Karma's a Bitch

Actually, I guess "Sharon Stone Says Earthquake a Result of Bad Karma" is a more accurate headline, but it's not as catchy. Either way, kind of an insensitive thing to say. She's since issued an apology.

This seems to me to be another instance of someone being unable to separate the Chinese people from Chinese politics. Stone has no idea what the general Chinese person thinks about Tibet, but she's willing to put the bad karma on them. And if she's going to argue instead that the earthquake is bad stuff happening to China because of what its government has done, I'd counter that the earthquake isn't something that directly hurts those in power at all, assuming President Hu Jintao and his crew are as evil as Stone seems to think they are. What do they care about some lost lives? China's got a billion more where that came from. On the upside for the CCP, the earthquake's effectively put a stop to recent criticisms of China--and that's priceless given what the upcoming Olympics mean for this country.

My New Facebook Friend...

...is the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. I hope he'll play Scrabulous with me.

Crazy Eights and Chinese Superstition

The Chinese are normally very superstitious people, but with the international spotlight on them and the Olympics just around the corner, the prophecies of divining rods and tea leaves are getting more and more play around the country.

One theory suggests that the Fuwa, the Olympic mascots, have been omens for China's bad luck this year. To wit:

• Jingjing, the panda, represents Sichuan, the homeland of the animal and, coincidentally, the province just hit by the earthquake.
  
• Huanhuan, a flame, stands for the Olympic torch. It was, of course, the torch relay and the subsequent protests that brought China so much negative publicity in April.
  
• Yingying is an antelope that lives exclusively in Tibet, where riots broke out in March.
  
• Nini is a kite and is meant to represent the province of Shandong, where kites were reputedly invented. It's also the site of a train crash that killed 70 in January.
  
• Beibei is the key to this. It (he/she?) is a sturgeon fish, and Chinese sturgeons are found only in the Yangtze River. Will that, then, be the site of the next disaster (and possibly even during the Olympics)? Or is the water association a link to the massive snow storms that already hit China this winter? Has the worst already happened or is worse about to come?
  

Another theory plays off of the Chinese zodiac. This is the Year of the Rat, and Hu Jintao (China's President) and Wen Jiabao (China's Premier) were both born in the Year of the Horse. According to experts on stuff like this, Rats and Horses don't play well together.

Yet another theory relates to the Chinese love of the number 8 (in Cantonese, 8 sounds like the word for 'fortune'). The snow storms struck on January 25th (1/25, and 1+2+5=8), the Tibet riots broke out on March 14th (3/14; 3+1+4=8), and the earthquake happened on May 12th (5/12; 5+1+2=8). May 12th was also the 88th day before the Opening Ceremonies, which are scheduled to start on August 8th, 2008, at 8:08pm.

It's a good time to be a conspiracy theorist in China.

Recovery

Been traveling and/or without regular internet access for a couple weeks, so these updates (especially on the earthquake) haven't been especially timely. But two weeks after the fact, here's a slice of what's been going on here.

• The death count as of this morning was just over 68,100. There are still more than 20,000 unaccounted for.
• There were two aftershocks yesterday measuring over 5.4 on the Richter scale. 420,000 more homes were demolished yesterday as a result. Experts say things may not completely settle for another few months. Already there have been over 7,000 aftershocks in total, with 96 of them registering over 4.0.
  
• Nine days ago, on May 19th, the entire country had 3 minutes of silence for the earthquake victims at 2:28 (the official time of the earthquake). The following three days, all public entertainment, including TV, movie screenings live shows, and internet gaming cafes, were put on hold.
  
• The quake's oldest survivor is 95. He was rescued (escaping with broken legs) and brought to a local hospital, where upon waking he told doctors that he wasn't sick and that they should all go away and let him go home. He calmed down a bit upon seeing his son.
• One lady was found dead in a pile of rubble on her hands and knees, crouched over her (well-protected, still-alive and peacefully sleeping) baby. Her last words to her son were found as a text message on her phone: “My loving baby, if you can survive, please remember I always love you.”
• One of the beautiful things about the way things are run here is that it's much easier to coordinate relief efforts. I've heard of doctors that have been "volunteered" to the quake zone, and of mandatory donations at factories and other workplaces.
• On the other hand, there's been a widely-circulated story of a beggar in Nanjing who managed to scrounge up and donate Y105.
  
• As of last week, Y100 million had been raised domestically through a text message donation service. Unfortunately, scammers have also been using this platform to defraud the unsuspecting.
• Women and families in China are now lining up to adopt some of the children orphaned by the quake. It's quickly becoming a
  
• Remember that episode of the Simpsons where they screw up Springfield so bad that they end up moving the entire town a few miles down the road? Well, that's what's going to happen to Beichuan, one of the hardest hit counties in Sichuan.
  
• One of the most pressing concerns right now is over a lake (formed as a result of the earthquake) that is in danger of overflowing. They just had to evacuate 80,000 people that were in the potential flood zone.

Once again, let's hope for the best for everyone affected.

Aftershocks

I'm not sure how much press the earthquake is getting in the West, but understandably, it's dominating the news here in China. It's really a tragedy. For the first couple days, roads going into and out of the area were completely blocked off, and most of the telecommunications infrastructure in the area were knocked out for one reason or another. So the worst hit areas were also the toughest to get help to. They've got most of the roads in somewhat reasonable shape now, but there's still a ton of work to be done, and not a lot of time to do it in. The army has taken to parachuting in help to areas that are still unaccessible.

Some more disturbing facts:

• It's now estimated that the death toll could reach 50,000. By comparison, Hurricane Katrina killed about 1,800 Americans.
  
• In one small town of 12,000 near the epicentre, there are still only 3,000 confirmed survivors. Imagine losing 75% of the people you know.
• A lot of schools collapsed before its students and teachers were able to get out. For small villages with only one school, that means that almost every kid below the age of 13 is buried in rubble.
  
• There have been almost 2,000 aftershocks, making the jobs of rescue workers even harder.
• Near the epicentre, you're extremely lucky if the only things you've lost are your home and your possessions.
  

I've donated some money to the relief efforts through the Canadian Red Cross; you can find out more about how to help here.

Here's hoping that the rescue efforts go as well as possible.

Correction: When I said "most" of the roads are alright, I should have said "almost none". It wasn't until Monday that they finally reached all the affected areas, and I don't think it was for lack of trying. There have been cases where soldiers and other relief workers have had to hike for 40-some hours just to get supplies into (what used to be) towns.

Li-Nike

So turns out Shane Battier isn't the only NBA player with an endorsement deal in China. Li-Ning, another Chinese shoe company, rumoured to have been in the bidding for Kobe's services last time his shoe deal was up, has since signed on Shaq, Damon Jones and Chuck Hayes, one of this year's breakout players and Yao's teammate on the Rockets. All this money being thrown around says a lot about the size of the Chinese market and the ever-growing love of basketball in China. Like Battier's sponsor PEAK, Li-Ning does little to no business outside of its home country. But it counts Adidas and Nike as its main competition, and is still far more popular than other international brands domestically.

Li-Ning also has full sponsorship of the Argentinean and Spanish basketball team in international competitions, as well as the Sudan track and field team and a pending deal with the Swedish Olympic Committee.

Just remember this article when you're strapping on your new LeBron model Li-Nings in a few years.

Update: Turns out two more of Yao's teammates, Luis Scola and Steve Francis, have endorsement deals with a third Chinese shoe company called Anta. Scola even has his own commercial. Houston can now put out Yao Ming with a four-man unit of Chinese shoe-wearers. Leslie Alexander, owner of the Rockets, also invested HK$234.5 million in Anta last year during its IPO.

Russian "Goons and Thugs"

So China's always under fire for corrupt politicians and shady business deals, but really, can it be any worse than what's going on in Russia? Putin stepped down last week as President, handing over the reigns to the guy he backed in the election, Dmitri Medvedev. Medvedev moves up from First Deputy Prime Minister, Putin moves down to Prime Minister, and the outgoing Prime Minister moves into Medvedev's old spot as chairman of Gazprom, Russia's largest oil company. It's as incestuous as it gets. And yet there's been barely any outcry in the Western media about it.

I can only imagine how China would be ripped for doing anything remotely similar. The government would be called much worse than "goons and thugs". The only thing I'll say is that culturally, it's easier said than done to move from a communist command economy to an American-style capitalist one. When money had no value, relationships were tantamount, and now that the elite in Russia and China have both, it's going to be hard to convince them that their old way of doing business isn't going to fly anymore.

Earthquake!

In 1976, a 8.2 magnitude earthquake hit Tangshan, in the Chinese province of Hebei. Officially, an acknowledgment of the event did not even take place until months later, and as a result, wild rumours ran rampant. Aftershocks felt in nearby Beijing were reported by locals as new earthquakes, creating more panic and uncertainty over the situation. It's estimated that 242,000 people died in total.

Yesterday, a slightly weaker earthquake (7.9 magnitude) hit Wenchuan, a (luckily) small city some 100km outside Sichuan province's capital of Chengdu. The quake was so strong that it shook skyscrapers here in Shanghai (about 1,700km away), forcing emergency evacuations. Thousands of students are said to have died in the collapse of school buildings around the epicentre, with the official total death toll (24 hours later) already standing at 10,000. Many more are still missing. Given the government's history of dealing with such issues, it's not unreasonable to assume that this early estimate is a little conservative, but let's hope that the final count will not be nearly as high as it was last time.

Of course, fudging the numbers is different than hiding something altogether, but 32 years and the advent of the internet later, it's not as if the government has any choice. I've read that the news of the earthquake first broke on twitter.com, a networking site on which users can post updates on what's going on around them. Since then, it's been covered extensively on different blogs and websites (Shanghaiist has been posting new stuff every five minutes), and those with video footage have posted what they've got on Youtube.

What I don't get is why the government is so eager to cover up events like these. It's not like anyone can blame them for an earthquake.

Temple of the Jade Buddha

Yes, it sounds like something out of an Indiana Jones, but it's actually just a temple in Shanghai. Known locally as Yùfó Sì, the temple houses two white jade Buddhas, both of which were brought over from Burma. The original temple that housed the Buddhas was built in 1882, only to be burned down in the revolution that took down the Qing Dynasty. The two Buddhas were saved though, and a new temple was built in 1929.


The Jade Buddha Temple is one of the two most important religious sites in Shanghai. It makes for a peaceful retreat in an otherwise hectic city, though everything is cramped into a pretty small area. About a hundred monks roam the grounds when they're not performing services.


The big attractions, though, are obviously the Buddha statues. Both are carved out of single pieces of white jade, and are absolutely beautiful. And big. The sitting Buddha below is almost 2m high and some 1000kg. (You're not supposed to take pictures but I took a quick one anyways.)


The reclining Buddha represents Buddha's death, and apparently the original isn't in the temple anymore. It's been replaced by a bigger one donated from Singapore.


Also enclosed within the temple are a vegetarian restaurant, a tea house, and the monks' living quarters.

Another Day, Another Protest

The New York Times reports on another protest, this time in Chengdu, the capital of Central China's Sichuan province. The peaceful rally was staged yesterday afternoon to voice concerns about an environmentally-unfriendly $5.5 billion petrochemical plant that's going up soon.

Once again, the internet and text messages were used to organize the protest, and (not-so) coincidentally, access to Blogspot and Wordpress have been blocked off for the last couple of days. Will the government just pull the plug on blogs every time there's a hint of something like this? Will they dare to do it during the Olympics, when travelers and journalists will inevitably have some not-so-nice things to blog about?

The Thing About the Chinese...

...is that they're not big fans of nail clippers.

Why It's Good to Be White in China

There's always a need for a "WHITE MAN DANCER" or "western faces" for con jobs.

May Day! May Day!

Carrefour had a huge sale last Thursday (Chinese Labour Day and the beginning of a long weekend) to try to break the boycott and win back some customers. It felt a little busier in the store than the week before, but then again, Shanghai was pretty packed with out-of-towners this weekend, so it's kind of hard to say.

Chinese long weekends, by the way, aren't really that great of a deal. Everyone had Thursday, Friday and Saturday off, but had to go back to work Sunday to make up for it.

Update: The New York Times says the boycott pretty much failed. "Politics is one thing, but the people have to eat," says one shopper. At least there were no violent riots. The government clamped down pretty well on text messages and "Carrefour" Google-searches that day.