Running in the Key of G

Jim is here now—a fact that has made my life much happier. Things are just better when shared with the one you love! We have been hanging out, eating lots of good food (I have to make the admission that probably our favorite restaurant so far has been the Thai one called Purple Haze), doing some running and yoga. On Saturday I ran 16 miles, part of which were with Jim but then we went opposing ways in Yuyuantan Park because he is still recovering from foot surgery. The park is evolving as springtime comes; the lake has thawed and people are beginning to take little rental boats on it. It was rather crowded and we had to do quite a bit of dodging of people—besides one other man, we were the only runners among the throngs.

I spent much of my run thinking about an article from the New York Times that I had read online that day, about the conclusion of the lianghui here in Beijing—lianghui means “two meetings,” and this refers to the annual two-week-long meeting of the National People’s Congress, China’s rubber stamp legislature, and the National People’s Political Consultative Congress. Joseph Kahn, the current China correspondent for the Times, usually writes worthwhile stuff, and this piece also was interesting and valid on the face of it. However, I also found it frustrating and it made me contemplate the hazards of cultural comparisons (more on that in a moment). Here is the article:

Chinese Leader Strikes Defensive Tone

China does have alarmingly increasing amounts of foreign reserves, air pollution (probably the source of my apparently never-ending cold), and military spending. Yet I still felt annoyed by this article. The statement that frustrated me most was “China has become the largest consumer of energy after the United States and by some estimates the largest emitter of gases that contribute to global warming after the United States as well.” While true in absolute terms, what might be wrong with that statement? In other words, why is it not just a statement of journalistic fact? I will leave it to readers to draw their own conclusions on that matter.

On my run while pondering this article I also listened to my iPod—I decided that I couldn’t feel inspired by the soundtrack that is piped over the speakers in the park, which primarily consists of Kenny G. Kenny G is probably more appropriate as music for insomniacs than music for runners, if it is appropriate for anyone at all. They completely love Kenny G here—for instance, his is the only music of choice in the Korean/Japanese restaurant downstairs from where I live. Which actually made me further consider the topic of cultural comparison, and on what basis we make such comparisons. For instance, I have had more than one Chinese person say to me, “I don’t like American food—McDonald’s is really just not very good.” I’ve occasionally pointed out that it probably isn’t accurate to equate American food with McDonald’s (just as it isn’t a good idea to equate Kenny G with American music), but this is a difficult concept to get across (besides, I’m coming up short on what really is American food and not something derived from our history of being immigrants—about the best I can come up with is chocolate chip cookies, which are a very fine addition to global cuisine indeed).

Equivalent American comparisons with China might include the misconception that Chinese food primarily consists of sticky sweet goo like sweet and sour pork (actually an American invention) and fortune cookies (also an American invention) and that Chinese music primarily extends to Beijing opera, which can be quite nice at times but also incorporates what to our ears sounds like cats screeching and toddlers banging on pot lids.