How’s this for a feel good story to start the day with!
In late 2008, a couple from South Africa crossed the Atlantic aboard the beautiful Queen Mary 2 and alongside the Queen Elizabeth 2, during the latter’s final voyage across the pond. While taking pictures of the QE2’s historic crossing, their camera slipped and disappeared into the deep blue sea.
In January of this year, fifteen months after the camera was lost, a fisherman trawling the ocean floor found the camera in his fishing net. The camera was inoperable but the memory card and photos were intact.
The fisherman viewed the photos, which included a picture of a woman standing on the deck of a ship with the QE2 at sea in the background. The fisherman contacted the BBC, where a correspondent determined that the passengers had been aboard the QM2.
Cunard was notified and the company was able to identify and locate the couple and reunite them with their photos, plucked from the bottom of the sea. Vacations to Go
Many years ago, I lost a camera in a taxi in Guangzhou. I still hope that somehow the pictures will get back to me, because they are irreplaceable. This was before I had a digital camera. It’s possible! If a camera, pictures intact, can be plucked from the sea, then anything is possible!
Sometimes you hear that still, small voice, but you don’t realize it. The day I lost the camera, when I removed everything from the taxi, the thought came to me to double check, but I didn’t follow through. I thought I had all my bags. That was a hard lesson, but one I hope not to repeat. I had my bags, but the camera had slipped out. The memories of that precious day are engraved in my heart, even if I don’t have the photos.
Have you ever had a lost item found in an unusual way or after an unusual amount of time?
Sometimes I think the best way is not to look for the item past a certain point, but wait for it to surface. I’ve found things in places I would never think to look. And I’ve also been able to replace an item several years later, after I wasn’t actively looking for it or a replacement. So where is the latest item that has gone missing! Perhaps in the same place that individual socks go.
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Rob Gifford writes about his travels across China from Shanghai through the Gobi Desert on Route 312…he was the China correspondent of NPR for the last six years and is now back in Europe. The story takes him across the desert and recounts the people he meets and his views on changing China.
I have not read the book, but it sounds interesting!
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Thanks to Gordon for finding this interesting clip. It reminds me of when we used to ‘whistle’ with the little angel wings that came off our trees growing up. Of course, we were one note wonders, not like this.
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Red Mandarin Dress by Qiu Xiaolong This is the first book I've read by Qiu Xiaolong, though he's written a number of other books. I chose to read this book because the cover jumped out at me from the library --...
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“They are destroying our families and killing our children. How can we not revolt?”
The rioting makes it clear that local officials are still under pressure to meet birth control quotas. But their motivations to act often are selfish, critics say.
“They want to protect their political futures, and they can make a lot of money while they are at it,” said Li Jinsong, a lawyer who represented a blind activist arrested for exposing excesses in the carrying out of family planning in eastern China. “It is easy for them to abuse their power and act against the best interest of poor peasants.”
Villagers in Bobai County talk of a reign of terror that has forced many into hiding to avoid forced abortions or sterilization.
Adoption Corruption 8) For AP's--Join online groups... 8) For AP's--Join online groups like Adoption_Agency_Research and learn and participate. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Adoption_Agency_Research/ (The Adoption Agency Research Group was formed to help prospective adoptive parents (PAPs) in their research and selection of an international adoption agency....
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Scout lost one leg, but she competes in triathlon events.
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My oldest Chinese daughter came to me via Nanjing. I flew into Nanjing on a chartered plane carrying workers back from Hong Kong. Don’t ask me how my gf and I happened to be the only white people on the plane; how some announcements were made in English though only Chinese was spoken on the plane; how the food was the best I’d ever had — and the fish had more bones than I’d ever seen; how we landed on the cracked tarmac of the old part of Nanjing airport, wondering if we were truly going to be met; how the dust clung to the air so heavy I couldn’t take a deep breath until I acclimated a couple of days later. Ask me how all the old people on the streets looked like my grandmother (who was Dutch, but olive complected.) I felt right at home.
Once you have stepped onto ground where terrible things have occurred, when you would like to have some understanding of the events of yesteryear, not so very far in the past when one’s parents were alive during those years, history takes on a whole new bent.
The Rape of Nanjing is an infamy that should never be forgotten. I confess I know very little about it.
This movie throws you into the midst of Nanjing in 1937 and tells the real life story of George Hogg. It is beautifully filmed.
George had accompanied his pacifist aunt at age 23 and never went home. He becomes a reporter.
I wish the movie had not taken liberties with his life. It makes me wonder what other things might not be historically correct.
A tall white man cannot hide very well in China. He must have been quite a linquist to pick up the language so quickly, as he did.
He finds himself in a remote orphanage (all boys — made me wonder where were the girls????). Ultimately he takes the boys over mountains to a farther remote area to escape their conscription into the war and to protect them from the advancing Japanese.
Every boy there had his own story of how he was orphaned during that time by the Japanese. Mothers and sisters raped and beheaded.
One of the interesting things about the film is that at the very end several survivors of his boys (now in their 80s) speak of him and of this experience and of him — ‘a perfect man,’ as one boy, now grown, related.
The article I have linked is well worth reading about his life. They don’t erect statues to foreigners lightly in China.
It is not a happy movie, for he dies in the end at age 30, but it is a testament to the human spirit.
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Craving for a second child? Govt will dent your pockets
By Xin Dingding and Wang
Updated: 2009-03-26 09:04
Wealthy families that violate the country’s family
planning policy by having more than one child may
be subject to increased penalty fines from this
year, an official said Wednesday.
Deng Xingzhou, chief of the capital’s family
planning commission, said the penalties will vary
“depending on the families’ annual income”, instead
of the average per capita.
Currently, the fine, or “social maintenance fee” as
it is called, is usually three to eight times the
average income per capita in Beijing, which according
to 2008 official statistics was 24,725 yuan ($3,600)
for urban residents and 10,747 yuan for rural
residents.
Many affluent couples have been known to voluntarily
pay the rather trivial fine to have a second or
third child.
News of Chinese celebrities having more than one
child has often stirred wide discussions on the
legality of the second child’s birth.
“The public does not appreciate the fact that the rich
or famous can get away with breaking the family
planning policy just by paying the fine, which is well
within their means,” Deng said.
Beijing will draft new rules for rich families,
specifying correct ways to calculate penalties based
on their annual income, he said.
Guangdong and Hubei provinces have also adopted measures
to increase the fine for violators in a bid to achieve
social justice.
However, many still believe increased penalties will
not be enough to stop the rich from having more than
one child.
Timothy Wong, an associate at a management consulting
firm, said: “A one-off fine will not bother the rich.
What they spend in a hospital will still cost a lot
more than the penalty.
“Why not penalize the violators in the form of
long-term taxation? That will make them think twice
before having a second child.”
Song Yini, a senior consultant at a Beijing-based
consulting firm, said how the government utilizes
the fines it collects should be made transparent to
the public.
“Maybe the rich should be asked to donate directly
to an orphanage or old people’s home,” she said.
Beijing is under tremendous pressure to achieve its
goal of restricting its population to below 18
million by 2020.
By last year, Beijing’s population had reached
16 million.
“Seeing how the population continues to grow, we
will not be able to achieve the target,” Deng had
said earlier.
The capital will stick to the family planning policy,
which as a fundamental national policy will exist for
another 20 years, he said.
To encourage people to follow the rule, Beijing also
plans to increase the subsidies for couples that
abide by the rule.
“Three decades ago, the monthly subsidy of 5 yuan
for parents with one child accounted for 10 percent
of a worker’s salary. But it seems too trivial now,”
he said.
China’s family planning rule restricts only 35.9
percent of the population, mostly in large- and
medium-sized cities, to have one child. Until last
year, the policy has helped avert about 400 million
births.
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What a tragedy for all the babies and their birth families. While I was aware of baby selling in parts of the world when I adopted from China, 10 and 12 years ago, I didn’t believe it happened in China at the time I adopted. Who knows how much of it went on in those days.
Where there is money to be made illicitly, there always seems to be some degree of greed/need. But there is no thought given to the innocents in this, to the babies. Will they reunite them with their families? will any families come forward?
Tragic that families feel the need to sell their children or are swindled into doing so.
Every child deserves a loving family, but in this world it doesn’t always happen. Let us work and pray for a more equitable world, for the safety and health of children everywhere, so that no child is separated from their family, from necessity or neglect or scandal, and can grow into their selfhood unencumbered and in joy. So let it be.
HENAN Province railway police caught 11 suspects of an alleged baby-trafficking ring after finding seven infants less than one month old taken onto a train.
The seven infants were girls. They were saved by police at Zhengzhou Railway Station in Henan. The girls are now at a social welfare home in the city, Xinhua news agency reported today. Two more suspects are still at large, police said.
Police were suspicious of eight women with infants at the railway station on October 21, Xinhua said. Police couldn’t understand their dialect so they stopped them for questioning.
They soon confessed the infants were not their babies and they were taking them to Shandong Province for sale. Four of the suspects are Guizhou Province natives and four are from Yunnan Province, the report said.
The alleged leader Long Fang confessed to police that she asked her in-law Liu Yongqiong to buy babies in October. Liu later contacted a man surnamed Huang and three other suspects to purchase infants in Yunnan.
Liu and Huang remain at large.
Long purchased five infants for 14,600 yuan (US$2,147) in mid October and organized five women to transport them to Shandong, where her accomplice Zhang Li was waiting for the babies, the report said.
Six suspects took a train from Guiyang in Guizhou Province and met two other accomplices half way. The pair had two babies they purchased for 8,000 yuan in Guizhou. They arrived at Zhengzhou Railway Station on October 21 and planned to take a bus to Shandong with the others, the report said.
After catching eight women in Zhengzhou, police caught five more suspects in Shandong, Yunnan and Guizhou in the following three weeks. Among them, 11 have been detained and two are still being investigated, according to the report.
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This is the first book I’ve read by Qiu Xiaolong, though he’s written a number of other books. I chose to read this book because the cover jumped out at me from the library — a beautiful Chinese woman, drawn from just above the mouth, rising over a city (Shanghai) — and because of the Chinese subject matter.
This is the fifth book in the Chief Inspector Chen series, according to Qui Xiaolong’s website, though he has written other books, including translations of poetry. I found I could easily pick up the stories with this book, then read the others.
He dedicates this book to his elder brother, Xiaowei –
but for luck, what happened to him during the Cultural Revolution could have happened to me.
I am privileged to know someone who was caught up in the Cultural Revolution, so this book had a secondary appeal to me.
In a way, this sets the stage for the book which moves from just before the Cultural Revolution up to the present. The book is interspersed with much Chinese poetry, heady insights into the Cultural Revolution and its costs to Chinese society, Shanghai history and Chinese culture (including the concept of ‘face’ as it plays out in the story.) It also has a couple of scenes of cruelty to animals in cooking (also befitting the story.)
Chief Inspector Chen has decided to take a vacation that coincides, fortuitously, with his being asked to investigate a corruption case that is going to court. He can’t directly say no, but he can use this time to take a literature course wherein he has to write a paper.
He doesn’t appear a lot in the first half of the book. Instead we meet the other characters, including the lawyer in the corruption case, officials, his counterpart in the force who is taking over for him while he is gone and this man’s wife who is interested in helping her husband solve the case. (Women play pivotal roles in this story.) But like a fox, he solves the case in a slow and steady way, using love poems along the way.
If you are interested in learning more about Chinese culture, this series would be for you.
Qiu Xiaolong was born in Shanghai, but now lives in St. Louis, MO. A poet and translator, he has an MA and PhD from Washington University.
The book has a feel of being translated from Chinese. By this, I mean that it is easy to slip into the world of China, because the choice of words or phrases is a bit different than a native American English speaker would choose. I’m not sure this is a deliberate literary ploy or if we are just blessed because of who is writing it.
I felt the book was as valuable for what it says about China both literally and through the story and the interactions of the characters as it was for the actual story.
If you have a Chinese child or a heart for China, you should not miss this book. It is not always easy to read (such as the scenes of cruelty in cooking and the fact that it has a feel of being translated and because you’d like to remember the cultural references) but it is very worthwhile.
I look forward to reading his other books. Have you read it?
I give it a 4.
If you would like to see the story behind the book, go here.
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For those of us who wonder what it might be like if our Chinese child were still in China in their first family, here is an interesting article.
I also thought it was interesting that his parents chose the English name for him of: Seven Eleven (not Jack, for example.)
Some of our adopted Chinese children came with what sounded to us like odd names. Others of us were lucky enough to have someone tell us that the name occurs in a famous ancient poem, perhaps, one that is not commonly known to the modern scholar.
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Chinese Paper Money Coins and Paper Money -> Paper Money - World -> China The Chinese actually invented paper money, and the process of making it dates back...
River of Daughters uses the theme of the Yellow River as a mother figure to express the personality of the people who lives at its bank. Compared to a lot of other dance with the Yellow River as its theme, this dance focuses more on the liveliness of the girls rather than the magnificance of the Yellow River.
Jane Porter speaking about life I'm happy to share this online interview with Jane Porter. She was gracious to spend some time with us. I think you'll agree that she is a voice we'd like to hear more of. Jane,...
Review: Whip It Whip It is about girls' Roller Derby, directed by Drew Barrymore. She is also the executive producer and plays the part of Smashley Simpson. Whip It refers to a move whereby one of the teammates...
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Fishing and Boating Lexicon Continued Carolina Rig Continued - In certain situations, such as the clear waters that are found in some reservoirs out in the west, or when the...
Fishing Report: June 5th, 2009 The fishing has been hit or miss this week, with some great scores and some less than ideal hauls. In Pacifica you will still find...
River of Daughters uses the theme of the Yellow River as a mother figure to express the personality of the people who lives at its bank. Compared to a lot of other dance with the Yellow River as its theme, this dance focuses more on the liveliness of the girls rather than the magnificance of the Yellow River.
Review: NYX Lips Update: I added Golden Luster and Rhea to the swatches. NYX had a really great sale on these, so I took the package 30 lippies, out of 60, regularly $120 for $24. How could I...
Comparing Bryant Park and West Side, Bond No 9s As Bond No 9 comes out with more of its fragranced themes for NYC, it is as interesting to see what they have done with the bottles as anything else. As I've said before, I...
Review Prime Time Updated to include my review of Hourglass primer (and comparing it to Chanel's Illuminating Base.) And also as a reminder about the value of using a primer. To prime or not to prime, that is...
Review: Forms of mineral or powder foundation Do you use mineral foundation? There are several forms. Nearly every brand has jumped on this type of foundation, even Arbonne (though I've not tried the Arbonne yet.) Loose mineral foundation Truthfully, I don't find...
Q&A with Millionaire Mommy Next Door As a result of winning Millionaire Mommy Next Door's (MMND) carnival of personal finance contest, I had a choice of a few different prizes. Since...
8 Wordpress Blog Theme Design Considerations Most blogging platforms offer a wide variety of different themes to chose from, and most can be altered and edited to suit your needs, or...
Fishing Report: June 5th, 2009 The fishing has been hit or miss this week, with some great scores and some less than ideal hauls. In Pacifica you will still find...
Here in China, every second day of the second month of the Chinese Lunar Year (falls today [March 20]this year, the year of the Golden Pig), in most parts of northern China, people will cut their hair. In Chinese folklore, this particular day, the God of Dragons who is responsible for the rain will raise his head and
bring spring rain to the earth from today. On this day, people in China not only go to the barber, but they also eat noodles or popcorn. Moses Liang (yettie 163.com)
Second child in China http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-03/26/content_7618314.htm Craving for a second child? Govt will dent your pockets By Xin Dingding and Wang Updated: 2009-03-26 09:04 Wealthy families that violate the country's family planning policy by having more than one child may...
Chinese villagers riot over stricter population-control When I entered into adopting from China, I wondered if my Chinese children would ever resent the time frame in which they were born. I figured that the door to China would close, likely sooner...
Here's to a good New Year! I was thinking what I would like this new year to hold. It took me to this quotation that I love. Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle. -- John Watson There...
Summer in the city "The summer night is like a perfection of thought." --Wallace Stevens "In summer, the song sings itself." --William Carlos Williams Sometimes I take stock of myself or my life and remember the simple things that,...
Flirting with Forty by Jane Porter This book is a coming of age book for the forty- or fifty- or sixty- year olds. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Not only was it entertaining, it was affirming and real -- or as real...
Macau Casinos and Gambling in Macau Macau, that former little picturesque colony of the Portuguese since 1553 certainly has had a colorful history. This tiny country of +/- 540,000 inhabitants must...
Be Safe This Holiday Season Many Americans throughout the country are enjoying the holiday season and in some cases that might include the consumption of alcohol. While there is nothing...
After Six Long Years.....Bush no more. 1:30 AM was the time that I finally went to sleep on Tuesday night after a full 7 hours of flipping between CNN and MSNBC...
Obama Should learn from the Taliban httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1gKY7CX5ew In the above video, shot with a mobile phone and first reported at the beginning of April this year, some blokes, watched by a...
As China enters an auspicious year, the birth rate is expected to
soar
HOSPITALS across China are bracing themselves for what is expected to
be a surge of babies born in the year of the pig, which starts on
February 18th. Pig years, which occur every 12 years, are considered
auspicious. But the coming one, or so many believe, will be
especially fortunate since it is not just a pig but a golden pig, the
first in 60 or even 600 years, depending on which astrologer one
consults.
China’s state-owned media have carried numerous stories of
gynaecologists struggling to cope with unusual numbers of expectant
women. Life Times, a weekly newspaper, quoted an official as saying
that Beijing alone could see 170,000 births this year, 50,000 more
than in 2006 (quite an auspicious year itself). The increase is
partly the result of a mini-baby boom in the 1980s, which was in turn
caused by a boom two decades earlier. But officials say the golden
pig has much to answer for.
In recent years, Hong Kong has become a magnet for urban Chinese
women trying to evade China’s strict one-child policy and enjoy
better standards of hospital care (often free since many leave
without paying their bills). But those hoping for a golden pig baby
in Hong Kong will face difficulties. To stem the influx, Hong Kong
introduced new rules on February 1st requiring mainland women who are
more than seven months pregnant to prove they have a hospital booking
in the territory before they can cross the border.
China’s top family-planning official, Zhang Weiqing, said last month
that given the current bulge in the number of people reaching
childbearing age, the government would not relax its one-child
policy. This will probably mean that the golden pig’s impact on the
birth rate will be followed by a correction once the auspicious
period is over (next year is also being tipped as lucky, what with
the Olympics and all).
But problems are bound to arise as the golden pig cohort reaches
school age. In some parts of China, children born in 2000, the year
of the dragon (also very auspicious, as suggested by the chart), are
already facing stiffer than usual competition for places. In Shanghai
last week, deputies to the local legislature’s advisory body called
on city planners to start taking account of auspicious years when
considering education demand. They also appealed to citizens to
abandon superstition, but that is much less likely to be heeded.
Weathering storms Storm winds can take many forms. They can be of the weather, or they can be of the whether. Not all storms are without. We learned some hard lessons here a couple of years ago...
Baby selling in China What a tragedy for all the babies and their birth families. While I was aware of baby selling in parts of the world when I adopted from China, 10 and 12 years ago, I didn't...
How to look 10 years younger I saw a friend the other day, and as we were talking, she remarked that she had read somewhere that there were only three things we needed to do to look 10 years younger: Do...
Fukoji Bells on New Year's Eve A friend posted this on another list. It was the first time I'd heard of it. I am touched by it on a variety of levels. There's something to be said for having a community...
Chinese adoptive child finds her family in China I was watching one about a young boy. But the one that finds her Chinese family is a 10 yr old girl. The video is in Dutch. Scroll down the left side to: spoorloos. The...
Tennis Preview: The West Virginia Open Final preparations are currently being made for the West Virginia Open, the 48th of its kind, which is slated to begin on July 22 and...
Currency: China's new promise? An article exploring other currency events around the world as the greenback is considered for replacement in international markets and the Euro continues its unabated...
Southeast Asia Visitor Arrivals to Macau Soared by 81.2% The number of visitor arrivals to Macau reached 2,618,823 in December 2007, representing a year-on-year increase of 21.1%. Visitors from Mainland China and Hong Kong...
Beware The Chinese Stock Market On the front page of todayâs South China Morning Post, thereâs a quote from Li Ka-shing, Asiaâs richest man. As a Chinese, I am worried...
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