She Wants Me to Tie Her Up???
Wow! Am I dreaming? I am sure she wants me to tie her up. I must be dreaming. But why are those lights so bright! Okay, I was actually doing my magic act debut. It started innocently enough. I was seated on the front row of the theater with other management at the Mid-Autumn Festival Show. The company had opted to hire a special troupe for a show of Chinese culture. In the second show, the magician, a beautiful lady in traditional attire invited me up to the stage. Not to be one to disappoint the cheering crowd, I complied. (Or was that jeering?)
I was soon lost. The lights were blaring brightly. She was asking me to do something. Of course, she was speaking in Mandarin. Oh, why hadn’t I learned the language after all this time here? It sure would help now! What is she saying?
Okay, she’s handing me a coat. That must mean she wants me to put it on. Ahhh! That’s it. But great, it is about half my size. At least the audience loves how it fits on me. The arms only reach down to about my elbows. This may have been the first time this trick had been performed with a big American. I hope I don’t rip it.
And now she hands me a rope. Nice…….. Oh, she wants me to do something with it. …..or with her hands. Oh, tie her hands. (At least crowd is really loving my bumbling, in not understanding her Chinese.)
Now another assistant comes out. Good someone to help me. I need that! She has a big rope and starts wrapping the magician lady, and hands me an end. Oh……. I’m supposed to wrap her up too. ………….. Oh, oh…… I got it = I’m supposed to tie her up!! Okay. I can do that. Wrap and tie. That was easy. Now what?
Another assistant shows up with a tent. Ahhh, someone is going to get in this. What am I supposed to do? Get in. Okay. No, they pull me out. I guess that wasn’t right. No, the magician is getting in. No, wait, now they want me in too? Oh…………. Both of us. Now this sounds like fun……… Huh? Why you pulling my head out? What I have to keep my head out? Bummer! I wanted to see this! Over. That was quick. There goes the tent. Wait a minute. Where’s my coat? Okay, I thought I felt something under that tent. But where’d it go? Wait, she has it on? Huh? The ropes are still tied on her! Over the coat I had on! Now how did she do that?
Oh, she wants me to do something else. Oh, I’m supposed to untie her. Should I do that? ……………. Okay, I guess the fun in the tent is over anyway. So I do untie all my knots from before. They are the same ones. And there is the coat on her. Now how’d she do that?
Since the show, a lot of folks have asked how she did that. But I don’t know! …… I was right there. Okay, my head was out of the tent, but I was close. But I have no idea how she did it. I felt the coat go right away, but I still don’t know how she got it on so quickly under those ropes. I guess that was magic.
Whatever, my magic debut sure was fun! Even in Chinese! What a great place to work and live!
More photos by clicking here, or using link in right column.
Labels: Chinese Holidays, Decca Furniture, Life in China, Magic
Decca management members enjoy Garden prior to Mid-Autumn Festival dinner.
Full Moon = Mid-Autumn Festival
If the moon is at its fullest, that must mean its Mid-Autumn Festival, and…….. time for another Decca party!! Yeah!!!
Decca holds three parties every year. One is before the start of the Chinese New Year, another on return from the Chinese New Year, and the last is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Last week’s party was like so many: good food, plenty of toasts, good time together, and a wonderful atmosphere.
Our company has doubled in the last couple of years, so we were fortunate the weather was cooperative. Many had to eat outdoors. Our garden is a pretty nice place for that though.
The Great Wall wine was good. The Tsing Dao beer was very good. As usual, everyone was happily toasting each other before the evening dismissed to a special show across town. But there were a lot of surprises in that event that I’ll get to in later postings.
More pictures of the Decca party available by clicking here, or using the link in the right column under Photo Links
Labels: Chinese Food, Chinese Holidays, Decca Furniture, Life in China, Mid-Autumn Festival
It's Strawberry
The moon cake was actually.......... okay, let's just say "okay." Not great, but not bad. This one that I had was actually a strawberry flavor. I didn't get one with the salty duck egg. Probably a good thing.
This one was only about four inches in diameter.
Labels: Chinese Food, Life in China, Moon Cake
Three Very Interesting Reports
I have to get most of my news over the internet. Today I’ve been intrigued by three very interesting reports about China that I just have to recommend for all to read:Click on any of the articles mentioned above (in purple) to go to the posting. And then be sure to use your back arrow on your browser to come back to
ABrysoninChina for more news and information.
Enjoy!
Labels: China Finance, China progress, Life in China
No Kidneys in China Now
Steve asked a good question in a comment recently. (Sorry I lost the copy trying to edit in Chinese - not a good idea.) He asked why I didn't just get a kidney in China. Most everyone has heard that you can get a kidney easily in China. Right? Well, not exactly. I’ve tried.
It seems the Chinese government has seen fit to come down with one of their blunt and abrupt decisions and has now banned kidney transplants in China - at least until after the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. They evidently do not want any risk of controversial publicity.
I have visited one transplant hospital in China. It didn’t quite meet all that I would desire of a transplant facility. But their reputation is very good. A second hospital that caters to Westerners was being scheduled, but they opposed a visit after the ban became effective.
I’m now considering options in India, Thailand, and Philippines. They each have good facilities with well trained doctors. However, more countries are requiring you to arrange your own donor. That isn’t so easy a task in a foreign country.
China may still be an option. My kidneys are still okay. If I make it until after the Olympics, maybe I’ll still have a chance to get a kidney here.
Labels: kidney transplant, Life in China
A Moon Cake
A moon cake I recently received. More photos to follow.
Labels: Chinese Food, Life in China
Moon Cake Season Again!
It’s moon cake season again. The time when those lemonade type stands pop up out of nowhere on every street corner and seemingly in every restaurant and business in China. And it is all to sell the ever popular moon cake! It is sorta like a cross between a birthday cake and a Christmas fruit cake. It is certainly nothing like a Moon Pie. No, these cakes are rather beautiful. They are usually artfully molded into a form with the picture of the moon. But inside they generally have some mysterious surprise of like the yolk of a duck egg. So enticing? Huh?
The celebration is much like Thanksgiving in Western cultures. Only this outranks a little in age, going back some 3000 years. The official holiday is the day the moon is at its fullest in the Autumn. Hence, it is known at the Mid-Autumn Festival. But Moon Festival is also a frequent moniker for the event.
The cakes are rather rich and dense. Don’t make my mistake and bite into a big one. Better to eat this cake by cutting and taking in small doses. Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
Labels: China Holidays, Dongguan, Life in China, Moon Cake
Even Middle East in China
Years ago my family traveled to Disney World for a great week of entertainment. Always planning for a little cultural activity, we opted on that trip to visit the Moroccan Pavilion and enjoyed the food and festivities. Months ago, another new restaurant opened just below my apartment. Most buildings are built such that the lower levels can have commercial revenue. My building has several restaurants, an entertainment complex, many Chinese bars, and even a business hotel. One of the restaurants had intrigued my interest, but for some reason I had resisted visiting until the other night.
I have no idea what the name of the restaurant is. Maybe that’s one of my reasons for my hesitance in visiting. The name is in Chinese and Arabic. There is no English translation. Usually there is always an English version. But in this case, I guess that Arabic scribbling pretty well speaks entirely for what it is: a Middle Eastern restaurant.
It is really the food from Xinjiang Province, which is in reality closer to the Middle East than it is to most of China. From my understanding it is right on the Silk Road just inside the China border. To visit this restaurant takes you closer to that culture. Like most of the food from the Middle East, it specializes in lamb dishes.
As I sat in this small restaurant near my home in Dongguan, I was well reminded of the Moroccan Disney experience. Here the décor was similar with unique accessories. As you arrive you are met by the strong cooking of simple skewers of meat over charcoals being prepared in a unique turret type building at the entrance. Inside, the two story establishment has a large open space in the center. An indoor chimney scales one wall decorated in bright tiles.
The dinner was excellent with many lamb dishes and naan bread. But the entertainment is what attracts people. One hostess dresses in typical Xinjiang attire and dances with a young man. It’s not a belly dance, but it is seductive and enjoyable. And by the looks of things, it is drawing a good nightly crowd to the simple restaurant.
Who would have ever thought I would be in Dongguan, China in 2007 eating Middle Eastern food and watching a “raqs sharqi” (dance)?
Labels: Chinese Food, Dongguan, Life in China, Xinjiang
New Medicare Proposal
On another health related issue………….. I urge my American friends to please give your support for recently introduced legislation regarding the time limit for Medicare support. Currently there is a 36 month time limit for anti-rejection medicines used after transplant surgery. The financial burden on Americans that must have surgery for a transplant is enough to endure. The added impact of loosing coverage for medicines after 36 months is too great.
Anti-rejection medicine is required to assist the body in the differences with new organs. The medicines are very expensive, and can have other undesirable effects, but when it sustains life it can be very important. Many patients cannot bear the financial burden without Medicare support. The 36 month time limit is just too stringent. The costs of transplant surgery alone is enough.
Please write your congressman in support of the Comprehensive Immunosuppressive Drug Coverage for Transplant Patients Act of 2007 (H.R. 3282) today. See related links.
Thanks. From someone that will need this coverage in the near future.
Labels: Congress, Medicare, PKD
Walk for PKD................. Please
Walk for PKD. You may have heard advertisements for a walk near you. The third weekend in September is National PKD Awareness Week, and the walks coincide to promote and bring more aid to fighting Polycystic Kidney Disease.
PKD is the disease affecting my health. It is breaking down my kidneys slowly. I’m doing okay for now, but I would be much better off if I could get a kidney transplant. And there are about 70,000 other Americans in need of a kidney transplant like me. Tackling this debilitating disease with new research and medical advances is important for me personally, but is important to all Americans and people of all nations.
If you have the opportunity to support a Walk for PKD near your home, please do so. Even get out and walk if possible. More information is available at the pkdcure.org site or clicking here.
Labels: Kidney Disease, kidney donation, PKD
Easy Mondays
Mondays. Not really that bad in China. At least for us Americans.
If you’re an American working with American companies, Mondays are usually pretty quiet. It’s just amazing. You come in on Monday all geared up for the week, open up email, and there’s nothing there. You see, most of us have cleaned up most emails on the recent Saturday. But with the difference in time zones, our Saturday is after all Americans gone home from their Friday. And they haven’t gone back in to work to send any more emails.
Today was like most Mondays. No emails, so I worked on quality in the factory. Didn’t make any calls to the States, since I don’t want to wake anyone. And then………..I had another one of those peculiar things happen that only comes with being the only American at a Chinese company:
In the early afternoon I got a call that “the driver had arrived to take me to another factory.” Only thing was, I didn’t know I was going to another factory. He and most everyone here kept insisting that he had instructions to take me with him at 2:15 PM. Funny that I couldn’t remember why.
Then it finally occurred to me. There were some visitors at the factory from France. Maybe he was here to take them to his factory. Sure enough that was the connection.
Now I wasted about a half hour trying to figure this out. Everyone involved kept insisting that this driver had instructions to take me. Turns out he had instructions to take Westerners. But me being the only Westerner working at my factory, everyone just assumed that meant me. It’s sorta like how I become operator when anyone calls speaking English. I automatically get the call, whether it’s for me or not.
Anyway, glad I didn’t hop in the car for a ride. Typical Monday.
Labels: Life in China, Working in China
A "Nose" Takes the Lane
Did you know that if you get the nose of a vehicle into a lane you can take that lane? That seems to be the main premise to driving in China. Just get there first, and the lane is yours. No matter how little of the bumper you can get in first.
I’m amazed daily riding the streets of Dongguan. Cars move along at a steady pace, cutting off one another, switching lane after lane, and yet seldom wrecking. Okay, yes there are still more traffic deaths here than most countries, but to watch the daily driving rituals, you would expect even more. To go 30 miles and not see an accident just seems a miracle. The way most people drive, I sure count every mile without an accident a miracle.
With seemingly less than an inch of space, you often see trucks, cars, and busses just nose their vehicle into a lane. Then with that little gap of advantage, swoosh, they speed into the lane and take over the space. Give an inch, and they take a car length!
And even more amazing is that no one seems to care! Seldom do you see anyone upset that someone has just “cut them off.” They just go along as if it’s part of the game and do the same to someone else! Do these things in the US and you would have guns drawn in road rage!
Who said you need several car lengths of space to safely move to another lane. That is certainly not the philosophy here.
Labels: China roads, Dongguan, Life in China
September 1 in Dongguan. Sure looks like a moped on the right. And isn't that a motorcycle up ahead, and another in the oncoming traffic?
Labels: Dongguan, Life in China, Motorcycle Ban
The Day the Motorcycles Died In Dongguan
Well, that sure looks like a motorcycle. And it sounds like a motorcycle. And so does that one. And that one! Huh?
Well, I thought September 1 was the day motorcycles and electric bicycles were banned in Dongguan. So as I headed to work Saturday morning, I was anxious to see how the roads would be with the two wheeled motorized vehicles absent from the highways. But there they still were!
Okay, I guess I needed to understand the Chinese language to understand this ban properly. The vehicles were not banned entirely. No instead the government had a phased implementation. No motorcycles nor electric bikes were to be allowed in the city center area, but other areas had hours of operation allowed here and there, as long as they followed the restrictions.
My route to work must have been primarily still in allowable areas. It wasn’t completely. And sure enough as we headed to a very narrow underpass into Dahlingshan, my driver and I noticed a couple of policemen on alert at a corner. As we passed, they perked up hearing the tell-tale sounds of an approaching two wheel vehicle, and sprung into action. You could tell they were excited to soon be challenging someone for their right to be riding at this hour in this area. That rider probably lost his ride.
By the afternoon, when I started home from work, there were very few motorcycles anywhere. It must not have been an allowable time then. So it was taking some effect.
The government provided a refund of taxes paid by owners of motorcycles, if they turned in their motorcycle before September 1. They even got a new bicycle for the exchange. A reader sent me a copy of a picture of thousands of motorcycles confiscated or purged from the roads. The writer had a long dissertation complaining about the government’s actions. Only I don’t run that kind of forum on this blog. But that is some of the sentiment here.
On the other hand, the roads sure seem a little less burdened without the motorcycles………… at least certain times of the day………. and in certain areas.
Labels: Dongguan, Life in China, Motorcycle Ban
Wow! Am I dreaming? I am sure she wants me to tie her up. I must be dreaming. But why are those lights so bright!
Okay, she’s handing me a coat. That must mean she wants me to put it on. Ahhh! That’s it. But great, it is about half my size. At least the audience loves how it fits on me. The arms only reach down to about my elbows. This may have been the first time this trick had been performed with a big American. I hope I don’t rip it.
