Kowtowing apologies for a link post, but this clever set of images (an exhibit by Yang Liu, a Chinese artist, living in Berlin) depicting the differences between Chinese and Westerners will strike a chord with any in the middle Kingdom, or raise a curious eyebrow among the foreign devils. For instance, shower times:
Or, even more head-noddingly, queuing:
And finally (an artistic pick) mutual stereotypes:
Again, sorry for being lazy. Somewhere between a hundred new Chinese words a day and my kitchen catching fire, my blog is meowing at me for attention. I’ll feed it before too long.
I’m smelly and unshaven in an internet cafe in Wuhan, and my computer is winking at me to tell me I have five minutes left before my two kuai runs out. Just enough time to point to this post I wrote for enoVate, experts in all things Chinese youth market. The question: do students in Beida, China’s top university, drink coffee or tea?
Down the street from the crumbling Mao-era tower block in which I live, there is an up-class, yellow-painted, high-gated primary school, fancily called ‘Benzhen Bilingual Montessory School of the Arts’. In the mornings - if I didn’t oversleep - I often pause to watch the young kids there rehearsing various kinds of dances, and wish I went to that school instead.
In between my tower block and the one opposite it (the structural integrity of which I have more confidence in), there is an open space for the community, which on weekends is monopolised by the new craze of two-wheel skateboards. Middle-aged ladies often dance there, either to the silent rhythm of tai chi or to the crackling sounds of an old boom box.
What kind of dancing do these generations, from two very different Chinas, indulge in? Here’s a video I took last time I passed by:
Postscript - I’ve just noticed that this is the 100th post on Six. I am now going to treat the above video as a happy birthday dance just for me …
A space to watch: I’m contributing some photos to the The China Beat every fortnight or so at their new photography feature, with three up so far.
A link to ignore: Emily Chang of CNN interviews young members of the Communist Youth League, in what is presumably the most patronising and shortsighted fashion she can think of:
When we requested an interview with members of the Communist Youth League, I expected an army of suits with well-rehearsed answers. Instead, we met three students casually dressed in jeans, just 18 to 23 years old … My questions seemed to be more sensitive than they expected, but the students remained poised and answered every one.
A link to click: Jack, the Chinese diplomat-to-be who has contributed regularly to this blog (and who has just finished a month’s military training from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose regulations unfortunately now prevent him from writing more for Six) recommended I read this op-ed by a Chinese writer in the New York Times. In Jack’s words, it “digs deep into the heart of the Chinese people, exposing their internal strength behind their brilliant achievements”.
For anyone interested, I have a new post on the China Beat, introducing the new generation of young driven Chinese by way of the six characters I follow here. They’ve been called “the stupid generation”. I beg to differ.
With a new academic year looming tomorrow, I’ll take this opportunity to say a big thanks to everyone who has helped Six this last year: first and foremost to Ben, Jack, Leonidas, Marie, Mary, Matilda, Tony and William; also to the sites (especially China Beat, CDT and CNReviews) which have given links; to my brother for his design and technical help; mama and papa for telling people about it even if they don’t want to know; and finally thank you to everyone other than my immediate family who reads Six!
Plenty of blogging to come this year, from Tsinghua campus as well as Beida …
In The Huffington Post, I’ve collected some of my thoughts at the end of a year in Peking University here. I will be taking my last deep breath of fresh Californian air tomorrow, before I fly back to Beijing tomorrow to continue my Chinese studies in the IUP program in Tsinghua university. It’s right next to PKU, so I’ll be blogging as before.
Oh, and on a completely unrelated note, I like this joke by Chinese American comic Joe Wong, giving his answer to a question on his US citizenship test (his full skit here):
