Home again

I love my aggro bunnies.

Stepping off the plane, I just could not stop grinning madly for three days from hearing all the aussie accents surrounding me. Twas music to my ear.

The next homecoming shock, less happily, is that one cannot initially stop comparing things between ones hometown and various cities of residence with a bit of wonder. It gets rather tiresome for the people around you who cannot understand what on earth you are on about, if they have not had similar experiences themselves. For example, it is amazing what previously was not absorbed into the consciousness, suddenly you notice all around you. In this charmed life, why the hell do I want to be sharing my morning hot chocolate or coffee with a barely clad amazon goddess?? (I cant speak for the boys here.) It was actually pleasant not to be confronted with lingere ads in the public space in the prc.

Rants aside, am loving the fresh produce and gastronomy at home with a date at Bilson's in my diary. Raw food!! The 'ayaii' housemaid who came in once a week to do the cooking en masse always tsk tsked me for eating fresh raw food: "not good for women's Qi" aunty'd reprobate me. I've a good mind to coincide my next Sydney pilgrammage with Good Food Month again.

Foreign Babes in BJ

The book that everyone's talking about in the 'jing. Some love it, some hate it. So, I decided to tackle it, considering it was a title describing yours truely here.

Basically its an autobiographical of Ms DeWoskin in BJ making a television soaps of the exact same title about a decade ago. Remembering this starts post-tiananmen square in the early 90s, the idea of the soap is that foreign chicks have come all the way from the States to steal the cream and talent of Beijing men.

In the course of filming this, there are all sorts of cultural misunderstandings, some that I can relate to, and some that are just a western preconceived view of what the chinese think. But she starts to tie herself in knots trying to discuss what the western customs are like from a chinese producer's ideal incorporated into her western character, then I think oh dear, chickflick trying to get philosophical on chinese values. Although you do have to laugh at the irony. It is, after all, aimed entirely at the western market. No chinese I asked had ever heard of the book.

Is this supposed to be art imitating life? In actual life here, its the other way around - you see "total expat losers stealing all the chinese chicks" (quote drunk source doesnt want to be named). Admittedly there are chinese chicks who only go for expats as well - my friend Katie calls them rather unkindly but deservedly 'GCG's - green card grabbers'.

This is an unfortunate darker side acknowledged by the expat community as a result of their higher income - you often see letters to Ms Lovelorn in the local expat rag titled "I don't know if she loves me or just my money!" But after a general survey from the demure virginal Chinese types and a lot of guys, the general view seems to be: no decent chinese girl would be that forward with foreigners on their own accord and those that are, are just the prostitutes (or golddiggers who just look for the status of being on their arm).

One story that Victor told me sticks in my mind; where his British classmate got into a taxis and over the course of the journey's conversation, the irate driver told him that his wife had just left him the other week for a westerner, because (for lack of a nicer way of saying it) "she said they have a bigger libido than chinese guys".

Personally I like to think there are the genuine cases of true love, I do know the odd couple, but its still a very cynical and unconclusive topic; and with the complexity of many sociological factors, everyone's sure to have their own view. I must say, I've yet to see a caucasian girl with a chinese guy in china.

So I just couldnt help myself but am delighted to finishing this posting off with a poke from Dorothy Parker and Somerset Maugham:

"By the time you swear you're his

shivering and sighing

and he vows his passion is

infinite, undying -

Lady, make note of this:

One of you is lying."

"Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve the continuation of the species."

What do we do, now exams are over?

[Qianmen, City front gate, at dawn]

One of the best ways to see BJ by bicycle is to just cycle at night when there is no traffic to bump into.

This is what my housemate Victor and I decided to do now that exams were over. BJ is made up of ring roads that circle wider and wider, not unlike the circles on a huge dartboard, with Tiananmen and the Forbidden city being the bullseye centre.

So leaving the apartment, which is in the Wudaokou university district waaaaay up north just beyond the 4th Ring Road at 10pm on a nice summer's night, you can find yourself taking it easy and arrive inside the 2nd Ring Road at the City's front gates, Qianmen, before dawn at 4am. Its a nicer adventure exploring a much quieter beijing, passing a few impromptu parties and beer gardens, then watching the sun rise and the world come to life.

Boogie nights in Beijing

We students here in Beijing know how to bust out a damn good house party.

-Do I see a frenchman drinking Great Wall???
- Yes it is, vive la Bohême!
Traffic lights theme ended up on the floor...playing a tipsy version of twister. And Howdy to you too, partner! Dom's t-shirt says in chinese - "I am invincible today". Indeed.

However I think the fishies deserve title of best party animal.
Poison of choice? dash of vodka with a cherry, please!
A huge thanks from us boys and girls to Marcus Liebhardt,
papparazzi and endearing partyinbeijing.com administrator.
Without you, many a sultry summer night would have been wasted.

Xinjiang Girls

I have too many photos now to justify your time browsing through them all, but this one just had to make the cut. These two gorgeous girls are standing in front of their parent's humble little material and clothing store in Xinjiang, showing off their colourful wares.

If you look closely at their faces, you'll notice that they don't look like the traditional Han Chinese (of which make up 95% of China's ethnic group and which I am a descendent of). That's becuase the western province of Xinjiang, better known as an autonomous region under PRC administration (are seperatist like tibet), are predominantly muslim due to the bordering Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and a small corner of Afghanistan. I'm told there are a lot of secret PLA police especially in this region to dampen down their religion.

The Uygur people also speak a dialect that derives from roots in Asia Minor. My travel buddy, Bengu who hails from Turkey, could also understand a bit of what they were saying becuase she said Turkish and Uygur were quite similar.

Back in beijing, the xinjiang migrants that do reside in the capital have a bit of a notorious reputation for being pickpockets, petty thieves, and generally peoples of doubtful character unfortunately. The locals just tell me that all the bad Xinjiang people get blown away with theGobi desert winds so that we get their rejects, and they get to keep their province full of nice people. That's certainly one way of putting it.

1.3 billion people...

...and they're ALL in this bus!

In case you didn't realize, China happens to have a lot of people. At times, you do feel like you are sharing a bus with a quarter of the worlds population. It is impossible to walk out of your apartment at 3am in the morning, and not see a soul - there will always be someone around. I sometimes miss the solitude.

Why Szechuan is the chilli capital

In my various travels around China, I came across this poor chef toiling over a mountainpile of chilli in the province of Szechuan. Is this a version of potato peeling punishment, Chinese style? The mystery of why Szechuan became the chilli capital of China, The World, is solved.

Apparently in Szechuan they punish their customers too. I'm sure they put extra szechuan pepper bells in my dish because my chinese was really awful when I ordered. And it taught me a painful lesson to always be sure of what I was ordering.