Life and Travel in China

The average Pole lumps Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, and sometimes even Thais and Filipinos into one bag. After a long stay in China, I can definitely tell the difference between these nations. Apart from the language and writing (Chinese and Japanese characters are similar), they differ greatly in appearance (eyes, height, nose, eyebrow shape, hair), as well as clothing and behavior. I've met Japanese people, recently some Korean students, and Filipinos, and I would never consider them Chinese.

I'm wondering about this stereotype of Chinese fortune cookies. I just saw them for the hundredth time in an American series. Well, in 5 years of my stay in China, I have never encountered this. I did some reading and it turned out that these cookies were invented by a Japanese in 1914 in San Francisco, USA. A similar idea had an emigrant from Hong Kong who invented the 'fortune cookie' in Los Angeles in 1918. As you can see, the famous Chinese cookies come from America and actually have little to do with Chinese culture. They only exist in CHINA TOWN and in Chinese restaurants outside the Middle East. The only connection with China is that in the 13th and 14th centuries there was an uprising against the Mongols and secret messages were hidden inside mooncakes. But these are completely different cookies... and yet another legend.

I'm wondering... Tusk is in Shanghai now. He came two months after the Olympics because he was boycotting the event?! Maybe the prime minister is just offended at Beijing and cannot fly to Shanghai? I don't know, but if someone denies China and accuses it of so many things, why come here at all? Or to put it another way... why is he rushing to the Chinese if he still has a lot to discuss with them? We will never win against the middle country, because the Chinese do not have to take us into account, and we - on the contrary - have to take them into account on an equal footing with the USA, Russia and Germany. Prime Minister Tusk got off the plane wearing jeans, a sweatshirt and a jacket. The Chinese delegation was surprised. It's good that the plane is clearly marked, because maybe the Chinese would start looking for another plane with a more elegant passenger when they saw it.

The Chinese are masters in inventing strange snacks: there were already famous sweet rolls with sausages, black eggs (I'm ashamed to admit, even I like them), and 'sweet' beef candies. And now I came across a Nestle wafer. A wafer covered with white chocolate is no surprise (if something in China can be called chocolate at all), but what an original filling - with the taste of yellow cheese. Fortunately, there was no smell of any cheese, but what an unusual marketing trick! For the Chinese, cheese is an expensive, unknown substance that they see in American and French films, and when they buy cheese themselves (which is rare), they wonder how we can eat it? The problem is that they can't make a sandwich and they eat the cheese like an apple.

It's hard to imagine it in Poland, but in China it happened that milk was withdrawn from sale! It's probably about the recent scandal involving melamine in milk. Although this concerned powdered milk for children, milk in all forms has apparently been withdrawn. My guess is that the government is doing some inspections. Very expensive milk imported from New Zealand appeared. In many hypermarkets there is no milk at all or it is only available in small cartons. The Chinese have never been accustomed to milk. It's hard to believe, but 10 years ago children didn't drink milk or yogurt at all (that's why Chinese men are skinny and Chinese women are petite). You don't have to be a nutritional technologist to know that bones cannot develop without calcium (i.e. dairy products). There is no cheese here and milk has never been popular. They prefer soy milk. I have now also switched to soy. I have no choice!