Shanghai China Snippets Observations about living in Shanghai and China in general

One of the most interesting museums I went lately is the Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Centre. Hidden in a basement the world of Chinese Propaganda in the Mao era opens up to you.

I bought a comic book there from 1957. The cover shows an interesting view on the world at that time. The title is “Two Worlds”.

To find out what the western guy is protesting about, go to the special page that has been added with more info about the Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Centre.

For some reason we ended up discussing the difference in address formats between China and the West.

In Chinese you write an address on an enveloppe in the following format

Country
Province,
City, Postal code
Street name
Name of Recipient

In the West (actually in almost any other country) you write an address like this

Name of Recipient
Street name
Postal code, City (In the US this a reversed)
Country

Collectivism versus Individualism?

Just a short inbetween. I know Chinese spit. It’s a medical thing according to them. Spit, once created by the “AHHRGGGGGG” scraping has only one way to go..OUT.

I also noticed that in general the amount of spitters decreased and honestly I don’t care so much if people spit as long as they do it in a kind of concealed way without bothering anyone else.

Why this short inbetween which has been written about over and over again on any blog and website related to China.

Because I just took the elevator in my building, together with a well-dressed young guy, someone who couldn’t resist the urge of spitting, just there, just then, just on the floor of the lift.

There are moments I see progress, there are many more moments I see reality.

Random thoughts on eating in China for more than 3 years now.

The Xinjiang restaurant in Shanghai offers sheep balls. Great food although no by effects

This spring snake was on the menu in Yangshuo. It was hunted when we ordered, showed to us alive and for the photo-op we held it for a while. The drink was its blood mixed with alcohol and tasted like shit. The meat was not that special.

3 years ago I ate my first and last hot dog. A baguette, some salad, some dog froms the stalls in the street, some musterd. It tastes like beef so I stick to that.

2 years ago we tried turtle soup. The reptile was floating in a soup bowl and looked with sad dead eyes into mine. No more turtle since then.

In Kunming tripe was a favourite of many. It tasted nice but looked dodgy. Next to that I didn’t know what the word tripe meant. Now I know and still like it.

The big October break is coming and today I read the official announcement.
For all those westerners with their fat holidays I wonder how they would react if they get 5 weekdays but have to hand back the weekend.

In the hard copy of the “New Weekly” 新周刊 (xīn zhōu kān) （a rather interesting Chinese publication) of 2005-09-01 there is nice phrase about the presumed higher status of Women in China.

男人的法定结婚年龄是22岁，
nán rén de fǎ dìng jiēhūn niánlíng shì 22 suì
Men’s legal age to marry is 22 years

法定当兵年龄是17岁，
fǎdìng dāng bīng niánlíng shì 17 suì
The legal age to serve as a soldier is 17 years

这说明女人比敌人还难对付。
zhè shuōmíng nǚ rén bǐ dírén hái nán duìfù
This means that women are even more difficult to handle than enemies

Discaimer: This is just a poor man’s attempt to translate so let me know if there are any mistakes.

Danwei just pointed me to a website that entertained me for 5 minutes. Club Lee in Beijing, where the girls will delight your stay.

Just some random quotes from their website.

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Introduction

• Not many of our staffs speak English, but after all we aren’t a talking club, right?
• No sexual acts are permitted by Chinese Law. (Prostitution is illegal, so we have to state this)

How to use our service, the highlights (and yes, the text is all original, I just colored some things):

• 1. First-time users need to check the prohibited items listed on Home Page. (If a user falls into any of these categories, then the user is prohibited from our servicing)
• 3. The staff requested will be checked from our side and then sent to the location which you provided in reservation form. (Thus, please fill out the reservation form carefully)
• 4. Your foreign passport will be shown to our staff at arrival. (Make sure you are a foreigner)
• 6. From then course time starts. (This is the service start)

We will not explain the service content over the phone, so please do not call us for service
content explanation, however you will not be disappointed on our service.

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Living in Beijing must be great….

and if your curious what happens when the course starts, well… just click