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.

An American Cat in Beijing

The other morning at work we had a long meeting discussing things I’d rather not write (let alone think) about, and towards the end of it, approaching 11am, someone said, “Let’s get lunch from McDonald’s.” Everyone in the room except me (nearly all of them Americans) thought that was a great idea. A bit later, BG came around with a notepad taking orders, and I passed. “I’ll get some noodles or something,” I said. I ended up walking a couple blocks with a Chinese coworker to get some baozi (steamed buns stuffed with various fillings). When other Chinese staff members found out where we were going, they all put in requests, and we ended up getting twenty or so. The only problem with that is that from the outside, all baozi look pretty much the same, so I’m not sure everyone ended up with what they wanted. I certainly didn’t, but it was no big deal – they were all good. I suppose that from a nutritional standpoint, a steamed wad of bread stuffed with meat, vegetables and sauce is not that different from a burger, especially considering that the meat in baozi tends to be on the fatty side. But if I wanted to eat at McDonald’s (which I generally don’t), I didn’t need to come to Beijing to do it. I came to China to experience new things, and Maidanlao (as they call it here) is not new to me. I must admit there are sometimes days when a burger (or pizza) really seems like the thing to hit the spot, so as an alternative there’s a place called The Vineyard that makes a pretty incredible one, and has really good fries too. The only time I go to Maidanlao is if I like the Happy Meal toys, like the Hello Kitty ones I got a couple weeks ago.
This is a little flower shop I frequently pass on my way to the grocery store.
And this is a rather old-looking cat that seems to live in Nanguan Park. I’ve seen one or two others running around in there.

A few random pictures from around Beijing:
Plant vendors on three-wheelers are pretty common, as are sidewalk real estate agents.
Beijingers love their xigua. Watermelons are everywhere, in shops, on bicycles, and on trucks.

Last night I got home from work around 8pm, and when I walked onto the Seasons Park grounds, I could tell something was different. There was a performance of some kind taking place at the little amphitheater in the courtyard. You might remember seeing it (empty) in some of my previous pictures.

Whatever the show was, it was sponsored by Tsingtao Beer, and involved dancing and audience participation. The dancers brought people on the stage and taught them some traditional dance moves.
I needed to get to the grocery store before it closed, so I couldn’t hang around and watch. At one point the lights were flashing different colors and U2 played on the sound system. I had been wondering if the amphitheater was ever used for anything other than kids to kick soccer balls against.

And here’s my parting shot:
This is the sign outside a building I pass on my way to work. I had walked past it for weeks before I noticed what it said.