there are so many examples of humorous translations into english over here.. there are even entire websites and books published with funny examples of “chinglish” (no funnier, i am sure, than what i would produce if i was in charge of translating english signs in to chinese!)

i have seen this kind of thing so much, that i normally don’t pay any attention.. but for some reason a sign i recently saw in a guangzhou subway really struck me as funny .. the top 3 offenses were:

No hullaballoo allowed

No graffitti or scratchitti allowed

No inflated balloons allowed

when is the last time you heard the word ‘hullaballoo’ ? (and what, pray tell, is ’scratchitti’?)

..near our new home a few days ago, i saw the following headline on a chinese english-language newspaper:

New hope for infant abandoned to her fate
source: global times, feb 8 2010, comments by guo qiang

Legal action is being sought against a father who abandoned his newborn daughter because she suffers from birth defects, leaving her to die. The girl, who suffers from a kidney defect, heart disease and a malformed rectum, was said to be doing well in a Beijing hospital Sunday, and doctors said her defects can be successfully treated, according to Chen Lan, who helped move the girl from the Tianjin hospice, where she was abandoned, to the hospital.

Chen is among those pressuring the father to fulfill his paternal responsibilities. The 10-day-old girl was abandoned January 25 because the family reportedly didn’t believe she could be cured and hoped to see her die without further suffering, the father told authorities. link to full article

this is one of those usually-not-talked-about-in-public subjects, so what a surprise to see this article, especially as the headline of a nationally distributed newspaper!

of course the abandonment of a special needs child is not in itself news, at least not to us.. but what was of interest was some of the insights gained from the varied reaction to this story:

most heartening are the individuals mentioned in this story that have chosen to advocate for ‘little hope’ in such a public way (including the management of this newspaper that agreed to publish this so prominently).. no doubt this kind of publicity will even stir the hearts of many others to advocate on behalf of other children like ‘little hope’.. from the article:

The plight of the newborn baby triggered a strong backlash among the public with some calling the girl’s parents inhumane and saying the baby girl deserved her right to live

others, however, are voicing differing views.. also from the article:

others have called for understanding over the parents’ decision.. the baby’s uncle told the Tianjin-based Morning Post that “the girl’s parents have borne tremendous pressure and they are on the verge of collapse.” “How could outsiders understand the feelings of the baby’s family,” the uncle said. “..We are trying to hide the truth from the baby’s mother. We have no other choice because we have to think about the young mother who has to bear the combination of the agony of giving birth and suffering from such a heavy blow.”

most revealing, however, are the results from a poll taken from a rather large sampling on a popular internet portal:

A poll conducted by Sina.com showed that, as of Sunday, more than 80 percent of 22,819 respondents said the father’s actions were understandable because the family didn’t want to see the girl suffer unnecessarily.”

ultimately, this speaks of the value that we all put upon life, upon the life of one single child born with a broken body.. the article states that the cost for treating little hope would be somewhere around $6,000 to $7,000 USD..

after spending a week or so with some of the special children we have been privileged to care for, one of our visitors left us with the following observation, “buying something will now always be measured in how many surgeries it could have purchased”

we recently returned home for our first christmas in the states since 2006, and most importantly, to await the birth of our first grandchild.. what a joy it was for all of us to greet caleb on 01-01-2010 (and what a neat birthday for the little fellow!)

this is the way a child is supposed to come into the world – much wanted, eagerly anticipated, prayed for over and over and over again, duly pampered by all his attendants, smothered with multiple displays of affection, and hearing only the melodic and comforting sounds of everyone’s oohs, ahhs and other varied syllables of babytalk-hua

i couldn’t help but think of the many children we have held and helped care for over the last 4 1/2 years whose coming into the world was very different.. what does it do to a child’s spirit when they are born outside of the warm cocoon of affection and love that little caleb was born into? when the first words they hear are those of sorrow, disappointment, fear or even anger? then perhaps there are no sounds, or the sounds of the street, maybe the bustle of a police station, and so their journey begins ..

yet i do believe God has made us resilient creatures, and these wounds can and do heal… what a privilege we have of seeing these wilted spirits begin the process of coming to life and blossom when they are given just a bit of the love and care they were made for!

i don’t know much about ben bernanke (time magazine’s 2009 ‘person of the year’), but i do know a bit about one of the runner-ups..

Runner-Up: The Chinese Worker

from what we see and know, the ‘chinese workers’ for the most part are simple, hard-working individuals that are very eager and grateful to be able to participate in their country’s economic boon.. there is a strong work ethic over here that you can’t help but admire, born at least in part by the fact that they don’t have to look very far back to know of times very different from today (whereas i can barely remember a few comments my grandparents made about great depression days)

also admirable, the chinese worker is not working just for himself and not just for today – most of these workers are sending significant portions of their paychecks home to help families and parents in the villages and rural areas they migrated from, and yet they still manage to save much larger portions of their paycheck than we do in the west..

good move, time magazine (but i’m still not sure about ben bernanke..)

well, here i am again.. apologizing for not following through on my promise to keep this blog active.. but, we have had a lot happening in recent days including relocating from our home of the last 3-1/2 years in beijing to guangzhou in south china (more on our new venture later)

we just arrived in the states a little over 12 hours ago for an extended holiday visit and the birth of our first grandchild (due on christmas day).. its our first christmas home since 2006 and we are really looking forward to being with family and seeing as many of our friends as possible..

what a treat it was just before we left to enjoy a little going-away ‘jiaozi party’ at the healing home a few days ago.. how blessed we are to have the privilege of serving among such a special group of children and staff!

saying our 'good byes' at the healing home

in addition to the majority ‘han’ race, china officially recognizes 56 distinct ethnic minorities (somewhat akin to the ‘american indian’ in the states)

here is a link to a fascinating photo essay of all 56 tribes showing some of the cultural diversity and richness that still exists in china today

for those who may have thought my comment below about beijing controlling the weather a bit extreme, witness the below from the BBC (see the full article and video at the following link):

Scientists ’cause’ Beijing snow
Monday, November 2nd

Chinese meteorologists say they brought about Beijing’s earliest snowfall in a decade, after seeding rain clouds with silver iodide to ease a drought. The Weather Modification Office sprayed clouds with 186 doses of the chemical to bring rain for the wheat crop, the Beijing Evening News said. But the arrival of a cold front caused heavy snow to fall, disrupting road, rail and air travel. Cloud seeding is often used in China in an attempt to bring on rain. The country’s north is prone to droughts, while the south is often flooded.

regardless of the cause, this was quite a surprise for us to wake up under a blanket of white this early in the year (nov 1st) ! needless to say, sarah and the other children here had a blast..

here is a neat 360 degree view of ‘downtown’ beijing during the national day parade.. it gives a really good view of the center of the city that has been our home for the last 3-1/2 years, with a couple of exceptions – the blue skies and white fluffy clouds are something we rarely see (yes, beijing can even control the weather, seriously), and there are usually many more cars and people around

beijing 360

although the big event last thursday (october 1st) was limited to around 200,000 spectators, the decorations and many of the floats were left in place for the public to visit afterwards.. janice, sarah and i came into the city for a few days during the holiday week, and sunday afternoon i decided to venture out to tiananmen square

now, i’ve been to tiananmen quite a few times, but never have i seen anywhere near this many people.. there was definitely no limit on the number of visitors on this day!

in spite of the jostle and press, the people for the most part seemed quite happy, festive and proud of their country’s achievements here at the republic’s 60th birthday party..

for us, it’s quite interesting as ‘laowai’ (foreigners) to observe and experience the patriotic expressions of a country other than our own.. and although we were clearly outsiders at this party, we certainly were never made to feel unwelcome.. (and no, i wasn’t being escorted below.. i took advantage of the photo-op and jumped between these two guys)

each of the 34 provinces and special regions of china were represented by floats at the parade, and these floats were left parked in tiananmen for all to view.. i’m guessing it has some kind of historical significance, but i was nevertheless a bit surprised to see a christian church on aomen’s float (macau)..

the big news here in beijing, yea, in all of china, is the upcoming 60th anniversary celebration of the founding of the peoples republic of china (1949-2009)

this is indeed, a major happening, in some ways bigger than the 2008 summer olympics.. its my understanding that ‘60′ is a significant number in the culture here (we would place more emphasis on 50, or 75, for example).. if the olympics was china’s coming out party, this event is china’s self confidently taking its seat among the super-powers of the world today

in the weeks and days leading to october 1st we have seen some really serious security over here.. checkpoints at all roads leading into the city, a ‘lock down’ on the city during event rehearsals, and even bans on kite flying and pigeons! those lucky enough to have windows or balconies overlooking chang’an avenue have even received official letters warning them not to open windows, step onto the balconies or invite friends over for parties..

the security has even reached out here to our humble little village 45 minutes south of the city, although its a bit more relaxed compared to what you would see in the city..

security checkpoint here outside our compound

as far as the event itself, we of course will not be able to get anywhere near, this party is ‘by invitation only’ for a hand-picked couple of hundred thousand (out of beijing’s 13-14 million), but like most, we will be in front of our TV watching..