WEEK IN REVIEW: Life as usual

Wednesday pickup at Jianwai Soho was very poorly attended, probably because it was raining. Three new players -- two complete beginners -- came though, so there's that.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK:

Renda University

GOOGLE GROUPS POST OF THE WEEK:

Yin and Pnut take the honors with this exchange:

Yin:

hi guys,
a friend of mine is running an event where they need some white people to attend. its 800rmb/day so if you need a little extra cash, and youre not ugly, please respond to roel...@mmw-china.com heres some further info:

Pnut:

Dear Yin,

Perhaps you relish in the glory of being exoticized. Oh yes, being the hot Canadian Asian girl that you are, I'm sure you are aware what a true rarity you must be among New Yorkers. ( And as I recall, you do like to go for a spin around the pole at Chocolate. :P) As for me, however, I would rather gauge out my eyes than to ever be viewed as "exotic." I just simply find the idea of being "exotic" to be quite distasteful.

What I find even more distasteful, disgusting in fact, are the social and economic implications of the privilege that is continually bestowed on our white friends. It offends me that, for merely being white, a person can get paid more in three days than the average monthly salary of an engineer in China. It disgusts me, that the privileged continue to be advantaged in China, while the man peddling his wares for 1 or 2 kuai on the street corner, much less the farmer in rural China could only dream of such an opportunity - but unfortunately, they were not born white. It disgusts me more that to be modern in China, to seek upward mobility and advancement in China, requires some sort of imitation of "whiteness" or of the "West" or that being "white" is so unquestionably associated with the positives of being "foreign" and "developed" - God forbid a black man show up.

I totally agree, the world is what it is. But that's no excuse for ignorance. So yeah, if you are a good-looking, cash strapped, white person, by all means, go for it. You gotta do what you gotta right? It's just too bad, I won't ever get paid for standing around and being Asian. To each their own. As for me, I merely think that it is a shame that some things in this world are so outrageously ridiculous and that things like a person's being white can be made into a commodity and attraction.

And as for something being totally irrelevant except for the fact that it is an example of something totally absurd:
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/northeast/view.bg?articleid...