Lots of Flags; Extra Walkway Thoughts; Get Me Out of Here!; The Chinese Don't Have Opinions; I Don't Have a Prediction; Patriotic Speech Editing; Married to China; Naming My Guardian Angel; Beard and My Resemblances

At the first Speaker Corner's Class following my six-day holiday I asked the following question:  Is it just me or I did see more five-star Chinese flags than ever before this National Day holiday?  Many of the students said it wasn't just me.  When it came to the why of the so many flags, one student said that some factories had nothing to do but make flags during the lockdown; another student said it was to do with China's response to the Covid.  I wonder if the reason for so many flags was a need of the powers that rule China to try to increase a nationalistic feeling.  Why this need?  Are they going to war?  Is the economy going to the tank because of decoupling?

One thing I observed when I walked the walkways of Wuxi (see previous blog entry) was the unevenness of Wuxi development.  I walked past neighborhoods that seemed old and well-settled, and then I would walk past empty lots and then I also saw an unfinished and seemingly abandoned high-rise building.  (I took a picture of one and will publish it in my photo blog.)

The end of Tony's holiday of drumming (see previous blog entry) was a test he had to do.  This test was not where he had been having classes but, in the area, sort of, of the Qingyang Road Carrefour.  I had to wait for him for an hour or so, but the wait was not at all enjoyable because there was no place to sit and no places to walk in the area.   I ended up walking up and down the street in front of the building where Tony's drumming was put to the test.  At one end of the street, the corner offering no interesting prospects; just more roads besides apartment buildings.  The same boring prospect was at the other end.  Along the road in front of Tony's drumming test building were nondescript shops, offices and restaurants. So, I waited a long hour till Tony got his thing done.

I read an interesting article by David Goldman entitled Why the Chinese Don't Have Opinions.  The article said that the Chinese don't have opinions because of China's top-down structure of political control. A small elite makes all the decisions and the structure is so rigid that everyday Chinese don't find it practical to buck it by having opinions of their own.  The fact of this rigid structure also explains why there aren't very many famous and compelling Chinese individuals.  All ideas have to come from the top in China, so individuals can't stand out.  Any person in China capable of being brave enough to advocate for political freedom is quickly turned into a non-person, or as Goldman writes, an organ donor.

I should think of a way to talk about this in my speaker's corner.

Who's going to win the upcoming U.S. presidential election?  I won't predict.  During previous presidential elections, I had certainty of who was going to win (I was certain that Clinton would lose the '96 election), and I read articles full of certainty of who was to win (one said Romney would beat Obama); and so being burned, I nary make predictions, and merely pass on those that I have read from sources I trust.  Derb thinks Trump will lose; and Z-man thinks Trump can win again.  David Warren thinks Trump will win in a landslide.  The mainstream media thinks (or hopes) Trump will get crushed.  I hope Warren is right.  I fear Derb will be proven correct.  

In 2016, I wasn't shocked that Trump won.  I had been reading some articles just before the election saying that Trump had a chance.  But I crossed my fingers election day while keeping my mouth shut.

Sometimes I am called upon to edit the text for English speeches that young students have to make.  The last one I edited was full of patriotic fervour over China's "wonderful" response to Covid.  It is a narrative that the powers to be in China want the citizens to learn.

What would I say to anyone who asked me what I thought of China?  I'd tell them I'm married to it.  And as a husband, I get exasperated with the way my wife thinks and acts.

What name should I give to my guardian angel?  (Mother A says we all have them, and I'll take her word for it.)  Nothing readily comes to mind.  Though I can say, I should be very thankful to my guardian angel.  That I have made it so far into life, having done the stupid things I did, having made the stupid decisions I made, I have to thank more than dumb luck.  

Perhaps, I could call my guardian angel Sancho Panza, for my journey in life has been quixotic.  Although, I'd like to think that my guardian angel, being far more intelligent than me, would not be as passive as Panza.

In 2020, I have been sporting facial hair.  During the lockdown, I wore a beard.  I shaved off the beard, and then grew a goatee.  I then shaved that off and am now growing a full beard.  One of my students said I looked like Karl Marx.  Another said I looked like Vladimir Lenin.  I supposed they hadn't heard of Jesus Christ and John the Baptist.

In my life, I have also been told I looked like the husband on the TV series Bewitched (played by Dick Sergeant and Dick York), Morrissey the singer, and James Dean (Yes!  Really!)