China Shakes the World

Although I finished reading China Shakes the World a few weeks ago already, I still have a strong impression of it. This is not because it was such a wonderful book, not was it absolutely horrible either. I have no doubt that the book was better back in 2006 when it first came out, but the biggest impression that I had of the book was this: reading it was a waste of my time. Now, to be honest, there were things in the book that were new to me. There were some interesting stories and a few facts that I found interesting. In total, however, I believe that the time I spent reading the book was not well spent, and could have been better spent reading a different book.

I was wary from the beginning about reading a book that was so old. I wouldn't consider all books published in 2006, to be hopelessly out of date, but since China is changing so fast I was automatically turned off by knowing the book was more than two years old. This may sound very strange to people who are not Sinologists or China watchers. Think about it though: the economy, society/culture, political situations and even the language are changing so quickly that a delay of a few years makes knowledge ancient and obsolete. Some books are still applicable after a few years, but many of the China watcher books are made obsolete by changing conditions. However, after seeing that  Mark's China Blog Reviewed this book, I decided to give it a chance. I should have trusted by gut reaction.

I think that most of the information that I got from the book was interesting, but were things that I already knew. I see this as complicated/exacerbated by two things. First, I read blogs (and when I have enough free time, tweets) about China, so I stay very up-to-date. For instance, nobody is gonna read anything about the attempted Jasmine Revolution at Wangfujing in a book for at least a year and I have great doubts that Yu Jianrong's micro-blog will get written in a book anytime soon, regardless of how revolutionary it has been. On a good day I know about the events and happenings before they even get published in the Washington Post or the New York Times. On a bad day I get the inside scoop on China issues that most people in the U.S. have never heard about, and that China watchers restricted to the New York Times, The Economist and Foreign Policy (as I used to be) won't hear about it for a week or more.

The second factor is that I already know so much about China. I am not gonna make any exaggerations: there are still loads of things that I don't know; I am not the smartest China watcher in the world; I often don't even draw my own conclusions. However, having taken a few undergrad classes, read a few books and having lived in Beijing and had plenty of conversations with smart people a lot of the information I get out of books or articles targeted and "regular" consumers are nothing new or special for me. May shocking news about how ethnically diverse China is, or about how China has so many polluted cities, or about China's this or China's that would be new to someone who isn't a China watcher. I am a part of this small population though; we are people who make a hobby/living out of knowing what is going on in this country. A lot of the info in China Shakes the World was like this: I already knew it. It is occasionally nice or pleasing to read things that just confirm what you already know, but rarely (ever?) is this intellectually stimulating.

I will just have to be a bit more selective with what China-focused books I read.

Hot springs, nutella, and more reasons to stay in Beijing

I don't have any major new or high quality reflections to share, but there are several small- and medium-sized things that I want to write about.

First, I got to see Sūn Zhǎn (孙展) for, I think, the first time since summer. She lives really close to a bunch of hot springs out on the east side of Beijing. She lives so far to the east, in fact, that she lives in Hebei Province (河北省). Her parents both work at university which is only a few kilometers on the Hebei side of the Hebei-Beijing border, and they have a very nice apartment on the campus. Since Sūn Zhǎn lives so far away I rarely see her, but over Spring Festival we decided that we should get together, so this past Sunday I got up early to meet her at the DaWangLu (大望路) Subway stop, from which there is a bus that goes right by the hot springs, and to right in front of the university her parents work at. How convenient. The bus takes about an hour, but Sūn Zhǎn and I got lucky because there was a guy driving out that way who was willing to take us for twenty yuan. From there we got an illegal cabbie (just a guy trying to use his car for some extra cash without being a part of a taxi company really; a 黑车) to go straight to the hot springs (The TongZhou Imperial Hot Springs Water Park, officially).

We paid out entrance fee plus a deposit, and went into out separate areas to change into out swimsuits. I have never had a swimsuit that fit so tightly, and it felt really weird at first, but I then saw that none of the Chinese guys was wearing the kind of loose-fitting trunks that I had always considered to be normal swimwear for men, so that made me feel more at ease. The hot springs had a large area that was more like a water park than what I would think of as a hot spring, with slides, and kiddy play area, and a large pool with artificial waves. There was another area that was more hot though, in which the water was (supposedly) kept at 40° (Celsius of course! What kind of anti-progress backwater country do you think I live in, Belize?). There were also some smaller hot pools to the side, with temperatures ranging from 36° to 38°, although some of them felt a lot hotter. These small pools were Chinese medicine pools, and they functioned just like a pot of tea: you put the leaves or medicine in a pouch and let it steep in the hot water. Different pools were good for different things, but unfortunately the medicine which is good for sex drives wasn't out today. Sūn Zhǎn and I spent some time steeping in other medicinal pools. The Chinese word for soaking in a hot spring (or in a Chinese medicinal pool, for that matter) is 泡/pào, which is roughly "to steep" or "to soak." This is, logically, the same word which is used to talk about making tea or to describe soap suds. We soaked in one that increases the body's energy and one that increases the body's resistance to cold. Since I detest the frigid temperatures in Beijing so much, I felt that the later pool would do be a lot of good. We also managed to eat ice cream, lay on a heated stone floor, and eat an expansive buffet lunch. What a place! It was quite an experience in total, and it felt really good to take a full day to relax and treat myself to something nice like that.

Shin Kong Place (新光天地) is one a pretty upper class shopping center

After we left the hot springs we went to Sūn Zhǎn's home briefly so that she could show me where she and her parents lived. Then her mom took us out for a nice Peking Duck dinner, which left me thoroughly stuffed and satisfied. They bid me farewell, and I took the a very comfortable bus ride back to DaWangLu. Before I arrived at DaWangLu I had fully intended to get on the subway and go directly home. As I neared DaWangLu, however, I remember how Sūn Zhǎn had told me that a market, 新光天地 (Shin Kong Place) near there had just started carrying Nutella. The prospect of not only tasting Nutella again, but of owning my own jar and being able to consume copious amounts proved to be too much of a temptation. After wandering around one of the highest class market place I have even seen in Beijing I finally found one of the fanciest grocery stores I have ever seen in Beijing. After I finally asked a worker where they had the peanut butter I found the lovely nutella. What an expensive treat!

Another item is my renewed curiosity about the HSK. While having dinner with Nadia over the weekend, she mentioned to me that anyone testing at a 4 or higher on the HSK could get a full scholarship for any Chinese college. That could be for a master's degree, or it could be for just language courses and special short-term study. That sounds awesome! I don't want to a masters or any more Chinese language classes right now, but I am fairly confident that it would be relatively easy for me to scare at a 4 or higher. It is nice to know that the option is available to me: if I decided someday that I want to pursue a masters in China, I can not only get it tuition-free, but I would even get a small stipend from the Chinese government each month. I am thinking about taking the HSK just to see what level I score as.

Life gets even better, though! (mejor que nunca, as some might say) Nassau is in Beijing. She arrived on Sunday, and after a week of crashing at my place and adjusting to Beijing time she has found her own apartment and begun to officially work full time at American House. Nassau also tells me that Rochelle LaMacchio, another close friend from Kalamazoo is planning on moving to Beijing sometime within the next six months. This is exciting enough in itself, but Jamie Sturm, my longtime language learning buddy, eternal almost-roommate, and good friend is going to move back to Beijing as well! Add this to the potential to work with Fede as a juggling performer and teacher and Beijing is starting to look like a really good option for my the next year. If only Beijing was in Spain!

I ♥ Spanish Film and Bollywood

Over the spring festival vacation I watched a bunch of movies. Even though work has resumed, no juggling this week plus no improv this week means that I have spent more evenings chilling out at home, so my high rate of movie watching has continued.

I started off the spring festival vacation by watching some Spanish movies, which consisted of an excellent film by Pedro Almodóvar, Todo sobre mi madre. I next saw a couple of films with Penélope Cruz, such as Jamón, jamón and Volver, both of which I enjoyed. Although these three movies may not be representative of Spanish cinema, so far I really enjoy what I've seen. I had seen The Girl of Your Dreams during my senior year of college and I enjoyed it a lot too. Of course, if I restrict myself only to the cream of the Spanish cinema crop, I have no doubt that I will enjoy what I see. I look forward to seeing more of Pedro Almodóvar's movies, as well as movies featuring Penélope Cruz.


But I got a lot of cinematic excitement from outside of Iberian Peninsula as well. I don't remember why I downloaded several films from India, but ever since watching 3 Idiots a few months ago I have gained a new appreciation for Bollywood. Such an appreciation, in fact, that I am now telling all my friends that they should watch 3 Idiots. In the past two weeks I have added greatly to my knowledge of Indian film by watching Lage Raho Munna Bhai, then followed by a couple of films featuring Aamir Khan, who is currently one of the biggest stars in Indian film. I didn't enjoy Taare Zameen Par quite as much as 3 Idiots, although I saw a lot of similarities in the ideas portrayed by the two films. I just finished Lagaan this afternoon, which was really a behemoth of a movie at nearly four hours. I can see why it was subtitled as Once Upon A Time in India, as it was a very epic film, encompassing a colonial/imperial struggle, a clear personal rivalry and some very strong emotions throughout. Not Epic like Lord of the Rings or the Matrix. I mean more like epic as in Ben Hur, although I find myself unable to put into words exactly why I draw that connection. No wonder this is considered a modern classic in Indian film. I really enjoyed it, and I highly recommend that everybody checks it out.


There are still a few other films with Aamir Khan that I have on my computer that I haven't gotten around to yet, but they are definitely a priority for my as far as watching films go. It has also piqued my interest in other Indian film, and I have just looked up a list of highest grossing Indian films and started to download a bunch of them. I have high hopes for Bollywood and I. For my language-learning future, perhaps Urdu/Hindi is in the works after Portuguese. I can think of nothing more appropriate to end this post than to say that I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Americans Learning Languages: Spanish and Chinese

A few weeks ago Nicholas Kristof wrote an opinion piece about Americans learning foreign languages. First, I want to say that I am immensely pleased that I can understand what this article’s title means without the use of anykind of a translation program or intermediary to change it into English. This makes me feel very cool. I am always thrilled when multiple languages that I can understand are present in a single environment.

I agree with Kristof on a lot of points, such as the overblown importance in the U.S. of having children learn Chinese. I also agree that more languages should be learned, period. The U.S. has done plenty over the last few decades to prove that it's education system is not globally focused enough. With the way the world is changing, if Americans want to prepare their children to be leaders they had better make sure that their kids know about the world outside of the Unites States.

As someone who has studied Chinese up to a level where I can use the language to live, as well as as someone who lives in China, I have a couple of things to add to this. One big benefit of Americans learning Chinese is the ease of working in China. Like myself, other fresh college grads with no special skills or qualifications can easily spend a few years teaching English in China. If you don't believe me just look at the classified adds on Craigslist for Beijing or TheBeijinger to take a look at the demand: (As of February 3rd, 2011, a category labeled "English Teaching" has over 800 adds, whereas the number two is "Acting, Modeling & Voiceovers" at just under 120 adds)

A VERY strong point why one should first study the Spanish are the "meta-skills" one gains about language learning, as well as the confidence gained from having sucessfully learned a foreign language. For instance, after a year of studying Chinese in Beijing, I knew that I could learn vocabulary from other languages, I just had to spend a certain amount of time in front of some flashcards, and then use the words in conversation to reinforce them. Both of this are (for a native English speaker) much easier  to get from Spanish than from Chinese. From the personal experience of studying both, I can honestly state that I could speak more Spanish from less then one year of study than I could speak Chinese after two years. Kristof lays it out nicely when he says

Spanish is easy enough that kids really can emerge from high school with a very useful command of the language that they will retain for life, while Mandarin takes about four times as long to make the same progress. Chinese has negligible grammar — no singular or plural, no verb conjugations, no pesky masculine and feminine nouns — but there are thousands of characters to memorize as well as the landmines of any tonal language. 

Benny the Irish polyglot writes at some length about the benefits of confidence (from the vantage point of learning Esperanto as an easy way to gain said language learning confidence), and from my own experience of studying foreign languages I can confidently say that I now view it as a much easier task than I did four years ago, precisely due to the fact that I have some under my belt already. Indeed, a good part of my desire to learn more languages is due to knowledge of how easy it is. If I devote two years a language, that gives me plenty of time to reach at least a conversational level.

So for students in the U.S.? I would recommend starting to learn Spanish as early as the Germans start to learn English. Public schooling can always be supplemented with trips to Spanish speaking locales, special summer camps, or local cultural/language events. Once Spanish is at a good level, then I would suggest providing the child with a second foreign language, which could vary depending the priorities and interests of the parents and the child, although I would certainly recommend Chinese or Arabic.

South-South Relations

While read some blogs on Brazil recently, I stumbled across something mentioning Brazil’s growing projects in Africa. My interest was instantly piqued, and I suddenly realized that I wasn’t only interested in China-Africa relations, or China Latin-America relations, or China-Brazil relations. Something broader described my interest. It is only a description, of course, since to define is to limit, and my interests are wide and highly mutable. Regardless, describe (this facet of) my interests it does: South-South relations. What a beautiful phrase, allowing me to briefly describe a curiosity of and/or interest in all the BRICs (minus Russia), the N-11 countries, everything south of the Rio Grand, and the entire landmass between the Mediterranean Sea and South Africa. I wonder if South-South relations are something that I can actually claim as a field of study? Is it too broad? The breadth of SSR as a potential field certainly does match that of my interest and curiosity, but it also goes beyond. For instance, I am not particularly interested in Central Asia, Western Asia or Eastern Europe. South East Asia intrigues me, but not at nearly the same level as Africa or Latin America. This may require some pondering

Books, Couchsurfing dinners, and hotsprings

I am officially off of work for Spring Festival. Also called 春节 (chūn ​jié​), or Chinese new year, it involves lots of people traveling. I want to save money for debt payment and for future travels (especially Spain this summer!), and it is still a bit chilly outside for my preferences, so I am gonna be staying at home for most of this vacation. Fortunately, I have some things I want to take care of at home. Primarily, I am zooming through China Shakes the World as fast as I can because I am very eager to start Kwame Anthony Appiah's Cosmopolitanism. I also have a book on Latin America that I am very excited to read. Unless something unexpected comes up, China Shakes the World should be the last China book I read for a while. I am still interested in plenty of China-issues, and there are still loads of books in the China section of my "books to read" list, but I am trying to focus on Latin America. I have ordered Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America's Soul and Open Veins of Latin America off of Taobao, so those are my planned readings after Spring Festival.


Reading isn't the only thing that I will be doing though! In addition to the 40 Gigs of movies that I have gathered over the past year that could use watching, I plan on practicing some juggling everyday, and hopefully some P90-X driven exercise. I also am going to make regular use of some instructional breakdancing videos I got from a Russian guy at the juggling club. Hopefully I can get some basic toprock down by the time my vacation is over.


Much like many Americans spend Christmas at home with extended family, most Chinese people go back to their hometowns for Spring Festival. This means that the majority of my Chinese friends are out of town for the week (some for the month!), and Beijing suddenly becomes a much quieter and calmer city (except for the fireworks). Most of us foreigners don't have an ancestral hometown in China, though, and some Chinese people don't go home, so I will be going to a big couchsurfer gathering on Wednesday night to celebrate the new year with our international community here in Beijing. Comprising, dinner, watching the fireworks, and dancing, I think an event like this will be good for me. Regardless as to how much I normally yearn for more downtime to read and watch movies, I know that having nothing at all on my schedule is the opposite end of the spectrum, and is no better for my mental health than being overly busy is. Having some social things like this planned will keep me from going crazy and getting bored with my schedule of reading and other self-focused activities.

I am also going to to and check out some nearby hot springs with a Chinese friend whose hometown actually around Beijing, in a nearby area called Yanjiao (燕郊), so that will be another fun time out being social. Not to mention the idea of relaxing at a hot springs for a whole day is very appealing in itself.