Recipes
As a culinary region in China, Yunnan doesn't have the same cache as Sichuan, Hunan, or Guangdong. That doesn't mean, however, that Yunnan food isn't good. In fact, some of the regional specialties are absolutely delicious and difficult to find outside of Yunnan. These include "Grandma's potatoes", a mashed potatoes dish that's spicier than what your mom makes for Thanksgiving dinner, stir-friend broccoli with goat's cheese, and Yunnan-style hash browns.
Fortunately, these dishes aren't too difficult to re-create if you're far away from Yunnan. Here's a recipe for Grandma's potatoes, (courtesy of GoKunming). Scroll to the bottom of the entry for links to other recipes. Follow them, and you won't be disappointed.
Neologism City
At a weekend dinner party I attended, two neologisms were coined:
1. slogo- a combination "slogan" and "logo". Think "I'm lovin' it" written on top of McDonald's golden arches.
2. expatronize- a merger of "expatriate" and "patronize". Many long-term laowais regularly expatronize newbies, particularly in pubs. Example:
Newbie: "I just can't get enough of rice noodles! They're delicious!"
LTLW (Long-term laowai): "Just stay here awhile...pffft. You'll see"
Weekend Reading
Some pieces to intellectualize your weekend:
1. From The Economist- Thailand will not mature into a stable democracy until it allows criticism of the monarchy.
2. From The Guardian- Simon Jenkins on how terror- and the mere threat of terror- has turned America into a cowed nation.
3. From The Atlantic- James Fallows interviews the head of the China Investment Corporation, a man who overseas $200 billion of China's US dollar holdings. What does he say?　"Be nice to the countries that lend you money"
UPDATE: Fallows link fixed.
Why Do More Women Study Abroad?
This is the title of an interesting blog post by Tyler Cowen, an economics professor. There are a few hypotheses:
1. Women are more concentrated in humanity majors (i.e., history, literature, social science), and there are simply far more exchange programs available for humanities students than for natural science majors.
2. Women, even at the ages of 20-22, instinctively feel that once they become mothers such travel opportunities will be more difficult. Therefore, they have a greater incentive to get their overseas experience out of the way while they can.
3. Women are concerned about their physical safety while abroad and therefore prefer to join an organized program rather than travel on their own.
Each of these hypotheses are interesting, though I think number 2 is the least plausible. Do that many college-age women think ahead and predict that their travel opportunities will be limited by marriage and motherhood?
I don't know about number 3, either; while fewer women do seem to travel alone, I've met many groups of two, three, and four women traveling around together. Not all of these groups came on a university-sponsored exchange programs.
My own experience suggests number 1 is most accurate. I went to the University of California, San Diego, and spent my third year as an overseas student in Italy on a program that drew students from the entire UC system. I remember trying to persuade my friends to go overseas as well, but because many of them were engineering or chemistry majors, they felt that they simply couldn't afford to put off their degree a year. At UCSD, most liberal arts majors (like me- international studies) graduated in four years without much difficulty. Most engineering majors needed a full five years to graduate, and spending a significant period overseas simply would have made this impossible.
I don't want to get into a Lawrence Summers-like controversy here, but my memory suggests that far more men than women pursue degrees in engineering and hard sciences, and more women than men pursue degrees in liberal arts.
As years pass and overseas students turn into long-term expatriates, the gender ratio tilts into the other direction. In Kunming, for example, the population of male expatriates grossly exceeds that of females.
Any other suggestions?
Ganja in China
Tim Johnson has an amusing riff on the news that an ancient marijuana stash was found in a Xinjiang tomb. Within his post, Johnson notes that my very own Yunnan Province has quite a reputation for pot-smoking, and a reader of his refers to the hamlet of Dali as the "Amsterdam of China".
For the record: marijuana plants are abundant in Yunnan. My friend and I saw several beside the road while hiking outside of Kunming last weekend, and expats who were here a decade or so ago report that plants used to grow freely beside the city's train tracks. Apparently, the local police grew wise that smoking the reefer constitutes a crime, so plant sightings are slightly rarer than they used to be.
Nonetheless, pot smoking remains pretty common here. Among my first memories in Kunming was walking past a local pub and seeing a foreigner-one who later became a friend- spark a hash pipe on the pub veranda. Certain pubs in Kunming- and certainly in Dali- allow patrons to pass joints around. You can't walk more than five minutes in Dali without an old woman dressed in a traditional Bai costume whispering "smoke ganja?" in your ear.
What I find funny about all of this is how the ease with which one can get stoned here goes against the whole "China is an oppressive police state" perception that exists outside of the country. In many ways, China is pretty lax provided one doesn't mess with the wrong people. I can walk down the street drinking a beer, something I can't do in California. Unlicensed 烧烤 vendors can set up shop with their kebabs and do business without undue fear of incarceration. I buy pirated DVDs in a shop located immediately next to the local police station. And so on.
Oh- by the way. The old man smoking the bong in the photo in Tim's post likely isn't smoking ganja- old men everywhere in China like smoking tobacco out of those long cylindrical pipes, something I found disgusting even when I used to smoke cigarettes.
Violent Shopping
Is it just me, or has the usual Christmas-shopping rush been especially violent this year back at home? First, crazed Wal-Mart shoppers trampled a poor employee to death in suburban New York. Then, two fellows chased each other with guns (result-double fatality) in Palm Desert, California of all places.
Now, even here in Kunming there was a rather stunning incident at the Longquan Lu branch of Carrefour. From the Go Kunming report:
A normal day of shopping at the Longquan Lu Carrefour turned violent Saturday when three women were attacked and a nurse taken hostage by a man wielding a knife. The man was killed by police after a five-hour standoff.
According to Kunming media reports citing police sources Lu Zhiwen (陆志文), 39, had been having problems with his girlfriend. He began attacking customers in the Carrefour outlet with a knife, seriously injuring three women, all of whom later underwent surgery and are described as recovering, with two still in critical condition.
At one point, Lu took one of the injured women hostage, after which a nurse went into Carrefour to treat the hostage. Lu released the hostage, taking the nurse hostage and telling police that he was going to kill her if his girlfriend did not come to the store to see him.
According to the Kunming Public Security Bureau, Lu's strength was fading in the fifth hour of the standoff, and he accepted the police's suggestion that they bring him some hot food. Policemen quickly procured a bowl of soup noodles from a nearby restaurant and placed it in front of one of the Carrefour entrances.
The day's drama ended when Lu opened the door and a police sniper fired one shot, which entered Lu's left temple, killing him instantly. The nurse who had been taken hostage escaped unharmed.
Wow. He sort of fell for the oldest trick in the book, didn't he? I bet the Kunming police are surprised this ruse actually worked. I mean, what an amateur hostage-taking performance. Who gets hungry and goes outside for noodles while holding people hostage in a supermarket?