Blog has moved

After a long struggle with using wordpress in China, this blog has now moved to http://www.aprilwfong.blogspot.com . Please visit my new blog for more adventures with this banana girl!

Going online

In news unrelated to China, the Christian Science Monitor, known for its strong international coverage, is going all in. Online, that is.  This NY Times article “Christian Science Paper to End Daily Print Edition” makes it sound like, eventually, all print media will be forced to make the virtual leap. Is the death of old media near?

Just what China needs: more people

“Chinese population may swell to 1.5 billion”
(Shanghai Daily) 2008-10-24

The population on the Chinese mainland is expected to reach 1.5 billion in 2033, an official revealed at a forum in Beijing Thursday.

The population will see an annual increase of about 8 million people over the next decade and may reach 1.36 billion in 2010 and 1.4 billion in 2020, said Li Bin, director of the National Population and Family Planning Commission.

… In addition to the pressures of a greyer population, the country will also battle a sex-imbalance that may seriously disrupt social stability, Li warned …

… The gender ratio had reached 119.92 in 2000 from 108 in 1981, which means 119 boys are born for every 100 girls across the country …

…. China will have a male population of up to 30 million in 2020 who may not be able to find wives and partners because of the gender imbalance, Xinhua news agency said, citing Li Weixiong, a member of the People’s Congress and also deputy director of the China Economy and Society Research Committee.

China is also expected to see its largest population mobilization when 300 million people enter urban centers in the next two to three decades.

Long overdue

Here’s what’s been happening in my life lately.

1. I’m no longer homeless. Celebrate with me, please. My dad is no longer calling me a nomad and I’m actually living out of a closet now, not a suitcase (wearing the same clothes from July wasn’t really working in Shanghai autumn weather).

My apartment is near school, and I’m living with a French girl named Doriane, who speaks Chinese fluently and at 19 years old, is already fulfilling her dream of living in China.

2. You may be wondering about the random photo of my MEC knapsack above. Well, at $12 CAD it’s one of the most useful purchases I’ve ever made, but after one particular incident a few weeks ago, I’m never wearing it in China again.

While walking to the bus stop on campus, I suddenly felt something at my back. When I turned around, there was a guy trying to open my backpack’s zipper to steal my bling.

The funny thing is, I didn’t know how to react when I realized what had happened. I stared him down, wanted to punch him and run for my life, but did nothing. I was so scared that I felt like my heart was going to fly out of my chest. His reaction was even better; stood there as if nothing happened, leaned against the fence, looking up at the sky and started playing with the bushes.

Now, I should note that I’ve lived here for more than a year and am usually extremely cautious. Petty theft in China is a big problem and I’ve been warned enough times. But, after a year of feeling safe I let my guard down. Back to wearing shoulder bags from now on.

3. I’m considering moving this blog to blogspot.com. I’m sick and tired of being unable to post and even SEE my own wordpress blog. The whole virtual moving process seems far too taxing though.

Chinese National Day in Hong Kong

Hong Kong and China. Separate, but so together.

Mao Zedong stood at Tiananmen Square and declared the founding of the People’s Republic of China 59 years ago. Today, I celebrated Chinese National Day in Hong Kong — a Special Autonomous Region of China that at one point, symbolized the country’s humiliation and defeat by foreign powers.

And how do they show their pride and patriotism here? Fireworks, of course.

My cousins, Aunt Betty and I took the Star Ferry boat across Victoria Harbour, from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central. There were crowds of people everywhere, so we decided to take a seat at a restaurant in IFC Mall that gave us a great view too.

Canteen’s fireworks set dinner was delicious, as my Aunt Betty shows above.

“China big attraction for US: poll”

Gotta love them Yankees.

In this Wednesday’s China Daily, Xie Chuanjiao wrote about a US-based survey called “A Study of American Perceptions of China”, in which two million Americans were polled about their ideas and images of the Middle Kingdom.

A few interesting pieces from the survey results:

1. What do Americans associate most with China? Forty-nine percent said the Great Wall, followed by the Beijing Olympics, rice and dragons.
2. The most famous Chinese people are Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Mao Zedong, Confucius, Jet Li, Yao Ming, Buddha, Lucy Liu, Genghis Khan and Chow Yun-fat.
3. In terms of food, “When asked what are the most popular Chinese dishes, nearly 60 percent said it was rice or fried rice. Others mentioned egg rolls, noodles, wonton soup, fortune cookies, egg drop soup and stir-fried food.”
4. When it comes to places to visit, Americans think of Beijing, the Great Wall, Hong Kong…and 22 percent of respondents also mentioned Singapore, which they thought was a Chinese city. Whoops!

Got milk…

700 Tons of Chinese Baby Formula Tainted with Melamine

Originally uploaded by g_yulong1

So far 53,000 children have been sickened from tainted baby formula in China. Not surprisingly, it’s got a lot of people feeling pretty scared.

I stayed with my Shanghainese friend and her family this past weekend. She graduated from Fudan last year and is now preparing to apply to schools in London. Weiwei is Shanghainese through and through, but she seems pretty set on leaving China lately, especially after this milk scandal.

“My friend paid a lot of money to immigrate to the USA,” Weiwei said. “They said I should too… You know about the milk and how many babies got sick?”

What she was getting at was her feelings toward China’s food safety. I’ve been realizing that there’s a great amount of pride and love for this country, but there is also a sense of distrust. A feeling that things are not safe, that people who should be protecting them are careless and apathetic to the wellbeing of their own countrymen. Even though China is developing in many ways and succeeding in its own right, people here are angered, impatient at the fact that things can be, and should be, better.

What I miss

Summer in Canada 03

Originally uploaded by april.fong4

Back in Shanghai and having a hard time settling down.

That probably has a lot to do with the fact that I’m homeless at the moment. My good pal Sofia, thankfully, has given me a place to stay throughout this apartment-searching debacle. I’ve been back for a little over a week and have slept in four different places — my friend Martha’s, then Sofia’s, followed by my ‘new apartment’, and then my cousin Debbie’s hotel after I was terrified about going back to the apartment I had just signed a one-year lease for.

I moved in and out within five days. There were bugs, the bed was a box of rocks, and I was met with a pile of garbage in front of my ‘lao fangzi’ (old apartment) every time I walked outside. I only slept there one night and never wanted to go back.

I’ve been missing home a little bit. Post-Canada blues, I supposed. Wishing that I could be spending time with my good ol’ Oakville friends again (some of whom are in the photo above because I can only blog through flickr now) and dim suming with my parents, Jasmine and Grandma. I’m also missing the excitement of last month when I was at the Olympics in Beijing, and wishing that I was still living in the Fudan dorm with my best friends Jeff and Dave like last semester.

Lots to adjust to this time around.

Mancini, the movies and me

I’ve become estranged from the cinema this year. That whole movie theatre experience where you sit comfortably in cushy chairs with your friends — a bag of fresh-popped popcorn in one hand, the big screen  sprawled across the wall in front of you. After all, I’ve been living in a land of one-dollar pirated DVDs. Why pay $10 if all I have to do is wait a week, buy it across the street, and pop it into my laptop?

But I’ve missed going to the movies since I’ve been away. So imagine my delight last night when my good pal Melissa Mancini and I went to see Mama Mia!

Apparently two editions of the movie were released — the first, a normal film version; the second, a limited sing-along edition. Thank goodness Mancini picked to watch the former. I mean, really. Would you be able to sit through this: “For a limited time, audiences at specially selected theaters are invited to bring friends and family to experience the smash hit movie musical in a whole new way by singing along to the songs they love. Mamma Mia!: The Sing-Along Edition will feature the lyrics to every musical number on the screen, and you are invited to sing and dance along. Join in on all your familiar favorites like “Dancing Queen,” “S.O.S.,” “Money, Money, Money,” “Take a Chance on Me,” “Lay All Your Love on Me,” “Voulez-Vous” and all the others from the film!”

Sounds like my idea of hell. That, and going to a Nickelback concert, but that’s a whole other story. I guess, at the very least, hearing diehard fans singing along to Pierce Brosnan’s rendition of their favourite Abba hits would have kept me awake.

A change, here and there

There are a few reasons why it’s always nice to come back home.

Obviously nothing tops being with my family, my dog and everything that’s familiar. Ah yes, then there’s the green, the clear blue skies and beauty of open spaces in Canada. Sometimes though — just sometimes — all of these things just cannot make up for the suburban boredom I endure.

Then, there are the little changes. The things I just haven’t been able to get used to upon my return:

- I now have to put in 50 cents to make a local call on a pay phone. Are you kidding me Bell Canada? I had enough problems scrambling for change to give you that quarter. In China, it costs me about one-tenth of a penny to make a call. Give me a break.

- The first news I came home to? Maple Leaf Foods — three deaths (now 12) in Canada after listeriosis outbreak. And I thought food in China was sketchy.

- $1.27/L to pump gas in Toronto. Geezus. I can’t even imagine what Vancouver is going through.

- It’s only the end of August and it’s already starting to get cold. All the clothes I packed are pretty much useless here. Autumn just comes far too soon in Canada.