Superstition Leads to Baby Boom in China

The title is too formal, sounding as a news report. But that’s the fact. The baby born rate in this year would be greatly increased due to a stupid reason: according to the Chinese zodiac and “five elements”, the sign of this year is a “gold pig”. Pig is not such a good animal in the eye of Chinese, but gold pig is totally another story. Many parents chose to have their baby born in this year, and according to the report, pregnant women are flooding into hospitals.



It is not a good trend as baby boom in a certain year would lead to a dim future for these kids, as the capacity of schools and work posts will not increase accordingly. Surely they will face fiercer competition in every stage of their lives. This phenomena has already been seen when the children who born at 2000 entering primary school this year. (The Chinese zodiac of 2000 is dragon, or I’d rather use “long”, for it is totally a different concept compared to its western counterpart.) As “long” is taken as a royal sign of power and noble, many parents thought it would be a blessing for their children if they were born this year.

“Superstition” might be too much for these loving parents. But the fact might just go to the opposite as they expected.


Older blog updated: The problem I mentioned in “The Influence of Word System to the Chinese Characters” has been showed upon on Chinese people. Accoring to the report last night, overdependence on the word system makes people only remember the sound of the character, but they couldn’t remember how to write it. It is also confusing for people to distinguish between characters with the same pronounciation. I think this problem appears because word system is based on language of English, which is related much more to the pronounciation, rather than the meaning. However the Chinese character has much more relation to its meaning, while its relation with the pronounciation has been lost during the long historical transformation. Word system or the way of tying Chinese characters would lead to the “letterize”of the Chinese characters. The final effect of this is still under observation.Some scholars already suggests to strengthen the practice of characters in primary schools.

Independence, a dream?

When Don Brunns was still alive, we’ve talked about independence. I said to be independent is very difficult if I’m not independent economically. He agreed. At that time, I was still a sophomore, but now, I’m a post-graduate student and Don Brunns has died for one and a half years. I was still not independent. And this has already become a great problem for me.

“To be a good girl”, that is what I tried to be for more than twenty years. But I should say I really want to use my free will and make my own decisions. My mom is a great woman, in that she can do her work well, and manage our family well at the same time. This is the good side of it; the bad side is my mom did too many decisions for me. I’m thankful for what she did for me, but I think I have to learn how to live on my own.

Sometimes seeing others’ lives of my generation will make me understand what is problem of my own life. Before the Spring Festival, I attended several reunion parties of my former classmates of high school and university. I envy them in a way, not for the money they earn, but for they have already have the say in their life.

If I did find a job, I want to rent a house with one or two friends, not living at my parents’ house. Then I will set up my own rules for my own life.

It might be that I’m too idealistic about my friends’ lives. One of my friends wants to travel and see the outside world, but if she gives up her work, how could she live on? She misses the life in the campus, which is I'm "enjoying". Another friend chose to work as she misses the chance to study what she is really interested in. I feel she had done the right thing to choose to work, but she feel what I’m doing is the right thing.

Who is right? Who is wrong? No one is right and no one is wrong. This is life.

Best Wishes for all my friends

This place has been long deserted, due to my plans in this new year. However, continuing my English blog is also included in my plans. So I should pick it up before I totally forget how to write in English.

The new year begins. I see around at my friends and hope they will lead a happy life. Everyone is getting what he or she deserved from his or her life.

Lots of them have been worked for one year, and began familiar and settled down with the life that they crumbled about one year before. At first they are craving to go back to school and to the life of freedom. Then they began familiarized with their life and entered into a new stage of life, a life without any homework. Some find unsatisfied with their work, so they prepared and attended the exam for postgraduates. That’s no easy work, as they have to study late into the night, and have to get up early to catch the bus to their work place. They already have their own savings for the first year and some of them were going steady with the one they love.

The second type are those who are studying in foreign countries, like Sakura in Australia, Valerie in Great Britain, Lois in Finland, and Tracy in America, they are already getting familiar with the life of the foreign countries, and it seems that they all decided it’s a good time to go back and have a look in this winter vacation. Most of them has finished their master’s degree and are considering which way to go. Some have already decided to pursue further education; some others will be back to China soon. A few of them find foreign boyfriends, like Valerie. However, her mother doesn’t seem to prove that. That’s a great headache to her.

I belong to the last type. We are working for the master’s degree in China, which takes longer than in foreign countries. Most of us are preparing for the thesis, while some of us, like Ching, has already finished that and began to think about finding a job. We are the most unstable type, as our road is much more open then the other types. As the love affair has been on schedule for other types, this is also one of our topics. An interesting example of this type is Helen. She has already got the “find-a-boyfriend” obsession, which means it’s very dull to talk to her. The only topic is whether someone finds a boyfriend or how to find a boyfriend.

Surely I oversimplify our situation, we are totally different from each other. As CJ, one of my best friend, would start her life as a bloody killer in hospital in March. She’s got a cool job than anyone of us. Anyway, I just hope everyone of them to enjoy their life and choice. Me, too.

Translation of Chinese Dishes

It becomes urgent for the Beijing government to draft a standard for the translation of the Chinese dishes, which becomes a great problem for the coming Olympic Games.
Some of my friends from America told me that it was a great problem for them to order in the restaurant, as they didn’t know the content of the dishes simply by reading menu, not to mention that they didn’t know all the characters on menu. Some adventurous would like to take the risk and have a try. Some less humorous tend to find a western food restaurant or going to a Chinese restaurant with their Chinese friends.

The debate is heated in Beijing now. Someone suggested put the content of the dishes directly. I don’t think it’s a good idea. If we translated 宫爆鸡丁 into something like “spicy chicken dices with peanuts”, that would be ridiculous. However, if translated the Chinese character directly into English, that would be also funny. A famous snack in Beijing is 驴打滚, which is actually a kind of cake made of rice with red bean paste as the stuffing. Directly translated, the name would become “donkey roll”. The people from other countries would mistake it as the meat of donkey. 东坡肘子 is also a problem. It is actually chunks of pork cooked with sauce, and the recipe is said to have been invented by 苏东坡, a great poet in Song Dynasty. If directly translated, it would become something like “Elbow of 东坡”? That would turn all Chinese into barbarians.

I don’t agree to make a fuss over that the westerners don’t know the real content of the food from menu. I don’t know the content of the dishes in pizzahut from their English names,either. I think no one knows what is 宫爆鸡丁when it first appears in America, but now it is widely accepted as KongPao Chicken. People could learn when they are in a different culture. Just be patient.

Use pictures and let people from other cultures learn what name goes with which dish. This will add flavor to the food, I believe.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

It costs me almost one and a half weeks to finish reading it. Actually I’m wondering whether it is a “short story” or not. My teacher puts it into category of feminism and would like us to talk about it in the persperctive of women.

I don’t think it is feminist writing, for the problem faced by Mrs. Pontellier(The protagonist in The Awakening by Kate Chopin) is not the problem of women. Surely freeing women from the housework and the binding of the family can be called feminism. Unfortunately, I don’t think the story is about the “freedom of women”. I’d rather take it as the clashes between individuals and their marriages. The problems in marriage can’t be called as the problem of husband or wife. Both of them share their responsibilities if they marriage fails to last.

The question I’m wondering is whether a woman like Mrs. Pontellier should get into marriage or not. She is a woman with the heart for freedom. But the marriage itself means some responsibilities and to sacrifice part of your freedom. “You are no longer lonely”, in other words, mean that “You are no longer free as a single person”.

I guess out the outcome of Mrs. Pontellier before I reading the last chapter. As the surroundings are pressing her so hard, and she is no longer bind spiritually by her marriage and wants to enjoy her freedom. The only justified outcome is to free herself from all the responsibilities forever.

I sympathize her in the sense that the society at her time desires a women to be devoted to her family totally, I mean, physically and spiritually. What’s more, she chooses wrongly, since her husband and she are of different types. She can’t even talk the problems out as he can’t understand her at all.

However, she does go to extremes. I think her husband is not so bad after all as he’d like to leave her some space to solve her problem. If she takes her children as burdens, why does she get into marriage in the first place? If she were forced by her surroundings, I’d pity her. If she got into marriage to get rid of her loneliness, I’ll look down upon her. This is the point hard to judge, for I’m not Mrs. Pontellier, I’m just an outsider of the story.

Pressure

A recent discussion of the cost of living in Beijing shows that every one living in this big city endures great pressure. All kinds of trouble prick them now and then.

The greatest problem is where to live. The price of the house has been experiencing a shooting growth during the last ten years. If I earn 4000 yuan a month (a relatively high salary, I think) when I find a job, I can only buy half a square meter outside the “third circle”, which is large enough for me to build a toilet. To risk thirty years in a person’s life for a place to live is not the habit of the old generation. However, at present, if you don’t risk it, where do you live then? With your parents? It is simple to explain why lots of girls are willing to choose a boyfriend who has a house already.

Another one is the medical system and the secure system. I mean, the city leaves a person no chance to have a serious disease. The amount of money spent to cure the disease will quickly make a well-off family fall to pieces. It seems the only good way to solve the problem is to go to the media and arouse the sympathy of people watching the TV, desperately begging them for the money to cure the disease. The old men face great problems, too. After retirement, their sons or daughters could no longer accompany them or take care of them as the earlier generation has been, for their sons or daughters have already shouldered the pressure of work, of house, of kids.

The biggest problem facing the younger generation is to find a job and survive in this big city. Too many people from other provinces want to find jobs in Beijing. However, there is no reason to stop them as everyone has the right to pursue a better life. But the fact is too many people in the city make it very hard to find a job. The right of choice is in the hand of employer. If an employee feels unsatisfied, it’s easy for the employer to find another one. People is not the thing China lacks.

Is it a difference between us and the savages in Stone Age? We are all struggle to survive.

The Influence of Word System to the Chinese Characters

Many of my friends and classmates who are English majors have expressed the same opinion that as English majors, they find their Chinese fly away from them before their mastery of English. Actually there are many reasons. One of the reason is that the use of the word system. In word system, we are supposed to type out every single character of Chinese using a letter system as medium. The direct consequence is we forget how to write Chinese characters, especially those difficult ones. As my handwriting gets worse and worse, even myself don’t want to see it anymore. And it’s easier for the younger generation to confuse those characters of the same pronunciation. Chinese Character is a combination of meaning and sound, though the sound has changed a lot during the time, but through the formation of a character, usually we can judge the meaning of it. However, in American where the word system is created, the meaning of a word has nothing to do with the order of the letters. Two words seldomly pronounce the same in English, but in Chinese, as many characters share the same sound, the only difference is their meaning and their position in context. The use of the word system leads to the emphasis of remembering the sound of a character, not the meaning (i.e. formation) of a character. If a pupil only remembers the pronunciation of a character, the probability for him to confuse the character with others rises for sure.

The consequence of using the word system has already been shown in Chinese society, especially in the language used on the internet. I wish we could find some remedy before much more damage done to the Chinese language.

Do we really have the say in our own lives?

Recently, I have greater and greater feeling that we don’t really have the say in our own lives. One might have just a very simple desire towards life, for example, you simply want to see the beautiful scenery over the “hill”, but when you want really go near, you find the “hill” is a high mountain touching the sky. What’s worse is that it might be just the same after you reach the other side of the mountain, or even worse. However, as you’ve already reached the foot of the mountain, you have no choice, but to start climbing the mountain at once. This story is just an exact reflection of my present situation.

If what I’ve done is meaningless, then why should I spend such time and energy?
Maybe it’s wrong to discuss the meaning of life after all. Compared to a logical deduction, life is much more like a drama of absurdity.

Butterfly Effect 2

This one is not so good at the first one, but it’s ok. The protagonist in the first movie(Butterfly Effect) changes his life again and again to save the life of those people he loved. However, things never get right. At last, he kills himself to avoiding facing the life. But Nick in the second movie(Butterfly Effect 2) changes his life largely due to his own ambition. He is searching for a better life in his expectation, but just to make things worse again and again. First he changes the result of the traffic accident to save the life of Julie, his girlfriend. But when they lived "happily together", he wants a better job and a better life. When he changes his life to gain this, he loses Julie as a price.

The first one in a sense is a man who can’t control his own fate, and it’s full of pessimistic tone, for no matter how hard Evan tries to change his life, he can’t avoid the tragedies in life. He wants a peaceful life, but he fails. The second one is the man tempted by his own desires, and a coward who doesn't dare to face the problems in life. He thinks other kinds of life would be better than the present one. Both of the movies are tragedies, but in different senses.

The second might seem more real to us, for Nick is a reflection of us. Does others’ lifes really better than ourselves? It’s hard to say. One sentence in Zhuangzi might be a wise explanation to such a situation: 人有能游，且得不游乎；人而不能游，且得游乎？It means that if you are not happy in one situation, for instance, in school, then you will not find happiness in another place, e.g. in a company. For in another place you might find other problems.

I don’t dare to say that everyone’s life is a tragedy, but I’m sure that everyone’s life is full of problems of his own.

By the way, we can access to wikipedia at last. I'm so happy!

National Day and Mid-Autumn Day

Logo of Google in Mid-Autumn Day ->

In this year, the National Day and the Mid-Autumn Day come together. It’s a pity that the seven-day holiday doesn’t last longer for this reason. National Day is our legal holiday which is written in our law, but the Mid-Autumn tends to be more like a traditional holiday.

The Chinese National Day is not much like the Independence Day in America, which has a historical meaning to American people in the process of founding their country. Surely our National Day has its political meaning that our Republic is founded on that day, but surely the founding of our country can be at October the second or some day else. Partly it is a decision of the government, and the October the first might sound to be a good start. But who cares? The most important is the seven-day off from work. In another point of view, such a long holiday equals a disaster. Many employees in companies take the time to travel around the country. The result is every tourist sites and shopping centers are flooded with thousands of people. Only to think about the people would appear in Tian’an Men Square and Wang Fu Jing, I would feel sick. So I tend to just stay at my pit for these seven days, but I have to visit my grandparents anyway.

Talked about the Mid-Autumn Day, it might be the most important traditional holiday which survives after many years, but it is commercialized. Most of the traditional holidays have been commercialized into something related to eating. The special food for Mid-Autumn Day is moon cake. Actually, I hate this food for certain reasons. It’s too sweet, and for it has been commercialized, a piece of moon cake is expensive as a cake made of gold. It is no longer a food just for home eating. It partly becomes a kind of gift, not simply for eating. I believe if you have to eat the same food for the next half-year after the holiday, you would hate the food, too. It seems that other things related to the holiday have already disappeared, I’ve read in A Moment in Peking that they used to eat crab during the Mid-Autumn Day and the whole family gathered together to enjoy the sight of moon. But I don’t think we could see the moon today. The pollutants have covered the sky. There are also some other things related to the holiday that I had never heard of before, like the “Rabbit Grandpa”. It might be just another thing that can bring benefits to those merchants after all.


"Rabbit Grandpa" picture from Here

Other information related to Mid-Autumn Day, click Here.