Bingfeng Teahouse

i notice that some westerners talk about the chinese anti-japan sentiments in their blogs, like this one, and this one, let me make it clear why there are anti-japan sentiments here:

1) during the sino-japanese war between 1937-1945, japanese army did horrible things to chinese, including many civilians. the younger chinese generation is much better informed about what happened during the war than their parents.

japanese soilders during war

2) after 60 years, japanese government and japanese as a nation, still refuse to admit their guilt deep in their minds. japanese went to mourn for those soilders dead during the war, and their PM also went to mourn for the war criminals executed after 1945, for several times.

former japanese soilders marched to mourn for those dead japanese soilders and war criminals in YEAR 2001

former japanese soilders mourn for those dead japanese soilders and war criminals in YEAR 2001

young japanese dressed in soilders uniform to pay respect to war criminals in YEAR 2000

just watched a tv news report about shanghai oriental art center.

the center will open to public on new years eve, a great gift in this boring shanghai winter.

i got a phone call this afternoon from a friend in another city thousand of miles from shanghai, my friend asked me for help,“i can't find a restroom nearby, what should i do?”. i replied immediately, “find a cab and ask the driver to take you to the nearest hotel”

a few years ago, it's hard to find a rest room in some parts of shanghai. like many others, i have encountered occassions of embarrassment. but shanghai people are smart, they find in places with no public rest rooms, there are many 5-star hotels, and there are many rest rooms inside of those 5-star hotels.

portman shanghai, the 5-star hotel invested by american money and hosted visiting american presidents like bill clinton, is my favorite. because the hotel is in a perfect downtown location, i believe many people visited the 5-star hotel for the same reason.

without doubt the hotel was unhappy with those non-guest visitors and they got a great idea - lock the rest rooms and give every company and guest a key to those rest rooms. great idea! but people are still coming, they just follow a guy who has a key into the rest room. people name those rest rooms as“bill clinton's rest room”(no bad intention involved).

why i played chinese chess in “bill clinton's rest room”? here is the story:

like others, one day i followed a guy who has the key into the rest room, but when i finished my job, i found the door was locked from inside, couldn't open without a key! and the guy who has the key has gone!

luckily there was another unlucky guy, and luckily again, he took with a mini chinese chess, and we played chinese chess in “bill clinton's rest room”.

now the municipal government built a lot of rest rooms here in shanghai, and perhaps in order to appease people's yearn for“bill clinton's rest room”, they built some “5-star rest rooms”equipped with good facilities imitating those of a 5-star hotel.

during the spring festival a few years ago, i traveled to the northern part of shaanxi province and visited mountain villages near yan'an.

the mountains were covered by snows, the sun was shining and the sky was blue.

i passed by a house, in front of it an old man smiled to me and asked, “are you a tourist?”, i replied, “yes”, the old man said to me, “why don't come in for a cup of water”.

the room was simple and crude and apparently the family was very poor. the old man's wife cooked dumplings for me. for those poor farmers living in mountain areas, dumplings might be the best food they could find to treat their guest. i found their grandchildren just had very simple food in stead of dumplings, then i stopped eatting. i want to pay the food and the bed but they refused to accept.

before the trip i learned from my professor that china's gini coefficient exceeded that of the u.s. for the first time, and what i saw in that family obviously tells me what it means.

i left in the next morning. on the road, when i tried to get my drink from the backpack, a half bowl of dumplings rolled out in front of my eyes.

humble but noble, just like the blue skies of shanbei.

Link:   from CSM

article 1: Love and money reshape family in China

article 2: Family ties take new shapes in a prosperous China

article 3: Women in China finally making a great leap forward