Saturday, June 23, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Young Chinese Farmers Sowing Seeds for Organic Revolution
A pretty good article summarizing the new farmers to Chongming's agr scene.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Chongming
This past weekend I finally made my first much anticipated trip to Chongming Island (崇明岛)! A few people have asked us why we’ve decided to locate in Shanghai as oppose to a second tier or third tier city in China. After all, a less urbanized city might have cleaner air, water, and soil, and consequently be more fitting for food production. Mainly, we’re interested in Chongming Island because of its relative undeveloped state and its proximity to Shanghai, one of China’s largest and most affluent cities. In the past, Chongming has been designated, with national and local government support, as a site of eco-development. While officials plans for a large scale eco-city (a city named Dongtan) fell through because of a real estate corruption scandal involving the Shanghai mayor, Chongming still retains the promise (superficial or real) of becoming a symbol of a greening China.
The food on the farm was definitely a big perk. After having spent 2 weeks on HK eating mostly meaty dim sum dishes and constantly eating out, I was happy to have some vegetarian home cooking! And even better, all of the food eaten on the farm was from either his farm, or the neighboring farms that also considered themselves “natural”/”beyond organic”, meaning that they held themselves to a standard that was even higher than the organic certification standards. In both the US and China, food that is labeled as “organic” is free from synthetic chemicals, but organic chemicals are still be applied. Some people have argued that “organic” is not necessarily better because “organic” chemicals are often low in potency. Thus to achieve the same effect, more chemicals have to be applied. Unless he was certain of the quality of the ingredients, he did not use it on his farm. Even the vinegar was made by one of his friends. The food was fresh, local, and completely safe to eat, which I think is quite hard to achieve in China.
His kitchen was pretty typical of a rural Chinese household, and we cooked our food in one of those fire stoves where one person is fully responsible for feeding the fire while other people did the wok work. I happily participated in cooking the first night’s dinner and then on the second night, I spearheaded a 卷饼 effort! I was quite proud of myself because it was the first time I made 卷饼 from beginning to end. Woot!
Another highlight was watching the show 舌尖上的中国(“A Bite of China”) on a projector in his living room. It felt so much like a home movie theater! The show itself was filmed in an epic Planet Earth-esque style, except the content consisted solely of mouth-watering food, food culture, their epic origins and their complex extraction methods.
Another highlight was planting sprouts in the rice patty! On the one hand, I thought it was a comical experience because rice patties are a part of so many Asian jokes. At the same time, it was also quite an experience! Because we didn’t have shoes, we worked barefooted, and the feeling of mud oozing through our toes with every step and going up to our ankles was quite sensational. I probably won’t do it again though because as I learned afterwards, one can catch many diseases that way…oops. Anyhoo, even though planting rice sprouts is hard work, I really enjoyed it for the short duration that I got to participate. People talk about reconnecting with the Earth, or reconnecting with one’s ancestral roots, and I felt like it was very profound experience to be able to participate in an activity that has defined so much of China’s history. Rice has been a staple in Chinese food just as agriculture has been China’s staple industry. While planting, I was thinking about the thousands, if not millions of people, who have come before me and participated in the same creation ritual.
The people I met on the farm were also an assortment of interesting characters, from Laojia (老贾), the urbanite philosopher turned farmer (for him, his farm is more about realizing his philosophical and Buddhist beliefs) to the other farm interns who all seem to be trying to fulfill a slightly different dream of their own by coming to Laojia’s farm. While each person’s background story is unique, everyone (probably including Mike and me) seem to be very 非主流.
I think I really enjoy being on the farm because it not only fulfills my desire to understand sustainable development, but it also enriches me intellectually and philosophically. The act of modern day agriculture has been reduced to a systematic process, where the input of N, P, and K with the right amount of synthetic pesticides is expected to produce long-lasting sturdy crops. However, to be a more ecological farmer, one has to challenge the treatment of nature as an input and output machine, and really absorb the beauty that is diversity and give thanks to all the components of the whole that somehow make an ecosystem work. In participating in agriculture, one really has to consider human's role on Earth.
Pictures to come later!
The food on the farm was definitely a big perk. After having spent 2 weeks on HK eating mostly meaty dim sum dishes and constantly eating out, I was happy to have some vegetarian home cooking! And even better, all of the food eaten on the farm was from either his farm, or the neighboring farms that also considered themselves “natural”/”beyond organic”, meaning that they held themselves to a standard that was even higher than the organic certification standards. In both the US and China, food that is labeled as “organic” is free from synthetic chemicals, but organic chemicals are still be applied. Some people have argued that “organic” is not necessarily better because “organic” chemicals are often low in potency. Thus to achieve the same effect, more chemicals have to be applied. Unless he was certain of the quality of the ingredients, he did not use it on his farm. Even the vinegar was made by one of his friends. The food was fresh, local, and completely safe to eat, which I think is quite hard to achieve in China.
His kitchen was pretty typical of a rural Chinese household, and we cooked our food in one of those fire stoves where one person is fully responsible for feeding the fire while other people did the wok work. I happily participated in cooking the first night’s dinner and then on the second night, I spearheaded a 卷饼 effort! I was quite proud of myself because it was the first time I made 卷饼 from beginning to end. Woot!
Another highlight was watching the show 舌尖上的中国(“A Bite of China”) on a projector in his living room. It felt so much like a home movie theater! The show itself was filmed in an epic Planet Earth-esque style, except the content consisted solely of mouth-watering food, food culture, their epic origins and their complex extraction methods.
Another highlight was planting sprouts in the rice patty! On the one hand, I thought it was a comical experience because rice patties are a part of so many Asian jokes. At the same time, it was also quite an experience! Because we didn’t have shoes, we worked barefooted, and the feeling of mud oozing through our toes with every step and going up to our ankles was quite sensational. I probably won’t do it again though because as I learned afterwards, one can catch many diseases that way…oops. Anyhoo, even though planting rice sprouts is hard work, I really enjoyed it for the short duration that I got to participate. People talk about reconnecting with the Earth, or reconnecting with one’s ancestral roots, and I felt like it was very profound experience to be able to participate in an activity that has defined so much of China’s history. Rice has been a staple in Chinese food just as agriculture has been China’s staple industry. While planting, I was thinking about the thousands, if not millions of people, who have come before me and participated in the same creation ritual.
The people I met on the farm were also an assortment of interesting characters, from Laojia (老贾), the urbanite philosopher turned farmer (for him, his farm is more about realizing his philosophical and Buddhist beliefs) to the other farm interns who all seem to be trying to fulfill a slightly different dream of their own by coming to Laojia’s farm. While each person’s background story is unique, everyone (probably including Mike and me) seem to be very 非主流.
I think I really enjoy being on the farm because it not only fulfills my desire to understand sustainable development, but it also enriches me intellectually and philosophically. The act of modern day agriculture has been reduced to a systematic process, where the input of N, P, and K with the right amount of synthetic pesticides is expected to produce long-lasting sturdy crops. However, to be a more ecological farmer, one has to challenge the treatment of nature as an input and output machine, and really absorb the beauty that is diversity and give thanks to all the components of the whole that somehow make an ecosystem work. In participating in agriculture, one really has to consider human's role on Earth.
Pictures to come later!
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
June 4th Memorial
I’m really glad that I was able to be in Hong Kong for June 4th because it gave me an opportunity to learn about a critical part of Chinese history and also see similarities between myself and people from a community that I previously thought foreign. I knew about the iconic picture of the man standing before a line of rolling tanks; I knew about the massive student protest and their demand for democracy; I knew about the violence and bloodshed, but being in Hong Kong really illuminated the importance of the incident to contemporary China and why it should not be forgotten.
Before coming to Hong Kong, I never knew about (or perhaps I just didn’t care enough to remember) the events that led up to 6/4. It wasn’t as if the Tiananmen Square Incident just happened; tension on the Square had been building for a month. The popular way of reviewing 6/4 is that it was a fight for democracy that was brutally suppressed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but the more I learn, the more I feel like the story is bigger than just that simple black and white explanation.
Tiananmen is particularly sad because at its origin, it was a young generation’s expression of patriotism and optimism for a better China. It is significant, even though I didn’t learn this in history class, that the Peking U students first gathered on Tiananmen Square in early May to commemorate the death of Hu Yaobang, a high-ranking official of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who was denounced by other CCP officials for his free-market reforms. He was a well-known liberal, and the students demanded that the government reassess his legacy. The gathering to commemorate his death soon turned into a rally for greater government accountability. Slogans called for democracy and an end to government corruption. When students declared a hunger strike, tensions rose. Whereas at first, the newspapers (which I found from an archive in the CUHK library) contained pictures of the student protestors (wearing their bandanas and looking very rebel like) and articles about how the residents of Beijing supported the students, towards the later parts of May, the pictures disappeared entirely and were replaced by articles about martial law in strict fonts. In part, the students at Tiananmen Square were also unfortunate victims of an inner-party struggle. With the death of the liberal Hu Yaobang, it was a chance for hard-liners to win power. While moderates protested against using force on the students, hard-liners believed otherwise. Even though Xi Jinping (the pretty much determined next President of China) doesn’t talk about it, his father was a very high-ranking General at the time and belonged to the moderate camp that adamantly refused to use military force to remove the students. Ultimately, the hard-liners won. What would have happened had the moderates won? What would China be like today without this black mark to its name?
On the night of June 4th, I joined my workshop professors and a handful of other Yale affiliates to attend the annual vigil held at Victoria Park. I went mainly out of curiosity. I’ve been told that organized protests are a part of HK culture and that the 6/4 vigil is sometimes treated like a national holiday. Indeed , according to the organizer’s estimates, last night’s vigil drew a record of 180,000 people. Everyone had a candle (at first, I was terrified of the potential fire hazard) and we covered an area a few football fields large. We sang songs, some in Cantonese and some in mandarin.
The songs were all very fitting, but one song 血染的风采 especially stood out. 血染的风采 was originally a song for commemorating Chinese soldiers who died in the Vietnam War that had been appropriated for the 6/4 memorial. In its original context it is sung from the perspective of soldiers who ask their loved ones to not worry about the what-ifs of their probably death. The soldiers remind them that if they die, their death will be for a greater national cause. When it is sung for 6/4, the perspective changes to the victim of 6/4. One line in the chorus always gives me the Goosebumps for how well it fits its new context. A line in the chorus that is meant to be comforting and remind people that the nation's flag is stained by the soldier's sacrifices “共和国的旗帜上有我们血染的风采” (“the republic’s flag has our bloodstained glory”) instead reminds the listener of the blood of the 6/4 victims.
What impressed me the most was how patriotic the 6/4 vigil felt. People often think of Hong Kong as separate from China. Indeed with its colonial history under British rule, liberal culture, and 一国两制(one country, two rule) policy, it does seem like an oddly foreign (yet familiar…the people, the words, the smells are pretty much the same) place. The high cost of living would be entirely impossible on the mainland. On the surface the 6/4 vigil might just seem like a giant protest against the CCP, which made me apprehensive about going, but after staying for a while and soaking in the atmosphere, I realized that 6/4 was the Hong Konger’s unique way of owning their ancient Chinese roots and new Chinese identity. Hong Kongers are afraid that the mainland’s autocratic rule might eventually overwhelm their way of life and they’ll be the frog that is cooked in a slowly boiling pot of water. Through the 6/4 memorial, they are signaling their hope for change. An optimistic view, held by some Hong Kongers (especially those working in civil society) is that instead of having autocratic China slowly engulf Hong Kong, why not think about how the relatively corruption-free Hong Kong can affect mainland China?
Instead of seeing the 6/4 event as a simple protest against the CCP government, I see it as Hong Kong’s attempt to carry the 89 student’s hope for a better China. While I don’t necessarily support their slogans of down with the CCP, I do think that the CCP need to build a system that ensures greater government accountability. The Hong Kongers share the 6/4 student’s dream and they are using their unique Hong Kong culture of protest to communicate their hope. I find their their devotion to their civic duties extremely inspiring and patriotic; and their vision, I realized, was one that I could support.
Through participating in the 6/4 memorial, I began to see the similarities between myself and the people of Hong Kong. On the one hand, sometimes I think that the Chinese government is crazy and juvenile. Living in China where not everyone is treated the same under the law scares me and makes me want to leave. Yet, on another hand, I feel strong ties to this crazy place and also very patriotic at times. My family is there, my roots are there, and I am rooting for the country to succeed. It is because of my Chinese patriotism and my desire to see it succeed that I care enough to be upset about corruption and food scandals in China. The students of 6/4 were acting out their patriotism, and Hong Kongers, by remembering 6/4 are being patriotic to China in the way they best know how. Here’s to civic participation, and here’s to a brighter future for China. 平反六四.
A picture from where I was sitting.
A picture from The Atlantic
Before coming to Hong Kong, I never knew about (or perhaps I just didn’t care enough to remember) the events that led up to 6/4. It wasn’t as if the Tiananmen Square Incident just happened; tension on the Square had been building for a month. The popular way of reviewing 6/4 is that it was a fight for democracy that was brutally suppressed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but the more I learn, the more I feel like the story is bigger than just that simple black and white explanation.
Tiananmen is particularly sad because at its origin, it was a young generation’s expression of patriotism and optimism for a better China. It is significant, even though I didn’t learn this in history class, that the Peking U students first gathered on Tiananmen Square in early May to commemorate the death of Hu Yaobang, a high-ranking official of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who was denounced by other CCP officials for his free-market reforms. He was a well-known liberal, and the students demanded that the government reassess his legacy. The gathering to commemorate his death soon turned into a rally for greater government accountability. Slogans called for democracy and an end to government corruption. When students declared a hunger strike, tensions rose. Whereas at first, the newspapers (which I found from an archive in the CUHK library) contained pictures of the student protestors (wearing their bandanas and looking very rebel like) and articles about how the residents of Beijing supported the students, towards the later parts of May, the pictures disappeared entirely and were replaced by articles about martial law in strict fonts. In part, the students at Tiananmen Square were also unfortunate victims of an inner-party struggle. With the death of the liberal Hu Yaobang, it was a chance for hard-liners to win power. While moderates protested against using force on the students, hard-liners believed otherwise. Even though Xi Jinping (the pretty much determined next President of China) doesn’t talk about it, his father was a very high-ranking General at the time and belonged to the moderate camp that adamantly refused to use military force to remove the students. Ultimately, the hard-liners won. What would have happened had the moderates won? What would China be like today without this black mark to its name?
On the night of June 4th, I joined my workshop professors and a handful of other Yale affiliates to attend the annual vigil held at Victoria Park. I went mainly out of curiosity. I’ve been told that organized protests are a part of HK culture and that the 6/4 vigil is sometimes treated like a national holiday. Indeed , according to the organizer’s estimates, last night’s vigil drew a record of 180,000 people. Everyone had a candle (at first, I was terrified of the potential fire hazard) and we covered an area a few football fields large. We sang songs, some in Cantonese and some in mandarin.
The songs were all very fitting, but one song 血染的风采 especially stood out. 血染的风采 was originally a song for commemorating Chinese soldiers who died in the Vietnam War that had been appropriated for the 6/4 memorial. In its original context it is sung from the perspective of soldiers who ask their loved ones to not worry about the what-ifs of their probably death. The soldiers remind them that if they die, their death will be for a greater national cause. When it is sung for 6/4, the perspective changes to the victim of 6/4. One line in the chorus always gives me the Goosebumps for how well it fits its new context. A line in the chorus that is meant to be comforting and remind people that the nation's flag is stained by the soldier's sacrifices “共和国的旗帜上有我们血染的风采” (“the republic’s flag has our bloodstained glory”) instead reminds the listener of the blood of the 6/4 victims.
What impressed me the most was how patriotic the 6/4 vigil felt. People often think of Hong Kong as separate from China. Indeed with its colonial history under British rule, liberal culture, and 一国两制(one country, two rule) policy, it does seem like an oddly foreign (yet familiar…the people, the words, the smells are pretty much the same) place. The high cost of living would be entirely impossible on the mainland. On the surface the 6/4 vigil might just seem like a giant protest against the CCP, which made me apprehensive about going, but after staying for a while and soaking in the atmosphere, I realized that 6/4 was the Hong Konger’s unique way of owning their ancient Chinese roots and new Chinese identity. Hong Kongers are afraid that the mainland’s autocratic rule might eventually overwhelm their way of life and they’ll be the frog that is cooked in a slowly boiling pot of water. Through the 6/4 memorial, they are signaling their hope for change. An optimistic view, held by some Hong Kongers (especially those working in civil society) is that instead of having autocratic China slowly engulf Hong Kong, why not think about how the relatively corruption-free Hong Kong can affect mainland China?
Instead of seeing the 6/4 event as a simple protest against the CCP government, I see it as Hong Kong’s attempt to carry the 89 student’s hope for a better China. While I don’t necessarily support their slogans of down with the CCP, I do think that the CCP need to build a system that ensures greater government accountability. The Hong Kongers share the 6/4 student’s dream and they are using their unique Hong Kong culture of protest to communicate their hope. I find their their devotion to their civic duties extremely inspiring and patriotic; and their vision, I realized, was one that I could support.
Through participating in the 6/4 memorial, I began to see the similarities between myself and the people of Hong Kong. On the one hand, sometimes I think that the Chinese government is crazy and juvenile. Living in China where not everyone is treated the same under the law scares me and makes me want to leave. Yet, on another hand, I feel strong ties to this crazy place and also very patriotic at times. My family is there, my roots are there, and I am rooting for the country to succeed. It is because of my Chinese patriotism and my desire to see it succeed that I care enough to be upset about corruption and food scandals in China. The students of 6/4 were acting out their patriotism, and Hong Kongers, by remembering 6/4 are being patriotic to China in the way they best know how. Here’s to civic participation, and here’s to a brighter future for China. 平反六四.
A picture from where I was sitting.
A picture from The Atlantic
Hong Kong
I’m currently in Hong Kong with my senior thesis advisor and a few other Yalies working on a survey project. The survey project is unique in that it tries to assess China’s true urban composition by capturing China’s massive migrant population. While the majority of these migrations are “illegal” and consequently undocumented, they are definitely not an invisible population. Estimates of the population have been between 150 to 200 million people, which if you think about it, is about ½ to 2/3 of the US population.
The workshop is pretty much Chinglish, extensive statistical analysis, and intense discussions about whether or not there is still a penalty to rural birth. I think I might be thinking harder than I actually did at any point in my second semester of senior year…To be fair, my second semester was kind of like this… Outside of workshop, my life is pretty much dim sum, mangoes and markets, and using HK's extensive public transportation.
HK island from the ferry
The workshop is pretty much Chinglish, extensive statistical analysis, and intense discussions about whether or not there is still a penalty to rural birth. I think I might be thinking harder than I actually did at any point in my second semester of senior year…To be fair, my second semester was kind of like this… Outside of workshop, my life is pretty much dim sum, mangoes and markets, and using HK's extensive public transportation.
HK island from the ferry
I made a trip by myself to Lantau Island, about a 2.5hr trip. It's a beautiful island and I really enjoyed the bus ride that took us up to a giant Buddha statue on the mountain peak. It is the largest bronze Buddha in the world.
HK cemetery nestled in the middle of downtown. I like the juxtaposition of the cemetery against the background high rises.
View of the Catholic cemetery (lots of Portuguese buried here) from the Muslim cemetery, which was located on the hilltop.
I found a sticker of a Sun Bear on the fence surrounding the cemetery. Sun bears are the shared spirit animal of Ray and I. Maybe it's a good luck sign for our upcoming trip to SH! :)
Monday, June 4, 2012
Graduation
Guess what everyone--I graduated! Woohoo! I haven't posted in a while, but I figured graduating from college was kind of a big deal. Here documents the end of my academic career(for now at least?).
For Class Day, we have the silly tradition of wearing a funny hat instead of the graduation cap. I had the hardest time thinking of an appropriate hat, until I found the decorative sun that Kim had sent me in a care package wayyy back in Freshmen year because she read that I was homesick on a facebook status (Kim, thank you again!). When I found it, I knew it was the right object to use and ta-da, my dangling smiling sun hat. Get it?
Photo cred goes to mom, the chemistry prof. Haha.
Juan (obscured by his giant JE lion head is attacking Vera, the carrillion flapper.
Mom and dad!
Yup, this pretty much sums it up!
For Class Day, we have the silly tradition of wearing a funny hat instead of the graduation cap. I had the hardest time thinking of an appropriate hat, until I found the decorative sun that Kim had sent me in a care package wayyy back in Freshmen year because she read that I was homesick on a facebook status (Kim, thank you again!). When I found it, I knew it was the right object to use and ta-da, my dangling smiling sun hat. Get it?
Photo cred goes to mom, the chemistry prof. Haha.
Juan (obscured by his giant JE lion head is attacking Vera, the carrillion flapper.
Mom and dad!
Yup, this pretty much sums it up!
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