September 3, 2010
Nice big thunderstorm, after I got home from my one class of three students. Turned the TV on and have about 25 channels, of course it is all in Chinese. There are no western programs or English. On occasion you might hear seconds of English on a news broadcast, but it is nothing important. I saw a water buffalo fight tonight; concept was like a cock fight in America. Water Buffalo 48 was doing really good, they run head on into each other and try to kill the other, till he met up with number 15. Water buffalo 15 knocked him to the ground and they hauled him off in a paddy wagon, poor 15. The owner of 48 got a red scarf which they put on the back of the buffalo. Everyone cheered. Then I flipped it to a show about frogs, looked like a place where they raised them, like a Frogville. The weather was too hot and the little guys were dying of heat exhaustion. So the owner was showing how he grew plants with large leafs to create shade for the little guys. He even had cabbage plants for them to crawl in. Then as it got hotter he made little wooden plank bridges so they could crawl under. The frogs had a mud moat to swim in and seemed to love the slime. Then the owner showed how he took raw meat and let it set out and catch flies and in turn created maggots. The maggot worms were gobbled up by the frogs, creating a very efficient business. What he did with the frogs I do not know. After thirty minutes I switched channels.
The channels are all called CCTV- Central China TV. CCTV 1, CCTV 2 and so on, no diversity like in the US. Although there is CCTV-MTV, now that’s a hoot. Saw a guy that looked like Wayne Newton, ok sort of, with glitter in his puffy hair singing a Chinese Celine Dion song. She would have been proud. His voice was higher than hers! Then a Michael Jackson rip-off was performing, and a Yanni piano guy. Yes, I liked the Yanni guy! Remember it is all in Chinese! There is a lot of Drama- with Ming Dynasty costumes, which is fun to look at for about five minutes. Lots of love stories, boring. Tonight I saw a Color Splash/Devine Design HGTV type of show. The designer redid a Chinese apartment. She had gone to IKEA and got some cheap shelves, which she arranged on the covered balcony, and then made a vase with popsicle like sticks. GEEZ. Not real impressed with the style. Hey I found “Family Feud” in Chinese, just can’t read the answers!
Commercials are interesting; saw one today that was made of smoke that changed from a mountain, to a butterfly into a man, to a dragon, to the Great Wall of China and back to the mountain. That was actually artistically cool and got my attention. Don’t have the foggiest what it meant. Cartoons are about the same, just Chinese-esque.
Speaking of smoke, the Chinese can smoke in motel rooms, cafes, taxis and at school. My motel room occasionally will smell from next door smokers’ waking me up causing breathing problems. Pollution is bad, yesterday morning was one of the first times I actually saw a blue sky. It is humid, so mixed with the pollution seems smoggy most of the time. I imagine in the country side it is cleaner.