Posts by Chris Waugh
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Seen on campus, lunchtime today. Headline reads:
“Should homosexual marriage be legalised?”
See the post its? Divided between “support” and “oppose”. Most of them posted to the left of the board, where it says “support”.
Translation notes: Chose “homosexual” rather than “gay” for 同性恋 in an [incompetent, probably] attempt to capture as full a range as possible of 同性恋 – the terms don’t seem to map quite as easily as one would like. Also, the question has an “or not” on the end [该不该], but given that the options or “support” or “oppose” I felt it better to drop the “or not” – a touch more coherent, I hope.
ETA: note at the bottom of the sign says "Beijing University of Technology Students Association". That may be relevant to some, as in it's not some fringe or minority organisation running this activity.
S'pose I should also add that China is really conservative on such matters - under Confucianism, one of the greatest sins is to not produce descendants for your ancestors.
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Hope this link works for those outside the GFW: Psy has a new song.
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Capture: Someone, Somewhere, In Summertime, in reply to Islander,
I tried to encourage her to get closer to the ponies, but I think it's fair for her to be wary around animals several times her size. We'll keep gently, gradually getting her close to animals while letting her set her own comfort level, and with time she'll get used to them. She loved feeding the rabbits, though.
I didn't realise how strong Shetland ponies are, though it makes sense - the name suggests they come from small islands where space is at a premium and yet goods and people still need to be hauled to and from markets and harbours.
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Feeding the rabbits in the Children’s Zoo in Beijing Wildlife Park. The weather’s almost summery all of a sudden!
White tiger enjoying the sun.
And a bit nervous about shetland ponies getting too close.
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Who is this Paul Thomas fellow? And what do those more familiar than I with Thatcher's reign and British politics think of this?
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Hard News: Key Questions, in reply to Rob Stowell,
Breast-feeding? (Genuine question: does the formula go to babies, or toddlers? Is it in addition to breast-feeding in China or replacing it?)
All of the above. The dairy companies are really aggressive in marketing their product - and corrupt, paying off hospital stafff to get names and numbers of expectant mums (and yes, that happened to my wife). Plenty still breastfeed, but the marketing plays up on all the fears - is my breast milk enough? what will get my kid the edge in a hypercompetitive society? Major bamboozling with (pseudo-)science, an alphabet soup of chemicals, and often the "100% pure, clean, green, pollution-free New Zealand-sourced milk", and images of smart, healthy, happy, strong, pale-skinned (seriously!) babies.
And you get the full range of purely breastfed till WHO recommended 6 months and breast beyond that to mixture of breast- and bottlefed to purely bottlefed (for all the reasons) from birth, and for all possible reasons, well-informed, poorly-informed and uninformed.
It's kinda stressful being a parent here.
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Hard News: Key Questions, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
No Rich, you misunderstand what I was ranting at. There's a huge grey market in imported formula here - Chinese expats and tourists/travellers buying up as much formula as they can in Hong Kong, NZ, Australia, Europe, North America, wherever and sending it back to China to be distributed amongst friends and family or sold on Taobao (i.e. Trade Me à la Chine), to the point where Hong Kong has banned people from taking any more than, I think, 1.8kg of formula out of Hong Kong and there are reports of buying limits, as in "2 cans per customer max' or whatever, in many places worldwide because of Chinese people buying up all the formula they can get for grey market shipment back to China. Thing is, nobody trusts the Chinese dairy companies (which is why Yili and Yashili want to build plants in NZ) or Chinese supermarkets (who knows if what's on the shelf really is imported or not?), but Japanese and Western brands are trusted.
And of course, this "grey market" export from NZ is actually black market, considering NZ law supposedly only allows those registered as dairy exporters with the MPI to export any dairy product by any means, including post or their checked in luggage on a flight.
And then John Bloody Key apparently tells Rui Chenggang that he's totally cool with Chinese tourists buying up all the formula they can get in NZ. Great.
#1 If the supermarket shelves are stripped bare by Chinese people cashing in on John Key's promise, what do Kiwi kids drink?
#2 Is he really encouraging Chinese people to break NZ law by illegally exporting dairy products?
#3 What happens when Chinese people attempting to cash in on his promise run into supermarket buying restrictions or the law? People were pissed off by Hong Kong imposing its infant formula export restriction.So it's not about what the factories can produce, but a combo of how supermarket shelves can be stocked and the sheer imbalance of demand from a population of one point something billion increasingly affluent people extremely (justifiably!) paranoid about the safety of products they feed to their kids both swamping smaller markets and bumping up against the niceties of NZ law.
So if Sky Kiwi was reporting accurately, it was a bloody (typically?) stupid thing for Key to say.
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Not quite on topic, but a question about John Key. Sky Kiwi quotes him as telling Rui Chenggang* - and assuming John Key doesn't speak Chinese, I guess I'm back-translating Sky Kiwi's translation of what Key said:
"If you were a Chinese tourist and you went into a New Zealand supermarket and bought 20 cans of infant formula for your own child to drink, no problem, we welcome you."
And Sky Kiwi comments: "Big Brother Key is so tough! But.... how to get it all back to China?"
And I ask, well, now with these sweet visa deals for the wealth on China Southern and Air NZ and all your drumming up of Chinese business, tourism included, how much formula is going to be left for Kiwi kids who need it?
This current government's attitude towards China is about the only thing I like about them, but geez....
*famous Chinese TV journo/anchor, just in case. No idea how well known he may or may not be outside China.
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Is Flat3 hosted anywhere more accessible this side of the Great Firewall than Youtube? Please? Because:
The obvious reaction is to look at a show with an ethnic Chinese director and three young Chinese leads and assume it's, well, Chinese comedy. But it's really more contemporary Kiwi comedy. They're us, remember?
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Hard News: Thatcher, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
Alright, it's a fair cop. I think he was justified in taking up arms. Shouldn't've phrased it as I did.
