Values vs. Re-adjusting

Lately I’ve been feeling like there is some disconnect between me and many of the people I know in Janesville, WI, where I live now. I couldn’t place the cause of it or even define precisely what it was. But then an old friend from school, who herself is from Taiwan, left a comment on my Facebook wall: “You’re so Asian.” And, I think that is it.

And now to contradict that last sentence. It’s not so much that I’m “so Asian” as I think it is that I am not quite so American. I’ve been back in the States now for two years and thought I had long since re-adjusted to life here, and I think that is true too. I have re-adjusted to life here. But I think some of my values have changed, permanently, and I think that is the cause of the disconnect.

The Legacies of Liu Xiang and Lei Feng

The legacy of Lei Feng has one major advantage over that of what will be part of Liu Xiang’s. Lei Feng was dead before he became famous, and therefore he did not have a chance to tarnish the model image the CCP created around him.

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Tags Lei Feng, Liu Xiang, China, Role Models

Beijing 2008 in Wisconsin

It’s just a normal day for my colleagues. The biggest thing in the news is Brett Favre’s trade to the NY Jets. But today is 8-8-08! The Beijing Olympics opening ceremony is taking place right now! They couldn’t care less. For me, it’s a series of sighs. Five years in China. Five years listening to the hopes and dreams of the Chinese people. All focused to one single place and time: Beijing 2008 – 8-8-08. And now it’s here, and it’s there, and I’m here, and the people around me don’t care.

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Tags China, America, Olympics

Standardized Names for Chinese Dishes

In an effort to prevent tourists from becoming confused or scared-off by Chinese dishes with names often translated directly from Chinese to English, like fish fragrance eggplant (boy doesn’t that sound delicious!), the Chinese government has developed a standardized list of names for Chinese dishes.

I think this is a great idea and I really hope it catches on, both at home and abroad.

Unfortunately, according to the Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the guide “will be available to restaurants at the three-star level and above beginning June 20.”

It would be great if it were freely available online too.

For one thing, I’d like to have it as a reference; it sure would be handy to bookmark on an iPhone for use when you’re actually at a Chinese restaurant and want a clearer idea of what you’re ordering.

For another thing, there are plenty of restaurants in China that are not at the three star level but that are frequented by expats. Surprisingly, many of these restaurants have English menus, even in cities with very small expat populations, like Weifang. A freely available, well-publicized, online version of this menu might help speed the adoption of the menu even in these smaller restaurants.

If it has been put online and anyone knows where to find it please point to it in the comments.

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Tags China, Chinese Food

Oddly Enough, China Daily More Accurate than Reuters

A Reuters article, “Masseuses told to padlock pants“, reports on masseuses in Indonesia, but uses a China Daily image from a police raid on prostitutes in a hotel in Jilin, China to go with the story:

The original image from the China Daily article:

And this is three weeks after Western media showed those images of the 3/14 crackdown against Tibetan protestors in Nepal while claiming they were images from Tibet.

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Tags Media, Western Media, Asia