Countdown at 100 Days

The countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympics is down to the last 100 days.

It is now time to climb Mt Everest with the torch, amazing.
There is still a lot of uncertainty around how the city will finally prepare for the games. We expect the odd/even license plate rule to limit private cars will go into effect sometime in July. Construction has not stopped yet, not sure when it will. The smoking ban in restaurants and bars was repealed before it even was implemented May 1st (smoking is too much a part of the CULTURE, hmm).

Calligraphy Lesson number 6

It is a sunny afternoon this last Saturday in April. These are the two doors that open into the classroom where we take lessons.


It is a long walk down the corridor. On the right hand side is a green metal fence. Behind it lies a rock hill with steps going up and through down the other side into the walkway that borders a long wall. On the other side of the wall is the Hall of Literary Brilliance, the Hall of Respect, and the Pavilion of Literary Profundity. It feels as though I am in a different world.

This is our classroom. It is a nice and airy space. Often soft traditional Chinese music plays in the background. Four people can fit in this room. Many times there is a young woman practicing the same calligraphy style as we are. She is studying for the entrance exam into graduate school. There is also a young man that has been painting with us several times. His work has strong lines. It is beautiful.


We had both visited a gallery where Teacher You had work on display. I had a picture of a work of calligraphy in my last entry. We were asking about other work that he has done at our last class.

This is a piece that he brought out of storage and unwrapped for us to see. I personally like this one better. Teacher thinks there is no comparison, the other is much richer in meaning and more beautiful.




Here I am with Teacher You. In the background is work by another student. The work is beautiful.

After practicing for a while. We took a walk to the peony garden to look at the flowers. My friend wanted some pictures to paint from when the time comes for her to paint art.

There were people posing in the garden with the flowers. We didn't see lots of ants as we would in the flowers at home.

Here, I stepped into the garden to hug the flowers. They smelled lovely.You can see that I am wearing a black shirt. The ink we use stains and I have a white shirt at home with little black dots on it from ink.

I like this shot. It has a sense of beauty along with reality. There is a nice juxtaposition here.





We were on our way back to our classroom. If you look closely you will see the doors of the gate. The building ahead I believe is the pavilion to enter through into the Hall of Literary Brilliance.

After the gate we encountered a wedding party getting into another costume for pictures. The bride is in red getting her hair fixed up and the groom is buttoning his Chinese style jacket.

The wedding party will likely take pictures with the rock hill in the background. This is the same rock hill that is outside of our classroom door. It is beautiful today with the sun shining and the wild yellow roses dressing it up so nicely.

Chinese Nationalism Going Too Far?

I apologize in advance and you can skip this entry if you are not interested in the political situation in China. It is something that is real for me here. It is a very different way of viewing things and cannot be taken lightly when you have to work with the Chinese government every day.

The Communist Party is starting to be concerned about the protesting and anti-west sentiment. The government has concerns that this could impact the Olympics as well as could get out of control and the protests turn to other issues in China. Here is a good Wall Street Jounral article that points out the issues concerning the Communist Party.

The Chinese government is moving to tamp down nationalistic anger over Western criticism of Beijing's policies in Tibet.
By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER and JULIET YE in Hong Kong, and LORETTA CHAO in BeijingApril 24, 2008; Page A6

In the latest sign, authorities informed participants in a major music festival that the event would likely be postponed to avoid providing a venue for new demonstrations of patriotic or anti-Western sentiment. Already, they have been cracking down on student protests and online videos of demonstrations have disappeared from Chinese Web sites.

It is a familiar pattern: Chinese nationalism rears up, sometimes with what seems to be tacit government backing, only to get reined in before it threatens to spin out of control -- in this case, before it can mar preparations for the summer Olympic Games in Beijing.

At Nanjing Normal University, researcher Guo Quan says counselors have been told to "manage student sentiment." On Monday, he says, universities around China were told by the central government to stop all protests.
Such fervor that has generated protests against French retailer Carrefour SA in nine cities and cyberattacks on American media.

"The Chinese government is trying to cool patriotic fervor now, because it believes that it has already achieved the desired goal: to tell the world that Chinese are protesting against the French," says Mr. Guo. "We're in a time when there are lots of other social problems such as a troublesome stock market, and rocketing commodity prices might drive people's anger to a larger scale."

The student crackdown appears to be particularly strong in the city of Hefei, in the eastern province of Anhui, where on Saturday, thousands protested outside a Carrefour store near the city's university district, waving red flags and chanting "love China, boycott Carrefour." On Sunday, universities there suspended classes and asked students to stay on campus, students say.

The Communist Youth League, a division of the Communist Party with a big presence on Chinese campuses, has been arranging meetings and distributing propaganda to calm nationalistic sentiment, say students. The Anhui branch of the Communist Youth League declined to answer questions.

"The atmosphere here on campus is a bit intense at this moment," said a Ph.D. student surnamed Shen from Hefei's China Technology and Science University. "Those who went out for the weekend protest were called for a talk in counselors' office this week," she said.
Some Chinese have reported difficulty sending text messages such as "boycott Carrefour" and "don't shop at Carrefour" on the cellular network run by China Mobile Ltd., the country's largest cellphone carrier. Rainie Lei, a spokeswoman for China Mobile, said the company wasn't blocking any such messages.

In Beijing, participants in the Midi Music Festival that had been scheduled to start May 1 were informed on Wednesday that the event likely will be postponed to October due to safety concerns. Zhang Fan, the festival's director, said he thinks the authorities are "afraid that the participating music fans and young people will conduct Tibetan or anti-West" demonstrations.
Last month, Icelandic singer Björk declared "Tibet! Tibet!" at a concert in Shanghai, embarrassing authorities.

"It's very regrettable," said Mr. Zhang, who noted that some foreign bands are already in China for the show. "Midi is a very good opportunity to show the world that Chinese society is happy, equal and free. Western media always says China suppresses people, but Midi shows that China's young people are so happy, so looking forward to welcoming the Olympics."

Kou Zhengyu, a guitarist who planned to play at the Midi festival, said while he felt "music has nothing to do with politics," he also "could understand the government decision. The government must worry about the safety issue."

After initially trying to play down coverage of Olympics torch-relay protests in London and Paris, the Chinese government went on a public relations offensive. Jin Jing, a wheelchair-bound torch bearer in Paris who was attacked by a protester, became a Chinese hero. An April 11 editorial by Xinhua, the state-run news agency, said "Chinese people are seriously disturbed and hurt" by the incident involving Ms. Jin. French President Nicolas Sarkozy later apologized to Ms. Jin personally over the matter.

Some Chinese started calling for a boycott on French products, and in particular Carrefour, which has a significant presence in China.

But late last Thursday, the government's rhetoric began to change, with a call from Xinhua for "patriotic zeal to concentrate on development."

A news editor at Phoenix Television, a Hong Kong-based Chinese news broadcaster with ties to Beijing, said news, pictures and video of the anti-Carrefour protests weren't allowed on air. Xinhua reports said the protests were targeted against "Tibet independence," not against foreigners. (News Corp., owner of The Wall Street Journal, owns a minority stake in Phoenix.)
China has periodically seen major student outbursts of patriotism. In 1999, after the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was bombed by a North Atlantic Treaty Organization mission, students across China engaged in occasionally violent protests against "American hegemony." (NATO contends the bombing was accidental.) After a few days, during which students vented their anger, the government told the students to stop protesting and go back to school.

This time, China can't afford to let the backlash continue too long without poisoning the atmosphere for the Beijing Olympics, which is just over 100 days away. The event is expected to bring throngs of visitors to China, including 25,000 foreign journalists.

Nationalism and sports have proven to be a volatile mix before in China. After a 2004 Asian Cup soccer final between China and Japan held at Beijing's Workers' Stadium, hundreds of Chinese fans rioted, throwing bottles and yelling at police. China had lost the game 3 to 1.

Another factor that separates the recent spate of nationalism from past student uprisings is the Internet, now a major cultural force in the lives of young Chinese people. According to official Chinese data, the country has more than 210 million Internet users, the majority of whom are under the age of 30.

The Internet developed into a significant platform for organizing protests and venting anger with foreign attitudes toward China. Users created countless patriotic videos detailing the crimes of the West against China. Millions of people using the MSN messaging program promoted their patriotism by adding a heart symbol and "China" next to their names.

There have been some efforts in recent days to curtail online displays of nationalism. Some videos of the Carrefour protests available earlier on sites such as Tudou.com are now gone. A Tudou spokesman declined to comment, but Chinese Internet-media companies routinely remove content that violates their antiviolence or antipornography-service agreements, or which they feel may be objectionable to the government.

Moreover, some Chinese hackers who had planned a significant attack on the Web site of Time Warner Inc.'s CNN, a major source of nationalistic resentment over its coverage of the recent unrest in Tibet, appear to have withdrawn. While CNN.com did experience an attack that affected users in Asia last Friday, hacker Web sites in China had promised much more.The posts by some organizers of the attack calling for disbandment have an edge of "fear" to them, says Scott Henderson, author of the book Dark Visitor, about Chinese hackers. One in particular "could not have added many more exclamation points in his announcement," he said. "It was a 'PLEASE DO NOT HACK!!!!!!!!!' sort of plea."

BF and Calligraphy

I want to share with you something that I am doing that is so very interesting to me (BF).

Today was my 4th calligraphy class. I take class with a girlfriend of mine. Our classroom is located in the park that houses the ancestral temple. It is at the south east corner of the Forbidden City (Imperial Palace). The school is for those sitting for entrance exams into Art School at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctorate levels. I have a card with the schools name on it and my own name Fei Pu Lan that lets me into the east side of the Palace grounds. It is beautiful and our door faces a rock mountain that has stairs to climb up high to see. How cool is that? Way cool.

We attend class once or twice a week and are learning the most recognised style of calligraphy, the Cai style. We copy the work of a master from a book. The book is of rubbings taken off steles. That is how work is immortalized.

Our teacher is a famous calligrapher, painter, and carver in his own right. He tells us that to be a good painter we must have the firm grounding of well done calligraphy. From this our own style will emerge and then we can move onto painting (or, writing a picture).
This is one of his works of calligraphy. He likened it to being in the perfect state of mind to create and this is the work that resulted. He could not duplicated the emotion and feeling of this work. He dips his brush only once in a while, unlike us, who want perfect characters.

He is the son of an artistic family. His mother created beautiful embroidery. She embroidered with silk on silk. She created birds with eyes that looked alive and beaks that looked as though in song. His father was a very skilled caligrapher.

He began practicing calligraphy in school at the age of 6. By the age of 10 he was a very popular choice with the people in his village to paint the new year greetings the are hung by the front door.

To be considered a master painter, one must write the picture, create a poem and have beautiful calligraphy to apply it to the painting, and to create and carve your own chop (the red stamp).

Our teacher was interested in learning how to carve chops when he was young. The stone is expensive so he would fashion a block suitable for carving from clay to practice on. He went on to study this form of art at university. He has won many awards for his chops. His chops are small works of art.

Here is a sample of my work. Our teacher is a very simple and humble man. He will circle the characters that are good and paint over the incorrect strokes.

I think his technique for teaching us is to start us on this style of writing and sit back and see what we do with it. He waits for questions from us.

We spend 4 hours each class painting. We stand to practice the calligraphy. We will be studying this same style painted by the same master when he was much older and more mature. We also hope to learn one other style.

I hope to supplement my painting with understanding of what the character means and how it fits into the poems we are copying. I understand from my friend that this is not the traditional way that she learned. This is a much nicer way. I will take her word for it. Our teacher has work displayed in this 300 page book. He graciously offered to sign a book to each of us. The inscription is read from right to left and top to bottom. The first line says to student Fei Pu Lan and some sort of courtesy. The second line is the date. The third line is the name of the school we attend. The last line is two characters and is our teachers name.

He has incorporated 5 chops onto the dedication. Two are his last name. One is an art piece. One is the town he is from and the last is his first name. They are really interesting.This is a piece that my teacher is helping me to learn. These four characters together mean family and all of the best things that family life brings. This is his writing. My task is to copy it, and learn it.

I am off to practice my calligraphy for today. I am asked to practice one to two hours a day. I like to do it when it is quiet.

Sudden Change in Chinese Public Perception

France was once considered one of the most admired western countries by the Chinese people. That has changed very quickly. Chinese citizens who were always very favorable to westerners here are starting to become vocal against the French. One recent example occurred at a foot massage establishment. The young girls were trying to communicate with us to inquire as to our views about France and Sarkozy. IT was an odd mixture of Mandarin, English and body communication. Regardless they were able to get there negative feelings across about the French. Here is the contents of a SMS that is spreading across China. Not only is Carrefour being boycotted but products like L'Oreal that are very popular here.

We hope you are able to boycott Carrefour at least on 1 May, to deliver, by the empty Carrefour that day, one message to the western world: Chinese shouldn’t be humiliated! Chinese people shouldn’t be insulted!
 The boycott against Carrefour is going to spreading all over the country, and we anticipate your presence! Thank you. The Olympic torch relay that just ended in Paris is not as peaceful as most of Chinese know about. Let’s see what French and its government have done when Chinese carried the torch, a symbol of peace and friendship into their territory.
1. Before the relay, a French TV station called on people to protest on street for the reason that they “don’t want Chinese flags flaunting all over”.
2. The torch was forced to extinguish for 4 times under the violent disruptions of Tibet separatists.
3. The French police in charge of security simply stood by to see the separatists snatching the torch, and striking the disabled torch carrier.
4. At where the torch went by, hordes of French waved the flag of separatists, clamoring “Free Tibet’, “Shame on China” to protest against China.
5. Groups of young men even scrambled the Chinese students’ Five-star flags and tore them up, two sides in conflict.
6. When the sacred fire passed by the City Hall of Paris, the banners and slogans of pro-Tibet independence were hung out and all the alderman put on the pro-separatism badges, a behavior that made the planned ceremony there cancelled.
7. The major media in France reviewed the torch relay with such headlines— Fiasco in Paris(Figaro) and A Slap on China.

B visits the Water Cube and synchronized swimming

A friend of mine had an extra ticket to view the a qualifying round for synchronized swimming. It happened to occur on the day that the Birds Nest opened for the first time. I believe the event there was speed walking.

This is a picture from early March. A group of us took a friends company to see what we could see. If you look closely enough on the top left side near the front edge you can see three men standing there. From here they look like three little dots.

I was excited to be going. My friend is new here in Beijing. She is from the States but moved here from Singapore and from Bahrain before that. She met a woman whose husband is here with Coke and it is from her that we got the tickets.

The Olympic park is located on the northern axis of the city. It is directly north of the Forbidden City. This is a very auspicious spot. It is beautifully laid out as I am sure many of you have seen pictures. Unfortunately, our camera was being put to better use on this day and I have no current pictures.

I found the staff at the entrances and at the security checkpoints to be very friendly, courteous and possessing excellent English. There were many two man teams of security guards patrolling all areas of this large park. Again this is a view from the street in early March. We walked this lane to the entrance in the corner of the Water Cube that you can see here. There is a very wide lane with a two way street between the Water Cube and the Birds Nest.

The landscaping is more finished than in this picture. On the site was an original temple. It is to the right of this picture, beautifully landscaped and intact. Our hostess had a picture of it in her home that she had taken many years ago.

The Water Cube was stunning. I have seen it from the road but it is truly a marvellous structure up close. Around the perimeter is a small moat that is shallow and lined on the bottom with silver dollar sized smooth white rocks that mimic the exterior of the building.

The inside was spacious and light. It is set up like any stadium. Depending on where your seats are you either enter one of the gate doors on the first or second floor. We were up high and had a great view of the performers. The announcements were made by a man in Chinese and then by a woman in beautiful English. The seats were individual and had backs. They were comfortable. There were many snacks available; ice cream, popcorn and drinks.

We watched the events for an hour and a half and then met our sponsors husband to head home. Her husband is the head of Coke here in Beijing. He is responsible for Coke in the Olympics. He speaks perfect Mandarin. They have lived here for 9 years. He had nothing but kudos for the Chinese and especially for the 250 workers he had helping him build a very large reception building for his company on the grounds of the park. At present, the building was not yet out of the ground. He had no worries and knew that all would be completed and ready in time for the opening ceremonies. He made comparisons the the summer games in Athens which he attended. He made only the most passing comparison to the landscape which he said was not in good shape in Athens. The workers here were planting trees as we were walking by. They were mature and they will be beautiful in August. The Chinese are amazing people, very task oriented and very hard working.

As we left the park we faced an interesting set of buildings that run parallel to the park. They are luxury guest rooms and apartments. The building at the front is the head of the dragon and there are 3 or 4 subsequent buildings. I understand that there are three full Chinese courtyard homes located in the top of each of the three trailing buildings. For those of you who know what a courtyard home is comprised of...that is amazing. I also hear that Bill Gates has purchased one.

On the front of this building that is the head of the dragon (you can see the roof line of the next building to the right), is a giant TV screen. The resolution and clarity are amazing. We were watching cartoons on it from the Water Cube about a half a mile away.

We also passed a building that houses all of the computer hardware to run this park and the village. It is designed with the old computer mother board in mind, or so it seems to me. It had valleys in the face of the building running from top to bottom.

This small tour and event was a treat that I will always remember.

Nice Visit with #3

We had a very nice visit with AF and her Scottish boyfriend. BF and AF played the tour guides for Stephen. I know he really enjoyed the whole experience and will have some wonderful memories to last a lifetime.

It was so nice to have AF back here. The time went by very quickly and we are suddenly empty-nesters again. Here are some sample photos from the visit:

Tomb Sweeping Day

April 4th is Tomb Sweeping Day in China. This is a traditional holiday that was passed up in the previous few years due to the Golden Weeks that were established including the week in May. In 2008, the government eliminated the May Golden Week and instituted some traditional cultural holidays instead.

We spent the day by visiting the Summer Palace. It was a beautiful warm, blue sky day. We took a couple of boats up the canal to get to the Palace. It turns out many others had the same idea of visiting the Palace.

Tomb Sweeping (Qingming Festival) has been celebrated since the 2nd century BC and is considered an unlucky day to work. Here is an excerpt from the Chinese Culture Club:

Tomb Sweeping Day is one of the few traditional Chinese holidays that follows the solar calendar-- typically falling on April 4, 5, or 6. Its Chinese name "Qing Ming" literally means "Clear Brightness," hinting at its importance as a celebration of Spring. Similar to the spring festivals of other cultures, Tomb Sweeping Day celebrates the rebirth of nature, while marking the beginning of the planting season and other outdoor activities.

Qing Ming Jie in Ancient Times In ancient times, people celebrated Qing Ming Jie with dancing, singing, picnics, and kite flying. Colored boiled eggs would be broken to symbolize the opening of life. In the capital, the Emperor would plant trees on the palace grounds to celebrate the renewing nature of spring. In the villages, young men and women would court each other.
The Tomb Sweeping Day as Celebrated Today With the passing of time, this celebration of life became a day to the honor past ancestors. Following folk religion, the Chinese believed that the spirits of deceased ancestors looked after the family. Sacrifices of food and spirit money could keep them happy, and the family would prosper through good harvests and more children.
Today, Chinese visit their family graves to tend to any underbrush that has grown. Weeds are pulled, and dirt swept away, and the family will set out offerings of food and spirit money. Unlike the sacrifices at a family's home altar, the offerings at the tomb usually consist of dry, bland food. One theory is that since any number of ghosts roam around a grave area, the less appealing food will be consumed by the ancestors, and not be plundered by strangers.

Honoring ancestors begins with proper positioning of a gravesite and coffin. Experts in feng shui determine the quality of land by the surrounding aspects of streams, rivers, trees, hills, and so forth. An area that faces south, with groves of pine trees creates the best flow of cosmic energy required to keep ancestors happy. Unfortunately, nowadays, with China's burgeoning population, public cemeteries have quickly supplanted private gravesites. Family elders will visit the gravesite at least once a year to tend to the tombs.

While bland food is placed by the tombs on Qing Ming Jie, the Chinese regularly provide scrumptious offerings to their ancestors at altar tables in their homes. The food usually consists of chicken, eggs, or other dishes a deceased ancestor was fond of. Accompanied by rice, the dishes and eating utensils are carefully arranged so as to bring good luck. Sometimes, a family will put burning incense with the offering so as to expedite the transfer of nutritious elements to the ancestors. In some parts of China, the food is then eaten by the entire family.

Besides the traditions of honoring the dead, people also often fly kits on Tomb Sweeping Day. Kites can come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and colors. Designs could include frogs, dragonflies, butterflies, crabs, bats, and storks.