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I'm writing this from Hong Kong.

Blogger has been blocked in Mainland China (someone might have expressed an opinion, or something) and I don't know when/if I'll be able to post again.

Cya soon!

Only The Beginning

This letter is an invitation by the Peace Corps to serve as a volunteer university English teacher in China. I was going to write a lot of sappy BS about the trial of the application process but instead I'm just going to say this: I owe everything to my family. I love you! Thank you!

英语 Student's Book 3, Unit 2: Healthy Eating, Reading Task, p. 52

Against Building a McDonald's

I am very worried about McDonald's building a restaurant in our hometown. We are a small community and we enjoy our local dishes. I am not sure if McDonald's food is as healthy as they say in their advertisements. When scientists look at it carefully, they find high levels of fat, sugar and salt. This is very worrying. Too many young people are getting fat through eating too much fatty food. McDonald's is not giving young people a good idea of what a healthy diet should be. Local Chinese food, on the other hand, is full of fresh vegetables and fresh meat and fish. The food at a McDonald's restaurant is always the same, so I wonder if it is made or brought in from elsewhere. Although it is freshly cooked, it must be less healthy than our own locally grown and cooked Chinese food.

I also worry about all those cars bringing people to buy food at McDonald's. First, there will be petrol fumes, which will make our clean air dirty. Second, there is the problem of all those cars that try to park and prevent other cars from moving quickly through our town.

I am sure many young people will be happy to work at McDonald's but will they be treated fairly? In America, McDonald's does not allow workers' unions to operate in its restaurants and these are people who speak up for the workers. If, as they say, the workers are happy with them, why should they fear some workers joining a union?

So when I consider the food, the cars and the jobs, I think we should not allow McDonald's to build their restaurant in our town.

Collected: 关系

You know in China we have such a title; “Public Servants.” But, really, it is such a shameful title. It should be a very shameful title. There are so few such jobs but every Chinese will want them because of their benefits. First you must pass a written exam which is nearly impossible. There will be 5,000 or even 6,000 applicants just within your district taking the same test, once a year. You must be in the top five of all those people to go on to the interview. Only 1 or 2 people will pass the interview. So far, the test has been quite fair as there is no way to cheat on the exam. But things are different with the interview. In the interview, it is all about your 关系 (guān xi). Your 关系 is who you know that works in the bureau for this Public Servant job. The higher the position of the man you know, the more likely for you to pass the interview. Even better is to know one of the men conducting the interview. Then your pass is almost certain. But likely you will also need some money to give to the person you know. This can be for as much as 250,000 Yuan – a fortune! It forces you to also be corrupt once you receive the job, because now you will be in great debt and it’s the only way to get your money back. It is how much a friend of mine paid to be accepted into his job – he paid it to a man his wife knows in the government. Even if you offer a huge bribe but have no 关系, the interviewers will pretend to be outraged and will turn you in; they only accept bribes from people they can trust to be dishonest with them. I hate 关系 but it is everywhere in China. It is part of a long tradition. I don’t know if Chinese government and its jobs have any outsiders now. Even in our school you will need 关系 to find a job or become a fulltime teacher. It was not this way 10 years ago but now the competition for Shenzhen jobs is fierce. I applied last year. There were over 500 applicants from my university for 20 positions as an English teacher. Me? No, I had no 关系 at this school. One of the best? No, I am just one of the luckiest. By the way, I have recently seen some pictures in all the blogs and on TV. It is of Obama going out in the rain and he is holding his own umbrella. In China, we are saying: “This is unbelievable! How can the leader of a great nation be holding his own umbrella?!” Such a thing cannot be imagined in China. Even our principle does not hold his own umbrella. He thinks he is the president of his own world, Ha! Ha! Ha!

collected: the groom

I am 26. This summer I will marry my girlfriend. On August 8th we will go to my hometown and have a traditional wedding… because it is too expensive to hold the wedding in Shenzhen. She has been my girlfriend for several years and we are both very happy. But although I am happy I am also quite worried these days. We have bought our house in a very poor location near the airport, right at the end of the runway. The house is actually quite nice, but the planes are so loud that it may be quite uncomfortable. It is all that is available for us now; maybe we can move later. I also worry about my child even if he hasn’t yet been conceived. We must start saving for him now so that he can enter the best schools in Bao’An and have the best chances. It was not easy for me to make it through the system and into this job; it will be even harder for him. Still, my biggest concern is that my and my fiancé’s families will now be permanently spread about. The various holidays will now be very stressful because we must decide whose family it is we will visit. We cannot visit both at once and neither family can afford to entirely travel to the other family’s hometown for a holiday. The most stressful, of course, will be the Spring Festival. But visiting family has been a problem for me long before my marriage. When I was a child I would always look forward to the Spring Festival because our relatives did not live so far away and we could all meet in my hometown, at my grandparents’ home. It was a time for games and a big meal and everyone to be together. But as I got older, many relatives had moved outside our region to get new jobs and fewer of them travelled back to my grandparents for the Festival. I remember my grandparents and my parents would be waiting all the year to see their sons, brothers and sisters and it would be all for nothing. The Festival was sometimes quite sad because of this. And things kept changing once I went to university. I still would come home two or three times a year to my hometown but it was always a little bit different, in a bad way. It seemed my hometown was slowly becoming empty and our people frustrated. In recent years, the few relatives that do still travel to my hometown want only to watch some TV and go out to the bar and return to their jobs as quickly as possible. I am now quite bored to travel all the way and just do these things. It seems this is how things are in China now: the Chinese people have no face. Before, we had our religion. Then we had the Party. And, all the while, we had our family. But religion is now just a hobby, people do not care about the Party and families are broken apart. So people have no face and they just want to make some money and maybe do some popular things, like see the NBA. All of the old men in China – all of them – will always watch and talk about NBA but it is only because of Yao. Before he joined the Rockets they do not even know NBA. We use to be a football country and our football team was quite successful and popular. But the people have abandoned it for something new and one day they will watch something else. Me? I love the NBA, but I am not like the others. Few Chinese are a professional fan – like me.

From Washington

Did you ever meet a man from Washington?
They’ve got boxes in their eyes
And for every man there’s a different box
To which he can be tied

Did you ever meet a man from Washington?
They’ve got dancers on their tongues
And for every man there’s a different song
Untrue but it still be sung

Did you ever meet a man from Washington?
They’ve got bullets in their palms
And for every man there’s a bullet says
In which box he belongs

collected: the breadwinner

I am 24 years old, just one year older than you. My parents are somewhere in their fifties. They have no job. My parents lost their job some time ago and it is impossible for them to ever be hired again; they are too old and there are too many younger people for employers to choose from. My family is quite unusual in its size. I am the eldest of five children; very unusual in China. My two sisters and two brothers are all studying at the university. This is also quite unusual but we are extremely lucky to have all been accepted. One of my brothers is studying medicine at Shenzhen University and he will graduate in six years. That is quite exciting. Our home is about four hours from here, not very far actually. I wanted to teach English because this job has a good salary. I wanted to teach in Shenzhen because this city has by far the best salaries in the country. And I am very lucky because it is quite unusual to be head of a class and so young. I am head of class 9 this term; the students are very active. But I need more money. I need much more money and I don’t know how to get it. Well, no, I can’t tutor. It is strictly prohibited by the government. Teachers are supposed to be the first and most important public servants; it is said we should not be making extra profits. It seems there is also a policy that teachers who aren’t constantly exhausted must be bad teachers. So I am quite busy these days. Student parents are often inviting me to dinner, especially when their latest marks have not been so good. Bribing? No, of course not! But, again, the money would be quite useful. This job is the only income for my family. My mother, my father, my brothers and sisters and their studies – all of it is paid by this salary. Excuse me? I'm the what? Like the “bread” that you eat? Ah, yes, I see. Yes, I am the breadwinner. That is a good new word. Learn something new every day, ha ha ha!