Eric's Beijing Diary

Lots of talk about Google's decision to leave China. Actually, I don't think they have formally decided to leave China, I think it's just that they have decided to no longer comply with the Chinese government requirement that they filter politically sensitive internet searches on the Chinese version of their web site (www.google.cn). At first, it did not strike me as big news, because I have never used the Chinese site. Most of the time I use the Canadian site (google.ca), because it seems to load a little faster. The Canadian site is not filtered. In the long run, though, it could affect me. If the government refuses to allow this, and Google ends up pulling out of the Chinese market, i.e. shutting down google.cn, I could still get all the information I wanted using google.com, but the government could also decide to block that site, or to require Google to remove servers hosting GMAIL. Google has GMAIL set up on a million Linux servers worldwide, and it is hard to know how many of those servers are sitting right here at Google China in the Qinghua Science Park on the west side of Wudaokou, about a five minute walk from where I am sitting. If there is no GMAIL backup on servers hosted in China, it could be tough to get my email. Like when GOOGLE first started and didn't have China based servers. Even worse, China could block the GMAIL web site altogether. Time will tell.

The last pie. Literally. This morning, one of the waitresses asked me if I wanted to order a piece of pumpkin pie. She told me there were only six pieces left, and they weren't going to be making any more. I told her that I wasn't really in the mood for one, since I had just had breakfast, but I asked her if she could reserve one for me until this evening. When I came in this evening, there was no pumpkin pie, but true to her word, she had held a piece for me, and told the evening staff to give it to me when I came in.

Actually, I had already pretty much phased pumpkin pie out of my diet. They started this thing just before Thanksgiving. During the Thanksgiving-Christmas period, I felt I should have a piece once in awhile as a matter of principle, but after Christmas was over, I decided to go back to corn muffins. Cheaper and not quite so much sugar. A little butter and jam doesn't hurt, though. Good with coffee.

Finally got my passport back today (I hate passport pictures). I had contemplated several options for getting a authorization to be in China until I can get a Z visa for the fall. The most flexible visa other than a Z (work) visa is a multiple-entry tourist visa, because you can do anything but work for the duration of the visa. Usually, you have to leave the country every 60 or 90 days. For retired people, this doesn't seem to be that big a problem. I have a friend, a retired businessman from Singapore, who lives in China with his wife on a tourist visa. He goes to Hong Kong every couple months, but only has to renew his visa once a year. The problem is that, in the current climate, this kind of visa is only available if you return to your home country. If you go to Hong Kong with a Z visa that is getting ready to expire, the best you can get is a 30 day tourist visa. If you want to extend, I am told you must go back to Hong, and pay the fee to renew it. That's a pain. If I were to go to the States, I could get a one year multiple-entry visa. But I really don't want to do that right now. So a student visa seems the way to go in my case. If you are just hanging out, then getting a visa through a language school is not a good deal, because you have to pay your tuition for the duration of the visa in advance. But if you are studying at a language school anyway, and paying tuition every two weeks, then it is a more convenient option than a tourist visa. No need to leave the country every 60 or 90 days.

You can also get an F visa, but I didn't want to do that, because many of the F visas are bogus. You are listed on paper as working for a company that you have never even heard of. I don't know how the system actually works, or who is paying money to whom to get this done, but it seems to be done with at least the tacit approval of the government, because they shut them down for the Olympics, and then opened them up again.

I had similar concerns about getting a student visa through the language school, because the language school I attend is very small, and doesn't actually have its own visa granting authority. I asked them about it, but Jordan's teacher assured me it was legitimate. The paper they gave me actually lists a University I have never heard of, which is probably an umbrella organization that cooperates with smaller language schools. I guess there's nothing wrong with that. Maybe I am overly suspicious, I don't know. I just don't want a visa that was obtained by money under the table.

It was six years ago today that I flew into Beijing from Los Angeles. Hard to believe that so much time has passed.

My life and work here at the university is almost over. Since Beihang University does not issue Foreign Expert Certificate's to foreign professors over 55, I have no choice but to find work elsewhere. I actually work for the Software College, but the College of Software does not have its own visa granting authority. So my visa is granted by the University.

It has been a fascinating six years. My job here has been unusual in the sense that I did not respond to a job advertisement. I did not come to fill a specific vacant position. I proposed to set up a program for training students in the Oracle database system, and the Software College accepted my idea and offered me a contract.

When Phil first sent me an email, I didn't even answer it. I had forwarded my resume to the director of software colleges for China, because he had been referred to me by the Asia-Pacific office for Oracle in Singapore. The director of software colleges had given my resume to Phil, the coordinator for foreign teachers at the Software College, and he had sent me the email I ignored. I had planned to go to the poor area of Western China, so I viewed the Beijing offer as a distraction.

A week later, Phil sent me another email. I decided that it was rather impolite of me not to respond, since, after all, the email came in response to my own inquiry. so I dashed off a quick email describing briefly who I was and what I wanted to do. The rest is history.

Now, oddly enough, I am being presented with a request to go to Western China, and I am wondering if it is what I should do, or a distraction. One of my former students is from Guizou Province, and he has invited me to come home with him for Spring Festival, so I am going to go scope the place out.

Went to an amazing art show last night at the 798 Art District. It has to be the most extraordinary art display I have ever seen. Mostly oil on canvas, but also some avant-garde stuff like the one pictured.

The artists are all Christians from the Lisu and Miao minorities, and the show is to honor two men, James Fraser and Samuel Pollard. Pollard and Fraser were both missionaries with the China Inland Mission. What they have in common is that they both developed a written alphabet for the indigenous group among whom they were called to work.

James Fraser worked among the Lisu tribesmen in Yunnan Province. Because they had no written language, he developed the Fraser alphabet in order to translate the New Testament into their language

Before Fraser went to Yunnan, the Lisu were a wild, savage group. Largely because of the work of Fraser and Isobel Kuhn, a later missionary who was inspired by his work, the Lisu today are widely recognized in China as a Christian tribe. Kuhn is probably better known than James Fraser, because she was a very gifted writer, so she is most responsible for making the rest of the world aware of mission work among the Lisu. I think the reason Fraser was being honored is because he is the one who designed the alphabet that gave them the scriptures.

Samuel Pollard was a missionary to the Miao (Hmong) people in Guizhou Province. Like Fraser, he developed an alphabet in order to give the Bible to the Miao people. That alphabet is still used today. Pollard's alphabet is unique in that he incorporated the tones of the language into the structure of the script. He was aided by work that had been done in translating the Bible into the language of the Cree Indians in North America.

Perhaps the most striking work of art was a large modern art display. Four tons of rock salt, a row of giant candles, and two wooden coffins used by minority people. The salt is there because Jesus said, "Ye are the salt of the earth." The candles are there because Jesus said, "Ye are the light of the world." And the coffins are there to honor two men who gave their lives to bring the light of the gospel to the Miao and Lisu people. Now that is what I call a statement.