If you have to work on a Saturday...

Tomorrow, October 1st is National Day. This is when China celebrates the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Now, holidays in China are a little unusual, at least to an American like myself. The government dictates when the holidays are, and how long they are, but they also move the work days. By now you're probably confused so let me explain. For National Day the Chinese government gives the people three days but then moves the "weekend day" to create a five-day holiday. Usually, this means that people have to work two weekend days. These days might be both before the holiday or one before and one after (for example for National Day it's often the Saturday before and the Sunday after). This year the 1st is on a Sunday so the days off are the second, third and fourth. We should then have to make up the fifth and sixth, but there is another holiday that this year falls within this week. Mid-Autumn Festival (or sometimes known as Moon Festival) is Wednesday. Since the government gives the people one day for Mid-Autumn Festival only one day has to be made up and today was the day declared as the make-up day (each Winter the government releases a list of that year's holidays as well as make-up days).
If you have to work on a Saturday, today was about as good as it gets. School usually starts at 7:40 am. If I have a first period class (which I do on Tuesdays and Thursdays), I have to be there by 7:15/7:20. If I don't have a first period class, then I have to be there by 8:00 am. Today we had to meet in the parking lot at 8:50 am. We then took the whole school (which is only about 40 or so students) to a museum on the Japanese Aggression (the museum's word, not mine) in China. In case you didn't know Japan invaded China in the mid-1930s and weren't expelled until after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan and the subsequent ending of World War II. We left the museum around 11:15 and got back to school a little after noon. We were then dismissed for the holiday. Not a bad work day (especially considering I didn't have to do anything with the students at the museum we were free to explore on our own).

I'm sorry it's not very easy to read because it was at an angle. It is worth
making the effort to read though.

I've heard it say that history is what those who write the history books say it is. It was very interesting to see the history from a very different perspective than I usually see. One of my first observations was that nowhere in the museum did they ever call it World War II. The war within China was called, "The Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression" and World War II was referred to as the "World Anti-Fascist War." Overall, I thought the coverage was much better balanced than I had expected, but there were a couple of interesting observations I made. At the beginning of the war, the Nationalist party (also known as the Kuomintang) were in charge of the Republic of China and the signs perpetually threw them under the bus blaming them for every advance the Japanese made (If you don't know anything about Chinese history, after the end of the last dynasty the Republic of China was founded with the Nationalist government in charge. After the Japanese were expelled from China a civil was ensued at eventually the communist party won and the Kuomintang or Nationalists fled to Taiwan where they call themselves the Republic of China, but the People's Republic of China calls them a province, albeit a rogue province). In the early parts of the war, the museum showed the Kuomintang (they never referred to them in this part of the museum as the Nationalist party) could do no right and the communist party was the great motivator and unifier. As the allies started to get involved the worked together with the Republic China's government (i.e. te Kuomintang), but the museum never calls them this as the tide changes and the Japanese are being defeated. In this part of the museum they almost always just say China. The communist party is never mentioned (because they weren't actually involved) and in one spot the Kuomintang is mentioned, but they are referred to as the Nationalist party (the only time in the entire museum the name Nationalist party is mentioned). This makes me wonder if there is a museum in Taiwan on this subject and if so, I think I'd love to see it to see the opposing viewpoint. I'm including a few pictures of some of the signs so that you can get a feel for the language.

I was pleasantly surprised by how well they covered the contributions of other countries, not just the Soviet Union, but also the Americans, Canadians, Australians, Britons and more. I also learned something I never knew before. Back in 1939, the Chinese took in Jewish refugees. I asked my boss about what happened to them (I want to research this more myself) and he told me that most of them moved to Israel after it was created (that makes sense), but a very small number actually stayed in China and have descendants who are Chinese citizens.

Note: the caption blames the Kuomintang.

I find the passport very interesting. It was clearly designed to be
for a man and wife, but this is for a woman and her
husband had his own passport, which was beside it on the wall.
The other thing I find interesting is if you can read German you can see
it's not even filled out correctly. Her birthdate is written beside
birthplace and her birthplace is beside birthdate (and I thought
it was bad that my first passport accidently said I was born in
Arkansas).

The NHL comes to Beijing

Arriving at the arena

China is an emerging market. There is more and more wealth in China and it is this wealth that not only provides my job but also opens up unique opportunities. This past week the NHL came to China for the first time (something the NBA has done quite a bit). The Vancouver Canucks and the Los Angeles Kings played a game in Shanghai on Thursday and another in Beijing on Saturday. I decided to go to the Beijing game and I'm glad I did.
Outside the venue, there was what I can describe only as a carnival. There were booths with different hockey-related games and plenty of displays for taking photos. I didn't know about any of this ahead of time and so I wasn't there with enough time to participate (although even if I had known, I doubt I would have cared).

Before the game

Inside the arena, there was a program with playing cards (both entirely in Chinese) and a rally towel on each seat. Of course, the towels weren't for one particular team since neither was truly the home team. The surprising thing for me though was the number of foreigners present. I expected a number would come back as early as the subway I realized there were a lot more than I expected. Matter of fact, there was a group of about 6 to my left and a group of about 8 in front of me, plus a lot more not far away as well as throughout the arena. Almost all the people around me were Canadian (although sitting directly beside was a woman from South Africa), but the surprising thing was how many people appeared to have traveled quite a distance to come to the game. Both groups of Canadians (who didn't know each other) had traveled from Hefei, which according to Siri is about 550 miles away as the crow flies. One thing I found highly amusing is that in a crowd of 12,479 (If I'm remembering the number correctly), I was within shouting distance of one of my co-workers.

Before the game, they demonstrated the rules in both Chinese
and English. 

One of the 3 groups of cheerleaders. Much of their
presentation was very different from "typical" Chinese
culture.

The game was an interesting mix of East meets West. First, because Chinese people are not very familiar with hockey, there was an explanation of the rules complete with demonstrations (and presented bilingually). The early demonstrations were done with some of the people taking care of the ice, while the latter ones were performed by the mascots.  Throughout the game, there were also explanations displayed (only in Chinese) on the jumbotron. While the NHL certainly brought a lot of people with them (even the Zamboni drivers were not Chinese), there were two or three groups of cheerleaders who performed in a style that was decidedly NOT Chinese, but then there was also a performance that was very traditional Chinese with a woman in a traditional minority dress (I missed the announcement which said which one) and traditional Chinese instruments. The coolest example though of East meets West was in the opening "ceremonies." The Chinese are really big on bombastic over-the-top displays and the opening definitely fell into that category. Among other things, a multimedia presentation was projected onto the ice that included not only pictures of some of the players, but also video and pictures of historic Beijing landmarks. My words cannot do justice so I'll let you enjoy a video of part of the spectacle. I do apologize though. I have a new camera and didn't know the details of how it works. I took stills during the filming of the video and this interrupts it a bit. Nonetheless, I think it is enjoyable and so I hope you enjoy not only the video but my pictures of the venue, presentation, and game. By the way, if you're curious the game was a nailbiter that the Kings won 4-3 in a shootout.

Projected on the ice.

The dragon was definitely not typical to an NHL game.

Here come the Kings.

Here come the Canucks.