Life in the city

InterNations Beijing: Book Reading Club

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Sunday afternoon 1 September, 3 to 5 pm at a new location: IQIYI CAFE, where TERRA restaurant was a year ago. Close to Zhongyu Building, Sanlitun Nan Lu.
As it happens more, I was the only man among all the girls – no complaints.
I managed, unexpectedly, to finish the assignment right in time: to read the book of the Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, “The Alchemist”. Pity I had no time to find the Portuguese version in time, so I read the English translation.
We had a lively discussion about the book, with the additional remarks if some of the thoughts could be applied the same way in a Chinese environment: how well can one pursue his/her Personal Legend, or if you prefer, how can you succeed in your quest to fulfill your dream. Indeed, Chinese society urges a lot of conformity and pursuing very personal goals are often made difficult by peer and family pressure.

For me the added value of the discussion was that it made me reflect on possible themes for my new book(s). Won’t comment on it right now.
Thanks for the pics from Jing and Windy (I improved them a bit).
Looking forward to the next round.

FAMMM: the “COFFEEMAN NIGHTS”

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

The second Coffeeman Night was held Friday 16 August, at LANTERN Club.
Latin Groove with Dancing performances, Salsa Electro – Music, all very much “Columbia café and dance”. I guess I will need to get into that salsa stuff. Reminds me of my Brazilian times…

The FAMMM community consists of 2,000 members – comprised equally of Chinese and Western fashion editors and designers, media, trendsetters, artists, models, movie and vocal talent, as well as industry producers and agents.

FAMMM at LANTERN Club

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

This time, “COFFEEMAN NIGHT” with a taste of “Cafe de Colombia”.
Saturday 3 August, as the normal events on Wednesday and Thursday were cancelled due to the rain forecast.

A quiet evening and ideal to relax and chat with friends.
Thanks Christian!

InterNations Beijing: Book Reading Club

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Learn more about Internations: http://www.internations.org/
And also on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/internationsbeijing

“Let’s talk about books”: The Beijing Group currently has 46 members, 19 nationalities.
The Second Meeting – treasure sharing! was held at The Woodhouse, a nice cafe next to the book store “Page One” in the Sanlitun Village South (OK, they changed name but I never remember the new one!).

Thanks to Lily and Jing for the pics
Most of us introduced a favorite book. I went for “Why Men Marry Bitches” (by Sherry Argov), a book I think is so correct about how men think. It does not work as well for Chinese men but I used it several times to coach Chinese ladies trying to figure out how to deal with their (mostly) foreign boyfriends. A Chinese translation exists but the English version is probably best as some of the terms must be hard to translate correctly.
I just feel pity I have so many books waiting to be read. Time is short…

The Chinese are studying English?

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

So, this is what we read in the newspapers. Kids 4 years old going to English lessons. Youngsters going on summer camps in the USA. Before the Olympics the great majority of the Beijingers had learned “basic English”, according to China Daily.
According to some Chinese, there are also too many foreigners in China, a complete joke – China is one of the countries in the world with the lowest amount of foreigners relative to the population. How many are we in China? According to the authorities who are known to have either no clue or good at giving unreliable information, we are less than one million. So, make the % calculation yourself. Of course all foreigners are concentrated in Sanlitun, giving the impression we are so many.
China is way behind in adapting to the international scene, as nearly nobody speaks English. Most PhDs returning from UK and USA after many years still cannot write a decent e-mail. Public signs are often wrong, at least they provide good entertainment. They could ask a foreigner to help check it (for free) but that would be loss of face I guess. Or maybe they simply can’t find anybody. I could suggest to them to place an ad in The Beijinger.
Chinese love to laugh with us speaking poor Chinese, or laughing with foreigners using T-shirts that carry real silly Chinese characters. Well, we have our turn too.

Chinese TV is a good example to show their advanced status of ignorance.
Here you need to stand on your head to see what they tried to say. Actually nobody is supposed to read any of the English stuff around. They print it just to look exotic, like on real estate ads. Or like the facial tissues I use. “Mind Act Upon Mind” it declares. I use it to wipe my forehead but my mind has till now not responded. I keep on trying.
Not to be surprised by the number of websites that show all the funny English signs, some also from Japan (another great country for its international language capabilities). One among many is http://www.engrish.com/.