This post wasn't originally going to be all about KFC...

I went down to the KFC yesterday. Kaifeng being the upwardly mobile, quickly modernizing little city that can, has 3-4 KFCs. I don't care much for fast food (to be honest it is rather slow compared to the very quick service one usually gets in the eateries around campus) but it is nice to have some French fries once in a while. Of course the French Fries always take the longest because they are not very popular among Chinese people and so they never have any pre-made. The upside is that they are always fresh. The real reason to visit KFC though is the view from the second floor windows. This KFC is located on the south-west side of Gulou (Drum Tower) which is the name for the large area of asphalt in the center of town. It isn't really a square (in the municipal sense) since it also serves as a rather large intersection. As for the drum tower it is long gone. There are no statues or prominent buildings which denote the area either. Still though the place is well known and always crowded. The hustle and bustle (of which many Chinese cities have quite a lot of) is what makes the view from the second story KFC so wonderful.

A word on KFCs; in Chinese they are called 肯德基 Ken3de2ji1 (which is also how one says Kentucky in Chinese). Way back in 2004 on my first trip to China the characters in the name KFC were the first I ever tried looking up in a dictionary. (For those of you unfamiliar with Chinese it is not a dictionary friendly language, and learning to use one takes lots of practice.) But I digress from this digression. The characters literally translate to: willing and virtuous foundation (although the 基 (foundation) is a homophone with 鸡 (chicken) so I still like to refer to the place as: the virtuous and willing chicken.)

The other nice thing about KFC is that so long as you buy something (like one bag of fries) you can stay at your table as long as you like. (Actually you can often sit at a table without having bought anything, but I'm still not quite comfortable with that, and I think it is probably officially frowned upon.) The other nice thing about KFC and about China is general is that basically no restaurant cares about you bringing in outside food or drinks. In fact is it quite common. For example I have often gone to the dumpling shop outside my building, placed my order and then told then that I will be sitting in the restaurant right next door, so when they are ready please bring them over. So when I order my fries I always make sure to bring my own drink and often a bag of mandarin oranges or anything else I please.

If I plan to make a trip to the KFC timing is always important. Since it sits smack in the center of one of Kaifeng's busiest shopping districts the KFC is very busy during meal time. But on the weekend it is filled to the bursting point all day long with weary shoppers, especially in the winter as it is well heated for a Chinese building, and there are no other places for people to stop and sit. (ie. a coffee shop; not even a Starbucks. I keep hoping that with all the shitty new development going in all the time someone will be daring enough to plop a Starbucks down in Kaifeng, but it will be quite some time before that. I don't even think Zhengzhou has one. Oh well. Its probably bad judgement to ever wish for a Starbucks, so I'll hold my tongue in the future.)

The best time then is usually right after the lunch rush clears out. Then you have most of the rest of the day in relative calm. I very much love people watching and being in China only makes it that much more interesting. Of course the problem of doing it here in China is that I am being stared at by the people I'd like to be watching. Which is certainly the case if I were to sit in the first floor for instance. Chinese people love a good show, even if that show is some random white guy sitting in a KFC eating french fries and looking out the window. Even on the second floor I have to position myself with my back to the room to ignore all the people who keep turning around to look at me.

Here is a little view from the window.

I think I will have more on what there is later.

Just how difficult is learning Chinese?

Maybe this will only appeal to people studying Chinese, but I will post it anyway 'cause I enjoy it so much.

This was written to commemorate the 80th birthday of John DeFrancis, professor of Chinese at the University of Hawaii, who also happens to be the editor of both of my favorite Chinese-English electronic dictionaries.

Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard

All that stands between me and the cold winds blowing down from Siberia

I went looking to buy a heater for my quite chilly apartment. A the big department store downtown they want 400 kuai ($58) for this unit. Too much! So I went to my local hardware store where I had bought my rice cooker and they wanted only 260 kuai ($40). "But couldn't you make it a little cheaper?" I pleaded. But of course. And so I only paid 240 kuai ($35). I was really hoping to go lower and I'm sure it could be gotten for even less, that is the way it is in China. No matter how little you pay, or how good a deal you get. You can always do better.

Oh and my favorite new phrase in Chinese is: "别宰我!" (biézǎiwǒ) Which literally means: "Don't slaughter me!" But is what you say when you are being fleeced.

Generally I can get a good price in Kaifeng. Especially when I up my already pretty strong Kaifeng accent. Any hint of which coming from a white guy like me usually leaves people stunned. I'm not sure how I've picked one up exactly but I'm sure it has to do with my lazy tones.

Traffic in China

After living (and driving a scooter) around Taiwan for a year and living here as well, I have much experience with crazy Chinese driving. I think it must be experienced to believed. But this description and diagram does it better than I've seen before.

Blog back-issues

I've decided to devote a little more attention to my blog. Although when taking in all the time I've neglected it, that wouldn't have to be all that much. I've written a few blog posts in the past which I've never posted because I've never finished them. So I'm just going to blow the dust off of them and post them as they are. I've done this with two or three. I've forget exactly, and I have two more to go. To keep everything all orderly they will be posted chronologically by when I started them. Complainers be damned!

Once I'm done with the next two I will post links to them. But you can go back and look for the ones I have already posted if you really can't wait. Also I'm trying out new layouts with my blog and am still fine tuning it. So that will explain why it might not look the same as when you were last here. And why it might not look the same the next time you visit.

Thank you all for reading.

Zhengzhou rocks!

Last night the American contingent of Kaifeng's small yet boisterous foreign community ventured out with Zhaokun, our new Chinese friend, to Zhengzhou for a taste of the local rock scene. He is a senior here at the school and studies Sport Education and Culture, which sounds fancy but really means a major in P.E. (The first time I heard that there was a P.E. major here I was certainly puzzled.)

Competition for any slot in University is tight and the University system here does not allow for just anyone to study anything they wish. Depending on your entrance exam score you are given choice of the possible majors left. Highest scorers choosing first. Which means that the students who test well end up filling up the "hot" majors like English, Business, and Computer Science. While the lower scorers are left with P.E., History, and the "boring ones". Of course this system is far from perfect and many students regardless of their test scores end up choosing a major for which they admittedly are unsuited. I have spoken with many a top scorer who said they chose English because it was hot and not because they have some particular interest or aptitude in it. (Often English classes here are filled with students who can read English very well but whose spoken is quite limited or non-existent. And then I will meet many a poor student with wonderfully clear spoken English who doesn't test well and ended up a business or accounting major despite the fact that they hate math and don't do it very well at all.)

Needless to say though Zhaokun plays soccer and will have a major in P.E. That is not his life; his life is rock and roll. He and some friends run a small music/ clothing shop (sort of a hipster boutique) called the Music Factory just down the street from the south gate of our campus and my apartment. Yesterday at 4 or so Zhaokun found us a taxi bus to take us to Zhengzhou the big sister city 45-60 minutes due west of Kaifeng.

While Kaifeng is a smallish charming Chinese city (Kaifeng rates as "smallish" with a mere 700,000 people!) Zhengzhou the provincial capital clocks in at probably just under 3 million (for now...). It is a huge, growing, pulsing Chinese metropolis with plans to stretch out its long tendrils of high-rise apartments and traffic clogged streets towards Kaifeng (still 40 some miles away) until the two meet and grow together. ("aiya!" as the Chinese say in moments of surprise and stupefaction; and "aiya!" is what I say whenever I think about homely little Kaifeng in the tight embrace of Zhengzhou and the future).

Anyway for the time being Zhengzhou is still keeping itself at a polite and respectful distance. And until Zhengzhou comes to us we must hire a taxi-bus to take us there. Of course once we reach the outskirts our driver, a woman in her early 40s who has been mercilessly abusing the taxi-bus's transmission the whole way stops and lets us out to continue on our own. This is often the case when hiring taxis between the two cities; people in Zhengzhou don't know where anything is in Kaifeng and vice versa. So we pile into two regular taxis for the ride through town. We stop at a small street market to grab some light dinner: Chinese egg wraps and grilled things on sticks -all very tasty and cheap of course. We then headed to the venue, a bar/club called "7-Live House" where we waited for the starting time and drank weak, yet moderately priced Chinese beer. At 7:30, half hour before the show was to commence we were all herded out to buy tickets at the door as we all herded back in. The first band was fairly quiet and young, they seemed like a high school garage band and later Zhaokun confirmed our suspicions when he informed us that three of the girls in the band were still in high school. The crowd was youngish maybe 60% male, most of whom were dressed quite fashionably in tight black jeans and black t-shirts or in black leather jackets. Converse Allstars were worn by many a Zhengzhou scenester (somethings are truly universal).

The main band was called "Brain Failure" Chinese name: 脑浊 (nao3zhuo2: now-jwoah). They were a punk band that played a lot of reggae and funk as well. I was mostly just interested in being there and taking it in. Live music, let alone rock or popular music is very hard to come by in Kaifeng. For a city bigger than Boston, Kaifeng has only one bar/ club that I know of and it isn't worth going to at all unless you are curious about what a Kaifeng person's interpretation of a dance club is (which would be a weird one). Needless to say it was great to see so many people out and enjoying music of any kind. Let alone showing off their moshing abilities, trendy clothing, and ultra-hip affectations.

And here are some pictures for amusement and further study:

Here is the band preforming in front of many adoring giddy fans.

Here is the lead guitarist with his wonderful long goatee.
I support all bearded Chinese people with my whole heart.


And here we are after the show in the "VIP" area, how a scraggly generally unkempt crew like our is let into somewhere like this. I don't know. But surely there was some oversight on the management's part. Actually I'm sure it had everything to do with Zhaokun (seen 2nd from the right) who is much cooler than all of us combined.

Just some interesting China related links

How do Chinese people nap?
Very hard.