Acupuncture part 2 -Mind over fire needle

I have been going to acupuncture at the Sino Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing for two weeks now. I have seen some dramatic differences in my knee. Even the way it looks. It used to only have a few small holes from repeated arthroscopic surgeries. Now it has like a million little holes in it! Remember those cartoons where someone gets shot and they laughingly say “Ha ya missed me”. Then they drink a glass of water and it pours out from hundreds of holes? I am a little afraid that will happen.

But seriously; I am trying out a new attitude on the whole pain thing. I am trying to embrace my fire needle experience with a more positive attitude. I have to believe it will work. I have one of the best doctors in Beijing in Dr. Bai and they have used these techniques for thousands of years. Well maybe not the ones where they put 30 needles in my leg and apply electricity to them to make my muscles do the Macarena but the other techniques have been around for a long time.

I am reminded of a series of tapes I listened to. Brian Tracy , was the business self help guru on the tapes and he stated that you have to make thoughts and affirmations from a positive approach. Like if you want to eat better for instance you have to tell yourself I only eat food that it good for me as opposed to saying I don’t eat fast food because it is bad for me. He and others say that your subconscious will take that information and help you get what you want. OK Steven Covey, Joe Vitale, Wayne W. Dyer and all you guys. I hope you know what you’re talking about. I am now trying this technique on my acupuncture. When they are about to stick a hot lawn dart into my leg in about 40 places, I tell my self It feels good. IT FEELS GOOD. IT FEELS GOOD. THIS IS SO GOOD FOR ME! I LOVE GETTING JABBED BY SHARP HOT NEEDLES. I LOVE TO SOUND OF A RED HOT NEEDLE WHEN IT GOES INTO MY FLESH!!!!!!!!!!!!  They say picturing success is a good idea. I picture myself walking with no pain. I picture being able to walk long distances or even running. Hey this is working. Now I am running on the beach. Hey a beautiful woman in a flowing white dress is running toward meEEYOWEEE SWEET BABY JESUS THAT HIT A NERVE!!!!!! OK I need more practice but the technique is working. The pain seems less when they stab at me. I have to practice to focus more and stay positive.

The regular patients are forming into a little family of needle heads. The other day I was getting my hot stone massage before the needling. It felt a little different but I couldn’t see anything because I was face down on the table. Then the person doing the massage said something to me in Chinese and I looked around to find that it was one of the other patients who was doing the massage. She was helping out the doctor. Hmm I thought? Then the other day after my timer went off she came over and turned off the timer and started pulling the needles out of my leg. Hmm I thought again. Then I saw her sitting next to the doctor while she consulted with a patient. She seemed to be consulting with the doctor and offering advice. It is not uncommon for the patients to pitch in. They may hold the lamp with the flame for the fire needle or change the bed after a patient is finished.

Yesterday I was lying there and again my timer went off and the same woman along with another came over and started to do the wrap up. One was pulling a heater cart away and caught the wires that were connected to the plethora of needles in my knee. The wires tightened and started to bend the needles. My new caretaker caught it and kept it from becoming a scene from a three stooges movie. She stated to remove the needles in my knee and leg. She said something in Mandarin and I caught a few words. It sounded like you have good leg chicken? It turns out the word for muscle is the same as the word for chicken. Chicken meat is Jī ròu the word for muscles is Jī ròu but the first character in the written language is different. So she either said I had nice leg muscles or my legs look like chicken meat. Sometimes a little knowledge is scary. I must have looked confused as the other woman made a gesture indicating it was the muscle thing.

I am feeling more strength in my muscles around my knee, one in particular, which atrophied a few years ago after surgery number two. It just seems like no matter what I did, I couldn’t build it back up. When the needles are inserted an inch and a half into my muscles, I feel an energy like they are working even though they are just lying there. At the end of a session I feel like I ran a marathon. (like I know what that feels like) They feel exhausted but somehow energized. I think this is worth continuing and committing to it.

This morning I really focused on the positive thinking thing and even though she was inserting that fire needle into the spaces around my knee joint, it wasn’t that bad. Maybe next time I visualize the woman running on the beach in slow motion she won’t be carrying a sharp spear. 

Dr. Bai on the left is one of Beijing's top acupuncturists. People come from all over the world to study with her. Yoon Ji Young (Xiao Jing)  is here from Korea to learn from Dr. Bai. She is holding the lamp where the fire needle is heated up. 

I call these the friendly needles. They are thin and are are not inserted too deeply.

This is the fire needle. It is thicker and often heated with a flame. Sometimes it is heated until red hot. It can be inserted one and a half inches into the muscle etc.

This is the resting position when all the needles are in, some light electric current gets the muscles jumpin' and there is heat applied to the knee. I sometimes fall asleep when in this stage. Note the needle just above the knee cap is pretty deep!

On pins and fire needles. Acupuncture in Beijing

The pain in my knee has become unbearable because of the amount of walking I do here.  Living an active life when I was younger was great but I have been paying the toll for that lately. I tore my meniscus playing tennis years ago. I got it repaired and the doc told me to keep doing what I was doing as my knee would be as good as new. So 8 months after the surgery I went skiing, I took my first turn and when I felt no pain I was off. I had the best day of skiing in my life as the recovery and therapy had made my legs strong and I was in shape from tons of bike riding. At the end of the day I hit a patch of “Sierra cement “ a slushy thick heavy snow that is very good at catching edges and the knee went again. Surgery number two was an odd thing. I woke up in the middle of the procedure and heard hammering. I could see my knee moving with each strike. I asked the doctor and before he could say much the nice man with the pain meds put me back out. My knee hasn’t been right since. Now I have had two more surgeries and have places where bone is touching bone.

I refused to sit around with my knee up and miss all that China has to offer. I hate feeling limited but that is where I am so I have learned to live with daily pain and just try to deal with it. Some days are better than others. I decided that since acupuncture has been around for thousands of years, I should give it a try here where the masters are.

Acupuncture in the US was a pleasant experience. Long very thin needles are placed just below the surface of the skin and once they are in the pain is non-existent. I found it relaxing even. That was what I was expecting here in China. I headed off to my hospital where they have a master acupuncturist Dr. Bai who is world renown. With an open mind and hope in my heart that they could do something for me. Dr. Bai had me get x-rays and looked them over with a lot of head shaking and uttered grunts that didn’t sound particularly good.  

She said through an interpreter that she could see why I was in so much pain. She then repeatedly scolded me for being so fat. She made gestures that fat equals knee pain and skinny equals no pain. Maybe it is because there is a language gap but she seemed to repeat that over and over. I GET IT!!! The funny thing is a lot of the weight gain is because of the knee problems. I had to give up tennis, skiing and other sports I used to like to do years ago and that would bring more weight. I got into sea kayaking in a serious way for years to stay active and that helped a bit but it is a constant battle.

The treatment started immediately. She pulled out a needle that was very different than the ones I have seen before. The needle was almost as thick as a dart.  I was thinking all you need is some feathers and this thing would work in the pub. Fire Needle she said! Then she lit an oil lamp and put the needle into the flame. Then she jabbed it into my knee way deeper than I would have thought and she moves it around. I am a little shocked but then she quickly started to stick and move all over my leg.  The procedure is a might more violent than my friendly acupuncturists back home would do. The needle goes in at different depths from a quarter of an inch to an inch and a half. She moves around poking, wiping the blood and moving on. She had me lie down on my stomach and poked the back of my legs. At one point she hit a nerve and it felt like someone had plugged the needle into the house current . I think my quote was something like yiiiiiiieeeeeeeeowwweeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As I felt my body leave the table. She communicates with a few words in English and a few slaps to the body. She is probably best described as a combination of drill sgt. and strict grandmother.

After about 35 minutes of this I got some ointment on my legs then under the heat lamp for cooking. In acupuncture, there is a lot of talk of meridians in your body and Qi (prounounced chi) moving around and I don’t know if any of that is true but I definitely felt my qi doing a serious reorganization.  The doctor said I need many treatments at 5 to 600 kuai a shot. Wow I get to be poked and get to pay for it as well?? Sign me up!

On my second visit a very nice young Korean girl was to help me. She is a student of the Master Bai. Her Chinese nickname is Xiao Ying. She started with a leg massage with warm oil and a hot iron. Ahh I thought they give you pain first, then, make you feel better with the more gentle approach. My young doctor has a great smile and speaks English. She is kind and checks to see if I am comfortable. She does some of the fire needle work but somehow it doesn’t seem to hurt as much as last time. Every time she does something she asks if I am ok. Sure thanks!.. Then she tells me that she is going to do blood cupping. In my blissed out state I say sure why not. I have had cupping before and it was a pretty relaxing experience. Then she gets closer to me and says in a whisper. This is going to hurt.  I just smile and… WHAT?? Then she jabs me about 8 times behind the knee with the fire needle and sticks a flame into a glass ball and attaches that over the fresh puncture wounds. Then she does the same to the other leg.  What happened to god cop bad cop?? 

Xiao Ying The smile helps with the pain.

Blood cupping.

Soon my friend Craig sticks his head in and asks how I am doing. A Chinese man also pops his head in and they both start commenting on the color of my blood, which is pooling in the glass cups. Apparently the other man who is a cab driver was commenting that it wasn’t black as often is the case.  Soon they are having a conversation about me and realize oh yea this is China. There is no privacy here. I think mostly because it is a crowded country. Privacy takes space. All of the patients in the room know what is going on with the other patients. Them or their family will walk up while the doctor is working on you and ask what is going on. What’s wrong with him? It is something you just have to get used to. One woman is here because of facial paralysis and she gets needles in the face to the point where she looks like a porcupine in love. She has been coming for almost a year and has had some new movement in her face.

The jury will be out for a while on whether this works but I am giving it a good run to see what happens. My attempts with western cures haven’t been much help. They seem too quick to do surgery for everything. I read that results from having meniscus surgery aren’t very different from those who just rested and did physical therapy. I have had cortisone shots, hyaluronic acid injections and who knows what and they didn’t help much.

There are several aspects to the Traditional Chinese Medicine that I have seen and experiences so far.

Gua Sha

First is body scraping or Gua Sha . In this procedure the skin is rubbed vigorously with a soft edged instrument and blood will rise to the surface to promote healing and also to show where there may be problems. A friend of mine has that done quite a bit and at one point Dr. Bai asked him if he had gotten drunk in the last week. Apparently the skin over his liver was showing signs. This is not painful but is kind of irritating. They scrape and scrape and the skin gets a bit tender.

Cupping

In cupping, glass balls are heated by a flame and instantly put on the skin forming a suction. This is supposed to draw toxins to the surface, improve blood flow and open obstructions that may hinder the flow of energy. Mostly it is done after scraping here but sometimes they also poke holes first to draw blood.  You can recognize when someone has had cupping by the large hickies on their backs. 

Video of blood cupping

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If that doesn't work here is a link to the video http://youtu.be/6QJXBPI7tjA

Fire Needle

As said above a tungsten needle is heated sometimes until red hot and then inserted which is a nicer way to say plunged into your body. The needle is often rotated around or pulled to the side while inserted. Often you can see people who have had extensive treatments on their necks because of the scars on the back of their necks. In my case they will go between the knee joint and I can feel it touch the bone.

I have had all three of these done so far and mostly it seems to help. I can feel when the fire needle hits the muscle and when it hits a nerve. I can feel more movement of energy. It may or may not work but I want to believe that it will because some days the pain is significant. If anything my body may just make itself better out of fear of the fire needle!! Ok Ok I will get better just stop jabbing me already!!!  The sight of is isn’t for those with weak constitutions. At first it is shocking to see someone getting worked on. Sometimes you hear someone cry out in pain. Westerners would never stand for this because we are used to an approach that is more painless. So for now I will submit myself to acutorture for a bit. Maybe it will be good for building character.  I do know that Dr Bai has taught many acupuncturists from all over the world and many still come to intern for her. She gets results. 

When I got to work after one particularly grueling session with the fire needle I happened on photo of Slaysha Randall attempting to beat the record for most body piercings in a single sitting. She was aiming for 3600 piercings but stopped at 3200 since she had broken the record of 3100. All of a sudden the fire needle didn’t seem that bad.

 

Suzhou and the etiquette of Gan Bei!

You hear so much about different cities and people argue about which one is more beautiful or more grand or maybe more peaceful. Cities have interesting sayings that try to capture your interest. Almost like slogans to entice you to come and visit and spend money. They have to do that I guess but after a while you become jaded to the hype. These slogans usually written by some office of tourism or city agency no matter how clever or well thought out often fall deaf to the ears of seasoned travelers or just cynical people. Suzhou is no different. In fact the sayings associated with Suzhou are pretty good. Up in the sky there is heaven, on earth there is Suzhou and Hangzhou .  That is a pretty bold statement when you consider the size of China and the many beautiful places that live within its borders. 

Suzhou is an ancient city, built in 514 BC. Marco Polo passed through it while on the Silk road. Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War in Suzhou when it was the kingdom of Wu.  The city is famous for it’s beautiful gardens and rich history but with any city, the thing that will bring people back is the experience they have while there.  My Suzhou experience was unique. Invited with several other photographers to photograph their city, I was given a little more special treatment than the average tourist. Starting with a banquet on my first night where I learned about the hospitality of Suzhou. Our host offered us an amazing meal of dishes typical of the area. It was at that banquet where I learned the custom of toasting with bai jiu a strong alcohol and the true meaning of Gan Bei.

When our host stood up to toast everyone I couldn’t understand a word he was saying but as a polite foreigner, I followed suit and drank from the thimble sized glass. Easy enough I thought. Then I noticed our host toasting individuals at the table. I thought to myself, this guy is going to have to drink a lot if he keeps this up. Soon he decides that the small glass isn’t appropriate for some reason and takes up a small wine glass full of the clear potent drink and toasted another person. Soon he stood up and shouted from across the table. Miker! My name is Michael but that is close here. He lifted his glass and I knew I had to respond in kind. I reached for the small glass, eyed him quickly and he shook me off like a baseball catcher shakes off a pitcher. I reach for the larger glass and he nods in approval. The curve ball eh. I raise my glass and before we drink he announces that we will gan bei I don’t know many Mandarin words but I have learned that it means bottoms up. Gan Bei literally means dry cup. 

Gan Bei!!

Ok liver, I know you won’t like this but I can‘t be rude. We both drink then he shows me the glass as if to prove that it is empty so I do the same. The whole table applauds and with that one small act I realize that I am part of the group even though I don’t know anyone really and no one speaks English. Soon I find out that the tradition holds that you have to toast with everyone at the table. We had about 20 people there and soon I realized that it was going to be a long night. We toasted with little glasses and larger ones always showing proof that the gan bei was respected. Even though I understood very little of what was said I found myself laughing and very much a part of the evening. One of the photographers stood up and did some sort of skit that looked like a cross between Peeking opera and SNL. He had the whole room in stitches and I found myself laughing along even though I couldn’t understand what he was saying. One by one everyone came up to me to toast often more than once.  I was struck by how easy it is for me to feel at home in China despite the fact that almost everything is foreign to me. For a foreigner alone in China, it means more to me than I sometimes realize.

Suzhou may be a destination spot because of it’s history or canals but there is something less tangible that struck me. There is a feeling in Suzhou; a feeling that they care about how people live. There is a peaceful easy sensation that makes you feel relaxed and at home. Maybe it is the way people smile when you talk to them. As I visited the Ding Hui Temple, I met 80 year old year Han Chow Yun who works there. I asked if I could take her photo and her smile lit up the morning.

I think you can often get the feel of a place by how it’s elderly live. If they are happy, that tends to make me think it is a good place to live. I was taken to the Er Lang Xiang community rest home where they provide health services to the elderly of the area. They can exercise, have their blood pressure checked and get foot massages. There is also an area where they can take in oxygen and relax on comfortable chairs in a quiet room.  The only cost to them is for meals. There were several women working out but one in particular caught my eye. She was Lu Zong Zhen age 93. I was told that she exercises regularly. She gladly showed off here abilities on a machine that exercises arms and shoulders.

Artists, musicians and craftsmen abound in Suzhou and the government provides space for them to paint in the Suzhou Artist Palace. There they practice traditional paintings. Or play music for the elderly. Beautiful places inspire beautiful art.

Suzhou seems to have a remarkable amount of dishes that they are known for. Every meal was delicious and balanced with fish, fresh vegetables and a few reptiles thrown in for good measure. The Heng Jie market is a good place to go find those local delicacies. On my last day in Suzhou, I attended yet another banquet. There were so many dishes to chose from and I relied on my interpreter to tell me what I was about to eat. One dish was put in front of me and I asked her what it was. Chicken she said. It was the most delicious chicken I had ever had. A few minutes later, she corrected herself. Uh not chicken…..Turtle.  Just then the lazy Susan spun to me with a large turtle shell in a dish. I just thought…. Mike, today we are trying new things. 

A beautiful golden Buddha at Ding Hui Temple in Suzhou.

One of Suzhou's friendly people 80 year old Han Chow Yun works at the Ding Hui Temple.

The skilled hand of Calligrapher Yan Lisheng at work.

Yan Lisheng made this scroll for me. It translates roughly to Truth follows the way of nature.

Li Wen Da age 80 relaxes and reads the paper while taking Oxygen at the Er Lang Xiang Community Rest Home in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province.

With Suzhou's relaxing air, it's always a good time to catch a nap. This vender was selling chickens and took advantage of a lull in business to rest.

The Ruiguang Pagoda at Panmen Gate stands 43.2 meters and is known as the Pagoda of Auspicious Light.

Lu Zong Zhen age 93 exercises at the Er Lang Xiang Community Rest Home in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province.

Good People

I have always been lucky in one area of life and that is meeting and making friends with amazing people. Friends that make my life better even when they are thousands of miles away. Even here in China in a short time I have met new friends who I can’t imagine life without.  Sometimes it is difficult for us to tell people how we feel or that we care about them. Sometimes you just put it off for later. Sometimes you are having too much fun to stop and have a serious conversation.

I had a friend who had a great joy for life. He was crazy and fun and a joy to be around. He had an ever-present smile with just the right amount of devilish sparkle in his eyes. He was stricken by cancer and in a very short time passed on. I was lucky to be able to spend a lot of time with him in his last days and at one point during Christmas he was too weak to put together his son’s bike. I came over and with him lying on the floor we assembled the bike. Even in his weak state. Bob was trying to take control. He would tell me the directions say to put bolt a onto socket b etc etc. I wanted to just ignore most of the directions because I am a man but I realized that I was just being his hands in this situation. He wanted so bad to put the bike together and probably realized that this was his last Christmas with his son.

That was such a memorable night because even though his body was wracked by pain he was laughing and I felt like I shared a great moment with him. I recalled years of his company and the way he always made people laugh. I decided that I would write him a letter to tell him what a great man I thought he was and how honored I was to be one of his many friends. I sent the letter and he died soon after. His wife told me that he was too weak when my letter came and he never got to read it. After that, I told myself that I was going to be better about appreciating the people I really care about and letting them know. I miss you Bob Ivins.

This week the world lost two people who I thought were class acts. Burl Stiff was the long-time society writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a dapper gent, small in stature but large in influence. As a photojournalist, the last thing you want to shoot is a society party. The shots were simple, people holding drinks and smiling at the camera. A trained monkey could do it. Burl realized that we didn’t like shooting that kind of thing and tried to make it as painless and quick as possible. What he didn’t realize is that he made them fun. He knew everything about the rich and powerful of La Jolla and Rancho Santa Fe. He would throw out tidbits of information about the highbrow guests that would make it less painful to shoot. He always appreciated the photo department and every year at Christmas, he would give us each a bottle of good booze. That got pretty expensive when the staff reached 42 one year. Later after many of us told him he didn’t need to do that, he just brought a box of good chocolates up to the photo lab.

John Kulkin also worked at the UT and was a gentle soul with a huge heart and epitomized the word class. He always had a welcoming smile and in his duties had to ask the photo desk for favors. His battle with cancer was a long one but he always seemed to have a positive outlook. He never seemed to let it get to him even and I was humbled by his bravery. His cancer was in remission for a long time and hearing that it came back and claimed him was a shock. I wish I knew him better but am grateful for the “away from work” conversations we had. He was a musician and an artist and his absence leaves a great hole in the universe. He will be missed by so many.

Being so far away from home and hearing news like this is difficult. I lost my Aunt since I was here and hated that fact I couldn’t be there for my mom and the family. But even at great distances it only takes a moment to stop and think about a good memory or just try to see someone’s face in your mind.  It is a good reminder to live life to its fullest and appreciate the people that make the world a better place. It can be so easy to take them for granted.

Character Development

I met Gong Zhen Shan at a park near the China Art museum. He was writing Chinese characters with water on the walkway of the park. Using a long stick with a foam brush on the end he created beautiful characters. When I walked up with a friend he was writing a message that translated roughly to peace for the four seasons. I started to photograph him at work and he asked where I was from. When he found out I was American (Meguo ren), he wrote a message that said welcome to my American friend. I have learned how to ask for names Ni jiao shenma? He wrote it in Pinyan cursive. He asked my name and my friend told him my Chinese name which is Mai Bao Fu. Which means Wheat, Treasure, Blessing. They often try to find a name that sounds like your English name. Michael (Mai) Paul (Bau) Franklin (Fu). Older Chinese people really seem to like that name because it is a prosperous name.  He wrote the characters so I could see how my name looks. He then offered me the brush and asks me to try. I told him I haven’t written characters before but he is insistent. I try to copy his strokes and a passer by reads them as I write. Mai Bao Fu. Mine don’t look anywhere as nice as his but his smile tells me that he is pleased that I tried. He then wrote Fu once more very large. He gestured in a way that said big. I asked my friend what he was saying and she told me he was wishing me great blessings.

Characters are very important in China, not just because they are the basis for the language but they say a lot about the history and culture of China. Whey they are written by a true artist like Mr. Gong, they say a lot about life. There is a respect for each stroke. They are beautiful and meaningful. There is a scene in the Chinese movie Hero where the Nameless character asks Broken Sword to write the character for sword. By the way he writes the character, Nameless will know how to defeat him. The scene shows Broken Sword writing a huge character and it is like a dance with the brush and paint.

I was struck by how precise Mr. Gong was with each stroke performed in the exact order prescribed by custom. But even in that precision, there is art and interpretation that is from his own hand. It is obvious that he has written each character thousands of times in his life every time trying to make them more perfect. Writing his messages on the ground with water makes them alive. They are born from his hand,  there for the universe to see and they fade away but leave a mark on a visitor, a stranger to him but one who is grateful for the chance to meet an artist and share even a few moments in peace and understanding. I am always reminded that in China, you never know what the day will bring. I am completely connected every day. Something I had lost a little in the U.S. Maybe China was what I needed to take me out of my comfort zone and into a rediscovery of who I am.  When we discover something, the first thing we do is give it a name. I was given my Chinese name by co-workers. It was nice but didn’t feel real until I saw Gong Zhen Shan write it in his way. 

Gong Zhen Shan

Character for Peace.

My Chinese name in Characters.

You try!. Photo by Liu Zhe

Photo by Liu Zhe

The master on top, my feeble attempt at the bottom. Ok so I need a lot of practice.

Say Eggplant

So I am not sure where the habit of asking people to say cheese started in the U.S. to make people smile for photos. I am sure it was some frustrated photographer who had to shoot some stiff businessman and the art director said we really need a photo of him smiling. The businessman probably never smiled in his life. I can see the photographer trying everything. Witty repartee,  talking about his kids, funny stories and nothing worked. Then it came to him! Have him say cheese! That will make the corners of his grouchy mouth go up! Genius! I can see that passing on though the network of photographers. Spreading like wildfire. The miracle for getting people to smile! Well there may be a different story but that’s the one that sounds good in my imagination.

I read a book years ago about Russian photographers which when translated into English was titled Cheesers. It got that title not because of a literal translation but because it is from a word that they say to make people smile because saying the word makes your lips go up at the ends. Unfortunately I have forgotten the word and when I have tried to look it up it comes in Cyrillic, which I have even more trouble trying to read than Mandarin characters. Anyway the book was a fascinating account of Russian photographers who formed a society that they called Cheesers. They found ways to document life in Russia and sneak photos out past the censors to show the world true Russian life instead of what the Kremlin wanted people to see.

I started to wonder what photographers in other countries say to make people smile so I got on the trusty internet and found a thread on WordReference.com here area a few responses from random countries.

Catelan - Louis  pronounced  loo ees

Czech -there is a Czech phrase "Vyletí ptáček!" (or "Pozor, vyletí ptáček").

It means "(attention,) a birdie will fly out". But it is usually used for attracting the attention of little children and they usually do not smile.

Buenos Aires -Digan Whiskeeeeey!

Brazil -They mostly say Xis (pronounced shees), which is how we pronounce the letter x in Portuguese

France -the most common is "ouistiti !" which means marmoset

Bulgarian- зеле (zele) - literally "cabbage".

We also generally say: 'Look at the birdie' (Kijk naar het vogeltje), but do not make them pronounce any words. (We know that does not help ;-)

(I do use a trick like the Turks, counting 1-2-3 and then going on, jumping to irregular numbers. That always helps produce a very natural smile...)

Turkish -we go for: 333 which is pronounced: üç yüz otuz üç!

The Estonian version makes absolutely no sense at all. We say "Hernesupp!", which just means "Pea soup!"

So I bet you are wondering what they say in China. Well they use “Say Eggplant!” Eggplant is not only a tasty meal here but it is handy for making people smile. 茄子 pronounced roughly like Chiezuh. Some of the younger Chinese just say cheese. As a photographer I don’t always want people to smile for portraits but it is handy to know what to say to get that smile if you need it. Usually though all I have to do is try to speak Mandarin and not only do I get a smile but often a big laugh. I never realized I was so funny in China….Wait, they are laughing with me right not at me??

One photographer who has photographed more smiles than probably anyone in China is Wang Wenlan. He is a revered and maybe the most well-known newspaper photographer in China. He has spent most of his life documenting life in houtongs and the ubiquitous Bejing bicycle. He has published several books and seems to be one of the happiest men I have met. He is always smiling. You can tell he loves his job. He is sought after by camera makers to test out their new cameras. He invited me to his home for an end of spring festival lunch with some of his friends. He is a gracious host and carries himself with an aire of dignity and experience. I hope to learn from his work while I am here but so much of what he has photographed has all but disappeared which makes his photographs an even more important record of China’s ever changing landscape.

All photos © Michael Paul Franklin. 

You don't even need teeth to have a good smile.

The more the merrier

Super famous newspaper photographer Wang Wenlan

Some people don't like cheese or eggplant.

Mandarin, language the N-word and Antelope heads

After a short time in Beijing I started to notice that people use a word that sounds way too close to the shortened version of the N-word. At first you just think…Naw…. I must be hearing things: then you begin to hear it everywhere. Once you start hearing it you notice it all the time. It is hard to deal with. People start off sentences with it, they use it in the middle at the end in between words. I start to wonder if they picked it up from some movie that was popular in China.

What the heck is going on? I thought. It was disturbing and after I noticed it I started to hear it in almost every conversation. It is a difficult thing to get used to. One of the advantages of being new and pretty much ignorant is that you can ask questions about almost anything without feeling more embarrassed than usual. So I ask one of my Chinese co-workers. She tells me that it is actually the word Nage, which is pronounced like Nayga and it means that but is often used at the start of the sentence like we would use well. It is also used as a space filler like um. With the Beijing accent, it sounds like nigga but barely pronouncing the i. They have another word that they use a lot which is Zhege which means this but is also often a space filler. It is pronounced like Jegga said quickly.

OK so now I know that people aren’t trying to be racist or pretending to be hip hop. But it still isn’t easy to get used to. A friend of mine who has lived in Beijing for a little over a year told me “ Yep that one is about a 6 month-er. Meaning it will take 6 months before I stop having a reaction to hearing it. It would be very difficult for an African American to hear that every day all day and maintain a smile.

Interesting how events bring you back to situations you have put out of your mind a long time ago. I was in San Diego at my favorite coffee shop and an older Asian woman hurried into the shop with a young, very angry African American man right behind her. He was saying something to her and it was apparent that things weren’t exactly harmonious. Later he returned with another man and stood there staring at her like he wanted to kill her. He asked the barista if she knew the woman. Then he proceeded to say that the woman was crazy and was calling him a nigger. It didn’t make sense. This woman was really scared and small and the man was a large and somewhat scary guy wearing gang colors. I wondered why she would be so bold or stupid to do something like this. I wondered if the guy was just looking for trouble. The police were called and he left. The woman was terrified. She said she didn’t know why they got mad and she was just trying to go to the store.

I had no reason to doubt her and for that matter no reason to doubt the guy who was accusing her of racism but just thought something was really off here. Now months later in Beijing I think I figured it out. She may have just used the Chinese N-word and he took it as a racial slur. Wow how easy it is to have a simple misunderstanding turn into a really bad situation. I had to travel all the way to China to make sense of something that happened months ago in the North Park neighborhood of San Diego.

We give words a lot of power. So much, that we can’t even say them out loud many times: The F-word, The N-word. I wonder if it is a good thing or bad thing. Maybe words need to have that kind of power but sometimes they have so much that they can stop us from seeking understanding. We put them on a shelf or in a safe and just say don’t use them at all. Yet the ones who abuse them still use them all the time. So maybe in an effort to protect people from being hurt by certain words, we stop understanding nuances of the word or words that sound like them.

How do you say….Nice Antelope?

I continue to struggle with the fact that I can’t have a conversation with people I meet. I am curious about everything here and want to ask lots of questions. I mean that is the way all toddlers learn. Ask questions. Lots and lots of questions. Daddy, why is the sky blue, why do dogs have fur, or in a crowded grocery store, WHY IS THAT LADY SO FAT?? Every parent knows what I’m talking about. I want to be that toddler here asking everyone to tell me about China and why they do the things they do.

While walking the other day in the middle of Beijing, I saw a family get out of a cab. They looked like they were coming from a very cold place judging from the amount of fur around their collars. I was guessing Mongolia but who knows. They unload a their luggage from the cab and as they come into full view I notice that they are all pulling the ubiquitous luggage on wheels that you see in every airport. What you don’t see often at least in my experience is what the man was carrying in his other hand. It appeared to be the freshly severed head of a Tibetan Antelope. (Don’t be impressed with my knowledge of antelopes and gazelles just yet, I had to do a search to see what it was later). The head still had its fur and I could see where the bone was sliced cleanly. The horns were impressive black, straight and with a spiral texture. The face looked surprisingly calm considering what must have been the last moment in its life.

There I was standing behind a family waiting for a green light in Beijing and wondering “What the heck?” It’s times like this that my inner toddler is screaming to say, Daddy, why is that man carrying the severed head of a Tibetan Antelope? What is he going to do with it? I imagine the conversation I would have with him if I could speak the language.

Me -                      Good morning sir how are you.

Antelope Man -    Ah good morning to you sir.

Me-    So you live in Beijing?

AM-   No I am just visiting. You?

Me –  Yep I am working and living here but I’m from out of town

AM-  Oh very interesting. How do you like Beijing

Me -  Very nice place.

Pause

Me-   So er I can’t help but notice that you have the severed head of a Tibetan Antelope with you.

What up?

AM-  Oh man! Don’t tell me you haven’t had Antelope head soup yet!!!! It’s the bomb! And so healthy for you. It is way better than monkey brains.

Me-   Why no I can’t say that I have.

AM- You must try it someday it is delicious.

Me- Sounds good hey, gotta run. See you later.

AM – Me too I have to get this in some hot water quickly.

Alternative ending.

Me- What up with the Antelope head?

AM- Oh this old thing? I just like the look of it and always travel with it. It is very handy to have. The horns make good letter openers and it just looks cool over the TV. Someday everyone will have one. Give me your email and I will send you one. I have lots.

Instead my inner toddler had to just wonder what that was all about and wish I spoke more of the language. Weird motivation to learn a language. I downloaded a mandarin program to my I-pod touch and have been trying to learn the useful phrases in the program. You touch the English phrase and it shows you the Chinese characters and the pinyin (pinyin is the phonetic sound written out in the English alphabet) and then a tiny voice comes out of the magic box and says the phrase in Mandarin so you know how to pronounce it. My co-workers were very interested in it and thought it was amazing. I played some of the greatest hits for them. Hello, - Ni hao. Good morning – Tzao shang hao. What is your name? – Ni chiao shen ma ming zih. Don’t shoot! – Beer Kai chiang! And my favorite …Those drugs aren’t mine! –Churh sheer doo Pin bu shih war de! Now if I want to get a laugh out of my co-workers I just press the button on the last one.

I did ask my Chinese co-workers if they might know why a guy would be carrying an antelope head like a briefcase in the middle of the city but they didn’t offer any explanation. They talked among themselves in Mandarin and I heard nigga nigga nigaa mmm maybe just decoration?

Be at peace with your inner toddler

I had mentioned before that I often felt like a large two-year-old because of my lack of language skills in Mandarin and the inability to read signs etc. I had started to feel less of that recently and more like a not-too-smart six-year-old. I have been able to get around pretty well and was feeling very comfortable. Yesterday I regressed back to the former toddler stage. I was taken with Ellen, who arrived about the same time as I to get our paperwork in for the work permit that allows us to enter and leave China and work here legally. Ma Jun from HR takes us by taxi to the government security office. After a short wait in line we are hustled over to a window where a very young looking woman sits in uniform behind a glass partition. She begins to bark orders to our handler who hurriedly hands over documents, my passport, photos the results of my health checkup where I was happy to see that I wasn’t pregnant. (See former blog post titled Health Care..and there off.) There is a lot of quick back and forth between Ma Jun and the woman. It seems like there are problems but I have learned that it is difficult to tell if people are angry at each other or just excited or just talk loud. 

Soon I hear a command aimed at me. SIT! So like a good two-year-old I quickly sit. For a split second my inner smart ass ponders the wisdom of making a little comment like. “Did someone forget to say PLEASE??? Her badge and the fact that there were many more of her and my lack of being able to talk my way out of it hampered me just long enough to hear.. LOOK THERE! I notice a small camera on top of her computer. Ok another photo. I wonder why we have to do this everywhere we go even when we provide several mug shots with the paperwork. Don’t think Mike just follow commands. Remember you are only two.  I stand up and start to talk with Ellen. SIT! I hear again. OK I sit again, not sure why. Imagine the soup Nazi from the Seinfeld show and that will give you an idea. Soon we are done with the process. They keep my passport and I am told that is normal procedure. It will take some time before I get it back.

Ellen’s husband’s passport is in the system so she will have to return one more time. We are shuffled out of the building and I am again amazed at how fast I get back into my inner toddler. We are all bundled up in heavy coats and I am almost surprised that Ma Jun doesn’t make us hold hands as we walk so we don’t wander off. Look! Shiny thing!....... I imagine losing a foreigner wouldn’t look good on her resume. She is incredibly good at her job. She is one of those people who can get anything done. I am standing on the street and she tells me not to stand there because I will get run over. I am supposed to be picked up by a photographer to go to see a festival outside of Beijing. I tell her I will wait but she doesn’t want to leave me alone even for a few minutes. Soon my ride gets there and she can hand over responsibility for this large toddler and go back to work. Being house mom to a bunch of ex-pats must be a lot like being an overworked pre-school teacher. 

The intangible -Gu Fan Hui

I had the pleasure of getting out of Beijing proper and to a pair of villages called Gianjun Tai and Shuanghu The villages have been practicing a ritual for almost 500 years. The ceremony is a show of friendship between the two small villages. On the 15^th day or the lunar new-year, the residents of the lower village assemble in the street and begin a climb up to the upper village. The parade includes costumed characters and banner jugglers. The banners are hung from long bamboo poles and men try to balance them straight in the air as they process up the road. This feat is more difficult than it sounds because of the wind. Even a slight breeze can send the poles teetering as the men try to keep up with them. Every so often they tilt past the point of no return and everyone tries to catch the pole before it hits the ground. I used to think I was cool when I could balance a ruler on my finger for a few seconds but this is much more impressive. I am not sure why they do it. There may be some historical reason that I couldn’t find on the internet or by asking people. All I know is this juggling act is now being assessed as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Beijing.

This is a movement to protect some of the important cultural history of Beijing. It includes giving stipends to keep the rituals or crafts alive. For instance: the lantern festival that marks the end of Spring Festival is dependant on the lantern makers who know how to create the nine types of lanterns traditionally used. They can’t make enough money now during the year to sustain them as they only sell the lanterns during this season. So the government gives them approximately 8,000 yuan a year to help to keep them going and in turn they have to work to pass the skill on to another generation. Things that might fall under the protection of the ICHB are Peking Opera, Acupuncture, lantern making, preparing traditional food, playing traditional instruments and of course banner juggling.

So back at the village the intangible jugglers are making their way up the hill. Being a photographer I am on a shooting high! I am running ahead to get shots as they pass, shoot like a madman and then run ahead again. I am up on a hill trying to get an overall photo, down on the road trying for close ups and low angle shots. I am not even pretending to be picking my shots. I am shooting everything I see. I feel like a kid in a candy store. After shooting and photo editing for more than three decades, I should be so over that feeling but I don't care. I am enjoying being there and having my camera to capture it is a huge bonus. There are men at the front playing drums and guys dressed like emperors and people in the back playing off key sounding flutes and cymbals. It is awesome!

I am taken back to time I spent in a small village in Oaxaca called San Miguel Tlacotepec. Yes regular spelling. I was there for the festival of their patron saint. Michael or Miguel as we call him in Mexico. He is my patron saint as well so I feel like I connected with the people there.  They paraded down the streets in costumes that seemed to have a strange history for Mexico. Dressed as Moors and cowboys and devils they had the same off-key sounding bands of musicians and the whole village came out to watch.

Now I am in some small mountain village that I can barely pronounce in China and feeling very much at home. The group from the lower village meets up at the top with the group from the upper village and all of a sudden there is a mosh-pit environment as everyone crowds around to try to catch what goes on in the middle of said mosh-pit. Not knowing what was about to happen I was happy in my ignorance and had run ahead thinking they were going farther. Now I tried to get a look at whatever was happening in the middle of the crowd. I hear some singing. I try to get a peek. I see some incense smoke rising. I move around the crowd like a little piglet who can’t find a teet. I resort to my old days as a photographer and push my way up close enough to see the elders sitting in a circle. Maybe I missed something really cool but it didn’t seem to warrant the crush of souls that were squeezing in for a look. As far as I could glean from the photos I took by holding the camera over my head was the men sit in a circle sing some songs and light some incense.  I am just hoping that they didn’t do something extra interesting because I couldn’t squeeze myself in close enough without throwing little old ladies out of my way.

Soon the crowd starts to move. The elders are on the move and things are starting to happen. Off-key music is starting to fill the mountain air. I just go with the flow and soon I find myself in the middle of a bunch of women dressed in colorful costumes and with make up on their faces. I am not sure what the significance of the make up was but one kind or looked like and Asian Mini Pearl. The crowd decides to move forward and I am in the front. I feel elbows and hands in my back. Seems like they decided to use me as a battering ram to open a lane. Apparently there are like 20 ways to say I’m sorry in Mandarin and I didn’t know any of them as I was pushed though the dancers and audience. I just tried to give one of those “ I’m sorry maam, I am just the battering ram they are using to open a hole” kind of faces to the people I was running over. I guess the parade somehow got behind me so I was blocking progress. An elderly man wearing a red armband and holding a baton of some sort had been sticking the thing in my back to move me forward. Finally I feel the crowd open and I turn around and see the procession heading for me and I am in a good position to shoot.

I shoot tons of photos and soon there are Lion Dancers who seem to come out of nowhere. It is a photographers dream. The narrow streets are filled with color and banners and the banner jugglers are still trying to keep control over their bamboo poles which occasionally fall on what I think are electrical lines or someone’s roof. I imagine the people who created this event didn’t take into consideration that someday the village would want or need electricity and the possible hazards a long pole falling against the lines could cause. Hey you can’t think of everything.

I am on visual overload and have filled up multiple cards with photos and decide to head back to meet my companions. On the way back I spot a little tiny elderly lady who I caught a few shots of earlier before getting swept away by the crowd. I wanted to take more photos of her and so I approached her with my trusty Ni Hao and asked her with sign language if I could take her photo. She smiled and seemed to think it was funny that someone would want her photo but signaled to me that it was ok. That portrait is one of my favorite photos so far. She gave me a big toothless smile first and then a comfortable content smile that just made me feel happy. I only with I had the language skills to find out her story or at least someone close to interpret for me. I photographed her and thanked her and shook her hand and left feeling very fulfilled and lucky to be there in that spot on that day. It felt very much tangible. 

Juggling Banners 

My favorite image so far.