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Shanghai2010

Listed below are comments made by Shanghai2010 between Wednesday, 27th May 2009 and Tuesday, 7th July 2009.

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Three years in China 03:00am on 07 Jul 2009 I love my country, I love my wife. Neither one is perfect, believing oneself, or others, or one's country to be perfect is often the sign of a delusional mind.

Sometimes my wife is late from work and does not call - I forgive her because I understand she is busy.

Sometimes China gets things a little bit wrong, and I can forgive China as a nation that is emerging from 3000 years of mixed history, cultural diversity and a population that is impossible to manage.

Sometimes my wife complains to me after I work a 12 hour day that I do not spend enough time with her, so I work less and then all I hear is that I am lazy and we have no money. I don't forgive her this hypocrisy.

Sometimes China calls itself one thing, yet does another, commits a crime and deflects blame with lies, finger pointing and the old false assertion that "no-one can understand China" I don't forgive my country this hypocrisy.

Balance, in domestic, social, political and cultural life is so important. Gesturing towards economic progress as a means of justifying poverty in certain quarters is no excuse. Proudly pronouncing the country's economic growth is hardly a comfort to a man and his wife whose 2000RMB per month will not afford them sanitary housing, or guarantee a good future for their children.

Much of our country is arrogance and defensiveness. The adage "This is how we do it in China" is a lie as "how we do things in China" really depends on "what we want". A man who wants his son to study in a great university abroad will break every cultural, moral and social norm to get what he wants - an no-one will think less of him for it. If he wants to throw up every cultural barrier to progress, convenience and ease to scupper a financial deal, then he will be applauded as a patriot and true blood of China.

Thank you for reminding us, James Reynolds, that while we can love someone or something, it does not mean it is perfect.
Conflict of party and private lifestyles 02:36am on 11 Jun 2009 I see this more as a dmaning indictment of our sub-par higher education system than of the extravagances of lifestyle.

In China, early and elementary education is fantastic - young learners go through at a terriffic rate what their Western counterparts don't touch until high school. But for some reason, when the children reach middle school, the standard drops off amazingly. So too in highschool and university.

Most Chinese parents would love the opportunity to send their children abroad to better universities to study, but it is the privileged few that can do this.

Part of the problem is the enormous volume of people, and the subversion of the one child policy by the rich and the divorced. 40 - 50 grumbling teenagers in a stuffy classroom is hardly te best environment for learning, and teachers have enough trouble keeping order and motivating children to learn.

Private schools here are hardy better, and sometimes worse with parents interfering in a negative manner in classroom affairs, overruling the authority of the teacher and sowing the seeds of discontent every time their lazy, spoit child is reprimanded.

What is nice to see in this picture is that the young man is engaging with UK students: there is a portion of foreign students who simply insulate themselves against the cuture they live in and never experience the fullest extremesand excitements: we had several interns who studied in the UK and spent 4 years eating rice and noodles, they were amazed when we recently dragged them out to western restaurants here -knives and forks were the stuff of myth to these children.
Trying to get into Tiananmen Square 02:22am on 05 Jun 2009 "Why is it that for the past week - yes I never realised an anniversary (of an event that took place so long ago) takes a week to commemorate - we have been fed an overdose of Tiananmen related stories?

If a wedding anniversary took that long to commemorate, I'm quite sure the couple will have divorced by the end of it." - Beijing2008

Your suggestion makes little sense, given the number of public holidays/commemorations based around events that occurred years ago here in China.

By your logic, you seem to suggest that things that happened in the distant past should not be marked. So perhaps then on the mainland we should not mark the CCP founding, "Serfs Emancipation Day" Dragon Boat and various others -seeing as they occurred "so long ago"?

I love China, I love my wife and I love my family. But not one of those is above making mistakes, the important thing is to accept their mistakes and help them develop further, and not make them again.

We have moved on and developed into a great and powerful nation, but as we have never acknowledged our weaknesses, they are not as distant as you want them to be.

I suspect you are "divorced" from reality, my friend.
Today's generation of young people 01:48am on 04 Jun 2009 I find it interesting... my fellow citizens here always harp on about how Japan never truly apologised for their atrocities during the invasion (and they truly were horrifying crimes against humanity) but when it comes to admitting our own crimes and mistakes, they are blind.

And yes, the rest of the world has committed crimes and massacres: but that does not make it right. Criticising the West for its mistakes does not absolve us from our own, deflecting blame is simply childish pettiness in a game of one-upmanship.

To be fair, things have improved in China since those events so long ago. Economically and socially, China has grown. It's not perfect, but Rome was not built in a day.
Facing swine flu scrutiny 10:16am on 29 May 2009 I really wish stronger controls were effected on the metro here every morning: every day I sit or stand in a carriage filled with more than a hundred people either coughing or sneezing, or both. There is not any effort to cover nose/mouth with hand or handkerchief, but instead the viruses get nicely spread around everyone. My employers frequently complain that the commuters in our office are ill - I think the reason is obvious!

Just on Wednesday I saw something that made me laugh: A young lady wearing a face mask. I thought to myself "At last! A responsible fellow citizen!" But no, a few moments later she slipped off the face mask, sneezed violently into the air and slipped the mask back over her mouth and nose. Baffling.

Nonetheless, it is good to see this approach in airports, and while it will inconvenience passengers, it is hard not to argue that the steps are necessary.
When does old age begin? 01:38am on 27 May 2009 Beijing2008:

There is perhaps a political slant to his comment, but from a different point of view, Mr Reynolds is simply pointing out that the politicians of our great country, though revered for age and experience, are hesitant to reveal the extent of their aging to the general public.

Nonetheless, a good post, Mr Reynolds. Outside my home every morning there are a group of kung-fu ballroom dancers of the 50+ age range variety, it's a great way to keep looking young and staying fit.

Plus, I have to say I am much more scared of the "Anhui Ayi's" and their immensely powerful elbows when getting on the Metro than any young male of comparable size to my own. You learn the hard way in the big city not to mess with the small wrinkled ladies in terrible clothes and big forearms.

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