I am a “banana”, because I am yellow on the outside and white on the inside. A friend of ours from New York is an egg, because he is white on the outside, and yellow on the inside (because he really likes China, and wants to become a chinese).

All clear? According to this post, us bananas are a minority because we cannot participate in Chinese speech competitions for non-speakers, even though we might have as much difficulty learning chinese as foreigners. And we are denied the position to teach English even if English would be indeed the native language.

So we are discriminated by chinese people, because we look like them…

Noise pollution is one of the biggest problems in SH, and it’s mainly caused by car horns. Every driver feels the needs to honk at everyone no matter what the situation is. Enter this experimentation:

THREE buses on route No. 36 had their horns disengaged in an experiment to reduce noise downtown but some officials are concerned it could lead to more accidents. The city’s traffic law clearly states that vehicles can not use the horn on streets inside the Outer Ring Road. Most drivers routinely ignore this ban, especially bus drivers, police said. The fine for breaking this law ranges from 50 yuan (US$6.23) to 200 yuan. Traffic police said it is very difficult to enforce this law and have singled out bus drivers as a starting point.

Why is it difficult? Just start stopping every car that does that, sooner or later people will learn the lesson!

“Buses are usually the biggest vehicles on the road,” said Pan Luoyi, head of the Luwan District traffic police. “Bus drivers that frequently blare horns shows that they feel more powerful than other vehicles. “Once my own car was moving slowly and a bus behind kept honking the horn crazily,” Pan continued. “The bus driver was only showing his impatience since he knew as well as I that I could do nothing to make way for him.”

There’s no actual reason for them to honk, it’s just a way to shout at someone saying “get out of my way!!” or “you’re too slow!!”.

However, some authorities raised concerns about safety issues resulting from the experiment. Officials with the Shanghai Public Transport Administration said that they were worried buses without horns could lead to more accidents. “A horn is necessary equipment on a bus and is needed to deal with emergencies,” said Lu Gaosheng, an official with the administration.

The only time you would need to honk (that I can think of) is when you’re driving on a mountain, and you cannot see if there’s a car behind the curve. You don’t need it in the city.

But Pan disagreed. “It is illegal for buses to blare horns inside the Outer Ring Road,” Pan said. “Our experience shows blaring horns only serves to inform others. The first and almost only effective action is to brake when a bus is about to hit something on the street. Blaring the horn will not help avoid a collision in emergency cases.”

Exactly!! Someone is smart enough to understand this!

Luwan District police said they would encourage more buses in the district to remove horns if the experiment proved safe and effective.

I surely hope so!! Next they’d have to test taxis…

The current lunar year is a very special one, read this post by Sabrina to learn why. So a lot of couples are getting married this year. Brad identifies 3 stages in chinese weddings:

1. The certification
2. The photos
3. The dinner

Which reminded me of our own wedding. Neither of us is a chinese citizen, so we couldn’t do any certification here. So first we took some photos (at Jennifer Studio), and then we had an unofficial ceremony and dinner on 15th Nov 2003. We then went to Taiwan for the actual certification, so on paper our wedding day is 29th (I think) Dec 2003. I then had to transfer the certification to the italian government, which took us about 2 years for various reasons (which I won’t bore you with).

Pretty complicated process. All worthwhile for me, in order to marry the woman of my dreams!

This article shows how the chinese government is desperately trying to change people’s habits:

Traffic police launched a citywide campaign in the middle of this month to address lingering traffic problems, particularly jaywalking. The city’s General Team of Traffic Police has told officers they must ticket jaywalkers instead of just giving out warnings, which has been a common practice as police find it too difficult and time-consuming to fine disobedient pedestrians. More than 2,100 pedestrians and nearly 5,500 cyclists were ticketed since the campaign started. But police say their experience from the past two weeks shows it usually takes three to four traffic officers about 15 minutes on average to deal with an uncooperative jaywalker. Only a small number of jaywalkers simply agree to pay their fines, which range from 5 to 50 yuan (62 US cents to US$6.20), police said. Many people refuse to pay fines saying they have no money with them, they are in a hurry to get to work and can’t afford the delay, or questioning why police are picking on them when jaywalking is so prevalent.

I am sure their thinking is: not even car drivers follow the rules, why should jaywalkers care about following the rules?!

One woman is currently spending 10 days in police custody for abusing police after they tried to fine her for jaywalking last Thursday. The woman’s tirade was captured on video by TV reporters who were doing a story on the traffic campaign at the time, and broadcast on the evening news. She was so embarrassed by the situation that she resigned from her job with an education consulting company yesterday. More jaywalkers could find themselves facing public humiliation if the Municipal Office for Promoting Cultural and Ethical Progress has its way. The office wants to set up billboards in busy downtown locations to post photos of jaywalkers in an attempt to shame people out of the practice.

Fines do not work at all, so they resort to public shame, just like bad students going around the school with a sign saying: “I’m stupid”. Why am I still surprised? I know I should not, but this is just too much!

ONLINE blog reading has become a new trend for surfers, a survey conducted by the Shanghai SMMAIL Administration Center said yesterday on World Book Day. Among 2,200 respondents, 80 percent said they read online blogs. The survey also showed that 70 percent people read less than 10 books a year and 83 percent thought books cost too much.

The majority of blogs I read are by people I know, my friends. There are only a few blogs that I read out of interest for the content. Which makes me wonder, do people read more blogs because their friends blog more?

On the other hand I wouldn’t compare blogs with books, they’re a different type of experience. Which brings me to another topic, how many books do you read per year?

I only read novels, can’t seem to concentrate enough to read anything that doesn’t involve a story. Not that I am not interested, I am just not interested enough to finish those books. So I only read novels: crime, fantasy, sci-fi, thriller…

But I only read books when I am on vacation, and I have really time to finish a book in a few days. Normally I would take me 1-2 months to finish a book ( I’m a slow reader, both in English and Italian), and I tend to give up on books if it takes me that long. Also my memory sucks, so even if I did get to the end, I would have forgotten characters and plotlines from the beginning of the book.

If I could have a superpower, I would choose fast reading. What about you, how fast are you?