User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Is it Spicy?

I think if you looked at China as a whole, there would be every spice known to humankind used here in cooking - so it is not an easy question to answer. Whatever you are used to you are likely to find somewhere in China.

Eg. 'Is it anything like wasabi sauce?' What is commonly called wasabi is a traditional dipping sauce where I live. It's more watery than what I am used to accompanying Japanese food.

I'll make another sweeping statement and say that the majority of Chinese food is spicy, to some degree. Foreigners often get introduced to Chinese food through dishes from the Guangdong area; this food is, I guess, less likely to be spicy.

I guess another point about spices is that they come either fresh or dried/processed. You get traditional dishes in both styles in the south-west of the country.

Posted on: Cold Noodles

' peanut butter '

Support for my humble opinion that Shanghai has the weirdest food in China, bar none.

The pig's blood is good, though, I like that. :)

Posted on: Chinese Ethnic Minorities

Nice story orangina - thanks for that. In answer to Baba's question, you are required to register within 24 hours; everyone, including tourists. Tourists who stay in hotel accommodation etc. are fine because the business does the registration for you.

orangina - did kimiik say that his stats were for those registered with the consulate? If so, I don't think that they are useful stats in the sense of measuring the volume of residents - only super risk averse people would register, or numbers might go up if there was a crisis like a bird flu epidemic. (BTW Australians would register with the embassy.) I think maybe tourists are more likely to register?

You can be fined for either not registering or not carrying your passport; I thought the passport one was much higher than 50 rmb; they have campaigns from time to time and I have heard of a substantial fine being levied (newspaper article). I always carry my registration papers because they are lighter. :) I have never been interrogated - glad to know that they are not totally slack.

One time we returned to China and the next day the police turned up at our front door to remind us to go and register - it was Saturday; yes, we planned to go on Monday. Seems weird but I think that their computer is linked to immigration so they 'see' you entering the country. And they were also totally polite and friendly.

Actually - another thing - I quite like the idea of registering with the local police; it actually gives me more comfort than registering with my embassy in case of emergency. It's just up the street, and Chinese people are always concerned about safety. Cynics might say that they wouldn't care about waiguoren (one brand of cynic would perhaps say that they wouldn't care about anyone) but I have only had good experiences - I rely on what I see. The staff at the local police station are extremely amiable and not just with foreigners. (I have sat there either observing or chatting for 20min half an hour while the paperwork is processed - maybe a dozen times by now.)

Posted on: Chinese Ethnic Minorities

If evenly distributed around the province that means more than 6,000 foreigners in my city. In reality a large proportion of the foreign population would be in the capital and a couple of other cities. Huuuuloooo! Where are youooo? :)

Posted on: Chinese Ethnic Minorities

'how different is Yunnan from the rest of China where foreigners are concerned?'

This is not much more than speculation, and what I have been told but I am not sure of sources; it seems that Yunnan is over-represented by foreigners in general (that is, above the average split). Even though we are relatively remote (eg. 1,000 km from the nearest sea). I agree that you would expect us to be over-represented with people from Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, India, Nepal and Bangladesh, because of proximity. I'm not sure about South Koreans - there is a very large population of Korean students. To some extent that will vary by relationships that different universities have with universities in Korea. But some people say we are over-represented with Americans and Europeans too - one theory is that they are chasing the good climate, an often quoted reason for in-migration of mainland Chinese too.

But it is worth keeping in mind that even if there are a 'lot' of foreigners; even if you take the gross figure of 47,000 (many of whom you would not recognise as they appear Chinese) that is in a population approaching 50 million. Less than 0.1 %.

Posted on: Is it Spicy?

Hi Jenny

'[Ear cleaning] is a Sichuan local leisure activity much like massages in Shanghai.'

Can you elaborate a bit on what you mean??? I have lived in the east and spent quite a bit of time in Sichuan but I am not absolutely sure what you are getting at. For example I would have thought that both activities are more about keeping your body healthy than leisure activities, though of course they are normally done in non-work (leisure) time. It seems that you are almost suggesting that one substitutes for the other. Another possible interpretation is that massage is more pleasurable than ear cleaning ..

But I think that there are some possible mis-interpretations, eg. that Shanghai people use massage more than in Sichuan. I don't know that it would be easy to measure, but my impression is that massage is 'everywhere' in Sichuan, as it is in most if not all parts of China.

Posted on: Chinese Ethnic Minorities

This 47,000 odd figure is one that could do with a bit of interpretation - I don't know that the raw data will help us much. When an Aussie or American reads the figure they might imagine white faces. My guess is that about 70% - 80% are ethnically non-Caucasian; let's say about 10,000 white people (still sounds a lot to me). Pure guess; there are a lot of foreign students and most would be non-white, and there are a lot of foreigners who are ethnically Chinese. But I have a couple of other figures to put in the mix. Last year there were just 500 'foreign experts' (teachers and other occupations) managed under the foreign expert bureau, many of whom are of course non-white. So I wonder if there are a lot of 'teachers' (the most common occupation) who are here under the most casual of arrangements, perhaps many on tourist visas.

Posted on: Chinese Ethnic Minorities

there is a kind of parallel festival (I say kind of because it is a different minority group) that involves throwing fire... Bit more dangerous ... :)

Posted on: Chinese Ethnic Minorities

Hey Baba - want to share what you found and how you obtained the data? I'd be interested - particularly if there is a breakdown by province or smaller administrative division. Is this results from the 2010 Census?

Posted on: Swearing at a Driver

You realise that this expression means something quite different in the UK and Australia as opposed to North America? My Chinese boss comes out with stuff he learnt in Chicago maybe 10 or 15 years ago and I have no idea what he is talking about (embarrassing for both him and me.)