4 posts tagged “china”
The Falun Gong creeps me out, but they do have a sense of humor:
Practice by running behind a bus is kind of a funny idea for athletes preparing to compete in Beijing this year for the Olympics. (I have a lot of experience with that, running behind a bus, that is.) I love this really interesting article in the NYTimes on the strategies and concerns of trainers preparing top athletes for the heavy polluted air in Beijing.
I think Beijing is one of the most beautiful and magnificent cities in the world, but almost everyone I know gets sick within a week of visiting there. That's why I'm not totally convinced with the strategy of the trainers for athletes to arrive at the last possible moment. Maybe their "multipronged" strategy is different, but I think it might be better to get there way early and get OVER the obligatory respiratory infection.
If I were competing I would probably bring my own food as well. My aunt who lives in Shanghai (another awesome city) travels to America to buy soy sauce from Costco, then brings it back with her so she doesn't have to use local soy sauce. SO FUNNY! I know Beijing has been very careful about the food preparation process in the Olympic Village, but better safe than sorry!
I was tagged by semblance's book meme, so here it goes, my response to the challenge:
(Wait, I think I'm suppose to tag five more - Lorelei, legal beagle, Chayenne, lemon, and mo!)
Total number of books owned: >500
(Including books in Chinese and a small comic book collection from Taiwan and Japan.)
I also have over 100 books checked out from the library. Thank GOD for semester loans and three-year automatic renewals. I wonder what it says about your research when you have a library book for three years and nobody ever missed it... hmmm... Most books are now available online from ebrary or ebooks, so I tend not to buy books as much any more. Plus moving and storing books is such a pain.
Last book bought: 中國農民調查, by 陳桂棣 and 吳春桃.
The last book in English I bought is: The Identity Theft Protection Guide, by Amanda Welsh, PhD
Even though the book is about China, this edition is in complex characters because I was only able to find it in Taiwan. It is banned in China, so a little harder to find. The English edition is titled: Will the Boat Sink the Water? The Life of China's Peasants.
A friend of mine recently had his bank account cleaned out. He wasn't sure if it was identity theft, bank error, the IRS, or what, but it was quite a scare. Given these times and how easy personal information can be found on the internet, I thought I'd better begin safeguarding my identity as well. Even a little is better than being a sitting duck.
Last book read: Bush at War, by Bob Woodward
My summer reading list begins with the three Bush-era books by Bob Woodward: Bush at War, Plan of Attack, and State of Denial, and finishes with George Tenet's At the Center of the Storm. Besides the political intrigue, I feel it's an American citizen's duty to know what the administration did and what our hard earned tax dollars went toward, at the expense of domestic needs. Not to mention these are the events that set the stage for a new global history.
Five books that mean a lot to you:
- The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein. One of the first books I read in ESL, the English as a Second Language class in elementary school when my family and I first moved to the US. I hate this book with a vengeance, having never been satisfied with any interpretations.
- The Stories of the Sahara, by Sanmao. Autobiographical account of the author's life living in the Sahara desert - her encounters with local cultures, her crazy adventures, and married life. This book is funny, adventurous, romantic, and oddly empowering.
- Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck. Ahhh, the best laid schemes o' mice and men...
- Selected Poems of Pablo Neruda. Exploring dichotomies of finitude versus infinitude.
- Development as Freedom, by Amartya Sen. Works of Sachs and Stiglitz on poverty and development may have more mass-appeal, but Sen is the true blend of history, vision, and humanitarianism. Not bounded by the hegemonic economic discourse but authoritative in the discipline, he provides readers with an ideology, the visionary backbone to a real understanding and critique of economic development.
Show us a sign.
Submitted by the roo.
I'll show you TWO!
(It really should read: "Electricity: Danger")
(It's actually 1. person w/ broken arm, 2. person w/ child, 3. pregnant woman, and 4. person w/ broken leg. Get your mind out of the gutter.)
