180 Degrees

Kunming China is like saying Miami U.S.A.

Kunming is in Yunnan Province, and Miami is in Florida State.

Before coming to Kunming I lived in Jinan China, which is like saying Cotton Plant U.S.A.

Jinan is in Shandong Province, and Cotton Plant is in Arkansas State.

And before living in Jinan I lived in Taiwan. And previous to my living in Taiwan, the Portuguese “discovered” it in the sixteenth century and called it “Ihla Formosa,” so that it became known in the west as Formosa.

If you get out a map, or better, a globe, you’ll see that exactly 12,500 miles away from Formosa, on the exact opposite side of the earth–a full 180 degrees on the great circle route–is a town on the Argentine-Brazilian border named “Formosa.” That is a geographical oddity that exists nowhere else on the planet.

Remember, you heard it from soaringdragons first.

Hello Thief

Why does everything move so fast? And the screen keeps jumping around.

If you’re reading this for content about “China,” you might be better off searching Google for another blog. Why? Because there are too many people here.

I just happened to be following a ten-year old kid who was trying to put his hand into my friend’s purse. So I grabbed him and turned him around and said (in English), “What are you doing!”

The poor kid stretched out his neck and slumped in my arms. His handler, in his twenties, came up to me and I put the kid down. Then I said (in Chinese), “This kid’s a thief. And since you’re watching over him, you’re a thief, too.” I said it loud, looking for support from bystanders, but, as usual, people just watched, interested, saying nothing and keeping a safe distance.

He handed his coat to another friend–how many thieves were there in this group? Then he turned to me and we stared at each other for a moment, me impassively, him with a practiced look. My impassivity had nothing to do with self-confidence or courage; I was just wondering how stupid I was going to look trying to defend myself if he attacked me.

Fortunately for me, he satisfied himself by assuming the classic “pointing finger”* gesture, then turned and walked away.

No harm, no foul. Thank you, Chick.

*This is the index finger, the pointing of which is very impolite in China, and should not to be confused with the other pointing gesture, one digit removed, that is common in the West.