One of the first signs I remember being able to read was a moon-landing inspired slogan posted above the urinals in a bathroom in Tianjin. Sinoglot is collecting similar examples from around China and East Asia: Signs in Bathrooms

We often take our daughter for walks around here because it’s the neighbourhood right next to ours:

This month, the right half of the notice board is filled with what are probably the most colourful and, um, educational propaganda posters we’ve seen so far, compliments of the Tianjin City Anti-Evil Cults Association (天津市反邪教协会) and the Tianjin People’s Government Guarding-Against-and-Dealing-With-the-Evil-Cults-Problem Office (天津人民政府防范和处理邪教问题办公室). Click either picture for a bigger view:

Here’s what the posters say (mouseover the Chinese text to see the pronunciation and definition). Translation corrections welcome.

1. The “Five Musts”

To Guard Against and Resist Evil Cults, Must Do the “Five Musts”
防范和抵制邪教要做到“五要”

1. Must not listen to, not believe, not pass on;
   要做到不听、不信、不传；
2. Must actively report and expose the illegal activities of evil cults;
   要主动检举揭发邪教的违法活动；
3. Must eliminate superstitious thinking and properly treat ‘the four miseries of human life’;
   要破除迷信思想，正确对待生老病死；
4. Must properly treat the bumps in life’s road; strengthen and pursue confidence in a nice life;
   要正确对待人生坎坷；增强追求美好生活的信心；
5. Must establish becoming-rich-with-science-and-technology and becoming-rich-by-one’s-own-efforts thinking; create a nice life with your own two hands.
   要树立科技致富、勤劳致富思想，通过自己的双手创造美好生活。

Left image:

• [Yellow bubble] “Hold up science, oppose superstition” 崇尚科学，反对迷信
• [Red books] Science 科学
• [Sign board] Little demi-god 小半仙
• [Bad guy speaking] “No one at all believes in computer fortune-telling!”
  “电脑算命都没人相信了！”

Right image:

• [Blue card] ** (name of evil cult/teaching)
• [Woman speaking] “Put your hand and foot down!” “把手脚放下！”
• [Woman’s paper] Divorce 离婚
• [Red book] Law 法律

2. What is an Evil Cult?

Uphold Science, Oppose Evil Cults, Build Harmoniousness Together
崇尚科学，反对邪教、共建和谐



What an Evil Cult is 什么是邪教

An evil cult organization fraudulently uses religion, qìgōng or the name of other kinds of established things, deifies the ringleader, exploits and uses methods like creating and spreading superstitious rumours and heresy (etc.) to seduce and deceive people, and to expand control of their members and their illegal harmful-to-society organization.
邪教组织是指冒用宗教、气功或者其他名义建立，神化首要分子，利用制造、散步迷信邪说等手段蛊惑、蒙骗他人，发展控制成员，危害社会的非法组织。

Image:

• [Left] *** / *，*，* (name and slogan of the evil cult)
• [Right] Anti-science, anti-humanity, anti-society (mirrors the evil cult’s slogan) 反科学、反人类、反社会

3. The Characteristics & Dangers of Evil Cults



The Characteristics of Evil Cults 邪教的特征

1. Use the pretense of religion and science to concoct sophistry and heresy;
   打着宗教、科学的幌子编造歪理邪说；
2. Deify the gang leaders of evil cults, conduct mind control;
   神化邪教头子，进行精神控制；
3. Establish underground organizations, conduct illegal activities;
   建立地下组织，进行非法活动；
4. Scam to raise funds by any and all means;
   不择手段地骗敛钱财；
5. Oppose the government, look with hatred on society;
   反对政府，仇视社会；
6. Proclaim that “Doomsday is approaching”.
   宣扬“末日来临”。

The Dangers of Evil Cults 邪教的危害

1. Incite opposition to the government, harm ‘grass-roots political power’;
   煽动反对政府，危害基层政权；
2. Engage in illegal criminal activities, harm society;
   从事违法犯罪活动，危害社会；
3. Wreck regular production and living, harm the masses’ mental and physical health;
   破坏正常的生产生活，危害群众身心健康；
4. Corrode and poison the minds of minors.
   侵蚀和毒害未成年人。

Image:

• [Speech bubble] I want to reach a higher level! 我要上层次！
• [Blue book] ** (evil cult’s name/teaching)
• [Headband] *，*，* (evil cult’s slogan)
• [Knives] Slaughter children, chop fathers, kill mothers 宰子女，砍父，杀妻

4. Evil Cult’s Scam Tricks

Evil Cults’ Mass Deception Scam Tricks 邪教欺世骗人的伎俩



1. Use the pretense of religion or qìgōng to deceive people;
   打着宗教或气功的幌子蒙骗人；
2. Use cures and bad luck avoidance to entice people;
   用治病、免灾诱惑人；
3. Use all kinds of cheap tricks to frighten people. For example: reading facial features to tell people’s fortunes, deceiving people by pretending there are ghosts, writing characters with ants, making words appear on white paper, doing the Fu talisman trick, smearing eel blood to attract bats, circulating things like poisonous toads;
   用各种把戏吓唬人。如看相算命、装神弄鬼、蚂蚁写字、白纸显字、玩符谶把戏、抹鳝鱼血招蝙蝠、投放癞蛤蟆等东西；
4. Get close to people to rope them in;
   套近乎拉拢人；
5. Bribe people with small favours;
   小恩小惠收买人；
6. Use violent methods to coerce people.
   用暴力手段胁迫人。

Image:

• [Bottom left] Reading ants 蚂蚁识字
• [Bottle] Honey 蜜
• [Clothes] Divine 神

5. The Main Differences Between Religions & Evil Cults

The Main Differences Between Religions and Evil Cults 宗教与邪教的主要区别



1. 1, Our nation’s religions advocate that their believers fit into society, serve society, benefit the people, defend society’s harmoniousness, support the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and support the socialist system. The essence of evil cults is anti-societal; they poison and inflame members to look with hatred on society, they harm society even to the point of having wild political schemes, they agitate for and inflame people to overthrow the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership and the socialist system.
   一、我国宗教倡导信徒融于社会，服务社会，造福人群，维护社会和谐，拥护中国共产党的领导，拥护社会主义制度。邪教本质是反社会的，它们蛊惑、煸动成员仇视社会，危害社会，甚至带有政治野心，鼓吹、煸动推翻中国共产党的领导和社会主义制度。
2. 2, The things religions believe in and worship are each religion’s specially designated god, which are fixed and don’t change. Religions believe in opposing people who compare themselves to deities and boast about possessing “spiritual powers”. An evil cult, by contrast, worships the founding person himself.
   二、宗教信仰和崇拜的对象是各个宗教特定的神，是固定不变的，宗教信仰反对人自比神明和自吹具有“神力”。邪教崇拜的则是教主本人。
3. 3, Our nation’s religions have lawfully registered organizations and activity locations. Religious citizens’ collective religious activities are held at registered religious activity locations.
   三、我国宗教有合法登记的团体组织和活动场所，信教公民的集体宗教活动在经登记的宗教活动场所举行。

Bottom bar:

• Tianjin People’s Government Guarding-Against-and-Dealing-With-the-Evil-Cults-Problem Office 天津人民政府防范和处理邪教问题办公室。
• Tianjin City Anti-Evil Cults Association 天津市反邪教协会。

Image:

• Guilty of unpardonable evil 十恶不赦。
• *** (name of the evil cult’s founder)

6. Five Reasons the Common Masses Follow Evil Cults

Five Reasons the Common Masses Mistakenly Enter the Evil Cult Wrong Road
普通群众误入邪教歧途的五种诱因



1. The first is that when people meet sudden misfortune in life, they have a desperate state of mind toward real life, and evil cults will then enter by taking advantage of this weakness, they will use vague and illusory devious heresy to mislead, and cause people to be taken in and cheated;
   一是当生活中遇到突然变故，对现实生活产生绝望情绪时，邪教便会乘虚而入，利用虚无缥缈的歪理邪说进行诱导，使其上当受骗；
2. The second is that when people meet special difficulties in life, evil cults will seize the opportunity to show a helping-in-trouble and assisting-the-poor appearance, they’ll use small favours or help in a short-term difficulty, thereby people are filled with thankfulness psychologically and join an evil cult organization;
   二是当生活中遇到特殊困难时，邪教会趁机以济困助穷的面目出现，施以小恩小惠，帮其暂度难关，从而怀着感恩的心理加入邪教组织；
3. The third is when people suffer illness and are unable to get well for a long time and are suffering, evil cults will, by introducing ancient traditional secret recipes and by promoting some kind of qìgōng extra-sensory-perception abilities, lure people into taking the bait;
   三是当身患疾病、久治不愈、饱受折磨时，邪教会以介绍祖传秘方、宣传某种气功的特异功能为由，引诱其上钩；
4. The fourth is when people need to make their health and bodies stronger, some evil cults will seize the opportunity to proclaim some qìgōng methods’ mystical capabilities, luring people through group exercise over a long period of time, etc., cause people to unwittingly become members of an evil cult;
   四是当有强身健体需求时，一些邪教会趁机宣扬某功法的神奇功能，引诱其通过长时间集体练功、会功等，使其在不知不觉中成为邪教成员；
5. The fifth is the psychology of blindly following. They see the people around them practicing some kind of qìgōng method and they are caused to follow the crowd, the “hurry after the crowd” effect, so they confusedly become members of an evil cult.
   五是盲从心理。看到周围的人在练某一种功法，受到他人怂恿或随大流、“趋众”影响，糊里糊涂地成为邪教成员。

7. How to Report an Evil Cult



Methods for Exposing and Reporting the Discovery of Evil Cults’ Illegal and Criminal Activities 发现邪教违法犯罪活动的揭发检举手段

1. Report to the lowest-level Party organization. 向基层党政组报告；
2. Make the situation known to the local police station. 向派出所反映情况；
3. If you meet a public trouble-causing gathering, etc., you can immediately call 110 and report it to the police.
   遇有公开聚集滋事等情况可直接打110报警。

Image: (A man turns over some evil cult materials that he found in his mailbox to the Anti-Evil Cults Committee 反邪教委员会。)

8.



Left image:

• “The fire-fighters are great!” “消防宫兵们真棒！”
• “Look! As soon as I use my kungfu powers, the fire is extinguished!”
  “瞧！我这一发功，雨就下了，火也灭了吧！”

Right image:

• “You only have to believe our **, and this bracelet is yours.”
  “只要相信我们**，手镯就是您的了。”

9.



Left image:

• [On clothing] Kingdom of Heaven 天国； *，*，* (evil cult’s slogan)； perfection 圆满； divine 神； look with hatred on society 仇视社会； Doomsday is approaching 末日来临； Reach a higher level 上层次。
• [Underneath] illegal activity 非法活动

Right image:

• [On clothes] *，*，* (evil cult’s slogan)
• [Papers] Don’t need to take medicine 不用吃药； qìgōng healing 气功治病； use kungfu powers to avoid disaster 发功免灾； divine 神。

10.



Image:

• [On building] Local Police Station 派出所
• [Arm band] “On duty” (a member of the Neighbourhood Committee 居委会)
• [On prisoner] “****” (name of the evil cult)

These posters most definitely have a specific “evil cult” in mind; they name it repeatedly in the pictures, just not in the main text. In the picture on the right, this group’s name is written on the “faithful running dog” (忠实走狗) of Uncle Sam (山姆大叔), who isn’t directly named but is clearly insinuated by the tall skinny legs and striped pants. In other words, they’re insinuating that the U.S. uses this group to try and destabilize China.

This group is among the top three most hated/least tolerated groups in China, and were one of the biggest China stories of the 90′s. They’re the people who were outside the Chinese consulate in Vancouver when my parents went to get their visas, who my mom didn’t know about and almost walked in to apply for a Chinese visa with their material in hand (my dad made her leave it in the lobby). I didn’t translate the parts of the posters that identity this group specifically because those terms are just too sensitive for the Chinese internet.

I’m not blogging this for the politics so don’t go writing or linking about them explicitly in the comments. I’m blogging it for the Chinese practice and to show what normal people in one average Tianjin neighbourhood like ours are getting propagandized with (each neighbourhood seems to choose its own posters; I’ve only seen this particular kind of poster in two or three different neighbourhoods; it’s not a city-wide thing). If you want to know more about this particular “evil cult”, read the third chapter of Ian Johnson’s Wild Grass: Three Portraits of Change in Modern China. I do, however, wonder if this kind of “evil cult” rhetoric will begin to appear in the increasingly tense on-going showdown in Beijing. There are alarming similarities between both situations, but also crucial differences.

And if you just can’t get enough of translated propaganda posters, here’s one more:

• Behaving yourself… with Tianjin characteristics
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A while back the news said some Chinese cities had started using web cameras to shame citizens into better public behaviour. I have no idea if this is directly related or not, but today we discovered these signs on the side of our building:

“Warning: Up and to the side there’s a web cam. Your defecation behaviour will be uploaded to the internet and displayed!”
警告：侧上方有摄像头，你的排便行为将会被传上网络展示！
and
“Warning: Up behind there’s a web cam. Your defecation behaviour will be uploaded to the internet and displayed!”
警告：后上方有摄像头，你的排便行为将会被传上网络展示！

And sure enough, two cameras have been installed:

We’ve seen signs before about cleaning up after your dog/self…

“Civilizedly lead your dog. Don’t bring your dog to in front of the window to take a dog poo.”
文明迪狗：不带狗到窗前拉狗屎
and
“Defecating is strictly prohibited”
严禁大便

… but this is the first time we’ve seen them threaten to put offenders’ pictures online!

And, for the record, I’ve never noticed any conspicuous amount of… evidence of bad behaviour on this side of our building. And our daughter wanders around back here several times a week. But apparently someone is fed up! Too bad they didn’t list the website.

You can see pictures and translation from the last major campaign to curb undesirable public behaviour here: Behaving yourself… with Tianjin characteristics.

(P.S. — Blue sky day!!!)

Here’s a nice little primer with visuals for speaking about time in Chinese: Long Time No See

This one’s for my sister, who just took her first baby home from the hospital today!

《宝贝 / Bǎobèi / Baby》

According to the internet, 张悬 Zhāng Xuán is an indie artist from Taiwan. Our Chinese teacher introduced us to this cute little pop lullaby so we could learn it for our daughter. 宝贝 means “baby”, but in the sense of “darling” or “little treasure.” The song also uses the term 小鬼，which literally means “little devil/demon/ghost” or “imp”, but it’s a cutesy term of endearment for a baby or small child. I’ve translated it “little rascal” in the lyrics.

One thing about this song is that it provides a contrast between sung and spoken Chinese. You don’t sing the tones in Chinese, but in this song she speaks the word for “baby” 宝贝 instead of singing it, so the tones come through.

If you want more info on Zhang Xuan and her music you can search for 张悬，Zhang Xuan, Deserts Zhang, Deserts Chang, or Deserts Xuan.

You can play the mp3 and follow along below, and download the guitar chords with lyrics in Chinese, English, and pīnyīn:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Guitar Chords & Lyrics

Download: Baobei.pdf (lyrics & guitar chords with pīnyīn/English cheatsheet).

Lyrics / 歌词:
[Intro:]

耶～ 哒啦哒啦哒 / yē… dā lā dā lā dā
yeah… da da da da da

[Verse 1:]

我的宝贝宝贝，给你一点甜甜 / wǒde bǎobèi bǎobèi, gěi nǐ yīdiǎn tiántian
My baby, baby, here’s a little something sweet
让你今夜都好眠 / ràng nǐ jīnyè dōu hǎo miàn
to make you sleep tight tonight
我的小鬼小鬼，逗逗你的眉眼 / wǒde xiǎoguǐ xiǎoguǐ, dòudòu nǐde méiyǎn
My little rascal, little rascal, making you make funny faces
让你喜欢这世界 / ràng nǐ xǐhuān zhè shìjiè
to make you like this world

[Chorus 1:]

哇啦啦啦啦啦我的宝贝 / wa lā lā lā lā wǒde bǎobèi
wa la la la la la my baby
倦的时候有个人陪 / juàn de shíhòu yǒu gerén péi
When you’re tired someone will be with you
哎呀呀呀呀呀我的宝贝 / āi yā ya ya ya ya wǒde bǎibèi
ai ya ya ya ya ya my baby
要你知道你最美 / yào nǐ zhīdào nǐ zuì měi
I hope you know that you’re the most beautiful

[Verse 2:]

我的宝贝宝贝，给你一点甜甜 / wǒde bǎobèi bǎobèi, gěi nǐ yīdiǎn tiántian
My baby, baby, here’s a little something sweet
让你今夜很好眠 / ràng nǐ jīnyè hěn hǎo miàn
to make you have a good sleep tonight
我的小鬼小鬼，捏捏你的小脸 / wǒde xiǎoguǐ xiǎoguǐ, niēniē nǐde xiǎo liǎn
My little rascal, little rascal, pinching your little cheeks
让你喜欢整个明天 / ràng nǐ xǐhuān zhěnggè míngtiān
to make you like all of tomorrow

[Repeat Chorus 1]
[Chorus 2:]

哇啦啦啦啦啦我的宝贝 / wa lā lā lā lā wǒde bǎobèi
wa la la la la la my baby
孤单时有人把你想念 / gūdān shí yǒurén bǎ nǐ xiǎngniàn
When you’re lonely someone’s missing you
哎呀呀呀呀呀我的宝贝 / āi ya ya ya ya ya wǒde bǎibèi
ai ya ya ya ya ya my baby
要你知道你最美 / yào nǐ zhīdào nǐ zuì měi
I hope you know that you’re the most beautiful

[End Chorus:]

哇啦啦啦啦啦啦耶~ 喔
wa la la la la la la yeah… whoa
耶~ 耶 喔~ 喔
Yeah… yeah whoa… whoa
哇啦啦啦啦啦我的宝贝 / wa lā lā lā lā wǒde bǎobèi
wa la la la la la my baby
倦的时候有个人陪 / juàn de shíhòu yǒu gerén péi
When you’re tired someone will be with you
哎呀呀呀呀呀我的宝贝 / āi yā ya ya ya ya wǒde bǎibèi
ai ya ya ya ya ya my baby
要你知道你最美 / yào nǐ zhīdào nǐ zuì měi
I hope you know that you’re the most beautiful
要你知道你最美 / yào nǐ zhīdào nǐ zuì měi
I hope you know that you’re the most beautiful

If know of any good Chinese kids’ music, please let us know!

P.S. – You can watch the music video on YouTube (with subtitles), Youku or Tudou.

More for your karaoke repertoire:

• Brother Who Sleeps in the Top Bunk / 睡在我上铺的兄弟
• Nothing to My Name / 一无所有
• Even in Death I’ll Love / 死了都要爱
• Liang Shanbo & Juliet / 梁山伯与茱丽叶
• Mouse Loves Rice / 老鼠爱大米

When we order baby things online, like diapers or whatever, they often throw in free stuff (赠品), like kids books with bilingual vocabulary so Chinese kids can learn English (which we use them the other way around, of course). Our living room is littered with these things. Anyway, in this particular book about “People,” which covers family members and common jobs, they apparently felt that Chinese kids’ basic vocabulary ought to include social classes:

Even though we’re used to hearing and using the term “peasant” 农民 in China, the only other time I’d heard or used the term was in history class talking about pre-Industrial Europe. Just reminds me how — and people really get tired of hearing this — China is big, is changing really fast, and that there are “many chinas”; traveling from Shanghai to the Chinese countryside is like going to the moon.

Family members, of course, are from a different social class:

Chinese are sending literally billions of Chinese New Year greeting text messages this year as a way to 拜年, meaning pay New Year’s respects to one another. They’re often in the form of cute little poems and word-plays. Last year was tiger-themed, of course (I pity the fú!), and this year it’s rabbits. Here’s one from one of my students:

快乐“兔”you，幸福“兔”you，健康“兔”you，平安“兔”you，Lǐ Yǎnán 恭祝您及家人健康幸福，兔年大吉，万事如意，合家欢乐！

Happy “rabbit”* you, blessing “rabbit” you, health “rabbit” you, peace “rabbit” you, Li Yanan wishes you and family health and happiness, an extremely auspicious rabbit year, that all matters go according to your desires, a joyous household!

*Rabbit (兔) in Chinese is pronounced “tù”, which sounds like “to” in English, so the message actually says “health to you”, etc.

Here’s another one that I can’t translate (don’t be too shy to help me out in the comments!). It arranges some idioms sequentially 1 through 10; the first character of each expression is a number:

Lù Yán 给您及您的家人拜年！祝愿大家2011年一帆风顺，二龙腾飞，三羊开泰，四季平安，五福临门，六六大顺，七星高照，八方来财，九九同心，十全十美。新年快乐！ Happy New Year!

Lu Yan gives you and your family a New Year’s greeting! Wish everyone in 2011 favourable winds, rapid advancement, the auspiciousness of three sheep*, four seasons of peace, the Five Blessings arrive at your door, sixty-six** great smoothnesses, the Seven Stars’ brilliance, riches from all Eight directions, ninety-nine*** cooperativeness, complete and beautiful.

* I thought that there must be a word play here, but I asked two local friends and all they can guess is that it refers to the blessing one would receive in ancient times for sacrificing sheep.
** Six (六) sounds like the first part part of the word for smoothly/without a hitch (顺利).
*** Nine (九) sounds the same as 久 (a long duration of time), and nine-nine (九九) is often used to symbolize “forever” because 久久 means a very long time. One Chinese friend of ours proposed to his girlfriend with 99 roses, for example.

If I get any more interesting ones, I’ll add them here. You can see last year’s Dr. Seuss-esque tiger year text here.

We’re in a Chinese hospital for an ultrasound to confirm our first pregnancy. The examining room is a bit of gong show — there’s no privacy, and forget lining up; a group of women are elbowing each other for position, crowding the examining area, each trying to shove her paperwork in the doctor’s face ahead of the others while the doctor’s busy seeing Jessica. But we don’t care, it’s a spiritual moment for us: we’re going to hear our child’s heartbeat for the first time, see his or her first picture, get real live confirmation that there definitely is a baby growing inside Jessica and that we are indeed parents. Awestruck doesn’t even begin to capture our feelings. “I want to abort it,” a woman says bluntly in Chinese, in front of everyone, as she thrusts her paperwork at the doctor. That was our first personal encounter with abortion in China.

China’s Abortion Epidemic

That was two years ago. As our language ability develops and abortion becomes increasingly ubiquitous and brash in China, we’re running into it more often. If I take a taxi and the radio’s on, chances are I’ll hear a commercial about once every 30 minutes that always starts with the same unflinching dialogue:

“Oh no! I’m pregnant! What about my career? What will I do?”
“Don’t worry! It’s no problem. You can just go to blah-blah hospital and get a 3-MINUTE, PAINLESS abortion!”

Only once have I heard them use the euphemism of “woman’s surgery” for abortion; usually they’re just unapologetically explicit. Students have told me how they were “supposed to have a baby brother” but didn’t, and most of them assume we’re planning to have more than one child because we didn’t get a boy the first time. In a country with an on-going legacy of post-birth infanticide, killing babies before they’re born doesn’t carry near if any the stigma that it does in North America, as our taxi driver last week demonstrated by bringing it up in casual conversation:

Driver: “How many kids do you have?”
Me: “Just one, but we hope to have more later.”
Driver: “Yeah, then you can have a boy!”
Me: “We don’t really care if it’s a boy or a girl.”
Jessica: “Besides, you can’t really choose that anyway.”
Driver: “Sure you can! You just wait until the belly’s big enough” [he gestures] “and then you can see. If it’s a girl you can get rid of it, but if it’s a boy, ‘Oh! We want it!’” [thumbs up sign].

Sex-selective abortion may be small talk fodder for some in China, but pre-marital pregnancy is another story:

“The moral outrage over having a child before marriage in our society is much stronger than the shame associated with abortion,” said Zhou Anqin, the manager at the clinic in Xi’an, which performs about 60 abortions each month, mostly on students aged 24 or younger.
[...]
“Luckily, in Chinese culture people generally feel that before the actual birth, you don’t yet have an actual person, so we have cases of induced abortion at seven and eight months along,” Li said. “I think this is to China’s advantage from a population control point of view … China has absolutely no need for the so-called ‘right to life’ argument, no need to introduce ideas about abortion as murder and so on.” [Full article]

The Chinese abortion epidemic is even skewing gender ratios in North America. In my hometown of Surrey, B.C., Canada where our daughter was born, there were signs taped to the walls in the ultrasound clinics telling us that the techs and doctors would absolutely not tell us the gender of our baby. I later confirmed what the nurses in the NICU had told us: too many baby girls were being killed. Turns out that a school board administrator in the 1990′s noticed that the gender ratios in greater Vancouver elementary schools were skewed in areas with large East Asian and Indian communities (see Canada’s Missing Daughters and Ultrasound ads promote female abortion). (In Canada you can abort your child for any and no reason because a person’s legal status depends on her physical location relative to a few inches of birth canal (or, it used to); if she’s on the inside, then she has not yet magically transformed from a not-a-person into a baby. Arbitrarily disallowing minority women who have a gender preference to know the gender of their not-a-baby seems just a TAD hypocritical to me.)

I try not to share the nastiest parts of our China experience on the internet. It’s rude and misleading to show up in someone else’s country and make a big deal out of the absolute worst or exceptional and freakish experiences. All our societies have brutal, inhuman aspects to them, but China takes it to a whole nother more explicit level by foregoing the faux-moral fig leaves to which Western societies still hypocritically cling. In blunt, unapologetic ‘honesty’ China carries some things further toward their logical conclusions than North Americans are currently willing to go or admit to (in the West we’re still in denial about being unable to grow Judeo-Christian moral absolute apples — like the inherent value and dignity of people — from secular, relativistic trees).

I could share some things, with photos, that people do and accept/tolerate in China that are so mind-blowingly brutal and animalistic that they make ubiquitous abortion look minor by comparison, even to the hardest-core pro-lifers — but I wont. I will, however, translate something below, because abortion in China is invading everyone’s consciousness here with increasing regularity. And since it actually invaded our home this week, I’m blogging it as a significant aspect of our China experience that we can’t ignore.

Magical Abortions… at a discount!

If you buy a pregnancy test today in Tianjin, China (we’re not pregnant), it comes with one of these (below), because if you’re potentially pregnant in China the first thing you’re apparently supposed to do is consider killing your baby. And judging from the amount of advertising, pre-birth infanticide is not only much more convenient than traditional infanticide, it’s a cash cow:

This is an abortion discount card for a local hospital. Mouseover the Chinese text below to see the pronunciation. The front says:

“PAINLESS ABORTION Assistance Card” 无痛人流援助卡
“Assistance amount: $50 援助金额：326元
Tianjin City Family Planning [Government-]Appointed Hospital 天津市计划生育定点医院
Painless Abortion Assistance Hotline 无痛人流援助热线

And then it has the address, bus routes, and website. The back is worse:

The back compares three kinds of abortion: abortion via drugs 药物流产, ordinary abortion 普通人工流产, and (in the pink column) “Blah-blah Hospital’s Hysteroscopy Obtain Embryo Surgery” XX医院宫腔镜取胚术 (a Tianjin City Women’s Federation Designated Medical Treatment Aid Hospital 天津市妇联指定医疗救助医院). Here’s what the pink column says:

• Surgery eligibility 适应症 (“medical indication”):
  • “up to and including the 11th week.”
• Surgery time 手术时间:
  • “three minutes” 3分钟。
• Anesthetic 麻醉:
  • “short-term effect I.V. anesthetic” 短效静脉麻醉。
• Patient’s surgery experience 手术者感受:
  • “sweet dreams during the surgery, wake up promptly, cozy and cheerful after the surgery” 术中甜梦、术后即醒、舒适愉悦。
• Harmful side-effects 不良反应:
  • “very few complications, won’t affect subsequent pregnancies, can go to work the next day” 并发症极少、不影响再次怀孕、转天即可上班。

Under the chart it says you can get:

1. “a free ‘early avoidance early pregnancy detection’/ultrasound exam (valued at $20 USD)”
   免早早孕检测/免费B超检查（价值126元）。
2. “$30 USD off an abortion (Please present this card when visiting)”
   凭此卡可抵扣人流手术费200元（就诊时请出示此卡）。

Related blog posts:

• When the news is real life
• October’s propaganda: anti-”gendercide”

Related news links:

• Chinese Academy of Social Sciences publishes the latest and most negative data on sex-selective abortion in China
• China’s abortion numbers grow
• Largest Gender Gap Seen in China’s Youngest Generation
• The worldwide war on baby girls
• India’s unwanted girls
• Mothers in China — Sobs on the night breeze: The centre of global gendercide
• Rise in abortions in China, young women targeted
• Abortion adverts come to a college campus
• Canada’s Missing Daughters
• Ultrasound ads promote female abortion
• Asian ‘Gendercide’ Migrates to North America

Canada’s “fourth trimester abortion”:

• Fourth Trimester Abortion
• Infanticide conviction nets Alberta woman suspended sentence
• Thrown Over the Fence — Infanticide, Canadian Style

On the Kermit Gosnell scandal:

• It is All About Abortion
• Gosnell Headlines? Gone, Baby, Gone!

We recently hit the jackpot on Chinese translations of Dr. Seuss books. Bedtime stories are big in our house; we grew up with them as kids, we read aloud to each other as a couple before we had kids, and now our daughter has stories before every nap and bedtime, and often during playtime. Of course we want to take advantage of all the reading to improve her and our Chinese. It turns out there are at least three different Chinese publications of Dr. Seuss out there. Our reviews and all the links and search terms you’ll need are below.

How Can You Translate Dr. Seuss?

Since Dr. Seuss books were written as English-teaching tools, many of them are pretty pointless in Chinese, especially the ones aimed at the youngest readers that emphasize phonics over story, like Hop on Pop. Aside from providing useful Chinese vocab, the translations aren’t much use; it’s impossible for translate Dr. Seuss’ English-learning magic. However, we’ve found that the longer stories like The Cat in the Hat and The Sneetches are a lot of fun for for us and our daughter as Chinese language learning tools.

When it comes to language and culture acquisition, translated material can’t be as useful as stuff written in Chinese by Chinese for Chinese because a translated story is still culturally foreign in its content. But translations are still good stepping-stones on the language learning path, depending on your level. Also, when you no longer have the luxury of a pre-child, full-time language study lifestyle, you have to find creative and convenient ways to work Chinese into your daily routine (in addition to whatever part-time study you can squeeze in) or your language ability atrophies. So for us, 苏斯博士 is fun and useful for our little family’s Chinese learning.

We have books from two of the three different Chinese Dr. Seuss publications out there, and each seems to have a different purpose in mind. If you’re into bilingual bedtime stories you’ll want to know these significant differences so you can pick the ones that best fit your situation.

1. Chinese-only reading

These extra-large soft-cover bilingual Dr. Seuss books emphasize the Chinese translation. Published in 2010 (with more on the way) by 现代出版社 (Modern Press) in their 苏斯博士最经典童书 (Dr. Seuss’ Most Classic Children’s Books) series, they’re meant to be read aloud in Chinese. We have eight of these, all translated by 馨月, who’s obviously tried to capture the Dr. Seuss spirit by giving the Chinese as much as rhythm and rhyme as possible. The binding is the better-quality Chinese-style softcover foreigners in China will be familiar with — not bad but of course not as durable as the traditional hardcover Dr. Seuss books.

The large pages and prominent Chinese are great, but these aren’t convenient if you want to also read in English because they only provide the English text in the back of the book next to thumbnail versions of the illustrations. I’ve found the odd English typo.

We bought them on sale here and here at 45元/4 books.

Here’s a text sample from 戴高帽子的猫又来了 (The Cat in the Hat Comes Back):

你可知道我是哪儿把他找到？
他正在浴缸里大吃蛋糕！
没错儿，正在大吃大嚼！
他打开了热水龙头，
冷水也在哗哗地流。
我对那只猫说道：
“你这么做真是糟糕！”
那只猫哈哈大笑：
“我喜欢在浴缸里吃蛋糕，
你哪天也该试试看好不好。”

Do you know where I found him?
Do you know where he was?
He was eating a cake in the tub!
Yes he was!
The hot water was on
And the cold water, too.
And I said to the cat,
“What a bad thing to do!”

“But I like to eat cake
In the tub,” said the cat.
“You should try it some time.”
Laughed the cat as he sat.

2. Bilingual reading

These look and feel pretty much identical to original hardcover Dr. Seuss books you’re familiar with, aside from the addition of Chinese titles and text. They were published in 2006 by 中国对外翻译出版公司 in their 苏斯博士 双语经典 (Dr. Seuss Bilingual Classics) series, and use various translators. Each page has both the original English text and the Chinese translation; the English is sometimes slightly re-formatted to make room for the Chinese.

My biggest complaint is the formatting: with squintingly small Chinese text that’s not given a prominent position on the page, it looks to me like they’re aimed at Chinese parents who want to teach their kid English and just need the Chinese as a reference to help with comprehension. But I’d still definitely choose these over the original English-only Dr. Seuss books. They also have a colourful introduction to Dr. Seuss in the front and tips from a children’s education expert on how to use the stories in the back (both in Chinese only).

We found them on Taobao for 110元/10 books by searching for 苏斯博士 双语经典 全10本.

Here’s some sample text from 史尼奇 (The Sneetches):

忽然有这么一天，光肚史尼奇们正像往常一样在沙滩上呆着，无精打采地做着肚皮上冒出颗星的白日梦，一个陌生人驾驶着一辆奇怪的车呼啸而来。

Then ONE day, it seems…while the Plain-Belly Sneetches
Where moping and doping alone on the beaches,
Just sitting there wishing their bellies had stars…
A stranger zipped up in the strangest of cars!

3. ?

We don’t own any of this third kind; we’ve just seen them for sale online.

If you have links to any other great English kids books in Chinese (like 蚯蚓的日记/Diary of a Worm), or if you have particularly outstanding Chinese kids books to recommend, please share in the comments! Same good Chinese kids music!

And if you’ve ever wondered how to say “The Perilous Poozer of Pompelmoose Pass” in Chinese, click here.

Related posts about having a Foreign Baby in China:

• Diary of a Worm in Chinese! (an English / 汉字 / pīnyīn online read-along)
• A Foreign Baby in Tianjin Pt. 1 – is this our future?
• Foreign baby in China essentials: IMPORTED BABY FORMULA
• Foreign baby in China essentials: FACEBOOK SUBSTITUTE (or VPN) & SKYPE
• Foreign baby in China essentials: FRIENDLY STRANGER FINGER SHIELD

Our Christmas just got a whole lot Chinesier thanks to John at Sinoplice.com. Follow the links to download:

• The Sinosplice Chinese Christmas Song Album
• Bible Stories in Chinese (the Christmas mp3s are 001 to 007 in the New Testament)
• 圣经故事广播剧 (Chinese download site that offers each mp3 individually)

“…they injected a healthy dose of Chinese culture. Just listen to the way Mary talks to baby Jesus, or the way the Israelites argue with Aaron over creating the golden calf. And then of course, there’s the fun of hearing the voice of God in Chinese, or Abraham sounding like an old Chinese man.”