Out and About in Shenyang

This card in the hotel that I stayed in is a little reminder of the country that I am in. 

 

The Consulate here in Shenyang holds a lecture every Thursday night. Members of the Consulate community share information about American culture. For the public, it’s an opportunity to hear a lecture in English, interact with Americans, and learn more about America. For monomaniacal loudmouths like me, it’s an opportunity to spout off on things that we are interested in.

This week, my wife and I talked about intercultural marriage. We shared some statistics about the number of interracial marriages in America, some of the (not so good) history regarding relevant laws, and then spent most of the time talking about our own personal experiences with marrying across cultural borders.

During the Q&A, the questions that the audience asked were mostly very respectful and thoughtful. Some people asked if we experienced opposition from our families, some people asked about bridging cultural gaps regarding raising our children. It was a good opportunity for us to share our (mostly good) experience in a multiracial marriage in America.

Plus, I got to talk. Which I love to do.

The potato chip industry in the U.S. Can learn something from the Chinese. At the least, they can learn what not to do.

   
   

 
Central heating officially turns on tomorrow. Today the furnaces are “initiating,” i.e., belching coal dust into the air. Last year on this date, the AQI was off the scale at over 500. It’s already at 185 at 7:00am. Happy Halloween!

  

Everyone knows that what makes a restaurant great is not the quality of food or service, but how well the employees dance. Infringing on others’ copyright by including Spongebob in your dance routine will give the place that extra edge as well.

I recently read an online essay rant that was written by a faculty member puppet at a military university in China, about how the superiority of the Chinese government is that it isn’t based on the “vapid” concept of human rights, but on results. The value of a government policy, the author wrote, is not whether it conforms with some abstract ideal, but whether it gets results. Real progress is made by focusing on results, not abstract ideology, the author wrote.

I recently witnessed a perfect example of this results-oriented thinking when I was out for a walk the other day. As summer is drawing to a close and autumn is approaching, we are starting to see some leaves turning color. I saw a nice example of the coming fall on the street.

However, a closer look revealed a small defect in the presentation. Not only were the leaves actually pieces of plastic that had been wired to the tree, but the tree wasn’t even the same species.

To an American eye, this is a hilarious failure. However, if you judge this action by the “results-oriented” standard, this is a tremendous success. If the goal was to give people the pleasure of seeing autumn colors, then tying fake leaves to the branches of a completely different species of tree, the leaves of which don’t change color in the fall, is reasonable.

It doesn’t matter that it’s all an illusion. It’s irrelevant that the people have been tricked by the government. A lie is justified if it achieves the government’s goal. The results are all that matter…

…or maybe not.

I don’t think that my life needs moist and pure lotus flower rice soap. That’s too many words in fron of the work “soap.”

face

Hooray