Spouse Market

Thanks to the government enforced one-child policy and the traditional preference for boys, China now has an awful lot of young bachelors who just cannot find a bride. Today I read an article in WSJ about a village boy who finally found the perfect wife. His family helped him to pay the dowry or 'cai li', which can be many years worth of farmer's income. This girl wanted 38,000 yuan (about 3,800 GBP) for cai li before she would accept his marriage proposal. Less than two weeks later, the new bride had vanished, leaving behind everything except the money. Apparently, this 'runway bride' scam has recently become more common in China. It counts as fraud, so the women will spend time in jail if caught.

I have noticed that Chinese parents really put heavy pressure on their kids to get married. My friend Nancy is my age, 26, and got married last year to a soldier. She used to say that she wasn't sure about marriage, and even talked about starting a career in Shanghai. But her parents were strong-willed and kept badgering her until finally she gave in and found a husband. Although she seems happy now, previously this year she told me she'd already considered divorce, because some of her husband's opinions and habits were completely out of sync with her own, and she felt she couldn't tolerate the differences. Nancy is an English/Mandarin teacher and speaks excellent English. Her husband's family, dislike non-Chinese people, and her husband hates the Japanese (although this is certainly not uncommon). I believe that living within this small-minded attitude is sometimes challenging for Nancy, with her open nature and multi-cultural social circle. Divorce, although a quick and easy process in Chinese society, still carries stigma. This is especially so for divorced women, who may find it harder to remarry in future.

On Sunday morning in Labour Park, I stumbled across an interesting event which I'd often heard about but never seen. I call it 'Spouse Market'. A large group of people had gathered in the park and were crowding around some pieces of paper pinned to trees and displayed on the pavement. Taking a closer look, this is an example of what I saw:
男士 (male)
1981年11月出生 (date of birth)
身高：180 (height)
东北财经大学学生 (occupation: Dongbei University student)
专业：会计 (subject: accounting)
想找女士 (would like to find a girl)
22-26岁 (22-26 years old)
身高：170一下 (no taller than 170cm)
聪明，漂亮。(clever, attractive)
电话：87909568 (phone number)

These are advertisements made by parents to help their child find a husband/wife. The example above is made up, but it's a fair sample of what is included. Some ads stated work and salary details, even the desired salary level of the potential spouse. The area was crowded with people, mainly older folk, but I spotted a few young guys copying down telephone numbers from the ads. I suppose this system works, like a combination of arranged marriage and internet dating.

Kiss my arse, Chinese censors

Those pesky little scamps have been at it again. Blogger.com has been 'mysteriously' inaccessible for the last three weeks...Blocked, yes blocked, by the Chinese gov. internet censoring policies. This summer sees the 20th anniversary of some rather sensitive events, involving a certain large public four-sided area in Beijing. The internet police have become more vigilant and have blocked a number of websites; Blogger, Twitter, Youtube to name a few. But now I fooled them, I FOOLED THEM. HAHAHAHHA!
It's been a mad couple of weeks. I've had ongoing 签证 hassles, random '德国人' incidents, borderline abduction by my 学生, the amazing discovery of 梅酒 meijiu (lit. beautiful alcohol..made from plums), being asked out multiple times, daily trips to the 水果 market to load up on ingredients for my wicked smoothies and juices...etc...
But after all that madness, even after having finally accessed my blog, I feel drained, lazy and completely demotivated to continue writing. Time for a 啤酒(beer).

Chinese National Stereotypes

This came from my adult class today, where we brainstormed national stereotypes:

French: romantic, lazy, drink red wine, don't like children.
Germans: Nazis, Hitler, drink very much beer, huge, attentive to detail.
Japanese: serious, polite, like children very much.
English: gentleman, polite, handsome, have different opinions to the Americans
American: open, loud, human rights, war, Obama.
Indian: yoga, mysterious, good with computers, clever.

Purely the opinions of my students with no input from the teacher whatsoever. Honest.

Civet Coffee and Chinese CVs,

Do you know which coffee is the world's most expensive? I bet you couldn't guess where it comes from...I love coffee, so I was intrigued to discover that this prime brew comes out of a cat's arse. Yes, literally. The Kopi Luwak coffee is made from coffee beans, which is nothing unusual. But the difference is that these beans pass through the digestive tract of a civet cat before being excreted onto the ground for easy collection by coffee farmers. This mainly happens in Sumatra and surrounding areas (wherever civet cats and coffee beans are in close proximity). The coffee is made by separating the beans from the rest of the dung, washing them thoroughly (whew!) then processing them like normal coffee beans. The taste of Kopi Luwak has been described variously as 'gamey', 'rich, strong and full-bodied', 'syrupy with a hint of chocolate' and 'like crap'.
So how much does a cup of this stuff cost? In London's Sloane Square, a snooty coffee shop sells Kopi Lumak for 50 pounds a cup. Various online stockists also sell it and it seems to be surprisingly popular in its coffee-snob niche market. I'd be keen to try it, but 50 pounds a cup of anything would make me cringe. If I ever get to Indonesia, I'll go hunt me some civet cats.

After wasting a lot of valuable time Googling 'crap' coffee, I got myself sufficiently motivated to finish the day's main task - translating my CV into Chinese. This was a challenging job and took me at least two hours to complete. But the end result is definitely worth it, it will certainly impress Chinese employers and what's more - it looks really, really cool. ;-) I'm quite proud of myself (although www.nciku.com did get surfed now and then...) I've got a job interview at Dalian Software Park this week. I'll have to learn the CV by heart or make myself a pinyin crib sheet for some of the new words, hehe.

I'm making plans for a return to the UK this autumn. The postgrad education idea is still firmly lodged in my mind and there are some great courses on offer. My question to myself is: would it be better to study a practical subject (MSc in International Management,Business Administration or Programme and Project Management), or go for the MA in Modern Chinese Studies at Oxford University? I think that my China experience can get me onto the Oxford course, how cool to study at Oxford! But in reality, the practical applications of an MA in Modern Chinese Studies might not be so apparent to a prospective employer, what's more, am I sufficiently fascinated by China to spend even more of my time studying it? Recently it has begun to annoy me in a whole bunch of ways. Realistically, it's time to get serious and choose a degree subject that is directly related to career. Career, Career, Career. I don't want to make the same mistake I made when picking my undergrad degree:

Dad: "You should really study business/management/computing/engineering."
Daughter: "But Sociology really interests me and it will give me good career prospects, honest!"

The future's looking colourful.

Beauty and the Beast

blogging on the move 2: is this guy teaching a one-to-one English class or just trying to pick up a girl...

Here I am still sitting in Starbucks waiting for my interview and doing a spot of sneaky people-watching from behind my laptop.

There's an old Western guy sitting alone at a table looking a tad shifty. A girl shows up and joins him. The American, because as soon as he opens his mouth this is unmistakable, declares to his new companion, "I have two degrees and my resume is all over with business experience. I don't know any Chinese because when I went to school they didn't teach it, haha chortle chortle". The young pretty Chinese girl sitting with him sounds less than impressed. She giggles in a nervous and insincere way as she answers his next question - "So, may I ask you what you do?" She is an English teacher but trying to start up her own business in something. Now they have started discussing salaries. This could be a match made in heaven - Beauty and the Beast. Passport and dollars meet youth and beauty. Just another normal day in China.

Oh, here we go, here's another gem...The American says to the girl, "Did you study English under a German? Why, because you keep saying "Ja" and that is what Germans say, not us Americans, oh no, we say "Yeah".

Hilarious. Although I must confess, since working for and hanging round with Germans, I have also developed a new habit of saying "Ja" instead of "Yes", as we English say.

Gem Number 2: The American asks loudly to the girl, "Suppose you have a company and you die, what happens to the company?"

Gem Number 3: "Education in America is, probably, better than education in China", declares our favourite American, loudly of course.

Unfortunately I'm going to miss out on the rest of the drama, because I have an interview to go to. But I'm sure there will be many more situations like this to amuse and enlighten me...