3.560 km from Sanya, Hainan Province to Beijing in 55 days. Little Zhang Huimin, 8 years old was running and running and running. She weighs only 20 kilo and is 1,25 cm tall. Every day she got up 2.30 am and ran an average of 70 km, accompanied by her father on his motorized bicycle. They arrived in Beijing on August, 28 where they made it to the front page of the China Daily.
Is this another form of child abuse? Chinese parents are very ambitious with their offsprings. You might call it pro-active parenting when a four year old get tennis and piano lessons. But when a father sends his three year old daughter running 3 km a day dreaming her to win the marathon at the 2016 Olympics. What is that?
The father's training methods have been widely criticized (see relevant Independent article) and the girl's picture on the front page of a Chinese Newspaper at Danwei.
Thursday, 30 August 2007
Sunday, 26 August 2007
Beijing: About Drivers
Drivers know everything. They know where your new colleague lives. They know who had dinner where and when they went home - after which bar and probably with whom too. They know who is entitled to which company car and who has changed the car too early. Our driver also knows that apple juice is cheaper at Jenny Lou than at Carrefour. He knows which ham my husband likes to eat and which milk my son prefers. He also knew that a police control in Sanlitun’s barstreet was scheduled for the other night.
Drivers hear lots of things and they like to share information. That’s why we know also lots of things about our drivers.
Working as a driver in Beijing is a well respected and well paid job. At least it was for many years. It might change. However, our driver seems to drive for fun. He was waiting to finally drive his dream car, a Mercedes. He is happy with that. He owns a house and his wife does business trips to London. Never had a driver before who was living at that standard. He does not buy his cashmere sweater like I do at the Silk market for 240 RMB. He buys a better quality for 600 RMB at Lido Holiday Inn. Then there was a time he was thinking of buying an apartment, just for an investment. And last week he tells that he made a great deal. He sold an other apartment for 1,5 million RMB that he bought four years ago for 500,000 RMB. 1,000,0000 RMB profit (about 100,000 Euro). Our driver. Unbelievable. Do you still want to work for us?, I asked him. He just laughed and smiled friendly like always. He is one of the best looking Chinese around and he always dresses nicely. He does not spit on the street at a red light like taxi drives do. And you won’t believe, but he is also good in driving. He is the best driver we ever had (5 years in Thailand, no one could drive like that). And in China, someone who really knows to drive is hard to find. His English name is ‘Michael’. He said, his previous boss gave him this name after ‘Michael Schumacher’. He worked for Volvo and Siemens before. But his dream was to drive a Mercedes.
All visiting family members love him. My sister said that a certain distance with a taxi driver takes double of the time than with ‘Michael’. Our driver knows his way. With him there is no traffic jam in Beijing. He just avoids the traffic jam. He goes on the fourth or fifth ring road to avoid the traffic on the third. He burns more gasoline on more kilometres but he is seldom stacked in traffic. He knows that we will arrive in 7 minutes. Not 5 or 10 minutes, no he knows, it will take 7 minutes. He can always at anytime point in my fathers map where we are. When we go back home for summer he buys green tea for my mother and mother-in-law as a gift. He owns two mobile phones, latest models only. We already suspected him to spy on us. Maybe he has another job, maybe not. We don’t mind. We are happy with him.
Yesterday, we had dinner with another couple, friends, which happen to work for the same company. They told us, that their driver saw our car outside and said to them, that we are already in the restaurant. And of course he knows our driver. They probably will go for dinner together. So it happened that we had a small conversation about our drivers. We learned from our friends that their diver is an even bigger businessman than ours. He owns 6 shops in Yashow and Silk market. And he or his wife owns a spacious and apparently recognized Chinese restaurant that can host up to 800 people. One day, our friend told us, the driver asked him if he could stop at the bank. He might need some cash, he thought. Wrong. The driver opened the gloves box and took out an envelop 10cm thick, packed with 100 RMB bills. Money from his restaurant. This one definitely drives just for fun.
Our next dinner date will be at our friend's driver’s restaurant.
Drivers hear lots of things and they like to share information. That’s why we know also lots of things about our drivers.
Working as a driver in Beijing is a well respected and well paid job. At least it was for many years. It might change. However, our driver seems to drive for fun. He was waiting to finally drive his dream car, a Mercedes. He is happy with that. He owns a house and his wife does business trips to London. Never had a driver before who was living at that standard. He does not buy his cashmere sweater like I do at the Silk market for 240 RMB. He buys a better quality for 600 RMB at Lido Holiday Inn. Then there was a time he was thinking of buying an apartment, just for an investment. And last week he tells that he made a great deal. He sold an other apartment for 1,5 million RMB that he bought four years ago for 500,000 RMB. 1,000,0000 RMB profit (about 100,000 Euro). Our driver. Unbelievable. Do you still want to work for us?, I asked him. He just laughed and smiled friendly like always. He is one of the best looking Chinese around and he always dresses nicely. He does not spit on the street at a red light like taxi drives do. And you won’t believe, but he is also good in driving. He is the best driver we ever had (5 years in Thailand, no one could drive like that). And in China, someone who really knows to drive is hard to find. His English name is ‘Michael’. He said, his previous boss gave him this name after ‘Michael Schumacher’. He worked for Volvo and Siemens before. But his dream was to drive a Mercedes.
All visiting family members love him. My sister said that a certain distance with a taxi driver takes double of the time than with ‘Michael’. Our driver knows his way. With him there is no traffic jam in Beijing. He just avoids the traffic jam. He goes on the fourth or fifth ring road to avoid the traffic on the third. He burns more gasoline on more kilometres but he is seldom stacked in traffic. He knows that we will arrive in 7 minutes. Not 5 or 10 minutes, no he knows, it will take 7 minutes. He can always at anytime point in my fathers map where we are. When we go back home for summer he buys green tea for my mother and mother-in-law as a gift. He owns two mobile phones, latest models only. We already suspected him to spy on us. Maybe he has another job, maybe not. We don’t mind. We are happy with him.
Yesterday, we had dinner with another couple, friends, which happen to work for the same company. They told us, that their driver saw our car outside and said to them, that we are already in the restaurant. And of course he knows our driver. They probably will go for dinner together. So it happened that we had a small conversation about our drivers. We learned from our friends that their diver is an even bigger businessman than ours. He owns 6 shops in Yashow and Silk market. And he or his wife owns a spacious and apparently recognized Chinese restaurant that can host up to 800 people. One day, our friend told us, the driver asked him if he could stop at the bank. He might need some cash, he thought. Wrong. The driver opened the gloves box and took out an envelop 10cm thick, packed with 100 RMB bills. Money from his restaurant. This one definitely drives just for fun.
Our next dinner date will be at our friend's driver’s restaurant.
Thursday, 23 August 2007
Matchmaking in China
The Chinese matchmaking website Baije.com held a Chinese Valentine's Day(*) meeting at a Beijing park last weekend. More than 2,000 people attended. The organiser said 30 % of the attendees were parents of singles trying to find the right match for their children. Parents even register on the website to find online potential partners for their children.
Matchmaking has a long tradition in China. In the countryside parents would go to see the matchmaker of the village to find the match for their son or daughter.
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(*) The Chinese Valentine's Day takes place at the seventh lunar day of the sevens lunar month and flowers a given to loved ones, same like on the worldwide Valentine's Day on February 14th.
Matchmaking has a long tradition in China. In the countryside parents would go to see the matchmaker of the village to find the match for their son or daughter.
--------------------
(*) The Chinese Valentine's Day takes place at the seventh lunar day of the sevens lunar month and flowers a given to loved ones, same like on the worldwide Valentine's Day on February 14th.
Wednesday, 22 August 2007
Flickr Photos partly unblocked in China
Amazing! I see my flickr badge on the blogroll showing colourful pictures again! I immediately accessed flickr to see whether China's 'Net Nannie' has finally unblocked flickr... I couldn't believe my eyes: from all my sets only the one with the title 'China Style', the one feeding the flickr badge on this blog was deblocked. Well, the 'Net Nannie' must be really busy deblocking pictures/sets by tags or names... Amazing!
This is my unblocked set at flickr.com. All other pictures are still not available in China.
Update: Thursday 2.30pm, the Censors are not that generous anymore... all gone again. However some minutes later some other pictures, not my China Set, were visible...Maybe the Censors play around or the filter does not work right. I don't know if you know how censorship in China looks like, therefor here the latest screenshot:
This is my unblocked set at flickr.com. All other pictures are still not available in China.
Update: Thursday 2.30pm, the Censors are not that generous anymore... all gone again. However some minutes later some other pictures, not my China Set, were visible...Maybe the Censors play around or the filter does not work right. I don't know if you know how censorship in China looks like, therefor here the latest screenshot:
Fang Xiang at Creation Gallery in Beijing
It is time to post something beautiful. I have not been painting or posting paintings for too long. Yesterday I got another email from Lolita from Creation Gallery at Ritan Park in Beijing. The gallery shows new paintings from Fang Xiang, one of my favorite Chinese painters. He is more popular among expats than among Chinese as his paintings are not 'traditional'. I like his paintings because they are calm and lively at the same time. They are full of Chinese elements, like bird cages, Chinese doors and chairs, lilies and bamboo - without being 'too Chinese'. The colours he use are vivid, the compositions just beautiful....
I am not a professional painting reviewer, just look for yourself and visit Creation Gallery.
From the gallery's website I got Fang Xiang's resume:
His works have appeared 'in many provincial and national art exhibitions and have won numerous awards. Many of his works have been exhibited in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Czechoslovakia, America and Canada. His works are part of the collections of China Art Museum, Associations of Chinese Artists, the Academy of Chinese Painting, and etc.'
The painting above is called 'A Narrow and quiet path', 136x34 cm, Wash and Ink, 52,000 RMB (about 5,200 Euro).
This one is called 'Courtyard'. It is in horizontal format, that means you do not necessarily need to have a pair. (34x136 cm, Wash and Ink, 52,000 RMB - about 5,200 Euro).Sigh, the price is high. I should have bought something from Fang Xiang in Singapore many years ago, when I first saw his art. At that time I hesitated. Cannot remember the price, but he also was not cheap at that time.
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