Mirror and Inspiration?

My four new friends. They are really cool in cleaning the strangely stubborn stains in the kitchen and bathroom. I am really wondering how people in the past survive without those chemicals?

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The Beijing project has come to an end and I bid the 8 to 10 working hour fairwell this week. I went home around 7 and didn't know what to do really. Really fancy a drink or 2, talking nonsense but find no local drinking partners.

I was really thrilled to go to a pub with a colleague, who just came to Beijing the first time for this project. We went to the pub I have been to several times, a terrace on top of a 5 story building. Not until we reached the top then I realised I managed to walk into the wrong entrance (they look identical, I swear). The pub was nice anyway (plus no one wanted to walk the 5 flights of stairs again) so we stayed.

I didn't realise anything wrong but, after a while, my colleague pointed out that there are quite a few male couples sitting very closely, chatting in very low voice. Then I noticed the bartenders are very femanine looking and extraordinarily nice. I mean, I am OK with it but the mosquitos were really annoying.

As I was talking to my colleague, I mean, I come to realise why some of my ex-colleagues didn't hang out much with people from the office. I was holding back and thought to myself, wow, I was really outspoken in the past. So, being mature means that you know the way to have a pleasant conversation and have fun without giving away too much of yourself?

The Ape in the Corner Office

Ok, Claire didn't give "Blink" a lot of credit, but I still think it is very fascinating. Indeed, "Blink" is talking about a lot of common sense, however, it is very helpful to some slow-nerved people like me. I guess it is due to my choice of career, I didn't get to deal with people on daily basis. Also, there has not been too much office politics falling upon me (good or bad?), I consider myself very slow in face reading. I am now staring at people's face more. However, interestingly that you can sometimes feel easy when talking and looking into the conversation partner's eyes yet sometimes uneasy.

In my retrospect, I don't think it has anything to do with power or ranking, it has more to do with personality clicking. I guess I unconsciously decide the tone, the voice and the mood of the conversation 2 seconds I meet with a person. Of course, if I feel the partner is ready to accept me, the whole process is going to be more fun. Eye contact is so crucial in expressing the green light. Once the trusty bonding builds up, ideas and coversations flows both ways.

But I did mis-interpret quite a few people before. I think that is because I didn't know myself well enough and, consequently, I didn't know the impact I have on people. Well we should feel grateful that this situation is only going to get better as experience accumulated, perhaps that's the only upside of getting old.

Another very interesting book by Richard Conniff, "The Ape in the Corner Office". The way we behave is really not too far away from Chimps...

Old Chinese saying goes "Even dogs dislike the 2 years old".

XiaoHo's first experience on Train. My mom and XiaoHo accompanied me to Hualian to visit Claire, who was transfered to the small town from Taipei a year ago.
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The journey itself was very fun. In Taipei train station, I was carrying the trolly, a bag for XiaoHo's food and cloth, my own backpack. Just imagine how you can carrythe folded buggie, try hard not to let the wheels stain your light colour trousers, carry 2 bags, keep an eye on the kid (and my mom who is holding him) and go up/down the stairway. My mom managed to find me some food to take on the train, otherwise I would be eating all XiaoHo's crackers and complain non stop.

It is impossible to read at all. I was reading an very interesting book about Finland. But XiaoHo interrupted my supposingly quiet, intellectual reading every 2 minutes. Getting all my mom's attention is not enough for him, he also wanted mine (How Greedy)! The situation got better after I threatened that I am going to send him over to the train manager.

I have to say something about our train manager, with whom after you meet, you would think there is still some hope in this country. He was a middle age man with bright teeth, thin and meticulous dressed. He bowed to the air when entering and spoke with gentle voice to ask for checking our tickets. He had the perfect manner and authority as a train manager. As I spoke to him, XiaoHo held my mom tight and hid his face in between her neck and shoulder. COWARD!

I am not saying Chinese way of running a state owned business or working for such business is not good, it is sometimes more interesting (Yeah, the Firefighter's wife said that she once met a train manager who was so relax that he slept on the train and share the lunch box with her group). However, it was really a great delight to see someone respects his profession, his passengers and himself so truely.

Hair Disaster Again

The moment I set foot into my home in Taipei, my mom was scrutinising my hair... And then Grace came up immediately with her hair cutting kit. I was brave enough to give my consent to let her cut my hair. The day after, I realised the back of my hair was not even and that really bothers me. So my mom did it again with the thining scissors and started trimming the back. I really started to worry when she commented "wow, the scissors are amazing, no matter how randomly I cut the hair, nothing truns too disastrous".

I ran to the hair dressor on Monday. She looked at my hair and said diplomatically "well, maybe you should not try to solve a problem all by yourself".

This is the fifth hair style over these 2 months.
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During my vacation, I decided to make the effort to re-connect with my friends. I called everyone on my phone list and see if we can arrange a time to meet up. Almost all of them made the effort to come out and play.

It is a very good feeling to know that we care about each other. Christine is 7 month pregnant. The once slim, anorexia type of girl ate like mania. Truely it was very entertaining to watch her eating. And JiaYi borke up her engagement because of the argument of dishes on their wedding banquet (we met up few days later, and she had this potential bf with her). YiLan's father's business was in danger because the father's partner tried to keep all the profit by nasty means. Irene's home building project is just started and her Japanese fiancee is coming over to Taiwan to propose to her family in the traditional way. Peggy is still the same, but getting used to the marriage life.

The other gang was the firefighter's wife and Jean and Echo. We hanged out at the pub they frequent and then roamed around the night market after few drinks. We went to the stall introduced by Jean. And we tried on T-shirts and stuff on the street (yeah, you have to ask your friend to hold down your shirt while pulling up new shirt you put on top of your own shirt. Speaking out of embarrassing personal experience... ). We bargained very hard with the owner, who was so funny to talk with (although he didn't give us a large enough discount). We then went to an shaved ice stall to split our closeth. Very fun night!

Grace and Kevin are the most close family friends. They are still good old Grace and Kevin. We almost eat together every meal (Of course, they are addict to my mom's cooking). XiaoHo is getting more mature and talks even more. However, he is constantly negotiating, never 100% rejecting your command. Although he wants something badly, he would say "If I can get this?" patiently or he would say "that doesn't sound too good".

Mankit's new home is great. He will be moving in in a couple of months. It is still under renovation. Carol's and my families met the first time for dinner in a Thai restaurant. And Dad was late again because he had to walk the dog.

Chinese Way

This is the good day when looking out of my flat

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I have got a collection of books discussing how Chinese develop, maintain, and survive in the "system". Chinese society is propelled by this system for thousands of years. Let me elaborate a bit on the "system". Well, GuanXi is a big part of it (for those who are not familiar with the phrase GuanXi, please google it, I think there is a book about Microsoft's experience in China named after this). GuanXi can be roughly translated into "connection". However, I think there is no other place in the world where connection is developed into such an extreme.

The backbond of Chinese society is not made of legal documents or religions or governing power. It is the unspeakable and unconsciously doing of Chinese way.

How was this system created? Some argue this is because of Confuscious' teaching, telling individualism has never been promoted, corporating is the key to survival. Another claim that there is no well-defined social order, laws can be bent anyway to theemperor's liking. Weak and powerless people had no other choice but to form many small circle, so to get the right information, so to get the proper support whenever it is needed.

In the west, heterosexual love plays important part of legends, folklords, poetry and music. However, in their Chinese counterparts, friendships are praised. Guess in Chinese minds, friendship can sustain living but love could do very little.

When those who know how to get to the top by making good connection, this individual might not need to have real talent. And the general public sickly consider this is the way of life. Perhaps this is why renaissance and industrial revolution didn't happen in China? Because we were all too busy to make the right connection?

Uniform Fitting

I should have add one more item to the strange things in Beijing list. The guards and policemens and soldiers in Beijing don't seem to care too much about having a well-fitted uniforms. The shirts and trousers are mostly too big. They have to use a belt to strapped to keep the trousers from falling and the excess being folded in the back. It makes them look like a kid in daddy's outfits.

Best Treat in Summer

My best friend when I was 6 had owned an electronic ice shaver. That was the best thing I had ever saw. The snow white ice came out of the shaver, piling up in a plate. I can imagine many nice cut-up fruits on them, with little syrup. But I have never owned one because my mom wouldn't allow such useless thing in her kitchen.

In fact, we grew up without soft drinks or snacks. We could only have the adult foods, meaning, rice and dishes. We had money for breakfast to buy some bread or milk. My mom cooked for the factory workers and company employees during lunch time while we had our lunch box in school. At dinner, we consumed the leftover from lunch and my mom filled up our lunch boxes with the leftover of leftover.

Our lunch boxes were made of steel. Rice in the bottom compartment and meat and veggies (from different dishes) were all mixed up in the upper one. The whole class's lunch boxes (50 something) were put into a big steel box and we took turn to take it to the steam room. They were steamed until lunch time, so the veggies were never green and everyone's food smelled indistinguishable.

Getting off the train

We went for another difficult hike yesterday. With 30 something celcius temperature, 90% humidity and hazy smoggy air.... The first few hundred steps were really tough. The air was so thick that I felt I had problem to breath properly. The sun was beating down on us, we all sweated much that the perspiration running down like small streams on our backs, necks and arms. The heat was most unbearable. My whole body felt heat coming out from inside and I was really worried if the heating sensation doesn't go away soon, I might be about to explode any second. We took a break every 500 steps, not until we reach the 1500 steps mile stone did the alarming situation was remedied.

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I alwasy tried to avoid contact with strangers in subway, never tried to get on a very crowded cart and so on. However, it seems unavoidable not to touch anyone when getting off the train. People tend to rush in and not letting the passengers off the train first.

I understand that's because people in the waiting area are pushed by those standing behind them. Of course, getting on the train first means a better chance of getting a seat. However, I still couldn't bear those who won't let me off the train first and almost want to hit them. Oh well, I never actually hit anyone but I hold my laptop bag in in front of me, and the elbow protruded outward. I guess I "accidentally" hit a guy really hard with my elbow in his chest this morning when defending my way out of the train. I think his face twisted a bit and I walked away the scene as fast as I can.....

Myth of Slogan

In Chinese world, you can see many many slogans in every day life. In Subway station, there are words telling you how well the station staff are politically educated, for example, "Designed and Operated for the People, Efficient and Advanced". Or "No Spitting in the Subway". On the street, you can see "Enforcing Laws without Tolerance" or "Building the Civilised Society". Interesting as if people behave better if they are reminded of what they are supposed to do (or what the government think they should do). We Chinese do believe in the power of words in any banner.

I have heard that there is a slogan saying "It is illegal to rob a police car".

Life of A Consultant

The Crystal Report Master, Alvaro, once commented that consultant doesn't have life when traveling so he/she could work abnormal hours to kill time.

This is definitely not true for our system engineer. One night, he was so bored that he called his driver (who takes care of his transportation in Beijing) to have dinner with him. Gee, that's really a creative thinking.

Hair Disaster

I had my punk rock chick style hair do two weeks ago. Every one thinks it is very nice but myself. I hate the spiky drag lock sticking out from my head in every direction. Cute? Maybe, but it is really not my style.

I hate it very every bit of my heart so I decided to fix it up on Saturday. I thought this is the simplest operation a hair dresser can do (plus I don't want to embarrass my hairdresser), so I walked into a no-name beauty salon and asked them to straighten it. It all went alright except the result was a complete disaster.

My hair was so soft and straight that it lacks the flexibility so they all limping on my head (not the best shape, either). I looked like I am wearing a hat. I spent a whole day worrying about it, thinking what I can do. Pretty much nothing. I was anxious, worried, cannot think of eating. It is amazing how a simple hair cut can affect your emotion.

I went back to the same beauty salon where I got my drag-lock done. Well, it is really embarrassing. I think my hairdresser must try very hard to refrain himself from laughing and try very hard to look sympathetic. Well, at least we can finally get the problem fixed.

Most Prestige Place

On Friday evening, Wei called me up to see if I am to join them to a night clue. Not quite a clubing person I am but I feel obliged to go. It is kinda shameful to be found out being alone at Friday night. Wei's friend from Taiwan works in this newly open club as a DJ and we are planning to throw him a vist.

My colleagues wore this subtle smile while they overheard where I am going. To my dismay, the very same location has the most famous KTV loundge in Beijing. It is famous because the loundge provides girls with the highest qualities, it is also the most expensive. It turns out the night club we are going is right next to the KTV loundge. The place is filled with middle-age, puff-belly business men. Interesting, they must come from the next door to have some fresh air.

We were sitting at the bar, chatting. And there are some very handsome women walking about, talking to men, and the number of people lingering around the bar decreasing. Those girls are of very good quailities, no kidding. I was told later that the KTV loundge got so famous that they no longer need to supply pretty, English-fluent, colleage graduates anymore.

Guess it is very common for business man to have fun that way in China. No matter you are with a group or staying in a hotel alone, you can always find something. Or it is everywhere and I have not be exposed to that side of the world? That is how brotherhood are built in between business makers? By going to the entertainment places and flirt with girls? Perhaps, I cannot imagine those talking about Peak Oil or C++ programming.

Stockings

This is another very interesting scene in Beijing. Women are sometimes wearing skin-tone, ankle-length stockings with sandals, heels, running shoes, slippers.

How strange the nylon is not comfortable, in a way, I think the cotton socks are more supiror in obsorbing sweat and provide traction. Ah-Ha! It must be of asthetic reason. However, it is so easy to see the supposingly invisible stocking because of the bends.

That is very puzzling.

Hiking With HongXia's Family

HongXia, her husband and RuanShuan. We went for a hike in Xiang Mountain on Saturday.... It is almost 600 meter high and 2,300 steps to the top. The humidity was high but it was quite enjoyable.

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It is very interesting to see toddlers in China wearing a sort of pants, which are wide open at the bottom. Kids can easily squat and do their business without the hassle to pull down anything. You can see a mother holding baby, with it facing her chests, whose rear ends are exposed to the general public though this type of pants.

Sometimes you can also catch a glimsp of 2 or 3 year old weeing at side of the road. I actaully feel quite embarrassed and withdraw from it immediately.

I have nothing against this but I just thought, perhaps it is a good thing to grow the sense of privacy and diginity by a habit of peeing in a covered space at young age. Well, who am I to make this conclusion? Being private is more civilised?

However, just to be fair, we can see the open-air urinals in London as well. Alcohol inflated bladders are definitely heavier than privacy.

Walking Marriage

In the Yuan-Nan province, south west of China, close to the boarder of Cambodia and Thai, there is a monority group, in which the mothers are in charge of the duty of growing and maintaining the family lines.

A mother is the head of a household, the family members are of childrens and elders. Men are only a tools of reproduction. A woman can have many husbands, however, the wife-husband bonding is lose. A man sneaks in to the woman's house at night and leaves by dawn. Childrens were born without accurate knowlege of their biological fathers.

It is said that this minority group has no writing script and it is hard to figure out why is this custome. But possibly the whole village are somhow related by blood, a way of building connection with each other so they can survive as a whole?

I am more curious about the iron-will women. How do they deal with jealousy and anger, all that kind of emotion when seeing her man sleeping around? By taking the revenge of making many lovers stay overnight in her house? What if there is a woman who is very popular and one is not? Do they treat each other fairly?

Sore Throat

I hesitate to write about this topic for quite a while. What is the difference between Beijing inhabitants' breathing systems amongst other cities? In Beijing, you can hear the clearing thoat sound everywhere. I think it is most ubiquteous when walking on the street. But occasionally, you can hear it in workplaces (remember the toilet door is always wide open?) or in the restaurants.

It is the rumbling sound from deep throat, slowly coming up to the behind of the month. And inevitably, a spitting follows. It is so interesting that people make almost identical sounds regardless the age and gender. A very well-dressed woman walking in front of you could turn her beautifully make-up head and spit right before your toes.

I am only afraid of being hit by the spitting bomb.

Eye shadow

I have my hair cut very short, I am not very used to it because the haircut makes me look too modern. This morning I decided to apply some dark brown eye shadow to go with my new hair style and then some people think I had a lousy sleep last night because my eyes look swallon...

I hurried to the lady's to take it off.

American Born Chinese

Very cute salt and pepper containers
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They are very interesting species. If you remember the 4 girls from Joy Luck Club, despite their different mothers, they all think, behave, or even look similar. I can identify ABCs among real Chinese quite easily. Most have very healthy appearance, nice skin, shining white teeth. They speak fluent English and strange-tone Mandarin. They think like westerners, although brought up in Traditional Chinese families. The young ABCs are bright, never shy away from any possiblity of having fun. Very confident, I guess it is because the western education system praises the individualism highly. It is so unthinkable for them to place a single thread of doubt in their values as an individual (But I do that all the time... ).

The old ABCs are more modest, I guess it is the aging process makes them wonder what they actually are. Generally, they are mild, earnest, well-eduated with not-so-distinguishable personalities, just like average American. But somehow you have no desire to know more about him/her due to the fear of finding out the fact they are all the same?

Beijing is like a big play ground for them. Most work for multinational company, as the bridge between the US headquater and the virgin market in China. Foriegn companies need them, they are more reliable and controllable comparing to the locals. US salary makes them the elite group, they all hire maids to clean their flats. The circle of expats is so small that you see the same faces (differnt girls though) over and over again in different clubs, where no real conversation is carried out and the mixture of green tea/whisky is served. I wonder how they keep their sanity with the same activity on weekly basis.

I guess I can be friend with them if I can tell who is who?

Thin-Slicing

I am reading Malcolm Gladwell's "blink thinking". We were trained to think that a good decision must be associated with accurate observation and prudent thinking. However, we are making judgements based on our instincts from time to time. Life simply doesn't allow you the time to gather information and digest them. However, our reaction patterns are heavily shaped by our experience, language and surroundings.

One very interesting point he brought up is that we are all very bad story teller. We cannot clearly describe what we want until we see it. Trying to explain our decision almost always twists the true reasoning. Putting it into words handicap our decision making process.

Claire's Brother

I was dragged out by Clement on Friday night. He is really a character. He just came back from a week long meeting in Bankok, spent few hours in Taipei and then boarded on the plane to Beijing and endured a full-day meeting and then still want to go out and play.

We went to the pub where lots of expats frequent. The terrace on top of a building, nice breeze in the mid summer night. Clement enjoys life enormously. He is easy-going, chatty and energetic. We hung out until 3am, almost went to another pub with some French to watch football.

I asked him what is so good about life, we are doing the same old things again and again for thousands of years. He replied "that's why we have to do it better".

Divoced is Desired

It is rather enlightening talking to my colleague in Beijing Office. He claimed, the divoced man or woman in their 30s are in most demand. If you are single to this age, people start to imagine all kind of reasons why you are still single. You must be a super play girl not to be married this late.

Thus, it is of most beneficial to claim that you have had a marriage before. And your partner treated you most unfairly, you suffered for very long time, still try to find a way to get out of the painful experience.

Obviously, I am not very marketable in China.

Reading is so Fun

Because of English footballer's freckles, I started to miss London very much. I bought the 20 hour long BBC documentary of religion and Agatha Christie's "Murder is Easy". I lay the book in the project room and my client looked at the title, asking me in a worried voice "That is not a non-fiction book, right?"

I accidentally bought another copy of a book I possessed but have not read. Gee, I am really getting old. That is a novel whose background is set at Beijing under Japanese's control before world war II. The cruelty and violence bit are often heard, but I am really interested in the description of real Beijing life.

Beijing natives are very proud to be useless. The ethinic group, Chi, were from east north of China. They came into the central land, drving away the Ming Dynasty and started Chin Dynasty. Those Chi people were absolutely minority but shared the glory of becoming the govening class in central land. As they induldged themselves in foods, drink, having fun, they lost their fighting skills. No longer knows how to ride a horse. However, they are all masters of the art of good living.

Working hard is viewed as very low class thing to do, that's for the servants. They breed birds in spring time, train eagles in summer, bet on little cricket fight in fall and go to the famous brothel in winter. They worship uselessness.

Take breeding bird for example, it is definitely not an easy work to do. First of all, you have to get the right bird, get the most delicately carved cage and work out different bird foods in different seasons. You then have to wake up at 5am to "walk" the bird. Walking with the bird in a cage but you have to swing the cage so the bird's muscle can be trained while holding tight to to the stick. The next thing is to find a good environment for the bird to learn how to sing. You have to get the bird in the middle of other birds for quite a while so it feels intimidated first and wants to do better later. It is very very important to get the bird into the right crowd, otherwise, it would learn the type of singing it is not supposed to do.

Serious Air Pollution Alert

My mom bought me the finding-demo mask to fight the bad air quality in Beijing. Too embarrassing to wear it....
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I walked out of the building and thought I was in foggy London, it turned out that is the serious air pollution. The uncunning combination of temperature and humidity has created this disaster.

Smart Kids

Finally met with HuaRu in Beijing. We have not seen each other after graduating from high school in Taiwan, it has been almost 13 years. It is so interesting that we both think that each other looks exactly the same as in high school.

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My mom and I talked about how XiaoHo has exhibited intellengence above his peer group. He's never asked for help when playing with kids older than him and always makes other kids cry for help. My mom started to worry that he might have a tougher road in life.

Being normal and complying with others' expectation is a way to survival?

Toilet Seat Up

When I was growing up the household was run by my bad-temper father. The dinner table was sometimes a frightful place to go. He had this funny mood swings, sufficient to bring everyone's appetitle down when bad enough. He showed his stress openly, and demanded our attention. We had to feel bad about ourselves for not contributing to the finance and burdening him.

At the end of day, he walked freely in his undergarments around the house and ignored the fact that I was very uncomfortable. He never closed the door when using the toilet (only when there were guests). And the toilet seat is alway up for male family member's convinence.

Things are very different now. My mom insisted to get the automatic cleaning toilet seat. Girly lotions and hair dryer were moved from our rooms to the bathroom rack. The glassy divider was not installed so she can bath XiaoHo easily. No one can walk around the room without fully dressed except XiaoHo. I cannot help but feel a great relief.

I think my father's confidence has suffered a serious blow. He cannot control us financially and he sees no other means to re-gain his power. He wilts day after day.

Be nice to your family members.

Stress About What

I was slightly drunk and decided to cut my hair, not quite sure how it turns out so the picture.
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I had a horrible dream that my colleagues all turned against me because they don't like the way I work. I was isolated and my wallet was stolen again. No one gave me any helping hand. I was lost in a big department store and Irene (funny why she was involved in our project?) wouldn't tell me where she is exactly over the phone.

Be nice to your colleagues.

I Miss London

I was sitting in a pub watching the English and Pauraguay game. Reading the last name of English players' last name, for example, Hargreaver; seeing the freckles on the footballers' face, all those remind me so much of UK.

Madera and Chinese Rice Wine

When I first tasted Madera in Golden's Wine Bar near Embankment station, I thought it is really much like the Chinese Rice Wine I had while I was small.

I bought a bottle of Chinese Rice Wine tonight and I thought, Gee, this is so much like Madera. The sweetness level is low, its dry and very smooth.

What do Chinese and Spainish/Porteguese have in common taste of alcohol?

Strange Things I Notice So Far

World Cup opening, I am staying home watching TV and updating my blog. This is my coffee table but I work, eat, read on it.

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1. Every Chinese phrase in public area has English translation, not the English that English native could understand but the HanYu spelling. For example, 洗手間 would become Xi Shou Jian, which means washroom. I really don't understand what those English letters are for.

2. Strange decoration in hotels and office buildings' lobby area. For example, in my client's office building, there is a fountain with a huge marble ball rolling in the middle. The ball is so huge (radius is almost 2 feet) and I still couldn't figure out how they keep the ball rolling on top of a small crust with the tiny amount of water coming out of the crust. Anyhow, I think it is really an eye sore. Less is more is definitely not true in Beijing.

3. News stand plays a high-pitch, not pleasant woman voice, hurriedly and repeatedly saying "Xinhua Newspaper, XXX Newspaper, YYY Newspaper...". Is it necessary to tell the passbys what newspapers you have? If it is, would it be nice to use some pleasant voice and make she speak it slowly?

4. A talking bus. Of course, the bus itself doesn't talk. There are always 1 or 2 managers go with a bus, they collect tickets and talk. They don't only talk to the passengers but use the loud speaker talking to the pedestrains or drivers around the bus "Be careful, be careful, the bus is approaching the stop. Watch out, watch out, the bus is leaving the station". Their voices sound exhausted, tired and I-do-it-only-because-I-have-to.

5. The door of Lady's room is alwasy wide open (oh, there is door to each stall, thank god). It is quite embarrassing for me to use the toilet while the corridor is so quiet and I think every one in the office across the hall can hear the sound I make. That doesn't seem to bother other girls.

6. I have met girls in the lady's at work place, bringing with them some newspaper or files or magazine. I thought doing number 2 is something really private and personal. You don't want to do it in the public toilet, not even to broadcast it by bringing with you a magazine to the toilet.

To Be Continued.... (as I discover more)

Unexpeccted Death

Upon returning home after a week in the camp (a meeting with client, not fun, believe me), three of my friends are dying. They are now moved to the intensive care unit where plenty of water is supplied, the comfined environment can effectively lock the moisted air. I can hope maricle would happen and I only need to give up taking shower for a while.
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I was hanging out with a expat group, we talked about how hard it is to bargain in Silk market. The expat group all look Chinese but very "white" inside. But they do learn how to play the game very well.

Some told me to go there very early in the morning, the stall keepers are eager to close the first deal. Or around the closing time, the stall keepers are tired and want to make a sale quick. The other guy told me his experience. He walked into one stall and found a suitcase he really likes. As usual, you have to feedback the 30% of the asking price. The stall keeper snorted. He walked out and pretended to look around in the neighbouring stalls, hoping the stall keeper would come out and agree on the price he offer. Nothing. He then spent another few hours searching for that particular suitcase to no avail. The stall keeper smiled brightly when he returned.

Amazingly, westerners in Silk market are very good bargainers. They can shamelessly counter offer 1 RMB to some item whose asking price is 500 RMB. I guess they truely believe everything is amazingly cheap in China.

The bargaining process is emotiona-filled. I have seen the sellers got so angry that she threw the pair of shoes on the floor. As a shopper, you sometimes feel guilty not to buy it or offer the price too low. I am not very good in this game, never bought anything apart from foods.

Ding-Ling, Ding-Ling

Riding around town in Beijing is quite easy and stress-free comparing to the public transportation. Well, theoretically speaking, taking taxi should be nice and easy until one Friday, I had 2 unpleasant taxi ride experiences. One taxi driver forgot to bring enough changes, we had to break a hundred yuan bill while I was really in a hurry to the client site. The other taxi driver didn't get my instruction correctly, I had to argue with him to make him stop the meter.

I have been very nice and quiet initially when riding my bicycle. But I find it very dangerous while going through crowded streets. Because pedestrains don't really pay attention to their surroundings. I started to use the bell, I thought it is rude at first but no one seems to mind.

Ring the bell gives you the strange sense of power as if the blocking-your-way pedestrains would be blown away with the Ding-Ling Ding-Ling sound.

Food and Sarcasm

I have been spending evening eating out with my friends visiting from Taiwan. And I found that I have lost the ability to think of interesting events to decorate my blog. My conclusion is that it is very bad for you to feast on good foods too much for too long and I can finally understand why English people have such great sense of sarcasm.

Chinese Men's Penis Phobia

No matter what you sell, you can almost guarantee the market share if the marketing bluff includes phrases like "make you energetic in bed" or "never fall" in Chinese world. Many of the strange, cruel way of dining or food ingredients come from the idea that it can make you a sexual superman.

There is a dish, named "3 squeaky voices", which is to eat the new-born mice alive. The 3 small squeaks come from the weak voice of a mouse when you pick it with your chopsticks, when you dip it in some sauce and when shovel it in your mouth. I only heard about it when I was small over the dinner table. But I can tell from my father's friends' faces, this is one of those type of dishes.

It is so funny that, in Chinese world, a man can be a total loser in every aspect of life but he cannot fail in bed as to satisfy his woman (thus, to control her, ha ha ha ha ha). Perhaps we should sell software telling our clients that you are not going to fall ever if using this product.

Forbidden City Kitchen Cookings

Master Li in Beijing is the decendant of the head of Forbidden city security guards, who has hold hold of the imperial recipe. Master Li started a restaurant to replicate the dishes meant for the emprorer. Li's daughter quit her job as a doctor became a full-time chef.

The food? You can tell that they use the best quality of ingredients and less MSG. The chef is very serious about the food. We have 12 cold dishes and 8 hot dishes. They all come in small portions, however, not as surpring as Royal China in London. Maybe I am bias, I like Cantonese crusin and there is not too much suprise in the imperial recipe.

Another very Nice Beijing Duck Place

The weather in Beijing is getting warmer and you see more green on the streets. Lots of people take out their small chairs, sitting on the road side and chatting with neighbours, enjoying the nice breeze. The summer is in town.

It did take us a while to find this restaurant, it is hidden in a small, old, close-to-demolish Hutong (don't ask me why is small alley ways in Beijing is called Hutong, not even local knows. The combination of the two characters, Hu and Tong, doesn't mean anything in Mandarine). You cannot tell that you are in the one of the top duck restaurants in Beijing when you entered the restaurant, you think you might have set foot into a local Beijing person's house.

But anyhow, they grill the duck in the open heath, burning the special type of woods. It is said there are 16 traditional procedures to make the duck, none of them is missing. The duck skin is crispy and light. The fat is tender but not stringy, not smelly. The meat is very soft. I think the duck is very young, might be 2 month old only.

It is unimaginable to eat those so-call Peking Duck (threaded deep-fried duck meat, probably those Cantonese Roast duck leftover) in London or New York China town again.

Tax Code

It is common practice in Taiwan to have two accounting books for small business. My mom kept one book for tax purpose and another one for real in/out cashflows. Quite a few Taiwanese who have business in China have done the same. However, the taxation and law systems are very different.

In China, the tax auditing force is so large that they can carry out throughout investigation to almost all business. Cooking the book or producing fake invoice is criminal offense (affecting national economic growth). Offenders cannot simply get out by paying fines. They are arrested and imprisoned, or even death penalty depending on how much tax you own.

The staticstic shows there are at least 90,000 Taiwanese being detaining in Chinese prisons.

Da Vinci Code, the mood of flower

Went to see Da Vinci Code with Cherry and Ben. To me, the movie is like wathcing Indiana Jones in Discovery Channel. Although knowing the Christinality history in Europe, but I have never learnt the secret society, piory of sion. I only remember people in medieval time killed each other, not because they were hungry, which really puzzles me.

Is Jesus Chris the divine or human, doesn't seem really important to a atheist like me. But I can feel the impact this has caused in western world somehow. But during the movie, the scenes of Monty Python's holy grail kept coming up in my mind. It is kinda funny.

I also watch Wong Kai Wei's the mood of flower. Very pretty. Maggie Cheung is drop-dead beautiful. But there is nothing besides prettiness in the movie. I don't know much about the artisitc aspect of the film making but I can feel that he is showing off.

How to Learn a Foreign Language

It is so funny to learn that XiaoHo has learnt Cantonese. Between my parents, they speak in Cantonese. But they always switch channel to Madarine when talking to XiaoHo. Somehow XiaoHo interrupted them when they were engaged in a Cantonese conversation. He understands the language!

Do you remember how you pick up the language when you were a kid? How do you make the connection of objects and their names? How did you learn how to describe and express your emotion? How do we learn communicating with others?

Does it Matter?

More than one person told me about how change is calculated in some common stores in south america. The changes has to be counted in a reverse manner to make up the total amount the customer pays. During the counting process, prevent yourself from talking, otherwise the counting has to be started again. They are happy people, no one seem bothered.

In North America, most math teachers carry with them a calculator, which is strictly prohibited in Taiwan. Because we have to write 2 big entrance exams at age 15 and 18, no calcultor is allowed. How to do add, subtract, multiply and so on by heart is a crucial skill to speed up answering math questions. We had to remember the squre of number 1 to 44, the cube of number 1 to 25, the squre root of number 2 to 5, learn those tricks to do (23*34) quickly, for example.

Does this matter to how a country performs or the government functions? I guess it is not too relevant. It is more related to how to allocate capable people in the proper positions, and do it efficiently.

Taiwan President's Son-in-Law

The Taiwan President's son in law has been involved in some insider trading scandal. I have never paid much attention to how the first family members look like but this guy was on TV news almost on daily basis.

The news clips show his work environment and what he does in work. He is a physician. I was really impressed that he looks clean, earnest and very into his patients. I think we all have some unknown, unexplainable feelings toward doctors. This profession almost makes a normal human being become a superman. Any issue that is related to the upmost secrecy of your body seems so trivial to them. You also feel obliged to open up without any hesitation. For example, the doctor could ask casually that how is your sex life and you would blob your guts out although what he wants to do is to prescribe you some birth control pill so he can make money. I guess fewer people feel that way toward lawyers or computer programmers.

A developer came to ask the client, did you do anything unusual to make the application crash? The client would routinely fall into the denial mode and blames the developer for writing this piece of work.

I dreamt about queuing up to see the Taiwan President's Son-in-Law for my eczma problem but I woke up before seeing the doctor.

Misread

I am not a particularly careful reader, my misinterpretation has provided my friends quite a few entertainment.

When I was in California, I think my friend wrote me an email saying that he might get laid off in New York. I was so confused because I didn't read the "off" (it was hidden in the next line). This sentense doesn't make much sense at all! I politely replied that he will succeed if he works hard enough.

I was chatting with a friend over MSN, I think we were talking something about the cute Chinese masseur in Beijing. We then talked about life sucks and nothing is worth smiling anymore. He then said "many smile when massaging me". I was like... What the hell is this? Am I going to become a masseues to smile a lot?!?! After a few minutes of chaotic exchange of words, I finally realised he was saying "many smile when MESSAGING me!"

Rain

The thunder storm came this evening, the rain washed off the dirt in the air, I walked to the subway station breathing the fresh air. I arrived in the station where is bright enough that I found my black trousers were dotted with mud. Who would think the little rain drop has carried so much sand?

Shopping in the Traditional Market

The highlight of my weekend is to go shopping in the traditional market nearby. My challenge is to buy the best quality of fresh fruit, veggies and meat with only a 10 yuan bill. One time I had only 5 yuan and 50 jiao left, and I walked to the butcher, planning to buy some ground meat.

I picked one small piece of pork belly for gridding but the stall owner told me it costs 6 yuan. I told her how much I had left and that's what I am planning to pay. She was almost angry when she cut a small piece of the meat, not even weighting it again. I then got my 5 yuan and 5 jiao worth of ground pork.

Banana Leave

This is a vert weird restaurant. They have got a westerner as a captain, who is managing a group of hyper-active, gender-unidentifiable, sexual-orientation ambiguous philipinos. You cannot enjoy your food quietly because the wait staff would come around and grap you to dance. They sing happily, skillfully ignoring their customers' boring faces.

Interestingly, both women and men love to touch our guys. Ben and Liu Yang felt molested and annoyed.

Fish Chair

I went to this fake anti store in Beijing, it was so exciting. There are so many little things to see, much much more interesting than silk street, that only sells clothes and fake LV hang bags. I bought a small fish-shape chair so I can work on my little coffee table and watch TV at the same time. Beijing seems nicer recently.
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Neitzsche argued that human beings have only will to power. I only wish I could have the power over my plants.

Shallow and Visual

I cycled the whole day and my back was really sore. So I decided to get a mini massage. I asked for the boy massuer because I thought my back really need some heavy dose of massage. But they sent in a very cute guy.

I felt very embarrassed to let a guy rob my feet. I guess my uneasiness is contagious, the automosphere became weired. Maybe I should insist a girl massues in the future.

Mosquito

I finally found my old camera, yay! I went to the local garden center every weekend, I have got 5 plants by now. Taking care of them is a very nice thing to do.

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When I was back home last week, the weather was very warm and we got almost a dozen mosquitos in our flat. Grace, Mankit and I were jumping up and down, waving and flapping the rolled up newspapers. No one can really get those staying up in the ceiling. My mom then told us to use the transparent plastic bag, slowly approaching our target. Inevitably, the target flies down and be trapped inside the bag.

Grace's mom was really impressed. She is a devoted Buddhist and she uses the same method to catch mosqitos but releases them outdoor. But my mom indicated she usually kills them by flattening the bag.

What does Real Power Mean in China

Just read an very interesting comment, it says, the really powerful person in China is the one who does not have to take the responsibility for his/her decision.

I cannot help but think this is even cooler than the enforcer in hocky.

High School Reunion

Patricia's hudsband, Leo, actually organised this reunion for us. Leo came to New York few times when I was still in New York. He is a typical business man, thick-skinly wants to be friend with anything that moves. He also connects with the other friend, Chung-Fen, and her hudsband. Leo and Chung-Fen talks in Taiwanese, teasing each other just like all old friends do.

Pat's son is 5 years old, pure as a piece of paper. Chung-Fen has a twins, they are almost 5. Kids were running and screaming, mother's eyes were constantly following their babies. Converstaion was all about children eduation. Completely chaotic.

We all meet in a luxurious hotel suite, Sharon came last with her 7-month-old girl, along with a 5-year-old boy and her hudsband.

It is so amazing to see my school mates again, they all still look like high school girls, the same body build and the same smile. Where has the time gone?

Sense of Humour

I guess not every one appreciate my sense of humour, but I can assure you that my senior high school mate, Claire, never fails to crack up whenever I am trying to tell a joke. I think she really likes me and doesn't want me to feel bad.

When we were in high school, she is the model student every teacher could ever dream of. And I was... As you have guessed, not. Somewhat we sat next to each other and we exchanged the techniques of reading novels underneath our desks.

Once I was trying to tell Claire a zen story. There were three little monks studying zen, following the most famous monk at the time. Monk A went to the old monk and asked "Master, if this then that and what?". The old monk thought about it for a while, he replied "You are right". Monk B came along and asked "Master, if this then that and why are we doing what?" The old monk paused for few minutes, and he said "You are also correct". The yongest monk was so confused and he went to old monk. He asked "Master, why do you think both of them are correct?". The monk replied after few minutes "Then you are right!"

No one laughed but Claire.

Hair Planting

We were having this conversation about men's bolding problem over dinner table one night. Kevin's theory is that the process of making men is more error-prone. Lots of genetic defects shown in men because the XY cromoson combination surfaces those dieases whereas the XX combination somewhat buries them. For example, more than half of Down syndroms and autistic patients are male. The other obvious one is you see more bolding men than women (of course, women tend to be more sensitive about their look).

Anyhow, I then contributed the scary hair reconstruction cosmetic surgery. The doctor planted the air ballon inside the hair growing region and pumped up the ballon so the hair growing region could be stretched to limit (believe me, he looked like an alien then). The hairless skin is then removed, replaced by the hairy one.

Irene said the hair planting business is very popular in Japan. Once the fine hair is planted, the clients have to come back for styling and washing on regular basis. The Japanese pursuit perfection to such an extreme, they even call you back few years later to plant some grey hair!

Back to Beijing

Just came back from Taipei this evening. I have not updated my blog for weeks and one of my blog readers thinks I am kidnapped or lost in the wood when hiking. To prove my existence, I have to write. Claire concluded my job in Beijing is very demanding because I didn't update my blog as frequently as in London. Blogging does give out a lot of information, whether you like it or not.

When queuing for taxi, a man cut in the line after me (because I skillfully stopped him from getting in front of me by pushing my cart in some weird directions). But I was still angry about this, so I turned around and told the man he should join the queue at the other end. He explained he was in a hurry, fine, every one is in a hurry, I said. The meaningless discussion lasted for few minutes. Luckily, the queue moved quite quickly. I pointed out the fact that it took me only 5 minutes to get to where I was without cutting into the line. And the man had to spend more than 5 minutes to explain me why he couldn't afford to queue like a normal human being. Absolutely ridiculous, I turned away and refused to talk to him.

He is really trying hard to persuade me that he is not doing anything wrong. I always think it would be so embarrassing if someone catch me littering or spitting, thus, I've never done so. I wonder what type of composition is it inside those people's brain?

I don't want to punish or crticising those who have done so. I don't want to be the heroin who tries to bring justice into the chaotic world, neither. Suppose that man didnt' try to cut in front of me, I might not even speak out at all. I think we should all learn how to defend ourselves. Learn marshall art if you have to. Guess we can preserve some dignity that way.

Women in Beijing

I have been very impressed to see how brave and brunt Beijing women are. They yell, push, never shy away from confrontation. The langauage they use is mostly man-like, together with the unfriendly, not-negotiable, unapologetic tone, you will come to the conclusion not to mess around with them.

I was at the traditional market once, and heard the middle age woman arguing with a stall keeper. She raised her volume, the stall keeper came back with some angry remark. I thought that is it and continued my stroll. However, behind me, it seemed that woman was so angry that she actually attacked the stall keeper. A fight started and others had to pull them apart.

The other time, I was waiting for a table in a busy restaurant. A man accidentally stepped on a girl's toe who is also waiting in the same area. Without hesitation, she hit the man with great force and gave him a very dirty look. I think you have to be very very confident in yourself to do that. Confident that, under any circumstances, you are ready to get into a physical/oral fight and win.

Of course, not all women I met are so physical, however, verbally strong is commonly seen.

Very Funny Illness

My cold gives me different symptons every day this week. I woke up with congested lung, woke up with nonstop coughing, woke up with sore muscle, woke up with clogged nose today. I am so looking forward to tomorrow morning.

Yi-Long Hunger Strike

After my dad left, Yi-Long refuses to eat anything. My mom's diagnosis is that Yi-Long is suffered from depression because of loneliness. She's proved her theory by patting Yi-Long's head before dinner and Yi-Long had his supper happily.

Unfortunately, my mom is not an animal person, I don't think Yi-Long is going to any patting from my mom again, I am so worried that he is going to die.

Shabu Shabu is originated in China?

The very very good hotpot place in Beijing. Ben kept saying the place is very local, I might not like it. But I liked it the moment I set my foot into the dwelling. Not the sophisticated type but practical type. Practical in a way that you don't see the waste bin in the dinning hall (I have seen those in a very nice and clean home-cooking Korean restaurant), however, everything you can see is needed for the business. The owner is not taking anything away trying to pretend this is a high class restaurant, yet the owner is not too lazy to getting unpleasant things out of the way.

The soup base is just water, with some green onion and sliced ginger. The high line is the meat. We have got 2 plates of different cut of a lamb. The first one is the fresh cut, it doesn't taste like lamb at all, it does not have funny lamb smell. The meat is tender and juice even if it is overcooked in the hotpot. The second plate is the frozen sliced meat. The slices are so thin, the meat is ready in 2 or 3 seconds after dipping into the hotpot. I don't like the frozen slices because you can taste the slight lamb smell. But Ben likes it better.

The dipping sauce is made of grounded seasame, seasame oil and some whole seasames, femented tofu juice, grounded green onion and some rice vinegar. Freshly cooked sliced meat with the sauce is readlly yummy. I think I overate...

Subway in Beijing

I go to work or client site via Beijing Subway every day. That is the best way to beat the horrible traffic jam in Beijing city. There are way too many cars on the road although almost all the major streets are at least 5 lanes one way.

When there is not enough resource, you can see how people thrive to make some space on his/her own. I have not learnt that skill yet, thus, I usually let go 2 or 3 trains every morning. When the train is not crowded, people are generally nice if they have not had some garlic or raw onion for breakfast. The experienced passengers would make their way to the door before his/her destination comes along. However, the passengers about to board would be so eager to proceed when the door opens. I sometimes have to fight my way out very aggressively with the laptop bag as my shield. People moan, show their complaint with grumpy face... The typical big city life.

Unlike the subway system in New York or London, the annoucement in the train is very very loud. It tells you what is the next station and when to interchange if you would like to take the other line. The volume is so high that your ear drums actually hurt.

Lucky Gold Star

The team did a project for LG in Korea last year, the anecdotes were hularious. For example, LG decided to go live on April the first and the project manager was so determined. He said, first of April, period. As if he's put his life on the line.

Another time, the LG project manager flew the freshly printed 30 page long issue list in front of our project manager. I heard, the LG guy literally threw the print out into the air. Just imagining the documents fell like huge snow flakes in the office....

In one of the meetings, LG complained that the marketing broche claims the software can do this and that... Then our project manager came back, "you said Life is Good".

Vicky

Crazy Karaoke night. Vicky is a great singer. We made the Karaoke virgin, Wesley, become addictive to singing. He was like "urm... I don't want to sing, I think I am awful" when first setting foot into the Karaoke room. But by midnight, he wouldn't let go of the microphone.

2 Day Hybernating

I felt ill on Friday morning. But I managed to go out having dinner and then Karaokeing with the office gang. We went to the No. 4 kitchen, the foods were not as good as last time we came. But alright, since I was sick and weak, anything is tasteless. After the 3-hour dinner, we all went to the CashBox Karaoke.

Cashbox has many chain stores, originated from Taiwan. When we were high school kids in Taipei, we went Karaokeing pretty frequently. That brings back a lot of nice memories. The same operating pattern and deco, Chinese pop songs from my time (I don't really know much about the Chinese pop songs anymore after going to Canada), I was so thrilled to see all of those again.

Vicky and I joked around and did the back-up dancing. We sang "Barbie Girl", which cracked up the whole crowd whenever the phrase "undress me everywhere" came around. Hao-Ling commented that you don't look like you are sick at all. Singing in a joking manner is funnier, I think I have lost the heart to sing seriously, we get more and more self-conscious when we get old.

When midnight approaching, I was getting slowed down, my face turned pale and the eczma got really bad. My eyes were red and I had to sleep for 2 solid days to recover from the cold.

Chinese Doctor

I went to the most reputable Chinese herb medicine store in Beijing, taking the prescription Dr. Lin wrote me 2 years ago, thinking I finally am able to get my eczma and allergy problem fixed. Ecstatic...

I never tried to read the prescription, it was really 10 or 12 different names of some herbs, I didn't even notice that the units were scribbled in some characters I don't recognise at all. I thought those are the common language for people in Chinese medicine industry. However, the pharmacists in TongRenTang couldn't recognise the unit because Beijing has modernised almost all measurments. Dr. Lin's unit was the ancient Chinese weighting unit.

I have to see a Chinese doctor so he can translate this unit to gram. The doc is an old man in his 60s and has a cigeratte butt in a ashtray. Before he could speak, he's coughing so severely that I thought he is about to chock. I asked if he is alright but he seemed to be out of breath for a while.

I escaped the room to see another doctor next door. The doc is even older, he is probably 80 something. He cannot read some of the names of those medicine in my prescription because Dr. Lin wrote in traditional Chinese. I also wonder if he should have a new pair of glasses. But he's done his job, translating the ancient Chinese weighting unit "chien" to grams.

He insisted to measure my pulse but his diagnosis is totally different from Dr. Lin. He thinks I am having a cold. I asked him how long he thinks I have been sick, he said, it is a long long time. I then got interested and asking for more information. He said, it must be at least 3 months. I tossed his prescription to the gabbage bin as soon as he is out of my sight.

Very nice Peking duck restaurant

I finally visited a nice Peking duck place last night. Very contented...

We had 5 cold dishes. One of them was the sliced duck liver, very tender and delicate, tasted like high quality pate but better. I like the tofu salad as well, the tofu was mixed with some local herbs, finely chopped.

The duck is very young and not too fatty. The meat is very tender and the skin is crispy. It is surprisingly nice to eat the skin with some suger, rather than the dark sweet flour paste, which is the traditional sauce goes with the duck skin. My stomach still cannot handle raw green onion (heartburn follows raw onion), it is a torture to see others chewing the green onion with duck meat.

Don't remember whatelse we had. The duck was too impressive.

Police Station Excusion

I need to file the police report for the stolen wallet and camera to satisfy the insurance company. I guess it is part of their idea to make sure the pickpocket did happen, if the claimant does go through all the trouble to make a case with the police.

I first went to the station which taxi driver thought should take care of the area. Unfortunately, it was not. I then jumped into another cab to the other police station. Which is the third police station I visted this week. I had been to the other station few days ago in my neighbourhood to register my residency.

After telling one of the on-duty officers my story, he then led me to the dirty and dark interrogation room, filled with smoke. He told me to sit down and started to record our converstaion.

I cannot help but think this room was used for other purpose. The police officer was not friendly, his tone was almost intimidating and threatening. I think, he is so used to talk that way. I cannot help but staring at his badge and sleeves, which are filthy. But I tried to be as formal and polite as I can. I feel I can get beaten up for no reason if I don't do so.

As I was waiting in the lobby, while the intimidating officer was finalising the report. The other three on-duty officers started to chat me up. I told them I am Chinese Canadian who just came to Beijing a month ago, and I have never been to such a big city (which is true, Beijing's population is almost 15 million, way ahead of New York and London). They sympathised my naiveness and were all eager to give me tips to fight off petty crimes. They invited me to go back sometime to have tea by the time I left.

Paradox of being Modern

I used to make fun of Irene's Japanese friend, who was so scared when he spent a week in Taipei. His face turned paper white when we took him out on a motercycle ride in Taipei city and he brought a suitcase of medicines with him everywhere he went. He didn't want to eat anything unheard of. I cannot believe a man could be so anal and it almost irriated the hell out of me.

We are so used to the way of life in Taiwan and couldn't understand the poor Japanese guy's fear. I guess I have become the un-understandable in Beijing. I am afraid of the counterfeit soy sauce, I keep away from dried fruits and nuts. I get extremely annoyed when people push me aside in the subway. I am worried when my fellow pedestrains fail to respond to the cars driving/honking toward them (I run away immediately most of the time).

While I was frightened and worried, with my face turned paper white, the people around me behave calmly and normally. They must think I am weird.

English Translated

I think the government official in Beijing, who is in charge of making English version of the warnings, road signs or instruction in public space, has done his/her homework better than his/her Taipei or ShangHai counterparts.

I remember I have seen the sign in ShangHai subway station, "do not jump off the track". The equivalent in Beijing says "stay clear of the track". The English signs in Taipei are awful as well. Many of them are almost the direct translation of the Mandarin equivalent. I really have no idea it is because no one in the civil office has ever traveled abroad or they think no one is going to pay attention to the signs, so it is fine to let a 10 years old write it.

I think it would be a big business if someone can convince Taipei or ShangHai civil offices to redesign and remake all the English signs.

Taxi in Beijing

The very interesting thing I observed in Beijing is that it is very rarely to see skillful taxi drivers. In Taipei, the taxi drivers are almost qualified in Formula 1 racing. They weave, speed, go through narrow street with ease. I heard a story that a Taipei taxi driver claimed he can drive over a coin with any tire of his car, after tossing out the coin from the window at the driver side. No one believed him, placing bets he cannot do it but he's won all the bets. Front left, front right, rear left and rear right.... I don't know how much time he spent in practicing.

But the fact is, driving in Taipei is rather safe. Because most people who share the road with you are very well-prepared, most can accurately estimate the space and time. As long as you are moving, chances that you are run over by a car are slim.

But in Beijing, taxi drivers are extremely anal, almost painfully careful. They would not bend the rule and never know if there is a short cut (or they would rather not knowing it) to save time. Perhaps there is no need to hurry for them... When two cars passing each other in a narrow street, they would almost hold the car still for minutes to calculate the space although there is plenty of room.

On the contrary, there is virtually no space between cars, motorcycles and pedestrains. But they all live happily together. My father, the motorbike lover, once had his toe run over by the taxi in Taipei while stopping in front of the red light and sticked out his left foot to hold the motorbike. Well... this indeed proves my theory that you are safe in Taipei as long as you are moving along with the traffice.

Driving in Beijing

Unfortunately, my camera was lifted together with my wallet this Saturday. There will be no pictures in my blog until beginning of May when I go back to Taipei. I was devastated because I really miss my nice yellow wallet.

All my RMB were gone and I virtually got only 5 RMB in my pocket. It is Saturday and there seemed no place for me to get any help. Fortunately, I have filled my fridge on Friday (that's quite important). I went home by bus, svery sad.

I kept dreaming about being lifted again in crowded places and didn't want to go out at all for a day or two. And my eczma acted up and I think I really need to get some facial treatment done but I have no money to buy the facial mask.

Life sucks when you lose your wallet.

The Wedding

I am the bride's maid in peggy's wedding. The make up artist is really amazing. She put tons of liquid make-up on my face, reshaped my eye brows, used some stripe tapes to create the double eyelids and then again, more powder and colour. Some of my friends didn't recognize me.

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This is my first time to be the bride's maid. I accompanied Peggy for the whole day and realised getting married in Chinese way does put you and your partner through the toughest tests. I was so exhausted by the end of the day but I didn't do much at all.

Not a High School Kid Anymore

I looked very scary in the picture. It was taken in Kiyoshi's Karaoke bar in Osaka. Kiyoshi came to the hotel to pick me up with his motorcycle. He rode very fast, weaving among all other cars on the street. The traffice light was only for his reference.

He is 50 years old but look like 30. What's the secret of his young look? I wonder....

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I have been asked by a colleague in Sydney office that how many kids I have. And another colleague in Beijing just asked me where is my husband. I guess I don't look like a high school kid anymore.

To be fair, I think, in general, people look very young in Asia.

How to Produce Satisfying Customers

I thought I was the happiest girl in the world when seeing this seafood plater in the fish market in Sydney. I ate one oyster and finished all the shrimps, yum! Before starting to attack the lobster, I thought one of my oysters is moving. Gee, that's really fresh. I then looked into it closely, IT WAS A SMALL WORM!?!?

Nothing is what it seems.

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I am in the fruit craving mode these days. I crave for ripe, delicious, sweet, cruchy and watery fruits all the time. But it is really hard to find them in Beijing. I guess people don't care too much about the quality of fruits in all the northern territories around the world.

Anyhow, I ordered a fruit blended drink in a stall in the shopping mall. The girl poured some artifitial coloured water, ice and some cream into the blender. I started to have the bad feeling already. To my surprise, she didn't even blended it for 5 seconds, she poured the mixture out in a great hurry although I seemed to be the only customer. She said to me mechanically "thank you, your drink is ready".

But the drink had ice and coloured water on top and the ice cream at the bottom. It is too sweet to my taste. And there is no fruit!! I wonder if the girl knows what type of drink she just made. Would she like to pay for a drink like that?

I bet she is a northerner and never likes fruits. And she's never tasted her own work and she doesn't know how to appreciate nice fruit blended drink. There is no passion and understanding, therefore, which produces lousy execution and products.

Flying

I think the fish are never afraid of flying. They would never think about the possibility of being pulled by the gravity and fall to the ground from 30,000 feet height.

I took the picture in the aquarium in Sydney, fighting my way through 5 years old to see the sharks. It was really fun.

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I start to understand a bit why people have fly-phobia. I am now in a plane and the turbulence comes about. Of course the flight shakes up a bit. Some horrifying scenes like flight crashing start playing in my mind. My heart skids thinking about the images of people screaming and my laptop computer flying up to the ceiling (I am strapped in my seat) when the aircraft dives down the sea.

I am holding tight to my laptop.

My Cousin

I was not very confident with my new hair style, I have had my short fringe for very long time... I think how you see yourself in the mirrow is not exactly how other people see you. I figure, via digital camera, I should be able to fairely assess my new hair style.


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My cousin works very hard toward her master degree in biochemistry in Toronto. She has not had any serious relationship so far. I think that is because she is too comfortable about what she has. In her eyes, boys seem amusing rather than attractive.

How to do your Marketing in China

This is the new trend in Beijing, every dish has a label, which indicating who prepared the dish. You can ask your favorite chef to prepare another dish for you. Interesting...

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The marketing guru in China, Doctoroff, thinks most Chinese do not know the link between human right and economic advancement. I don’t know that either, so I am a qualified Chinese.

He also claimed that Chinese would like to spend money so to make them look good. For example, Haggen Doz sells very well in those individual ice cream but not the 2-liter package. But I will not spend too much money to decorate my appearance, so I don't sound too Chinese in that aspect.

Interesting Company Right Across the Street

The second floor of the office building right across my hotel seems very busy every evening. I got back from work around 7 and saw all the meeting rooms were full. I came back from my lonely dinner around 9 pm and they were still around.

I cannot help but go to the porter and asked him if he knows what company it is, they seem working overtime all the time.

The cheerful porter told me that's a language school. He has been observing them for 4 months and he can even tell me which room has what class. The Japanese group was not in today, but they will start on Thursday... Very observant he is.

Table For One, Please!

Restaurants hate single diner. They always give you the worse table in the room. I had been seated in the corner many times, sometimes facing the wall, sometimes my back faces the door to the toilets and people kept coming in and out behind me. Restaurants push single dinner around to make room for any party, as long as they have got more than 1 person.

I can understand single dinner might bring less revenue to the table and we might seem miserable or somehow weird. But we also want to enjoy foods and wish to be pampered and taken care of. Nevertheless, it has rarely happened to my single dining experience. Eating your meal alone in a restaurant is like a torture, no matter how excellent the food is. Because you really feel self-conscious about every movement you make. Did I make too much noise when I eat the noodles? Reading seems to be a very good way to get away with the self-consciousness, but there never is a good location to put the book or to keep the pages steady while you eat.

I have been thinking about this problem for a while. If there are plenty of magazines or any sort of entertainments available in the dining room, the food is rarely classic or good. You can not imagine in the upscaled french restaurant that the waiter bring you the wine list and a deck of comic books at the same time.

Does that mean single diner can only eat in the Chinese noodle shops, Kebab houses, Curry stalls and hotel room (if the room service is available)?

I am afraid so.

Friendly Australians

I was almost not able to fly out of Beijing because I didn't have a proper VISA to Australia. Both Vicky (the admin girl) and I thought Canadian should be able to get into another Commonwealth country. We finally sorted it out via internet in the airport. But the immigration officer in Melbourne was very skeptical about my visit.

I had to explain him why I am in Melbourne and why I only got my VISA yesterday. I didn't like his tone, plus, after 26 hours of traveling from Beijing to Melbourne, I was hungry (to make it worse) and grumpy. I think I appreared very angry and loud. They finally let me through but the worse was waiting ahead of me.

The officer sent me to the highly suspectable queue for custom check. My luggages and backpack were searched very carefully while others simply went through the X-Ray machine. Although the custom officer was nice and chatty, my mood was really ruined.

I must look like a terrorist in Australian standard.

Strong Osaka Girls

Sorry dear readers, I still have no pictures to share with you.

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I arrived in Osaka in the afternoon, it was raining slightly. The hotel is right next to the Osaka Castle so I decided to take a walk. The castle is surrounded by water on its 3 sides and there is a cherry blossom park right in front of the castle. It was very quiet and peaceful, a large bird glid over the water, I can only hear the rain sizzling.

I breathed deeply, I was all by myself as far as I can see. Beijing is actually quite stressful. People are very very unrested, always very eager to do something or to go somewhere. The castle park was really nice although my shoes were all wet and my fingers were immoblised because of the coldness.

I then saw a man mumbling to himself, he looked like a homeless. I decided not to show that I was scared. I walked passed him instead of detouring, at the same time, I shot him this very dirty look. I then ran very quickly to the deeper site of the park (I thought I was walking out then) in a fear that he might be following me.

Anyhow, I got back to the hotel alright. Later my friend told me it is not safe to go to the castle at night because of many homeless. But this is Japan!! I protested, I will be on the newspaper if I really get mobbed.

Another thing I observed in Osaka is that all the moving lagguage business in a hotel was handled by some tiny, nylon-wearing girls. While waiting in the airport lounge, I also found it was all women who load the laggages to the airplains. Is it because Osaka girls are very strong?

Quick Look of Forbidden City

It is still very sad there is no picture available at the moment, I promise to put on more pics when I get hold of a better laptop.

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I set out to take a good look of Tiananmen square this morning. As I approached the gigantic Mao's picture, I grew very timid and felt a bit scared. This state machine can basically take away anything you own, kick you out of your dwellings, make you spell your guts out by all means at any time they feel like. If it is for the account of state security or the party.

I was squeezed between so many tourists from every corner of China. I started to wonder what make them feel secured and what keep them get up every morning? There is no individual, state outweights all of us.

Forbidden city disappointed me a bit. The wooden details of the doors, arches, roofs are battered by weather, the restored part were painted by amatuers, I believe, because I don't believe the Chinese royal had such bad taste. The restoration project is a bloody disaster to the cultural heritage of all human beings!

I believe it would be implemented nicely if the projected is managed by anyone other than state own enterprise. Forbidden city is more grand, more delicated and more graceful in my imagination.

The Subtle Dynamics between XiaoHo and My Dad

My dad is suffering from the inferiority complex after he closed down his business. We all tried to help at one point of time but he keeps whinning. He is so afraid that he has to explain to us again and again that he is too old to do anything. At the same time, he feels very insecured. Thus he constantly reminds us of how well respected he is in his hometown in mainland (due to on-going donation) and how health he is at his age.

We all try to help him at a point of time but we are all numbed by his nonstop whinning (do not blame us, it has been like this for years). He could not understand that all we want from him is to see him live positively and happily, rather than making lots of money (he never did anyways).

The subtle power shift has taken place, perhaps, few years ago. My mom became the silent but powerful leader. She doesn't talk much but is taken seriously when speaking. Of course, she is still camaflaged by her innocent house-wife/grandmom look.

It is very interesting how XiaoHo has comprehended this whole situation. XiaoHo knows exactly who dominates the household, who he should please in order to get the biggest return despite the fact that my father loves him dearly.

Do You Like to Take a Nap?

Very sady, the labtop I use now does not support the picture loading functionality on blogspot. No picture!!! Very sad...

Anyhow, I remember I was very surprised to know that Spanish take their nap between 2 and 7 pm when I was little. I envied this so much that I decided to think them as a group of lazy butts.

Speaking of the napping habbit, Chinese are also notorious. When I was in high school, we were forced to take a 30 minute nap after lunch. Of course, there is no bed. 50 of us had to sit and sleep at our desks. Speaking or reading is strictly prohibited. If you are not sleepy? Sorry, you just have to rest your head on the desk and close your eyes. I think I got used to it and can always sleep very well. I always woke up with saliva all over my desk (secretly wiped clean out of embarrassment).

I was told, if you visit some government beaura after lunch hours in Taiwan, you will find peoeple sleeping every where. In the hot and humid summer days, the server rooms are crowded with male engineers. The girls also sleep in the same fashion as in high schools. This is amazing....

How to Open the Door?

The firefighter's wife is such a character. She walks into any fire station and tell them her hudsband's name, and the officer on duty would back out the fire truck to make space for her car.

We were meeting in a very nice bar. I was standing right in front of the door but couldn't figure out how to open it. I pushed, it does not move. I try to pull but there is no handle. So, I guess it must goes sideways. But it does not move, either. I guess the waitress was getting impatient to wait for me to walk in so she could greet me. She finall pulled open the door... I was really embarrassed.

But the firefighter's wife told me, one time, she waved , jumped up and down, tried to activate the non-exist sensor of a glassy door. She didn't find her way in until some one pull open it.

Dress Fitting

It is almost as tall as me....

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I went dress fitting with Peggy because I will be the bride's maid. It took me like 3 minutes to decide what to wear but it took Peggy almost 3 hours but we still couldn't find the proper dress for her wedding banquet.

The bride's maid dress is doomed to be white, only the bride can be colourful enough to draw everyone's attention. I also found out the secret of my cousin's handsome blossom, all dresses are fitted with heavy paddings.

But I am a bit disppointed with those dresses, they are not really soft and nice as I thought. They are very low quality and not very clean. They can only be used for photo taking. I do understand every girl wants to be the most beautiful girl in the world at the night, but I think those business men are just taking advantage of naive youngsters by commercializing the whole photo-taking and dress-renting package. After all, not many people would come back for more.

Yi-Long's Advanture

Yi-Long is a very interesting dog. He knows how to open the screen door.
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Well, Yi-Long did something very silly again today. He was let loose and met with another let-loose German Shepar, who is twice of his size. Those two got into a fight almost immediately, they tangled, growled, pretended to bite.

My dad and the owner of the German Shepar came to pull them away. The owner of the German Shepar commented that it is hard to believe such a small dog would be brave enough to fight with a such a big dog. That was not all, Yi-Long also fought with 3 strayed dogs without hesitation one time. I think he is mad.

However, my dad took Yi-Long out for a walk in the central garden, two small white cats jumped out of the bushes and attacked Yi-Long. One bit one side of his belly and the other bit his neck. Yi-Long was so shocked that he lay flat on the ground and begging them to stop. All the kids around were cracking up, some one even said "Oh, the cats killed your dog".

FengShui in a Casino

Strictly speaking, FengShui is not a proper phrase to use when talking about decorating your living space. Feng means the wind and Shui the water. FengShui is used when trying to find the best location to bury the ancesters so that the descendants could enjoy the good fortune. When talking about the same concept for living people, it should be "DiLi", which means the logic of the earth.

Anyhow, Casinos in Chinese culture are the most superstitious spaces Chinese could ever design. For example, in the biggest Casino in Macau, the building was made to be the shape of a bird cage. So no one can escape. There is a picture of 12 cannons hung on the entrance, no matter which direction you look, they all point directly at you. That's the Casino's attempt to keep you in and rip you off, spiritually.

There are ways to deflect the evil spells. You have got to walk in side way, to avoid the cannon pointing. You have got to go between 11am and 1pm, which is the time the evil spirit is the weakest. When being dealt the card, you should shout "black jack" to scare off the money ripper. Other things such as wearing scarlet undies could also be heard.

Do they work? I really don't know. Just imagining a group of Casino visitors all walk in the door side way like crabs is quite entertaining.

Oh, I was still very very stressed back then. I think I scared a lot of people. 

You can only see this orange garilla loving a rabbit scene in Taipei 

I was really delighted to see XiaoHo's ear-holdig posture...  

Crazy Plug-in Team in Barclays Capital, London 

Visiting My Grand Mother

Perhaps it is hard for westerners to understand why Chinese are so into visiting ancesters' tomb or so keen to be buried in the family burial ground (meaning, having your name engraved in a piece of wood, which is the ancestral tablet and is displayed in the family temple).

There is really no concept of religion in Chinese culture. The Chinese characters of religion was borrowed from Japanese in 19th century. It means "ancester" and "doctrine". I don't want to do too deep on the definition of Chinese way of religion comprehension, I
think it could as well be a doctorial paper in anthropology.

Chinese babies were born with a very big selfhood. A new born has to take its ancestral history, land, custom, expectation and unfinished dreams. It is also expected to continue the family line forever. This is dying donw as Chinese societies modernise but it roots deeply in our bloodstream. Religions are not such an important part of Chinese' every-day life because ancestral worship practice sort of fulfills the spiritual needs. To my father, the meaning of life is to glorify the family, it is not surprising that we don't communicate with each other very well because I like to make money more. Ha ha ha...

We picked up uncle Thomas and auntie Feng first and then drove to the mountain. I guess my grand mom would be the last generation of our family to be buried (I secretly planned things for my parents and myself already).

Her final resting place is so big and well-maintained. But don't be mistaken, it's definitely not like the cemetaries in the church yard in the west. Chinese cemetaries are spine-chilling. They are
usually located in mountain with very good view (essentials of good Feng-Shui). Just imagine the whole mountain has no living things but well-groomed trees and us. The sky was grey and cloud is heavy.

We walked into the tomb area as if we are about to enter her residence. It has a small temple for the local god. We have to offer him some food, incense and paper money. And then to my grand mom. The tea is poured over the ground as if she is drinking it. The burning of paper money is my favorite part, the only legal time for kids to play matches apart from Chinese New Year's fireworks.

We had to report to her what we are doing and all the gossips among relatives as if she could hear us well. I think that's the way for shy Chinese to communicate among family members.

We stubornly think our ancesters would watch over us if we treat them right. I guess I will continue doing so and pass it along with no logical explanations, I just think it is the right thing to do.

The Next Few Days

I understand if I don't update my blog for a long while, I might lose all my readers. I have to continue writing.

Taipei is getting cold and humid because of the cold front, the drizzles didn't stop for 3 days in a row. I was waken by my mom because we were about to visit my grand mom's tomb. My grand mother passed away in Taiwan almost 10 years ago, her final resting place is in a mountain, few hundred miles away from Hong Kong, with great view of port of Taipei city.

Just before we were ready to go out, we found my dad had gone walking the dog and forgot his access card key back to our building.

We called his mobile and replied his anxious voice, Yi-Long is missing!! Yi-Long was loosen after passing the gate, he ran down the hill (probably he is after some girl dogs nearby) and my dad was waiting for around half an hour in the rain. My dad was almost saying we should consider buying another dog.

I had to drive around to look for Yi-Long... And I found him, he looked very scared and worried. He didn't recognise me first and turned ecstatic when realising I have come to his resecue.

Because of the tight schedule, I had to go out visiting my grand mom with my uncle and auntie without bras, make-ups. I am wearing the funny-looking socks with my mom's colourful sandals.

It is alright, this is Taiwan.

First Day

I think I am not feeling very good about leaving London.

When queuing for the security, the idiot behind me stood too close to me, so I bent over to tie my shoe laces (although my boots have none) and my bagpack swang across his tummy by accident and I heard he grumble. That made me feel better for 2 second.

I think the fact that I have left London for good didn't really hit me until I was on the plane. I am actually leaving behind a lot of friends and connections.

Yeah, I guess I was really bored sometimes and I don't really hang out with anyone during weekends in London. Because I think I just dont fit in anywhere. But, after all, I am so used to it.

After 3 years in London, most of my relations and connections are mature or really close to, it is truely the time I should enjoy the fruital results. Just imagine the effort and time to rebuild all of those again.

Ironically, I miss London at my first night in Taipei and think, um
uh, why I pull myself away from an environment I am so used to? Did I make the right decision? What doesit mean by settling down? Would I feel happier if I have a more stable and clear vision?