Beijing News

Before you embark on your holiday or before those fireworks start popping, stop by the Beijing City International School this Sunday for a sneak peek at Chinese New Year festivities.

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Shortly after we moved to Beijing, I met my wife for lunch on a balmy afternoon and at the end of the meal, she asked our waitress for a fapiao and explained to me that it had a scratch off award area. She scratched away the silver bar and underneath was a prize for RMB 10. Beaming like the Cheshire Cat, she returned to the cashier to receive her cash winnings.  Ever since, I’ve been scratching away. Everywhere I ate, I requested a fapiao like a man desperate to win the lottery. However, after three years of fruitless scratching, I still had not won once. I decided this exercise in chance was futile and simply gave up.

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The December issue of beijingkids is full of fun-indoor activities and excursions to keep you and your clan happy over the holidays.

Give yourself ten ways to celebrate Christmas in Beijing, and catch the spirit of Christmas and Hannukah from three families. Also, get a peek from behind the scenes of Beijing Playhouse’s wacky production of Cinderella. And if you're looking for ways to give, consider Beijing's local charities focused on helping less fortunate babies and young children.

The weather outside is frightful, but indoors is still delightful! Explore Joy City Chaoyang for shopping and playing - role playing at EE City, that is! Or warm up at one of Beijing's hot springs. We've also got a great winter craft for your kids: making your own snowman. He makes a great decoration for your home.

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When I was growing up, my father always opined that he could combine any three things and an egg and create a satisfying snack, if not a meal. He admits that he has turned many a stomach over the years with that recipe, but it has served him well. Although I cannot say for certain if I ever actually consumed any portion of his creations (perhaps I blocked the memory out), I do recall slathering peanut butter on nearly all things breakfast: toast, pancakes, French toast, waffles, crepes, and more pancakes. My parents said that as a child, it was the only way they could get me to eat pancakes and the like. To this day, my preference for bready breakfast items is to use peanut butter and maple syrup as toppings. I suppose the bread-based substances are really just a delivery mechanism for peanut butter drenched with syrup.

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Chinese media reports that police in Shenzhen captured a woman selling a list containing the personal information of around 150,000 newborn babies on a busy overpass. What’s worse, the list included the phone numbers of the babies’ parents as well as information on the families’ residences, vehicle registration and other personal details.

Each set of personal family data was being hawked for anywhere between RMB 2 to 8 (and in some cases, even as low as 1 mao), and many area parents had reportedly been receiving “harassing” phone calls from maternity supply, medical and insurance companies.

Shenzhen isn’t the only city where this kind of activity is going on – illicit sales involving lists of personal data is big business across the country (witness the ridiculous amount of SMS spam you receive each day) – but what’s most alarming is that “newborn data lists” are being sold around Beijing as well, something to which I can personally attest.

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BCIS is looking for people who would be interested in participating in a focus group on the subject of school education here in Beijing.

Participants must be parents of children attending an international school and who live within the 4th Ring Road.

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The State Council of Legislative Affairs is considering tweaking China's official maternity leave policy and is currently soliciting input from the public, according to a report on msn.com's Chinese-language news site.

Under the proposal, which would replace the current policy that was effected in 1988, the number of maternity leave days would be increased from "90 days to 14 weeks" (98 days). Other stipulations include two additional weeks off for "difficult births," and two extra weeks off for each baby if you have multiple babies. Women who suffer miscarriages (or undergo abortions) in their first four months of pregnancy can also get a minimum of two paid weeks off and after four months, it goes up to six full paid weeks.

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You may adore the Disney version, with its chubby mice and rousing musical numbers, but Beijing Playhouse’s production of Cinderella, done in the British Pantomime tradition, is a whole other beast – in a good way.

For the unfamiliar, Pantomime is a UK institution that used to be the crowd-pleasing, cross-dressing elephant graveyard for B-(to-Z) list celebrities and future stars, before reality TV came along. Now, it shares that talent pool with the likes of Dancing on Ice and I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! Case in point: David “The Hoff” Hasselhoff will be taking on the role of Captain Hook this Christmas in Bristol.

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Former BeijingKids columnist and renowned Panda Dad Alan Paul has officially announced that the movie rights to his book Big in China, about his experiences living and playing music in Beijing, have been purchased as an option by Ivan Reitman's (Animal House) Montecito Pictures.

To quote from Alan's blog:

Reitman himself is signed on to produce and direct. Anything could still happen, of course, but the option is not sitting on a shelf. Writer Paul Fruchbom has been hired to write a screenplay. We have had a few conversations. I like him and I’m excited about where it’s headed and happy to be involved.

From the first time I spoke to my agent Doug Johnson, he was very enthusiastic about the prospects for Big in China, but I never really believed him, partly as a defense mechanism so that I couldn’t be disappointed and partly because I think that an important part of any agent’s jobs is relentless optimism.

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There seem to be three big trends on weibo this year: sex, the lack of empathy in China, and the hazardous living conditions people are subjected to in the Middle Kingdom. The latest buzz falls into the two latter categories: China’s netizens are huffing about the fact that China’s officials don’t breathe the same air as the people.

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