Crazy summer MADNESS!!!

Well this is summer alright.
Beijing's hot and peculiarly humid. Admittedly this is my 1st July spent in town, so I'm not sure if all these sporadic torrential thundershowers are the norm.

Unbelievably, it seems like July is already drawing to a close, and what've i got to show for it? Well, i've been in mandarin classes for 3 hrs/day, 3 days/week. And that's been ok, although i'd frankly like to see yet more rapid improvement.

I've sloppily recorded most of the guitar songs i've ever written so i don't need to worry about forgetting any more of them.

i went running once. Did a bit of writing.

and...?

This is a disappointingly small list of accomplishments for 3 weeks. Yes, i'll be off to Eastern Europe in August, but what can i do to exploit my time here?

Intentions:
finish the painting i started 8 months ago.
Visit Fragrant Hills area.
Visit Temple of Heaven area.
Get something published on a local website.

Q is working all summer long, including some wkends, so trips out of town aren't too feasible. I kind of want to get her out more, but i know that when i was teaching i sure as hell didn't want stay up past 11:05...

In the beginning of August i'll hopefully skip out for a 4 day self-guided meditation retreat.

Also, i'm unsure about the plans for next year. After politely saying thanks but no thanks to my employer about working next year (right after i received the 1 year working visa from them), they contacted me twice to ask me to reconsider.

i had actually said that i decided not to teach FT next year, and now they just asked what that would look like. And that if I don't work for them, they'll recall my work visa. With a sigh, i responded politely saying that of course i'd be happy to work 3 days/wk.

We'll see what happens.

The Hits of Yesterday

I remember before I'd left Canada for China, I asked a Chinese (from China) girl about biking in China. Is it dangerous? I'll need to get a helmet... She informed me, "If you wear a helmet in China, people will think you're... special." But it didn't take long on the roads of Beijing to realize that a helmet's not a bad idea.

I've witnessed numerous collisions involving bikes (only one involving a head injury), and had a few instances of forgettable contact myself.

Yesterday was my first real accident. Chill. I got off scot-free. Zero employment of my helmet.

It wasn't yet late, but the sky was already black. I was finishing up a rare recreational bike ride, and was 1 minute from arriving home.

I raced ahead to catch the green turning light, noting the approaching taxi who was turning into my lane. No problem, he'll see me. Generally speaking drivers somehow manage to find the brake pedal in time, regardless of the unpredictable shit that foggy drivers and pedestrians thrust in their path.

But this time he didn't see me. I yelled at him at full volume, thinking that my left leg could be on the brink of some serious pain. Then he hit, slamming on the brakes milliseconds later than preferable. I found myself amazingly having landed on my feet, completely unscathed. But the adrenalin at least got me to start yelling at this guy in broken chinese. "I have a green light! You are wrong!" He apologetically concurred that he was busy looking the other way.

A few people stopped to watch, before puttering on. This wasn't serious enough to garner a proper crowd.

I made a show of whipping out a red pen and writing down his license number on my arm. The driver was worried. But elated that I wasn't hurt. And that even the bike seemed alright. It did seem to be strangely untouched. The way things are handled in China, you could call the cops, but both parties usually prefer to take of their own business with one party passing cash to the other.

So i contemplated: 200rmb maybe? 100? But as the adrenaline receded I started to think about the life of the average cabby, the 14-24 hr shifts, dealing w/ drunks and idiots, relentless traffic and ubiquitous bonehead drivers...

Ok, ok, ok. You go. He smiled and pumped my hand with both of his. "Xiexie xiexie xiexie!" Yeah yeah, no problem.

I hopped on my bike and realized that it wasn't exactly riding properly. Eventually i realized the car had struck exactly one place on my bike: the side of the pedal. Thus warping the crank and/or bottom bracket. I groaned wondering if this was gonna cost me some coin. In the end it did: 5 kuai. Or 80cents to get it bent back into shape.

The end.

Lesson: use your front light. It's not useful sitting (conveniently) in your bag, you lazy punk.

Changes and Pivotal Moments

I may have hinted before that there's been some troubles at the school, and w/ the employer and w/ the public school that my private school is held within. In fact, there's been doubt for quite a while about how my school will cope w/ the falling student numbers (no more enrollment since my school's contract is almost up).

But last week, I was still rather surprised (but not totally surprised) when I was told that there's no job for me next year at the school.

So that kind of annoyed me.

'cuz it's pretty f'ing late in the game to drop that sort of info.

I was told that there are no other guaranteed openings in the other 2 Beijing schools (which immediately struck me as suspicious). But I was told that I'd be first in line to get one, as if continuing the same contract. (Pragmatism advised I should get that in writing, but I didn't).

I was assured they felt terrible about it, and that it had nothing to do w/ my teaching, blah blah.

"But you know that my visa expires in a week. If you're not renewing it, I need to get out of China. I was told when hired on, that the company would take care of all visa issues."

Whereupon I was told that it was no problem, I just had to pop down to Hong Kong and get a tourist visa. No, they wouldn't consider paying for it.

The end.

I realized I didn't care so much about the job, but was rather incensed that I might have to leave the country on super short notice to revamp my visa. I considered the options. "Well sure, actually I'd be happy to move to Xi'an and work at the school there. What an opportunity! And don't forget to renew my visa. Thanks!"

But then I spoke w/ my principal and my last year's principal who said it was bullshit that there were no jobs at the other school. They spoke w/ the employer, and the next day I got a phone call, saying wow there actually is a position available (at the suburban school I was at last year) and could I please bring in my passport and a couple pix so they can do my visa.

Score!

So. Priority #1: taken care of. The situation: possibly working bk in Fengtai district at the old school, commuting maybe 3 hrs/day. Not likely.

More likely: work education jobs part time, possibly subbing, and use this as my opportunity to stop teaching. A decision I made 6 years ago. Because I never was sure I should be a teacher. And don't want to be a mediocre one. And working alongside a great staff this year of teachers who should be teachers, i certainly noted that whenever they talked about LT teaching plans I thought to myself: Well, that's not gonna be me.

I consulted the iching, (which i do now and again) and it said

Keeping Still

Keeping one's back still,
uncaught is one's self.
Walking in the courtyard,
not paying attention to the people.
Without fault.

Not doing something, being unmovable. One does not allow oneself to be influenced by others. This is not a mistake.

Which I think means... meditate. Take my time. Don't listen to what anyone says. BTW, i heartily recommend you check out the iching if you have questions and you wonder what the universe would suggest.

For now... i hope to get my visa bk soon. Then (most likely) tell the school i found something else to do.

July: take mandarin classes.
Aug: did I mention that me and Q are going to Eastern Europe?

Sept: maybe do some part time teaching/tutoring. And start writing. Like writing everyday. A bit scary, but I'll try to do this freelance writer business. See what I can dig up, and see what magazines/newspapers/websites might be interested in using, paying exorbitantly high prices per word.

Yup. Plans are of course flexible. But that's it for now... Wish me luck.

Q goes to Shenzhen

Q had a business trip in Shenzhen, China's "special economic zone". To oversee production of a promotional bag which uses a design of one of her gallery's artists.
5 days, they said.
But complications turned 5 into 8days. Which was a hassle.
Making bags which use some eco-friendly materials.
But (not surprisingly) the process and facilities which make said bags:
ecologically horrific.
Then she finally arrived bk in Beijing. We went for a dinner which was heavily punctuated with phone calls and messages from people in Beijing and Shenzhen.
10 hours later she was back on a plane to Shenzhen.
For 1 day. Which turned into 2.5.
Tossing all the stuff on the bag she was assigned to oversee.
Using a new design.
Sheesh, no wonder people don't like travelling for business.
This (and other recent conversations)
makes me dwell on the multitude of people who do work which is kind of useless.
Teaching hopefully shows you a bit of progress and utility.

Anyhow, hopefully she's bk soon, since...
today's our 2 yr anniversary!
And we oughta do dinner or something, eh?
Def.

More about The Uj

So that fight last Fri.
Monday i was totally surprised to see kid S walk into class as per normal.
Turns out the after the cops were called in, the Chinese school was in touch w/ the kid S's rather powerful dad, and decided to concertedly sweep the fight under the carpet.

My coworker C was so pissed off about the event he announced to his class that he didn't want to work in a school where people weren't willing to deal with or even talk about problems. Got everyone to write down what they saw about the incident, and even he was surprised to see how readily and extensively kids put pens to the paper.

Here's what i think happened.

The delivered lunch: inadequate.
Kid S complains disrespectfully to the unpleasant worker.
Worker turns out to b a 15 yr old migrant worker.
Working illegally.
For less than $1/hr.
Serving food to a bunch of rich kids who take their privilege for granted.
Kid S throws a bunch of food trays into the box, making a mess.
By "accident."
Said employee stabs kid X w/ chopsticks.
Kid S punches employee in head, causing swelling.
2 other students rush the employee.
To "break up" the fight.
Slamming his head against the wall.
By accident.
Kid S kicks the box of trays, making a major f'ing mess.
And announces, "nobody saw that."
Worker kid calls the cops and takes himself to a hospital.
But he and the company are threatened with calls to some govt labour office.
That's the end.
Done.

Except us teachers think 3 kids ganged up on some 15 yr old punk is pretty f'ing uncool, and it is clear that a reasonable # of students are also upset by this situation. 5 day suspensions, we decide.

But the chinese school disagrees. We say tough luck, this is a BC school, and those 3 kids can't come in our classes.

Then the 3 kids eventually accept their consequences.

But then the chinese school calls the kids back and tries to FORCE them into my coworker's class in front of a crowd of students. Coworker and Chinese staff member argue. Kid S eventually comes to me (looking quite pathetic at this point) saying he has nowhere to go. He knows he's not supposed to be in C's class, and he doesn't want the chinese staff to find him and make a show of forcing him in. So i let him hide in my class as i teach gr 10s.

He heavily says to me, "i think the teachers have a wrong idea about what happened the other day."
"I'm sure that's true. But i know that people haven't been telling the whole truth." i gave the little liar a bit of a stare-down. Everything this guy says makes himself sound like a gossamer-winged angel.

The 3 students are now feeling pretty shit, not about the fighting necessarily, but about the fact that they're somewhat responsible for a major schism between the 2 "cooperating" schools, teacher and admin stressed out, and Mr R sincerely saying he'll quit or be fired if this stuff can't get settled.

Bottom line: we do what we can to make our school work. The Chinese school does what it can to have power struggles with us, regardless of impact on students. We are disappointed, but not surprised about anything.

Side note: this condensed version somehow doesn't sound quite right, and i'm not sure why.

Also, the pic is just from the internet.

The Uj

As the detective work of me and my coworker undercovered, it was a day of interest for one of my more charismatic, egocentric gr 11 students.

He was pissed off about the lunch which is delivered to students daily.
A hair was in his food.
He... punched the food employee in the head.
The mean one.
Causing the side of his head to swell up.
The food guy stabbed my student with a pair of disposable chopsticks.
An undisclosed number of food trays were thrown.
An undisclosed number of students didn't receive their lunch.
My student was taken away.

By the police.

As mentioned, this took a bit of sleuthing and coaxing out of other students.
The first response to the query about the food stains on the wall was:
"it was the wind."

Hope my student is still able to finish the school year.
Even if he's a pain in the ass sometimes,
he can still grasp some of the finer points of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Great Wall Marathon #3

Last year i ran the great wall 1/2 marathon. After crossing the start line i was thinking, "Hey, i should do the full marathon next year." And that seemed like a good idea. However, for the last 3 km of that race my thought had subtly transformed into "Full marathon? What the hell kind of stupidly insane idea is that?"

None the less, this March i decided to overlook that gained wisdom, and did sign up for the full race. And started running 30 min to work most days (in a shirt and modestly striped tie) which was a painful slog of a start to the morning. Then considering the quickly approaching race date, i decided to just switch bk to the 1/2. Even my brother was wisely recommending I drop the full distance.

But then the week before the race day, I figured, Why Not? Why not do the 42k? Why not take my time? Walk as much as I want and not care about the chiseled bodies blurring past...

So i loaded my mp3 player w/ all the requisites: a pumping Japanese DJ, goofy Pizzicato 5 tracks, somber Radiohead ones, comical David Sedaris stories, and my ever present Chinesepod lessons (which incidentally do little to motivate the thighs).

i packed up my bag, peeled myself out of bed.Bit of a rush job actually: forget a visiting the 7-11. Find a taxi. Now. Helloooo, taxi??? I got the recon point and for the 3rd time hopped onto a 3:30am bus off to the Huangyanguan Great Wall. This felt much more respectable than crawling onto the bus after a night of booze and bands as I'd done previously.

Few hours later, i hopped off the bus, and was shocked to find how f'ing cold it was. i was wearing 2 shirts and a pair of vintage bell bottoms which i thought might be more pragmatic than my shorts. Got a hot drink to try and warm up, but my shaking hand kept spilling the coffee all over my wrist. I was not impressed.

Waiting for the sun come up and squeezed into a windless corner w/ a handful of other intrepid runners, i had an opportunity to ask moronic questions like, "How important is breakfast before a full marathon?" After rolling her eyes, a blonde girl was so generous as to toss me a granola bar.

Eventually the sun did make its grand entrance. I hurriedly peeled off down to my running outfit, which announced loudly to my peers "This Guy Isn't A Runner", and huddled into the start line group.

Then we were off. Running, running, running. Running like... turtles. We were a cloud of skinny limbs, gently nudged forward by the breeze. The road zigzagged up the mountain, and the large majority of people around me opted to walk. Sounds good to me. There was a long way to go, why burn out on that stuff? Last year i did the 1/2 in 3 hrs, s. i figured anything under 7 hrs today would be a smashing success.

Once we got on the wall itself, more walking. Waiting. Walking. Single file sometimes.

Then down and running again.

A bit of chitchat w/ a guy from Detroit. Nice enough dude, but in the end we didn't have tons to talk about, and it turned a bit uncomfortable that we continued to keep passing each other. I started keeping my eyes peeled for him so I could either keep ahead or stay behind him. Maybe slip past him at a water station.

The 21 km marker passed, which took it's lazy ass time to show its face, loitering at the crest of a hill. No fanfare, no bananas or water or smiling underage race officials waving you on. But i did notice i felt infinitely better than when i had hurled myself over the finish line last year. Were i not running, i'd have paused for thought.

By this point, my inadequate breakfast was certainly filling my thoughts more than it did my stomach. Confused by the lack of anyone selling chips, chocolate bars or cookies, i would note every tab of plastic littered on the road, indicating that some foreigner had imported and consumed an energy bar or power gel.

Eventually i found a spot to duck into, and wasted a few minutes before deciding on some arrowroot biscuit copycats. Immediately I started popping copious amounts of these delectable wafers into my mouth. Mmm. Mmmm. Strangely melting in the mouth without making it dry or pasty...

Chitchat w/ some southern US girl about hills and stairs. Later i chitchat w/ some guy from the southern US about his cowboy hat and other such miscelanea. For some reason i mention the girl i had just met. "Yeah. That's my girlfriend. You were running 200m ahead of me." Ha. We eventually caught her at a drink station, and i let them lovers be.

Then round 2 on the wall. At this point, there was only about 15k to go. I'd noted earlier that some runners looked like they were dying. Pasty, pale, and sticky. Others looked like they were just plunking along, as if they were a bit late for book club. Not a hair out of place. In fact, I fell in the latter category. So i figured i oughta step it up a bit before i got to the finish line. By this time on the wall, i was passing quite a few people. Notably for me, i was passing quite a few people who looked rather like runners. You know: short shorts and Ts made of synthetics. Belts holding cute little plastic bottles of red gels. As opposed to me in my faded brown cargo shorts and knock-off Astroboy T.

I ran up some stairs since, hell i'd practiced in a few towers beforehand. That seemed to impress a few onlookers. Then it was just about 6km left to the finish line, all paved, all downhill, so i figured i oughta run it w/out stopping. Which was actually pretty hard. But i was passing people like mad which was gold for my ego.

However, when i run really tired, i start breathing strangely loud in a rhythmic Huh-Huh-Huh! Frankly it's quite embarrassing in that unintentional drama queen way. So i tried stifling it into a more subtle Hooh-Hooh-Hooh, in an effort to keep fellow runners from thinking i was some freak who was knocking himself out to pass them. At any rate, i avoided eye contact so as to remain ignorant of their judgement.

i even passed this crazy mofo who had at this point ran 40k in scrappy old SANDALS! Nutbar. i suspect a Thai nutbar. Eat my dust, Thai nutbar.

Anyhow, i crossed the line and felt good. Not good like these other runners who were posing for pictures exultantly holding their medals in the air, but still considerably better than when I almost passed out last year. i almost felt... disappointed. All that expectation. All that fear about my shorts chaffing my legs into bloody welts (which i've seen on runners before). Sure, there were some people waddling around like elderley mallards and a few limpers. But my body seemed anticlimactically...fine. No vomit. No seized muscles the next day. Nada.

Final time: 6hrs, 15 min. Not bad! Plunked me down somewhere in the middle of the finishers. I gloated a bit 'cause I beat sponsored team runners in their fancy outfits. After I checked the times and my placing, i felt like next time i shouldn't putz around taking pictures, purchasing stuff, or popping into buddhist temples and feeling forced by monks to make donations. (Yeah. i did that).

Next year? Maybe. Truth is, the race is kind of a monetary rip off, but it is one of the few ways for me to muster up the energy to exercise. Well there's also the BJ marathon in Sept, which i'll pbly do later. They say a regular marathon is a piece of cake compared to the great wall. Maybe. It also seems considerably less interesting to run 42k of polluted flat city roads. We'll see.

Anyhow, for now, it's shoes in the closet, and back on 2 wheels.

Bad News for A.W.W., and Friends

A couple days ago, the news report below was released from a Chinese news source, however, any time it was released, it was blocked shortly afterwards. Like sometimes within minutes of posting. So people repost it, and then it gets blocked again.

I've been following the situation w/ A.W. reasonably closely as A.W. and Qianqian are friends (she worked under him for a time, and went Germany w/ him as part of a project).

Anyhow, A.W.'s been captured by police, and then AFTERWARDS they went to his house to come up with charges and evidence to prosecute him with. Now the news piece below was released, which talks about a rather horrific torturing method, and i really really hope it didn't come to that w/ A.W..

This story in general certainly affects the amount of respect i can give the government here. Yeah, shit happens in America, and no doubt Canadians have also done sickening things in Iraq or other places, but this is the issue that's occupying my mind more these days.

Important Note: i assume this piece of news hasn't surfaced on any major western news sources because the source pbly isn't verifiable. So perhaps i'm guilty of hearsay. i hope i am.

Side Note: it kinda makes me feel nervous to post about the artist A.W. now, so have taken his name off the page. Q reminds me and my brother when we use the phone, not to use his name when using Skype. Creepy times.

Chinese artist A.W. , disappeared by the authorities on April 3, is reported to have confessed to charges of tax evasion after being tortured in custody, according to an article published in aChinese human rights journal. 

The details of the case, said to have been leaked by “an official with conscience in the Ministry of Public Security,” were published on April 21 EST in a text titled “The Alarming Conspiracy Behind A.W's Torture and Confession,” dated April 19, in the biweekly journal of the NGO Human Rights in China (HRIC). The article claims to be written by an anonymous Xinhua journalist and was in the “Letters from China” section.

The text says that Fu Zhenghua, Director of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, instructed A.W.'s captors to show him the video of the torture of Gao Zhisheng, a human rights lawyer who was targeted by the authorities after writing letters in protest of the persecution of Falun Gong. 

The video showing Gao being tortured, “included electric batons being inserted into Gao’s anus, and his blood, semen, feces, and urine draining out,” a translation of the first paragraph of the article says. 

Fu Zhenghua ordered that security forces do the same things to A.W., to “make him do what we want him to do.” The text says that, after being tortured for several days, A.W. signed a confession.

A.W.'s case is being handled by the Economic Investigation General Unit and the Domestic Security Team of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, the article says.

He Qinglian, a commentator on Chinese social and political issues, believes the reports of torture are credible. “I had thought about that when he was first detained,” she told Radio Free Asia inan interview. “You have to realize that he is the only one who dares to mock the authoritarian regime.”
When A.W.'s older sister Gao Ge saw the news, RFA reports, she said “I cannot let my mother see.”
She had no way of knowing the truth of the report, she said; they are going to ask the authorities to clarify the matter.

The journal's editorial policy says that they welcome submissions from a wide variety of sources. HRIC did not comment to The Epoch Times on whether they believe the article by the alleged Xinhua reporter to be credible or not.

Sit On It

So for... a couple... years maybe, i've wanted to have a meditation group in BJ. Since i've kinda missed my meditation gang DIY Dharma in Vancouver, which basically amounted to the best gang of people to meet up w/ and sit around with in silence.

So, i searched around town, but only found 1 meditation group offered. But i rather didn't dig it. It was just me and the host (a young Chinese woman) and we listened to some guided meditation track which (ironically enough) i detested so much i could barely keep from cringing throughout.

How un-detached of me.

So i've recently put out my own call out on a local expat-driven website, and had a few responses. The first official meeting one British woman came out, plus my brother (who announced that he'd have to leave after 20 min). Anyhow, no prob.

The nxt wk a young woman came who brought 2 friends plus 2 roommates. Plus a few others. 3 were meditation newbies, and afterwards it appeared that none of them found any great love for meditation.

Ah well, Q's never been a big fan either. Hey, diff strokes for diff folks. Although it is a shame that i'm not able to share this with her.

Anyhow, after a few weeks, it seems to have potential to grow, (which i don't care about much), and stabilize (which will be great).

and hopefully i can attract more experienced mediators who can take a turn at leading now and again.

Instructions and surrounding conversation bits tend to be ... about 1/2 English, 1/2 mandarin. which is a bit odd, but everyone seems to scrape by w/ minimal translations.

Anyhow, last night 5 of us were pretty darn focused, and after i finally rang the last bell (xylophone, actually), i started getting bored waiting for everyone to snap out of it. Stop blissing out, folks, it's almost my bedtime!

Well, that's my Tues night agenda for the next indeterminate length of time. i definitely feel its benefit, and hope that benefit can stretch out into the surrounding days and nights before long.

Be happy.

And quit wasting so much time online.

Tianjin, Yet Again

Q and i went to Tianjin for a little holiday recently. It's only 35 min away via hi-speed rail but it is def a diff city. Um, you may recall i've visited it before a few times.

i still say BJ is better 'cause the new stuff's newer and the old stuff's older. But when i got a 3 day wkend, i get itchy feet.

So despite TJ's mediocrity, we had a pretty darn good time. 1st night we were looking for a bar, and got directed on a bit of a goosechase which wound up in what was essentially a massive packed nightclub except that it didn't have a dancefloor. Save for a mini stage replete w/ dancing bunny girls.

The dancing bunny girls reminded me too much of when a few of my own gr 10 students did a disturbingly sexed out dance performance.

Also the pumped dancing bartenders were pretty entertaining too.

Some guys did some live vocals which were passable. but in the end, the music went from not so bad to pretty darn bad, and we weren't able to finish our couple beers before vacating the premises.

Next day: walk walk walk walk and wound up in the TV tower rotating restaurant. Pix to follow soon.

Anyhow, it was good to a little trip out w/ the gf and things are going pretty good all in all. Sure, there's wrinkles in the fabric, but i've never been one to iron shirts, have i?