The birthday party at a favorite Muslim restaurant of mine was fun. There were probably forty people there and we ate 800RMB of pork-free food, but these Muslims know how to party so there was beer. Jason was grateful for that and I was grateful to Jason who organized the event (i.e. collected RSVPs).

There was a huge haul of fruit. We ate ten dragon fruits sliced up and many plums at the event and all of the good juice was slurped up, too, but I went home loaded to the gills with a durian, which I just tackled because my apartment was starting to smell; two star fruit, a melon; a pomelo, which I don't know how to tackle; grapes; a couple of pineapples; and four sapodillas.  I laid all of them out on my dining room table so that you could see.

I also was given a bracelet of some Buddhist creature with no anus, which is supposed to make me rich; a pretty set of chopsticks with a spoon; a couple of high-quality mooncakes; and a gorgeous calendar that I had contemplated buying at the Expo earlier in the day. You can see also some beautiful flowers that were sprinkled with gold dust, which I proceeded to sprinkle on one of the guests. A German friend brought me a children's Bible in Chinese and English and an artist friend of mine brought me a silk-screened shirt that her students made.

"It's my birthday too, yeah"

Today is my twin sister's birthday. She will turn 37. I turned 38, because in China you are one when you are born. We spoke on Skype this morning and I joked that I was not just ten minutes older, because it will not be September 7th for another half hour on the East Coast.

In China, you are supposed to have one long-life noodle for your birthday so I abandoned plans for a fancy Western breakfast with my girlfriend and had noodles. We will share lunch together, too, and dinner with twenty to forty people at a Muslim restaurant. People will bring obscure fruit, red envelopes full of money (if they can't read the invitation, which asks them not to) and drink white liquor. It may end with a sojourn to KTV, or karaoke.

This afternoon, I will spend some time showing Shannon the wonders of Changchun. Who, you might ask? Shannon is a recent Phillips Exeter Academy graduate (my alma mater) who has taken four years of Chinese. She is a dear friend's daughter and will be here for six months to help me with my work. Yesterday, I took her to nearby South Lake Park and she was amazed by the acres of lotus leaves and blossoms.

Everybody stared at the two foreigners, which she did not find off-putting, but like her tour guide, rather endearing and amusing. "They are the most beautiful babies," she said. I objected strenuously and she looked puzzled. I then said that inter-racial ones are more beautiful.

I spent the morning reading a dirty book (Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence) and drinking fancy coffee out of a pretty tea cup at TongRen Bookstore. Life is good.

Thanks for the birthday wishes on Facebook and QQ and by text. Hope you are enjoying the blog posts.

The Fruits of My Education

My tutor came armed to the last class with a long list that he had--in his typical fashion--spent many hours compiling. Past lists have included the most popular Chinese last names, professions, common foods, nationalities. This list that he brought to the last class was simply "Fruits," though it included some nuts, too.

A more diligent teacher does not exist. Today, at the beginning of class, he presented me with a grapefruit wrapped up individually in pink paper with a bow, because he remembered that I once mentioned liking the juice. What a kind soul!

Anyway, this post is about fruit. The fruit stands which pepper the street corners of Changchun like bodegas in Spanish Harlem are loaded heavily with fruits that should be familiar to most North Americans, like bananas and apples, but also with a strange looking harvest that never ceases to amaze me. Every week something disappears and something new appears at the dozens of fruit stores that I pass on foot--a happy reminder that this economy is still somewhat dependent on local farmers, not agribusiness enterprises from California and Central America.

On the list of fruits that my teacher, Fan Xin (Kyle), brought me were a few that I had heard of, but could not pick out of a police line up. There were many that I had never heard of at all. Here is a sampling:

• bennet
• bergamot
• betelnut
• bilberry or whortleberry
• bryony (a poisonous fruit used in Chinese medicine, which, like the HMS Bergamot, once upon a time gave its name to a ship of the line in the Royal Navy)
• bullace
• carambola or "starfruit"
• damson
• longan (aka "dragon eyes")
• loquat (not cumquat, which was also on the list), also known as Japanese medlar
• Newton pippin
• pitaya (not to be confused with papaya or pawpaw) or "fire dragon fruit
• quarenden, a dark red apple
• rambutan
• sapodilla plum
• sorosis (which I thought was a skin disease!, but is actually a category of fruit that includes pineapple and mulberry)
• tangor, which is a portmanteau of tangerine and orange
• white shaddock

Initially, I had planned to tell you about each of these, but then I would be writing an encyclopedia. It is worth mentioning that some of these are not common in the stores that I pass and that many of them are exotic, from Europe, Southeast Asia, and South America.

Here are some images of the particularly spectacular:

"Fire Dragon Fruit" or 火龙果 (huo long guo)

Carambola or starfruit is really from Southeast Asia, but you can find it here

"Rambutan" is a non-climacteric fruit, which means it must ripen on the tree

America, I miss you

“We can joke about this on Monday morning, but until then it is a matter of life and death."

-Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City (about Hurricane Irene)

Frank Bruni describes the problem in his New York Times Sunday Review piece, The Fall This Summer. When I left America in early February, unemployment was already high and the horsemen of the Apocalypse were trotting into view, but I told people I was going to China because I wanted to learn the language of a future superpower and see the "waking green dragon" rising like a phoenix.

Now, some six and a half months later just nine days from my thirty-eighth birthday,* I am afraid that the phoenixes have come home to roost. America has lost its way. My beloved New Hampshire has turned its state government into a cruel joke where cigarette taxes are reduced and money is taken away from clinics and lawyers for the poor.

My mother--and, at least as frequently, my father--and I misunderstand each other quite often. We vote for different parties; have different ideas about the role of government. We all love America deeply. My mother--of Pilgrim stock and descended from Revolutionary War officers--has an abiding pride in our democracy, but she said admitted to me last week that she has stopped reading the newspapers, that the culture and economy seem to be going down hill.

About a month ago I said to my father, if you don't solve your debt ceiling problem we are going to be in big trouble and a laughingstock of the world. "It is embarrassing."

He roared, "They are your Congressmen just as much as mine" objecting to my use of the second person plural. He was right, I was trying to distance myself from Obama and Jeanne Shaheen for whom I voted and from Charlie Bass and Kelly Ayotte for whom I did not vote. Michelle Bachman, Mitt Romney, and Rick Perry are not my cup of tea.

Even the one candidate whom I do like and whom I do think could restore America's glory, John Huntsman, embarrasses me. He left his post as Ambassador to China--our greatest partner and greatest threat--to challenge his boss for the Presidency. It speaks volumes to the colossal failures of the spineless, spoon full of Hope, Ivy Leaguer and pawn of BoA-Buffet-Wall Street who is supposed to be running our country from the windy shores of the Vineyard, but the Huntsman candidacy is also all so unseemly. How can I--a proud expatriate, but not an ex-patriot--explain, with my head held high, that the man who represents my Party, who last week dispatched his gaffey Vice-President to one-child (er, one-party) China, has a Judas in his ranks? In a country somewhat content with one party domination, should I extoll the virtues of the two party system and highlight Hunstman's decision to run as what makes our democracy great?

Frank Bruni implies the fundamental question with his quotation of PA Gov. Ed Rendell, which I will paraphrase as, "Where are my fucking choo-choos?" Have we failed to seriously address the jobs crisis? You bet. Our national imagination seems to have shriveled like a raisin. Burning Man is the best we can do. Have we failed to take the big steps down the new roads of the future? Are 63,000 jobs making batteries the future or have we walked away from 6.3 million jobs making a high-speed railroad and improving the efficiency of our building stock? I am afraid the answer might be yes. Furthermore, I agree vehemently with my old friend and fellow writer, Dean Baker, that President Obama has abandoned evidence-based economics to return the US to growth in favor of the politics of deficit-cutting.

Paul Krugman's name alone is bad for my father's blood pressure, but to me, who has not spent a day working in the mutual fund business, Krugmanmakes more sense than most. The Administration, according to my friend Arnie Arnesen, is struggling to get the Princeton Nobel Laureate's byline off the op-ed pages of the Old Grey Lady. Instead, they ought to be replacing the Larry Summers proteges with Krugman-ites and taking some of his advice. See Bernake's Perry Problem for a synopsis of what is so screwed up in America. I welcome your comments. I know it has been a while since my last post.



*Yes, I know how old  am. In China, you are one when you are born!)

The Far West Quarter (Vegetarians Be Warned)

I resigned myself to eating wheat on my trip to Xi'an. Many of the most famous dishes involve bread...and lamb. While in Xi'an, I found myself going back and back to the Muslim Quarter--a sort of China town for people from the Far West of China. The streets were bustling even though it was the beginning of Ramadan.  You could find a lamb or mutton butcher every few steps on one street. There were hundreds of thousands of dates and walnuts for sale and pomegranates, too, oh my!

I believe that this boy had just emerged from behind the statue where he took a pee and then he came around and payed homage to his outdoor toilet. It is not uncommon to see grown men standing and women squatting in a "discreet" place on the street.

Flies? What flies?!

The Great Discovery of 1974

I got to see the farmer (or peasant, as they call him here) who discovered the Terracotta Warriors in 1974 when he was digging a well. This carefully preserved collection of terracotta sculptures depicts the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor to unify China. The figurines were buried with the emperor in 210-209 BC and their purpose was to help guard his empire in his afterlife.

"The figures vary in height, according to their roles, with the tallest being the generals. The figures include warriors, chariots, horses, officials, acrobats, strongmen and musicians. Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army)

Richard and I paid 150RMB for our own guide and I paid the same amount for a bracelet made of pink jade for my sweetheart. Pink jade is local to the area and very beautiful.

Richard and I.

Each human face is unique.

They are standing in formation, facing the wall, ready to protect the emperor against attack in the after life.

Our guide.

These gentlemen have been brought up out of their pits for restoration work.

The Greater Wall of China

The fortifications of Xi'an, which is an ancient capital of China, represent one of the oldest and best preserved Chinese city walls. Construction of the first city wall of Chang'an (the old name of the city) began in 194 BCE and lasted for four years. That wall measured 25.7 km in length, 12–16 m in thickness at the base. The area within the wall was ca. 36 km². The existing wall was started by the Ming Dynasty in 1370 AD. It encircles a much smaller city of 14 km². The wall measures 13.7 km in circumference, 12 m in height, and 15–18 m in thickness at the base.

"It boasts the most complete city wall to have survived through China's long history. The wall was built of earth, rammed layer upon layer during the early time. The base layer was made of earth, quick lime, and glutinous rice extract, tempered together. This made the wall extremely strong and firm and later, the wall was totally enclosed with bricks. Located at the four corners of the wall were watchtowers. The one at the south-western corner is round, probably after the imperial city wall of the Tang Dynasty, but the other three are square-shaped. On top of the watchtowers, the corner rampart, higher and larger than the ordinary ramparts, shows the strategic importance of corners of the city wall." (Source)

Richard and I biked a bit more than three quarters of the way around and then walked the rest of the way. It was very hot and muggy, as you can tell from the grey tone of the pictures.