Out and About in Shenyang

Oreos have invaded the China market. And like many things that enter a new market, Oreos have mutated.

In addition, because it’s China, the mutation is over the top. We have many flavors of Oreo to choose from: original flavor, reduced sugar, green tea (blech), banana (blech), “ice cream” (what the heck?), strawberry-blueberry (intriguing), reverse (white cookie, chocolate stuff), lemon cheesecake (I had to buy that one to try it, sounds good), “birthday cake” (is that even a flavor?), grape-peach, vanilla, strawberry, and double chocolate.

At the very least, you have to admit that they’re bravely trying new approaches to the market.

This is a local variety of tangerine. Aren’t they adorable?

Another part of the ice festival is the snow sculptures. I liked this more than the ice sculptures: they were less over-the-top, they were displayed in a park, there were a lot fewer people, and there was a lot of variety. It also helped that it was a beautiful day with very low air pollution (we could even see the blue sky!).

 

 

I read a few different news stories about a novel that was published in China last June  The book is called “Smog Is Coming,” and it’s apparently an allegory for pollution, corruption and the current state of Chinese politics.

According to this news report, the novel tells a story about taking advantage of smog to commit crime.

“Using the polluted skies as his cloak, a masked burglar in ‘Smog Is Coming’ exploits  the nightly blanket of haze to cloud security camera lenses as he commits a string of break-ins. It was a scenario that Li said he took from real life.

Published last June, the novel touches on fraud and bureaucracy and their impact on air pollution, and according to China Daily, online excerpts have received tens of millions of page views.”

Intrigued, I decided to look for it in the local bookstore.

It wasn’t available at the store. The clerk said that she could try to order it for me, and took my phone number. However, a short time later, she called me back and said that the store couldn’t order it.

I tried another store in town, and had no luck. Even Amazon’s China store doesn’t have it online.

For a book that is generating so much interest, its unavailability is a mystery. I guess that the government isn’t happy with the story, and is “discouraging its dissemination.”

It gets pretty cold up in Harbin.

Hats are not only something to keep you warm, they’re a fashion statement as well. Here’s a cute little robot hat that I saw on a little boy last week.

The government has been talking up this thing that they call the “Chinese Dream,” analogous to the American Dream, I guess. There has been a shortage of details about exactly what this dream consists of, but that little detail doesn’t stop the government from encouraging everyone to pursue it. I guess it isn’t necessary to define something before it exists?

There is an underground mall in Shenyang. Someone told me that it was originally a bomb shelter, but it’s been privatized, and now it’s additional real estate. Because it’s cheap real estate, what gets sold there is strange and cheap. Imagine the dollar store on acid.

This chair was in the lobby of the hotel in Harbin. I must have one.

The Harbin ice festival has two parks. One is for ice structures and sculptures, and the other is for snow sculptures. The ice structure exhibit is best viewed at night, when you can get the full effect of the laser light show that is modern China.