Comrade Aiden's Harmonious Fortune Prosperity Blog

Tong Zhi: In today's China this word isn't commonly used as a term of address and has undergone a shift in meaning - yesterday's "comrade" is now a slang word for "gay." This is a kind of play on words, as the literal meaning of "comrade" in Chinese is "of the same mindset." While in revolutionary circles this mindset entailed a vision of a new society, today's mindset is a particular vision of sexuality.

[loveislikechina]

@willistoocute @skullchild @lbcandismd @lzvyl1992 @imaginaryfriendsoup @thejiangxijitney @fried-tofu @ingestibles-blog 

[loveislikechina]

@willistoocute @skullchild @lbcandismd @lzvyl1992 @imaginaryfriendsoup @thejiangxijitney @fried-tofu @ingestibles-blog 

Ray-Ban Sunglasses

[loveislikechina]

@willistoocute @skullchild @lbcandismd @lzvyl1992 @imaginaryfriendsoup @thejiangxijitney @fried-tofu @ingestibles-blog 

Ray-Ban Sunglasses

[loveislikechina]

This makes me a little sad. Mossy cliff water=drinking water. Sadder, it may be safer than drinking tap water.

[loveislikechina]

After Chengdu, we took a ~5 hour bus to the Great Bamboo Sea (). It was quite gorgeous; very different from Jiangxi Province; very different from anywhere in the US; and, as advertised, full of bamboo. We did have to row across one lake at one point (the statue is of a "fairy" woman. There were also a number of waterfalls, a (red sandstone?) cliff side, and a slightly underwhelming cable car ride over the Bamboo Sea (though it did give some perspective as to why it's a sea and not a forest). We had a lovely homestay, about which I'll post tomorrow.

[loveislikechina]

So these pictures capture two separate Chinese traditions re: mountains. The first is placing sticks in the hollows of cliff sides. The belief is that this will create a blessing of great strength, strength powerful enough to hold a whole mountain up. The second appears on most Chinese mountains with any degree of tourism. The locks are more or less the equivalent of carving a heart onto a tree and writing James + Lily 4Eva. As long as the locks endure, so will the love. I don't know whether Chinese divorcees return with bolt cutters to remove their locks. I doubt it. Westerners (usually) don't chop down the trees on which they carved their initials.

To add a humorous twist, though, is the stall selling these locks: Locks of Love. Much like the Goodwill logo being misappropriated as a bar logo, this is clearly an instance where the person using the Anglophone concept had a passing understanding at best of what the phrase or image actually represents.

[loveislikechina]

All Western Festivals are the Same

So, I recently posted a Chinese picture of Santa, complete with golden hair and shiny, shiny blue eyes. This picture is a bit older but of the same vein. Just as China believes Santa can only look like a rotund Aryan and that Christmas decorations are intended to be left up until they fade, they have other misconceptions. Like:

Christmas = Halloween? I doubt they have the theological knowledge for this, but perhaps: The Holy Spirit = Ghost? Naughty Children... get haunted? Whatever the reason, I found the Boo! ghost ornament rather charming.

[loveislikechina]

This is sort of an old picture - I found it as I was prepping Sichuan pictures. It's a good one-off. It's from back in March. You can kind of see my parents' reflection, but, obviously, the picture is of the sign on the door of this tour bus. Only Spicy Girls, apparently, were permitted on the tour.

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There will be another post re: the Great Bamboo Sea, but this one has a quite concrete (pun intended) subject. At first I thought perhaps the statue was of a hippopotamus because that would have been cool. Also, in Chinese, a hippo is a River Horse, which I like (). I'm pretty sure, though, it is a cow. Its cow head is a little oddly shaped, so I'm not going to 100% rule out the hippo hypothesis, but I think it's a quite mundane cow. It is the statue of a cow hanging out above a waterfall (pictures of that to follow).

So, I was never in 4H. High school and college bio involved some pig and sheep dissections, but I never really learned about bovine anatomy because... why would I? So I can't say whether this statue is simply anatomically correct or if there is an odd, specially (that was meant to be the adjective form of species, not special... alas) incorrect addition. I am fairly sure that the statue is a “her,” though. Why? It is a mystery of Sichuan I will likely never solve.

[loveislikechina]

Cosmopolis

So, it is official: I am leaving Nanchang, a large but conservative and provincial city in which I am considered to be qualified to teach University students (heck, I even won Excellent Teacher two years running) despite only having a Bachelor of Arts, to move to Shanghai, a glittering metropolis in which I will be teaching colors, animals, and the alphabet to Kindergarteners. It's a trade-off, but one that seems heavily weighted to the positive.

[loveislikechina]

For lunch after the pandas, we had Sichuan Hot Pot (四川火锅) - actually, southern Sichuan style with skewers of food (串)that are boiled in broth. We were concerned Sichuan's famously spicy spiciness would be too spicy for our Western tongues to handle, so we got a split pot with the spicy broth and a savory broth. Our fear turned out to be quite unfounded. Jiangxi certainly isn't as famous as Sichuan, but the food here is quite as spicy as any of the dishes I had over my week in Sichuan. Sichuan peppers (花椒), however, do have a very distinct and delicious flavor. Though not more spicy, they were differently spicy, which was quite pleasant.

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China's version of an iced Cappuccino: a regular Cappuccino with ice cubes. Sigh. They do NOT get coffee in this country yet.

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PANDAS. There is even a special panda police including a creepy cartoon panda policewoman (the actual panda police are people, not weird anthropomorphic beings, for the record). With typical reverence for copyright law and dignity, the official Giant Panda Breeding Research Base has trolleys with... Kung Fu Panda plastered all over it. The pandas were quite cute. The enclosures were a little smaller and more Swiss-Family-Robinson than I'd expected and wherever the research occurs is not visible or open to the public. We arrived just in time for feeding time! Kind of kidding - Pandas eat for almost 16 hours a day. Virtually the only way to miss their feeding time is to show up for their nap time. That. Is. The. Life.

Sidebar: Red Pandas are basically what raccoons would be if they were cute and not horrible. Way to go, China.

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W. T. F. This is thinly sliced pork deep fried with quite crispy breading covered in... sweetened mayonaise... and sprinkles/jimmies. Why, China? Why?

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(Taken 3 days ago)

Santa is usually portrayed as being white, often with rosy/alcoholic cheeks. Not everyone knows he has super super yellow blond hair (and a very blond beard as well). Thank you for enlightening me, China. Also, Christmas decorations stay up until they are too sun-faded or tattered to remain on display. This indoor market has no sun exposure. This Santa may still be there decades from now.

[loveislikechina]

Chinese Student Writing (in English)

A Sunny Day Party ACT 1: Rabbit: Hello everybody! I'm the rabbit. I'm looking for someone else to have a party because, you know, a sunny day like this is hard to meet these days. Hello River! Nice to meet you. River: Nice to meet you too. I'm the river.Is there anything I can do for you? Rabbit: Would you please have a party with me? I think we can raise a party! River: To raise a party need several people. And there can be several! Rabbit: We can invite other guys to join us!There comes from one to two. so,let's go! ACT 2: Mountain: I'm the Mountain, not a hill. So, there are so many trees here with me, and... Tree: Okay, okay! Morning everyone, I'm the Tree - an old tree for a hundred years. Oh, look! Who's coming? You two come here for...... Rabbit: ...to raise a party! Can you join us? we can find a cool place to sit down and, get enough foods and drinks, and we chatting, singing, and dancing? Tree: Okay, we can begin now! Everybody must give us a show including singing, dancing, or just give us an interesting story. All: (All applause.) Great! Mountain: Oh my god! Wind comes again! He wants to carry my soil! Tree: Actually, man has done too much to the earth. Many foolish people cut their trees - my friends - to make one-off chopsticks and freight to Japan. Rabbit: Really? How disgusting they are! I hate Japanese! I really hate it! River: I hate those foolish people! Mountain: They exploit us too much for temporary interests and left garbage everywhere! Mountains become empty. River: Yeah, as what I said just now, there's fewer kind of fishes here day by day because of overexploitation too! I haven't got one piece fish till now! Tree: And all kinds of factories released noxious gases and detritus into the atmosphere which made us grow hard! River: And dumped toxic wastes into us - the rivers! All my fish were hurt seriously, even die out! They are not treated before flow to me! And all kinds of pesticides flow to me since they are undegradable. Rabbit: Yes! The smoke and dust in air made my white cloth become grey day by day! Even black! All my It's impossible for me to become white again! Mountain: I heard that many yellow powders were insufflated to the lawn of the Summer Palace when the film The Promise was taken. River: Underground water has been contaminated as a result if agricultural waste. Tree: Yes, man must do something to us since they want to develop the economic. Rabbit: But man cannot deal with the conflict between economic growth and environmental protection very well. We Rabbit are timid by nature and we cannot endure too much noise. But Man's machine make noise pollution, cause many of my friends died!" Tree: I think the relationship between human and us should be friendly. River: But they don't think so! Okay, let's take revenge on human, how do you think? Tree: I agree! Since they killed so many friend of me including my brothers and sisters! Mountain: I'm so sick because of human's hurt! All: Come on! Let's call more and more people to fight against human being!

[loveislikechina]

Good, Bad, and Mixed: Fortune Cookie Game

For this game, I asked my students to write three second-person future tense predictions about the future: one good, one bad, and one of mixed parts. One had to involve the person's professional future; one had to involve his or her personal future. I asked that the fortunes be gender neutral.

In the second part of class, the students had to trade fortunes with one another with the objective of getting the best possible future. They had to make at least 5 exchanges. On each exchange, they could modify up to three words of the fortune, mitigating (but not reversing) bad elements or enhancing good ones.

Some highlights:

Good: You will gain master's degree by the time you are 5.

You will be the most successful bussinessman and be trillionaire by the time you are 25.

You will marry our a handsome husband who will be the president of our country

You will be a super star and people all over the world will adore you, what's more, you possess the priceless wealth.

You will be the honored guest in the Victoria secret fashion show and get a large amount of applause.

You will get married and have a fat son in 5 years.

Bad: Your normal friend disappeared cause of cancer.

You will have a baby instead of your wife so it is hard to have a baby (obviously written by (and for) a male student)

You will divorce at least three times until you find your right person.

You will be divorced after you fired and then lose your all money.

You will lose a little money at 2014 because of a cold. (Originally: You will lose your spouse at 2020 because of cancer)

Mixed: You'll encounter a traffic accident but it is not serious and the owner will become your friend since the accident.

You will have two child, one boy, one girl (and a twins, but one live with you, one disapear

(somewhat anachronistically): You will get marry with a beautiful princess, but the king disagree with it.

You spouse will be very well-looking and but you will divorce.

Your family will go bankrupt your wife child and your friends will leave you alone but your parents support you forever.

You'll have a happy family with a lot of kids when you're 32, and the kids will not admire you?

You will won $5 million when you buy a lottery but then you will drop into the river.

You will lose your job once upon a time, but however, which gives you a better oppotunity to be successful.

Your parents will have a car accident, but they won't be hurted and after that your parents will be more careful when they go outside.

NOTE: all punctuation, capitalization, and spelling as original

Curiously, these two were grouped together:

"Good:You will be a famous lawyer and marry with a beautiful kind and rich women, have happy life." "You will get hurt by a car accident but you will get a large of money and meet with the Mr Right."

A bisexual student? The third (bad) fortune was unrelated to love and was about losing money. I also liked these two sets in full:

"You will be a famous painter and make $20,000,000 by the time you are 28." "You will be sold to a remote villedge and live there for five years." "You will have a luxurious house but there is much noise nearby and you have to suffer from heavy traffic there." "You will meet your lifetime spouse in three days and lead a happy and sweet life." "There will be a big fire in your house and you will lost everything include your wife and be down and out and you escaped it." "You will be fired this week, but you will be successful and earn millions of money by the time you are in business."