tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-138609982024-03-13T21:59:35.558+08:00Beijing or BustRandom observations of this over-hyped yet still fascinating cityBeijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.comBlogger111125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-64252010664761614772010-05-23T22:44:00.011+08:002010-05-24T07:31:15.028+08:00My Home VillageLast month, I accompanied my father on a visit to his home village. In China, one would call the hometown on the paternal side of be one’s own. However, in my thirty-(big) plus years of existence, I had never before been to “my” home village.My father had not been back for 29 years either, due to various unfortunate reasons. We had to stop several times on the country road to ask for directions. Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-34753140844872333402010-01-21T00:45:00.003+08:002010-01-21T00:52:24.953+08:00Speaking of integrityA good friend of mine, who's a high-level executive at a local Internet company, had an emergency toothache. His assistant arranged an emergency operation for him at one of the best dental hospitals in Beijing, via her father's old friend who knows one of the dental experts there.They did not have to make any appointment and just walked into the office. The old friend of the assistant's father Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-88670061206488941332009-12-14T23:09:00.001+08:002009-12-14T23:16:28.911+08:00Acceptable StereotypeThe later years of my stay in the US, I was an indoctrinated listener of National Public Radio. Every liberal intellectual type seemed to have the local NPR station preset on their radios, so I followed suit.But lately, every time I visited the US, NPR increasingly annoyed me. China is becoming an ever popular topic, and every other day, some China expert would be talking about what this “China” Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-16708300136373945212009-11-22T14:30:00.000+08:002009-11-22T14:32:01.500+08:00In Search of Chinese-ChineseOne day last week I went to a private clinic in Beijing. As usual the clinic was quiet and only a few clients—half of them foreign expats—sat around waiting. A tall Scandinavian-looking guy came and sat in the couch next to me. We stroke up a conversation about the newspaper story I was reading. Then he asked,“Are you Chinese Chinese?”Reflexively I explained that I had lived and worked in the US Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-71841059547368208512009-08-11T21:18:00.002+08:002009-08-11T21:22:47.801+08:0020th ReunionI flew back to Chengdu for my high school 20th reunion. Of the 360 students in my graduating class, more than one third showed up. Most I had not seen for 20 years and had a hard time remembering. It was embarrassing but also a source of rapturous laughter once the identities were revealed. The reunion ran in style. We formally signed in and then were seated in a banquet hall. Three MCs Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-26398781332118795232009-06-14T08:22:00.000+08:002009-06-14T08:25:01.162+08:00In Pursuit of Tai ChiI was in Boston for a short trip and my old friend Mary, whom I hadn’t seen for a year, visited me from Philadelphia. Over the weekend, she could not stop talking about Tai Chi. I took my first English writing class from Mary 12 years ago. We have been close friends since. She witnessed my various attempts to fit in America, and I kept her company through her various heartbreaks. Still, her Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-66657337398557254632009-05-14T09:59:00.002+08:002009-05-14T10:55:28.680+08:00To Catch a White Wolf with Bare HandsThe cliché goes—in the new Wild Wild East of China, anything is possible. Tiring as it is, clichés do seem to exist for a reason.In early 2006, Betty, a Chinese screenwriter friend living in Los Angeles, forwarded me a movie script in English and asked if I could help rewrite. I was having a two-year filmmaking stint then. There was a small circle of bilingual filmmakers in Beijing who, like me, Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-72731748072806230512009-05-09T11:53:00.002+08:002009-05-09T12:00:16.599+08:00The Lesson of HappinessBen was my Ph.D. advisor in Boston. I have forgotten all of what he had taught me about evolution and molecular biology. One thing I do remember clearly was what he had said to me once at his house party, back in 1994.His family had just moved into a beautiful colonial house in Cambridge and invited everyone working in his lab over for a party. While all the adults chatted over free flowing Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-46376210168918566452009-04-29T00:06:00.008+08:002009-05-02T11:03:00.316+08:00Shredded Pork with Sweet Red PepperI went back to Chengdu, my hometown in southwest China, for my dad's big 69th birthday over the weekend. Since it's big, we basically ate for two days--Saturday lunch and dinner with close family, and Sunday lunch and dinner with extended family.On Sunday we lunched at a very nice restaurant in a private room, with two tables for 24 people. Then befitting the image of leisured Sichuanese who Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-46993647352496912772009-04-23T22:43:00.000+08:002009-04-23T22:44:27.762+08:00Time Would Never TellI arrived in the US a year after the Lu Gang incident, yet it was still a frequent topic among overseas Chinese students. On November 1st, 1991, Lu Gang, a Chinese student who had just received his Ph.D. in physics at the University of Iowa, shot and killed five people on Iowa campus, including his advisor and a fellow Chinese student, and then killed himself. I remember reading about him in Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-78262460412085050592009-04-09T13:59:00.000+08:002009-04-09T14:00:33.769+08:00The Hierarchy of DreamsAt the Miami restaurant where I worked part-time back in 1993, a hierarchy existed among the staff to serve customers in style. At the very top was the manager in suit. Waiters were next in line with their bowties and velvet vests. Down below were bus boys cleaning the tables after each meal. We, the four food runners in plain white shirts and regular ties, were next to last, just above the Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-45330426600303948022009-03-26T09:33:00.001+08:002009-03-26T09:38:57.356+08:00Inner CityEven before I left China in 1992, I had had a fascination with working in a Chinese restaurant in the US. That seemed such an essential American experience for any Chinese immigrant, at least according to such popular novels as Beijinger in New York and Manhattan’s China Lady. Soon after I arrived in Miami for graduate school, I began searching for a restaurant where I could fulfill my dream of Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-67741800961569735592009-03-20T19:08:00.001+08:002009-03-20T21:26:08.239+08:00Farewell, MarianneWhen I first met Marianne, she insisted on my addressing her as “Missis Marks.” “That’s what a properly raised gentleman should call a lady,” she commanded.That, and her German accent, awed me. 1996 was my fourth year living in the US, yet I still did not know how to behave properly in the American way, especially not in front of a silver-haired lady in her 70s who lived in a house frozen in theBeijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-69182519083991163932008-11-23T22:08:00.002+08:002008-11-23T22:29:26.864+08:00NakedI haven't been blogging much because I recently started a new job. And some other things in life... But mostly, because colleagues at my new job, being American and adept at googling, found out about my blog, and hence, my past.They didn't mind my past, just as my previous Chinese employer. But they do read English, so they know some periphery of my thoughts by reading through my blog.So I feelBeijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-43044399573747453192008-08-26T20:24:00.005+08:002008-08-29T19:15:24.314+08:00The Sophistication of ArtTo show off my urbane sophistication, I took my parents and my 10-year old niece to 798, a post-modern (or modern?) art district transformed from a decommissioned military factory compound.The three diligently studied the art work in gallery after gallery--a true miracle for my mother who spends all her time cleaning.She points at a huge oil portrait, hanging on the wall, of a steely and Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-81191424676161076542008-08-18T21:40:00.012+08:002008-08-19T01:10:13.128+08:00Beautiful Games The Games, are a beautiful thing. The audience cheered for a forceful US strike on the beach sand transported from Hainan, for the Slovenian who won the first-ever track-and-field gold for his country, and for the Russian woman who broke the world-record in 5000-meter steeplechase.The jumpers led the crowd to clap for him before he set off. The audience ahh'ed when he failed.Then there's the Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-68806551193979358502008-08-11T22:32:00.002+08:002008-08-11T22:57:49.490+08:00To Villainize, or notOne day after I hoped that China not be villainized more than John Edwards, I found out a friend was taken away to make the Olympics more peaceful and harmonious.It's a tricky business to love this place. For there are always many reasons not to.Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-52958858474907374532008-08-10T20:09:00.004+08:002008-08-11T00:37:58.300+08:00John Edwards the VillainThis morning an American friend called from San Francisco. We hadn't talked for a while so we chit-chatted about his job pushing ethnic studies in 9th grade, Obama, and the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. He is a school teacher and a big-time Sinophile, having spent a year learning Chinese in Beijing and coming back almost every year during summer break. Invariably, our conversation Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-69715063256553409992008-08-08T00:29:00.003+08:002008-08-08T01:23:06.821+08:00My Mother is in Town for the GamesMy parents arrived in town yesterday for the games. As soon as she put down her luggage, my mother started dusting, cleaning, laundering and having my dad hang a string in the kitchen to line dry the laundry. And she complained about her knee, about my niece being too loud, and about me not making enough money. The same old mother despite my many tete-a-tete regarding the importance of Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-73594892248736359082008-07-15T22:39:00.005+08:002008-07-16T00:11:30.075+08:00Muddy water and live fishWhen I worked as a product manager in Silicon Valley, the business rationale ran something like this--let's find an unmet need, figure out an innovative way to satisfy that need, and voila, we'll make a lot of money in the process.Now more than 4 years back in China, I'm still struggling with the Chinese business rationale--let's find something to sell, pile on tons of superlatives and expert Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-67627149449238418182008-06-15T22:21:00.008+08:002008-06-15T23:33:26.043+08:00The Residents are AngryFor days, residents chatted excitedly among themselves in the apartment complex where I'm staying, while cops watched wearily from their patrol cars just outside the gate. The compound is perhaps the most expensive in the neighborhood, beautifully landscaped with lush plants and flowers and with a tiny muddy river running through it.The agitation came from the river--the government wants to Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-3762694847118094462008-06-10T23:38:00.002+08:002008-06-11T00:34:07.978+08:00Christian AsylumAt one of my previous companies in Beijing, we sent one of the young colleagues to the US for training on a business visa. It took us quite some effort to get the visa for her. After she came back from that training, she worked for us for a few more months and then quit and used the same visa--not expired yet by then-- to go back to America.She taught Chinese at some community center on the Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-37637116659004783602008-05-26T23:44:00.004+08:002008-05-27T09:50:33.429+08:00The Confused FilmmakerOn Sunday I went to visit a filmmaker friend whom I hadn’t seen since my long leave of absence in 2006. Unsurprisingly he dropped many curious questions about my absence. Our conversation then stayed on politics. I mentioned the recent sentences of several dissidents, including Hu Jia. He said, “Don’t you think Hu Jia is a little too much? I watched his documentary online. He was…Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-53441555575350554392008-05-12T23:27:00.002+08:002008-05-13T00:17:40.604+08:00The AftershockThe tremor hit this afternoon at 2:30pm. The floor began to undulate under my feet. Then people started to yell one by one--"It's an earthquake!"Few ran. We were working on the 24th floor in an office tower in Hangzhou. Perhaps others were as scared as I was, but there's no time to get down to the ground floor anyway. Despite my nausea from the unsteady floor, I also had the vague confidence Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13860998.post-38871170368726821632008-04-23T23:45:00.003+08:002008-05-08T18:13:52.655+08:00Gay Marriage, China Style (II) Sunday afternoon I came home and found Jim lying over our living room sofa, his head dropping almost to the floor, his eyes blank. I guessed right immediately that he’d just had another big fallout with his budding celebrity boyfriend. Once again befitting the temper of a prima donna, the boyfriend destroyed his fancy mobile phone. Only this time he hammered it to pieces, and in a continuing Beijing Loaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245736986357689046noreply@blogger.com5