Passion Blog: China Weekly!

This will be the last post on this blog. From September 21, 2012, to today, April 22, 2013, I have written passion blogs for two semesters. For 24 weeks, I have blogged about my home country China for 24 posts consistently with a variety of subtopics introducing you to different aspects of China: my connections, the food, the traditions, the cities and attractions, and the issues.

The early blogs from the first semester are more about introducing the culture and the values Chinese hold, as a background to more profound discussions on the rest half of the blogs this semester. These blogs touched many real-time issues in China, with my understanding and personal stands.

There are more criticisms than praise about China, but this doesn’t mean it is not a great country! The new nation, surviving from the WWII following the civil war, is only sixty some years old. With a single party leader, we also suffered many hardships in the beginning, but everything is getting much, much better than before. We are truly one of the fast-growing countries in the world: blooming cities, businesses, factories; vast economy, military power, international status and so on—all you can hear about from news media, either truth or bragged, without me. However, as a Chinese, I do care more on the sides that needed to be developed and improved more by China. Focusing too much on what we have already accomplished will blind our eyes, and slow down the progress.

I hope these blogs can lead you hear the inner the voices of China, and gain insights from the perspective of a Chinese, who wishes her homeland a greater future by tackling more issues. In addition, to my future readers, I hope these blogs serve as means for you to know more about my personal side, my thoughts,  and my stands on issues.

I would like to thank Nikki especially for keep following and commenting on my blogs. Your level of understanding evaluates the success of my blog! For you, this post will be the end of this long journey; but for my future readers, this is also the first post you will see when opening this site! It will be the start of your new journey in my wonderland.

Every end is another beginning.

Besides the two identified victims who were killed in the bombing, News from Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in New York reported that, the third death in Boston Marathon Bombing is a Chinese national. According to Boston University’s announcement, the victim was a Boston University graduate student with two friends at the scene watching the race. One of the two friends was also injured. More details revealed from pieces of information I found from my Chinese twitter site that the three were girls and the one killed was major in Statistics.  One girl who was injured waked up from the unconscious state, and the first thing she asked was to find her friend…who had passed away.

Pray for all the victims and R.I.P. to all the three who were killed.

It is so heartbreaking to see such terror happened, especially in a sports event which always symbols peace. Just like our THON, many participants in the marathon ran for cure, for charity, for peace and honor. My heart and all of my friends’ hearts go out to the victims of this tragedy.

Although we are not American, and we have only lived in this land for only a few years or less, we are also attached to this nation. Last night (Monday), the night of this tragedy, many Chinese students were praying for the victims and those who live in Boston tried to offer help wherever needed. Because we are attached to where we live, and we wish peace for wherever we go.

Back in China, many also watched the event closely and some also applauded about the transparency and swift action after the explosion. One of the comments from social media site Weibo received over 60,000 reposts was also quoted by the Washington Post:

“Three hours after the Boston bombing, news websites and TV channels are streaming live news – there is no ban on news reporting. Local police held a press conference immediately – quick reaction plus transparent information and thus there is no rumor or panic. Google released Person Finder; the public offered help for those runners who are from outside of Boston or the country; thousands of people left their contact information. In the face of a severe situation, the government, the media, companies and individuals all work together smoothly. It’s something we ought to learn.”

It is something the Chinese government and the press need to learn. How can we act contingently in similar situations, and what messages should we give to our people, hide or tell?  On the other hand, the tragedy again brings Americans together, to re-examine the national security system. But I just want to mention a little that, I hope many Americans do be hostile to the non-Americans in this nation, especially to the middle-easterners after I read many comments under the news sites…

Last week On Apr. 4, we had another festival in China—the Ching Ming Day

            It is hard to guess what the Ching Ming Day is because there is no word in English that translates these two Chinese characteristics. But to make it easy, it is like the Memorial Day here. The difference is that the Ching Ming Day is for families to visit graves of their ancestries and relatives in cemeteries, regardless whether they had served in the military or not.

Here’s my typical Qing Ming celebration scenario:

Since we have three days off, my parents will take me to visit my grandparents. The day before, I will help my grandmother to make a kind of food called green rice cakes. They are made with sticky rice flour with green food color extracted from a species of grass. We usually make 40 to 50 of these rice cakes because they will be the only food we can have tomorrow. This comes from the tradition of only having cold food during the Ching Ming Day. My grandmother will also make some Chinese buns with pork and several whole Chickens and put them in a basket. Want to know why? Keep reading.

They have the taste of grass…which is not too bad..but still..

On the actual day, my family will get up very early and start to walk to a cemetery on a hill at where my family’s gravestones are. We call this Ta-Qing, which means “stepping on the grass,” or the first walk to experience spring. We have the rice cakes on the way, and my grandmother will keep the basket with chickens away from me, because they are not for people alive.

After arriving at the cemetery, we stop at my great-great grandfather’s gravestone. My grandpa will clean the grave, and burn new incenses in a censer that was there for years. Grandma puts all the buns and chickens in front of the grave, and sprays some rice wine on the ground, as if it is drunk by the souls. We knee to the gravestone one by one. At last grandpa will burn a mail bag with mock money so the souls will have money to spend wherever they are at, in the heaven or underworld…

When we get back home later in the afternoon, we take the family tree book out and grandparents will tell me stories of those names on the book over and over, so I can tell the stories to my kids and grandkids.

The oldest grave is my great-great grandfather’s at the cemetery we visit, because the ancestors have moved hundred years ago. The grave of the top name from the family tree was lost for many generations. But even though I am outside of China, and I don’t know where I will die in the future, in my will, I will ask my children to take my ash back to the cemetery, bury under a new grave, with all my family around.

The problem about poultry in China is getting worse. First it was the death of thousands pigs floating on river, then dead ducks, and now…a new type of bird flu that causes people’s death in only a few days.

Early on March 10, news reported spots of dead pigs floating on Huangpu River in Shanghai. Soon after, according to Huffington Post, the number of dead pigs retrieved from the river reached to 12,566 on March 16. Although authority from China’s Agriculture Ministry claimed that no major swan epidemic was found, such great number of deaths still worried Shanghai residents, who are dependent on water from the river. Other residents from surrounding areas were also very concerned about the quality of pork.

“Good” news is that according to Huffington Post, “Villagers have told state media that pig dumping is on the rise following police campaigns against the illicit trade of pork products harvested from diseased pigs that were illegally sold, instead of properly disposed of.” Maybe I should feel lucky since the pig farmers at least did not sell all these dead pigs to the market…But wait, what happened to pigs that died but did not take a trip on the river in previous years?

On March 29, ABC news reported hundreds to thousands of dead ducks floating on a river in Sichuan Province. Again officials said no major epidemic was found.

However, since the discovery of new bird flu H7N9 a few days ago, nine cases have been found in Shanghai, and other two provinces close to Shanghai. Three of them have passed away. According to report from Daily Mail and abc.com, the bird flu has a possibility of mutated and now has the ability to spread to domestic animals like pigs. And virus can evidently move through poultry without making them sick, according to experts. If the bird flu spreads to ducks, and since ducks and pigs are often raised together in China, it is easily for pigs to get the flu.

Although officials said scientists have examined all carcasses of dead pigs from Huangpu River and found no evidence of this new virus, many people including me are worried about the relationship between these events. I can only hope water in Shanghai is not contaminated by the pigs; pork in the market is not from any sick pigs, and the H7N9 flu can be soon taken under control.

Most of my relatives live in Jiangsu and some in Shanghai. They are all in the areas where these events took place. But helpless I am, I can only hope they will be healthy and safe. Fortunately this time, I can praise the Chinese officials that they did not try to cover up this emergent situation as they always do before.

The World of Counterfeit Cell Phones

            China is “well-known” for making counterfeit products. One of the biggest product lines is making counterfeit cell phones, especially IPhones. Just like in the United States, IPhone has become a sign of modern life in China. It is one of the must-haves of the rich.

According to news site enet.com.cn, last year at Jan 13, when IPhone 4S was first released in China, all of the Apple stores were crowed with almost a thousand customers.

The popularity of IPhones, on the other hand, also pushed the market of counterfeit cell phones forward in China. The price of an IPhone is about 600 dollars, which is about 5,000 Chinese Yuan.  Consider the average monthly income of a Chinese is about 2,000 Yuan (from Chinese National Bureau of Statistics), an IPhone is still very expensive and unaffordable to most of the Chinese. But they still love the cool exterior design of IPhone and wish to get one similar to an IPhone in a much lower price, so they can also be a modern person. As a result, the counterfeit phone market in China is flourishing.

A simple and direct search for “counterfeit cell phone” on Chinese biggest e-shopping site taobao shows me more than 100 pages of results. The price of a counterfeit phone can be as low as about 100 Chinese Yuan (20 dollars).

The looks of these phones are so real that if you don’t examine closely, you won’t find out that they are counterfeit, even with a system similar to IOS.

Aren’t they real?

Oh yeah, even with a pen!

Also, some funny looking phones appear. This counterfeit cell phone has a similar look to IPhone but is with an Android sign and system inside. It also has three changeable batteries and is compatible to different carrier companies in China, and in United States. Wow! Not too bad…maybe cooler than IPhone? I don’t know.

According to www.askci.com, the market of all kinds of counterfeit phones in China reached its peak in 2011 for a sales total of two billion phones! Since then the sales have decreased. Only the sales of counterfeit IPhones are still increasing as the real IPhones dominating the cell phone market.

Market exists because there is a need. The counterfeit IPhone market exists because people in China cannot afford such an expensive product, but they still have a wish of being considered as modern and “rich”. They want to be comparable to the real rich Chinese. When their low income and low living standard could not provide them with a comparable element, a cheap but very similar IPhone will at least give them the psychological consolation that they are also “rich.”

The price disparity between the counterfeit IPhones and the real IPhones reflects the disparity of income and living standard in China.

On March 1, a new policy issued by local government in Hong Kong became effective: Allowing people leaving Hong Kong with no more than two cans of baby formula. And people who violate the policy will get a fine as well as two years of jail time at most.

According to Los Angeles Times, 45 were arrested on March 1, the first day of the policy, including 26 Hong Kong residents, 18 mainland Chinese, and one foreigner.

People from mainland China (excluding Hong Kong and Macaw) were stunned by the news: wait; there is a restriction to prevent Chinese from buying baby formula from Hong Kong? Then where should I go to get imported baby formula for my baby?

First, you may wonder why the policy is issued. Although Hong Kong now is officially part of China, it still has many privileges left when the Great Britain gave its sovereignty to China in 1997, such as its own passport, and duty-free imported goods. Because Hong Kong has fewer restrictions than any other cities in China, it has access to a variety of imported baby formula (“imported” means “better” in China) also in a cheaper price. As a result, people from mainland China all want to buy baby formula from Hong Kong. Some small firms also caught this point; they will buy a large amount of baby formula from Hong Kong and then sell them in China.

The Hong Kong residents are unhappy about this situation. Because of the high demand, the market is always short in formula and Hong Kong babies are short in formula now. As a result the restriction policy came out. However, is the policy reasonable to protect the market in Hong Kong? There is already a high discrepancy between living standard in Hong Kong and in other places in China; the new policy creates even more that only Hong Kong has access to imported baby formula, and the other Chinese have to suck it up and buy Chinese brand.

Mom with her poor sick baby

Wait, now you probably wonder, can’t the Chinese just buy Chinese brand baby formula? Well, here is the situation: couple years ago, SanLu, one of the biggest dairy brands in China had produced baby formula which contained fake protein elements and thus poisoned hundreds babies with kidney stones and enlarged heads. The huge scandal revealed how untrustworthy Chinese baby formulas were, and since then, no parent would risk their baby’s life on these products.

Has the quality of Chinese formula changed? Most consumers don’t know, and do not dare to try. As a result, more parents are now depended on imported formula from Hong Kong, the only access to many foreign brands, since the mainland China only imports few brands of formula.

But now the new policy put many parents into a quagmire: What safe formula can I get for my babies? Feeding infants becomes a big problem in a country who has become the second largest economy in the world.

If you could remember several weeks ago in class, Jake told us about the news that there were people in North Korea who were eating other people. As horrible as it sounds, there is so many secrets behind the tragedy.  Because of famine, North Koreans are constantly in the state of food shortage. Since the country blocks itself from the world, it does not accept much international assistance that offers medical care and food to its people, well, except China.

Now let’s think another side of this mysterious country. Two months ago, there was the news that North Korea again lunched satellite into the universe, although later lost control of the object. A week ago, another piece of news has again stunned the entire world: the nation had carried out a nuclear testing that result an earthquake.

Did you find news from North Korea contradicting? How can a nation that could not even feed its people have the money to develop satellites and even nuclear weapons? They cost billions of dollars and the money could really be spent to construct the nation.

According to a Chinese scholar SiJing Wang, since last century, China has been offering North Korea all kinds of free aid including 3.5 million tons of purveyance, 30 million dollars (converted), and all kinds of medical aids, commodities, and construction tools. Almost 50% of North Korea’s need was fulfilled by China.

With China as a backup country, North Korea is able to have the resources to develop satellites and nuclear weapons.  And where do the technologies come from? Because both of the nations do not reveal many things to the public, we don’t know.

North Korea is the closest (I mean diplomatically) nation to China. Both nations are ruled by Communist parties and share some core communist and socialist theories, although apparently China is much more open to the world. Just like the United States considers North Korea a potential threat, so does North Korea and China think U.S. is.

In China’s position, it really wants a close companion who can directly against Western countries and the U.S. And China assumes North Korea needs it so other nations will not attack it because China is at its back.

However, the situation changes. With nuclear weapon, North Korea does not need China any more. The weapon becomes an even more effective and it raises North Korea’s “position” in the world—nations have to think carefully doesn’t matter China support North Korea or not.

And China, which is very close to North Korea, will also have to face the nuclear threat. China aided North Korea so that it will follow China. But now with very strong military, North Korea doesn’t have to follow China any more, and personally, I don’t think they will lose aids from China either. Because if China stops aiding it, the “gun” will be pointed toward China.

Failed diplomacy.

http://blog.ifeng.com/article/17464212.html

http://www.cnwn.com.cn/mil/20130213_17314.html

http://www.ludongnet.com/news/junshi/2013-01-27/34766.html

This week Pope Benedict XVI decided to resign and will step down on February 28. The Chinese media also broadcast the news. Although I know China as an eastern country is not influenced by Christianity, I am still surprised that many people comment “Who is this guy?” under the news.  I would be one of them two years ago. If I did not attend a Catholic school for a year I would not know anything about Pope, or Roman Catholic, or Christianity. Is it just because we are not familiar with western religions or more than that?

Do you know me at all? 

In my last week’s post I wrote that during Lunar New Year my family will visit a Taoism temple to worship for wishes—once a year. In other instances we will also visit Buddhist temple to worship. We also learned about Confucius in textbooks. However, I want to make clear that, although a big part of the Chinese culture and values are based on Confucius. It is not a religion. Confucius is a guy two-thousand years ago who believed god but did not preach god. He was rather a great philosopher like Socrates who had great impact on ethics and culture.

A thinker

Now, let’s take Confucius aside.  Isn’t it still conflicting that my family and many other families will worship two different religions? And even more conflicting is that many of the Chinese are categorized as Atheists since my parents’ generation. Since the Communist Party take over the government in 1949, students were exposed to Atheist theories and were told that gods are not real but fairy tales. However, people are still influenced weakly by religions because they are the base of Chinese culture for hundreds years. As a result, some people became Atheists and some developed weak beliefs to more than one religion.

The pie chart by Wikipedia combined several surveys to show the demographics. You can see that 42% are Agnostics and Atheists. The percentage increases as it gets concentrated on east coast, the more developed areas in China, because people are more “educated.”

When I was asked to do surveys sometimes, I struggled when it asked my religion. For most of the time I will circle “Atheist” but I always wondered “Am I a Polytheist because I have beliefs in different religions; or am I just an agnostic since I actually know nothing deep about any of the religions?”

If you see a Chinese kid on campus sometimes you will see him/her wearing a Buddhist Jade necklace or bracelet. But if you come to ask “are you a Buddhist?” he will probably say “Nope! My parents/grandparents believe Buddhism and they wish the jade can bring me safety abroad.”

Why don’t we believe anything deeply anymore?

http://www.ibtimes.com/pope-resigns-vatican-says-pope-benedict-xvi-resign-february-28-1074934

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_China

Do you know how close it is to Chinese Lunar New Year? It is on this Sunday!!! I am going to my friend’s house to have a traditional Chinese dinner at New Year’s Eve.  But when I was still with my family in China, lunar New Year celebration is much more than that!

Just like Christmas and Lent, Lunar New Year is not just one or two days of celebration. Technically the holiday season lasts about a month—ten days before the New Year’s Day for preparation, and fifteen days after the Day until Lantern Festival. But now I am going to pick the five most important days to my family to celebrate our New Year.

Day 1: “Small” New Year’s Eve

It is two days before the New Year. My parents and I start to pack. We are going to my fraternal grandparents’ house, which is only 30 miles away from Changzhou. In China, there is a tradition that after a woman is married to a man, she becomes part of the man’s family and will follow him to visit his parents in major Chinese holidays.

We arrive at my grandparents’ house in the afternoon, and start to decorate the house. (I used to have a lot of pictures but my laptop was broken and this new one has nothing in it, so I can only show you pictures from the Internet.)

Chinese Lanterns and Couplets

Day 2: The New Year’s Eve

It is the second most important day in my seven days. When I was really little, my mom and my grandmother would get up very early to prepare the biggest dinner in the year for my family. It is a LOT of work for them. So we changed the plan from cooking to dinning out since I was ten. Many families like mine also had this change, and now the majority of Chinese living in cities will choose to go to fancy restaurants with family members on New Year’s Eve.

According to Zhongwu5.com, a local website for Changzhou residents, reservations for New Year’s Eve dinner in almost a hundred restaurants across the city are full a month before the New Year ’s Eve. In fact, half of the reservations were made the on the New Year’s Eve at last year. Do you see how popular eating out in China is? Instead of partying, dining with friends is actually the most popular and important way to hang out with family and friends!

This is my best day in the year…because you don’t even know how much delicious food I can eat. So yummy!

A typical New Year’s Eve Dinner!

Day 3: The New Year’s Day

Every kid in China will get up very early today. For what? For pocket money! It is a tradition in China that seniors will give out money in a red envelop to kids who have not married. So today I will get up at 8 a.m., run to my grandparents’ room and say the first greetings to them in the New Year…and…get my pocket money!

Then we will head to the Mao Mountain about 50 miles away to worship in a Taoism temple on top of the mountain, wishing for health and success for family members in the New Year. We will do this every year and even before we got our car. I remember the time my dad rode a motorcycle carrying me and my mom in a rainy New Year’s Day to the mountain. It is not a strong wish or prays for something from the Taoism god; it is a simple belief to wish safety and peace for the family.

The Taoism Temple.

Day 4: The 3^rd day of the New Year.

It is the day for families to visit seniors from the mother’s side. My parents and I will go to visit my maternal grandparents’ house. They live very close to us in Changzhou. We will meet my aunt’s family there and we all head to restaurant for another big meal! And of course the time to get pocket money from them! J

Day 5: The 15^th day: The Lantern Festival

The 15^th day of the New Year marks the end of the holiday season with another huge celebration—the Lantern Festival.

During the day we will eat these round rice balls which means peace and happiness in family members and wish the reunion of the next time (If you read my previous post about Mid-autumn festival you will have an idea).

The climax is at the evening. We will make these paper lanterns and let them fly into the dark sky!!! They are called KongMing Lantern because more than a thousand years ago a guy called KongMing was trapped by enemies. He invented these simple lanterns with alcohol and paper and successfully released signals for help and got out of the enemies’ place. Now we light them for a wish that some of our family members who have passed away or could not make it here can see them.

Isn’t this beautiful?

I got more and more excited when writing about my new year. However, I haven’t celebrated the holiday with my family for three years ever since I came to United States. Now I get a little emotional and really miss my grandparents and the happy time I spent with them.

Last summer I stayed in Beijing with my parents for about two months. Since I had to tutor an elementary school kid, I went out to “work” almost every day, not only suffering the hotness but also the dustiness in this big city. In sixty days, I have only seen the blue sky twice; I was so excited that I even took many pictures and posted them on my Facebook page. The other 58 days I was with dust and particulate matters in the sky which covered natural clouds and the sun.

It was last summer. It gets worse and worse now. Last few days the U.S. embassy in Beijing twitted an astonishing picture on Chinese twitter—Air Quality Index (AQI) of Beijing. AQI is an index from 0-500 for reporting air quality. The greater AQI number is, the harmful the air pollution is to health. It categorizes as the following:

0-50                 Good

51-100             Moderate

101-150           Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups

151 to 200       Unhealthy

201 to 300       Very Unhealthy

301 to 500       Hazardous

The AQI in Pennsylvania is usually from Moderate to USG. Wonder what AQI in Beijing is?

Yes. The number has gone BEYOND the scale!!!! Not just one day, but all day most of days.

How crazy is that? Because of the astonishing amount of particulate matters, it is so foggy (in deed, dusty or smoggy) in Beijing that many highways are temporarily stopped for usage and hundreds of air flights have been canceled or delayed. Nobody can see anything meters away.

I am not just sad about what is going on in Beijing; I am deeply worried, because my parents live there. They have breath the dusty air every day and become part of “human air filters”, which Beijing residents ironically call themselves as. When my mom and I skyped, she mentioned that she was coughing heavily these days and planned to go to hospital to check if she had any breathing or lung problems. I could see she tried not to cough too much when telling me because I would worry about her. I suggested her to buy a gas mask (not kidding), because regular ones don’t work.

Five years ago, when China held its first Olympic Games in Beijing, the government actually took responsibility to take care of the air problem. Many factories in Beijing had a temporary shut down before the game, and cars were allowed to be on the road every other day. Beijing was a beautiful city with blue sky that time. However, after Olympic left, air pollution came back with its revenge. Should the government consider this problem when it sets very low standards to factories to they could make goods so cheap in order to export oversees? When we have aggressive increase in GDP, do we have at least some clean area left in this nation for future generations to live?