Junjie’s China blog

How I discovered China

It was some day in 1995, or maybe 1996, definitely before Hong Kong became Chinese, I’m not really sure about the exact year, when a life changing decision was made. Not made by myself, as at that time all important decisions were made by my parents for me. My mum decided I had to accompany her on a Hong Kong trip as a English German translator.

View from Hong Kong peak, taken on in 2008. My old Hong Kong photos are all printed on paper.

I had a number of serious concerns, mostly because I didn’t know better. I only knew China from news reports, where they showed some hungry souls. I didn’t even know Hong Kong was not China at that time. So I thought our holiday would be without electricity, water, heating or eatable food. I even was concerned if we were going to stay in a hotel room or under the open sky. Furthermore, I was seriously concerned about becoming a political prisoner at my young age. Why? Because China imprisons people randomly, they said on TV. See what TV propaganda can make young people believe! At that time there was no wikipedia to check facts. We didn’t even have internet in our house at all. Maybe we were the backward people.

We did make a democratic voting: I voted for staying at home. Two other people of my family voted for me to go on this trip. Me going to China had won the elections. My dad stayed at home. He didn’t want to go, although he voted for me going there. So my mum and me joined a travel group of about 20 people visiting Hong Kong.

As I said I’m not sure if it was 1995 or 1996, but I do know it was December around Christmas time and we would spend the new year in Hong Kong. We flew from Zurich, Switzerland and the first surprise was that the airline fucked up big time. We had to wait at the airport the whole day. But we did get a reward for all the waiting, as we were told later.

For all those Hong Kong-greenhorns reading my blog: At that time the international airport of Hong Kong was Kai Tak (启德机场 – cantonese: Kai2 dak1 gei1 coeng4), which indeed was the most exiting airport that ever existed. And in retrospect I’m so happy that I could land there, sitting at the window at the right side of the plane. Seconds before the landing the plane makes an 50 degree turn to the right, the right wing pointing seriously to the ground. It seems like the buildings at the side of the plane are higher, than the plane itself is flying. I didn’t have any digital camera equipment at that time, let alone a mobile phone, but someone else did:

There’s no other airport than Kai Tak where the plane makes a 50 degree turn to the right seconds before landing

When I looked out of the window while flying over the city of Hong Kong I was positively surprised. No farms! Instead modern multistory buildings, some with luxury swimming pools on the top. On the first day this city took over my mind. I was seriously impressed. Everything was so modern, compared to Germany. The weather was awesome. Hot and humid in mid December. And you can buy all the cool fashion for fair prices.

I was also surprised how beautiful the women of China are. So much better than the German women. And the clothes they are wearing are also much skimpier, which could be result of the hot weather and the lack of unhealthy fast food. Equal to the beauty of the women was the taste of the local food. Strangely I was the only one of our travel group, who ate everything that was put on the table.

Then there was the new year party. As I mentioned previously, the airline had a few hours delay and therefore they sponsored a full blow new years party in a luxury restaurant including a all you can eat buffet of lobster and many other delicious specialties. I wonder why I didn’t get the same treatment when I got delayed 12 hours on my Chengdu trip 2007.

We also made a short trip to Guangzhou (广州), a real communist city at that time. This communist city impressed me the least. When I was standing in front of our Guangzhou hotel, I could barely see the top floor because there was only little air between all those dust particles in the atmosphere. Our tour guide said it was a natural phenomenon, not man made. I guess he was right: Naturally coming out of all the fires burning along the railroad track that brought us to Guangzhou. On the positive side, Guangzhou was the place where I fell in love with authentic Chinese food. I can’t remember what was on the table, but I can say for sure: It tasted great.

Although this trip was overwhelmingly impressive, my memories got blurry after a while, yet I never totally forgot about the trip. It took about ten years until I finally started to learn Chinese, and I’m sure that this China trip played a major role in my decision to learn Chinese. Therefore I’m really thankful that I could make that trip. This is how I discovered China. To everyone reading this: If you haven’t visited China yet, go there immediately. It could also change your life.

Posted in China in General, Hong Kong | 4 Comments »

Disadvantages of a Chinese name in online discussions

A Chinese name is a must have for any Westerner who visits China. So I was told. I’ve experimented with some Chinese names, but since then I have given up on using a Chinese name. Although my real European name is hard to pronounce for Chinese, after five minutes of training most Chinese can do it.

However on this blog I still use a Chinese name I’ve also used while in China before. I’ve kept this name on the blog, because I want to keep a little bit of privacy here. And it does give me some privacy. Unfortunately there are disadvantages connected to a Chinese name when used online. Here’s the problem: When I add a comment to some online discussion, most people think I’m a Chinese guy and I have to explain to them I’m not. It can be fun at some moments, yet it’s confusing in more serious discussions and it always takes some extra time for pointing this out.

Maybe I should find a Western name for myself. Not my real name, but some pseudonym. Or maybe a Chinese name, that shows I’m not Chinese. Like for example: Laowai. Or maybe: Waiguoguizi. Don’t know what to do about this really. Any recommendations?

Posted in China in General | 7 Comments »

Yolearnchinese.com only available from 11pm to 6am Central European Time

Another post totally unrelated to China, but I have to talk about it. One of our politicians in charge of the harmonious German society, Ursula von der Leyen, has proposed a new law to make the internet more safe for minors. This law has not yet been approved, but if it will be approved, then the Chinese internet is an oasis of freedom. Here is what might happen:

Basically I have to rate my website to which age it is appropriate. I can choose between sitewide oder per page rating. Unfortunately it is to much work to make sure, all my articles including all posted comments by all my readers are safe for a certain age group. I’m not an legal expert, so I can’t really rate every piece of text without making mistakes. Bottom line is, I label my whole site suitable for people 18 years and older.

But there is the downside of this. If I label my website for people aged 18, I have to make sure, only people at least 18 years old access my content. Either I ask everyone to send me a copy of their passport and give them accounts, or alternatively, I only make my site only available from 11pm to 6am Central European Time. German internet law sucks! Let’s hope Ursula fails with her bullshit internet censorship.

More information available at Arbeitskreis Zensur (German).

Posted in Various stuff | 8 Comments »

Princess Remy Podcast

To learn Chinese requires learning material. A few weeks ago I’ve introduce one of my recommended Chinese listening materials: popupchinese.com. While Popupchinese is a guided lesson, it does cost money. Today I’ll introduce another resource, which is free (as in free beer) but less guided. Anyhow, this is still one of my favorites.

Princess Remy, Chinese name: 黑米公主, is a women from Taiwan who came to Austria as some kind of exchange student. She reports about her life in Austria in Mandarin Chinese with a slight Taiwanese accent. These are quite funny and the level is acceptable. Depending on the topic I can understand a bit of it, but sometimes when she discusses more advanced stuff I have to surrender. Overall I don’t understand very much, but it’s good to hear a lot of clear Mandarin.

Princess Remy is perfect if you just need massive amounts of Mandarin Chinese in your ear. The sound quality is mostly very good, although I have to remind everyone this is a private podcast and not produced in a professional environment. Considering this, the podcast is of outstanding sound quality. Each podcast of 黑米公主 is about 3 to 5 minutes, focusing on one topic each, which is just fine for learning.

Download more than 500 podcasts: princessremy.net

Posted in Learn Chinese | 1 Comment »

google.cn will show uncensored results or close for good

Yesterday Google made an announcement. They are no longer willing to censor their search results on Google.cn. They want to talk to the government if it is possible to show unfiltered results or close their China operations. On the official Google blog there is a post about the details: A new approach to China.
Here is the main part of their message:

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

Update: While the intellectual elite is rather sad about the ongoing events, the masses of the uneducated seem rather happy: They celebrate the pull out of the US spies from the harmonized harmonious country or they say that Google just couldn’t keep up with Baidu and tries to get out before they loose face.

If Baidu is that superior, then why is it that popular only in China? Why don’t the people outside of China use Baidu?

Posted in China in General | 13 Comments »

6th sense is in development

This is so off topic, but it is so cool, I just have to post it

Posted in Various stuff | No Comments »

CYBERsitter LLC files $US 2,200,000,000 suit against Peoples Republic of China and others

The US company CYBERsitter LLC produces a software called Cybersitter which is supposed to protect minors from the evil of the internet. In spring 2009 the government of the Peoples Republic of China announced the introduction of Green Dam a software to protect the Chinese people from freedom and the evil of the internet. Zhengzhou Jinhui Computer System Engineering Ltd. and Beijing Dazheng Human Language Technology Academy Ltd., the companies which created the software, did evil. They stole parts of the algorithms from Cybersitter and used them in the Green Dam software. CYBERsitter LLC found out about it and asked everyone involved to stop distributing the software. Nothing happened, so CYBERsitter LLC filed a suit worth about $US 2,200,000,000 (that’s 2.2 Billion) against all involved companies and the Peoples Republic of China, which ordered the companies to develop, install, distribute and use the Green Dam software.

As a basis for calculation CYBERsitter LLC uses the price for a single copy of Cybersitter, which is worth $US 39.95. As approximately 56 million Green Dam copies were distribute in China so far, the total damage to CYBERsitter LLC is about …. well it’s $US 2.2 Billion. Sony, Lenovo, Toshiba, ACER, ASUSTeK, BenQ also have to face the charge, as they distributed Green Dam while knowing about the copyright infringements.

Green Dam software configuration screen, can even filter gay topics like outdated communist military march music.

Barack Obama must be happy now: 2.2 Billion could save some jobs in the USA, and some helpful tax-money will find its way into the desolate national budget. Let’s see what Mr. “harmonious society” Wen has to say on this matter in front of the court in Santa Barbara, California, USA.

The story was originally posted at PCMAG.

Posted in China in General | 3 Comments »

Review: Popup Chinese

Learning Chinese is en vogue and with the recent rise of the Chinese economy it might be the next big thing. However I remember the time when I started out, that was in late September 2007. At that time the possibilities for learning Chinese online can be best described as unorganized. Of course there were dictionaries. However structured learning material was well hidden on some university websites or just incomplete. I had to stick to those ever boring books. Times have changed.

Just before Christmas I got a hint to look at Popup Chinese. As I’m always looking for better methods to learn Chinese, I gave it a try. So let’s answer the important questions: What is Popup Chinese? and: Is Popup Chinese a useful product?

What is Popup Chinese? Popup Chinese is a website to support your Chinese learning through various teaching methods, most importantly podcasts. For people like me podcasts have a special meaning in the learning diet. While people in a Chinese speaking environment just can speak Chinese anytime, others have to use alternatives. I can just download a podcast and put it into my BlackBerry and listen to it anytime. The Popup Chinese podcasts come in different flavors, from absolute beginners to really challenging ones. Apart from a dialog, grammar is discussed and helpful comments shed light on the correct translation. I feel very comfortable with the Elementary dialogs, however the Intermediate dialogs are already challenging to me. Hopefully I can get there soon.

Furthermore, Popup Chinese provides transcripts, which can be used to make sure you understood everything right. They have additional exercises for those who want to prepare for the HSK, and also some miscellaneous stuff.

The dialogs are fresh, interesting, surprising and definitely different from what you get from the average textbook. I’m really surprised by this in a positive way. There are very natural, dialogs like they could happen any day and a wide range of topics is provided. The only thing I dislike a little is, they often speak with a Beijing accent, with a lot of 儿-sounds. I’ve learned mandarin in Kunming and Chendu, both places with very little 儿-sounds. This is a question of personal taste, but I guess the exposure to different accents can only be helpful to me.

Conclusion: If you are looking for a podcast to support your Chinese learning, then Popup Chinese might be right for you. It’s right for me as a supplemental tool while I’m moving around and can’t use my time in any other way. A good selection of topics and difficulty levels help to find appropriate material and supplemental exercises on the website help learning effectively. You should give it a try. They have a free trial so you don’t buy a pig in a poke.

Website: http://popupchinese.com/

Posted in Various stuff | 3 Comments »