Chinese dream

Each generation of Chinese leadership adopts a mantra that is designed to represent the spirit of that administration. It becomes a refrain during speeches and public statements. Hu Jintao extolled the dual virtues of "scientific development" and a "harmonious society," highlighting the need in the last decade for expansion in Chinese science and technology, and use of that R&D in managing an increasingly connected and demanding citizenship.

In that last decade, China has risen to become the world's 2nd biggest economy, with the world's greatest number of internet users, and largest number of mobiles phones in use: 1.22 billion. Against the backdrop of China's well-publicized problems with pollution, human rights, and other issues, there is much for the leadership to be excited about as the "Chinese miracle" pushes ahead. In this spirit, it would seem, Xi Jinping has begin to use the phrase, "the Chinese dream," as his administration's calling card earlier in 2013.

"The Chinese dream" is a cryptic message with different resonances. Riffing on the dreams of other countries, such as America, how might the Chinese dream compare? One thing is clear: whereas previous leaders have emphasized more practical, pragmatic language and present change, Xi's dream is about a better future.

Construction sites are ubiquitous all over China, and Beijing is no exception. The markings on protective walls surrounding these sites are managed by local propaganda departments for display of advertisements suggesting slogans and other messages: right now, it's "the Chinese dream." When I first saw these go up earlier in the autumn of 2013, I was impressed how minimally clean and tasteful the design was, as opposed to the Hu administration's busy and less thoughtful aesthetic.

The above writing in large characters could be translated as "wish luck to the motherland," with an image filial piety accompanying to the right. Ian Johnson's analysis of the Chinese dream propaganda in the New York Review of Books points out how propaganda these days is moving from an emphasis on Communist to more traditional, Confucian values that were vilified just years before:

The difference is that while the old posters touted Communist values, the new ones largely replace them with pre-Communist Chinese traditions—drawing on traditional folk art like paper cutouts, woodblock prints, and clay figurines to illustrate their message. This is a redefinition of the state’s vision from a Marxist utopia to a Confucian, family-centric nation, defined by a quiet life of respecting the elderly and saving for the future.

Why move from espousing political values and instead emphasize traditional culture in Party imagery and language? Johnson explains the value in having the two blend together:

Almost all the art used in the posters, with its depictions of traditional dress and poses, used to be derided by the Party as belonging to China’s backward, pre-Communist past; now, these aesthetic traditions are a bulwark used to legitimize the Party as a guardian and creator of the country’s hopes and aspirations. 

One of the most interesting posters is the above, zhong guo hao qi! literally, "nice move, China!" The image is of two children playing chess. As Johnson observes, the major question here is: what is the nature of the game that China is winning? Who is the opponent?

It is easy to read especially the above as thought engineering, but to be honest it seems like most locals at least in Beijing pay very little regard. Whereas folks outside China might envision millions of Beijingers wandering city streets, eyes agog as the brainwash takes them over, Johnson's blog shows many of these posters are viewed cynically, some even defaced and ripped--a high crime that, if the vandal was caught, would certainly lead to detention or worse. Especially as a foreigner, it's easy to read the "good move, China" poster as an statement of China's aggressive intentions to "win the game," be it international diplomacy or a more domestic concern. I would instead look at it as a representation of Party neurosis that the government feels the need to manufacture a reality they are not certain is actually happening. As Jonathan Spence writes, "modern China" has not yet arrived, but the search is underway, with many trying to shape what that place may be, in word and action.

绕口令

raokouling is how you say "tongue twister" in Chinese, which I learned after wee how easy it was for my 8 year olds to say "toy boat" 10 times fast. I usually can't get past 3-4 times speaking as fast as possible. "Sally sells sea shells by the seashore" was very tricky. The sh- blend and s- sound are both used in Mandarin, however many dialects switch sh- for s- or don't pronounce sh- altogether--making Sally's story a multilingual mouth masher.

马上

Horse year is here, and we're so excited that the 17-foot long poster on our wall proclaiming 马到成功--"when the horses are here, success comes with them"--is now more relevant than ever. A lot of advertisements are using the word 马上, which means something like "immediately" but, if you literally translate the two characters, is read as "on a horse"... like when someone in sports or at work tells you to "get on your horse" and hurry up.

CONTRADICTION: iPhone dominoes

China is a developing country. Hundreds of millions of people here live in rural poverty with limited access to basic necessities.

--

http://bit.ly/1j88jmi

What is as crazy as spending all that money on all those phones is then posting it online with a "Happy Holidays" greeting expecting... what response? Why the choice of English? Easier to domino than Chinese characters?

不亦乐乎

bu yi le hu: Short for, "you pengzi yuan fang lai, bu yi le hu," the first sentence of Confucius' Analects, perhaps the most famous of all classical Chinese books. Translation would read something like, "Isn't it a pleasure when friends visit from afar"--prompting the values of hospitality to outsiders that you'll see in common folks whenever you visit China. Thinking these days of my incredible experience on the BYLH crew back in 2010... www.booeylehoo.org

孀

shuang: Another gorgeous histogram: the main portion, to the right, can mean either a winter's frost, or a coating or covering of whiteness, as in either cosmetics or, say, cake frosting. The smaller piece on the left, the "woman radical," indicates that this character should have something to do with ladies. Used together, these two pieces are pronounced shuang, first tone, the Mandarin word for "widow."

活

huo, rising tone: The three dots on the left side connote water, while the main pictogram on the right, if used alone, means "tongue." Put together, you have "wet tongue"; the meaning of huo is "alive," or "living"--the time when you have a wet tongue.

Mandarin is awesome.

狼狈为奸

lang bei wei jian: In trying to catch a meal, the wolf haplessly kept running into the flock of sheep, scattering them and ending up hungry. The clever ferret, who was too small to catch a giant sheep but who was also starving, saw an opportunity. "Wolf! Let me help you!" said the ferret, climbing onto the wolf's back. The ferret steered his new friend slowly towards a slower, sickly sheep, then told the wolf exactly when to pounce--with great success! The two conspirators then enjoyed a feast together.

...just picked up this story in class, talking about symbiosis in different ecosystems. I clarified, saying symbiosis is a good thing for all parties in the ecosystem--whereas lang bei wei jian has a bit more negative connotation.

人定胜天

ren ding sheng tian: Man can conquer nature... reminded of that every time I see the Beijing skyline. Question remains: can man conquer human nature?

悬崖勒马

xuan ya le ma: To impress a girl, the soldier took his horse a drove it north to the steppe, where could be found a massive canyon over which he could leap, impressing the lady and winning her heart. Charging as hard as he could to the brink, at the last second he thought otherwise and, pulling up on the reins, stopped himself and the horse from leaping almost certainly to their death.

指鹿为马

zhi lu wei ma: Zhao Gao, the most powerful eunuch in the Qin dynasty court, was contemplating treason but needed to see whether the most important officials would side with him in the uprising. As a test, he brought a deer to present to the Second Emperor. Upon introducing the animal, Zhao Gao asked for comment on his lovely horse. "My dear Zhao Gao," the emperor laughed, "I believe you are mistaken, this animal is surely a deer, not a horse!" The emperor asked the attending officials their thoughts, and one by one, each sought to either curry favor with Zhao Gao--"What a lovely horse!"--or else remained defiant, echoing the emperor's observation. In the coming days, each defiant offical was summoned to Zhao Gao and executed on the spot.

天要下雨，娘要嫁人

tian yao xia yu, niang yao jia ren: A girl was speaking with her mother, trying to decide on a suitable day to be married. They consulted the almanac, considering her year of birth and zodiac sign, the groom's sign, and most importantly, the history of weather on different days of the year. "No one wants a rainy day for their wedding," said the girl. "You have just as much chance of controlling the weather as controlling a herd of charging yaks. When a lady wants to marry, she'll marry, and when the sky wants to rain, it'll rain."

山高水远

shan di huang yuan: In the dragon-toothed mountains of Guizhou, a poor boy stole a sweet melon from a elderly melon seller. The boy made no attempt to hide his actions, nonchalantly grabbing a melon as he walked by. "What are you doing!?" the seller shouted. "Taking a melon." The boy mentioned. "You have to pay for that!" was yelled after him as he walked away.

"If you need money for the melon, chase after me and take it--I have nothing," the boy said. "But... but it's the emperor's edict! You can't steal!" complained the melon dealer, looking around hopelessly for a constable. "Oh... it's an edict, then? Old man, don't you see? The mountains are tall, and the emperor is far away."

蜻蜓点水

qing ting dian shui: "The dragonfly darts about, rippling the water gently as it moves quickly from place to place."

守株待兔

shou zhu dai tu: In the middle of a long day in the fields, a farmer rested for a few minutes under a tree. While he was resting, a rabbit skittered across the grass in front of him and crashed into a rock. The farmer walked over and checked the rabbit: dead. 'How incredible," said the farmer. "I have to sit under this tree more often!" And he did, day after day, quitting work and waiting for another rabbit to take home for dinner. Day after day, he became more and more hungry, waiting for the serendipity of that first resting time under the tree to repeat itself.

井底之蛙

jing di zhi wa: A frog lived his whole life at the bottom of a damp well, enjoying the puddles and flies and occasionally looking up to the small circle of sky above. One day, a crow landed on the rim of the well high above the frog. Startled, the frog asked, "How is it that you can fly around up there? There's not enough sky for a bird half your size!" The bird shouted back down, "There is more than enough sky for me. There world up here is much different and much bigger than you think. You should check it out sometime."

惊弓之鸟

jing gong zhi niao: The king loved to hunt, and one day took several of his bodyguards out into the forest to shoot down some birds with their bows and arrows. One bodyguard, a particularly ambitious man looking for a promotion, admonished the others: "What are you doing with those arrows?! There's no need for me to even shoot to bring down a bird. The mere sight of me behind a bow will scare the animal to death." A bird flapped out of a nearby tree, and as the man cocked back his bow to aim his imaginary arrow, the flying bird dropped out of the sky as if it was shot. "There! You see! Scared to death of me!" The bodyguard led the group away as his friend scampered out from behind a bush, blood on his hands from where he had broken the bird's wing a moment before.

滥竽充数

lan yu chong shu: The king of the land adored fine music, and called for an orchestra of hundreds of musicians to play at the palace. Seeing the hordes of musicians getting ready to play, a passerby asked what's going on. "They're all going to play for the king!" The passerby joined the throng, grabbing a bamboo shoot as he walked and fashioning it into a flute on his way to the palace. In the orchestral pit he sat down alongside 100 other flutists, and as they began to play, did his best to mime the flute players beside him. After the performance, he was paid for his fine renditions of the king's favorite songs, having never blown one note.

画蛇添足

hua she tian zu: A poor man was putting a new roof on his home and enlisted the help of some other villagers. After a long day of work, the man offered up a jug of wine, not enough for all of the workers. He said: "I'll give the jug to the man who can draw a snake the fastest." One of the workers quickly drew a squiggly line in the dirt and believed, for a moment, he was done. He looked at some other workers around him, working hard and perfecting their drawings. Accordingly, the fast one began to add more detail to his snake--a few extra lines, giving the snake feet like a salamander. Before he could finish, the poor man approved the drawing of another worker: a simple drawing of a squiggly line. "But that's exactly what I drew!" the fast worker said. "That's not what I see here," said the poor man. "We all know snakes don't have feet."

First Nations

In attending to HR duties here at work it's interesting reading through names of all the towns in Canada where you can find talented early childhood educators: Mississauga, Moose Jaw, Chilliwack, Penticton, Halifax... just some solid, strong town names here. Lots of choppy consonants and hard stops, in languages that I wish I knew but that you could only hope to learn today at a small college on a reservation. It's funny to see the terms for these town names and consider the heaps of humanity that call each of them home--from the teachers we're looking for to those now fast asleep, but maybe planning on playing frisbee in the park or going deep-sea fishing as soon as the sun comes up tomorrow. The world is such a huge place with so many people, but in hiring teachers and interacting with them once they arrive, you always get something different.. but you always kind of get something the same. Guess that might be the effect of interacting with someone with the same cultural background in the midst of a vast and ancient alien society.