Take me out to the qiuchang

Any guesses what qiuchang means?

I think it’s been on the US news that the Dodgers and the Padres are playing the “MLB China Series” this weekend. A bunch of us from the office went to the Sunday afternoon game.
It was at the Wukesong Baseball Field, which will host baseball for the Olympics. That white van you can see behind the sign was supposed to be the box office for ticket sales. The event was not sold out, but at the last minute the security bureau told the promoter they could not sell any more tickets. There were enough guys hanging around outside to unofficially take care of whatever demand there might have been. Baseball is not especially popular here, not like basketball or ping pong.
Note the last item on the list of forbidden things, obviously added to the sign after it was originally printed.
That’s the first pitch. Both teams brought squads of minor league players with a few past-their-prime veterans, so there were a bunch of unfamiliar names.
This guy seemed pretty popular for some reason (the one on the screen, not the one in the outfield). Yeah, I know he’s from Taiwan, but that’s about as close as you get to a Chinese MLB player. And when he got a single (which he did), guess what everyone said?
Speaking of popular, all the cameras came out for this little between-innings show. I have it from a reliable source that there were many other performers scheduled to fill in those little gaps in a baseball game, such as a big traditional Chinese drum corps, but at the last minute the security officials nixed everything but the Korean dance squad. They had to find a replacement singer to lead the crowd in “Take Me out to the Ball Game” – but the less said about that the better. Thanks, AD!
The Padres brought their mascot. Note his security escort in red. Apparently the Dodgers don’t have a mascot – for some reason I’m thinking a little street urchin from Oliver! would work, but maybe a pickpocket wouldn’t be a good role model.

And in case you’re wondering what it looked like underneath the stands...
And in case you’re wondering what the restrooms looked like...
The strange looking building in the background will be the site of Olympic basketball games. I think it’s designed to look like bamboo, and it’s supposed to be lit from within at night.
They had many activities set up to educate people about this strange foreign game. This little kid who hit a whiffle ball off a post has a jersey that says BJFLES. I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean.
I bugged out at the top of the ninth to beat the crowd on the subway. When I left, I think the Padres were up 6-4 or maybe 6-5. I don’t especially care about either of the teams, so I wasn’t paying much attention.


I did take a little video, but YouTube is completely cut off now, so I couldn’t post it if I wanted to.

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...

Bowling for peace

On Thursday evening, fourteen of us from the office went bowling at Gongti 100. The 100 in the name refers to the number of lanes at the bowling alley. I didn't take my camera – I'll have to go back sometime and snap a few shots. It's really huge.
This is a picture I stole off someone else's website (I promise to replace it with my own as soon as I can). We got lanes 25-27, split into three teams. My team was the one with only four people, so we took turns bowling the fifth line. In the first game we came in second place by a small margin, but in the second game we really took off and topped the second-place team by forty points or so. I only managed a 111, nowhere near my personal best, and my wrist was feeling pretty sore by the time we finished. One thing that was remarkably consistent about my performance was that every time I got a strike or spare, I did really terrible the next frame. Consistent in my inconsistency. Anyway, everyone seemed to have a pretty good time. I don't know if this kind of outing for "team-building" is done much here. I enjoyed the chance to spend some time with the Chinese half of our office. Sometimes I feel like there's an invisible wall across the middle of the office, with the Americans over on one side and the Chinese on the other. That's one kind of wall I hope falls over time (and I'm sure the eventual improvement of our language skills will help). As we were leaving, I asked one of the women if this had been more fun than staying home watching TV. She said no. I had noticed that she seemed to be enjoying herself earlier, so either she misunderstood my question or she really enjoys TV.

When I turned on the TV this morning (something I really don't do very often), there was car racing on ESPN and Larry King on CNN, so I started flipping channels and ended up on BTV-8, which is a music channel. They were doing a show on Korean music, and the hostess was speaking in English. I caught part of a video by a singer called Bada that was pretty good, more rock than is usual for K-Pop. In the "Up and Coming" segment, they showed a clip for Kim Ah-joong’s version of the Blondie song "Maria". It's from a movie that she stars in called 200 Pound Beauty, and from what I could gather in the video, the plot concerns an overweight girl who is a clumsy misfit. There are of scenes of her embarrassing herself by trying to wear trendy clothes and being dorky in front of cute guys. Then she goes to a hospital and has some sort of operation, and when she comes out, she's thin and beautiful. Now guys trip over their feet when she walks by. Somehow she becomes a pop star and there are scenes of her onstage with lights and pyrotechnics. Musically, it's pretty close to the original version, though much of it is translated into Korean. It looks like you can watch it on YouTube. (Internet's being really slow here today, so I can't get it to load myself – someone let me know if it's really there.) If an American movie had the same plot, I suspect it would be boycotted for its treatment of overweight people, much as Shallow Hal was a few years ago. I don't know if that makes Americans superior in sensitivity, or just reflects cultural differences. Or maybe sometimes you just have to find humor in something without examining it too closely for political correctness.

Later...

Watching TV here can be annoyingly similar to in the US in one respect: certain commercials get repeated way too frequently. On CNN, one of the biggest advertisers is Malaysia Airlines, and I must admit one of their ads amuses me. Their catch-phrase is "Wish you had more time? Book online with Malaysia Airlines." Nothing special, huh? No prizes to the one who came up with that line. But some of the images they put with it are good. My favorite shows a man in a business suit hurrying into an office, glancing at his watch and looking harried. He passes a table that has a coffee maker, a bin labeled COFFEE and a bin labeled SUGAR. The coffee pot holds only water. He looks at the pot longingly, checks his watch again, shakes his head, and starts to walk away. Then he turns back, puts a scoop of coffee grounds into his mouth, adds a scoop of sugar and a glass of water, swishes it around in his mouth, and goes upon his way. Then the slogan comes up on the screen.

And I just have to add that no matter how much cricket gets covered here on ESPN, the game is still completely opaque to me, less understandable than quidditch. No wonder it didn't catch on outside of the British empire.