Ryu2.mind

Heads up for all you Shanghai folks: A coworker today passed onpossibly the best and most useful Shanghai-related website I've seenyet:

http://sh.edushi.com/?178229

Basically, this site contains everything I wish I had at my disposalwhen I first was settling in.  Behold: an isometricAjax-based Shanghai map with roads and individual buildings allmeticulously modeled, pannable and zoomable, and fully searchable aswell.

You can browser to your heart's content, and search for locations(stores, restaurants, apartment complexes -- all with photos), busroutes (!), activity places... (my favorite store in Shanghai as an example below... ;) )

and even search for apartments/office buildings based on criteria youenter, which will bring you to a photo and an agency's listing page --a good thing since I'll probably be on the market again soon.  Thelistings seem a bit sparse at the moment, but hopefully if this takesoff, things might be better.

Right now, it's pretty much Puxi-only within the ring road (plusLujiazui) in terms of coverage, but it'samazingly detailed in the area that it does encompass.  However, withnew buildings going up and old places coming down in this city on analmost daily basis, part of me wonders how often this will beupdated.

Furthermore, thesite itself seems to be IE only, or at least it doesn't work inFirefox... boo! =(  But this is cool enough that I'll forgive thistransgression on the part of the developers for now...

Definitely a site I'll be visiting a lot now on... always refreshing to see a new site added to my daily fixes. =)

I went to a Stanford alumni dinner tonight, the biggest Stanford eventsince I came here -- we took up 2+ floors of an Italian restaurant (TrattoriaIsabelle -- which seems to be a relatively well-kept culinary secretcompared to other more well-known ones in SH... definitely worth goingback for! ;) ) 

Interestingly, I pretty much never participated in the alumni eventswhile in the Bay Area, mainly because for me the distinction betweencollege and post-college life was fuzzy, with the campus just minutesaway and the majority of my Stanford friends sticking around SF or theSilicon Valley in any case after graduation.  An ocean away, it'sa different story... when you're a stranger in a strange land, linksthat you thought were trivial become all the more important, and it'sreassuring to know that.  The Stanford alumni body here seems tobe equally made up of locals, ABCs, Hongkies/Taiwanese, and laowai, and tonight a good portion of all those groups showed up -- leading to an interesting dynamic with everyone in one setting.

Amidst a sea of the usual business/engineering/finance/law types, the most interesting person there was Rob Little,'05, now playing pro basketball for the Shanghai Sharks.  Hespiced up the conversation with plenty of anecdotes about China and aswell as stories about playing ball in the unheated Luwan Stadium in theShanghai winter (the cheerleaders have it the worst, apparently). Like Yao, he has a personal full-time interpreter/lifeline and a goodnumber of culture-shock moments.

But what struck me the most was his thoughts on how and why he came outhere -- ie, which came first?  The country or the career?  Hewas drafted less than three months ago, literally on the spotat a basketball camp attended by Chinese basketball league officials,and on a whim, just came out here doing what he loves to do... in thiscase, playing basketball.  Not much justification type talk aboutChina being a growing economy, or a basketball-crazed nation, oranything else.  Just simply the fact he wanted to play ball. 

As a contrast, most of my friends that I've met here and I had an interest in this country first, and pursued opportunities based on that... but I'm reminded by tonight that every expathere has their own story, their own journey... and that is truly whatmakes the community here and meeting new folks so fascinating compared to back home. 

To hear tales, and realize there is no real formula, no real plan, nocookie-cutter plan for coming to China, no matter what your motivationsare... from English teacher to basketball player, everyone becomes astoryteller and listener at the same time, and regardless of what oneis doing, the tales told are never mundane for just being an expat is -- almost by the definition of someone being apart from his usual country -- never ordinary.

A coincidence?  I had an uplifting conversation with glenNice this week, where she reminded me... there are no such things as coincidences. I've been meditating a lot on the part of the Book talking aboutwatchfulness, and how for those who have been given much, much will bedemanded.

It makes me thankful for being given so much, but fearful in a way...what will be demanded of me?  And am I being watchful?  Am Iprepared?  At the same time though, will that man-centered desire to beprepared subvert itself into a tyranny of hesitant fear?  For we can never be fully ready, just as much as possible...

Sorry this is delibrately vague... but I think you get the picture... ;)

I-do-not-think-it-means-what-you-think-it-means Engrish sign of the week, taken at the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium on Saturday...

*sniff, sniff...*  We miss you! (or at least your hard currency...)

Anyhow, this just landed in my inbox this morning.  If you've talked to mewithin the last two months, you undoubtedly know how enthusiastic I wasabout my own experience in that country... now's your chance to see foryourself! ;)

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Add another thing to the list of what I've done here that I wouldn'thave dreamt of back home: Last Saturday night, I had a chance to attendthe live broadcast of the finale of 创智赢家(Winner), the Chinese version of The Apprentice, as an audience member.  One of my local friends works for the mainsponsor, so she was able to hook me up with a ticket... xie xie for a fun night out! =)

Basically, the gist was that contestants entered by submitting businessplans, and 20 people  selected from that pool to participate. Every week, they were asked to do tasks, a la Apprentice, and one byone they were eliminated by the judges.  The final judging was by apanel of about 40 VCs, industry execs, business journalists, andprofessors, as well as being influenced by the votes (via SMS)of the TV audience.  The winner receives 1 million RMB of seed moneyand the support of top-flight (for China, anyway) VCs in the creationof their enterprises.

I never really watched much local TV (although I hear CCTV news worksgreat for insomnia) until my friend Tim was a contestant on a musicshow produced by the same station, 我型我Show (My Way My Show),basically a Chinese version of "American Idol" and actually made it tothe final 4 or 5 out of an initial pool of thousands ofcontestants, becoming a minor national celebrity in the process.  As Winner was produced by the same media company that did My Way My Show, I recognized some faces from the previous show... anyone in the pics ring a bell, Tim? ;)

It was my first live reality show ever, so I don't have much data points to compare it to, but a few things stuck in my mind.

*** The studio seems a lot smaller when you're actually in it, versus watching it on TV.  Also, the environment wasn't as rowdy as I expected it to be, knowing local Chinese,but that was probably due to the constraints of the studio itself.  The MC warned everyone (before airtime) NOT to throwobjects or fruit specifically... methinks that's a potential problemwith overzealous fans in China? =)  Still, everyone was cheering,holding up signs, lightmakers, and the like, as if it were a sportingevent.

*** With the element of audience participation (ie, the SMS voting), both"candidates" and their fanboys and fangirls were canvassing thestreets, universities, clubs -- everywhere -- passionately soliciting support. When and if multicandidate political elections come to this country,it'll be quite the spectacle to watch (and maybe avoid), if thefervor of these two gentlemen and their "campaigns" are any precursor of things to come.

*** The final two contestants were polar opposites in a way, mostlikely delibrately chosen for such.  The show used the term 斗争 (douzheng,struggle) a lot... where and when else in China has that term been usedfrequently before?  (Hint: think 1967-1976...)  That was a sort of interesting way to think about it... essentially a modernprojection onto a new arena of prole-vs-intellectual?


Chen Xi -- slick, smooth talking, able to control and use his emotionscrying at all the right moments, and a Doogie Howser type (enteredTianjin University at the age of 14, graduated with a triple major inEconomics, Philosophy, and something else I forgot), started threecompanies while in his teens.  He's in the mobile games industry,and his plan was to start Yet Another Mobile Game Company.


Peng Zheng -- everyman, your typical "hard worker", with an ideathat's off the beaten track (using the web to not just list andcategorize sports facilities, but keep track of sporting facilitiesoffering a desired sport near someone's location.  It createsessentially a "virtual gym" spanning all of Shanghai.  In asurreal way, it's almost like an operating system... where resourcesare virtualized, allocated, and scheduled, with the resources beinggyms and other venues, and the processes being the users =P )  

Essentially, I thought the douzhengcould be distilled down to a battlebetween everyman and Mr. Smooth.  Of course, Chen ended up winningby a healthy margin.  Outward appearance and sexiness once againreigned supreme here, which let me down a bit.  It's by no means endemic to China of course,but for a moment, I thought that maybe the judges would try somethingnew... take some risk and stray off the beaten path with their money. 

I dunno, Chen had experience and brains going for him, so his win wasunderstandable too in that sense.  I was rooting for Peng, butthen again, I like to root for the underdog anyway.  =)  Butbeing in games myself, it struck me as more of the same oldsame old in a space that (as some of the judges asked during theirquestioning) is crowded and not getting any better except viaconsolidation and attrition.  All the best of luck, Mr. Chen,you'll need it.

Regardless, I thought the show was executed pretty well compared towhat I had always thought Chinese TV to be.  With My Way MyShow, Super Voice Girls, and now this, the tidal wave of reality TVhas definitely crashed on Chinese shores.  If this keeps up, my TVmay actually be useful for more than just DVDs, video games, andpirated satellite feeds. =)

I knew Xiangyang (Shanghai's main fake market for residents and visitors alike) had some hot deals... but I didn't know they were that hot.  There's a lotta smoke coming from the Huaihai Lu/Xiangyang area...  right smack dab where the market is.  Hmmm.  Pics taken at lunch today from my office... apologies for the crappy quality, as I took them with my phone.

Update: According to Shanghaiist, it looks like it was just a bad A/C unit somewhere.  Looks like tourists can safely continue to get their knockoff stuff, get ripped off, and accosted by the "bag?  watch?  DVD?" crowd as usual...  At least it gave us something else to do other than catch up on news/blogs/WoW during the lunch hour. =P

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Yes, coming back after all... I'll be at the usual 650-906-XXXX number if any if you want to reach me.

Through the magical combination of air travel and the international date line, I'll be able to celebrate Christmas on two continents with two sets of friends and family... the very concept still amazes me, even after all my trans-Pacific travel over the years.  Moreover, I liken it as a symbolic milestone along the path of establishing and entrenching myself in two communities and cultures...

	Airline/status	Dates
	Pudong Shanghai China (PVG) to San Francisco California (SFO) Sun, Dec 25
	United Airlines 0858 Flight: Confirmed	Dec 25 01:45 PM depart PVG Dec 25 08:10 AM arrival SFO
	San Francisco California (SFO) to Pudong Shanghai China (PVG) Mon, Jan 2
	United Airlines 0857 Flight: Confirmed	Jan 02 01:55 PM depart SFO Jan 03 07:30 PM arrival PVG

*** The usual shopping for books/music/gadgets unobtainable in China

*** Watching Narnia, a film which (surprise, surprise) isn't being released in mainland China, and for which I've resisted the temptation of going the pirated DVD route here... anyone up for joining me? ;)

Like my fellow Bay Area->East Asia transplant dreyersice, and I'm sure many other expats in general, my logical/analytical/efficency-oriented thinking kicks in even on "break", trying to cover every possibility in terms of what to do and whom to see.  Consequently I pack things in as efficently as possible, leading to too much of a good thing.  Indeed, last October, by the time I returned from the US after my first real visit back, I pretty much felt I needed a vacation from the vacation...

This time, it's different: recognizing the need for downtime and how it itself can be blessed, and just seeing what interactions and actions Someone up there provides during this next week...

Here's to a merry and joyous Christmas to everyone on both sides of the Pacific!  See some of you soon... =)

Back to descriptive narrative for now... my camera had a littleaccident on Christmas eve involving dropping four feet or so onto ahardwood floor and is now temporarily out of commission.  The lens(the real expensive part) is OK... but the body doesn't switch onanymore.  =P  Perhaps Someone is telling me something? Or maybe it's time to get a 20D?  Haha...

Seriously though, you never realize how much you take anything forgranted until it's deprived from you -- cliched but true, but in a way,I realize that I'm at home to relax and not make a documentary, and Ifigure it's time to sit down and really write something lengthyanyhow... so my time thus far:

*** Friday night, had an early "Welcome to Shanghai" dinner at Shikumen Bistro with my fellow game industry friend zoomCrypt and whoever I could round up that was 1. in town and 2. not busy with other stuff: Pui, Gleefully, and two of her friends.  Went to the zoo that was Babyface afterwards and had snacks at Bellagio after that. zoomCrypt's going to be posted here for two years or more to help get the EAShanghai studio off the ground... bring on the competition! =)

But in any case, it's always great to see a new long-term face withinmy community of expat friends, not to mention someone from the samehometown and industry as well, and also to vicariously relive theexperiences of cross-cultural discovery, surprise, and enlightenment -- from apartment hunting to beggar avoiding --that I had experienced myself not a year ago...

*** Saturday, met up with a local friend where we experienced the literal sea ofhumanity that is Raffles City at Xmas eve.  We soon decided toditch it, and explore the back streets where we found a store that soldnothing but stuffed Totoro and other Studio Ghibli stuff near Shaanxi Lu... =) These unexpected discoveries are what really add spice here. After buying some gifts, we headed off to the Xmas eve party put on byour group of friends -- the usual games, performances,  giftexchange, competitions, plus some of us sharing about what the seasonreally meant... 

Afterwards, a bunch of us went to the Long Bar in the Portman (a rarityin the SH nightlife scene: nice location, and yet quiet and a place youcan actually chill at) to kick back, share, chill and talk about allmanner of things from management styles to desired attributes in aSO.  Yup, that's one conversation topic that transcendsnationality and culture... 

My 10D had its unfortunate accident about then...

Drinks at Long Bar were followed by some late night munchies at the BiFeng Tang across the street.  All in all, I'm thankful I'mstarting to really feel bonding and friendship with this group of folksthat I really met quite fortuitiously some months ago...

*** Everyone it seems got into the holiday spirit... even thebeggars.  I saw a couple of kids wearing Santa caps.  绝对太过分了！

*** The flight back was actually nice: the plane was 1/3 full atmost, and it was the fastest PVG-SFO run I've ever experienced as well:ninehours give or take, wheels up to wheels down.  We had 200 mphtailwinds pretty muchthe whole time.  Indeed, the captain said we had to delibratelyfly slower than usual, lest we arrive at SFO before immigrationscustoms opened at 7:30.  Of course, you win some and you losesome: it probably means I'm in for a long miserable return heading inthe other direction...

*** Dave's message was refreshing -- nothing earthshaking, but agood reminder of things... worth a surf of the GrX homepage to downloadand listen to.  P and W rocked;something about those Xmas songs done by our W-team, the classic andthe contemporary elements almost conciously teaming up together to stirand inspire...

It was paradoxically reassuring to see not only old friends, but mostlystrange faces at GrX... and to see that there were folks whohadn't known I had moved to Shanghai.  The body is movingon.  And I'm glad for that...

*** As a result of the abnormally short flight, I didn't get as muchsleep as I had hoped, and while I endured during the service, I wasmore or less asleep during dimsum at perennial GrX hangout Joy LuckPlace in Cupertino Village.  I don't remember anything much from lunch except I finally met bigdenis' fiance Janet for the first time.

Went home, slept, family time, slept some more and more...

*** I am now a dual citizen of the US of A as well as the Republic of China Taiwan Province Chinese Taipei that island off the coast of Fujian whatever the term du jourthat pisses the least amount of people off is these days.  Theapplication was simpler than I thought -- my parents just had to get mybirth certificate, their Taiwanese passports, marriage certificate andmake some copies of that documentation and take it to the Taiwanesequasi-consulate in SF. 

Don'tworry, I'm still planning on using my US passport for most things, including mycontinued stay in China -- but I think of it as political hedging: anadded insurance policy in case Bush and co. continue to get America onthe wrong side of countries I'm potentially interested in. ;) Apparently, a lot of HKers did more or less the same thing (get dualUS/Canada/UK/Aussie citizenship) in the run-up to 1997 as well...

*** The usual errands, and a few meetupshere and there.  It's quite possibly my first real time ofextended relaxation since I moved overseas, and I realize that restitself is a blessing -- even He did so after the seventh day...

Here's to similarly peaceful times for all of you as well...

While doing my usual parental IT support duties that I'm usually"encouraged" to do whenever I'm at at home, I discovered my homepage inthe Favorites and History section of my mom's browser on herlaptop.  This probably means that she likely reads or at least hasread this blog.  It's not exactly hard to find and I'm certainlynot vehemently opposed to this (I mean, I advertise the link in my email.signature and from the homepage, it's just one click away) but it'sstill kinda surreal knowing that my otherwise tech-phobic mom reads or has readthis dialogue with and intended for my fellow young-adults.

I'm certainly not the only oneto have dealt with this issue recently, to name just one.  So Ithrow this to you all -- are your parents aware of, and/or do they readyour blog?  And would you,as a parent, read your kids' blogs?  For our generation, it wouldbe been paper journals/diaries instead, so in a way, this questionisn't new.  Similarly, some of my teacher friends have also hadtheir own students stumbling across their own personal blogs, for better orworse.

Personally, I'm (sometimes reluctantly) aware that blogs are -- unlikea paper journal -- inherently public media, even though it's easy forus to get complacent and forget that fact.  Thus I'll probablycontinue to blog (or whatever they'll call it then) when I'm a parentmyself and read the blogs of my kids and their friends.  Bring onthe cyberstalking -- hee hee.  Of course, my kids will probablystalk me as well. ;)

Still, maybe it's time to look into starting protected posts in themonths to come... of course, it'd mostly be for other reasons moresubstantial than parents reading it, but with the start of a new year,might as well...