A Numerical Bart Simpson Snack Store in Hengyang

A local chain store with a notable sign in Hengyang, Hunan, sells a variety of snack foods, many imported.

The use of Bart Simpson's image on the sign raises the common issue of trademark and copyright infringement in China. And the store's name, 527 零食汇, highlights how technology has influenced the use of numbers in Chinese language. In Chinese, the numbers 5-2-7 are a near-homophone for the phrase "I love to eat". Combined with the first two Chinese characters, the sign reads "I love to eat snacks". For more about how technology has influenced the adoption of numbers for expressing Chinese language, see the piece "The Secret Messages Inside Chinese URLs".

I took a quick look inside the store. I didn't see any snacks I wanted at the time, but due to the hot weather I was especially happy to pick up a brand of bottled water I would not expect to find in Hengyang.

Vita bottled water is from Hong Kong and, like other products from the Special Administrative Region, would typically be considered an import. I doubt I could distinguish it in a taste test, but, like the image of Bart Simpson, the branding connected me to a far away place.

Hengyang Bubbles

Not Changsha, Macau, or Hong Kong bubbles . . .

Scholarly Hengyang Ice Cream

A girl found her own place to enjoy some ice cream underneath statues of Chinese scholars near the Shigu Academy in Hengyang.

Presumably she had already finished her day's studies.

A People's Dinner in Hengyang

Where I ate tonight along a narrow street in Hengyang, Hunan:

Some of the ingredients for the various dishes they could prepare:

The view looking outside from where I ate:

A dish of pumpkin and snails:

A spicy fish head:

I would not have thought of mixing snails with pumpkin (I remain unsure of the exact type of pumpkin). The dish was surprisingly tasty, though, and the fish head was excellent as well. The name of the restaurant "百姓排档" (Bǎixìng Páidǎng) could be translated as "The People's Food Stall". If you happen to be near Changqing Road (长青路), I recommend it as an inexpensive option for trying some of the local fare in Hengyang. You can't go wrong with the pumpkin and snails.

A Hengyang Blue Sky

Based on my time in Hengyang, Hunan, I would not say it's the best place to visit if you are seeking clean air. One day in particular last week offered clearer skies and better than average air, though. The air wasn't perfect and the effects of smog could be seen in the distance, but the sky above was striking nonetheless. So I was able to enjoy a blue sky accompanied by an artificial rainbow . . .

. . . and the Huiyan Pavilion (回雁阁) on Huiyan Peak.

On a related note, I don't remember having ever seen a real rainbow in China, which strikes me as odd. I wonder whether tall buildings obstructing the view or smog likely plays a larger role. Maybe someone can tell me what it means.

The Best Design on a Car in Hengyang

A design with a message I saw tonight in Hengyang, Hunan:

More on the designs people add to the exterior of their cars later. Not everyone wants their car to look like Chinese porcelain.

More of New Orleans in Hengyang

Outside a KFC isn't the only place you can find New Orleans Roasted Chicken street food in Hengyang. For example, not far from the Hengyang Railway Station is a similar food stall.

Still haven't found any muffulettas though.

A Variety of Mobile Devices for Sale in Hengyang

Laptops, smartphones, and electronic Chinese-English dictionaries aren't the only mobile devices I have seen in Hengyang, China. At a large indoor shopping center near the Hengyang Railway Station, I saw several stores selling a variety of mobile audio and video devices.

There were radio, TV, and DVD players. The ones I checked all had USB sockets. With a USB flash drive, also for sale at the stores, the radios could play recorded music and the TVs could play recorded movies. And with the addition of a small card, watching CCTV on the TVs was no problem as well.

Elsewhere in the shopping center, I saw some of the technology in use. For example, one person was relaxing next to their shop while watching a movie on a portable DVD player.

These devices are an example of the diversity of electronics for sale in China, much of which rarely receive attention in comparison to smartphones. Yet knowing who buys these devices and why they buy them can be valuable to better designing devices with a broader range of functionality.

Hengyang Spinning

Towards the end of a rather long walk yesterday in Hengyang, I saw a young boy in front of me spinning while he looked straight up into the sky. I wondered if anything in particular had inspired him. I looked up and saw a billboard structure with an intriguing geometry.

I think he found a great location for spinning.

A Chinese English-Learning Device, a Cross, and an American Apple

The student with the Baicizhan English-learning app on her smartphone isn't the only person I have met in Hengyang who uses mobile technology to improve their language skills.

Several weeks later, an English teaching assistant visiting Hengyang from Xiangtan, Hunan, approached me while I was walking outside. She said she was excited to talk with a native English speaker.

Like the student, she carried a mobile device that helped her improve her English. Unlike the student, her device functioned solely as a Chinese-English dictionary. She said she always carried it around as was recommended in an English class she had taken. Compared with an app like Baicizhan, it raises questions about why one might purchase / use a dedicated device versus an app on a smartphone.

Finally, she wore a cross not for religious reasons but because she felt it was a fashionable accessory to her clothes. In fact, they were presented together in the store where she bought them--a not unusual sight in Chinese cities like Hengyang. And similar to my meeting with the university student, I noticed a bit of American spirit.

More on both the mobile and American spirit themes later.

A Chinese English-Learning App with Artistic Cats, Buttocks, and American Spirit

One day as I was walking by the above sports field at the University of South China in Hengyang, Hunan, I heard a student practicing English. While wearing earphones and looking at the screen of her Xiaomi mobile phone, she would say a word and after a brief pause say a sentence which included the word.

As part of her preparations for an important English test, she was using an English-learning app a friend of hers had recommended months ago. The Chinese name for the app is "百词斩". I am not aware of an English name, so I will use its romanized spelling in pinyin: "Baicizhan". Browser-based and paper-based versions are available at the Baicizhan website. It is also available on both iTunes and Google Play. Although Baicizhan provides a link to iTunes, for the Android version Baicizhan now offers a direct download, not surprising since Google is heavily blocked in China.

After looking at the online version, I would say it certainly has room for improvement. I am not familiar with language-learning theory, so I will refrain from conducting a full review of Baicizhan. However, I won't refrain from sharing a bit about how it works and some striking examples.

A section usually begins with multiple choice questions:

One voice says the word and another says the sentence. After choosing the photo one thinks best matches the sentence, the answer is provided along with the word's definition:

The above example is from a section Bacizhan says is using a nonstandard vocabulary list. Based on the section's name and other examples, it appears to deliberately use strange or funny examples to help people remember the words. Even so, it seems peculiar to say the photo of the kitten is a good answer for the above question.

Here are two other examples of Baicizhan's wit in the same section:

Many of the English words in the section were rather familiar to me, but I did learn (or perhaps relearned) something:

Photo 2 is the correct answer. I now know that "holothurian" is another name for a sea cucumber and that the word can be used as an adjective. I dissected a sea cucumber in a high school marine biology class and ate my first sea cucumber–they are a Chinese delicacy–in Jinan, Shandong. Some sea cucumbers are especially remarkable in their ability to "confuse or harm predators is [sic] by propelling their own toxic internal organs from their anus in the direction of attack". But I don't think that is the reason Bacizhan described the cat as holothurian. Instead, it is presumably referencing the cat's shape. I can't find a single instance of a cat being described as holothurian anywhere else. Regardless, Bacizhan delivered. I now know the word and await an opportunity to use it.

Overall, the words, questions, and images I saw in other sections, some of which include vocabulary to prepare for American or Chinese college entrance exams, were more mundane, though some still gave me pause.

And none of what I saw online captured the American spirit like what caused me to stop as I was walking by the student in Hengyang. I heard her say, "Facsimile. This is a facsimile of the original U.S. Constitution; of course it's not real." When she said the sentence, her phone wasn't displaying a Starbucks cup or an insect like I had seen on other students' mobile phones. Instead, along with the sentence and definition for "facsimile", it displayed an image of the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. flag, and a military dog tag.

It appears to be a cropped version of a stock photo by Sergey Kamshylin.

The title of the photo: "Freedom is not free".

Well, at least Baicizhan is free.

Seven Tiananmen Tweets

Much has been recently expressed and shared regarding the events at Tiananmen Square 25 years ago and their lasting impact in China today. Below are seven people's tweets I retweeted (shared) last week during my moments on Twitter (if no images automatically appear, viewing this post on the blog (not in a reader) and / or enabling javascript may do the trick). The tweets are brief and only a small piece of the picture, but they say much.

Priceless. Mandatory 'enrichment' trip away from Beijing on June 3-4, via @ComradeWong MT@lee91741: pic.twitter.com/KP6rpOYHpL
— James Fallows (@JamesFallows) June 2, 2014

June 4 official souvenir, given by Beijing Gov to each soldier who took part in the crackdown. #64 #89 #memory pic.twitter.com/nbIrA2UtwN
— gilles sabrie (@GillSabrie) June 3, 2014

Wish the tanks had some LV logos. http://t.co/OaatIW4XNS #TAM25 pic.twitter.com/Hm7nVijYZj
— FAN Wenxin (@xinwenfan) June 4, 2014

Today, June 4, 2014, Sina Weibo began censoring searches for "Today." #Tiananmen pic.twitter.com/lUm6rQQ9E0
— William Farris (@wafarris) June 4, 2014

A beautiful night in HK as crowd at Tiananmen vigil fills six soccer fields -- and more keep arriving. pic.twitter.com/JsW3OkJi4T
— Philip Pan (@panphil) June 4, 2014

Always loved this picture of #TiananmenSquare protesters, from the college text that intro'd me to #China pic.twitter.com/sH8iVvgqOF
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) June 4, 2014

This was among the images deleted on #weibo yesterday ... pic.twitter.com/1gHatSGG8H
— Rohit Mahajan (@heresrohit) June 5, 2014