How preconceptions can be very misleading
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Over my many years in international business, I have visited Hong Kong several times. Those business trips were as close as I had ever come (or wanted to come) to mainland China. That all changed for me in March of 2000.
As a “child” of the 50s and 60s, all I had ever learned, or been exposed to, about China was that then-called “red China” was a foreboding, rigidly-structured wasteland where “evil, running dog, imperialist foreigners” were held in great distain and subjected to all kinds of unimaginable interrogations, and perhaps even tortures, by the ever-suspicious, totalitarian communist masters in Beijing. As silly (maybe not so silly if you take a look at North Korea) as it sounds today, that was the one-sided, anti-China propaganda that I was brought up with in the US at the time.
When I came across the Macau/Zhuhai border in Gongbei on March 12, 2000, I fully expected to be accosted by hordes of old men in dark blue tunics with little dark blue caps, or a mob of “students” wearing ill-fitting wrinkled “uniforms”, complete with wrinkled caps with big red stars on the front; and all of them waving little red books in the air. To my utter astonishment, my preconceptions could not have been any farther away from the truth of what I actually experienced on my first trip to Zhuhai.
In marked contrast to what I had experienced in HK, my first impressions of Zhuhai were that of a quite “laid-back”, but very capitalistic city in which everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, seemed to have their own little money-making “deal” going on. Of course, there were not nearly as many laowai in Zhuhai then as there are now, and when a “local” saw me walking down the street (not in Gongbei), I would inevitably be offered great deals on everything from “hot” mobile phones, taxi rides and pirated DVDs, to some “private time” with his sister.
The linked story is a short review of a new Discovery Channel documentary series about capitalism in modern-day China. I know that we’ll never be able to see it on TV here, but I can only hope that it will show up soon on youtube.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080707/ap_en_tv/ap_on_tv_koppel_on_china
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Like you Orrin I first came
Like you Orrin I first came to China in 2000 albeit for only two weeks in Shanghai which surprised me at its cosmopolitan nature even though I didnt particularly like it due to the amount of sulphur smell in the air from the buring of coal.
When i came to Zhuhai in 2004 it was an eye opener. Nothing was as I expected except perhaps the inavailability of English language books/magazines.
Boy Zhuhai has changed a lot over the 4 years since then and think mostly for the better.
@chinamonty, You're right.
@chinamonty,
You're right. Zhuhai has changed for the better, with one exception... ZHTV! It used to be that we could get the CBS and NBC evening news every morning at 7:30. Now, we hardly ever see it.
I don't know who is running that place now, but their content (I mean on the HK channels which are fed through ZHTV) and the quality of their production has decended to "lows" that are hard to comprehend.
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Up until now, I've had more problems in my life than a cub scout at the Neverland Ranch...
I still hold a serious
I still hold a serious grudge about the Super Bowl going AWOL.
Yeah, Me
Yeah, Me too.
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Up until now, I've had more problems in my life than a cub scout at the Neverland Ranch...
I can vouch for Orrin! lol!
I can vouch for Orrin! lol! I turned up the volume on my television set and sent the play by play via my computer to his in China for the 2003 Superbowl. If I recall correctly, I think the Superbowl was nixed due to a women's volleyball or badminton match.
well going forward, I think
well going forward, I think the NFL exposure will get a little bit better. It just isn't an easy sport to pick up...
But I read that the NFL *paid* cctv to air more games on tv, which is interesting considering the fact that the networks are fight hard for these TV contracts in the US heh.
"I think the Superbowl was
"I think the Superbowl was nixed due to a women's volleyball or badminton match."
Or in honor of the guy who stamps prices on dog shit and the singing cartoon pigs...
(That is WAAAAY inside. If you follow that you're officially "Zhuhai Hand" status...)
Ah hahahahaha! For some
Ah hahahahaha! For some reason I found the post really funny and was laughing my ass off.....sorry don't mean to offend anyone, I know we are discussing serious issues here but the posts are rather funny here!
No offence taken
No offence taken ;)
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Up until now, I've had more problems in my life than a cub scout at the Neverland Ranch...
Just like orrin, I was
Just like orrin, I was caught up in "the reds under the beds" type to mentality on my first visit, and of course it's nothing like that at all.
It makes one ask - just who's the most brainwaved. Perhaps in some ways the West is less free, especially re politics. To balance this the East seems to be less free on the speech.
When it come to politics the locals have more chance of having a say in the politics than many western countries. Take England for example - the average UK citizen has no say over who shall be the King or Queen.
PS, what happened in Saladbowl 03 that makes it even less memorable than normal.
What was "Saladbowl
What was "Saladbowl 03"?
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Up until now, I've had more problems in my life than a cub scout at the Neverland Ranch...