Buddha to the Future

The very last stop on this trip to Anhui was a place called Dayuan Garden. Which i'd assumed would be a waste of time.

It turned out to be the most surreal destination on the itinerary. Featuring a 99 meter tall golden Buddha as its highlight, the place was a science-fiction interpretation of Buddhism, justified to the tune of 2.2 billion yuan. Special shoe covers had to be donned before entering the opulent indoor halls, which were probably as close to Mr Trump's mansion as i'll ever get. One polished white buddha sat surrounded by glowing LED lotus flowers, with a circular LCD display hovering just over his head. The place and magnitude were just oozing money, which both fascinated and disgusted me, though by the time i acutally got to the foot of Mr 99 metres, i'll admit that there was a feeling there that i didn't really expect to have.

 

i was the only guy who made the full trek out to the foot of the giant Buddha, and it was already a weird transition to being solo, after elbowing for room at the best photo spots. It had just turned to pitch black night, the way lit only by glowing lights along the sides of the winding staircase. The Buddha looks not unlike the giant blue Zen character from Immortal Combat, wearing a robe which revealed his muscular chest. He was epic in more ways than one, but i had to admit that despite him being brand-spanking new... it was pretty powerful to be in his presence. Not sure if that's the power that money can buy or not, but that's what i felt.

 

Then i had to rush down the mountain, 'cause i got  a phone call. All the other buses had left and mine was wondering where the hell i was. That's the price to pay to get in touch with your inner Bodhisattva, i guess.

 

I'll def post some pix soon.

Day 11: Huangshan

Well, after a crappy sleep in a super swank hotel, we went out to this small town called Chengkan. Nope, i never heard of it before either. But it was pretty stellar. Really really beautiful spot, incredibly well-preserved with lots of intricate artsy detailing. Patterns which hinted at the psychedelic. Wish we could've hung out there longer. But we had other beautiful places to visit in Huangshan, so we did that.

 

Finally we finished up with a show which sounded like it was going to be a historical cultural performance, but it was more like 1/4 Peking Acrobats, 1/4 Cirque de Soleil, 1/4 Universal Studios and 1/4 actual Anhui culture. Actually less than 1/4 for the last part, even though that screws up my stats. The most unbelievable part was at the very end when all the performers were coming out to take their bows and  the music was soaring to an epic climax, and the Chinese crowd all jumped to their feet and... left the building. There was a good 5 minutes of performance left and by the time the performance was actually over, probably 95% of the crowd was in process of exiting the theatre. Sorry performers, i sure hope you don't take it personally after risking life and limb and sweating yr ass off for us all. i made my coworkers sitting next to me stay at least, even though they were clearly annoyed that we were like the last people leaving.

 

 

Day 10: cop out

I'm late, and running to the airport momentarily. Talk to you from Anhui Prov!

Day 9: National Congress MADNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well i really should say something  to welcome Xi Jinping, China's new Party Secretary and President. 

Well, the climate around Beijing is totally not hype. Everyone's like whatEVerrr. 

It ain't no democrat party. 

"Yoyo, what do you think about Xijinping?"

"I don't think anything."

"Does anybody in your office care?"

"No. Hu Jintao, Xi Jinping… they're all communists."

Ok fine, that's a magazine office, even if it's one that does focus on politics. 

But i work at a govt national news agency. Even the people who are covering it are uninterested, describing it as a lot of writing about nothing. Yes it's happening, yes it's important, no it's not interesting, and no there's nothing regular Chinese folk can do about it. 

It's bigger impact on the lives of Beijingers is that taxi drivers have been refusing to go near Changan Avenue to avoid security hold ups around Tiannanmen Square.

But of course, it is still a change. Xi Jinping seems more personable and confident than Mr Blendintothewallpaper, Hu Jintao. He's kept a clean slate (purportedly) in terms of staying out of corruption, and pressing the party to fight it. He's reasonably young to become the head of state, and presumably brings modern ideas w/ him. Even his wife was a starlet herself, belting out the commie hits, before hubby started squeezing into the upper echelons of the Party. 

Even Hu Jintao talked about the need for China to reform, more transparency, etc. No, China's not about to tumble into democracy, nor should it. But it can clean up it's act and work towards a more prosperous and harmonious phuture. 

Day 8: Bloody Hell

So the rumours have gathered weight: My Bloody Valentine is coming out with a new album, more than 20 years after their momentous album Loveless was released. They helped define what shoegaze was back in the day, paring violent assaults on audience ear drums with total indifference (years before "hipster" had even entered the popular lexicon.)

Ok, you can skip the first minute of the vid, which really is just all-out noise, but fuck, look at the way these alt-rock kids are totally stunned into silence by MBV's aural attack. Totally hilarious. 

Day 7: Dems de Breaks, Mitt!

Well Mayor Bloomberg was less than glowing in his support for Obama. Yes, he may have let bankers get away w/ robbery, failed to shut down Guantanamo, let life worsen for black America, gave Hope a rest, yadda yadda…

And maybe he also refrained from even mentioning the environment during the debates… 

But at least he's not a climate change denier!!!  

Woohoo! For the sake of all living beings in all countries and bodies of water, thank goodness Romney didn't take office today. 

Those who know me should know that the environment should be the top issue of any candidate, and frankly it's sad when nobody wants to even address it (publicly). Well, let's just hope that MR PRESIDENT will continue to admit that environmental problems exist, and that understand what an inconvenience they pose to all living things and corporations. 

Well, i haven't been losing any sleep over it, but i am definitely relieved that Obama took it. i think he's a pretty decent man, intelligent and w/ his heart in the right place. i suspect he's as disappointed as anyone else is about his first term, but things are surely complicated when yr trying to run a world power w/ a team of financial advisors from Wall Street. 

This song isn't totally current, but i still love it:

Day 6: To Live

Yoyo recommended i read a book by Yu Hua. i looked for it in Canada, but could only find his new nonfiction release, China in Ten Words. Which was pretty awesome. Super readable, and it did indeed inform my understanding of the country i live in, tying pretty much everything happening today to the cultural revolution in some way. 

But that also inspired me to pick up his book To Live. Plus i wanted to read it before seeing the movie, which is also apparently great, directed by Zhang Yimou. The book was great: the kind of book that makes storytelling seem unnaturally easy. I was warned it would be a tear-jerker, and yes i was crying on the subway yesterday as i paged towards the end. But in a good way. 

Ok, i admit i couldn't get onside w/ the protagonist, Fugui, for the beginning, considering that he was a real ass at the start, but we came around, didn't we? 

Yu is skilled at telling stories without blasting you with opinion. Yes, there was horrible shit happening during the great leap forward, during the cultural revolution,  but he doesn't harp on anyone about it: just continues on about the family living through it. 

Anyhow, it's good. i haven't seen the flick yet, but you might check it out if you don't have time for the book. 

Day 5: White Lies

Work trip to Anhui province leaving next weekend. Today my editor informed me that there won't be a translator. Will i be able to understand? There will likely be a lot of formal language floating around. So will i be able to understand it? Will i be able to write the required articles and radio reports? "Of course I can do it," i said, unhesitatingly.

But in fact, getting enough info to write decent articles will be very difficult. Radio reporting could be more so.

But because i jump at any chance to break out of BJ, as i SHOULD considering that i write for the TRAVEL section, i'm still 100% game to give it a go.

Because there's only one way to know if i can actually pull this sort of thing off.


Note: yes my Mandarin improves daily, but when people speak at full speed and without dumbing it down for an CSL speaker, my comprehension can be pretty shit.

Day 4: Dental Floss and State of Mind

In my life, I've noticed a pretty direct correlation between the times I floss and the times when I'm generally content. And didn't i hear once that some people on Oprah started flossing (and other stuff) and became more youthful and positive? 

i can't promise that flossing will make you happier. But i bet that it would. i bet that committing to pretty much anything and following through would give some sense of accomplishment. Like blogging for 30 days. (btw, i've encouraged Yoyo to write/draw in her notebook everyday this month, but she's got some catching up to do.)

i first started flossing after traveling in India. i decided i needed more commitment in my life. Then you realize, hell, it takes less than a minute!  Before you know it, habit is established, and commitment is no longer required. Incredible!

i note that there's already been two chunks of time in my life when i flossed. And then i fell out  for laziness, busyness, and self-loathing. A few weeks ago i started again. There's definitely some feeling about taking better care of myself.

A while ago, a friend said on a scale of 1-100 he was like 85: very happy. Which got me to thinking. For the moment: work, very good; new apartment: good; friends and lifestyle: good; health and activities: good; girlfriend relationship: very very good. i feel happy.

Thank goodness i started flossing. 

Here's more multimedia rhetoric for y'all:

Day 3 - The Relationship Deal

So i've been dating Yoyo now for over 4 months. And it's been pretty great. She's a talented artist/designer, super sweet, cute, and generally up to doing new stuff w/ me. "Hey do you want to go make public art?" "Sure." "Hey do you want to take swing dance lessons?" "Yes."

 But i feel it's a bit weird that a major reason things have been so great is that most everything's been so smooth and easy between us so far. (does that make us lazy?) A few wrinkles along the way, but nothing to mention here. 

But considering that my mandarin is still less than 100% adequate, our communication's pretty good. Dating at this point in time is generally gearing one up for marriage, and i'm ok w/ that. Feel good about it even, weirdly enough. 

But some of you know that for my whole life i've been pretty set against having a kid/kids of my own, mostly for environmental reasons and not wanting to have a son/daughter deal w/ impending global ecological & economic catastrophe. Unsurprisingly, Yoyo has for her whole life been pretty set to have a kid of her own. 

It's like a 17 year old boy feels the urge to stick his dick into a gorgeous woman: totally natural. And what right could I have to lock that gorgeous woman's cherry in a safety deposit box?*

A while ago, while me and Yoyo were on a hilarious holiday vacation in Zhangjiajie, i had a dream. Yoyo wasn't in it, but our baby boy was. He looked rather like a monkey. I looked at him and thought, "You are your own person w/ yr own destiny. Who was I to deny you your existence?"

And more recently Yoyo moved in to me and Derrick's apartment. A wee bit tight, but fine. It's temporary, though i'm open to her staying (housing probs at her last place). She works late hours so frankly we still don't get to see each other that much. 

Also, she quit her job at the magazine and i really hope she can find time to go traveling solo to Yunnan. I think that'd be a great experience for her, as she's never gone traveling solo before. Apparently this is a very untraditional stance for bf in China. Whenever she's done in a week or so, she'll be job-hunting/holidaying, and that might shake things up a bit. In a good way, probably.

*I know that locking up a gorgeous woman's cherry in a box may sound sexist, but it didn't sound quite right to lock up the boy's cherry.