Se parece a Charles en el nuevo blog de ​​China brecha se ha encontrado una nueva fuente de clics para revivir la escena de los blogs de China: debate sobre la represión de la pornografía en China .

Mientras que por lo general no apoyar ningún tipo de censura, tengo que decir que no me podría importar menos para la causa de la pornografía en China. Por lo que he visto, los vendedores ambulantes del sexo son las más vergonzosas, los sitios de spam, repletos de virus e inútil general de la Internet, y distraer a los internautas a hacer las cosas más importantes como la lectura de mi blog. Usted puede estar seguro de que usted no me va a encontrar en las filas de los manifestantes, cuando los sitios web baneado.

Sin embargo, hay un problema más importante con la prohibición de la pornografía, y es que la definición de las autoridades chinas va mucho más allá de lo que se suele entender como la pornografía. Se aplica a algunas maravillosas obras de arte, incluyendo películas como Lust Una de Lee y de precaución, o esta gran serie de televisión y un libro de Liu Liu. Se utiliza para marginar a algunos artistas excelentes como Tang Wei , y, en general, contribuye a frenar aún más la creatividad de la escena literaria y artística china.

Sin duda, muchas veces la prohibición de "no saludable" el contenido es sólo una excusa para deshacerse de los disidentes o para justificar políticas proteccionistas. Pero, en general, cuando las autoridades chinas actuar en contra de la pornografía es de una preocupación ética genuina. Y aquí es donde veo un ángulo más interesante para la discusión, que une a la pregunta que hice el año pasado en el post sobre series de televisión y la ética comunista : ¿por qué los comunistas por lo mojigata?

Desde mi experiencia de vivir en varios países comunistas y ex comunistas, llego a la conclusión de que esto no es un fenómeno estrictamente chino. De hecho, ni siquiera es un fenómeno comunista, sino más bien una característica común de la gente conservadora en todas partes. Yo sostengo que la razón por la cual se prohibió contenido erótico en China es sólo que el PCCh es una organización muy conservadora, y como todos los conservadores por todas partes que aborrezco las demostraciones públicas de sexo, aunque en privado se podría pensar que nada de ir al burdel de 5 veces una semana.

¿Por qué entonces los conservadores tienden a tener esta actitud particular en común hacia el sexo? Y en particular, ¿por qué los regímenes comunistas, todos los cuales abolieron la religión, a la vanguardia de puritanismo relacionado con el sexo?

Los conservadores Red

En primer lugar, quiero añadir aquí una definición de los conservadores, sólo para evitar que la discusión entera a su vez en torno al significado de una palabra. Al igual que los términos más políticos, éste puede tener diferentes significados en diferentes lugares. El significado que yo uso para este post es uno que creo que es más intuitivo y comprendido a nivel internacional. Desde la Enciclopedia Británica :

Actitud política o ideología que denota una preferencia por las instituciones y prácticas que se han desarrollado históricamente, por lo que son manifestaciones de la continuidad y la estabilidad. Se expresó por primera vez en la era moderna a través de las obras de Edmund Burke, en reacción a la Revolución Francesa , que Burke creía que empañó sus ideales a través de sus excesos. Los conservadores creen que la implementación del cambio debe ser mínima y gradual, que aprecian la historia y son más realistas que idealistas.

En el caso de los países comunistas como China siempre es complicado de usar los términos normales de políticos conservadores / progresistas, o hacia la derecha / izquierda. La razón es que durante 1949-1978 el paradigma ha cambiado, y los viejos conservadores fueron exterminados. Como consecuencia de ello, un "nuevo país" fue creado a partir de cero, así que con el propósito de la vida política china, las "instituciones y las prácticas que se han desarrollado históricamente" sólo cuentan como se define en la historia del Partido Comunista. Y los conservadores en China tienden a ser comunista.

Este fenómeno no es único. Sigue la lógica de los movimientos revolucionarios en todas partes la obtención de energía convencional: su enfoque de repente cambia de "cambiar el mundo" a "mantener el statu quo", y la mentalidad conservadora suele tomar el control.

No es necesario explicar esto a alguien que ha vivido en China, pero tengo la sensación de que algunos estadounidenses todavía les resulta extraño llamar a un régimen comunista "conservador". Si usted piensa que todo esto es blabber sólo intelectual, se está perdiendo el punto. Los partidarios del PCC son realmente las personas conservadoras y se comportan exactamente como cabría esperar de un otro lugar conservador.

De mis conversaciones con algunos hombres jóvenes apasionados en el PCCh, y mis largas charlas en las noches menos en Internet de Corea del Norte, tengo una idea razonable de lo que mueve a quienes están convencidos de "comunistas": que no les gusta la influencia extranjera y que conceden una importancia absurda a la nacionalidad y origen étnico, sino que se oponen a todo lo que suena como la libertad de pensamiento o el cuestionamiento de las viejas ideas, les gusta casarse con niñas muy tradicionales, de los viejos cánones, que no usan minifaldas o hablar demasiado en público; que no les gustan las personas homosexuales y ellos se apresuran a llamar "puta" cuando una niña se comporta exactamente igual que los hombres lo hacen muchos.

La tragedia es que estas personas conservadoras nunca será capaz de conectarse con sus contrapartes en Estados Unidos, porque ambas partes todavía están obligados por su propia retórica religiosa y la Guerra Fría. Alguien debería inventar una fiesta con el lema como: los conservadores del mundo, uníos!

Una sopa de términos políticos

Voy a tener que cortar esto aquí por hoy, porque mis políticas de blogs nuevos no me deja hacer más de 1000 palabras por mensaje. Vamos a seguir en el siguiente, pero antes de terminar quiero mencionar el problema de la muy interesante punto de vista político en China.

Debido a la reversión de los paradigmas mencionados anteriormente, todavía hay una gran confusión en Occidente acerca de qué palabras inglesas se debe utilizar para nombrar las diferentes ideologías en un país comunista. No soy un erudito en la política china, pero a partir de los libros que he leído sobre el tema (incluidas las obras académicas como Victor Shih ) Tengo la impresión de que los términos no están estandarizados. El único libro que he visto que los intentos de hacer una taxonomía es el pequeño manual: " ¿Qué piensa de China "de Mark Leonard.

Estoy esperando que alguien me va a echar una mano aquí y que me señale algún otro recurso donde puedo ver esto. Mientras tanto, de lo que recuerdo de ese libro y mi propia iniciativa, las principales denominaciones van de la siguiente manera:

Vieja Izquierda: línea dura en el CPP que quieren revivir el maoísmo. A diferencia de Occidente, estos zurdos son en realidad gente muy conservadora.

Vieja Derecha: Los admiradores de Taiwán y el KMT, hoy prácticamente invisible en la parte continental. Nunca he conocido a uno, así que no estoy seguro si son personajes conservadores o no. Supongo que muchos miembros de la FLG respondería a esta descripción.

Nueva Izquierda: Los políticos, como el primer ministro Wen Jiabao, que impulsar más políticas sociales, la distribución equitativa de la riqueza, etc, dentro del régimen del PCCh. La mentalidad sigue siendo conservador, pero menos de la Vieja Izquierda.

Nueva Derecha: Los políticos, pensadores y algunos tiburones empresariales inspiradas en la de Deng Xiaoping de "conocer de primera ricos" que quieren dar prioridad a las regiones costeras y construir un sistema capitalista despiadado. Ellos no tienen ningún modo de pensar, porque están demasiado ocupados haciendo rico en primer lugar, y no les importa la ideología política, siempre y cuando sus gatos cazar ratones.

Izquierda Derecha: Este es mi propio término disfuncional para incluir a personas como Xu Zhiyong o Liu Xiaobo, así como algunos dentro del PCCh que claman por la reforma política, la democracia y los derechos civiles. Muchos de ellos no son disidentes, pero sólo los miembros del partido valientes que se atreven a levantar la voz. Estos son los únicos que responden a la idea que tengo de "progresista" de pensar.

¿Qué piensa usted de esta terminología?

NOTA: Esta lista no pretende ser tomada como referencia, pero en lugar de invitar a la participación, por favor, me propongo cualquier término que usted desea, o que me señale alguna buena lectura acerca de la política moderna de China. Para los que vinieron aquí para encontrar un poco de sexo, por favor vuelve mañana cuando voy a seguir con el tema principal del post y voy a adjuntar imágenes sexualmente explícitas de China. Tenga un buen día.

El Oriental Morning Post de Shanghai, está haciendo una cobertura buena de los anuales de la CCPPCh NPC reuniones . Me gustó la edición de hoy el papel, que lleva un par de alpacas lindo al lado de una foto de Hu y los chicos caminando por el pasillo de la CCPPCh, que acaban de inaugurar.

Es una larga historia para aquellos que no han estado observando, pero estos simpáticos animales en la parte superior izquierda han llegado a significar una invectiva grosera en China , y uno se pregunta si no hay un editor joven malicioso en el papel de hacer la primera página diseño. Debido a que me refiero, la noticia de que "costará 5.000 euros alpacas en la feria de animales" es material de primera página casi no la parte superior de hoy, ¿verdad?

De todos modos, en esta época del año ha llegado de nuevo y aquí está la Feria de Sellos de Caucho dobles, o 两会, invadiendo todos los medios de comunicación chinos. Ayer incluso vi la inauguración, el circuito cerrado de televisión, de modo heroico ejercicio de mis habilidades para escuchar con lo que es sin duda el acontecimiento político más aburrido del año. En caso de que se lo perdieron, imaginar un gran museo de Madame Tussauds, con miles de cifras donde cada uno de ellos se ve exactamente la misma que la que viene y se sienta en la misma posición. Añádase a esto el rendimiento de un breve del himno nacional y ahí lo tienes, 开幕 了!

Aunque se reconoce ampliamente que el 两会 tiene poco poder político, y que las decisiones importantes son tomadas con anterioridad por otros órganos, el espectáculo sigue siendo importante para los observadores de China, ya que muchas políticas se anuncian en este momento. En teoría, esto es un acto en el que el pueblo (a través de los representantes regionales que asisten a las reuniones) proponer nuevas ideas para el Gobierno. En este sentido, otros canales se han abierto recientemente, como los chats de Internet de Wen Jiabao.

Este año tenemos incluso lo que parece ser una iniciativa independiente por los periódicos privados y sitios web para cambiar el sistema hukou. Aunque soy escéptico de que la propuesta va a volar (algunos de los artículos ya han sido censurados), es bueno ver que la iniciativa privada está vivo y que todavía hay poco a la izquierda del periodismo independiente en China lo suficientemente audaz para unir y proponer cambios en las políticas .

El Post Oriental también tiene un poco de la entrevista con uno de los más estruendosos los delegados de la两会, la Sra. Zhang Xiaomei . Este delegado era muy popular en Internet el año pasado como redactor ultraprolific de propuestas sorprendentes. Algunos internautas se preocupan de que este año, como todos los delegados han sido equipados con computadoras portátiles gratis (con el dinero de los contribuyentes!) El desempeño de Zhang se verá reforzada, y el número de truenos puede incluso superar al de los años anteriores.

Estas son algunas de las famosas propuestas de la Sra. Zhang, muchos de ellos se ven como lo que queda de las alas, los grupos feministas se proponen en Europa. Es comprensible que muchos internautas se muestran escépticos: es todo un espectáculo que da una impresión falsa de la libertad política que en realidad es inexistente. Pero mi opinión personal es que, cualesquiera que sean las verdaderas intenciones de la Sra. Zhang y los delegados de los truenos, siempre es positivo que haya gente con la iniciativa de proponer puntos de vista diferentes. Absurdo o no, esta actividad es sin duda una imagen más positiva que las figuras de cera de sumisión de las sesiones inaugurales.

Como Xu Zhiyong dijo ayer, el pueblo chino tiene una misión para llevar a cabo. Cuando llegue el momento, la existencia de una sociedad civil activa será valioso para China, y las iniciativas como los mencionados anteriormente son una buena señal de que el espíritu está vivo bajo la superficie.

Y eso es todo para la inauguración de la 两会 este año. Más cobertura en caso necesario después de la sesión conclusiva final.

ACLARACIÓN: La inauguración vi ayer fue sólo el de la CCPPCh, el CNP tiene una inauguración por separado el viernes, que será aún más grandiosa, ya que es el más grande con todas las delegaciones regionales. No te pierdas esa!

He estado fuera por un tiempo porque todo mi tiempo de vacaciones ha sido absorbida por dos fascinantes historias de Shanghai, una de ellas una serie de televisión, la otra novela uno.

La serie es WoJu, Casa del caracol, estúpidamente traducida al inglés como Dwellingness estrecho, o lo que sea. Ha sido al rojo vivo en China desde su primera emisión en noviembre. Alice Liu, de Danwei y el blog de ​​Youku rumores cubrió recientemente.

Como los blogs ha señalado, este ha sido el éxito más explosivo que recordar en series de televisión chinos. En menos de un mes se desató acalorado debate en Internet, atrajo a millones en línea como fuera, y con ello vino la parte horrible de los censores. Una de las razones de su rápido éxito es el tema central de los problemas para comprar una casa, que acaba de salir al terreno entre el público chino jóvenes.

Pero Woju es mucho más que un cuento de bienes raíces y la corrupción. Es un drama apasionante, con argumentos secundarios ricos en evolución en torno a un triángulo amoroso central, poblada de personajes muy reales. Una aguda crítica de la sociedad china moderna, y por mucho, el mejor producto que he visto en la televisión continental. Originalmente se trataba de una novela publicada en 2007 por Liuliu, un escritor chino que deberíamos estar viendo más de cerca en el futuro.

Aquí están mis impresiones de la serie, ahora que he terminado los primeros 15 capítulos. Me centraré en los dos principales puntos de interés: los contenidos informativos para todos aquellos que buscan entender a China, y la calidad del producto, independientemente de otras consideraciones. Al final, son también algunas de las cosas divertidas que he observado en relación con la censura y otros.

Contenido

Esta serie es el paraíso de los 中国 通, los aspirantes a expertos de China. Cualquiera que trate de entender a China tienen que verla. Si los personajes no son exactamente real (no ficción puede ser nunca) sus preocupaciones, sus problemas y sus motivaciones son un reflejo de alta fidelidad amplificada de aquellos que se mueven los jóvenes ciudadanos de la China actual. Es un concentrado de la realidad china.

Todos los elementos que hemos estado hablando durante los últimos años están ahí, ni uno solo le falta: la construcción guanxi, cuadros '二奶 (amantes), los hombres de Shangai intimidados por sus esposas, padres que trabajan y no pueden ver a sus bebés, ilegal préstamos con altos intereses, la colusión entre los desarrolladores y los funcionarios locales, el conflicto entre shanghaiers y extraños, los ricos durante la noche de Wenzhou, la ética de la nueva China, el 拆迁 o "destruir y desplazar", el "clavo" las personas que se resisten, la shanzhai teléfonos móviles ... lo que sea.

Y todo es tan preciso que incluso se puede ver la cantidad de los personajes ganan en sus trabajos, lo que el interés de los usureros preguntar, o cuánto cuesta un cuadro del partido para conseguir su primer 二奶 poco (amante).

Hay libros sin duda mejores que retratan la sociedad china en el pasado, pero el tema está cambiando tan rápidamente que son obsoletos. Yo no creo que haya ninguna otra obra de ficción de hoy que refleja con mayor precisión la sociedad de Shanghai alrededor de 2010.

"Hola, soy canción Secretario del Comité Municipal del Partido (y yo acabamos de follar a tu novia)"

Si usted está aprendiendo chino, la serie es un deber doble para su gran idiomática mandarina. Si no es así, entonces estar en alerta por los DVD con subtítulos en inglés, con la esperanza de los piratas un traductor humano con sus niveles de TOEFL este momento. Definitivamente hay un mercado para esto, y yo no estaría sorprendido si ellos vienen con una película el próximo año, a condición de que el gobierno no se detiene.

Calidad

Pero más importante que todo lo anterior es la calidad del producto. Se trata de la buena ficción y un buen entretenimiento.

La historia es conducida por un triángulo de amor intenso centrado en los jóvenes Haizao, interpretada por la bella actriz Li Nian . Todos los elementos mencionados anteriormente, incluyendo a los ganadores y los perdedores de la moda de Bienes Raíces, gravitan en torno a esta historia de amor / odio que pone en contacto dos mundos diferentes: el laobaixing y los cuadros, las dos clases de zonas urbanas de China.

Pero quizás el mejor aspecto de la serie, un soplo de aire fresco en la televisión china, es su absoluta falta de lecciones de moral para el público. No hay héroes o villanos aquí. El desarrollador del codicioso, la esposa insoportable vano, el pusilánime esposo de Shanghai, el enigmático, escandalosa chica de Shanghai desempeñado por Li Nian. Todos y cada uno de ellos es sólo humano, con debilidades y ambiciones, como todos nosotros. Cada uno de ellos puede ser de hasta el mejor y lo peor.

Incluso el funcionario corrupto es demasiado humano. Un hombre débil en una crisis de mediana edad con demasiado poder en sus manos y un sistema que no comprueba sus actos. La corrupción, como el amor, sucede como un curso natural de los acontecimientos, el resultado de una sociedad enferma y no de un plan personal mal. Y Jiangzhou, los chinos de Gotham que se encuentra en Shanghai, es un torbellino poderoso de acción donde todos los personajes son irremediablemente a la deriva.

Censura

No es de extrañar, la serie ha sido censurada por el gobierno. Sin embargo, ha sido censurado en formas que me parecen mojigata, si no sencillamente idiota.

Puesto que soy ahora en Europa, he podido ver la serie en YouTube y compararla con la censura disponible en el sitio chino Youku. No hubo censura en la imagen de arriba, donde un oficial de Shanghai del Partido descaradamente charlas con el novio de la chica que acaba de hacer violada libre uso de su fuerza política.

En cambio, las imágenes de abajo fueron censurados:

Véase la escena original, y por debajo de la versión censurada como se muestra en China.

Esta es la primera escena de sexo adecuado de la serie. En la versión original se ve la cara gimiendo de Haizao en el cuarto de la pantalla, mientras que las otras imágenes corresponden a la esposa respectiva y su novio, que se muestran en la casa preocupándose por sus seres queridos, mientras que se están realizando los cornudos de la categoría Juegos Olímpicos .

Es la cara gimiendo de Haizao más obsceno que el Sr. Song feliz se muestra más arriba? Saquen sus propias consecuencias. También es interesante señalar que los productores han participado en el proceso de censura, y las escenas calientes no son más que cortar, pero corregido y sustituido por otros originales, como en la imagen más grande de la mujer arriba.

Otros detalles y preguntas

Voy a volver con más detalles cuando haya terminado con la serie, pero por el momento tengo 2 preguntas para el público, y especialmente para los chinos que conozco que ya han visto los 35 capítulos enteros:

1 - ¿Por qué el programa de serie, de manera prominente la "Coogle" teléfono shanzhaied de Haizao, es sólo para hacerlo más realista o se trata de una venganza debido a que Google se negó a patrocinar?

2 - Hay una parte de la trama no puedo entender: ¿cómo puede Haizao ser virgen cuando ella se acuesta con la canción, si ella ha estado viviendo con su novio desde hace años? ¿Es esta una brecha en la trama o me estoy perdiendo algo serio (y preocupante) los elementos de la cultura china?

Yo estaba jugando con algunas estadísticas ayer por la noche, teniendo en cuenta que extraña idea de la insularidad de los internautas chinos que hemos estado discutiendo últimamente. La expresión en sí es extraño, porque "Internet" y "insularidad" formar un oxímoron, pero que apenas cuenta de estas cosas cuando se vive aquí. Es la rutina normal en el país de economía de mercado socialista.

Lo que hacemos de la frase, lo cierto es que se trata de seguridad cada vez, si estamos hablando de idiomas , los medios de comunicación o la política , todo parece apuntar en esa dirección. Las fotos de abajo son mi intento de dibujar un mapa del mundo de la Internet para ilustrar esta insularidad, utilizando los datos de los sitios de Internet World Stats .

Esta es la primera idea que tuve: me dieron las estadísticas de todos los países con más de 10 millones de usuarios de Internet, que hace 32 en total, desde China a Marruecos. Entonces hice un gráfico de Excel en el que cada burbuja tiene un área proporcional a los usuarios de Internet del país, y lo más importante, me llena las burbujas con el código de Matrix. Resultado: el mapa del mundo de la Matriz:

El mapa del mundo de la Matriz de Internet

Una cosa interesante en el mapa de arriba es que Asia ya es el área más grande de Internet en el mundo. Increíble, pero no realmente, después de todo, es de lejos el más grande de la población. Y esto no es nada comparado con lo que viene: con el crecimiento de India y China, el Internet va a ser un conjunto de Asia en los próximos años. No va a ser muy exitosa en la red mundial sin ellos. Hasta ahora, la mayoría de la gente en la red eran de países desarrollados, a partir de ahora la mayoría será de las naciones en desarrollo. El estrecho contacto entre nuestras sociedades tendrán consecuencias importantes en línea y fuera. Es decir, suponiendo que realmente logran conectar.

Pero cuando hablamos de Internet, no tiene mucho sentido mirar a las fronteras políticas. No hay tal cosa como la frontera de los controles en línea, lo que realmente une o divide a los pueblos es la cultura. Una en particular, el parámetro más importante es el lenguaje: independientemente de su origen nacional, lo que define como un usuario es el idioma que usted practica surf in Esa es la razón por la cual mis hábitos de navegación se parecen más a la del blogger que como a nadie en mi país: ESWN y tengo orígenes completamente diferentes, pero tenemos en común nuestros idiomas de navegación.

Así que miré las estadísticas de los 10 idiomas más usados ​​en Internet, de Inglés a coreano. Esta vez las burbujas de colores con las banderas, y yo les coloca aproximadamente en el centro de gravedad de su comunidad de hablantes. El resultado es el mapa de Surf Idiomas:

El Mapa Mundial de las Lenguas de surf

Sin embargo, el mapa no es muy grande. Muchos de los oradores en la burbuja de Inglés masiva son en realidad los indios, el español debe ser tanto en América como en Europa, y Australia está completamente fuera de la imagen. La distancia física no tiene ningún significado en la red, incluso menos que las fronteras políticas. Se hace evidente que la geografía es de poca utilidad para mi propósito, por lo que también podría volcar Gmaps y se adhieren a las burbujas.

Mi nuevo diagrama se parece a esto, donde todas las comunidades de Internet más importantes están representados juntos en una nube. Estamos todos interconectados, y el elemento diferenciador único sólido es el lenguaje. Dos personas pueden compartir una afición, como el fútbol, ​​pero no ir a los mismos sitios web si se navega en diferentes idiomas. La mayoría de los medios de comunicación y recursos en Internet no están traducidos a otros idiomas, sino más bien re-escrito y re-interpretada por los bloggers y periodistas nativos, que funcionan como control de las fronteras entre las comunidades.

Mapa Mundial de Mejora de la Internet: la Nube

Una de las cosas que vemos en la nube es que todas las comunidades se tocan entre sí. Pero me temo que esto no es una imagen muy precisa. Normalmente, los rusos no se traducen contenido en japonés, portugués tampoco traducir árabe. El idioma Inglés tiene un papel crucial en el Internet hoy, porque en la mayoría de los casos es a través del Inglés que el resto de la comunicación idiomas siguientes: La mayoría del contenido se traduce primero en Inglés y de allí a las otras comunidades. La burbuja de Inglés, incluidos los usuarios de todo el mundo, es el Centro de Internet.

Otro problema con la nube es que muestra todas las comunidades por igual interconectados, lo cual no es muy realista. Los usuarios que hablan idiomas europeos son mucho más propensos a leer Inglés. La comunidad española, por ejemplo, incluye a muchos estadounidenses que navegan por los sitios en inglés tanto como su propia lengua. En realidad, la mayoría de las burbujas del lenguaje comparten una parte significativa de sus píxeles con la burbuja de Inglés, por lo que puede representar el mapa como una especie de diagrama de Venn:

Segunda Iteración: el Mapa de diagrama de Venn

Vemos el nuevo mapa es muy diferente de la anterior. Ahora hay un grupo de las lenguas occidentales que comparten una gran cantidad de contenido con el Inglés, los dos idiomas más que comparten un poco, ruso y árabe, y luego los tres idiomas que forman el núcleo de la Internet de Asia hoy en día: chino, coreano y japonés. Y te habrás dado cuenta que me han llamado de China a una distancia del resto.

Por diversas razones que veremos, el chino no utiliza Facebook, o Twitter, o Youtube, MySpace, eBay, o. Ellos no leen Boing Boing o el Huffington Post , y chatear en sus salas de chat QQ propios. Rara vez se reciban los correos electrónicos virales que recibimos, y en su lugar llegan otros como éste . Tienen todas las cosas que tenemos y algunos más, pero ellos construidos en paralelo en su parcela separada de la Internet.

Considerando que los tamaños de las burbujas anteriores se basan en datos cuantitativos recogidos por una respetada fuente , las posiciones sólo se decidió por punto y con conocimiento de sentimiento. Cualquier lector podría argumentar que China no debe ser tan extrema derecha. No es de Hong Kong, el chino-estadounidenses, incluso China continental que hacen surf en Inglés. Y me veré obligado a admitir que el mapa de Venn es errónea, porque no lo demuestran.

Pero en un mundo tan cambiante como Internet, la posición realmente no significa nada. Lo que es hoy mañana puede ser diferente. Lo que es realmente importante es la dinámica: en qué dirección se va de China, y cómo se verá la internet en 10 años? Todo el mundo coincide en que la comunidad de Internet en China está creciendo muy rápido, y eso es natural. La parte preocupante es que también podría estar alejándose del resto.

Tercera iteración: el mapa dinámico

Debido a la penetración occidental en los países en Internet es ya muy elevada y la India se han quedado atrás, en los próximos 10 años, la Internet en China llegará a ser casi tan grande como todos los demás juntos. Si continúa a divergir, puede convertirse en una red paralela, al igual que el lado oscuro de la luna, un vasto y autosuficiente isla que el gobierno puede cortar en cualquier momento y la mayoría de las personas en su interior no se dan cuenta de la diferencia . Esto va en contra de la idea de la www.

Sea cual sea la magnitud real del problema, es evidente que la mayoría de los observadores que hay una desconexión entre China y el resto de la Internet, y hay poderosas fuerzas que tiran los más alejados. Afortunadamente, también hay fuerzas que trabajan para equilibrar esto, y los resultados en los próximos años dependerá mucho de cómo estos factores juegan unos contra otros. Aquí es como mi nuevo mapa se ve ahora:

Las Fuerzas de la Internet

Como hemos visto antes en este blog, algunos de los principales factores que mantienen a China, separado del mundo son los siguientes, que se muestra en rojo en el gráfico:

• Lingüística , como hemos visto en este mensaje , en el que demostró que el idioma chino es hermoso y único en muchos sentidos, pero se hace muy difícil para los chinos y extranjeros para conectarse.
• Cultural , en el sentido amplio de la palabra, lo que significa que las comunidades tienen puntos de vista tan diferentes y los valores que no pueden entenderse entre sí. Esto incluye los problemas con los medios de comunicación.
• Políticos , las acciones deliberadas del PCCh en múltiples formas, incluyendo niñeras, el Gran Cortafuegos de China (GFW) y personas directamente la detención, como hemos visto aquí .

Y en verde los principales factores que van en la dirección opuesta. Aquí están, en detalle, para los optimistas a la alegría:

• The growing number of bridge bloggers and other internet uses that work to connect the two communities. These include not only the English language Chinablogs, but mainly Chinese people who translate foreign media and other content on the Chinese internet. From this humble blog I also did my bit against the GFW .
• The post 90s and 80s generations that already dominate the Chinese internet. Their personal tastes in arts, music or cinema will probably be more international, and push them to connect with the World. This point is object of debate though, and some Westerners are very skeptical of the post 80s.
• Business is one of most important factors that link China to the World. Since the construction of the EU, it is no secret that commerce can achieve the most ambitious goals in World Peace, so whatever your take is on those business minded Chinese , they are probably the main force that is still keeping the Chinese Island connected and holding the World Wide Web together.

¿Qué piensa usted? 你有什么想法？

Do you think I am exaggerating? Or is the problem even worse than this? Any factor I missed in the Internet Maps? Internet friends: you are the pixels inside the coloured bubbles, you know all about this World because it is your home: comment and help me improve my Map!

You might have heard the term Laobaixing (老百姓), literally “the hundred surnames”, the common people of China. They are also known as LBX in this website dedicated to them.

Laobaixing is a great word, not only because of its obvious etymology, but also because its connotations are quite different from our “common people”. From what I have seen, in China everyone can be a Laobaixing depending which way the wind blows, and to look down on the Laobaixing is a mortal sin that you can only enjoy when nobody is watching. Vea a continuación:

This is the protest I saw on one little Huaihai Road Lane a few months ago ( 56minus1 was faster to post it). Note the white protests banner, to mark the difference with the otherwise identical red propaganda ones. The banner said: “The relocation of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra to a new building seriously disturbs the people and destroys social harmony.” It disappeared very quickly and there was no way to find out what it was all about. This week I have witnessed chapter 2 of that protest:

The banner is now black like a pirate flag (excuse bad phone camera).The text is also more aggressive, it reads: “The propaganda department XX cheats everyone, doesn't care if Laobaixing live or die”. I asked the guys who were keeping the banner but the menwei of the little lane nervously sent me away. Nearby there was a poster explaining the problem: the works of the Shanghai Orchestra building right behind the lane are causing vibrations and cracks on the walls. The next day when all was over I went back to witness the despair of the Laobaixing:

This is the little lane where the LBX live. And yes, that is a Maseratti. Stay tuned for the next episodes, we will keep following the plight of the dispossessed.

Last Friday I wrote a very long post where I ended up including too many ideas. The main point got a bit obscured as a result, but it was simply this: that vocabulary plays an essential role in learning a language, and that because of this Chinese is not only extremely difficult at an advanced level, but also growing more difficult with time.

I don't suppose this is groundbreaking research, but it is interesting because most people are not aware of it, and also for its implications in the limit betwen language and politics, two fields we like to cultivate in this blog. Here is the argument in full with conclusions, for examples and details see the previous post and its comments:

• To learn a new language the main knowledge required is in three areas: grammar, phonetics and vocabulary. Grammar and phonetics differ essentially from vocabulary in that the first two are rules applicable to infinite cases, whereas the latter is raw data. We can call them the Code and the Data elements of the language. The Code elements are finite and not growing. The Data element is practically infinite and growing, to the point that it is not completely mastered even by native speakers.

• When studying a language, the Code elements play an essential role in the basic and intermediate levels , but at advanced level the real obstacle for communication—and therefore for progress—is Data. For example, in German advanced students may sometimes use the wrong declension, and in Spanish they may fail to differentiate “rr/r”sounds. These things tend to not hamper communication because human languages are highly redundant. I would never understand “pero” (but) when a speaker says “perro”(dog). Ultimately, imperfections in the Code elements amount to the same as having an accent: most of the times they are only relevant as metadata.

• But while Code above a certain level is highly redundant, Data remains essential at every level. Borrowing from this great article : The phrase “Jacuzzi is found effective in treating Phlebitis”is meaningless when either or both of the nouns are unknown. A single missing word can often obscure the meaning of a whole paragraph or article.

• The number of words used passively in real life far exceeds the typical standard lists of language levels. This is because semi-specialized words—such as ionic , j acuzzi or matrix— are not included in vocabulary lists as they are considered too rare. Certainly each of these words is rarely used, but there are so many of them that as a whole they are actually very often used. This Data element is so large that it cannot be memorized in a classroom, and the only way to acquire it is through many years of immersion.

• The reason why most language learners never realize this problem is because they are “cheating”. In most languages in the World, this high level vocabulary is practically identical and it doesn't need to be learned. There is a certain limit level for each language above which most modern words are international and the Data is no more specific of the language .

• This limit level of vocabulary convergence is different for every language, but it doesn't so much depend on the language family or geographical origin, rather it depends on the size and the development of the community of speakers. That is the reason why even non indo-European languages like Basque are extremely easy above the intermediate level: the community is not big enough to support complex terms, and all higher Data is adopted from International words. Most people tend to misunderstand and attach too much importance to the concept of language families, and they come up with absurd lists like this one .

• The internationalization of vocabulary is growing with the advances in telecoms and globalization, especially since English has become the only language of scientific research. There is little point in inventing new Swedish terms in science, for example, when all the scientific community are reading/writing their papers in English. Often, in spite of political efforts to promote a local vocabulary, the economics of language revert the higher Data back to Internationalese.

• There is only one language in the World that for historical, political and demographic reasons has remained an exception to this trend: that language is Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese or others, the difference is irrelevant here). It constitutes a parallel system of high level Data that has very few words in common with the rest of the Word. Japanese and Korean are partial exceptions in that they draw from both the Chinese and the International System, but modern words are increasingly International and these languages are converging with the rest.

• Además de esto, China tiene un sistema de escritura sea extremadamente difícil, único por su falta de una escritura fonética funcional. Esto agrava el problema de vocabulario: no sólo hay más palabras para saber que en cualquier otro idioma, pero cada palabra contiene mucha más información ya que tiene que estar asociado con sus caracteres correspondientes.

• Por otra parte, ya que no hay forma estandarizada para transcribir nombres propios extranjeros, incluso los nombres de los lugares y las personas tienden a ser "traducida" al chino, que salen a veces por completo la fonética original y convertirse en nombres chinos en su propio derecho. Esto se suma a la ya masiva de elementos de datos en el idioma chino.

Todo esto nos lleva a la conclusión: el chino es el idioma más difícil de aprender en un nivel alto, independientemente del origen del estudiante.

Esto es particularmente interesante porque hasta ahora la respuesta correcta a esta pregunta sólo fue: "depende de su propia lengua materna". Con la posible excepción de los estudiantes japoneses / Corea, este último justifica que el chino es en realidad el más difícil para los demás. A la inversa, también es muy difícil para los chinos para aprender otros idiomas, aunque esto se ve mitigado por el hecho de que otros idiomas tienen las secuencias de comandos funcionales fonéticas.

Otra conclusión interesante: China no sólo es difícil, en realidad está creciendo en dificultad.

A medida que el mundo se vuelve más interconectado y la tecnología ocupa un papel más importante de nuestras vidas, la nueva semi-especializada vocabulario tiene un papel cada vez más en el lenguaje cotidiano. Las expresiones que se refieren a conceptos internacionales como "spam" o "TV de plasma" cada vez más tomar el lugar de expresiones que se refieren al patrimonio cultural local. En este sentido, podemos decir que todas las lenguas del mundo están convergiendo, mientras que el chino es una isla divergentes de todos los demás.

Luego están las conclusiones políticas que podemos sacar de esto, pero estoy comprometido a escribir mensajes cortos, así que dejaré para el día siguiente. Comentarios y correcciones son bienvenidos a mis argumentos anteriores.

Acabo de recibir un correo electrónico que me recordó de esta divertida mensaje en el blog de ​​rumores de China. En el blog, dice de Wen:

Este tipo nunca deja de sorprenderme. Cuando se retire de la política, que en realidad debería iniciar su propia empresa de relaciones públicas. El "hombre común" cosas se maneja perfectamente. Las únicas personas que han superado el personal abuelo Wen son las personas que convencieron a la opinión pública estadounidense en 1988 que George HW Bush, un tío rico de Connecticut que fue a todas las escuelas superiores, era un cracker promedio de Texas.

El correo electrónico que he recibido hoy dice:

你 见过 总理 如此 可爱 的 一面 吗. 喜欢 吗?

¿Has visto la cara bonita de nuestro PM? ¿Te gusta?

Y contiene las fotos adjuntas a continuación. No es la primera vez que veo este tipo de aterrizaje cosa en mi bandeja de entrada, así que lo pongo aquí para dar una idea de la eficacia de las relaciones públicas de Wen.

Supongo que mi amigo va a leer esto en un minuto, así que mi respuesta a ella: Lo siento querida por el uso que usted como carne de blogs de nuevo. Y sí, yo cave el abuelo Wen, a pesar de mi conocida alergia a la ternura. Digan lo que digan, se ve mucho mejor que los chicos que lo sucederá.

Ver álbum completo

Do not miss this story by A. Galbraith of the China Economic Review . In the long debate of China's reaction to virus, this is the most reasonable opinion I've seen in a long time, and also the best informed.

The story reminds me of what my friend, a doctor back in Spain, told me when I went home last Summer: “We are all going to catch it in the hospital, and chances are you'll catch it too. Get done with it as soon as possible and you'll be fine for the season”. That pretty much summarized the feeling in her hospital.

These last months, the H1N1 and the swine flu have been used as biological weapons of debate , often to prove the superiority of some political systems over others. The truth is that the Chinese approach was in principle no better or worse than the Western one, and what it lacked in flexibility, it had in effectiveness—after all, the virus could have evolved into something more nasty.

But the real problem is not that. What we should be asking our politicians—and that includes all the countries—is that they get together and agree on a common strategy against virus. Because some day the Big Plague is bound to come, and when this happens humanity had better learned to face it united.

So from here, I prescribe for all the politicians a prophylactic shot of common sense, and I wish a speedy recovery to Andrew.

(h/t to ESWN )

This business trip in Sichuan is really full of surprises. Today we went to visit the Project, a giant industrial complex which will be, upon completion, the largest factory in the World to produce X. A typically Chinese megaproject on the bank of the Yangtze.

But the surprise came when we went to town for lunch, and I found out that the river that flowed into the Yangtze at that point was called the Wu. I hadn't realized before, because the industrial park takes a different name, but sure enough, our client confirmed this point: we were in the riverside town of Fuling.

If you have read the classic China book “River Town”, you know why I was so thrilled. If you have not, then go and get it now . Since you are reading my blog, chances are you are one of those crazy Westerners that seek to understand the Chinese. This books explains them all for you, and in the process it gives you a rare glimpse into the life of inland China. It is fascinating, especially if you don't live in the country already.

El Libro

I am taking this chance to do a little review of River Town, so I can start to catch up with my old plans of running a book reviews section. Considering this book is relatively old and already well known, I will just stick to the main points and try to keep this post reasonable.

The story is very simple, it tells the experiences and feelings of the author during his 2 year stay as Peace Corps in Fuling, a third tier town on the Yangtze. Nothing really happens, except that it is inland China in the 90s, and everything happens. The book is enjoyable from the beginning, almost every page right to the end.

Here are the key points as promised:

- Very enjoyable natural writing, with vivid descriptions of the places and the people. One of the best examples I know of literature meeting anthropology. Memorable is the description of the Fuling streets and their “stick-stick soldiers” in the initial chapters.

- The author is a fine observer, and he has the advantage of direct access to his students, who write down for him their opinions about a variety of subjects. One of the main highlights of the book is the contrast between the Fuling and the Western mentality, expressed on the background of the classics of English literature.

- For the sake of balance, some points I liked less: towards the end the book looses some strength (not surprising, after the great first half). The scientific detachment of the author can become a bit exasperating, and sometimes it feels like the anthropologist has taken over the writer. The last dramatic scene with the mob doesn't help to fix this, and I couldn't help feeling that it was an unnecessary addition. But then, that is only my opinion, and I was never in Fuling in the 90s.

The River Town

From what I have seen today, the town of Fuling is doing pretty well, changing so fast that it is almost impossible to recognize it in the descriptions of the book. For one thing, it took us less than an hour to get there from the center of Chongqing, which qualifies it as a close suburb. This is in great contrast with the backwater river town of the 90s.

Now the Fulingers are going to have some World class production facilities, and a good part of the population will be working there, with thousands more coming from all over China. It feels strange to realize suddenly that I have become myself one of the characters (although a very secondary one) in the story of the transformation of Fuling.

There seems to be only one thing eternal in China, and that is the masses of the working people, the “laobaixing”. Sure enough, the stick-stick soldiers are still there and in good shape, running up and down the stairs with massive loads hanging from their bamboo poles. For them, nothing has changed.

I was pleasantly surprised when I booked my last minute flight to Japan, I got a very reasonable price for the 1st October National Day. When I went to Pudong airport I understood why: the streets were empty in Shanghai, nobody flew at that time because they were all at home with the eyes glued to the TV set, watching as thousands of men and women, looking silly in their flowery dresses, marched on Beijing's Chang An Avenue.

I had the chance to watch the parade for 30 minutes as I waited to board my plane. I have to say it was beautiful. Sure enough there were cringeworthy moments, like when the TV showed the communist model peasants, workers and miners , shining like Mario Bros in 256 colours. But of course, a good deal of hypocrisy is always mandatory in these State events, in China and elsewhere. And regarding the execution, I have watched quite a few of the famous mass events in Pyongyang, and I am pretty sure North Koreans are white with envy watching this one, if their state channel even cared to broadcast it.

All this display of patriotism reminded me of the conversation I had last week with little Yi. It was after we watched an advert on TV, the one where the little girl stands on Tiananmen Square squeaking in that ghastly toddler tone: “妈妈我爱你!” (mum, I love you), and a similar girl says the same in Tibetan in front of the Potala temple of Lhasa. The screen then goes white, and a message comes up: “祖国我爱你”. Motherland, I love you. I don't remember which was the company announced, but the advert has been showing continuously for months, and it was the eleventh time I watched it.

I had a delicate stomach that day, and pushed to the limits of resistance, I couldnt help bringing up the subject:

“This is ridiculous,” I said bluntly, “you can't love a country like you love your mother!”

“Of course you can,” said little Yi, “you don't understand the feelings of the Chinese!”

“Yeah, right.”

Babbling toddlers and feelings of the people. That was about as much as I could take before lunch. I regretted I'd spoken at all.

“Our country is like a mother for all the Chinese, ” she continued, “that is what they mean.”

“Yeah, OK, except that it is NOT the same. A mother gives you life, she will always love you and no matter what happens, no matter what mistakes you do or how stupid you behave, she will be there for you. A country, if you fail to comply, will just abandon you or even put you to death ”

“Well, it is a different kind of mother. If you fail, the punishment is terrible. If you work hard and succeed, the prize is much greater. It is a mighty mother with higher stakes, what is wrong with that?'

“Nothing wrong, just that that is not Love”

“It is,” she insisted. “Or don't Christians teach love of God, and isn't He much more terrible, that if you fail to behave even your life is not enough, and you get an eternity of pain?”

“I…,”

I shut up. She had some point there. I don't particularly believe in the Christian god, and besides, 2000 years ago they invented a mother Mary precisely to deal with the rough edges of the Old Testament. But it is true that, in religion and in politics, many people in the West feel that same kind of loving feelings as the Chinese. So this was not really a discussion about China, but a more general one on patriotism.

My problem is that I do not accept the word love to refer to a country. For one reason, because I understand love as a feeling that can only happen between persons, perhaps sometimes with animals, but not with things. And definitely not with abstract and easy manipulable concepts like “nation”. But granted, this is merely a problem of language, and I don't have the authority to prescribe how the word “love” should be used, even less how “爱” is employed in Chinese. Still, there is a more compelling argument against love for the motherland: I think it is not in the best interest of the “loving” party.

Let's look at the facts. Human society has to be organized some way, and the power needs to be held by someone. In the past it was the tribe, the emperor or the feudal lord. Now it is the nation-state, nothing particularly wrong with that. All forms of organization require the respect and participation of the citizens to work, and it is in the interest of everyone to treat them accordingly, once their legitimacy has been established. Therefore, I understand it is important to respect and work for the improvement of one's country, and I try to do it, just like I do for my company or for my university. But love them like a mother?

It might be that I am speaking from a very European perspective–though by no means mainstream even there. Perhaps I am failing to take into account the particular circumstances of countries like China. Europeans used to be the haughtiest and most virulent motherland lovers, until their excessive feelings brought about ruin and destruction. Patriotism in China never caused any catastrophe of even comparable magnitude, and instead worked well to save the people from foreign-imposed sufferings. So the feelings of many Chinese are understandable, if not necessarily beneficial today.

And still, the key question we have to ask ourselves is: are these feelings in the interest of the citizen, and in the interest of mankind as a whole? Can the World really be in peace if the relation between citizens and their countries is one of blind love, like child to mother? When there is a conflict of interests, is the loving child not forced to fight for his beloved to the last consequences? Since conflicts of interests and greedy rulers are facts of life that will not disappear, is not the love doctrine in contradiction with the ideal of World Peace that most of us profess?

I would like to hear opinions about this. Of course, I understand that for many sentimental people the feeling of love for their country is very much alive, and there is little to explain since it is just a feeling . But Chinese tend to be very rational and in control of their feelings, and when they choose to love it is rarely out of blind passion, but rather because they consider it a good option. I suspect their patriotism is in most cases the result of a prisoner's dilemma : if other countries act patriotic, the only rational attitude is to do the same.

But I wonder if people are actually following this logic (ultimately a defensive attitude) or are really so in love with their country and their flag that they don't even think much about it. And if you do think about it, do you actually believe that a peaceful World is possible in the long term?

Perhaps I think too much sometimes. Perhaps the fact that I am writing from Nagasaki, where I have just seen one of the most chilling exhibitions of human-caused horrors, might have some impact on my thoughts today. And still, I stand by all I write here.

What are your views?

(PS. On the same subject, also see this post just published on Chinageeks )

Yesterday I went for a walk on Nanjing Lu and I witnessed a strange phenomenon I had not seen before: the mooncake brokers. It was last Saturday of mooncake picking season, so they were all busily walking up and down the street, scanning the crowds for potential buyers and sellers.

A bit of background: Every few moons, the Chinese celebrate some important festival dating back to the dawn of history, which they spend visiting their extended family and enjoying traditional activities together. The core of these activities involves, of course, eating things, which is why every festival is associated to some particular edible present, generally small, sweet, and roundish in shape.

Of all the very commercialized Chinese festivals, the Autumn Moon is probably the most profitable for the companies involved. The mooncake, particular snack of this festival, has the advantage of being relatively durable, and so well adapted to spectacular red and gilded packaging in the Chinese style. Under these circumstances, there is virtually no excuse for a Chinese not to give and receive the traditional present. Company to employees, neighbour to neighbour, cadre to “ ernais” , for a fortnight the beautiful boxes circulate freely in the country, always given in pairs.

A lonely box of mooncakes separated from its partner

Now, the funny thing is that, as far as I have ascertained, mooncakes are not to the taste of many Chinese, who rarely eat more than half in one sitting. But this is of little importance, because few by now see mooncakes as foodstuffs. Rather, they treat them as legal tender of the Face Reserve. Failing to give and receive the appropriate amount and value of mooncakes before the Autumn moon is akin to social bankruptcy. Everybody knows the price of the major brands, so this “face currency” is as reliable as 24 carat gold.

The final result of all this is that most families end up with a surplus of mooncakes. Of course, knowing the keen commercial character of the Chinese and their aversion to “langfei”, you don't expect them to sit on their piles of boxes. They don't, and the whole season turns into a curious race to get rid of mooncakes before the Autumn Moon is gone and they loose all their social value (the edible value lasts a bit longer, but that is secondary). And so, the boxes received from the company are given to a neighbour, the ones from the neighbour quickly handed to old auntie Li, who gives them to her park dancing instructor and so on, each pair of boxes passing through many pairs of hands.

Fortunately for the families in Shanghai, mooncakes have an extraordinary liquidity during their 2 week trading time, partly fueled by the habit of the large public corporations to hand out mooncake vouchers instead of giving the boxes directly. All the major mooncake companies have outlets in the commercial streets to redeem vouchers. It is in the vicinity of these points, particularly on Nanjing Lu, that the street brokers set up shop. They buy the vouchers at a discount from passing employees, and then sell the redeemed mooncakes to the less fortunate self-employed and to other bargain hunters.

Saturday, the asking price for the main brands was at 50% of face value, and selling price was at 70%. The difference between these numbers is the spread, which is also the net profit of the broker.

The Nanjing Lu mooncake stock exchange

As I walked in Nanjing Street I was analyzing this phenomenon with my friend Little Yi, who was also there to redeem some vouchers.

“Wouldn't it be better,” I said, “if the companies just gave money directly?That 20% spread is a net loss for both employees and company”

“No, no,” she assured me, “the mooncake voucher is essential, companies wouldn't give money”

“But they do give envelopes of money in the Spring Festival!”

“But this is the Autumn Festival,” she sighed, giving me the silly laowai look. “No family wants to be left without mooncakes in the Autumn Moon!”

One of the things I learned this Summer is that, while I may leave on holidays to Europe, China doesn't really leave me anymore. More than just a country, it is a force of nature, the other face of mankind that is now part of my life. China is always there, and she is everywhere, showing up in unexpected circumstances.

Take Spain, for example. The Chinese community there is largely new, not fluent in languages, and originated from one single point in China: the tiny county of Qingtian, upriver from Wenzhou. When it comes to languages, the Spanish are not much better than them, and the whole situation is full of opportunities for the literate laowai. While a simple “nihao” is usually enough to be the hero of the day, some preparation yields better results. Just wander into a Chinese shop casually dropping a Qingtianese greeting, and comment on the remarkable history of the old stone-carving county, home of the Chinese-Spanish. This makes you popular. And you can drink tea and practice your Chinese conversation for hours on end.

What follows is a true story that happened in my last day of holidays. It includes a Chinese family with extraordinary sleeping abilities, and a team of adventurous Spanish ducks. I hope you enjoy it:

It was the first morning flight from Bilbao to Paris, where I was scheduled to connect with the Air France to Shanghai. As I entered the cabin of the A319, I marked immediately a Chinese family sitting in one of the front rows: a middle-aged mother with her son.

She was wearing a shapeless purple jacket in the style of the hundred names, and her teenage son covered his head in a Korean hip-hop hoody. They stood out in the business atmosphere of the early flight. But what made me notice them—and I couldn't help a smile—is that they were already fast asleep before I even got to my seat. As far as I could see, they didn't switch their positions for the duration of a rather eventful flight.

From the start, the journey proved trying for my nerves. As we were taking off, there was a loud bang coming from the back of the plane, followed by a vibration that grew stronger as we flew. For a while nothing else happened, but then, as we were approaching France, the plane suddenly leant to one side, and the Pyrenees mountains turned 180 degrees around us, until we were headed back West from where we came.

The noise grew worse, and the passengers with notions of geography were increasingly anxious. The town of San Sebastian appeared below us for the second time, only this time the ground seemed much closer. All the service call beeps went off one after the other. I looked around to the other passengers and they were all looking around. Nadie hablaba.

Finally, the cabin crew appeared on the aisle, delivering row by row the official version of the facts: during take off a flying object had collided with the blades of engine 2, producing the bang and subsequent vibrations that we were experiencing. It was a common occurrence, and there was no danger. As part of the normal safety procedure, the captain had decided to return to the home airport for maintenance.

“It was probably a bird,” said the stewardess when she got to our row.

“A bird?” laughed the steward, “that was a team of big fat ducks!”

I figured he must have been instructed to keep a light mood. I tried hard to laugh, picturing circles of ducklings turning in the turbofan as we struggled to get past the sharp Basque valleys.

***

After an endless flight we were safety landed back onto Bilbao airport. As we were waiting to disembark, the pilot confirmed that the airplane was done for the day. We had to pick up our luggage first and then go to the Air France office on the second floor to request a new ticket. As usual, my suitcase was one of the last to appear on the rolling band, and by the time I got to the office there was already a long queue, about the length of a duck-stricken A319, and every bit as noisy.

The crowd was growing unruly. Some French passengers harangued the masses with true revolutionary spirit, launching slogans against all winged creatures, including ducks, airbuses, and Air France pilots. Since I was last, there was not much point in queuing, so I just stood on one side in a way to signify my disapproval. Then I noticed the focus was gradually shifting, as the keen Robespierres directed their anger to some unidentified target at the front of the queue. I walked over to have a closer look.

It was the Chinese family.

Clearly, they hadn't understood the instructions to pick up the luggage, and they had come straight to the airline office before anyone else. They were first, and they showed no intention of giving up their position. On the contrary, they were holding it admirably. The mother covered the rearguard with her fierce eye, while the son held fast to the desk. They were obviously well trained in conflictive queues, and they seemed unimpressed by the mob.

Linguistically, the situation was not ideal. The mother was screaming in Qingtianese, the son translated into Chinglese and an Air France employee replied in elaborate Spanglish, while the French head of office stared in disbelief. I was alone, and my faithful friend the Electronic Dictionary & Thesaurus was out of reach in the bottom of my bag. But the time was to act, and I did not falter in the hour of peril.

I cut right to the front and put in a “Qué pasa?什么事?”. All four faces turned to me at once. The queue became suddenly quiet.

“They want to go to China!” cried the employee in Spanish.

“We want to go to China!” cried the son in Chinese.

The positions of the parties seemed to me very much unanimous, and ripe for an easy consensus. But further enquiry proved that it was not exactly so. I managed to reconstruct the following facts:

The family had slept through the flight, right until we landed back in Bilbao. Then they had not understood the strongly accented message of the pilot and they had dashed out of the plane straight to the connections desk, where they had been redirected to the airline office. And they acted so urgently because they only had one hour to catch the connecting flight. All they asked is to board their plane immediately, and they were pretty suspicious of this whole attitude of the staff in Paris.

Because they actually thought they were in Paris.

The problem was not an easy one to explain. Not only the mother's mandarin was as bad as mine, but also she was determined, and she had a deep rooted common sense. They had just flown into Paris and therefore this was Paris, she would take no nonsense from a laowai. I used all my persuasion. I noted how the souvenir shops were selling bullfighters, and not tour eiffels. Finally the young son understood, and he helped me convince her. The fact was settled: We were in Spain, and there were no direct flights to Shanghai from this airport.

The rest was fairly easy to manage, and after a few minutes the three of us left the office with a new ticket. Once their infinite gratitude had been sufficiently expressed, I couldn't help asking the son:

“But, how could you not realize that this is the same airport as before?”

“Well,” he smiled shyly, “Mum was just telling me that she finds all airports in Europe look strikingly similar!”

And his mother, who was tough but good-humoured, found it rather funny, and we all joined in a face-saving laughter. Then I knew I was engaged as official interpreter of the sleeping family.

***

In the end, my work as a translator served my interests well. We got our new tickets before anyone else, the last three places left to connect with the evening Paris-Shanghai. The revolutionaries were so stunned by the performance that they forgot to guillotine us, and the Air France employee gave us some free lunch vouchers for the VIP lounge. To make our wait more pleasant, she said, the company was offering one of their specialty dishes in the “Restaurant des Mondes”.

It was still far from the Spanish lunch time, so we had to wait while they opened the kitchen for us. The prospect of a free lunch worked well to improve the mood of my Chinese friends, and we had a lively chat in the VIP sofas. I took the chance to impress them with my baidupedic knowledge of their hometown. After that they opened up to me, and the last lines of suspicion finally vanished from the woman's brow.

I listened distractedly as the son informed me of the state of the rap scene in Zhejiang. A terrible state that was, apparently, and I waited for a chance to switch topics. It was his mother that I found most intriguing. All the while she was sitting very still, as if lost in her own thoughts. She had an outside appearance that in China would be classified as “peasant”, but her proud, resolute eyes didn't quite fit in the picture. What was she doing flying around with her single son? Finalmente le pregunté.

As it turned out, she was a renowned chef back home. Qingtian is the origin of thousands of Chinese restaurants across Europe, and their extended family had made a fortune with a popular chain of Chinese food. She had come as an expert to establish new recipes in the family restaurants in Spain, all the while teaching her son the secrets of the Chinese cuisine. They had toured the country for three months, making the company's food “more delicious, more authentically Chinese”.

“Her most famous recipe is Beijing Duck,” said the kid, licking his lips, “You have never tried anything like that!”

“I would love to have a chance to try it,” I answered, suddenly hungry for duck.

Then the mother, who hadn't said a word all this time, looked at me with a strange smile. I felt there was an invitation coming. Instead, she opened her eyes wide and nervously shook her son's shoulder.

“Heavens!” she cried, “we still haven't picked up our luggage!”

***

When I took them down to luggage collection, their belongings were still lonely turning around on the band, a number of shapeless pieces covered in woven tarpaulin. As we loaded them one by one onto a trolley, the son suddenly found something was wrong. It was the last packet, a cardboard box with some strange little holes pierced on the top. He held the box on his knees and showed me one of the corners where it had been torn open. The box was empty.

The woman was very upset. She started moving her arms up and down and speaking in her sing-song dialect at an alarming speed. I couldn't understand a word of what she was saying, but the replies of her son were more composed, and I could more or less make out the gist of it:

“I told you we couldn't take them on a plane, mum!”, he was saying.

“But how can we pass the long winter without them?”, she replied.

Suddenly I had a very dark premonition. While they were busy arguing, I walked over to the broken box and examined it carefully. As I held it up in front of me, a small, delicate object floated down from the broken corner. It was a feather.

I dropped the box as if it burned my hands, and I kicked it behind the rolling band were it wouldn't be seen. I was in panic now, and I joined the arguing party with my own version of alarmed mandarin:

“We have to het out of here, NOW!”, I said.

"¿Qué? But the box?,” said the mother.

“Forget it!” I pushed the trolley towards the door, “we will see to that later!”

"¿Qué? But we have to file a complaint. They might have found …”

"¡No!"

I tried to control my nerves, as I envisioned charges for terrorism, and the dire diplomatic consequences of China's national dish being presented as evidence of the crime. I tried to relax telling myself that at least there hadn't been any human casualties.

“Please help us,” she said.

“We can't do this now! Spain is a bureaucratic country, these things take a long time…” I muttered. “And anyway I'm sure your little friends are going to be fine!”

She gave me another inquisitive glance, like the first time I suggested she was not in Paris. She was clearly reconsidering about my sanity.

“Well, excuse me ,” she said, “but they are important to me, and if you don't want to help me I will have to file the complaint myself”

Just at that moment the airport PA system cracked with a life-saving announcement. All the passengers of the cancelled flight were asked to go back immediately to the second floor, were new information was awaiting us from the captain.

“Quick, this must be our lunch, let's go before we miss it!” I translated, and this argument finally seemed convincing enough for the stubborn lady.

***

On the second floor, the slick French captain was putting in practice the company's open information policy. The maintenance staff had just confirmed—he said—that it was indeed the impact of external objects on the engine that had caused the vibration. The strange bodies had been already extracted and brought in from the hangar for analysis. The decision to return to the airport had proven a good choice, as it was the chief engineer's opinion that we would have never made it to Paris.

A drop of cold sweat fell down my right temple as I considered the chances of those little animals finding their way into the turbine. Even if they managed to tear open the box and then break free from under the piles of luggage, even if they could unlatch the hold door with their little beaks, still, how could they fly over to the engine? It seemed impossible. I remembered the laws of fluid dynamics, and how turbulent airflows exhibit nonlinear, chaotic behaviours. For the first time in my life I felt I understood the real meaning of the Chaos Theory.

In the meantime, the mother had sent her boy to inquire about lost objects, and he was explaining their problem to the captain in such a perfectly unintelligible English that the brave man could only smile politely. They looked around at a loss, only to see that their laowai friend was nowhere to be found. I had just in time slipped into the gentlemen's restroom.

At this point, the airport loudspeakers buzzed again:

Passengers of the AF2435 to Paris, please proceed into our VIP lounge. As a special attention, we are offering you the chef's specialty in our exclusive “Restaurant des Mondes”

***

I joined the family again as they walked down the corridor to the VIP Lounge. It seemed that the luxury meal kindly offered by Air France had conquered the heart of the frightful woman. Her expression showed no more pain for the loss of her beasts, and I hoped she had decided to give up the search. Presently, she was impressed by the quality of the service, and her mood was chatty.

“They know how to treat a client, in France,” she said conversationally, “back in China it's not even comparable.”

“Oh, sure, great service here,”

“Even if they don't have any proper backup plans,” she noted, “they are just great at doing nice surprises.”

“Oh, yeah, you can count on the French for surprises”

“It is all in the attitude, isn't it?”, she said, and her only child nodded in agreement.

As we approached the “Restaurant des Mondes”, the atmosphere was so relaxed that I thought we had passed the worst. I just had to get them on our plane right after lunch, and there would be no more nonsense of lost object complaints. Then I saw the stewardess at the restaurant door, smiling. She held a large sign written in all the major languages of the World, including mandarin. Decía lo siguiente:

TODAYS SPECIAL DISH:

“Thin-sliced duck Beijing style”

In case there were any doubts, underneath the text there was a colourful picture of a team of ducks thinly sliced as if by fast rotating blades, swimming in the dark sauce of the traditional Beijing recipe.

I tried with my body to hide the sign from their view, but I was too late. There was not much point anyway, the pictures were all over the place, and the food was coming out any minute. As we sat down, I peeped at her out of the corner of my eye. Her expression was enigmatic, the initial apprehension had turned into something more lofty. Was it triumph? Yo temblaba.

The dishes were served and, unexpectedly, nothing happened. I glanced at my two friends. The were obviously enjoying their meal, emitting now and then favorable grunts and other judgements with the assurance of the true connoisseur. Then, halfway through their ducks, they looked at each other with an understanding smile and, following some mysterious signal, the lady suddenly stood up, knocking her chair behind her, and crying out loudly:

“I want to speak to the person who cooked this!”

There was a spark in her eye as she glared at the kitchen door on the other side of the dining room. I could not think of anything to say this time, so I just sat still, helpless as the slings and arrows flew swiftly towards their target.

Seeing that no help was forthcoming from my side, the mother ignored me and took direct action. She strode across the room and, without further preambles, she thrust open the kitchen door, roaring in Qingtianese. In a minute, the cook came out sporting a high chef hat and howling even louder than her. To my surprise, he was also employing some variety of Zhejiang dialect.

Then something strange happened. The moment he saw the chef, the son stood up and ran across the dining room charging like a fighting bull, and when the three of them were at a close distance, they came together in a long, warm hug.

I stood rather awkwardly next to them, wondering what was next. The chatter of the adults had risen to undecipherable speeds under the flow of emotions. I looked at the teenager for an explanation, but he was too absorbed speaking to the cook. Finally, I managed to catch some fraction of the conversation:

“Uncle Li, we knew it had to be you, nobody else in the World can cook Beijing Duck like mother! ¿Qué estás haciendo aquí? "

“You know, I got a catering contract with Air France, didn't I tell you?”

“Uncle, you really need to help us, mother is really worried! This laowai is with us, but his Chinese is so-so, and he just doesn't get it!”

“Say, my boy, what is the problem?”

“It is the new down-filled coats that mum bought to take home for the winter. She was so upset when we found out that they've been stolen from our luggage…”