China and US + Michael Levy

choi

(1) Jonah Goldberg, Why We Need Not Envy China; Would we honestly trade our problems for theirs? National Review Online, Nov 4, 2011.
http://www.nationalreview.com/ar ... hina-jonah-goldberg

My comment:
(a) The article says, "We have nearly twice the roadways China does."

* Compare
In Booming China, How Much Infrastructure Is Too Much? Washington Post, Oct 21, 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/bu ... QAYWuv4L_story.html
(at web page 2: "China now has about 46,000 miles of expressways — a close second to the United States — with plans to build that out to 112,500 miles by 2030. Almost all of the expressways are toll roads.")

I can not explain the discrepancy.
* Numbered highways in the United States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Num ... n_the_United_States
(Highways in the United States are split into at least four different types of systems: interstate highways, US highways, state highways and county highways)

(b) The article mentions Michael Levy. author of
Kosher Chinese: Living, teaching and eating with China's other billion. Henry Holt & Co, 2011.
See (2) and (3) below.


(2) The Quest For Kosher Among China's Other Billion. NPR, July 28, 2011.
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/28/13 ... ina-s-other-billion
("Levy reveals that the average income in the community where he volunteered [Guiyang] was 100 US dollars per month. That's the stipend he lived off of as well. Most of Levy's Guizhou University students were first-generation college students from farming families who had dreams of leaving the province for the economically booming coast. But he explains that the dream is tough to turn into reality, 'Shanghai, Beijing — it's out of reach for the average person in China.'")

Note: I am clueless about "pork popsicles." In US, it is a slang for penis. In the Far East, there is pork blood popsicle (Taiwan has that, too).

(3) Excerpt of Kosher Chinese: Living, Teaching and Eating With China's Other Billion. NPR, July 27, 2011.

Note:
(a) spindly (adj):
"1: of a disproportionately tall or long and thin appearance that often suggests physical weakness <spindly legs>
2: frail or flimsy in appearance or structure <a spindly tower>"
(b) Lord Voldemort
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Voldemort
(c) For Bouyei, see Buyei people  布依族
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buyei_people


(4) The bottom of NPR report in (2) points to the following:

Michael Levy, So a Jew goes to China … When I moved overseas, I knew my students wouldn't know much about Judaism. Turns out, they were utterly clueless. Salon.com, July 3, 2011.
http://www.salon.com/2011/07/03/kosher_chinese_excerpt/

Two consecutive paragraphs:

"Vivian’s [a Chinese teacher's] uncertainty about her apartment was emblematic of a general state of confusion about property law in Guiyang. Residents had to be prepared to move at a moment’s notice. I saw this firsthand when one Saturday night I went with Jennifer and Vivian to what they assured me was the best hot-pot restaurant in town. They had made reservations the night before, but when we arrived, the restaurant was closed. It had the familiar Chinese character spray-painted on its doors. It was one of the first characters I had learned to recognize and it was ubiquitous in some parts of Guiyang. It meant, simply, 'tear down.'

"Migrant workers were on the roof of the building smashing it with sledgehammers. The owner of the restaurant emerged to apologize to us. 'Sorry,' he said with a shrug. 'We got word this morning that the government wants the building.' The owner was taking reservations for his successful restaurant on a Friday night, and was told to vacate the premises on Saturday morning.

Note:
(a) Phelps (surname)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phelps_(surname)
(b) trifle (vi):
"1a : to talk in a jesting or mocking manner or with intent to delude or mislead
b : to treat someone or something as unimportant"
www.m-w.com
(c) flay (vt):
"1: to strip off the skin or surface of : SKIN
2: to criticize harshly : EXCORIATE
3: LASH 1b <the wind whipped up to gale fury, flaying his face — Richard Kent>"
(d) Huaxi  贵州省贵阳市 花溪区
(e) dig (n):
"2 plural
a : accommodations for living or working
b chiefly British : LODGING, HOTEL"
(f) For l'chaim, see Jewish Greetings
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_greetings
(L'Chaim:  "To life" in English; Hebrew and Yiddish equivalent of saying "cheers" when doing a toast)

* I fail to see how this greeting is related to Sabbath.
* The "chaim" comes from Hebrew noun "chai" for "life." See male given name

Chayyim
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chayyim
(g) lan zui ru ni  烂醉如泥
(f) effete (adj; Latin effetus, from ex- + fetus fruitful): "EFFIMINATE"