Moving

To my dismay and trepidation, I will be moving in a few weeks. I'll either move to Nanjing, Shanghai, or a new apartment in Wuhu. My plans, of yet, are uncertain.

In many respects, this year, my third year in country, was my true sophomoric year. I made the mistake of forgetting where I was. I won't forget again. Not again. So let new adventures start.

Astrill for iPad

So, things at this blog are slowing down. One of the reasons for that is my old macbook died on me. I decided to scale down to an iPad instead of buying a new lap top. That itself hasn't been a prolem. Pacing and writing on an iPad is pretty enjoyable. The real reason for the slow down is a lack of reliable VPNs for the iPad.

I've been using Astrill because they've never done me wrong, but the iPad app is far from ideal. It's sluggish and a lot of times, especially on weekends it simply won't connect.

In any case, I hoping to sort things out soon; I'll be sure to let you know if I find a better VPN for iPad.

North Korea

Is all the crap coming from North Korea for domestic consumption? Probably, but who is the target audience? Is it the average North Korean? Perhaps. Is it for others within the leadership? The selectorate? How big is the North Korean selectorate? Is this kid just insane?

One of the fall back arguments against DPRK having Nukes, or at least Iran having Nukes, is that they're irrational. 

I disagree. This tantrum isn't meant for domestic consumption. It's meant to instill uncertainty into the  minds of analysts. This is rational behavior. It's risky, but the risk has to be taken. The American response has been satisfactory. All DPRK needs is the US to say and show that it takes the threat seriously. The US responded ideally. Why it's almost as though we've given the Nutcase face sending B-2s to pratice killing him.

And so, let's just hope he isn't insane.

The Two Percent

Interesting factoid of the week, throughout history only two percent of Chinese have been able to write Literary Chinese. In 1996 only two percent of Chinese pursued post secondary eduction. Sometimes it seems that things aren't changing, but they are.

First Cider and Mead

So here are our first bottles. Ginger Mead to the left Simple Cider to the right. They were both open aired fermented for ten days. The Mead is nice and sweet. The cider quite crisp. So far they have met mixed reviews, but at least everyone was willing and able to sample one of the products.

I'm serving as test subject. Some aren't quite convinced this is safe. I suppose I ought to show you some in the glass.

The motive is water purification...

The Mead is one grated ginger root, one part honey, five parts water. The cider is fresh apple juice with slices of apple for their wild yeast.

As I said, the mead is very sweet; you can tell immediately from the nose hit you get. But there is a distinct ginger flavor that gives it some warmth. I think I prefer it to the cider. It is definitely easy drinking; assuming, of course, it doesn't kill me.

The cider smells of vinegar. In fact, we thought it had turned on us, but our cousin says it's fine. It has a yeast taste at any rate. Something Ping finds disagreeable, but our cousin prefers it; it tastes more like typical alcohol. Best drunk in moderation, I think. I hope it will improve with age.

The next cider won't be fermented as long before bottling.

Overall, I'm surprised how well they both turned out. There is still a strawberry mead in the works. That will got into bottle as soon as I make a spare.

Short China

I can understand why people are short China, perhaps they're even in the right. But being here I couldn't care less about the figures.

The Chinese, some of them, are the sort of people you hope will succeed.

They're the type of people that devour an entire book in one sitting to keep from paying; and that strikes me as the important bit.

Yes, numbers aren't looking good, but then they shouldn't be; the economy isn't good and there's a leadership transition to consider.

I imagine leadership transitions are always a slow time of sorts for China relative to others. If I were an empiricist, I'd bother to read some graphs and figure out for sure. But, then we'd have to agree to trust the data or on some means of adjusting it.

So, I'll make an argument from axioms instead. The leadership in power is only maintained in power by delivering a mix of public and private goods to their selectorate. China has a huge selectorate; hence it's success despite the form of government. Because of the large size, a significant amount of the leadership's bid comes in the form of quasi-public goods like 4,000 rmb pensions for Civil Servants. But another significant form of private good is access to cheap money.

During a leadership transition that access dries up. The old leadership is transitioning from authority to power; they don't need to bribe people to govern, they just need to bribe enough people to maintain influence. So, they allow the crusaders at the People's Bank of China to tighten oversight. This makes cheap money a hard thing to find or force.

But the new leadership will have to turn on the spigot anew, as surely as the Emperor prays to Heaven for his rice.

Mind and Body

I read a rather disappointing piece in The Spectator just now on celibacy within the Church. It was disappointing because it was too dualist, simplistic, in perspective. That sort of thing is fine for Descartes, but it is not really what theologians believe.

Body and mind are not held as separate things. It has been a long time since I read theology, and even if it were fresh in my mind, I doubt the distinctions would be rather illuminating.

The author went on to claim that celibacy was seen as the easiest form of self-denial. I don't thing that's quite true. In the Orthodox tradition celibacy has always been considered a form of martyrdom; yes, easy insofar as it is available to all where ever their time or place. But in no way easy in the demands made on body and mind.

But the author is correct in general. There is a Platonism still to be found in then teachings of the Church.

3000 Dead Pigs in Shanghai Water Supply

So, we decided to start paying for bottled water. We probably should have been doing it since we got here, but who the hell knows where the water in the bottle comes from.

I've always maintained keeping kosher in China is neigh impossible. But even I'm amazed.

Narendra Modi

I'm fed up with the hand wringing over at Via Meadia about Narendra Modi. They're too cowardly to take a clear position, but feel a constant need to remind us of our predicament. Screw Modi. If he wins, he'll either deal with America or he won't. But there's no reason for us to court the bastard.

When it comes to talking about Asia Via Meadia pushes this Games of Thrones metaphor way too much. That's just bullshit because in The Game of Thrones is a zero-sum game. Sure there's coalition forming, but there can only be one king.

That's the wrong sort of attitude to have in Asia. Having that sort of attitude will hurt American interests. Because there are plenty of actors caught between the US and China and they do poorly if you turn this into a zero-sum game.

Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia. Even the likes of Vietnam. They want an off-shore balancer. They want options not dilemmas.

North Korea China Relations

There's been a lot of talk about the relationship between China and North Korea recently. I just want to put some things in perspective.

Neither India or Pakistan have a ballistic missile that can target Beijing. North Korea has one. North Korea also has some nukes. They might even have some ballistic missiles armed with nukes.

If North Korea is a threat to America its a far greater threat to China. Is the relationship between China and North Korea going to change? Yes. North Korea is dependent on China but has China locked in a position of Mutually Assured Pain.

North Korean missiles are able to target the entire Chinese seaboard. Hell they could even hit Chengdu or Lhasa.

So what's my prediction? Either the relationship is going to go sour quick, or China will accept the new reality facing it: North Korea cannot be reduced to tribute state status. Frankly, it's already a bit late to do anything but accept North Korea can't be coerced.

And we're making the same damn mistake with Iran.

But another mistake we're making is thinking of these weapons as North Korea's. They aren't. They're the ruling coalitions. How valuable are they as bargaining chips in either a situation where the Kims are being given the boot, or in a negotiated reunification?

In fine, North Korea's nukes are a safety net in more than one way; they present the leadership with intriguing bartering options in multiple scenarios.

Dew neh loh moh

On break, while reading Noble House, I came across the words: dew neh loh moh. From context I realized it was obviously a curse. Then I cam across it again and again and again until my interest was peaked.

So, I read the words allowed and hear Ping gasp. What in the world does dew neh loh moh mean?

It means, word for word, fuck your old mother. Clavell plays with the phonetic spelling he employs.

It has been suggested that Dew neh loh moh is Hakka. Perhaps, but the Hakka for you isn't neh, at least not in our dialect. The Hakka for you is more like nhhh or ng.

No, in my opinion dew neh loh moh is pure Cantonese.

How authentic is it? People say it, but I've never heard it in person. Clavell seems to do this. He makes his characters swear.

Clavell doubtless knows more Malay than me, but his curses in Malay are of a sexual nature. And I've recently read that Malays aren't really big on that sort of thing.

Incidentally, there's a character in Noble House that deliberately wears a green hat.

Pensions: Public Good or Spoils?

Seven children living in a home for the disabled dead because the home was to cheap, or inadequately funded, to provide proper heating.

Meanwhile, retired government officials get 4,000 RMB a month in pensions without ever having to make a contribution in their life.

During the last few weeks of Spring Festival I began wondering about pensions: are they public goods or just a way of paying off China's selectorate?

Looking at how local governments manage pension schemes, I feel officials see the money pouring into the system is theirs for the taking. Just look at how pensions have been treated in America.

Dismayed at Kindle

My kindle is a fantastic little thing. I take it almost everywhere. But I was surprised to find a dearth of good books on British foreign policy or politics in general. 

Perhaps I just don't know where to look. I've spent so much time reading about Asia and China, one book leading to another, that maybe I just don't know where to dive into the literature on British politics.

But I can't help but feel peeved at finding perfectly good books available for kindle on amazon.co.uk that are no where to be found on Amazon's American site. I don't blame Amazon. 

I'm just surprised that there isn't enough demand in the US. I find it perplexing in a way. It seems the working of Chinese society is more accessible to me these days. It only seems so though. Doubtless I can't even begin to fathom the goings on in Zhongnanhai.

Start of Classes

I had my first classes this Thursday. I'm surprised that it went so well. I've decided to go out on a limb and trust my students. In other words, I'm making working in small groups a bigger part of our class routine.

I hope the experience will provide me with some deeper lessons, but even if working in small groups doesn't improve end results it's still worthwhile. At the very least, it is something novel. Chinese students are used to lectures.

This term I'm also trying to encourage large group discussions. How it works is my students divided themselves into groups to blog about any topic they'd like. For part of each class we discuss their posts. This way the students will be constantly confronted by the reader.

I think one of the hardest parts of being a teacher is being a reader. Students, not all but quite a few, have no qualms about torture by prose.

I confess I am a sinner too.

To my readers, you long suffering few, please forgive me.

I'm Back and Cooking with Steam

Term is sneaking up on me. I'm happy to report that I had a quite decent vacation in Guangdong/Hong Kong. We did lots and lots, but in the interest of brevity I'll limit myself to making three remarks.

1. I love Hong Kong milk tea.

2. King Rat is an amazing book.

3. Cooking with steam is a whole lot of fun.

All of those things deserve more in-depth treatment, but I find I need to rest up from my holiday.

People coming to the site for Chinese idioms, pronouns, Chinese language information in general, don't worry; I haven't forgotten about you. New posts will be coming your way.

Also, my economics class has either already started or is about to start. It is a distance module via the School of Oriental and African Studies. Last year I didn't exactly take to the online learning enviroment. So I will be posting more economic related topics for the next twenty weeks or so.

In fine, Happy Spring Festival!

China on French Involvement in Mali

I admit, this is a bit of a non-story, but, in case you're wondering, the Chinese Defense Department has not commented on the French air campaign in Mail. The Chinese Defense Department issued a statement reviewing the facts of the matter.

Of course I don't know how it will all play in the media or on the internet. So we'll just have to wait and see. I remember, when the West became more involved in Libya, there was a lot of American bashing by my students which I found amusing. 

Strangely, France and the UK weren't on the receiving end of really any flak among my students. I was teaching high school seniors at the time.

Winter Vacation

I finished grading finals yesterday and submitted my grade; my winter vacation has begun. Consequently, I'll be heading down to Guangdong for a month or so. I'll be brining my computer, but internet access will be infrequent. 

I'll try post something at least once a fortnight. I don't expect I can do much more than that. But I'm sure it's all for the better. A little time spent away from the computer will let me spend more time with my Kindle.

I suspect on this trip, Ping and I will be able to visit Hong Kong. She needs to get a new visa, and we don't know how long that will take. Of course she'll be against such a wasteful trip. I figure it will do her some good to get off the mainland. 

I'm hesitant for other reasons: my passport is running low on visa pages, and a few wayward stamps could send me begging to Uncle Sam...

Chinese Pronouns

Today, I suppose, will be our first real lesson. That said, I do hope you're not relying on me to teach you Chinese. There are plenty of excellent resources out there. Try them. Indeed, you'll have to because  I won't teach you pinyin pronunciation. I've never been  comfortable with the whole bo po mo fo thing. 

In my mind it sounds to much like: bhrehter, phter, mehter, [insert whatever is Proto-Indo-European for fucker]. 

So I suggest you let the fine folks at Popup Chinese or Sinoslice teach you your pinyin and tones. Or better yet how about you drop everything and move to China. You'll be amazed at how intelligent you can be when forced to be.

No, my aim is to provide you a means of reviewing. So let's review our pronouns. 

Our common singular pronouns are:

我 wo I

你 ni You

他 / 她 / 它 ta He / She / It

We form the plural by adding the suffix 们 men. Hence, our common plural pronouns are:

我们 women We

你们 nimen You

他们 / 她们 / 它们 tamen They

I trust you are with me so far. Thankfully, the pronouns listed above may serve as either subject or object. Put another way, 我 means either I or me. The meaning depends on the context. Confusing?

Personally, I'm confused about lot of the Chinese I hear but working out the subject and the object of a sentence isn't problem. 

Now, before we get to our less common pronouns, let's examine all those ta and tamen. If you've studied French, you're might be wondering if the rules for using 他们 and 她们 are the same as the rules for using ils and elles. 

In other words, if the group of people is both male and female, do I use the masculine form [他们] or the feminine form [她们]. If there is at least one male in the group, you should use the masculine form. This is what is taught to native speakers. Although it does give female native speakers pause for thought. 

Now, let's talk about 它. Its usage is not similar to English usage. In the first place, it isn't common. In Chinese, your sentence doesn't need to include an explicit subject. The subject is often understood. Consequently, when you as some a question like, 'Is Xidan subway station nearby.' They won't use  

它 in their reply.

They'll often answer in a few words and point you in the right direction. If the directions are complex, then they'll probably just say, 'Xidan subway station' or 'that subway station'. They might also say, 'it'. My point is that using 它 isn't required, isn't expected, and might even cause confusion. 

In fact, I've only ever used 它 in reference to animals. And even then the tendency is to use a word like 'that' or 'this' or a phrase like 'that cute x'.

Now, suppose you're discussing a fetus of unknown gender. In English we at least tend to write, 'Is it a boy or a girl?' In Chinese the equivalent question is something like, '他是男孩子还是女孩子？'Notice that we use 他. That is because 他 has an inclusive sense. If we want to be more gender neutral, we could write, '他(她)是男孩子还是女孩子？' Of course, it would be ridiculous to try and say something of the sort as the various forms of ta share a common pronunciation.

Now, I for one, am not particularly bothered by using 他 in an inclusive sense. The other two ta are of more recent coinage. 他 itself is composed of two elements: 人 and 也. The first, 人, includes all humans and is gender neutral. The second,也, just means 'also'. 

The masculine form,  他, is used in reference to China.

That's probably more than enough of the third person singular for one day.

There is, however, one more topic deserving mention. The pronouns above are not used as possessive pronouns. So we'll save those for another time. You can also expect posts on three other common pronouns, Imperial pronouns, and the pronouns you'll encounter in Chinese poetry. 

And, so, in the words of that old 鬼佬 (to throw some Cantonese at you) on CCTV再见.

How to Say Cuckold in Chinese

Last night Ping and I watched Lost in Thailand. It was pretty entertaining, and I understood a fair amount of the dialogue because it was a slapstick comedy sort of affair.

Plus they movie taught me how to call someone a cuckold in Chinese. The key phrase is "wear a green hat":

 Dai lu mao zi (戴绿帽子)

Let's break that down and mark out the tones:

Dai4: wear
Lu4: green
mao4 zi: hat

And now you know how to call someone a cuckold in Chinese. Sadly, it's not so simple.

I'll assume you already know the basic pronouns. But suppose an Emperor wanted to say to his subjects, "I'm a cuckold."

Well that's a simple one. He'd say this:

 Zhen dai lu mao zi (朕戴绿帽子)

Well actually he wouldn't. Because the Emperor didn't willing put of his green hat. Someone snuck up and perched that hat on his head before he realized what's going on. So, if our Emperor says, "朕戴绿帽子" people are going to be confused.

What the Emperor has to say is, "他给朕戴绿帽子."

The new bit in this sentence: "Ta gei zhen" means "He gave me". And that zhen is the royal pronoun.

Proles would use the same sentence pattern by replacing the zhen with wo (我).

Now that we can tease ourselves, it is only fair that we learn how to tease others.

The simplest way to do this, I think, is to simply says, "他逼戴绿帽子." Our new word is pronounced bi (逼) and means to force or compelled. And so what we're saying is something like, "He was forced to wear a green hat." Incidentally, 逼 is a homophone for cunt.

Farming

This winter vacation I'll be looking at farmland to rent. I don't intend to set up a large operation. I'm looking to rent between 1 to 2 acres. That should be enough land to keep me occupied on the weekends. Trouble is we won't be moving back to Guangdong for at least another year. And I'm not sure Ping is keen on moving back home right after graduation. 

So, at the moment, I'm not quite sure where this field will be. There's a lot to be said for trying to farm in China, but it's probably going to be a huge headache. Trouble is it will probably be a headache moving Ping's parents Stateside. They don's strike me as keen on the idea.

In any case, we have a while to figure everything out. What does this mean for you?

Expect more and more posts to concern agriculture and the like.

Chinese Word Play

One of the joys of Chinese is the existence of so many homophones. Today's date provides a good example of what I mean.

In Chinese the date for 4 January 2013 is read off the other way around:

Er ling yi san yi si

Now when someone in Guangdong says, "yi san yi shi" it sounds very much like the Chinese for "forever":

Yi sheng yi shi (一生一世)

And with a little imagination "Er ling" can be made to resemble "[I] love you":

Ai ni  (愛你)

Hence today's date means: I love you forever. And now you know.

Chinese Housing Bubble

The Chinese government wasn't afraid of a housing bubble. They were afraid of the political fallout of housing becoming unaffordable. That's why they've increased housing subsidies, that's also why they targeted luxury property developments. 

Nor is the Central government fearful of a property bubble. They're worried about arbitrage. Although I suppose one man's arbitrage is another man's fraud. 

Local governments make a great deal of its money by selling land. Oftentimes local government sells this land to a property developer with political clout but little ready cash. The local government then pressures local banks into providing that property developer with discounted loans.

Our cash poor property developer often turns out to be a cousin of the local Party Secretary. His development scheme tends to the ambitious. This naturally causes concern. 

The local bank manager worries, but he's not worrying about the bad loans originated under his reign. He's too busy cleaning up the mess of non-preforming loans left by his predecessor. 

Fearing for his job, never mind promotion, he sells these loans off for pennies on the dollar; oftentimes, one tends to find, to another cousin of the local party secretary.

Naturally, the technocrats at the People's Bank of China take a dim view on all this. Trouble is our local party secretary has a patron who has a patron and, well you get the idea. 

You talk property bubbles, you are a Babe. What idol are you indulging in exactly? I suppose of the Cave with a dash of Theatre and a pinch of Marketplace. Or perhaps we're a little too trusting.

Huangshan

A few months ago Ping and I went to Huangshan for a day of climbing. It was an enjoyable experience. I only wish we'd had enough time to spend a night on the mountain, but then staying on the mountain top is rather expensive--at least for a working laowai such as myself. 

Huangshan, Yellow Mountain, is a beautiful place. If you have the time, I think it well worth visiting. We only spent a day on the mountain, but we were a little rushed. If you you spend a night on the mountain, then I think you wouldn't have many regrets. Expect to pay. Hotel rooms are expensive, by Chinese standards, and so is food. 

Accommodation will probably set you back 1000 RMB. Cafeteria style meals can be had for around 50 RMB. A proper multi-course meal for six can be had for 700 RMB.  Incidentally, there is an ATM on the mountain top across from the basketball court.

Below are some pictures to give you a sense of the place. 

Chinese Values: the Tyranny of the Aunts

Oftentimes I wonder if Chinese society is valueless. Is there any morality at play or does anything go? I don't mean to criticise China, or at least criticising China is not my primary intent. It's just that Chinese society makes me wonder where America is heading.

I think it's wrong to claim Chinese society is valueless. Family loyalty is what the Chinese value above all else, and much of China's woes stem from this clannishness: corruption and gender imbalance certainly. Corruption because providing for one's parents trumps any obligation to the state. Geneder inbalance because only male offsprings can continue the family line.  

Sometimes it seems like this clannishness is weakening, but I'm uncertain; perhaps my impressions are seasonal. Chinese New Year's is February and I'm getting particularly strong clannish vibes.

In any case, I don't think China provides much of a glimpse into America's secular future. For some subgroups in America family loyalty is doubtless important. But none of those subgroups dominate America like the Han dominate China.  And the individual does seem to at more liberty in America than in China. Fukuyama talks about the Tyranny of Cousins. Of course this might be more aptly named the Tyranny of Aunts.

A cousin of my own has spent the last year and a half at Tokyo University studying in a Premed program of some kind. He has no interest in becoming a doctor. He does have an interest in biology. He had two choices: study agriculture or study premed. His aunts didn't like the idea of him "becoming a farmer"; so, he entered the premed program. If there had been a little more tyranny of the cousins, I would have told him to study agriculture. If China keeps on developing, the agriculture sector is going to consolidate. There will be lots of decent opportunities.

Instead he's spent the last year and a half being miserable, not that I care, and has gotten it into his head to study in Germany after he completes his course. And this, it seems, is his little act of rebellion. He's at last tired of the tyranny of the aunts. The trouble is he's not self-supporting. The aunts control the purse-strings. His mother has no assets xcept for him. Mother and Son are in debt to practically every family member with a cent to her name. In fine, he can't rebel for long.

Ping finds herself in a similar situation. She is studying for her masters. She's not sure what subject she really wants to study. Right now she's set on studying education,  but there's a lot of specialties. To pay for her education she relies on her mother. And her mother is fine with Ping studying for her Doctorate as long as this doesn't prevent her from having a family.

Of course Aunts still meddle, and cousins. Once a quarter a cousin calls Ping to remind her of duty to her parents. This isn't out of altruism. Ping's mother happens to sit on the largest pile of ready-cash. Whenever anyone in the clan has an idiotic scheme, the first person they try to fleece is her. They worry about the reserve being drained on Ping's education.