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Half the town on any given day is wearing white. While Wang Dan may have been going for a ‘subtle gesture of protest,’ it’s possible the ‘wear white day’ idea was a little too subtle. Kind of like: “If you wish to honor the memory of the Tiananmen dead, don’t shave your left eyebrow completely off on Thursday morning.” Today I flagged a cab to head over to the new US Embassy (a building with all the charm of a medium-security prison for Midwestern tax cheats glorious symbol of American freedom, F–k yeah!) and my driver was perplexed even though I had carefully explained in Chinese how to get there. Now this is hardly unusual as I have long lamented in this space, but what was remarkable was this particular driver had with him…a map! In fact, he had a whole book of maps. This was a huge step up from the driver earlier this week who took three tries to find the Third Ring Road… In the end, we didn’t actually need the map (I knew the way) but I was impressed at this level of preparedness on the part of a taxi professional. Progress? Perhaps. Today is Friday the 13th for those who care about such things. Personally, I’m not taking any chances and will be behind locked doors all day. I actually do have a good excuse as a wicked late-winter/early-spring cold has taken hold filling my lungs with an odd substance, the consistency of which varies between ‘watery doufu’ and ‘rubber cement.’ Ah well, such is. It’s also the birthday of Charles Grey, the 2nd Earl Grey (1764-1845), Prime Minister of the UK from 1830-1834, and whose early life was depicted in a positively dreadful film The Duchess, one of only a handful of options available for viewing in United Economy class on my most recent trans-pacific flight. It was one of those movies that made me wish for hijackers, if only because being tortured to death at 35,000 feet seemed at the time less painful than the prospect of watching Keira Kneightly act. The other movie selection was the apocalyptic sci-fi smash-up Death Race, and seriously folks, when Jason Statham shows more range and character development as a futuristic demolition derby driver than you do in a period piece, it’s time to start thinking ‘career choices.’ Oh yeah, Did I mention that “No flowers. Nothing looks tackier than girls walking around on dates with wilted overpriced roses. Chocolates MIGHT work…” These were my marching orders. Frankly, while she has a great sense of style, and quirky sense of humor, YJ has never been much of a “girly girl,” but Valentine’s Day comes once a year so…the husband has to suit up and think of SOMETHING. It’s also a little known secret (though probably better known now) that February 14th is our “official” — as opposed to the one we celebrate — anniversary. It was on this date two years ago that we went down to to the courthouse and the Tianjin Office of Marriage Certification put it all to rest, there were a few wedding day smiles but no walks down the aisles, and no, she didn’t wear a wedding dress.* We’re also on a ‘gotta find new restaurants’ kick. Since 2007, Beijing’s restaurant scene has grown in size and sophistication. Actual French people running French restaurants… know, crazy huh? Long gone are the days when a restaurant could advertise “Western Food” as an actual cuisine and keep a straight face. (“Sure, we serve Western Food…didn’t you see the three pieces of |
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Copyright © 2012 Jottings from the Granite Studio - All Rights Reserved
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Seeking truth from whatever…
For what it’s worth, David Bandurski and his team at China Media Project absolutely rock, and today’s commentary and translation of a bit of whiny blather from Qiu Shi on “people being mean to China” or some other such spray of sputum and self-pity is just the latest in a line of great posts. For what it’s worth, someone desperately needs to alert the editors of Qiu Shi as to the dangers of inadequate nutrition…poor sods seem to be suffering from a serious case of irony deficiency.
Leaving aside the whole point that very few people in the Chinese government understand, are willing to understand, or even want to understand how the media actually functions outside of PRC…the mother of all “dead horse” topics…There is this blissful piece of ineffable twaddle:
But in developed nations like the United States, some people now voice surprise at seeing that Chinese have mobile phones just as they do, and they ask ridiculous questions like, “You Chinese use mobile phones too?” Their understanding of China is trapped in the 1970s.
Yeah, maybe…but for every nameless American who “expresses surprise at Chinese using mobile phones,” I’ll give you 10 Beijingers who can’t wrap their skulls