The old Talk Talk China had a theory called the “cycle of China funk” to describe the oscillation that most foreigners here feel between loving and hating the place that we call home. This week I’ve been on a bit of a downswing, but no matter. YJ, who spent two years studying law in France, reminds me that it’s not just China, anyone living abroad goes through similar phases. In fact, her two years in France has changed her from somebody who used to love baguettes and eclairs into somebody who whenever she sees a movie using Paris as a romantic backdrop starts screaming “Get out while you still can” at the screen.
Ah well, catharsis is nice.
On that note, there are challenges to living in the Olympic city and fortunately other writers have been click-clacking away. It’s like group therapy for the jiaozi and beer set.
At Spot-On, Jonathan Ansfield writes about China’s new visa crackdown: The good, the bad, and the really ugly. This has the potential to be a major pain in the ass in the coming months at the very least, and at worst is starting to reveal an uglier side of the “Beijing welcomes the world” campaign.
The always rude and entertaining crew at Sinocidal has been in rare form this month. Nobody does China catharsis like Chou Chou, LaoLao, TaiTai, LangLang and the rest of the bunch. For a taste, check out this latest post on Beijing drivers. An old topic to be sure, but I feel a topic hasn’t really been “done” until Sinocidal gets a crack at it.
Not yet done with traffic rants? Froog over at Froogville is training for the running season by playing a lot Formula 1 video games (Mainland link here) and it’s helping his reaction time and reflexes as he jogs around the Houhai area. We used to live in that neighborhood and I’ve jogged those lakes hundreds of time and I AM HERE to TESTIFY! Tell ‘em the TRUTH, Brother Froog, tell ‘em HOW IT IS.
Finally, I’ve heard that having a fish tank can ease stress. So I bought a goldfish. I should point out that this is not the first goldfish we’ve brought into our apartment. Seriously. We’ve killed more fish than a tuna fleet. Ah well. Hope, like mildew, springs eternal.
Happy Thursday.
3 responses so far ↓
1 chriswaugh_bj // Oct 11, 2007 at 3:50 am
That’s a funny kind of mainland link… it seems to lead Froog’s unproxied frontpage.
And I recommend buying a fishtank to match your fish. Fish are funny like that, the tend to get really upset when they don’t have something to swim in.
2 花崗齋之愚公 // Oct 11, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Chris,
Ah, that Kiwi wit…we do have a fish bowl, though I think I can detect faint scratchings on its walls that say “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” On a positive note, we’re on day four of what YJ calls the “Goldfish death watch” and our latest pet/victim is still swimming strong. Keeping my fingers crossed.
3 Froog // Oct 21, 2007 at 12:13 am
Thanks for the recommendation, J.
The racing terminology - in British English - for getting an aerodynamic ‘tow’ from the vehicle ahead is ’slipstreaming’.
Leave a Comment