the random oracle

So in my last week here I’ve decided to take in a few of the many museums in Beijing.  I’d originally wanted to see the National Museum (国家博物馆), which is a propaganda-laden history museum with (I’m sure) spectacularly lavish exhibits showing how the Communist party liberated China and repelled the Japanese.  But alas it was closed for renovations and new installations, so I had to find something else.

My first stop was the Chinese Art Museum (中国美术馆), which hosts a collection that spans much of China’s history.  On display on the ground floor were works from the “Beijing Biennial”, someof which I found pretty cool.  One work I liked in particular was the “Finger-guessing Game (石头，前子，布)”.  I could understand two of the dates, but the rest were a mystery.

Here are some other works that I found interesting there:

Next was the Capital Museum (首都博物馆), which is a beautiful building west of Tiananmen Square.  They were holding a temporary exhibition called China’s Memories (中国记忆).  The museum mostly houses works that were found or composed in Beijing, though some are brought in from outside.  The temporary exhibition had many works from all over the country.

Last was the Today Art Museum (今日美术馆), which obviously is a contemporary museum.  The main building was closed when I got there, but the second building was housing an exhibition on Sports and the Olympics.

I came across two interesting articles today, here and here.  The first is by Charles McGrath and the second by Nicholas Kristof.  The first really pissed me off, and the second I found very encouraging.

The first one pissed me off because as usual the journalist takes a very (falsely) negative view of things.  Of course the first half of the article focuses on what the government did to “clean up” the city before the games, e.g. removing beggars and increasing security.  And of course this was reported from the point of view that these are all infringing on human rights etc. etc.  But what would the media have reported if the government hadn’t done such things?  That China is a dirty ugly mess.  Moreover, the main point of the article, that the Olympic volunteers are overwhelmingly young, is false.  I’ve been walking around Beijing for the last few days and I see tons of volunteers who have thoroughly grey hair, and they are just as warm, helpful, and proud of the Olympics as the young people are.  Now maybe there is some truth in the article, because the older volunteers don’t appear at Olympic venues or the more thoroughly touristed areas; I’ve encountered them more in residential areas that don’t attract the Olympic crowds.  But maybe the reason isn’t some ulterior age-ist agenda, and maybe it’s just that the younger volunteers are more proficient in English and would be better suited to dealing with so many foreigners?

The second I found encouraging because Kristof hits the nail on the head.  Foreign policy (not just American, but also Chinese, Japanese, British, Russian, you name it) is horribly biased towards “defense” and not building friendly relations.  We wouldn’t need all those fancy guns and missiles if we didn’t fear each other, and the fact that we spend hundreds of times more on the guns and missiles than on simple programs to promote understanding between nations is more than just a shame, it’s liable to be the death of us all.  Someone should make Kristof’s article required reading in every high school classroom.  It might be too late to change the mind of this generation but maybe we can convince the next generation that talking to and learning from each other is more productive than lobbing bombs.

One piece of history that sits right next to Tsinghua University is the Old Summer Palace (圆明园).  This complex is now a national park, and walking through that’s basically all that it feels like.  What used to stand on this spot, however, was the largest palace complex in the world.  It’s easily several times larger than the Forbidden City, which was actually used mostly for formal functions; the emperor’s residence was the Old Summer Palace.

The palace took about 150 years to build, and were in fact continually expanded right up until their destruction.  Even though I’d read about it in books before, I had no idea how truly massive the palace was.  It takes about an hour to walk from one end to the other!

What happened to the palace itself?  During the Second Opium War, the British and French marched into Beijing and burned down the entire complex as “punishment” for the torture of some of their soldiers.  All this seems very abstract if you’re not familiar with the history, but basically the only similar situation I can think of in Western history is when Hitler ordered Paris to be demolished when it became clear that he was going to lose the war.  Of course, Paris survived due to one general with a conscience who decided not to flip the switch; but the Old Summer Palace had no such savior, and it burned for 3 days after the British and French set it ablaze.

There’s a famous letter by Victor Hugo (also in French)who chastised the French general responsible for the destruction.  The most famous line in the letter compared the act to “‘Two robbers breaking into a museum, devastating, looting and burning, leaving laughing hand-in-hand with their bags full of treasures; one of the robbers is called France and the other Britain.”

There’s a museum inside the ruins detailing the history of the palace and its destruction; not surprisingly, it’s only in Chinese with no translation in English.

For foreigners who want to better understand the national psyche of the Chinese people, I would recommend a visit to the Old Summer Palace.  Walk around, enjoy the beautiful views which have been restored, and imagine what it must have been like when the bushes and weeds were covered by splendid pavilions, halls, bridges, and walkways.  Then imagine the entire place burning for three days and three nights while British and French soldiers loot whatever is convenient to carry and throw the rest into the fire.

This image, I think, is at the crux of Chinese nationalism.  It is not just about being abused and humiliated by foreign powers.  There are better examples of that, such as the Rape of Nanjing or the bombing of Shanghai.  Rather, what really twists the dagger is that China was a land of splendor, wealth, art, and learning, yet it succumbed to such vicious attacks by countries whose main prerogative was to hook the Chinese on opium.  Clearly the Chinese government was at fault as well; complacency and arrogance played their role in their downfall.  But how can you expect the Chinese to look at this history and not feel a bit of anger and vengeance?  I mean, imagine if Colombia attacked America so that it could force a treaty on it legalizing cocaine.  Being completely ridiculous notwithstanding, that’s basically what Britain, France, and the other Western powers did to China in the 19th century.  And to add insult to injury, many of the looted relics are sitting today in the British Museum and the Louvre, and Britain and France have never even apologized for their actions.

I want to use this image to explore two things: one is the Olympic games, which are a huge huge HUGE deal here. This is because the Chinese people feel like they have finally moved beyond the history of humiliation and can now stand proudly before the world again.  This is not a trivial thing; Americans are not used to even second-guessing their own importance, but the Chinese are keenly aware that they are still second-class citizens in the world, and the Olympics represent one step towards becoming a first-class citizen.

Second, this image also helps explain why China (and Chinese people) are so easily offended by criticism from the West.  How can the West criticize China for things that it barely understands (the situation in Tibet and Taiwan, for example), when it hasn’t even apologized for the heinous acts that it perpetrated on China?

I’m not saying I agree with all these points, but I see their basis.  It would be nice if the West stopped lecturing and started learning a bit more about the history before dishing out censure.

• AD told me that the characters “勉强” mean “study” in Japanese.  It’s kind of hilarious because the same characters in Chinese mean “to do something reluctantly” or “to force yourself to do something”.
• I love how efficient the country is.  I like to schedule things right down to the minute, and it’s good to be able to rely on trains etc. to be on time when you want to squeeze every last minute out of the day.  I’ve only had 1 late train so far and it was late by like 5 minutes.  Try saying that about the NJ Transit; and NYC Transit doesn’t even pretend to follow its timetable!
• Most impressive site so far: Todai-ji (东大寺) in Nara.  The building itself is monumentally large, the largest wooden building in the world, and even it pales in comparison to the enormous bronze Buddha housed inside.  Even the entry gate is impressive, harboring two huge wooden statues of protector gods.
• I finally found floss!  Only 322 yen!
• I finally got my much-sought-after shades that fit an Asian face.  Who you lookin’ at?

As a person of Chinese descent who’s keen on Asian affairs and history, I’ve been paying careful attention to the kind of politics I see in Japan.  Obviously not speaking the language I can’t understand exactly what’s going on, but I can sort of deduce some things from the Kanji on various posters and the images you see.

As a little background, Japan and China in the 20th century were mortal enemies.  Between its victory in the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-1895 and the end of World War II, Japan perpetrated endless incursions, invasions, and atrocities on China in its quest for Asian domination.  The most famous of these is the Rape of Nanjing (南京大屠杀), but there were also biological and chemical warfare and experimentation in Manchuria and the indiscriminate aerial bombing of Shanghai and other cities, among other things.  And that’s only in China; ask any Korean and they’ll tell you equally horrific tales of Japanese occupation.

After its defeat in WWII, Japan has been (forcibly) pacified by its American-written constitution, and since has established peaceful, though often uneasy, relations with its Asian neighbors.  But unlike Germany and France, which are now the best of friends and partners, Japan has never fully re-integrated into Asia.  Part of this is because Japan is far richer than the rest of Asia, but part of it also is that it has never fully apologized for its actions before 1945.

The two most cited examples of this lack of remorse are the white-washing of history in textbooks and the visits to Yasukuni Shrine by former prime ministers.  The first is probably more serious: some (though not all) Japanese textbooks gloss over its war crimes during its imperial age, and frame World War II as a necessary struggle for natural resources that was caused by the West’s monopoly on things like rubber and oil.  It’s a load of bullshit and frankly I’m not surprised that America isn’t more outraged by these lies.

The second thing is that former prime ministers used to pay their respects to Yasukuni Shrine, a Shinto shrine that honors Japan’s war dead, but includes in its list of honored dead the war criminals Hideki Tojo and others who were the masterminds behind Japan’s atrocities.  Imagine the furor that would be caused if Germany’s chancellor paid his respects at a monument that honored Adolph Hitler!  Fortunately the current prime minister has had more sense and has stopped this tradition; despite the fact that this only has symbolic value, this act has already caused a tangible thawing in relations between Japan and its neighbors (especially China and Korea).

So what have I seen so far here?  Yesterday in Shibuya where I ran into a demonstration that blocked off traffic for several blocks..  Although I didn’t understand most of what they said, I caught something about “boycott Olympics”.  I’ve posted some pictures showing the signs the marchers were carrying, and I’ve translated as much as I can… mostly they say things like “Sino-Japanese friendship is a fantasy” and “break relations between China and Japan”, as well as stronger statements like “Overthrow the Chinese Communist Party.  But the whole tone of the protest made it pretty clear that it was the “Chinese” part of CCP that they had a problem with, not the “Communist” part.

The sentiment in China is probably even harsher; if the government didn’t hold back protests then things would be much worse.  The West often criticizes the Chinese government for stamping out demonstrations, but I don’t think they realize how strong anti-Japanese feelings are in China… if the government didn’t intervene things could easily spiral out of control.  I’m not sure how strong the corresponding hatred is here, but at least on the surface it seems to be much more subdued; the protest today was probably only 100-people strong, and most of the people I’ve met so far have been very nice (although I have to admit I usually tell them I’m American and not Chinese-American).  But then again, it only takes a small vocal minority to take the country’s foreign policy in a dangerous, confrontational direction.  In fact this is the second such protest I saw; there was another on in Kyoto that I ran into, although that one was just a truck driving by broadcasting slogans.

One big contrast in the cultures I’ve seen this summer is the level of politeness among strangers.  People in Thailand and Japan are infinitely more polite than in China; you are greeted with a welcome whenever you enter a store and are thanked profusely for your patronage.  In China you sometimes feel like you’re bothering the store clerk when you check out!

On the other hand, this politeness comes from two different roots.  In Thailand it seems that people really are warm and friendly and go out of their way to help others, especially foreigners.  JJL made a whole bunch of friends (as did JM in her excursion out into the Thai Amazon), who all were genuinely nice and friendly, like OC.  But it seems that in Japan the politeness is much more reserved and formal.  I’ve heard many people complain that the Japanese are hard to get to know, and they keep their distance, often too much.  I personally like the fact that I’m not hassled in stores to buy things, but I could see how after living here too long you could feel very isolated from society.

The one instance in Japan where I saw someone lose their decorum was when I went with AD to an onsen (温泉) in Kyoto.  An onsen is a bath-house (a legitimate one, mind you!) where the water bubbles out from the ground and is pumped into various tubs for your soaking pleasure.  In the onsen I had to use the bathroom, and in the bathroom there was a pair of sandals.  So I stepped into the sandals in the bathroom, but forgot to take them out when I left.  I ended up inside the onsen with these slippers, and I realized that this was probably a no-no and I should return them.  Before I got the chance, the boss came through the onsen collecting trash and saw my crime.  And boy did she get pissed!  She said something to me in Japanese very angrily, something about a Toi-ru (toilet), and hussled out with the slippers.  Now if you paid attention you’ll notice also that I said “she”: the boss was a 60-year-old lady and she waltzed right into the men’s side where everyone was naked without even blinking an eye!  I guess no one else paid notice but both AD and I were kind of shocked that they wouldn’t send a male employee to take care of the men’s side.

Anyway, going back to the whole politeness thing, anyone who’s visited China will certainly agree with me that the Chinese are not very polite in public.  However, in their defense they are also much more curious and out-going than the Japanese.  People in China will stop foreigners and practice their English, or ask to take pictures, or compliment them on their Chinese, all without hesitation.  That’s something that people have told me never happens in Japan.

I rented a bike in Nara (奈良) because I wanted to see some sites that were spread kind of far apart, and since I didn’t want to deal with waiting for a bus again after waiting way too long for buses in Kyoto, I tried riding a bike in Nara.  It was a very affordable decision because it only cost ¥500 for the day, roughly $5.

After seeing Yakushi-ji (药师寺) which is about 4km away from the train station in the opposite direction of all the other sites in the city, I went back to the center of town and stopped to get some food at a quickie-mart.  When I walked back out I reached in my pocket for the bike lock key and realized that it wasn’t there.  A tinge of anxiety struck me, but I figured I’d just gone inside the quickie mart and back out so it couldn’t have gone that far.

I retraced my steps and looked to see if it had fallen anywhere, but it hadn’t.  I asked the clerk if she’d seen a key lying around, but she hadn’t.  Twenty minutes later anxiety had turned to panic and I was emptying my pockets and bag looking for the key.

I tried remembering everything that I’d done between locking the bike and leaving the quickie-mart, and the only thing that could possibly explain this was that I’d tossed some things in the garbage before going inside the quickie mart.  So I opened the garbage can and fumbled through the (gross) things inside, but again nothing turned up.

At this point I started doubting whether or not I’d actually locked the bike at all.  Maybe I’d forgotten to lock it, and some asshole had come along and locked it, then taken the key?  But why would they do that instead of just taking the bike itself?  Then I realized that Japan had a penchant for “Candid Camera”-like shows and I wondered maybe I was the victim of a prank?  I looked around for any suspicious people or vans recording me, but couldn’t find any.

At this point I gave up and wheeled the bike back to the rental place.  Luckily I hadn’t gone very far so it only took about 15 minutes to get back, but all along the way I kept looking to see if anyone was taking pictures or recording me, so much was I convinced that this must be the fault of some Ashton Kutcher wannabe.

I finally got back to the rental place without catching anyone suspicious, and when I tried to explain to the rental guy that I’d lost the key, he couldn’t understand me.  He kept on speaking to me in Japanese like I could understand and I kept on responding in English as if he could understand, but it was hopeless.  Then he started writing Kanji but the characters he wrote I didn’t really recognize.  In retrospect he was obviously asking me whether I’d lost the keys (he wrote “纷失” and “锭”, which isn’t really in common usage in Chinese anymore but that I assume must mean “key”), but at the time I didn’t know what he was writing.  Finally we both walked over to the tourist information desk inside the train station and had the lady there translate for us.  He even gave me another bike so I could keep sightseeing, since I’d only covered one site before losing the key.  Still, I had to pay ¥2000 to replace the lock on the bike since he didn’t have a copy of the key.

I spent the rest of the day looking over my shoulder to see if the Candid Camera crew would hop out of the bushes.  Maybe they’d even pay me something for making me look like a fool?  But alas I was not so lucky.  Guess if it walks like a fool and loses keys like a fool, it must really be a fool.

I’ve been eating a lot of noodles in Japan, which mostly boils down (har-har) to soba (そば) and udon (うどん).  I haven’t had any ramen (ラーメン) yet, though I’m sure I’ll have a chance to sample it in Tokyo.  I have to admit that the noodle soups here are really good; the broth’s flavor is usually kind of like miso but a little stronger, and the scallions that they sprinkle in are always especially fresh and fragrant.  I’ll usually order a bowl with some fish or tofu added, for a little protein kick.

Unfortunately, I’m not a huge fan of the noodles themselves.  I find the textures of both soba and udon to be a bit too spongy for me.  I’m a firm believer in firm noodles, and I think the best noodles I’ve found so far have been the noodles in Suzhou.  The noodle counters there are usually breakfast places, where you can order a bowl with some goodies piled on top, such as fish (鲍鱼) or shrimp (虾仁), and slurp it all down before heading to work.  Now the broths I find are a little too sweet and not a match for the Japanese broths I’ve had, but the noodles themselves are heaven itself.  They’re a little thicker than ramen and more al dente, much firmer and in my opinion better.  I keep on telling my relatives that they need to export these noodles to America and give the whole ramen craze here a run for its money.