Travel plans.

So, come May 21 (the day I must leave ??) I decided I'd like to stay in Chengdu until Sunday evening or Monday morning. From there, I'll take a train to Chongqing, an apparently really artsy-ass city. I'll stay in Chongqing most of the week(23-26), then fly to Beijing(27-30ish), then fly home.


Places I still have to visit before I leave:

    * Hooters
    * Sanxing Dui
    * Dayi Liu's Manor
    * Panda Breeding Research Center (with mother)
    * Thatched Cottage (with mother)

Maybe I should go back and buy these.

...and all these damn weird racist things, just as evidence of sorts.

Violence and power.

My own experiences have showed me that when possessed by the notion of futility - and the absence of control or power is resounding - one is most likely to become violent. As for those that can maintain their authority and still use violence... they either feel they have no control no matter their status, or are addicted to control.

And in some societies, expression of power is just... different. Sometimes having control isn't enough - one must constantly remind others (who do not argue) in order to be truly powerful, because that's just the way it was taught.

I'm inspired to say this after watching a Baltimore transwoman get beaten until she had a seizure. And because I constantly contemplate the intersection of class and "race." Especially after two black transwomen vandalized my car a couple months ago. But their clear drug use didn't quite help their decision-making, either (assholes).   

Pictures to hold you over.

The tree is blooming!

Xiaomao. :3

I may have an "Adventures of the White Board" post at the end of my stay.

What French and Americans think of each other.

Fanqie jidan mifan whatever.

Lauren... Mike(?) Matt? Fuck it? and Donald!

I can't hold onto left's name for some reason, Amanda, Dylan!

Moi.

Prostitution in Chengdu.

It astounds me. Had I never been led down the street and shown the places prostitution occurs, or happened to stumble across a couple womens' run-ins with the law, it would still affect me. It occurs in the form of a single, three-word question.

"Are you Russian?"

Never a variation. Are. You. Russian? Had no one alerted me to the deeper meaning of this question, I probably would have started wondering on my own why I hear it so often when I look nothing close to Russian in the first place. The meaning here is this...

"You're clearly not from here. You don't behave as the rest of us do. Do you have sex for money?"

This either means I should alter my behavior to something more culturally appropriate, or - NO. It doesn't matter what I'm doing, or how I'm dressed. I've been asked this on multiple occasions, in multiple scenarios. The reason behind their asking this is because 1. most of the alleged Russians that come to China are alleged  prostitutes 2. they're just as ignorant of what outsiders look like as Americans are (and I don't even want to get started there today).

It just makes me wonder... in the future, how am I to avoid being objectified as an anthropologist? I'm really, for the mostpart, just a foreigner in most of the situations I'd like to be in.

My own note on Russians here: I saw two at my favorite club, and they were certainly strippers.

I'm fairly sure it would be inappropriate to ask Chinese girls dressed for the club (or not) if they were prostitutes. I'm only grabbing blindly here, but I have a feeling that to treat a non-foreigner as such in my numerous  scenarios would be extremely rude. But, the truly interesting thing is that the sex workers here are much more modest in their dress than anywhere I've seen at home - than any of the girls at the club. In fact, they look as though they're going to a job interview. Just... at 11 o'clock at night and later. I'll have to sketch the basic outfit I've seen one day, because I've so much to say about prostitution in general. But before I continue with my discussion, I have to get this out of the way.

The Chinese government has made significant efforts to end prostitution in its numerous forms. While once culturally acceptable, it has for numerous, many positive reasons, sought to end the sex trade. For the number of facilities allowed by corrupt police departments (that, in that area, paid more attention to shutting down illegal food vendors), I've seen attempts to end it. In addition, the type of prostitution people try to attribute to foreigners is likely much more organized that what I've seen.

The first time I witnessed the presence of the sex trade in Chengdu, my friend merely walked me down a side street, where "massage parlors" by day became brothels at night. "Sliding glass doors," he cited as one of the most prominent features of such facilities. I don't have to agree on the significance of such things, but the important part is that you could see into almost every one, where 4-6 heavily made-up women sat waiting for customers on a couch, often huddled next to a space heater. Obvious, yet subtle all at once. 

The second time, I almost forgot of its prominence until I was walking home one night on Wangjiang Road. There were women sitting, waiting on the curb, texting, just lingering. I had never really made the mental connection that they actually had no reason to be there at such an hour (since the buses stop running around 10, and they weren't waving down any cabs) until a white VW pulled up. The girls I was walking past immediately fled - broke ASS - like mice, or mentally handicapped zebras. It was so aimless and desperate, I wasn't exactly sure what the hell was going on. But soon, I realized that there was a uniformed officer in the car. The women slightly up the road hadn't seen him yet, so the next time he pulled up (almost right next to me) and got out of the car - the two women ahead were electrifyingly startled, and began sprinting, in their purses and high heels, as quickly as they could towards the nearby parking lot. The scuffle beforehand reminded me of a bear about to stomp on a rabbit - it was actually quite comical from an outsider's pov. But there's still a lot I don't know about how things work here, and don't plan on ever knowing.

So regardless, I just shook my head and kept walking.    

(P.S. As much as I would like to leave it on this note, it is seriously much more complicated than what I've presented here, especially in relation to foreigners. But it's really not my business to share the full extent of what these misconceptions can cause. I'll just reiterate that the most violent element of society is ignorance. Thank you, Emma Goldman.)   

Black Women, Chinese Men: Where's the Love?

Living in China as a black woman comes with its own set of hurdles and oddities, but one of the biggest oddities I have found since I have lived here for the past three years is the lack of black female/Chinese male couples. I, being the female half of a Blasian couple, tend to find my eyes constantly searching the crowds for couples that have relationships similar to my own, only to find people staring back at me strangely. In China, these kinds of couples a rare find, even in the largest cities...

Not the best article out there, but it does present an interesting issue.

I know I've been disappeared for a while now.

But my next post is going to be on prositution's rampant nature, and how it has complicated my status as a foreigner. In the next couple days, hopefully tomorrow. Love you, family and friends.

Qing Ming Trip Pt. II: Hot Spring and Emei-Shan

I would have mentioned the hot spring in my last post, but Blogger is a real pain-in-the-ass when it comes to working around attachments. Regardless,

After being driven to Emei-Shan, we got acclimated with the bottom of the mountain and hotel, visiting two temples (one of which had, rather 18 monk statues, five hundred) and an exhibit on the Emei-style kung-fu. It was developed by monks (I assume) using the movement of monkeys as inspiration... very fascinating. I didn't take any photos of the exhibit since I wanted to save my batteries for the top of Emei-Shan, but it was pretty damn cool (though small).

Something worth mentioning: when I first walked to the very foot of the mountain, I grew very uncomfortable. Directly in front of me was a pagoda with a bell, statues, etc. and to my right was a giant fountain - typical museum/tourist park stuff. But when I looked to my left, at a gate to a hotel, I suddenly felt this rush of deja-vous. I've never been there before, but everything felt too familiar. Like I was re-learning something I had forgotten. I walked around for a good twenty minutes before I felt like I wasn't dreaming anymore. We then visited two large temples/monasteries and got dinner.

It was in a two-minute span of time after dinner that I decided again not to eat meat anymore. Though I was fully aware that the restaurant we were eating at kept some of their dishes outside - alive, in cages, I wasn't fully aware of their contents. I love the taste of rabbit, and I've  been inhaling it in excess. We even had rabbit for dinner - and then we walked outside, this time through a door closer to the cages. Inside one of the cages, next to the chickens and fish, two rabbits were huddled. They looked so dead inside... like dread had consumed them, and they had lost the will to fight their fate as unnecessary human feed. So dead, and so sad. I wanted to buy one, both, save them from imminent death - but I would have had nowhere to keep them and nowhere to set them free without dying/being caught again. Fifteen seconds after this thought, I saw a man beating the shit out of a fish - slamming it against the ground in a net. SLAP... SLAP. I feel sick now.

I was able to relax a little at the hotspring we went to... it was raining lightly (hotspring was outdoors), and after driving to the first spring, we discovered that the heater had just broken. So, we went to another more expensive one. I knew that it was more than possible Ken and I would be the only foreigners there - and to my knowledge, we were. Green paid our entrance fee, and gave me a waterproof-electric-key-bracelet and a clip to put on my shoes so I could check them in the locker room. After checking my boots and slipping into some rubber sandals, I went to my locker - which was very annoying to open, since my handle was broken - and inside was a towel and a robe. Got ready, threw on my makeshift bathing suit, and looked for Ken.

Most of the hour or so we were there, we got many curious stares and people often outright avoided us. It took me 20 minutes to work up the balls to sit in one of the smaller therapy pools (one of which was purple, one of which was green). Other than that - it was AWESOME. One of the coolest things I've ever done! Why don't we have hotsprings at home? They would be so much more popular than regular swimming pools.  

The following morning, we woke up, got a free breakfast (egg sandwich yeah!) and ran to catch the bus to the top of Emei-Shan. Green told us that it would take two hours to get to the top of the mountain, but I believe it took longer. First was about an hour-long bus-ride on a long, inclined, winding mountain road - the curves were intense, the driver seemed pissed, and two people were throwing up, one of which was in my row of seats. I felt pretty sick myself, but mostly in a really tense not-want-to-die-today kind of way. But we made it alive, to another gate. Bought more tickets, walked about two miles to the lift, waited in line for 20-30 minutes, and finally arrived at the top of Emei-Shan.

It was foggy, and apparently had snowed the night before. Though it was very cold, and very difficult to see, I felt like I was in a real-life heaven. 

Here's what the statue looks like without fog.

Six-tusked elephant representing Sakyamuni (the Buddha).

Me, dying, in my 20-yuan rental coat.

A woman was allegedly thrown off of this cliff, after which her lover followed her.

Multitude of locks left by lovers.

Locks left by lovers.

(Fuck Blogger's shitty formatting!!) After grabbing some over-priced food, we waited 45 minutes for the ski-lift thingy - which is actually when I started having fun! We shared tongue-twisters with each other, learned a lot of words, then RAN at the lift. The first time people sprinted to the lift to get a good spot/out of line
, I was pretty distressed - but I couldn't see the huge smiles on everyone's faces from my crappy place. With a roar, we all rushed forward, laughing as we managed to get three of the few seats on there. The view was excellent despite the fog, but I was saving my battery.

We caught another bus for an hour, where I worked on memorizing more vocabulary. We took a smaller ski lift pod, made (I believe) in Austria - they were very quick and compact, and we worked our way towards another monastery - it had one of the oldest temples on Emei Mountain. Of which dynasty, I don't remember, but I believe it was 1,300 or 2,000 years old. After that, we walked several more kilometers to see the monkeys.

I'm going to let my pictures speak for me from this point, but I'm sure you'll be able to figure out what's what. :) 

The awesome ridiculously old temple... 

The monkeys are known to jump on people... and steal cameras and hats.

See? ...I tried not to make eye contact with them, and they left me alone.

Heheh.

Qing Ming Trip Pt. I: Le-Shan Great Buddha.

I've never really been to a mountain before, much less climbed one, much less seen a giant Buddha in the image of Empress Wu Zetian carved into the side of a cliff. My experiences with Emei-Shan and Le-Shan have caused me to think much more creatively, giving me hope that others do think similarly to me - and it's not all that strange.

My day started at 8am, and the other Towson student (that's been here a semester) flaked out - leaving just me and Ken. Our tour guide, Green, wasn't much older than us - and her English was very good. Though I hate dealing with people, especially in groups, I'm wondering if I could be a tour guide now. :) Either way! We first drove two hours to Leshan (a small city of 3 million) and hopped on a boat to view Leshan Buddha from a good viewing distance. It was profound - I am enamored with that place. The art was amazing, the landscape was amazing, the gardens were amazing. On to the pictures!

One of my first views outside of the city... yay highway!

Tug-boats for the Le-Shan Buddha tour.

First view of the Buddha.

Guard... dude.

Pretty cool how much is going on here.

This Buddha was built in the Tang Dynasty, and was allegedly sculpted in the image of Empress Wu.

The line to stand at the feet of the Buddha.

"Sleeping Buddha," or "Horny Buddha." lol

View from walk to the statue.

Crouching tiger...

Hidden dragon.

This comes from an actual saying. Wherever a tiger is crouching, a dragon is always hidden nearby.

These dudes were pretty intense - they control the weather.

"I see the head!"

Looking down (check out the line).

The original sculptor (it took two more and almost 100 years).

The cave he lived in.

Buddha's penis.

Pretty cool.

The past two days...

I visited the Leshan Buddha, went to a hotspring for the first time, and climbed a mountain (Emeishan). It was surreal; I can't wait to post the pictures. :)