China / Solo-dad-ing

This is old news (olds?).

For five weeks, from early-December to early-January, Mama (Xiaoying) was in China, visiting Laolao (her mum).  It was all good, and she enjoyed the winter snow in Beijing.

Meanwhile, I was solo-dad-ing with Mulan and Miya here at home.  It was also all good -- we work well as a team together and life went on as normal (except for missing Mama).

Mama arrived back in New Zealand just two days before we headed off to the South Island for a two-week family holiday.  We returned home a few days ago.  I'll write about it soon.

Wang Huning -- behind the scenes power in China

This is a fascinating article about Wang Huning, one of the behind-the-scenes political influencers in China.

Born in 1955, family connections and poor health meant that Wang didn't have to do labouring work in the countryside, as many of his peers had to during the cultural revolution.  Instead he studied at an elite school.

When universities reopened in 1978 the article tells us he scored so well on his entrance exam that he was admitted directly to a master's programme in international politics at Fudan University, skipping his bachelor's degree.

Interestingly, Wang was a younger (by four years) schoolmate of Mama's Uncle at Fudan University.  Mama tells me that Uncle sat the university entrance exam in 1977 (after having been sent to do labouring work in the countryside of Hainan Island).  Before receiving the results of their exam, students had to nominate their preferred university.  Uncle, living as he was at Zhongshan University in Guangzhou, applied for the English programme there as his first choice.  Contacts in the university department said that Uncle would have been approved, but his name wasn't on the list of candidates.  Instead, when the results came out he was surprised that he had been admitted to the politics department at Fudan.  It appears that Fudan had special access to the student exam results and had picked students based on their results regardless of their own choices and that of other university departments.  Uncle started his bachelor's degree at Fudan at the beginning of 1978 (Mama thinks Uncle was in the academic year ahead of Wang, who likely started mid-1978).

Wang was a full Professor by the time he was 30, and in 1988 spent six months in the US as a visiting scholar.  Before this visit he had been hopeful that liberalism could be good for China, but his observations of the US changed that.  He returned to China an opponent of liberalism, and his 1991 book America Against America was a tough critique of US society.

Similarly, Mama's Uncle spent time in the US and came away hating it.  After completing his bachelor's degree and while teaching at Zhongshan University, Uncle was offered a scholarship to do a PhD at Harvard University, which he started in 1982.  Struggling in the US, Uncle didn't complete his studies and instead returned to China.  Later, he completed an MA in Hong Kong before getting his PhD from Oxford University.

Mama's recollection is that the family became aware of Wang when he was promoted to full Professor, as it was an impressive achievement in someone so young.

In 1993, Wang was spotted by Jiang Zemin, and headhunted away from academia.  Within a couple of years he was given a leadership position in the Chinese Communist Party Central Policy Research Office.

Unfortunately, Mama's Uncle was not so politically astute/lucky, and ended up in prison for 11 years, ostensibly because he revealed too much in his research publications on Korea.  When Mulan was young she and Mama used to visit Uncle every month in prison, before he was finally released in 2011.

Since the mid-90s, Wang has been a key influencer behind the scenes for the past three Chinese leaders -- Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping.  He has led a secretive life, cutting ties with his previous university career and no longer publishing or speaking publicly.

I don't know much more about Wang than what is in this article, so take what you will of what I write.  I may have misunderstood Wang's outlook.  Nonetheless, a couple of quick very general thoughts occur to me:

1.  The story suggests that it was the visit to the US that changed Wang's attitude on liberalism.  If this is the case, then Wang represents a very common Chinese attitude of over-focusing on the larger political powers when evaluating political theories/models.  That is, for many Chinese it is either China or the US.

Clearly, Wang had a bad experience in the US.  But I wonder what Wang, China, and the world would be like today if instead of visiting China he had have visited New Zealand or a Scandinavian country.  While New Zealand is far from perfect, its version of liberalism is very different from that of the US, and hence does not have some of the problems that the US has (and that Wang correctly identified).  If Wang had have studied and experienced a social democracy like New Zealand, instead of the US, would he have been so strongly critical of liberalism?

2.  Without directly mentioning it, the article suggests that Wang is a Hobbesian.  That is, he sees human nature as inherently bad, and consequently the only way to minimise the excesses that result is to have a powerful leader to resolve people's conflicts and maintain society.

Like Wang, Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) lived though politically/socially turbulent times, and in particular experienced the English Civil War.  Hobbes' Leviathan (1651) is his argument for a supreme ruler, justified by a social contract and assuming a pessimistic view of human nature.

The Hobbesian approach is most plausible if one is participating in a tragically broken society (such as a civil war or cultural revolution).  In those (unusual) social extremities, any strong leader, regardless of their decisions, is the lesser of two evils.  It is also an understandable psychological reaction to desire order amongst all that chaos.

If this is the case for Wang, who experienced the horrors of the Chinese cultural revolution, it is understandable that he has been working behind the scenes in China to strengthen the Chinese leadership.  For example, it fits if it is Wang who has worked to end the time limit for Chinese leadership, allowing Xi Jinping to continue as leader for more than two terms.  (He has also developed a more subtle and sophisticated form of power than what Mao had, including education, economics, information, technology and public approval.)

But once again there is the possible mistake of either/or thinking.  In moderate, normal societies, it is not either all-against-all Hobbesian chaos or authoritarian control.  Other political options are available and present.  Similarly, human nature is complicated, having both altruistic and selfish parts.

A more serious problem is that the Hobbesian approach fails to adequately acknowledge the danger of leaders with absolute power.  It assumes that any leader, regardless of what they do, is going to be better than the alternative.

But, even if, right now, Xi (with Wang) is overall not too bad for China, there is no guarantee that the next Chinese leader will serve China (and the world) well.  Giving Xi more power also means giving future Chinese leaders more power, and who knows what they may be like.  Do we really want to give any future Mao, Stalin, Hitler or Trump in China more power?

The Hobbesian pessimistic view of human nature may also be challenged.  For example, last year I reviewed Rutger Bregman's book Humankind.  As I have repeatedly said since I lived in China, if we have a pessimistic outlook on life, and if we distrust those around us, then we create a society that reflects that.  But if we have an optimistic outlook on life, and assume the best of people, then we create a society that is better for us all.  I see today's China as having been created by people who have a pessimistic outlook on life, and it may be that Wang is one of those people. 

When I reviewed Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem in 2018 I also addressed this aspect of Chinese culture.

China trip: Beijing and Harbin

Sunday 30th June 2019

Another year, another trip to China.  Last year, we stayed mostly in the south, travelling from Guangzhou to Chengdu, and reuniting with old friends from our time living in Guangzhou.  This year, we decided to head up north to Beijing and Harbin, spending quality time with Laolao (Mama’s Mama).  We were last in Beijing two and a half years ago; we’d never been to Harbin.

As always, our main aim with these yearly trips to China is to maintain Mulan and Miya’s bicultural connectedness.  We want them to feel at home in China, just as much as they feel at home in New Zealand.  We definitely don’t want them to hate their time in China, and nor do we want them to feel like foreign tourists.  We want their time in China to be as normal a Chinese life as possible (whatever that might really mean!).

Laolao lives in Beijing, and Harbin is her old childhood home. The plan was to spend most of our 20 days in Harbin, staying in an empty apartment owned by Laolao’s brother.  While in Beijing we did our usual thing of staying with Laolao in her apartment.

This time, we got a nighttime flight from Auckland directly to Beijing.  The flight left at 8:30 pm, an hour later than scheduled as the plane was late getting into Auckland.  We all struggled to sleep, watching movies to pass the time.

I watched the two Fantastic Beasts Harry Potter movies.  I've said it before, I'm a big Harry Potter fan, and this was a pretty good addition to the story.  I especially liked that the main character, Newt Scamander, was different from the usual Hollywood movie heroic males (I totally agree with this analysis here), though I didn’t like that they had to include a Love Interest for him.  I also felt that the Grindlewald character was too cartoonishly baddie.  I liked how Grindlewald (and Dumbledore) was presented in the original Harry Potter books, and I think these movies dumbed down the character too much.

Our flight was mostly smooth, and we arrived safely in Beijing about 6 am China time (China is four hours behind New Zealand).  Miya was feeling sick for about the final four hours, and vomited three times.  After catching the subway (the Beijing airport subway is far too overpriced), we arrived at Laolao’s apartment about 9 am.

Monday 1st July

None of us had slept well on the plane, so we spent most of the day resting in the apartment.

In the evening, Mulan, Miya and I had a walk around the local apartment complex area.  Apparently,  it was originally the athletes' village of the 1990 Asian Games (I often wonder which athletes were roomed in Laolao's apartment).  I was first there in 2006 and have been there several times since.  The environment hasn’t changed much since we were last there in 2017.  Things are merely continuing their gradual decay, as the apartment complex managers don’t do much in the way of maintenance.  Sadly, the area is slowly turning into a slum.

Tuesday 2nd

At this time of year in Beijing the sun is up before 5 am so we all got early starts to the day (it also didn't help that the curtains in Laolao’s apartment are very thin).  Or, to put it another way, it was a little bit like still being in New Zealand time, except that in Beijing it gets dark around 8 pm.

In the morning, Mama and Laolao went out together to do some paperwork stuff.

Meanwhile, the girls and I continued our rediscoveries of the area.  This time, we walked the ten minutes to what we had previously considered the best local playground.  The playground is still mostly the same, although some equipment had fallen apart and been removed (nothing repaired or replaced).  The girls are older, though, and the playground was not so interesting for them this time.  We didn’t stay and play for very long.

For lunch, the four of us met up at a restaurant with one of Mama’s old school friends who lives in the US but was coincidentally in Beijing at the same time as us.

After lunch, and after saying goodbye to School Friend, the four of us went to our favourite Chinese sports mega shop, Decathlon, for supplies.  We spent about RMB1100 on swimming gear, bike helmets and clothes.

During our travels, we noticed an interesting change with the Beijing subway advertising.  For the first time, some of the advertising posters on the walls had pictures of families with two children.  Previously, of course, all Chinese Happy Family advertising photos had just the one child.  Clearly, this change is part of the push to normalise the idea of two-child families.  Moreover, one poster showed the family with an older boy and younger girl — again this was obviously part of the effort to normalise the idea that even if you have a boy first up, you may still choose to have a second child.

Wednesday 3rd

This was another social responsibility day for us, as once again we met up with acquaintances at a restaurant for lunch (lunch at restaurants with acquaintances is such a huge Chinese cultural tradition).  This time we were with Laolao to meet two of her old friends.

In the afternoon, while the others rested at home, I took off for a walk for a few hours, wandering over to and around the Olympic Park.  This is something I often do when we stay with Laolao.  The park, which is about 45 minutes walk from Laolao’s apartment, is a little slice of green paradise in an otherwise concrete jungle.

At one point I walked past an older couple, maybe in their 50s.  He was taking photos of her posing and as I got closer she gave a huge smile and waved me over.  As I walked up to her she grabbed my arm; she clearly wanted to have a photo taken with me.  Hubby, however, was having none of that.  He turned around and walked off in the other direction.  She called and waved to him, but he refused to acknowledge her.  Laughing, I said my goodbyes to her.  Sadly, she missed out on a photo with the Hairy Whitey.

Thursday 4th

We had an early start to the day, the five of us leaving home at 6 am to catch the 7:55 am fast train up to Harbin.

Trains are far more relaxing than planes, and the six and a half hours passed by easily.  The girls loved their instant noodles that Mama bought them.  Boxed instant noodles on a long-distance train is another core Chinese cultural tradition.  I enjoyed my usual homemade sammies.

The train arrived into Harbin at 2:30 pm, where we were picked up in two cars by Laolao’s younger half-brother and his wife (Uncle and Aunt).  Uncle reminded me so much of the stereotypical Chinese TV grandfather.  Even though I didn’t understand much of what he said, and he never spoke English, his tone of voice and mannerisms are so recognisable!  He was a career military man.

Driving from the train station in the south to our apartment in the north, my immediate impression of Harbin was that the greenery was much more lushly green than in Beijing, and they like to plant colourful flowers along the roadside.  The temperature, in the mid-20s, was perfectly pleasant when we arrived.  Overall, it was a very nice first impression.  In winter, however, Harbin gets incredibly cold — Harbin is famous for its ice sculptures.

Our (Uncle’s) top-floor apartment, in building 41 of the gated community apartment complex, was something of a shock to our Guangzhou/Beijing trained eyes.  By Guangzhou/Beijing standards it would be super-expensive — one of the elite-style apartment complexes.  Firstly, the apartment itself is huge — or at least each room in the three-bedroom apartment is huge.  The apartments even have a garage each.  Secondly, the apartment buildings are relatively small (only 12 apartments per four-story building), and there is plenty of open greenery spaces throughout the gated community.  The ground floor apartments even have their own outside garden space, which are mostly entirely converted to rows of veggies.

(This photo was not real-estate-style exaggerated!)

Surprisingly, though, the apartment complex is not very popular.  In fact, it was more like a ghost town.  Most apartments in the complex are empty, the public areas are overgrown, and the local shops abandoned.  Weirdly, the buildings all had trees growing on the sloping tiled roofs.  My guess is that seeds have blown up onto the roofs and started growing.  The buildings’ roofs are starting to crack.

(Sunrise at 4:15 am)

Over the next several days of our stay in Harbin, we realised that these ghost town areas are fairly common.  My impression is that in Harbin they are continuing to madly build apartment buildings, but so many previously built areas are near empty — even the large new areas.  So often, we passed by buildings that are sitting empty and slowly deteriorating.  In some areas they have built wide roads that clearly don’t get much traffic, and the footpaths are growing up tall weeds in the cracks.  I have no idea why they are continuing to build — maybe government subsidies to construction companies give local people jobs and allow the businesses to still make profits?

I’m told that Heilongjiang Province, where Harbin is, is now one of the poorest provinces in China.  It used to be super-rich 40 or so years ago, thanks to the oil fields which powered China’s industrial rise, but these have mostly dried up and it seems that most youngsters choose to head to the coastal cities these days.

Friday 5th

The Beijing morning sun got us up bright and early, but in Harbin we were forced up even earlier.  The sky was starting to get light soon after 3 am, and by 4 am the sun was streaming in through our too-thin curtains.  Forced up early, I noticed that a lot of the locals had their morning walks around 5 am.  In the evenings it was getting dark just before 8 pm.  The short nights and thin curtains were especially hard on Miya, as it was a struggle for her to get enough sleep.

We kept things simple this day.  In the morning, we walked around our gated community and then out to the local grocer/supermarket, which is about 15 minutes walk away.

In the afternoon, Mama and I caught a bus to a nearby shopping area, hoping to find a larger supermarket.  We couldn’t find a supermarket, just more small grocers — in fact we started to realise that Harbin doesn’t seem to have many of the big supermarkets that we are used to.  And importantly for us, not many shops in Harbin have bottles of milk — mostly, the best we could do was get 250 ml bags of milk (a hassle, since we use about 2 litres of milk a day).

Saturday 6th

In the morning, the four of us had another walk around our local area.  This time we wandered in and around a nearby large gated community, which has several high-rise apartment buildings.  Again, this fitted the pattern of large and fancy buildings being mostly unused.

For the afternoon we had arranged with Aunt to watch her dance rehearsals.  Back in the day Aunt was a professional dancer, and in her retirement she has continued to enjoy dancing with her old friends.  They were rehearsing for a concert they would be performing in a few weeks.

We were picked up in the car at 12 noon, and we watched the rehearsals for a couple of hours.  It was all very inspiring.  Aunt and her friends, most well into their 60s, all look very fit, and clearly they love doing what they do.  The leading man was especially muscular, fit, strong and agile.

The dancers kindly invited Mulan and Miya to join them when they did some ballet drills together (the muscular man leading the class).  The girls (especially Mulan) loved getting involved and dancing again.

The main problem was that (as is so typical in China) they had the music on far too loud.  Watching the rehearsal was not so relaxing and peaceful for us.  (Miya also struggled with the many dancers who were very expressive in their kindness to us.)

While the dancers continued their rehearsals, Uncle and his son picked us up in the car.  We drove to the Harbin Cultural Island, which is just a short walk from our apartment.  We walked around the Theatre building before walking home.  The Theatre building is a fascinating shape.  We couldn’t decide whether it was more like (a) a helmet, (b) the Sydney Opera House with the dishes fallen over, or (c) an Ohmu from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

Sunday 7th

Our apartment was right next door to a tiger park.  Uncle decided to take us there.  We preferred not to go, based on what we had previously read about the cruel conditions at many of these sorts of parks.

The six of us spent the morning at Siberia Tiger Park.

(Back in New Zealand, a quick Internet search popped up this blog post about the Park.  It's worth reading.  I didn't know about the tiger cub petting, but the rest is similar to what we experienced.)

The main feature of the park is that we board Park buses and drive through enclosures where dozens, if not hundreds, of tigers live.  There were two types of buses — one with bars on the windows and one without.  If you ride the barred one, you get up close to some tiger feeding from the bus.  We (ie Uncle) chose the non-barred bus.

After the bus, we walked over and around various cages containing tigers (and a few other great cats).  Miya tried to take a photo of every tiger she saw; our camera is full of tiger photos.

We walked past buckets full of live hens squashed close to each other.  Mulan realised what they were for and was quite upset (if you want more details, the blog post linked above graphically describes this).

After the tiger park we drove to a restaurant for lunch.

After lunch we drove to Sun Island Park, where Uncle dropped the four of us off before taking Laolao back home.  We hired a 4-person bike (actually a quad) and biked (quadded?) around the island for two hours.  This was the perfect relaxer for all of us after the earlier activities — a bit of physical exercise together as a family in a beautiful park, and feeling free to choose wherever we wanted to go.

In the evening, we took a short ferry ride to the bus station and bused home.

Monday 8th

In the morning we caught a bus to a large shopping centre.  I was only half joking when I said, as we entered the shopping centre, that I finally felt at home again.  This shopping centre was a fairly standard modern Chinese mall, and the first we had been to this time in China.

Our main aim here was to get new glasses for me.  Sadly, I’m heading towards my twilight years, and I had to change my glasses from nerdy shortsighted to oldie progressives.  My previous frames are too narrow for the new lenses.  We decided to try to find something in China, as New Zealand doesn’t seem to have a very good range of frames — I wanted ones that also have sunglasses magnetically attached that can be put on and taken off one-handed (while driving).  The shop that Aunt recommended (and had a discount for) had a frame that suited me.

We also found a new pair of togs for Mama.

The girls merely put up with all this boring shopping.  But they were delighted with two findings at the shops.  Firstly, we had cheese teas with our sammies for lunch.  And secondly, we found an ice skating rink in the shopping centre.  We agreed to go ice skating the following Monday when the glasses were ready to be collected.

Tuesday 9th

It was arranged that on this day we (including Uncle and Laolao) would all go in the car to see the grave of Laolao’s parents and other brother.

Unfortunately for me I finally caught the cold that Mama, Mulan and Miya had all got earlier.  Laolao was worried that she would then catch the cold from me, and ordered that I stay at home and not go.

So, that is what we did.  I hear that their day went as planned.  The grave was Chinese-city-style — basically a locker containing the ashes alongside rows of other lockers in a large building.  Traditional Chinese tomb-sweeping consisted of wiping the locker door with a cloth.

Wednesday 10th

The four of us caught a bus into the city centre to have a look at the riverside and the old buildings.

It seems that about 100 or so years ago Harbin was hugely influenced by Russia.  Russia was expanding, building railways out east, including over the border into China.  As part of this expansion, Harbin city buildings acquired a Russian look.

Along the riverside we walked through Stalin Park (!), stopping to watch a local oldies band playing their traditional Chinese instruments (with one cello).

We visited one of the main Harbin landmarks, a memorial tower for those who worked to help control river floods in the 1950s and again in 1998.  And we did our traditional jumping photos in front of the huge water fountain in the river.

Perpendicular to the river, we walked up the old main street, with the old Russian buildings converted into modern fashion shops, before ending our walk at the Russian-style St Sophia Cathedral.  During our walk we tried the traditional milk ice blocks, which seemed to be sold at little shops on every block.

Thursday 11th

We all enjoyed our biking so much that we decided to go again, and this time with Laolao.  We caught a taxi to Sun Island Park, arriving just as it opened and while it was still cool at 8:30 am.

We hired two bikes, one 4-person and one 2-person, for one hour.  Miya and I shared the smaller bike, while Mulan and Mama peddled Laolao around on the bigger bike.  It was very relaxing and enjoyable, and not nearly as crowded as our Sunday ride.

From Sun Island Park, we rode the cable car over the river back to the Stalin Park area.  We refuelled on cheese teas again, before walking through the Park and the city centre.

Next, we caught a bus to Children Park.  This was a really special back-to event for us and Laolao.

Back in 1956, when Laolao was 14 years old, Harbin opened a new children's railway in this park.  What made this children’s railway special was that not only was it built especially for children to ride on, but it was also run by children.

When the railway opened, Laolao was selected to be the first child in charge of running the railway.  Her duty was to run the main “Beijing” station; others worked on the train or the second “Moscow” Station (now renamed “Harbin”) at the opposite end of the park.  Once a week, when she was not in school, for two years Laolao worked at the children’s railway.  If foreign visitors came to the park during the week she was called out of school to meet them.

The children’s railway is still running, and we bought tickets and rode the 10-minute loop.  On the train Laolao met another woman who had worked there as a child several years after Laolao.

After the train ride, Laolao got to talking with the adults working there (this was a weekday, so the children weren’t at work, and I guess foreigners aren’t special anymore).  It seems that they are in the process of setting up a museum there, and delightedly got Laolao’s contact details.

Friday 12th

Last year in Chengdu we had planned on swimming at the water park inside the world’s biggest building.  But we couldn’t because of Mulan’s untimely infection.  This year, all staying healthy, we found another water park -- Estuary Wetland Park.

Getting into the water at this park was an exercise in the absurd.  It was just one step after another in crazy admin.  The website (probably intentionally) didn’t explain the system.  Once you were there you just had to accept and follow (and laugh!).

Our online-purchased tickets were just the first step in a progressive payment system.  Once there we had to pay extra to use the changing rooms.  And then to get into some pool areas we had to hire compulsory swim rings or rafts.

And of course the park adopted, but exaggerated, the usual Chinese system of having several different ticketing offices, inconveniently located, which we had to progress through one by one.  There were even separate ticketing offices for the male and female changing rooms, distant from each other and distant from the changing rooms themselves.  The ticketing office to pay for the compulsory swim rings was far from the swim ring storage area — we were given a slip of paper when we paid, which we then carried over to the swim ring storage area.

The water park was inside a wetland area, and so in addition to the water park tickets we also had to queue for ticketing entry to the wetland area, where we were bused to the water park.

But once we were finally in the water we all had an awesome day.  It was a beautiful blue-sky sunny day, and I even got a bit sunburnt on my face and shoulders.

For the six hours we were at the park we kept busy trying out the various pools and activities.

There were a couple of wave pools.  We all needed swim rings for the large one, and children needed swim rings for the smaller one.  This made the pools not so fun, and also the waves didn’t have much force to them.  Our local New Zealand beach is better.

Mulan and I tried all the scary fast slides and rides.  If it wasn’t for Mulan, I probably wouldn’t have done them all.  With Mulan keen to have a go, I felt obliged to accompany her.  Though Mulan did admit afterwards that a few times at the top she had second thoughts.  The least fun ride was one in which we were on a four-person raft, basically just dropping for several metres down a steep slope then up the other side again, back and forth several times.

Miya was too small for the fast rides, and Mama was too scared, so they mostly stayed in the more gentle sections.  For the final hour or so I was (mentally) exhausted from the fast rides, and enjoyed a few gentle rides with Miya.

Saturday 13th

This was one of the big, important day trips for Laolao.

In the morning, the five of us, plus Uncle, caught the intercity train to Daqing, a small city about an hour north-west of Harbin.  We were met at the station by a couple of Uncle’s old army buddies.

Daqing is the centre of the oil fields in the area, and is also the home of a museum dedicated to one of the heroes of 1960s Chinese oil production, Wang Jinxi (also known as Iron Man).

Oil was discovered in Daqing in 1959, and, in a rush to make China self-sufficient, oil workers immediately headed to the area to start the extraction.  One of these was Wang who, thanks to his single-minded dedication, had recently become a hero model worker in the Yumen oil fields.  Wang and his 1205 drilling team fought temperatures below -40 degrees, and with lack of equipment were amongst the first to set up rigs and wells.

In one famous story, as they were drilling 700m down there was a blowout.  They needed to secure the well, and to do so they needed to mix cement.  To speed things along Wang, previously injured and on crutches, jumped into the well and stirred the cement with his body.

After this, Wang was a huge national hero.

In 1966, in his early 40s, Wang visited Albania for 40 days with the China Petroleum Delegation.  Laolao, in her mid 20s, was also part of the team, translating for the delegates.

Laolao tells us that Wang genuinely was a truly decent guy.  This was at a time when the Chinese Cultural Revolution was happening.  Laolao’s mum, who worked at a university, was understandably in huge danger.  Wang asked Laolao if there was anything he could do for her, and she mentioned her mother.  Personally endangering himself by associating with her, Wang took the time to visit Laolao’s mother.

When the Cultural Revolution leaders turned on the earlier leaders, Wang was tortured.  Wang died of cancer in 1970.

The Daqing museum has a display about the Albania visit.  Laolao is in the display photo with Wang and the other delegates.

Our visit to the museum was not just an important event for Laolao and us.  It was also big for the museum.  Several museum staff, as well as media, escorted us around the museum, recording Laolao’s recollections of her interactions with Wang.  At the end of the visit we retired to the museum’s VIP room, where they presented her with several books and a large Iron Man statue.

After the museum visit we had a restaurant lunch with Uncle’s army buddies.  We ate in the restaurant’s VIP room — we could get used to this VIP treatment!

Before heading back to the train station, we stopped off to look at an oil pump — seemingly hundreds of these dot the landscape all throughout Daqing.  Mulan mis-translated the name of these machines into English, and we started calling them “banging head chickens” (machine and chicken are both “ji” in Chinese, though they are different characters).

Sunday 14th

After a busy several days, we needed a rest.  I stayed at home all day.

In the morning, Mama and Mulan had an outing together, watching Spirited Away at a local movie theatre.  Apparently, a new generation of Chinese are wanting to watch the classic Miyazaki movies in real movie theatres, and they are re-showing them.  Mama and Mulan watched a Chinese language version with Japanese subtitles.

On the way home they picked up a birthday cake for Miya.  Miya’s 9th birthday is not until next month, but Laolao wanted to have small party for her since she’ll miss the real day.

Monday 15th

We returned to the shopping centre we had been to the previous Monday, to pick up my glasses.  We also bought Mulan and Miya new sunglasses, as we got 50% discounts for them after buying my glasses.

But the most important thing for the girls was that we went ice skating in the shopping centre’s indoor skating rink.  It was the first time the girls had ever ice skated, although we have got both regular skates and inline skates at home, which they often use up and down our driveway.  I’d ice skated as a teenager several times, but nothing since then.  This was the second time that Mama had ice skated — her first time was also in Harbin, outdoors on the river.

The girls and I quickly got into the skating, and were mostly doing okay around the rink.  Mama was less mobile, spending most of the two hours holding onto the side rail as she wobbled around!

After skating, we had our third cheese teas of the trip.

Finally, before heading home we noticed a curling rink/field/pitch/court (I wonder what it’s called!).  We went in and watched a boy practicing for a bit.  They tried to convince us to buy a session, but we were tired from the skating and it was a bit too late in the day.

Tuesday 16th

Sadly, I was denied breakfast in the morning.

Mama and I had booked in a medical checkup at a local hospital, and they required us to not eat beforehand.  So, we were scanned and prodded, and liquids were removed.  It seems that a floor of the hospital is dedicated to this activity.  We joined the queues going from room to room as the doctor inside performed his or her particular task before filling out the paperwork that we carried around with us.  Partway through the testing we went to the canteen where they supplied us with a cup of milk and a couple of sweet buns, to keep us going.  One immediate medical result was that apparently my liver is a little fatty.  We’ll get the full results in a couple of weeks.

After the hospital, we all had yet another lunch date — this time with Uncle, Aunt and Aunt’s mum.

Wednesday 17th

And here ended our holiday in Harbin.

We left our apartment about 9:15 am to catch the 10:43 am train back to Beijing.  Again the girls loved their instant noodles and again the ride was smooth.  We arrived into Beijing just after 6 pm, where we were picked up in a car by a friend.  The car couldn’t fit us all with the bags, so Miya and I caught the subway.

Thursday 18th

We spent the day doing traditional Chinese cultural activities.  That is, first up we wandered the shopping centres looking at shoes, stopping occasionally to eat.  (The shoes were for me — I needed new comfy walking shoes for New Zealand winter.)

For lunch we had what we call yummy bin-bins (jianbing) — one of my favourite foods that are common in Beijing.  And for afternoon tea we had yet another cheese tea each.

Meanwhile, I found a super comfy pair of shoes, which normally cost over RMB5000 but we bought for the super low price of RMB850 (yeah, it was a fake brand, but it was still a genuine comfy pair of shoes).

In the evening, we caught the subway to Tiananmen Square to watch the flag lowering ceremony.

Every time I go to Tiananmen Square I comment on how the security is increasing, and this time was no exception.  The first time I was there, in 2006, people could just freely wander across the road into the Square.  Gradually security increased, with fences, secure entry points and bag scanners.  This time they surprised us by requiring us to present ID at the security gate.  We hadn’t brought ours.  I guess we looked suitably innocent and genuine, because after a quick check with a higher up guard we were allowed through.  (Should we be thankful to the kind guards and benevolent system that flexibly allowed us in?)

The crowds were also larger than the previous time I watched the flag lowering ceremony.  It seems to be turning into quite the event, though not nearly as spectacular as the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.  We were a few rows back behind the fences.  Miya, on my shoulders, had the best view and took heaps of photos.

Mama informed me that visiting Tiananmen Square is one of the must-do activities for Chinese in China.  She asked me if there were any similar must-dos for New Zealanders.  I suggested walking the Milford Track.  I guess that sums up the big cultural difference between China and New Zealand.

After the ceremony was over the crowds were asked to leave the Square.  This is again a new security measure, where they close the Square in the evenings after the flag lowering.  So much for our plan to eat our boxed baozi in the Square.  Instead we left the Square and walked in front of the entrance to the Forbidden City, sitting with the crowds on the garden railings.

Friday 19th

Our flight back to New Zealand was scheduled to leave Saturday morning at 1:05 am, so we spent most of our final day resting.  In the afternoon, we all had a snooze.

Mama, Mulan and Miya went out for a final special restaurant breakfast together.

In the morning, I had another walkabout for over three hours, wandering around the streets and to the Olympic Park again.

We said our goodbyes to Laolao and left her apartment at 9:45 pm.

Saturday 20th

Our flight left on time and was smooth; no one vomited this time.  We landed about 5:30 pm New Zealand time.

Knowing we were arriving home in the evening, where we could all relax and sleep, we all watched too many movies.  I got through four!  Guardians of the Galaxy was the weakest of the four, though entertaining enough as a wisecracking superhero movie.  The Adjustment Bureau was intriguing, though the romantic soulmate theme was naive.  A Street Cat Named Bob was warm and inspiring.  Please Stand By was sweet and appealing and the best of the four.

What Mama was doing in Melbourne

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Mama was in Melbourne for work.

Here's a trailer for the documentary series she was working on:

Have a look at 1 minute 7 seconds.  That's Mama walking along the beach.  (She claims she did more work over there than just play on the beach.)

Solo dad-ing again

Mama is away in Australia at the moment for work, so I'm solo dad-ing again.

It's just a short trip, from Friday morning to Tuesday night, and the time is speeding by quickly.

One of Mama's many jobs is that she is part of a Hong Kong TV documentary team.  Currently they are doing a documentary series on Westerners who had an influence on early modern China.  This particular episode is about Morrison of Peking, and so Mama is in Melbourne interviewing some people about him.  Prior to this, Mama was also the main researcher for the episode on Sir Thomas Wade.  I understand that while they are in Melbourne they'll also spend time planning their next documentary series, on education.

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The fact that Mama is away has probably given more salience to a couple of things I recently read/watched.

The book I am reading at the moment is a collection of short stories by various authors, edited by N. K. Jemisin (who I wrote about recently).

The stand-out story for me so far (they are all excellent, by the way) is Caroline M. Yoachim's Carnival Nine.  It is an incredibly powerful story about life.  I found an online version of it here.  I highly recommend it.

Another story about life (and death) is this video about Herbert Fingarette, who tells us that "being 97 has been an interesting experience".  I remember reading some of Fingarette's works when I was at university (he was one of the big names in Chinese philosophy).

Foreign language

Mulan and Miya are bilingual.  I speak to them in English; Mama speaks to them in Mandarin Chinese.

But learning a language as a native speaker is different from learning as a foreigner.  It would be good for the girls to also learn a foreign language.

In term 4, the girls started learning New Zealand Sign Language through HASCA.  It is being offered again in term 1, and we were strongly considering continuing it as the girls' foreign language.

But after a few back and forths, we decided that instead of Sign Language the girls would learn Cantonese Chinese as their foreign language.  So, for the past several weeks the girls have been having weekly formal Cantonese lessons.

On the plus side for NZ Sign Language, it is one of New Zealand's official languages.  But we also found a couple of big minuses -- (a) it seems that there are lots of different sign languages around the world, so NZ Sign Language would only be for local New Zealand use, and (b) we (currently) don't know anyone in our daily life who uses it, so (currently) it would only be used in the classroom.  We feel, then, that the girls learnt enough in term 4 that should they ever need to know it in future they will already have a sense of what to do.

Cantonese, however, is much more practically useful for us.  It is Mama's second native language, and in everyday life she uses it with some of her friends and family.  Mulan and Miya would be able to connect much better with the extended family, and also it would allow them to fit in better whenever we return to Guangzhou.

The obvious other plus for Cantonese is that Mama is the teacher, so lessons are free!

Meanwhile, I have restarted formal Mandarin lessons (also with Mama).  I learnt for a year full time back in 2008/9, and since then I have sort-of made do with partly understanding bits in everyday life.  But we thought I should return to weekly lessons.  It is painful, but for the best.

China trip: Part 4

(Continuing from Part 3)

Sunday 22 July

We were up at 7 am for our train, which left Guiyang at 10:20 am.

Around midday, at the Congjiang train station, three trains arrived, bringing together the old friends — Mulan, Lily, Yiran, Xiner and Lara.  Back in 2007, they all met and became friends at “baby place”, the main grassy area at our home at Sun Yat-sen University, where the babies and pre-kindy kids would hang out every day for their outdoor exercise.  When the girls were barely crawling, we shared each other’s mats and toys, talking baby stuff.  As they got older the girls had play dates and sleepovers at each others' homes.  A few years later Xiner and family moved to Guilin, and then a few years later again we moved to New Zealand, and Lily has also now moved away, so it was awesome that we could all get together and let the girls reconnect.

Jumping into two people-mover taxis, all 14 of us (the three new girls just brought their mums each) drove to the holiday resort where we would stay for the next few nights.  It is an old village area of a minority people, the Dong, but newly set up as a tourist resort.  That is, a few of the buildings are old and authentic, while most are newly created replicas to house and entertain the tourists (I think Yiran complained that it was too fake).  A lot of it is quite picturesque, with cutesy old-looking wooden (or wood clad or wood facade) buildings set in a valley dotted alongside a creek.  The road into the village is barricaded, and we need tickets to get in.

We arrived at our hotel about 12:30 pm, but apparently it is a busy place and fully booked out, so our rooms weren’t available until after 2 pm.  So, everyone else went off to lunch while I sat and rested with the bags.

Around 2:30 pm we got our rooms.  Inside the rooms, they have a bit of a tent-like feel to them, as the rooms are small with low ceilings and the beds are on the floor (mattresses are Chinese style — inner sprung with what feels like a wooden board on top, making it extra, extra firm).  They don’t even have TVs!  The hotel itself is like a rabbits’ warren, with corridors and rooms at odd angles, small stairs up and down and half-height doors.  It looks like it was a bit-by-bit construction, with not a lot of advanced planning.  But somehow it all comes together to have an artistically creative feel, and, of course, lots of potential for children to Have Grand Adventures.

While we were organising our room, the children found the art room, and came back a while later splattered with clay.  We felt that our hotel area was safe enough that the children could run around reasonably freely.

I had a late lunch of specially ordered vegetarian jiaozi at a nearby restaurant.  For dinner, all the families got together at another nearby restaurant (about every second shop here is a restaurant!).

At 8 pm we went to a free one-hour concert at the village outdoor stage, which told the story of the Dong people coming to the area.  It was too loud (at least for my non-Chinese ears) and, though enthusiastic, a little amateurishly performed.  Miya and I left early (along with maybe a quarter of the crowd), but Mulan wanted to stay until the end.

Monday 23 July

My tummy had been continuing to trouble me in a moderate way, and it wasn’t coming right as quickly as I had expected.  With the busy activities and not much food going in, I had eventually run out of energy to the point where I was feeling dizzy and wobbly.  I was also feeling sick in my stomach, and couldn’t eat.  So, it was time to visit a hospital for antibiotics and an energy drip.  Fortunately, the village has a hospital, and we caught the local golf-cart taxi there.  A couple of hours connected to a drip, and I started to feel stronger.  I was also supplied with pills and energy drink sachets (to add to my water) to get me back to normal again.  We returned home, where I rested on the bed for the remainder of the day.

In the meantime, Mulan and Miya had continued to happily play with the other girls out and about around the hotel, while Mama was with me at the hospital.

This was the end of Mama’s holiday with us, as she had to go to Beijing to be with Laolao, who was having another operation for her cancer.  The exact date for the operation hadn’t been known before we left New Zealand, so Mama leaving partway through our travels was late re-planning.  Mama left the village about 4 pm, catching a taxi to the train station, then a train to Guilin, then finally a plane to Beijing.

Mulan and Miya had dinner out with the other families, while I continued resting at home.

Tuesday 24 July

Feeling a bit stronger, I ate our free hotel breakfast with the girls in the morning.

About 10 am, the girls went out for a walk with the other families.  Apparently they bussed up a mountain, then walked back down, getting back around 5 pm.  A good time was had by all.

I rested in the morning, then around mid-afternoon I felt strong enough to start exploring the outdoor neighbourhood.  I wandered out and around our hotel, before heading out back, discovering that behind the hotel I could follow the river upstream up the valley.

A newly built stone path criss-crossed back and forth over the river as I steadily walked away from the village, rice paddy fields on either side of me.  No other tourists were around at all, but I met up with the occasional group of locals.  There were plenty of hellos and ni haos from both sides as I passed, and one builder offered me a cigarette while one woman worker on her rest break patted a seat beside her asking me to sit with her.  It is interesting that without Mama and the girls, the locals were immediately much more interactive with me.

Dotted periodically along the path were newly built, or partly built, or being built, wooden structures.  Some were recognisably pavilions.  One may be going to be a public toilet building (just a guess).  One was a covered-in bridge, a tradition of the local area.  Clearly, there is a lot of construction work going on, with the intent of making this area a massive tourist destination.  In the village itself there are a huge number of hotel-like buildings being built.  I have my doubts about whether the finished project will be worth visiting, and I am glad we came now before this village gets too big.

Since the path kept going, I kept walking, too, until Miya phoned to say that they were back home at the hotel.  So, I turned around and started back.  At a fast, continuous pace downhill, I got home 40 minutes later, having been out a couple of hours or so.  Not too bad, considering my weakened state, but my legs were slightly wobbly going down the steps.

The girls ate dinner with the families, while I had takeaway jiaozi in my hotel room.

Wednesday 25 July

We had our free hotel breakfast again in the morning.

Our (Mama’s) original plan had been to leave the village this day, and stay one night at a nearby tea farm.  Without Mama here, we left it up to the other four mothers to make the decision about whether to stay or go.  I thought that (a) there was plenty to do here for the girls to play freely around that made moving unnecessary, and (b) with me being sick I still hadn’t explored everything here, so my non-forceful thought was that I’d rather stay.

I am not sure what the final reasoning was, but the mothers decided to stay at the village rather than move.  At least partly I guess it was because Yiran had to leave early anyway, catching her train back to Guangzhou at something like 6 pm.

Nonetheless, they decided to have a day trip to the tea farm, before Yiran left.  I didn’t go with them, thinking it best that Mulan and Miya do Chinese stuff without Dad interfering.  They left just after 10 am, and got back around 4 pm.  Again, from what I hear, they all had a wonderful time.  I heard that some thought that maybe we should have stayed the night there at the tea farm!  I know nothing more about the trip other than that the tea farm owners Tom Sawyer-ed them into picking tea up and down the fields.

Meanwhile, I wandered out the front door of our hotel this time, heading down into the village centre.  In this direction, almost everyone I saw was a tourist, and the streets were fairly crowded.  There is a real mix of buildings, from genuinely old looking village homes, to make-do brick and wood, to modern several-storey concrete hotels with wooden cladding.  Pretty much the entire village consists of hotels, restaurants or souvenir shops.

A local product they do here is dyed cloth.  Mulan told me that they saw it being done, where the locals put wax on parts of the cloth before dipping it in the dye.  Mulan also informed me that the village colour is blue, since their dyed cloths are all blue.  The girls all bought fold-up blue-dyed fans, which they took with them everywhere outside, fanning themselves in the heat just like local Chinese.

Near the entrance to the village, they had another of the covered bridges (much older this time) where a few men were sitting painting the scenery, which included water wheels lifting water to irrigate the rice paddy fields.  I wandered around in their scenery for a bit.

The village is also known for their several drum towers, dotted around.  These were kinda interesting, though perhaps they were all just modern replicas — an old-looking one’s sign says it was re-built in 1982 (it looked much older than that).

When the others returned about 4 pm, I joined them for “lunch”.  It seems that they had snacked a lot throughout their tea-picking time, and hadn’t had a chance to sit down to eat.  We said goodbye to Yiran immediately after lunch.

After lunch, the girls continued to play (somewhere) with the other three families.  They had planned to see a performance in the evening but it didn’t happen, nonetheless they stayed out until 9:30 pm.

Thursday 26 July

We had our final free hotel breakfast in the morning.

The girls were saying their goodbyes one by one.  First up, we said goodbye to Lily and family.  Their train home wasn’t until later in the evening, while ours, Lara’s and Xiner’s trains were all around midday.  So, we three families left the village together around 11 am, getting a people-mover taxi to the train station.

Next it was time to say goodbye to Xiner, as her train to Guilin left at 12:10 pm, while ours to Guangzhou, with Lara, left six minutes earlier.

Our train journey took about three and a half hours, and then it was back to our familiar home territory of Guangzhou.  We said a temporary goodbye to Lara after we got out of the metro station.

It was a busy evening: a return to our (Kane’s) apartment to dump our bags, then walking to our old Park n Shop for supplies, and then we were out again to meet up with Yiran and Lara.  The girls had dinner together at Pizza Hut (I had a quiet dinner at home) before returning in about 9 pm.

In the meantime, Laolao had had her operation, and from what we hear it went well.

Friday 27 July

Just before 10 am, the three of us headed out for a walk to and around our old home of Sun Yat-sen University.  I had lived there from when Mama and I got married in 2006 until we moved to New Zealand in 2014.  We walked in the Uni at our old gate (West Gate) and down the drive to our old home building (747).  The only change that we could see was that they had built a handrail going up the ramp to the building entrance door (my guess is to stop cars parking too close by the entrance).  Mulan grabbed the door as a water delivery man went in, and we caught the lift up to our old home (1001).  In the lift some old neighbours recognised us and plied Mulan with lots of questions.  We didn’t knock on the door of our old home, but we looked out the window in the stairwell, enjoying the old familiar view.

We then walked past the local market area (but of course we wouldn’t unnecessarily go in!), and on towards baby place.  A couple of years ago, when we last visited, we saw that the old running track/soccer field by baby place was being dug up.  Well, now they have finished it and it looks amazing.  They have build a new outdoor sports ground (a 6-lane rubber athletics track around a fake-grass soccer field) with a car park underneath.  Mulan immediately did some handstands and cartwheels on the new-looking fake grass, and found she was a bit rusty from not doing any of those sorts of movements for a month.  If I remember rightly, it was on that old soccer field that Mulan first learnt to do forward rolls.

Then it was on to baby place, which Mulan thought looked so small, then past Mama’s old work buildings and out the Uni North Gate to the river.  We ate our lunch at the riverside, before walking alongside the river towards home.  Once again, coming up the street from the river we passed Mulan’s old kindy and the pet shop before arriving in home, just over three hours later.

At 2 pm Tongtong (another of Mulan's friends) arrived with her mum, as planned, and the girls went out to play at Xiaogang Park.  I stayed at home again to give them some quality Chinese time without Dad.  They arrived back about 6:30 pm.

Us three had takeaway pizza at home while packing our bags for our flight the next day.

Saturday 28 July

Our holiday was over, except for a day of travelling home (does that also count as part of the holiday?).  We left home about 10:30 am, escorted by Grace and Yiran’s Mama, who were tasked with the job of making sure we really left their city.  At the Guangzhou South Railway Station (really, this time), we said our goodbyes to catch the 12:10 pm fast train to Shenzhen.

We had a small bit of trouble in Shenzhen.  We aimed to catch the metro from the intercity train station to the airport, but the first problem was that the metro had three stations that had “airport” in their name — Airport North, Airport East and Airport.  It looked like it might be possible to fly out of any of them, and we didn’t know from which we were scheduled to depart.  So, a phone call to Mama was needed, while we stood at the crowded ticket machines.  After some quick research by Mama, it turns out (we think) that the "Airport" is the only genuine airport metro station, and the other two are just badly named stations nearby.

Problem number two was that we didn’t have enough change — these ticket machines don’t accept notes bigger than 20 RMB.  So, while I held our place at the front of the long queue, the girls raced to change a 100 RMB note.  With those delays, we arrived at the airport slightly later than intended, about two and a quarter hours before our flight left.

But all was good, and, with about 40 minutes until we were due to board the plane, we sat at the gate and ate our lunch.  Our flight, which was due to leave at 4:50 pm, took off maybe 30 minutes late.  We all slept a little, but not a lot, on the smooth flight.  I watched one movie, while I think the girls watched a couple each.

Sunday 29 July

We arrived into Auckland just after 8 am (New Zealand time), where we caught the shuttle bus almost to our home door (we got off at the Smales Farm bus station).  Home just after 10 am, for a door to door journey of just under 20 hours.

Sunday 12 August

Mama arrived back in Auckland, after spending an extra two weeks in China.  Laolao is recovering well from her operation.