Mar 21, 2014

Chinglish - Price Lie

Friday, March 21, 2014
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Like most foreigners living in China, I'm often amused at the strange English translations of things on public signs. On my way to the gym this morning, I noticed one of the best Chinglish examples I've encountered.



If there was ever a reward for honesty in lying, the creator of this sign should get it. I'm not exactly sure what the store is selling and couldn't see since it's located on the second floor of the building and nothing but the sign is visible from the ground (I was too lazy to walk up and look). However, any store that lies about it's prices and is honest enough to inform you about it in advance deserves respect so I encourage anyone to go there and buy whatever they're selling at whatever prices they're actually charging.


Obviously, the sign should say "price list" which seems to be what the Chinese characters say - price is 价 (jià) and list is 表 (biǎo). But price lie is much more amusing.

Mar 20, 2014

Tibetan Yogurt in Xiamen

Thursday, March 20, 2014
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Since my recent post about pizza in China seemed to be relatively popular, I decided to continue with an informal review of another China culinary experience. One of the things that's difficult to find in China is decent yogurt. There's plenty of Chinese yogurt, but unlike the Western variety, it tends to be watery stuff that you drink from a small bag or bottle. In addition to not being very good, it's also relatively expensive (a bit higher than what you'd pay in the USA for better quality). Consequently, I generally avoid it and instead buy imported brands from the Xiamen Metro Hypermarket, a German chain which sells many imported as well as Chinese food items. As with most imported products, you pay a premium, but if I'm going to overpay for my yogurt, I might as well overpay for the better imported brands.


One day last week, I decided to stop by at a local coffee/tea/yogurt shop in Xiamen (Jimei to be more specific). I had passed by this place many times on the bus, but never tried it until recently after a workout at the nearby gym I've been going to. 

Tibetan Yogurt Shop in Jimei with picture of the Potala Palace
I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about Tibetan yogurt since I've been to Tibet and one thing I learned is that almost all Tibetan food (only a slight exaggeration) comes from yaks - yak meat, yak milk, salty yak tea, and whatever else the Tibetans can extract from a yak. Having sampled some Yak delicacies, I wasn't overly impressed. However, my limited Tibetan culinary experience didn't include yogurt which apparently has a tradition of over 1000 years. 
Some Yaks in Tibet from my 2010 trip
Me, expertly riding a Yak in Tibet
OK, enough of the yaks, back to the yogurt. I managed to decipher enough of the menu (entirely in Chinese) to order yogurt with fruit which turned out to be some banana and strawberry slices. I'm not sure how Tibetan this yogurt really is, but it was quite good although I could have easily eaten another bowl since my workout had seriously worked up my appetite. The price was also reasonable - 8 yuan (U.S. $1.30), about the same as you pay for a small container of the crappy Chinese yogurt (with no real fruit) available in stores here.

My Tibetan yogurt with fruit
In addition to the yogurt and other drinks, this place also has some interesting Tibetan decor, including many photographs of Tibetan sights and some Tibetan artifacts hung on the walls. It's located near the intersection of Yindou lu and Shigu lu and is definitely worth a visit for anyone in the Jimei area.
Inside view of the Tibetan yogurt place
Interesting Wifi password sign

Mar 11, 2014

"Enjoy the colorful fried food in spring"

Tuesday, March 11, 2014
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Last weekend I went to dinner in Xiamen Island with some friends. As with many things in China, such a seemingly simple experience can often involve some challenge and adventure. I met 2 friends that live in my apartment complex in Jimei (a district of Xiamen, outside of Xiamen Island). We tried to get a taxi, but after waiting for about 40 minutes we got on  a bus instead and took about almost an hour to get to Xiamen Island. 


"Enjoy the colorful fried food in spring"
After getting off the bus, we took a taxi and eventually arrived at the west gate of Xiamen University where we met our friends who had been patiently awaiting us (at least they didn't complain about it) for over an hour. These friends included two French girls studying at Xiamen University who apparently aren't crazy about eating Chinese food all the time. Fortunately, there are lots of Western food choices in the university area and the girls led our group to a pizza restaurant called Salute Pizza that they said was really good.

After perusing the menu (which thankfully pictures as Chinese and poor English descriptions), we all ordered various pizzas. I ordered one with bacon, mushrooms and olive oil, but was told by the waiter "meiyou" on the mushrooms. Meiyou (没有) is one of the most common words you hear in China and means "don't have" (or "we're out" or just plain "no"). However, no major problem since the waiter (who couldn't speak much English) made it clear that all of us whose pizzas were supposed to include shrooms could substitute another topping (I opted for black olives which are not common in China). I also tried to order onion rings which looked really good on the menu picture, but was again met with the dreaded "meiyou" response. One of my friends did manage to successfully order the famous "Panda mashed potatoes" which I sampled after taking the photo below.

My panda potato posed artfully in ketchup
Another slight problem with this restaurant was that they cook the pizzas one at a time (probably only one oven) so it took a while for our group of 8 to all get served. Anyway, our pizzas all eventually arrived (sans mushrooms) and our French friends were correct, they were very good - best pizza I've had in Xiamen (although I don't go searching for pizza all that often). 

One of the benefits of eating in Chinese restaurants in China is the menus which almost invariably entertaining Chinglish descriptions of food and Salute Pizza was no exception.

I like the triangle design on this menu page showing
various fried potato options as well as the "meiyou" onion rings

I had to snap a photo of this description of the restaurant. From the English translation, all I can deduce is that the food is supposed to be Italian (a good choice for a pizza.pasta restaurant) and it involves some type of traditional pizza from Naples using the "great hand push technology Ganmian tools." Apparently, this technology has been used to make pizza for "a thousand years" and is "the most orthodox tongue classic." Feel free to keep reading the photo of the sign for more wonderful Chinglish poetic pizza description. Despite the exceptionally poor English and lack of mushrooms and onions, the pizza was very good!


  • Author: David Moser

Sep 24, 2013

China To Free the Internet?

Tuesday, September 24, 2013
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I find this hard to believe, but according to the South China Morning Post, China is going to unblock the Internet (at least to a very limited extent). For those of you in the free Internet world, this might be hard to believe, but here in China many websites are blocked including some of the world's most popular websites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Many foreign blog and news sites are also blocked such as the New York Times. Since this blog is hosted by Blogger, it is also inaccessible to the vast majority of people in China. Those of us residing in China that want to keep our online connection to the rest of the world must rely on VPNs.

On September 29, the city of Shanghai will become a free trade zone. As with many things in China, it's unclear exactly what this will mean, but arguably some of the changes will likely give foreign businesses a more equal playing field to compete with Chinese companies. Despite many reforms over the past 30 years, China is still very restrictive in terms of foreign ownership of business in certain industries. One such industry is media which is largely owned and or controlled by the Chinese government. 

 Whenever I've had conversations with Chinese people (mostly college students) about Internet censorship and why sites like Facebook are blocked, the inevitable response is "because they say bad things about China." Criticism of China is generally not allowed, especially on a worldwide public forum such as the Internet. However, I've always suspected that another reason for China's Internet censorship is to protect Chinese websites from having to compete with American and other foreign websites. The lack of access to YouTube has certainly helped Chinese video sites such as Youku become highly popular among Chinese netizens. Similarly, Weibo (China's dominant blogging site) has greatly benefited from the lack of foreign blog sites such as Blogger. 

 I'm just guessing, but this may have something to do with China's new "opening up" policy for the Internet in Shanghai's new free trade zone. Part of the free trade zone status involves allowing foreign telecommunications companies the opportunity to provide Internet access. Foreign telecoms might be less willing than Chinese Internet service providers to provide access in a market where they are required to restrict a large portion of the access provided, especially when the restriction includes the most popular foreign websites.

 By allowing greater Internet access in a very limited (although heavily populated) part of China, the government can monitor Chinese neitzens' reactions to less a less censored flow of information. While the impact of allowing greater Internet access just in Shanghai will be very limited, it could be an interesting experiment which, if successful in the eyes of the Chinese government, might eventually be replicated at least in part by reforms throughout China.


  • Author: David Moser

Aug 8, 2013

Chinese Missile Sites or Mud Houses

Thursday, August 08, 2013
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In 1986, American spy satellites under President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative hovering above the mountains of southeast China's Fujian Province spotted large, circular-shaped buildings suspected to be nuclear missile silos. The CIA sent spies to investigate these mysterious buildings only to find out that they were actually ancient buildings made largely of mud.

A view of a Tulou cluster from the top of a nearby mountain
The buildings are called Tulou (土楼) which literally means earth buildings (土earth + 楼 building). Tulous are large, circular-shaped (or sometimes rectangular) buildings built largely of compacted earth (or mud). Actually, the compacted earth was mixed with stone and other materials (sometimes even including sticky rice) and reinforced with bamboo poles to form walls up to 6 feet thick. A tulou is usually 3-5 stories high and many can house around 80 families. Tulous were truly a form of communal living, with many families within a clan banding together for defense as well as economic and social purposes.
A view from inside a Tulou
In more recent history, traditional Tulou communal living has faced serious challenges as younger family members generally prefer to move to nearby cities in pursuit of higher-paying employment and more modern lifestyles. Some of the tulou communities have adapted by becoming tourist destinations and converting part of their residences into hotel rooms. I recently traveled to Nanjing County, about a 3-4 hour drive from Xiamen, to go on a Tulou tour, staying overnight in one of these Tulou turned hotels.
Me on a bridge in front of a 700 year old Tulou
Many of the tulous were built by Hakka Chinese (客家 kejia; literally meaning guest families). Hakkas are part of the Han Chinese majority ethnic group, but migrated from north to south China over the centuries. They often encountered resistance from local inhabitants of the areas they migrated to, including Minnan people who also sometimes lived in tulous.
This is the King Tulou since its the biggest (and the most touristy and commercialized)
I have lots more photos posted here and if you'd like to find out more about the famous Fujian tulous, CCTV produced a series of videos about them called Secrets of the Fujian Tulou which can be viewed online. 


  • Author: David Moser

Jul 26, 2013

China's Smartphone Generation

Friday, July 26, 2013
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A few weeks ago, the China Internet Network Information Center (a Chinese government affiliated agency) released information saying that there are now 591 million Internet users in China. That's almost twice the entire United States population, but represents slightly less than half of China's population. Some other interesting tidbits of information from a Bloomberg Business Week article discussing some of the effects of this massive online migration are:

 464 million of the 591 million Chinese netizens don't generally use computers to access the Internet. Instead, they use smartphones. One of the positive aspects of this is that many Chinese on the lower middle class end of the economic scale now have Internet access through their cellphones.

According to a UK research company's poll of 100,000 Chinese Internet users, the most popular online activities are social-oriented (chatting and online dating). This may not be much different than Westerners. However, Chinese netizens don't generally access the same social media websites as Westerners (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Instead, they visit Chinese social media sites that are largely unknown outside China such as Weixin (WeChat in English) and QQ (QQ International is an English-language version).

 Of course, the vast majority of Chinese Internet users only have access to a limited portion of the whole Internet since the Chinese government blocks many popular foreign websites (Facebook, Twitter, most foreign blogs, etc.). In addition to the goal of censorship, this also gives a huge benefit to Chinese online businesses over foreign ones. But I guess if Chinese people are mostly interested in chatting (in Chinese with other Chinese people) and online dating (with other Chinese people), they probably don't care much about (or aren't even aware of) what they're missing. Instead, like most people anywhere, Chinese people are primarily concerned with how they can use Internet technology in practical ways that affect their individual lives.    


  • Author: David Moser

Jul 18, 2013

Time for a Change of Face

Thursday, July 18, 2013
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One thing I've learned about China is that everything is about face - giving face (给面子 gei mianzi), losing face (失面子 shi mianzi) and saving face (mianzi). However, I never heard of changing face until a recent visit to Chengdu where I attended a face-changing performance.

Face-changing (变脸 bianlian) is a type of Sichuan opera where performers quickly change masks, appearing as if their faces change. After a long day climbing mountains and visiting ancient temple sites, I kinda felt like staying in at my hotel instead of going to what was described as a Chengdu opera performance. While my musical tastes are pretty diverse and I do like some Chinese music, I haven't quite become a fan of Chinese opera. However, I was glad I overcame my laziness and went to this performance since it was much more than just opera and was very entertaining. In addition to face changing and opera, it also included traditional dance, gymnastics, and shadow puppets.

Here's a YouTube video that explains and shows face-changing


  • Author: David Moser

Jul 14, 2013

Macao Relocating to China

Sunday, July 14, 2013
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OK, its not actually Macao that's moving to Mainland China (Macao is already part of China - although governed mostly independently as a special administrative region). Instead, the University of Macao is relocating to nearby Zhuhai on the mainland.  

A New York Times article talks about the novel move, especially notable for the fact that the university, although located on the mainland, will essentially operate separate from the People's Republic of China (PRC) government's control. This is no small matter since Macao is governed much differently from the PRC in some respects. For example, while China is known for strict Internet censorship (blocking many foreign websites), Macao allows pretty unrestricted Internet access. So, while University of Macao students and staff would be able to read the N.Y. Times article about their relocation, most mainland residents would not (since the NY Times is one of the many blocked websites).

 It's not difficult to understand the motivation for the move - the mainland campus will be much bigger and allow the university to expand. In this respect, its very similar to the trend among mainland Chinese universities located in densely populated cities to build new campuses outside their city center where there's much more space available for much cheaper prices.

 What makes the University of Macao's situation so different is that it will essentially operate as its own legal jurisdiction within the Chinese mainland. The article quotes unnamed experts who say there is "no recent precedence for a chunk of Chinese land being passed to another legal jurisdiction in this manner . . ." Actually, that depends on what you consider recent. In the not-too-distant past, China was forced to grant extraterritoriality to several foreign nations in the mid 1800s after its defeat in the First Opium War. Of course, the circumstances and motivations behind this experiment with "higher-education extraterritoriality" are much different.
Foreigners carving up pieces of China
Extraterritoriality after the Opium War's Treaty of Nanjing caused significant hostility since foreign residents in China were not subject to Chinese law and as a result were able to get away with things that they otherwise wouldn't have or would have been punished much more severely for. Similarly, this odd type of inequity might apply to situations that arise at the University of Macao. According to University of Macao law professor Jorge A.F. Godinho, if someone commits a crime on campus, they would be subject to Macao rather than PRC criminal law. This might seem hard to believe, especially for Westerners that tend to view the Chinese government as autocratic and totalitarian. However, in some situations, the PRC government tends to be more flexible than most of its critics realize or are willing to acknowledge.

 Maybe, this its a tiny first step toward some degree of opening up of Chinese higher education. It would be foolish to believe that China will embrace the Western notion of academic freedom or decide to allow unrestricted Internet access to all of Chinese society, but I think there is some realistic hope for additional educational reform that may result in greater access to information over time for Chinese society at large. Just as the extraterritoriality imposed by England resulted in reforms and affected Chinese society in various ways during the late 19th century, the University of Macao's experiment in educational extraterritoriality may result in changes that gradually spread throughout and affect China during this century.


  • Author: David Moser

Jul 11, 2013

Beijing State of Mind

Thursday, July 11, 2013
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Yo yo everyone, I just came across this very clever and well-produced video which has become somewhat of a YouTube sensation (at least among expats in China). 


The video is a play on the Jay-Z/Alicia Keys song and video, Empire State of Mind. While many people not familiar with China and Beijing will not be likely to appreciate the Chinese terms and cultural references thrown in among the mostly English-language rap lyrics, those of us in China tend to find it very amusing and an accurate portrayal of modern big city China. One of my favorite lyrics is this line form the chorus in which just two words are changed:

"In Beijing, commie jungle where dreams are made of, there's nothing you can do."

Another of my favorite parts of the video shows the most popular summer male fashion trend in China - the rolled up shirt, showcasing the midriffs of Chinese men of all shapes and ages (who said Chinese weren't exhibitionists). 

You can see guys doing this all over China
From what I've gathered online, it seems the video was made by photographer/videographer Mark Griffith and stars Andrew Dougherty (playing the Jay-Z rapper role) and Princess Fortier (in the Alicia Keys singing role).  The video features scenes of popular Beijing sites including The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Temple of Heaven, Bird's Nest Stadium, the Great Wall and even Zhongnanhai (home of the Chinese Communist government).

While most of the parody seems to be in good-natured fun, there is some serious criticism of current social problems in China such as the plight of migrant workers who come to Beijing and other cities from the Chinese countryside in search of higher paying jobs while leaving their children behind to be cared for by grandparents. 

For more about the making of this video, see Mark Griffith's blog.

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  • Author: David Moser

Jul 7, 2013

A Billion Stories

Sunday, July 07, 2013
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I just read New Yorker writer, Evan Osnos' blog entry, A Billion Stories. I immediately identified with his portrayal of Chinese migrant workers who sweep roads, collect trash and do other jobs that most people would dread having to do each day, especially for very meager pay.

I see people like this every morning when I ride my bicycle from my apartment to the university I teach at. Most of them are road sweepers, wearing straw hats (just as described by Mr. Osnos) and sweeping the dusty debris from the massive construction projects along the road where, just a few years ago, there was nothing but small farming villages.

 I often feel a mixture of pity and admiration for these people, especially during the sweltering heat and humidity of summertime in Xiamen. Despite their harsh working conditions, they seem to have good attitudes and are usually very friendly, smiling at the foreigner biking by them. Sometimes I see them at lunch time, sitting on the ground at the side of the road eating and chatting. 

 I doubt that many of them are aspiring poets like Qi Xiangfu described in Mr. Osnos' article. However, I can't help wondering where they come from and what they chose to leave to move hundreds or maybe thousands of miles away from their homes to take jobs sweeping dusty roads each day that will be just as dusty the next day.


  • Author: David Moser
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