impressions of oppressions

Well, I'm wrapping up a week in Beijing, and an eye-opener it has been. As Shanghai is ruled by business, a land of glass and concrete and money in China's landscape, and Xi'an is a tourist spot, very specifically dotted with English, designed to get tourists in and out (a few dollars lighter at the end), Beijing has been both a cultural feast for the eyes and a lesson on, well, China. I've seen Mao's tomb (that's about the only website I could open on an internet connection here, if that gives you an idea of oppression) - he's really dead, and thousands of people get their 15-second glance of him every day. I've seen the Great Wall, an analogy for China itself - shored up in places for appearances, crumbling in other parts, usable but needing attention, and other parts which have simply disappeared.

I've seen Chinese art, Chinese markets, had Chinese 'massage' parlour women chase me on the streets and try to drag me into their shops. I watched a screeching Chinese opera performer dressed in silks and made up better than any performer you've ever seen.

Tiananmen Gate towers over the infamous square (interesting note: you can buy the Lonely Planet for China from the foreign bookstore, but they have it locked up behind the counter, and the section on Tiananmen protests has been removed), where hundreds of Chinese come to take their picture with Mao's giant picture. Love Live the People's Republic of China, indeed. And yet, it's still taken here. People love Mao (or seem to profess to) - there's almost every product you can possible imagine with his face on it for sale. Aged posters with various pictures of him can be bought everywhere there is a gathering of people selling things. A big part of it is the nationalism angle that the government plays so exclusively now - socialism kind of lost its lustre after 1989. And it's rabid at times.

Coming from Taiwan has also been interesting. From the boy who drew a map of China for a friend of mine and included a small, sweet-potato-shaped wedge off the coast, declaring, "This is ours. Ours." to a friend from America who has studied here for a couple of years saying that a good portion of the population is ready to raise arms and march over to the island. America is the only thing standing in their way - make no mistake, the rulers here would rather obliterate the island than let it free.

So it's been interesting. Frustrating at times - people, heat, sickness. As a friend said, a vacation isn't as much of a vacation when you leave one treeless, over-populated smoke-hole to go to another treeless, over-populated smoke-hole, but a learning experience it certainly has been, populated with terrific people. I head home tomorrow with a collection of pictures and a journal full of memories. I'll hopefully share them with you sooner than later.

burning shit

So, it's ghost month here. Ghost month is the eighth month of the Lunar year, and is extra superstitious. Everyone stays away from bodies of water (as the ghosts will get you there), everyone prays extra lots to their ancestors, and everyone burns lots of ghost money.

Ghost money is special paper that is sold all over (especially at temples) that is burned so that the burner's ancestors will have untold riches in the afterlife. There are many people who do it every day, at some time in the afternoon, usually outside their business, as wrathful ancestors' ghosts are unlucky. In ghost month, it is done even more, as the ghosts' power is stronger now, I guess.

Thinking about this the other day, though, brought up a concern - in a country where everyone does this as an order of business, would it be a business expense? Could you imagine explaining to a tax official that this deduction was "for the shit I burn"? How about being Taiwanese, doing this in another country, and explaining that? They also lay out food of all types, though generally they're non-perishable (though not always) - all types of beverages, cookies, crackers, meat, fruit, noodles, C even saw a table outside of a McDonalds one time that had hamburgers and french fries - and stick incense into them.

When my friend Michael visited, he couldn't believe the waste of it. People go through an incredible amount of this paper for each burning. They're sold in packages that are about 1 foot by 1 foot by 3-4 inches thick, and I've seen some businesses use an entire pack at once. They're yellow (coloured) paper and are embossed with some kind of red metallic design (it changes) - burning it can't be great for the air. I know it's religious beliefs, but it's such a waste - they're essentially burning money - they buy something, then burn it. It's polluting, and killing trees at a horrific pace. At least they eat the food.

I guess it's just another of Taiwan's little oddities that I'll never quite adjust to.

seoul food

Not long after my brother left, I took a trip to South Korea with my girlfriend, Christine to visit a friend I met at my cousin's wedding a couple of years ago back in Canada. We had a long weekend and decided to take advantage of the cosiness of Asia. Scott (whose blog can be found at the S2H World Tour) was living and teaching in a suburb of Seoul, one of the largest cities in the world.

We landed in a sandstorm, something that happens now and then, blowing in from China. It was the end of winter (spring literally sprung about two days after we left), and there was still brown vegetation around - something unseen by either of us for quite some time. Our first day was full of sights of Seoul, from the tank-stoppers - giant hunks of concrete that South Korea has positioned over all roads leading into Seoul proper that they could drop onto the road with the press of a button to stop tanks from the North from rolling in (it was tough luck for the suburbs) - to the palaces (closed) that were built of wood. Fun fact, despite the fact that invading countries (China and Japan) constantly took over Korea (over 3000 times in its hisory) and burned down its palaces, they kept building them out of wood. We enjoyed something different that night - a board game cafe, where a large selection of games and drinks were both available until late into the night - cheap! Really, a terrific idea.

We also saw the DMZ, though not the best tour. Funny, they've termed the North Korean village beside the DMZ the Propaganda Village and their own Peace Village (though they both serve the same purpose). It's full of symbolism, with a symbolic railroad, a symbolic bridge, and a (symbolic, I'm sure) amusement park just outside the military entrance. There were some neat things to see, though - a tunnel dug by the North Koreans (that they deny was made by them), a movie on the untouched ecology in the zone (having been untouched by humans for 50 years), and, of course, North Korea. Of course, the raw, unexploited emotion was felt at the only bridge crossing the border, where
families had attached shirts, signs, notes, flags, and pictures on the gate stopping anyone from crossing.

The rest of the trip was spent doing more tourist-like activities - the tourist market (complete with cheap hand-made paper), the Korean royal family's summer palace (Korea was a monarchy until the early 20th century), and various Korean food - BBQ, kimchi (I'm a fan, C is definitely not), and a terrific games night at a friend's place. After fond good-byes, we took our leave of South Korea, wrapping up a whirl-wind tour.

South Korea, in some ways, is like Taiwan. It's not a highly-traveled tourist location, but it has its jewels. Talking with Scott, there were many ways that the two matched up, as seen by foreign eyes. Seoul, though, was much more Western than either C or I had seen in a while. It was on par (by our standards) with Hong Kong for English, and fashion and availability of things were much more Western than in Taiwan. It's quite obvious that the US military base is
largely responsible for this, but it gave both of us a different Asian experience. Plus, we got to meet up with Scott, who is one of my favourite people in Asia, and just made the trip at least 500 times more fun.

Pictures available in the Korea gallery.

what defines a terrorist?

I know I'm a couple of days late on this, but an article I read over at Uncommon Thought just galvanized me. Pat Robinson, the American preacher/hate-mongerer (depending on how you view him), recently trotted out the idea that the president of Venezuala, , a very vocal opponent of U.S. foreign policy, should be assassinated. He apologized today.

The thing that made me most furious, as the UT article mentions, is that nothing will happen. If anyone says the same things (and they have, just read the paper) about the American president, they are immediately locked away, sent away to Guantanemo, or worse, under the Patriot Act. But this will not happen - it's a powerful white man in a country controlled by powerful white men, and an attack on 'not us'. And as long as this kind of act keeps getting glossed over, the circle will keep on getting more and more vicious.

drugs in asia

Just to let you know, if you saw the article, this is far away from me. But there are drugs here. Despite the fact that many Asian countries have the death penalty for drug trafficking, more foreigners get caught than common sense holds should get caught. I guess the market is definitely there - who wouldn't love a collection of people in their twenties who are looking for fun, have a fair bit of cash, and are in a society that almost expects erratic behaviour from them? Australia's PM recently said that anyone expecting their government to stand up for them when they smuggle drugs into Asia despite the obvious danger displayed in the form of large signs in all the airports has another thing coming.

Thanks to my good friend Warren for sending me a link. I didn't realize it went international.