Sinoed: December 2007

Happy Holidays!

Quite a nice site. Witty inscriptions dat autha wrotes.

Economic implications of ophthalmology and Ho Art from Zhuhai

I often get this thing when I am switching over to new spectacles, - the world suddenly acquires a certain unexpected twist – things seem smaller, the perspective shrinks, and when I attempt to pick up a cup I'm only grabbing the air near the actual thingy. On the other hand, my shoes begin to look frightfully large - perhaps because the earth now seems to be closer due to the shriveled reality, bringing my huge paws right under my nose. Good old things I used to take for granted are no longer the same.

But, amusingly, this seems to work with economy as well. For example, today we went to that Japanese supermarket, Jusco, and all the things I was used to, have contracted - amazing what new specs could do to you! The 5.50 bread became smaller, though the price tag stayed the same. The way pizza slices look also kinda shrunk, though check this out - the weird thing is that the size contraction is somehow selective - earlier when I bought two slices of pizza they used to stick out of the individual package box like two happy overflowing symbols of cornucopia, held in place by the plastic wrap, daring me to eat them while they were still hot and throbbing with baked cheese, and it warmed my heart to just hold so much tasty food. But today - who could have believed! - the pieces snugly fitted into that plastic container, nothing bulging over the edges, and the packages no longer sang the silent song of plenty - my question is then, did they start using larger containers, since the price stayed the same?!

And hey, what's up with the frozen salmon? - a hearty chunk of the tasty fish flesh used to cost about 20 yuan, and now smaller-looking sorry pieces go for 30. Oh the danger of changing your specs...

At the end I will enlighten your holiday spirit with the picture of a store here in Zhuhai. It's either the first jingle of Santa is coming to town, or one of the two.

Subliminal ads

This subliminal message is sent out to the unsuspecting public in one of Zhuhai malls.

No photoshop, no nothing, just the live shot. Holiday decorations covered a part of the ad. But still, they hit the bullseye.
In the meantime I am in continuous battle trying to go against their subconscious command...

Who's dat man?

The thing left to determine is whether you will be as joyful as that saliva-splashing star with crazed eyes after sipping your drink from the cup one used.

Caved kids

Something amazing and thought-provoking came to my attention via a great Russian-language blog about China called 马-Gazeta. The English story may be seen at the Reuters page.

It's a story about a little school in a Miao village, somewhere in China's Guizhou province. I should say that I came in touch with the Miao people on Hainan island, and apart from the cool sounding name for this nationality, I began to entertain a certain attachment to the Miao's fair ... let's say 'gender' to avoid a possible pun, and as a dabbling polyglot learned a few phrases in Miao (which have happily fallen into oblivion for the absence of practical usage)...

But it's not the story - here I'll tell y'all a thing that could make recurrent bitching about how much the stuff we have doesn't work right or doesn't satisfy or breaks at the wrong time seem like overreacting and actually abusing those gifts which life has given us to have but for some time, something which I myself tend to forget pretty often. On the second thought in the same idea-basket falls the guess that all those cool possessions and gadgets are not what should be making us truly happy. Well, same old actually, nothing new under this sun.

Anyhow - long story short - here is the Dongzhong school.

It is located under the soaring dome inside a huge hangar-size cave, which houses all the amenities and teaching facilities.

All I am saying I am sure those kids are simply happy to be going to any school or throw the ball into a makeshift hoop, but here I sit letting the thought that I don't have a faster computer or a better phone make me not enjoy the things I have right now. I am sure those little people are amazed at the magic of a TV show in a kind of a different way than myself in the solitude of my apartment on a couch.

After re-reading my post (more a note to self) it's not even a juvenile claim to go change the world, but rather of a reminder not to be so attention stingy towards the gifts which are already falling out of the handfuls.