For my seven past summers in Beijing, and actually all my more than 30 past summers, I either didn’t lived in an air-conditioned home, or when I live in one, I seldom used air-conditioners. I don’t like big electricity bills or the air blown from long-serving air-conditioners that smells of old dust particles.

But, this summer is different. My family now live in a home we can call our own. My wife and I bought it last year literally right before we could no longer afford it. For your information, the price of our apartment in southern suburban Beijing has sky-rocketed by around 85% since we bought it last June.

So, on paper, we are a millionaire family. But, in reality, we have to live with a mortgage that is a drain on our income. This will be the case for another 14 years if we cannot pay it off earlier. According to Rich Dad, our home is a liability because it does not generate cash and only takes it away from us.

We will have another drain soon this autumn though another very sweet one: My wife is expecting our first baby this November. To make our home a better place to live in this summer, we will buy at least one air-conditioner this Dragon Boat Day holiday. We will need it to live through the coming hot summer days, as well as late autumn and early spring days, when it can be very cold at home before and after centrally provided heating is available.

By at “least one”, I mean we may buy two, each for the living room that we hope can cool and warm three indoor spaces (the living room, the south bedroom, and my home office) and for the north bedroom. This depends on our money-related moods and sales skills of the shop’s staff.

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Update: We bought two Grees.

I’ve read quite a few China blogs, and his is one of the most personally vicious, so negative about his host country and its people, whining, chastising, satirizing, and complaining all the time. I must say reading his posts is a very depressive experience. (But, his and guests’ posts make very good jokes, though, if you read them that way.) I can hardly associate such darkness and gloom in attitudes with a typical can-do businessman.

MyLaowai’s style of China-bashing is relentless. He bashes everything about and never has a problem with insulting and offending the country and its people. For example, he makes fun of Chinese-English the Chinese people often use; and “debunks” everything the Chinese like, e.g. the noises Chinese New Year’s celebration fireworks make.

MyLaowai’s China-market claim is dubious. My common sense tells me it’s not true.

As is known, China is a developing country, which means that it has a long way to go before it can match the developed ones in the West in terms of market maturity. Though people like MyLaowai rightly have loads to complain about, this should not stand in the way for other investors who want presence in China. After much complaining, MyLaowais must get down to work to solve or shun problems they are complaining about. If they don’t, they might fail in a market of this size:

China, which excludes Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, had an inbound FDI flow of US$108 billion in 2008 and had the world’s third largest economy (and according to the latest statistics, the second largest). In 2009, the country exported US$1.2 trillion worth of goods (Office machines & data processing equipment ($134.5 billion), Telecommunications equipment (123.6), Electrical machinery (101.7), Apparel & clothing (95.4), Miscellaneous manufactures (55.5)) and imported US$1.01 trillion (Electrical machinery ($174.8 billion), Petroleum & related products (84.1), Professional & scientific instruments (48.6), Metalliferous ores and scrap (44.0), Office machines & data processing equipment (40.7)).

Building a “harmonious” society is a comprehensive program of the Chinese government. Looking at it historically, nothing is new about this concept. It’s just another slogan word that represents a natural addition to China’s national strategic aims it set more than three decades ago – to make China into a country of Wealth, Strength, Democracy, and Ethics. Though it’s true that China is a country far from being “harmonious”, at least the country is making great progress towards her goals.

China is a country that had increased the life expectancy at birth of her people from an average of 35 years in 1949 to 70.4 years for men and 73.7 years for women in 2004; grown its gross national product to US$2.6 trillion in 2006; and sent her people aboard her own spaceships into the outer space. China’s achievements represented by the three examples are extremely laudable in Human history, especially considering the country’s vast land and huge population and the short time in which the achievements had been made.

For the market prospering in such a country, investors should consider joining it instead of avoiding it, as their business dictates.

However, from an individual investor’s point of view, it’s up to him or her how the operations are run. It’s their business. China’s market welcomes successful companies and eliminates losing underachievers.

Running businesses in China and the rest of the world carries risks associated with management/administration, thefts, labor disputes, legal and judicial problems, and consumer preference (MyLaowai’s grievances). If managed badly,  these risks might lead to disasters. This is what running businesses is about, isn’t it?

Contrary to MyLaowai’s recommendation, my idea is that if you are an ambitious investor, are sure that you have the products and/or services the local Chinese consumers can use, and you are well prepared for a market new to you, come here, because the market here is for you. But, before and after you set up shop here, bear these in mind: don’t try to fight local people and their ways of getting things done; and go about things within the Law and Government Regulations.

It’s been an excruciatingly horrible time for people in Daxing, Beijing for the past several weeks, where my wife and I moved into an apartment we bought last summer as our first home. One (November 23, 2009), two (December 28, 2009), and three (December 31, 2009) gruesome murders had happened in less than 40 days. These murders are alarmingly common in two aspects: the suspects are extremely closely associated with the victims and whole families were eliminated.

In the first murder, a man knifed to death his wife, his sister, his father, his mother, and finally his 2-year-old son. In the second, a man did the same to his wife and son. These two murders happened in the same neighborhood. And in the third, a man killed one of his friends and his girlfriend, and then the friend’s pregnant wife, and her father and mother.

The third murder wasn’t confirmed in major news portals until today. Before that, I’d read reports that dismissed it as rumor.

What gets on my nerves most about these cases is that police can do virtually nothing to prevent such crimes – the killers are those that no one will ever believe will do anything as bad as that to their loved ones and people around him.

Humans have killer instinct in them. But what can bring it out? Pressures and pains brought about by reckless efforts to make or earn money and nowhere to find a helping, reassuring hand? Maybe. As far as I know, few people today bother to set aside some time to nurse their souls or have time for a respite from cut-throat competition.

Home is a place where you can be yourself and where you pull off all your masks and hats – and your guard is down. It’s a place where unhindered communication among its members and closest people from outside should be there in the first place to prevent any small disturbances, let alone such shocking killings.

After graduation, he joined a Sino-Japanese joint venture in Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang. This company carves gravestones and sells them to Japan. He started from the very junior level and worked all the way up to be the chief financial officer. When he no longer found his job there challenging, he decided to go to Beijing for greater career prospects. His boss wouldn’t let him go. But, he’d made up his mind. About two months had since passed before he could eventually leave the company. After that, four people were needed to take over his job.

The first thing he did after he came to Beijing was not to find a job. Instead, he went to an expensive English language training school to learn English as a full time student. His learning lasted two years.

He now works at the largest accounting firm in the Chinese mainland. Though his firm is based in Beijing, he often works in, for example, Liaoning and Hong Kong, for months. According to his plan, he will have enough exposure to and hands-on experience in the accounting at international companies and then join a large company as its chief financial officer. His current job can serve his purpose well.

Our youngest boy (Laogeda) is not as ambitious as the Eight (Laoba). When they both worked in Heilongjiang, Laogada dawdled away his first two years before Laoba encouraged him to study to become a certified public account of China (CPA). After Laoba settled down in Beijing, Laogada came here, too. He now worked for a leading accounting firm in Beijing. Like Laoba, he spends most of working time outside of Beijing. Unlike Laoba, he’s never serious about English and so he hasn’t thought about working at a company where English language skills are necessary.

Last May, we finally met again after more than ten years. At a restaurant near my company and at Laogada’s home, I drank the largest amount of beer in my life. I don’t remember how I climbed into a small bed and shared it with the other two.

(The first night of drinking after 12 years, April 29, 2009)

(When the two leave my home in Daxing, May 8, 2009)

Afei (fei means flying; he used to run really fast), another school fellow and roommate, came to Beijing last Wednesday on his honeymoon tour. Laoba was still in Hong Kong, so only three of us and Afei’s wife got together at a Donglaishun hotpot restaurant near his hotel. Before Afei and his wife left Beijing for Dalian last weekend, we met again at a Korean-style rotisserie.

Afei is now a police officer. At our second get-together, he told us two stories he’d never shared with his wife. He had not just because he didn’t want his wife to worry about him.

As a new police officer, he joined a sting operation and had a face-to-face encounter with a suspect who wanted to buy a gun. The suspect became alerted and suspicious and pointed his gun at Afei’s head after he found the firing pin was missing from the gun Afei offered him. Afei calmly handled the situation and eventually called in his comrades to arrest the suspect. If this story is life-threatening, then the other is health-and-happiness-threatening.

At a birthday party, one of his "friends" offered him and others something to "sniff". Later, Afei got really sick and threw up everything he’d eaten. After a furious questioning, he knew that what they’d sniffed was drug. They got so angry that they beat the daylights out of the "friend". Afei has since never contacted him.

When he told us the story of his first and last use of drug, I commented, as I often do when this topic comes up, that ordinary people need to work really hard, for dozens of years, and at the expense of other enjoyments, to get a feeling of happiness and euphoria. Drug abusers can easily get dose after dose of them just by taking some magic substance. They pay for this false happiness and euphoria with the rest of their life. None are immune to feelings of happiness. Neither can anyone be immune to drugs. So, my idea is: avoid drugs at all costs.

At our two get-togethers, we either forgot to bring a camera or forgot to take photos. We only drank and talked. Next time, I’ll make sure photos are taken!

I’ve settled down in Beijing with my wife. As long as I stay put in this city, we have other chances to meet again and with other boys and girls.

12 years has passed since graduation. I hadn’t since seen any of the boys and girls until the end of last year, when I met again our youngest boy in Beijing.

In Chaoyang Park (June 20, 2009)

I haven’t done research into all of them. But from the few I have met again or heard talking about other boys and girls, I know that most of them now live and work in Heilongjiang or maybe other two Dongbei (Northeast) provinces and others in Beijing or southern cities.

So far, I’ve met again with four boys. We owe these reunions to the Age of Information. And talking about this, I owe my marriage to it, too.

ChinaRen.com is one of the most popular online alumni communities in China, where I belong to a junior secondary school class (my wife belongs there, too) and the accounting school class.

In ancient China, candidates for civil or military service examinations had to travel for months and even years from their home provinces to the Empire’s capital for the examinations. Information flows then were like snail-crawling compared with today.

Now, a plane trip, a train ride, a mobile phone call, an email, or a Web search can do all the jobs. This is an example of science and technology making our life better, easier, and full of joyful surprises, which I think many of us have started to take for granted.

As a tradition in most Chinese school dormitories (at least this is what I know of), the roommates have new names given based how old they are. The names start with Laoda (Oldest) and end with Laogada or Laogeda (Youngest) and there are the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, … … in between. It depends on how many people a dormitory has. In a country with a population of more than a billion people, you can bet the list can run really long. In the case of our dormitory (No. 104, North Dormitory Building), the roster ran from the Oldest to the Youngest, and then continued to J (Hook), Q (Circle), K (the letter K), and A (Point) and then to only nicknames when more joined us because the names based on numbers and pokers soon ran out.

Let me begin with two of the four boys I’ve managed to meet again in Beijing.

At a hot pot restaraunt (May 8, 2009)

Me (Seventh), the Eighth, and the Youngest (from left to right)

As I said, we all attended an accounting school. The Youngest and the Eighth are now the best of those who still do what they have been taught. They are now Certified Public Accounts of China. One works at a large accounting firm and the other at the Chinese mainland’s largest. They spend most of their time outside of Beijing.

The Eighth has been a model for the Youngest to learn from and follow. He is very ambitious and truly knows what he’s doing.

To be continued…

I’ve had enough of this!

I want to speak really good English, like a really good native speaker.

Who can help me then? There is no way I can marry a native English-speaking woman now. Well, I’m talking (writing, to be precise) as though I can easily find one who is also interested in me!

I’m not the sort of guys women can have a crush on at first glance. People have to get to know me a lot before they can like me very much. Smacks of boasting then.

Now back to the topic of learning to speak a foreign language that your spouse speaks. If you’re lucky enough to have one and you don’t speak like a native speaker of that foreign language, you are wasting such a good opportunity and even your life!

But, I cannot justifiably blame you for that too much. It’s a human weakness. Me for one. I’ve been in Beijing for more than six years and I’ve never been to the Great Wall here though I’ve been to Qinghuangdao and sometimes I got really close to the city’s section of the Wall. I always think that if I really want to go to, say Badaling, I can do that on any weekend and so I don’t do it.

The most immediate reason why I can’t marry a native English-speaking woman is that I’ve already got married with and want to keep at my side the best woman in the world. But, she doesn’t speak English. It would be wonderful if she spoke English as a native tongue!

There must be a work-around, though.

Yep, a language exchange partner!

I’ve spoken Chinese for almost 30 years (I don’t remember when I started to speak it) and grew up in an area where Standard Chinese is spoken. My favorite books are ancient and modern Chinese classics. I can teach you some Dongbeihua  if you like, though.

So, anyone interested in my offer -  be my language exchange partner?

In this world where people are connected via visible and invisible networks. Our mutual help will be very easy, via Skype, MSN, or QQ, or even recordings (e.g. I record my translation lessons for some visually impaired students who want to be translators).

For more about me and my contact info, click here.

CCTV is torn between two roles: it wants to be a Party and Government mouthpiece while wanting to be viewed as an unbiased and trusted source of information.

And the CFA-run soccer industry has produced a Chinese national men football team that has never scored a single win against their South Korean counterpart in formal matches for more than two decades since the 1978 Bangkok Asian Games. This should be impossible considering the probability law. However, it’s a hard fact and it can only mean the Chinese team is really, truly, and wholly incompetent. No excuses or pretexts allowed.

In the past, when I felt like upgrading my WP software, I had to download a new .zip file, unpacked it, and then uploaded them to my server to override old files before I ran the upgrade file.

It sounds a little complicated. But it’s marvelously easy and bug-free compared to Discuz!, a popular BBS and community software package in China. For Discuz!, upgrading to new version entails what version you’re going to upgrade from. This means that there is no way you can upgrade your Version 1 directly to Version 3 and Version 2 is a must go-between. For WP, just upload the latest files to replace old ones, run the upgrade file. After one or two minutes, all done. Just enjoy blogging with the latest software. After I ran into serious trouble trying to upgrade my Hongloumeng BBS, I’ve never tried to upgrade it and dread thinking about it. I love software applications designed for fools.

* My other two blogs are one in Chinese and one about Chinese literature (I even thought about trying my hand at creating some literary works there!).

After having linked to the post in his blog, justrecently read my May 3, 2008 post about whether Chinese fenqings can think for themselves and followed it with a post that focuses on freedom of speech in China.

He said that it’s okay for Chinese people to exercise their freedom of speech to foreign countries and foreign people. But doing so inside China is dangerous and carries imprisonment as Hu Jia has suffered.

It’s true, but it is only half-true.

Because people around me and everyone I know personally haven’t shown any signs that they oppose the Chinese government’s policies on Tibet and the Beijing Olympic Games, I had to google for a long time to find those people who have been put in prison because of their verbal opposition to the policies. Though I haven’t found anyone who have suffered the ordeals Hu Jia has, I did find a guy who is verbally against the hosting of the Games on economic grounds and thinks that the economic resources should be saved for primary education in poor Chinese areas and another who thinks China should abolish all preferential policies towards minorities and put every Chinese citizen on an equal footing. Whether these two people are now behind the bars, I have no way to know.

However, I did find others who were jailed just because what they said ruffled the feathers of local Party bosses or their employers.

“Freedom of speech” is a citizen right enshrined in the Chinese Constitution, though China is far from being a country governed by its Constitution – the biggest violator of the Constitution is the Chinese governments and the Party.

Article 35. Freedom of speech, press, assembly

Citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration. (Source)

But, this doesn’t mean China is still like what it was more than three decades ago, when a single disrespectful murmur against the Party and the Government resulted in the loss of freedom with or without a verdict of “anti-Revolution”.

Freedom of speech is being exercised in China, though to a limited extent. This explains why the reports about the jailed people are run by private websites and even websites whose URLs end with gov.cn. In those reports, their writers did not mince their words to save the faces of the governments. This means that freedom of speech is a citizen right recognized by the public opinions, the Party and the Government.

Then, why those prisoners?

China is now in a changing process that has at least lasted three decades and will continue. Its economy has become capitalistic and its society’s values and interests are diversified like any Western country. And, the Chinese people is not one with only one voice.

But, though its economy has long become capitalistically democratic, its Government hasn’t changed that much and continues its monopoly on the State’s political power. It only wants to share this power with trusted people outside of the Government, not those (e.g. Hu Jia) who want to replace the Government leadership with a non-Party-led one. Exercising the freedom of speech in areas other than challenges to the Government’s grip on political power is encouraging. That’s why China has been a largely successful economy and society.

Most Chinese people don’t want drastic government leadership change. They think they need a strong Central Government empowered to govern its 1.3bn people who live in a vast country literally divided into population groups, classes and regions sharply different from each other in terms of social and economic development stages.

Even under its One-Party rule, China’s local provinces are more than willing to fight the Central Government’s policies and rules for their provincial interests. China would be doomed, if its government was organized in the Western way, which is only good for well-developed countries with a strong middle class living in an economically balanced society. A strong middle class means stability in a country because it doesn’t want revolutions or upheavals. China doesn’t have that blessing.

China does not need yet another Revolution to start all over again. It needs a non-disruptive path leading to democracy based on an economically, socially, and politically sound society. This is exactly what China has been trying to build since 1949. China doesn’t like the kind of democracy in Thailand where coups are routine in changes of government leadership.

This process is an interactive, changing one. China should be viewed as and  actually is a country in change for the better.

You will be hopelessly wrong, if you think China is a fundamentalistic “Communist” country as how you may look at it through Cold-War glasses. It’s a capitalistic one with strong government control. That is about it.

When the Chinese say someone else has shanghai le tamen de ganqing (伤害了他们的感情) and this expression is translated as they “have gotten their feelings hurt”, something is missing to native English speakers – the part of it that makes this expression really meanful to the Chinese.

How important is ganqing to the Chinese? If ganqing between Chinese people is hurt, it doesn’t simply make the victim “feel bad”. It makes him extremely disheartened. The victim interprets the hurt as a denial of all previously established rapport over a long and maybe very difficult time together and his past efforts to look after the inflicter’s well-being – it’s how you feel when a friend of yours betrays you, who you think you’re a loyal friend with and who you’ve always believed is a loyal friend with you, too, until the infliction occurs.

After ganqing is totally lost between two Chinese people, nothing else that matters in this relationship survives – either a romantic one or a long-time friendship.

*This post was inspired by Austin Ramzy, an Iowa, U.S.-grown,  Harbin, China-educated, and thus presumably Mandarin-speaking reporterHong Kong-born bastard writing for The Times, who again does his subtle China-bashing in the magazine’s blog.