Wuxi Tony Update #536: Tony looks at fish

The action is in Beixing

The K family lives in a new area so the place is dead for the Chinese New Year. However, Beixing, in the countryside, is full of people coming back home.

In the first photo below, you can see the fruit that is for sale everywhere. In the second photo, Tony being pushed by his grandmother generates wild excitement. The third photo shows a crowd surrounding a road side stall. The fourth photo is taken on the grounds of Jenny's old school.

Back from Beixing

The K family is back from Beixing.  Unable to blog while there, AKIC blogger scrawled some thoughts in a notebook (3 rmb) he bought in Beixing for that purpose.  The thoughts have been transcribed below:

 

My trip to Beixing doesn't lend itself to narrative.  I came, I stayed, and then I left is all I did.  So I will write in point form:

 

• The action's in the countryside.  Everyone is going home, unlike Casa K area where everyone is leaving to visit someone somewhere else.
• Tony was rough-housing at a local playground:  he was throwing balls at other youngsters, shoving little girls, and going down slides head-first.
• The in-laws were asking about Vancouver.  They had been watching the Winter Olympics.  But don't expect them to be visiting there any time soon.
• On the bus ride out to Beixing, a passenger who had stored his luggage underneath had to rush off the bus to prevent someone, at an earlier stop, from taking his luggage.
• At the Wuxi train station McDonald's, AKIC blogger bought some breakfast.  After placing his order, he was told to wait on the left hand side.  But it just so happened that a family had placed an order before him.  It being the Chinese way to stand abreast instead of standing in line, AKIC blogger was blocked and had to stand behind the group to wait for his order.  When his order was ready to be picked up, he had to stop the family occupying all the counter space from taking his order!
• Tony sees a new toy to play with.  But he first puts away his old toy before proceeding.  Progress!
• Scoffers say the King of Wuxi has no clothes.  Say-nayers say the clothes have no King.  D-syndrome sufferers say the KoW has no beef.  KoWists having no beef with the KoW, point out that the King of Wuxi is a naturist and "So there!".  The KoW's body is his crown.
• A Beixing High School has, in its hallway, pictures of famous figures to inspire the students.  Among the writers, scientists, and philosophers is Hu Jiantao!
• Hell has to be bureaucratic.  The concept of purgatory is eminently sensible when you consider that waiting, for your fate, is the worst thing that can happen to you.
• A poem:

My one son Tony,

He is no phony.

And if it was otherwise so,

I would feel some pain in my toe.

 

• If somehow the Winter Olympics can convince my wife to visit Canada, I would have one thing to say for them.  And the money wasted would have been worth it.
• The countryside is a garbage dump mixed in with agricultural fields and shopping.
• The sight of the meat at the local open-air market is something I have to put out of my mind before I eat.
• At night, the countryside is like North Korea.  People living in the dark.  And so what do they do?  Nothing.
• I saw a dancing dragon troupe packing up; loading their props and people into the back of a canopied truck.  I missed the show.
• Bright orange-red lights high in the sky.  What were they?
• There I was watching hockey in the countryside of China.  Who da thunk it?  Canada was shellacking Norway.  It shows how long I have that I don't recognize many of the players.  Some of them I remember from before 2004.  But the younger players?  I think Crosby would be the star. Right?
• Many of the K family are head-bangers.  Tony keeps whopping me with his head.  Jenny keeps banging the back of the bed frame.
• Three vertical strokes mean "Chuan".  That and the chinese character for "four" makes Sichuan.
• I watched China and France in a curling match.  I was enthralled.  Really.

 

 

Where everyone go?

This street is usually busy than this.

But this week is the Chinese New Year Holiday.

Going to Beixing for Two Days

The Kaulins Family will be going to Beixing (J's hometown) for two days. So, AKIC blogger won't be able to make any posts. So, out of the generosity of his heart, AKIC blogger will give you rare readers an entry to satisfy your appetites for the two days.

Jacques Maritain on America

Obviously, all over the world businessmen interested in making profits may happen to like America, to learn a great deal from her, and to admire her material activity -- they envy her and will never really love her. Obviously, many persons endowed with genuine spirituality may happen to detest and slander America because they don't know her. But the significant thing for me is that I have never met any real contemplative, any true soul of grace, any man genuinely aware of the ways of the spirit, who, knowing America in actual fact and through personal experience, did not have for her a love in which his very love for mankind and a sort of reverence for the workings of divine Providence were involved. Despite all human defects, such as those mentioned in this book, genuine spirituals love America. Her worst enemies are pseudo-spirituals.

America can be slandered and unjustly hated in many various ways. She has political enemies, who foster in her regard a hatred which is violently vociferous but which is a matter of expediency, and can shift to as noisy a fondness and flattery the day it seems tactically advantageous. The natural enemies of America are the pseudo-spirituals, the false witnesses of the spirit. Theirs is the absolute and irreducible, the mystic hatred of America.

This hatred is peculiar to people who look for the divine and are captives of the flesh, and of the void, who thirst for spiritual experience and turn to spurious substitutes for it. It is only in anger and indignation, it is only against someone or something that they can recoup, and bear testimony to the sublimity of the very things they failed to attain. To compensate for their frustration and resentment they need a world-wide scapegoat, a symbolic continent great and powerful enough to arouse mankind's hopes, and perverse enough to betray them -- the nightmare^[42] of their America.

David Warren

I have long observed a disposition towards "black humor" is a reasonably accurate predictor of orthodoxy in religious belief, and soundness of political judgment. Add an indubitable propensity to self-deprecation, and you might even be able to trust the fellow. (Or the girl, as case may be.)

Jewish Saying

"A clever man and a wise man are different in nuance. A clever man is good at emerging from certain circumstances, but a wise man is good at joining the circumstances."

The Exile of being a Parent

The culture in which we live today is not particularly child-friendly, despite appearances to the contrary. Almost everyone loves a well-dressed, well-behaved child, but understanding of the truly difficult and unavoidable aspects of child rearing is scarce. Furthermore, the narcissistic self-indulgence of parents who are unwilling to properly discipline their children is not true child friendliness.

In the article from which I have pulled the quote, stories of parents with young children experiencing exile are told. I think of the stories as I reflect on my experiences with Tony in public. Taking him to public events can be a pain for me, but when I chase him around or take care of him, and so feel apart from the party, I do have to realize that I am not missing anything.

I also observe that the Chinese seem much more tolerant of Tony than Expats.

Rabbi Doven Rosenfeld

We are doomed to live in a universe we cannot make sense of. We were forced into it. We would not have wished creation upon ourselves or anyone else. We are consigned to a world which we would not have wanted to be a part of -- simply because to us it really does not make sense.

Anti-Americanism

The following quote comes from a 1965 National Review article. I find it to be an interesting take on the phenomenon which I call the Mental Disease of our time (other manifestations include Palin and Bush bashing).

The usual mistake most Americans make in dealing with people of other nations stems from the notion that “human beings are more alike than unlike” (the result of the successful assimilation of millions of immigrants) and the rather idealistic determination to treat others as one would like to be treated oneself: “What would my reaction be if I were in his shoes?” The American is not aware that to be in somebody else's shoes is to be another man altogether, and so this commendable phrase really makes no sense. The other mistake derives from pragmatism. Americans are by nature generous and quickly forget insults and injuries. Europeans, on the other hand, not only have long memories but, their comparative lack of generosity often makes them spiteful and even envious. Envy is Europe's most widespread and terrible disease. After a great upheaval Americans will ask themselves “Where do we go from here?” whereas Europeans, their gaze always fixed on the past, will continue to act under the influence of past experiences, memories, and grievances. (In this respect the Latin American is very much like the European; events that took place 400 years ago have not in the least been effaced from historic memory.)

Personally, I have to always try to keep my European and American sides in balance. The worst of me comes from my Europeaness (e.g. my lack of generosity).

Let's just all fly naked!

Is Naturism the answer to airport security problems?

Tony and Zoey

It would appear that Tony would love having a little sister or brother. A colleague from school brought his seven month old daughter to Casa K, much to Tony's pleasure.

Snow in Wuxi, China 2010

Snow in Wuxi!

What a way to start the year of the Tiger!

For Tony, it is the first time to see snow. He finds it interesting!

Photo taken from AKIC bedroom window