Berkeley Nostalgia - The Naked Guy Bows Out

In one of those oddly-timed coincidences, it seems that Andrew Martinez has made the news (again) just a few days after I mentioned naked men in my dorm on the blog. For those of you not in-the-know, Andrew Martinez _was_ the Naked Guy from Berkeley. You can read all about him in the link attached. Many thanks to everyone who gave me the heads-up on the news.
I have fond memories of Andrew because he helped define what campus was like at Berkeley. I mean, if you can't see naked people while walking around on campus, then what fun is it to go to class? I'm sure Andrew would never have remembered me after college was over but we did know each during that all important first year of nudity. I met him when a high-school mate of his ended up as my dorm mate. I remember seeing him around campus and around the dorms.
At the beginning, I had trouble figuring out where to focus my eyes. If I kept looking at this face, I felt like it was obvious. If I looked around, my eyes would invariably linger over parts of him I didn't want to be staring at. UGH! Even though he exuded tres-cool vibes, I appreciate that he was vain enough to move the handkerchief from his head to his privates in cold weather. I imagine he needed a little protection and also didn't want the ladies to be confused as to his natural size ("It was the cold water!").
It's too bad that Andrew ended-up as he did but I think the signs were there soon after the first year of nudity. I remember hearing stories of his odd behavior at one of the coops he lived in. He apparently spent many days cooped up in there without ever leaving.
Without Andrew, I'm certain that the infamous Berkeley Nude-In would not have happened. I wouldn't have had the pleasure of my parents watching the coverage on "World News Tonight", looking for me in the crowd and then frantically calling me to find out what was going at school. I also believe that I wouldn't have assumed the leadership of the Nudity Sub-Committee while I lived at Pearl Street Coop during my graduate school years (hrrmmm... don't think the parents know about that one... oh well).
I bid a fond farewell to Andrew and am sorry his last few years were spent in poor mental health. I do hope people don't connect his nudist philosophy with his mental illness. The nudity was a great way to challenge the norms of Berkeley (the campus) and Berkeley (the city). I'll part with the thoughts of our Chancellor as he enacted the first rule at Berkeley requiring students to clothed for class (paraphrased): "At most universities, I wouldn't have to bother telling students to wear clothes to class. For some reason, at Berkeley, I have to actually pass a rule _requiring_ them to do so." I truly believe I heard a long sigh from him after that statement.

Urban Progress - Girl, Interrupted

These pictures are of a sculpture across the street from our apartment complex. As you can see, the area is being renovated and I may be reporting the first casualty of the renovation process. The sculpture used to have a small statue of a little girl peering into one of the monster's eyes. I wish I'd taken a picture before she disappeared.
I didn't realize it earlier but she "made" the sculpture. She added a sense of curiousity, wonder and whimsy. She was simply standing on her toes and looking into one of the monster's eyes to see what was going on in there. She's not there anymore. Without her, the sculpture just seems like a whacked-out, Burton-eque, left-over movie prop. Interesting but not great.
I hope they'll bring her back. If only because it seems that she forget her shoes ... and apparently, her feet.

Expat Expectations - The Pissing Contest at the Great Wall

Given the length of the Great Wall, it's inevitable that huge sections of it are unpatrolled but easily accessible. What does your average western expat do in this situation? Throw a rave, of course! There are plenty of "illegal" parties in China and a few of them inevitably end up at the biggest, baddest wall around.
Some time ago, this issue eruptd in controversy because someone published a photo of an expat urinating on the Wall during a party. Howls of protest erupted at the audacity of the expats and their lack of respect for one of China's great cultural treasures. My knee-jerk reaction was the same. I mean, why piss on the Wall when there's plenty of open ground around the area?
Upon reflection, though, it's a very silly thing for the locals to be upset about. For one thing, I wonder if anyone complaining about the expat-pissing incident has actually _walked_ the Great Wall. The whole things smells like one big urinal. Almost every secluded corner has been used as a bathroom (and from the stench, it's recent). Since there are many more local Chinese at the Great Wall then expats, one would have to assume that it's the Chinese who are actually pissing all over the Great Wall.
We could take the arguemnt one step further. Why does the Great Wall look the way it does now? Why is it so dilapated and run down? The main reason is not the weather and the elements. With the loss of control by the imperial government, a lot of Chinese peasants realized that there was a huge Wall of pre-cut and shaped stones that were ripe for plundering for their own uses down on the farm.
While you won't find me pissing on the Great Wall anytime soon, it's probably a good idea to put things in perspective before blaming the expats for the degradation of Chinese cultural artifacts. It probably wouldn't hurt the government to put in a few more bathrooms along the Great Wall as well.

Mobile Phones - Everyone Texts

Having lost my original cell phone, I bought a local phone and spent a few months getting acquainted with the mysteries of the infernal device. I now had a permanent local phone number and a chinese-capable cell phone. Of course, all this means is that I now have yet another avenue for spam in my life.
Spam was bad enough by e-mail but now I find myself getting SMS spam all them time. Since it's in Chinese, I have to make my co-workers endure my spam by asking them to decipher the message in case they are important. In most other countries (besides the US), it seems that SMS texting has become a common way for organizations to communicate with their customers/citizens. I've seen that the Beijing government has started texting announcements of catastropic events (like when a hole opened up on one of the downtown freeways), thank you's for public participation and other general announcements. My phone company uses texting to let me know it's time to pay the bill, warn me about minutes usage and other announcements. Unfortunately, these messages are mixed in with travel offers, shopping sales, and "sexy service" (as one co-worker put it). Do I feel bad about forcing my co-workers to sort through my spam? ... yes but I don't really have a choice.
About three months ago, I decided that I should finally take the plunge and start texting. I was forced to do this because it seems that noone has voicemail in China (yours truly included) and people were starting to get annoyed that I was burning up their minutes with simply queries. You will all be proud to find out that I have now fully embraced texting and am up to 500 texts/month (yes, more than 20/day).
For those of you wondering, texts in China cost .1 yuan/message. So, my habit is currently costing me 50 yuan/month. I've searched for package deals to reduce this cost but it seems that China Mobile knows people want to text and isn't about to offer any plans to make it cheaper. I'll continue at a later date about some of my discoveries about this new texting universe and the games you can play with people.

Restaurant Racism in Beijing

It seems that Beijing has its own fair share of racism whenit comes to serving patrons in restaurants. We've already got two restaurants on our "hit" list bcause they seem to be racist against .... chinese folks. It seems that expats are so feted and fawned over as some of the more upscale restaurants that any vaguely Chinese looking person in the group will often get ignored (completely). We've had cases of business cards being handed out (but not to the chinese), small gifts being given away (but not the chinese) and introductions being made (again, not to the chinese).
It's just crazy bhavior if you ask me. I think building a restaurant in Beijing to only cater to foreign-looking expats is a bad idea and word will eventually get around. For one thing, there's enough asian-looking expats that makes this practice dangerous. Beyond that, there's plenty of rich Chinese out there; why on earth would you alienate them?

My Posh Luxurious University

So... Recently I mentioned to some people in Beijing that I went to school at Berkeley for undergrad. They told me that I was lucky to go to such a posh school in the US. POSH? POSH!!! As a Berkeley grad, I find this to be an offensive comment. I mean, it's not like I went to Stanford or other ivy-league school. What has this world come to? I didn't spend four years at a public university dealing with riots, protests, fights, naked men in my dorm room and man-hating feminists to carry around an image of ... POSH!
I normally don't even volunteer this kind of information because it always carries a lot of baggage. For people that live in the United States, Berkeley conjures up images of a totally hippy, counter-cultural school filled with intelligent, over-achieving long-haired freaks. For foreigners, they just think that Berkeley is a school filled with intelligent people. I can live with the hippy, counter-cultural freak part. The assumption of intelligence part is easily dispelled with only 5 minutes of exposure to my behavior (I just don't like dealing with the disappointment).

Where's All the Expats?

When we first moved to Beijing, we were amazed out how few expats we'd see while walking around the neighborhood. Since we live in the Chaoyang Park area, we basically live in expat central but, strangely, no expats. Where are they?
In the intervening months, I've come to realize a few things. First of all, since we first showed up around the end of the summer, none of the expats were walking the streets. It's hot enough (and the taxis are cheap enough) that any self-respecting expat will not bother being outside. Air conditioning all the way.
The other reason is that there just aren't that many expats around. Beijing has about 50,000 expats total (out of a population of 15+ million). It seems like that would be enough to see them out on the streets until I discovered that 40,000 of them are east-asian expats (mostly from Korea and then Japan). That leaves only 10,000 western/south-asian expats remaining. That's apparently not enough people to notice in any large groups in the city. Of course, visit any pricy bar or upscale restaurant and you'll find all the expats you need to find.
On a similar note, I was recently talking to some Brazilians and they made a comment on how multi-cultural Beijing was and how many foreigners there were in Beijing. I asked them what the hell they were talking about. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, there's almost no foreigners in Beijing (50,000 out of 15,000,000+). I never see them out and about. They looked at me and then just started laughing. Their comment? (paraphrased):
"You Americans are so silly. You think all cities in the world should have as many foreigners as your cities. Compared to the rest of the world, Beijing has tons of foreigners." I was appropriately chastised. Funny that an expectation of a truly multi-cultural society would brand me as small-minded. Strange world.