Change, and a Most Erotic Smog

Change

This January in Beijing has been most extraordinary. I’ve been able to experience first hand how citizens, including wealthy establishment figures, have been most emphatically and publicly voicing their grave concerns about significant quality of life issues, including the abysmal air pollution in major cities in Northern China. What’s been most interesting is that not only do so many people say that they have a right to speak out about the quality of life they should have, but they also say that they believe that they have a responsibility to speak out.

Collectively, they’ve pushed the Chinese government towards more openness in quality of life issues, and to take some steps towards tackling air pollution.

In 1952, the Great Smog of London resulted in 12,000 deaths, and public outrage compelled the state to pass the Clean Air Act of 1956. This act banned the use of coal for domestic fires in some urban areas, and required power stations to be sited away from cities.

Led by Pan Shiyi, a real estate magnate who has more than 14 million followers on Sina Weibo and is a representative of the Beijing municipal legislation, as of today, more than 50, 000 people (98.9% of voters)have voted online in favour of similar legislation for China. The results of the survey will be delivered to the Beijing municipal government.

A most Erotic Smog

The wonderful thing about typing in mandarin on the computer, is that using the qwerty keyboard, you can simply type in the hanyu pinyin, and then pick the word you want from the various options that Word offers from the hanyu pinyin you typed. But watch the tones, or you may unwittingly be saying something you did not intend!

A late night typing my homework that my teacher set me, on civil liberties (exhausting for me to write in mandarin : ( ) , I drew a parallel between the pollution smog in 1950s London, subsequent legislation, and the current efforts in China to pass similar legislation. Hence I made reference in my essay to the “pea souper” fogs in London of the 1950s.

BUT I unwittingly made a typo, while gaily typing my little essay, when describing the green fog that enveloped the city: “…由于情色的烟雾笼罩着城市。最恐怖的日子就是1952年, 伦敦的烟雾造成12,000 人死亡。舆论哄然迫使英政大力治理空气污染问题，所以英政在1956年出台《清洁空气法案》（Clean Air Act of 1956 ）… …”

Spot the typo? Obviously, I meant 青色(qing1 se4- green)， not情色 ！I (qing3 se4- EROTIC). Hence my teacher collapsed in laughter when reading about “the erotic fog that enveloped the city… …”.

Btw, for those keen linguists out there, 情色means “erotic”, but reversing the words,  色情, means “pornographic”.

GOSH, free health care

 Great Ormond Street Hospital-tearjerker!

It’s funny how transmission works, even without knowing the relevant cultural references, or understanding the language. Chinese friends were curious about the opening ceremony of the London Olympics- how did it compare to Beijing’s??, and I was happy to oblige, using my VPN to access the official Olympic channel on YouTube.

I thought they would find the beginning, with the children singing, very moving, but didn’t expect it to move my friends to tears, as they didn’t understand the words. The NHS was incredibly moving for my Chinese friends too- free healthcare, imagine that! They were absolutely incredulous to discover that most of the performers were volunteers, who took time off from work to attend the rehearsals. They said this would never happen in China.

They loved the opening ceremony (so did I!) and said they found it much more soulful and meaningful than the Zhang Yimou directed Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. They explained that he isn’t very popular in China, because people think that his movies tend to be about beautiful cinematography, nice colours, but not much of a storyline. That surprised me. Zhang is certainly more popular in SE Asia!

Spot the Temple

Grimsters

Ex- Temple- see the base of the temple pillar?

  Huguosi Street (护国寺街)is a 600m-long ancient commercial street named after the former Huguosi Temple, which was located there. It has a history of over 800 years when it was first formed in the Yuan Dynasty. I went to see the old hutongs there, with someone associated with the archaeological department of a Beijing university. We had fun spotting the bits of the temple, which was scattered around the hutong. The hutong was built on top of bits of the old temple!

Had a casual chat with a doctor from a major international embassy in Beijing (just a social chit chat, not a consultation!),  and I was relieved to learn that the tiredness that I feel here from the pollution, is normal. She said that she too finds it necessary to get much more sleep, because of the stress that the heavy pollution causes to the body. Her recommendation was to wear a good face mask, and also to make sure to take plenty of Vitamin D, which I do. The lack of sunshine in the winter, plus pollution smog, which cuts down on the available sunlight even further, can cause additional health issues. Hydration is also very important, but she says humidifiers are not recommended. They need to be cleaned regularly and thoroughly, to be effective. Otherwise you’re just created a nice, humid environment for the bugs to multiply. Best to just drink plenty of water, because the hydration needs to be inside.

Even by Beijing standards, the pollution yesterday and today is absolutely appalling- “Hazardous” according to the index. I’m turning in early tonight! 

Hullo clouds, hullo sky!

 

First blue sky day in Beijing. It was nice to be able to see the clouds and the sky again! It was windy today, which was probably why the smog cleared up. I also watched the Australian Open semi-final (Maria Sharapova  vs Li Na) on CCTV 5. Li Na is playing really quality tennis under her new coach, Carlos Rodriguez, and thumped Sharapova 6-2, 6-2. The CCTV commentary  during the match was most enthusiastic about Li Na’s improvement, and rightly so. But I had a niggling thought that something vital was missing during CCTV’s live commentary, and then the penny dropped- there was no commentary on Sharapova’s game at all, even her great shots.

The Sepulchral Glamour of The Opposite House

 The Magic Red Cupboard- bottom left for the FT

In Beijing, international newspapers are usually found in international hotels. However, such hotels are a little hard to come by, near where I live, and unfortunately, I happen to be hopelessly addicted to the FT Weekend.

CW casually mentioned that the café at The Opposite House, which is down the road from where I live, offers the FT Weekend for browsing. Wonderful news!

 

 Modern Art

 This impressive hotel has a most unusual interior, with melodramatic lighting and a sepulchral ambience not unlike a cross between an Ang Lee and a Tim Burton movie set. Pride of place in the hotel were enormous sculptures of two unborn babies, shrouded in red netting. I think they call it Modern Art.

 

Being a real philistine, I ignored the beguiling babies and went in desperate search of the café. I rather naively assumed that since the hotel’s café offered the FT for browsing, it must be for sale at the hotel too.  A Kind Lady from the hotel front desk was most bemused by my queries about the FT, and led me a Magic Red Cupboard, which she then opened to reveal a stash of FT newspapers. Wow! She gave me the weekend edition for free, and I promised that I’d read it at the hotel café, which I dutifully did. Btw, the café serves an excellent cappuccino.

La Ba Festival

My breakfast- La Ba porridge

Yesterday was La Ba Festival (腊八节), which is a traditional Chinese festival that commemorates the Buddha's enlightenment at the age of 35. It isn't a festival that it usually celebrated in the south of China, so it was a pleasant surprise to learn about it! We had the traditional La Ba porridge for breakfast. It’s very tasty, and made from more than 10 different kinds of grains. 

Wangfujing

 

Going to the food street in Wangfujing was brill. But I decided to pass on the deep fried scorpions, starfish and cicadas!

 Bingtanghulu, yummy!

传统北京小吃, 当时和现在 Traditional Beijing Snacks, Then and Now

Then

Now

我们昨天去护国寺小吃，吃北京经典小吃。这个小吃店是北京的老字号，约有三百年的历史。“字号” 这个词不一般不用来形容现代的企业，是指历史悠久的品牌。店里的品种很全，价格也公道, 许多老爷爷、老奶奶，在店里喝着豆汁（发酵的豆饮料－ 需要习惯后才能喜欢… … ，吃着焦圈（小，圆，炸油圈－看照片）！

 Yesterday, we went to “Hu Guo Si Snacks”, to try traditional Beijing snacks. This snack shop is an Beijing “Old Store Name” (“老字号”-lao zi hao), with more than 300 years of history.  An “Old Store Name” is a term that isn’t usually used for modern businesses; it refers to brand with a very long history. Great variety in the store, great prices, and plenty of old uncles and old aunties there drinking their Dou Zhi (a kind of fermented bean drink- definitely an acquired taste… …) and eating their Jiao Quan (a small, round, deep fried dough ring-see photo)！

北京的小吃包括民间小吃和宫廷小吃。民间小吃是老百姓爱吃的，比如说豆汁 焦圈 、什么的。老北京吃早餐的时候，都是一口焦圈儿一口豆汁儿 （在新加坡，就是一口咖啡，一口油条！）小窝头、豌豆黄，就是宫廷小吃。据说都是当年慈禧太后喜欢吃的。

Dou Zhi- an acquired taste

Traditional Beijing snacks include ordinary snacks eaten by regular folk, and imperial snacks. Ordinary snacks include Dou Zhi, Jiao Quan etc. When the Old Beijingers have breakfast, they like to have a bite of Jiao Quan, and chase it with Dou Zhi （in Singapore, it’s a bit of You Tiao, and chase it with coffee!). Imperial snacks include little maize dumplings, and pea cake. These were supposed to be snacks that the Empress Dowager Cixi was fond of eating.

不是你童年的棒子面 (Not the grits of your childhood)

Grits, Chinese style!

 这是“面茶”， 可不是“面条” ＋ “茶”！是棒子面，加芝麻酱 （那个黑色的液体，漂浮在棒子面上面）。不错，可是有点油。

 This is “Flour Tea”, no it isn’t “flour” + “tea”! It’s cornmeal flour, with black sesame sauce (that black liquid floating on top of the cornmeal). Not bad, but a bit oily.