When I was attending last week’s conference at the Brookings Institute my eyes literally bulged out of my head when Sun Zheng Cai came up as one of the up-and-coming stars of the Party. I may have shared a hot pot dinner with that guy!!
Sun Zheng Cai, Governor of Jilin province since 2009. I typically spiced up toasts with catch phrases like “to US-China relations!”
Now, how did a lowly English teacher wind up having dinner with a top official? Surprisingly, this is a fairly common experience for expats, at least for those living in developing parts of China. My story revolves around a school administer who took a liking to me and introduced me to his friends. I must have impressed them with my ability to give toasts in Chinese. (jiu fang zhiji qian bei xiao is a real winner for any occasion! Translates to “between friends a thousand glasses is not enough”. I also spiced up the toasts with ‘US/China relations, best friends forever!’)
It’s fun to meet big fish, at least when they aren’t playing their favorite game “get the foreigner sick off beijiu…”. At one of these dinners I met the minister of education for Jilin province, who toasted to my success as a teacher. Why the high praise? Apparently my sneaky administrator friend had set up a lunch with a young girl to tutor for an hour or so, claiming it was a favor for a friend, and I had no real clue she was the daughter of a Big Whig much less the daughter of the minister of education…
Another time I was at a birthday party dinner, and two funny things happened. First, everyone at the table started discussing how dark their skin was. The consensus was that everyone had dark skin to one degree or another; me trying to fit in casually mentioned I have pretty fair skin. Everyone had a good chuckle, because apparently they were alluding to their level of corruption- the darker the “skin” meant the more on the take…
That same evening I was invited to attend KTV, karaoke, and as soon as we made it to our private room my hosts began singing Revolutionary patriotic songs. I replied by going all out with Jail House Rock by Elvis :) I do try not to be a 1upper in general, but in this case I thought the situation definitely called for it.
The biggest fish: I took a chance and ate it at a big dinner; unbeknownst to me at the time was that 40% of all mercury poising cases in Changchun were the result of tainted fish.
Spot the big shot!
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