User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: The Shanghai Literary Festival

A great comment Barbs, I love your full-blooded, whole-hearted, treatment of such debates. :-)

Chinese people are very demonstrative on such issues - particularly if there is a hint of Government covering anything up. In the middle of the milk scandal there was heated debate and supermarkets had stories from newspapers posted up near the milk section (obviously stories selected to demonstrate that the milk they were selling was completely safe.)

One cultural aspect that bears on the stories in this thread is that the Chinese people are extraordinarily risk averse (compared to us in the West) - they go to extreme lengths to avoid danger to themselves, friends and family. This does extend to medical treatment, what they eat, how they travel, etc. The victims of any botch up would be deeply enraged and perpetrators shamed, etc, and no doubt eventually executed when brought to justice. Cover-ups do happen of course because of the way face motivates almost every aspect of human behaviour. But their sense of 'shame' I think is a more powerful motivator than our 'guilt' - a factor in what is an overwhelmingly 'safe' society.

While the Henan HIV events are extraordinary - I don't disagree with the negative feelings stirred in the West - I would expect the Chinese people themselves to have even stronger feelings of revulsion. And yet, in the reporting and comments about this story from Westerners I read a message more along the lines of 'what do you expect in a country like China, with an authoritarian uncaring Government with a policy of desperately covering up every mistake?' It is a comfortable stance for the West - in a way it makes us feel good about ourselves. Thank God we are not like them. Almost a sense of pity. A deeper understanding of the culture and the circumstances would produce a more complex range of emotions.

I hope that I don't give the impression of 'hiding behind cultural differences' - rather I like to bring the cultural differences to the fore, to help understand what is going on. Generally there is a low level of understanding of Chinese culture (witness a lot of newspaper sites that allow comment) - I am equally disappointed by both (a) the 'aren't we all just the same under the skin?' and (b) 'what else do you expect from the Chinese?' complexions of opinion.

Hopefully on ChinesePod the 'level of Chinese culture education' is significantly higher than for the general public.

Posted on: Hobbies: Music

In China 中学 (middle school) is a synonym for high school or secondary school in Australia. There is 初中 chūzhōng (grades 7,8 and 9) and 高中 gāozhōng (grades 10,11 and 12).

In Australia it is not standard - there are real middle schools in the Northern Territory (and some private schools in NSW) but elsewhere it is an internal management thing.

China also has this thing of attaching high schools to universities, like a feeder school, very common. It is called 附中 fùzhōng (school attached to ..) as in 北京大学附中 (High School attached to Beijing University). The only one I know of in Australia that is somewhat similar is Melbourne University High School.

Posted on: The Shanghai Literary Festival

Definitely, let it rest. Good luck with the Chinese. See you around on ChinesePod and hopefully no hard feelings.

Posted on: The Shanghai Literary Festival

Making good sense as usual Zhenlijiang. Yes, I am on a 'bit of a mission'. I do hate acronyms because they devalue the language and because in the end people really fail to communicate. I just hate jargon with a passion.

I know as well as most people that FT stands for Financial Times (I direct students to their website) but I don't use the acronym. And I can't be expected to draw the connection with this debate. More to the point, the average person is not interested in the Financial Times. So if FT is supposed to give the event kudos, it fails in my opinion. (Wow - I am argumentative today, I am even surprising myself.)

Corporates who have acronyms, in particular, have no right to my support. I don't mind some in the public sector (eg. UN for United Nations) but the private sector has to explain itself. Even major broadcasters - ABC is a case in point; it is never clear to me whether people mean the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, or some organization on the other side of the world, even though the latter is rather obscure. ;-)

Also, Jenny is a recidivist - I have commented before on her inclination to use acronyms without explanation. I have even requested explanation on these threads and received no help. (There, you have it now, the reason for my pain.)

Posted on: The Shanghai Literary Festival

"age-old difficulty of enforcing central government policies at the local level"

I like this one - 'age-old difficulty' is something that an official in Beijing could have written, but it is also something that might appeal to the Western observer who knows that the Chinese Government is inefficient, secretive and above all corrupt. [Eer.. for the benefit of those who haven't read one of my posts before, I am being slightly facetious.]

You don't have to live in China long to realise that this 'difficulty' is in some respects a life-saver. It allows some flexibility - otherwise the country may break. On the other hand I sympathise with the central Government's attempts to enforce some of its policies in far-flung reaches of the kingdom. A good example is the national census bureau - it is only in recent years that the statistics have improved and this is largely because the role has been centralised.

Posted on: The Shanghai Literary Festival

Hey barbs

Thanks for your feedback. I have written about 'this' so much I am tired to writing about it ('this' being the colour of glasses worn by Westerners when the subject of China comes up.) It is all or at least mostly unconscious - we are hard wired to think the way we do. I am not an apologist for the CCP, but I am more impressed by facts than emotion. I like a little balance in my stories (in the old days I would say 'I watch the ABC'!), and on top of everything I like to be surprised. This HIV event in Henan has been on the public record for what something like eight or even nine years? What is the current story? The current story reminds us of what went on ten years or so ago - the extent of the tragedy - it explains the facts with the benefit of better information now available. Maybe a better understanding of cultural factors. It would explore the role of poverty/low standards of education etc. as you suggest.

The story then tells us what has happened since. It follows up with the sufferers. It tells us how China now handles HIV infection risks. (Hence my interest in the global picture - it appears that for a variety of reasons the spread of HIV in China and adjacent countries is possibly the lowest in the world. Why is it so? Is it still true? Are there any storms on the horizon? Eg. the extent of the sex trade in south China must be cause for concern.) The story considers the cultural barriers to certain kinds of responses. Has anyone written this story? I don't know. I know a public health official in Henan - maybe I should ask her for the 'official' view at least?

The story of 'Customs' doing what they can to keep people out of China - the more interesting story is that China's borders are largely un-policed. The refusal of the Dessaix visa - the more interesting story is that many Western countries had a similar rule until recently - New Zealand still denies short-term stays to HIV infected persons (according to Catherine's post.)

I'm just tired of the 'tone' of Chinese stories interpreted by Westerners. A good understanding of Chinese culture is needed to understand almost everything that goes on in China.

And motivations need to be considered - we all write and speak with our own motivations but often we are not aware of how this impacts on the story. The motivations of a journalist are not that complicated. Nor are mine, not too complicated.

Maybe it is partly the good story/bad story routine - no one is interested much in good stories; we are far more titillated by horror stories. Car crashes. 啊呀 - maybe I need a holiday? Already?

Posted on: The Shanghai Literary Festival

'AIDS may have been behind the reason this author's denial of entry'

HIV, not AIDS. I don't think anyone is denying that is the reason for the visa being denied. It is Government policy apparently. What's the Government policy in the UK? Do you know the UK Government's stance since the 1980's?

I wonder how he would go getting into New Zealand?

Posted on: The Shanghai Literary Festival

The journalist does what journalists do. (The best ones do their best to get the facts but often repeat stories from other sources.) Case in point: my opening post here about Jenny's lead sentence. If you Google it, you find the words in dozens of publications. Jenny repeated it here without attributing the source (and admittedly the source is difficult to find because it has been copied so many times.)

In one line the journalist in question quotes the UN that 'there could be 10 million cases in China by 2010 unless serious action is taken'. It would help to have a date beside this - clearly it's a long time ago. The current UN figure I believe is 850,000 for 'East Asia' - I don't know about just China. It seems from the report contents page that there is a much more serious problem in India.

That does not mean that there is not substance to the stories. It means that we should read critically - even stuff from the UN. Especially stuff from the UN?

BTW nothing is 'corroborated by' poddies - sorry mate. This is a language/culture learning site - we don't corroborate facts.

Posted on: Asking for a Raise

Barbs

I had exactly the same thought (but I have to ration my thoughts, so did not articulate it.) It would be great if ChinesePod displayed writing credits, 我同意.

When credits are published you almost know what to expect - think the Cohen brothers. For me, it is the initials at the bottom of the Sydney Morning Herald cryptic; when I see the writers credit I know how hard the puzzle is going to be.

Posted on: Finishing Work for the Weekend

"祝你好运！Zhù nǐ hǎo yùn！ (an expression used when you only see someone once a week)

请可以说明一点？ 我不明白。 外什么一周一次?