Good-bye Beijing! Your heavy plastic blinds that block doorways will always remind me of ice meat storage houses. But I know you can't help it: your windy and cold weather in winter and your sweltering heat and dust storms in warmer seasons might be a bit much to bear sometimes.
Language and Identity
So I have failed miserably in trying to blend in with the the rest of the 1.3 billions Chinese in this v. vast country most of the time. That being eveybody thinks I'm Korean. Darn! My undercover sister plan has been foiled. At first it was amusing, but after hearing "You're not Canadian! You look like you're Korean!" for the 342nd time, I just want to parade around the streets of Beijing with a gigantic sandwich board that reads "I am not Korean. Am Chinese-Canadian" in Hanyu.
What about my Hanyu? I think it'll take me a lifetime to master and speak Mandarin fluently and be able to use the language with its authenic nuances. Yesterday, while riding on the bus with a couple friends and chatting to them in Hanyu, this boy around 10 years old who sat diagonal in front of me turned towards his father and said "She doesn't speak well." Well! That just proves my three months language training here simply ended with an ego deflation by a little kid in a mere second. At that time, my American friend turned to him and asked if he knew English, but he just ignored her. I refused to stoop to his level to argue in my "doesn't speak well" Hanyu as I wept bitterly within.
Views
Censorship and corruption is not as prevalent as the media portrays China to be. Elliot, in reply to your question, the Internet is not as restrictive as you may think. I did try the search on Google with "democracy and China" and I was able to access pages. The media definitely paints a skewed image of this country as all you communications students should already know. I know the government is not the best compared to our first world one and horrendous things like the Tiananmen incident happen, but look what the government south of the 49 is doing.
The image of the Chinese as being weasely conniving people who cannot be trusted is not entirely true either. (although I can testify that it does exist after bargaining experiences and taxi competitions at the airport). The friends I've met here are super nice. They have huge hearts, are very giving and love cultural exchange.
Sight-seeing in the Cold
I wanted to check out the open antique market here. But poor weather has a certain effect on me that I can't quite put a finger too. To all of you who experienced the Bonhomme Festival in Quebec city, you will know what I mean. There was so much to see: antiques and trinkets regardless of how poorly, fake and factory made they were at times. But you can't even move your mouth and cheeks at you move from small stall to small stall. I think that visiting any place in the summer is best (except for over hot tropical places, like Indonesia that experiences cold temperatures of only 20-25 degrees, I've been told).
Christmas!?!
Crikey! It is that time of the year already? I do miss baking Christmas stuff and having all the yummy cookies-dessert foods. I hear you guys describing the new lines of Christmas merchandise and goods on the market and I can just imagine Vancouver now: Christmas lights, gaudy ads and cheesy music hitting up all the shopping areas in town.
I completely forgot about this festive season (I like to think about it on Dec 24/25, please) until I went past a supermarket and saw a lone Christmas tree. You see, although North America has taken advantage of the comsuer blitz of family gifts and holiday fever early, this phenomenon in China in comparison, is few and far between. It's terrible that there are more restrictions on religion in China, but the absense of the super-hyper frenzied consumer oriented holiday makes me free! They've not yet caught on entirely here in Beijing but I will find out the exact details about China as a whole in Shanghai. I suspect the consumer frenzied level will be a bit higher there. And of couse Hong Kong will be at its ultimate high as always.
Zai jian, Beijing
Will be heading off to Shanghai tomorrow and then to Hong Kong. And then? Who knows, hopefully I will not run out of funds by that time. Hong Kong will definitely be ruthless to my wallet. Am planning not to return to Beijing on this trip in China. However, will continue to send updates.
