It's a beautiful morning here in Shanghai... I'm wearing some light weight sweats, sitting on my balcony, looking out over the city, and tapping away on my laptop about to get down to work.

Right now this is the National Day Holiday - it's a seven day holiday. Actually, it's a three day holiday, but China does something neat. They shift weekends. Saturday and Sunday before the holiday were ordinary work days. Then we got a three day holiday starting on Tuesday, Oct 1. Then on Friday Oct 4 we got the first compensation day for the weekend we lost. Saturday and Sunday were weekend of course - no work - and tomorrow we get our final compensation day. So seven days in a row.

It's a great deal. Imagine if the Saturday and Sunday before Thanksgiving were work days and then you got off from Tuesday to Sunday!

Anyway, I'm sitting out on my balcony looking over the city - I have an awesome view.

My apartment is something to brag about. 130ft^2, new building (I'm first tenant), two big screen TVs, partly furnished, beautiful hard wood floors, big balcony, nice kitchen, two bathrooms. And it costs me about US$850 / month. Daily maid service (including ironing) adds another $18 per month. Eat your hearts out you suckers in the US and Hong Kong!!!

Life here can be very good...

I love PETA... not!!!

But hey, just read a great article in the Weekly Standard pointing out the good things about PETA.

In particular, the facts that they promote beer and naked super models. Well, what's not to like about that?

But hey, if the PETA people want to really do some good they should come to China.

It's not eating dogs that bugs me - I've chowed down on dog hot pot a bunch of times with my North Chinese friends... nothing special, although the fact that they chop the leg bones cross-wise so you get these little cylinders of skin, meet, and bone is a little offputting.

But last week my girlfriend decided to cook me some quail. We went down to the wet market (there's a wet market on the ground floor of the building next door to me - wonderful!) and picked out two good looking birds. The nice lady running the stall takes them out of the cage (yes, they're still alive - China is GREAT for fresh food) and starts plucking the feathers.

Have you ever seen a bird being plucked? It's a nasty sight - it bleeds as the feathers are pulled. It's even nastier when it is still alive. That's right - she doesn't bother to snip the heads off until after she finishes plucking them. So they're squirming and squealling while she pulls off the feathers. I have no idea why she doesn't kill them first - seems easier as well as more humane - and my girl friend (who is Shanghainese) doesn't know either, but they don't. Nasty. Where's PETA when you need them? Why no naked super models in Shanghai streets?

The beer part would go over well here too. People don't drink much milk or eat cheese, so not much of a dairy industry, but beer is damned popular. You can get the local Chinese brews (every city has its own brand, also a lot of towns) for just RMB 2 (USD .25) for a double sized bottle in a supermarket. (Normal US sized bottles are pretty much unavailable except for imports). In a lot of places (ie. many hot pot restaurants) the beer is actually free - it comes with the food, all you can drink!

So a pretty receptive market for PETA, don't you think?

One of the interesting things I've found living in Shanghai and Hong Kong is that the "canon" - the common cultural context that we operate in - seems to be much smaller in HK + China than in the US. It's hard for me to tell - I'm still learning Chinese culture - but I think so.

I was thinking about this in the context of my girl friend - for various reasons I was thinking that I have created a monster with her, but that I could never explain the reference to her. Think how many people in the US who have never read Mary Shelley can still tell you about Frankenstein, and how many people far too young to have seen the movie can still understand a reference to the "bride of Frankenstein". In China and HK you tend not to have that shared context.

There is certainly a deep mythology, and certain characters such as Monkey King are universally known, but it doesn't seem to be very deep.

I think there are a variety of reasons:

1. Asia is very recently urbanized. Most of my friends' grand parents or great grand parents were farmers. That means that the city culture of 200 years ago is weaker in the China of today than in the US or Europe of today.

2. China trashed so much that is old. Heck, there is almost a generation that had their education totally disrupted by the idiocy of the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward. How could they learn China's great literature and history?

3. Hong Kong is a city of refugees, most of whom were poor peasants and poor workers. Again, a relatively thin cultural heritage to pass down.

4. Hong Kong people don't read. Chinese book stores are few and far between. On the subway you see grown men reading comic books, but not real books.

It's an interesting issue...

It's kind of interesting how you get out of touch (or stay in touch) with culture back home.

Kazaa is a major lifeline for me and for a lot of my friends. I keep up with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Friends, and Frasier.

I recently got turned on to Farscape, just in time for the bastards at Sci Fi Channel to cancel it in favor of Stargate, which is utter drek.

I checked out Andromeda, but three episodes of Kevin Sorbo teaching people to love their enemies just made me want to puke.

Now I'm onto Lexx. That's just plain weird, but really interesting... think I'll stick with it.

Well, decided to try this Blog thing...

Quick little intro... I'm an American living in Shanghai. I've been here for a year and a half working for a semi-local semi-Hong Kong company.

I speak fairly decent Mandarin and pidgin Cantonese.

This is going to be my take on living in Shanghai, what it's like, how it's fun and how it's not.

China can be a weird weird place, but also incredibly fun.