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

I met a girl at a club and I’ll leave it at that.  She was beautiful, and yet practically flagged me down from across the room while I was there with a buddy of mine and his girlfriend.  We danced and of course received many angry stares from China Male.   I was too drunk to really care and China Girl as she is all too prone to do when the attitude hits simply put out that “I don’t give a fuck” attitude.   After all, what is China Man to do when China Girl is the instigator of her own treasonous fun? A few more dates ensued where she frequently begged me in desperation to help her find someone to marry her decidedly ugly older sister.   (Oh but for the random fate of God, why does he make one woman ugly and yet another beautiful?) After dating a few times it was time to “clinch the deal”.  This was a phrase I learned and have borrowed ever since from a good classmate of mine I knew while I was living in Beijing.   Alas, his ...

In 1644, Wu Sangui “opened up” the Great Wall at Shanhai Pass.  The Manchu’s marched through, and one of the Great Dynasties, The Qing, was born.   Indeed, the reign of the Qing brought great territorial expansion to China. Still, the Mighty Qing endured at least 8 major rebellions during its reign, until in 1911 at Wuhan, it finally met a rebellion it could not put down.  A challenge to its authority it did know how to surmount.  It was called the Xinhai Revolution. It was just as well.  China was dying a slow death under the Qing, and everyone knew it.  The British, indeed all the West.   And most perceptively the Japanese.   One could say the Qing overstayed its welcome in Chinese History.  It left the gas tank on empty.  The cupboard bare.  A guest everyone was happy to see leave. Meanwhile the Japanese Emperor to this day survives.  Respected, revered, warmly embraced by nearly all Japanese People. ...

Someday I will find the time to write about Macartney, and his visit to China.  (But not this day!)  His visit to China while disastrous without question started the clock ticking against the Qing.  However, 100 years later all the British Bulldog could manage was a pile of rocks and a fair wounding of China’s pride.   Same for the French, the Germans, the Russians and so on.  All those nations taking a bite out of China was only so much of a morsel really.   Even Hong Kong was thought by many an observer nothing if not but gristle to the steak. That is, nobody really took anything that China wanted .  Or felt so keen to fight for.  And quite frankly, in the beginning, the Chinese never really felt that apprehensive about the West anyway.   The Chinese looked at the West and probably thought something along the lines of “this too will pass”. Yes the Chinese had stumbled a bit, here and there.   Battles foug...

Here I am to bitch and rant again, (I just don’t know what’s wrong with me!) Once again, though I should know better, I am utterly confused, frustrated and well….angry at the unrelenting pressure my friends continue to have to simply do one thing: Marry! These are some of the words they’ve spoken to me: “I am not very happy now, sometimes I feel confused.” “My parents push me to marry this year.” Another one told me, “My mom pushes me everyday.” What’s a single Chinese Girl to do? What I’m speaking of course is the mentality of the Chinese Peasantry.   An institution whose mentality towards love and marriage has changed barely a whisper since Cain and Abel.   This would not bother me so if the consequences of a pressurized marriage were not so readily available for all to see today 。   Mom and dad marry young. Both marry first BF or GF. Zero sexual experience. Couple does as told.  Immediately have child....