Here's Lookin' at You

It seems like it’s rained every day for two months now. It hasn’t, but the amount of rain on the wet days has more than made up for the dry ones. But it is always bright and sunny at KFC, thanks mostly to the fluorescent lights and heat lamps, respectively.

I got this picture the last time we went there. The little girl added a little sunshine to our day while she was staring at us half-baffled, half-scared, and half-surprised (I know that's three halves). It got me thinking about general innocence in Chinese culture and of Chinese people in many facets of life. Taste in music is one example. A truly horrible boy band from Britain doing a cover of an already bad Celline Dion song will inevitably score more points with a Chinese crowd than U2 or Wilco. It’s easy to recognize a similarity to American teen-aged girls’ sophisticated musical tastes.

Another good example is behavior between same-sex friends, who openly show their affection by holding each other’s hands or walking with arms around shoulders. When we first arrived, Nathan and I spoke about that general innocence in the culture. I think it’s something to be admired and respected, and I wish there were a way to recover that as a culture after it was lost.

Of course, as with any culture there are some parts of the culture here that aren’t quite consistent with this innocence. But during my year here I can’t say I’ve missed the liberal dose of sex in everything from shampoo commercials to half-time shows.

Unashamed Starer

Igor was the subject of the latest round of staring from our gracious hosts here in Meizhou. I grabbed my camera in a hurry to document the kind of attention we get on a regular basis.

Apparently there was no need to hurry. Our new friend was standing there just staring away for at least a couple minutes. Never got his name, though.

Democratic Censorship

Microsoft recently agreed to block "bad words" on their Chinese sites--words like "democracy" and "freedom." While perhaps this is yet another sign that Microsoft is the antichrist, it doesn't come as much of a surprise. And they're not the only company bowing to the Communist Party's wishes concerning censorship.

For years, China has been constructing what is elsewhere affectionately termed the Great Firewall--which is an online extension of the government's general censorship. With construction nearly complete the Party are hoping to protect innocent and helpless citizens from pages containing words like "human rights". Yahoo and Hotmail email accounts are also increasingly being blocked.

It's no surprise that most of the Great Firewall is built with technology from American companies. Of course, no one would expect Yahoo or Microsoft to throw away huge revenue from sites in China by refusing to cooperate with the "democratic" government. The USA is at least doing some things to help, along with others.

Here's an update. - June 22

And another. - June 23.

Still Raining

I caught this photo the other night when a strong storm was blowing through Meizhou. You can see from the sky that it was lightninging. And you can see from my use of the word lightninging that I'm trying to show off my diction/vocabulary. Is it working? Are you impressed? Lightninging--how bizarre!

Panoramae

I ran across a program for those of you rascals who are into digital photography. It's called Autostitch, and I used it to put together some cool panoramic photos that are part of my panoramae set. The program is incredible, which means the free beta probably won't be free or beta for long.

And here's a funny page a friend sent me that compares the US, Japan, and China.

Last China Trip

I decided to post another series of photos because it had been a while since my last posting . . . and photos are neat. These pictures, like the last series, are from a trip to Guangzhou. But they're a little different: they're posted vertically, and then they're also pictures of different things.

These are from a trip to Guangzhou with Nathan and Trey. We went as a much-needed (if not deserved) break from Meizhou. We ate at a spectacular Brazilian restaurant where gauchos (or at least Chinese guys dressed up as gauchos) brought around huge portions of meat on skewers. It was spectacular and it had us all wondering why we weren't in Guangzhou for the last year. A Chinese-Muslim restaurant was excellent, and so was a cool jazz club.

We also went shopping for some gifts and for ourselves a bit. The last time I was in Guangzhou by myself, I went to a huge area to buy copy watches. We all went back there to buy some Rolexes and what not--one of few (if not the only) perk of working in China. One of our friends from Guangzhou, Sophia, wants to study international copyright law. She was amazed to know that so many copyright-infringed things could be bought right in the downtown area of her hometown.

Well, this was probably the last trip that I'll be taking until the big one back home in a month. So don't be disappointed if the postings are a little boring. I work with what I've got, and life here can be a little boring. Maybe I'll go introspective or something. Keep in touch.

40 Days and 40 Nights

Hard, horizontal rain from a Kansas thunderstorm can be impressive when coupled with the ever-present risk of tornadoes. The rain in south China is comfortable with a boring, vertical descent. It can afford to be because it's persistent. A predictable yearly monsoon season supplies rice paddies with needed water; sometimes bringing more than needed.

Thursday came another in a long series of heavy rains, which is sure to continue. I called a fellow Kansan expat, Arnie, to ask if things were okay at his house, because it's prone to flooding. Things were fine then, but my friend Trey called me about 10 minutes later to say he was heading to Arnie's to help move things to the second floor. I passed the word on to Nathan and we all headed over, where we were met by about a foot and a half of water on the main floor.

Wanted: Civil Engineer to work in small Chinese city. Pay: Low; Benefits: Fake DVDs; Food: Chinese.