Hello there,

It has been a little quiet for us lately concerning Chinese. We moved to our new and big apartment, which took a while, since we had to wait for new furniture and for our rooms to be painted. There is still a lot to be done, but at least the basic needs are present.
 
Our home is modern Chinese style, of course, balancing black leather with sicham wood. Apart from the regular rooms (like kitchen, toilet, bathroom, living and sleeping room), one room is dedicated to the practice of Wing Chun and another to office and library use. In the latter a lot of my time will be spent translating, programming and writing.

Since March, we are member of the British Astronomical Association, as to broaden my experience and knowledge in Astronomy. In a later stage, I would like to start with astrophotography.

During my IT courses at CVO Lokeren, I started thoroughly focusing on Wing Chun concepts that I had in mind for years. Since my Hong Kong experience, the concept became more than realistic. Especially with a real experienced Sifu to back up my techniques.

As a project for web design, I decided to combine the examination task with a Wing Chun project to fill the content. The rest I will keep as a surprise until it’s ready to be unveiled to the world.

My translation business is starting to look good. Lately, I had a lot of work as copywriter, and although it is not translating, the list of satisfied clients is growing bit by bit. I nearly concluded the first half of the IP Man movie subtitles in Dutch.

I decided to build yet another website for all the novels, poems and philosophical texts, with all the drawings related to it, and this to encourage my present writing project. One that will reflect my experience living in China.

You might think I am busy with too much, but I try to intertwine all the projects with each other, in order to refrain making unnecessary sacrifices. Furthermore, none of the subjects are new to me. They kept me interested for more than ten years already. A lot of thought has already been put in them.

All in all, the Alien RiddleR website will get a boost persuant to all these projects.

This is the first time I am going to sincerely wish to everybody in the world a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

Why? Well, for me personally, I have never been in touch with the entire world like in 2008 before. Where the first half of the year gave us hope and terror before the Olympic Games, the second half took us to a path of despair and revival.

Sounds strange, but on a world scale, everyone was making a run for the summer and the turning point was Beijing, which was so exaggerated in expectations, that the Games turned into dispair afterwards. Especially the earthquake hurt so much, that the Olympics were used as a bandage of hope to heal the terror.

Politically and economically the Earth was shaken into astonishment. Time to burn down and throw away the old rubble of presidents, ministers, bankers and auto industries: time to turn the page. The ISS had the visit of space shuttle Endeavour to refresh crew and interior. No, 2008 was not about the glory of China, what a pity. It was more of a cleaning up period of the wear and tear of disillusion. Nevertheless we all learned our lesson.

The New Year 2009 will not bring us false hope, because we are tired of it. We will work! Belgium needs to make a decision to remain a country by forming a government that is strong enough to slap the opposition in the face and wake up before it is too late. Fresh US president Barak Obama has already repainted the image of the USA internationally: a “melting pot society” should be run by a half-breath with international life experiences. Now people call him the black president. Why do people see black or white? Why not with a progressive minded synthesis of evolution, instead of complete change?

Anyway a lot of work awaits us. It will not be boring. This we know for a fact. And can it get any worse? Maybe when life on Earth gets wiped out? Not necessarily worse, is it? (lol)

 

The East stopped growing, the West started to reorganize its senses and Europe is crawling back. This hopefully leads to a more stabilized international network and it might lead to a final run to pull poor Africa and miserable Middle East out of the dumpster. Only possible if there is equilibrium in majority of the world.

 

For me personally, it was the same story. Working in Shenzhen, the earthquake in Xi’an, return to Belgium, teaching experiment, working at Luminus, with the end of the year pointing me towards studying for graduate IT-programming, being sworn as a translator and interpreter, and finally the decision to start a translation company in 2009.

The year 2008 was terrifying sad, but also amazingly glorifying for me. Sadness covered our urge to leave chaotic China, the emotional impact of the earthquake and the realization that teaching, although very stimulating, always worked against me in different ways each time.

 

But all in all; my path is clearer than ever before with a lot of extras (like playing guitar and attending a lot of delicious concerts):

Astronomy, Wing Chun and IT looked me in the eyes to confirm they accepted me (lol)

 

This year we visited Bruce Lee’s ancestral home and theme park in Jun An, Yip Man’s museum in Foshan and Lueng Jan’s home in Gulao before ending China in Hong Kong with Yip Man’s tomb. We also became part of the wonderful Chow Tze Chuen Wing Chun family in Hong Kong and although heart broken for leaving such a bless, Sammo Hung gave us a nice Christmas present with the movie about our great grand-master Ip Man, played by kungfu legend actor Donnie Yen.

 

The other sad event was leaving the Chinese world of handheld devices; the funny fakes in Shenzhen and the glorious in Hong Kong. But IT-programming will keep me on track, which ultimately will enhance my NS Basic and web design skills.

 

And finally the world of astronomy embraced me with all the Universe episodes of season one and two and the realization that the University in Ghent now has an Astronomy program that I am planning to follow in the future. Maybe three to four years from now.

 

So, you see we all leave bad and good experiences behind to build up a new year: that of 2009.

Best wishes to all of you there in the Universe!

For me, the aftermath of the Olympics turned out quite well. The Games by its own terms had a rather predictable outcome: the Chinese won the most medals. China kept its "fake hypocacy mask" role high and entertained us with an overkill of fireworks. Even the solar eclipse before the Games was predictable.

Our site gets a new item. In 2003 I wrote a thesis about Chinese astronomy and about translations from Chinese into Dutch. It gave me the hunger to study Cosmology in China. But that turned out to be more difficult financially and practically than intellectually doable. Being pestered away from China’s glory period of Greek re-invention (not democracy, yet) and bureaucratic illogic measures, I am back home, in a less glorified country that struggles with a decadent portion of democracy; Belgium, the heart of Europe, but the dwarf country with no official government.

While working in Ghent for the energy supply company “Luminus”, I discovered that the city's university offers a "Physics and Astronomy" course. This revived my urge to study Astronomy. I always loved physics, geometry and algebra, but in college I took the linguist’s road.

Many people would name materialistic ideals and sporadically travelling, if they were asked what they would do when they would have won the lottery. I would invest the money and go to several other universities for learning, combined with teaching. After nearly five years of China, I got addicted to knowledge.

This brings us back to that new item on our website. Yes, it is “Astronomy”

Why is astronomy now part of our website? Like wing chun kungfu, it is part of my fascination. Although some of the roots of astronomy lie in astrology and vice versa, please don’t confuse one of them with the other, because the latter is not a creation of democratic logic, but of hierarchic dominance and controle.

Philosophy was born with our self-consciousness. The lack of techniques and instruments made some of our ancestors impatient in finding the truth methodologically and drove people to self-creation of unphilosophical answers in an archaic society of dogmatic religion. To get order into archaism, hierarchy was key to civilization.

The Greeks…, yes, but why is it the cradle of our civilization? Not only because of the invention of democracy, but because of its power to understand the truth, from which science was born and "re-born" in the "Renaissance".

As a translator you are master of information. And a great master of information knows a lot of languages. Not only spoken languages like English, French, Dutch, Chinese, but also computer languages and the language of the Cosmos: maths and physics.

Elements of Chinese history predicting the future through philosophical books from the past, like “the Book of Change”, is like a magical story telling legend. But legends are born from truths and events. What is the link, rather than the difference, between philosophy, astrology, religion and science: our existence.

I am not here to tell you the story of Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Lemaitre, Hubble, Gamov, Alan Guth, and neither of Neil Armstrong. Rather their link with astronomers like Zhang Heng, Guo Shoujing, Verbist and present day Chinese heroes like Yang Liwei. Let’s find out about the link between Chinese philosophy and the theory of the Big Bang, the egg of Pan Ku and the primitive atom, the Chinese armillary spheres and modern telescopes, etc.

The Chinese inventions we know of are: paper, printing, compass and gunpowder. They have let us into space. If you think about it long enough, you can see it. Orientation, recording and explosions are important things for nowadays space exploring. From armillary spheres to the Hubble telescope, looking back further into space, further into the past: the cradle of existence.

Dark energy versus gravity is a scientific discovery that is undeniably linked to the ultimate Chinese philosophical trademark of Yin and Yang. Not Black versus White, but the harmony of two forces like gravity and fuel of a star. Making us understand that black ink on white paper or white ink on black paper is a harmony of existence, of information. That the atomic and magnetic forces are a tango of "+" and  "-", like virtual existence is made up of "0" and "1". It might be the key to the knowledge of our existence and the guideline for keeping it glowing as our way of life.

This couple forming harmony can be found in nature and in many other Chinese trademarks; e.g. kungfu, Confucianism, etc. My experience through life testing results made me understand that the language of the Cosmos can be found in martial arts, astronomy and philosophy through the application of the Egg of Pan Ku, as I like to call it: the "And then there was light" phenomenon, for some it might be like "enlightenment" for our way of life.

It has been a while because of company management crisis, visa arrangement for Olympics, the giant earthquake in Wenchuan and the final decision to return to Belgium, which involved a lot of packing and sending. And the latter inconvenience was even worse than normal because of these bloody Olympics.

Although the earthquake left us physically unhurt, Deborah for instance had a severe trauma because of the sudden commotion during the event. When we where but for a week in Xi’an to send our last possession to Belgium and Shenzhen, we were struck by angry Mother Earth. From the 13^th floor in our apartment we started to run down the stairs when our flat began to rock and swing like a palm tree in a typhoon, while the standing air conditioner and our TV set were dancing the twist. Deborah yelled “Earthquake!”, while I feared the foundations of our building were starting to collapse. I prayed for an earthquake, because if it would have been our flat, then it would be worse for us.
After a mentally hellish trip down the narrow stairwell, while begging the building to wait just a few minutes longer for us to escape, we saw a huge crowd outside. We stood on the street, far and safely enough to anticipate our building to crumble. Happily it never happened. Deborah forgot her shoes and stood there in her socks, but she did take her laptop bag. It is weird how the human brain makes priorities in such situations.
No one knew what had happened. The mobile phone service and the radios were off. Later Deborah gained connection via GPRS with her mother on MSN and she told us the news about an earthquake in Sichuan has spread already to Europe.
Deborah had to be treated the next time we were in Xi’an, because of her experience there. Her heart rate went up so high at times and she kept on feeling the tremor even if there is none.
At Xi’an hospital blood test, cardiogram etc. made us understand that she was physically fine, but mentally she created a phobia which is only triggered in Xi’an or in a Chinese plane.

Besides our packing and moving headache, we found rest after our decision to stop working and return home. The visa regulations at the moment in China became so absurd that it destroys a lot of businesses in Southern China. Before it was possible to get a business visa for 6 months with multiple entries for a decent price of 600 RMB, but now multiple entries are not available anymore and is only valid for a maximum of 3 months with double entry.
But the worst is the fact that every 30 days, you need to leave China once. If you do the math, it means that in fact you can only remain 2 months in China with double entry (one to enter China the first time, the second to re-enter China after 30 days). And the finale of absurdity is the price for this new arrangement: 1000 RMB. Sure, there are less expensive possibilities, like a tourist visa, but than you are not aloud to work in China. And even the regulations for tourists are disgracefully altered. It is inconvenient and expensive to get a visa in China, but at least it is to be granted one, because you are there already. Many Europeans have been refused a visa in the last couple of months. The joke goes that the Chinese want to keep the foreign teams outside of the country, so the Chinese team can win all the Olympic medals. 

After our decision to return home, we also made trips to Foshan, Jun An and Hong Kong. At a certain point I couldn’t train my Wing Chun twice a week, thanks to the Olympic insanity, that would take place months later and nearly 2000 km far away from Shenzhen! Instead, we stay for a week or two in Hong Kong after every 30 days visa rule and get an intensive training then.
Meanwhile we wasted two plane trips to Xi’an, due to 30 day rule and the earthquake that postponed many tasks to do.
Afterward we made nice trips to Foshan, to visit Wong Feihong’s hous, Yip Man’s museum, Leung Jan’s House in Gulou and Bruce Lee’s ancestral house and his new theme park in Jun An.

The trip from Hong Kong to London had a good Cathay Pacific service, but Heathrow was hell to walk around. A real maze and in the process we arrived at 20H when no flights to Brussels were available anymore. The next flight would be at 7H in the morning for 260 ponds a ticket! In addition, a flight was cancelled, causing the local hotels to be fully booked, except for Hilton hotel of course. Out of exhaustion and without any other option we were obligated to pay for a poor service for a price of 365 ponds for one night! And this, after we had to drag our luggage to a underground train and walk for 20 minutes in the Heathrow Maze to a poor version of Hilton. The phone, the internet connection and breakfast was not included, but optional for an additional fortune.
The next morning we found a ticket at British Airways for 135 ponds.

What seemed impossible happened at last: we landed in Brussels. We arrived in our own country after so long and while it bared the rumour of failing to form an official government for so many months, the endless fights between the Flemish and the Walloon politicians, is what we didn’t miss at all in China. Now, it seemed to have worsened. 

In the car home we heard that a colleague of ours from the past had past away. Even that was not enough to make our return more miserable, because the next day Deborah had to stay at the hospital for three days because of an infection in her intestines. The day after she was released from the hospital, we paid our respects at the funeral of a buddy.

It has been a while since my wild adventures in Xi'an, but now I bare you some news of my life in Shenzhen. Since February I resumed working for the international procurement and wholesales company NitroTrade in SEG Plaza. A lot of mobile phone factories lack the Dutch translation of the phone menus and therefore a lot of work has to be put into that as well. Apart from localizing software I've also been busy with the company's website content and translation. As Regional Key Account, Deborah is concentrated on the retail business on eBay and contact between European clients and Chinese factories. Next to my Localization Executive responsibilities I will be responsible for the wholesales catalog.

Our spare time in Shenzhen has been filled with fitness, Taiji Quan, swimming and for Deborah Pilates, Belly Dance, etc. too. Because we also have a back office in Hong Kong, I regularly have to go there for work, which I often combine with my Wing Chun trainings in Yau Ma Tei at the Donald Mak Wing Chun Institute of the Chow Tze Chuen lineage.
Our flat in Shenzhen has a nice view of the border of PR China and SAR Hong Kong, with the mountains of Hong Kong revealing just a glimpse of the skyscrapers on the other side. At night you can see the border line completely lit like a wall of magical light.

Our chapter in Xi’an hasn’t been closed just yet because our motorbike and the rest of our things like clothing, books, the wooden dummy, etc. had some trouble being sent by our colleague in Xi’an, because he was not allowed by our flat security to take them out to send. And our flatmate there decided to stay in Shanghai for a couple of months, so he won’t be helping either to help the cause. If we want this matter to be done, we better do it ourselves!

Not only has the government illegally disturbed peace in our neighborhood with vandalism and taunting with soldiers.

I stress they don't possess the living area yet of Dong Xin Hua Yuan Bei Qu!

They cut the heating, took away the closest shop (by taking away their licence) to further annoy the inhabitants and owners into selling their property!

Xi'An, Bei Shaopo,6 December 2007.
What is left of the day before yesterday's vivid market street with cosy shops and restaurants, is reduced to a dark rubbled warfar zone. This once joyful typical market alley is history now. An alley near our living area, just across the street.

Our neighborhood is dead! Our flat owner said not to worry because they can't just trow you out of the living area (Dong Xin Hua Yuan Bei Qu) if not all of the owners agree to sell their flats (until now 2/3 of the owners disagree to sell their property).

The ugly side of it all is that the government uses dirty illegal tactics to work on everyones nerves. Sending people in "quasi" military uniform, like 50+, intimidating and after hanging banners in our living area (past the gate enterance!) with e.g. "Lets make this place more beautiful"; with what? Ugly skyscrapers? "Make it a better place for the people"? By pressuring innocent, decent people to leave their homes in 15 days?
And after a meeting yesterday where 2/3 disagreed to leave and sell their apartments, they start to paint "拆" (to tear down) within our living area, on our front doors and even in our flat halls???!!!
I know from other Chinese people that what they are doing is ILLEGAL! But of course this is China. A country who considers worthy to be part of WTO and of hosting the Olympics 2008?

I know we are not in Europe! 'Cause if this would happen, there would be a riot and everyone would inflict a lawsuit upon the city government or company who infringed the harmony and peace of the society, by not only invading a private area, but also by staining the walls and front doors of the inhabitants of that area; which can be seen as an act of vandalism and disturbance of peace.

All this reminds me of all the ugly things I have seen that law officials have to execute in favor of "fat-ass chinese". Maybe I could write a book about it or a blog. Or maybe not if I want to be able to keep the website on the Chinese internet ;).

China wants to develop, but they are going to stumble and sacrifice a lot to keep this hasty pace. I am just afraid it might fall and never recover if they tread the fragile bridge between changing generations and cultures too recklessly.

Our living area in Xi'An (Jiao Tong University's third area) where approx. 200-300 live, will be torn down within 15 days. Four days ago the government has placed panflets and stickers to make us leave. Today two impolite government officials came to our flat to tell us that we have to be gone after 11 days because they will tear down and demolish the flats than. Other areas, where there are no skyscrapers yet, are already been pulled down in the past days.
We were planning to leave anyway for Shenzhen end of Januari next year, but now we have to look for an alternative in between!?

Xi'An government organisation towards human rights is pretty fuzzy and chaotic.
Why not mention this months in advance? What about the families and old people? Hard part is for the renters, they don't get money from their ownership, they "just" have to move and find a place within 2 weeks?!

The apartments in the new skyscrapers in the neighborhood; most of them are already taken and don't have heating nor water yet for the next 6 months. So, with examinations coming, we already got our early X-mass present from Xi'An!

Lots of people are standing outside protesting and discussing the fate of our living area, but a lot of policemen and government officials are also vividly present.

Lets hope they keep their "Tian An Men tanks" at a distance.