We went to a hotpot restaurant down a back lane. She told matt about it – the hotpot is chongqing’s dish and its proudness – its like a fondue burning in the middle of the table – a big soup like dish, brimming to the top with fragrant chillies and peppers. and then you add what you want and then fish it out via chopsticks! After trying to point to things on the menu (all chinese), then our translation book out, and then seeing if anyone in the restaurant could speak english, then touring the kitchen, then calling She if for translations, we worked out we want beef, potato, tofu and cabbage added. The hotpot was so so fiery hot, with the sichaun peppers it felt like you no longer had lips. So drinking beer was the antidote, and I found myself walking out the restaurant three beers later, at lunch time. A big rarity for me! 6 beers later, and the lunch was 60RMB – less then $10 for the three of us. was very lovely. We haven’t seen cutlery for months now, and we are managing OK, but have to wash the clothes a lot!
She came over in the afternoon for another translation. The translation are interesting, they lead to some great conversations about life in China and life in Australia. I say a lot of the funeral criers words are about sacrifice, and living a harworking life, devoted to children. She talks about that when she wants to buy her house, she will ask her parents for the money, she says most parents will give money for their children’s houses. They would work about 20 years for this. She says, that life here is about sacrifice, about going with out so others can share. She says that life is also about connections. She said nepotism is rife and also celebrated. Everyone is under morepressure to work hard, move to work, leading to a lot of pressure and often divorce. We talk about the divorce rate – she says its growing – now 8.5 per cent. When I say ours is about 33 per cent she is a bit stunned. She says the women don’t fare well in divorces here – they don’t get much of the wealth at all – its hard to move on.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15536464
We talk about role of women, role of men, role of children. I say that I have noticed how Chinese children are very quiet. When I see children at galleries, I see them holding their mothers hands, contentedly. My son, runs around wild, says hi everyone, pulls me around like mad to look at all the artwork and then starts running wild between all the work. She says her upbringing was strict – kids are not supposed to talk at the table – only adults talk. Kids learn to sit still early. She says its not as strict now, but still a lot stricter than I would ever consider with my son. She then tells me more Chinese kids today know how to work an iphone, than tie their own shoelaces. I would think its the same in Australia.
We talk about facebook, youtube, etc. which are all banned here. She says there is the chinese facebook, chinese youtube and chinese msn – QQ. all are monitored by the government, so you just can’t write certain words. I ask if she would like to be on facebook – she says “no – none of my friends use it, so its not relevant.’
We are planning to get some pizza tonight with everyone.
