Xin Nian Kuai Le

Following the restful three week Winter break, only two weeks of
school at ISB and we are back on vacation for Spring Festival - a
celebration of the Chinese New Year of the Dragon. It feels much too
cold to call anything "Spring", but maybe warmer days are on the way.

This being our first New Year in Beijing, we are intruiged by the
stories of non-stop fireworks and street parties that we hear, and I
am we will have our own stories to tell when the Lantern Festival
draws the New Year celebration to a close next week. We are planning
to spend Sunday(New Years Eve) and Monday(New Years Day) in the city
taking in the festivities and fireworks in Wangfujing.

Li Xiu Lan departs today for a two week venture to her home province
to visit her people with her son and husband. Today she gave Hong Bao
to the boys, and despite feeling rather clueless about the whole
procedure - amount of the gift and when to give it - we did the same
for her. The process is laden with traditions and rituals which we
are just starting to learn, so I hope we only sent good luck her way.

Fortunatley we have a reliable network of local aquaintences who often
assist us when we reach an unfamiliar cultural boundary. Ayi,
despite the language barrier, is our number one go to for help when we
need to figure out what to do in situations like this, but I couldn't
exactly ask her how much to give her for her own gift. Driver Tom has
also bailed us out more than once when lost or in need, and he even
helped me navigate the process of securing split bamboo fly rods from
a far off province for my dad and his friends. In the case of the
Hong Bao, however, I acted on the advice of Li Laoshi, my Chinese
teacher. A few months ago Joanne introduced me to Li Jing, and ever
since I have "stolen" her time away from Joanne. On the occasion that
Jojo can sneak away from work for a bit, we get to take class
together. During our joint lesson yesterday, Li Laoshi explained to
Joanne and I that we should give Ayi her Hong Bao in a red envelope.
We knew that this was expected, but when we suggested that we put
400RMB in the envelope, Laoshi shot back, "Oh no, not 4, that is very
bad luck," she explained that 5 or 3 is okay, 8 is very good, but 4
sounds like death. "Si" means "4", the word "si" also means "death".
In my study, I conclulde that the "also means" is the biggest
hinderance to my understanding. Just when I think I know what I am
hearing or saying, Laoshi says, "well, that also means..." UGH!
Hanyu fei cheng nan!

We are excited to be taking in the New Year with Granny, and we have
been doing our part to scope out every restaurant in the area in
preparation for her next visit. We will be hosting Granny and her
crew of great friends when they venture to Beijing in April. We've
checked out sushi at Haru, Burgers in the Atmosphere Bar on the 80th
floor of China World, Jiaozi and Baozi at Din Tai Feng, rissoto at
Tavola, and plates of Zhongcan at various spots for which I can not
say the names. We've even tried falafel at Bitapita and had a cold
pijo at Hard Rock Cafe, but the other night while we had a blast
playing a family game of hangman on the paper tablecoths at the Union
Street Grill, our check came - 888RMB. Pricey yes, but the fun, the
family and the 8s can only mean good luck in the year of the Dragon!

Happy Year of the Dragon and Ba Ba Ba to all!

Wow, what a turn around!

A World of Perspectives

This morning as I stuffed my coat and hat into locker #56 and started working on peeling off my gloves, I looked across the locker room toward the only other person in the room and we exchanged hellos.  He too was removing his outer layers of heavy clothes to get down to his workout gear underneath.

"Whew, it sure is cold out there today," he said.

I had not actually met this fifty something Chinese man before, but I had seen him around the gym and pool on quite a few other mornings; nonetheless, today was our first exchange.

I responded, "yea it sure is. I saw 12 Fahrenheit before I left the house."

He laughed and said, "my friends from California keep calling me and telling me that it is 75 and sunny.  I tell them I don't want to hear it."

I laughed in return saying, "you know, back where we come it is snowing right now, so we are kind of used to the cold this time of year.  They probably wont even have school tomorrow.  I was teacher in the DC area and schools there tend to close when it snows."

"Oh really," he said, and with this I could sense the shift in his inflection. "In California, where my daughter is a teacher, they only close school when they run out of money."

"Really?" I said, knowing that this unsolicited conversation was taking a weighty turn.

He now was speaking from a place of frustration bordering on angst.  "Yes, she and all of the other teachers gets a pink slip every March because of budget cuts and then they have to compete for the fewer open jobs the next year.  This it the problem with the American economy-"

"Ouch," I responded, attempting to turn my attention away from this growing conversation and toward plugging in my iPod and lacing up my shoes.

"-and," he continued, "I don't think any of your candidates I see on TV can fix these problems either."

At that moment I looked up and gave him a dismissive, "mm, hmm,"  sticking my left earphone into my ear.

Despite the fact that I claim none of those candidates as my own, Granny and I did spend a good part of the morning watching the New Hampshire debates(of course following watching the Tebowing of Pittsburgh), so I did have politics on my my mind; however, I never expected today's pre-workout chit-chat about the weather to take this turn towards the views of the GOP candidates or a condemnation of American politics in general.  

He carried on, now taking the tone of laoshi lecturing his xuesheng .

"In this country we also teach our children the principles of democracy, but as opposed to you Americans, we know that the evolution of democracy is a process of contraction. In its earliest stages, democracy provides a chance for many parties to have a voice; in this case, one of the parties at the extremes, that which more people identify with, is voted into control.  This is happening in the infant democracies of the Middle East. Eventually the people discover that this no longer works, as a majority is not necessarily represented.  Thus it evolves into a two party system, like Washington DC.  For a while this system works and the parties trade leadership back and forth making some progress, but like Washington DC today, eventually the two parties become polarized and gridlocked to the point that nothing can get done and no problems can get solved.  This is when Democracy evolves to it's highest form - the one party system."  He smiled and winked, releasing the tension from the last few minutes, "America will get here someday."  

"Have a good workout," I said, and plugged in my other earbud.

  

--
Paul Koch (@pkoch9999)

http://dugahole.blogspot.com/

+151 1692-2787

Bird's Nest and Din Tai Fung

Family Fun at The Bird's Nest and Ding Tai Feng

Nanshan Ski Weekend

We welcomed Granny back to Beijing by taking a family excursion to
Nanshan to break in the snowboards and skis that Santa brought. Great
times!