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Exiled by nefarious means (Okay, in truth, it's a self-imposed banishment) to the Goat Horn Hutong district in Qingdao, China, the Cathay Cafe is under the joint proprietorship of authors Zhao Fang and Timothy Green; we're the underground force propagating phonetics over Pinyin in our book entitled SPEAK E-Z CHINESE In Phonetic English. We like to think of our establishment as a communication and educational network helping visitors to China speak and understand the Chinese language in the easiest possible format. In addition to our Speak E-Z lessons and phrasebook, we offer interesting news, tidbits of art and culture, some fun stuff, as well as a metaphorical hitching post and point of rendezvous for the wayfarer in China. As authors and innkeepers, we'll be serving you a generous amount of helpful travel information along with our revolutionary Chinese language instruction in phonetic English.

(from FAQ pg. at www.CathayCafe.com)

The Power of Chopsticks

(Continued from last issue)

If you read The Power of Chopsticks, Part One, you may now consider yourself an expert in chopstick etiquettes. But let's not ignore the historical background of this invaluable little tool; you will find that they were not always used for pinching food.

The famous karate master, Gichen Funakoshi is said to have occasionally rammed chopsticks down the throats of his students while they were eating.  Apparently, these were ad hoc demonstrations to remind his pupils to always be on their guard.  And yes, we've all heard of Kung Fu masters and assassins who are able to hurl chopsticks through boards and into walls.  And haven't we all seen the film-noir murder mystery, The Chinese Crisis?  You may recall the scene in the Chinese restaurant where the murder weapon happened to be our infamous little sticks. 

Chopsticks have served as a defensive tool, as well.  With poisoning one's adversary being the favored means of assassination throughout China's history of palace intrigue, royalty often insisted upon using silver chopsticks.  But unlike the “silver spoon” syndrome popular among aristocrats in the west, the silver chopsticks were more than just an indulgence: royalty were taking a safety precaution for staying alive.  You see, it was believed that silver chopsticks would turn black if they came into contact with a poisonous substance.  Blackened silver chopsticks were considered dead give-aways (pardon the pun).

Anyhow, modern science has proven that silver does not,in fact, react to such common poisons as arsenic and cyanide.  They do discolor, however, when they come into contact with certain rotten ingredients that may be found in food.  So you may wish to invest in the ornamental silver chopsticks you see in pricey gift shops; they may ensure that you never eat anything rotten.  For the rest of us, we'll stick with the bamboo type - they're a heck of a lot cheaper, easier to use (less slippery), and certainly more comfortable inside of one's eating cavity.

And finally: according to a Korean broadcasting documentary, chopsticks require the use of about fifty muscles and joints in the fingers, hand and arm.  This, in turn, affects the neurons in our brains and enhances our intellectual capacities.  According  to the studies: Chopsticks make us smarter.

When you have an itch to call home, you can purchase an international phone card at almost any local phone store, such as China Mobile, and often times you can find them at a corner kiosk.  Card rates vary from city to city, but you should be able to pick one up for around 50 - 100 kwye.  The price will depend on where you are and sometimes, on how good you are at haggling.  When you purchase an IP card, it should never cost you the value amount printed on the card.

Here's what you could say:

You:      Hello.  Do you have international calling cards? 

              Nee haow.  Yoh eye-pee (IP) kah mah?

Them:   Yes. What (literally: How much) amount would you like?

              Yoh. Yaow dwuh shaow cheen duh?

You:      One hundred RMB.

              Ee bye kwye duh.

Them:   Here you are. 

              Gay nee.

You:      How much is it?

              Dwuh shaow chee-en?

Them:   Fifty RMB.

              Woo shir kwye.

You:      Too much! Give me a cheaper price.

              Tye gway lah! Pee-en ee dee-en.

Them:   40 kwye. Okay?

              Sih shir kwye.  Haow mah?

You:      35 kwye?

              Sahn shir woo kwye?

Them:   Okay.

              Haow bah.

(Card and currency exchange hands.)

You:       Thank you.

              Shee-en shee-en .

Them:   Don't mention it!

              Boo kuh chee!

The Cathay Cafe toasts Wang Dehai, an artist/entrepreneur from Tianjin who is making his mark with a radically new form of an advertising medium that he calls an aerographic.

Imagine the year is 1932.  The American sculptor, Alexander Calder, is tinkering away in his Paris studio, constructing his latest surreal construction which Marcel Duchamp has dubbed a “mobile.”  The slightly biomorphic and circular shapes are connected to graceful rods that gently rotate by air currents, thus making it a form of kinetic art.  Calder is in the process of becoming a significant part of modern art history.

Now skip ahead about seventy-four years and peek into a workshop half way around the planet.  In his Tianjin studio, another artist is tinkering away with a mobile, one that he calls an aerographic.  Shaped similar to a Calder mobile, the disks are now emblazoned with giant logos and promotional imagery, such as scenes from I Robot or glossy photos of a current Toyota model.  They glide and shimmer above our heads.  Through the art of Wang Dehai, form and function meet; art and advertisement shake hands; aesthetics and conservation of space team up, and Yankee ingenuity joins forces with Chinese practicality.  Advertising becomes an art form.

Born in Tianjin in 1963, Dehai studied art at the School of Crafts and Fine Arts, and received his bachelor's Degree in Oil Painting from the Fine Arts Academy, Tianjin. He has exhibited in Tianjin, Beijing, and Hong Kong, and many of his paintings are in private collections throughout America, Australia, Japan, and Europe.

Currently, Wang Dehai is the CEO of HIGH IMPACT, an advertising company located in Tianjin, Beijing and Shanghai.  His aerographics were originally created back in 2003, and it's been an uphill struggle marketing, manufacturing and distributing them throughout the world.  His advice to any struggling entrepreneur:  “Never give up!”

Aerographics are currently exhibited and distributed throughout mainland China, France, Germany, the U.S., Spain, Japan, Australia, South Africa and Singapore. We raise a glass to Wang Dehai - a master artist with vision and a courageous entrepreneur with grit!

For a view of Wang Dehai's oil paintings, check out our Art link under"Cool Stuff".