English Not Spoken Here- New Language Restrictions in China

File this one under “China openining up, then quickly closing…”
In the excerpt below, China has announced that English words, or their usage in Chinese magazines, media, etc, must be standardized. On the face of it, it seems benign, but if you look deeper it may be more telling. Could it be that be, vz uncle chicom are nervous as they do not have the same English language skills as many of the yoiunger people. The princelings and those groomed to be the next chinese communist leaders may not know as much about nuance in english and thus are fearful that its unbridled usage could thwart the communist party’s attempts at censoring all things media…

“BEIJING – Chinese media organizations and publishers are banned from randomly mixing foreign languages with Chinese in publications. When it is necessary to use foreign phrases or words, they should be accompanied by a translation or explanation in Chinese, according to a new regulation.
The regulation was issued on Monday by the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) with the aim of standardizing the use of language in newspapers and other publications, particularly when foreign languages are employed.The administration said the increasingly random appearance of foreign words and abbreviations, especially English, in publications is damaging the Chinese language.”

Chinese Traffic

A mild traffic day in China.

Snoozing Salesman in China

Here is a shot from Chongqing China. The guy was snoozing but played it off when he heard me before him.

The Truth About Working in China

Working in China can be a very cool thing, or it can totally suck ass.On the cool side, how many of your friends and family can say they’ve done it, or even been here. On the negative side, how many of them can relate that today you stepped in human feces on the way to work… (true). Well I guess we take the bad with the good.
Anyway, if you decide to come to the center country (China) and you should, just be prepared. Part of that preparation should include bringing all the quality goods you will need for your stay. One of my problems was to think I could get cool gadgets here at a good price. You can get cool stuff here, but its either fake , or more expensive back home. Also, the clothing is horrible in terms of quality and they will not have your size if you are built like normal lman. You should also bring reading materials, ie any magazine you enjoy as you will never find them here.

Beore you come, you sould investigate your company very well and have a look at the employment agreement. If you can score a job with a foreign firm (ie. not chinese) I strongly suggest this option- more on this later. If you have an employment contract and work in a large city, then its much easier to get the contract enforced when the chinese company breaks it- and they will. The foreign company will set you up with the appropriate visa , and then your time here will be relatively trouble free. The people will treat you well, often times with more respect than you may deserve, and you will have few problems, if any. You will not be subjected to the fierce scrutiny that your Chinese peers are, and irrespective of your actual talents, will have an elevated level of status in their eyes, due to the color of your skin, and your country of origin. Chinese are fond of Americans, Germans, French, English, Koreans, and most of western Europe.

Working for a Chinese company. Here is the skinny on working for a Chinese company. Dont! If at all possible, try not to do so. I am being honest, even the Chinese do not wnat to work for them. Its not as if they will single you out to treat poorly, its that they treat everyone like dirt. I currently have a friend in Hebei, his contract was amended without his consent and he is being paid less than he’d agreed upon. He is happier than his peers, however as they have yet to recieve a pay check, after 3 months work. If they decide to quit, they must pay 30,000rmb (US4000) per their contract as a penalty. I have done some work with many chinese who were friends and had no problems, I have also done work with two large Chiense companies, one a jv and one 100% Chinese, and got screwed each time(my USA company has never screwed me). Another guy I know who is a prof, also got screwed recently, he was telling me of some fo the organizations for which he’d worked and what had happened to him, its never pretty.
The key is to get something secure, to ensure that your initial time here is safe and fun, and then explore on your own. Many large firms will hire everything from editors, to writers, to actors, or models, you merely have to be open and give it a shot.

China View

Here is a man collecting recyclables. Supposedly these people can make around U$5 -10 per day.

Toxic Chinese Food

Here is a great list of all that is wrong with Chinese food, I believe its a few years old.
Fromchinascope via, chinaview.wordpress.com

It was reported and widely reprinted in Chinese official websites and Blogs that there are 55 kinds of toxic food in China, ranging from daily rice, flour, vegetables, meat and eggs, fruits to famous seasonings and gradients, formulations, etc. [1, 2] Vegetables with very toxic residual pesticide were labeled as “harmless” vegetables and widely sold.

A. Rice, Flour and manufactured food (4)

1. Highly Carcinogen rice (old rice, rice for peasant workers) and manufactured food made of such rice. Eating this kind of rice will lead to nausea, vomiting, and cancer in the long-run.
2. Bleached flour: contains excessive amount of oxidized benzoformyl, causing fatigue, dizzy, amenesia, more dreams and neuroasthenia
3. Black-hearted moon cake – moon cakes with fertilizers
4. Dumplings made with unwanted meat and unwashed cabbages in Xinda Food Factory, Town of Panzhuang, Ninghe County, Tianjin City[3]

B. Meat and eggs (9)

1. Taicang Meat Floss made of meat from dead pig and mother pig, mixed with large amount of pea powder and bleached with hydrogen peroxide, and added with additives, food colors to make the meat floss looking good
2. Chicken/duck meat, pork and milk with large amount of chloramphenicol, oxytetracycline
3. Muscle-type pork feed with Clenbuterol
4. Convenience food with brine or smoked meat from sick-dead animals;
5. Mule meat posing as Pingyao Beef
6. Jinhua Ham submerged in Dichlorvos
7. Toxic sausage in Taixin city, Jiangsu province
8. Toxic “peasants” food in Wenzhou, Fujian province
9. Red yold eggs from hens feed with CAROPHYLL®Red

C. Vegetables and fruits (10)

1. Vegetables with excessive residual pesticide- “harmless” vegetables in Zhangbei county, Hebei province with highly-toxic residual pesticide, such as omethoate and methamidophos. These vegetables were labeled “harmless” and claimed to have never been sprayed with pesticides. These pesticides were used because they are cheap and strong, making good-looking vegetables that sales very well. The peasants told the journalists that they never eat these vegetables. [4]
2. Potatoes smoked by sulfur
3. Sichuan kimchi preserved by prohibited industry salt
4. Toxic leeks sprayed by “3911″ pesticide, these leeks are thicker, wider, longer and with deeper color
5. “Fresh” shoot preserved by sulfur and industry salt
6. Sinister bean sprouts that were raised using growth hormone, rootless agent, bleached by Na2S2O4 [5]
7. Toxic longans bleached and smoked with sulfur
8. Strawberry and monkey hunting peach (Actinidia) that are fast-matured by growth hormone
9. Dried fruits with large amount of bacteria (100 times higher than national standard)
10. Preserved red dates with formaldehyde

D. Non-staple food, waterishlogged food, seasonings and gradients, formulations (24)

1. Toxic seeds (watermelon, pumpkin, sunflower) processed with mineral oils
2. Smelly Tofu processed by pig excrement
3. Yuba processed by chemical and carcinogens, such as industry gelatin, basic orange (chrysoidine), Rongalite (Sodium Formaldehyde Sulfoxylate)
4. Sweet potato starch noodles processed by rongalite and food colors
5. Longkou vermicelli contains rongalite;
6. Degenerated soy milk
7. Toxic milk powder in Anhui province
8. Rice noodles contains carbolic acid
9. Sanyuan “Quanjia (all good)” Lactobacillus in Shanghai with numerous streptomyces
10. Tremella, red peppers and Pericarpium Zanthoxyli
11. Black fungus (Auricularia auricular) stained with black ink
12. Green teas stained with green color
14. Various waterishlogged foods contains formaldehyde
15. Liquor mixed with industry alcohol
16. “Wine” made of Saccharin and food color
17. Hogwash fat took out from drainages
18. The famous chongqing Hot-pot Seasoning using paraffin as the coagulant
19. Red chili oil soup stock that that are leftovers from thousands of people
20. Toxic lard in Hunan province
21. Extra low price chicken extract
22. Toxic soy sauce processed with hair water
23. Shanxi “Very Old Vinegar” added with industry acetic acid
24. Fruit juice made nearby bathrooms with sorbic acid, potassium sorbate

E. Others (4)

1. “health chopsticks” submerged in sulfur
2. Low quality drinking fountains
3. Unqualified disposable medical devices
4. Numerous counterfeit and fake medicines

Notes:
[1]-[5] please check the original report from ChinaScope.org

Chinese Post

This is a shot outside of one of the local Chinese postal carriers. Each morning they literally throw boxes around, in preparation for the day(I have it on video) They are a pain in the ass to talk to and have to convert eyerything from jin (a barbarica form of weight measurement) to pounds or kilos, to give you a quote, but are good at deliveries. They are pretty quick and efficient.

Hardly at Work in China

Its Christmas time in the center coutnry and that means, parties, alcohol and sloth. Dash all images you have of Chinese slaving over a computer, epitomizing their version of the WASP wok ethic, its Christmas, and they are not doing squat!
At first you may feel good inside, think ‘hey those darned savages have found God’, well my friend that is not the case, and they are not savages, thank you very much. Then you will scratch your head, wonder wtf I am talking about. You have mistakenly thought that the common chinaman is not working hard and is now being slothful due to some beliefs he may have surrounding Christmas. You may think that he , like his bretheren and sisters in the west, is so filled iwth the Holy Spirit that he cannot possibly work. Well, my friend, its just not true.
No siree, Christmas to the typical Chinese’er is nothing more than an opportunity to complain about his workload, wife and only child, then spend mass amounts of cash on cigarettes, alcohocl and KTV hussies. Its the time to espouse that foreign ideal of a bearded fat man entering one’s home to give them presents and call all your relatives and wish them well. Its a time to reflect on what his country would have been if Mao hadnt stolen those 50 years from them. its a time to wonder how in the heck he is going to buy a house with the prices skyrocketing, and how to send his little behavior problem/child overseas to study.
As for the westerners here, its the time to drink egg nog, quaff mass amounts of CO2/chinese air, and thank goodness that one day soon, they will return home, nursing the fond memories of China but basking in the glory that is democracy.

Uploading Vids in China- Help

I dont know if its the Chiense gods, of justice or what, but I cannot upload vids to any site. Or I mean my very good friend cannot upload vids to any site. He has some great vids, one he took today of some ‘typical chinese ‘ behavior, but each time he attempts to upload them, be it to youtube, or metacafe, he cannot do so. This very good friend is using a proxy, does anyone have any advice for him? If so I will gladly pass it along….

Foot Traffic in China

In China you cant drive and even walking can be a challenge.