RICKY DLS 英会話 blog

The start of the Chinese New Year coincided with Valentine’s Day this year, and almost immediately after the celebrations took off the Chinese got an even better reason to go crazy: pair figure skaters Zhao Hongbo and Shen Xue won the first Olympic gold ever for China, and Pang Qing and Tong Jian brought home silver. The married and once retired couple had been training together for 18 years and made a comeback this year to pursue the gold that had eluded them in the previous Olympics. They also broke Russia’s stronghold on pair figure skating, and this is the first time in 46 years that Russia didn’t get a medal. On another note, Hokkaido is becoming increasingly popular among Chinese people as a travel destination. During last week’s snow festival in Odori Park Chinese seemed to outnumber Japanese visitors. And even now that Sapporo’s famed festival is over I can still see many Chinese tourists here. Just this morning I saw two women near Sapporo Station and one of them caught my attention cause she was wearing a Guess jacket - a brand that’s unavailable in Japan. She must have noticed that I was checking her out cause all of a sudden she turned around and asked me in fluent English for directions to the Sapporo Beer Hall. They were Chinese an I thought boy oh boy it’s not even 11 yet and they are already in the mood for a beer!

私は英語とスペイン語の先生です。

Full moon over the Forbidden City, Beijing
I got a call from a friend last night who is adept in Chinese culture. She reminded me to hold up an empty wallet against the full moon and repeat the words “chilintilin chilintilin” several times. This Chinese superstition, in Japan dubbed “Osaifu chilintilin”, is practiced on the night of the full moon, and the purpose is to attract money! I’m waiting, lol.

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The Chinese New Year celebrations end today with the lovely Lantern Festival. Chinese people visit temples to pay tribute to Buddha and flock to big parks afterwards, enjoying the thousands of red lanterns that decorate the city at this time of the year - and eating sweet dumplings, lots of them, in typical Chinese fashion. In China, I was again and again surprised to see how much Chinese people eat. At restaurants, I often peaked over to other tables to see what kind of food locals indulge in. It didn’t surprise me to see that most Chinese meals smother in heavy sauces, and the portions didn’t astonish me either since they are about the size of American meals. I was however taken aback to realize that for every person there were two or three big plates with food on the table, not just one! Is anyone still amazed that the Chinese are getting bigger and bigger? Here’s a great video about the favorite pastime of the Chinese: Eating! I’d say talking is number two on their list. On the day we visited Tiananmen Square we walked to the Night Market afterwards - yes, on foot, due to a lack of cabs. Don’t get me wrong, there are tons of taxis in Beijing but all seemed to be occupied at almost any given time. We walked for well over an hour along crowded avenues. When we finally arrived at the Night Market, we were hungry like wolves and ready to devour almost anything except for … well, maybe not anything because upon taking a closer look we realized that more than half of the skewered things were nasty stuff like cockroaches, scorpions and all kinds of worms and insects! My friend was so hungry and ordered the first best thing she could get her hands on, a skewered silkworm … she almost threw up and needless to say, I didn’t try. Don’t get me wrong, I like exotic food but that was a bit too exotic for my taste! I went for oysters instead. Two for ten yuan (about 130 yen), I understood that much after reading the kanji on the overhead signs. The saleslady gave me a boiled oyster and demanded the money. I asked for another one but she said no, only one. I’m sure that the sign said two for ten but by now I was hungry like a lionesse and so I gave in to being the ripped-off foreigner on that particular night. Other foods we ingested at the Night Market was squid, shrimp, lamb and skewered fruits for dessert. None of it was very delicious actually.

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The Chinese New Year starts on the first new moon of the lunar year which means - today! Millions of Chinese are flocking back to their hometowns from all parts of China and from overseas as well. I have never attended a Chinese New Year celebration but I imagine it to be one noisy, big, crazy 15-day-party! The Chinese love big crowds and noise, in other words, they’re a bit crazy - I’m sure of that after four visits to the Asian giant! Chinese people usually move in groups of four, five or more. That’s why in restaurants all tables seat at least six people. Going for lunch alone or even to a coffee shop, as it is common in Japan, is very unusual there. The Chinese are extremely sociable and outgoing. In Beijing, every time we entered a restaurant we were immediately surrounded by two or three English-speaking waitresses, not only serving us food and beverages but also talking to us enthusiastically about their country and lifestyles. Most of the English-speaking waitresses were university students and had part-time jobs at restaurants. From the way they talked about their country I got a pretty good picture about patriotism in China. Their enthusiasm was contagious. By the way, 2009 is the year of the Ox which stands for prosperity through fortitude and hard work.

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Look at this picture: I took it last August at a restaurant in Beijing. Christmas in mid-summer, that’s new. And I thought the X’mas decorations in January at the airport in Shanghai were weird … think again.

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Chinese people love being outside and socializing in front of shops, homes and in parks. In the lovely park of Beijing’s Summer Palace people were chatting, practicing tai chi and even singing opera!

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Yeah, I was a little surprised about the intense patriotic feelings most Chinese seem to have. I mean have people forgotten the decades of hardship under Mao Zedong and his successors? Or do they remember but are in complete denial? Whatever it is, Chinese love their country and will let you know in every conversation that China is the best thing there has ever been and will ever be. One day we visited Tiananmen Square, site of the student massacre of 1989 where between 2000 and 3000 demonstrators were killed by soldiers of the People’s Republic of China’s army. It was around 6:30 PM when we arrived there and slowly, gradually the place got fuller and fuller with new people arriving every minute. We thought some special event was about to start but when nothing happened we asked a Chinese onlooker and were told “Change of the guards at 7 PM, that’s what we’re here for”. We proceeded South to get a better view and there it was, the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall with squads of soldiers in green uniforms parading up and down. Ah, there he lies, we said, the father of communism, dreaded dictator Mao Zedong. We were speechless to see the respectful feelings the Chinese seem to harbor for him! The change of the guards was not very impressive actually. Not if you compare it with the pomp of the change of guards at Buckingham Palace. Tiananmen Square. Hmmm. It was one of the disappointing aspects of Beijing. While the temples and castles are gorgeous, splendid, magnificent, Tiananmen Square seemed just like a big square, lacking ambience or personality. I would have expected more of the world’s largest public square. But I guess that’s just how Mao wanted his final resting place: bleak and dull, in other words - very Communist.

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Like I said, the only reason why I chose Air China is that they have direct flights from Sapporo. And actually Air China is a bit better than China Eastern Airlines which I flew last year to Shanghai. At least they don’t serve Bud light. Instead they offer a Chinese beer which has some exotic flavor to it. If it had only been cold … so, I switched to red wine with a uniquely Chinese taste, kind of like shokoshu, a bit bitter, like medicine. I enjoyed it. The food was OK, among the items I remember is smoked salmon with lemon. The plane itself was plain, a bit old, no individual video screens and most of the seat pockets didn’t contain inflight magazines. What surprised me was that the plane was half empty. Do Japanese people not fly to the Beijing Olympics, or do they only fly Japan Airlines in spite of having to change planes at the nasty Narita airport?

Time to start my China Journal. My last trip was to Beijing and the Great Wall. I booked Air China for the simple reason that there are direct flights from Sapporo and it only takes four hours to get to Beijing. In spite of that apparent convenience, one has to keep in mind that when traveling East, on an Eastern, non-Japanese aircraft, one leaves the safe, civilized zone of Japanese politeness and courtesy and plunges into the rough and often rude realm of the Chinese. The two countries are geographically so close but the contrast couldn’t be bigger. On my various trips to China I realized, however, that what we might perceive as rude is, in most cases, not intended as such and if you truly try to understand their motives you’ll find that they are mostly nice and likeable people. What is often interpreted as obnoxious behavior comes from the Chinese trait of being overly friendly and outgoing. Take this example: On my flight from Sapporo to Beijing they started to offer drinks and my server was a chubby lady in her 50’s. I ordered wine. She didn’t understand me and consequently shouted at me “WHAT?” I repeated “I want wine” and this time she moved closer and yelled in my face “WHAT??” I signaled the younger flight attendant who was working with her to come closer, and she took my order in English. Throughout the flight, the older flight attendant came back and made sure I had everything I needed, in very broken English, but I acknowledge she tried hard. True, it takes some time to get used to the way of the Chinese, a very direct way of communicating, void of flowery phrases. But here I was, on my way to Beijing, and I promised myself I was gonna have a good time.

When it comes to the question of who won the Beijing Olympics it gets complicated. The US earned 110 medals in total whereas China got 100. From the perspective of gold medals China is the clear winner with 51 gold as compared to 36 pieces of the sought-after prize for the US. So - why not let the winner be the nation with the most athletes competing in the Olympics? It’s all about being part of it, not about winning, right?! On another note, the Chinese internet is overflowing with information about a creepy coincidence. If you compare the numbers of medals won by China with the date and time of its deadliest earthquake, you get this: China won 51 gold medals, 22 silver and 28 bronze. The Sichuan earthquake happened on 5/12 at 2:28 PM … 51 22 28 vs. 5 12 2 28! Numerology, a jinx or an omen? No … just a hoax! China won only 21 silver medals.

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