sundays

Got back from Chengdu last night. Instead of hitting up Tian Shang as usual (there was some party there last night, which means no dance floor and millions of people), decided to meet up with Ting Ting. It was about 10:30 when we finally got together at McDonald's. Got a medium #6! Halfway through the meal, Ting Ting's dad showed up and we ended up talking. I couldn't
understand much of what he was saying through the heavily accented Sichuanhua, but no worries, it was a great time nonetheless.

He wrote a number of Li Bai poems on some of the McDonald's napkins in beautiful calligraphy. He wrote them in traditional Chinese poem format. Top-to-bottom and right-to-left with the author's name and a message in a smaller font on the left of the poem. 

For example:
m    11  6 1
m    12  7 2
m     13 8 3 
m    14  9 4
m  15  10 5

m being author's name and personal message. Each message was for "Mei guo peng you an wen".

side note: Just finished watching "Jumper" what an awful movie...

Anyway, on Thursday there was a speech contest for non-English majors (biology department) which I attended as a judge. I like going to see these things, despite the bad reputation they have for being boring and incredibly repetitive. Usually when you're a judge you get a little present, not necessary, but a nice perk for being there. They are also a curious little parts of Chinese culture you can pull from each speech.

The topic for this last contest was "The Olympics". Here are the speech names (spelling errors not corrected):

The Olympic Companion I Go
What Can We Do for the 2008
The Hreo of the Olympic
Color the Olympic
Go with Olympic Game
(First five speeches part of the group entitled "Olympics Come to My Home")

On Our Way to the 2008 Olympic Games
My Dream of2008 Olympic Games
OLympic Games and Me
Something in My Mind
What Shuld We Do About Olympic Games
(Second five speeches part of the group entitled "Be Going on of Olympics")

Let's Hold Together
Under the Blu Sky of Beijing the Capital of China
Time For Action
Olympic is Coming
The Olympic Chang Us
(Third five speeches part of the group entitled "We Meet in Being Jing 2008")

Almost every speech mentioned the motto of the 2008 Olympics: A green, high-tech, people's Olympics. There was a clear emphasis on the "green" aspect of the Olympics, and many contestants called on other students to be more responsible when it came to throwing away garbage, turning out the lights, and recycling plastic bottles.

The frequent mention of the environment is pertinent on a number of levels. Perhaps the most positive sign is that people on a micro in Western Sichuan are beginning to really pay attention to the environment and understand some of the ways to improve the increasingly moribund environmental situation in China.

I think it's easy for the environment to be targeted in China because the problem and solution are easily laid on the shoulders of the people, rather than a centralized authority. One can blame themselves or their peers much more easily for the ruined environment than the government or a governmental policy. Chinese people certainly has no lack of history when it comes to targeting
their peers when they think they've done anything wrong...