HO HO HO, COUGH COUGH COUGH

Note:

I haven’t blogged much lately. Why you ask. Maybe you don’t ask but it is because of a woman. An amazing woman I started hanging out with and eventually fell in love with her. So who writes blogs when they are happy and exploring an amazing place with someone they care about. I had no time for blogging when I was busy living! Now she has moved back to the US to start a new job with the hope that job will lead her back to Beijing so for now I have time on my hands. I could spend that time going to bars and trying to forget that I miss her but instead I will try to be somewhat productive and engaged with my life in Beijing.

The stockings were all hung from the chimney with care, 

In hopes in the future we can still breathe the air. 

With apologies to Henry Livingston. 

I was in the US during the holidays, the first time back since moving to Beijing almost a year ago. Of course seeing family and a few friends was wonderful and the usual feelings of homesickness were present. I missed the warm weather (California had a warms spell during the holidays with temps in the 70s during the day). I missed the ocean and of course my family. Coming back home during the holidays also put a spotlight on one thing I had not thought about for some time. Consumption!

Wow everybody buying last minute Christmas presents. I thought that mall crowds would be much easier to take after living in a big city like Beijing where there are crowds for everything. I was wrong! After living away for a time, seeing the mad dash for buying everything you can get your hands on was strange to me. I had never looked at it with fresh eyes before. I started to want to rebel against it. I saw it everywhere.

I visited my brother’s house for Christmas. He has a large beutiful house but since he has four boys it seems reasonable. His wife has a penchant for decorating. Christmas seems to bring that out in heaps. There were stockings everywhere, a huge grouping of Santas wearing gold robes that covered a huge area, a huge Christmas tree with every inch covered with ribbons, ornaments etc. There were so many decorations in this one house that if you took them all and put them in a department store you would think…Wow they really did it up for Christmas! It was a winter wonderland. As I looked around it hit me! Is this is the reason I am breathing all that smog!!! Most of this stuff is probably made in China’s factories! Making the world look Christmasy is killing my lungs and those of millions of Chinese people! Then I turned inward. I brought a huge suitcase full of presents for each member of my huge family. All this consumption is causing the pollution I see the smog from my balcony every morning yet it also makes it possible for me to be able to afford giving presents to my family. I had found myself facing a huge quandary.  I have a job because of China’s financial success. That success thrives on the production of good ranging from technology to cheap crap that people want. That success is causing a dangerously unhealthy environment. Talk about being caught in the middle! I AM the middleman! I am part of the problem!

As American as Apple products. 

Here I am in the US. Buying things that were made in China and shipped over to the US to take back to use in China. Electronics are more expensive in China. For example the top level Ipad2 is about 118.00 more in Beijing than in California. They are made in China but consumers there have to pay an import tax because it is an American company I guess. Note: I am not an economist or even close. I can barely balance my checkbook so this is guesswork on the why part. Much of what is made in China is made purely for export so even if it is made here you can’t always buy it here.

You can’t forget the Chinese population here either. Now that they are starting to earn more money, they want to buy useless stuff just like we do! They want the newest and best gadgets in fact I am amazed at how many of my co-workers have the latest iphones, ipads, macbook air laptops etc. I could swear I heard a nation wide sob when Steve Jobs passed away! As the Chinese wage grows they will be wanting more and more. China is the largest exporter in the world but they are also the second largest importer of goods. This is confusing to me because it seems like everything is made here. What is left to import? I will have to look into that later. According to a website for Global Source, a business media company, China exports everything from Apple product to Whole foods 365 Organic products. When ABC news spotlighted that fact the store had a simple explanation, food doesn’t have to be grown in the US to be labeled “organic”. I remember a big uproar a few years ago when it was made known that millions of dollars worth of American flags were imported from China, Taiwan and South Korea. Even the new M.L. King monument in DC was made in China.

Sensory overload!

A visit to the Japanese store Ito Yokado in Beijing is a good entre into the desire for consumables. This is a four-story department story with a supermarket on the basement level. You walk in and are overcome with deafening music, people yelling at you to buy this and that. If you walk up to look at anything, you are instantly set upon by a sales representative talking to you in Mandarin at a very fast pace. I assume they are trying to tell me how good the product I am looking at is. Usually I say thanks and walk away but sometimes I wish I could just look at something in peace. I wonder how this strategy works for them. Maybe having someone come up to you and start yelling at you about how good a product is works for people in China but for me it’s a big turn off. It is worse in the supermarket section. In some isles there are two women standing like sentinels at the opening and as you approach they strike holding out some soap or liquid something and yelling at you to buy buy buy!! I think the real reason Gung fu started in China was to survive a day at the supermarket! There are times when I just turn around and walk out. I remind myself that one has to prepare for a trip to this store. Meditation, stretching, listening to whale sounds are a good start then some shadow boxing to practice defensive moves to fend off the soap sellers. Warm up preparation has to be built into the shopping experience!

So should I be trying to promote less consumption which would be essentially be risking my future employment? Should I be selfish and hope for more consumption so I can make more money for a long life in a world that has air you can’t breathe? What to do? I want clean air, I want money, I want a future for my children and grandchildren. Is there a way to have it all? I guess I could watch my consumption, hope that the Chinese government will take the steps they have said they would to help the pollution problem and hope that people around the world will also see that moderation may be a good idea. What is that saying, everything in moderation? 

Christmas time in Shanghai