quinta-feira, 30 de outubro de 2008

It’s a candy!

In a few days, she will turn 22. This history is about her last birthday.

I woke up at 6am. I had to prepare for a chinese economy exam in the afternoon. There was this huge book to finish. One day before, I had an iddea: a special breakfast. We use to do it in Brazil. So i bought a basket, orange juice, coconut water, cakes, jelly, butter, breads, chesse and jam. It was all western items that I found in the markets in Macau. Except for major cities, it is not easy to find a supermarket as we are used to go in brazilian cities. I guess it must be the same in small cities here, but, unfortunately, I’ve never been to many places in my country. Actually, sometimes I feel I know more about the world than about Brazil. That hurts.


After buying all the food, I set everything in the basket and asked a portuguese friend, Rita, to let me hide it in her room - for one night only. When I woke up, at 6am, I had to woke her up too. She shared a room with a half portuguese-half chinese girl, Yuyu, that became one of my best friends latter. I brought the basket to my room, and, childish, started to make noise. I wanted to study, I had to. But you all might know than anything can become more important than studies, everyone is able to come up with several reasons to postpone lectures, it's a human natural gift, I guess. However, in this case, it was really an important event. I didn’t know how chinese people use to celebrate birthdays before. So I can say what I was planning - and did - was risky ("cultural matters" speaking). I did it anyway because after sharing a tiny room with her for three months, I had the feeling I already knew her. And I did.


I also bought a present. A plush toy. She was not like others. The chinese girls, from 20 to 27 years old, use to act like children sometimes. They dress children-themes pajamas, talk and walk like they were nine, or even five. I saw a documentary about chinese children, that use to stay 13 hours at school, so they don’t deeply and fully enjoy their childhood. When they grow up, they are more free, and it seems they are trying to rescue what they've “lost”. But she was different, she was more mature than the others, definitively. Later I kept myself thinking that maybe she had a mature behavior because of me. I am three years older, and brazilian. Induction maybe... as if she were trying to reflect me to facilitate our communication. But I am not sure about that. Maybe she was mature because of her home education. Once she told me her father was very open mind. When we first drunk beer together, she said she had drunk it once before, with him, at home. That’s not common in China. Not at all. Anyway, I bought her a plush toy.


At first, I thought it was a turtle. After being noisy for one hour, she finlly woke up. She saw the turtle, but when she opened the plastic bag it didn’t look like a turtle anymore, the head was too long, and there was no eyes, or ears, or nose, or mouth. It was beige and red. The round “body”: red, and the ”head”: beige. There was also a tie between the body and the head. I also wrote a card. Birthday card in both chinese and english. Then she saw the food. It was an overwhelming moment. Everything so strange for a person that used to drink tea with soup noodles and pieces of spicy beef for breakfast. I was anxious to show her how it would be in Brazil. I guess she will never forget it. I didn’t study that morning. We spent around three hours eating and looking for the Macau Tower from our window.


It was cloudy and happy.
Later we found out that the turtle was something else. Izumi, a japanese friend, a tiny, pretty and polite girl from Osaka, came to our room to see Poka. That's her name. Her english name, because I can't speak the chinese one. Izumi hold the turle upside down. We started to laugh... it seemed pornographic. And it was even funniest because it was Izumi, she would never do anything that could remember pornography. I don’t remember who, but one of us asked: What are you doing? Don’t hold it like that. Turn it up side down! She said: "What's wrong? (with the most naive face ever). -It’s a candy!", she argued. We laugh more, and more. And it made all sense. We felt stupid…and completely and deeply happy.'


I miss you, dear!





Cheescake de morango

Já faz quase cinco meses que cheguei da China.

Se a viagem foi boa, estar de volta é ainda melhor. O coração já doía demais. Os apuros, a saudade e todas as diferenças já estavam me deixando diferente. Sem perceber, fui me tornando uma pessoa diferente. Era hora de voltar. Quando cheguei e encontrei o Rodrigo e a minha família me esperando... ah, foi o momento mais feliz de todos.

E hoje sou diferente. Dia sim, dia não ainda me pego pensando, digerindo a China...como um delicioso cheesecake de morango.

Todo mundo pergunta por que eu não esperei até as Olimpíadas. Claro que eu queria ver os jogos. Agora quem sabe eu passo 2012 em Londres...

Abaixo, as três primeiras fotos são em Qindao, cidade das provas de vela nas Olimpíadas de Pequim, perto de Xangai. A última é em Guangzhou, no sul, na província de Cantão.

terça-feira, 11 de março de 2008

Only, lonely child

Hoje eu vim aqui para falar sobre três notícias que li.......

A primeira, sobre a política chinesa que só permite um filho por casal - one child policy. Em um artigo, um governante chinês descartou a idéia de rever a política, pelo menos pelos próximos 10 anos. A One Child Policy já vai fazer 30 anos em 2009. Hoje, não se pode ter mais de um filho em grandes cidades. Em áreas rurais geralmente pode, mas quando o primeiro filho é uma menina. (Globe and Mail.com - China's one-child limit to stay, at least for next decade - Official puts end to rumours that country was about to overhaul controversial policy, por Geofrey York) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080311.CHINA11/TPStory/TPInternational/Asia/

Alarme falso?

A segunda notícia "China falsifica ameaças terroristas" eu achei no site AlJazeera.net. É uma "resposta" a uma notícia veiculada um dia antes pela agência estatal chinesa Xinhua (Nova China). A Xinhu disse que a China impediu um ataque terrorista em um avião que ia de Xinjiang, região mulçumana do noroeste do país, para Lanzhou, capital da província de Gansu (centro). O AlJazeera.net diz que é tudo uma farsa para criar um clima de terrorismo e culpar os uigures (minoria turca) e outras minorias muçulmanas que vivem em atrito com o governo chinês.
(China 'falsified' terror plots - Al Jazeera English News) http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3646DB06-E598-49CC-BF81-9F8A1E269D0E.htm
(China anuncia ter frustrado atentado planejado para Jogos Olímpicos - AFP)
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5izRQzlBCOjLrAOepbzfB4-LspOOw

Trem mais luxuoso do mundo

A terceira é sobre o trem de 5 estrelas que vai ligar Beijing ao Tibet. Os planos são de início em no dia 1 de setembro. A viagem, com duração de cinco dias, será muito mais cara do que uma passagem de avião e a idéia é mesmo de admirar a paisagem, com bastante luxo.
(Five-star Beijing-Tibet train service to be launched after Olympics - Xinhua. Editor: Sun Yunlong)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/09/content_7751430.htm