My China Kanfa.....China on My Mind

Trust me, you are making it hard for all of us. Yes, I know, I’ve sympathized with you in the past.  You need to buy a house and a car just to get a chick to look at you, blah blah blah.  Chinese women are gold diggers.  Yes, I know that, too.  They like the Laowai….well, because their laowai.   And I’ve also muttered about their undersexed moms, most of whom would rather play mahjong and gossip until 2am than come anywhere near a man.    In short, there is no one of non HAN BLOOD who has publicized your plight more than I.  As only Nixon could go to China, you too, my over eager friend, simply need to cut me slack on this one. Still….you guys have got to learn how to pick up women.   Or rather, do something that will not make it harder on the rest of us. Because your methods are…well, shall we say…..Self defeating.   I’m tempted to say laughable, but I won’t.(whoops) There are many, many reasons ...

Here is an update on the below post I wrote on the Bahamas.  This article in the NY Times updates China's involvement  in the below hotel and the sad conclusion. China likes the Bahama’s very much. We recently went on a cruise.  My family, and the inlaws recently took nice a cruise in the Atlantic.  The water was gorgeous, and the ship was nice enough for a first timer.    The sea was a deep blue, and despite the size of our ship, we could always feel a slight sway.   There is nothing more powerful than the Ocean, trust me.    I tried in vain to catch glimpses of another ship, but unlike our disastrous trip to Sentosa Island in Singapore, we were alone.  No freighters, no fishing trawlers, nothing.  It was a very peaceful experience.  To my surprise, there were also Chinese on board.  Not too many, but considering we were off the coast of Florida, and not Shanghai, it was nice to see. ...

China 1990 Part 1….Settling in I’ve wanted to write for awhile on what China was like when I first came here.  This is not a pissing contest.  I do realize others had arrived here before me.  However, I almost never come across laowai that have come here as early as I have.  That is, that didn’t give up on the place, or those that felt it wasn’t paramount to continue with their Mandarin. I have not lived in China continuously for 23 years.  I’ve only lived here for 12 years or so.   I’ve lived in many cities(all the big ones), and of course travelled a lot.   China has changed.  In a lot of very big ways.  I guess I just want to have a record of how it’s changed in my eyes. My first day Was approximately August 15, 1990.  Guangzhou.   I got off the train from Hong Kong.  I do not recall how I got to my university. （There were no private schools than)  Needless to say, after having ...

(I'm back from holiday.....more to come) Then there was the day I finally decided to get fixed. Couples after a certain amount of time naturally start to have certain conversations about certain types of things. When to stop adding to the population is one of them. However….there is another dialogue that takes place between the sheets.  You see, as human beings we want our cake and we want to eat it, too. That is….we want to fool around without the consequences.  However, as a sensible, responsible steward of our planet, I wish not to add to the pressures of the planet by adding to it’s population. Finally, one day I tired of the constant mental stress involved with just trying to “have my cake and eat it, too”. So a few short years ago, I decided to get FIXED.  Pinch the tube.  Quarantine the fishys.  Flush the chamber. It was time to put my foot down and say “enough is enough!” A smile crossed my face.  Wrinkles disa...

It’s quite fashionable(and makes a lot of sense) to bemoan the authoritarian, heavy handed management style of the CCP.   I find a lot, if not most of what it does reprehensible.  We just consider it as understood and thusly do not dwell on it.   And I’m at the point now in my life where I just dread talking politics.   My mind is more on dinner(chicken or salmon?), than on anything going on in Beijing.  However, we have forgotten that without the firm management style of the CCP, China would from a macro level, be worse off.  Possibly much worse off.   And if China goes Kaput than it effects everybody.  I’m not trying to justify the existence of the CCP, and I’m sure has hell not trying to glorify this very non august body.  Rather, I’m just stating the obvious that anyone that has lived here for any proper length of time already knows. Here are some examples: Nobody, and I mean nobody here follows the rules....

Gangster Squad and how it would have played out in China.  Have you seen this movie? Gangster Squad is the story of how Los Angeles was able to successfully keep the mob out of LA.   There were several corrupt police chiefs, as well as individual cops.  Yet there was apparently an honest DA, and he had in turn a special group of officers that successfully broke up Mickey Cohen’s attempts to organize LA’s gambling, etc  under the control of the Mob. The newspapers were all over the story, and the rise and fall of this Cohen was widely publicized. But what if this movie had taken place in say Shanghai?  How would the Chinese version of Gangster Squad play out?  That is, how would attempts to suppress the mob in China succeed? One of the things I’m convinced about is without the Communist Party, there would without question be unbridled mob influence in China today.   China would be a more violent society,  guns would pro...

There is a better way to understand China.  A better way to prepare America, and other countries  with how to best deal with China.  China is not a new phenomena.  To give one scope and perspective, at the time of the American Revolution, China already was a nation of 200 million people.  America would not reach that population for 200 years.   Now China is with us again.  For better, the West needs to learn in an organized, effective way how best to understand, appreciate and deal with China.   If not, relations will simply over time deteriorate and bump from crisis to crisis.  All over America, there are Mandarin programs popping up in schools.    Local Chinese communities within America themselves lead the way.    Traditionally, the United States govt has also led the way, in terms of programs that teach language proficiency.   The DLI program, the CIA, State Dept, etc.   But...

(Sorry I've been away so long....Shenzhen VPN troubles。。。the price of using Google) People complain all the time about Chinese women.   They complain about their materialism and gold digger qualities.   Yet Chinese women are only a by product of their  society.   There is a logic as to why the Chinese Woman now has the reputation of a materialistic, agenda driven Woman.  So we cannot just say these women themselves are evil bitches content on taking your money and leaving. There are two main reasons why Chinese women are the way they are today:  their mom and Chinese men.  Below is my very clumsy attempt at an explanation. (Now here I will mention that the unspoken theme that makes all this possible is the lack of opportunity in China today for women.   They can stay in the village, become a factory worker, or do something else.  But make no mistake it is this lack of upward mobility within Chinese society for...