123456

If you come to China and open a Chinese bank account, do not get your wallet stolen with you Chinese ATM card inside. This may seem obvious, but I still feel as though I should warn you.

So, as I believe I blogged earlier, I had my wallet stolen. This didn't really concern me because I didn't have that much money in my wallet, and in order to use my ATM card at all you need my pin number. And although I may be jackass, I don't carry my pin number around in my wallet. It's the screensaver on my phone. ha.

So anyway, after going through the millions of papers they gave me when I opened my account, I couldn't find any number to call and report my stolen card. So I decided to go to my bank the following day and cancel it. Once I arrived at my bank I learned that there is only one branch in all of Shanghai that can cancel and reissue a new ATM card. I should point out that when I got my ATM card they just handed it to me across the counter of my branch. It took about 5 seconds. It's not personalized or anything.

Anyway, I didn't have time to go to this one location to cancel it, so I had to wait until the next day. I arrived at the cancellation branch to learn that, for some reason, it closes for an hour in the middle of each day. Around the time I decided to arrive. So I had to go wait out the hour in a nearby park. I got to the branch and stood in an enormous line with the 3000 other people in Shanghai who have had their card stolen. I finally got to the clerk and had to fill out 5 different sets of papers all in Chinese. After going through this and having them talk me through the papers (No, you put your american address there and your Chinese address here - I don't know why they needed my American address, I didn't give it when I opened my account.) Anyway, I didn't even get my new card. I have to go back next week and fill out more paperwork.

After explaining this to my rooommate she pointed out it probably would have been easier for me to open a new account, take out all the money in my old account and put it in the new account. She's right, but I'd rather go through the pain. And if you were wondering, no money had been stolen from my account. I can continue to afford my stripper and champagne lifestyle. I knew the Chinese would never be able to figure out the pin 123456.

I spent all of yesterday in a painful haze of hangover hell. I left the house around 6 to pick up some Chinese food - the only time I find Chinese food to be appropriate. Everyone in the restaraunt and I were choking and coughing on some chemical they were using to clean the windows as I was waiting for them to finish my take-away tofu. I briefly wondered what was floating around the kitchen if this was out with customers. But for a dollar, what do you expect? I took a delivery menu as I left. I don't want to have to think about that stuff.

another glass of bubbly please...

I should not be blogging right now, because I've had a little bit of champagne tonight, but I can't help it. I got in to grad school today!!!!!!!! Yay for me! I am going to be in Melbourne, Australia next year, the most liveable city in the world (Seriously, it was actually proven it is.) I am out of this dump of a most unliveable country in the world. Although, Shanghai is the most liveable city in the most unliveable country. I think Baghdad may have scored higher than anywhere in China.

Whatever, the point is, I'm not going to be here next year. But China still managed to give me a 'fuck you' to my accomplishment. My wallet and sunglasses were stolen today. It brought me down a little, but fuck those bastards, You're still going to be in this dump next year. HA fucking HA.

Anyway, if your wallet had been stolen and you had just been accepted into graduate school, what would you do? Here's what I did. I went and saw a bunch of male Australian strippers. Fuck yeah baby. Feb can not come soon enough. It was great. I was even pulled on stage and given a lap dance. I've never had a lap dance before. It was spectacular. I totally see what guys dig in the whole experience. And I came to a conclusion, one that I think every man in the world came to many years ago. I wasn't drinking that much during the stripping, so, i think, if everyone just walked around naked all the time, I believe, that alcoholism would cease to exist. Seriously.

I should point out right now, that most of the foreigners in China aren't that good looking. In fact, I think my standards have dropped by default. Excluding myself of course. Seriously, not to say that everyone else in the world is better looking than Chinese men, because they are, I'm not being specifically racist, I'm saying every asian outside of China is better looking than they are here, but I'm being deprived here. I love strippers.

Anyway, the best part, was after the show, the strippers bought US drinks. It was incredible. They were all from Melbourne, and built like an intricately planned sculptures, in a way that no Chinese man could ever be built. It's all the dumplings. And for a moment, when I was leaving the bar, I decided I loved everything in Shanghai. Especially my stolen wallet and sunglasses. You fucking bastards.

I'm out of here.

Au - fucking - stralia baby!!!!

Guantánamo Bay For Lease

Christoph Büchel and Gianni Motti are beginning negotiations to rent Guantánamo Bay from the Cuban Government. Space – who claims it and how those claims are enforced – is central to their project.



Find out more at http://www.guantanamo-initiative.com.

In contrast with its current function, the Guantanamo Initiative proposes to transform Guantanamo Bay from a military base into a site dedicated to the promotion of culture. The artists envision the creation of a laboratory that situates culture at the center of contemporary debates. This cultural base would promote exchange and dialogue, thereby reinterpreting the existing military infrastructure.

Support their cause.

too much tImE

Sorry, I have a lot of time on my hands to surf through various websites. I came across this forum posting and found it interesting and funny. Especially the last post (well the last one I'm sharing on my site.):

Posted: Aug 19, 2005 - 04:40 AM


Post subject: What is wrong with us?

I want to share with you guys about an article written by Mr. Cam MacMurchy, a Canadian journalist working in Beijing. See the link
http://cn.news.yahoo.com/050818/1350/2egpg.html
Sorry, it is translated into Chinese. I couldn¡¯t find the English Version. Take this chance to brush your Chinese skill.

In a nutshell, he says he doesn¡¯t understand Chinese motivation or attitude towards love. Based on his experience with Chinese girls, He found out most of Chinese are so craving for love. Chinese girls want the confirmation of love only after a few dates. Most of Chinese girls he knows never talk about their boyfriends. For him, Love is a gradually evolved process. You can¡¯t find love just after a few dates.

I couldn¡¯t agree with Cam MacMurchy more. I have been thinking this question for a while. What is the problem with us, the Chinese girls? Why we so craving for love? Why we don¡¯t know how to love?

For those young Chinese women between 25 and 35, we grew up in a culture that nobody talked about love. Not only the love for relationship, also about the simple love for another human being. We didn¡¯t prepare ourselves to face the harsh reality of relationship. There was no book/nobody guide us go through the turbulence early adulthood. The only thing we were taught in high school was studying to be competitive to get into the college. The only thing we were taught in college was studying to be competitive to get a good job. After we got out of college, some Chinese people pocket started to fill of money. They started to have mistresses. Many of young girls preferred to be somebody¡¯s mistress instead of having a job. Those smart and pretty ones all hitched on Mr. Money. I had the strong desire for the material things just like everyone else, but the first job out of college only paid 800rmb, not enough to buy a decent dress. I didn¡¯t know what to do. I was trapped in a dark tunnel. I felt I need the love to get me out.

Our parents couldn¡¯t help at all. They grew up during the Chairman Mao era. The only one they were allowed to love was Mr. Chairman Mao. If you loved somebody more than Chairman Mao, you were a bad person. My mother told they had to read the little Redbook during their wedding saying that Chairman Mao was her ultimate love. I don't blame them. They screwed up more then we do.

Cam MacMurchy is right. Somehow we just want to be in the mood of feeling love even we don¡¯t know we love or not. After many years struggling, I realized that I need a power to center myself, the power is not the love from somebody else, it is the power which resides inside myself.



  Posted: Aug 19, 2005 - 10:39 AM


Maybe Chinese girls, raised under parents such as you describe, are just too intense. They need to relax, spread their wings, and enjoy the freedom that life now offers them .. instead of having one-track minds about love and marriage. The quickest way to scare off a (western) guy is too expect too much, too soon .. (commitment, that is).



  Posted: Aug 19, 2005 - 11:32 AM

I'm not Chinese, but I can see how it can be a problem. I've dated a Chinese man, and he was so surprised at how a western woman (such as myself:) Can be so expressive. I didn't get it back then why he found it so intriguing, but I'm beginning to understand.

China has come out of thousands of years of trying to build itself up. Maybe there wasn't time for Romantic Love? Perhaps now is the time:) I know you all have those romantic songs on the radio, people are yearning for love and to be loved.


  Posted: Aug 19, 2005 - 04:39 PM


half nonsense and half truth



  Posted: Aug 19, 2005 - 06:37 PM


Gradually people are evolving, like 5 years ago never saw someone hugging in public, now see it all the time so, there's hope


  Posted: Aug 19, 2005 - 11:58 PM


like apes


...and no, I didn't write that last post...

Sing a Pore

I'm cutting and pasting this entire New York Times article because it's good, and you should read it. Not just ignore some link I put up:


September 14, 2005

Singapore and Katrina
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Singapore



There is something troublingly self-indulgent and slothful about America today - something that Katrina highlighted and that people who live in countries where the laws of gravity still apply really noticed. It has rattled them - like watching a parent melt down.



That is certainly the sense I got after observing the Katrina debacle from half a world away here in Singapore - a city-state that, if it believes in anything, believes in good governance. It may roll up the sidewalks pretty early here, and it may even fine you if you spit out your gum, but if you had to choose anywhere in Asia you would want to be caught in a typhoon, it would be Singapore. Trust me, the head of Civil Defense here is not simply someone's college roommate.



Indeed, Singapore believes so strongly that you have to get the best-qualified and least-corruptible people you can into senior positions in the government, judiciary and civil service that its pays its prime minister a salary of $1.1 million a year. It pays its cabinet ministers and Supreme Court justices just under $1 million a year, and pays judges and senior civil servants handsomely down the line.



From Singapore's early years, good governance mattered because the ruling party was in a struggle for the people's hearts and minds with the Communists, who were perceived to be both noncorrupt and caring - so the state had to be the same and more.



Even after the Communists faded, Singapore maintained a tradition of good governance because as a country of only four million people with no natural resources, it had to live by its wits. It needed to run its economy and schools in a way that would extract the maximum from each citizen, which is how four million people built reserves of $100 billion.



"In the areas that are critical to our survival, like Defense, Finance and the Ministry of Home Affairs, we look for the best talent," said Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy. "You lose New Orleans, and you have 100 other cities just like it. But we're a city-state. We lose Singapore and there is nothing else. ... [So] the standards of discipline are very high. There is a very high degree of accountability in Singapore."



When a subway tunnel under construction collapsed here in April 2004 and four workers were killed, a government inquiry concluded that top executives of the contracting company should be either fined or jailed.



The discipline that the cold war imposed on America, by contrast, seems to have faded. Last year, we cut the National Science Foundation budget, while indulging absurd creationist theories in our schools and passing pork-laden energy and transportation bills in the middle of an energy crisis.



We let the families of the victims of 9/11 redesign our intelligence organizations, and our president and Congress held a midnight session about the health care of one woman, Terri Schiavo, while ignoring the health crisis of 40 million uninsured. Our economy seems to be fueled lately by either suing each other or selling each other houses. Our government launched a war in Iraq without any real plan for the morning after, and it cut taxes in the middle of that war, ensuring that future generations would get the bill.



Speaking of Katrina, Sumiko Tan, a columnist for the Sunday edition of The Straits Times in Singapore, wrote: "We were shocked at what we saw. Death and destruction from natural disaster is par for the course. But the pictures of dead people left uncollected on the streets, armed looters ransacking shops, survivors desperate to be rescued, racial divisions - these were truly out of sync with what we'd imagined the land of the free to be, even if we had encountered homelessness and violence on visits there. ... If America becomes so unglued when bad things happen in its own backyard, how can it fulfill its role as leader of the world?"



Janadas Devan, a Straits Times columnist, tried to explain to his Asian readers how the U.S. is changing. "Today's conservatives," he wrote, "differ in one crucial aspect from yesterday's conservatives: the latter believed in small government, but believed, too, that a country ought to pay for all the government that it needed.



"The former believe in no government, and therefore conclude that there is no need for a country to pay for even the government that it does have. ... [But] it is not only government that doesn't show up when government is starved of resources and leached of all its meaning. Community doesn't show up either, sacrifice doesn't show up, pulling together doesn't show up, 'we're all in this together' doesn't show up."

围观

So I have a Chinese tutor that comes by a couple times a week and attempts to teach me this God forsaken language. The book I'm studying from is translated to Speak Mandarin, Talk About Culture. I don't know why I've chosen this book to study from. I find Chinese culture a painful topic. Especially in Mandarin.

Anyway, a couple weeks ago we were reading about 管闲事 (guan xian shi) and 围观 (wei guan). 管闲事 translates as 'mind other's business' or 'make everyone's business one's own'. 围观 is to 'surround and watch' or 'encircle'. These are both common activities in China. At first I thought it was just because I was a foreigner that people always surrounded me when I bought food, for instance. However, a number of events have happened that have enlightened me to the fact that the Chinese butt in to every situation. Except maybe some of the important ones.

The other day I was on my bus going to work. I ride the double decker bus. Anyway, a bus in front of us pulled away from the stop and a car behind it ran into it. This was on one of the most crowded streets in Shanghai. The bus was pulled across the two lanes, with only a little space on the right to pull through. Both the bus driver and the car driver got out of their vehicles and started yelling at each other. Between my bus and the bus that had been hit was one other regular decker bus and about three other cars. A huge crowd gathered in the middle of the street to watch the fight between the bus driver and the car driver. Eventually a couple of cops arrived at the scene. The entire time the bus in front of mine was trying it's best to squeeze by the little space allowed on the right side of stopped bus. After about ten minutes it succeeded. The three cars behind that bus followed it. Other cars started to pull around my bus and get by. My bus couldn't squeeze through the space on the right of the street because the branches from the trees surrounding the street hang too low, and if attempted, my fellow passengers and I on the second floor of the bus would be taken out by the trees. So my bus pulled across the road to the left near a large stream of oncoming traffic. Of course, it couldn't pass on the left b/c of the large stream of oncoming traffic. So it just ended up blocking traffic on my side of the road further. We sat like that for another 5 minutes or so with people screaming and honking horns and 100 people in my bus pressed up against the windows watching the scene until a police officer realized what was going on and had the bus that had been hit move. I wasn't too late for work.

This weekend I was walking down the street when a guy in front of me grabbed his girlfriend by the hair and threw her into a street advertisement where the characters for "Creating a More Civilized City Area" were written. People kind of slowed down to watch. She put up a fight for a bit and then became submissive. Not even the police officers standing by watching did anything.

Last night I watched a German film called "Stroszek". It's about a man who is released from prison and comes to the US with his girlfriend to start a new life in Wisconsin. They confiscate his pet bird at customs. His mobile home is sold in auction when he can't pay for it. His girlfriend begins prostituting herself to truck drivers and eventually runs off with a couple of them to Vancouver. He steels a tow truck and holds up a convenience store for only $32 and a frozen turkey. He ends up in an amusement area that has a dancing chicken, a rabbit that drives a toy fire engine, and a rooster that plays the piano. He rides the ski lift around once and then shoots himself at the realization of what has become of his American dream. I don't think I've ever been so homesick before.

bill gates is a loser

Stupid microsoft. Did you really think you could work with China?


He testified that one of the lowest moments of his career with Microsoft was a conversation in which Gates yelled at him and said the company had been "f-----" by the Chinese people and its government.

I wake up and say the same thing every morning.

Josh in China

My photo's from when my friend Josh was here are up. You can check out the highlights from my flickr badge, or else visit his webpage for the full set.

Here are a couple of my faves:

Tibet Freedom

Smiling faces were everywhere as people celebrated the 40th birthday of the Tibet Autonomous Region

I saw this on TV. They did look kind of happy. Maybe the Beastie Boys and the Tibet Freedom Concert have it all wrong...

In other news, I actually did end up leaving the house this weekend. It didn't take much. Just a bar invite. In case you were worried...

Also, news on how China is handling their "hurricane". It looks a little better than the other super power.

服饰与美容

It came to my attention the other day, that I have failed to mention the most important development in China this millennium - the release of Vogue China. Finally I can rip out pages from a quality magazine for my tailor to copy, rather than that crap Cosmopolitan and Elle that I've been using. You can imagine my shock and disgust when I realized I was grasping the hands of the Chinese representative and jumping up and down yelling "Vogue's in China! Vogue's in China!" at it's premier in the Jingan mall - where nothing is sold for less than 1000 USD. What an event. This happened about a month ago.

This brings me to the next groundbreaking event in China - a release of an "American Idol"-like TV show called "Super Girl". Guy's aren't invited to participate. I actually haven't been watching because Chinese music makes me sick. The number one hit here - that's been around since I arrived here in January - haunts my dreams. It's everywhere. I don't even know the words. I can sing it, but I have no idea what I'm saying, and I've seen the characters, which all seem too complex for me to look up. I think they're something along the lines of 'you lied and betrayed me but I still love you.' It doesn't matter, it's total crap. If they really wanted to fuck up the inmates at Guantanamo, they'd play that non-stop instead of the theme to Sesame Street. It's more or less played non-stop here and I'm barely holding on to my sanity.

Anyway, I think they announced the winner of "Super Girl". It was a tough competition full of scandal. Apparently there were rumors going around that the winner was a lesbian because she never wore skirts and had a short haircut and people said she had a wife. Well whatever, she emerged victorious. And life goes on.

No, I haven't forgotten about the terrible hurricane. In fact, last night I was at my friend's apartment, which is much nicer than mine, so he has access to BBC news and CNN. CNN was crap as always, but BBC was doing good coverage. Likening the situation to that of the tsunami although less organized and more pathetic. "The richest nation in the world thrown into horrific, third-world standards because the money that could have been used to prevent this problem was diverted to a useless, fake war instead." At least the rest of the world holds the US with some respect. It actually was a bit embarrassing for me to watch how terrible the situation is being handled since I was the only American in the room. So I mostly just ended up shouting profanities at bushie all night.

I'm currently debating whether I should leave my house for the next couple days. I have to go to work at some point on Monday, but I may just have some food and alcohol delivered to my apartment and call it a weekend. I'm in that state of mind right now. I've got my vogue, about 1000 pirated dvds to choose from, and internet connection. I should be okay.

LA goes blue?

"Tensions over funding for the New Orleans levees emerged more than a year ago when a local official asserted money had been diverted to pay for the Iraq war."

So, now that he's lied to us, fucked up our economy, killed literally tens of thousands of civilians around the globe (including those in his own country), and drowned an entire city, will we impeach him?

No, of course not. We'll probably change the constitution so he can stay in another 4 years.

And all Clinton did was get a little lovin'.

We have only ourselves to blame.

the associated press

Links to photo 1, photo 2

sue america

I have to say, I am saddened by the amount of death that has occurred this week. Thousands dead due to a hurricane. Another thousand dead due to a stampede. It's all very traumatic.

I have to admit, I don't like seeing bad things happen to America. Although I realize the bubble of safety that I learned engulfs America when I was young doesn't actually exist, it's still kind of sad to see it actually penetrated. To someone who grew up watching the horrors of the rest of the world safely on TV from her suburban home, it seems a bit backwards to now be sitting in the People's Republic of China and looking at pictures of weeping wives next to their recently deceased husbands on a river bank in America. I've been saying this is going to be the case for the past ten years, but I never actually believed my words. If you get me on a rant about the state of the world, I always go off on the perceived safety of America, and how it's on a downward spiral, and we'll all be aware of this in ten years.

But it's a terrible thing that happened to New Orleans. I had a great time when I was there. Full of the best kind of sin. I can't believe the entire city is now underwater. Though with ancient levees and PBS programs predicting this, it really shouldn't be that unbelievable.

In Asia news, I think another Typhoon is headed our way. Fortunately I think Taiwan is going to take the brunt for the mainland. So Shanghai should be okay. Just a little more wind and rain for us.

I read an article today that a Chinese man is suing Deloitte Touche in China for treating Taiwan and China as separate countries on their website. He claims it has caused him years of mental anguish and shame as a Chinese citizen. Most lawmakers think the lawsuit will fall through.

When we heard about the stampede in China, it was like one of our worst China fears coming true. Everyone's waiting for something to spark mass chaos and copious amounts of death and destruction.

There is a flag raising in Tiananmen Square every morning. When I lived in Beijing four years ago, I went to the National Day ceremonies there. It was so crowded that I was actually lifted off my feet by the crowd. Through a series of pushing and screaming, my friends and I managed to get to the front of the crowd. There was a row of guards holding us back, making sure nobody got too close to the ceremony. I asked the guard if he liked his job. He said nothing.