उस reunited

back in the states. spending time in LA. such a strange place. its an imagination of itself. things seemed to annoy me before but I've grown and now i'm able to ignore it all. the fakeness and the superficiality of it all. it used to bother me but my mind is too consumed with more.

Street scenes: dessert, famous sign of Deng Xiaoping in Shenzhen, a diner

Also from Wu Shanzhuang

From Wu Shanzhuang's exhibit at the Guangzhou Art Musuem

Well the day has come. There's going to be a lot of fainting today, elbow pushing and beer drinking...? The opening ceremony starts at 8 P.M. and it seems that every Chinese person has an agenda to ensure that they are celebrating it right. I wanted to go to some sweaty, outdoor plaza or some place that would have been jam packed with people celebrating and watching it on a megatron but it appears that the police have pretty much locked down every major gathering place in every single city across China. Yes! What a fun and exciting time this is! Stay at home! Eat western pizza and dumplings and watch the games on your own TV, inspect citizen's ID cars upon entry into your home, and keep your door locked at all times!!! I'm down with the Olympic spirit thing and I support and respect athletes but it just is getting a little out of hand-this frenzy foray into a world that seems very reminiscent of "1984."

An hour and a half away by car northwest of Guangzhou is the township of Conghua which is renown throughout China has having amazing hot springs. I went this past weekend with friends and was stunned to swim in clean natural water and breathe clean air from blue skies. it didn't seem possible to me that this much unspoilt nature could be so close to such a polluted city, but I have been fooled. The most amazing thing from the weekend-apart from driving a jeep, wading like an octagenerian for several hours through a pool, eating snails, and drinking rum with chinese herbal tea was having a clear head. I could actually sense that I was changing the air in my head-and I could think more acutely as a result! 3 days until the Olympics!

"Be My Lady" by The Meters-one of my favorite songs.

Every morning when I brush my teeth and look out the window I can see a group of 30 ladies doing a group work-out/dance with very brightly colored fans. They do a synchronized form of line dancing and listen to this very upbeat rhythym with one lady on the loud speaker singing. Passing them a trucks of laborers, kids playing ball, and taxi after taxi zooming by.

Guiyu-the e dump capital of the world

http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/trash/

Malacca, Malaysia

Photos from the Dragon Boat races on the Pearl River last month.

Waiting for the evening.

HOT POT!!! I had dinner last night at a Sichuan hot pot place for the first time since I've been back. Despite an outside temperature of 90 degrees and very little air conditioning indoors, some friends and I decided to sit ourselves around a hot fire and cook food in extremely spicy chili red pepper broth. Hot pot is the most amazing food to eat because not only do you sweat it out as you eat it, it is so pungent and odorous that your clothes and hair smell like it for a few days after. We were given large fans with old Chinese maidens on them and lots and lots of beer. You order different meats, vegetables and noodles, and then dunk them in each in the broth. We thought we ordered some fish but they brought us snake instead at which point I started to moan. After quickly taking the snake away, we lurched ourselves forward towards the hot pot making sure to cook everything just right. After 30 minutes of hot flashes and several glasses of beer, none of us could muster up any energy to say much other than ask for the bill. This food really takes the life out of you. Fortunately, the Cantonese have mastered the effects of staying "hot and cool" in their hot/humid climate and have foods to restore balance in your stomach. So we drank "liang cha" afterwards-a type of black-colored herbal tea sold all over the streets here to help cool you down. It tasted like an old foot but restored some dignity to my duzi (stomach).

An astroturf lawn in downtown Guangzhou

A recent study by a Hong Kong think tank claims that over 10,000 lives are lost each year to air pollution in south China (Guangdong province, Hong Kong and Macau). The study is here

It doesn't say how they discovered this number or what methodology used, but I'm sort of inclined to say that more than 10,000 people die of airborne respiratory illnesses. I took a bike ride yesterday morning (horrible idea, it reached 100 degrees by 11 am) and found myself covered in small particles of black soot after being out for just an hour. Granted, I did take an old ferry across a dead river to begin my bike journey, and there were massive amounts of diesel fumes wafting across that river. A friend of mine who lives an hour away in nearby Shenzhen said that he has seen his province destroyed (loss of clean air, water, earth, et al) because everyone he knows around him is in the fight of their lives to make as much money as they can. The verdict is still out over whether or not it is too late to improve the environment here, but whatever remediation is done will be very very costly.

Recently there were many news articles that highlighted several instances where bars in Beijing were rejecting Africans and other people of dark skin because they (the bars) didn't want to "get in trouble with the authorities." While I highly doubt that most bar owners actually have any serious grievances with black people, it is very disturbing to see how racist elements and comments flow freely in this society. Although highly respected African Americans like Quincy Jones, athletes, and actors have all spent time in China and worked on projects with the Chinese government and businesses-and are very respected here-there are still widespread resentments against people of dark skin in many parts of the country here. Especially in Guangzhou, where African "towns" of exporters and importers and their families live, are regarded by many Chinese citizens here as "off limits." They view these areas as the places where (in the words of a Chinese colleague of mine) "they live and we don't go there because of crime and especially never at night." While I am not speaking of all Chinese people, or all people in Guangzhou for that matter, the fact that many Africans are restricted to living in certain high rise buildings and quadrants of the city by the government is clearly a policy of segregation which has only reinforced a negative stereotype of dark skinned individuals by many different segments of the Chinese population. I can only hope that in a country of 1.2 billion similar faces, those who come from afar and bring with them hope to make a decent living in this country would be met with kindness and tenacity over negligence and indifference.

China has an amazing knack for moving itself. In a city of 15 million people or so, I am shocked at how infrequent traffic jams are. Even more shocking is the fact that almost everybody works from 830 to 530. That means the roads are clogged from 730 to 9 and 530 to 7 every day. And the "dining hour" remains fixed from 630 to 730. During these times one can just expect to have difficulty in moving about from one place to the other in Guangzhou. But I've found that during these times, people lose their inhibitions and really become fish more than humans. This is exemplified when one rides the subway across town at 6 p.m. on a weekday. One must stand in line to put their ticket in the machine to enter, stand in line to enter the escalator, stand in line on the escalator and then stand in line to enter the subway while waiting on the platform. The people of Guangzhou have gotten so used to this anatomic waltz of orchestrated movement that once the train does arrive, the flop about and push one another onto the train so every last inch of space is taken up. Once on the train, its as if you become a sardine: if you are not close to a rail to hold yourself onto when the train begins to move, you simply fall back and forth against your other newly gilled nearby passengers. There isn't much spoken language going on, but when your stop comes near, it is time for you to be judged. It is at this point when all the other fishes have to squeeze and move together to let you free of the school. You must shout, and push, and shove, trample and scream to let everyone know you are coming through. And if the force you exert to let yourself through isn't enough, then you simply miss your exit and go with the pack. Minor cuts, bruises and a frown of anger? Of course, but that's all washed away with a bucket of tea once you get to the street anyhow.

मलाच्चा

While I was in Malaysia I took a day trip to Malacca. It is about a 2 hour drive south from Kuala Lumpur. Along the drive I was able to see many palm plantations and monkeys! Malacca is an old port city that was first built up by the Portuguese in the early 1500s. In fact, St. Francis Xavier lived there for a few years before moving on. The Dutch took it over after 150 years and added their influences and then wan Sir Stanley Raffles "settled" the Malay Peninsula for the British in the 18th century, Malacca was handed over to the English in return for Dutch control of Indonesia. Throughout all of this, the port remained an important destination for trade between Europe, Africa, India and Asia. And there were lots of pirates. It's a really interesting and beautiful city.

मलाय्सियन Grafitti

"Grafitti"in Kuala Lumpur

मलयेशिया इस विक्केद!

I am in Malaysia and what an amazing country this is!!! Everything is so intriguing-the language, the people, the architecture-the FOOD. I am eating a meal like every 2 hours because the food here is that amazing. There are all these street stalls and wonderful old houses just bursting with exotic dishes like laksa (this spicy seafood soup) and these kind of tandoori breads and noodles and lots and lots of indian food. Its a beautiful day here-nice and sunny and it just feels great. Kuala Lumpur is of the most interesting and exciting cities I've ever been to. Its just a remarkable confluence of culture and environment. The city is full of lush gardens in the midst of gigantic superstructures. It smells of petrol fumes caused by all the motorcycles and there is a serious lack of sidewalks but other than that, everything is great. Malaysians do love their malls, and at times the city feels like a giant one, but I'm so grateful for them because air conditioning never felt so good before today.

When it rains, taxis in Guangzhou are just like birds-they simply disappear-Hobbes would have been proud of the chaos people go through trying to get a taxi during a thunderstorm here.

Guangzhou has this ethereal sense of being caught between two worlds. In certain neighborhoods, traditions persist and the "old China" remains the star: old ladies playing mahjong, hair cuts on the street, fruit vendors clog the roads offering baskets of durian, watermelon, and fresh corn. There are no cars, the roads are too small to accommodate anything larger than a bike. Houses stacked one top of the other, with skyscrapers looming in the background. And then a few blocks away, a modern explosion of steel, glass and LED lighting takes the stage. The roads are wide, black audi's and toyota's are more common than any sort of bike or rickshaw. Shops selling high-end chinese clothing and lots and lots of chinese spirits line each side of the street. It is this hodgepodge of neighborhoods that gives Guangzhou the sense that is constantly cross-examining itself: where is the new and how has it taken over the old? Where is the old and why has it not become the new? Yesterday I spent 2 hours at an old temple called the "Six Banyon Tree Pagoda," it was a calming, ancient courtyard of temples and one very large pagoda in the midst of Guangzhou's hustle and bustle of emerging concrete towers and shopping malls. The temple was where Chan Buddhism first emerged and later became what is now known as "Zen Buddhism" when an analect left the temple several thousand years ago and began to spread his teachings in far away places-as far away as Japan. After 2 hours of reveling in such a calming and redeeming landscape, I really didn't have any desire to go back to any more malls or shopping streets (really Guangzhou's main attractions), and so I found a bookstore that sells an arrangement of english books and I got lost in the diatribes of I Ching and the tale of "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck.

If Allen Toussaint and Dr. John sing the song of New Orleans, then surely Eddy Grant sings the song of Guangzhou in "Electric Avenue."

पेस्तो नेवर तस्तेद सो गुड

Pesto never tasted so good: Friday night we made dinner and it was fantastic. I've moved into my new apartment where I will stay for the rest of the summer. It's almost like living in a resort. I live on an island in the middle of the city. It is very green and very fenced in. The apartment complex is gated, has a huge pool, clubhouse, gym, restaurant, laundry and western store. Our apartment is on the top floor. It has a rooftop terrace. Really great views and its far too big for me and my roommate Elizabeth, another intern here for the summer. Neither of us have lived in a place this nice before. We are being treated really well, it will be hard to come back to China and not have a sweet deal like this. The rains have stopped and blue skies have arrived. It feels great but it is damn hot. I suppose its hot throughout much of the world today. Or the world that I know, everyone seems to be sweating. This morning I went to a market and all of the products there were specifically sold for the kitchen. They had everything from blenders to plastic containers to industrial size pressure cookers. That's something about China that never ceases to amaze me: the fact that markets here operate in clusters. And each stall sells the same thing. It's a wonder how any of these vendors make money. You would never see, for example, a cloth seller at the electronics market or visa versa. You have to go to 2 separate markets. Unless you go to Wal-Mart...which is everywhere here!!

लैंड ऑफ़ थे फ्लू एंड थे बरवे

South China: Land of the Flu and the Brave

A friend here recently told me that the flu virus originates in south China each year before it spreads around the world and that this area is often referred to as "ground zero for infectious diseases" by foreigners who work here. I feel pretty naive not learning about this before I left, since I take public health risks very seriously. So, naturally I developed a flu/fever over the weekend and my throat go really sore. So I went to the intl. clinic here and was diagnosed with abscess tonsillitis. The doctor said I caught it simply because of the poor air quality and the amount of pollution in the area. Having puss coat your tonsils really sucks!

Work is going well though, despite the fact that I have been stuck in my apartment trying to get better.

द्रगों बोट फेस्टिवल होलिदय

Ok, so we're back. Very rarely can I access this website, but I kept trying, and sure enough it sent me through today. Today is China's first national holiday to celebrate the Dragon Boat Races. In an effort to slim down the length of China's week long holiday breaks, the government has added a few additional holidays occurring on Mondays to get people to take 3 day weekend holidays instead of jamming up the trains and planes during Chinese New Year's etc. So a lot of people have today off, even though most races don't start until next Saturday. Legend has it that ancient imperial courts would race against one another and thus, the dragon boat festival began. But you can get a better run down on it here

It was pretty sunny this morning, the first time we've had sunlight that lasted more than 20 minutes. Amazingly, for all the rain that this place gets, it goes dry so fast because water demand is astronomically high.

I've been off to a good start doing research on water issues, land use, and the state of the manufacturing industry here, interviewing people and trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. I had great help the other day when I met with a retired official from the local environmental protection bureau. He sat with me for 3 hours and discussed (while his daughter translated) the basic run-down of what REALLY happens in terms of environmental protection here. Suffice to say, I left the meeting with my head spinning and a really pessimistic outlook. Most people here say that things are getting better-the air quality, the water quality, the quality of life, etc. but I think, as in most places throughout the developing world, the economy is growing so fast that the government simply can't keep up to meet it with basic services like wastewater or sewage treatment for example.

I traveled to Dongguan yesterday-which has China's largest source of Taiwanese investment and is also the world's biggest manufacturer of PVC pipe!!!! :)

The "town" (which has a population of some 2+ million) is covered with factories, small supplier shops, and high-end western hotels that house legions of business travelers that are here to make sure the "world's factory floor" keeps the boilers hot, and the prices low.

First Glimpses from Guangzhou

Starbuck's on the island. Qing Ping Market. The garden that rolls through Sha Mian Island. View from my apartment of the Pearl River.

I don't know whats up with Chinese firewalls but they are wacky. I can post an entry to my own blog but they don't allow me to actually view my blog or any others. I've been in Asia for a week now and in Guangzhou for 5 days. The weather so far has been hot, really muggy and humid. It rains just about every day. It's a strange rain-it will come down really fast all of a sudden and just last for 20 minutes or so and then dissipate. An hour or so will go by and then it will rain again. So, I've bought an umbrella-a large one that is covered in ads for 7-11. I live on an old island that was built for foreign embassies back in the 1800's. It is called Sha Mian Dao and it is full of beautiful old European architecture, coffee houses, souvenir shops, and western food. Many Chinese couples come here to have wedding photos done so there are several outfits on the island set up for that. I haven't walked through the island once during the day without seeing a Chinese couple getting wedding photos done. Most of the grooms wear cream colored tuxes and a lot of the brides are into Victorian-era dresses. Very interesting to check out. Next door to the Consulate is a large hotel called the White Swan where many American families stay when they are over here adopting. Guangzhou is the only city in China where foreigners can adopt children from. The children come from all over China but this where they are first introduced to their new families. So any stroll through Sha Mian is not complete with a Chinese wedding shot and an American family pushing a stroller with a Chinese baby inside. Sha Mian sometimes reminds me of the French Quarter in New Orleans albeit without all the bars, good food, and trumpeteers. But it has that feeling of being the OLD part of the city-kind of secluded and in of it self. Although by all means, Guangzhou is over 3000-4000 years old, people have been living here forever. It's an interesting time to be here in Guangzhou to witness first hand the changes China is going through. The economy is booming and you can see it everywhere you look-at the corner magazine stand with magazine covers full of high fashion and high-end electronics, looking up at the sky and having your view clogged by construction cranes everywhere, and riding taxis through the city-passing new car dealerships block after block after block.