Ich Bin Ein Beijinger

The Week-Long Wedding

Forgive my long absence. It's been a crazy couple of weeks, with lots of family in town to celebrate my sister Mimi's marriage to Aaron Deemer. My brother John, his wife Rachael, and their three beautiful daughters all stayed at my apartment for most of the last 10 days, and it's been wonderfully rewarding and brutally tiring at the same time. Now that Mimi and Aaron are off on their honeymoon, the various Deemers and Maclaines and Kuos and Lius are flying back to the half-dozen or so countries they flew out here from, my Guenevere's recovered from the departure of her three cousins this morning, and Fanfan and I have gotten the house back in some semblance of order, regular posting will resume soon. First, some highlights:

1) Johnny's left hand, which he burned rather badly on an unchildproofed drinking water dispenser, is recovering nicely thanks to the ministrations of Dr. Li Yanni at the Beijing United Family Hospital. We actually had to admit the little guy for a couple of nights. I urge everyone with kids in China with an yinshuiji to turn off the hot water! Fanfan had her back turned for just a second and Johnny gave himself second- and third-degree burns. Naturally she's been beating herself up pretty badly over it, but now that he's mending nicely she's back to her old self. The folks at the hospital have seen a rash of one- and two-year-olds with burns from the same source. I'm now a huge believer in this miraculous Chinese burn salve called Mebo (美宝), which has amazing analgesic properties and smells uncannily like sesame oil. Little Johnny's been in virtually no pain since the night of the accident two weeks ago.

2. I'm dumbfounded at what my folks, Aaron's parents, and Mimi and Aaron managed to pull off logistically. They arranged enormous dinners for no less than 70 or 80 guests every night from Monday onward: a big one at the Deemer home at the courtyard at the Xizang Banshichu (the Tibetan rep office, west of the Drum & Bell Towers) where they live, another on Tuesday at my folks' house in Xisi, separate dinners for the stags & hens on Wednesday (the only night with less than 70, I reckon), a lavish hotpot dinner at the Di'anmen Man Fu Lou on Thursday, and the "rehearsal dinner" on Friday at the new Dadong Peking Duck restaurant at Nanxincang, and of course the reception dinner, which was at Dongyuan Xilou, an old opera theater at the park running between Nanchizi and Nanheyan along Chang'an Avenue. There was great wine--a Cote du Rhone for the red, and a Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay for the white--at some of the bigger dinners, as well as the reception. Oh, and there was a dim sum send-off at the very tony Tian Di Yi Jia at Nanchizi on Sunday morning. Everything went without a hitch: even the bicycle rickshaw caravan (88 of them!) that ferried guests between the reception, at the Xizang Banshi Chu, to the reception. I stand in awe. Or rather, I would stand if I had any strength left in me.

3) My younger brother Jay wrote a roast-cum-toast poem in a decidedly Seussian rhyme scheme and meter for Mimi, and delivered it with consummate skill at the reception. I'm just glad he went last: there was no way for anyone to have outdone him. It's sort of his trademark: He read one at John's wedding, and at mine too. This one was his finest work, I must say. I'll see if I can get his permission to reproduce it here.

4) My family is awesome. I don't know that I've ever been more proud to be one of the Kuos. And my new family--the Deemers--are just as wonderful. I look forward to getting to know all of them better. Here's Guennie and Elenora, Aaron's niece by his oldest brother Pete and his lovely wife Leanne. They're expecting their third this fall. Elenora was born, by happy coincidence, on exactly the same day as my Guenevere. They hit it off marvelously, as the photo here attests. Pete and his family live in Singapore, so I imagine there'll be plenty of opportunity to see them in the years to come.

5) Possibly the best part of the whole thing was getting to spend a lot of time with John and Rachael, and for our kids to spend lots of time with their cousins. It was amazing how in just a week Guenevere was conversing, or at least trying to converse, in English. From left to right: Guen (3), Camille (7), Hartley (three-and-a-half), Kaili (12), and John (1).

Got a million things to do--including rehearse for the coming Midi Music Festival, which starts tomorrow. But right now I've gotta run: Guen wants me to read her "Ferdinand."

Naked Consumerism: The New Shin Kong Place at Huamao

About six months ago, we moved from an apartment on the north side of Beijing near the Asian Games Village to Huamao, or China Central Place. Huamao is in the central business district, in a cluster of massive newish developments like Wanda International, Blue Castle, and Xin Di. and close to somewhat older developments like Sunshine 100 and Soho New Town, now positively venerable by Beijing standards. Popular place to live: I count at least six or so people I'd known previously who live there, including the founder of this company and two ex-colleagues from my days at Red Herring.

These are (or were) all upscale residential developments with lots of retail shops and restaurants. My wife Fanfan, being the world's greatest bargainer, managed to get us a spacious four-bedroom apartment for very reasonable rent. At the time we moved in, they had only really finished the residential portion: there were three office towers that abutt Chang'an Avenue to the south, a J.W. Marriott and Ritz Calrton hotel, and a mall of sorts under construction. I was already pretty wild about the amenities in the neighborhood: a great sushi place at Blue Castle, a very solid Peking duck place 3 minutes away on foot, the comfort food offerings of the American Cafe, also at Blue Castle, and--so far--the best French bakery/chocolatier I've had tried in town, called Comptoirs de France, in the very compound we live in.

Not a lot of supermarkets in the neighborhood at the time, and that was kind of a pain. There was the Bonjour market in the basement of Sunshine 100, where I'd run into neighbors like former Blue Castle residents Mr. and Mrs. Imagethief from time to time. Problem with Bonjour is that it's too far to carry a real shopping excursion's worth of food home, and too close for a cab ride. A couple of months ago, a Wal-Mart opened at Wanda, and that had everyone in the neighborhood (confessedly, myself included) kind of excited: they offer free delivery of everything within a kilometer, and we were in the radius.

Then, yesterday, the mall they'd been building at Huamao--Shin Kong Place (新光天地) finally threw its doors open. After work, Fanfan and I checked it out. We both felt like we were in some sort of strange, consumption-lust-fueled dream. This place is amazing: pretty much every big international brand I can think of in the seven-story monster mall (think Guomao or Oriental Plaza, but more of it, and done up way more nicely). Not like either Fanfan or I are big luxury brand consumers--we still tend to buy clothes at Ya-Show, I'll admit!--but man, this is something you have to see to believe.

It's huge. Start with the basement: It's got the best food court I've seen; at least a dozen confectionaries, bakeries, cafes and the like; a place serving up the best hot dogs I've had in China (real NYC-style dogs, Louisiana hot links, and more); and--joy of joys--an awesome supermarket that will give Jenny Lou a run for her money with its selection of imported goods (including, to my delight, at least a half-dozen devent single malt Scotches), plus of course all the usual stuff. All just a minute or two from my door. Atop all the fashion and so forth, there's a floor full of home goodies, which for someone like me who loves kitchen gadgetry is Nirvana. End yuppie scum post.

Is Obama your man for '08?

Any China-based American citizens who are willing to get behind Illinois Senator Barack Obama's presidential bid should email me (kaiser.kuo at gmail.com) to learn more about what a Beijing-based group is doing to raise money and help form the campaign's China policy. We've got a good solid core of smart people, including some names I'm sure many of you are quite familiar with. We're planning a major fundraising event in early June, so anyone looking to picth in is welcome.

I liked New Mexico governor Bill Richardson myself, personally, but he's been so sidelined by the media that I don't rate his chances high. He could, though, end up as Secretary of State--something I wouldn't object to. Dodd, Edwards, and Biden don't really do it for me. While I greatly admire Ms. Clinton, I think she's just too polarizing. If Gore jumps in now, my current support for Obama might, I confess, have to undergo a rethink.

I'm at once encouraged and worried about the Republican race: encouraged, because if they field Giuliani I can live with him as president, but worried, because he'd have a damned good chance of beating whoever the Dems field.

Happy to hear anyone's input. I'll listen to any intelligent argument in favor of the other candidates at this point, or to any information anyone has that might give me a better sense of Senator Obama's position on China-related issues.

Happy birthday, Guenevere

We celebrated Guenevere's third birthday this evening at a nearby Hunanese restaurant called 一湖春. She was about to blow out her candle when Fanfan stopped her and told her she should make a wish first. She clapped her hands together as if in prayer, and just after I snapped this photo, said quite seriously, "我想要巧克力" (I want chocolate). Her wish came true mere seconds later.

She can't be blamed for conflating "birthday" with "birthday cake." As we were packing up to go home, she gestured toward the leftover cake, sitting on the table in its box, and said "我的生日呢？别忘了拿我的生日!" (roughly, "What about my birthday? Don't forget my birthday!")

I sang her to sleep a little over an hour ago with "Hush Little Baby." She's constantly stopping me now during the song to ask "looking glass 是什么?." I'm able to answer most of her "What's a so-and-so" questions pretty easily in that song, except for "jumping jack." Daddy, what's a jumping jack? "It's a toy that kids played with a long time ago. They're made of metal, and daddy doesn't remember how they were used, but it was a game where you bounce a little ball and you grab these little metal jumping jacks, and you never want to step on one barefoot." Those little things were like caltraps used in medieval warfare to take out horses, and it's astonishing to me that anyone ever let kids play with them.

How did one play with jacks, anyway? I really don't know. Or tiddly-winks, for that matter. Don't know how that was played either, except that it involved little swallowable discs of plastic.

Andy McKee, "Shanghai." Amazing guitarist.

You've probably already seen this guy's YouTube videos. Absolutely amazing. Check out his rendition of Toto's 80s hit "Africa," and the song "Drifting." His playing reminds me of (an updated) Stanley Jordan and Michael Hedges, rest in peace.

Chunqiu to play Midi Festival after all

A wonderful surprise this evening! I got a call from Zhang Fan at the Midi School, who said that Miankong (面孔) can't play the Festival this year, so Chunqiu is on. (I posted earlier about my disappointment that we hadn't applied before the deadline this year). We'll be playing on May 4 (my favorite day) at 2:40 in the afternoon. It was loud where I was when the call came, so I couldn't quite make out whether he said main stage or the second (Gibson guitar) stage. That's where we were last year (the pic's from last May), and I thought there were more people at the Gibson stage than at the main, at least the afternoon we played. Either way I'm really relieved, and psyched to play. If you haven't been to Midi, by all means go. The festival just keeps getting better and better, featuring a steadily improving caliber of foreign and Chinese acts alike. As much of a draw is the crowd itself--a whole generation of rock kids who literally come from all over the country, with their tents pitched and blankets spread out on the grass, just getting into the music and having a good time. Puts a smile on my face.

Bill Bishop's Back a-Blogging

After a six-month paternity leave to rear his twin one-year-old girls, Bill's back at it, and better than ever. Smart, smart posts. Lots of overlapping interests with me--the Chinese Internet, capital markets, online gaming (not my forte, but definitely one of his), politics. Don't take my word for it: see for yourself. Welcome back, Bill! We'll talk offline about that arranged marriage with my little Johnny. He's man enough for both of 'em, I'm thinking. ("Twins, Max. 16. Think of the mathematical possibilities." - Annie Hall)

Chas W. Freeman, Jr., with an optimist's view of China 2025

Veteran diplomat Chas W. Freeman, Jr. first came to my attention last year when I heard a KQED broadcast of a talk on China to a foreign policy group in San Francisco. He was talking about China's oil policies, which he judged relatively enlightened, and about Saudi Arabia's plans to build a jointly-controled strategic oil reserve in China--first and last I've heard of that. I believe it was him, and not the other speaker--whose name, which was not as colorful and therefore not as memorable, now eludes me--who made a very clever crack at the Bush administration, contrasting China's resource-driven "value-free diplomacy" with Bush's "diplomacy-free foreign policy" in the Middle East.

Freeman, who speaks fluent Mandarin, was the official U.S.-side interpreter back when Richard Nixon visited China 35 years ago. He has served as ambassador to Saudi Arabia, co-chairs the U.S. China Policy Foundation, and is now president of the Middle East Policy Council. He spoke on March 27 at the inauguration of the D.C.-based think-tank the CNA Corporation's new China Studies Center; his speech is here (h/t to China Digital Times for the link). He starts off by offering a little historical perspective--the historical reasons for American misperceptions about China, and some correctives. Some excerpts that resonated with me:

To deal effectively with China, Americans need to understand it in terms of its own complexities and authentic aspirations. This is unlikely to be achieved by officials engaged in writing narrowly focused and highly tendentious reports mandated by Congress to justify the single-issue agendas of our military-industrial complex or, for that matter, our humanitarian-industrial complex. Nor can it be accomplished by analysts stir-frying intelligence to suit the political appetites of those they work for. Government-friendly but politically independent study centers like the one we are inaugurating tonight have a vitally important role to play in keeping our country from developing the world’s first genuinely autistic national security establishment, if only in relation to China.

Predictions about China based on a priori reasoning, ideologically induced delusions, hearsay, conjecture, or mirror-imaging have been frequent and numerous. They have racked up a remarkable record of unreliability. To cite a few relevant examples: contrary to repeated forecasts, the many imperfections of China's legal system have neither prevented it from developing a vigorous market economy nor inhibited foreign investment — of which China continues to attract more than any other country, including our own. China's failure to democratize and its continuing censorship of its media, including the Internet, have not stifled its economic progress or capacity to innovate, which are increasingly impressive. China's perverse practices with respect to human rights have not cost China's Communist Party or its government their legitimacy. On the contrary, polling data suggests that Chinese have a very much higher regard for their political leaders and government than Americans currently do for ours.

Toward the end of his talk, this self-described optimist on China's future does a bit of crystal ball gazing, and though he recognizes that there are plenty of "darker scenarios," paints a picture of China circa 2025 that looks like this:

• The Chinese yuan may have long since joined the dollar and euro as one of the principal currencies in world trade and reserves and helped to bring into being a new and more flexible global financial system in a world more secure in its prosperity;
• Those here tonight who are into wealth management and still alive may be as heavily invested in the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges as in New York or London and private Chinese investment may play a significant, sometimes dominant, role in global markets, including our own;
• Thanks to continued economic growth and the appreciation of its currency, China may have the largest economy on the planet while we continue, by a considerable margin, to have its most formidable military;
• the nature of Taiwan's relationship to the rest of China may have been peacefully resolved, taking with it the only conceivable casus belli between the United States and China;
• China may have evolved a system in which rule by law, if not perhaps the rule of law, has brought about a high level of domestic predictability and tranquility;
• the habits of consultation, based on mutual respect, and the policy transparency that characterize democracy at its best may have become integral to Chinese politics, even as the Chinese Communist Party, whether by that or another more accurately descriptive name, continues in power;
• China and the United States may both be in the process of establishing a sustainable presence on Earth's moon;
• contributions to the advancement of science and technology by Chinese may once again be at least proportional to China's share of the world's population;
• China may have begun, with us, to lead the way: not in the destruction of the global environment but in its rehabilitation;
• the mounting attractiveness of China's political and economic success may have challenged us to rediscover and reassert the values and practices that for long made others see America as the last, best hope of humankind; and
• China may have joined a united Europe, India, Japan, Brazil, Russia, the United States, and other major powers in a concert of nations that can actually accomplish some of what President Roosevelt hoped the United Nations could do — bringing about a harmonious and largely peaceful world order, increasingly free of both want and fear, and respectful of individual and collective rights as well as of the cultural diversity of humankind.

Too rosy? Cynical as I can be, nothing here strikes me as preposterous. 2025 is 18 years out still, and when I look back 18 years--funny what year that lands you at--only a complete nutcase would have foreseen the China I live in today.

The new Google Pinyin IME really does rock - but may be partially (ahem) borrowed

Not that I do all that much writing in Chinese, but I just downloaded and installed the new Google Pinyin IME and it's pretty frickin' slick. Check it out. Thanks 小胡子 for the tip. One of the things I like about it is that it's pretty good at picking out when you want to type an English word in the middle of a Chinese string. Like this: 谷歌新出的汉语拼音输入方式真他妈牛. 可惜 Google 的中文名字那么fucking傻. That's just an example, of course, and not necessarily my opinion, or the opinion of my employer.

Update: Okay, so now Google seems to be admitting that they lifted the vocabulary list from Sogou, though they only go so far as to say it was from "non-Google sources." Good catch, Yee and all the other Chinese bloggers who noticed. According to the Netease story cited above, Sogou (Sohu's search engine) is demanding a public apology and that Google stop offering the download. Here's an English-language report from Xinhua on the kerfuffle. Stay tuned.

Greenpeace and the Midi Music Festival - Good news and bad

First the good news: The Midi Music Festival is going Green. and Peaceful. Beijing's marvelous annual band blowout, which takes place from May 1 to 4 this year in Haidian Park, will be working closely with the global environmental organization to promote green consciousness.

Sze Pang Cheung (a.k.a. Kontau, on the left), who has headed up communications in China for Greenpeace for the last four years or so, and Fish Yu, outreach campaigner, came by the Ogilvy office today to give me the low-down on what's happening with Midi. They'll have a booth at the festival, and will debut an environmental doc called "The Planet," shot by big-name European filmmakers and featuring interviews with some serious environmental heavyweights. They've also listed 10 or so main stage bands and half the bands on the secondary stage to do short environmental spots that will be shown during breakdown/setup between bands. And they're bringing Dave Stewart, formerly of the Eurythmics, out to Beijing for the festival. He'll be busting out some old Eurythmics hits, I'm told.

I gotta say, these Greenpeace guys not only dress the part, but they practice what they preach: When the tea lady came into the meeting room with paper cups, Fish quickly asked her to bring ceramic ones--which you see before them above--instead. Respect. They're very cool guys who are obviously committed to their cause, and I'm hoping to help them out however I can. Some years back I spoke with Greenpeace's international director Gerd Leipold here in Beijing, and he impressed me, frankly, with his embrace of globalization, his pragmatism, and his PR savvy. He comes from the PR world, actually, if I recall. (Correction: I recall incorrectly, as Kontau tells me). Same is true of Kontau: He really has his head around marketing.

Okay, so now the bad news: My damned band won't be playing at Midi this year. Not on either stage. For the first time in years. It's our own fault, too, because 1) we didn't sign up because a certain Yunnanese bandmate of mine couldn't tell us by the deadline whether he was coming back from Kunming in time for Midi, and 2) because a certain high-ranking Midi School official (hint: he has the same name as my wife) told me when I called him today to see whether I could wheedle Chunqiu's way onto the roster, if only on the secondary stage, that he thinks we ought to lose our singer because his voice lacks that leather-lunged liliang that Metal singers are supposed to have. Fuckity-fuck fuck fuck. Dave Stewart's looking for some Chinese musicians to help him out on stage; maybe I'll put my hand up to play bass for him. Admittedly, I was no big fan of the Eurythmics, though I do love Annie Lennox's voice, and songs like "Who's That Girl" and "Here Comes the Rain Again" had lovely melodies despite the New Wave synth I so loathe.

Revolution in Chinese Education?

Last week the New York Times Magazine ran a nice in-depth article on the changes afoot in China's education system--the shift away from the ages-old pedagogical tradition with its emphasis on rote memorization. It's very much worth a read.

One of the questions I'm asked again and again concerns where and how I want my children educated. Do I send them to a local Chinese school? To international schools? Will I want to send them back to the States for study at some point, and if so, at what stage? At least with secondary and post-secondary education, I see the situation as still very fluid (and, thankfully, still a ways off in the case of Guenevere, who's about to turn 3, and Johnny, just 13 months old). Who knows? 14 years from now, Tsinghua and Beida may be better schools than Harvard or Stanford or Cal.

I'm optimistic about the future of Chinese education--at least S&T education--for a number of reasons. First, there's the Internet: with Google putting libraries on line, and with dissertations and other research from leading university labs in the U.S. just a download away now, there's bound to be a leveling effect--and diffusion across this osmotic gradient will be (hell, already is) really fucking fast. Then there's the obvious factor--the sheer will and increasing economic clout of those hordes of hyper-competitive parents who are involving themselves very seriously in the educational lives of their precious only children. And then there's the top-down push: the recognition of the need for fundamental changes in pedagogy on the part of the technocrats up top, obsessed as they are with turning China into a genuinely innovative society. It's now enshrined in the 11th Five Year Plan, and I think it's much more than lip service: it's budgets for R&D, it's more funding for experimental schools, it's a deliberate effort to learn how higher education in the U.S. became what it is.

The problem in science education in China was best summed up at a conference I attended a few years back by a CASS economist whose name I've now forgotten. He said that in the developed West, the scientific method is based on hypothesize, observe, and revise your hypothesis; in China, conversely, it's about observation, hypothesis based on empirical observation, then more observation to test that hypothesis. The problem with the Chinese version he illustrated beautifully: No one ever observed a nuclear fission reaction in nature.

A Tang Dynasty music video thought lost

I met in Shanghai on Thursday afternoon with Tudou.com founders Gary Wang and Marc van der Chijs. Just beforehand, I was showing their video sharing site--which was China's first and remains one of the handful of leaders that has a good shot of surviving the coming die-off--to some colleagues and on a whim did a search for my old band.

What I turned up, to my delight, was this video that we shot for the song "Time at my Heels" (跑在时间前面，or 时间 as it was also known) from our second album Epic. We weren't happy with it at the time, and decided not to release it, but it was broadcast once on a regional (Hunan) station if I recall only once. Lucky someone got hold of it. It's kind of cheesy, but it's the only rock video from that album, so I'm glad it's there. There's also a bunch of old TD videos from songs like "A Dream Return to the Tang Dynasty," and some live stuff from a TD show in Germany.

Gary and Marc, by the way, are totally cool guys. Wish them luck on the Lhasa-to-Kathmandu bike ride they're planning for the end of April. And watch for a big announcement from them next week.

What do you do when you discover your wife is a minority nationality?

My friend Andrew Cunningham, a former Beijinger now in Shenzhen and maker of amazing vintage Strat guitar pickups, tells me this is his favorite that's Beijing column I've done. It dates back to December, 2003. Enjoy. By the way, the publisher of the magazine has been talking with me about releasing an anthology of the sixty-odd columns I've done since October '01. So he probably won't want me posting too many more of these...

Who Manchu?

I was rifling through my wife’s purse the other day when I made the startling discovery that she’s a minority. There it was, right there on her ID card after ‘nationality’: Man, not Han. Wait a minute, I thought. Fanfan doesn’t sing and dance or don colourful raiment and ornate headdresses. Nor, for that matter, have I ever known her to celebrate Water-Splashing Day. What kind of a minority nationality are these Manchus, anyhow? I felt a sharp pang of guilt: how little I understood this important part of her very identity! How remiss in my husbandly duties! And so, the better to appreciate her, I undertook a journey of discovery that would lead me deep into the labyrinthine hutongs of Dongcheng District: A journey in search of the Manchu people.

It turns out that many people I know happen to be Manchu. Why, you may be sitting next to one right now and not even know it. The writer Lao She of Camel Xiangzi and Teahouse fame was a Manchu. So was Cao Xueqin, who wrote Dream of Red Mansions. Manchu people, I discovered, invariably know to which of the eight Manchu banners their family belonged, and are singularly proud of their particular banner. The banners were hereditary military administrative divisions, identified by four colours in plain and bordered varieties. “I’m Plain Blue,” said one friend of mine. “That’s one of the really good ones. They kicked ass.” It turns out by coincidence that another close friend and my wife share the same banner – Bordered Yellow – which is kind of like having the same astrological sign, except there were only eight banners so I guess it’s not quite as special as, say, both being Libras. Anyway, Bordered Yellow was apparently the banner that supplied women to the imperial household in Qing times, so I’m totally stoked.

Compared to some of the other Chinese minorities, who emphasise singing, dancing, colourful costumes and Water-Splashing, the Manchus are rather austere. Fanfan was raised by her stern and dour grandmother, who schooled her in the rigid etiquette of the Manchus. “Chi bu yan, shui bu yu,” she taught her young ward. “Do not speak when eating, and do not talk while sleeping.” Manchus do not eat dog meat, a friendly canine having once saved the life of the great Manchu forebear Nurhachi. I’ve given up gou rou, incidentally, in solidarity with my Manchu spouse. Good posture being the mainstay of the Manchu Weltaunschauung, Fanfan was constantly admonished as a child to stand erect. “Don’t lean against a wall or in a doorway when you stand. And don’t crack sunflower seeds while leaning in a doorway or you’ll look like a prostitute,” Grandma would warn. Posture was important while seated, too: one must never cross one’s legs, and never lean back in one’s chair. Chair backs were strictly ornamental, and just to make sure, Manchu carpenters designed theirs for maximum ergonomic unfriendliness.

Manchu women didn’t bind their feet, which is why Fanfan has to do her footwear shopping at a special store for clowns – that is, if you buy her Lamarckian claims. Other special Manchu characteristics, alas, do not seem to have been passed along genetically. “Jumping onto galloping horses from one side or onto camels from the rear was [sic] the most popular recreational activity among the Manchus,” reads one authoritative source on minority nationalities. “Pole climbing, swordplay, juggling a flagpole, and archery on ice [surely the inspiration for the Olympic biathlon?] are the more interesting sports of the Manchu people,” this authority goes on to say. Pity such arts are now lost.

After the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty in the revolution of 1911, the once-proud bannermen – who in better times rode roughshod over the Han and, having wowed them with their flagpole juggling and excellent posture, compelled them to sport the funny hairdos known as the queue – were reduced to a sort of second-class citizenry. “They were popularly regarded as having lost their martial spirit and retained an unwarranted sense of entitlement … bannermen were satirised and ridiculed as lazy wards of the state and as absurdly devoted to defending their declining status,” wrote David Strand in his fascinating study of Beijing in the 1920s, Rickshaw Beijing. Things have of course changed, and nowadays many descendants of the bannermen lead useful and productive lives as birdcage guys or hutong chess kibitzers.

So here are some pointers for you when interacting with your Manchu friends. 1) When someone tells you they’re Manchu, immediately ask, “Which banner?” and, regardless of his answer, say “Wow, that was one of the really good ones!” 2) Emphatically agree with the assertion that Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong were the best emperors in Chinese history. 3) Be respectful about dietary restrictions, and most importantly, never make jokes about pastimes like camel jumping, which I’m told is now making a comeback among young Manchus.

Photogenic Shanghai

In Hong Kong recently, I splurged on a nice Canon 10 megapixel digital camera, and I've been idly snapping photos here in Shanghai, where I've been most of the week on business. Say what you will about the place, but it sure ain't hard on the eyes. There've been a few clear days here with excellent visibility,  but most of the pics I've taken--night pics of the Pudong skyline, that sort of thing--look, not surprisingly, like lame postcards. I did, however, grab a few candid shots of colleagues at dinner tonight, at a place on the Bund looking out at Pudong. Here's one of OgilvyOne China president Chris Reitermann. Looks like a movie set, I thought. Click the image for a bigger version. Didn't Photoshop this at all.

I managed to go out with newlyweds Tony and Paulina for a drink Tuesday night, and had a happy hour beer with Will this evening. He and Mrs. Imagethief are moving into their new Shanghai digs today and tomorrow. Will tells assures me that it's possible to be a nerd and a Metal musician at once. thanks, Will.

Another day of meetings--so far, they've all been genuinely interesting--and then it's home to the family for what I sincerely hope will be a relaxing weekend. And a birthday lunch for this most excellent fellow.

Melted. Your. Faces.

All modesty aside, we fucking rocked on Friday night. May have been the best show we've played in years. Everything felt right: the crowd was completely amped, all throwing the horns, moshing and crowd surfing in a civilized sort of way, and doing this unison, arms-linked headbang I've only seen Chinese Metal audiences do. Our sound was good, too--at least through the monitors on stage. Yang Meng sang well, I thought: a stark contrast to the night before, when he couldn't really hear himself (Joel and Brendan were at that show, and thought the mix buried Yang Meng's vox). On Friday we performed the acoustic song "Shan Hai Jian" for the first time live, and it went over quite well. The bewitching Chinese-American radio personality Helen Feng, who also happens to be lead singer of Warner recording artists Ziyo! was there, too. She's super cool, very smart and switched on, and I value her input. Her only real criticism was that our drummer Diao Lei sacrificed a little accuracy for performance; he wasn't completely on point, she said, and I confess that's true, but he made up for it, I thought, with his enthusiasm.