Living Chinese

I have been using this term quite a bit lately, so I thought you might be interested in what it means to us. I am sure you have all put your own definition to what you think we mean but perhaps a little clarity to elucidate your fuzzification on what we mean when we say "Living Chinese". I believe it can be best defined through a series of small vignettes (stories for you Americans) that will demonstrate the act of "living Chinese". The term defies a single definition, but is more of a condition of life in China. It is not bad or good but always arrives unexpected, yet in the back or your mind it is always expected.
Our China Part Deux has been exceedingly easier for us but it is not been with out it's challenges and our biggest challenge, not being able to read the language. We can be looking for something or some place and one day find it right down the street by accident. It has always been there, plain as the signage it is written on. We however cannot understand the signage so it is easily overlooked in the hurly burly of life. We miss opportunities on a daily basis because we lack the ability to read the darn signs. Since we first arrived in Harbin, we have been walking over 20 blocks to buy peanut butter only to discover last week that it is available and has always been available in a market just off campus. Thankfully Skippy cannot be written in Chinese characters and so was written in pinyin on the sale sign. Pinyin is the Chinese characters translated into sounds using our recognizable alphabet and was done to assist poor Laowai (Pinyin for foreigners) to read Chinese phonetically. Our eyes
were drawn to the sign with the pinyin Skipy on it and voila, a new source of peanut butter.


This year Thanksgiving was arranged by a Newfie laowai ( East Coast Canadian) and was held at the local Holiday Inn. We were promised turkey, mashed potatoes and a bunch of other stuff nobody cared about. Not sure why a Canadian was organizing an American holiday but hey, that's what makes us Canadians. I digress. We arrived early at the hotel and were greeted by the delicious aroma of freshly cooked turkey. There sitting on the counter of the bar was a small (12-15 lbs) beautifully cooked tom ready for carving. Salivating, we impatiently waited for the carving to begin. At the appointed time we rushed the turkey guy who proceed to cut the most miserly portions. No matter how sadly you gazed into his steely eyes and begged for more, he denied every request and continued to mete out tablespoon size portions of turkey. Okay, no problem, we are wise in the ways of the Buffet, we will just go back for seconds, thirds, fourths, fifths and so on and so on. I did not put my Buffet pants on for nothing. The miserly portions were our clue that the hotel had only cooked one turkey. Thankfully we figured it our early and after five or so trips managed to put a little turkey away in a plastic bag for what must have been the smallest turkey sandwich ever seen on a Canadians dinner table. There were over 50 guests for dinner that night and if you arrived a little late, you were forced to choke down some Thanksgiving barbecued chicken brought in from a restaurant around the corner. Of course there was plenty of pork and fried rice so no one went home hungry. Living Chinese.


We held our 2nd All Most Annual HIT Foreign Teachers Ping Pong Tournament this past week. 13 contestants representing over half of the populated world. Winning countries included Russia, America, Japan, and of course no ping pong podium would be complete with out a Chinese member. Congratulations to Abbas, the Powerful Persian. The Iranian powerhouse dominated the American branson in a match that went the distance in the A Division.


Another contest for our regular readers. "Find the Canadians" in the picture above. Name them all, send us an email with all their names and win a chance for some fabulous prizes. I have attached a picture of our previous winners enjoying a prize winning day on the beaches of Hawaii. Congratulations Warners. Who will be next.