Bloggar på nytt/Back on the BLOG!

Hej! Det var ett tag sedan jag bloggade. När blogspot blev spärrat i Kina för mer än ett år sedan tappade jag farten. Nu har jag skaffat möjlighet att blogga igen och ska försöka bli lite bättre.

Hello everyone, after a LONG hiatus I will start blogging again. We'll see if I can keep up the pace of previous years. I will begin with this shot from a winter holiday in Thailand. Khao Sok National Park.

I have not abandoned you!

Sailing across the reservoir at Simatai after hiking 12 km on the Great Wall from Jinshanling. You can have this much fun in China! Photo © Michael Hansson

I'm sure that it seems like I have abandoned this blog but it's not true! It is only China that has abandoned us innocent bloggers. Blogspot (and Facebook) has been blocked now for some time and I can only post this because for a short time I am outside of the Bamboo Iron Curtain and able to access my site without any obstructions. 

When we/I will be able to able to post again is anyone's guess (posting through a backdoor is like eating candy with the wrapper on, just NOT the same sensation). Not being able to blog is actually painful, I miss it and feel like an important part of my life is missing. 

So come on China - grow up and realize that this is not where the battle should be fought!

Funky Bean is BORN

Here's a new blogger that I highly recommend: Funky Bean.

Chinese bachelors

Chongqing 2000 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Here's another hilarious posting by my new follower Mr Li from Lund:

Bachelor

I know it's difficult to imagine that there are going to be 30 million bachelors in 2030, no, no, it should be more, the statistics says that there are going to be 30 million more men than women in 2030 in China.

And also, there are 5 or 6 million Bachelors (of Arts or of Science) graduate every year in China. China is such a country always has huge numbers, it's really a heaven for mathematics lovers. Now one third of these bachelors can't find jobs, majority of them can't find decent jobs. That's life in China, although lots of people are enjoying luxurous life.

But I'm never going to talk about a sad stroy (if later my story is sad, I'll surely never talk about it). I'm going to ask you how to deal with these 30 million male bachelors (and this can be possible only if every woman marries, and the partner must be a man, it's far too difficult)? I'll try to encourage them to have gay-love, the more the better, but avoid AIDS please. To those Bachelors, I'll encourage them to migrate abroad (that was a suggestion from Guo Gan, the fourth or fifth leader in China I guess). Are my ideas ridiculous? Maybe no...

A Japanese bio-genetical professor argues that poor families have more chance to born boys, rich families have more chance to born girls. He proves this, on a way I never understand. Luckily I remerber the conclusion. I will try to born a girl, but a boy is also ok. I'm tolerant, but sorry! Sorry! No bachelor!

Gatherings, party and new followers

Is this a gathering or a party? ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn 

I've got a new follower, yippee! Welcome Mr. Li from Lund. I highly recommend everyone to read my new follower's own blog about being Chinese in Sweden (Lund to be specific). Li's blog is called "Little Encyclopedia of Li" and can be found here. He' s not been posting for very long but what is there is both fascinating, sharp-minded and hilarious, a kind of stream of consciousness mental wandering of interesting topics, opinions and thoughts. Here's an excerpt:

Gathering and Party

Yesterday we had a party. Party is one kind of gathering, a gathering of people. If people are all dead, gathering becomes collection. Yesterday's gathering was also a food exhibition, and gathering can also be drinks (usually alcohol) exhibition, and later stupid performance show (I joined this show many times).

That's parties in Sweden. In China we don't have parties. We have something similar to party, that's gathering. People come and sit and talk and drink and eat and leave. That's enjoys for guests, but not for hosts. Hosts will do all of the stuffs. When we were poor (I mean 10 or more years ago) we did this because time was not valuable for us, now people always went to restaurant, for example, my mother doesn't want her carpet to be dirtied.

...[there's more!]

Now tell me Mr. Li, are you the Mr. Li that I think you are or are you another Mr. Li? I'm curious and invite you to comment and exchange thoughts on each others blogs!

Happy Valentine's Day blog readers!

Sega godisar är gott! ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

This is an appropriate day to thank everyone (You the Reader) who visits and reads this blog. I have to admit, it's a kick to log-in and see if anyone has checked in and read something, getting a comment is a real high! (Please comment more ;-) From my blog feed I can see when friends I know check-in, recognizing their geographic location but of course not knowing 100% if it's them or someone in the same city. I've had people visit from all over the globe: Australia, Mexico, Venezuela, Thailand, Indonesia, Israel, Korea, Philippines etc and several islands in the Caribbean (looking mostly for postings about my boatbuilder/artist brother Chris). If Duluth, Georgia doesn't check in every day I begin to worry that either I've lost their interest (who are you?) or they're away or sick or something. I personally know most of my "Followers", good friends from way back. One though is someone I've never met, hello Qin! 

35% of the visitors come from Sweden (of course), 35% from the US, and a good portion from China. Besides those who visit regularly and read basically everything I post, favorite topics are Chinese festivals, anything Tibetan, my brother-in-law Miche Booz (!) and anything to do with photography. The more I post, of course, the wider the topic choice will be. As you can see my minds wanders considerably. Blogging is both very rewarding and exhausting, it takes a lot of time but I enjoy it immensely. We'll see if I can keep up the pace though, 127 postings in just about as many days. Thank-you all so much for looking in, feel free to take a candy! Välkommen åter.

Fat Lady Rocks!

When I was trying to think up an appropriate name for this blog I thought I might call it Pang Taitai. Then I could truly call myself a blobber at Blobspot, excuse me a blogger at Blogspot. But lo and behold Pang Taitai (Fat Lady) was already taken by a well-endowed Hebei woman selling her own brand of spiffy fashion apparel for curvaceous Chinese women. Her website www.pangtaitai.com leans heavily towards the pink end of the palette and her slogan is "I am beautiful, I believe in myself". She seems to have representation all over China and she models all her designs. As anyone around me knows I can be direct to the point of bluntness, so I really like Ms Fang's straight forward and honest business approach, especially in a country obsessed with slimness and youthful beauty. If you want to put in an order for a natty tennis outfit or a rabbit fur collar down jacket her email is pangtaitai@pangtaitai.com - or why not some Power Woman black suede boots with gold details? Tell her Chengdu Pangtaitai sent you.

Five Feet Off The Ground

Finding a name for this blog wasn't as easy as I had thought. Should I include "China" in the name? Too restricting, what if I branch out and write about something other than China? Should I include my name? Too saccharine, two boring, too long! So wanting to get this project into cyberspace as soon as possible I settled for something self-explanatory. (Although most of the time I am actually only two feet off the ground, reading a book in bed). 

Welcome to Ingrid's world of large and small observations of life in China and Asia. Please feel free to comment, but only nice things of course ;-). 

NOTE: All text and all photographs on this website are according to International Copyright Law ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn so please don't use them without permission. But feel free to quote me or ask permission to use any text or images.