life. in china. captured through the eyes of a nomad named jen.

life is good. i’m leaving for hawaii tomorrow to be the bridesmaid of one of my dearest friends.

i also got this in my email inbox today:

Dear Jenny,

I believe that your professional experience and motivation to work in China can meet our immediate and long-term needs and contribute to the development of our Corporate Social Responsibility team. As mentioned the other day, we are entrusted by our clients to implement international environmental, health, safety and social standards in the Chinese environment, and thus to go beyond compliance to the numerous but sometime chaotic Chinese regulations. I certainly hope that you could both take an active part in project implementation (btw, you are on the list of staff going to Tibet to conduct a socio-economic baseline survey!) as well as in further developing our strategies to help our clients continuously improve their social and environmental performances.

You have noticed that we are a small team and thus expect your responsibilities to grow along the development of your expertise in our various fields of activity. From taking part to socio-economic impact assessments, due diligence and CSR audits, I hope that you will soon be able to further develop our market presence in these fields by managing such projects and create new opportunities for the company.

Again, proof that things happen for a reason. I was not chosen as one of the finalists for the job I wrote about below. But, then I got a call from the firm, whom I had canceled on due to swollen bug-bite eye. They wanted me to come in that very day. We talked shop.

I have just formally accepted the offer to be a CSR/Environmental consultant. I had imagined I would end up in a NGO setting again, but I stayed open to exploring how to tackle envioronmental/social issues from a different approach. I believe working in the private sector will be an eye opening experience and afford me opportunities that I can not gain elsewhere. And at the end of the day, I will still be proud of the work I am doing, which is what matters most.

The official start date is June 1st, one day after I come back from Hawaii. Then I will be flying to Tibet four days later for a two-week assignment. I will be conducting househould surveys (amongst other tasks) in Shigatse to form socio-economic recommendations for a Canadian mining company.

My life in China is now on fast-forward, and I am ready to rock and roll.

I.
riding on the bus

like packed sardines in a can

armpits in my face

II.

chinese not smelly

no deodorant is worn

unsolved mystery

III.

diet, genetics?

truth of the matter remains

hidden in the pores

(US News & World Report)
Updated: 2006-05-17 10:08

Starbucks, a famouse chain cafe is a fashionable place for trendsetters to meet. [baidu.com]

“Chuppies” are China’s young well-off generation. With money in their pockets and different consumer habits from their parents, China’s new “Supershoppers” are spending up on brand name cosmetics and clothes, according to a report in the US News & World Report. Chuppies describe themselves as “being open-minded, being ready to learn, and loving new things.”

chuppies is much cuter sounding than yuppies, but that doesn’t make khaki wearing, mercedez driving, frappucino sippers in china any more appealing to jchu. what is appealing to jchu is the amount of cute non chuppy chinese boys to be found in beijing. what a nice surprise. really, everyday i can say that i have spotted one or even five! like tonight, i saw a few cute little skinny wire-rimmed glasses wearing boys just walking down the sidewalk of where i live. yeehaw.

i’d be hard-pressed to find a cute retro-type chinese boy in the states, and even harder to find one that likes girls. but, here in beijing, china, there is a real diversity of chinese boys (people) in general. there are punk rockers, geeks, hipsters, chuppies, old people still sporting mao outfits. every type of boy (person) you find in the states, you can find here.

it’s just a nice change not to be in a place (silicon valley) where the typical chinese boy worked either in the finance or tech industry and whose second home was the banana republic. i know this is a gross generalizatioin. but try finding me a cute abc (american born chinese) who did not wear button down shirts, always and forever. try finding me a cute abc period. ouch. okay, okay, there were cute ones, but they were rare. plus, the lookers i usually came across acted like commodities, too hot too handle. most of the time.

alright, i know i ain’t no zhang ziyi, and must come off like a whiny biyatch who is dissing her ABC brothers. but please do not be misled, i love my abc boy friends and some of them are daym cute. the real point of this post, my take home message for yall, is simply this: There are some mighty fine chinese boys up in here. Mmmmmmmm hmmmmmmmmmm and a booyashakah! What.

peace out,

jfabulous (wannabe ghetto alter ego of jchu)
(more…)

Today, I experienced my first bad, I’m in a mood type of day in China. Since my first week here, I’ve been diligently meeting/interviewing with environmental organizations ranging from a small, local-based grassroots NGO to the United Nation’s Development Programme. Heck, I even interviewed at an American PR firm working on CSR, an opportunity which came up unexpectedly.

Well, things for the most part have gone smoothly, I have made some great contacts, and at the very least have gained a better sense of China’s environmental scene. And a month later, I finally thought I was on my way to securing a great job with a major NGO. But, things have reached a point where I don’t know where I stand. Instead of sailing into the final interview as one of two candidates left to be considered , I have just been informed there is a third candidate in the running. This perplexes me since the whole time I had the understanding I was already a finalist.

Whether this misunderstanding was due to cultural mishaps on my part, or general miscommunication between both parties, remains to be seen. In any case, this will definitely become a lesson gained in how to to navigate through China’s complex web of cultural nuances.

Anyway, I know I just have to keep my chin up, keep pursuing leads, and don’t give up hope that I can, and WILL become a part of the environmental movement here. And who knows? All this fretting may be for nothing, so fingers crossed that I will get the call tomorow telling me I’m advancing to the final round!

To bring it back to my favorite subject, yes, food. I’m also just blah blah boo today because I wanted to buy an avacado to put in my quesadilla that I was making for lunch. Well one avacado in the grocery stores costs $4 bucks in China. WTF? No wonder a chef at a Mexican restaurant in Beijing admitted to me they resort to using frozen avacados.

So, yeah if you are going to visit China I hope you smuggle green goodness in your suitcase for me. Afterall, no matter how much I grow to love it here, I’m always going to be somewhat of a California girl at heart. Right?

its 2:30 in the morning. despite listening to the melifluous sounds of jack johnson, i am wide awake. i just ate two oreos and i want more and kettle chips, beer and cheddar flavour please.

earlier tonight, i celebrated a month of being in china with some belly dancing and middle eastern food. it was delish. the ladies looked sexy and inspired me to look into salsa dancing lessons.

anyway, i think i’m awake because being in china still excites me. it excites me to the point where sometimes i skip in the streets. it exites me despite the fact that living here gives me black boogers. and sometimes the dust is so thick, my lungs get clogged and i have to hack phelgm like an old chinese man. it excites me because there is a buzz in the atmosphere equivalent to the kind resonating in other cosmopolitan capitals of the world.

it excites me because this is a country where instead of hello how are you?, one is greeted with the customary, ni chi guo fan la ma- have you eaten yet? growing up in the chu family, food was the center of all social gatherings. now i live with a billion other people who seem to share the passion of getting gastronomy down to a tee. what’s even more delightful, is that beijing is the culinary capital of china and every ten feet, or so it seems, there are ways to fulfill your dietary status so that one should never have to answer, no sir/mam- i haven’t eaten yet. there is beijing cuisine, sichuan, yunnan, canton, jiansu, and tasty treats hailing from far flung provinces that are still unmemorized and mispronounced….by miss wannabe bon vivant herself. and when tired of china chow, i have my choice of indian, thai, the all important american brunch of fluffy omelletes and hash browns, italian, and on and on. the choices of food seem endless and its available 24/7.

right now its 3 am in the morning and i think i’m going to hop across the street to spend 2 quai (25 cents) on a flour pancake with green onion, egg and chili sauce made by the man with his tricycle cart-cum-kitchen. yummy yum yum exciting.

now don’t get me wrong, living in china excites me beyond the reasons i have cited (food mainly). i’m just too hungry to write about it all now.

so till next time, happy one month living in china anniversary to me……ciao, chow!

that would be me. i woke up this morning covered in mosquito bites on my face. but it was the bite on my right eyelid that was especially yummy.

my eye was so swollen that i could barey open it. icing it didn’t help, neither did taking two benadryl. rather, i became nauseus and felt an anxiety attack coming on. fun.

i was going to tough it out and still show up for my 2pm interview. however, i decided last minute that being a freakshow with a dizzy spell was not going to win me any points. so, i called and told them the state i was in.

they haven’t called to reschedule and I still look like i’ve been punched by the meanest wifebeater-wearing man in all of beijing.

mondays sure do suck donkey balls.

I am very particular about expiration dates.
From eggs to toothpaste
To the Advil pills sitting in the medicine cabinet,
If it’s past the date, it’s thrown out.
No questions asked.
If it’s old, it’s bad.

And now it’s been days and days,
Weeks
And more than a month since I met you.

Entertaining thoughts of You,
of You & Me,
Should have long expired
my friends tell me,
and I know, I know!
Know better…..

Yet the smell of your cologne lingers on,
Intoxicating my mind,
Reducing me to the stupid schoolgirl I thought I would,
Should have Thrown Out by now.

Beijing, after all, is my new playground!
and the voice in my head urges me,
to choose a playmate
that is right here, right now and not thousands of miles away.

But, I have never been one to play, and I don’t feel like playing now.

I want to WHINE instead.

It’s not fair.

It’s not fair that my infatuation hasn’t come to an end,
and that the butterflies you gave me remain lodged in my stomach.

It’s not fair the deck of cards in the game of love
appears to be stacked against me.

Con Re
tinu lent
ous less
ly ly
I’m tired of playing
Solitude
And it’s just not fair I have to keep on playing!

Car bombs going off in Iraq, the genocide in Dafur, the AIDS epidemic….

Those were the images that flashed across the TV as I ate lunch inside my cousins’ apartment. Outside, Beijing’s weather reflected the somber realities of shattered lives making news.

Dark, overcast and not a glimmer of light anywhere.

After lunch, I had planned to make a return to the flea market at the Worker’s Stadium that comes every four months. But, all of a sudden I was in no mood to dig for bargains, to buy clothes that I really did not need. I realized then that living in Beijing has already affected me in more ways than one.

Sure, like all bleeding heart liberals, hell even Republicans with a heart (jk), it is not hard for me to empathize with scenes of despair. In fact, I dedicated all of last year discussing, dissecting poverty and development issues to better understand the roots of inequality.

Nevertheless, it was easy to read the articles, write the papers, and then carry on with my own life. A life where suffering only surfaced when the occasional homeless person crossed my path in the streets of London. And later, surrounded by the affluence of the Silicon Valley, it was even easier to feel disconnected with events affecting the poor halfway across the world.

But, now everywhere I turn in Beijing, poverty stares me right in the face. Sure, like you have all read and heard a million times, China is the next big thing. China, the superpower developing at unheard of rates. China, the country with the new middle-class parents and their spoiled only child. The only child who is fed McDonalds, and who is constantly dressed in new clothes instead of only during New Years like in yesteryears of China’s not so distant past.

Yet for every Chinese person that is reaping the supposed benefits of an increasingly open economy, there are many more who are being left behind. And yes, I’ve read the statistics before coming here, “ In the early 1980s, the richest 10 percent of the population earned 20 percent of the national income. By 2005, the top 10 percent earned 45 percent of the income, while the bottom 10 percent only earned 1.4 percent.” (www.geocities.com/dale_wen2000/Globalization/en.doc).

However, as the old saying goes, “Seeing is Believing.”

Well, I saw IT when I walked along the sidewalks of Sanlitun past the groups of migrant workers in their cheap suits, cigarette dangling out of the corners of their mouths as they build skyscrapers that appear overnight. Lightening-fast development, or so it seems, does not magically occur. According to various reports, these workers, work on average 18-hour shifts, seven days a week for a wage of 900 rmb a month. Do the math, that’s $112 US dollars. And $112 dollars, they are sometimes not even paid. Labour is a’plenty in China, but so is crony capitalism.

I saw IT when I stepped out of Touch, a trendy bar in Hou Hai, Friday night. A middle-aged man asked whether he can take us somewhere in his pedicab. He was not dressed in rags, but I sensed the desperation in his voice. For the rest of the night, this scene repeated itself all along the road that wraps around the lake, illuminated by the endless lights of restaurants and bars catered to tourists, expats, and of course Beijing’s forever-talked about middle-class. Pedicab drivers, cigarette sellers, masseuses, the person dressed in a polka-dotted clown suit (I kid you not) selling roses….each of them hoped that I would use my fortune to lessen their misfortune.

I saw IT again last night when I stepped outside the Chaoyang Culture Centre, where I just had the privilege of watching the spectacular Kung Fu moves of the world-famous Shaolin Monks. Adjacent to the parking lot where the tourist buses began to pull out, stood a large crowd of people enjoying an old revolutionary movie played out on a tattered white screen. The movie was free you see, and one of the few forms of entertainment that is provided specifically for the working class of Beijing. However, unlike in the lobby of the Chaoyang Culture Centre, popcorn and soda were not sold since this group could not afford to buy.

“ IT ” —being the juxtaposition of the life I lead and the life of the have-nots in Beijing— is starting to bear weight on me.

Instead of spending the afternoon shopping as planned, I found myself unable to shut off the images with the flick of the remote. So, the news stayed on, is still on. And as the problems of the world continues to be broadcast, I am left to wonder how to reconcile feelings of unease with the reality that is happening this time, right outside my doorsteps.

1) I write with my left hand, play sports with my right, eat with my left, but use scissors with my right hand. I am confused if I qualify as being ambidextrous.

2) I am a hopeless romantic who has never been in love.

3) I was 12 years old when I ate my last hamburger.

4) The best year of my life was spent in Brighton, England. The worst year of my life was spent in London. Don’t get me wrong, I heart England. 2005 was just a very bad year.

5) I recently discovered that I have the strange tendency to look Latina. Yep, my dear friend Gloria from Nicaragua and I have been mistaken as being sisters, and even as TWINS! Maybe it’s Gloria that looks Asian. Or maybe the people who thought we were related were smoking crack.

6) Speaking of crack, I have never tried it although I can’t say the same for pot and ecstasy.

7) When I was younger, one of my arms (I forget which) would pop out of its socket when people swung me around in the air. This happened twice, and I remember a Chinese doctor would take about two seconds to pop it back in.

8) I have no cavities. Nope, not even one.

9) I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.

10) After China, I am scheduled to marry my friend Will from England. We are going to live in NYC together for one year. After I obtain my EU passport, and Will his American one, we will go our separate ways in search of Mr. Right.

11) Last week when I tried to buy the March of the Penguins DVD with Denny and Emily, I only knew how to say,“You know the movie with those little black and white animals.” The clerk realized what movie I was talking about after I resorted to waddling down the aisle. I thought this was funny at the time. But now I’m just more ashamed of my Mandarin speaking abilities.

12) I don’t want a diamond ring when I get engaged. A plain silver platinum band will do just fine.

13) A do-gooder in a suit is a big turn on for me. Even more yummy is a guy who watches the Food Network and knows that truffle doesn’t always mean chocolate.

14) I am always slightly uncomfortable when making my entrance to a big party, a club, bar, anyplace basically where in the first few seconds, I know people are judging you based solely on looks.

15) My most prized possession is my passport, and I prefer to travel solo.

16) When I was in sixth grade, I scored the most goals for my soccer team.

17) I have 4 aunts, 1 uncle and 8 cousins on my Dad’s side.
I have 1 aunt, 2 uncles and 5 cousins on my Mom’s side.

18) To this day, I have never kissed a Chinese boy.

19) The person I miss most is my little poodle mutt named Poochie. We had to put Poochie to sleep on Thanksgiving three years ago. He was fifteen. And despite what my friends say, Poochie was the cutest dog. Ever.

20) I prefer San Francisco over Los Angeles and Beijing over Shanghai.

21) I like saying the word Booyashakah. Booyashakah!

hardly. i mean afterall, soccer moms all across america are now having to cough up on average $53.80 (accoording to Consumer Affairs 4/06) to fill up their shiny SUVs. Seriously tho, it’s been three years and one day, since Bush the Buffoon stood proudly on the deck of the USS Abraham underneath a star spangled banner that said “Mission Accomplished.”

It chills me to think about how large a lie those two words have since become. And now before we can equate democracy with peace in Iraq, it looks like the mighty US of A is poised to attack Iran in order to make the world a more stable, safer place.

Lovely, just bloody lovely.