This week

Exams
We spent most of this week preparing for our first exam. The test was in Chinese language, required knowledge of about 116 Chinese words and characters, and included the composition of an introductory paragraph consisting of at least forty characters. It doesn't seem like much, but just being able to introduce myself in Mandarin seemed like an achievement in and of itself.

Legislation
When we weren't studying characters, we were learning more about Chinese law, of course. Our class on the Chinese Judicial System provided the clearest picture to date of the Chinese legislative process, in the form of the following charts.




Our teaching assistant, Fang Yi (方异), diagrammed the two ways in which a bill becomes law in China. As you can see, the system is a bifurcated one in which either the National People's Congress or its Standing Committee can pass legislation. Note that the Central Military Commission can propose a bill, and that the Legislative Committee of the NPC plays an extremely significant role in the process.

Fruit on a stick
Katie's getting a bit more adventurous with her food consumption, as you can see below.

One of our classmates described it as "midget apples that taste like strawberries."

Bicycle troubles
My electric bicycle is in the shop for the second time this week. I thought I had explained that the problem was with the 马达 ("mada" or motor), but they simply replaced the battery. I got about 500 meters away from the bike shop when it failed again, but I would have been late for class if I had returned. So now it's back in the shop again, and hopefully this time our student hosts' talk with the repairman did the trick.

We shall see today if matters have improved when we return to the bike shop to retrieve my trusty steed. Meanwhile, we gave our neighbors quite a laugh when the two of us climbed onto Katie's bike, clown-like, clad in our winter jackets and helmets on a chilly Wednesday morning. We even had to stop half-way to class when Katie couldn't stop laughing about the situation.

"A Statue of the Chairman" from Haidian and J...

Alien Street
Most tourists visiting Beijing from America will make a stop at the Silk Market, China's infamous source of trademark-infringing goods. Or, if they have an acquaintance living in Beijing, that acquaintance might take them to the Yashow Market to stock up on North Face jackets and counterfeit iPods before they head home. It turns out, however, that there's an entirely different market, the Alien Street market, which caters mostly to the Russian visitors. They have a slightly different set of merchandise, including items like rifle scopes, bathroom fixtures, and jeans. But most of their stuff is larger in size, because their clientèle tends to be larger. For instance, we found a pair of Levis that had the usual leather trademark on the back. Only this trademark indicated that the jeans were from "San Francisso," and had care instructions inside the "garman."

"San Francisso" jeans from Haidian and J...

Movies
We saw our first Chinese movie this week. Scratch that--we saw our first Chinese movie in a movie theater this week, Ang Lee's "Lust, Caution." We've seen other Chinese movies, of course, but only in class or on television. This time, however, we went to the theater, asked if the film had English subtitles, bought tickets, and got some popcorn, all in Mandarin. Pretty good, eh?

Unlike the version that debuted in the United States and overseas, the Mainland Chinese version of "Lust, Caution" had about 10 minutes of "naughty bits" cut out, which certainly undercut the descriptiveness of the title. Perhaps the best part of the film, however, was that it had subtitles in both Chinese and English. We learned some new Chinese this way, and even went out and bought a few other movies in Chinese and English later that night so that we could keep learning. Suffice it to say, however, that the Chinese theater experience is somewhat different than the American experience.

First, the popcorn was sweet and served in microwave popcorn packets, not buckets. Second, some patrons smoked in the theater. Third, people took cellphone calls in the theater. On the plus side, however, the theater was huge, on a scale that American theaters did away with years ago in favor of the multiplex format.