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

The mood hit me the other day What has changed from 1937 and now?  The year chosen btw is not arbitrary.  Could be any year from the 20th Century actually up to 1949. China is rich.  Yes wealth is “relative”, but it’s hard to call a country with over a trillion dollars in the bank “poor”.     Yes, China has really screwed itself by making a deposit it cannot so easily withdrawal, if ever.  I wish China would do a writeup in the People’s Daily explaining such a thing, but it probably lacks the courage to do so.  On a sidebar, it probably would’ve been better if China had taken some of this money and created a stronger social welfare system.  Problem is, China considers that a “non productive” investment.   It’s far more glamorous and globally face giving to just buy treasuries. China is confident.  Oh yeah.   This is a good thing, right?  Do we really want an insecure China threatening ...

Yet once again I find myself immensely enjoying Montgomery Laszlo’s China History Podcast. He’s well over 100 episodes, but I must admit I hadn’t even heard of his show until around 6 months ago.   Though most of us won’t admit it, or find no sense of shame in the matter, I never skip around.  Rather,  plodder that I am, I started from the beginning, and am now close to episode 90.  I’ve just finished the Cultural Revolution series.  It’s here I’ve had the epiphany that all those books I read when  younger, I perhaps…well, was too young!  It’s a true pleasure listening to his podcasts, and here again, having thought I knew the principles behind the CR, was happily surprised at how ignorant I truly am as to the events that actually lead up to the CR.  Thus the shoutout.  A couple of takeaways from the CR that I was able to gleam from the recent PODCAST are:          ...

The Past 48 hours within Shenzhen here a couple of things I’ve noticed.               I  just saw  a young, attractive mom drive by with not one, but  2 kids on her scooter.   She had the young one…maybe 2 years old, in the front, and was holding her newly born child, (maybe 3 months?) in the crook of one arm as she steered with the other.   Incredible. Nevermind the street was without Q a semi busy street requiring lots of weaving, and skill, but it was simply a scooter.  I had a scooter in college and actually laid it down once on some post Winter sand still in the street.   Those things are easy to put down.   Looked like she had a 60 cc scooter, top speed 35 mph. I’m growing increasingly nervous abt simple things like crossing the street here.   It’s not the cars that bother me anymore, because...

I admit I’m at a loss for words sometimes.   Rarely so, because my ability to talk, and persuade is paramount to my having a successful business.  Still over the course of time, when myself and the Chinese talk, things come up, where, well….it’s difficult to use either common sense or logic to explain away some of the peculiarities of the American （ or Western ） way of life. Here are a few: Jesus rising from the dead Oh yes, I remember it well.  We were all sitting together one day in the autumn cool of Guangzhou, 0n a grassy field(are there still grassy fields in Guangzhou?), when everyone started pestering me about Christianity. I was 23 and shall, um, we say a somewhat more strident follower of the subject than perhaps can be said today.   With pride I explained the basic tenets of Christianity.  Leading up to the climax, I explained as well as I could the crucifixion.    I jumped around a bit, describing how Christi...

First of all, my apologies for having been gone so long. Again...thank you, China for giving me all these wonderful VPN issues. Your efforts to keep me from using Google while in China are indeed impressive. I've noted everyone's comments, and I have several posts ready to post....I'll prob do so every other day for the next week or so. Upon returning from the Heavenly Kingdom, my laptop promptly died, and I will get that back today, minus the $150 it took to fix it.  A Windows corruption issue....of course between you and me the real issue is after a long day at the factory last week, upon sitting down to catch up with customers via my laptop, the connection just wasn't happening, so I slammed my laptop with my fist.   Pls don't tell anyone abt this.

Why do Chinese not listen? Why do Chinese not care? Rather, the question I’m asking is why do Chinese have such a problem with authority? Why do they disregard “the rules”? To the outsider, their wanton disregard of the rules is both flagrant,  and arrogant.  And it contributes to the more chaotic situation of it’s society today. The anything goes mentality within China harks back to the Wild West.  Many an American living in China today, upon returning home for a visit, use this phrase to best describe China today. So let’s ponder the reasons.  Population: Quite frankly, China is a mess.   There is no way in hell China only has 1.3 or 1.4 billion people.   It is more likely that officials undercount more so than overcount.   Many a Chinese statistic is unreliable, if not all of them.   That’s not a diss.  It’s just a reflection of how lacking the powers that be have on the situation at han...

Ever go to a local eatery in China, and find yourself next to a couple of noisy laowai?  Every 3 rd syllable is a swear word.   Their negativity knows no bounds.   I’d love to walk over and tell them hush, but I’m good at math, and three of them and one of me makes poor odds.   And I honestly think they don’t give a crap what I think.    Well, if I could talk to them I’d just say one thing: You need a girlfriend, Man.  That’s all there is to it.  A lonely man is an irritable one.  If you’re gonna stay in China for any length of time, whatsoever, China will just suck if you’re alone.   Simple as that.  As 99% of you already know, it’s thus more than vital to get a local gf.  Here's another rambling post on popular ways the laowai tries to accomplish his goal, in Modern China today, and the ill effects of his approach on the rest of us that live here. Today it’s soooo much easier to do...