Bryan Crosby Dot Ca » fights

Nanjing at Night

Bryan — Sun, 25 May 2008 05:46:12 +0000

There is a thread going on over at The Straight Dope asking the fairly straight forward question of “do you go to bars alone?” The verdict seems to be it is quite common among many. You can now add me to the category of ‘those who hang out AT the bar, IN the bar…alone”. In my defense, I don’t do this often, and it is usually done in a response to one of the following a) too much time spend at home on the internet, sizing photos and other website related work b) I want to hear some good live tunes c) I want a good beer d) I gotta ‘figure-things-out’ and want to do it alone, but not ‘really’ alone…I also have developed somewhat of a small crush on the hostess of this particular bar (as does every full blooded male who steps into what is known as the Blue Marlin ) and I’m honestly a little ashamed of it given that I know way better and that after four years of successfully avoiding these situations and playing it cool and smart in the Asia bars…I fall into the trap. A little embarrassing.

So, a killer live act, tasty brews, and friendly staff make the Blue Marlin Bryan’s solo bar of choice in Nanjing. Prices at the Blue are slightly higher than the average watering hole in Nanjing, which helps prevent (to a certain extent) foreign riff-raff elements. Yeah, I know that is a slight elitist remark…

I found my spot at the bar, conversed with some staff, drank my Erdinger dark, requested some very well done U2 covers (I’m on a U2 kick at the moment) from the band and pondered the situation. Around 11:30 I began to feel better and decided it was time to hit the old dusty trails. Last time I extended my limit beyond two Erdingers resulted in unintended consequences and I wasn’t looking to repeat that situation this time around. So I wandered out in to the chaos that is 1912 . Upon exiting Blue I immediately observed four security personnel dashing (in a perfect single file) up towards the taxi stop. 1912 has developed a reputation for some very, very interesting “fights” (unfortunately also as a place where foreigners routinely get their asses kicked gang-style) and given that they were running in the direction that I was going anyway I thought I would take a second look at what was going on.

As expected a mob of around twenty to twenty five people had congregated around the taxi terminal. In most other cities around the world, entertainment facility personnel usually have biceps larger than my torso, combat boots, headsets, shades and will generally break one if half if one is even thinking about causing some sort of trouble. In Nanjing these elite forces consist largely of 50 year old men wearing white steel helmets and high visibility vests. Naturally you can imagine the intimidation factor. Fights in Nanjing usually consist of a lot of shouting and threats of “I’m calling XXXX” which will predictably be met with a response of “oh yeah, well I’m calling XXX”. This will usually continue until someone falls down because they are too drunk to continue with the next “My dad is bigger than your dad” comment. Meanwhile the trusty side-kick is usually in everyone’s face with a mobile phone filming the whole situation.

This was a fairly standard shouting match – albeit without the presence of the crying girlfriends (from what I could see) – although a little 50 pound kemosabe was documenting the whole thing before he had his mobile smacked out of his hand by a surprisingly pro-active security guard. An ambulance appeared and some dude was strapped into a gurney, much to the dismay of the chief antagonist who was forced to stop his pow-wow with security and turn his attention to reaming out the paramedics.

An unintended consequence of this disturbance was a complete block of the taxi loading area causing a very large back-log of taxis which had extended way back into Taiping Bei Lu. Of course , there was a fender-bender which resulted in what was looking to be another ‘fight’.

Given the precarious situation of the taxi loading lane, I decided it would be best to catch a ride home up by Zhujiang Lu and proceeded to walk the two or three hundred meter distance. In an omage to Forest Gump, I figured that since I walked this far, I might as well keep on walking.

Cities, obviously, are completely different environments at night and Nanjing is no exception. One the largest disparities between developing and developed cities is the range of activities one can find at night through out. With the exception of downtown areas, 24 hour 7-11 gas bars and the occasional neighborhood pub, North American cities are rather devoid of any street action after 10pm. In terms of entertainment, Nanjing shuts down around midnight, but there remains a surprising amount of activity on the streetscapes.

From the corner of Taiping Bei Lu I made the trek down Zhujiang Lu to the McDonalds on the corner of Zhongshan Bei Lu. One the way I was almost hit by a moped with a driver glued to his mobile phone, witnessed a naked man run screaming across the street and was solicited for sex in front of the Mr.O’Bread near Dan Feng Jie. The funny thing about solicitation is the approach. Usually it’s an older woman who hangs around the open square area that is characteristic of the massive department stores that are popping up all over the place. Because the street is not terribly busy, these entrepreneurs are easily spotted from at least a block away. They might not spot you as quickly, as their line of sight is dependent on their circular path of motion around the square. In my case, I was sniped at about 100m, the circular walking pattern changed into a slow line towards the side of the square where the intercept was to occur. However, in my case I don’t think I was recognized as a foreigner until about 30m. You can almost pinpoint the exact moment that I’m recognized as a white guy based upon the speed of the approach and the actions. The woman essentially slowed to a snails pace realizing what was coming up, sort of turned a bit to the left, then to the right, shuffled a bit, turned her head back to the direction with which she came…but it was too late…she had already committed and to back down now was to lose face. So the intercept continued…

“Ni hao shuai ge…ma – saw – gee?

“bu yao”

“ah….tee heee heee” (with stereotypical hand over the mouth)

So I continued my journey, fuelled on some McD’s coffee and stopped for some street food on the corner of Zhujiang Lu and Zhongshan Bei Lu. A visit to China is not complete without experiencing a 1am dinner on street. This particular troupe of stalls was large enough to warrant their own Snow beer girls who were surprisingly busy hobbling around from table to table with of arm loads of piss-warm beer. I stopped for the meat=sticks…kebabs of mutton and beef cooked over carcinogenic charcoal. Business had been brisk this night as the navigation to the kebab kiosk was hindered by mine fields of used Styrofoam containers and enough kebab rods to justify a giant game of pick-up-sticks.

From this corner up to Gulou was largely uneventful. I was seriously considering a visit to Castle Bar …then I remembered that it was Castle Bar. This establishment is the only place open in Nanjing after 1am, the only place (in a city of 3-6 million) with a dance floor, and is the place where all fun and party loving (clearly not me, this night) folk end up. It is also the bar referred to by an old ex-US Navy sailor I had met there as the “filthiest bar he has ever seen”.

After recalling that statement I choose against attending any Castle festivities that night.

From Gulou, I exited the main streets and entered the alley environment that is my block. Around this time of night the alleys are about as dead as any typical suburban street. One thing that will always remain in my memory is the unique smell sensations characteristic to every cubic meter of air in China. Oh yes, and the fun doesn’t stop there. If one is interested in additional odor experiences one must only visit the same location at different times of day. In my alley community, street drains are not for the efficient collection and channeling of storm water in an effort to prevent flooding but rather a convenient location with which to dump all of the day’s liquid and or solid wastes. To quote Han Solo “What a wonderful smell you’ve discovered!”

Back to my xiao qu (apartment block) past the sleeping security guards and up into my 23 year old crumbling building.

More Everest photos :-)

Technorati Tags: 1912, bars, beer, blue marlin, castle bar, fights, nanjing, night life

Tie one on

Bryan — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 03:01:00 +0000

I’ve optimized my Tian Chi photos, but still haven’t added any captions.

There are many things I want to do with this site, (photos, 15 movies, captions, get a proper blog roll started, RSS this baby, update my links, create a entry page, redesign my 2.5 year old template…) but I can honestly say I’m very pressed for time. In addition to my regular duties at Nanjing Normal, I’ve got my fingers in several other potentially lucractive side projects, which are proving to require a larger investment of time that I had previously thought.

Other news…I’ve packed on 5 kilo’s since coming to China, placing me in the 73kg club. I suppose it is all that horse meat…either way, I’m quite pleased with myself…but my jeans are still too big.

I’ve recently discovered that Nanjing Forestry University has a Chinese language program. It started my head gears turning…very fast. Bryan…forestry…China….I mean…come on! Could it be a better fit! We’ll see, I could be fairly sick of this place in a few months…

The top news floating around Asia this past week is the pending approval of the Chinese government’s ‘Anti-sucession law’ regarding Taiwanese independence.

In all of my converstations with local friends and collegues, the “Taiwan issue” only ever came up once and it pretty much amounted to “Taiwan is not a country”.

I don’t feel like I know enough regarding the situation revolving around the bill to comment, so I thought it would be apt to post perspectives from both sides of the Straits.

From Big Red and the People’s Daily :

To accomplish peaceful national reunification is one of the three historic tasks of China, however the “Taiwan independence” forces have been intensified their secessionist activities for Taiwan’s secession from China.

To oppose and check the secessionist activities, promote peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits region, maintain national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and safeguard the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation, the chairpersons’ meeting of the NPC Standing Committee proposed a draft of the Anti-Secession Law, which was unanimously passed at the 13th meeting of the Standing Committee last December, according to Wu.

The draft law is scheduled to be adopted at the ongoing NPC annual session slated for closing on March 14.
Wu said the draft Anti-Secession Law gives full expression to China’s consistent position of doing the utmost with maximum sincerity for a peaceful reunification, demonstrate the common will and strong resolve of the entire Chinese people to safeguard China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, while never allowing the “Taiwan independence” forces to make Taiwan secede from China under any name or by any means.

Even though the words “peaceful and peace” appear five times in the article, the the bill essentially states in law that any move by Taiwan towards independence would result in “non-peaceful” actions.

From Taiwan :

If China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) adopts the “anti-secession” law on March 14, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will lead the people of Taiwan in taking to the streets to voice their opposition to the legislation, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday.

Responding to China’s proposed anti-secession law — portions of which were disclosed yesterday — the DPP denounced that law in unanimity. Su also said that the president will lead a demonstration that will dwarf the protest launched in Hong Kong on July 1, 2003, and will walk the streets to express Taiwan’s outrage against the law if it is passed on Monday.

The information about China’s legislation that was unveiled yesterday morning included the wording that ” [China] will take `non-peaceful measures and actions’ if Taiwan does not unify with China or accept the `one-China’ policy,” DPP Deputy Secretary-General Yen Wan-ching (顏萬進) said. Therefore, it is important to correctly interpret the wording of the law and note that the phrase “non-peaceful” that Beijing used could only mean using force to attack Taiwan, Yen said.

The Taiwanese are not pleased.

World reaction and global implications? I’ll leave that up to these guys :

The main Chinese “concession” in response to the Taiwan Legislative Yuan election outcome was to rename the bill. First known as the “unification act” – a title that might imply an aggressive, impatient outlook – it later became anti-secession legislation aimed merely at preserving the status quo. Since US President George W Bush has repeatedly made it clear that the US opposed any unilateral change in the status quo, this new legislation puts Beijing’s “one China” principle squarely in line with Washington’s “one China policy”, it was argued. It also “underscores China’s respect for the rule of law” – another constant Washington admonition. While neither of these arguments will prove particularly convincing to Beijing’s critics, they do represent a growing sophistication (and willingness to play along with the Bush administration’s logic back in Washington).

The counter-arguments – that the legislation will incite and empower Beijing’s critics in Washington and Taipei and could breathe new life into Chen’s presumed “independence agenda” by handing him an excuse for counter legislation or even another referendum – failed to impress Chinese officials. They sent a clear signal about their ambiguous legislation: if you want to make suggestions as to how we can word this legislation more effectively (or make it less inflammatory), we are all ears; if you are trying to talk us out of introducing the new law, “save your breath!” Once we actually saw the legislation – and it would be made public immediately after it was approved by the NPC – we would see that all the furor had been “much ado about nothing”.

When this bill passes it seems that it just confirms what everyone already knew anyway. I see heightened tensions for sure…but no knife fights. Two reasons:

1. Beijing 2008. The Summer Olympics are far, far to important to risk over an ideological battle. 2008 is China’s housewarming party…the whole world is invited to see the renovations. Nobody wants to see a family fight in the backyard.

2. The military situation. Most stuff I’ve read appears to indicated that the balance of power over the Straits of Taiwan is currently slanted in favor of the Taiwanese…however, given the large budget increases of the PLA, it is expected that the balance will shift to Beijing’s favor by 2008-2010.

I suppose the point is that even with the passing of the ‘anti-succession law’ there probably won’t be any fireworks for several years at best…if that is any comfort.

Technorati Tags: beijing, blog, bus, china, fights, law, movies, nanjing, olympics, photos, taiwan

Box

Bryan — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 14:13:21 +0000

I find myself back over in Vancouver for the remainder of my stay in Canada. I had a box (a combination backlash against cool, deck and all of those other words) weekend over in Victoria. One of the best I’ve had in along time. More dancing than I could shake a leg at. Drinking beer at Pizza Hut…yeah, I never would have figured either. Speakers corner. Ice cube fights. Spending money at the Gap…I’ve never bought anything there before, and general all around good times with the old roomates and Sun Peaks ladies. Quite sad to leave, but I’ll be back.

What probably would have been a standard mediocre ferry ride, consisting of ferry food, ferry noise and ferry boredom, turned into a lively conversation about organic food, genetically modified things, nutrition, and good ole’ environmental pulp when I ran into an old classmate from high school. The funny thing was this was not the first time I have run into her on the ferry. I think my life consists of random encounters with people I know from my past.

Technorati Tags: beer, canada, environment, fights