Hey folks,
I'm terribly sorry that I have been away for such long time. I was quite busy with the beginning of school for a week or two and then something happened which I didn't quite expect. I was unable to get onto my blogs all of a sudden. I have three blogs that I participate in, and all of them one day became inaccessible to me. Even now, strangely enough, though I can post, I cannot view my blogs. I guess I should have expected it; just a day before my blogs became inaccessible, I read a news story on the topic of the Internet here. You can say that the news story was the "writing on the wall" for my blog.
Probably my friends in the States can read my blogs now, but I can't. Perhaps I will start a new blog on an "acceptable" site soon. If so, I'll send you the link. Or perhaps I'll just keep posting here.
I've been encouraged by your comments, both on the blogs and face-to-face. Whether you know my wife and me or not, I am happy to tell you about my sometimes strange, sometimes boring life, and I am especially happy to read your comments. I will go and do some reading now. Perhaps if I have time tonight, I will tell you about my wife's and my first anniversary.
Take care,
Syme
Friday, March 30, 2007
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Luo Ye Gui Gen
"Luo Ye Gui Gen" is a new Chinese movie that Zhao Benshan stars in. I feel that it is a movie that Americans should see, but I know most will not. Then name means something like, "Fallen leaves return to the root." It was a humorous movie about a migrant worker returning home with his friend. Well actually, his friend didn't do much during the movie. He was dead.
In the movie Zhao's friend died while the two were drinking together after work. Zhao had promised his friend that if he ever died away from home, he would take his body back to be buried in his hometown. Zhao took the body, and he boarded a bus to go to his friend's hometown. Of course, it would be impossible to openly carry a dead body around with you, so Zhao pretends that his friend is drunk so that people will not be alarmed. The trouble begins when the people on the bus discover that Zhao's friend is actually a dead man and not a drunk man. Disgusted and frightened, they force Zhao and his friend (of course) to get off of the bus. Zhao has many adventures and trials as he tries to get his friend's body back to be buried in his hometown.
The reason that I think Americans should see this movie is that it depicts the lives of normal modern Chinese people. The biggest movie that has come out of China was probably “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” That was a good movie but it was about the upper classes in the distant past. The other big movies that might have gotten wide international viewings, such as “Hero,” “The Banquet” and “The Curse of the Golden Flower,” were all about the upper classes in the distant past. Because of this, Americans that see just these movies from China get an unbalanced and perhaps a hackneyed view of China.
“Lu Ye Gui Gen” shows normal things that you encounter in China today. Here are a few things that made me smile because they mirrored real life here. While Benshan is riding on the bus, it stops on the side of the road. Then the driver stands up and says, “Men on the right, women on the left.” All of the people then filed out of the bus and relieved themselves. There was no outhouse where the bus stopped, just forest. This exact scenario has never happened when I was riding a bus, but if you lived here for a while, maybe this scene would make you smile too.
Another thing that it showed was people’s relationships towards their laoxiang (to others who come from the same region). Benshan is a Northeasterner. One night as he is walking through a town, he hears a hair parlor worker speaking in the Northeastern dialect. Because of this he goes in to her hair parlor and trusts her, telling her his whole story about how he is trying to get the friend’s body back to his hometown. She believes him, and helps him by putting makeup on the face of the body.
Another scene showed the existence of and the fight against the black market in China. Benshan goes to give blood at an official blood center in order to get some money. But because he had had a disease, he was ineligible to give blood. As he left the blood donation center, a man walks up to him quietly and offers him 500 RMB for some blood. Benshan follows the person into a dark building and waits his turn to give blood. Just then, the police raid the blood center and take the operators to jail.
I wish this movie could be exported to America. It would do the Americans well to see a movie about common people in modern China. It is an amusing and lighthearted movie, despite the fact that the movie is about a dead guy.
In the movie Zhao's friend died while the two were drinking together after work. Zhao had promised his friend that if he ever died away from home, he would take his body back to be buried in his hometown. Zhao took the body, and he boarded a bus to go to his friend's hometown. Of course, it would be impossible to openly carry a dead body around with you, so Zhao pretends that his friend is drunk so that people will not be alarmed. The trouble begins when the people on the bus discover that Zhao's friend is actually a dead man and not a drunk man. Disgusted and frightened, they force Zhao and his friend (of course) to get off of the bus. Zhao has many adventures and trials as he tries to get his friend's body back to be buried in his hometown.
The reason that I think Americans should see this movie is that it depicts the lives of normal modern Chinese people. The biggest movie that has come out of China was probably “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” That was a good movie but it was about the upper classes in the distant past. The other big movies that might have gotten wide international viewings, such as “Hero,” “The Banquet” and “The Curse of the Golden Flower,” were all about the upper classes in the distant past. Because of this, Americans that see just these movies from China get an unbalanced and perhaps a hackneyed view of China.
“Lu Ye Gui Gen” shows normal things that you encounter in China today. Here are a few things that made me smile because they mirrored real life here. While Benshan is riding on the bus, it stops on the side of the road. Then the driver stands up and says, “Men on the right, women on the left.” All of the people then filed out of the bus and relieved themselves. There was no outhouse where the bus stopped, just forest. This exact scenario has never happened when I was riding a bus, but if you lived here for a while, maybe this scene would make you smile too.
Another thing that it showed was people’s relationships towards their laoxiang (to others who come from the same region). Benshan is a Northeasterner. One night as he is walking through a town, he hears a hair parlor worker speaking in the Northeastern dialect. Because of this he goes in to her hair parlor and trusts her, telling her his whole story about how he is trying to get the friend’s body back to his hometown. She believes him, and helps him by putting makeup on the face of the body.
Another scene showed the existence of and the fight against the black market in China. Benshan goes to give blood at an official blood center in order to get some money. But because he had had a disease, he was ineligible to give blood. As he left the blood donation center, a man walks up to him quietly and offers him 500 RMB for some blood. Benshan follows the person into a dark building and waits his turn to give blood. Just then, the police raid the blood center and take the operators to jail.
I wish this movie could be exported to America. It would do the Americans well to see a movie about common people in modern China. It is an amusing and lighthearted movie, despite the fact that the movie is about a dead guy.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Spring Festival
The past few days I have been visiting various relatives. The eighteenth was Chinese New Year, or otherwise named Spring Festival. It is the biggest festival on the Chinese calendar, the festivities lasting several days. It falls on a different day of the (international) calendar each year because the Chinese holidays are reckoned according to the Chinese lunar calendar.
As an interesting side note, in the Chinese lunar calendar last year there was two Julys(?). My wife, Poppy, has her birthday in that month so, counting her birthday on the international solar calendar and her two birthdays in the two Julys of the Chinese lunar calendar, she had three birthdays last year, which is simply not fair.
Another note concerning the Chinese calendar. Several Chinese people have said to me very smugly that it is no surprise to them that this winter was so terribly warm. They say they knew it would be a warm winter because last year’s lunar calendar had two Julys. They claim that the lunar calendar is more fitting to the weather than the solar one. I don’t know if this claim is true because I still as yet barely understand the lunar calendar.
Anyhow, back to Spring Festival. On Saturday Poppy and I went to her mother’s relative’s house and talked with them for a while. Then we went to her father’s parents’ house and spent the night with them. We ate a huge meal for lunch, consuming so much delicious food that whereas our mouths were delighted with flavor, our bellies were feeling the crunch. After the meal, most of us drove over to Poppy’s grandfather’s brother’s house to visit them. There is a special word in Chinese for going around and visiting the relatives because it is an essential tradition of Spring Festival. After that we returned to Poppy’s grandfather’s house and talked and watched the annual Spring Festival TV program.
This program is probably the most watched television program in the world. I think the Super Bowl is the most watched program in the USA, and maybe less than 50 percent of TV sets in America during that time are playing the Super Bowl. In contrast, in China during the Spring Festival program something like 90 percent of the total TV sets that are on are tuned into this program.
There are lots of people singing and dancing and doing comedy plays in the program. The Chinese navy boys sang and danced. Then, the brave and handsome army guy sang, flanked by two beautiful young army ladies. As you guessed, the air force guys also got to sing and dance. Then they have various Chinese minority people groups sing and do traditional dances. Then the little children with their red neckerchiefs did their song and dance, which was cute. Probably the biggest star of the show this year was Zhao Benshan. He is the number one comedy play guy in China. Usually the middle-aged Zhao does comedy routines on a stage but he also has a TV show. He is attractive to us laobaixing (common folk) because he always plays a common person, dressed in poor cloth and behaving as a good ol’ Northeasterner. The reason he was such a star this year was that he recently put out a full-length movie. Later, I hope to tell you about this movie which all of you in America should see, but never will.
While we were watching the program, we were making the festival food: dumplings. They are meat or vegetable balls wrapped up in a doughy covering. Right before twelve o’clock, some of us went outside to light off some fireworks, which is a must do before eating any meal during the festival. We didn’t do many fireworks this year, just popped off a few crackers and rushed back inside to eat. Most of us were probably still full from lunch, so we didn’t eat too many dumplings. However, tradition says that we have to eat dumplings at midnight, so we all obliged. Finally, everyone went to bed. That was Spring Festival.
My wife and I visited other family members for the next couple days. Now, we are home for just one night. We will go in the morning to visit other family members.
When I have time, I would like to tell you about many things, including
-Regifting: what to do when you don’t know what to do with it.
-Bathrooms: how sometimes you feel you are in a glass house.
-Zhao Benshan’s movie: why I’m surprised the other main character had a name.
-Potentiality: would it still happen if it wasn’t going to happen in the first place?
As an interesting side note, in the Chinese lunar calendar last year there was two Julys(?). My wife, Poppy, has her birthday in that month so, counting her birthday on the international solar calendar and her two birthdays in the two Julys of the Chinese lunar calendar, she had three birthdays last year, which is simply not fair.
Another note concerning the Chinese calendar. Several Chinese people have said to me very smugly that it is no surprise to them that this winter was so terribly warm. They say they knew it would be a warm winter because last year’s lunar calendar had two Julys. They claim that the lunar calendar is more fitting to the weather than the solar one. I don’t know if this claim is true because I still as yet barely understand the lunar calendar.
Anyhow, back to Spring Festival. On Saturday Poppy and I went to her mother’s relative’s house and talked with them for a while. Then we went to her father’s parents’ house and spent the night with them. We ate a huge meal for lunch, consuming so much delicious food that whereas our mouths were delighted with flavor, our bellies were feeling the crunch. After the meal, most of us drove over to Poppy’s grandfather’s brother’s house to visit them. There is a special word in Chinese for going around and visiting the relatives because it is an essential tradition of Spring Festival. After that we returned to Poppy’s grandfather’s house and talked and watched the annual Spring Festival TV program.
This program is probably the most watched television program in the world. I think the Super Bowl is the most watched program in the USA, and maybe less than 50 percent of TV sets in America during that time are playing the Super Bowl. In contrast, in China during the Spring Festival program something like 90 percent of the total TV sets that are on are tuned into this program.
There are lots of people singing and dancing and doing comedy plays in the program. The Chinese navy boys sang and danced. Then, the brave and handsome army guy sang, flanked by two beautiful young army ladies. As you guessed, the air force guys also got to sing and dance. Then they have various Chinese minority people groups sing and do traditional dances. Then the little children with their red neckerchiefs did their song and dance, which was cute. Probably the biggest star of the show this year was Zhao Benshan. He is the number one comedy play guy in China. Usually the middle-aged Zhao does comedy routines on a stage but he also has a TV show. He is attractive to us laobaixing (common folk) because he always plays a common person, dressed in poor cloth and behaving as a good ol’ Northeasterner. The reason he was such a star this year was that he recently put out a full-length movie. Later, I hope to tell you about this movie which all of you in America should see, but never will.
While we were watching the program, we were making the festival food: dumplings. They are meat or vegetable balls wrapped up in a doughy covering. Right before twelve o’clock, some of us went outside to light off some fireworks, which is a must do before eating any meal during the festival. We didn’t do many fireworks this year, just popped off a few crackers and rushed back inside to eat. Most of us were probably still full from lunch, so we didn’t eat too many dumplings. However, tradition says that we have to eat dumplings at midnight, so we all obliged. Finally, everyone went to bed. That was Spring Festival.
My wife and I visited other family members for the next couple days. Now, we are home for just one night. We will go in the morning to visit other family members.
When I have time, I would like to tell you about many things, including
-Regifting: what to do when you don’t know what to do with it.
-Bathrooms: how sometimes you feel you are in a glass house.
-Zhao Benshan’s movie: why I’m surprised the other main character had a name.
-Potentiality: would it still happen if it wasn’t going to happen in the first place?
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
More holiday activities
Recently, I’ve had two get-togethers with the school. The president took the English teachers out today for some hot-pot. The restaurant was a great place: the rooms swank, the food delicious. Besides the hot-pot foods, they also served some raw beef on ice, which though disgusting, was tasty dipped in wassabi.
Yesterday, I ate Chinese dumplings with the dormitory building employees and all of the poor expatriate souls that didn’t return to their home countries for the holiday. There were three Russians, one of which could speak English. There were three Japanese, two of which could speak Chinese but not English. And there was my wife and me. Once a Russian that couldn’t speak English asked a question to the Japanese that couldn’t speak Chinese, so the question was translated from Russian to English to Chinese to Japanese, much to the humor of all. I had never had the opportunity to talk to the Russians before, so this was good time to be able to get to know them.
A couple days ago we went to my wife’s parents house. We had a good time there. I was not embarrassed by my poor Chinese this time. The family and I were able to talk this time more than last time, and Mamma didn’t criticize me for not being able to understand them (whew!). Often when we go there to visit, the family will all sit on the bed in the master bedroom and watch TV and talk.
This time we were watching a soap opera that was named rather inappropriately, “Women Don’t Cry.” It was a show about women . . . crying. They had plenty of reason to cry; the show was one disaster after another. I made a prediction as a joke, that the main character would be let out of prison (don’t ask) just as her friend was going into surgery and that her friend would die before she could get there. I was absolutely right. It seems that many of the TV shows here are pretty melodramatic, but this one really went above and beyond the competition.
Yesterday, I ate Chinese dumplings with the dormitory building employees and all of the poor expatriate souls that didn’t return to their home countries for the holiday. There were three Russians, one of which could speak English. There were three Japanese, two of which could speak Chinese but not English. And there was my wife and me. Once a Russian that couldn’t speak English asked a question to the Japanese that couldn’t speak Chinese, so the question was translated from Russian to English to Chinese to Japanese, much to the humor of all. I had never had the opportunity to talk to the Russians before, so this was good time to be able to get to know them.
A couple days ago we went to my wife’s parents house. We had a good time there. I was not embarrassed by my poor Chinese this time. The family and I were able to talk this time more than last time, and Mamma didn’t criticize me for not being able to understand them (whew!). Often when we go there to visit, the family will all sit on the bed in the master bedroom and watch TV and talk.
This time we were watching a soap opera that was named rather inappropriately, “Women Don’t Cry.” It was a show about women . . . crying. They had plenty of reason to cry; the show was one disaster after another. I made a prediction as a joke, that the main character would be let out of prison (don’t ask) just as her friend was going into surgery and that her friend would die before she could get there. I was absolutely right. It seems that many of the TV shows here are pretty melodramatic, but this one really went above and beyond the competition.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
This n'that
This week I met for lunch with a bro. that I haven't seen for a while. He lives here nowadays, but he's preparing for studying abroad. He has a lot of decisions to make, so we were discussing those things. He is really working hard on his study. Beyond learning a third language, he has also decided that he wants to read thru his book 20 times before leaving: a goal that keeps him busy for about three hours each day.
My wife and I two nights ago met with her friend who had a special surprise for us. She announced to us that she and her boyfriend had gotten their marriage certificate a few days before. They were very happy, as you can imagine. They treated us to a meal of dumplings at a popular restaurant in town. I was pretty quiet since the guy doesn't know English, but my wife and her friend talked nonstop about wedding things.
For those of you that don't know, it is a custom here to get your marriage certificate six months or more before you have your wedding. My wife's friends had not had their wedding yet but just became legally married.
Last night, we met with two of our neighbors, J. and M. My bro. J. was going to leave town for a couple weeks the next day so we invited him and M. over to eat with us. My wife cooked some of her delicious food; I was really proud of her. I’m proud to show off her good cooking to my friends. We all talked at the table for a long time last night. I regret that we had not done it sooner. I think I might see my bro. M. again tomorrow.
Today, my wife went shopping with her mother, and I stayed at home and read. Actually I finished reading two books. I finished reading G.’s Rghteous Kingdom by Walter Chantry and Thomas Aquinas by G.K. Chesterton. Both of those books are excellent and both of them left me with questions. Chantry left me questions about the law and about what law is good for us today. Chesterton’s book on the other hand was mostly understandable except for two paragraphs towards the end. He said something about “the metaphysical problem with mere change.” I don’t know what that problem is. In fact, I don’t even know what mere change is! I looked on the Internet for a while, but to no avail. If you know, I would be really happy if you clued me in on the answers. The other thing I didn’t understand was he said, “potentiality doesn’t explain itself.” I wish that he would have explained himself a little more. :-)
My wife and I two nights ago met with her friend who had a special surprise for us. She announced to us that she and her boyfriend had gotten their marriage certificate a few days before. They were very happy, as you can imagine. They treated us to a meal of dumplings at a popular restaurant in town. I was pretty quiet since the guy doesn't know English, but my wife and her friend talked nonstop about wedding things.
For those of you that don't know, it is a custom here to get your marriage certificate six months or more before you have your wedding. My wife's friends had not had their wedding yet but just became legally married.
Last night, we met with two of our neighbors, J. and M. My bro. J. was going to leave town for a couple weeks the next day so we invited him and M. over to eat with us. My wife cooked some of her delicious food; I was really proud of her. I’m proud to show off her good cooking to my friends. We all talked at the table for a long time last night. I regret that we had not done it sooner. I think I might see my bro. M. again tomorrow.
Today, my wife went shopping with her mother, and I stayed at home and read. Actually I finished reading two books. I finished reading G.’s Rghteous Kingdom by Walter Chantry and Thomas Aquinas by G.K. Chesterton. Both of those books are excellent and both of them left me with questions. Chantry left me questions about the law and about what law is good for us today. Chesterton’s book on the other hand was mostly understandable except for two paragraphs towards the end. He said something about “the metaphysical problem with mere change.” I don’t know what that problem is. In fact, I don’t even know what mere change is! I looked on the Internet for a while, but to no avail. If you know, I would be really happy if you clued me in on the answers. The other thing I didn’t understand was he said, “potentiality doesn’t explain itself.” I wish that he would have explained himself a little more. :-)
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Queue
This is a poem that I wrote in December of 2002.
Queue
Johnson, Schaeffer, Kant.
He bought, studied and scrawled notes
In these books before
He shelved each one, one by one.
I read to learn about Dad.
Queue
Johnson, Schaeffer, Kant.
He bought, studied and scrawled notes
In these books before
He shelved each one, one by one.
I read to learn about Dad.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Study
Today Poppy and I studied all day. She is working on her paper and I on Chinese. Now I need to find some articles online for her about immigration, immigrants, law etc.
Just today I finished reading The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant. It was an old book of my dad's. I don't think he read it b/c he always made marks in the books that he read and this one was unmarked. Now, since I have read it, it is marked from beginning to end. (I wrote a short poem long ago about his books once. I'll find it sometime.) It was pretty easy reading as far as philosophy goes. It was a pretty good book.
One thing that I was struck by as I read it was that almost all of the philosophers in it had a kind of arbitrary prejudice against the possibility of the supernatural. Why do they have this untouchable dogma? Science is wonderful, but it tells us only about the natural world. It can't tell us about many things, including whether it is conceivable for things to happen supernaturally. It was really interesting to see Herbert Spencer weaving an entire system of how evolution explains everything only to discover that it can't explain consciousness. They labeled this, "epiphenomenon." This word somehow seems to me similar to the word supernatural.
One thing that was notably missing from this book was all of the thinkers from Aristotle to Bacon. It seems a little far-fetched to say that no one thought about anything from after 322 B.C. until the 1560s A.D. What about Augustine? What about Aquinas? The author said that he didn't like the scholastics, so he didn't include them. (Aquinas was a scholastic philosopher.) His definition of scholasticism was "the philosophy of the medieval theologians, in general, the divorce of speculation from observation and practice." The definition seems a bit biased against scholasticism, but I don't know; maybe it is accurate. I need to study scholasticism for myself. Aquinas was important because he was the one that introduced Aristotle's ideas into the very Platonic church. He thought that it was a good idea to observe the world around him. Maybe if it were not for his influence, the renaissance would not have come when it did.
Now that I am finished with that book I will get back to The City of God by St. Augustine. I am about 2/3 through. But I will not read very much now because I decided that it is more important for me right now to study Chinese, help my wife with her paper and do some other things.
Just today I finished reading The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant. It was an old book of my dad's. I don't think he read it b/c he always made marks in the books that he read and this one was unmarked. Now, since I have read it, it is marked from beginning to end. (I wrote a short poem long ago about his books once. I'll find it sometime.) It was pretty easy reading as far as philosophy goes. It was a pretty good book.
One thing that I was struck by as I read it was that almost all of the philosophers in it had a kind of arbitrary prejudice against the possibility of the supernatural. Why do they have this untouchable dogma? Science is wonderful, but it tells us only about the natural world. It can't tell us about many things, including whether it is conceivable for things to happen supernaturally. It was really interesting to see Herbert Spencer weaving an entire system of how evolution explains everything only to discover that it can't explain consciousness. They labeled this, "epiphenomenon." This word somehow seems to me similar to the word supernatural.
One thing that was notably missing from this book was all of the thinkers from Aristotle to Bacon. It seems a little far-fetched to say that no one thought about anything from after 322 B.C. until the 1560s A.D. What about Augustine? What about Aquinas? The author said that he didn't like the scholastics, so he didn't include them. (Aquinas was a scholastic philosopher.) His definition of scholasticism was "the philosophy of the medieval theologians, in general, the divorce of speculation from observation and practice." The definition seems a bit biased against scholasticism, but I don't know; maybe it is accurate. I need to study scholasticism for myself. Aquinas was important because he was the one that introduced Aristotle's ideas into the very Platonic church. He thought that it was a good idea to observe the world around him. Maybe if it were not for his influence, the renaissance would not have come when it did.
Now that I am finished with that book I will get back to The City of God by St. Augustine. I am about 2/3 through. But I will not read very much now because I decided that it is more important for me right now to study Chinese, help my wife with her paper and do some other things.
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