Where is home?

I recently went back to NY for a short visit. This visit like the one previously last Spring left me confused. The source of my confusion is that for the first time, I felt an urge to go back to Shanghai by the tail end of my visit. I don't think I would have ever thought I would feel that way about Shanghai. And maybe its not because its Shanghai, maybe its just my life has taken root in a certain place.

I no longer have a place of my own in NYC and for every visit, I have been staying with my parents. Even though it is the house I grew up in, I just don't have the same feeling about it anymore. Everything seems to a bit "off".

Now that I have been here in Shanghai for a couple of years, things have become routine. We have become accustomed to a certain lifestyle, gotten use to certain conveniences in life that were not realistically attainable in NYC. I never would have thought of it that way while living in Shanghai, but when I spend about a week or two in NYC, I become very aware it.

When we first arrived here, I would have never thought that we would ever settle here. At this point, that is actually within the realm of possibilty.

Childhood memories

So today I had a chance to watch part of Michael Jackson's memorial services on TV. I would not categorize myself as a Michael Jackson fanatic but I find myself with a feeling of loss during this time.

Michael Jackson was at his peak as a star in the early to mid eighties when I was in my early teens living in NYC. I always thought that he was an incredibly talent performer and I really enjoyed his music back in the "Thriller" days. As the years went by, Jackson's life began to go down a very strange path. In my mind, he became more and more irrelevant as the years went by.

When I learned of his death, I began to reflect on his music and how relevant it was during those impressionable years of my life. The more I reflected on it, the more I realize that this was a loss of a significant figure in my childhood. I use to remember how incredibly popular he was back in those days. Many of my female classmates use to get angry at those of us who criticized Jackson (some of this was intentional to get the desired reaction).

As I started to watch some of his classic music videos and concert performances over the Internet, I was reminded of just how incredibly talented this man really was. As a performer, he is without a doubt true to the word - a genius. I believe another reason that his death has garnered this much outpouring of emotions was also how tragic his life was despite all of the success.

It seems in death, Michael Jackson has become very relevant again.

I guess all genius are tormented. Perhaps they just don't belong in this world, but the world is probably better for it.

blogger blackout

Well, this is my first post in over a month. This has been a combination of a busy travel schedule and the fact that blogger has been blocked in China. There are ways for me to get around it but I just haven't had the chance to get around to it until today.

Anyway, I guess with all of the politically sensitive events going on in China, they've decided to really clamp down on the Internet.

I will try to make up for some of the information vacuum in future posts.

Spring Attire

So Spring is in the air here in Shanghai. As Spring attire appears on the streets of Shanghai, more skin is exposed. When it comes to attire, women here in Shanghai are more daring than I would have thought before coming over here. I would say they are no more conservative than their counterparts in New York.

What is quite interesting is the reaction to women dressed, let’s say on the high end of the skin exposure scale. In America, when a woman dresses like that, they quite literally turn heads and elicit some whistles or some other comments from men. Here in Shanghai, the reaction is muted. Nobody turns their head when a stunningly beautiful woman dressed in a miniskirt and fitted top walks by. No whistles, nothing. You might see a man move his eyeballs towards her direction while passing accompanied by very little head movement.

I think this is quite consistent with other differences between China and America. Chinese don’t like to create a scene and would rather “fly under the radar”. Any reaction from men in that kind of situation would be embarrassing for both parties. It’s not as if the men here does not admire the beauty of the fairer sex. I think I have 1.3 billion pieces of evidence of the contrary. In fact, I would say that almost every man and women on that street have already noticed that woman, except they are very discrete in their admiration and or envy.

Chinese on my blog

I just want to explain the abrupt change of language in my previous entry to my non-Chinese readers. I have decided to use my newly-acquired though rudimentary Chinese writing skills in a way that I would have not thought possible just a few years ago. Going forward, I will occasionally blog in the language of my roots even though it is not my native tongue. This is something that is quite personal to me and I feel it will further the growth that I am undergoing here in China. No, this is not making it convenient to my non-Chinese readers, but if you are that interested in what I have to say in Chinese there is always google translate.

我的博客中文版

我在中国已经有一段时间了. 来中国前用中文写博客是一个不可思议的事. 当然,也许我的中文程度现在只有小学的水平,不过有这一天也不容易. 我六岁就从台湾去美国定居. 到了三十几岁才回到中国. 那么多年在美国没当中文是一件事. 回来这几年才开始复学中文. 在美国那么久我只保持了最基本的中文口语水平跟我父母用普通话交流. 所以我起码还有一个基础, 不过读不了几个汉字.

在中国生活不可能不顾中文. 所以我就慢慢的吸收中文. 现在我还可以看看报纸, 基本上可以看得懂. 我的却是进步了不少,不过还有很长的路来走. 我希望我离开中国以前可以提高我的中文到流利的水平. 看看这个期望可不可以显示.

aciremA and anihC

What a difference a few years make! So America started last year with the classic reversal of fortune. First, as the center of the most important capitalistic society we got ourselves ensnared in a financial crisis not at our making, but certainly as the leading catalyst. China, whom America has scolded on many occasions for their command economy has emerged from this downturn in relatively decent shape thus far. Now word that the swine flu has emerged from Mexico, right at the doorstep of America. This after years of suspicion that the avian flu will likely emerge from China due to the perceived backward lifestyle and little attention paid to public welfare. The tables have certainly turned this time around and don't think the world has not taken notice. This is not to say that every thing China has done in recent years has been the gold standard and America has become the leper of the world.

This points to the fact that complacency has insidiously crept into the American mindset. After all, complacency only exists when one has success and America have experienced a long period of success on the world stage. This has led to the mindset that what we do must be correct and the best way to do things. This has led to the current state of complacency that is in the process of humbling us. We should no longer be as arrogant to believe that whatever we do is the best. We can still lead, but it requires us to consider that others may have good ideas as well and not to be quick to dismiss. One hopes that the current Obama administration is on that road and can turn this around.

Civilized or Ingenuous

In America, we view ourselves as "civilized" and likewise, I think of myself as being a civilized person. I personally believe that in modern society, we should have certain rules and structure in place to make our lives more livable and comfortable.

That being said, sometimes you find yourself in situations where civility might have to take a back seat to primal urges. The classic example is the need to urinate with no bathrooms in sight. I would dare say that most Americans would probably hold their urine as long as they can while searching for the loo until succumbing to nature. This problem is really no problem at all here in China. If one, especially a man has to go, he probably will just head towards the nearest dimly lit corner. Some men are even more brazen and would do this with no peripheral cover into some greenery. Such activities are not just restricted to dark alleys, sometimes you can see this in relatively busy streets in front of women and children. These sights are not even worth a second look from passerbys

Another example is the expulsion of gas. I think we all have had experiences where after a meal, especially a hearty one where one needs to expel some gas. We in the civilized world will either try to belch quietly or swallow one's gas until they are in the company of oneself. Here in China, diners have not qualms about belching during the meal. This is viewed as a natural bodily function and it would not be helpful to suppress it.

In many ways, I understand why we in the civilized society want to take such painstaking care to keep these activities private. However, from another perspective, I find that the attitude of the Chinese toward some of this is quite refreshing. There is no pretension when it comes to such bodily functions. After all it isn't as if you are the only person in the world to have these things happen to your body. So why bother to hide or suppress them?

Formula 1

I can't say that I am much of an auto racing fan. However, when the F1 tour came into town here in Shanghai, I was intrigued. My only exposure to auto racing back in the States is the Indy 500 and NASCAR; the exposure was limited at best. NYC was not exactly a hotbed of auto racing. After all, when most of one's driving experience in NYC is being ensnared in bumper to bumper traffic on the LIE or the Grand Central one does not view auto racing as a viable concept.

Being abroad, I started to learn about things that go on which dwarfs the popularity of similar activities in the States. World Cup soccer comes to mind and so does the F1 circuit. It is from that point of view which prompted me to go 20 miles out of the downtown area where I live on a rainy day to see if I can get some tickets from scalpers to witness something that not too many Americans have in person for the a race that only occurs in Shanghai annually. All of this trouble and the only race car driver I know from the F1 circuit was last year's champion, Lewis Hamilton.

Anyhow, me and my friend Kanlin (who is not even a sports fan never mind F1) made our way to the race track. We secured a pair of standing room tickets for 250RMB (face value 600RMB) after the race had already commenced.

The conditions were far from perfect as a steady rain accompanied by brisk wind gusts made not only the driving treacherous but viewing quite uncomfortable even with rain gear on. The first thing that struck me as we arrived at our viewing area was the noise from these engines. Instead of a roar as one might expect, the sound was a relatively high pitch whirring noise that was incessant. As I would find out later after I left the track the exposure to this noise continually for nearly 2 hours would leave me with a temporarily hearing deficiency.

Other things that struck me was the speed of these cars and just how surreal the entire spectacle was. Here I was, watching vehicles that one never sees on the road traveling at breathtaking speeds on straightaways and turns alike. It was a very different experience than watching it on television where we are use to viewing the fantastic.

Overall, I must say that despite the weather conditions, I really enjoyed my first experience at F1. It might not be my last.

Wolverine

So the other day I was out on the streets of Shanghai browsing through a street cart of DVDs and saw copies of "Wolverine" being sold. I don't really follow movie releases very closely, but I seem to remember seeing advertising for the movie recently. For that reason, I thought Wolverine was a recent release and when you see DVDs of recent releases on the streets of Shanghai, they typically are of very low quality. Usually they are copies of people recording the movie from a camcorder in the movie theater.

I asked the vendor if this was a good copy or a bad copy. He told me that it was a good copy. I told him that I did not believe him so he promptly whipped out a portable dvd player to show me the quality of the DVD. He played the first 2 minutes of the movie and indeed it was of DVD quality. So I plunked down my 5RMB (73 cents) and happily brought it home. I watched the movie the next evening and started to see some funny things. Certain scenes such as the overhead view of an island was composed of skeletal graphics. And some of the scenes that required special affects looks as if it was computer animation. In some of the fight scenes cables could be seen strapped to the actors to provide lift.

After the movie, I did some research on the movie over the internet and discovered that the release date is on May 1 which is 3 weeks from now. I realized that the copy of Wolverine that I just viewed was probably one of the pre-final versions of the movie. It seems that somebody on the inside must have made a copy of it and sold it to the DVD pirates.

I just spoke to a friend in NYC and found out that pirated copies of Wolverine has made it to the States. He has not watched it as of yet, so I wonder if the States got the same copy. My guess would be yes.

Digital age is a double edge sword.

The Blame Game

OK, I think I am getting to the breaking point with all of the finger pointing when it comes to this financial crisis. We all know the usual suspects when it come to the guilty. Wall Street, government regulators, predatory mortgage agents, banks, etc. These groups are certainly the most obvious of the culpable. The less obvious are the regular folks who went ahead and purchased homes by leveraging themselves to the point of bankruptcy.

I think the problem was insidious because it was very gradual in its nature. Little by little, as the lending standards loosened, and people on main street just like the ones on Wall Street began to adjust their actions to the new landscape. This meant it was actually acceptable to take out second mortgages to finance the renovation of a new kitchen. It was acceptable for somebody without much business experience to use their homes as collateral to raise capital to start a small business. It goes on and on. It became a money grab as people thought of new ways to consume as available cash was everywhere.

I think when a person making $50,000 a year qualified for a mortgage to buy a $600,000 home and decides to go ahead with the purchase because they believed the value of it will rise to $800,000 in a few years at which point they will sell it and downsize with a tidy profit before the mortgage rate resets really knows exactly what they are doing and cannot possibly claim ignorance and pass the responsibility to the banks. To do something like this one must already have an understanding that there is considerable risk being taken or they will not plan on taking such drastic actions before their rates increase to an unaffordable rate. Perhaps they did not understand just how big the risks were because in recent past the landscape has temporarily shifted where nothing could go wrong.

For average folks to claim that they were not educated enough or were swindled by cunning bankers and mortgage brokers is really just passing the responsibility. I don't think this is very constructive because as long as people blame somebody else for their mistakes, a valuable lesson will not be learned.

This is analogous to the gambler or alcoholic who blames everyone but themselves for their transgressions.

Lets be perfectly clear, there is plenty of blame to go around. Sometimes you might have to start with the person in the mirror.

mirror reflection

Last night Major League Baseball and baseball fans (including me) around the world received earth shattering news that the best baseball player in the world and perhaps one of the greats in the history of the game tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. Alex Rodriguez currently of the New York Yankees reportedly tested positive for steroids in 2003. The history and records of baseball is very integral part of being a fan of baseball. Currently the sacred record of baseball - all time home runs is held by the notorious steroids user Barry Bonds. Alex Rodriguez was to be the player who embodied the ideal athlete who through diligence and talent was to restore the integrity of the sacred records of baseball.

Listening to the New York sports radio stations over the internet, the disappointment of the fans is palpable. For fans, sports is the diversion to escape from the rigors of real life. It affords people to be entertained by seemingly larger than life heroes who one can live vicariously through.

Unfortunately, the sports world is very much part of real life populated by real people like us all. The competition is high and the payoff for the top performers like any other industry can be very high. Its actually not surprising that people are willing to take the risk and take performance enhancing drugs to give them the best chance to succeed. This sort of thing happens in all walks of life. Here in China, parents line up to buy Chinese medicine reputed to enhance cognitive activity in the days leading up the College entrance exams for their children. Scientists are engaged in genetic engineering that may one day produce intelligent babies. What parent wouldn't want a child like that? How many people lie on their resumes in hopes of getting their foot in the door of a better job?

Trying to get an edge on the competition is an inherent character trait that all species have. I think it is safe to say that at this point, humans has gained such an advantage over the rest of the animals that it has become unfair.

So just how unfair is what Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez have done? That is a tough question to answer, as they are only doing what we humans are programmed to do. Just like any other subset of society, sports is just a reflection of who we are. Sometimes we don't like looking in the mirror because we might not like what we see. Unfortunately, heroes are just creations based on standards and ideals that nobody can never live up to.

Shanghai Comfort Food 生煎包

So the other day, I had some spare time and decided to head over to one of my favorite restaurant that specializes in a Shanghaiese type of pot sticker pork bun (生煎包）. The restaurant is located near the biggest square in Shanghai - People's Square (人民广场）and the famous pedestrian shopping street - Nanjing Road. The restaurant is called Yang's Fried Dumpling (小杨生煎）。

The first thing you have to realize about these buns is that it does not pretend to be healthy. It is pan fried and has lots of soup with pork and some pork fat, but the taste is very satisfying. The bun is slightly larger than the size of a golf ball and the bottom of the bun is fried to a perfect crispy texture but the top half has a doughy soft texture - a nice contrast. When you bite into one of these - like its soup dumpling brethren which I will profile in a later entry - you have to be careful because it encases a nice size pork ball along with copious amounts of soup from the pork itself. You would be advised to take a small careful bite, just enough to open up a hole on its soft top side so you don't blind one of your fellow diners with hot pork soup squirting out of your bun. Then you should suck out a good amount of the soup before continuing on to finish off the bun. The price of these are a minimum purchase of 4 pot sticker buns for 4RMB - 58 cents (exchange rate of 6.84) with each additional bun at 1RMB apiece.

The restaurant itself is basically a hole in the wall with a bare minimum of service and decor. The menu contains some complementary dishes such as beef soup with soy bean noodles , duck blood soup (another topic for another day), fried tofu soup, etc. But make no mistake about it, the star of the menu is the pot sticker bun. For the uninitiated, in order to get your buns, you have to pay for the meal first at the cashier then proceed to the line to get your buns located next to the front entrance of the restaurant. After getting your buns, if you have any other complementary dishes, you need to present your receipt to the servers inside the restaurant. Finding a table is another adventure, as during dining hours the place is normally packed. You can either wait for about 5 to 10 minutes, take out and eat on the street, or find an empty seat on an occupied table (there is no sanctuary here).

I am not a big fan of Shanghai style food, but if it is known for anything it is this pot sticker bun (生煎包）。

The particulars of the restaurant:

Yang's Fried Dumpling (小杨生煎）
97 Huang He Road (near People's Square) 黄浦区黄河路97号

Other locations include:
54-60 Wu Jiang Road (near West Nanjing Road) 静安区吴江路54-60号(近南京西路)
720 East Nanjing Road 黄浦区南京东路720号食品一店内

The Bailout, The Stimulus

So now that we are in the middle of the global financial crisis, governments are scrambling to attempt the remedy the situation. Since we are in the internet age, problems have to be addressed by yesterday or the natives will become restless. Therefore, governments - notably the US Government have been engaged in a campaign to save the economy.

The question becomes this, how can governments faced with an economic crisis of unprecedented scale and complexity be expected to tackle this issue in a intelligent, pragmatic way? I think the answer has been partially answered already with the seemingly haphazard fashion that governments have responded so far.

The latest theory is to throw massive amounts of money into the economy with the hope that it will stimulate it. I am certainly not smart enough to figure out if this will work or not. But I think in the big picture sense this credit bubble was created in the first place by massive over consumption by everyone around the world.

A few years ago, when I was still back in New York and was observing the real estate bubble growing, what struck me was that the real estate around the world were also growing at an unreasonable pace. In the newspapers all you read about was that countries as varied as China, Ireland, UAE, England,India, Poland, Vietnam, etc were experiencing even bigger real estate booms than the US. I read stories of economies in those countries booming and its citizens enjoying an accelerated rise in standards of living. All of this consumption were directly or indirectly related to the cheap credit available at the time, and that is how interconnected we all were. Therefore, spending was more and more dependent on the house of cards named credit.

Now that credit has been effectively cut off, I think we are in a process of returning to normalcy. The problem is that from where we came from this is a drastic change of the credit landscape. The actions taken by governments around the world to lower interest rates and throw money into the system in hopes of stimulating the economy is the obvious short term answer to cushion that fall. The problem is that I hope that all of these actions will not act as a catalyst to return our economies to the broken model that pervaded globally in the past 10 years in the long run. I am not sure if the answer is to get people to buy more cars by lowering the standards of issuing credit again by stimulating the banks. Maybe its better to just go with the scorch earth way. Clean up everything in sight and start anew. Maybe everyone has to suffer in the short run and take a step back before moving forward again.

The other problem that we don't have is time to intelligently and carefully consider these issues in this day and age of the internet before people become agitated. Patience is a virtue that not many of us have these days.

Happy Birthday God of Wealth and Fortune!

Chinese New Year this year fell on 1/26/09. Traditionally, the Chinese set off fireworks on the 1st of the lunar new year. As tradition evolves, in Shanghai people have started to set off fireworks on the 5th day to celebrate the birthday of the fortune god. As you can imagine, if there is a day to celebrate money then it is a reason to set off fireworks in a city like Shanghai where money is paramount. Local Shanghai residents I have spoken to about the topic told me that setting off fireworks on the 5th is a practice that started to take hold only within the past 30 years and is uniquely Shanghaiese.

Buying fireworks could not be any easier here in Shanghai as temporary fireworks stands pop up everywhere this time of year. I am not sure as to the legality selling fireworks, but either they are legal or law enforcement is looking the other way.

As I am writing this entry it is half past midnight of the 5th day of the lunar new year. For most of the evening leading up to midnight, the people of Shanghai has been setting off fireworks sporadically. By 11:30PM the rate of pyrotechnic activity builds until it reached climax at around midnight as the 5th day approaches. The minutes before to about 15 minutes past midnight, it is an absolutely spectacular and mad scene outside my 16th floor apartment window. All kinds of fireworks and firecrackers are being set off everywhere you look. At its peak, the illumination of the sky is enhanced by the light from the fireworks reflecting off the smoke created by such a profusion of pyrotechnic activity. The sound is deafening and continuous. At one point the smoke was so thick, that it lowered visibility to the point where the firework display was almost completely shrouded.

There were a few rounds of fireworks that were set off directly on the ground level below my apartment. I can literally see the incended shell being propelled to about 20 feet outside my window then exploding with the residue hitting my window. That is how close to the action I was. I have never seen such a display anywhere in my life. Fourth of July is nothing compared to what I saw outside my window tonight.

Even though these were not professional fireworks, it was probably the best fireworks show that I have ever seen. This has to be seen to believe. The whole experience was quite surreal.

Hope the god of fortune brings us luck this year,'cause we really need it right now.

The Sanctuary

Its funny at how much more tolerant I am of certain things now that I have lived in China for a while now. Being a Chinese-American, I am able to somewhat penetrate the realm of the local Chinese. Therefore, unlike other expatriates here in China I am able to get a better sense of what life is like for a local. It also helps that I am open minded enough to try things that would have made me uncomfortable in America.

One such example is embedded in the dining experience. In America, dining is very much a social event especially when dining out. It is a time when one relaxes with food, drink and conversation with friends or family members. There is an expectation of privacy in order for that ambiance to pervade. This is true no matter if you are dining in McDonalds or Lutece.

Here in China, there is a somewhat different expectation from the dining experience. It is more about the eating that is emphasized rather than the social interaction especially at the mid to lower price of the spectrum. It seems its all about getting seated and having your food, therefore it is very common for people to share tables in restaurants during peak dining hours. I had experiences where I have sat at a table for 4 and every person at the table is a stranger to one another. Since everyone is a stranger there is an aura of awkwardness where no conversation is taking place. This leads to a strange dynamic of just putting your head down and eating your food as fast as possible to get out of that awkward situation. Its almost akin to the experience in the men's urinal where every man is staring at the wall in front of him so he doesn't accidentally look at the private parts of the man standing next to him.

Sharing tables would have been something that I would never consider in America and its something that I would still avoid even here in China, but sometimes during peak dining hours and my stomach is growling I will make the sacrifice. Besides, you really can't control the situation if a stranger plops himself next to you while you are in the middle of your braised pork.

Of course, this is not to say that this is true in every restaurant in China. First, business has to be good enough where table sharing becomes necessary. Second, this is less true as your move up the price spectrum. Therefore, the sanctuary of your own table in a restaurant can still be had here in most cases.