Protests and Riots

Yesterday, out in my part of Wuxi, I saw a group of people outside the gates of a government building.  Watching them was a fairly large group of security.  I asked my Chinese companion what's was up, and she told me that there was a group of construction workers who hadn't been paid their wages.

Today, I heard that another company had told their workers that they wouldn't be getting raises for the next year, they wouldn't be getting the expected Spring Festival bonus, and that even some of them would see a decrease in their pay.  Being told to take it or leave it, the workers rioted.

Meanwhile, I have heard that many out-of-towners are already returning to their hometowns for the Spring Festival.

Links

Not much to say other than less than two weeks to go till the Spring Festival.

I will let some photos do the talking for me:

Tony and Gadgets

Tony at Baoli

Guys and Gals at the School Spring Festival Dinner

Lunchtime Tony

Miscellaneous Photos

Photos taken with my Ipod

Miscellaneous Photos

Photo taken with my Ipod Touch in a taxi.

The ballroom where our annual CNY Dinner took place.

Last night, the School had its Annual School Chinese New Year Dinner...

...and today I am teaching.

I feel crappy even though I went straight home after the festivities which ended about 845.

It will always be remembered as the dinner where they sat our group under the speakers.  Conversations were pointless.

An English Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) Song

In the West, there are not too many New Year's song. Certainly none about Chinese New Year. So we have decided to compose one: The eight days of the Spring Festival. It is based on a famous Christmas song and our observations of Spring Festivals past.

On the first day of Spring Festival

my true love gave to me

Money in a red envelope!

On the second day of Spring Festival

my true love gave to me

Two bottles of Baijoe,

and money in a red envelope!

On the third day of Spring Festival

my true love gave to me

Three cartons of cigarettes,

Two bottles of Baijoe,

and money in a red envelope!

On the fourth day of Spring Festival

my true love gave to me

Four chicken's feet,

Three cartons of cigarettes,

Two bottles of Baijoe,

and money in a red envelope!

On the fifth day of Spring Festival

my true love gave to me

Five sets of new clothes,

Four chicken's feet,

Three cartons of cigarettes,

Two bottles of Baijoe,

and money in a red envelope!

On the sixth day of Spring Festival

my true love gave to me

Six sets of quilting,

Five sets of new clothes,

Four chicken's feet,

Three cartons of cigarettes,

Two bottles of Baijoe,

and money in a red envelope!

On the seventh day of Spring Festival

my true love gave to me

Seven fireworks a-bursting,

Six sets of quilting,

Five sets of new clothes,

Four chicken's feet,

Three cartons of cigarettes,

Two bottles of Baijoe,

and money in a red envelope!

On the eighth day of Spring Festival

my true love gave to me

Eight dragons dancing,

Seven fireworks a-bursting,

Six sets of quilting,

Five sets of new clothes,

Four chicken's feet,

Three cartons of cigarettes,

Two bottles of Baijoe,

and money in a red envelope!

A few things on my second day back at work.

• I have asked some students what they have heard about Mao Xiao Ping, the Wuxi Mayor who recently became the former Mayor.  What they have told me, I could ascertain, was via rumor, not on a news report.  One student told me that the former Wuxi Mayor was in prison.  Another told me that he had committed suicide.  The new mayor, I learned, is a woman, a Mrs. Hong.
• Yesterday, I was a street so that was so jammed that I, as a pedestrian, couldn't make my way through.  I was walking down a side street, about one and a half lanes wide, that was blocked both ways by cars so close together I couldn't walk through.  As well, the sidewalks on both sides were full of parked bicycles tightly jammed together.  The two cars were so close to the bicycles that was no space for someone as thin as me to walk through.  I had to get behind one of the cars and follow it till I could fine some daylight on the sidewalk.
• It is tricky for me, at school, to load podcasts on my Ipod.  If I do so, I would wipe out everything that I had put on my Ipod at home.  So, I will have to make sure my libraries on Itunes, at school and at home, are the same.  But this will mean having to download some books again (I find that manybooks.net is a good sight to find epubs).
• I have uploaded Scenes from My Life 2 onto Youtube.  You can watch Scenes from My Life 1 here.

Scenes from my life in Wuxi, China #2

First Day of work in 2011

• I am all out of sorts.  It panned out that I had the first three days of 2012 off and that during that time I also got a new electronic device:  My Ipod touch.  It is like I got an Iphone without the phone.  With a new electronic device, one feels like one has got a new body part and that in the process of getting used to it, one is not one's normal self.  With my new electronic device, I am going to be doing things different.  And till I get the new routine figured out, the things I do that require concentration are going to suffer, like my blogging.
• I spent most of my time, on my long weekend, at home.  I spent far too much time on the computer.  Tony saw my Ipod and was begging to play with it.  Trying to placate him on this account was no easy matter.  My wife began stewing at me so that I was looking forward to dealing with lazy and inattentive students.
• I did go out when Tony briefly on day two.  We had Hot Pot with some friends, and then went for a walk around Nanchang Jie, the new bar street in Wuxi.  You can visit here, here,  here and here to see the photos I took.

Don't you dare dabble!

No dabbling allowed on Nanchang Jie in Wuxi, China.