Happy Niu Year

I think most of my readership does not know Chinese. So I have to explain the pun in the title. Its a new year in China! Year of the cow/ox (I prefer cow, but I think its officially the ox). In Chinese, cow/ox is Niu (pronounced something like Nee-oh). Sounds like New, get it? I think its cute.

I am amazed this is the 4th Chinese New Year I have been in Asia. The first year was 2002 and I was on vacation from teaching. My friend and I were in Dali, a small tourist town in the warm southwest Chinese province of Yunnan. We learned quickly that New Years meant firecrackers being set off on every inch of the street. (Firecrackers are supposed to scare ghosts of the past year away. Well, they also scare foreigners away). Just crossing the street, we got hit with the leftovers of the firecrackers. We ducked into a bookstore and didn't dare leave until the coast was clear. The next year, 2003, I was in Cambodia on a more extensive vacation than the previous year. Cambodia has a lot of Chinese people. There were fireworks, but nothing close to what I had experienced the previous year. I was also here in 2005. I was lucky enough to spend the New Year on a 48 hour train ride from Beijing to Kunming, capital of Yunnan. We could see fireworks out the window, but were safe within the confines of a train. Believe it or not, there were no firecrackers allowed on the train.

So now it is 2009. I am in Beijing. Being close to the city center, I thought I would be safe from fireworks and firecrackers being set off within 5 feet of me. On the eve of New Year's I stayed inside and watched a movie. I had to keep pausing the movie because the firecrackers going off right outside were too loud and I could not hear. As it got closer to midnight, the firecrackers switched to fireworks. I had a great show from the living room of the fourth floor apartment I am staying on.

The next day (Monday-the first official day of the 2-week festival), my Chinese friend Fang and her husband picked me up to go on a New Year's Day adventure. We ended up at a garden park in southern Beijing. It was a carnival inside. People were everywhere. There was cotton candy, carnival games with stuffed animal prizes, song and dance performances, and street food.


Lots of cows for sale.

Fang and I.

A unicyclist on a rope carrying an acrobat below him. This was done over a frozen lake.
Cute kid with a flower.

Fang and I burning the evil spirits away. (She was more serious than I).

So after the park, Fang and her husband asked me what I wanted to do next. They suggested a trip to the countryside. It was 2 pm and I wondered what we would possibly do in the countryside once we go there, but I agreed. I am always up for farmland and chickens and dirt. Well, we drove north and crossed a river that separates Beijing from Hebei province. Then we drove into a gated community filled with large single-family houses. I had heard about these suburban developments, but never seen one. Most urban Chinese live in apartments so houses are rare.

So most gated communities in the US have homes that all look alike. Here, we had streets that were all the same. Each had a different theme.
This was on the 'American style homes' street. The street ended in a cul-de-sac.
This was the Japanese style home street.

It was a bizarre experience. I could reflect on it more, but I think it speaks for itself. We got out of the car and Fang's husband told me to breath a lot because the air here in the 'countryside' was much better than in the city.

Super Bowl + New Prez

I keep writing posts about the Steelers or Obama. They don't have much to do with rice. I know and I apologize. But they make me happy so I want to write about them. Maybe this will be the last post.

Its been a good 2 days. Really good 2 days. The Steelers are going to the Super Bowl!!! Feb 2 they will take on the Cardinals in Tampa. No one expected the Cardinals to make it this far. It will be a tough game, but things are looking good for team in Black and Gold from the Steel City. That happened Monday morning. I watched it and then went to my market. I brought a Terrible Towel to show some people there. Explaining American football in Chinese is hard. Explaining that people wave gold towels around and call them 'terrible' doesn't really translate. At all.

Then I woke up Tuesday and went back to the market. I told me 12 year old friend there that today was like an American holiday and tonight many people are very excited to see a new President take office. She said she didn't know who China's President was. Then she asked me what singers I know. Right. Not everyone shares my excitement.

Luckily I have the internet to resort to to get my Steeler and politics fix. As political blogs are filling up with analysis of Obama's speech and fashion blogs interpret Michelle's clothes, I will spare you the details of my views. But I do want to say one thing [NOTE: let this be a warning if you are sick of hearing about politics you do not have to read anymore].

I just read Obama's biography. The story ends before he goes to law school, but he has an epilogue about what he has done since then. About law school, he said:

"The study of law can be disappointing at times, a matter of applying narrow rules and arcane procedure to an uncooperative reality; a sort of glorified accounting that serves to regulate the affairs of those who have power....But that's not all the law is. The law is also memory; the law also records a long-running conversation, a nation arguing with its conscience."

I have never wanted to go to law school. Ever. But I took a lot of Political Science classes in college with people who wanted to go to law school. We had completely opposite interests. I wanted to discuss the reality of society; they wanted to discuss laws, regulations, policies. Class conversations would often not be productive because people were talking past one another. Reading Obama's articulate insight into law school, I think I finally really understand the value of studying the law. I think it takes an intelligent person to be able to have that perspective into law that can make him put his degree to use in productive ways.

There is a lot of discussion about high expectations for Obama. I'm not sure I fit in that category. My concerns this election had little to do with so-called 'political issues' (environment, health care, taxes, etc). Call me a cynic, but I have little hope that the federal government will be able to take care of many of these issues in a clean way based on the structures within which they work. My concerns are much more fundamental, dealing with decision-making and transparency in government. I think many decisions made over the last eight years have been made with ideological hopes and little concern for the reality of society. I trust that Obama is an intelligent guy who wants to make decisions in a way that will be more open and transparent and include a variety of voices.

Such governance has worked for some presidents and it hasn't worked for others. Charisma and intelligence do not automatically guarantee a successful presidency. Although there are plenty of issues Obama has to dig his way out of, for now the 'hope' and 'change' do not come in the form of issues that will change right away, but in integrity and trust.

Research in Action

This morning I had a friend request that I put more pictures of me in my blog photos. By shear coincidence, I also received a request today from the person who administers one of my grants to send in a picture of me 'doing' my research. Had it just been my friend requesting, I would have (politely) ignored it. But then it became official. I've been cornered.

So I walked across the street to the home of my new favorite hangout--the back room of a Beijing vegetable market where grain is sold. I was planning to do surveys there anyway, so I brought my camera along. I handed it over to my 12-year old friend working behind the counter of his mother's shop. Here are the results.
Sifting rice through their hand is something customers do when deciding which rice to purchase. I thought I would try.

Do I look official? Do I look like an expert? Or do I look completely posed for this 'in action' picture?

Now the fun begins. Which one do I submit to my fellowship as evidence that I am here working hard and putting their money to good use? VOTE, please.