How much do you like Ron Paul?

I ran across this lovely Ford Escort Wagon outside the post office in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Do you like Ron Paul thissss much?

Ron Paul for President!

As Facebook Aims at Millions of Users, Some Are Content to Sit Out - NYTimes.com

As Facebook Aims at Millions of Users, Some Are Content to Sit Out - NYTimes.com:

'They’re likely more worried about the novelty factor wearing off,' Mr. Valdes said. 'That’s a continual problem that they’re solving, and there are no permanent solutions.'

Facebook needs to focus on continuing to make the site so ubiquitous and necessary that people stop questioning it... The continued gimmicks and additions that are designed to simply renew interest and addiction the site is not going to work in the long run I don't think.

In real-time, journalists’ tweets contribute to a ‘raw draft’ of history | Poynter.

In real-time, journalists’ tweets contribute to a ‘raw draft’ of history | Poynter.:


I was actually thinking about this exact thing the other day... Earlier this year my family started clearing out closets and my parents pulled out boxes of letters from friends and family, old calendars, photos and so on—a physical paper record of their communications and life before the internet. My generation doesn't have that they pointed out. You don't have any of this because it's all online now. This is true.

While I have never really had any serious correspondence with anyone via mail—if I have to send a letter or package I have to double check a Wiki to make sure I don't mess it up—I do have a record.

In coming weeks Facebook is updating the Profile page and turning it into something they call "Timelines." "The story of your life," as Mark Zuckerburg said in his Keynote presentation at F8.

I don't have boxes of letters. I have my entire Facebook page, my blog, my archived AIM and Skype conversations, and my twitter feed. All of which give me a day to day view of what was going on in my life. I can go back to December 5th, 2006 and see how I was feeling that day, what I was reading, who I was talking to and whatever other information I felt like posting at the time. Admittedly it's not nearly as important as Carvin's archived twitter feed.

This, I guess, is sort of creepy in its specificity. But it's reassuring to know that their is a record that's slowly been accumulating over time and that their will be something specific I can look at to remember the good old days.

A Brief Update... more to come

Hellooo everyone... so I haven't entirely forgotten this blog, PROMISE.

I hope to write several posts this coming week and then get back into the habit of posting more regularly for my final two months here in China.

A brief update:

My first month in Beijing was spent frantically running from class to class, to group field trip, back to class, to dinner and then back to the dorm to do homework. Out of control.

My languages classes lasted for four hours everyday, sometimes six. And then a two hour history class twice a week. AND we also had/have two trips a week, one on wednesdays (with the history class) and one on the weekend.

My schedule has now slowed down a little bit because I'm no longer taking the insane language classes, which as freed up my evenings and calmed down my day to day life a little bit. "But how?!" I hear you all cry from across the world. I'm now doing an internship! It's pretty great. I'm mostly writing articles for the tech-blog side of their website. But I'm also doing research and some other stuff.

I still am taking my Chinese History class and I have Chinese language for two hours on Monday and Friday.

I'm also hoping I can pick up a small tutoring job from this mom I met in the lobby of my dorm the other day. A little spare money never hurt anyone :)

Will write more this weekend!

Reflection on my trip to Jinggangshan

It has already been a whole week since my classmates and I left Shanghai on a four-day trip to Jiangxi province. When I first arrived in Shanghai I tried to escape the preconceived notions I had, which were few, as I didn’t know much about China. Even still it is something that is impossible to escape no matter how much you know or don’t know. Despite this, I still feel very positive about how I integrated my first month in China with what I understood and with what I didn’t, without too much noticeable culture shock.

This was able to occur for several reasons. I like to think that it is in part simply in my personality. Since I was eleven years old I’ve actively put myself into situations where I’m different and away from my home. And so to a certain extent I feel that I’ve developed my own mechanisms in dealing with being in a new culture or environment. The other reason is how similar Shanghai is to what I already know.

It’s definitely China. There’s no doubt about that. The people are different. The food is different. The language is different. But it’s also Shanghai: incredibly western, incredibly friendly to foreigners, easily accessible, brimming with raging capitalism, and despite frequent warnings about cleanliness, it’s no dirtier than Philadelphia in my own, admittedly biased, opinion. All of these things combined make it easy to ignore thoughts of communism or semi-authoritarianism.

Jiangxi province is not Shanghai. During the trip it was something I was constantly facing, both directly and indirectly. On the busses, I wasn’t interacting actively with China but passively, watching the scenery and people zip past the window on seemingly empty stretches of road. And while I slept, listened to music, stared out the window or chatted with friends, in the back of mind I was constantly processing what I had just seen or what I was currently seeing. It was these one to two hour periods of time that really defined what the trip was for me. Without it I might have just found myself in sensory overload lacking the time and energy to get a grip on what I was witnessing.

Jinggangshan (井冈山) was our first stop. Looking back on the trip as a whole it was a great place to start. As we drove into the city, everyone seemed to be from somewhere else. Tour busses and giant plastic torches lined the streets. It wasn’t quite what I imagined “the Cradle of the Chinese Revolution,” would look like. And even as I write that I once again find myself realizing I really had no idea what to expect.

The people on the streets were a mix of Chinese tourists and locals, who for all intents and purposes seemed to be doing rather well—if not thriving for such small town—off of both tourist money and I imagine government money.

After the other cities we visited it is very apparent that Jinggangshan is especially lucky to be such an historic city. For such a small town, which seemed to have no actual industry besides tourism, to so well off and be as well maintained as it was is pretty incredible.

What I found to be most interesting, and have noticed other places as well, is the Chinese’s love of lining their museums and/or tourist locations with pictures. Even in Shanghai it often seems as though they care little for the history itself and more about the idea of it. This struck me as being especially interesting for such an important place in communist history.

Walking through the museum in Jinggangshan there was hardly any textual narrative about the town’s importance. The walls were packed with photos or painted images of important men and women (mostly men).

Given my lack of knowledge about China I imagine that I’m reaching. But here it goes. It’s clear that China has a strong sense of self. It’s apparent even when looking at how the Chinese name their country, 中国 or center country. But recently, over the past several hundred years, history has not been kind to China and repeatedly it has found itself being the loser in situations. Whether it be the collapse of the Republic after Sun Yat-sen, or under the brutal rule of the Japanese, or during the Cultural Revolution, it seems as though China simply can’t catch a break.

The lack of text in the museums made me think that perhaps writing it down locks the event too solidly into history, even when it’s something positive. When it’s written it’s too easy to see what came before and after. Moving directly from Mao’s great victory to the years of hardship, domestic unrest, and death. Providing photos and images rather than text, allows for it remain obscured to a certain extent while still being specific.

Despite the obscurity and vagueness in the museums everyone was there for one reason. I was able to talk to one man during my time in Jinggangshan. He was standing off to the side waiting for the rest of his party to finish taking their photos. Like many of the Chinese I have met he was very friendly and willing to take some time to help me with my homework assignment. He helped me figure out the characters for Mao Zedong and wrote down where he was from. He laughed at the final question, which was “why are you here in Jinggangshan,” and simply wrote, “for the 90th anniversary of the communist party.”

There was simply no other reason to be there. Despite all the hardship and difficulty, the Communist Party has made China strong and pulled hundreds of millions out of poverty.

The next few cities passed in blur of sweat, running around and bus rides. It was the last city that put a good book end on the trip for me. Yingtan (鹰潭), where we slept our third and final night, has a population of a little over a million, which is fairly small by China standards.

This city had a very similar feel to Shanghai despite the huge difference in size. Unlike the previous city Jiujiang, Yingtan had a positive and hopeful feel to it. Even after eleven p.m. (when almost everything shuts down) there were still people wandering around buying street food and sitting down outside of small restaurants for a couple of beers.

My friend and I wandered around Yingtan till the very early hours of the morning. We ended up in a neighborhood that didn’t seem to be the greatest. Though at two-thirty a.m. it’s often difficult to tell.

The streets were deserted and silent. We rounded a corner and were faced with yet another street kao rou place, which seem to dot every Chinese city. There were around twenty people all loudly enjoying the food and company. Our stomachs waking up for breakfast caused us to eye the food that had likely been sitting out since early evening the day before. We walked about 30 feet past it planning on going back to our hotel.

We stopped and looked at each other. Some of our best experiences in China have been at these random gatherings of people and food. So we turned back and within minutes we had gathered a small group of Yingtan locals around us. And despite only knowing about 180 words of Chinese and them knowing only a handful of English words we were able to have an interesting conversation filled with lots of gesturing.

The young waiter, twenty-two years old, asked us about the price of things in America. We told him the exchange rate was 6.5 RMB to 1 USD. His face fell a little with that information. We asked him if he liked Yingtan. “Bu xihuan,” he responded quickly. His reasons were interesting if only because of what he thought the solution was. There were too many people, he said, and not enough work. He gestured to the people behind him.

“Where do you want to go?” We asked. Shanghai he answered. More people, more work, more money. We tried to explain to him that Shanghai wasn’t perfect. There were plenty of people in Shanghai who lived hard lives but he was emphatic that Shanghai was where he wanted to be.

He stood up and left us for a while and was quickly replaced by a woman in her thirties, likely a prostitute, who asked us where we were from and what we were doing here in China. After that brief conversation she gave us her number and paid for our drinks, hopped on a motorcycle with two men and drove off.

Again it was only a few minutes alone before we had company, two older men, mid 40’s, both overweight and with their shirts off and smoking cigarettes. The waiter came and sat across from them and we asked them the same questions. They didn’t want to leave they said. They had jobs. They liked the city. But also their family was there and that seemed to be the biggest reason. It wasn’t long after that they started packing up the tables. We bid our friends goodbye and thanked them for talking with us.

That hour-long conversation stands out vividly in my mind. Sitting at a table my friend sitting across from me. The sad face of the waiter to my left looking off into the corner while one of the older men talked about why he didn’t want to leave with his friend nodding his head in agreement next to him. It was such a clear display of what many Chinese feel today and how they live their lives. Throw in the prostitute, who is now one of millions of women working in China following the collapse of the strict Communist morality that reigned under Mao, it is yet another sign of how much China has changed in twenty years. The country peasants want to move to the city and the urban workers want to move to bigger cities, all in search of a better standard of living. In a societal climate where the lao bai xing are all searching for greener grass in bigger cities it will be very interesting to see whether the Chinese government is capable providing at the rate that the people expect.

Deadly Kao Rou (烤肉) and Communist Cradles

New update!

It’s been a seriously busy eight days since my last post. Last week I had serious studying to do for my Midterm. Then had a long weekend, which I spent traveling around in Hangzhou—very different city from Shanghai but I’ll get into that later. And then this week, which I’ve just been seriously behind in. Tomorrow I leave on a four day school trip with my entire program.

So first off Hangzhou. It was a serious pain haha. Meaning our days were great, our nights not so much.

My friend Carlos and I bought round trip tickets to Hangzhou on the bullet train, which goes about 350 km an hour. Ridiculous. We got to Hangzhou in 45 min. We didn’t realize how fast it was going to go so we both fell asleep on the train due to a long night the day before at the club. We were both pleased and disappointed to find how quickly we arrived.

From there we made our way to the Hostel we were staying at. The hostel was really nice and in a decent location on Hefang road, which is a pretty big market type of area. We spent most of that day just wandering around there and then moving more into the city area—no such thing really since the whole damn place is city but still. We did do some seriously touristy things. Checked out some pagodas and some temples etc. Got dinner and headed back to our hostel to get ready to go out.

First off. The cabs in Hangzhou are awful. They rarely stop even if they’re empty, even for the Chinese. It wasn’t just cause we were foreigners. And if they did stop they frequently didn’t know where it was we wanted to go. Even when we had written addresses down in characters.

Needless to say trying to find clubs late at night was impossible. The cab drivers would drop us off at random places that were not correct. The Chinese aren’t that into clubbing… at all… so asking people on the street was impossible. And following people who say "beautiful girls" is a risky business because, while sometimes it does mean “disco,” it also means brothel. So while we debated pursuing some of these offers we decided it wasn’t worth the risk.

We ultimately went on this wild goose chase till around 3 am trying to find this one club G+. The biggest, very popular, and supposedly a great club. Went to a hotel where it supposedly was they gave us a card and sent us away. Gave the card to a cab driver and he dropped us off at some random bar.

The night wasn’t a total bust. We went into the bar and asked one of the waiters to teach us this dice game that EVERYONE plays in all the bars and clubs.

Next day involved some serious hiking on the north side of the West Lake in Hangzhou. It was gorgeous and hot as hell. It was all giant staircases on this mountain leading to old shrines, temples, various caves etc. We then wandered around the city for the rest of that day and made a second attempt at finding clubs that night.

Again we failed miserably, though worse than the night before. This time we actually made it to G+ but it was horrible. Crappy Black Eyed Pea’s impersonators on stage and the room was solid tables filled with all Chinese. That’s really a good thing except they don’t dance particularly when there are lots of tables.

So with our heads hanging in defeat we made our way back to Shanghai. Me without my cell phone—it was stolen, Carlos without his sunglasses—left in a cab— and both of us several hundred kuai less. It was a rough weekend.

But we began this week with high spirits vowing to make up for our failed weekend.

Monday night we took the adventurous route and ate some intense street food. Kao rou… or in English... stuff cooked on sticks.

At the back gate of ECNU, every night huge stalls open up selling all kinds of meat, shellfish and crayfish.

Perfect.

We each played it safe at first in terms of what we ordered. A couple pijiu 啤酒(beer), three lamb, three beef, one chicken, and some mushrooms. Well, after running into some friends who pulled up stools at the tables that were set up, our food arrived. It was amazing. And seriously dangerous haha. The meat was pretty much raw. The surface was cooked but the inside was warm and maybe you would say rare. I couldn’t quite figure out if it was rare or just plain raw… under cooked was a definite understatement. But hey it tasted damn good.

So we went back up got more pijius and ordered several of everything: lamb, beef, chicken, pork, squid, octopus, this foot long fish that is just skewered and grilled and about three other meats we don’t know what they were. We wanted to head to the shellfish cart but after all that we were not only full but might be pushing our luck. Some other night hopefully.

And by god’s good graces we woke up the next morning with only mild stomachaches. In my mind, that’s a serious win. The whole night cost a total of 75 rmb or $11 usd.

That was Monday night. Tuesday night involved studying and tonight is packing. Tomorrow we leave on a four-day trip to Jinggangshan 井冈山 regarded as “the Cradle of the Chinese revolution”.

It should be interesting. This city is where the Chinese recently celebrated the 90th anniversary of the Communist Party and, less importantly to them at least, the 100th anniversary of the Republic of China.

As my professor keeps telling us it’s going to be really cool for us as Americans because the locals will love it. “Oh look! The imperialist Americans have come to pay homage to Mao and the communist party.”

Super excited.

I’ll go back through and post pictures later. Probably when I return. My friend has most of them on his camera is why.

Anyway…

So long Shanghai. Hello Jinggangshan!

-Colin

An Education in Shanghai Street Food…. | Richard and Shu Yuan

An Education in Shanghai Street Food…. | Richard and Shu Yuan

This is the back gate where I regularly eat. It's either there or the front gate depending on what classes I have.

I did a search for the street because I know it's famous for its street food. And shock of shocks there's actually a phot of my favorite place. AND it talks about my two favorite dishes.

My first favorite thing is the northwestern dish, slowcooked pork stuffed in between a sliced pita with chili, cilantro, and cumin. I believe it's called ro xia mo. I don't go to the back gate for this actually. I think the front gate has a better place and only costs 5 kuai... less than a dollar. There is a picture in the article of a man making it.

My other favorite is the pork on the spit. It gets chopped off and stuffed in a chinese pancake with lettuce, chili, and cumin. You can see the pancake and the pita's for the ro xia mo, which get sliced in half, sitting front of the woman. And that's actually the place I get it at.

I usually get that for 8 kuai (about $1.20) ... So so so so good.