Archives March 2011

Many of our readers have asked us what the impact of the tsunami and earthquake were on China. The simple answer is that there was little to no impact, the USA felt more than China did, as the wave rebounded to the West Coast and killed several Americans. In China, we did not feel the earthquake or hear anything about the horrible tragedy until after it occurred. Nearly 300 Chinese are missing in Japan, mostly businessmen, though this doesn’t mean they were casualties of the tsunami. Some 22,000 Chinese living in Japan have been contacted and confirmed alive.

China has been affected economically. The Asian markets have taken a dive, understandably, upon concerns that the Japan indexes could bring down the entire region. This is likely to be a short-term effect because the rebuilding that will need to occur in Japan will actually boost its economy once things return to a state of semi normalcy. Obviously a great deal was lost in Japan, and the healing process will take a long time, but on the quakes economic impact in China we can say that the dip in the markets will be short lived.

All flights from Air China to Tokyo have been canceled (as of March 16th) and the Chinese government has stepped up radiation monitoring on the coast. Heavy metal suppliers and other supply companies in Japan have shut their doors temporarily, leaving the global manufacturing chain in a frenzy. With a great deal of the worlds supplies coming out of Japan, its to be expected that this crisis will have a medium-term affect on the global economy.

More than a sudden explosion with an initial gust of radiated air, the Chinese are concerned about lingering affects, like radiation in their plants, vegetables and water table. This causes cancers, especially cancers that fetuses are susceptible to. With the one child policy, this is a serious issue that may cause many to wait or hold off on pregnancies until a more suitable and healthy time. Many in China fear the water table being severely damaged as radiation clings to moisture and is deposited (steam to rain to ocean) back into the system. Milk is especially prone to contamination, and with the 2008 melamine milk crisis it seems China’s dairy industry will be under the microscope yet again.

On the upside, Japan and China have been at odds and anyone who has visited either region can testify to the hostility between the nation’s citizens over events related to WWII and Japan’s invasion of China. With the devastation in Japan, the Chinese have sent an emergency response team to help pull out victims and offer immediate care to those who need it. They sent a plane on Monday (14th March) filled with blankets, tents and other emergency supplies that the Chinese know first hand from the Chengdu earthquake of 2008 will be in high demand and short supply. The Chinese military has offered to arrive on site to help set up relief camps and begin to remove rubble, this puts a new friendly face on the People’s Liberation Army for many. Cash has also been promised, nearly $5 million to be exact, an impressive amount. This unification during crisis bodes well for future economic and political talks, and although it is a horrible tragedy if it brings these two giant Asian countries together there is some good in this.

Beijing is a funny place. If you don’t have a sense of humor living here, you simply can’t survive. Some of the funniest things I’ve seen lately in the city involve food.

For example, did you know that the Oreos sold in Beijing have a different recipe than the ones sold in the USA? They are less sweet, and the dark brown cookie aspect doesn’t taste of chocolate but of wheat. This was done intentionally because the Chinese don’t like overly sweet baked goods. To me, however, they taste like burnt air.

The funniest thing to do with odd food is to sample and then laugh about it. One of the things we constantly get a kick out of are the new varieties of Lays and Pringles chips on the market. The most disgusting was blueberry flavored, the least disgusting was kebab flavored. The oddest was potato flavored, leaving me wondering if the Pringles are made with rice here in China. Either way, they are gross.

Cheese isn’t really consumed in China. You’ll find most Chinese have never even tried it. The cow to human ratio here is so skewed towards humans that there simply arn’t enough utters to go around. Meanwhile, the only cheese at the market remains a Chinese brand of white singles slices.

Its very hard to find some of the most simple items imaginable. For example, a can opener. Since most Chinese get their vegetables at the little street markets, canned foods are simply not that popular. As a foreigner, canned foods were a primary source of nutrition back home and I had found a place to buy canned items in town (a place that mysteriously had no suggestions on how to open them). I imagine wealthy Chinese shopping in the expat food store, buying canned items and then going home and bashing the can against the counter or trying to twist off the top.

Chinese kitchens don’t have ovens. This means you can’t bake anything. In fact, most stove tops are gas, and the gas doesn’t go down very low since most Chinese cook in a wok, which means that trying to cook something with a Western recipe in an Eastern kitchen is like trying to ice skate while standing on your head. Its hard to do. I can testify as someone who has tried to bake a cake in the microwave at the importance of ovens for Westerners.

But cooking at home and shopping are not the only food related oddities you’ll encounter in China. Remember that post a while back about the frog in the soup in Shanghai? We come across things like this all the time. For example, a few days ago we took a friend to a popular burger joint in town called the Blue Frog. When he looked at the menu he wasn’t shocked to see a ‘blue frog burger.’ We all took this as proof that he had been in Asia too long, it was a branded burger, not an actual blue colored frog as substitute for beef.

Is polygamy coming to China? Thats what some mistresses in the mainland are calling for after the failed ‘Festival of Mistresses’ on March 3 at 3:30 in China, 2011. The number three, signifying the third woman in a relationship, was intentional. But, how can mistresses elevate their status and shed what they claim is an unfair image while continuing to operate forums and websites on how to shake more money out of their married lover?

The hottest news in China at present, the Festival of Mistresses has highlighted the addiction many elites have to wanting it all. Mistresses are common, so common in fact that if they unionized they would control a fair amount of the luxury market in China.

The Huffington Post claims that in 2008 a full one third of the luxury market in China was fueled by these mistresses, a claim that in no small part shows the power these women have. They have organized themselves on forums and websites across the net and even have revenge systems in place so that if a lover wrongs or leaves a mistress the whole group retaliates.

As one blogger creatively noted, “Chinese mistresses are not taking it lying down anymore” a clever pun on the women’s hopes at bringing their relationships into the open. Although they would be unable to continue their occupation as a mistress once exposed (at east with multiple men or once one married man moves on), their could be come legal protection for women who register as mistresses to influential men.

Although plural marriages were common in China in the past, the concubine system fell apart during hard times when it was impossible for one man to support multiple wives. It was outlawed when the communists came to power in 1949. But, in the nearly 30 years of market reforms the practice has resurfaced, and some provinces are addressing it severely.

The Party in China has called for members not to take mistresses or indulge overly in a luxurious lifestyle. This to bolster morality in the party, according to the memo. Several cadres have already been fired once exposed by their so-called ‘second wives.’ In recent years a registrations process has become legalized so that a man with a constant mistress must register the relationship as corruption would result if it were kept secret. This is unlikely to get any real support or have any real controlling power as men have multiple mistresses and are unlikely to register any of them, especially since The Party has denounced the practice.

This whole saga can’t end well. It reminds me of the 2009 incident in which a man with multiple mistresses was in financial insecurity and decided to have a run off contest to keep only one. The first woman voted off was so distraught he drove off a cliff with the lover and other mistresses inside the car. Tragedy is what the end result of this lifestyle is, these women are only useful when they are young and the economy is good. This puts them in a dangerous and temporary position. Still, they choose this path instead of legitimate work.

So, where could this issue go from here? Its unlikely polygamy will become legal in China. For starters, the one-child policy makes polygamy unfair. If a single man marries multiple women and has a single child by each of them, he could be depriving other men the wives they would need to carry on their line. On a base level, money would be the thing that ensures one family name continues and not another. On a secondary level, it is unrealistic that the traditional Chinese lifestyle and norms could be overcome and polygamy accepted in China, making these arrangements the targets for rights groups, an issue China hardly wants on the international zeitgeist considering other rights issues. Finally, it is unlikely that primary wives would every allow mistresses any legal rights, which would in turn limit their own power.

It all remains to be seen, but in the short-term it is likely to be a hot topic in China until something else comes along to sweep this under the media’s radar until they soon forget it exists at all.