't bull shitting the world markets of course. Korea de-pegged in the 1990s and their economy overheated and exploded leading to the IMF bail out. Will the CCP manage to do it properly? This sort of changes the game that RMB used to be proxy US$...


The Yahoo article is below.

SHANGHAI (AP) -- China says plans to allow greater flexibility in its currency are in line with its own interests but will do little to rebalance world growth without a fundamental overhaul of global financial systems.

The announcement Saturday by China's central bank that it is giving up a two-year-old peg of its currency to the U.S. dollar won praise overseas, coming just a week ahead of a G-20 summit where the issue was bound to be discussed.

But Beijing remains insistent that its currency policies are not the main problem.

The summit must focus on more urgent global reforms, said a commentary Monday by the official Xinhua News Agency.

"If they cannot make good use of the coming G20 summit to press ahead with the much-needed overhaul of the global financial system, the international community will soon find to its disappointment that its leaders look only for red herrings, rather than real solutions, at a time when true leadership is badly needed," it said.

Underscoring Beijing's insistence on stability and its warnings it plans no major changes, the official exchange rate for China's currency stood unchanged Monday morning.

The central bank left the yuan's parity rate against the U.S. dollar unchanged Monday at 6.8275, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The rate is a weighted average of prices given by market makers, excluding highest and lowest offers.

But the yuan did gain in spot trading, strengthening to 6.8030 to the dollar by midafternoon Monday, up from 6.8272 on Friday.

Regional markets nonetheless responded enthusiastically to Beijing's announcement, with shares climbing in most major markets as investors relieved of uncertainty bought airlines and other heavyweight shares.

"The markets were boosted because investors are becoming less risk averse than before. They are more aggressive," said Ben Kwong Man Bun, chief strategist for KGI Securities in Hong Kong.

A stronger yuan would make Chinese exports more expensive and bring relief to foreign manufacturers that have struggled to compete. But Beijing insists currency stability is fundamental to economic growth and denies other nations' accusations the yuan is unfairly undervalued.

Some slammed the central bank's announcement as a capitulation to foreign pressure, despite Beijing's insistence it would do nothing of the sort.

But the central bank said the move was "in line with China's long-term fundamental interests, as it promotes the economic structural adjustments that will lead to sustainable growth."

Allowing a more flexible exchange rate would help counter inflation, channel more funds to service industries and encourage manufacturers to upgrade and become more efficient, it said.

China is intent on steering a path to economic recovery. With workers at home demanding wage hikes -- which would also increase the price of exports -- the central bank has sought to curb speculation of a major rise in the value of the yuan, also called the renminbi.

China says the exchange rate is roughly where it ought to be, and economists said they don't anticipate big swings in the yuan's value.

"The official announcement should be interpreted first and foremost as an important signal towards a more flexible exchange rate, rather than a significant revaluation of the CNY," UBS economist Wang Tao said in a report on the change.

Given the 0.5 percent daily trading range for the yuan, which remains unaltered, she forecast only modest changes.

The central bank said China will rely more on a basket of currencies that includes the U.S. dollar to determine the exchange rate, rather than the dollar alone.

China allowed the yuan to rise by about 20 percent beginning in 2005, but halted that two years ago to help Chinese manufacturers weather the global financial crisis.

Since then, the yuan's value has been pegged to the dollar at an exchange rate of roughly 6.83 to $1. The government sets the rate each day before the start of trading and retains powerful tools to control its movement.

Any sudden rise in the yuan could ruin businesses already operating on razor-thin margins and cost jobs. It could also drive down the value of China's $2.4 trillion in foreign exchange reserves.

Because of China's large trade surpluses, the central bank intervenes heavily in the exchange market, buying up excess foreign exchange earnings to keep the yuan's value from rising.

But with China's economy growing at double-digit rates, boosted by 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) in stimulus spending and record bank lending to finance construction projects, Beijing can afford to move faster, some say.

"Just a day after there was much hoopla about the Chinese finally changing their policy, they are already backing off," U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said Sunday, adding he plans to move forward with a bill that would punish Beijing for its currency policies.

"It is only strong legislation that will get the Chinese to change and will stop jobs and wealth from flowing out of America as a result of unfair trade policies," he said in a statement.

Some Chinese experts criticized Saturday's announcement as a cave-in to foreign pressure that could damage China's crucial export sector, even if it was necessary for diplomatic purposes.

"From an economic angle, the appreciation of the renminbi will have a definite effect on exports, but in terms of politics and macroeconomic policy, it can be seen as a result of the need for balance," said Zhao Xijun, deputy dean of the School of Finance of Renmin University.

Online:

Qs

Dear TCG

I'm wondering how does in China look stuff with famous people, do you have also crazy fangirls ?

The next one is about nightlife in China, especially in Beijing, how it looks like ? Is it possible for foreigner to go on some rock concerts ?

How not to wear in China ?

Polish Girl


Admittedly I'm not the best person to ask as the in scene changes constantly and my visits to China are not as often these days.

You mean groupies? I'm not too sure about this there is something called the Ha fans though groupies I'm not sure. I suppose it depends on the star in question. Foreign stars will not want to be deported so will probably keep to themselves while stars in China and Chinese stars generally like to keep a cleaner image.

People like Ozzie Osborne



Would be crucified in China due to the way stars like to keep a squeaky clean image. Even in HK they like to keep a clean image. The Chinese media for example is merciless, examples are Edison Chen and Faye Wong

Edison took photos of his girlfriends in compromising positions... a PC tech stole his photos while maintaining his computer... This is quite a normal activity, however the PC tech (even though he went to prison) was not really implicated in this. Instead the news and media focused upon the failings of Edison not the PC tech and Edison was pilloried.

Faye Wong in 1996 was seen in Beijing emptying a chamber pot and was slaughtered for this as she was dating below her perceived class.

While some stars keep to themselves, Jackie Chan for instance keeps way to himself these days as a Japanese girl killed herself when he announced his wedding.

So really it depends on the star in question.

Nightlife is like any other big city in the world, bars cafes and sometimes drugs if you are so inclined be VERY careful drugs are punishable by death in China. Violence is also something which has spread into China these days when the bars close and everybody spills out onto the streets fighting can occur. Fighting even occurs in Lam Kwai Fong in Hong Kong on a fairly regular basis these days and I witnessed it all the time in Beijing in the hot nightlife area. Sometimes it was people being drunk. Sometimes it was older people abusing westerners for 'stealing their women' (TCG doesn't give a damn)

The hot areas of Beijing are Sanlitun near the workers stadium and the Hou hai area north of the Forbidden city though this changes now and again the Sanlitun area for example has had several parts of it knocked down and built over.

My personal preference is the Hou Hai lake area. It is mostly local people, sometimes with open air exhibitions (a person will ask for money afterwards more donations than an outright demand). The last open air exhibition I saw at Hou Hai was with Ollie, there was this grand master Wushu practitioner and he had this trick where you held 1RMB in your hand. He would tell you to close your hand and before you could he would snatch the 1RMB coin out of your hand and replace it with a piece of jade. He was so fast he didn't count on me being faster by turning my hand slightly. There are bars all the way around the lake with beers at about 5-9RMB depending on the bar. Live music, karaoke, and sofa bars that kind of thing. It's pretty nice, though you sometimes get many people who are convinced they can sing or play guitar. A few bars I've been in the guitar player was terrible and he couldn't sing either.

Though be forewarned! China follows the Russian model where many bars and clubs do not have toilets and there are two disgusting toilet facilities at the Hou Hai area which are... disgusting.

Sanlitun

Is an older area of Beijing it keeps on changing, though there are some nice places here like the Chocobar (not sure where this is everybody was so drunk off their asses). It is an area where many Expats tend to congregate therefore prices are higher and it is sleazier and much less pleasant. In many of the bars in this area the local Chinese people are not welcome. The Suzie Wong bar and Maggie's are particular bastards.

At both Suzie's and Maggie's they have guards at the door, if you are Chinese looking they turn you away telling you it is a private club. If you are foreign looking you are welcome in. You are not missing much though! As Maggie's is known to be a brothel same with Suzie's bar too which are packed with Mongolian and Russian working girls. I can get into Suzies by virtue of having a UK passport along with Maggie's. I left shortly afterwards when the Dutch guy said it felt like De Wallen in Amsterdam as it was unpleasant. There was more hooking going on than an Alaskan fishing village in those places.

Of course this is not a universal constant as the bar a block west from maggies is a nice bar or used to be (things change quickly in Bej) An easy trick is to watch if they stop Chinese people going in.

Sanlitun I feel is like Itaewon in Seoul which is a bit like America town in Seoul. While Hou Hai is a bit more like Hongdae where people are out to have fun while in Sanlitun are out there to have fun but in a different way say looking down at other people.

Though again things may have changed.




Rock concerts

Are easy to get into ticket touts / scalpers will hang around big venues on the night. However where to buy tickets officially before hand I have no idea you'll have to ask people in the know there in Beijing or where ever you end up. Simon in Shanghai has been living there for ages and always asks his friend to get him tickets. Prices are usually printed on the tickets so you can see if they are ripping you off or not. Be wary of booking too far in advance though as China keeps banning acts Oasis for example was banned so was erm who was it the killers I think for things they said about Tibet.


Clothing

Anything goes in Beijing these days, though a bikini top might not be appropriate, and wet hair I don't know why but Ollie and Dave have wet hair and are constantly stopped by cops. However considering I've seen super short skirts (note skirts cannot be too short) super low cut tops etc I don't really think anything is too taboo. Just nothing too revealing as all the men looking at you you might not like. Holly was like this she wore shorts and a tight top, everybody just kept looking at her chest.

A free Tibet T-shirt offense will also be taken! Along with Chairman Meow t-shirts.


Though as said it is pretty liberal



Hong Laowai here for instance is dressed in 1950s type communist dress and he was ok, though he has vanished lately... maybe he got shot by the Shanghai cops?




As a final note! Watch out for beer in China. Sometimes it has this chemical preserver in it which tastes horrible and gives you a horrible headache 365Inn serves Tsingtao with chemical preserver in it. I had a headache which lasted 2 days off that stuff. While the bars in Hou Hai served smaller bottles of Tsingtao which did not have such a chemical in it. The trick USED to be to buy one bottle and look at the expiry date this USED to work if it is 3-4 years in the future it will contain this chemical, if it is soon then it won't. Though this varies of course.

20 June 2010

Shanghai Cooperation Organization?


Dear TCG

What is the Shanghai Cooperation Organization? I here its like a NATO of the east. A security agreement between China, Russia and central Asian countries. Does it mean if China enters a war then Russia is obligated to back them up?


Kevin B


Dear Kevin.

The SCO is just a talking shop and a nice piece of propaganda put out by the PRC and the members of the SCO. It talks about economic cooperation, military cooperation and security.

In reality all of the things it was supposed to be discussing were being discussed behind closed doors anyway, military exercises. Kazakh oil in China, Russian energy to China etc.

Therefore it is nothing other than a front to pretend to be in cahoots with each other and closer to each other than they really are. Just look up on youtube the SCO there is a shit load of propaganda on there making it out as if it is a massive military alliance. Granted China does need military practice and the military exercises are useful to it as they haven't fought a proper war since 1979 where they had their asses handed to them on a plate. While the US and even the UK have been involved in nasty wars many wars for a long time. But these kinds of joint exercises would have happened anyway. Oman for instance is not in NATO yet has joint exercises with the UK armed forces.

Iran for example is in the SCO yet what just happened? China didn't stand up for Iran at the UN did they? Russia is also fairly pissed it can't sell Iran its missiles either. And if it were really a proper alliance China and Russia would be happy Iran is getting the bomb, they aren't. The USSR as a military pact before the total disintegration of Sino/USSR relations in the 1960s helped China build the bomb. The Ukraine also got the bomb too. Not to mention the USA helped the UK attain its nuclear weapons. Though the British pulled off a master stroke piece of deception against the US military in operation Grapple (A quick precis is that the British 1MTN H bomb was fake! It was a massive A-bomb we didn't reveal to the US this fraud until the 1990s)

There are also plenty of disagreements already. China wants more Sukoi-27 Flankers which are about even to the US F15E. Russia doesn't want to sell them anymore because they fear China will reverse engineer them and make copies of them. The Mig21 for example has been reverse engineered for decades. With Israeli help before 1989 they were still using the Mig 21s descendants.

So right now the SCO is just a talking shop facade which is a nice propaganda play for both the US and the countries involved. The US can sex it up as a big threat like they did with the USSR, for instance the T72 was sexed up to be a phenomenal killing machine and was said to be more powerful than the M1 Abraham's, or the Challenger tanks. This was bullshit... well not bull shit as the T72 was a phenomenal killing machine... for its own crew...I forget the thing I saw but the auto loader had a tendency to load crew members into the barrel and in Iraq the M1 tank divisions wasted the Iraqi T72s.

If you have an hour the Power of Nightmares is interesting to watch.




Companies which make weapons in the US benefit from bigging up the SCO, China gets to spread nationalistic propaganda about its military capabilities by bigging up the SCO. Both sides therefore get advantages out of it, US military spending goes up etc.


In the future maybe 10-20 years time they will become a NATO like organisation but right now they aren't anything special.

19 June 2010

Chinese women





Hey.

I'm a fan of your blog, and at first I was going to simply ask you how can I (a black guy living in the US) get a Chinese GF, but that question led me to a broader line of thought and a more general question. Do you think China (and Chinese Americans) will go through a similar cultural experience to that of whites in the US? In other words, if you look at the US, 100 years ago Irish hated Italian, French hated German ( i think), Protestant hated Catholic, EVERYONE hated Jews (and blacks), etc.

So here's my basic questions

1- Do you think Chinese women will attempt to stage a backlash against the current dating/mating status quo that they are expected to live by (like white women did with feminism)?

2- Do Chinese women even DESIRE to do this???

As of late, in the US "whiteness" seems to come first, and I'm sure behind closed doors the animosity I mentioned above among whites still exists to some degree (many people still very much dislike Jewish people, and I'm sure there are running jokes among Catholic families against Prostestants, etc), but I don't think it's the same now among whites as 100 years ago. I'm sure an Italian family would welcome the marriage of their son or daughter to an Irish woman, or someone with various "white" background without much upset (and even that somewhat proves itself in that Italians were not considered "white" back then, but now they are due to assimilation).

So what I'm saying is, currently it seems that tradition, race, heritage, and to some degree pride is what determines Chinese mating habits, and not just China but it seems this way in basically every other country as well (I guess the less racially diverse, the more it is this way). American dating choices among whites (and I really mean women here bc men will screw anything) seem to have been affected by many different things (feminism?), and now a white woman can marry a black guy like me, wheras only 60 years ago or less I would be attacked and maybe killed just for cat calling her.(???)


From TBBG (the big black guy)



Dear TBBG

Erm I think it already happened. In the 1970s it was a soundbite. Women hold up half the sky it said But in big cities in China and all overseas born Chinese women (though these really don't count as they absorb and are given values of the society they are born in) Have been pretty much liberated.

Overseas born Chinese men and women are between two worlds whereby their parents raised in China have values pressed onto them from China. People like me my dad constantly presses his values down on me while I sometimes listen them to save HIS face. While ignoring some others. Once these people have children be they mixed race Chinese (who will be treated like outcasts in China btw still in this day and age) the traditional values of China will be bred out.

Kind of like Linda Lee





(Loving that Zhang Ziyi look)



Kai one of my friends is a good example, heh he even fell into a typical British role getting his 15 year old girlfriend pregnant his son and daughter are 14. Even though his wife pushes them onto his parents for some babysitting now and again. These children are completely westernised and encompass British values completely. They do not identify with their Chinese heritage, this maybe in part that they don't look Chinese though which often plays a part in self identification.

Anyhow the idea of stay home make babies or do the house work is an anachronism. Traditional roles have changed vastly. There is a huge labour shortage in China anyway, get the women to work and you double your work force.

What is telling that I'm not sure if traditional values exist anymore from my narrow view of the world. Premarial sex is normal these days so is swinging as mentioned in older posts.

I think something telling is that Immigrant Chinese women who marry poor fat ugly saps. You know the kind who get mail order brides who are 350lb nerds. No offence but you know they married you for your passport right? Alice a girl I know is married to Neil or is it Dave. She married him for his passport to get the fuck out of dodge.

Such immigrants although raised in Mainland China most certainly do not conform to the stereotypes or gender roles that are assigned to them. Alice doesn't even know how to cook I had to teach her. And even though she was raised in a piss poor village South of Hangzhao she does not fit into the archetype of a Chinese woman. She goes out all the time gets more pricks than a heroin addict with collasped veins. I've seen more than a few Alice types in the UK recently. Though of course this is a

Therefore with women raised today the roles people attempt to assign to them are archaic and dismissed.

This isn't universal though of course as there are of course exceptions maybe on a wealth background sort of divide. There are two examples I know if:

  1. There was this idiot in Hong Kong who I remember only ever had sex to make babies. This was unbelievable as his wife (who became his ex wife) was so incredibly hot. On the finger scale which IIRC from an old Bruce Willis film, where his mate says he'd cut off X number of fingers if God let him shag her this girl was a 9 and not a 10 on account you need a finger to hack your other fingers off. She didn't have the normal Chinese girl no ass thing. You know well you might not know but in China girls have no ass (except for Harbin strangely).Where their back suddenly ends and their legs begin instantly completely missing their ass. I mean Halle Berry would look ugly next to this girl. If I could tap that ass a choice between this girl and Hale Berry, Hale would be disappointed and she had this sweet trick where she had excellent muscular control where she would gr...ahem.... I digress.
  2. The other time when TCG is treated like a piece of meat. TGC's dad is obsessed with getting him married off. as TCG is the dark horse of the family. It probably scared him in 2007 when I crashed a motorbike at over 130mph and got up completely unhurt. Where TCG is set up on dinner dates. The often mainland Chinese girls will be frank and brutally honest. I.e. TCG can go and play shag as many other women as I want, yet at the weekends be for her only and support her children. TCG often cuts them short in these negotiations (which they are negotiations) and is not generally evil enough to tap dat ass before telling her no sorry we are incompatible. I will cut them off and say no sorry impossible. My dad currently suspects I am gay because of this.

The expectations which women are um, expected to live under are like Catholics in Italy. They listen politely to the pope and do whatever they fancy. They will portray a good girl image back home to the parents and do whatever they want pretty much. In small villages etc, quite often they will pull the SON out of school to help pay for the daughter's education, not the son. Women are becoming pretty powerful in China toda with the 57% male babies ratio this can only continue. Hong Kong is funny too as women pay for dates sometimes TCG has learnt to live with this and sit back and enjoy the free lunches. Some of them have even taken me home, never would have happened 10 years ago. Though 10 years ago I was a spotty nerdy kid which may explain the reason.

Simon was pretty shocked in China recently, he thought it was all traditional hold hands get married kiss by the 10th date. He was incredibly surprised when his GF asked him to up for coffee and he ended up in the sack with her. Hell you go north of the bell tower in Beijing and the girls there are all so easy to get.

The question of want is difficult to answer.

Clearly the examples of the women I have seen do enjoy their freedom to do whatever they want to do. As a side effect I have noticed though HK men are incredibly emasculated there was even a TVB series about differences between men and women no youtube link as it has been removed. To 'train' men to date in HK they had to heavily gender engineer so the women were less agressive about things. Heh you see this in HK far too often men carrying handbags (though manpurses are gaining popularity in China) of their girlfriends and do anything they say.

This of course allows TCG to clean up nicely due to their emasculation.

However there might be a backlash against this sort of thinking. As in the UK femenism has become a dirty word (here) With labels such as femenazi being applied sometimes. And many femenists realised they have been suckered into things, 30 years ago homes could be run with one salary, now they NEED two and instead of the things fememists wanted that is the CHOICE and the opportunity to go out or stay home they are now coerced into working. I do not know US demographics but in the UK stay at home mums are much less prevailant than previously.

Also as a side effect in places like HK where the men have low standards where:


was the only required standard for women.

However today many women who seem to have it all. Education, careers, their own homes etc are lonely because of their demands many HK men simply don't want them anymore. As outlined by this article. But the genie is out of the box and it can't really be put back in anymore. And the women seek husbands on Mainland China too, much like the men seek wives from north o the border. Though this is problematic due to the PRC sealing up the hole about spouses being allowed to live in HK, SZ is of course only a 20 minute train ride away.


Though this may go someway to explain the incredible surge of lesbians I see in Hong Kong, I didn't notice it before or maybe it is a fashion thing, but you always see a really butch one on the arm of a super femme one in HK.

This is my view of course and I could always be wrong, it is just what I've seen as well as others.

HTH


Got a burning question? Ask

18 June 2010

Atonement?

From the Sun
A BRAINY Japanese porn star is offering to have sex with the Chinese students — to apologise for her country's invasion of China.
Raunchy Anri Suzuki has a doctorate in Sino-Japanese history and feels so bad about what her countrymen did in 1937 that she is offering to make up for it in the only way she knows how.

The 24-year-old, from Tokyo, has made the naughty offer to Chinese students in her homeland after studying the Japanese invasion.

She said: "We have to respect the lessons of history and although we cannot obliterate it we can try and make recompense.

"I want to cure the wounds of China with my body, and I offer to do this by having sex with Chinese students in Japan.

"I think it would be a symbolic compensation for them




You know all of a sudden I feel incredibly insulted by what the Japanese people did to Hong Kong, you go around my dad's village and find one armed Pete, he pissed a Japanese soldier off and had his arm hacked off as punishment. Or the bloke in the other village who had their eyes poked out for fun by Japanese folks, or the way the villages.

Granted this is a disgusting publicity campaign where she is using the traumas of what Japan did to China 60 years ago for her own personal gain. But hey Chinese people no longer give a fuck any more. The Nanjing rape was a nasty one. However you go there and nobody seems to really care compared to say Mao's Mausoleum.

TCG however is not so apathetic, this has nothing to do with sex really. No really don't be so fucking cynical, no really you gotta believe me. And thus TCG is fulling willing to accept your apology and Atonement by Anri Suzuki.

Bring some lingerie and wear a latex cat suit...

Afterwards I may forgive you.








Yeah yeah I know it is probably fake news or a publicity stunt.

They still haven't got the hang of English yet

For all the ESL teachers who go to China. No offence some of them are good, however the majority are absolutely shit. TCG has met loads of ESL teachers with fake degrees or that they were hired primarily due to their skin colour.

There is also a phenomenon of fake CEOs as here TGC having worked in finance is sometimes employed to talk to these people and flush them out. TCG as said is THE perfect Chameleon in Asia. Ok I am not the crying freeman But I blend in everywhere and can pretend to be almost one of any nationality found in Far Eastern Asia. I.e my prior finance training and qualifications allows me to flush these people out incredibly easily as they use buzz words constantly which sound impressive. And because they are successful nobody dares to challenge him.

I mean if Bill Gates wore a fake watch would anybody tell him it was a fake watch?

More than once TCG as favors has been asked to sit in on presentations and ask intruding questions to such fakes.

Anyway what was I on about...

Ah yes The Pearl Necklace River Bridge.

I'm sorry. What the fuck? No seriously a Pearl Necklace?

The Urban dictionary says:

The glorious culmination of tit-fucking, in which you blow your nuts out all over a girl's tits, shoulders, neck, and, with any luck, chin. one of the highest expressions of love and affection bestowable upon a woman by a man.
Dashing Gent: Hey, I bet you'd look good in a "pearl necklace."

Big-Titted Dreamboat: Why, yes, I supposed you're right. Why don't you come on over to my place and baste my torpedo tits and elegant neck with your steaming hot man goo?

I can just imagine a CCP official being bull shitted by the architect. Ah a pearl necklace? You mean like this?


Oh I gave my wife a pearl necklace for her birthday!

Cue sniggering of the architects uncontrollably.

2017 when it opens CCP will have egg on its face.






*note the SOBs changed it to Pearl River Necklace while I was typing this up, still has the same connotations though.

17 June 2010

China war on terror?

Dear TCG

I know that China is a resource hungry country, they fund dictatorships in Africa to exploit its minerals. But recent news made me think. New geological reports show that Afghanistan is sitting on a $1 trillion gold mine, literally. Is it conceivable that China would enter the War in Afghanistan under the facade of fighting terrorism that threatens spilling over into its borders, but with the actual intention of getting to tap into those hills? They did it to Tibet, they did it to Xinjiang.





On a related note, China has also applied for observer status on the Arctic council, despite being nowhere near the Arctic circle. God knows what their intentions are in the Arctic. Who knows how much oil is there.

Kevin B


Firstly I disagree with Xinjiang as Xinjiang has been Chinese in some form or another for close to 1200 years since the Tang Dynasty. The earlier Qin Shihuang dynasty and the Han Dynasties were in a much more limited area. As depicted below:


It is widely accepted that Britain was conquered in 1066 and much of our history stems from that date. Also with the USA which was founded On July 4, 1776 as you may well know. Also the Goreyo area as well annexed over time too. So Xinjiang has been China for a very long time though Islamic / Turkic routes cannot of course be ruled out as Islam started around 600AD(ish). If you said Inner Mongolia where they have performed social engineering (i.e. put 2 million Han Chinese there so the local people are simply bred out of existence over the next 20 years) I'd have agreed.

Even Tibet is contentious, true Tibetans have a right to be pissed off when the PLA entered the Tibetan capital Lhasa and killed a great number of them, but there are controversies through time mentioned here. I won't get into a life of Brian, so what have the Roman's ever done for us type debate here.

This is unknown, however on your main point I think China's resource hunger depends on the apetite of the US and European consumer, since the US and Europe are pretty much broke, the resources needed are consequently less. The current growth in China is merely economic stimulus spending its savings which cannot last forever and thus if demand falls from it's client's then demand for materials will fall too. Even if it was business as usual China is getting Japanned and Korea'd Japan in the 1960s and Korea in the 1980s. In the 1960s Honda was considered to be crap, same thing with Hyundai in the 1980s. Today there is widespread dislike of Chinese goods as often they are poor quality, they stuff from western/Japanese supervised factories is good but everything else they play price advantage and use inferior metal etc. Chinese motorbikes should be avoided for this very reason they are life threateningly dangerous. My commie dad doesn't even buy made in China anymore after the tin opener incident where he bought a 40p (about 50 cents) tin opener and it broke, he bought another and it broke again until he had 5 broken openers. He finally swung round my place and took my German survivalist tin opener.

My thoughts on entering the war on terror are:

China for starters has a defensive force, they have little ability to project power the American way i.e. air craft carriers (though air craft carriers may be going the way of the battleship as described here here ) and quite frankly in war they are pretty poor. 1979 for example they sent a huge army to teach the Vietnamese a lesson, and lost almost ALL of their tanks sent did not use proper combined arms warfare and lost 20-40,000 soldiers too. Quite recently the Chinese navy was sent to deal with pirates off Somalia and it was questioned if they would be effective as they have had no real combat experience for decades the last war they fought was 1979. While UK / USA forces have been fighting some pretty serious wars for the best part of the last 20 years.

I think if China wants the resources they won't bother to put up a thin facade about it and will merely make a deal with the controlling people there and send a labour task force to do the mining jobs . Much like they did with Robert Mugabe they know he is a tit but loan him money anyway and prop up his regime. We know they are asshats, they know they are asshats and therefore we aren't surprised when they act like asshats. Or they may just continue to do what they have been doing in central Asia i.e. send work gangs to do things for free for various governments to curry favor from them. The tunnel of doom for example was built by Iran and finished around 2006, Iran messed it up big time, and who was there to fix it? China of course to curry favor from the Tajikistan government.

On the Arctic thing:

I think the Arctic thing is a non issue. South Korea and Japan have expressed interests in them, and it would be foolish not to, the Arctic northern route can shave several 1000km off a cargo ship route to both the continental US eastern seaboard and also to Europe. Lower costs of transport = bigger profits and potential income. Also IF the ice melts that's an IF, they may find oil underneath and who doesn't want that?

One thing which is strangling China currently is the 1920 Jones act whereby things shipped to the USA have to be via US registered ships. This is why Obama is refusing Shell Dutch Oil's specialised ships which can stop the oil leak just like that.