This is a shorter working week in China . And that is the end of this week the Chinese, and those who are not Chinese but we live here, we enjoy a long bridge on the occasion of 端午节 (Duan Wu Jie, or in English, Dragon Boat Festival, or Feast of the Dragon) which is celebrated each year on the fifth day of the fifth Chinese lunar month, which this year falls on May 28.
Well today I went to buy some meat to the market, when I found my butcher just preparing traditional foods of the upcoming feast: the zongzi. A ball of rice, or rather pyramid of rice with different fillings and wrapped in a bamboo leaf.
From what I have seen today, and contrary to what I thought, these zongzi, are prepared within the sheet with the uncooked rice, uncooked, and is a seasoned and tied again when cooked.
She was using to fill a kind of dried fruit, like prunes, a mixture of grain, as peas and beans, but China and, surprisingly, a salami sausage that smelled and told me it was meat that is prepared and dry in winter (ie, salami Chinese).
The truth is that she was preparing had a very tasty pint, and told me to come back tomorrow, which will be ready to eat.
Until then let's see how this delicacy is prepared Asia:
More than a senior Communist Party of China must have today a major headache ... or a rather sore.
And that is what that may cause this discomfort? Well, today's news is already published in English in Hong Kong, which will be published in Chinese by the end of this month, the memories of Zhao Ziyang, former leader Communist Party of China when it unleashed the slaughter of Tiananmen in 1989, and was also one of the fathers of economic reforms in China, although credit history has been just pointed to Deng Xiaoping.
In relation to their ideas of reform Zhao was much more liberal than conservative Deng, which was, in hindsight, the whole merit. In his book, Zhao says things like: "We can say that if a country wants to modernize, it should not only implement the market economy but also should adopt a parliamentary democracy and political system. " Makes sense, right? What do crow had sung in China if he had not removed this political promise? That'll never know, but your insurance incendiary book promises to unravel many unknowns about it.
And is that these reports come at the worst or the best of times, it depends on who you ask, when there are few weeks for the 20 th anniversary of the incident that shocked the world that the party has been trying to cover two decades and will be held on June 4.
The book in question is called "Prisoner of the State: The Secret Diary of Zhao Ziyang."
Zhao was expelled from the Party after his support for students during the demonstrations before the outbreak of the military crackdown in the capital of China. Zhao was also the only one opposed, unsuccessfully to impose martial law to control the protests.
Since being fired, Zhao was under house arrest for 15 years until he died in 2005 without recognition by the Party and state funeral without him were matched according to their rank.
The book, published 4 years after his death, was edited from 30 hours of tapes secretly recorded by former Communist leader during his house arrest and were smuggled out of the country, reports Reuters news agency.
To prevent the Party of theirs made to bury the memories of Zhao, the project has remained entirely in secret, then, that according to statements Zhao's daughter to the BBC, not even she knew nothing about the book.
It, Zhao says, "In the night of June 3, while sitting in my backyard with my family, I heard heavy gunfire. A tragedy that will impact the world has not been avoided, and it is finally happening. "
Zhao opposed the repressive measures taken by the government against student demonstrators in Beijing's central square. Beijing acted because they are scared out of hand and end up with the power as was happening in the communist governments of Eastern Europe, which were collapsing now.
But in his memoirs Zhao statement "I told myself to go and off I refused to become the Secretary General of the Communist Party mobilized the military to repress to students. "
According to sources, the morning of May 19, hours after martial law was declared, Zhao appeared in the Plaza Tian An Men armed with a megaphone and tried to tears convince students, also without success, to leave the square. "I have come too late. You can not continue. We were young and also had similar bursts of energy. We have also organized demonstrations and I remember that situation. Neither of us thought of consequences." This act sentenced her career and was never seen in public.
In his memoirs, Zhao also ensures that what students wanted was that the party amend its errors and not topple as senior believed at the time, a impatience and insecurity that triggered the bloody repression of the data are not official and is still taboo today in China.
Already
who says that the distribution of "Prisoner of the State: The Secret Diary of Zhao Ziyang" was banned in mainland China, but I still I'm sure it will find its way into the blogosphere breaking through China, and promises to unveil much information on one of the key figures who lived the, since then globally controversial events that fortunately has not taken his secrets to the grave.
There is much to say, tell and reflect, not only on the antecedents and consequences, but also on the spiral of silence surrounding the historic moment from then.
But that issue, as you deserve, we will treat in another post.
You are a police officer for more data, the public security bureau Shaodong County, in the southern province of Hunan. You have a daughter, expected only because of the family planning policy the Chinese Communist Party government. But apparently, your only rod has proved a little dunce and suspended the entrance exam to university (which in Spain before the selectivity would be .. I think now even that) and of course, the limited success of your daughter will make you lose face in front of your friends and colleagues, because in China the achievements or personal losses are only intended to fill with pride or shame to the parents, and are not as related to individuality such as can be understood in West. In China, if you stopped, the fault lies with your parents who have failed to educate yourself well, and not your own because you have not been able to hit the books and focus on your studies.
The case is that as a police officer with guanxi (contacts and plugs) and access to official papers, with the failure of your daughter you have three options:
a) reprimand the summer and punish not get to explore more next year so you can repeat and passing the examination and enter university. (What makes you keep losing face because your daughter has not been able to enter university in their first year.)
b) give written off and get a job as a foot model or a cashier in a supermarket . (What makes you keep losing face because your daughter has not been able to go to college.)
c) falsifies official documents, steal the identity of one of her classmates who do that have worked hard and has taken good grades to make his way from his rural origins, and make your daughter go to college of all all, but you have to start calling her instead of Mary Ann.
What they do not guess that option elected Mr. Wang Zhengrong? Award! Zhengrong chose answer C, thus ensuring that his daughter, though not deserve it, have a university position, condemning her classmate to another year of college to return to do a test already approved.
This is exactly what happened in 2004 Caixia Luo, who realized that something strange was happening with his identity when he went to a bank to try to ask for a credit card and is rejected because it appears that personal data belonging to another person.
Thereafter, Caixia is trying to put a solution to the problem of identity through legal channels, because it says you can not ask school certificates or other official documents that need because these have already been sent to another person using his name.
But deep time puts everyone in their place, Luo Caixia got its deserved place at another university, and Wang Zhengrong police has been arrested and charged with counterfeiting and forgery of documents and official seals ... and, I suppose someone should accuse me of identity theft also.
But what the father wanted to live knowing that his daughter should not have what was and was ruining the life of another poor child? Although surely the daughter has neither say in this case, how would you feel knowing that his father was so ashamed of it that changed his identity by a fellow smarter though less graceful social status?
And in the end the father, not knowing how to face your reality, and try not to lose face, lost to freedom. Moral
a): Next time fake notes but do not steal identities, you can discover.
Moral b): If your daughter is very smart, or just a vague, go through with, encourage her to be good at something that is within their possibilities, or to focus on their studies, and love her as well.
In Beijing, it is not uncommon to find the next picture in the subway or on any sidewalk in the middle of the street:
1. A young couple from, apparently, 25 and 35 years (with the Chinese never know), stand unemployed. She shouted in a shrill voice and making a fuss, and he, with his head down, without question, holding the shower while the others were bystanders Chinese look and laugh.
There is another variant, the 2, less noisy, which consists of her standing up, visibly very angry pouting which nursery in the middle of the street, refusing to reopen the pass, and he trying to convince her to move, to what grabs her arm, which carries incensed she is released with a quick gesture and , or begins to mourn, or we return to option number 1.
These episodes, which are frequently say, I am amazed every time I see and I tend to sympathize with the poor boyfriend who passed the 20 has to continue dealing with a girlfriend who acts as if I had 6. Although scabies is known to taste ... they do not bite. The only thing that bothers me is not to understand Chinese to see what the failure so severe that the groom had committed to deserve such a public reprimand.
The case, today I found a video that is causing a stir in the blogosphere China, in which the protagonists are, apparently, a couple from Shanghai, who have passed the 35 by far, at least he, and ride the stunt at a dealership.
She decides she wants a car, he said he was not going to buy the car, not hit, she gets angry and responded with shouts and bad ways yes, it is clear that the car hit, he argues every time you go shopping is the same, that is not going to buy the car ... all this to the seller ojiplático ... and then ... the calibrated it gets into the car and started "driving" for front and back into the dealership to ignore the boyfriend and the seller that the urge to get out of the car. The groom, not if moved by shame or anger, begins to scream! "Stop, stop, and buy it, buy it now" (wo mai le!, Wo mai le!) While pulling the credit card , it shows the woman and gives the salesperson goes to the counter to make your purchase. But look
images, which have no waste.
The video, which was posted on the Internet for 4 months and has had over 1.7 million hits and has created some controversy.
Some say that the couple does not appear to be in Shanghai for what Mandarin speaking is not the Shanghainese dialect. Others say it may be just a viral marketing product dealer or car brand to advertise, and there are even those who, believing the story, applauds women because in the end got what it wants ... I ... I just hallucinate .
few days, but there are less, I wake up with little patience for these people. I twitch their ways, I negated his way of doing things, and it frustrates me the lack of fluidity in communication.
Other days, the more I feel at home, walking around my neighborhood, touring the Hutongs, recognizing the corners, and being finally able to discern what is, whether this or that, the side Street North. Something (to get my bearings as the cardinal points) which no doubt I can do in my beloved English capital, but that has proved indispensable, and very fun and rewarding by the way, in China's capital.
But there is another kind of days, like today, where I feel not only comfortable, if not happy and excited to live in this intriguing, complicated, yet simple, changing and fascinating city.
And is that a day like today, I see myself smiling in the streets and people, seat and delighted to share life with this ancient Asian breed.
On a day like today, fall short of positive adjectives.
Yes, the Chinese burp and spit on the street.
Yes, public restrooms smell bad (but at least there).
Yes, sometimes the way of thinking of the Chinese appears inconceivable.
Yes, sometimes this is a maddening country.
But no, I'm tired of living here.
I never get tired of waking up every morning with the challenge of overcoming that is communicated.
I never tire of exposing a culture so unknown that has so much to convey.
I never tire of learning something new every day helps me understand the diversity of life and the human mind. How changing conceptions of existence at different points on Earth and how the differences are more rewarding than problematic. How not everything is as I understand it and I've learned, what helps me grow as a person.
tired I value what I have through the contrast with the scale of traditional Chinese values.
I never get tired of opening my view trying to understand the logic of the dragon.
I never tire of reading problems and make the criticism. Above all, I never tire of seeing the progress, development and changes country.
As an adult who gets excited watching the faltering steps of a child begins to walk, so we feel we want to China, soon to be 60 years of nationhood. And even if you stumble, fall, is wrong and make mistakes, we see up and retake the pass.
I could not find photos yesterday about the memorial that opened to mark the first anniversary of Terrmoto Sichuan left dead or missing to 90,000 people and displaced another 15 million.
As you can see the clock, which is located in Wenchuan, the epicenter of the disaster, is split at 2.28 (pm), exact time held the 7.9 magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale, which could feel his strength up in Beijing, even when two cities separated by 2000 miles away.
First Anniversary Wenchuan Earthquake in Sichuan China II
exactly one year ago, a devastating earthquake shook the lives of millions of people in China, leaving behind 90,000 people dead or missing and 15 million displaced, according to official data.
Today 12 months later, he remembers the disaster that shocked the country Asia in the countdown to the Beijing Olympics last summer.
The earthquake measuring 7.9 degrees on the Richter scale, devastated the center of China and it was noted even in the capital, located at 2000 miles away. Today various commemorations were held in different parts of the country.
In Wenchuan, the epicenter of the earthquake, has opened a sculpture of a watch party at 2.28, exact time the earthquake broke out in a ceremony attended by President Hu Jintao and other government leaders.
Beichuan, one of the cities hardest hit by the tragedy, where only 4000 of the 22000 residents managed to survive, has become a tourist spot and pilgrimage where the Chinese come to see with their own eyes ruins of the devastated city.
The new Beichuan and supervivivientes be moved to 23 km from its old location, and the ruins will be rebuilt on a memorial to that history will remember one of the worst natural disasters to which China has faced in decades.
No one will forget and be forgotten. This is how the country is expressed in an anniversary that has the memory of a nation that joined before the disaster that was hard to cope with the tragedy.
But this is not the opinion of the parents of more than 5300 children who perished under the rubble of the many schools that collapsed in Sichuan today a year ago. The parents blamed local government corruption and building wings, allegedly raised their schools poor quality control standards. The government promised an inquiry into the causes that led to many centers school to collapse, but far from giving an explanation, Beijing has ensured that there was a human error and you can not blame anyone for it.
While continuing the reconstruction efforts that are expected to be given for completion in September next year, China will remember this day as one of the darkest in its modern history.
