A Travel 2.0 Chinese Love Story

I was honored to be interviewed by Winser Zhao of Sino Hotel Reservations' China Travel 2.0. If you would like to read the story about how we met, and about his telling of Fei and I, you can read it at http://www.sinohotelreservation.com/winser/?p=499.

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2008 was a great year, 2009 will be a fine year

In 2008 I married my soulmate and in 2009, God-willing, she comes home. Each year just keeps getting better for me! I never really do New Year's resolutions, but this year I resolve to give up the horrible addictions to fast food and soda (pop). This will improve my weight, energy, overall physical and financial health. Please pray that I succeed! Happy Civil New Year Everyone!

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Whiny LaoWai ExPats

Recently at Hao Hao Report, (A site like Digg and Mixx for English language China stories) a story was mercifully buried where a foreigner in China was complaining that the average foreigner wage for someone with a degree and experience was "only" 131,000.00 RMB (Chinese Yuan Renminbi). Currently, that equates to over $19,000.00 USD (United States Dollars). Now, that very well may be low for an Americans working and living in the United States of America, but this is for people living in the People's Republic of China where EVERYTHING is cheaper! Keep in mind, that the average Chinese citizen earns only 10,000.00 RMB a year. I mean, even university graduates are only asking for 18,000.00 RMB a year!

Now at Lost LaoWai's community blog, a site I respect and enjoy a lot, one of the great authors is complaining about having to work 6 Sundays a year, meaning there are 6 6-day weeks to allow for some week-long holidays! I would love to work a 6 day week to get a week-long holiday! Wouldn't you?

Don't get me wrong, I am glad that Christianity gave us the popular 5 day work week (Saturday off for the Sabbath and Sunday off for the Lord's Day, the day of Jesus' Resurrection), and I am glad that Henry Ford started the standard 40 hour workweek of 5 8-hour days, with 2 days of rest, but occasionally working 6 to get 3-7 days off is not a bad trade-off either!

Seriously, anyone who goes to China should know what they are getting in to, but this complaining about making "only" 10 times as much as the average Chinese person, or occasionally having to work a 6-day work week, because you have a week-long vacation strikes me as whiny and petty. Am I alone in this opinion?

For the record, I work every Sunday and Saturday and work 5 days a week. 4 of those days are 12 hour days, and 1 day (Sunday) is a 7 hour day. My wife works 7 days a week. She works 12 hours a day, from 9:00-21:00 like me, but she gets the standard 2-hour Chinese lunch/siesta time in the middle of that day (like these complaining expats most likely have) too. For this, she earns 12,000.00 RMB annually and 2 vacation days per month that can be accrued and used all at once. Maybe that is why I have no patience for this seemingly petty whining?

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Lisa See Reviewed Some More

This last month I have read 2 more of Lisa See's books. On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family is her non-fiction biography of her family. This is very obviously her first book and very interesting, telling then story of her family in China and America over the last 150 years. She had not yet developed her writing to such a degree as with her fiction over a decade later. Lisa has quickly become my favorite writer, but this book is not in structure what (I would call great, but the information inside is, and as such I would definitely still reccomend the book.

Peony in Love: A Novel is a fictional book in the same vain as Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel, a book I loved, however it is based on a true story. I cannot say too much without spoiling it, but it is a powerful story about love, fate, feminism, The Peony Pavilion, and art, that may very well now be my favorite book. It deals with the afterlife in a way you would not expect, detailing the Chinese religious thought on the subject, which makes many traditions in China come to life with anew understanding. I want to say more, but you are better off buying this book and reading it knowing nothing more than this.

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Toward Better Tones in Natural Speech

The problem, as Dr. Liao presented it, is that many learners can reach a relatively high level of fluency in Mandarin Chinese, have excellent tonal accuracy for individual words, yet still make a large number of very unnatural tonal errors in natural speech. This is a common enough problem that educators really need to be looking for ways to address it. Here is a suggested solution.

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Chinese Pinyin in 6 Mins

Cute and Short. It's a good flash for learning Pinyin.
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Odd Dreams

In the last 24 hours I have had 2 very odd dreams. For the longest time I did not dream, or remember my dreams, but after I went to China I began dreaming vividly. My daughter has had the same experience, calling it a magical land.

Anyway, my first dream was normal for my dreams, it was just a typical day of Fei and I spending time together, but it was narrated, which was very odd. Maybe because I have been reading so much lately, having finished 3 books in 3 days time. I recognized the narration voice because I was the narrator, interestingly enough.

The other took place while I napped. (I have been blessed to have taken naps in the last 2 days, helping me catch up on my sleep.) This one was even odder. I know this took place in an era of about 100-400 years ago. I was approximately 17 years old. I was from a rich family and had been given a maid who was supposed to sleep at the foot of my bed. However I let her sleep in my bed so that she could have comfort and warmth. My parents (who bore no resemblance to my waking world parents) did not approve, and I continued on with this and fell in love with the girl. At some time before we agreed to run off and elope, because I wanted to marry her, she recognized me as Nik and I recognized her as Fei, although these were not our names in this life. As I said, very odd, if there were such things as past lives, it seems it would be impossible for past lives to know future lives' names, so the logic seemed off. But such are dreams.

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2008 China Blog Awards Nominee

If you find this site helpful or interesting, you can vote for this site by going to http://www.chinalyst.net/node/46424 and clicking on the + sign. Chinalyst has voting for the best English language China blogs every year. Voting for the China Blog Awards 2008 runs from 1 December 2008 to 31 December 2008 and you are allowed to vote once per day.

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Book Reviews: "Wild Swans" and "Factory Girls"

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang was a good book comparing and contrasting the lives of her grandmother, a woman of Imperial China, her mother, a daughter of the Communist Revolution, and herself, an expatriate and anti-Maoist. The story is very good, although I think her editor failed her in jumping around in time too much. Chang has been accused of severe anti-Maoist distortions, but I have no way to prove or disprove this. I just know that this book is a very interesting look at China from the early 1900's to today and I would recommend it to any fan of China or history.

Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie Chang is a fascinating look at the culture of the factory girls who come from rural China and work the factories of industrial urban China. Over the years things have changed and this has changed the power structure and traditions of China for these girls and their families. This book is a very good introspective of these girls. However, seemingly out of nowhere Chang starts putting her family history in the book. Rather than adding to the book, it distracts from it. Her family history is still very interesting, and not unlike that of "Wild Swans", but I feel that part should have been left for its own book and "Factory girls" should have been left to focused on just the factory girls, which Chang never was.

While both books have serious flaws, I would still recommend them to anyone interested in the sociology of modern and recent China.

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Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers: Tomorrow People

I always thought he was singing, "Where is your best?" I think there was a more powerful message in my misunderstanding!

Oh Lord, oh no!

Tomorrow people, where is your past?
Tomorrow people, how long will you last?
Tomorrow people, where is your past?
Tomorrow people, how long will you last?

Today you say you deyah. Deyah be.
Tomorrow you say you're gone,
but you're gone so long.
If there is no love in your heart - so sorry -
Then there is no hope for you - true, true.

Tomorrow people, where is your past?
Tomorrow people, how long will you last? Come on!
Tomorrow people, where is your past? Where is your past?
Tomorrow people, how long will you last? 10 years!

So you're in the air,
But you still don't have a t'ing to spare.
You're flying high,
While we're on the low, o-o-oh

Tomorrow people, where is your past?
Tomorrow people, how long will you last? Tell me now.
Tomorrow people, where is your past? Nowhere!
Tomorrow people, how long will you last? Ten years!

Stop tellin' me the same story.
Today you say you deyah. Deyah be.
Tomorrow you say you're gone, and you're not comin' back.
If there is no love in your heart, oh now,
There will never be hope for you. No hope for you.

Tomorrow people, where is your past?
Tomorrow people, how long will you last? Ten years!
Tomorrow people, where is your past?
Tomorrow, tomorrow people, come on.

If you don't know your past, you don't know your future, everyone!
Don't know the past, you won't know the future, everyman!
Don't know your past, don't know your future, come on!
You don't know your past, you don't know your future, hey!

How many people did that one catch?
How many nations did that one catch, yeah-yeah?
Don't know the past, Don't know the future.
Don't say, don't know your past, don't know your future

How many people did that one catch?
How many nations did that one catch, c'mon, c'mon!
Tomorrow, tomorrow people...

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Sinotized: It's Not Like We Were Taught

I agree with these thoughts about China after having been an often visitor to this land as well: Sinotized: It's Not Like We Were Taught

Chinese Number Taboos are Often Local

This is from my friend LI Wan, who translated this in to English for a friend of hers.

Taboo, belonging to the category of folk culture, is a cultural phenomenon. China is a multi-ethnic country, and different nations have different totems and taboos. Taboo is the source of moral and civilization. All the Chinese people have regarded long as a totem and worshiped long all the time. When Spring Festival or other Festivals come, people in almost all areas of china will give an performance of dragon dance. In Dragon Boat Festival people will have a dragon-boat race, which reflects the nation's positive and never-give-up spirit.

1. There are many taboos in Changsha where mainly inhabit Han nationality Just as westerners view the number of 13 as a taboo, we think of the goods priced at 33, 36, 7, 94, 250, etc. as taboos.


2. Buying a house on the 18th floor is a taboo, because according to Buddhism, there is a saying like driving into the 18 floors of hell, so the land agent usually set a lower price at the 18th floor.


3. We like 8, 9 to be a number’s ending, and do not prefer the ending is 3, 4, because in china the pronunciation of 8 is the same as “Facai” which refers to making a pile,and 9 means everlasting, but 3 sounds like “Sanhuo” which means separating, and 4 sounds the same as “Si” which is an equivalent of death. In Changsha it is a taboo for 7 persons to be at table together, it is more preferable for 8 , 10 or 12 persons to have dinner together.


4. Azaleas (Rhododendron),the city flower of Changsha City, is a taboo to be used as a gift as well as chrysanthemum. Now it is the golden autumn of chrysanthemums blooming, but we'd better not send chrysanthemum to other people. Otherwise,you will find your well-intentioned behavior only arouses anger, because Chrysanthemum is always used to mourn the dead.


5. It is a taboo to present an umbrella or a fan as a gift to friends, because the pronunciations of fan and umbrella are similar to “Sanhuo”. There are also some taboos for young people when they fall in love. It is not necessarily for men to send rose to express their love. Sending some willow branches or a handkerchief may be more effective in some places. Because in China there is a wonderful legend about sending willow branches, as for the handkerchief, it means that it is made of the horizontal and vertical silk threads and silk sounds like “Sinian” which refers to missing.

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Voting by mail and choosing a POTUS and VEEP from 14 Parties

I just received my mail-in ballot and am surprised at the number of third parties on the ballot. Pleasantly surprised! But I wonder how they decide the order to list them. I think it should be alphabetical order, but I think it is in the numerical vote order for that party in the last election, hence the Republican Party is listed, followed by the Democrat Party, Constitution Party, Libertarian Party, Green Party, and so on.. I find it interesting that my new county of residence uses the retarded "complete the arrow system" and does not allow a write in candidate for POTUS or Congressman, but does for Senator. For the record, I am actually voting one of the 2 big parties for POTUS but 3rd party for Senate. I have to vote big 2 for Congressman, as no other party has a candidate running. Of course, not knowing the judges here, I am not voting for or against any of them.

While the POTUS race seems to be tightening up between the 2 major parties, it was interesting to hear on NPR last night that Sarah Palin is going rogue and standing up for conservative ideals and no longer staying on McCain's talking points, looking out for herself, supposedly due to her knowing that McCain will lose.

Here are the people on the Colorado ballot for POTUS & VEEP:

• Republican: McCain/Palin
• Democrat: Obama/Biden
• Constitution: Baldwin/Castle
• Libertarian: Barr/Root
• Green: McKinney/Clemente
• HeartQuake '08: Allen/Stath (Never heard of this horribly short-sightedly named party before!)
• Prohibition: Amondson/Pletten
• Socialist Workers: Harris/Kennedy
• Boston Tea: Jay/Sallis
• America's Independent: Keyes/Rohrbough
• Socialism and Liberation: LaRiva/Moses
• US Pacifist: Lyttle/Bassford
• Socialist USA: Moore/Alexander
• Objectivist: Stevens/Link
• Unaffiliated: McEnulty/Mangan
• Unaffiliated: Nader/Gonzalez

I think a couple of these parties could use come consolidation, like the 3 Socialist parties; The Green and Pacifist parties; and the Constitution, Boston Tea, and Independent parties; etc. Interesting to see that neither the Independence nor Reform parties are running any candidates this year!

Imagine how much better the Presidential Candidate Debates, currently monopolized by the big two parties, would be if they allowed at least the Constitution, Libertarian, and Green parties have their candidates debate too!

Of note, for ID, I had to enclose a copy of a utility bill with my address since I am a new residence of this county!

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My Wedding Announcement in the Pueblo Chieftain!

See http://picasaweb.google.com/feisnik/WeddingPhotos#5259043951354999650 for a better resolution camera phone shot of the article from today's LIVING section of the PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN here in Colorado, USA.

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HOW-TO: Replace your temporary U.S. passport with a new 10-year passport

Check out this interesting answer on Yedda

Temporary passport replacement
You just need to fill out the online form at https://pptform.state.gov/FraudAbuseNotice.aspx?form=DS5504 then print of the document, sign it, and mail it in to:

National Passport
Processing Center
Post Office Box 90107
Philadelphia, PA 19190-0107
Topics: bermuda, lost, stolen, passport, i already paid the fee for 10 years.....

Answered by feisnik on October 18, 2008

View the entire discussion on Yedda

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XKCD so has me pegged!

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Books of Interest on China

If you are interested in going to China, or just enjoy others' stories about going there to live, to find romance, and adventure, the following books, IMO, are must reads.


First is Peking Story: The Last Days of Old China, a book about a Western man who was teaching English in China at the beginning of the Communist Revolution. He finds love, marriage, and an ever changing political climate that is fascinating to read, especially for someone who knows modern China of 2008 and can compare it to the China David Kidd once knew.


Next is Iron & Silk, another great story of an English teacher and now filmmaker named Mark Salzman, who falls in love with China, almost finds romance, and ends up being taught Chinese martial arts from many masters. This story is from a city in HuNan Province that I love, ChangSha, and shows big changes since the 1980's.


Finally we have Matthew Polly's often hilarious American ShaoLin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China, which is an autobiographical book about a young man going to China to learn Kung Fu at the ShaoLin Temple before it became a tourist trap. He finds meaning, strength, romance, and enlightenment and will have you laughing for hours.

I actually read these books in the reverse order and having been to China many times, I found each entertaining and educational. China is ever more open than the most recent book, American ShaoLin, relates to the reader, but the 3 books show how China has changed over the past 60 years. "Iron & Silk" is now a movie and "American ShoLin" will soon be one too, but I think the books are still the way to go. I hope that one day "Peking Story" will be put on the big screen as well.

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Buy my wedding album!

Through the magic on the Interwebs and QOOP, everyone can buy our wedding album for the low, low price of only $49.99 here. You can also see the first 15 pages there as well. This is cheaper than purchasing one in China and shipping it over to America via FedEx.

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