Honking Horns...

...Usually mean "hey, I'm passing."　And since people drift in and out of the lanes like they're quaint suggestions, there is a lot of honking. As a result, drivers generally don't check before they turn or change lanes because they expect someone will beep at them if a collision is imminent. Which then necessitates drivers to honk for 10 seconds in Morse code if they see someone getting on a bicycle in a parking lot 9 seconds away. Gotta be safe, because the cyclist is probably not going to look.

They also honk to clear traffic jams and increase the flow of traffic.

But today I was awoken from a nap by the sound of every car in Beijing honking simultaneously. When the air-raid horn started I became a little alarmed and kept looking into the sky half-expecting Japanese bombers to suddenly emerge from the pollution cloud.

Not knowing what to do in the event of a Japanese surprise attack, I did as all college students do when faced with a problem of modern life, I ran a quick google search:

China will begin three days of mourning with a nationwide silence at 2.28pm this afternoon, precisely one week after the 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck.

Air raid sirens and horns of vehicles, trains and ships will be sounded in grief at the end of a three-minute silence and national flags will fly at half-mast across the country and at Chinese embassies worldwide.

Source

I’m glad I’m not the only person who thought the horns and sirens disrupted the silence. Here’s a youtube video of the scene here in Beijing since the Shanhaiist’s video was removed.

Ah, the earthquake in Sichuan. A public relations officer wet dream. The timing for such a catastrophic geologic event was so precise. How did the Earth's crust know to fracture now, during this decade, and this year, and this month, just two weeks after a natural disaster leveled Burma and brought worldwide condemnation of its government's failure to respond? China, unlike Burma, has allowed and encouraged press coverage of its relief efforts, which has everyone here getting warm fuzzies about the their government’s vigour and effectiveness. The president Hu Jintao and prime minister Wen Jiabao have been rushing around from PR opportunity to another, looking concerned, saluting troops, and likely kissing any baby boys pulled from wreckage.

Contrast this with America, where if there was similar press coverage of a disaster response some of today’s college students would be alleging the government planned it. Many Americans thrive on flinging hate at the government. That fact always mystified me since I knew that people ran the government, and those people were elected by American voters. Nonetheless, it’s probably good somewhere in the world the people hate their government unconditionally so that yin and yang are in balance.

The earthquake helped shift everyone’s focus away from the fact that protests during the Olympic torch tour have been so severe security officials have frequently needed to make unscheduled changes to it’s route or stage the relay in areas restricted from the public. The full story of the tour’s path through protest after protest makes for a fascinating read. If China hosts the Olympics again sometime soon we may need to create a separate event just for the world tour considering the amount of foot speed and dexterity required by its bearers to hurdle demonstrators and juke their water balloons of protest.

So is China’s response to the earthquake actually having an effect on how the West is reporting on China? Maybe, if the recent cover of Time here in China is an indication.

The outpouring of support has been a revelation. For years, China's citizens couldn't watch the evening news without being reminded of their darker sides, of the grasping, reckless self-interest that has characterized China's headlong rush to become wealthy and powerful: stories of slave labor and child-kidnapping rings, rampant government corruption, counterfeit products, tainted food, dangerous toys and, lately, a crackdown on dissent in Tibet. But from a monstrous humanitarian crisis has come a new self-awareness, a recognition of the Chinese people's sympathy and generosity of spirit. The earthquake has been a "shock of consciousness" as scholar Jiang Wenran puts it, a collective epiphany when the nation was suddenly confronted with how much it had changed in two decades of booming growth — and liked what it saw.

Actually, last time I watched the evening news it was 20% about actual events in the country—which I guess you could construe the Shanxi slave scandal as, 40% about the growth of the economy, and 40% about the NBA and Yao Ming. Of course, now that the NBA has joined Sharon Stone and Carrefour on China’s shitlist, I suppose the dramatic description could be more accurate.

It's not just China's self-image that has changed. The quake has altered, at least temporarily, the world's perception of China, whose growing economic and military might is viewed with suspicion and fear in many quarters. China's relationship with the West has been particularly strained after March's bloody demonstrations in Tibet and the chaotic protests that dogged the Olympic Torch relay. But the quake, coming just 10 days after Cyclone Nargis ripped into Burma, has cast the Chinese government in a different light. By blocking foreign aid, Burma's paranoid military junta demonstrated just how impotent and callous to the suffering of its citizens a repressive autocracy can be.

Remind me to fully read all the articles I plan to reference in a post so that I don’t discover everything I’m saying has already been published somewhere. Nonetheless, here it is clear as day, by not being completely evil and mercilessly denying relief to your suffering population the world will forget all the shit they’ve been talking for the past 30 years and embrace you, at least temporarily. I hope it’s very temporary otherwise my faith in the free press will level out next to Xinhua news.

"The Olympics seemed destined for disaster and that would have been a major setback for China's emergence onto the world stage," says the diplomat. "Now many people will be cheering for the Chinese and hoping they pull off a good show. That will be pivotal for China self-confidence and its perception of its place in the world."

I suppose if a blizzard can save Christmas an earthquake can save the Olympics. He makes another point though, that people should cheer for China to win big at the Olympics. I hope they smoke the US and Russia in Gold medals. Why? Because the Chinese are the only people on the planet who think the world respects countries who win Gold Medals. They’ll swell up with pride, just like a kindergarten kid getting a smiley sticker on his worksheet. And, like a child, maybe they’ll stop being so insecure if they get enough positive reinforcement. There you go, good China. Look, the world thinks you’re way strong, and my, how many 1st place ribbons you have!

What's New

China had a Big Earthquake.

Last weekend I hiked the mountains between two villages, one in Shanxi and one in Hubei.

I also went to a bathhouse where every Chinese man there stared directly at my junk. In the pool, in the sauna, even when I went to close the bathroom door so that I didn't have to smell shit.

Next weekend I'm going to an orphanage.

I wrote a biography for a dead pilot.

If study abroad is a chance for people to notch one liners of "experience" onto their belts I'm well on my way to filling a wardrobe. And naturally, any of these experiences will lose its mystique when sufficiently explained. I don't refrain from elaborating for this reason, but rather my own lack of interest in the things I do and unwillingness to expend the effort it requires to present these experiences with a facade of implausibility. Some call this laziness. I think it's more about being realistic. Too often the measure of our lives is in how good a story it makes at a party.

All we are is dust in the wind. And if that's true and you believe it, then you get a sort of Teflon-coating for any experiences which fall short of impacting eternity. On the good days I forget this fact. Today isn't one of those.

Lugou Bridge is Falling Down, Falling down...

I finally got to bed early tonight and was in a pre-sleep fog when my roomate came in to announce:

"Hey Chris, I do not know if you know, but the, my embassy? It just called and they say there will be an earthquake and not to be inside the building from 10 to 12? 6.6 size earthquake. Aye, just so you know."

I said oh, while wondering why my embassy never calls me. Probably because I don't play on their soccer team.

Then I debated whether I should sleep or get dressed and ready. 10pm is 10 minutes away. Normally this would be nothing interesting because as far back as I can remember I've been immortal, but the quality of Chinese civil engineering has been one of the lower points of my time here. Actually the lowest, as everything from my bathroom floor, to a tunnel, to an entire track, becomes flooded with water quite easily.

In the event of an earthquake I can imagine our whole dorm going down. I'm up on the tenth floor and pretty sure that if the building falls it'll be into the street, meaning I'm on the bottom of the pile. If it stands, then I'll die in the subsequent fire with no escape--because there is no fire escape. There are stairs, to be sure, but those aren't lit, have no emergency lighting (were they to be lit) and last I checked they were locked by a gate on the fourth floor for a reason which eludes all of us. I almost bought a crescent wrench so I could unhinge it in a pinch, but never went through with it.

If it does fall, there will be a lot of equipment nearby for clearing the rubble. They have been tearing up the road underneath me for the past 5 days, solely at night. And if it falls, it might kill some of the workers down there I've come to loathe. For all I know they're the ones gonna cause the building to fall with their incessant drilling, jack hammering, sawing--which by the way, is not followed by building, repairing, or constructing, but rather just the sound of huge steel panels sliding around on asphalt with a rusty and decrepit bulldozer to cover the gaping holes leftover. These panels are adjusted on the hour so as to better enable taxies and bicycles to nearly collide on once what was just your average Chinese deathtrap.

On the bright side, if the building doesn't fall or catch on fire, it may cause my bedroom wall to cumble which will give me access to the fat girls next door who are playing awful Russian dance-pop at 10pm on Monday night.

It's cool. Sweat to the dance grooves. Just do it more quietly and don't dance when you're doing it so I can tell when the earthquake starts.

Well, my roomate left so I better find my flashlight. If I don’t post for a few days it’s because I can’t find my computer in the rubble.

Still alive. Tired

Quick update:
I'm alive.

I just got back from Yuncheng, Shanxi province where I carried camera equipment and shot on a Canon SLR for two days as my boss interviewed aging Chinese men. We were searching for the final resting place of an American pilot who had crashed in the village in 1945. For more information about the pilot's life you can look here. I'll probably make a more detailed post of our trip, including links to the Chinese newspaper coverage.

I marched in a parade today during the opening ceremony of the school's track and field meet. I was the only American. They gave all the students from the international education college a flag to wave, and I kept mine in my pants so I could have free hands to shoot pictures and hold my water bottle.

I just got done texting a girl in Chinese whom I'm going to a jazz club with tonight.

Next week I have midterms for my Chinese classes. If the grading empasis is on correct use of varied gramatical structures and speech tone, I will do fine. If they stress fluency and ability to carry on a conversation, I will do poorly.

Today's visibility: over one kilometer

It's April first, fools.

One text message, one email, one Facebook status update, and a couple AIM messages.

Total possible audience of 280+.
Number of responses: 15
Of those, people calling bullshit: 3
people asking about April 1st: 3
people fooled: 10.
Punked rate: 66%

(It doesn't add up because someone I messaged told a friend, and as a vocal Tibetian sympathizer, she started freaking out she'd get deported too.)

Memorable quotes:
I do not believe youuuuu
What? are you serious?
You can't be fucking serious
What the fuck. What the fuck.
I'm stunned.
I can't believe this is happening.
I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry.
I'm sorry though, too
That's horrible.
lolol Chambers is getting deported Hahahah
你打我吓坏了。
That was a good one. Bastard.
You are so mean. ^@^
You are such an f-ing badass.
What did you say on your blog?
I would like to read your blog.
Can I see it?

3. Black people are hard to see at night.

This is the third thing that every Chinese will say if you talk to one long enough. I hope it was unexpected. Otherwise, the rest of the post might not make sense.

I’ve been rather surprised to hear this, especially on more than one occasion, in a country with so few black people to begin with. Each time I hear it a voice in my head pops up and reminds me “you can’t say that!” That I have a this voice in my head is a good demonstration of how politically correct we are in the United States, relative to China, for better or worse. Thankfully college didn't make me _solely_ a PC robot, so I've been thinking critically about the statement.

Why should “black people are hard to see at night” be so surprising? It’s true. It’s goddamn true, true as the sky is blue.

I trust if you’re an American you’re having a similar voice pop up in your head right now telling you I've said something shocking, controversial, or racist. And I think when we only recognize the truth in a true statement after we’ve recognized how much trouble someone can get in for saying it, we’ve lost something.

The Chinese still have it. They’ve got it and got more where that came from. They got a whole bag of it under the table. They’ve got’em like hotcakes. If I had a nickel for every one they had… In other words, they’ve got a lot and they’ve got it bad. So bad they also lack the ability to conceptualize how such a statement marginalizes minorities by defining them through their minority characteristics. I’ve spent countless hours with Chinese people trying to build the framework for understanding oppression. I’ve talked about the birdcage, insufficient sample sizes, the myth of genetic races, and where all else failed simply asked to put themselves in someone else’s shoes. But in the end I always have to settle for just strongly urging that they never say “black people are hard to see at night” in the US, because almost everyone will be offended by it. “While you might not lose friends over this particular statement,” I say, “it’s a safe bet just to avoid referring to inborn differences like skin color altogether.” Would you agree? Is this really the case in America? And if it is, isn’t it a much more shocking statement--revealing the current thought-controlling condition of political correctness in America--than “black people are hard to see” could ever be?

The party members of Orwell's 1984 doublethink their way around a minefield of thoughts the party deems too dangerous, both at once understanding the truth and then denying it to their conscious brain. My boots have a hole in the toe and the sole is disintegrating but the radio says boot production is up 20% this year so I'm happy to live in such a luxurious country! The politically correct reflex operates with a similar mechanism, where a brain is so well-trained it can captured a statement, react to it appropriately, and discard it before understanding it's meaning. "Black people are hard to see at night."　In my case, I think I stop listening and start doubting the statement after "black people are..."

Perhaps this is scary, perhaps not. Whereas doublethink is a tool of party oppression in 1984, in the US political correctness is enforced democratically, i.e., "everyone will be offended if you say ____." Since I'm not as able to articulate what is "lost" by this process, and can see how in a bigger picture how it helps to create a more inclusive and egalitarian society I accept it. But I also worry that doublethink can become so pervasive in the mind of a society that it forgets the bittersweet taste of truth.

Sharing an honest opinion regarding race in the US is like crossing the street without looking: a costly accident waiting to happen. So Americans always look both ways before crossing, and twice to the left. Chinese don’t bother to look. They’re too busy looking out for black people whom could evidently be anywhere.


Since there are so few dark skinned people in China, I think that their perceptions are mainly informed by American movies. Considering so many black characters in blockbusters are urban stereotypes, they rightfully think all blacks are dangerous and speak Ebonics. I first cringed when Chris Tucker yelled at Jackie Chan “don’tchu know nevertoucha black man’s radioooooo!?” and now cringe again when experiencing Chinese views of black skin.


This post originally went on to elaborate by documenting my experience at the Beijing Ethnic Minorities Park. This section has now been split off to it's own post here.

2. China has 5000 years of history.

“China has (over) 5000 years of history.” This is said almost any time a Chinese person discusses China’s place in the world or its future and is often followed quickly by a patronizing comparison to the United States with its juvenile 250 years of history. The quicker among you are already sensing the sandy foundation this statement has. Unfortunately if American history only begins 250 years ago, then its history only began with the War of Independence. And if the metric for historical legacy is when a current political body was founded, then China comes up about 200 years short of the United States since Mao defeated the Nationalists and founded the People’s Republic of China only in 1949. Doh.

Of course, it’s silly to think that a people’s history only begins with the inception of a modern political system, otherwise the world would stand in abject awe of San Marino. But then, what is a useful metric for tracing your historical legacy?

I have few good ideas because in America we’re not generally not preoccupied with claiming credit for the past. The exceptions are notable, like routinely inflating our contribution to the Allied effort in Europe in World War 2; by "our" I mean middle schoolers and soldiers who credit America with saving Europe. But more times than not American esteem comes from its current place atop the global hierarchy and not its history. Americans who are proud are so because of their glorious present, not their glorious past. Our relationship to history is often one of willful ignorance until the academy gets around to educating us about it. For example, the American genocide of Native Americans was whitewashed and swept under the rug for my parent’s generation, when I was in k-12 we skirted the issue by talking about manifest destiny with a half-frown, but students in school today might even use the accurate term genocide in a few places.

History plays a much greater role in Chinese esteem because the CCP uses it to influence the ideology of the population. When the PRC consolidated control over the territory we call China in 1949 it went to great lengths to announce its victory over the centuries of humiliation by Western colonial empires, over Japanese imperialism, and in recent years, the United States and the West. This victory takes on many dimensions, all of them ostensibly to legitimize the party control of state. The dimension we’re concerned with here is the notion that Chinese people are somehow special on the world stage, a nation with unparalleled longevity.

It’s wrong to chalk all of this to the PRC since 1949, because it’s not as if they created the concept of Chinese superiority. That has a long and well documented past from the unification by the first emperor through centuries of receiving tribute from nearby states in South East Asia and Japan, through culturally assimilating their Mongol conquerors, to when strange smelling barbarians started making regular visits in the 17th century. However, the PRC currently holds the reins on compulsory education and to a large degree the academy, and so it would be fallacious to try and paint the concept of 5000 unbroken years of history as just a continuation of old perspectives. Chinese notions of superiority were smashed quite thoroughly during the “century of humiliation” 1850-1950.

Also, it’s wrong to attribute all dimensions of Chinese nationalism to the machinations of the Chinese Communist Party. In metaphor, they’re at the reins, not pulling puppet strings. If I were Chinese, I’d want to shake off the shame of the past and look forward to the future with confidence too. So the party steers the people where they already want to go.

So how do you rebound from a century of humiliation? Your innate awesomeness! If your people predate all of civilization then clearly you are quite special, destined for a bright future…with the help of the PRC’s enlightened leadership. Also, if you are the timeless and eternal, you can look down on those with shorter time spans like America, the West, and everyone else in the world whom you look up to in other areas. Status as an elder is even more crucial in the East than the West, and so if you are 5000 years old, then places only 1000 years old ought to respect you. And if all else fails, you can use your lengthy existence to project into the future, making you appear all but invincible. Poof, legitimacy in everything you do as a nation.

Of course, China does not deserve to rank itself above every other place on the planet. China has had advanced civilization within its current political boundaries for thousands of years. But so has India, the Middle East, Mediterranean, Northern Europe, and Tropical Africa. China developed agriculture within the same timeframe as our much touted “cradle of civilization” in Mesopotamia, but languished relative to the speed of development there and in Egypt. Diamond would tell us this is from a lack of certain cereal grain and livestock, but nonetheless, they don’t predate anyone else. If any current nation is able to claim 5000 years of history, it’s Iraq.

However, even Iraq and Mesopotamia couldn’t claim 5000 years back, because actual history, as in written records, devolves into uncertain mythology past 3000bc. Cuneiform is regarded as the most ancient form of writing on the planet, and it predates Chinese script by 1300 years.

It’s pretty ridiculous. Chinese paleoanthropologists spend a lot of their time trying to prove human remains like Peking Man predate discoveries in Africa and the Middle east, some fringe researchers even going so far as to argue Chinese people evolved independently from Cro Magnon. This is at odds with the preponderance of evidence, and represents a sorry example of how Chinese nationalism disconnects them from the mainstream of what’s going on elsewhere. In a scientific field, no less.

Arguing over dates and year lengths is a really fruitless exercise because Americans cannot claim advances made by Mesopotamians any more than current Chinese can claim credibility from their ancestors. The China of today is not culturally homogenous with the China of 3000bc. Much of today’s discourse concerns alarm at how rapidly Chinese youth are assimilating Western culture: eating at McDonalds, wearing Nikes, and for godsakes listening to rap! Even without the huge influence by the West, at best the Chinese of today are heirs of whatever non-Chinese culture existed in 3000bc. It certainly wasn’t Chinese, because the term China didn’t even exist before Qin unification in 220bc and the Han ethnicity (91% of mainland Chinese are Hanzu) had no name before the Han dynasty around 200bc. More on etymology here.

Like every piece of dirt on the planet, China has been long been occupied by people calling themselves something, practicing some culture that co-mingles and changes , under a political environment which fluxuates. China has been broken up and reunified. It has been conquered and liberated. It is not the monolithic and timeless entity that Chinese claim it to be. China does not have an unbroken history. Its historical legacy, however you measure, does not predate everyone. It does not have (over) 5000 years of history. And that’s okay.

Really I only object unquestioned bounds of the statement and not the spirit. In many ways China does have continuity, such as their pictographic language which has been in continual use since its origin--but not before writing existed. Chinese can still claim to have a really long line of dynasties which ruled over a relatively advanced society roughly in the same area in roughly the same way for a period roughly five fold longer than the nearest European challenger. But then one must answer the question “so what?”

My internet was too slow to log on to the OSU library academic resources. I beg your pardon for several links to Wikipedia.