My friend Xujun Eberlein (author of Apologies Forthcoming) is in China doing research for a book - and celebrating the Chinese New Year with her sisters and parents. A prodigious blogger, she's had trouble in the past with Internet access while in China: "I'm not sure what I have done to deserve such an honor... I can log in and post, but can't view my blog normally – quite ironic really."
Thus, I don't know whether she'll be able to see this post, of course, until she returns but meanwhile, her description of grocery shopping in "Hainan, China: Market Crunch" is click-worthy:
...There were about 40 check-out lines, each looked like it would take an hour or longer to reach the cashier. We diverted to look for the shortest line, another bit of hard work. Eventually Maple's husband found one at the farthest corner of the supermarket and called by cell phone for us to converge. "Line 15!" he ordered. It took a sweaty battle to push the packed shopping cart through layers and layers of human walls.
Xujun's observations on how the economic debacle is affecting China also are worth the finger flex for that click. Predictably, she notes, exports have been the most maimed aspect of the economy with between 40 and 60 million people having lost their jobs. Exports, she notes, comprise 20% of China's GDP. Still things are buzzing in China. Just don't go grocery shopping.
