Chinese shit quality myth

There are general myths going round and around the internet cokelaw as many people put it that China can't engineer jack shit. I mean we've all been there we buy something made in China and it breaks incredibly quickly. My dad for instance went through 5 or 6 of these in one day.


A generic cheapo tin opener which you can buy for 50p (30cents $) in evilmart Walmart. Which made him get angry and throw the last one through the window (breaking the glass) where it put a huge scratch on his car.... he was in a bad mood all day from that until his horse came in. At which all was forgiven..... though this reminds me of my uncle who won the lottery once. He won the top prize. Having been unhappy working in hot food for decades and sacrificed all of his dreams (I'm not so silly). He proceeded to demolish his kitchen and smash everything to little itsy pieces. He did a lot of damage.... it was then announced that several hundred people had won and the prize money was less than the damage he had done to the kitchen heh.

Anyway back on topic.

It is often said China can't engineer jack shit. Media portrayal of things does not help either. For example this story. Whereby in Shanghai and entire building simply fell over.... though what is curious is that the building is pretty much intact the glass and the drapes are still there.

But then again..



China's version here

.

Or the big ominous cracks appearing in the 3 Gorges dam. This kind of stuff.

The thing is western nations have similar screw ups as well, British rail transport for instance has been subject to many many crashes. Or they way WE in the UK make bad things too.



Similar to



There is a long list here. Also biased news makes things seem much worse. For example Toyota big evil Japanese Zaibatsu which was pilloried for the gas pedal problem. When their really wasn't a problem, it was a stupid door mat issue. Not that I'd notice due to having a lead foot anyway.



Strangely I never saw much media outcry regarding say Ford Recalls or GM recalls, have a search online and there have been enormous numbers of Ford and GM (Vauxhall in the UK or Opel in Europe) recalls which do not get the same amount of media frenzy.

Anyway the kicker here is that China mades poor quality stuff because it is demanded. Not by the people but by the corporates. Chinese engineering can be excellent... if you are prepared to pay for it. The PRC government is willing to pay for it, hence semi government backed things like the metrosystems of Shanghai (built in China with help from Germans and French) Or the Harmony highspeed railway is good quality (you make it bad you may well be shot!).

What corporations demand it! Sure they do.. think about this picture from cracked.com. The photoplasty competition was a hypothetical situation of what'd happen if the internet died.


Wait what?

Yep corporates demand it.... for the men no the men and women out there who shave (TCG shaves only when he can be arsed, as TCG is not a Korean.... I've NEVER seen a Korean man with a moustache let alone a beard). Mr Gillette makes his disposable razors, they last a week at best which means you have to buy new razors. And buy more when those wear out as well. Ok consider what would happen if razor blades lasted forever? The Gillette corporation would have a bumper sale of indestructo razors then they'd go out of business. Tiger Woods wouldn't get sponsored to the tune of $$$$$$$$$$ for their Mach 5 or whatever ten bladed razor blades they are selling. Gillette corporation would cease to exist after a while.

In fact we don't need to hypothesise! Japanese motorbike manufacturers are a prime example of this. In the 1980s Yamaha made a good bike. It was the XT600, except for the bad gear box the XT600 is and was an indestructible machine. The engines last forever, I rode one across Russia, I ran it with less than half the required oil. It still rain. I ran it on unrated octane petrol it still ran without complaint. David Lambeth has one with 360,000 miles on it without ANY major engine work with just the gear box mod. Honda did the same with the XRV750 Africa twin, again indestructible. They did it again wit hthe VFR750. Also the CBR600F (the bike I currently ride). There are videos on youtube showing the CBR600F, a Texan who got 300,000 miles on the F4I version of it.

Do you see a problem with this? I sure do in that if your product is unbreakable then why would you buy a newer model of your product? Although there are many who want the bling factor and to show off in dick waving contests, there are lots of people who are content to keep what they have and use it. My 11 year old vintage motorbike is testament to this type of thinking. Even Mercedes cars are doing this making their cars poor quality so when it breaks you go buy another one. This video is nice regarding how people turn cars into washing machines. So corporates purposely make stuff poor quality and reduce the product life cycles via planned obsolesce. It breaks you buy new, it breaks you buy new.

This is not a new concept! There was a book called Crash.... no not the weird 1990s film about people who get off on crashing cars and having weird (at the time since this kind of stuff is normalised) sex in the 1990s. Or the US movie about racism either. It was a book about the car safety industry. Whereby there are countless quotes in the book about US made cars in the 1960s and 70s whereby bumpers (fenders) would break if you breathed on them too hard.

This is not just limited to cars. It is spread across the entire spectrum of consumer goods. Levis jeans for example. Ladies you all own a pair of skinny jeans right from the 1990s or even 1980s. Get them out and compare the material thickness and stitching compared to a recent pair of jeans the quality differs by a mile. Ironically Levis jeans cemented their reputation in the 1890s with uber long lasting hard wearing jeans.

I own a paid of Levis from 1994 (I haven't grown much). I used to play Badminton in jeans. Wait what? Badminton in jeans, not tracksuit bottoms or shorts but in jeans. The reason for jeans wearing is that you can slide in jeans. Chinese people being Chinese people i.e. my dad and uncles gamble on badminton games we used to play on Tuesday evenings. Thus you had to dive and slide for the shuttlecock. These jeans are fine they have marks where I slid but are fine. Levis I bought in 2007ish are like cloth trousers they are uber thin material. Thus they wear out quickly meaning in theory I have to go out and buy them again.

Lets look at this picture again.


If the corporates all collude and make things poor quality there is no choice. You have to buy shit quality or shit quality (though there are still alternatives though for now!). Much like above if the internet ceased to exist virgin could charge you $199.99 for a CD. Brittany here complained about the lack of home grown USA made stuff. Thus the corporates when they go to China, the factories and engineers can easily offer well made stuff, but the corporates don't want this... if stuff lasted we'd not buy new stuff.

People tend to be ok with this when times are good. For instance look at the shoppy frenzy which occurs when people are flush with cash.



They like to shop and the cheaper goods from China mean the quality decreasing matters less because those products are used for a shorter amount of time. Thus people become tired of them so long wear is not an issue.

However when times are bad like now people don't buy as much and tend to try and get longer use of consumer goods. Which is where the low quality shows up quite abruptly. The corporates blame those damned lazy Chinese for low quality quietly ignoring the fact that they order this low quality on purpose! They get more sales as people wear things out and spend more of their hard earned $ in the shops. And the cycle continues.


So as I've said plenty of times buy made in the USA/UK and stop supporting these crooked business practices as planned obsolescence is not practiced by all companies!

Medicine update 3

What I said here is used in real life here

In my youth I regularly remember seeing my dad use antler slices in some sort of medicine of some kind when he was feeling really tired and worn out. Afterwards he would be able to fight bears hand to hand.

Of course anedotal evidence does not imply causality!

American Politics Part 4

Whats up China?

I've always maintained that China has some serious issues internally. The Gini coefficient for example is like a chasm (note the USA is no far behind and there are definite signs of M shaped society occurring. Sure Taiwan is M shaped but those at the bottom have a better standard of living than those at the bottom in China though!

Article is from Zerohedge, I'd take zerohedge with a pinch of salt however as Zerohedge does appear to ramp precious metals on a regular basis. My own comments are in purple

Is the Iron Fist Control of China’s Central Government Coming Unhinged?

First, what is China’s Central government trying to do? Second, is it working?

The PBOC is worried about asset priced inflation so they’ve attempted to reign in the credit tsunami they initiated in response to the 2008 economic crises. The outside perception is that if the Chinese government orders banks to lend, they lend. So if that’s the case, if the PBOC orders banks to reign in lending out of fear of overheating and future non performing loans, the banks should stop lending. For the past few years, the PBOC has established official loan quotas on banks, but the banks have exceeded the official thresholds each year. Unofficially, the problem is much worse, as banks have hidden another 30% or so of their loans in off balance sheet transactions, according to Fitch. Recently, the PBOC officially dropped the loan quota and decided to focus on the reserve ratio. The loan quotas failed and were not being obeyed, so issuing guidelines that are inevitably violated would merely highlight PBOC weakness.

Last week, immediately before President Hsu’s visit to the US, photos of a Chinese Stealth fighter were released. The timing was viewed as a way for China to flex its muscles and set the tone for the Obama meeting. That may have been the case, but on whose orders? Secretary of Defense Gates spoke with Hsu, who said he knew nothing of the photos. This sparked alarm from the administration that the leaders of the Chinese central government do not have control over the military. This is not the first allegation of lack of oversight. It also shows the hostility of China’s military leadership towards the US.

Food costs account for 40% of disposable income in China. To control prices, the central government has placed limits on the number of purchases on such things as cooking oil. There are rumors the central government is releasing stockpiles, yet prices continue to rise. China has 20% of the world’s population, but just 6% of the farmable land. If the central government begins to implement price controls, shortages are inevitable. A recent reported from World Economic Forum warned that shortages could “cause social and political instability, geopolitical conflict, and irreparable environmental damage.” The central government seems to have few options to control food inflation without causing a major disruption in the rest of the economy.

Which is a massive danger as China can feed itself but only just! Although the South North water project may allevieate some of these problems it is not coming on line for a while. Also diets have changed to include more meat. I would note however an important point is back in 1989 food inflation was pushing 18-25% which was a trigger for widespread discontent. The CCP absolutely wants to avoid this which is why the PBoC keeps on upping the reserve requirements of its banks.

Chinese soldiers and their families are mostly from rural China, the majority of whom have not benefited from China’s rising economy, with 600 million still earning less than $6 a day. Indeed, in many aspects, quality of life has deteriorated for those without connections, a prerequisite for wealth in the eyes of most Chinese according to polls. Many do not view competition for material goods as healthy, pollution and waste have worsened exponentially, housing prices have skyrocketed, and now food prices surging. Businessweek reported that ordinary Chinese are increasingly yearning for a return to Mao style communism – “a more equal” society, with Conqing Party Boss Bo Xilia gaining support and pushing for membership to the inner circle.

To summarize, banks have ignored PBOC orders, the military is doing their own thing, and food prices are surging with few solutions available to the central government. They have a fixed asset bubble, a likely onslaught of bad loans in the offing, and millions of jobs tied to construction. Many Chinese are worse off and the military is more sympathetic to ordinary Chinese than the noveau riche. Inflation is nearing levels associated with social unrest. The situation is a powderkeg.

The major point is Chinese people are NOT apathetic as people are in the west! History has proven for centuries that people who are completely outgunned in Asia will stand up and be counted even be gunned down.

Guess Hu's coming to Town

Chinese President Hu Jintao will be making a special visit to the White House later this week, and they will be rolling out the red carpet for him. With two state dinners, a state lunch with Biden, and a meeting with American CEO's over entering China's markets.

It will be Obama's first state visit by the Chinese President and it will be interesting to see what kind of dialogue will be exchanged. Obama was hammered for not being more assertive towards China during his visit there in 2009 and during the G8 summit. Diplomatically, America has been China's bitch lately. The US government has so far failed to get China to budge on its undervalued currency or lack of transparency. They also pretty much stuck a big middle finger in our faces by unveiling a new stealth fighter while Robert Gates was there to get them be more open about their military operations (even though many of the J-20's parts are American).

Most of Obama's administration officials have said to the press that they tend to be more assertive this time around although this may just lead to more finger pointing as Hu said in an interview with American newspapers that he wants the US to end the "cold war mentality" of the relationship. It will be interesting to see how this visit goes and what kind of (if any) progress is made. No matter how it goes, I sense that a new Cold War is going to start soon.

In the meantime, China's State Council Information Office will be broadcasting ads on American TV to boost China's image as a soft power. It will feature various Chinese celebrities such as Jackie Chan, Yao Ming and Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei. I will definitely post it here as soon as I can.

China trying to boost its image in America? Where have I seen that before?

Gee, I wonder if Hu will be staying in the White House China Room?

Thats right, two puns in one post!

Views

Dear Chinese Guy,

What does the average Chinese person think about Americans?

Is it true that most Chinese people stereotype us as stupid or arrogant? What do they think about our debt problem?

Also I just wanted to say most Americans are not blaming the Chinese themselves for outsourcing. We blame corporate America and the government. You can't blame Americans for not buying American because it is nearly impossible to buy American. I try to buy American clothing but I can't find electronics.

Brittany


Dear Brittany.

Sorry for the lateness and the general scatter brainless of this post, I spent half a day doing stuff and thus rather than write in one cohesive lump it's has been done bit by bit.

As I cannot really ask all 1.4billion people and the 10 or 20 million who live overseas I can only really generalise. In generalising I'm um...... generalising....

Anyhow it varies. It varies a lot. Lots of factors play into how it varies, where they live, where they work and how much of the world they see. As in every country and society there are good people, bad people ambitious people and those who are content. I would however make a big distinction between government and people though. In university (college) I knew quite a few Muslims who would get all het up and angry about Americans. But they really meant the American government rather than the people themselves.

For starters people in small villages outside the main cities of China will never really have seen Americans in the flesh since tourists tend not to go there and these people tend not to travel overseas either. You could probably make one of those videos about them where Americans are lampooned for their ignorance though these videos are purposely edited to remove all of the good and correct answers from them. Even I TCG have suffered from this.


I am very wary of cameras as I had a nasty run in with a TV reporter years ago. Where there was this smarmy get who was wandering around town poking a microphone in peoples’ faces. He asked me what APR was and equivalent APR. I told him what it was. The reporter looked disappointed in my response in knowing what they were. He then asked me, “Do you think other people know what APR and equiv APR are?”
“I have no idea,” I said. On the evening news they ran a banks are ripping us off as the UK public is retarded feature. It showed numerous apparent numpties saying they did not know what APR was. I was waiting for me to show up to blow them away, at which a cut of me saying, “I have no idea.” Making me look like a numpty and the feature ended


While the exact polar opposite say somebody working in a tourist trap in Beijing or Shanghai will probably have a grossly negative opinion of Americans. Even I got a grossly negative view once or twice when a large bunch of whats the word frat boys came into the bar I was sat in and started to take the place apart after a large number of beers. But seriously it's the bad things that stick in your memory and of course not all people are like that.

While if you are a factory worker pumping out tons of plastic shit for the export market you'll also get a very skewed vision of foreigners. I mean if you were working in a sex toy factory all day and were making I dunno animal dildos. It is TCG's policy not to imply ownership of the aforementioned item only that a dildo. You'd think WTF are these people like. Or even more innocent things like this thing I found in a Christmas cracker once. A squirty water bar of chocolate. I live here and think WTF! I would say however that much of what is seen is portrayed via Hollywood and the media that lands in China.

In the UK for instance we have lots of stereotypes about Texans. Even my sister has joked about it with me. Because this steers and queers joke has been thrown around in the media for decades. IIRC it appeared in an officer and a gentleman, then in the classic full metal jacket.



Even though full metal Jacket was actually filmed entirely in London,.. there are some extremely non PC scenes in FMJ though like this one. These stereotypes have been played out in sitcoms through the media and tend to be hard to rub off.

Since a lot of heroic movies tend to go to China (and get pirated) there is often a fascination about American culture where everybody is rich enough to drive cars, have large homes and eat lots of meat. China of course only the very rich drive cars, and everybody lives in small homes. Also until recently the diet consisted mostly of vegetables with meat being a rarity. This is why Chinese people in China don't understand vegetarians. Meat is so cheap today that they don't understand why people'd pass up a good thing.

This is reflected heavily in lots of things like ESL because of the fascination with American culture. ESL in China, in fact I could say all of Asia they want image above all else, which is why schools of all levels state and private prefer their ESL teachers to look a certain way. Have a read of this advert. It wasn't till quite recently adverts specifically asked for WHITE people. Thus highly qualified people would be passed up for completely unqualified people of varying quality (I've seen Russians be ESL teachers in China). Primarily due to image as the children think America is better than here. I'd tend to agree with them on various levels. Because in the USA people are told anything is possible. While in China opportunities are limited and social mobility is very limited. I mean the US had a bloke from Austria become Governor of California.



I'd say however the image is deteriorating. Due to various factors.

Online life of what western nations are like, again lots of negative media along with the Hollywood version of things gets to China. Such as this video which even makes me in the fairly liberal UK think blimey. Or those Are Americans stupid type videos that float around youtube regularly.

Secondly CCP nationalism. Although China is a one party state with limited participation in decision making the CCP has to be bloody careful whenever it does anything. An easy way out as the Nazis found out and the USSR used is to externalise your problems. Those freakin' [insert nationality here] doing nasty things to us! It's called rallying round the flag I believe Mr Bush did this a few times.

This is pretty normal though. Remember back in the wild year 2010 when an oil rig exploded off the coast of Florida? Those evil British companies we'll make them pay spoke Obama. Generally to distract people away from the fact that Obama wasn't doing too well in the polls and the economy was on the ropes. They kept on saying British Petroleum, except BP isn't British Petroleum and hasn't been for a while it's just BP with the slogan Beyond Petroleum. Even though it may well have been Haliburton's fault.

Thirdly Bernanke. Who loves the printing press and keeps on printin' those dollars. Because China has limited social welfare, (welfare is only claimable if you go to the village of your birth_ and non socialised medical care people save. The saving rate in Asia is pretty high, if you save loads of money then you have um lots of money. Since RMB is pretty much the US$ due to the nearly immovable peg. This means that when Bernanke hits the print button it devalues the savings of millions of Chinese people. Which peeves them off a tad. This links into the debt problem as you asked originally. China is the creditor to the USA (along with UK,Japan, Korea and other nations) . Again it varies, some of the people I've met around Beijing think it is neat as it helps their exports. While others think it is less so because the $ held by the PBoC can be devalued by the printers. A big example of this was back in 2008 when I was in China for some reason I can't remember. A a radio talk show about this back in 2008. Where there was a huge amount of anger from the money printing. Comments like CCP policy gifted the USN several carriers due to the debasement.

But keep up the non buying of China made stuff, I do probably because I have some pretty neat made in Europe stuff and do to my strange physical shape.

Lucky Numbers

Chinese can be very superstitious, even when it comes to things like numbers. Many buildings in China have missing floors. When numbering them, architects tend to skip floors with unlucky numbers. Below are some lucky and unlucky numbers. Note: the homophones are for Mandarin only, they may mean other things in other dialects.

2 (二 èr)
Two is a homophone for “Jade, Pearls, Luxuriant growth” symbolizing wealth. The phrase “good things come in pairs” is of Chinese origin. Two means a pair, meaning it is good.

3 (三 sān)
The character for the number three is similar to the one for birth (生 shēng), and is therefore associated with life.

4 (四 sì)
Four is the unluckiest of numbers, because it is associated with the word for death (sǐ). Many buildings in China don’t have any floors that contain the number 4 (4, 14, 24, 34 40–49).

5 (五 wŭ)
Five could be considered both lucky and unlucky. It is lucky because it is associated with the five elements in Chinese philosophy, but that’s a story for another day. It is unlucky because it is a homophone for “dirty, filthy, foul, insult, disobedient, disappoint, to hate, mistake”

6 (六 liù)
Six is quite lucky, as it is a homophone for “lovely, beautiful, gold, fluid”.

7 (七 qī)
Also considered the luckiest number in the west, seven can be considered lucky and unlucky. It is lucky because it can mean “peace, fine jade, neat, even, togetherness”. It is unlucky because the 7th month of the Chinese calendar is “Ghost Month”. Seven is also a homophone for “grief, mourning, coldness, ridicule, to abandon, to put to rest”

8 (八 bā)
Eight is perhaps the luckiest number in Chinese culture. It sounds similar to “prosper” (发 fā) and “wealth”. Two 8’s next to each other (88) bare a visual resemblance to the character for “double happiness” (囍). Some have gone to great lengths to use the number as much as possible for good luck.
• The United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Beijing is flight 888
• A man in Sichuan paid 元1.8 million for the phone number 888-8888
• A Hangzhou man offered to sell his license plate: A88888 for 元1.12 million
• The Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur have 88 floors
• TD Bank’s Chinatown branch auctioned off the safe deposit box 888

9 (九 jiŭ)
Being the highest single digit number, nine is associated with royalty (.i.e. the Emperor) and is a homophone for “long lasting”. It might be etymology of the Kowloon peninsula in Hong Kong. Kowloon is Cantonese for “Jǐulóng” meaning “Nine Dragons”.

Combinations of numbers can also form homophones with hidden meanings. Some are a real stretch though.


88 (八八 bā bā)
Beyond the fact that 8 is lucky, "bā bā" sounds like "bye-bye" and therefore is often used to say goodbye when logging out of internet chat rooms.


520 (五二 wǔ èr)
Its a real stretch but some Chinese believe the word for 520 sounds like "I love [you]" (wǒ ài).


510 (五一 wǔ yī)
Another homophone for "I love you"


There are probably hundreds of others out there. Virtually any number or number combination can have some abstract meaning.

Simplified vs Traditional

Written Chinese has two versions, traditional and simplified. Traditional characters is the style that has been used for centuries, simplified characters were created by the PRC to increase literacy. Simplified Chinese focuses on reducing the number of strokes needed to write it. Not only does this make it easier to write, but it makes it easier to read when in small print, as some more complicated traditional characters are illegible in small type. For example, the word 'Taiwan' in traditional characters looks like this: 臺灣  Not so easy to see right? Let me magnify it:

臺灣

Even then its not that easy to read. Simplified characters make reading them easier by making them less complex. 'Taiwan' in simplified characters looks like this: 台湾

台湾

That makes it more clear, but sometimes the system does not make as much sense. 

There are traditional characters that are simple enough yet the PRC's system simplifies them anyway. 

Characters like 門 (mén) (gate) look simple, yet they are simplified to 门.

For some simplified characters, they are hardly different from their traditional counterparts. 

Characters such as 廈 (Shà) (skyscraper) are simplified to 厦. Can you spot the difference? The one on the left is traditional, the right is simplified.

廈 厦

The simplified one has the small dash on top removed. Wow! That makes it so much simpler!

Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and overseas Chinese communities. Simplified characters are used in Mainland China and Singapore.

I personally prefer traditional characters because they are more well, traditional. But sometimes I mix them and substitute simplified characters when the traditional ones are insane like the example above.

For someone learning Chinese as a second language it really doesn't make much of a difference learning one system over the other. Its Chinese for gods sake, its going to be a challenge either way. The simplified system was created to increase literacy because they are easier to memorize and write for children who already knew the spoken language.

Communist unity?

Many people from the outside think China is one well oiled engine under one rule? But this recent action by the PLA suggest that there are multiply competing factions within the Chinese government especially with the PLA and the communist party. It will be interesting how the new leadership change will play out in 2012?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/11/AR2011011101338.html?hpid=topnews

What do you think about this article?

Thanks
Marcus



Dear Marcus

I think this article is merely pointing out the obvious really, I think this is pretty normal. Even in the UK politics the politicians generally plot against each other regularly and constantly. Hell look up the thing called the night of the long knives. Hitler had this happen to him and his was also an absolute regime. Long knives also happened in the UK in 1962.

So there are definate power struggles within China's political masters. Without such struggles I'd be very very surprised. Much as there is struggle in the US government. They do however try and keep it under wraps and when you control the state media it is so much easier to do this.

So when Palin says our allies, North Korea, the media can jump up and down on it.



While in the UK and China the mainstream news is censored and controlled by the government. So when things happen which are politically embarrassing the CCP of China can easily cover it up. The meme My dad is Li Gang is a powerful example of this. It was a massive internet meme where people (rightfully) demanded justice. All of a sudden a few days afterwards it simply vanished off ALL media platforms. Much like Wikileaks is not mentioned on UK TV news at all.

I can't find a video but the communist party does actually vote on issues. Sometimes you see videos on CCTV news or TVB news about when it happens. Nearly 100% of the time there is a 100% for or against the amendment. It is similar to this.



For YEARS the CCP has had 100% votes for whatever is tabled. This looks like well oiled unity. In reality they hammer out some sort of agreement before hand then they go to vote. So it looks like it is unaminous. This does not ALWAYS work however. When Hu Jintao was 'voted' in there was a nearly a 100% vote for, and one abstention which was a fly in the ointment.

This is related to our old friend face yet again. I wouldn't say it is 1984 esq immortality... whereby O'Brien talks about becoming part of the party so one lives.

Although I do not like the CCP system of one party and cherry picked communist corporate state system. (Though I might add that democracy I'm not sure is the answer either) I have a modicum more respect for the CCP leadership. Look around on Wikipedia. All of China's leaders are engineers of some kind. While the UK's leaders? Bunch of Lawyers who worked at Daddy's law firm for a couple of years before moving into politics. Even Obama leader of the USA used to be a smegging lawyer.

Friday comedy

Bugger me it's been a long ass week pumping 10 hour days 14 if you include the hellish commutes. I've got a few questions in the pipeline they are getting worked on slowly but they are being worked on done by the weekend seriously.

It's just that I arrive home rather tired....For some reason people seem to be unable to drive in the rain and drive sooo slowly and people crash clogging up the motorway.

Anyway here is something which cheered me up! As a runner to this post or the Korean's cut n paste post of the co-editor here. But hey Koreans always copy Japanese cars and tech. When China becomes prominent Korea will steal car designs from China. Though Chinese cars are presently a bit too shitty. Not to mention I stole the entire ask blog concept off him too.......

Anyway swiftly moving on....

High expectations Asian father

I can attest that almost 90%* of the stuff high expectations father says is true. and based entirely in fact I've been there done that gotten the t-shirt and the tacky souvenirs. That said my dad is actually quite a funny guy in a stupid kind of way. He's mellowed so much in his old age and my memory plays tricks on me such that I've probably forgotten all the baad stuff.

You know this kind of makes me wonder why the Korean guy talks about his mum a lot, while I talk about my dad a lot. My mother barely gets a mention on this blog compared the wordtime my dad gets.


*9/10 statistics are made up on the spot such as this one

Should I stay or should I go? 2

Hi,

I read your blog http://ask-a-chinese-guy.blogspot.com/ and saw your email under
Go on don't be afraid ask away
Well, I am a Hong Kong born and bred but have lived away for a long time. I miss the night life and the lifestyle and I'm considering returning. The last time I check (around 2 years ago) I was being offered jobs at around 13K pm. I'm 28/m. I wanted to know if this is enough to have a comfortable life?

Thanks & Regards,
Roshan

Hi there Roshan.

This is a highly subjective area, namely because it depends on your tastes wants and desires in life tbh. But any which way you look at it 13,000HK$ is not very much at all.

The average wage in Hong Kong is $19,000. Though I believe that this is skewed upwards because of the huge number of high earners who live in Hong Kong due to the low tax regime. Still $13,000 isn't exactly a huge amount of money to play around with either.

But you'll probably pay no income tax. I'd also look at your citizenship situation as well. 3* citizens have subsidised health care and can go on waiting lists. People without the three stars can't.

Quite simply accommodation will be THE biggest cost that will hit you. $3000-$6000 is typical with lower rents in not so good areas. And when I say that I mean a box room which can fit little more than a bed in it. A common trap is to live in the New Territories the problem is the savings in rent are sucked up by the time and commuting costs. Although HK's MTR and bus networks are extremely effective and cheap probably better than when you left it all adds up.

I can live on $13000 because $10000 of that is disposable income.

Some other costs you can't avoid.

A decent meal can be had for $30-40.

Beer is about $9-15 in convenience stores while anywhere from $10-$1000 for a beer (in LKF HK where all the bankers go it is v expensive.)

Thus your life will be no fun at all and you'll be scrimping and saving constantly meaning your life won't exactly be great. Also I'd add that Hong Kong people by and large are very face conscious. They will look down on you and some people will even go as far to ridicule you to a great extent. Much like how people put down others to make themselves feel better. If it was just to get your foot into the door to lead to a better job then MAYBE it is worth it. But as said I'd look for at least $16000+ which will get you an ok place to stay, decent food to eat and some fun money.

Regards

Gambling

Nah thats gambolling Source

CG,

I have a question why is it that Chinese people love to gamble?

Ken

Dear Ken

I wouldn't say all Chinese people like to gamble, though I actually gamble but not with money more with my existence due to a like of dangerous hobbies.

However there is a general stereotype about Chinese people who like to gamble. For instance play just the sound track to the film God of Gamblers (which spawned many many sequels) and many people will instantly recognise the tune.



Also up and down the land (UK) in casinos you will see disproportionately a large number of Chinese people there. Hell on the Russian Chinese border I saw lots of Casinos (Casinos in Mainland China are illegal) which I guess were to cater for the Chinese people to come over the border. Generally as there was nothing for miles and miles to either side of the casino.

North Korea even has a couple of special zones which cater exclusively for the Chinese on the other side of the border.

Also through my growing up birthdays of myself, my cousins etc were mere pretexts, extremely thin pretexts just to start playing Mahjong. In doing so gamble money lots of it (seriously never play Mahjong too many cheating cnuts and the friendly games of the past playing for peanuts literal peanuts no longer happen. People WANT to take your shirt). They'd bring out the cake sing happy birthday for a minute cut it then the convenient table in the backs of their cars would come into the house and the constant clack clack of the tiles would be heard.

However its a generalisation and stereotype, but you know the old saying always a grain of truth in stereotypes. The love to gamble I've seen is restricted to the migrants of the 60s and 70s. A big reason for this is that gambling is sociable, much like drinking in the UK, people go to the pub not just to drnk but to socialise. Back in the day the Chinese community was (and is) very small, with very limited language skills making friends with the natives was hard. Relating to them and joining in their activities (especially when they had a tendency to attempt to kick the shit out of you on a regular basis). So many out of boredom decided to gamble. I mean it is something which is easy to do requires little skill. It can also provide a thrill if you win.

Other reasons off my head are:

Firstly our old friend face..... face is uber important, when you don't turn up to gamble in Mahjong's people will take the piss and say nasty things. Like, "oh she poor, she will lose face,so she will turn up even though she didn't have money." bastards.....

Secondly it is a social thing, as above. You can have a read of the book Joy Luck club, the women in this book gamble with each other. The primary motivation isn't to gamble but to get together to gossip and talk about their lives.

Thus it is a combination of having money burning a hole in your pocket, it being a social activity whereby other Chinese people will congregate and that there was little to do. So they spent their money doing this instead.

Copy n paste?

dear Chinese and Korean dudes,

in 2007 a French firm Valeo filed a lawsuit against a Chinese intern because she possessed confidential documents at her house.

Renault is now filing a lawsuit against three top executives who are accused of selling confidential informations about an electric car projet. it was recently discovered that those executives actually work for a concurrent Chinese firm. i couldn't explain why, but Valeo and Renault are related (outsourcing ?), so it feels like Renault has been attacked twice by spies. also, i know that Renault has a strong partnership with Nissan from Japan, but it is off topic.

Renault is such a national pride that this spy story has been being such a hot topic. it is like Renault is crying for the government's protection against those nasty, nasty Asian firms that don't respect the rules. the government is even telling the people that this is a war. (http://www.english.rfi.fr/france/20110106-french-authorities-wary-after-renault-spy-scandal)

when they try to explain the situation on television, French experts tend to highlight a certain Asian business culture. Asian people are said to have a persistent tendency to copy and steal, officially for economic reasons (it is cheaper and requires less time than investing in research and development like Renault-Nissan did, damn it). Since those French experts, when they talk about Asia, actually refer to China, Japan and maybe Korea, i would like to have your thoughts about this cliché and this affaire. can you dangerous Asian people only copy and steal from us European folks ? do you see a war between East-Asian and EU countries ?

thank you for your great blogs !

a French chick of Cameroonian descent who doesn't ride any Renault car


the French chick

Dear French chick

I think this story is quite funny tbh, there is an old English expression where they say, pot kettle and black. My dad prefers the expression roughly translated as stinky foxes don't realise their own tails smell bad.

Namely because of this story a few days ago.

http://www.france24.com/en/20110104-france-industrial-espionage-economy-germany-russia-china-business

Where FRANCE, not Russia, Not China or Korea were the number #1 nation for stealing industrial secrets from other countries. That's not to say China does not steal secrets. I know and you know and the whole world knows China does not respect intellectual property. China' and intellectual property are best described by this old 1980s song by Ultravox.



It means NOTHING to me.....

This is hardly anything new though, and it is fairly widespread across Asia so there is truth in the allegations which these people on the news make.

Copying from each other is pretty normal and if it didn't happen I'd be surprised. A major example of this is the Japanese motorcycle industry. The ENTIRE Japanese bike industry is copied off British technology. Small engineering firms invented the twin spar frames. Japanese companies copied it. Even European companies copy off each other. Norman Hossack is the father of the separated bike steering/braking suspension system BMW copied it.

More obvious examples for instance have a look at an early Toyota Celica.

Source

Have a look at a Hyundai Coupe



Source

Or a Kia Forte vs the Honda Civic



Btw I can confirm the Japanese cars the Celica and the Honda civic are excellent cars. The Korean cars are super reliable but they are extremely under powered and the interiors are nasty like a 1980s porno type nasty. You can read about it more in depth here. More examples on this page, the Hyundai Sonata which all the cabbies in Seoul seem to drive is similarly nasty. While the Honda accord which I've driven as a rental car a few times is not a bad car. This is nothing to do with nationalism, it is to do with my own opinions. Hell I used to quite like the Ford Capri (it is a disappointing car to drive and is like a Cadillac in terms of handling.

In one way this is good for Chinese firms as they do not have to plough in $$$$$$$ into research and development. On the other hand this means their research and development is limited. There is also no general benefit of self innovation because others will merely copy your advances pretty damned quickly. Thus nobody bothers to innovate which means much industry in China is stagnating and merely immitating.

Another example is that the Russians are extremely suspicious of selling advanced weapons to China these days. The Mig21 given by the USSR to China was the baseline root of the Chinese technology tree (aided by an Israeli defence industry company). Which is why the Russians won't sell the Su27 to China because they fear the technology will be copied.



In fact the J20 which has been recently doing the rounds looks a lot like the F-22 which Obama has refused to order more of.



It also looks a bit like the Sukoi Pak 50



It's almost like the F-22 spotted the PAK50 across a crowded night club dance floor and both were really really drunk. They woke up in bed and felt really awkward and vowed never to speak about it again. 9 months later the J-20 was born.



2 minutes 30 seconds in is the bit.

Kinda... However then again there may only be a few kinds of stealth shapes that exist on the planet. Much like cars are low at the front and bubble up for the cabin. I simply don't know, though before the flight test many said it was a cardboard mock up. Much like Jasper Maskelyne In WWII he built an enormous number of fake tanks all over the desert tricking Erwin Rommel into thinking the British had a massive tank army.

Partnerships as you describe with the Nissan-Renault partnership are also incredibly dangerous for the established company as well. Even if they don't steal and they instead use other people's engines there is a danger they'll learn how to build these things themselves. Hyundai is a great example, they entered into a partnership with Ford or was it GM. They bought old engines 2-3 generations behind those of the latest Ford cars. Ford made lots of money on this selling junk to the Koreans. This is probably why almost all 1980s and 1990s Hyundais, Kias and Daewoo Ssyongang (Daewoo and Ssyongang died a horrible death in Europe about 5 years ago). Were horrendous in quality. You looked at them too hard and they would self destruct. However Hyundai improved their game in the mid 1990s and learnt how to build their own engines and copy Japanese styling. They have teething problems in regards to their reputation. This is why they need to advertise a 7 year warranty on their cars. People who bought Hyundai in the 1980s and early 1990s were hugely disappointed. Fast forward 10 years and Ford is now on the ropes. Hyundai is now stalking Toyota to become a massive car manufacturer.

In regards to war, do you mean economic war or war war?

I'll address both issues. War war not a chance, both powers are nuclear powers. China has about 160 nuclear missiles France has about 202 nuclear missiles. But nobody bar General Mcarthur of Korean war fame is mad enough to throw nuclear bombs about in war. Also neither country has the ability to project any sort of power. China has one carrier which is to be launched later this year. France has a nuclear carrier the Charles De Gaule. Stalemate. China also has a lot of aces. Quite simply Europe is completely broke. The Euro is dying a slow horrible death and the economies of Europe are on the ropes.

China's economy isn't exactly doing well either because their main customers the USA (Walmart) and Europe are also on the ropes. But it is doing a hell of a lot better than Europe even though this may not last.


Economic war?

It's already happening and has been going on for a long time, though French people are a tad more Nationalistic than British people. When ever I go to France they all seem to drive French cars or the odd German car. In the UK we don't drive UK made cars we drive German, Japanese, French namely because we don't mass produce cars anymore. As said I've been to France plenty of times and looking around a lot of stuff in France in the Carrefour and Leclerc super markets (except for the food and wine) are made in China.

So economic war is already being waged.

However as above shouting and stomping your feet that people are stealing your ideas when you yourself steal ideas is pretty childish! It's a bit like this silly cow! Helene Hegemann who copied and pasted her book from another bloke then had the gall to deny it. Then she posted on twitter that she'd sue anybody who copied HER book. Funny eh?

But back on topic if anybody has the right to complain it is the Germans who suffer from this industrial espionage. Germans always seem to engineer great stuff. Which is probably why the USSR and the USA grabbed as many German scientists as possible in the post WWII period.

Chinese Parenting

There seems to be a lot of buzz lately over a Wall Street Journal article by Amy Chua, "Why Chinese Mothers are Superior". She argues that the Chinese (Asian really) parenting technique of "tough love" makes children much more successful than the "just try your best" attitude of most western parents. She explains that Chinese mothers want their children to be the best because academic success reflects good parenting, and if your child wasn't perfect in school, it meant that you were imperfect parents thus causing you to lose face. It also has to do with the Confucian value of filial piety, that children should always respect their elders. She explains that Chinese children owe everything to their mothers for raising them, providing them with food, shelter etc. In return, their children must be the best children possible or they would bring disrespect to their elders.

Many western parents believe that pushing your child to be perfect is bad, and that scolding them for getting a B+ even though they tried their best (as Asian parents would do) is bad for their self esteem. Chinese parents don't take their child's feelings into account. They do whatever possible to make sure their children dont just try their best, but be the best, even if it means yelling at them for their flaws.

While Asian parenting may seem harsh, the numbers don't lie. Asian children rank consistently high in academics and test scores. Statistically speaking, Chinese parenting is superior, however pushing a child so hard can have other consequences. Asian countries have some of the worlds highest suicide rates. Many of them are committed by young adults because they don't feel like they are good enough due to their damaged self esteem or they simply snap under the pressure.

The western way of raising children won't make them score as high as the asian kids, but it will give them more confidence to want to try things they wouldn't normally do, were as asian kids won't want to venture too far from being a doctor or engineer, because that is the typical path their parents want them to  pursue.

I wouldn't raise my children the asian way, but I dont want to give them a free ride either. You should push your child, but not so hard that they fall over the edge.

Monday Death.Comedy sorta....

While we are not Japanese, whereby society is ALL about death, Chinese people tend to avoid death the usual things you've heard me rant about the number four for instance.

But seriously what the hell is it with Chinese and death these days?

While people with easy access to guns like Americans shoot themselves, or go to Oregon. Or die horribly in a gunfight with the cops, suicide by cop

British people hang themselves or jump off something high or jump off high things.

Chinese people HAVE to go do something all fucked up and make the world think Chinese people are weird, ok sometimes we ARE weird but seriously there is good weird and there is bad weird.

What am I talking about?

Ah yes I'm feeling rather down of late I know I shall remove myself from this mortal coil by sticking a cucumber up my bum. I mean surely that'll do the trick right?

We get bastards who push people.

Then we have guys who cut off their dicks to kill themselves. Btw related to this look up the China section here and look up the women cutting off dicks. Now for all those people who spout the bullshit about Asian/Chinese/Korean/Japanese women being more passive and submissive read that and tell me they are more pasive and submissive. I mean how many penis chopping incidents can you name in America or Europe? I can name one a bloke called Bobbit.

Now we have a guy who cut off his arms and legs before jumping out of a 16 floor window as illustrated by Applenews.



I mean c'mon it's making Chinese people look really weird.

Run up to CNY

If you thought the weather was bad where you are spare a thought for the 100s of millions of Chinese migrant workers who all bugger off home for CNY a 7 day holiday absolutely mandated by the CCP.

Video games

Hi chinese guy, nice blog you have here, i have a question. What age do Chinese men usually stop playing computer / video games? I just moved in with my boyfriend, a chinese man and he is 27 and he still plays computer games every night!
Thanks Sarah!!

Dear Sarah

Having a look at my Chinese contemporaries in both HK and the UK I'd say it varies, heavily. Generally as they are an escape from the usual drudgery of life. I mean what other artificial reality can we be superheros and or gun people down without consequences and lots of cost? Hell my day to day life isn't filled with thrills either. In Hong Kong many of my mates who work in office jobs stop by internet cafes have a few games of counter strike or something then go home. But they all tend to live alone in sardine can sized flats.

Myself I abandoned video games for nearly 5 years on account of having a very very low spec machine which couldn't handle anything more than pong. Also having to regularly study for my ACCA exams. A serious drag on my life I might add. I have dipped my finger back into games now and again but frankly I prefer to go out riding or be fixing something. I only really play when the weather is too bad outside. Which is why you see games mentioned here and there in my blog posts. IIRC Prototype and Stranglehold as well as Rome Total war three kingdoms.

However something I have seen is when they get married and or have children that they are simply too busy to play and therefore give it up. Though this is not exclusive to video games.

Kai was like this, he used to play a lot, then his wife had triplets. And he was busy looking after his three children to be playing. The usual things changing nappies, then having to take them to after school activities when they grew older.

Robbie was like this too, he was a fantastic motorbike rider and we'd tear up the back lanes regularly but when he married (without children) all of a sudden the bike and the gear was put away and he suddenly became sensible.

My dad was like this too, my dad apparently before my birth would regularly go out shooting when such things were legal in the UK. When I came along he had to curtail his hobbies considerably.

It might be to do with the fact that Chinese culture considers marriage to be a sign of maturity. Which is why the second you get married people left right and centre can and will extort you for those red packets of money at each and every opportunity. Peer/society and family pressure may put an end to it too

My point is it varies considerably and there is some causal relationship regarding general business and wasting time. Unless it is an addition or obsession whereby it is affecting his wider life. In terms of work, socialising, relationships etc then maybe you ought to have a talk. Unfortunately however ultimately, you can't change anyone else. All you can really do is either change how you react to the situation, or change who you date. For instance my mum hated my dad's gambling addiction but she never managed to get him off the hook.

Early comedy

Yorkshire men.... kinda of reminds me of when my dad gets together with his old friends, they say pretty much the same things

I don't believe it!

People of British descent or have lived in the UK will recognise the title of this post. It is from one foot in the grave. Anyhow I don't believe it! The I am a cheap skate I sleep in airports guide no longer has ANY Chinese airports in the top 4. But it does have them in the bottom 4.

http://www.sleepinginairports.net/index.htm

Singapore doesn't count as Singapore ain't China. Even Seoul pipped China to the spot. Although admittedly Incheon airport is rather nice with free to use netbooks that they don't even feel the need to attach to the desks which you can use to browse Naver.com . Though the toilets were disgusting in Incheon same with Gimpo airport. Not the toilets themselves.

Minor Note Korean toilets are immaculately clean, as a side note I managed to find THE BEST toilet in Seoul which has won this apparently prestigious award 3 years in a row. It is near the world cup stadium between Mapo Gu at one of the metro stations.

No no Korean toilets are horrendous for two things. They have these soap on stick things which you have to rub as if you're jerking off.


Plus they have little baskets covered in shit covered paper since apparently Korean toilets can't handle bog roll. TCG knows they can flush anything away after being sick on the spicy Korean food more than once. Though this is too much info.

Even Chep Lap Kok airport of Hong Kong did not hit the top 4! Probably the problem with Hong Kong airport is that the seating is partitioned. They have big steel arm rests which prevent you from stretching out. Incheon airport does not.

Still at least it isn't as bad as Manchester airport. Where WIFI which costs £2 for 5 minutes which has an uber version of websense which blocks anything and everything making it useless! Food is expensive and lousy and the UK security force regularly take me to one side and search me in a manner not dissimilar to this

The Devil Came Down to China

Weird shit happens in this crazy world. Fish die and birds fall out of the sky in Arkansas, and people in China start growing horns.

Source + Story

A 101 year old woman in Eastern China has been growing a horn on her forehead since 2009 and is growing an identical one on the other side of her forehead. She says she does not want them removed because of the publicity they have attracted.

Another elderly man in Guangxi has also been found with the condition, but the horn is in the back of his head.

Source + Story

These growths are likely to be Cutaneous horns made not out of bone but of keratin, the material of fingernails. This condition is rare but is believed to be caused by radiation and skin damage.

Or it could be another sign of the apocalypse as birds fall from the sky and sinners turn into monsters.

You heard it here first, the end of days is upon us.

Does Chinese medicine work?

Chinese guy

Does Chinese traditional medicine work? Have you ever tried it?

Doug

Dear Doug

Firstly when you say Chinese medicine what medicine do you mean? As there are quite a few mainstream and non mainstream Chinese medicine types. Off my head I can name several, Gua Sha. Which is where some old guy rubs you with a furry stick. It does something funny because you get all sorts of bruises all over the areas where he rubs you. I have tried this in Beijing in a back street. Once, the guys at the hostel thought I'd been beaten up and mugged from the bruising which appeared all over my body. Apparently the more bruising you have over your body that appears the less healthy you are. At the time I was pretty sick. There is acupuncture, there is also herbal medicine. There is Chi gun, which my dad believes in, he has met many fake practitioners though. He met a real one years ago who cured his bad back, which is why he sits on the wall. There is also 跌打酒 (Deet Cha jow) which is commonly made in Chinese people's homes which is a kind of wine which you rub into wounds.

My answer to this is rather sitting on the wall. This is due to conflicting thoughts of various kinds. Firstly EU law says no. The EU says no fucking way can you sell Chinese herbal remedies. Which means Dr Herbs


Is absolutely buggered as they can't sell anything on April 1 2011 a couple of months away. Also that a lot of alternative medicine is discredited such as hydrotherapy or Chiropractors. Also the fact that the FDA tends not to give licences out to this stuff. Also a lot of the cures are anecdotal. While western medicine to get a licence for it to be distributed you need to conduct lots of studies fake some data and suppress your negative findings. What was it Paxil? A friend in London was once on that, it was an antidepressant. It had a strange side effect that made people suicidal. And numerous drugs which have nasty side effects but the info was suppressed. (And this stuff is supposed to give you confidence)

On the other hand.

However I have been ill as a child and no UK doctor could diagnose or cure me, so my dad being my dad took me on a jaunt to China. Where I came back completely cured after various horrendous herbal remedies usually some kind of black foul tasting medicine. The doctor at the time was at a loss as to how this had happened (the cure) and probably wrote in my medical notes that I was pretending. Years of pills seriously messed with me as if I would pretend. Though the cure being a horrible potion boiled up from several packets was pretty awful in taste and aftertaste.

Also with 跌打酒 my dad has used tons of this on me and himself, my bruises and soft tissue damage when treated with this heal significantly faster than untreated wounds. For example both my knees are knackered (a Russian motorbike ride was the killer blow). I'd sometimes crash and land on my knee. My left knee has been treated regularly each time. My Right knee has missed two treatments from when I lived away. My right knee hurts a lot more these days. Though these could be attributed to mere coincidence or a placebo/psychosomatic effect or the rubbing effect the olde' salt into your wounds... is it the salt or the rubbing?

Also these alternative medical practitioners have been around for centuries, a medicine shop a tiny one in Hong Kong my dad trusts and uses has been around since the 1700s when HK was just a fishing village. Some in Beijing are even older. If they sold snake oil then why would they still be in business? HK is a good example as it is a westernised city and people will still turn to such medicines in addition to western medicines.

My thoughts are that it may work. My reasoning behind this is that the ingredients which they put into the things you drink or are rubbed into your skin could possibly contain active ingredients which do the job. However there has been little refinement of the ingredients perhaps due to technology. Remember China has been an agricultural society for quite sometime. Some stuff has been refined by western medicine such as Ginkgo Biloba. A Chinese apothecary also has tons and tons of stock which takes time to get through. Finally if it does work why the hell would they help western type medical companies develop it? The indians who helped out the settlers that came to the place which became the USA had an unhappy ending (for the Indians anyway).

But these are my thoughts and I could be wrong.

Jiggling Titties!

Where are my manners!

How to make a good Chinese style pork cracking.

You need:

4lb piece fat belly pork with skin. Bigger is better fatter is better older pork is also better than young pork. Free range is also better as free range pigs have more fat on them than chemical and hormone grown meat. You can usually buy this at your wholesalers or indie butcher. Don't buy the shit you find at supermarkets as the (added) water content is too high and it is cut into thin strips.

• A whole bag of salt any is fine.
• 3 table spoons of sugar
• Some star anise
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 7 cloves garlic, crushed. However don't peel it, grab your chopper and use the side to slam it.
• 2oo ml rocket fuel (high alcohol content vodka works nicely you can sub this with water if you want)
• 1.5 tablespoons Chinese white vinegar

Method?

• Grab a board with nails in it and stab the meat, don't score it scoring produces crappy pork cracking, stab it repeatedly so that EVERY single bit of skin looks like a colander. Do NOT stab too deep though you want to get just below the skin surface.
• Keep on stabbing.
• Keep on stabbing.
• Keep on stabbing.
• Mix all of the above in a bowl of water. Crushing the star anise thoroughly.
• Now rub it into the pork.
• Bugger off for a whole day and leave it to soak in. The alcohol should vapourise meaning it doesn't add water to the pork.
• Stab some more.
• Now dehydrate the meat a for a bit with a sprinkling of salt. But not too much I don't know the measurement I just grab a handful and sprinkle.
• Leave it for another day in the fridge. The fridge is better as fridges dehydrate things also it prevents bacterial growth on the underside of the meat.
• Now dust the salt off. As it has done its purpose.
• Rub some more salt into it, as if it were your worst enemy and you some how have him pinned down.
• Leave it in the fridge again for at least 24 hours. This dries the meat incredibly.
• Now get some oil, peanut oil is ok, and rub the surface of the pork and the underside. If you feel like it stab with a soaked oil nail here and there.
• Now put it in the oven at the top of the oven on a thin tray. Turn it to 200C and leave.
• Come back 15 minutes later and then turn the heat down to 180C.
• Come back 5 minutes later and then if you have a grill function in the oven turn it on.
• Watch it like a hawk. The second it goes dark and the edges start to go brown black (charred) remove from the oven.
• Leave it to cool on a rack for about 10 minutes to let the steam escape.
• Then cut into cubes, add some rice and eat.

I'd note adding bacon is NOT a good idea UNLESS you add the bacon AFTER the pork has been oven'd as the fat in the bacon drips into the pork and adds moisture to the skin. Somewhat 熱氣 though. Also contains vast amounts of fat cholestrol and things which are bad for you and will significantly shorten your life!

You can add sugar though which gives it a caramel type glaze.

WTF is this?

I mean it's just carbs and carbs. Where is all the bacon? I mean FFS there isn't even any pork cracking on there. You know like this.



Look at that mon! An INCH of fat on that..... hardly epic. Maybe I should go on that show and show them how it is done. Mine would have enough fat that it would have to be listed in powers!

Monday Comedy: Chengguan Dance

The Chengguan are China's city urban managers. They are sort of like police but focus on petty crimes and day to day regulations, but they are still brutal towards law breakers.

But that doesn't mean they don't like to have fun.

If the video is not loading, click here