While it has been dreadfully chilly, the afternoon sun from my “sniper’s” nest at Momo Bar has provided some wonderful light. Two days of sun? I can’t believe it. Last week it was hot – shorts-weather. This week? I’m wearing a toque and long-johns. There’s no insulation in south China homes – plain old cement walls. If it’s 40 degrees outside, it’s 40 degrees inside. Often, it’s warming outside than it is inside. I think the Chinese weather has developed bi-polar disorder and needs medication and therapy.

It was wet too weeks ago, I don’t mean rain or assorted precipitation, I mean wet.  Like every tile surface was covered in water. I don’t know the physics behind the phenomenon. My Chinese friends believe it is water in the air. My belief is that warm weather after ten days of temps just above freezing, caused condensation to form everywhere. Please, correct me if I’m wrong.

I witnessed the downside of the freakish wetness in my second apartment. I hadn’t been there for three weeks. I noticed as I prepared to sleep Monday night that the sheets smelled decidedly funky. Upon closer inspection I find lovely black mold spots on my pillows and a strange connect-the-dots pattern on a sheet. Lovely. I went home the next day, linens in hand, ready for the washing machine and Mr. Sun.

Chinese Lunar New Year is also called Spring Festival. It should be called Almost Spring Festival. I spoke with a Canadian in Shanghai earlier this week – he opined that Canada was warmer than China. That’s not enough to draw me back but is certainly food for thought.

I’m off to Hong Kong tomorrow to a Strobist shoot with some local photographers and 3 models. The public wharf in Kennedy Town, Hong Kong Island is our location. Photos of Asian models to follow.

From my usual perch at Momo Bar and spied this young lad taking a hearty sip of milk tea. If there’s one thing a growing toddler needs it’s a good hit of sugar and caffeine. Welcome to China.

Grandparents are generally the caregivers of their grandchildren. While mother and father are out making money, granny or grandpa are at home with the kids. An afternoon visit to the playground features a stunning contrast in ages: Wrinkled faces that witnessed the Cultural Revolution chat as wee ones climb, laugh and cry. There are domestics, mostly rural village girls, but they are not as prevalent as the Filipina, Malaysian and Indonesian domestics in Hong Kong.

A year from now I will be able to take this photo of Grandmother Stevo and still-percolating Baby Stevo. Mrs. Stevo’s mother will be coming to live with us. This raises some issues. Grandmother Stevo speaks neither English or Mandarin, only her village dialect that I find impossible difficult to understand. And, Chinese child-rearing is not the something I want to comment on. I’ll hypothesize: If Dr. Spock’s work has been translated it hasn’t been read. The One-child policy has led to a lot of spoiled children but not a sparing of the rod.

Mrs. Stevo returned from the hospital yesterday with a fresh ultrasound pic. I’m not being unkind when I say the 1.5 pound Baby Stevo looks like some sort of bizarre sea creature. Ultrasound images are about as flattering as photos of yours truly.

This image was shot “on the sly” with a Phottix Hero Wireless Live View Remote.

The Chinese Lantern Festival will be celebrated February 28, bringing Chinese Lunar New Year to an end. The 15-day long Spring Festival will draw to a close. No more closed businesses, and most importantly, no more fireworks. I have never lived in a war zone, but the constant deafening explosions of past two weeks have given me a fair indication of what an artillery strike would sound like. I think Expatriate Games would agree….

The Lantern Festival will see the first full moon of the new year – this year being the Chinese Year of the Tiger. Modern practices see families walking outside, children holding colorful paper lanterns, appreciating the moon. Glutinous Rice Balls called yuanxiao are the traditional festival food often eaten in soup called tangyuan.

The Lantern Festival has been celebrated for thousands of years. Why lanterns? What’s the deal? If I’ve learned anything in China it is there are many different explanations for everything.

One legend says the festival was a way to worship the Chinese god of heaven, Taiyi. Beginning with the Qin Dynasty, emperors would hold elaborate celebrations to appease the god and ward off possible droughts, famine, disease, and possibly dragon attacks. The end of Spring Festival is also the birthday of the Taoist god of good fortune, Tianguan. It was believed that Tianguan liked entertainment. Since there were no strippers in the days of yor, lanterns were a way of giving the dude what he craved, and hopefully having him grant good fortune to lantern bearers.

There are other stories. Which one is true? That’s a matter of personal choice. I’m partial to the story of the Lantern Festival starting as a way of deceiving the Jade Emperor in Heaven. Some villagers inadvertently hunted and killed the Jade Emperor’s favorite bird. That’s a big no-no – don’t mess with a god’s avian friends. He was a little angry and decreed the village would be destroyed in a storm of fire.

Mr. Jade’s daughter over heard his plan and told the villagers. A village wiseman decided to hang red lanterns, start big bonfires, and toss around fireworks to make the village look like it was on fire. When the Jade Emperor’s soldiers arrived to launch their shock and awe attack they saw the village was already ablaze. They reported back to the emperor who probably said, “Good,” and went back to doing his other Jade Emperor duties.  The villagers celebrated not being burnt to a crisp with the lanterns and fireworks each year on the anniversary of their deception. In your face, Jade Emperor.

I’ll be in Hong Kong, a mecca for Indian tailors and African drug dealers,  for this year’s Lantern Festival. I’ll see what trouble I can get into and the possible photos that result.

Headed to work: A restaurant hostess in a Qipao.

You don’t see average Chinese folk in traditional dress. I guess you don’t in other countries either. Germans don’t attend business meetings in lederhosen, unless that business meeting is held by a lederhosen manufacturer.

The Qipao, the high-necked, long-slitted traditional woman’s dress of China, is possibly one of hottest most attractive garments in the world, but it’s a tad impractical.  Yes, women wear them, to parties, on dates, etc., but your don’t (unfortunately) see Chinese women lounging around the house in a qipao. There aren’t gaggles of ladies in form-fitting Mandarin gowns strolling the boulevards.

In modern China the qipao has been relegated to uniform wear. It’s worn by three types of hostesses: The ones at restaurants, KTVs, and massage parlors.  When driving down a street you can tell the sort of establishment by the dress of the hostesses standing out front. Without seeing the business’s sign you know you are before a restaurant, KTV, or massage parlor. For fans of prepared foods, karaoke, or muscle kneading, it’s a win-win.

Mrs. Stevo has a few qipaos in her wardrobe. She can’t wear them at present – the watermelon-sized Stevo-to-be residing in her belly has seen to that. There are’t maternity versions of the classic Chinese dress.

I can’t think of traditional Canadian attire, but Canada is very young country with a heritage of combined cultures. A stereotypical outfit comes to mind, but that’s not “traditional”.  What about you? What is your country’s tradition attire? Does anyone wear it?

Miss May of Momo Bar

May works at Momo Bar, a local shop selling milk tea, coffee, and assorted beverages. The shop is also the closest available purveyor of French fries. Try eating endless bowls of rice: The fat content of fries ceases to matter.

May is a firecracker like many Hunan girls – who are known for both their beauty and temperament as fiery as their province’s cuisine. A visit to Momo Bar is an almost daily activity. Bar is a misnomer – there is no bar. The shop is small storefront with chairs outside. Closed for Chinese New Year I spent ten days Momo and May-less.

I recently learned May is from Chenzhou, Hunan Province, a stone-throw from where Mrs. Stevo was raised. You can’t say much about Chenzhou: It’s small by Chinese standards, only 600,000 residents. I’ve spent some time in the city but haven’t really explored. A few years back I missed meeting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao who arrived in Chenzhou after the city was ravaged by a summer flood, a day earlier than me .

Milk tea, for the uninitiated, is an interesting beverage made of tea and milk, served hot or cold. Some may have tried the similar bubble tea, available in some areas of North America. I’m sure Paddy has a had a milk tea or two in Hong Kong. Daily Bubble Tea, from the island of Taiwan, is a blog not a beverage. You can’t drink it but it’s certain worth a visit.

I shot this with my repaired Canon 40D, on-the-sly with a Phottix Hero Live View Remote. While the Canon is fixed the same cannot be said for my main computer. It died last weekend. My 22″ monitor is idle (and probably lonely). This old laptop is tired. If the photo appears really strange (color-wise) please blame the aging laptop monitor, not yours truly.

Skater in Shenzhen, China – A relatively rare sight.

My life has undergone drastic changes over the past year.  I no longer get to “hang” with the young folk  of various nations as I did when teaching ESL in China. Most of my “hanging” is with my wife, although I don’t know if one can “hang” with their spouse. I’m not down with all the hip lingo.

One of the teachers I worked with last year has returned and is living in my spare room. The strapping lad, English teacher cum skater/writer has given me back the ability to “hang.” I recently tagged along while he tricked with some local Chinese skate rats. I snapped a few with my old Canon 400D, lamenting its poor performance.

Strapping lad, a former Nike intern, is putting together a blog on Skating in Shenzhen China. Skateboarding in China isn’t what it is in North America, he explained. In China, you can skate almost anywhere. And, given the effectiveness of Chinese security guards, skaters have little, if nothing, to worry about.

That said, the sport has been slow in taking off. A flickr commenter mentioned pro skate teams have been coming to Shenzhen since 2001. The sport has yet to become widespread among young people. While Shenzhen has a population of 12 million – being hip-deep in Chinese skaters isn’t a real fear. Yet.

Socially, China is 20 years behind the west. I have witnessed women’s fashion progress from the Cyndi Lauper-esque outfits I saw in junion high to the sweater dresses I remember from high school.  Aside: A member of the world’s oldest profession (not farmer) dressed in a Cyndi Lauper outfit, complete with crimped hair, is amusing. Sometimes, life in China is like a look at your past, or a never-ending Halloween party.

I hope to spend some more time shooting the skaters (with a camera, not a gun) if it gets warmer. The weather has been dreadful. Four days of temperatures near freezing in an apartment with no insulation or central heat is not something anyone sane wants to undertake.