Staking Out With CNN - Part 1

This story is part of a documentary for Anderson Cooper 360 to be aired in Oct 2007. The trip to Guangzhou investigates the trade and consumption of wildlife in China. Click on image to view video of turtles being unloaded from a truck at Qingping Market.



Guangzhou

Day 1
1708 hrs Guangzhou Baiyun Airport

We landed at the Guangzhou airport at about 5pm that evening but our driver was nowhere in sight. After giving him a call and checking our coordinates, we finally realized what it was eluded us—a tiny man holding a big blue sign that read: CMM.

Right, why didn’t we guess that? We were on an undercover trip anyway. Why would we want the whole world to know CNN is here?

2023 hrs 3-1 Market

Timothy, a representative from the wildlife trade monitoring network in Hong Kong, Traffic East Asia, was already waiting for us at the hotel. That evening, we decided to check out the 3-1 wildlife market with Timothy as a guide.

There were 2 markets next to each other, the Dong Wang seafood market and the 3-1 animal market that sells small mammals. Our aim that night was just to have a look around the area and to get a feel of the atmosphere there. One of our journalists, Tim, had the hidden camera ready for the visit. Timothy and Tim went in first, and I strolled in separately.

The first market, Dong Wang market, sells turtles. Only a few shops were open among the rows and rows of market stalls. Kids were running around after taking a bath in a plastic basin in front of the stalls. It was hard to fit in. Most of the people who go to these markets had to be restaurateurs and chefs in the industry. I had my red-rimmed glasses on, khaki pants and ‘Birkinstick’ sandals while everyone else had their t-shirts rolled up their stomachs, shabby shorts and rubber slippers. Not the kind of outfit I had in mind. I had a glance at some of the shops and moved on over to 3-1.

3-1 gave me the chills. The market was dark, the people looked dodgy and there were sounds of animals wailing. The people were either staring at my fake Birkenstocks or it was just me feeling paranoid from the stares burning into my back. All I could see were shadows of animals in cages—cats, wild boars, ducks and other furry mammals lying around. I didn’t dare walk any further down the aisle for it was only the first day of our trip and I was not ready to be served up on the dinner table just yet. So I walked out of the market and waited outside the gate.

Just as I was about to head back into the van, a man with a square basket stopped by the side of the road. Another man came over with a sack and opened the lid on the basket. From the silhouette, I could see him pick up shrieking little civet cats and threw them into his sack. He pulled 2 out of the basket, dumped them into a sack and shoved them into the helmet box at the back of his motorcycle. He took out another sack, filled another 2 civets in, opened up the motorcycle seat and stuck them inside. With that he took off.

We returned to the hotel after about half an hour at the market. Tim was excited to show the rest of the crew what we saw. “Did you see anything illegal?” our producer asked. “We saw some civets!” he announced. That got everyone excited until the video file was nowhere to be found on the camera. “Umm…did red record icon pop up when you pressed record?” “No…”

Day 2

0500 hrs Dong Wang market

We arrived back at the Dong Wang market at dawn and surveyed the area around it. This time, we sent our photographer Phil and Timothy back in. Phil’s cover—South African white man looking for some exotic bush meat in the land of ‘all-you-can-eat’ Guangzhou. As the saying goes, “Anything that has its back facing the sun can be eaten.”

Phil’s visit was warmly greeted by the sellers. The showed him the turtles and gave him some tips on how to cook them. Timothy asked if they had big snakes but was told that they were illegal and nobody stocks them now due to the recent police crackdowns.

1032 hrs Qing Ping market

The Qing Ping market had hoards of tourists crawling around its little lanes and pet streets. Perfect for our little ‘tourist handycams’ and cameras. My cover for the day—recent university graduate, foreign language expert and tour guide. Since Timothy and I were the only Chinese among the group, we split into two teams: Phil and I, and Timothy with Tim and Mary Anne.

They have everything here. There was the TCM area that sells all traditional Chinese medicines, and the animal market area with all the legal meat, which ranges from chickens to snakes, turtles, scorpions, cats, and frogs. Turtles are big business. There were shops filled almost to the brim with turtles stacked atop each other. You could hear the clacking sound of claws scraping on the shells. At the same time that we were there, we saw a large truck unloading bags of turtles onto the street. It was literally a mountain of turtles and if any of those bags fell on you, you’d probably be knocked out. Many of the turtle shops are wholesalers who deliver up to 10 tonnes of turtles a day. And it’s all for consumption.

At the scorpion stalls, buyers were perched on little stools picking out juicy scorpions with chopsticks. We say some remnants of what used to be a turtle as the stall lady cleaned up her chopping board. The seafood stalls had buckets of water snakes and eels. Sellers were happy to pick up the snakes and show it to us. At the chicken stalls, there were cats locked up in cages. As we were about to cross the street towards a pet shop, we saw a seller pick up a garlic mesh bag with a cat inside and put it inside a red plastic bag…just like how you would carry a bag of onions or garlic.

Many of the stall owners seemed very interested in my job. “So, you’re just bringing one guy around?” “How much do you earn a day? Must be at least 500RMB a day. That’s a real good deal.” “Come, sit down. So how much are these foreigners paying you? Must be fun, huh, going around everywhere.” I smiled. Apparently there are some ‘personal tour guide’ services that offer more than just a guide because I have a few shop owners asking, “Are these guys malat (sleazy in Cantonese)? Can they hug you or hold you? I’ve seen many of them around with their ‘tour guides’. Well, you be careful, girl. Better stick to the big tour groups. These guys, they eat and they leave.” Thanks for the tip, pal. I couldn’t wait to translate that to Phil.

After an hour or so, we regrouped to swap teams. I checked out the TCM market shops with Mary Anne and Tim, and Timothy was off to hunt for tiger bone wine with Phil. I’ve never seen so much ginseng drying on the side of the road before. Reams and reams of snake skins, deer antelopes, birds’ nests, bottled snake wine, dried centipede, dried geckos on a stick, penises of all animals big and small, from deer to sea lion (never seen so many penises before, bags and bags of them)…it was a dead animal’s circus. Besides animal products, there were also expensive herbs such as cordyceps which could easily cost more than a few thousand RMB for just a few grams.

In our quest for some illegal bear bile products, we were shown something else that kept us excited for the next ten minutes. With her eyes fixed on a blonde Mary Anne and ageing Tim, the lady shopkeeper asked me, “Why don’t you ask them if they need something to zhuang yang (strengthen the ‘yang’ energy, or sex drugs, in short). They usually like those.” With that, she took out a box of assorted medication from under the table and showed it to us. Great, porn medicine. There were boxes with pictures that looked like porn movie covers and also a box of little blue diamond pills labeled as Chinese Viagra. There was also a medicine called “Like a tiger, like a panther”. Rrrrr…

WWF? Isn’t that for wrestlers?

First stop at Harbin: Siberian Tiger Park, a man-made safari with huge tigers and ligers (yes, lion + tiger = liger) roaming next to an empty construction site. The amazing (or rather, shocking) thing about this park is that you can watch the tigers rip a live animal apart upon request. And your choice on the menu: chicken (40 yuan), duck (100 yuan), pheasant (100 yuan), sheep (600 yuan) or a goddamn cow for 1500 yuan. Its like watching National Geographic wildlife LIVE without cable static.

A local tourist on our bus ordered a sheep for the spectacle. We waited for 20 minutes before a van pulled up and shoved a frightened little sheep out the door. Everyone rushed to one side of the bus and pressed their cameras against the windows.

The sheep moved two steps, let out a “baaa” and was immediately pounced by a dozen tigers. That was barely 2 seconds. The crowd went wild as the tigers dragged the sheep away. Video cameras were everywhere. From the distance, I could hear the poor little sheep go “baaaaaa….” before it slowly faded.

Harbin

The mad rush for train tickets to Harbin started weeks before our departure date and all train tickets can only be purchased 10 days in advance. We left four days after the New Year and were lucky enough to secure 10 tickets on the hard sleepers. Unfortunately, all 10 were middle bunks. (Two weeks later, I was told that the agent who sold me the train tickets disappeared with a whole bunch of deposits from customers.)

We slept through the 12-hour journey and found ourselves in Harbin on the morning of January 5^th—the day of the official opening ceremony of the Harbin International Ice Festival.

ITINERARY

4 Jan
2105 hrs: Train departs Beijing

5 Jan
0845 hrs: Arrive at Harbin
Noon: Siberian Tiger Park
Late afternoon: Harbin Ice Festival

6 Jan
Morning: Harbin city centre – Zhongyang Dajie
Noon: Snow Sculpture Art Fair

7 Jan
Yabuli Ski Resort

8 Jan
Morning: Snowboarding at Yabuli
Noon: Return to Harbin
2030 hrs: Train back to Beijing

COST (student price)

BJ-Harbin tickets : 221

Accomodation (2 nights): 128

Harbin-BJ tickets: 368

Siberian Tiger Park: 50

Ice Festival: 75

Snow Festival: 50

Yabuli package: 580

TOTAL: RMB 1472

400RMB to Switzerland and back - Qingdao gets you there

“Don’t worry! We, Shandong people, are honest. We don’t cheat tourists here,” said the skinny man sitting in front of the van. We all let out a nervous chuckle.

Yes, we’ve all heard about the cheats and conmen and charlatans that they have in China and have been told time and again never to trust anyone here (especially if they’re too nice or if whatever they are selling is too cheap). And here we are, all 8 of us, taking up the offer of a skinny man outside the train station to take us to our hostel for just 10RMB. But then again, we’ve always been lucky with the illegal cabs that we take during our travels. Haven’t really had out throats cut before.

And it all went well. We had a cheap ride to our hostel and Qingdao was beautiful! Tree-lined avenues, bluestone buildings, German architecture, maple trees…this was not China. Winding through the streets of Qingdao, I could make myself believe that I was still in Melbourne or any other European-looking city in the west. Little did I know that Qingdao is known as the Switzerland of the East by the Chinese for its very Bavarian appearance. Qingdao was a town ceded to the Germans in 1898 and the legacy of a 99-year German rule is still evident today.

Quote from Lonely Planet China: “With its cool sea breezes, (relatively) clean air, balmy summer evenings and excellent seafood, this is where Chinese Communist Party cadres come to build sand castles, lick ice cream and dream of retirement.”

The Food

The beaches in Qingdao are pretty decent but I’m not exactly sure about the seafood. They might have the good stuff but they definitely don’t know how to steam a fish. Shandong cuisine, known for its day-to-day, simple ingredients and peasant-style origins is certainly not very palatable to the Cantonese tongue. Instead of steaming our expensive fish with ginger, spring onions and soy sauce, the fish arrived coated with a layer of slimy starch and shreds of ham. The only thing they could do to fix up the mess was to offer us a small bowl of soy sauce with a few shreds of spring onion in it. We tried to drown out the fishy smell by dipping every shred the meat in it. (The restaurant is called Xinlongyuan and is recommended by Lonely Planet…don’t order your fish there)

The Beach

Qingdao’s beaches are divided into (a) public beaches with cigarette butts and beer bottles littered around; and (b) private beaches with a 2RMB entry fee for a cleaner and calmer environment. There are lockers and changing rooms that charge you a fee for usage, and there are beach umbrellas, chairs, floats etc. for rent.


However, one thing that was very obvious at the beaches in Qingdao was the number of couples taking wedding photographs there. There were tour buses organized by wedding photographers, taking hoards of people to the Badaguan beach area. There were brides running around in their once-white wedding gowns, with their jeans underneath and sneakers on and wedding photographers struggling to control his entourage. It was quite an interesting sight.

The Beer

Then again, when at Qingdao, who in their right mind would forget the famous Tsingtao brewery. 60RMB for a tour around the brewery and free beer! We had a chance to sample some pure Tsingtao before it gets processed for bottling. This beer, at its unprocessed stage, can only be drunk fresh at the brewery as it turns bad if left the way it is. Qingdao is probably the only place that you can find beer being sold in a plastic bag. Oh yeah. ..

More Qingdao pictures in my Flickr photo journal

Read about the eventful train ride to Qingdao

Curse of the Golden Flower

Two weeks ago, I wrote an essay on Chinese cinema—in Chinese. And inevitably, the name Zhang Yimou became the focus of any discussion on Chinese films.

A few days later, Zhang Yimou’s <<满城尽带黄金甲>> Curse of the Golden Flower hit the big screens in cinemas across China. The media hype that began long before the movie was released cumulated in a box office frenzy among cinemagoers in the mainland. Publicity was pumping out of every media outlet possible. Everyday, leading up to the release of the movie, exclusive reports on the making of <<黄金甲>> can be seen on entertainment news programs on TV. Jay Chou’s <<菊花台>> can be heard over the radio, at shopping malls, on the taxi, and at little pirated DVD stalls scattered across town.

I see the music video at least twice a day on TV, listen to it multiple times on my laptop and then hear it again in class when the dude sitting behind me decides to switch into Jay mode. There is no escape.

Last week, I watched the movie. Another visual spectacle for the western eye—with over 1.2 billion people in the Chinese population, you definitely don’t need CGI to generate ten thousand extras for the movie. Definitely worth watching, even if its just for the visual feast.

For those who are familiar with author 曹禺 Cao Yu’s stage drama <<雷雨>>, the convoluted relationships between characters in <<黄金甲>> might not seem so complex after all. A few weeks earlier, we were asked to act out a few scenes from the stage drama <<雷雨>> in class. Adultery between stepmother and stepson, the incestuous relationship between brother and sister were all familiar scenes from the play. Just as <<夜宴>>The Banquet ripped its storyline off Hamlet and in certain scenes, tricked us into thinking we’re watching Lord of the Rings, <<黄金甲>> is a grand version of <<雷雨>> with its characters set amongst the opulence of an imperial palace.

Just a few things that struck me as interesting from a cultural and historical aspect are:

1) The dressing of females during the Tang Dynasty.

Although the Tang Dynasty is commonly described as an era of openness, lavishness and excessive decadence, it is hard to believe that the sight of semi-exposed breasts can be so ubiquitous. In a scene where the palace maids wake up and prepare themselves for the day’s tasks in their chamber, the only thing that one could see on the cinema screen are boobs, everywhere.

2) The concept of 天圆地方

The idea of a circular sky and a square earth, as symbolized by a square within a circle, has been around since ancient times. This can be seen in the movie where there is a circular stage with a square table in it inside the palace. Another symbol of this idea is evident in ancient Chinese coins—a circular coin with a square hole inside it.

3) Chrysanthemums as a symbolic icon

Over 3 million pots of chrysanthemums were specially flown in from Kunming for the production—just to show how important these flowers are in the plot of the movie. Well, it is, because the theme of the movie is actually based on a poem by Tang dynasty rebel 黄巢, who plotted the uprising that eventually led to the empire’s downfall.

<<不第后赋菊>>

待到秋来九月八，我花开后百花杀。

冲天香阵透长安，满城尽带黄金甲

电影中的中国

作者: 叶淑仪

谁是张艺谋? 一个外国人可以很快地说出几部张艺谋导演的电影--<<英雄>>，<<十面埋伏>>和将要上影的<<满城尽带黄金甲>>。但是一问到什么是中国电影，中国人和外国人的理解远远有差别。

第一次接触到的中国电影是1991年的<<大红灯笼高高挂>>。那时候的所谓中国电影就是指在国外或者西方社会受到关注的一些电影。跟大陆电影扯上关系的来来往往都是这几个大名: 张艺谋，陈凯歌，巩俐。<<大红灯笼高高挂>>，<<霸王别姬>> 和<<红高粱>>带给了西方观众一个充满神秘感的东方世界。而一个独特的巩俐代表了东方女性的魅力和精神。这些电影也成为了外国人看中国的一个小窗口。

但是这些电影为什么在外国会这么受欢迎呢? 这是因为它们反映的中国并不是一个真实的社会而是一个想像中所谓东方的概念。封建社会的限制；东方女人的苦劳；社会与人间的争执以作为这些电影的主题。武侠故事中的<<卧虎藏龙>>，<<英雄>>和<<十面埋伏>>带给了西方观众一个美丽神奇的古代中国。对中国一无所知的外国观众就深深地被电影里的东方世界吸引了。

难到在外国人眼里的中国只是电影上所描述的温柔女子，满天飞的武侠英雄，绿油油的竹林，庄重的宫廷，还有雪山蓝湖。在事实上，这些只是特地为外国观众所拍的电影，把全球市场作为目标。我们现在所看到的中国电影的底线就是: 观众喜欢看怎么样的故事我们就拍怎么样的电影。

那在实际上，什么才是中国电影? 现在的中国电影有三大标志: 大制作，大明星，大票房。还有一个重要的秘诀就是要演古装片。冯小刚最新的作品<<夜宴>>也是跟着这条道路走。隆重的制作和著名巨星张子怡令这部电影达到了高票房。

但在现实上，这些电影并不代表一个真实的中国。电影只是一个小小的窗口，让我们看到一个又美丽又充满神秘感的东方世界。这就是西方人所期待的神秘东方。这就是电影中的中国。

This essay was written for the Tsinghua Chinese Language speech contest.

Jiuzhaigou - The Journey Up

Late April 2006

If you have heard horror stories about bus rides up the mountainous route to Jiuzhaigou, you’d probably wonder how much of it is actually true. Well, wonder no more because I can now assure you that most of what you’ve heard… is probably 99.9% true.

Roller Coaster From Hell

The Jiuzhaigou Scenic Area is situated in northwest Sichuan, approximately 40 minutes by flight and 10-12 hours by bus from the capital of Chengdu. My entourage opted for the cheap and thrilling experience of the 10-hour bus ride. The advantages of this option? A saving of RMB600 and a chance to witness the amazing scenery of snow-capped mountains and small Tibetan villages right outside our windows.

As for the bus drivers from hell who speed, honk and overtake vehicles along narrow paths that plunge into the ravine on one side, my advice for future passengers would be to sit back (as far back into the bus, away from the honking driver, as you can) and relax (try really hard) because it is definitely one priceless journey. And of course, just ignore the sight of wrecked vehicles below the cliff. They must have plunged down a long time ago. Nothing to worry about.

Our bus departed at 8.30am from Chengdu’s Chadianzi bus station. It was impossible to sleep during the entire journey because the devil’s driver kept honking and stepping on the brakes as he cut corners and overtook a vehicle every five minutes. Some of my friends eventually found a way to entertain themselves by betting on how long it would take before the driver overtook another vehicle. 30 seconds was probably the shortest interval that they came upon.

But guess when all the excitement began? There are nine hairpin turns towards the top of the mountain, with sharp bends and steep slopes. Yes, sounds like the Initial D movie, right? Try doing it on a bus. That's what I call adrenaline rush.

Hairy Cows and Rabbit Stew

Midway up the mountains, the scenery outside our windows revealed clusters of Tibetan villages with conspicuous satellite dishes outside each little hut. Along the roadside, natives charge 10RMB for a photograph with their hairy, white yaks. The ‘hairy cow’ or mao niu (毛牛), as they call it, can be seen along the roadside from mid mountain onwards. However, the only form of mao niu that can be seen at the small Jiuzhaigou township came in packets of beef jerky.

We reached the small town of Jiuzhaigou at about 8pm. Journey completed in just “12 relatively painless hours” (quote: Lonely Planet Guide to China). Dinner that evening consisted of mala (麻辣) rabbit stew, preserved mao niu slices, free range chicken soup, and 10 other vegetable dishes.

We had a choice of 2 to 3 live rabbits to choose from. The boys immediately trooped out of the restaurant, pointed at the fattest rabbit they could see and watched in amusement as the restaurant owner weighed it on the scales. “A little bit more than 2 kilos. Should be alright for 11 people, yes?” We nodded. And in went the rabbit.

For the next 3 days, breakfast was a staple of fresh soy bean milk, youtiao (油条), boiled eggs (scrambled, fried or poached can also be requested depending on your ability to describe them), porridge and assortment of steamed buns. Eat to your heart’s content for less than 10RMB per person.

More pictures available on my flickr page. Rabbit photo courtesy of Wayne Wong. And Wayne, respect for eating that rabbit head!

Just a Little Bit of Wind, A Little Bit of Dust

4 Nov 2006

Outlook: Sunny

Temperature: 5 – 16 degrees Celcius

Wind speed: 29 – 49 km/h

One of those really windy days in Beijing.

I was all dressed, ready to cycle out to the nearby market for some groceries. As soon as I got to the bicycle shed, a gust of wind stopped me on my tracks. Leaves were rustling and trees were swaying madly to the erratic rhythm of the gale.

Ignoring it, I pushed my bike out onto the street and started cycling. Within 5 meters, I chickened out. Sand was getting into my eyes. I let out a yelp as my cap was blown off my head. In the distance, I could see dirt being blown off the basketball courts to form a thick yellow fog chasing an imaginary victim across the road.

Time to get back indoors.

From my ninth floor window, I could see mini dust storms sweeping across campus. Windows were shaking and there were whirring sounds from the outside. Is this the beginning of winter?

Attention Nerds: Google is Here!

3 Nov 2006

It was 7pm on a Friday night. There was no parking left (bicycle parking, I mean) outside the Economics building. Bicycles spilled from the sidewalks into the lawn. There was even traffic jam (bike traffic) outside the building.

President of Google China was in da house.

3rd November 2006, Google President Kai-Fu Lee was in Tsinghua University to talk about talent for the 21st Century. Doors open 6.40pm and the event was supposed to start at 7.30pm.

When we arrived at 7pm, the security guard was shaking his head. "There's another seminar going on. Why don't you go for that one instead," he pointed to a lame Finance seminar poster nearby. No way, dude. We're here for Google.


The hall was already bursting with people. Some tried to climb in through the window and others strained their necks to get a peek of what was going on inside. People were trying to get in any way possible. If you could kill someone to get in, those kids probably will. It was unbelievable. Just like a rock concert.


So we left, as we didn't have any claws to clear the way in.

Inner Mongolia

Early June 2006

We have traveled 2 hours along the bumpy terrains of Inner Mongolia to see the grasslands and to experience one night inside a Mongolian yurt. During the two-hour bus ride, an image began to form in our minds: pretty Mongolian girls singing to us upon our arrival, a whole lamb roasting on the spit, waiting to be devoured by a bunch of hungry Beijing tourists, a night of cultural exchange dancing by the bonfire—a truly exotic Mongolian experience.

But somehow, this fantasy didn’t quite evolve into what we expected. In fact, the little ‘Mongolian’ settlement we were in was totally unreal—‘Mongolian’ girls running around struggling to put on their ‘costumes’ (with a pair of jeans underneath) as tourists arrive by the busloads, pieces of unidentifiable meat roasting on a makeshift barbeque pit, ‘traditional’ Mongolian music coming out of an electronic organ with a synthesizer, and everyone else dancing to doof-doof techno music around the ‘bonfire’ that is an empty oil barrel with burning twigs inside it.

Let me tell you something real though, the horsemen were real Mongolians. And probably their horses too. And the sandstorm. Yes, the sandstorms. Those were real.

As the wind swept across the barren patch of earth that our yurts were built on, little sand hurricanes were swirled up into midair, terrorizing tourists that were about to go on their riding trips. I could see the sand coming from fifty meters away. Everyone watched in awe before realizing that it was coming straight at us! We automatically scrambled into a group huddle, ducked our heads and pulled our hoods as far down our heads as possible, waiting for the ordeal to end. I could hear the sand beating against our body and the wind howling across the bare land. Woohoo! I got to see a real Mongolian sandstorm!

The wind finally stopped after depositing a gram or two of sand into our ears and jacket pockets. I shook the sand off, put on my surgical mask, wrapped a scarf over my head turban-style, slid on a pair of sunnies and got onto my horse. Yes, I was all ready for my Mongolian adventure.

Interview with Lillian Too

Published Aug 2005 on www.visitkn.com & www.wofs.com

Meet Lillian Too: Harvard graduate, corporate CEO, best-selling author…

With a curriculum vitae as impressive as Lillian Too’s, it is hardly surprising that you would expect her to walk into Crown Palladium in her power suit, with a Personal Assistant and laptop in tow. But the lecture of the day is certainly not Management 101 nor “Investing Your Millions.”

“Today we are going to talk about changing the Feng Shui of your home to a Period of 8 house according to the Flying Star chart for 2005,” chirps the enthusiastic speaker as the Power Point slide conjures up a square, numerical diagram that is pretty much similar to a BINGO table. The crowd duck their heads and began to scribble.

Welcome to Lillian Too’s Feng Shui Extravaganza 2005.

…TV host, editor-in-chief, Feng Shui consultant, grandmother

Armed with an MBA from the Harvard Business School, Lillian Too started her career at the top rungs of the corporate ladder. She was the first woman to head a publicly listed company in Malaysia and later became the first female in Asia to be the CEO of a bank. In 18 months, she managed to buy out her own chain of department stores in Hong Kong, turn it around and sell it off before earning enough money to retire at the age of 45. That was when she decided to become a full-time mother.

However, the career woman in her wasn’t meant to fade into the shadows. She began to write books on the subject of Feng Shui and the same pattern of success followed her over from her corporate past – from Feng Shui practitioner to best-selling author and lecturer, and then Founder of her own chain of World of Feng Shui boutiques. Now, her empire spans 35 outlets worldwide (with boutiques in the US, Spain and Netherlands as well), a Feng Shui show on TV, a bi-monthly Feng Shui magazine, and an e-commerce website.

Who says grandmother stories are silly?

In a world where science and logical thinking dominate the mainstream school of thought, Feng Shui practices are very often dismissed as superstition. Sceptics would certainly scoff at the idea of changing the roof of one’s house or installing an aquarium in one’s office for good luck. But as VOGUE magazine puts it, “Given her [Lillian’s] credentials, people listen.”

As an educated woman, and a very well-educated one in fact, Lillian believes that there is always an underlying explanation beneath every superstition. Feng Shui is after all the science of creating a harmonious balance with the elements and energies around us. Ancient descriptions of Feng Shui landscapes are often symbolically represented by metaphors and subjective references to animals and natural elements. Rather than interpreting these allegories, the fundamental theories of this ancient science are passed down as superstition.

“We must not look down on superstition because superstition is passed down from parents to children, but is given no basis…is not scientific…is not educated…so we tend to dismiss it as so much hogwash. But when you look at superstition…if your grandmother believes in it so much there must be something in it. After all, our grandmas are not dumb. They’re not stupid. Our mothers are not stupid.

But because we are educated and we are living in a world where we must have had some form of education, our minds are trained to think. So let us think and let us do research [on these beliefs and superstitions]… We must always be humble enough to say, even though we know a lot, there’s a lot more out there we don’t know. So we must keep learning.”
What if you are still not convinced about these Feng Shui “theories”?

“Let me tell you something. If you don’t believe that when I tell you that this year, for example, the Northwest is no good, why don’t you go and chop down a tree in the Northwest this year and see if you don’t experience some bad luck. Try-lah,” she challenged in her colloquial Malaysian slang. The crowd snickered as she adds another typical phrase, “Right or not?”

Alright, seems like everyone is pretty much convinced. So, show me the money.

“…Feng Shui is not just about money…always remember. Feng Shui is not just about getting rich. You can’t use Feng Shui to control people. For example, if you are in love with a guy [but] he’s not in love with you… I can’t give you Feng Shui to make the guy love you, huh…excuse me! But I can make Feng Shui for you in such a way it creates a condition for you to get married. If you get married to a real jerk, that’s your bad luck! That’s your karma. So we have to understand that Feng Shui also has its limitations. But if it gives us some competitive edge, why not?”

If Prada and Louis Vuitton can do it, why can’t Lillian Too do it?

So if Feng Shui is not just about the money, what does Lillian have to say about commercialising Feng Shui?

“Isn’t that what everybody in this whole world is doing? Aren’t you looking for a job to make money? Aren’t you commercialising everything? If Prada and Louis Vuitton can do it, why can’t Lillian Too do it?” The crowd nodded in agreement.

“What’s wrong with Lillian Too doing it? At least I’m giving you a real skill. Louis Vuitton is just getting a very pretty girl to wear his stuff. So if they can do it, I can do it too. It’s called commercialising and hooray for commercialism! If I didn’t do it, if I didn’t commercialise it, where do I find the cashflow to fly to you, to come up with all the books, to do the TV show, to go to China to develop the products for you? That’s commercialism and that’s good! Yah, right or not?” An overwhelming round of applause ensued.

In a nutshell…

Owing much of her corporate successes to Feng Shui, Lillian applies it to every aspect of her life. When engaged in corporate negotiations, she made sure that she faced her lucky direction when bargaining a deal. She coloured her hair in order to benefit from the good ‘earth energy’ of brown and blonde highlights. She did some minor redecoration to her house and now, she’s a grandma!

For Lillian Too, the good fortune in her life didn’t begin with a Harvard MBA. Sometimes we need a little bit of luck and “an additional tool for living.”

“Feng Shui is a living skill that enables you to make your life a little bit better…And it doesn’t cost that much! You go and earn a degree, it costs you more. This way it’s fun. And that’s why I believe in it…that’s why I’m proud of what I do.”

Nightmare on the Orient Express – Making it to Taishan

Sun, 10 Sept 2006

Qingdao – Taishan

Mode of transport: Train (hard seat)

Cost: 60 RMB

Duration: approx 8 hours

Squashed into a window seat with 6 pairs of legs cris-crossing with yours and 100 pairs of eyes staring down at your seat: Priceless

Qingdao – Taishan. Ancient train. Seats made out of wood with thin vinyl ‘cushions’ and 90-degree, cardboard-like backrest. No air-conditioning. Another 8 hours. A total nightmare.

0026 hrs:

Local passengers plonk their asses onto any available crack or crevice they could find. Villagers and merchants wrestled on board with oversized sacks of merchandise, shoving them under the seats and above the overhead compartments. RBW bags (red, blue and white striped bags) were a common sight.

A baby was wailing behind me. I tried to turn but my canned-sardine position prevented such motion. Mike stared in horror as a mother pulled out a few bottles of sweetened green tea and handed them out to some wide-eyed kids. As the kids got their high out of the deadly caffeinated syrup, Mike knew that it was going to be another long night.

0137 hrs:

More passengers got on the train. Aisle was full with standing passengers.

0206 hrs:

Even more passengers were crammed into the carriage. Aisle was exploding.

0330 hrs:

Pandemonium broke out. Train was packed beyond imagination. Not an inch of space was visible.

Passengers could not alight. Lady A threw her luggage out the window and jumped out. Guy B followed suit, literally climbing over the sea of fellow passengers as he made his way towards the open window.

Mike’s jaw dropped.

0411 hrs:

My bottle of water was already half empty. I stared at the packed corridor outside the toilet and back at the 100 pairs of eyes preying on my seat.

No. You are not leaving your seat. Think of a happy place…la..la..la.

After n^th stop:

I couldn’t find my legs. I never knew I had such a bony ass. And my head was about to fall off after swinging like a pendulum for 8 hours. We have reached Taishan.

Hard Seats – More Than Just a Pain in the Ass

Thurs, 8 Sept 2006

Beijing – Qingdao

Mode of transport: Train (hard seat)

Cost: 120 RMB

Duration: approx 8 hours

If you have never endured a night on one of the spanking new trains in China, you will never understand what all this fuss is about. After all, the train is air-conditioned and the seats are cushioned. There is a toilet, wash basins and hot water facilities in every carriage.

Eight hours on these so-called ‘hard seats’ did not seem like such a big deal. That was, until the horror began to unfold as we journeyed deeper into the night.

Midnight:
Armed with a tiny blanket a dirty old jacket, Mr. X got himself a first class sleeper on the floor space just by the wash basins outside the common toilet. With a tiny bit of creativity and a great deal of desperation, the floor is always an available option. My friend, Mimi, was already on standby just in case Mr. X leaves that spot. Get in line, people.

0200 hrs:
Lady Y made a beeline for the toilet with baby in arms. Toilet was locked. Lady panicked. She looked around. Basins. Sleeping man on the floor. Emergency exit.

Ding! A decision was made. Emergency exit it is. She lowered the baby to the ground and proceeded to answer nature’s call with a soothing “shh…shh…” sound. And right there, just inches from away from the snoozing Mr. X, baby Z let out a golden stream of infant pee by the emergency sliding door.

0610 hrs:
Good morning, China!

A time when all healthy Chinese citizens emerge for a good washing up at the common wash basins. Mr. X gets the privilege of being the first to start this routine. “Khaaaaak…ptui!”

And the music begins…

Welcome!

Welcome to sookyeeyap.com -- a record of all my adventures in China.