Comments on: Madam & Li: surviving maids in China

By: Ross

Ross — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 07:26:54 +0000

There there Rod… I’ll buy your book *pat pat*

Seriously people, stop being such overzealous censors. If you’re offended, don’t read the book. Its not like he was inciting violence.

Why do people need to be so sensitive?

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By: Rod MacKenzie

Rod MacKenzie — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:53:52 +0000

Hey Dimafo, I just love your self-righteousness! All politically correct people are. Their stance is ironised by a sense of superiority to honest people making honest observations and at the same time that superiority is simultaneously constantly denied. Emphasis on dim in Dimafo. Keep it up.
Gerrie - I have lived in China for nearly four years, it’s lekker here boet.
Lyndall - the most important words (and the most honest) you said in your comment were the words “I don’t know”.You need to meditate on those three words deeply and for a long time at least four times a day.Try meditating on your new mantra on waking up and after meals and before going to bed. I am tired of telling you the map in your head is not the actual territory in China.
Asking people if they have heard of Confucius is akin to asking Catholics if they have heard of the Pope. Same with fondues. Some “Chinese” people hate raw pig’s brains which they then put into the equivalent of a fondue, other “Chinese” people love it. I put the word Chinese in inverted commas as there are about three hundred different languages (erroneously called dialects, in my opinion, as one person from one city does not understand at all the person living in another city when they speak in their “dialect”). There are also loads of different cuisines. I like Shanghai and Hong Kong cuisine, some dishes I drool over, but hate Shaoxing food (as do many Shanghai “Chinese”). My wife loves pig’s brains, pig’s ears, chicken’s feet, tripe and so forth. I shake my head when I watch her gobbling down these marvels - oh I suppose I am sneering and coming from a presumed superior culture when I speak of my own wife like that.

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By: MidaFo

MidaFo — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:55:04 +0000

Well Non, that obviously hurt and given the nit- picking response from you I say jolly good!
The chaps at that university in the Free State best forgotten also thought they were funny.
Sorry fellow but you are asking for it so, although I do not think you meant harm, it needs to be said that what you wrote is not a refreshing breath of air. It is simply in foul taste.

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By: gerrie hugo

gerrie hugo — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:26:50 +0000

Rod,
So you’ve been to China hey!

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By: Lyndall Beddy

Lyndall Beddy — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:29:15 +0000

Kit

I agree with you - he does appear to be sneering from a superior culture.

Rod

I don’t know about pig’s heads - but when my grandmother and her sisters got together there was always a baked sheep’s head for the brains ( all grew up on a Karoo farm ). If you have raw anything - hot oil is the best to cook it in. Ever heard of fondues?

And the Chinese may not have what you call a religion - but they do have a philosophy. Ever heard of Confucius ?

I agree with Kit!

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By: Rod MacKenzie

Rod MacKenzie — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 10:05:57 +0000

Oldfox, there are quite a few forms of Chinese cuisine that I love, including Sichuan and Hunan style, which is really spicy. We used to live in Shaoxing which is two and a half hour by bus from Shanghai and ther eis a Hunan style restaurant there that is worth the trip back to go and eat there again.Beijing duck if it is done properly? Hell yeah! But the other side is all the - to us - gross dishes I have mentioned from other parts of China which I wont eat, but most of it my wife will as she grew up in Zimbabwe.

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By: Rod MacKenzie

Rod MacKenzie — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:44:55 +0000

Kit’s comments on my pieces as being potentially distasteful reminds me of the British response to Madam & Eve when it was first launched. They were horrified. They could not understand the South African humour and how politically “incorrect” the jokes were.My anecdotes are honest observations (umbrella ladies really do try and sell to foreigners brollies when they already have one etc.) it is the kind of behaviour we ex-pats here in Shanghai can’t help talking to one another about - and laughing about. I love China and have good Chinese friends, not all my posts will be along the lines of Madam & Li etcetera. But I won’t become an apologist for them.

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By: Mike McGrath

Mike McGrath — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:30:24 +0000

Personally Rod, I just wanna say: Keep up the good work. Perhaps readers in South Africa find it impossible to break free from their racially-based thinking to enjoy your pieces on Cracking China - but i find your contributions like a breath of fresh air. As a fellow gweilo, albeit based in the southern Cantonese-speaking part of the country, I’m rapidly getting accustomed to your perceptive recollection of aspects of life in this often weird and wonderful land, forever laced with humour and a warmth for the individuals you encounter.

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By: Rod MacKenzie

Rod MacKenzie — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 22:13:58 +0000

Midafo - thanks, but, respectfully, my name is Rod, not Don (unless you are speaking to someone else) and Xin (not Xi) Nan Zhong is the name for a specific high school, not a culture or a person. Sorry, but not having got those things right makes me wonder if you read the piece correctly. I don’t think you picked up the sheer affection I (we) had for the Dong. My observations - fortunately, unfortunately - are entirely true.Chinese are mostly not religious at all, though the “peasants” (note the inverted commas) still sometimes refer to Mao as the god-man, solemnly and reverentially pointing their finger upwards to heaven as they tell me this.
And I don’t like so-called intellectualism. That’s what has got our planet into the sorry mess it is in. Einstein said something like “the significant problems we face cannot be solved at the level of thinking we are at when we first created them.” People hide behind big words (I know the big words) and big concepts. I want to try and keep my anecdotes simple and honest.
China is a vastly different culture, going through huge changes.I insist on keeping my observations at grass-roots level.Somehow more genuine - for me.

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By: Rod MacKenzie

Rod MacKenzie — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 22:00:43 +0000

Mundundu - good point on David Bullard, but my piece is geographically different therefore I can “semantically” get away from it.Black are (more than understandably) sensitive, Chinese are a minority in RSA.
Lyndall - I go back to the map is not the territory thing. Chinese food in RSA, in the West in general, is not Chinese food AT ALL in China. What you eat is thoroughly Westernised. Try smacking your lips over a heaped plate of fish heads boiled in oil. Or try a whole raw pig’s brain freshly scalloped from the skull and put on a plate in front of you,then tantalisingly skewer off chunks of raw bleeding brain with your chopsticks and dip this into the bubbling hotpot of oil in the middle of the table. Oh, and boiled chicken’s feet is a tasty snack to be found in any convenience store.
My maid once wanted me to make me breakfast and she must have poured at LEAST a full cup of oil over the two eggs in the pan. I felt sorry for the eggs!Her meal, including the dumplings she made, had me on the loo for the next two days as I plowed through about five chapters of a novel.What you eat in RSA is not really Chinese food: some of the real stuff is repugnant to Westerners.(And some of it is great, like Beijing Roast Duck.) You telling me you like lettuce and tomato drowned in oil and cooked?

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