The depths of winter

Beijing has been cold as of late. So cold that I walked over a lake today.

With winter in full force, temperatures in Beijing have sunk to 20 degrees Fahrenheit and lower. Now all the water here is frozen, including the lake at the city's Houhai Park.

For five Chinese dollars you can enter the lake and wander around. For some more money you can also rent these sleighs. I was more worried that the ice would collapse. Only in the movies have I seen people actually walk across a frozen body of water.

Winter in Beijing has been harsh, everything looking dry and sterile. But here in Houhai Park, people were enjoying the weather, or at least the frozen lake.

The foster home

This past weekend my classmates and I visited a foster home.

Located not far from Beijing, the foster home takes care of kids with special needs. We brought with us toy gifts, hoping to make our visit a festive time.

The kids, who ranged from toddlers up to the age of 14, were all orphans hoping to one day be adopted. Many had different disabilities, whether it be physical or mental. Others were born with deformities. To help them, the foster home specializes in treating their conditions and facilitating surgeries so that they can lead better lives.

The kids themselves were all very sweet.  During our time there, we built up and (unfortunately destroyed) a few Lego-made pyramids. We also played with toy cars, heard their cute voices sing, and wiped their noses clean when needed.

I especially enjoyed a few of the younger ones who constantly wanted to be held up in the air and swung around.  But after two days of playing with them, I was so tired, taking a 4-hour nap once I got back to my dorm room.

It was very touching while being there. This wall is largely made up of plaques commemorating each adoption made. Many of these orphans, however, were taken in by foreigners. Unfortunately, adoption is not that popular in China; this is often said to be because many of the native Chinese would rather raise their own blood.

Despite the foster home's efforts, it's still not easy to find a home for all the orphans. The Chinese government has a variety of different laws and regulations making it difficult for foreigners to adopt in China

One such law states that once an orphan turns 14 they can no longer be adopted. During my time at the foster home, I met one teenager who wasn't adopted simply because of this.

These laws are meant to promote safety and security. But a doctor working at the foster home said of the regulations: "It's not always easy for the Chinese government to admit that their orphans could receive better care in another country."

Still, the foster home has seen a lot of success, being entirely funded by donations, mainly coming from abroad. (Local Chinese have also donated goods, and facilitated the building of the foster home).  Currently, the home has 100 orphans all from different parts of the country. While living there, the orphans also receive schooling, as well as therapy and life skills. For the ones most severely disabled, the hope is that they can become self-reliant and hold their own job.

In China, you do meet a lot of people less fortunate than you. (Some of these kids were abandoned because of their deformities or were left disabled because of an accident.) But it was nice to see that these group of orphans were in a safe place where they could enjoy their childhoods.

We left the foster home, exchanging hugs and goodbyes. I think we all plan to visit again in the future.

Happy Holidays

The nice thing about celebrating Christmas in China is that everything is open.

Still, even as the country doesn't officially celebrate the holiday, the Christmas spirit is in the air. These past two days I've gotten half a dozen text messages from my old college students in Xi'an saying: "Merry Christmas!" I was touched that they still remember me. Many of the foreign students have also been pretty festive; last night I overheard my Korean neighbors sing "Jingle Bells" in their own language.

In this past weeks I've also learned that many Chinese people, especially the younger generation, celebrate the holiday. Yet for them it's not a time to get together with family, but with friends. (Family gatherings are reserved for more official holidays like Chinese New Year, said one student I talked too. But when Christmas comes along, China's college students are still all studying away at their schools, with their classmates the only people they can celebrate with. At the same time, businesses and their Christmas promotions certainly amp up the holiday atmosphere.)

Since I'm away from my family at the moment, I guess I ended up celebrating Christmas the Chinese way. Tonight my classmates and I got together, catching a movie after class and then eating at a Japanese buffet. Things were a little busy, since it was also a Friday night. At rush hour, the subway was packed, masses of people siphoning through one entrance to the next.

My classmates and I then had to cram ourselves into the tube. The subway, while cheap, is not exactly convenient. Since Beijing is so big, it can take an hour to get from one place to the next. I don't know if you can do much better in a taxi, since traffic is so bad here. The city has 4 million cars.

We ended the night at another jazz club, drinking wine and beer, while eating cake to celebrate a couple of birthdays. Time moves so fast; the semester is already almost over, with only a month left. In that time I've made lots of new friends, who have all been incredibly nice. Yep, Christmas in Beijing has been good. Happy Holidays!

Shaolin Stocks

Some interesting news I had to write a short summary about.

Shaolin Temple to Float on Chinese Stock Market

Stock holders might soon be able to invest in Shaolin monks if reports of a new business venture in China are true.

According to media outlets, the country's famed Shaolin Temple, renowned for its kungfu, will be listed on China's or Hong Kong's stock market in 2011. The government entity that manages the 1,500 year-old temple was reported to have agreed on a joint venture with China Travel Service, a state-run tourism agency.

The joint venture is meant to promote tourism of the temple and the surrounding area. By listing the shares on the stock market, the venture could raise up to 1 billion Chinese yuan, or $146 million in US dollars.

Shaolin Temple, located in Dengfeng, is widely-considered to be the birthplace of Chinese martial art kung fu. The Buddhist temple is most well-known for being featured in martial-arts films displaying the Shaolin tradition of kung fu.

Another news report, however, cites the local government denying that the Shaolin Temple would be a part of the joint venture. The report added that only negotiations had been made with no formal contract signed.

At the same time, Qian Daliang, an often times spokesman for Shaolin Temple's management, was also reported as saying: "We are against being listed and this attitude will never change."

Nevertheless, the reports of the potential stock market listing have drawn concern from netizens. One article wrote: "The listing of Shaolin Temple on the stock market in 2011 means that from today on Shaolin Temple won't be the public religious center it was. Instead it'll be doing pure business."

But this hasn't been the first time the temple's been criticized for selling out. The abbot Shi Yongxin has been called "CEO monk" for pursuing business projects, like online sales, kung-fu shows, and even serving as executive producer on films that focus on the temple. Shi has gained controversy for being given a luxury car as a gift, and for allegedly buying an expensive robe, all of which goes against the image of a frugal monk. Recently, Muay Thai kick boxers from Thailand even decided to challenge the monks at Shaolin Temple, saying they wanted to knock down Shi. (The temple denied their request for a challenge.)

In his defense, Shi has said he is only working to promote the Shaolin Temple and ensure that it remains prosperous. Others have noted that conditions at the temple were run-down and were in need renovations before Shi became abbot.

Library

I got a library card today. Man that was a bitch.

Actually it only took five minutes to actually apply and get the card.

I just made a dumb assumption about how libraries work in China. Back in America, libraries are pretty chill. You can come in and look around at books and read them, even if you don't have their library card. This is not the case for the Chinese library I went to.

Today I had to go to the National Library of China in Beijing to look some things up for a story. The library is very big and prestigious. But unless you have a library card, you cannot even enter their reading rooms; a big sign at each entrance saying please swipe your card.

Upon discovering this, I tried to apply for a library card, but the person at the front desk said I needed my passport. As a result, I then had to go all the way back to my dorm room, grab my passport, and then come back. (Must of took me two and half hours.) A whole morning wasted. Sonuva...

When I finally received my card, I then got lost in the labyrinth that makes up the hallways of the library. (They seriously need to display a map of where all their collections are.) Then I encountered another peculiarity. At this library you don't go around in the stacks looking for the books yourself. Instead, you enter the reading room, and go to the front counter, where you tell the librarians what publication you're wanting to look at. Then they go get it, and give it to you.

I can only guess this is done for some sort of security reasons. But it does kind of seem like an unnecessary step in trying to find the book you want to read. Also makes it harder to just randomly browse through the collections. But whatever, I just wanted my books.

This was my first time using a library in China. It was not that great of experience. Its made me wonder if libraries are popular in China since not even my few Chinese friends have a library card. As for the library at my school, I can't use it unless I throw down a $130 deposit. I think it's to make sure that no one steals any of their books.

Jazz and giant video screens

Beijing is a very foreigner-friendly place.

One weekend I'm listening to live rock music. The next weekend I'm watching a mixed martial arts tournament. And then in another I find myself at a Jazz club, choosing to drink a Corona rather than pick a Tsingtao beer.

I feel like I'm eating Korean food almost weekly now. Shops with a good hamburger actually exist where I live. For breakfast, I'm enjoying croissants.

In the meantime, Christmas trees are starting to go up at the big malls and hotels.

This is a picture from The Place Mall in Beijing, one of the newest shopping centers in the city. Above the main walkway is a giant video screen. Imagine if you could play a game of Tetris on it.

The other day, my Chinese language partner and I went to the Silk Street shopping center in Beijing. Clothes and accessories of all kind are sold within the stores, which generally feature cheaper prices. As you might guess, the dominant language here is English and not Chinese since most of the customers are foreigners.

When we left the store, I asked my language partner, who is a native Chinese, where she wanted to go to eat.

"I want to try a pasta place," she said.

I protested: we are not going to eat Italian food when I'm in China, I thought to myself.

"Can we eat some Chinese food instead?" I asked.

We did, and it was good.

The experiment

The researcher laughed when she saw my outfit: a doctor's lab coat, pajama pants and flip-flops.

It was all they gave me to change out of my clothes. But it didn't matter much how I looked, just as long as I had no metal on me. Soon I'd have to lay inside the giant machine, the magnets of the MRI working to take snapshots of my brain.

Yep, I had become a lab rat. Science experiments sometimes need test subjects. And so during this past weekend I volunteered as one.

This all started when a few months back I saw a posting. Made by Peking University, it was entitled  "Psychological Experiment is waiting for you~" What caught  my attention was how the flyer was specifically looking for Chinese-Americans to participate, even offering to pay $22 per test subject. I had always wanted to volunteer for a science experiment so I thought why not.

This Saturday I finally had some time to come by. The experiment itself was pretty straight-forward. I'd have to answer several rounds of questions, lasting about an hour, while the researchers recorded the results and scanned my brain with the MRI.

As for what purpose this all served I could only guess. "We can't tell you because it may influence you when you take the test," one of the researchers said. All the flyer said was that the experiment had something to do with empathy.

After changing out of my clothes, my was body slotted inside the cavity of the MRI. While I lay there, two small mirrors were placed over my head, reflecting the image of a nearby computer screen. Once the experiment began, the computer screen began to show me questions,  with my hand carrying a small remote allowing me to answer "yes" or "no".

I had no idea what to expect, but I ended up finishing the experiment a tad disturbed.

During the main section of the testing, the experiment revolved around one central question: "Does this person feel pain?"

To answer this, the computer screen showed me several videos of both men and women, who were either white or Asian. The videos either displayed the person being poked in the cheek with a Q-tip, or being jabbed in the face with a needle syringe. Naturally I picked "no" for the Q-tip prodding, and "yes" for the face stabbing videos.

But what was interesting was how the people featured in the videos showed no expression of pain whether being poked by the Q-tip or pierced by the syringe. I quickly caught on. Wanting to be smart, I started saying "no" to the pain question, even as needles kept pricking the faces of these poor people. (Of course, they weren't really being stabbed by a syringe, but still I cringed a bit. Then after a while I didn't much care; stab as much as you like.)

When the testing was done, I was finally told what the experiment was about. One of the researchers, a graduate student in Peking University's Psychology Department, said they've been studying how empathy works among people of different races.

They had noticed that when this experiment was given to native Chinese people, they showed more empathy for the Asian people being pierced by the syringe, and less for the white people. At the same time, the reverse was true for white people who took the test; less empathy for the Asian people, and more people for the Caucasian subjects who were pricked with the needle.

The researcher explained this could be due to evolutionary reasons embedded in our genes. When humans were evolving, they might have developed a negative response toward people who looked different from them, perhaps thinking that they were a possible enemy.

But another explanation, the researcher said, is that a person's empathy response could be molded by their culture and how he or she was raised.

As a result, the researchers looked for Chinese-Americans to partake in the experiment. Although genetically Asian, they also grew up in a western culture surrounded by people from other ethnicities.

Would the Chinese-Americans show empathy for both white and Asian people being stabbed by syringes? Or would they only feel compassion for only one group?

Not enough data has been collected to say in which way they lean, the researcher said. But in my case, I initially showed empathy for both groups. And then I  showed none, not caring who who would get stabbed in the face. I feel like I've almost condoned torture.

(One perk about participating in the experiment is that I've finally seen what my own brain looks like. The researchers were kind enough to give me these pictures. But looking at it kind of makes me wanna throw up.)