Eric's Beijing Diary

I have been teaching on the Spiritual gifts. This afternoon, just for the fun of it, I was taking one of those "spiritual gifts" tests on the Internet (there are gobs of them). This one said that I have the "gift of poverty." Struck me funny for some reason. If they're talking about condition or state of being, then they're right on the money. But gift? Never heard of that one before. Talking about poverty as a gift seems a bit of an oxymoron to me.

By the way, if you're looking for a good self-test on the Motivational Gifts, I recommend the one by Whole Person Counseling. It's the most reliable instrument I have seen so far. You have to print out the score sheet and do it manually, but it's worth it.

Understanding the spiritual gifts, especially the motivational gifts, is a matter of vital importance, I think, for Christians in China. With the tremendous growth in the church in the past few years, it's easy for Chinese Christians to get "lost in the crowd," and thus have trouble identifying how they fit into the larger picture of God's purpose for China.

One of the most significant transformations of the information age is the switch that has taken place between television and telephone. In the old days, television was mobile, at least in so far as connection with the source of communication was concerned. But telephones were fixed. There were no mobile phones. Occasionally, you would see a picture of a special police car that had a mobile phone setup, but they were very cumbersome and expensive. In the late sixties, cable television started to become popular. At the time I didn't think it would be a good thing, because it seemed to be too limiting. But it hasn't turned out that way. Now you never see "rabbit ears," and the "snow" that characterized reception from a distant TV tower would not be tolerated. I remember in the seventies when the first mobile phones came out. They were a take off from Agent 86 on the "Get Smart" television program, who had a dial phone in his shoe.

Now, the switch is almost complete. TV has become stationary, and communications have become mobile. Makes more sense that way, I guess. Today, I got a call from Anne Marie on her cruise ship in Hawaii. Clarity of the picture was good, but not much to see, because it was dark outside. But the audio was pretty good, and, of course, it was free, because we were communicating computer to computer. We would say that we were communicating "over the internet," but in fact, much of modern international phone communication is over the Internet these days. Before I started using my laptop for international calls, I would buy cheap phone cards. I say "cheap," because the cost per minute was below the conventional rate for China. But the cost per minute calling from China to America is quite a bit more than the cost of calling the other direction. My point, though, is that even when I used phone cards, I was using the Internet. They were IP (Internet Protocol) phone cards. The reason IP phone cards are cheap, is because the cost for the company handling the connection is so low. The Internet is free, once you get connected. So when you use your laptop, you're cutting out the middleman, but the basic mode of communication is the same: Voice-over IP, not conventional analog communication.

Showed an interesting video to some friends today about some missionaries doing work among a tribal group on an island in Indonesia. One thing that really amazed me about this story is the amount of work the missionaries had to do just to be able to communicate. They spent four full years living among these people just to learn their language. Gives me hope when I think of how long I have been studying Mandarin, and how little progress I have made. Sometimes I wish I could spend even two years studying language full time, but I have never been able to do it. If you are struggling with a foreign language right now, and you want to put the matter in perspective, I do recommend this video. It is called, "The Taliabo Story."

It is just about exactly five years ago, now, that I first began to study Mandarin. I took my first trip to China in the fall of 2001. I traveled to Yunnan Province to participate in a charity project at a small village elementary school among the Naxi minority. I was preparing then to move to China, but didn't know exactly where. The trip to a remote village was good for me, because absolutely no one (except our interpreters) spoke English. There is nothing like linguistic isolation to underscore the importance of getting down to the business of learning language. When I got back to the States, I decided that I had better start studying Chinese, but I wasn't quite sure how to go about it. I found my first tutor quite by accident. I was doing my laundry one day in the laundry area of my apartment, when I saw a sign on the wall that said, "I will teach your children Chinese," and gave a phone number. I called the lady and told her that my children weren't interested in learning Chinese, but I wanted to study myself.

Lili and her family were in America for a brief stay. Her husband had come to ASU on some kind of research grant, and she had assumed that she would be able to find Chinese people who would want a tutor for their kids, so she had brought along a few primary level readers. So I got my start with Chinese reading a book for little kids:

鸟叫了 (The bird sings.)

花开了 (The flower opens.)

I took it one character at a time. I pointed to the first character (鸟).

"What does this mean?"

"Bird."

Next character (叫). "What does this mean?"

"Sing, or call."

Next character (了). "How about this?"

"It doesn't mean anything."

Sure it does. Chinese characters are meaning intensive. They have a meaning."

"No, it doesn't mean anything."

"Then why don't we just get rid of it?"

"No! you must have it!"

"Well, if we need it, then what does it mean?"

"Nothing. It doesn't mean anything."

"Then I say we toss it. Chinese has lots and lots of words. One little word isn't going to make that much difference."

"Oh, no! You can't do that!"

I went to Borders, got a dictionary, and looked it up:

"Particle indicating completed action." A grammar thing. OK, I can deal with that.

But it was oh, so slow. And I got impatient. I said, "Lili, this is a cute little book. I see the picture of the rooster, and the ducks in the pond..very pretty. But...can't we go on?"

"No. You're not ready."

Now, five years later, I am still moving ever so slowly. The pace has picked up, though, and I have lots more opportunities to use what I learn. Not as much in Beijing as I would if I lived in the countryside, but certainly much more than in Arizona. The problem with learning a language is that sooner or later, you need to have experience conversing with native speakers who do not speak your language. It isn't that hard to find native speakers of Mandarin in America. But they all speak English. Any two people communicating will tend to gravitate toward the language they have in common. So you will really not get much practice speaking Mandarin with someone who speaks reasonably good English. I don't learn much Chinese from students. But I do learn a lot from kids, and from the working people I encounter in my daily life. Little by little. Bit by bit. Sometimes mountains have to be moved by the shovel full.

An old man walked up to me as I was parking my bike today. He looked at me for the longest time before working up the nerve to ask the question: "Are you Chinese or a foreigner?" Hmmm... I would have thought the blue eyes would have given it away. 'Course, China does have many minorities, but which one of them do I look like? Guess I should have asked him. I don't think he really thought I was a foreigner, or he wouldn't have asked. But there must have been something about my appearance that made him wonder. Maybe it was my black winter cap. Who knows.

Blogspot was blocked again today. I first saw the news item on the Danwei blog. I wouldn't have known it, because I just used it earlier today. It's interesting, because I had been interviewed by a fellow blogger, so I had been checking my blog earlier in the day. But I noticed a short article on the Danwei blog stating that it had been blocked. Hard to know why or when these things happen here. Some sites (such as www.voa.gov) are just absolutely off limits, but sites like Blogspot seem to open and close unpredictably.

We had a graduation cermony today for the IC design students. This is a cooperative program with Florida International University. Students are given two master's degrees, one from Florida, and one from the unmiversity here (BUAA). Joint degrees are all the rage in China now. Western universities are rushing to get on board. For the Chinese students, it is a popular concept, becuase it allows them to "study abroad" without going there. For the western universities, it becomes a good way to attract the best students, because they are able to identify which students would be the best candidates for their PhD programs. And, of course, it gives them a golden opportunity to expand their programs in a country that has huge supply of students.

This evening, I went to a Japanese restaurant that Kat (former English teacher at Beihang) told me about today. I think I'm back in business. That place is not bad. Katsudon for 16 kuai. As I have said before, if you like to eat Japanese food, Beijing is the best place to be. The meal I had this evening would cost four or five times as much in Japan. When I go to Tokyo, I eat at McDonald's.

Melissa from the coffee bar let out a scream and came running out from behind the cash register. She rounded the corner and went running down the stairs. It all happened so fast, I couldn't quite take it in.

Melissa is her English name of course. She asked me to give her an English name some time ago, so I named her after you-know-who. Anyway, I quickly moved over to the staircase just in time to see her coming back up the stairs, clutching a large handbag. It belonged to one of her coworkers, and had been sitting behind the register. The thief had started down the stairs, then reached under the railing as he was going down, and grabbed the bag. But Melissa was too quick for him. He dropped the bag and ran.

Violent crime is lower in China, I think, then in America. But petty thievery is rampant in China. Hold on to your wallets. Every year, just before Spring Festival, there are many warnings about thievery. The reason is that sometimes working people do not have enough money to get home for the Spring Festival holiday, and they get desperate. Spring Festival is over now, but I would imagine that it has placed a number of people in difficult straits. The contrast between rich and poor in this country is still far too great for comfort. China's recent move toward a market economy has benefited many millions of people, but there is still quite a disparity between the rich and the poor in this country. I don't want to overstate this, because let's face it, thievery exists everywhere. But somehow, the difference between Beijing and, say, Tokyo, is noticeable. But the difference between Beijing and a city like Chengde is also quite noticeable. It is the big cities that tend to attract the sort of desperate people who throw all principle to the wind and resort to a life of crime.

Every March brings the politicos to Beijing from all over the country. Interesting, the CCTV reporter made a point of stating that the NPC, which has, in the past, been viewed as a "rubber stamp" congress, is developing into the major legislative body in the People's Republic. This is something I am going to be watching. It can be frustrating, sometimes, to try to understand where true power is seated in this country. Every March, the NPC and the CPPCC (Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference) meet at the same time in Beijing. Theoretically, one of them (NPC) is legislative, and the other (CPPCC) is advisory. That's actually pretty much how it works...sorta like the House of Commons and the House of Lords (although that analogy is eroding with the new changes being put forth in the UK). At any rate, although membership in the NPC is controlled by the party, it would not be quite accurate to say that the NPC is merely a "rubber stamp" body. They have been known to take issue with the party, although it would be unusual, I guess, for them to repudiate a law recommended by the Politburo. In this way, the Chinese system differs markedly from the British. In the UK, there is no "behind the scenes" party or entity which oversees the House of Commons.

But you really have to pay attention, because it is changing all the time. Remember, the Communist Party in this country has 60 million members. There is no dictator or "super ruler" who wields complete control, such as in the days of Mao or Deng Xiao-ping.

This morning on Dialogue, they were having a discussion of the rule of law. This is talked about quite a bit in China, now, but so far the discussion is largely cosmetic. He Jiahong, a professor from Renmin University, told a story to illustrate the cultural contrast involved in this issue. This guy goes to Germany to study, and is walking down the street with his German girlfriend. They come to a red light, and the Chinese guy looks to make sure he can get across without getting run over, and just keeps on going. This upset his German girlfriend, who broke up with him, because she thought he was a very dangerous, unreliable person. Several years later, the guy goes back to China, and is walking down the street with his new Chinese girlfriend. They come to a red light, and his Chinese girlfriend just keeps on going. But he has been living in Germany, and has become accustomed to waiting for the light, so he stays put. His girlfriend gets upset and breaks up with him because she thinks he is too rigid and fearful.

This professor also said something else that I thought was significant. He said, "China has laws but China does not have the rule of law." Some time ago, I reported in this blog on the blind lawyer from Shandong Province who was railroaded by a local court (see 12 December 2006), and whose lawyers were not allowed into the courtroom to defend him. China's current rhetoric about the rule of law sounds pretty empty to anyone who is aware of cases like that one, which clearly had the attention of the central government, which must, then accept responsibility for the ridiculous outcome. The subject is certainly important, and I welcome the discussion, but it will increase expectations for fundamental change, and it remains to be seen whether China is actually prepared to meet those expectations.

I saw it first on MSN, then there was a big splash in the China Daily. Now the Wall Street Journal has decided to weigh in on the issue. The issue of which I speak is the discussion about Al Gore's extravagant lifestyle. The story was broken by a Tennessee non-profit. Apparently he uses something like 20 times the national average. The Wall Street Journal is saying the the natural gas bill for heating his swimming pool is $500 a month.

Al Gore's hypocrisy should not be a surprise. Gore is an American liberal, and the liberals are elitists by nature. They believe that they have been anointed by God to care for the poor and downtrodden, so they hold themselves to a different standard from the masses. When Clinton was president and Gore was vice president, there was a proposal for "midnight basketball" as a deterrent to crime in the inner cities. During this time, Gore was asked if he would want his children to be out in the streets playing basketball at midnight. Gore said, "That is not a fair question." Why isn't it fair? In a liberal's mind, it isn't fair because the "caretaker" is not to be judged by the same standards as the masses under his care.

But while I am critical of Gore's hypocrisy, I also have a problem with his critics. While the movie had a lot of pulp, it did address the issue of rising carbon dioxide levels. Gore deserves credit for bringing this to national attention, and it is a question that demands to be answered. If, in fact, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is slowly but steadily elevating, then it doesn't take much of a scientist to understand that the average global temperatures are going to go up.

Mark flew in from Japan Friday night. Saturday was rainy, but we took a trip down to Tiananmen and the Forbidden City. Sunday, Naomi contacted Mark on Skype, and asked him about all the Chinese food he had been eating, so he gave her the list: pancakes, french toast, omlettes, Big Mac, pizza... Naomi was aghast.

I don't know, I guess I don't think about it that much...I can have Chinese food anytime, so I don't have a compulsion to eat it all the time. One thing you find out when you live in Beijing is that there are lots and lots of Chinese restaurants. I mean they're all over the place. But Chinese restaurants don't lend themselves to one person eating alone, because you buy several dishes and share them. Two is OK, I guess. but four is better. Sunday evening Mark and I went to a Peking Duck restaurant near the West Gate of Renmin University with Claire and Michelle. Peking Duck, of course, is the Beijing specialty. The ducks are force fed to fatten them. I must admit I have some questions about just how that works, and what the ducks think about it. But it sure is delicious. And it came to 25 kuai a piece.

Another lecture at the Bookworm tonight. This time it was a lecture by Peter Hessler, author of River Town. Peter Hessler writes for the New Yorker, and has just written another book called Oracle Bones. Can't tell you anything about the lecture, though, because I didn't go. I generally don't go over to the Sanlitun Bar Street anymore than I have to, and I was just over there Tuesday night. I would have liked to hear the lecture, but enough is enough. So I'm sitting here in the coffee bar plunking away on my laptop.

Probably a good thing I decided not to go tonight. Found a good book at the O2 Bookstore this evening. It's a biography of Alexander II, the Czar of Russia during the 19th Century. It is written by Edward Radzinsky. I'm pretty sure I have read a book by him before. I think it was his book on the murder of Nicholas and Alexandra. He's a good writer if you are interested in Russian history.