Life and Travel in China

Green tea-flavored toothpastes are popular in China. Today I even got the flavor of chrysanthemums and tea, a beautiful combination. I'm thinking, maybe this is some kind of nod to Chairman Mao, who never brushed his teeth but only rinsed them with green tea? Only health...

Michael Jacskon has never performed a concert in China, however he has been to mainland China. In 1987, while on vacation in Hong Kong, he crossed the border and visited the town of Zhongshan, the villages of Yongmo and Cuiheng. He also visited Sun Yat-Sen's residence and school. Apparently Michael was aware of who the real smart politicians were in China. I also had the opportunity to visit this city and the Sun Yat-Sen monument, but I have no idea why Jackson chose this place. Even though he never had a concert here, he was very popular. For many young Chinese, the 1990s marked a thaw and contact with Western culture, and Jackson's music and music videos were the first Western songs to appear on Chinese television. He became a symbol of pop music, dance, madness... he was a real idol in the Middle Kingdom. To this day, many Chinese people have 90's Jackson style hairstyles, I'm not kidding! I think his appearance influenced their fashion. White socks + black loafers, tight jackets, tight pants are still popular here... He was a symbol of someone who is cool, is from America, is a singer and an excellent dancer, he is simply a perfect idol in China!

Just a month ago, the Chinese (Han) admired Uyghur dance performances during the Cultural Fair in Shenzhen... and now in the capital of XinJiang province, both nations are fighting each other. The riots began with the mysterious death of a Uighur in southern China, with people demanding justice and explanations. This is, of course, only one reason. Mostly, though, it's probably about mutual hatred. XinJiang is a completely different culture, religion - Islam, different language, different spelling, these people even have different names than typical Chinese. Of course, the version of the Chinese media is that it is about riots provoked from abroad by the World Uyghur Congress. It was the XinJiang people who started the attacks and tried to take revenge on the Han. From what I heard in the Polish media - today the Hans tried to take revenge on the Uighurs. I don't know what the truth is, but this confusion will definitely hurt China again (just like the fighting in Tibet). It is possible that the Uyghurs simply attacked the Han in a fit of hatred that was intensified by an outsider. By default, however, the world and all media will always be against China. It's hard to say who is right here, but still, someone killed 156 people. In China, these are just numbers, without much meaning as usual!

In Poland we have the concept of bureaucracy, but it is nothing compared to China! My friend transfers her registration (in China you cannot simply change your place of residence, or rather your place of birth, many people are enrolled in schools where they studied in childhood). In order to change her place of residence to the city where she has been working for over 7 years, she must prepare the following documents: insurance, two identity cards, school certificate, confirmation of higher education, confirmation that the higher education is real, documents from the company, a certificate of being unemployed from her hometown (absurd!), health certificate, confirmation that she is not pregnant, husband's passport and a few other documents that are difficult to name. Finally, one document was rejected because the stamp was not in the right place. The communist bureaucracy is sick! It all started with Mao, who pushed people from the cities to the countryside to work in collectives, and brought peasants to the cities to do the worst jobs. Now the cities are rich and they don't really want new citizens, there is a limit on accepting new registrations every year. This way, in a city of 12 million people, there are 2 million real, registered citizens. And recently I had to copy the visa form because my pen wasn't thick enough (it had to be black and it was, but not that thick). Millions of people work in Chinese offices, they usually deal with bullshit, they have two-hour lunch breaks, they get big bribes, and if they don't get them, they pick on stamps, pen colors and letter sizes.

The Chinese (Han) are already angry at the 'Western media', especially German newspapers and websites. It angers them that they are shown as the aggressors in the street fights in Urumqi. They don't like the fact that reporters present one side of the coin. From the photos I saw in AFP and Reuters, I also have the impression that the Han Chinese are now taking revenge on the Uyghurs. Angry groups of Han people, with clubs, axes, shovels, chain mail... I know how angry the Chinese can be, how angry they are at the whole world. In a few months, the fighting from their streets will move to a media war with the West. It's like separating arguing spouses. A stranger interferes and later both the wife and the husband attack the stranger. It's the same in China, first they fight among themselves, and then the attack moves to Japan, France, the USA or Germany... They will always find the culprit on the globe, but they themselves are fine, blameless. And the fact that they hacked several hundred people to death in the street, kicked someone to death because it's more fun in a group - this is an invention of the Western media! And the AFP and Reuters photos are probably taken in Adobe Photoshop CS2, because the Chinese are saints! Remember this! When will they grow up, admit their mistakes, apologize for their faults and get rid of their pettiness and racism? Probably never, unfortunately...