Photo of the Day--February 17, 2012

So I was speaking a couple of weeks ago with my friend John about why we were in China. That is, what the hell had motivated us to, unlike 99.9999% of our friends, colleagues, etc., just pick up and move to China? It's an interesting question--I would say the simple answer is "well it's a nice combination of adventure, resume building, and having a good deal of disposable income", but I think I came up with a more accurate and insightful answer during our conversation.

Basically, if I wanted to live an easy life, I would have stayed in the US, taken a job with Allstate for around $50,000 per year, and just hung out around Chicago saving money for a few years. It would have been good, I would have had close friends and family nearby, been in a familiar environment, and would have just blended in with everyone else.

None of these are the case in China. Therefore, why am I here? I believe that I am here not because life is easy here (though really, it's not bad at all), not because it's a good resume builder, not even really to learn Chinese. I am here precisely because living in a place like China allows you to really appreciate life. I put it this way to John--living in China, there are many, many instances per day where I am inconvenienced in some way. Whether that means I have trouble because I speak horrible Chinese, get stared at by people on the subway for being a big white guy, or just buy something that I assume is some sort of known food, only to have it be some feral concoction of fish, red bean, or something similar, there are a lot of inconveniences about living in China. And the pollution kind of sucks. None of this would be an issue living in the US.

HOWEVER! It should be noted that in China, every single day, generally several times per day, I see something that just makes me say "wow, I love living in this country". Whether that means I see 4 people balancing on a single motorbike going down the highway, a guy doing heavy-duty road construction wearing like a full suit, or the subtly beautiful architecture of this bizarrely well-planned city, not a day goes by in my life without something about this place truly amazing me. And that, friends, would not be happening if I were living in the US.

So in summation, yes, living abroad (particularly in a developing/really freaking foreign country) does have inconveniences. But I believe that facing these inconveniences and taking them with the unbelievable and incredible things you tend to see, allows you to get a better understanding of yourself and the world in which you live. And so therefore, I guess I am living in China not because it is easy, but because it's just so much more intense, polarizing, and generally fuller. And so for those of you who are thinking about relocating abroad, consider that--odds are you'll have to take a lot of bad with the good, but I sincerely believe that it's well worth it.

Anyway, so without further ado, the photo of the day!

Kind of a weird/random/terrible photo, but I was intrigued/amused by a few things about this, most notably the fact that there is a box next to the truck's front-right tire just labeled "TROUT". This was taken just outside my office, in one of the nicer parts of town, and apparently these mad-dogs had just set up a vegetable/trout stand on the sidewalk.

Looks like tomorrow I'll be heading to Macau with Jeff and a few others, staying Saturday night and coming back Sunday afternoon. Plan at the moment is to gamble through the night and do some sightseeing Sunday. Having been there twice before, I suppose I'm the de facto tour guide. Presumably the photo of the day(s) from Macau will be substantially more interesting than the above one.

Showed Scutt the most insane and mind-blowing TedTalk I've ever seen last night--Richard Dawkins on the Queerness of our Universe. Would absolutely recommend it to anyone interested in not being a complete philistine in regard to human evolution, subatomic particles, and a host of other topics covered by this brilliantly atheist man in a 20 minute span. So yeah.

That's about all for now, another photo to come tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, etc., until I either get bored of it or end up on an airplane for a 24 hour period (which will be occurring on February 27th, so there's a chance I won't be putting up a photo that day. Just so you can all plan in advance on how else to take up 7 minutes during your work/school/unemployed and have nothing to do day).

Latest from Shenzhen, And Something to Think About

Ah Shenzhen, a city so truly bizarre and unlike anything else you could possibly imagine, that it even completely dwarfs other outliers. I was reading an article in NatGeo the other day about Astana, the newish capital of Kazakhstan. In short, Astana was basically built out of the steppe in the early 1990's, and has since increased its population from a little under 300,000 to nearly 1 million in about 20 years.

An impressive feat, certainly, and one which NatGeo brought a lot of attention to, saying this was a sign of the booming Kazakh economy, helped significantly by oil and other natural resources. However, when put in the context of Shenzhen...this growth is thoroughly unimpressive. Shenzhen went from 300,000 people 30 years ago to 14 million today. I'm sure I've said that in this blog a few times already in previous posts, so for those 3 frequent readers of every blog (that being my parents and grandmother), my apologies for being repetitive! But seriously, consider that. And incredibly, Shenzhen continues to grow. All over the city, there are buildings being built taller and taller, the whole thing has a massive bubble-like feel to it, but for the time being...we'll see. It's interesting to note some of the architectural layouts of the city as a whole--enormously wide sidewalks, insane 16-lane highways going through the center of the city, and just a remarkably well-planned (albeit with something of a "slapped together at the last minute due to population multiplying by 30 in as many years" feel to it) place.

That said, one problem I have been facing as of late is the lack of things to do in Shenzhen. Yes, there are a lot of people. And yes, a lot of those people are young people, and there's a cool youthful culture. But the fact is, this is a city built for one reason--work. You come to Shenzhen after university, work for a few years, make some money, and then, by and large, many of these people return home. This leads to a number of issues, most notably:

1) No one is actually from Shenzhen. Consequently, few people really feel motivation/need to clean up after themselves, not litter, etc. This leads to something of a dirtyish city (though much of this is taken care of by people who's only job is to clean up trash in the streets. There are thousands of them)

2) No real "center" of the city. Now this really shouldn't be a huge issue, but I suppose I just find it rather odd to live in a city that is so vast and sprawling that it lacks a proper center where everything sort of revolves around. Here, there are 2 major districts, Futian and Luohu, that contain the majority of Western companies, hotels, skyscrapers, etc., but there is absolutely no "Center of Town"

3) The night life here, while pretty good, is poor for a city of this size, probably because everyone works quite a bit, and those who have the money to go out are often quite a bit older. Those could both be completely incorrect, they're just my perceptions. Anyway.

One thing that Shenzhen does NOT lack, however, is the most ridiculous city hall ever constructed by mankind. Fortunately, my office is located right across the street. As you can see

in the picture at left, that is truly the most staggering city hall ever. And the building on the far left with white lights going up it and continuing onto the top part is, of course, my office here in China :-)

So anyway, the last week has been interesting. Things have been more or less finalized for my trip to the US at the end of this month, seems I'll be leaving for Atlanta on 28 February and returning to China around March 6th. Should be pretty good, given that, in addition to of course having all expenses paid for, I will earn about 20,000 frequent flier miles, and a few hundred in "personal spending money" to go with it. So not a bad deal! Will also be able to see one of my best friends from High School/University, Bryan, who has recently moved to Atlanta, so overall should be a good trip.

Apart from that, have spent a decent little bit of time in Hong Kong over the last week, and have also been able to explore Shenzhen a little bit more, which has yielded some interesting mixed results in terms of things to do around this crazy pseudo-Chinese city. There was a very interesting controversy recently that pitted Mainland Chinese against Hong Kongers in a test of childish insults. Here's how it went down:

1) Mainland Chinese family was in the Hong Kong subway system, a small Mainland Chinese child was eating something on the train. A Hong Konger, in a fit of Canto-rage, decided to start yelling at these Mainlanders about not being able to eat. Now, let me be clear here, I don't speak Chinese. Or Cantonese. But from what I was told by the Mainland Chinese news outlet (and actually, some much less propaganda-related sources), the Mainland Chinese family apologized, said they would not do it again, and tried to defuse the situation. The Hong Konger persisted with his rage, pushed the emergency call button, summoned subway security, etc. Turned into a huge deal.

2) A prominent professor at Peking (Beijing) University (the "Harvard of China") comes out and says, among other things, that Hong Kongers speaking Cantonese is offensive to China, that Hong Kongers are dogs, pigs, and probably meaney-faces. Additionally, he talks about how the Hong Kongers are so timid and submissive to the British (I believe the wording he used was "poopy-head") and then so brash and brave with the Mainland Chinese. In addition to uttering a handful of childlike insults, the professor proceeded to wet himself before asking for a bottle of milk before naptime.

3) Hong Kong citizens, in a reaction that had about as massive of consequences as 1/4 inch of snow in Chicago in January, rented out a full-page ad in a newspaper calling the Mainland Chinese "locusts". This served absolutely no purpose, apart from probably just allowing Hu Jintao to soil his morning newspaper with spat-out coffee after seeing it and being so taken aback. Or not.

So how to react to this? What to make of it? Well, to try to treat this objectively--I've spent about 9 months of my life living in Hong Kong/Shenzhen. Yes, LOTS of Mainlanders come to Hong Kong all the time. And yes, some of them are rude, obnoxious, blatantly richer than you, me, and Tom Friedman's Aunt Bev. But for the love of god, these Mainlanders contribute SO FREAKING MUCH to the Hong Kong economy with their purchases of $2,000US Gucci handbags, $10,000 Rolexes, and $250,000 sports cars. I look at it as such--Hong Kong would not exist without Mainland China. Period. Mainland China would exist very easily (though admittedly probably not as prosperously) without Hong Kong. I understand that Hong Kongers are fed up with Mainlanders flooding their city every weekend, and that this incident was simply that frustration boiling over, but come on now people. Let's just take a deep breath and put everything in perspective: whether you're Mainland, Hong Konger, Macauese, or Taiwanese, you're all still far, far more Chinese than I am. And that's all that counts.

Have found a fairly interesting Law School program that involves 3 months at National University of Singapore (#4 uni in Asia) then 9 months at a law school in Shanghai. Cost--~$9,500US (50,000 Chinese Yuan). Very interesting, as it specializes in International Business Law. Do I plan on going into law? Probably not. But is "probably not" just a confident enough answer to justify at least considering a law degree for <$10,000 and <1 year of my time? Yeah, I'd say so.

Other than that, not much in terms of updates. More to come as things develop over here in the Orient, cheers for reading to this point.

And on a final note, a quote to think about by Richard Dawkins:

“Think of an experience from your childhood. Something you remember clearly, something you can see, feel, maybe even smell, as if you were really there. After all you really were there at the time, weren’t you?
How else could you remember it? But here is the bombshell: you weren’t there. Not a single atom that is in your body today was there when that event took place .... Matter flows from place to place and momentarily comes together to be you. Whatever you are, therefore, you are not the stuff of which you are made. If that does not make the hair stand up on the back of your neck, read it again until it does, because it is important.”

Now that, friends, is a deep quote from a very, very atheist man.