Crazy Story from SW China

China attracts all different kinds of expatriates.

From The New York Times:

Image of Dali from travelmarket.com

DALI, China — Justin Franchi Solondz, an environmental activist from New Jersey who spent years evading charges of ecoterrorism in the United States by hiding out in China, was sentenced to three years in prison by a local court on Friday on charges of manufacturing drugs in this backpacker haven.

After serving his time, Mr. Solondz, 30, who is on the F.B.I.’s wanted list, will be deported to the United States, where he faces charges stemming from what the authorities say was his role in an arson rampage that destroyed buildings in three western states as a member of a group related to the environmental extremist organization Earth Liberation Front. He was indicted in absentia in 2006.

The story of Mr. Solondz’s life on the lam spanned three continents, involved at least two aliases and ended in a smoky bar in one of the world’s most authoritarian countries.

Mr. Solondz’s journey started in the fall of 2005, when he joined his mother in Italy for a wedding and then traveled around Europe and Asia. His parents say he stopped communicating with them in March 2006, just before the F.B.I. announced the charges.

The trail went cold until March 2009, when the Chinese police arrested Mr. Solondz here in the mountains of Yunnan Province after he was caught with drugs and fake Canadian identification, according to his parents. During a daylong trial last month, Mr. Solondz pleaded guilty to drug charges and asked to be deported to the United States.

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Click the link and read this whole article. It is bizarre. An Evergreen State student turned narco-terrorist turned drug peddler in southwest China turned Chinese prison inmate.

I've been to Dali. I went there with my friend, Joseph, in the summer of '06 (sounds like I just missed Mr. Solondz). I'd heard all sorts of things about the place. Most of them did, indeed, turn out to be true. It's a different world there; a true hippie paradise. I was horribly sick my whole time there battling giardiasis so I didn't get to see the place as well as I would've liked. But I saw enough to know that it is a one-of-a-kind place in China.

I was shocked that such a place existed in China. I can't imagine that it will much longer though. The article makes it sound like China is on to what goes on in Dali and that authorities aren't going to turn such a blind eye on the place anymore.

Tis the Season

Christmas tree ornamentation... hmmmmm.

From The LA Times:

Customs officials at the Los Angeles Harbor received a shipment from China listed as Christmas ornaments.

But when they opened the "presents" Tuesday, they found 316,000 bongs and pipes.

“They’re very colorful and big,” said Cristina Gamez, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “Some of them are like 2 feet tall.”

Gamez said glass bongs and pipes, contained in nearly 860 boxes of cargo, are worth about $2.6 million.

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It's fairly amusing that even this sector of the economy has been outsourced to China. There could be some benefits to the Chinese pipes though. Smoking out of Chinese made glass, given the problems with lead paint and other hazardous chemicals that US products manufactured in China have had in the past, could very well give their users a wide array of added stimulation.

But seriously...

One difference between the US and China that I often told my Chinese friends and former students is the difference in recreational drug cultures. In America, nearly one out of three college students smoke marijuana.

I'm not even going to try to find statistics for China. I can guarantee you that it is nowhere near America's rate. In fact, I couldn't imagine that it is even close to being 1%. Marijuana, from everything that I've seen in China, just isn't popular there. Whenever I told Chinese people (admittedly mostly well-to-do ones) about young Americans' largely lax attitudes towards the drug, they could not believe it.

The only times that I ever really heard anything about marijuana were in foreigner tourist spots - the little old ladies in Dali and stocks of it at hostels throughout Yunnan Province come to mind - and in the expat community in Xi'an, for which foreigners living in Xi'an did actually seem to have a system in place for getting the drug consistently (which I think is insane).

Although marijuana is not being embraced by Chinese people, drugs like ecstacy and cocaine seem to be catching on. Whenever I went out to night clubs with friends, it just seemed like such drugs were around. I wasn't offered the drugs persay, but a large portion of the people there seemed to be on something and I knew foreigners in Xi'an who were in to that sort of stuff (and found it readily available).

I think America's drug policy is screwed up. But China's is even scarier. People are executed for drug related crimes there. Messing around with such stuff in China is not a good idea, in my opinion.

China: A Barbie World

Barbie, with her blond hair and ridiculous measurements (transferred into real life, 36-18-33), is trying to make a splash in China.

Here is a video from the BBC, reporting from the six floor Barbie shop in Shanghai:



Here is a write-up from The Global Post from March on Mattel's pushing of Barbie in China:

HONG KONG — Tall, blond, impossibly large breasts. Barbie stands out anywhere, but in China, she really turns heads. And that, of course, is exactly what Mattel, the U.S. company behind the Barbie doll, wants.

On Mar. 6, Mattel is opening a six-story, 38,000-sq.-ft. Barbie superstore in Shanghai. In addition to dolls — lots of dolls — the boutique will feature a hair salon, a bar and a $15,000, adult-sized Vera Wang gown.

“This is not just a store for children” said Laura Lai, general manager of Barbie Shanghai. “Girls of all ages will love it.”

Barbie’s made-in-China makeover is part of a push to re-brand the iconic American doll on the eve of her 50th birthday. With domestic sales slumping, Mattel has set its sights on China, hoping to the weather the financial storm in the relative calm of the country's vast — and comparatively untapped — consumer market.

The plan is to turn America's favorite doll into fashion fodder for China's upwardly mobile, trend-setting elite. By moving up-market and focusing on Barbie-branded merchandise, the company hopes to widen profit margins and attract a new demographic: Chinese women.

But, will they buy it?

Summer Wang, an assistant at a film production company, certainly will. "Barbie is beautiful like a princess,” she said. “And every Shanghai girl wants to be a princess."

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One isn't going to be surprised to hear that I think Barbie's penetration into the Chinese market is not a very good thing. To have little Chinese girls, and their mom's too I suppose, buying into everything that Barbie represents is not encouraging.

Whenever I think of Barbie dolls, Lisa Simpson and her crusade against Malibu Stacey comes to mind. This quote from Lisa, on the effects Malibu Stacey has on little girls, is classic:

It's not funny, Bart. Millions of girls will grow up thinking that this is the right way to act; that they can never be more than vacuous ninnies whose only goal is to look pretty, land a rich husband, and spend all day on the phone with their equally vacuous friends talking about how damn terrific it is to look pretty and have a rich husband!

Well put, Lisa.

The Terracotta Servants

A Chinese professor of ancient history has an interesting theory on why the terracotta "warriors" near Xi'an were built.

From Xinhua:

XI'AN, (Xinhua) -- A Chinese history academic is refuting the modern interpretation of the First Emperor's terracotta army, saying the figures are servants and bodyguards, instead of warriors as many people believe.

"The clay figures should be taken as copies of the emperor's guards and servants," said Liu Jiusheng, associate professor of history at Shaanxi Normal University. "Their layout in the pits, with chariots and horses, represented grand ceremonies with the emperor's presence."

Many people believe the 2,200-year-old terracotta army, buried around the mausoleum of Qin Dynasty's first emperor about 35 km east of Xi'an, indicated the emperor had wanted the clay warriors to help him rule in the afterlife.

The army is known to most Chinese people as the "terracotta warriors and horses".

Liu, an expert on Qin (221-207 B.C.) history who has been studying the terracotta army for more than 20 years, ruled out the hypothesis.

"It's against the Chinese tradition and value systems to bury clay warriors in imperial mausoleums -- the Chinese traditionally value peace in the afterlife," Liu said.

In his April, 2009, publication on terracotta research, Liu said the clay figures were most likely modeled after imperial court officials, servants and bodyguards, all of whom were people of high social status. "Men of humble origin or ordinary soldiers couldn't have got so close to the emperor, even in his mausoleum."

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The article goes on to say that "Liu's argument is still not widely accepted." This may be because it is dead wrong. I don't really know. I do find the rather bold assertion he's made to be an amusing one though.

For those not too familiar with the terracotta "warriors" near Xi'an, here are a few basics on the place.

Emperor Qin Shi Huang began building the army of terracotta figures in 210 BC in an area about an hour's drive east of Xi'an. In addition to building this massive army, Qin is also famous for beginning the construction of the Great Wall, standardizing weights and measures and currency, and for unifying "China" for the first time.

One aspect of his life and the terracotta army that I find particularly remarkable is his love of mercury. Mystics back at that time period told him that ingesting mercury would give him everlasting life. He started regularly getting acquainted with the liquid metal and obviously lost his mind in doing so. Mercury-induced psychosis and mania would go a long way in explaining why the guy went to the trouble of spending thirty-six years building a massive army of life-like people. His tomb, which has not been unearthed, supposedy has rivers of mercury flowing through the place.

Seeing the terracotta army with these things in mind makes the visit a very enjoyable experience. The warriors, residing beneath airport hangar-like structures, are not that visually stunning. But taking in the warriors in conjunction with the bizarre history surrounding the construction of the site and the man responsible truly do make it a worthwhile place to visit.

No More Fake Doctors on Medical Ads

This news is going to greatly affect the medical infomercials that seem to be on all day on just about every channel of Chinese TV.

From Reuters:

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has banned actors and other "non-accredited personnel" from playing medical experts in advertisements for drugs after an Internet-led witch-hunt exposed a number of bogus experts, state media reported on Monday.

A Chinese Internet user late last month exposed 12 fake experts selling medicine under various guises and names on television stations in eastern Shandong province, sparking an online uproar over false endorsements.

China's fair trade watchdog, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) vowed punishments after local hospitals and universities queued up to deny any affiliation to the "experts," local media reported.

Non-accredited personnel would be banned from such advertisements and other health programmes carried on television, Xinhua news agency said, citing a notice jointly issued by the SAIC, China's health ministry, the country's media regulator and two other drug quality watchdogs.

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Although I have never played a medical expert on TV, a few of my friends have. (Having white skin gives one endless possibilities in China.)

About a year ago, a few of my friends were told they could make an easy 1,000RMB by simply showing up to a set, putting on a white lab coat, and speaking English into a camera. Their faces would also be on the ubiquitous medical infomercials which plague Chinese television. Of course they accepted the offer.

The first advertisement a couple of my friends participated in was for a nasal spray product. The infomercial was about fifteen minutes long, which then played on a continuous loop. My friends were probably on screen for a total of one minute each.

There was music and a Chinese guy talking over my friends' voices, but if you listened carefully you could hear what they were saying into the camera.

I remember Mike saying directly into the camera, "I'm pretending to be a doctor. I have no idea what I'm talking about. They are paying me lots of money to pretend to know what I'm talking about." This kind of stuff.

And then they had Richard sitting in front of a computer in his lab coat. The speaking part they used from him was him listing off different countries from around the world. During his part, pretty much all he was saying was "Canada, America, Korea, Denmark" very slowly.

The second commercial was one of my friends, Paul, talking about the benefits of erectile dysfunction pills. They dressed him up in a US Army uniform and had him sit on a panel discussing how the pills had worked for him. This commercial was hilarious.

Again, the creators of the ad asked him to just speak English into the camera. They didn't speak any English so he could say whatever he wanted. Paul had been screwed over by the school we were working for on his visa. So during his five minute or so free talk on the health benefits, he just talked trash about the school and the management of the school while talking directly into the camera.

Unfortunately, I don't have copies of these videos. I'm pretty sure a friend of mine in Xi'an still has a DVD of their performances. I'll see if I can find that DVD and put those videos onto YouTube. Would be really funny to see again.

Anyways, if my friends were to make this video now, the companies employing them would be reprimanded. That is OK, I suppose. It's not really fair at all to the gullible Chinese consumer to be lied to by either foreigners or Chinese pretending to be doctors.

Rainmaking

China is getting proactive with the drought going on in northern China.

From Xinhua News:

WUHAN, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- A third air force freighter is to attempt to bring two showers during the coming week to Hubei Province, which is suffering from a devastating drought, said a local meteorological officer Wednesday.

Xu Yonghe, Hubei Weather Modification Office's chief engineer, was equipping the An-26 freighter with artificial rain enhancement facilities at Yangluo Airport in Wuhan City when the reporter spoke to him. The freighter arrived from south China's Guangzhou City on Tuesday evening.

Xu said the facilities included cloud-seeding equipments and a GPS system. The plan is to create a shower between Feb. 12 and 14,and another between Feb. 15 and 17. "They could increase rainfall by 10 to 20 percent."

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In recent days, I've heard a lot of Chinese people talk about getting "artificial rain" to help farmers struggling with the current drought. Not really knowing what artificial rain is, I did a bit of probing into this issue. It turns out rain can indeed be man-induced and I've just been clueless that such things even exist.

Here is an excerpt of an article I found from ThingsAsian on China's practice of inducing rain from 2004:

"The widespread use of this technology in northern China more than anything reflects the prominent shortage of water we have," Hu said. He added chemicals like silver iodine, liquid nitrogen and calcium chloride were being distributed into clouds by airplanes, rocket shells and anti-aircraft guns to build up moisture in the clouds and increase rainfall.

The work aims to enhance or multiply tiny particles of ice in clouds which become the building block for precipitation as they gather moisture and eventually fall out of the clouds as rain, hail or snow.

According to state press reports, from 1995 to 2003 China spent 266 million dollars on rain-making technology in 23 provinces and regions and now boasts some 35,000 people who work in the field.

In 2003 alone, the state spent some 50 million dollars dispersing chemicals into clouds through the use of 30 airplanes, 3,800 rockets and 6,900 high artillery shells.

"Man-made efforts to influence the weather is an important method by mankind to use modern science and technology to prevent and reduce disasters, and is already receiving a high level of importance in our country," Qin Dahe, minister of the State Meteorological Bureau, said earlier this year. Chinese scientists are also researching how to expand the technologies to disperse fog, stop hail from ruining crops and reduce frost and air pollution. Last week, meteorologists in Shanghai announced they would use the technology to induce more rain as a way to cool the city down and avoid the summer spike in electricity demand that has been attributed to the city's air conditioners.

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Looking at the Wikipedia page on cloud seeding, I found that the practice of trying to create rain artificially is not just used by the Chinese. It is also used by the United States. In fact, the practice very long history dating back to the early 1900s.

Most interesting, there are even some interesting conspiracy theories surrounding the practice of cloud seeding:

In 1969 at the Woodstock, various people claimed to have witnessed clouds being seeded by the U.S. military. This was said to be the cause of the rain which lasted throughout most of the festival. This remains one of the many conspiracy theories put forth by members of the hippie movement at the time.

Silly hippies...

If cloud seeding actually works, and there is a lot of dispute whether it does, I suppose it could very well be a good thing. There is something a bit 1984-ish about the whole thing though.

Even if it is creepy that the government could feasibly control whether it rains or not, I hope that right now it can bring rain to Xi'an and relief to the farmers of northern China.

Reworking Fine Art, Chinese Style

A collection of Chinese bloggers have done an awesome job at pointing out the absurdity that is surfing the net in China.

From AFP:

SHANGHAI (AFP) — Chinese Internet users angered by censorship in cyberspace have dressed up images of famous renaissance nudes in a protest against Beijing's crackdown on "vulgar" online content.

Images posted as part of the protest include Michelangelo's statue "David" shown in a Mao suit while black socks and a strategically placed necktie were added to the artist's depiction of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

The protest began last week after a user of the social networking site Douban.com complained that images of several paintings, including Titian's nude "Venus of Urbino," had been deleted from an online photo album.

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This recent crackdown on pieces of art shows just how clueless the people controlling the internet here are. Although I don't agree with it at all, I can at least understand why they want to crack down on pornographic content. But fine art, give me a break.

I think that the following is a pretty good definition of pornography: "the creative activity (writing or pictures or films etc.) of no literary or artistic value other than to stimulate sexual desire." Obviously these works which were being questioned do not fall under that category at all.

As the article goes on to say, the photoshoppers who pointed out the ridiculousness of this filtering won and the works of art which were being questioned now aren't.

This story is a testament to the power of a meaningful, well thought out, and subtle standing up to the Man.

Fireworks Rock Xi'an Street

Reading The Shanghaiist yesterday (a very good China blog), I came across this post about a Xi'an street which nearly went up in flames this week.

The original Chinese news article about the fire can be found here. If you click through on the link, you can see a pretty wicked video at the top of the page of what went on at the scene.

Here are a few pictures from the destruction:







The street which caught fire is really quite close to where I live and work. Although the fire happened about a mile or so away from me, I was completely unaware of it. I was probably in class or eating lunch when it happened.

One might wonder how a street could be so consumed with simple fireworks. In fact, it is easy to understand how and why when you consider that stands like these are everywhere these days leading up to the Chinese New Year:



Beginning about a week ago, random fireworks have been going off day and night. Store owners stand outside their shops dropping little firecrackers as they go about their daily business. Children, who are on their winter vacation, also play with them well into the night.

The climax of fireworks will be Sunday night, lunar New Year's Eve. From about 11:00PM until 12:30AM, there will be a steady unceasing stream of fireworks being lit. It is quite an experience.

This year, I will be spending New Year's Eve with Jackie and about 15 of her relatives at her Aunt's house. It is going to be awesome. I can count on eating delicious homemade dumplings, playing ma jiang, drinking plenty of beer and baijiu, and playing with copious amounts of fireworks.

The Chinese know how to do their holidays right!

Want to Live Amongst Wild Wolves in Xi'an?

If you have three days to kill, want to earn £500 for doing a small amount of work, and don't mind being around wild wolves, this is something in which you might be interested.

From Ananova.com:

A wildlife park in China is looking for three human volunteers to share an enclosure with 36 wild wolves.

Qinling Wildlife Park in Xi’an says they will be safe in a tree house 10ft above the ground, reports the Xi'an Evening Post.

It wants three volunteers, aged between 22 and 45, to spend three full days in the treehouse in exchange for a certificate and a cash reward worth £500.

"They will be safe in the hut. We will equip them with a walkie-talkie and monitor the hut around the clock. In case of emergencies, we can shoot tranquilizer darts at the wolves,” said a park spokesman.

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£500 is a pretty good sum of money, at least in terms of Chinese RMB.

Doubt it is worth the hassle of doing this publicity stunt though.

Ancient Marijuana Stash Found in Northwest China

Shamans in China's great northwest had, apparently, discovered marijuana's psychotropic powers nearly three millenia ago.

From MSNBC.com:

Nearly two pounds of still-green plant material found in a 2,700-year-old grave in the Gobi Desert has just been identified as the world's oldest marijuana stash, according to a paper in the latest issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany.

A barrage of tests proves the marijuana possessed potent psychoactive properties and casts doubt on the theory that the ancients only grew the plant for hemp in order to make clothing, rope and other objects.

They apparently were getting high too.

Lead author Ethan Russo told Discovery News that the marijuana "is quite similar" to what's grown today.

"We know from both the chemical analysis and genetics that it could produce THC (tetrahydrocannabinolic acid synthase, the main psychoactive chemical in the plant)," he explained, adding that no one could feel its effects today, due to decomposition over the millennia.

Russo served as a visiting professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Botany while conducting the study. He and his international team analyzed the cannabis, which was excavated at the Yanghai Tombs near Turpan, China. It was found lightly pounded in a wooden bowl in a leather basket near the head of a blue-eyed Caucasian man who died when he was about 45.

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I'm not sure what to say about this one...

I went to Turpan last year, near where this stash was found.



Turpan is a really interesting place. It's rich history is based upon it being an oasis in the middle of hundreds of miles of sprawling deserts. The man-made irrigation canals which Turpan is famous for is one of the greatest engineering projects of ancient man.

To see some of my photos of Turpan from when I was there, click here.

Dealin' By Mail From Xi'an

An explanation behind Xi'an's famous "potato chips."

From the Chinglish version of The People's Daily Online:

A couple in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, was jailed yesterday for exporting drugs labeled as "potato chips", the local court said yesterday.

Li Zhanfu and her husband Tian Guowei had been sending drugs abroad by mail since May 2006, according to the Xi'an Intermediate People's Court.

Li was sentenced to 15 years in jail and fined 1.26 million yuan ($185,000), and Tian to 13 years in jail and fined 1.04 million yuan.

Both were convicted of trafficking drugs and operating an illegal business, the General Administration of Customs said.

It was the first and biggest case of selling stimulants through the Internet and the post in Shaanxi to be cracked by Xi'an customs.

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Selling drugs over the internet from China... not a good idea.

Ever since those Opium Wars, China has not had the most liberal of drug policies.

Heroin Addicted Elephant Cured

This is a wonderful story of recovery and redemption.

From AFP:

BEIJING (AFP) — An elephant has kicked his heroin habit after a three-year stint on an island rehab in southern China, an official and state media said Thursday.

The four-year-old Asian elephant, called Xiguang, has now being transported to a wildlife reserve in southwest China after being cured of his addiction with some clean living on Hainan island, Xinhua said.

Xiguang became hooked on the narcotic after animal smugglers captured him and other elephants by luring them with bananas laced with heroin in 2005, the official news agency said.

"The four elephants are arriving here from Hainan tomorrow," wildlife park official Mr Xu, who refused to give his full name, told AFP on Thursday.

Police caught the smugglers in May 2005 on the border between China and Myanmar, and noticed that Xiguang was acting strangely, the Beijing News website reported.

His eyes kept streaming, he made continuous trumpeting noises, and was finally diagnosed with withdrawal symptoms from the drug, the report said.

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Heroin laced bananas... interesting. I remember hearing rumors that Sichuan-style hot pot back in the day was laced with opium (although some Google searches to confirm this is not showing evidence of this). If one could get away with such a practice, seems like it'd be good for business.