TYPICAL TRAVEL IN CHINA
Brief excerpts of a trip to Shenyang last week
(By Ed Hughes, via Modem)
Two days before I wanted to travel I went to the train
station to get information and perhaps buy some tickets. Through
a friend who was translating, I talked to three different people.
The first group, who looked a little like police men or train
station security, said that there was an express train every
morning but I had to buy tickets at another train station in the
city.
To make sure of things we went and talked the lady in the
information booth. She said that there was an express train
every morning, how tickets for a soft seat should be bought at
this train station and they cost 43 yuan.
Then I went to the booth that sells the tickets. That women
said that this was the correct booth, but tickets are only sold a
day in advance. When we inquired about the price she said that
they cost 28 yuan.
Three different people each with a slightly different story.
{The next day buying tickets was fun. I started by getting
at the end of a loosely formed line of about 15 people. After
standing there about a half an hour there still seemed to be
fifteen people in it even though people where coming and going.
As I got closer to the booth I got the idea that tickets
were selling out because the pushing and shoving started and got
more rough as time went on.
As I was getting to the window this one old man was very
sure he wasn't going to wait in line and wanted his ticket next.
I found myself sandwiched between several people. I was grasping
firmly to the teller cage to ensure that I didn't shoved away.
I had the idea that I didn't want the old man to snuff in
front of me. But he was to quick and he had his hat full of
money through the window when the guy in front of me squeezed his
way out. In fact the guy behind me was even quicker and he had
his hand in there, too.
I was at my limit for patience (which isn't much anyway) and
I firmly grabbed the arm of the man behind me and yanked it out
of the window. Because I was a foreigner, I looked angry,
grasped him firmly, or whatever, he quickly pulled his hand away
and said, "Ming bei! Ming bei." Which means, "I understand."
(The literal translation is "see white", just like in English "I
see clearly")
I was next and my friend asked for my ticket. With ticket
in hand I then fought my way out of the small crowd.
The train ride was pretty smooth and I had a typical, but a
little bit interesting experience. I was talking to a Chinese
business man when two others came over. The pair only wanted to
practice their English. Actually, one could speak basic
sentences Ok. Nothing complcated, but he got his point across.
The other one was just beginning to learn gramma and
pronunciation.
Not after long that the last man grabbed his English book
and I was giving an English lesson on the train.
Often people want to practice their English, but after the
intial basic questions the conversation dies. Unless I keep
talking and asking questionsthen everything gets quiet. So
teaching a isn't all that bad to do something on the train.
When I arrived in Shenyang I was accompanied by a Chinese that
I had met the day earlier at the Shenyang Medical Univeristy.
Apparently this is a key University in China, but you wouldn't
know by the way they pay foreign teachers.
Exasperated Ed
- - - - -
XIAO ED IN CHENGDU, CHINA
(From me, father to Ed)
Whew! Finally heard from son Ed again, who was last heard from
almost a month ago trying to marry a Chinese girl in Dalian, get
an extension to his visa to insure she can leave the country,
pulling the plug on his modem phone - the slender link to the
outside that became his information life-line to the US - and
then disappearing into the interior of China for yet another
venture in the Middle Kingdom.
(Chengdu is in west central China, the last large city
of the central plains, on the road to Lhasa, Tibet.)
His communication had to come by mail this time (done on his
laptop and printed on his ancient Microline) because he does
not have a phone in his room. (But it looks like we will be
connected again in due course). So it was a nice 6 page
letter, some extracts of which are below:
-------------------------------------
April 7th, 1990
"So I am working in Chengdu. The work seems like it will be
interesting and varied. I work in their computer center 4
days a week, and teach a 2 hour class once a week on any
computer subject I want to."
"The first thing they want me to work on is a speech recognition
and speech synthesis program. They have one program which
can understand simple English sentences and translate them
into Chinese. But they are working on Chinese recognition and
synthesis now. They want me to assist in converting FORTRAN
to C and related engineering tasks.
The SUN workstation they have is a 3/50."
"...housing. They gave me a large, almost huge, place. I am
on the fourth of four floors that overlooks a halfway decent
compound which I can see from two balconies. I have a large
living/dining room, a kitchen, a bathroom with hot water almost
always! And a good sized bedroom. It is fully carpeted, and
wallpapered and has comfortable furniture. The place has a
homey feel to it. Somewhat like living in an older hotel in
the US."
"The weather is ten degrees (C) warmer than Dalian. Which
suits me fine and the city is really green compared to that
of northeast China at this time."
"The next nice feature about this place is that it looks like
the China I expected to come to see a year ago. Dalian had
a lot of Russian influence. It didn't seem much like a Chinese
city I expected. Chengdu has a two-thousand year history and
I have been told that it has been relatively untouched by the
West and modern things as other cities in China have."
"...once Ha Ning gets her paper work completed she will be
coming to Chengdu...I plan to be returning to the US with
Ha Ning between October and December..."
--------
Then he discusses connecting up by modem. Looks like that
will be possible in due course, from Xu Tingwei's office.
And says "This letter may have a 007 problem." To make our
mail letters clean and straightforward.
And he has met a few Americans, some English, Germans,
Danish, and Australian and an Italian in just the first
few days he was there.
--------
And for his doting parents he gives much more details about
his bride, Ha Ning.
Ha Ning, 'a foot shorter' than he (6' 4") Ed, was the
youngest of 4 daughters, called by her family "Si'er" or
'number four daughter.' Her name came from the ice houses
of Harbin (Ha) and Liaoning province where she was born
(Ning).
With tongue in cheek Ed says that if we named him that
way he would be called "Fort-Kansas." "Glad you didn't"
says he.
She graduated from Dalian University and has two years of
toward an advanced degree. That she doesn't talk about
herself much, but she always came in first place at
language competition. [Great! Smart grandchildren to come!]
Both of whose parents, it turns out
are retired Red Army (PLA) doctors. Dr. Zhou having been a
bone surgeon and hospital director, respected enough that
he did not get put down during the Cultural Revolution.
That he met her two days after he arrived in China. She
is 'very shy'. But during the Tiammanen Square turmoil, she
would always come through with a practical suggestion, while
many other well meaning Chinese friends would try, but he
ended up with many "Not Chinese - Not American" situations.
And though she knew nothing about electronics, when he
went to the hardware stores of Dalian to solve his 110
volt transformer and electrical parts problems, she
quickly helped, and suggested alternatives.
And later they often went to the beach and ate oranges,
crackers and 'baozi' a traditional Chinese food she prepared.
And, to Ed mother, he said about Ha Ning "She has begun to
play the piano, and every once in a while I get a firm but
pleasant demand to stand-up straight. Which Mom will like"
-------
So a new Chapter of 'Xiao Ed and Ha Ning in China' is about
to open.
- - - - -
79:26) Lisa Carlson 18-APR-90 21:58
This is such a treat to get to be part of your family like this ... I
can't wait til someday we can show Ha Ning (and Ed of course) the
sights of Washington, D.C!
- - - - -
79:27) Frank Burns 19-APR-90 2:01
( SO good to read this. Thanks, Dave. )
- - - - -
79:28) Bill Robinson 19-APR-90 18:53
Oh, I really like the "007" problem. So subtle! Probably snuck right by
those Chinese snoops. Unless they saw "The Living Daylights".
So what does "almost married" mean? Did I miss something scrolling by at
2400? Are they engaged or is she joining him later?
- - - - -
79:29) Dave Hughes 19-APR-90 21:12
No, they are indeed married. She just has to stay in Dalian until
her travelling papers are approved, and before she can imigrate
to the US. He expects her to join him in his Chinese
'honeymoon suite' within a month.
- - - - -
79:30) Gordon Cook 19-APR-90 21:13
Within a month? Where?
- - - - -
79:31) Dave Hughes 19-APR-90 21:17
Hey, folks RTP.
1. Ed in in Chendu
2. Ha Ning is in Dalian
3. She will join him
4. His description of his living quarters makes it fit - in China -
to be a honeymoon hidaway. (based on his previous correspondence
the apartment he has would normally accomodate a family of
from 5 to 7)
- - - - -
79:32) Gordon Cook 19-APR-90 21:25
Laugh! Yeah I finally did scroll back and read ALL the text. Was about
to delete, response 30.
- - - - -
79:33) Bill Robinson 20-APR-90 21:25
- - - - -
79:34) Dave Hughes 05-MAY-90 5:04
We (my wandering son) and I are getting so good at this Oriental
Modem Express one could get pretty cocky.
We just sucessfully completed a pair of transfers from here to
Chengdu, China which WORKED THE VERY FIRST TIME with no lost
motion, to a strange telephone number way out there on the
road to Lhasa in the interior of China. 46k of text exchanged,
a brief voice discussion (his brother even got a chance to say
hello) arranging the next time, a kermit run with about 20
retries and another one with about 4, a check for arc file
integrity and all in 18 minutes flat from the time I started
dialing. All in one call.
And Xiao Ed was standing in a downtown Chendu technology
business, with a bunch of Chinese engineers watching him
(the way they justified using the voice phone for such
'questionable' activities), hooked up to a strange phone
by alligator clips, and trying to explain to them what
he was doing while he did it. The voice quality seemed
scratchy when we talked briefly, so we didn't think it
would work well.
But it did. And, after reading what he sent, it really helped
his credibility for it to work that smoothly. I mean telecom
as a demo NEVER works right the first time. Right?
We are getting good at it though.
Next Sunday we will try it through a Chinese operator and
switchboard. That promises to be fun.
I will share some of his journal entries tomorrow after I
get some sleep. He is in a very techie place...
- - - - -
79:35) Frank Burns 05-MAY-90 8:39
Extraordinary.
You really have to write a book, Dave.
- - - - -
79:36) Dave Hughes 05-MAY-90 15:19
No Frank. I am just a singer of Ascii Songs. And here they are.
If someone wants to collect them fine. Not me. I sometimes
think I must be like a Kentucky folk-guitar plucker. Just playing
the songs that come to mind. And let the university professors
collect the stuff if they want.
Besides, it is a real betrayal of my online art, to put it on
paper.
"Oh you never are alone, when you hear that modem tone"
"Keep loggin on"
"Keep loggin on"
(somebody else write the music)
- - - - -
79:37) Dave Hughes 06-MAY-90 0:44
We just received a beautiful letter from Ha Ning - in equisite
handwriting and in excellent English, as she pays her first
'respects' to her new in-laws. She told us something we did not
know - that Chengdu was the ancient capital of China.
In the 38k file he sent, he made it clear that he is connected
to a phone in a computer company 'unit' in Chengdu, run by
the director of the university computer center. They are all
uncertain about using the phone for telecommunications, so
to 'justify' it the director set it up as a technical
demonstration for Chinese engineer/programmers, all of whom
were looking over his shoulder as we linked up via his tiny
laptop Toshiba, an external Touchbase modem, supplied with
two alligator clips to attach to the line.
Because of this and the necessity for him, at this early stage
in Chengdu to determine the 'Chinese office politics' before
risking too much, he has limited his reports to more or less
'safe' subjects.
Below are some extracts of last night's
session
- - - - -
79:38) Dave Hughes 06-MAY-90 0:45
REPORTS FROM CHENGDU, CHINA
...telecommunications. I think he [director] is interested
in doing this, but he isn't going to stick his neck out too
far and he's gonna go through proper channels to get permission.
Otherwise, he said, his office could get fined. But he did say
that I could use his phone for now and if his company gets fined,
then it get's fined.
He is going to make this telecom into a demonstartion for
some of the engineers and workers at his company. Perhaps as
many as ten to twenty...
... I think he wants to do this and listens when I talk about
and wants my to teach the telecom concepts...
... [his] company is interesting. It is sponsored by three
"Work Units". Before describing his company, let me give you
some background on what a "Unit" is in China.
In China a Unit is anything that a person works for or lives
under. In other words, in the city everyone has one unit. Most
people have a work unit where they work. Such as a Company, a
government store, a factory, the Computer center at Sichuan U. is
a unit. The Unit basically has everything to do with your life.
When ever you want to do anything you have to go through your
unit to get permission or a letter or whatever. If you don't
work then you have a non-work unit in your comunity or
a community unit. If you'er retired then you have a unit that
controls the retirement community...
So in the US you have a government department or a
company or business. In China you have Units which are part of
the whole governemnt structure. Then you have a small part of
the city population that that does business for themselves.
If a man and woman are married, then the man's unit usually
supplies the housing for the couple, but not always. Things
being really politically divided, units don't really cooperate
with each other unless there is some kind of mutual benefit or
personal connection at a high level of some kind. In other words
it can get pretty complicated and really difficult to get things
done between units.
Now I work for the Sichaun U Computer Center. The center
itself I don't believe is a unit, I think it falls under the
University. But, because the school is so large the Center (like
other parts of the Univ) can take on a status of unit when doing
work outside of the school community.
Hence Mr [X] is a vice-leader of the Computer Center, but he
is the leader of the Chengdu Computer Technolgy Institute (CCTI).
The Institute is a joint effort from the Sichuan U Computer Center
(SUCC), the Railway Unit of Chengdu (I can't remember it's proper
name), and another Unit. The purpose of the institute is to give
technical support for SUCC, to the Railway Unit, develop
marketable technology and to actual market those things as well
as computers themselves.
They have a bunch of IBM 386 clones from all over the place:
AST's from the US, Dragon's from Taiwan, others from Japan,
and Hong Kong. They sell disk drives and disks and
boards. Part of the function of the Institute is also to
generate income for some of these other units. This seems to be
common for some State Units. To have a side business to generate
some additional income.
- - - - -
79:39) Dave Hughes 06-MAY-90 0:47
(cont)
These "sub-units" or "joint-units" may come under the
auspicies of a state controlled unit, but the sub-units seem to
operate almost as if they were private, although they're not.
The project I'm working on is also a joint effort of
different departments at SUCC and with other units.
When I asked a guy in my office to make me an organizational
Chart of SUCC and the project I'm working on he got very
perplexed. I tried to draw the chart placing a person in one box
of responsiblity. This very quickly fell apart.
This being China, some people are working on more then one
project and leaders have different levels of responsiblity
according to what part of the unit, project, or joint-unit you
are talking about. Essentially a lot of people have multiple jobs.
Sometimes it even seems that in one situation a Leader A has
authority of Leader B. But given another project or unit or
whatever, Leader B has authority over Leader B. At least that's
how it would appear on an Organization chart. But in actuality,
internal politics has much more to say then any organization chart.
One thing that the CCTI developed and is producing is a sort
of modem/LAN. These are modem-like units that convert digital to
analog from a computers comm port and then transmits the data via
hard wire up to 5 km at 0 to 9600 baud. I kind of wondered if
these could be converted to a telephone modem, but I doubt it and
doubt even more if there's an interest.
I was also posed an interesting concept the other day. When
you do voice recognition that might be used to finger people for
some government function [agency?]. The guy didn't know
anything specific he was just being a devils advocate, which I
actual had considered. It really is plausible. It comes down
to determining where the work I'm doing is going, and if it is
something I morally agree with.
An additional note to make all this sound a little ironic.
I will be doing this first transmission at least in front of an
audience. I hope you gave me something that I can unpack and
show everyone. On following transmissions if you could put at
the beginning of your letters to me the names of files that are
safe to demonstrate. Or put a suffix like "xxx.SF" to let me
know I can use this.
Ed in China
- - - - -
79:40) Dave Hughes 06-MAY-90 0:51
In a whole series of pieces Xiao Ed proceeds to give me detailed
instructions on how to visit him in Chengdu! 'Fly to Hong Kong,
stay with Russ Arnesman [who was a technical reporter here in
the Springs, now an editor of a Far East Technical News],
train to Guangzhou, plane to Chengdu, car to University, bike
from there...'
tempting
- - - - -
79:41) Nancy Stefanik 06-MAY-90 10:19
thanks Dave - sure is interesting to follow this saga...
- - - - -
79:42) Gordon Cook 06-MAY-90 22:36
Hot dawg dave...again you brighten my eveneing. Now to introduce you to
the folk at Bell Atlantic!
- - - - -
79:43) Dave Hughes 07-MAY-90 0:49
Only $1,200 round trip to Hong Kong...
- - - - -
79:44) Gordon Cook 07-MAY-90 21:51
hmm .so the challenge....could you log on to the metanetwork from Chengdu?
- - - - -
79:45) Dave Hughes 07-MAY-90 23:15
Only if Scott programmed his modems so, when I called COLLECT,
it would answer 'Yes' when the Chinese operator asks will he
accept the charges. :-)
Actually I think I could figure out a way, using call forwarding.
But it ain't cheap. $11.83 for the first 3 mintues, $1.48 a
minute therafter. Thats $95 an hour phone only. (PC Pursuit is
only $1 an hour)
I'll figure out something. Just as there ain't no horse that
can't be broke, there ain't no modem that can't be called.
- - - - -
79:46) Scott Burns 08-MAY-90 8:00
Hmm, maybe I could make a macro...
- - - - -
79:47) Dave Hughes 13-MAY-90 13:10
Well, don't try to do a data transfer to your friends
in China through their ancient switchboards and capacity for
snooping. Xiao Ed had me try to call to the Sichuan University
main number, where a Chinese operator who doesn't speak English
answers 'Wei?', then I say 'AMERICA - CALL - EDWARD HUGHES' and
she rings an extension in the living quarters. Twice Ed picked
up voice, and we talked about 30 seconds when the voice ability
just stopped. Once we could even hear ringing in the background
which I interpreted as her trying to connect some secret service
to the line, but with the equipment so poor, that it lost the
capacity to carry the signal when the snoop picked up.
So $12 later we were left alone, but when we tried to
go online, the carriers just wouldn't grab, though my modem
tried for 30 seconds in response to his answer tone. Circuits
just too attenuated through all those connections and what
sounded like a 1930's style switchboard. We did not try 300
baud.
We had agreed in advance to go back to the direct dial
next week at a downtown computer firm, which worked two weeks
ago. So no Ascii news from Chengdu this week!
And in our brief voice conversation before we tried
to hand off the signals to our modems, he confirmed that
his bride Ha Ning tried to send us some pictures of them in
her letter to us, but they were removed by some Chinese postal
bureaucrat before the letter left China.
So for the first time in the 15 months since he has
been there he said with some irritation "I'm getting tired of
this country." Ever-optimistic and resouceful 'can-do' Ed is
wearying of the bottomless pit of Chinese bureaucracy and
social control.
I am sure he will really appreciate the good old
U.S. of A when he returns with her in the fall.
Yesterday while driving his pickup truck across town
to exercise it (among other things, he asked us to maintain his
vehicle while he was gone), it occurred to me he will teach
tiny Ha Ning how to drive. But that truck, in the fashion of
many young guys sits very high, has large tires, is quite a
handful, and to a small Chinese lass who has never driven
anything might be a terrifying experience. Maybe he will have
to buy a small Japanese import.
Ah, modern international life!
- - - - -
79:48) Dave Hughes 19-MAY-90 12:32
Contact made again at 2:00 AM my time, 5:00 PM Chengdu time, as
Xiao Ed answered the phone after only 6 attempts by me to ring through
the puzzle which is the Chinese Phone system.
So we were able to exchange 20k archived in only about 6 minutes. The
minute he picked up the phone - which was in a downtown computer
office in Chengdu - he said he had to put us on a speaker phone,
which echoed so badly I thought, once again, it would disrupt the
transfer. But it didn't.
The best news was that Ha Ning is there with him, finally having
gotton through the paperwork jungle of Dalian.
He was obviously constrained from sending much commentary on
the general political scene, so his communications was about
everything but that.
He related the two weeks when he and Ha Ning had to live at
her parents house in Dalian - with a 3 year old grandaughter
whom he said was such a bundle of energy and smart she was
a pain, and led Ed to ask whether *he* was a monster at 3,
and gave himpause as to whether he wanted children. So *that*
discussion has started in their international family.
And he sent along two short messages from a woman teacher
there whose relatives are on Bitnet in the US, askign that
I foward them over the net to addresses she gave - which
appear to be good addresses.
Then he reported that his boss, head of the Computer Center
was interested if we could export some software such as
wordprocessing, speech recognition, and telecom 'stuff'
for the SunWorkstation he - Ed - works on all day now.
So who knows? Maybe Old Colorado City Communications
can sell *something* to China to defray my period calls
there over the past year.
Finally he asked:
One last thing. Does anyone know the words to the song The
Great Waltz? The first few lines start:
One day when we were young remember that morning in May
you told me you love me when we were young one day.
You told me you love me and held me close to your
heart.
This isn't imprtant at all, but a nice guy I met in Dalian a few
months ago asked me for the words to the song. If you know it or
somebody you does fine. Otherwise, don't sweat it.
So the China Chit-Chat continues!
- - - - -
79:49) Frank Burns, MDG 19-MAY-90 14:31
Sure good to know of another successful contact.
- - - - -
79:50) Dave Hughes 19-MAY-90 16:49
He also said that Ha Ning, his bride, is interested in writing about
China. And beleive you me, from the paper letters she has written
us in English, she can handle the English language as well, perhaps
better than he can!
Now that they are together, and alone in their honeymoon suite
at Sechuan University in Chengdu, China, he says he thinks she will
pick up writing on his Toshiba computer pretty quickly.
So we may get the treat before they leave for the US in the fall,
of some stories by a Chinese girl, right from China!
How about "Growing Up in China" for starters? (my suggestion,
to avoid political sensitivities until they are safely both
in the US, and yet a topic *none* of us knows much about!
- - - - -
79:51) Dave Hughes 19-MAY-90 16:51
Now that we know where Ha Ning will be for the next 4 months or
so, the time has come to write her directly, and open up a dialogue
to a family from a far away culture...[A
- - - - -
79:52) Jim Rutt 19-MAY-90 18:27
How does Ed deal with living in the belly of a gangster
state like China? It must be real weird to have your life
intrusted to the hands of some of the great mass murderers of
all time.
- - - - -
79:53) Dave Hughes 19-MAY-90 21:02
He is uncomfortable with it -but sees it as a challenge to function
in that society, learning from Chinese how to be -- Chinese.
Its amazing how he has gotton most everything he set out to
get there, in the face of lots of obstacles put in his way
by buracratic-fearful minor officials.
- - - - -
79:54) Dave Hughes 19-MAY-90 21:03
Ok, worldly wise. What is the way *we* (my wife and I) should
deal with the parents of our new daughter-in-law?
- - - - -
79:55) Frank Burns, MDG 19-MAY-90 23:09
Now _that_, Dave, is a profoundly complex question.
It would be easy to say platitudinous obviousnesses... like "with
grace" etc.
But... you really are facing some tough issues here. Do they understand
English enough to grasp subtleties ?
- - - - -
79:56) Doug Carmichael 20-MAY-90 12:34
"deal with"? what's the issue? They are coming to visit too? I'd start
with Ha Ning, what does she want to write, and then, what would she like
for her parents?
- - - - -
79:57) Dave Hughes 20-MAY-90 13:02
Issue? 2,000 years of Chinese history, and the Middle Kingdom.
200 of American history. And the center of the Electronic Universe.
Sooner or later directly, not throuh Ha Ning.
.
- - - - -
79:58) Gordon Cook 20-MAY-90 23:32
To change the subject just a little...
Dave, thanks for the good news about Ed and Ha Ning. What you say about
her English intrigues. Please pass this on to Ed if you have not told him
much the same before. Between the three of you there is one helluva book!
Yeah I know YOU don't write books! Well someone I hope has captured your
acsii transmissions and Ed has hopefully saved his or you have. don't you
see, Ed writes most of it. But some chapters are written by YOU.......or
for you by Ed and Ha Ning using your words and interviews. And some
chapters are ha Ning's. Growing up in Dalien. Courtship of Xiao Ed. Out
witting the bureaucracy, computer entrepeneurs in Chengdu, etc after exciting etc. Since William Hinton wrote his classic Fanshen...there hasn't been quite as interesting a tale of Foreigners in the Middle Kingdom...and at what a critical time! Seriously, it should be something that ed is thinking about and
could be quite a wonderful project for Ha Ning when she gets back to
Colorado.
(Gorden) Hell, send them to Jane Heim Dave. She has written one HELLUVA good book proposal and could teach them to do the same. Getting published is damn hard but this tory should be publishable.
And heck yes I eagerly await the first online instalment of Ha Ning's
memoirs! -------- And on another subject, please tell Alex that I hope
he's at ENA in San Francisco and I hope to meet him there. I'll be
downtown by 5pm May 22nd.
- - - - -
79:59) Dave Hughes 21-MAY-90 12:34
Poor Alex reports that the official delegations to the Summit
Meetings in Washington from Moscow has tied up all the Aeorflot
flights during the time he wanted to come, so he isn't going to
make it. At least that is my understanding at this point.
- - - - -
79:60) Sue Anderson 03-JUN-90 23:35
An 8th grade social studies teacher on our network seems to agree with
Gordon in response 79:58. She writes:
The thought of Ha Ning writing is great!! Kids I teach would LOVE
more of the "day-in-the-life-of" stuff. They are SO culture-bound they have
a tough time imagining life w/o HBO, sneakers, all freedoms, etc. There's
a wide-open market for that sort of personal experience writing.
It would seem that the social science magazines would be a good
market for her.
PLEEZE - encourage Ha Ning to write! Ed's letters have been such a
treat this past year! I've looked forward to them! One night I tried to
re-read all of them in one sitting! He's written quite a book!! Good luck
on future publication!!
- - - - -
79:61) Gordon Cook 06-JUN-90 23:06
Well dave what DO Ed and Ha Ning say about their....and YOUR book?
- - - - -
79:62) Dave Hughes 07-JUN-90 23:24
Won't know until the next hook-up, planned for Monday. But it wil
be a tough technical effort, through Chinese operators at the other
end.
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79:63) Gordon Cook 09-JUN-90 22:39
My ears <and cursor> are cocked!
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79:64) Dave Hughes 09-JUN-90 23:55
When it rains, it pours. No sooner does my daughter Becky start
her rounds for her new job in Seattle, but the company approached her
as to whether *both* Ed and Haning would like a well paying set
of jobs in China. They like his comptuer expertise, and her English
Chinese language facility!
Then a letter arrives here from yet *another* Chinese University asking
if Ed will take a position teaching English and COmputers for them!
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79:65) Matt Minahan 10-JUN-90 0:31
There's a neat discussion underway this evening on the Mutual Broadcasting
System between Jim Bohannon and author Bill Holmes, who has just come back
from teaching English in China for a year. He's peddling, and pretty darn
successfully, his new book called "Coming Home Crazy" or something
similar. Good stuff, if you still have time to catch the radio program,
and the author sounds pretty good, if you can catch his book.
Matt
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79:66) Gordon Cook 10-JUN-90 18:06
WOW!
- - - - -
79:67) Dave Hughes 12-JUN-90 21:36
No online news from China this week. Ed is having a hard time
arranging a direct-dial line which I can call and we can connect
up on. The office of one he was beginning to use was closed, so
he can't fall back on it. And when we try to connect through
switchboard lines the signal is too attenuated to work so far
after trying 3.
He is getting a little weary of the endless bureaucracy attendant
to his every request. Now that he is in a big university in a
city (Chengdu) which had large protests last year, every official
is even more cautious about doing anything 'unusual' like
hooking up his computer to a phone. I get the impression that the
whole country is more uptight about telecommunications in general.
This morning we tried a connection in the business office of a
newer hotel in town, with more modern telephone equipment. But it
still went through an operator and thus we could not get carrier
connection at 1200 baud after I talked with him by voice.
But I *did* get a treat. I got to talk to his new wife Ha Ning
by voice for the first time! A sweet clear voice with even
better English pronounciation than I expected.
Ed continues to work at the Sun Workstation - which as it turns
out was a grant from the World Bank. But they really are having
a hard time figuring out what to do with it, and won't send
for software out of country. They would like to hook it up via
Ethernet to a bunch of PCs, two of which have something called
a 'Link Card' and run '3+' software which theoretically can
be used for thin wire Ethernet.
Anybody familiar with that?
He will try again in two weeks. Meanwhile he and Ha Ning have
been offered positions in China working for a large US company,
and he has been asked by a college in Nanjing if he would work
for them.
So he has some thinking to do.
- - - - -
79:68) Frank Burns, MDG 17-JUN-90 3:51
(( a transcript of this item would be a hell of a resume.))
- - - - -
79:69) Dave Hughes 07-JUL-90 22:48
Lot of fun talking to no less than 6 Chinese telphone
operators - none of whom spoke English - to try and reach
Ed and Ha Ning voice tonight. Calls we had attempted at
the appointed times - from 9 to 11PM China time were met
with no answers inside China. So I picked Sunday morning
at 8:30 AM China time, got answers, and a whole series
of exited female Chinese operators who finally punched
the right buttons when I kept repeating "Edward and
Ha Ning Hughes...Edward and....." Finally somebody got
the idea and went to their room and while Ed had to
get dressed, Ha Ning answered...
We still can't connect ala modem between the extension phones
at Sichuan University, Chengdu, China and Colorado. Ed got a
connect at his end with his Touchbase Modem, but my internal
Toshiba modem just couldn't grab it. So it was voice only.
But it was very, very nice to talk, and for my wife Patsy to
talk, quite a while with Ha Ning, Ed's new wife. She is a
delight, and absolutely no problem through the distorting
and hissing overseas voice phone connection, understanding
her English. She is beginning to learn Wordperfect on his
Toshiba, so I urged her to write a little piece about growing
up as a little girl in China, and send it on floppy disk even
if we can't xmodem it. She giggled at the thought of it. But
I think she will.
So Xiao Ed is spending his days on the Sun Workstation trying
to accomplish some of the ill-defined things they would like
him to do. They are not only poor 'computer plan administrators'
even though they have some pretty fancy equipment, they can't
even make cables, he avers. But he hacked around to the point
he gets a login prompt on the Sun from his Toshiba 1000, direct
cabled with jury rig connectors. So would like me to send
a shell program in ASCII which he could transfer to the Sun,
compile it as a binary transfer utility which would work with
Procomm. And he has got the modem on the Sun working. So
make an unprecedented uucp call out to Colorado from that system
before his contract period is over on October 8th.
He and Ha Ning have to fly to Guangzhou to process her immigration
papers later this month, so she can come with him in late
October, after they visit her home in Dalian enroute to the
United States. So there was no 'journal' this time. Voice on
telephone is great for some things, like getting to know your
new daughter-in-law, but absolutely the pits for storytelling
from China.
THE HAPPY ENDING
Well, after all the angst after Ed (and Haning) were fired by the Dalian Foreign Trade School, for ‘cultural pollution’ and a race against time during which Ed could find another position to buy time while Ha Nings Visa to the US comes through, and then somehow be able to leave together:
- Ed got a position at Sichuan University, in Chengdu – to work on their new Sun Workstations. I was able to do a tour de force by sending him the ASCII source code to Xmodem, which he was able to compile on his Toshiba and in the Sun workstation, afterwhich he was able to transfer binary files to/from the Sun. For the Chinese engineers, WAY advanced.
- Haning was able to join him – so they honeymooned in Chengdu
- Her Visa and all the other permissions came through.
- The school gave him the price of the plane ticket from Hong Kong to America, as they were supposed to when they terminated him.
- I located in Hong Kong an American from Colorado (Russ Arenman) who was editing a Hong Kong Electronic News, who certified to the China-Hong Kong border guards that indeed, they had tickets out of Hong Kong to the US, so they could both enter Hong Kong for 24 hours. He gave them an overnight crash pad.
- Ed and Ha Ning flew to our home in Colorado Springs.
Ed’s adventurous trip to China was over.