KFC gets an "A"!

In the city I live in, all restaurants have a "safety and cleanliness" rating.  An "A" rating is the highest rating, followed by "B" and "C".  Restaurants which get an "A" get a nice, big smiley face, B's get a face with mouth drawn with a straight-edge, and C's get an ugly frown, including angry eyebrows.  Even though red is the lucky color in China, as well as, the color of the national flag, the C face is bright red.  

The first one of these I ever saw was a C rating.  I was in the middle of eating when I noticed it.  I looked around and everything seemed clean enough, so I kept eating.  I have seen about 6 or 7 C restaurants so far and 2 B restaurants.  So far, however, I have only come across one A restaurant, the local KFC.  As far as I know, where I live there are two genuine western restaurants: KFC and McDonald's and I have had no need to go into the McDonald's just yet.  

The KFC I have gone to once: for coffee.  After my coffee was poured and handed to me, the cashier apologized for there being no cream or sugar.  I saw that there was a milk dispenser next to the coffee machine and asked if they could squirt a tiny bit of milk into my coffee.  The cashier said she would have to ask and went and chatted with a tiny young man who appeared to be in  his early-twenties.  The cashier returned to tell me that it was not possible for them to add a tiny bit of milk to my coffee.  After a couple attempts to reason with her, I realized it was futile and left.  

Despite KFC's "A" rating, I will probably not go eat there until I am seriously craving good ol' american food.  There are plenty of knock-off KFCs here and a good number of restaurants calling themselves "western", though I have found that most are nowhere near authentic.  It is a similar situation with the Chinese restaurants in the U.S. and Europe.  Those who have been to China can tell you that Westernized Chinese food is significantly different. Not only is the flavor completely different, American Chinese has almost taken on a culture of its own.  For example, in China you will have a heck of a time trying to get someone to understand what a fortune cookie is, which is something you never see here.

There is a big fancy-looking restaurant right across the street from KFC.  Its sign declares, in large neon letters, that it is an authentic restaurant.  I am a bit skeptical, however, because, underneath the large neon letters it says, in English, "Western Boofsteock".  Authentic or not, I am not interested in trying their Boofsteock.  For the time being, I will enjoy the many delicious Chinese restaurants in the area.  The "C" restaurants have been, so far, the tastiest ones around and the low ratings have yet to deter me.  The KFC may be clean and safe, but it doesn't match your average local Chinese restaurant in taste and customer service.

Man, That Dog Looks Tasty!

Exploring the town yesterday, I came upon this sign which reads, "Princely Dog Meat Restaurant". I turned my head towards the restaurant and saw a short middle-aged woman walk out of the back with a blood-soaked cleaver. Another man, who was sitting in the restaurant called out to me, "Hey! Do you want to eat? It's tasty!" Somehow, I resisted the temptation to sit down and order.

 Eating dog is still very common in many parts of China, particularly southern China where there is a saying that those in the south, "eat anything with four legs besides tables and chairs." I have also heard a similar one, that they will "eat anything that flies except for airplanes." I have seen all sorts of animals in menus and on display at restaurants, including one displaying a freshly skinned cat, ready for the skillet. In fact, just a few stores down from the store in the picture above, I came upon another dog meat restaurant. I wondered, since they appeared to be the only two dog meat restaurants in the area, if they were bitter enemies. Perhaps, I thought, they accused each other of stealing one another's dogs. Maybe they bought from the same source. Were they farm-raised? Perhaps in the US, the free range variety would carry a premium?

 An interesting side note is that dog penis, along with many other animal's penises, are used in Chinese medicine. It is believed to increase the Yang in the body, which would therefore increase a man's virility.

 Years ago, when I was teaching a group of college English majors in China, I arranged for them to debate whether or not it was acceptable to eat dog. I suspected that the debate would be a flop, with everyone agreeing that it was just fine. Little did I imagine how heated the debate would get. One girl even broke into tears saying that her pet dog was stolen by the neighboring dog restaurant and served up.

 Living in China, you tend to get over food aversions rather quickly. I still remember being served an entire fish, mouth to tail, one time shortly after arriving in China. I felt like it was staring right at me. At the time I was very shocked and took only the meat from as close to the middle of the fish as I could. I kept waiting for the fish's eyes to follow my chopsticks. Now, however, I am used to seeing some suck the eyeballs out of the eye sockets of the fish (though I still cannot do this myself). As I type this, I wonder, are you, the person reading this, disgusted and about to vomit or is your mouth watering for some dog penis and fish eyeballs?

"Do You Think It Is Good To Beat Children?"

My interest in playing basketball was recently re-kindled and I am fortunate enough to have a basketball hoop right near my home here in China. Two days ago I was out shooting by myself, just trying to get some exercise, when a young boy, who is perhaps 7 or 8 years old, came up with his own basketball and started to chat with me. We would take turns shooting and he asked me why I am so good. I am, in fact, not that good, but it is easy to look like Michael Jordan when you are shooting with a child who can't get the ball to reach the hoop. He happily shared with me about some local customs, such as Chinese Lanterns, called tiān dēng (天灯) in Chinese, (see picture above) and each time I asked why such a custom was done, he would say, "I don't know, it's just a custom."

 The following day, I was out shooting and the same young boy came out with his basketball again. We started chatting again and he decided to educate me more about local customs and all things China. I often run into people like this in China. Because I am a foreigner and can communicate with them in Chinese, many feel that it is important to make sure that I know as much about China as possible. I once asked a Chinese person why this was the case and the response was, "because it is very hard to understand China and Chinese and we are proud of our country." My impression is that many Chinese feel like their country is perceived incorrectly and bullied and they are trying to set the record straight, one foreigner at a time.

 All of a sudden, the young boy told me that in China, it is common for parents to beat their children when they do something wrong. He asked me if I thought this was a good thing. For whatever reason, this often happens to me in China (and other foreigners who speak Chinese); people will open up about anything and everything. I think it is partially because I am perceived as being safely outside the community. The young boy's mother was within ear shot when he said this, on the balcony hanging laundry on the clothes line. I glanced over to see if she had heard what he said. She appeared to be going about business as normal. I replied that, in my country, there are also people who beat their children. I said I was not beaten as a child and did not want to beat my own children. He replied, "Oh...in China it is also common for men to beat their wives, do you think that is good?" I was a bit taken aback and replied, "I would never beat my wife, do you think it is good for a man to beat his wife?" The boy looked over at his mother, who didn't seem to hear the conversation we were having, lowered his head and quietly said, "no".

 If I were in my country, I would report a conversation like this to the authorities. However, here in China, I know there is nothing I can do about this. Beating children and wives, sadly, is accepted in many parts of China, especially rural areas and smaller towns such as where I live. I felt bad for the kid and we continued to shoot hoops. After about five seconds of silence, he launched into telling me about how he learned about aircraft carriers from a TV program. His face lit up as he proudly said that China has an aircraft carrier and that it is in Liaoning province. Then he asked me, "Do you think it is good to have war?" The conversation went on like this for a while until his mother called him home. I sat there shooting alone, not paying attention to my shot, because I was visualizing what it might look like for his father to beat him and his mother. It is a strange experience being a foreigner in China.

Casual Friday

You can get anywhere in China on public transportation, as long as you don't mind the company. We live in Hainan province, which is an island and life here seems to abide by 'island time'. The locals are also very casual as can be seen from this picture of fellow bus rider with leopard-print pajama pants on. My wife and I were the only ones who seemed to notice when he joined us on the bus. It is very common to see people walking the streets in pajamas. I am, in fact, really enjoying the laid-back lifestyle here and would happily walk around shirtless, except that, being of Eastern European descent, I have much more chest hair than your average Chinese, most of whom have no chest hair at all. Being one of a very small number of foreigners in this city, I already attract plenty of stares, so I will keep my shirt on in order to avoid even more eyes fixed on me.

 It is a strange experience standing out like a sore thumb. I am not sure if I will ever completely get used to being stared at everywhere I go and having people yell out "Hello" just to see if I react. Nine times out of ten, they just giggle if I react at all. Sometimes, it is a relief to go to a city such as Shanghai or Beijing, where foreigners are nothing special and I can blend in. Where we live now, however, is different. I'm not sure if it is because of the heat or what, but everything here seems to be moving in slow motion, at least compared to the bigger cities in China.

 We spent the other day in Haikou, the capital of Hainan Province and, despite it not ranking anywhere close to China's largest cities by population, it felt as busy and crowded as New York City or Chicago. Certainly it is much more densely populated than either of these American cities. We went to the capital to look for folding bicycles, which are commonly sold alongside the traditional non-folding version. The folding kind are nice because we can take them on the public buses and trains and bike around wherever we happen to get off. We would like to explore the countryside so we are opting for traditional bikes, rather than the much more popular electric bikes, which can generally go about 50 km on one charge and are much too heavy to pedal or push if the battery dies in the middle of nowhere.

The island is still relatively undeveloped and we look forward to exploring it before it becomes too developed. The pace of change is very quick. For example, four years go we were completely charmed by the seclusion and simplicity of a place called Dongjiao Coconut Forest (东郊椰林). The other day, we returned for the first time in years only to find that it had lost most of its charm due to the anticipation of increasing numbers of tourists. The most noticeable change was an enormous bridge leading to a huge concrete platform in the middle of the inlet, which completely blocked the view of the ocean and had clearly negatively affected the water quality. I asked one of the locals about this and she told me that a private individual was building a hotel there. She then added, "we do not welcome them". I told her I didn't blame her.

We left the Coconut Forest the same day, disappointed that the place no longer matched our memory of it, but motivated to find new locations to take its place. The only certainty, many say, is death and change. So, in that spirit, we will roll with the changes (which go at breakneck speed here) and keep exploring. As much as I hope to find another peaceful, secluded getaway here on the island, I keep reminding myself that where I am is not truly a source of my peace. Peace and contentment are a state of mind, they come from within, and are not something which comes from outside us.

Returning, Once Again, to China

It has been six days since my wife and I returned to China. It has taken me six days to get a VPN which would allow me to get on to blogger.com and post for the first time. After spending four years in China (2005-2009), followed by four years back home in the US (2009-2013), returning to China again to live is an unusual experience. Though I have only been back for less that a week, I anticipate this to be an experience unlike my first few years in China. I am not only a different person, with a few more years and a few more experiences, but I am returning to a different China.

A lot has changed in the past few years. For example, I am now living on Hainan island, in the south of China. 4 years ago, when I was also living on Hainan island, it took three times longer to go from the capital city, Haikou, in the north to the tourist hub, Sanya, in the south. The reason is that there is now a high speed train which rockets across the island at 200 km/hr (125 mph). It cuts a straight path through the island. Another example is illustrated by the number of electric bikes here. Four years ago, traditional bicycles outnumbered the electric kind. Now, it took me three days before I saw anyone on a traditional bicycle. The e-bikes rule the roads now. Another example is Taobao.com. Previously, you had to go to a large city such as Beijing or Shanghai to get delights such as western-style bread, decent cheese or salty sunflower seeds (they are sweet in China). Now, anything can be bought on China's version of Ebay: Taobao. You can even, in Chinese fashion, bargain with sellers on Taobao.

Though much is different, in some ways, it is as if I never left. Walking the streets of China is just as crazy and dangerous as ever, the English ability of your average Chinese has not improved and fruits and veggies are just as plentiful as ever. More than anything else, I am conscious of a different vibe the air between my home, the U.S., and China. I first felt this going back and forth between the two countries years ago, but now it is more palpable than ever. When you step out onto the streets of China you feel a vibrancy, an energy that is no longer there in the U.S. You feel as if you are part of something historic, a moving forward. You can taste the progress in the air. Everyone is aware that they are going towards something. Back home...it feels like a funeral. Life is comfortable and everyone has settled in. People are groping for something with meaning and purpose. Here in China, you can't help but get caught up in the drive towards whatever it is the country is moving towards. It is quite a feeling.

 The second day after our arrival on the island, my wife and I had to go to the local hospital for a health check. We had gotten one done in the U.S. prior to leaving, at the request of the local bureaucracy. We used their form, but, in the end, they decided we had to do another one. They said it was because the form we gave them was in English. I am not sure if that is the real reason. Fortunately for us, the Chinese woman who accompanied us was able to convince them to just draw our blood.

 While waiting to get our blood drawn, we suddenly heard firecrackers, a very common sound in China. These, however, were set off by a small group of people dressed in white holding a banner which read, "compensation for our dead daughter and baby demanded". The firecrackers were to get attention. Their crying while crouching down kept the attention of onlookers. Our Chinese friend told us that she had heard about this on the news. Apparently, the woman and child died during childbirth and instead of going through the "normal" procedure of negotiating compensation with the hospital, they had gone straight to this method of protest. They were throwing pieces of yellow paper into the air, something which is done after the death of a loved-one, and screaming and wailing.

We were led into some sort of waiting room. All of a sudden, every single staff member, nurses included, ran outside to see what was going on. My wife and I were left alone. After a minute or so, we got up and went out to see what was happening. The local police were involved in a tug-of-war with the protester's banner. Our Chinese friend told us it was the first time she had seen such a thing. She was clearly embarrassed that foreigners had seen such a sight in China.

 I overheard a young Chinese nurse say, "These people should go through the normal channels to get their compensation." An older man nearby chimed in, "I wonder how much money they will get." The man who was looking through our paperwork a few minutes ago said, "The police aren't doing a good job. They should be more forceful in taking away the banner." I wondered how the family must have felt; and the doctors and nurses who were unable to keep the woman and child alive. I found it unusual that nobody seemed to be talking about that.