Shanghai (上海）

Welcome to SHANGHAI!  shanghai was definitely not my favorite city in china, but it was pretty dang beautiful. i'm going to see what i can do about adding some pictures here.

MUD CAVES!

I never actually showed a picture of us soaked in mud in the mud caves.  Here you go!

Taiwan

i lived in taiwan for two years, so it's one of my favorite subjects.  any book you read on how to be polite or how to do business in china will tell you to avoid talking about taiwan.  never, never, never.  i'll echo that opinion with business, but if you'd really like an insight to the way chinese people think, start talking about sensitive issues like taiwan.  every time i've mentioned taiwan (to close friends, teachers, strangers), i immediately get the party line:  taiwan is part of china and has always been.  and if you ask for proof that taiwan and china are inseparably linked as a nation, they say chinese.  the chinese language is the reason taiwan is china.  history lesson:  taiwan has long been the trophy handed to the latest victor of the spoils.  the chinese, the dutch, and the japanese have all laid claim on the island in the past two hundred years alone.  the original inhabitants of the island, having arrived several thousands of years ago, were of malay and polynesian ancestry.  the han chinese didn't actually begin to populate the island until about 1200 AD.  the portuguese saw the island in the sixteenth century and began to call it formosa, or the island beautiful, but it wasn't until the dutch began to colonize the island in 1624 that there was a significant european presence.  not too long after this, the fujian military and navy kicked the dutch out and the island came under the rule of the qing dynasty, eventually becoming its own province with taibei as its capitol.  at the end of the nineteenth century, the japanese successfully invaded and quelled resistance.  japan controlled the island until the end of the war in 1945.  the kuomintang that controlled china at the time then controlled taiwan until 1949 when the communist party finally vanquished the KMT and the nationalist leaders lead by jiang jie shi (or chiang kai-shek, as he's know to ignorant westerners) fled to taiwan to "regroup", as he called it.  they never left, and taiwan has effectively had its own economy, military, trade, treaties, legislature, law, political parties, language, and traditions since.  as far as i can reason it, taiwan hadn't been china's since 1895, and (because we know that jiang jie shi was preparing for a retreat to taiwan for many years before the actual event in 1949) the 1945 to 1949 legitimate rule by the KMT only prepared the island for yet another invasion (this time by the nationalist military).  china calls taiwan a province, and the chinese people insist (very heartily) that taiwan is part of china and eventually china will "jiekai" or free and release taiwan from its present situation.  the taiwanese that i know, on the other hand, seem satisfied with the status quo (afraid to provoke china to war with claims of independence, but having independence in practice) but do not consider themselves chinese.  many will actually correct you if you call them zhongguo ren.  interesting, no?

Pictionary in Reverse, AKA this is our writing class

we have a three hour long writing class.  it's tomorrow.  i'm not stoked.  it gets boring enough that sometimes professor ying has to come up with pretty interesting activities to keep us awake.  two weeks ago, we played a reverse version of pictionary where the guys (no girls in our class) described the perfect living room and i had to draw it on the board.  here's the result: two of the three amigos (kris and marc, i think) sit on the couch with an obviously underaged and very unhappy chinese girl.  they're grinning ear to ear.  the couch is purple with polka dots, and beside it sits a mini fridge, opened, so you can see the many bottles of "coke?".  the air conditioner, in a not-so obscure reference to our actually air conditioner in our apartment, drips copiously onto the couch. working from left to right, you'll notice a MATRIX poster in the background: a stick-figure keanu reeves dodging bullets. on the table in the middle sit three cds, three bowls of rice with meat (a taiwanese dish we all miss...paigu fan), a tv remote, and a dancing clown.  yes. a dancing clown in a purple get-up with purple and yellow polka dots, white gloves, painted face, and wacky hair.  lighting the room overhead is a fantastically sketched disco ball, which reflects off the massive flat screen tv (which is playing a barney rerun).  right in front of the tv rests a DDR dance pad for those late night parties.  meanwhile, dave looks in from the door and is aghast.  :)

Basketball Reinvented

it was late. steph and i decided to wander into the arcade at the top of deji plaza, trade a couple bucks in for a bunch of coins, and take on the reigning champion of the basketball toss.  in a completely worthy attempt to establish ourselves as the top of the social ladder among overly-bored and slightly less socially adept teenagers, we found the basketball hoop with the lowest high score and decided to own it.  after three tries, a good break and a turn with "too spicy" (the coolest shooting game ever), and two more tries, we destroyed the record.  and here's the proof:

Reflections on China

this picture was taken from the northeast corner of an intersection about ten to fifteen minutes walking distance from my apartment.  to the left and behind the camera is the super-posh deji plaza, and behind me in the distance is the xin jie kou shopping district.  i can't count the number of times i've been to this spot (the subway exit is right behind the fountain) and i figured i ought to take a picture and remember it.  it really is one of the prettier places in nanjing at night.  mind you, after eleven o'clock, all the lights go off and the whole city goes to sleep.  definitely not the city for night life if that's what you're looking for.  

Power Issues

there's a reason i haven't been posting as often as i used to.  my power cord died.  and by that, i mean i accidentally broke my power cord and i now hate myself for it.  turns out trying to buy replacement parts for four year-old apple notebooks in china is kind of like trying to buy dr. pepper: you can't do it.  i've tried both, frantically, and neither has been a success.  apologies.  however, since i've managed to steal a classmate's computer for a few minutes, i'll make a legit post.

开裆裤－Baby Chaps

so mom requested a picture of Baby Chaps to make my post on the subject more complete.  as you would imagine, however, it's slightly awkward to wander around Nanjing with your camera, taking pictures every time you see a child with its genitals sticking out!  so i figured i'd go to google images, type in 开裆裤, and take a decent picture from the web to post on the blog.  for future reference, don't ever do an image search for 开裆裤 (literal translation: Open-crotch Pants).  google filtering doesn't work so well in chinese.  anyway, what was done was done, so i picked the only picture on the page that was what i was actually looking for and downloaded it for your viewing pleasure.  ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to introduce "Kai Dang Ku"!