Olympic update: 169 days to go

We’ve just got word that in response to citizen protests in the outlying provinces of China, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games have been cancelled. The protesters said the money should be spent on improving the lot of China’s people, and the government did an about face, essentially saying, “You know – you’re right.”

Just kidding. That’s about as likely as a Chinese New Year without fireworks.

And speaking of fireworks, today is Yuanxiaojie, or Lantern Festival, which marks the end of the Spring Festival that started with the Lunar New Year two weeks ago. The Lantern Festival falls on the first full moon of the new year, and is yet another occasion for lunatic pyromaniacal excess. With the added bonus of a golden orange full moon up above. I’d post more pictures, but I’m sure everyone is tired of them by now.

It is traditional on this day to eat a particular kind of dumpling called yuanxiao, but I went to the store a bit ago and they were all out. That’s what I get for staying at the office until almost seven. I’ll have to make do with something less traditional.

In actual Olympic news, they revealed a few weeks ago what the staff uniforms will look like.
The red ones are for staff, presumably ticketing staff included. I’m not sure why they bothered designing long sleeve versions, given the average temperature in August here. I presume these are what we’ll get, but nobody tells me anything. See also here.

And just as an aside, it seems the uniforms were presented as part of the “200 Days to Go” event. As you can see, it was quite a production.
I figure if they do something like this for every little arbitrary milestone, they’re bound to come up with something really spectacular (in the truest sense of the word) for the Opening Ceremonies, with or without prissy American consultants (if you take my meaning).

And here’s something I’ve been wanting to see for quite a while. It was inevitable, given how pervasive the mascots are. Fuwa parodies!
I came across these on a web site quite by accident. (None of the artists are credited.) There were a bunch more that I couldn’t recognize – probably Chinese celebrities. Now all we need is the Revolutionary Fuwa with Chinese Characteristics, featuring Mao, Deng, Hu, and whatever other two most fit the bill, which might be difficult because two of the mascots are supposed to be female. But that needn’t hold back a true artist. Other suggestions: Disney Fuwa, Beatle Fuwa, Looney Tunes Fuwa, Anne Geddes Baby Fuwa, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (+1) Fuwa, Aardman (Wallace and Gromit) Fuwa, Muppet Fuwa, Hello Kitty Fuwa, Harry Potter Fuwa, Hentai Fuwa – the possibilities are endless. And let’s not forget the Famous Artists Series: Fuwa done in the style of Rembrandt, da Vinci, Bosch, Monet, Picasso, Warhol, Audubon, Pollack, Mapplethorpe... Come on, you Photoshop experts, get busy! (On further thought, forget I mentioned Hentai Fuwa.)

Maybe that last picture can’t really be called a parody, and is just one of the entries from an art contest for primary school kids.

You probably can’t tell from reading, but I just paused to watch a particularly cool bunch of fireworks going off across the street. A sparkling fairy-dust trail shot up into the sky in a tight spiral to a height of 12 stories or so, then exploded into a midair pinwheel throwing off sparks in a rapid circle. There was a whole series of them, maybe a dozen from the whole box. Cool.

And now for today’s Mandarin lesson. I was telling some of my Chinese coworkers about the huge crowd of people at Ditan Park on New Year’s Day, and I asked how you say crowded in Chinese. The answer is ren duo, which means literally people many. You say ren tai duo for too crowded (people too many).

Later on, one of them taught me another way to say it: ren shan ren hai. Word for word, this means people mountain people sea. I’m not sure exactly how such an expression might have developed, as it’s pretty telegraphic, like many Chinese expressions. There are some obvious (and probably wrong) possibilities: people from mountain to sea; or just the fact that both mountains and the sea are big; or maybe something like we use in English – a mountain of people, a sea of people.

In other, completely unrelated, news, today I booked a flight to Shanghai next week to see Björk. I’ve been a big fan for many years but never seen her live, so it seems like a chance I shouldn’t pass up. Once again I find myself revisiting a place I’ve been before rather than going somewhere new, but Shanghai gets the concerts, not Chengdu. It will be a quick trip; fly there the morning of the show, stay one night, back the next day. It’s awkwardly scheduled on a Sunday night, but mei banfa (nothing can be done).

It mostly seems like this “Spring” Festival is a bit premature. Consider the ice chair pictures a couple of posts back. But this week it’s warmed up to the point where I put the long underwear in the drawer instead of wearing them as drawers (sorry). Maybe spring is coming after all.

Skating into the new year

Shortly after I managed to roll out of bed this morning, I got an email from TG that he and SJ were going to check out Houhai and see what it was like on New Year’s Day. I had no plans, so I decided to join them.

We caught a taxi a little after noon and headed to one of the most popular entertainment districts in town, which strangely I’ve never visited before. When we got out of the taxi, the first thing we saw was how Beijingers make use of their lakes in the winter time.
This is Qianhai, one of a series of lakes west of the Forbidden City. It’s just north of Beihai, which I wrote about a while ago. They have chairs mounted on rails, and propel themselves with metal poles.
There are also ice skates for rent. I like the tricycles parked on the ice. Off in the distance, straight beyond the skate vendor in the chair, you can see that even the ice chairs can be tricky to control. That’s a woman down on the ice with a man helping her.
This part of town is highly commercialized, with old-style hutong buildings renovated into trendy restaurants and night clubs.
Here you can see one of the ice chairs better, as well as one of the other contraptions they rent, a pedal-powered ice cycle.
The north end of Qianhai turns into a little channel that connects to the next lake in the chain, Houhai. The banks of the channel are crowded with shops, restaurants and bars.
I saw these decorations in the window of one of the restaurants.
We came across these guys, who had just finished with a swim in Houhai.
From the end of the lake you can see all the way to the China World Trade Center Tower that’s being built.
I am going to have to come back to this place when it’s warmer. You’ve got Aladdin, Nilotic Monkey, and the Water Nymph Café, and some nifty Egyptian style decorations.
And here are the namesakes for the little island in the background, Wild Duck Island.

After completing our circuit of Qianhai and Houhai, we found a taxi to take us to Ditan Park, which held the big festival I visited last year. SJ is heading back to the US tomorrow, so I suggested it as a good place to get a real look at China celebrating their biggest holiday.

For the most part, it looked very similar to last year, so you can just go back to the old post for pictures. This time we arrived earlier in the day than last year, so there were a few things I missed last time round.
Like people burning incense at an old religious site. Ditan was the Temple of Earth opposite the more famous Temple of Heaven. There are also temples of the Sun and Moon to complete the four sides.
We were in time to catch some of the entertainment. This group played traditional instruments along with an electronic backing track. And to be honest, they could have been playing along with the whole arrangement for all I could tell.
And here’s a little emperor being conveyed around by his loyal servants.

I took this standing at the intersection of two major paths in the park.

That made for a pretty tiring day, so I came home and threw some veggies in a pot with water and chicken bouillon to make a soup. I watched a bit of the CCTV Gala rerun and started organizing the day’s pictures.

This notice in my building’s lobby is how the management office greeted us for the holiday:

All Occupants/Residents
Spring Festival is approaching, our property department officer send our best wishes to you!
Spring Festival period, strengthens the safe guard work, asks you to come in and out of the building on own initiative to carry access card. Regarding the visit visitor, like is unable to determine the concrete room number, the great hall security temporarily does not give the gate and informs the property department to carry on the inquiry, the relation. Holiday period like you egress, please close, the windows and doors, the engineering department can help you to closes the electric circuit, the closure water supply pipe valve, please leave your urgent telephone at the property department.
The weather in Beijing is dry and windy, so it is very easy for the plants in and around our mansion to catch fire if they meet spark. To ensure our owners/residents have a neat and safe living environment, our management office kindly advise you not to ignite firecracker when you celebrate the Spring Festival with you family. You can ignite firecracker at designated locations outside the south gate of the east gate.
Thanks for your cooperation
Wish you to have a happy and healthy holidays!

I’m guessing this was translated from the Chinese original by Google.

Sunday in the park with JD

Aside from all the mang jile around here, I have had a few experiences worth noting (worth it to me at least – you decide for yourself as always). First off, quite unintentionally, I have now seen the new Transformers movie twice. On Sunday the week before last, I got an email from RR saying he was walking to a nearby theater to see it, and I was welcome to come along. I said, “What the heck,” and went along. For a movie about giant robots, the raison d’etre of which is principally as an excuse for blowing things up, I thought it was surprisingly good. Sure some of the dialog was corny, but I didn’t think all the characters were pure stereotypes, and there was plenty of humor to remind you it’s not supposed to be serious. Plus the robots were pretty cool and lots of things blew up real good. Then it turned out that Friday was a coworker’s birthday, so after she shared her cake with me, I asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday, and she said, “Let’s go to a movie!” And after I managed to figure out what she was saying, I agreed.

We left work and took the subway to a part of town way up northwest, where I’ve never been. It’s a college district full of foreign students, and all the buildings have signs in Chinese, English and Korean. The theater there didn’t have any showings at convenient times, so we got in a taxi and went to another theater. We looked at the listings and I said, “Whatever you want to see.” She picked Transformers.
Some observations about going out to movies in Beijing:

1. They are comparatively expensive, roughly the same price per ticket as in an American city. Considering that you could buy seven or eight DVDs for the same price here, it’s surprising anyone goes at all.
2. Both of the theaters I’ve been to sold reserved seats, and had ushers to show you to them. I’ve never seen that in an American movie theater.
3. Transformers is a very popular movie here. Both showings I attended were packed.
4. You are allowed to bring your own snacks and beverages into the theater, and many people do. Theater fare is overpriced compared to the same items outside, but not nearly to the degree I’ve seen in the US.
5. The first time I saw the movie, I noticed that certain bits of dialog had been electronically garbled. This has something to do with the notice that starts out each showing: This feature has been approved by the Ministry of Culture (or something to that effect). Upon a second viewing, I’m pretty sure (from the context) that at least two of the censored bits were mentions of China, though neither one of them could be construed as critical or offensive.
6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix does not open here until August 10.
7. I’ve heard of some American movies (such as Spiderman 3) showing here with Chinese dubs, but Transformers was not. It had subtitles. I’m hoping Harry Potter will be the same.
In the lobbies of both theaters I saw this poster:
Yes, that’s the Disney logo. And yes, the movie is in Chinese. Looking to expand their reach beyond the English speaking world, Disney has produced this movie based on a famous Chinese children’s book. I’m sure it will eventually have an English version, but for now it’s slated for distribution only in Asia. The title is 宝葫芦的秘密 (Bao hulu de mimi - The Secret of the Magic Gourd).

That takes us up to Friday night. Saturday was a very eventful day, but I’m not currently at liberty to discus it, so that blog topic will have to wait.

On Sunday, RR and I took the subway across town to find a CD shop I had heard of (I wrote about their booth at the Midi Festival). We emerged from the station a bit disoriented (normally I would use the position of the sun to determine compass directions, but it was a typical Beijing day and the sun couldn’t be located through the haze). There was a map (YOU ARE HERE), but it only took me a moment’s head-scratching to realize it couldn’t possibly be accurate. Anyway, I saw a street sign that had a dong (east) arrow, so we knew which way to go. The store was small, but had a whole bunch of Chinese rock music. The prices were double or more what you pay for pop CDs in the neighborhood stores, but I don’t mind supporting actual artists. And even still, they’re cheaper than in any other country I’ve bought CDs in.

From there, we walked along a major east-west avenue and before long saw crowds of foreigners with guide books. “Must be something touristy around,” I said. And sure enough, there was the entrance to Beihai Park. It’s quite lovely, and I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves.
OK, this last one will get a little explanation. The lady with the microphone is singing. The lady sitting next to her is clapping in time to the music. And the woman to the right is dancing. They didn’t have a hat out for small change – they were just enjoying the park in their own way.

I probably better explain something else. In the second Beihai picture, the one with the little kids looking down at the giant koi, you see a man with his shirt up to expose his belly. This is so common in hot weather here that you almost stop noticing it. Very seldom will a man take his shirt off, but they often just pull it up to cool off. I wonder if this fashion will catch on in the US...

A week of peace and music

This week is a holiday in China, the equivalent of the American Labor Day. The official holidays are May 1-3, and since that falls in the middle of the week this year, most Chinese people worked on Saturday and Sunday last weekend, trading those days for Monday and Friday to get a whole week off. I went into the office on Sunday as a trade for Friday, but ended up going in on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday anyway in addition to working from home on Wednesday. I’ve got some projects with looming deadlines.

For the first time since I moved in, the water features around the Seasons Park grounds actually have water in them. I haven’t seen the fountains turned on yet, but I did see some of the waterfalls running. It’s very nice, though in Beijing it’s pretty hard to keep them clean enough to be attractive. I haven’t got round to taking any pictures yet.

One of the big events for the week is the annual Midi Festival, China’s longest running rock event. It’s put on by the Midi School, which is apparently a music school focused on rock. Last week several of my Chinese coworkers asked me if I had plans for the holidays, and when I told them I was going to Midi, not a single one of them had any idea what it was. Rock music has never reached the attention of the general public here. They could all probably tell you about dozens of Chinese pop stars and even sing their songs, but rock? There’s Chinese rock?

Anyway, given the large population, even if only a small portion listen to rock, you end up with thousands of people. In past years the festival has drawn ten to fifteen thousand spectators, and this year was expected to be even bigger. It’s held at Haidian Park, a large park in the northwest part of the city, very near to the Summer Palace. I was told that the city authorities will allow the festival to take place but severely limit the amount of promotion that can be done, for fear of large unruly crowds. So information about the schedule and performers was hard to come by. But the tickets weren’t expensive, so I figured it would be worth it just for the experience.

In addition to the festival itself, many of the bands play gigs around town, notably at a club called Star Live, in a series called Apres Midi. Star Live is not far from my office, and is a walkable distance from home. On Tuesday, RR and I walked over there to catch some of the local bands along with a band from Iceland called Wulfgang and Denmark’s Rock Hard Power Spray. We got there and discovered that Wulfgang had not been able to make it to China, but we were curious about the local bands, so we went in. Star Live is a large, very nicely set up place, easily able to accommodate several hundred people, and has an extensive and professional light and sound system.
It was well after 9 pm before the first band took the stage. The schedules I have translate their name (声音碎片) as “Sound Fragment” or “Break Sound” (edit - Sound Fragment is the one used on their CDs). They have a definite influence from British popular rock of the 80s and 90s, reminding me of something like a more rock-oriented Simple Minds with Edge of U2 on guitar. While they did get loud at times, they stayed quite melodic, mainly due to the keyboards and the lead vocals. The official description calls them “Radiohead meets jam band.” I suppose the jam band part is mostly because their set included a drum solo.
The second band is not listed on the schedule, and must have been called in to make up for Wulfgang’s absence. I don’t know their name, but they were a very tight, very tricky post-punk trio, kind of like Dead Kennedys crossed with something like Hella or Ahleuchatistas. RR said they reminded him of Primus only with the guitar rather than bass dominating. The vocals are where I get the DK connection, and the dizzying tempo and time signature changes are the Ahleuchatistas part. I was constantly fascinated and entertained even without understanding a word. Honestly, I doubt event being fluent in Chinese would have helped me understand those vocals.
The third band, Beijing longtimers Subs, came on at about midnight. They are a loud, snotty garage rock band with a very energetic female singer. I’d call them pop-punk if there had been much in the way of melody, but all I heard from her was screaming and growling in between bouncing all around the stage like a squirrel on speed. If it hadn’t been so late I might have hung around for the rest of the evening, but we were both very tired and ducked out after about three songs. Sorry, Rock Hard Power Spray, us aging rock fans can’t handle the hours you keep.

I didn’t take my camera, so maybe I’ll borrow some of RR’s pictures. Check back for updates.
On Friday I joind RR, CL, BG, and BG’s friend DD to go out to the Midi Festival proper on its final day. I had to surrender my bottle of water at the gate, but luckily concessions inside were inexpensive. We got there before the music started, so we wandered around the legendary flea market, which features a very different sort of goods than I’ve seen at all the other events, markets, and sidewalks around town.
Much of the artwork involved modifying or defacing commercial or pop culture images from the West.
Midi takes its rock pretty seriously, and there’s definitely a focus on the harder, heavier side of music, with many metal and punk bands. They also had stages devoted to electronic, folk and hip hop music, but the two biggest stages were mosh-pit heaven almost all day. By the time we got out of the flea market, a band called 641 was thrashing away on the second stage, with much death-metal growling and flinging of hair. I did like the paint job on one of the guitars – a Brazilian flag.
Over on the main stage, there was a young band getting ready to play. Quite a contrast in style: they were all wearing white shirts, several of them with black ties, including the female keyboard player. I can’t vouch for the accuracy here, but the schedule lists 自画像 (Self-Portrait). There were definitely Britpop influences, with a few touches of 80s pop thrown in with the keyboard parts. Aside from the ragged vocals (maybe due to nervousness or the live setting), they were pretty decent.
Over on another stage, there was a Chinese band attempting a hybrid of heavy rock and rap with Chinese traditional elements courtesy of the keyboard parts. Interesting idea, but it didn’t really work. I’m trying to be open-minded, but rapping in Chinese just sounds strange, especially when it’s trying to be in a Korn/Limp Bizkit mold.

On the small folk stage, there was a guy playing around with an accordion. I didn’t really hear much in the way of songs. He got out an acoustic guitar at times as well. Maybe it was supposed to be avant-garde or something.
More wandering. Another thrash metal band on the second stage.
A flash of color in the corner of my eye drew my attention back to the main stage. Here was a band that was very interesting visually. The music was very tightly arranged heavy rock, with some sections of death metal, some spaced out instrumental parts, some industrial crunch, and more, with many quick changes and unusual rhythms. And you’ve got to love those outfits. While it’s not a kind of music I generally go for, they were obviously very talented and put a lot of work into their performance both musically and dramatically. I can’t make out anything on the schedule that seems like it could be them, unless they were 春秋 (Spring and Autumn). (edit - This is exactly who they are.)
After that I mostly just wandered around, got some food from some of the vendors, spent some time and money at the Free Sound Records booth, and discovered that they actually had something other than the wimpy Yanjing beer that was only ¥5 per glass. For ¥10, you could get a dark draft beer with some real flavor. Not sure what it was, but it came from a tap that said Yanjing on it.
One cool thing they had was the DIY T-shirt tent. I wanted to buy a T-shirt, but they only had mediums left.
The rest of the music I heard was either heavy metal or garage rock, none of it memorable. For a culture that values singing so much, and where karaoke is so popular, I was surprised to find such a low quality of vocals in the bands. I can be fairly forgiving of intonation and tone if there’s some character or emotion behind the sound, but mostly I heard shouting and shaky warbles. Still, it was a great experience, and well worth the cost of admission.

Here are some other pictures I took during the day.
Chances are, this is not the China you know. Heck, this is not the China I know either – you could say the rockers and punks came out of the woodwork for the occasion. But it’s encouraging to see that there is some diversity in style and taste in this country, and it’s not a nation of conformists and worker bees. For all I know, everyone I saw will put on their normal clothes on Monday and go back to the office or the restaurant or the store and be indistinguishable from millions of their countrymen and women. I know it happens that way in the US, and I don’t see why it should be different here.

As you can see from the pictures, the weather was very nice. It was probably around 80 degrees F and mostly sunny. It’s been pretty warm all week, to the point where I sometimes look forward to going to the office to get into the air conditioning. Of course, Beijing has a reputation for very hot summers, so I’m sure I should avoid complaining about the mild temps we’ve had so far.

[Edit 2007-05-25]

I'm adding a picture I got from one of my companions. Here you can see me with RR and BG.
I'm the one in the Astro Boy T-shirt.