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The first warm Sunday of the year was last week.  I photographed these two tuckered out fellahs as they snoozed in a public square near Hou Hai, Nan Shan, Shenzhen about 2 PM on the 13th of March, 2010.

The earthquake in Japan, 9.0 in magnitude and the resulting tsunami has killed more than six thousand, and put the nuclear power plant at Fukushima into near meltdown to possibly total meltdown.  

We live in precarious times, but the main thing is that we shouldn't panic and act selfishly, even though those impulses are completely natural.  

The world is in a mess, and order is what is needed and peace, and human rights.  The trouble in the Middle East is indicative of this statement.

They Have Converted my Chinese Friend to Christianity (Oh, the Insanity).

They have converted my Chinese friend to Christianity,

To believe a man, born of a virgin, nailed to a tree, and raised from the dead,

Oh, the insanity!

To believe that a frog or a lizard is god,

Frogality or lizardity, or Christianity…..oh the absurdity!

Proselytes prey on the meek,

They prey on the weak,

Seven days a week,

They search and seek.

My ideas and my thought,

Can never be sold or bought,

For those who seek to buy or sell,

I think that they can go to hell!

Intolerance can only be countered by education and cultural relativism. Ethocentrism is the continual enemy of diversity.--James Zaworski

I've been living and working in mainland China for three years.  In that time, I have noticed how the pedestrian crosses the road at his own risk.  I have personally almost been killed about four times in the cross walk, when the 'walk' sign is green by uncaring and daredevil drivers.

Last night, my girlfriend and I saw something very new: a Chinese driver actually slowed to a halt to allow us to cross!  I was so flabbergasted that I did not cross, as three years of crazy drivers and four near death experiences made me think twice.  I did, acknowledge his courtesy with a wave, though.

In America, the pedestrian always has the 'right of way',and the 'defensive driving' ethic is firmly in place.  You get the occasional crazy or daredevil driver in the states, but here, offensive driving is the norm, weaving in and out of traffic at high speeds is common, and not using your turn signal at all to indicate lane changes or turns is common.  

With about 1.5 billion people, and God knows how many cars, traffic accidents and pedestrian fatalities will rise steadily in this place.

After three years, I'm attempting to make an authentic lasagna here in my apartment in China.  The sore lack of a real oven, which is not unique to myself, but endemic to 99.9% of people's homes in this country, has put me off.  However, I do have a microwave oven that was provided as part of the furnishings in this place, and finally decided to give it a try.  

I bought imported lasagna flat noodles (Barilla), Mozorella cheese (USA), Provolone (USA), Parmesan (Italy), Ricotta tomato sauce (Barilla), Olive Oil (Italy), Pelati Tomatoes (Italy, canned), and have dried oregano, basil, thyme, fresh garlic, one yellow onion, and Inner Mongolia lean ground beef as well as peppercorns, and salt.

Here is a photo of how it looks, and I can honestly say that even though 'microwave lasagna' is nowhere as good as 'oven baked lasagna', it still meets with my approval, and that of my girlfriend.  Four cheese lasagna with tomato and meat sauce cooked in 22 minutes, with about 8 minute preparation time is not only a taste of home, but will become a monthly part of my cooking repertoire.

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An Interesting International Day in China: January 19, 2011.

By

James P. Zaworski (An American in China)

It’s January 19, 2011, and I woke up this morning with a taste for kimchi.  Last night, my Chinese girlfriend and future wife talked to me about kimchi, so it stuck.  In my night’s sleep, and dream’s eye, I thought of Poland and Korea, and wrote a little about the parallels of their histories.  Then, I thought about food; lately, I have been missing non-Chinese food.  In particular, I miss the variety of European foods, particularly Polish food (varieties of sausage, sauerkraut, rye bread, etc.), which is nigh impossible to obtain here in China. 

My girlfriend, who simply adores traditional Chinese opera and culture, played both Shao Xing Opera and Beijing Opera after having Chinese green tea and Twinnings Earl Grey Tea for our morning breakfast. After some exercise, a shower, and some fiddling with my increasingly troublesome Japanese computer (Toshiba, which shuts down inexplicably), this American (half Polish ancestry, one quarter Dutch ancestry and one quarter British ancestry) set off to one of the local Korean restaurants.   We had the usual bul go gi ( marinated Korean beef), and kimchi.  It was so good that we bought some to go (da bao, take away). 

After coming home, we went out to Carrefour (the French Wal-mart), to buy Si Chuan Ma La sausage (black pepper and chili pepper), American wine (Berringer Zinfandel), German beer (Apostle’s Brau), Jiangsu “Glutinous Rice Wine” (very reminiscent of Sherry), cheddar cheese (from New Zealand, really excellent aged extra sharp cheddar), Thai rice, and Coca-cola.

We stopped at KFC on the way home, pondered buying some Uyghar flat bread, and finally came home to work on my computer, scan some photos that I did not have on digital format, play a bit of video game, prepare some lessons for tomorrow, and listen to my iPod.  I set it to random (shuffle), and my 60 Gigabyte iPod played for me a wonderful array of tunes while I played my game (I will give the most interesting combination, which prompted this entry):  Mozart, Shakti (an Indian-British jazz group), Gaelic music, Little Feat, Paul Simon, Jethro Tull, The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp; Jean luc Ponty, Louis Armstrong, and some BB King. 

So, here I am: a 45 year old American English teacher, anthropologist, and archaeologist in China.  Today, I enjoyed a very international day here in China.  Everything from the food, drink, company, music and ambience, it was Chinese and international.  I suppose that is why I like Shenzhen, and why I like China.

Postscript:  I also downloaded two documentary films that I will watch this weekend:  one on Marilyn Monroe and the other on Jimi Hendrix.  Only in China.

The Rat in the Stairway; A Poem

by

James Zaworski
A rat last night we saw,

Sneaky and bold,

In the stairway we walked,

To go into the cold

From the ninth to the eighth floor,

By the garbage and the door,

A large,black rat,

As big as a cat

He ran around the corner,

And snuggled down the first step,

Soon I was upon the former,

And he bounded down the steps

Never letting us get a good look or picture,

The rat was always ahead one flight,

Into the dark,

And out of the light

Finally to the first floor we came,

And he was gone,

To the basement or outside,

It was all the same

The rat as big as a cat,

In my stairway,

In China,

Where the people are many,

The garbage is great,

And the rats are more,

By my stairway door