I don't know why but for some reason all the foreign food places in Shanghai seem to have the same two for one with the purchase of a drink deal on Mondays. I really hope they intend for multiple people to split this deal, not for one American to eat two large burgers. To take advantage of this, some friends of mine and I went out to Blue Frog to eat some rather good hamburgers and drink some actually cold beer.
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Every 17th of March is Saint Patrick's Day, a holiday that once had some religious meaning to the Irish but is now mostly an excuse for Americans to drink and eat pub grub. Saint Patrick's isn't actually a major imported holiday in China; unlike Christmas, Halloween, or Valentin's Day there really wasn't any major public acknowledgment of the holiday, even in the corporate way that most foreign holidays are acknowledged. My friends and I didn't let that stop us though, we decided to do Saint Pat's in our own way with our without the Chinese. The best way to do this obviously is with Chinese and non-Irish European food. We did mostly wear green though so that should count for something. We also ended up at a Western style sports bar at the end of the night, Cages, but it was more of a baseball themed type place than an Irish pub. They even had several batting cages open, hence the name. While they looked kind of fun I don't know if baseballs, bats, and beer mix too well. Overall it was a fun night out, even if we didn't do anything too different form our usual weekend it was still cool.
In my Chinese Civilization class, we discussed the fall of the first three Chinese dynasties: the Xia, Shang, and Western Zhou. While the actual stories for how the dynasties fell are different, history does seem to echo. King Jie of Xia (桀), King Zhou of Shang (紂王), and King You of Zhou (周幽王) are all depicted as excessively cruel. King Jie of Xia built his favorite concubine a lake of wine and would only drink if he was riding on the back of someone else, King Zhou of Shang one upped him by not only building a lake of wine but by making an island with trees made of sticks of roast meat, while King You of Zhou got away from the wine he did mobilize the Zhou military because his wife thought it was funny. While the Chinese scholars traditionally accept the reports of ancient historians, the Doubting Antiquity School of Chinese thinkers and Western Sinologists have come to question the accuracy of the ancient Chinese historians. While the Doubting Antiquity School would accept that there was likely historical a King Jie, King Zhou, and King You they would question whether they actually did what they were reported as having done. Usurpers who wanted to cement their claim to the throne would need to show that the previous dynasty lost the mandate of heaven by being bad rulers, one way to do that would be to make your court historian write mean things about the previous emperor. Chinese thinkers and sages, like Confucius, would use the stories of old kings to show the current emperors how not to behave, so might have made exaggerated stories of old kings to make a point. While Jie and Zhou might have been alcoholics, You liked to play pranks on his vassals, and all of them might have been ineffective tyrants, later peoples made them look worse to suit their own purposes.
This year actually, Juniata College got a new logo. With a new logo means new college stuff. Last week, at the Juniata get together thing, I got one of these new pens. Just a fun observation I had, the pen was made in China. So it went from China, to PA, back to China, and soon it will go back to PA... I thought that was cool... Someone else must think so...
If you ask most Americans to name a Chinese actor they will probably name Jackie Chan. This makes sense since, unlike many Chinese actors, Jackie Chan has released several popular English language movies in the United States. Jackie Chan is no less popular in his native China, but Jackie Chan and 成龙 (Chéng Lóng in standard Mandarin Chinese, Jackie Chan's stage name in China) are two separate entities. While Jackie Chan's work, like Rush Hour or Shanghai Noon, are comedies 成龙 has a more diverse filmography. While many of his films, like Drunken Master and Police Story (1985), have a comedic tone some of his other Chinese language films, like Police Story (2013) and the soon to be released The Foreigner, are significantly more serious. Furthermore, 成龙 has a well respected music and opera career; in China, he not only does his own stunts but he does his own soundtrack too. 成龙 is significantly more political than Jackie Chan: he has criticized the ruling Democratic Progressive Party on Taiwan (almost earning him a ban form the island), 2008 Olympic protesters, and Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters while supporting Xi Jingping's drug war and Chinese nationalism (even writing an explanation for the Chinese National Anthem, The March of the Volunteers). This year's Spring Festival Gala 成龙 sang a rather serious song about loving his homeland, China (this is somewhat important since Jackie Chan is a resident of the Hong Kong SAR and some in the Hong Kong SAR don't see themselves as Chinese). It is not like there weren't comedy bits in the Spring Festival Gala (it is important to note though that comedy bits and funny bits are different things, particularly in the Spring Festival Gala), it is just that he chose not to participate in those segments and, since he has done more serious stuff in the past, this wasn't weird to anyone. From what I also heard, he even had a sex scandal in China, which he survived I believe in part because he is seen as a more mature actor in China than he is in the US. 成龙 is defiantly more respected as an actor in China than Jackie Chan is in the United States, probably because of the more diverse and serious roles he has taken in China along with his successful Chinese language music career. This begs the question, are there any commonalities between Jackie Chan and 成龙 other than they are both stage names for the same dude? Yes actually. Even in China, Fáng Shìlóng (房仕龙, Jackie Chan/成龙's birth name), still has made his name with funny movies where he does martial arts and stunts without a stunt man, like he did in the US. His style of martial arts is also the same both in China and the US, from what I have read it is a deliberate contrast to Bruce Lee's martial arts style. He also tries to be a good role model in his Chinese and English movies, he avoids cursing and playing villains in both languages, preferring to play more every man type roles. Whatever you call him 房仕龙/成龙/Jackie Chan has, undeniably, made his name as a major actor and a house hold name. The only issue is what name your house knows him as.
As some of you may know, I am a big fan of pirates. I mean, I rooted for the pirates in Captain Philips, I drink rum, and I dressed up as a pirate for Halloween my sophomore year at Juniata. So when I was at TESCO and saw a pirate themed baijiu I know I had to try it. The first think that stood out to me was that the image clearly showed that Western style pirates are the pirates the "piracy" in Piracys is referring too. While China does have its own traditions of pirates and sea bandits that are very interesting, but none of those pirates ever hoisted the jolly roger. The next thing that really stood out was the fact that the name doesn't make sense, piracy can't be pluralized like how the name shows it. I guess the makers were trying to appeal to a Chinese audience who might know proper English grammar, particularly around pluralization since pluralization doesn't exist in Chinese. Next is the fact that there is very little connection between the classic pirates of the Caribbean and beijiu. I am a bit confused as to why this product even exists. I guess it might be an effort from the company, Beijing Zhongmeishengye Biological Technology CO. LTD. to market what is usually seen as an old man's drink to young people since it was cheap (4RMB for the bottle), very alcoholic (53% alcohol by volume according to the bottle), has English writing on it (a popular marketing tool for Chinese companies trying to look quality), and refers to cool Western stuff (pirates). I guess they might also get some novelty sales from weird foreigners who are wondering what Piracys Beijiu can possibly taste like, but with the relatively small numbers of foreigners in China I can't see that being a big part of their business. The two big questions are still, how does it taste and would I buy it again? It tastes like beijiu, though, unlike some beijius, it don't have as strong of an alcohol taste as you would think a beverage that is actually half alcohol would have. I also don't know if I would buy it again, since a significantly larger of beijiu that tastes pretty much the same costs only 10-15RMB, though it won't have any connection to pirates. I guess it is a fun novelty but I don't think I feel the need to buy it again. Today is Pi Day (3/14) so I tried to buy some pie at Global Harbor. I am not happy to report I could not find any pie, so I got a blueberry danish, a circle of life, and a brandy & mango from BreadTalk and called those close enough. They are all good I guess but not pie. Next year there will be pie, this year I wait.
Usually when people in Shanghai talk to me about "football" they are actually referring to Soccer, aka football almost everywhere on Earth except the United States and now the Global Harbor Mall in Shanghai. For some reason, Great Stone Gridiron will train your young Chinese son how to play real American football. They also spent a good deal of money on advertising, Global Harbor is covered in ads for American football training. I haven't seen very many people in China actually playing American football but apparently someone must. I think it might be a way for Chinese parents to help get their sons into American universities and colleges with low ranking football programs but high ranking academic programs.
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AuthorI am a junior at Juniata College spending a year studying abroad at East China Normal University. Please feel free to join my on my journey to China and beyond. Archives
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