The rise and rule of single-party states
Yay I have internet again! *glomps laptop* So, I'm back in Shanghai. Beijing has been postponed until July because my cousin wants to tag along. Observations:
The Good
~I learned to kill mosquitoes real accurately, real fast.
~Meeting my old friend from elementary school and talking about, among other things, slash...with my grandmother sleeping next to us.
~My grandparents' hot interior designer. Too bad my grandmother vetoes most of his designs/ideas because she thinks they're impractical and too expensive. It really shouldn't matter considering my mother and my uncle (her two children) are paying for the whole thing.
~The prettiness that is the university in which I lived. When I went back last summer, I almost wanted to go there for college. To the surprise of no one, the School of Business Management has one of the prettier buildings, with marble floors and lots of glass and a quad area. They also built a new teaching building that is all artistically shaped with curved walls and big windows. Behind it, there's a lake and a huge area with landscaping that spells out the name of the school. The dorm buildings are usually uglier (because they haven't been renovated) but IMO the dorm conditions are actually better: it's four people to a room but each room has a sink and its own bathroom, which is much more than I can say for most of the UT dorms. *glareglare* [/gushiness]
The Bad
~Teh EBIL, EBIL mosquitoes. I had to sleep in a mosquito net, and I couldn't sleep one night because of the mosquitoes' buzzing noise. I turned on the light to see if it was because a mosquito got into the net. Instead, I saw at least 18 or 19 of them (I counted) clinging to the net from the outside, right next to where my head was. It was a very "this could almost be a horror movie" moment.
~Strict grandparents. They wouldn't even let me go out and take a walk by myself. It was daytime, and I was pretty familiar with the neighborhood so I couldn't possibly get lost, but they insisted on not letting me out of their sights, then they insisted on calling my mother first to get her permission. God.
~Showering and general bathroom conditions. Enough said.
~Lying to people on the train. I had to lie about where I was from and where I go to school because I'm not supposed to say I'm from America. On the way there, I also had to lie about my age/grade level because during those two days I was on the train, all high school graduates were taking their college entrance exams.
~My grandmother's gossipiness. I always knew she liked to gossip, but I've never experienced it to this degree before because I usually visit with my mom, so my grandmother talked to her. I went alone this time, and OMG, I never realized a person could talk so long and in so much detail about her former colleague's sisiter's boyfriend's neighbor's daughter flunking out of school, or some random third rate celebrity's husband's childhood friend's second cousin getting a divorce. Heh I love my mommy so much more now. In related news, on the way to the train station, my grandmother managed to find out where our cab driver's from, where he lived, how much he makes a month, what his parents do, what his wife does, where his daughter goes to school, his daughter's grades, his daughter's boyfriend's personality, etc etc etc. In more related news, see rant below.
The Uh...You Decide
~Heh my grandfather is naive. My grandmother was asking the previously mentioned friend from elementary school (TPMFFES) about one of her classmates, and TPMFFES said that she (the classmate) is really popular and all the boys have crushes on her. My grandfather was shocked.
My grandfather: OMG kids are starting to have crushes in HIGH SCHOOL?! That's horrible! That's scandalous!
TPMFFES: Um...kids are starting to have crushes in elementary school now.
My grandfather: *heart attack*
~I found something cheesier than Mohabbatein: HZGG3. I caught part of an episode - it was the one where ErKang was a crazy druggie and hid in a pig sty - and it was pretty unwatchable. They have to be insane or extremely stupid to make a HZGG4, which they supposedly are doing.
Rant: Okay, in addition to the gossipiness and nosiness, I have never realized how GAH-inducing my grandmother can be. The racism, I expected and can understand. Most older asians have race issues, although repeatedly comparing interracial marriages to breeding chickens is a little...yeah. But the sexism...grrr I don't know why I never noticed before. People like her are why it's illegal in China for doctors to do ultrasounds to find out the gender of a fetus. She explicitly said that she would have kept her last baby is she knew for sure it was a boy, or if she didn't have a son already. Ugh. And when I wanted to go out by myself, she repeatedly (I know I'm using that word a lot, but she does say everything repeatedly) talked about how she's not letting me because I'm a girl. If I were a boy, she says she wouldn't care at all; I can go anywhere I want to. But because I'm a girl, someone must always watch me. And when I was leaving, she was saying how horrible it would be if all the other people in my train compartment (it's 6 people to a compartment) were male. I told her that there ARE those 99.9% of men who are not rapists. She says, what about thieves? Me: *facepalm* "You DO know that there are female theives, right?" Next, when I was talking about how if I can't find my dad after getting off the train, I can always call his cell phone from a pay phone, or borrow someone else's cell phone. She says: "Okay, but make sure you borrow the cell phone from a woman and not a man." *doublefacepalm* (On a side note, she still calls men and women "male comrades" and "female comrades." I wonder if she knows "comrade" in Chinese is modern slang for gay. Heh.)
Then, there's the single-party-state-ness. My grandfather was a professor and my grandmother also worked in a university, so they were considered intellectuals and were sent to be "re-educated." I always thought she hated communist rule because of this, but I guess not, or else the re-education worked. When she started talking about why single-party rule is much better than bi- or multi-party systems, I was so surprised.
Me: Why is it better?
Her: It's more stable and secure. Multi-party systems are disorganized and are more vulnerable to collapse. And single-party systems are better because political leaders step down from power when they are supposed to.
Me: WTF? Political leaders step down from power when they're supposed to? Are you kidding me?
Her: It's true, because the party decides everything, so the party decides when they have to step down.
Me: But but but they control the party. And besides, how do democratic leaders not step down from power when they're supposed to?
Her: Look at Tony Blair. Everyone in England hates him and he still got re-elected and stayed in power.
Me: Um that makes no sense.
Then I asked about freedom of press, and she started talking about how single-party systems can cover up scandals better. She says if someone did something Clinton-esque, it would be covered up and they wouldn't have to lose their political power or have their public images destroyed. But if someone embezzled, that's bad and shouldn't be covered up. *insert many pointless off-topic anecdotes about officials who embezzled* But still, covering up scandals is good and freedom of press is bad. Me: *sigh* Yup, that made perfect sense and wasn't self-contradictory at all. *headdesk*
The Good
~I learned to kill mosquitoes real accurately, real fast.
~Meeting my old friend from elementary school and talking about, among other things, slash...with my grandmother sleeping next to us.
~My grandparents' hot interior designer. Too bad my grandmother vetoes most of his designs/ideas because she thinks they're impractical and too expensive. It really shouldn't matter considering my mother and my uncle (her two children) are paying for the whole thing.
~The prettiness that is the university in which I lived. When I went back last summer, I almost wanted to go there for college. To the surprise of no one, the School of Business Management has one of the prettier buildings, with marble floors and lots of glass and a quad area. They also built a new teaching building that is all artistically shaped with curved walls and big windows. Behind it, there's a lake and a huge area with landscaping that spells out the name of the school. The dorm buildings are usually uglier (because they haven't been renovated) but IMO the dorm conditions are actually better: it's four people to a room but each room has a sink and its own bathroom, which is much more than I can say for most of the UT dorms. *glareglare* [/gushiness]
The Bad
~Teh EBIL, EBIL mosquitoes. I had to sleep in a mosquito net, and I couldn't sleep one night because of the mosquitoes' buzzing noise. I turned on the light to see if it was because a mosquito got into the net. Instead, I saw at least 18 or 19 of them (I counted) clinging to the net from the outside, right next to where my head was. It was a very "this could almost be a horror movie" moment.
~Strict grandparents. They wouldn't even let me go out and take a walk by myself. It was daytime, and I was pretty familiar with the neighborhood so I couldn't possibly get lost, but they insisted on not letting me out of their sights, then they insisted on calling my mother first to get her permission. God.
~Showering and general bathroom conditions. Enough said.
~Lying to people on the train. I had to lie about where I was from and where I go to school because I'm not supposed to say I'm from America. On the way there, I also had to lie about my age/grade level because during those two days I was on the train, all high school graduates were taking their college entrance exams.
~My grandmother's gossipiness. I always knew she liked to gossip, but I've never experienced it to this degree before because I usually visit with my mom, so my grandmother talked to her. I went alone this time, and OMG, I never realized a person could talk so long and in so much detail about her former colleague's sisiter's boyfriend's neighbor's daughter flunking out of school, or some random third rate celebrity's husband's childhood friend's second cousin getting a divorce. Heh I love my mommy so much more now. In related news, on the way to the train station, my grandmother managed to find out where our cab driver's from, where he lived, how much he makes a month, what his parents do, what his wife does, where his daughter goes to school, his daughter's grades, his daughter's boyfriend's personality, etc etc etc. In more related news, see rant below.
The Uh...You Decide
~Heh my grandfather is naive. My grandmother was asking the previously mentioned friend from elementary school (TPMFFES) about one of her classmates, and TPMFFES said that she (the classmate) is really popular and all the boys have crushes on her. My grandfather was shocked.
My grandfather: OMG kids are starting to have crushes in HIGH SCHOOL?! That's horrible! That's scandalous!
TPMFFES: Um...kids are starting to have crushes in elementary school now.
My grandfather: *heart attack*
~I found something cheesier than Mohabbatein: HZGG3. I caught part of an episode - it was the one where ErKang was a crazy druggie and hid in a pig sty - and it was pretty unwatchable. They have to be insane or extremely stupid to make a HZGG4, which they supposedly are doing.
Rant: Okay, in addition to the gossipiness and nosiness, I have never realized how GAH-inducing my grandmother can be. The racism, I expected and can understand. Most older asians have race issues, although repeatedly comparing interracial marriages to breeding chickens is a little...yeah. But the sexism...grrr I don't know why I never noticed before. People like her are why it's illegal in China for doctors to do ultrasounds to find out the gender of a fetus. She explicitly said that she would have kept her last baby is she knew for sure it was a boy, or if she didn't have a son already. Ugh. And when I wanted to go out by myself, she repeatedly (I know I'm using that word a lot, but she does say everything repeatedly) talked about how she's not letting me because I'm a girl. If I were a boy, she says she wouldn't care at all; I can go anywhere I want to. But because I'm a girl, someone must always watch me. And when I was leaving, she was saying how horrible it would be if all the other people in my train compartment (it's 6 people to a compartment) were male. I told her that there ARE those 99.9% of men who are not rapists. She says, what about thieves? Me: *facepalm* "You DO know that there are female theives, right?" Next, when I was talking about how if I can't find my dad after getting off the train, I can always call his cell phone from a pay phone, or borrow someone else's cell phone. She says: "Okay, but make sure you borrow the cell phone from a woman and not a man." *doublefacepalm* (On a side note, she still calls men and women "male comrades" and "female comrades." I wonder if she knows "comrade" in Chinese is modern slang for gay. Heh.)
Then, there's the single-party-state-ness. My grandfather was a professor and my grandmother also worked in a university, so they were considered intellectuals and were sent to be "re-educated." I always thought she hated communist rule because of this, but I guess not, or else the re-education worked. When she started talking about why single-party rule is much better than bi- or multi-party systems, I was so surprised.
Me: Why is it better?
Her: It's more stable and secure. Multi-party systems are disorganized and are more vulnerable to collapse. And single-party systems are better because political leaders step down from power when they are supposed to.
Me: WTF? Political leaders step down from power when they're supposed to? Are you kidding me?
Her: It's true, because the party decides everything, so the party decides when they have to step down.
Me: But but but they control the party. And besides, how do democratic leaders not step down from power when they're supposed to?
Her: Look at Tony Blair. Everyone in England hates him and he still got re-elected and stayed in power.
Me: Um that makes no sense.
Then I asked about freedom of press, and she started talking about how single-party systems can cover up scandals better. She says if someone did something Clinton-esque, it would be covered up and they wouldn't have to lose their political power or have their public images destroyed. But if someone embezzled, that's bad and shouldn't be covered up. *insert many pointless off-topic anecdotes about officials who embezzled* But still, covering up scandals is good and freedom of press is bad. Me: *sigh* Yup, that made perfect sense and wasn't self-contradictory at all. *headdesk*