Tidbits From the World

September has been a busy month. September 1st was the first day of class. I started level 4 of Chinese (out of 6 levels) and this semester, I noticed that the teachers are giving us more and more ideological (communist) or nationalistic (Chinese) examples to explain the meaning of new words. For example, in order to explain to us the meaning of the verb:

让步 (make concessions), the teacher used the following example: “Over the question of Taiwan and Tibet independence, we Chinese, must never make any concessions (让步) to foreigners!”

For the word: “recognize” (公认):
“We recognize (公认) president Mao as the greatest leader China has ever had!”

For the verb: “to interfere” (干涉):
“China will never accept foreign countries to interfere (干涉) in its interior affairs”.

Last July, riots sparked by racial tensions resulted in the death of hundreds of people. After the intervention of the police and the return to calm, according to some reports, some Uighur terrorists started to prick people with syringes, apparently as a way to attack people without attracting suspicion from the authorities. This method propagated into many cities in China, including Xi’an. On this picture, the suspect is not a Uighur as one would expect, but a Han (the ethnic majority). And she doesn’t target any minority in particular (but rather women and old people).

The poster of a suspect wanted by the police:

嫌疑人刻画：女，年龄： 30-40岁，
身高：160-165cm, 黑色长发
披肩或扎马辫，本地口音或普通话，
瓜子脸，体型较瘦，身挎大包，
单肩包或超市购物袋。
作案方式：在公交车上利用上下
车拥挤背包中针扎人。
侵害人群：妇女和老人。

Description of the suspect: Woman, between 30 and 40 years old,
Height: 160 to 165cm (5′3” to 5′5”), long, black hair.
Local accent, speaks Mandarin,
Oval face, carries a big bag,
A strap bag or a plastic bag.
Modus operandi: enters crowded buses
and uses the syringe in her back pack to prick people.
Targets: Women and Old People

September 18 was the anniversary of the Japanese invasion of China in 1933. On that day, anti-raid sirens from all over the country rang out during one minute. Some old people took advantage of that day to write hate messages on the walls with chalk, directed at the Japanese.

October 1st will be the 60th anniversary of communist rule in China. As it is written on this poster: “no pain, no gain”, indeed the first 30 years were quite harsh… The Chinese characters are written in their traditional form 我愛中華60年/我爱中华60年 (I love China, 60 years). I wonder why they used English for their design of this patriotic poster. Very few people in Xi’an can understand this message in English.

The entrance to the University.

To prevent an outbreak of H1N1, the body guards at the entrance of the campus take the body temperature of each person entering, using a contactless thermometer. Those who are discovered having a fever will be escorted to the district hospital where they will be quarantined. A police officer is present in the morning to make sure that all the procedures are properly followed. In order to leave the campus, one must have a special authorization from their program director. For those who live off campus, it is easy to obtain that authorization, however for those who live on campus, in the dormitory, it is much more difficult.

Each year, on September the 11th, in the United States, everyone recalls the 2001 attacks that killed over three thousand people. In Chile, people remember the 1973 coup that occured on the same date. On August the 6th, in Japan, people remember the atomic bomb that was launched on Hiroshima in 1945; on August 25th, France celebrates the anniversary of the liberation of Paris against the Nazis. War and violence belong to history. All countries have suffered at some point in their history from them. On September 18th, in China, people recall the Japanese attack that took place in 1931, that was the precursor to the Sino-Japanese war that took the lives of millions of Chinese people and lasted 14 years.

On September 18th, all the sirens of the country rang, exactly as they did on this September day of 1931… But at the difference of what happened in 1931, in 2008 everybody had been notified in advance that the sirens would ring. Therefore, there was no wave of panic. Nobody would pay attention to the sirens and all resumed their lives without thinking about it. I felt as if I was witnessing the calm before the storm. The sirens would ring very loudly. It seemed like an imminent attack was going to take place.. that the tall towers under construction would remain unfinished… But dogs were not scared, tricycles continued to ride around the city…

The cellphone repairman was waiting for his clients while calmly reading his newspaper.

Dogs were shamelessly copulating in front of everybody!

Meanwhile (actually 12 hours later), exactly at the antipodes from Xi’an, in Santiago de Chile, Chileans were celebrating their National Day, as always on september the 18th.