Posts by Chris Waugh
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I quit smoking in the Smoker's Paradise, where buying a pack of fags and a lighter, smoking one, and dumping the rest (including the lighter) in self-disgust is not going to induce any guilt. Of course, had you seen the chest x-ray I saw on December 26, 2003, you would understand how I quit smoking. That was the scariest sight I've eer seen in my life: My own lungs as white and opaque as bone. And yes, I was gasping for breath at the time.
As for drinking, I am, of course, the one and only person in the history of Homo sapiens who gets more intelligent with more drink. Or, in other words, those of us who drink are far too good at making right dicks of ourselves. I repress those memories. Part of me would like to quit drinking, part of me, based on my experience quitting smoking, suspects quitting drinking would not leave me feeling any better (but where do I live? Gotta quit breathing! And gotta admit that I'm still alive, which almost certainly would not have been true had not quit smoking) and part of me just plain appreciates a cold beer at the end of the day. But all of me respects someone who says "I'm not drinking" for any reason.
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Seamus Harris: Taking the discussion over to your blog.
Sam F: You're right, but swapping 归 for 龟 turns things pun-wards in my book. Visual representations, be the words or pictures, that I've seen suggest that Chinese people hear the pun, and not just the abbreviation.
Main laptop is in the shop being (hopefully) fixed. Broke out the backup laptop, the old one we passed down to my brother in law and then reclaimed when our new one started playing up. This one is a little small and old, but it works properly.
Jamil Anderlini and stephen walker: I hate to say it, but from where I sit in southern Chaoyang District, Beijing, I can only see three Kiwis playing to their strengths: Myself and my two Kiwi colleagues. I don't see any Kiwi companies, let alone industries playing up to what NZ does best. This frustrates me. Just as one example, China's wine industry is growing rapidly and Chinese vineyards, or at least vineyards in China, are even starting to produce pretty decent brews. And there's plenty of land in north China just crying out for decent viticulturalists. So why are NZ's excellent winemakers so hard to find here? And wine is certainly not the only area Kiwis excel in. To put it in more positive terms: NZ could be and should be doing much better in China.
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mark taslov, I've been wondering the same thing about the NZ-China Friendship Society wesbsite for a while now. It doesn't help that all my favourite most reliable proxies have been blocked.
And what everybody seems to be forgetting is the delicious little pun in 'haigui'. The hai (海) is reasonably obvious, the gui could be read as either the turtle (龟）or return (归), both of which are gui in the first tone.
And that one sentence took me far too long. Oh how I dearly wish my properly set up laptop had its screen back in proper working order.
Seamus Harris, I'm sorry, but I'm still having trouble getting all worked up about mainland Chinese immigrants valuing loyalty to the motherland in a Chinese candidate. I don't see their attitudes as being any different from those of our fellow Kiwis here in China planning to take part in the upcoming election (something I am denied because I've been overseas for over three years). Most people feel some form of loyalty to their homeland, and that loyalty does include the current legally recognised incarnation of their homeland.
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Indeed, New Zealand should make good use of the FTA with China, but that would mean NZs business leaders actually showing leadership and intelligence and thinking about more than just satisfying their immediate, short-term desires. It would also mean NZ finally giving us linguisticky types the respect we deserve- despite the inane ramblings of certain undeservedly famous "China business experts" and the equally stupid rumours floating around certain social circles, learning the language and culture really is essential if you want to succeed here.
See, it's not just Fonterra (although I really love watching them squirm), but NZ's business community as a whole. Ask around, plenty of Chinese business types will tell you Kiwis just don't know how to do business. They show up, they sign what they think is a deal, they disappear, then they wonder why their China business fails. The two key phrases in what David Slack quotes from his China-based reader are "that want to make the effort" and "But it's not easy." Indeed, it takes long-term, strategic vision, solid preparation and a hell of a lot of really hard work.
@Seamus Harris: In a democracy, one is entitled to have and express one's own opinions. If certain 'new New Zealanders' consider loyalty to the PRC or even the CCP (actually, they said loaylty to China- quite a different concept) to be important factors as they decide which candidate to support, that is their right.
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I agree with the two who mention Michael Laws sploshing onto the beach.... And then the Mozambique police politely ask him to put his weaponry down, explain that Zimbabwe, being landlocked, doesn't actually have a coastline, and offer to arrange for his transport home.
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I do have a visceral hatred of FPP, and I do oppose a new referendum on the voting system, but:
It's not time. It's far too early. Really, to see how good MMP is or is not, whether it needs tweaking or should be replaced, we'll need to get rid of the last of the FPP dinosaurs (Helen Clark, for example) and get a whole new MMP-only generation through- at least one MMP generation. I really do think we're still in the early stages of MMP, still just getting the system established, and the antics of Labour and National only confirm that for me.
But my voice doesn't matter- even though I'm a NZ citizen, I'm not entitled to vote because I've been overseas longer than three years.
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Disingenuous indeed. Mexico is a long way from being the next "rising power" and doesn't inspire anywhere near as much fear in the western world.
"The show aims to appeal to the Chinese audience's sense of cultural pride in the 5000 year history and suggests that the current regime is an aberration in the grand scheme of things."
Oh, I don't know. I would've thought Qinshihuang would've approved of Mao Zedong, and the CCP seems to conform quite well with Han Fei Zi's doctrines, even if Wen Jiabao seems to take a more Mencian tone.
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Rich, your observationz from beautiful downtown Wellington aren't telling you terribly much about life on the ground here in China. Simon Grigg has managed to write a surprisingly good account of his time in China considering the short term of his stay- I suspect that's largely because he has the balls to admit his lack of experience and background knowledge.
Simon Grigg, in your own blog you admitted your possible naivete, and reality for most in China is much harsher than what you saw, but you give a refreshingly honest and realistic account of your experience.
Neil Morrison: I doubt the Dalai Lama himself was a CIA agent, but there was a CIA programme dropping Tibetan exiles trained in guerilla warfare into Tibet that lasted up until the 70s. Fairly well documented, too. And:
"This seems to be taking the don't-be-too-hard-on-China line just a little too far into apologist-for-tyranny territory."
Or perhaps it's just a little more realistic?
"Tibetan human rights is a pretty straight forward issue"
No, it's not. Tibetans get held up as some species of angel, and yet many in the west are quite happy to ignore, or even deny, the human rights of Han, Hui or other Chinese. The reality of Tibet's history and human rights situation is far more complex than Dharamsala would have you believe.
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Well done everybody.
As for this suggestion of dumping the xenophobes in Tokyo or Hong Kong for a week: Nah. Too easy. I recommend Shanxi. Ms Coddington should be given a job in a coal mine out that way. That'll learn her real fast.