Something on chopsticks – and more!

June 16, 2009

 

I recently read something about chopsticks (and how you can differentiate them based on nationality). I thought I’d share:

• Chinese chopsticks are longer, have squared sides, and are made of bamboo, plastic or ivory.
• The Vietnamese use Chinese-style chopsticks.
• Japanese chopsticks are shorter and pointed at the end that goes into the mouth. Wooden chopsticks are lacquered.
• Korean chopsticks are usually made of metal like stainless steel. Although of the same length as the Japanese, Korean chopsticks are thin and flat. 

My mother once bought several pairs of lacquered chopsticks for fun. Based on this classification, they are definitely Japanese chopsticks. I haven’t learned to use them, but then, if I were really into Chinese culture, I should learn to use it, right?

 

Here’s more! 

 

Chopsticks etiquette

• Use the serving spoon or serving chopsticks when getting food from a communal bowl. If none is provided, it is acceptable to use the blunt end of the chopsticks.
• The chopsticks should not enter your mouth – they should be merely brought to your lips.
• Left-handed people have a problem using chopsticks because of the possibility that their left elbows would bump into the right elbows of their right-handed neighbors. Chinese parents force their left-handed children to learn to use the chopsticks with their right hands.
• Don’t use the chopsticks to point at anything.
• Don’t use the chopsticks to spear food.
  
• After eating, place the chopsticks in a parallel position atop the bowl or dish or on a chopstick rest (never seen one though); never place it on the table, crossed or upright. Sticking the chopsticks upright reminds Buddhists of the incense sticks used in funeral ceremonies, therefore, death.
• Do not rub wooden chopsticks to remove splinters.
• And of course, never reuse disposable chopsticks!

Chinese business banquets

• It is impolite to stop in the middle of a meal (it might be taken as an insult). Chinese business banquets can get as large as 8 to 15 courses – to accommodate such a gigantic meal, it is suggested that one eats slowly and take only small portions.
• If the host begins to heap food on your plate, eat it but leave some food to hint at the host that you are getting full.
• Beijing, Qingdao and Tianjin beers are all safe but one must be wary of bottles with something at the bottom – it might be an unfortunate animal.
• In a Chinese banquet, asking for knives might shock the restaurant staff; they would ask for the express approval of the host in acquiescing to such request.
• The Chinese generally like pork, beef, chicken, duck, fish and other seafood, but, apart from a despised minority in the north, they hate lamb or mutton. To many Asians mutton smells and tastes disgustingly.
• Lots of vegetables are likely to be well-received.

How about soups?

• The Japanese drink (or rather, slurp) soup by lifting the bowl to the mouth using both hands.
• Koreans and Chinese use soup spoons to drink soup.
• Koreans may use spoons to eat rice but the Chinese and Japanese do not.
• The Chinese consider not moving the bowl funny. Move the bowl, like bringing it closer to you, from time to time.

In Southeast Asia

• Whenever people eat using their fingers, only the right hand is used for touching food or drink; the left hand is considered unclean for it is associated with toilet practices.
• Some people dig their whole hands into the food but some consider it unclean and never allow food to go past the second joint of their fingers when eating using their fingers.
• Most Thais, Malays, Indonesians and Filipinos set their tables with spoons and forks except for those who are of Chinese descent.
• Cambodians and Lao do not use forks and rely solely on the spoon.
• Knives are rarely set on the table because, traditionally, knives were considered weapons and therefore unwelcome in a place where people ate together. Many Asian foods are also cut in small pieces making the use of knives on the eating table unnecessary.

Making sounds while eating

• In Japan, as well as Hong Kong, slurping is a sign of appreciation. For some Chinese and the Thais, however, making sounds while eating is ill-mannered.
• Some Filipinos encourage belching.
• The Japanese do not talk while eating because it is rude to show the inside of the mouth. The same applies to talking and laughing (they cover their mouths with their hands).

Cleaning your plate

• Do not put more rice than you can eat. Rice is considered a precious necessity in Asia. Leaving even a grain signifies waste and dismissal of the hardships involved in the growing and harvest of rice.
• For the Chinese and the Cambodians, finishing your plate means that you want more (or that the host was an inadequate provider). They quickly refill the plate, often in increasing quantities. Like Filipinos and Thais, leaving a little on the plate suggests that the host has provided well (more than what one needs) and signifies that the person is full.
• The Japanese and Indonesians value cleaning one’s plate: for the Japanese it means that the food is delicious, for the Indonesians, leaving some food is rude.
• Koreans will not refill a glass if there is still some liquid in it.

I’m not that sure how accurate these are. After all, I have only eaten in a Chinese restaurant once, and though we were given chopsticks, I used a spoon and fork. I am planning to eat in a Chinese restaurant next month; I have a lot of saving to do.

 

Now that you know, bon appétit! In Chinese, 慢慢吃, Màn màn chī! Kain na!

Rebyu umano

June 10, 2009

Dahil sa flu scare naurong ang klase sa susunod na linggo, ika-15 ng Hunyo. Hindi ako natutuwa. Sabik na sabik na akong pumasok, kunin ang aking baon tuwing umaga, at magkaroon ng dahilan upang hindi matokahan ng maraming gawaing-bahay. Dahil sa trangkaso na yan nawawalan ng pasok. Tanong ko lang, bakit pag nagka-epidemya ng pagtatae o dengue sa isang lugar ay hindi nababahala ang mga tao (pwera na lang kung sila ang biktima)?

 

 

Para malibang ang sarili, pinanonood ko ang mga sine at mga teleserye na mayroon ako at hindi pa napapanood at natatapos. Kaunti lang naman sila:
    Boys Over Flowers (seryeng pantelebisyon, Korea)
    1 Liter of Tears (seryeng pantelebisyon, Hapon)

 

Boys Over Flowers
Nasawa na rin ako sa kakapanood ng mga Koreanovela. Hindi makatotohanan ang mga istorya. Paulit-ulit. Palaging may love triangle.

 

 

1 Liter of Tears
Nakakaiyak nga siya. Nakakaawa kasi yung bida e (lalo na nung hindi na siya makasalita). Nagandahan ako sa mga kanta. Oo, mamamatay yung bida, pero after 10 years pa mula ng magkasakit siya. Tagal din siyang nagtiiis. Napangitan lang ako sa wakas ng kwento. May mga bagay akong hindi maintindihan (baka mas makahulugan yun para sa mga Hapon).

 

 

Sana makabasa/makakilala ng kahit 500 karakter sa wikang Tsino bago matapos ang taon na ito. Sa ngayon, 40 pa lang ang alam ko at kayang isulat. May hinahanap kasi ako sa internet na malamang ay mga Tsino lang sa Taiwan at mangilan-ngilang dayuhan lang ang nakakaalam. Sa tingin ko, makikita ko lang yun kung gagamit ako ng mga karakter sa sulat ng mga Tsino sa pagse-search.

 

 

Hindi rin natupad ang nais kong iskedyul ng pasok. Kaysa sumugal sa Speech 11 nag-Comm. III na lang ako. Mas bagay sa iskedyul ang Nat. Sci. 5 kaysa Nat. Sci. 4. At mabilis naubos ang mga slot para sa Human Resource Development kaya nag-DS 123 na lang ako.

 

Masokista siguro ako. Naghahanap ako ng sama ng katawan at kalooban.

 

 

Kaya ko ito. 頑張って[ganbatte]! 不到黄河心不死 [Bù dào Huánghé xīn bù sǐ]. Persist and never give up. Wala namang akong iba pang choice di ba?

 

 

Mahirap mag-Filipino sa paggawa ng isang post sa blog.

Middle class sensibilities

June 7, 2009

Last week I went to our carinderia to serve as my sister’s reliever because she got sick. I didn’t like the experience. First of all, our carinderia is the sort that only has two trapals for walls. It’s an open-air structure – and my mother has no intention of improving it. We are only renting the place without a contract and in case the spot’s owner decides to throw us out (which is very possible since the relationships there are so political), our investment there will go to waste. For the first time in my life I realized how close to our future those lessons in Economics 11 – why would we invest in something that we have no security in owning? For a modest profit margin we have to contend with the rapid temperature changes, which took a toll on my health the first and only day I was there. Come pelting rain and I had to rearrange everything in a space barely 2 square meters in area to avoid them getting wet. However, I would rather have rain than sun in that kind of place. It’s so hot and humid that I got dizzy. I felt so sick that I vomited. My mother told me I was being maarte. I tried to be polite and kept quiet (there are so many people around). If we were at home, I would have argued, which, oftentimes, get too loud and discomforting to hear.

 

I felt sad that my sister had to put up with this kind of life. By the way, because she didn’t pass the entrance exam at the Technological University of the Philippines, she is not going to study this year. Well… she had been given this kind of punishment so it wasn’t a big deal to her. When she was in grade school, my parents pressured her to excel just like me (as if I was actually excelling). For a time she tried but after seeing how my life took a hairpin turn to depression, she decided that being smart has its costs too. Her first punishment was to be sent to a public high school. She seemed to have enjoyed it. Her second punishment is to stop for a year – and she doesn’t seem to mind. But she doesn’t want to become useless. Unlike me, she volunteered to tend the carinderia. I would have never volunteered, much less if I were the one going to stop school. Maybe she is more family-oriented than I am.

 

The people eating at our carinderia are much worse than I expected. Let’s just say their incomes categorize them as Class E. But then, because they have a feudalistic way of thinking that downgrades merchants or sellers, they treat us as if we would grovel at their feet for a few pennies (which, I’m saying this out of anger, is all that they have after every pay day). They keep on telling us, sometimes in an improper manner, to lower our prices or increase our servings. Yes, yes, yes, we live in a capitalist setting and that you want the best your money can get. But then, we can’t give away our food for free, can we? Compared to other carinderias in the area, our food is clean. I know it because I have seen how it’s prepared. We don’t leave our food to the flies (unlike the other one) because we’re going to eat it too. We only buy ingredients which we deem fit for ourselves. One reason why some carinderias sell really cheap food is because they use double-dead meat or bad fish. We have been offered double-dead meat one time but my mother declined. She wouldn’t sell anything that she wouldn’t feed us or we won’t eat. We have a barangay sanitation permit (around P150.00) that the others don’t bother to get. The extra peso one spends in our food is a peso he saves for his health. If one chooses to eat at another carinderia, at least one can spare us the hurtful words.

 

Poverty brings out the best and worse in people. There are some customers who insist on “free tastes” and by the time you know it, they have eaten more than a regular serving. There are those who come with jugs to refill for “free water”. I don’t mind if they drank water from us even if they don’t buy anything, but then, it’s really annoying when they come with a jug or drink a glass every half-hour. We are not an office water station. We are making a living and not doing public service. There are some are so good in play-acting that I give them extra or some pieces for free. They would tell us how hard their life is, but then, come night, I would see them at the nearby beerhouse (I would be damned if they give them beers there for free). That’s how hard their life is, my mother said. It’s so hard that they would rather spend their money for momentary satisfaction than make their futures better. People passing at the carinderia sometimes give our food a sneer. It’s too pricey or not tasty they say. But when they have little money, they would come to my mother to loan their food. Their lists just keep on growing longer – they eat more than they can pay every pay day. My mother has a soft spot for lending because that’s how we survived for so many years – out of the “goodwill” of other people. She doesn’t pressure people to pay because she believes that they would pay it when they have the money. I can’t tell her to stop the practice because it might ruin our business. She takes it as a moral obligation to feed those who need to be fed. I would have told her to run a charity instead.

 

A frustrating customer asked me how much a cup of rice cost. I told him it costs 6 pesos. He asked me if he could get it for five, and I agreed. I asked him for the ulam that would go with his rice (that day we had menudo, sinigang, igado, pesa, adobo, lumpiang shanghai, pansit canton and binagoongang baboy). He told me he is not buying. Queer guy I thought. One moment later I saw him reaching for the cup we use on our sabaw ng sinigang, which, traditionally, is free. I was dumbfounded after I saw him pouring three to four cups of sabaw on his rice. One cup might have been permissible, but four cups is clearly abuse. I told my mother, who was attending another customer, but she told me that is was OK. Apparently it is an accepted practice there. Thinking that it would soften my indignant self a bit, the customer told me that the sabaw was delicious and asked for another cup of rice. He opened his wallet (it had some crisp bills in it) but handed me a five peso coin. A person who has a thick wad of bills in his wallet should eat a decent meal. Frugality for one might be cruelty for another.

 

Not all customers were as garapal as the others were. One, whose only fault for me was that he was a chain-smoker, praised our food and bought a big order for his family. A woman, who told us that she has a carinderia herself, gave us some tips (and I’m not revealing it!) My mother had several sukis who eat at our carinderia unwaveringly. One of them, a beautiful gay parlorista, tells entertaining stories and defends us against her more fault-finding “sisters”. She has a boyfriend who is as charming as her who we have named Mr. Extra because he always asks for an extra serving. The good thing about the couple is that it is they divide the bill. I like Mr. Extra, not just because he is good-looking, but because he, as far as I can see it, really loves the gay parlorista. After all, he has a better job than her; it is unlikely that he would have this relationship with her if only for money.

 

A man who I later identified as a cigarette-and-candy hawker bought a good number of puto. My mother added three extra pieces. She told me that the man shares his food with his fellow hawkers. Apparently, this hawker got the most profitable “territory” and, in exchange for his fortune, shares some of his earnings to his fellow hawkers who are not as fortunate. His life is already hard as it is and the fact that he chooses to be generous is a reminder that poverty should not be an excuse to lose humanity.

 

The day ended with a gay parlorista bad-mouthing our food before asking for a free lumpia (and we gave her). Despite of all the perceived abuse I experienced, we managed P 2,400.00 that day, a big sale for an investment of P 1,000.00. We could have netted a much larger amount, but then, that’s the cost of doing business.  

People who say that they are for the poor should first experience how to be poor and live with them, without all the pretensions people are apt in donning. As much as there are evil rich people so are there evil poor people who take their poverty as an excuse for doing all sort of uncivil stuff. It takes an extraordinary amount of conviction to face them with optimism and heart-felt humanity everyday. Try a big-town carinderia.

Something about Red Cliff 1 (before I watch the second installment)

June 1, 2009

“It’s not hard to know a lot of stuff; what’s hard is to know what stuff to share.”

 

After three hours of wracking my mind what to share, here’s what I came up with.

 

To VZ:

 

This is not a film review. Well, as if you’ll think it is.

 

 

The movie Red Cliff is based on the Chinese classic novel Sān Guó Yǎnyì or Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三国演义), written Luo Guanzhong and edited by Chen Shou which I am currently reading. Sān Guó is, roughly, the Chinese parallel of Tales of King Arthur, of Charlemagne and his paladinso r, still more relevant to the present world, of Richard Lionheart and his Crusaders. Sān Guó was set in the period of anarchy and civil war following the destruction of the Han Dynasty by 200 AD. Cao Cao, the apparent antagonist in the movie, because of his cruelty and craftiness, emerged the leader of China north of the Great River (Yangtze or Yangzi River). The apparent protagonists were Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang, men of the southern state of Shu-Han and the Kingdom of Wu under the House of Sun (leader was Sun Qian).

 

I am saying “apparent” because, when interpreted with a Confucian worldview, Cao Cao was the “right” man to lead and unify the Han people, which had fallen to disunity with the disintegration of the Han Dynasty. By another moral standard, however, the loyal Liu Bei, the brave Guan Yu and the brilliant Zhuge Liang, all of whom set the benchmark for virtuousness for the succeeding generations, have their rebellion and defiance of imperial authority justified. Because of Cao Cao’s failure to destroy his two great rivals in the south, disunity prevailed and eventually spelled disaster to his own unified order in the north when he died by 220 AD. Cao Cao is not really the antagonist he is portrayed in the movie when his historical imprint is examined. He gave the northern Han people a functioning government and peace – important requisites for the Mandate of Heaven. The government he found was authoritative (not delegating greater power to the great lineages or clans as was in the case of the Han) and was predicated on the individual merit rather than inheritance. This was strongly refused by the great families who stand to lose their power to lowly but highly-competent people. Liu Bei and Sun Qian were both classic representatives of the great houses which were once favored by the Han emperors, and their refusal of Cao Cao’s order is unsurprising. Cao Cao’s rivals appealed only to their power (aided by the natural defense given by the Yangtze and the richness of the land they held) and much powerful personalities. Thus, when Sun Qian of Wu died, the successors of northern China, the Jin Dynasty of the House of Sima, easily imposed their power on the southern kingdoms. 

 

Cao Cao’s failure was the Battle at the Red Cliffs (near present-day Wuhan), a strategic point at the Great River. Before that time, the south was populated mostly by non-Han people (like the Yue or southern tribes) but developments under the Han Dynasty enabled the Han colonization of this region. Today, there’s but a feeble remnant of the original non-Han inhabitants of this region, in fact, southern China and the Sichuan Basin (roughly the domain of Shu-Han) are the most populous regions in China today. The face-off at the Red Cliffs not only envisaged the end of Cao Cao’s order but also strengthened the divide between Northern and Southern China. Broken was the stifling power that Confucianism commanded in the hearts and minds of lowly and aristocratic Chinese, Chinese indigenous philosophy (Daoism) flourished in the following periods. As portrayed in the movie (notably by Sun Qian’s sister), females briefly regained some power and participated in the affairs of the state.

 

I’m not yet finished with the book (I’m seeking an abridged version because the one I have has 120 chapters!) but the first few chapters are exciting and very informative. This is one of the most popular Chinese novels of all time; I need to at least acquaint myself with this if I want to achieve some degree of competence with Chinese affairs or be able to present myself intelligently to the Chinese.

 

I know that Liu Bei (You Yong) Zhou Yu (Tony Leung), Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and the handsome emperor of Wu, Sun Qian (Chang Chen) will prevail, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to get my copy of Red Cliff 2! The first one was awesome. I also want to know how Cao Cao’s (Zhang Fengyi) million warships would end.

 

It’s amazing how much new knowledge I absorbed from idling my summer vacation in front of a PC.