I just came across another music video for the same song, Welcome to Beijing, made by retirees in Heze (菏泽), Shandong province. This is a knockoff of the one made by the celebrities that I posted in the last entry. I enjoyed both. Lyrics at the end of this post.
It is not uncommon in China for cities to have a retiree or senior citizens university (老年人大学). It provides a place for them to socialize, learn and practice crafts, photography, calligraphy, traditional music and opera, movie discussions and such, hobbies that they didn’t have time to do before. I bet they had fun making this music video.
Heze is a city just a little bit west of my hometown. Its claim to fame is that it is the capital of peony flowers in China. I believe it is also home to 水泊梁山, the setting to one of the classic Chinese novels, 水浒传. I can certainly tell the hint of the southern Shandong accent during their singing. Y’know, every time I hear my local dialect spoken, I get that warm and fuzzy feeling of home. Heze’s version of Mandarin is a tad different from my hometown’s, but it is close enough.
Another thing that put Heze on the map is that it has the first biomass power plant in China. The power plant is located in Shan Xian 单县, a county within the Heze Municipality. Here is a video about it, courtesy of the Green Brothers from China’s Green Beat.
Here is the translation of the lyrics for Welcome to Beijing. I copied it from here, with my own modifications to make it more accurate, in my view. Translation is not easy, the poetic beauty in the Chinese version is hard to come across without a lot of thought and time.
Lyrics 歌词:
Let’s embrace another morning and enjoy its ever new air. (Ying jie ling yi ge chen xi, dai lai quan xin kong qi.) 迎接另一个晨曦,带来全新空气。
With the fragrance of tea, it smells different. But it feels great, full of friendship. 气息改变情味不变,茶香飘满情谊。
Our door is always open. We are waiting for you with open arms. 我家大门常打开,开放怀抱等你。
After a big hug, we’ll feel closer to each other. And surely you will love this place. 拥抱过就有了默契,你就会爱上这里。
Our guests, no matter where you come from, please make yourself at home. 不管远近都是客人,请不用客气。
We promised to get together here. So welcome! 相约好了在一起,我们欢迎你。
We cultivate Chinese Evergreen in the garden. All the time, it is producing a new legend. 我家种着万年青,开放每段传奇。
In the soil rich in traditions, we plant. Hope everything we plant here leaves you with a great experience. 为传统的土壤播种,为你留下回忆。
Our guests, no matter we’ve met before or not, please feel at ease. 陌生熟悉都是客人,请不用拘礼。
Even if you have been here for many times, we still have a lot to talk about. 第几次来没关系,有太多话题。
Welcome to Beijing; we will open a new world for you. 北京欢迎你,为你开天辟地。
Its vibrant charm is full of vitality. 流动中的魅力,充满着朝气。
Welcome to Beijing; let’s breathe together in the sunshine. 北京欢迎你,在太阳下分享呼吸.
Let’s establish new records here in China. 在黄土地刷新成绩!
Our door is always open. We are open armed, ready to embrace the world. 我家大门常打开,开怀容纳天地。
5000-year-old China is flashing a youthful smile, waiting for the day. 岁月绽放青春笑容,迎接这个日期。
Our guests, no matter where you come from, please feel at home. 天大地大都是朋友,请不用客气。
We paint pictures and write poems to express the joy for your coming. 画意诗意带笑意,只为等待你。
Welcome to Beijing; like moving music, our hospitality will warm your heart. 北京欢迎你,像音乐感动你。
Let’s try to challenge ourselves. 让我们都加油去超越自己。
Welcome to Beijing; people who have dreams are all bravo. 北京欢迎你,有梦想谁都了不起。
If only you keep the courage, miracles will happen. 有勇气就会有奇迹。
Wow, there are less than 10 days left before the Olympics starts in my home country! I am getting excited, and plan to watch it on TV here. I think I will take one or two days off just to see the opening and closing ceremonies.
I have been living outside of China pretty much since summer of 1995. I’ve also made trips to Europe and Mexico, and will definitely go back to Europe in the future. I’ve been back to China a few times during this time and will visit more often, for both personal and hopefully, business reasons.
My view toward China and the United States has changed quite a bit over the years. This sounds like a cliche but it is true: there is a lot of misunderstanding, miscommunication, and conjecture on both sides of the Pacific. Pundits and mainstream media on both sides are not helping things.
Jeremy Zawodny, a smart and nice guy from his web appearance, since I’ve never met him in person, asked a question a little over a year ago: Should I go to China? Below is my response: Oh yeah, I think you definitely should go without any hesitation whatsoever.
Yes, censorship, along with many many other issues (poverty, income inequality, environmental problems, heavy-handed government measures, to name just a few), is a problem that needs to be addressed. But at the same time, I think most Americans would be surprised at the energy, diversity of ideas, and personal freedom that average people enjoy that was not imaginable even 10 years ago.
Mainstream media in the US gives grossly misleading reports about the rest of the world. China, with all its problems and challenges, is definitely moving to the right direction, in my humble opinion. Go and see for yourself and make your own judgment, and let’s be friends with understanding and mutual respect.
Yes, democracy, freedom, non-censorship, and all that will come, but only on China’s own terms. And yes, Yahoo, MSN, Google, should be engaged in China, for the good of everybody involved.
This is from a freedom and democracy loving Chinese living in Chicago area. Draw whatever conclusion as you like. After all, you asked for it And, if you have time, swing by my village in Shandong province, not too far from where Confucius was born and grown up, I will have my 97 year old grandma fix you some nice pork dish and noodles
Unfortunately, my grandma wouldn’t be able to greet anybody now, she died in May. She was born around 1909, 2 years before the Qing dynasty collapsed and the first republic was established in 1911. In her life time, she experienced many wars and turmoil: the first world war; resistance against Japanese invasion; the second world war; the civil war; the establishment of the People’s Republic; the many disastrous social engineering experiments conducted by Mao, chief among them is the Cultural Revolution; and the opening up since 1978 with general stability, with the 1989 crackdown as a glaring exception. In a way, her life experience symbolizes the Chinese experience in the last century or so: war and turmoil, with the exception of the last 30 years or so, which happens to be the time when China started opening up.
Anyway, I cannot speak for anybody else, but just like the comments I left on Jeremy’s blog, I’d like to extend my personal welcome to all athletes, spectators, and tourists: welcome to my country. Let’s hope this event will bring everybody closer with better understanding!
Here is a nicely done music video from the Beijing Olympic Committee: Welcome to Beijing!
I’ve been self-employed for more than one year now, and feel that there are a few things I need to adjust.
Part of the motivation of self-employment is to spend more time with the family, but that didn’t happen in the last year. In fact, I actually spent less time with my son than before I quit the job. And I’ve neglected his Chinese a little bit. That needs to be changed.
I’ve also struggled with how to best manage my time and routine. During my last full-time job, I had a stack of A4 printout that was no longer being used, and planned my day on the blank side of the paper. I would write down the date on top, scribble down tasks I needed to do that day, as detailed as possible, then prioritize the list by writing a number in front of each task, from 1 to 9, with 1 having the highest priority. I would go through my day based on that list and cross tasks off as I finish them. If tasks didn’t get completed during the day, I would copy that off to the next day. It worked really well for me.
For whatever reason, I’ve fallen off that wagon. I will start doing it again. I also need to discipline myself to go to bed earlier.
Managing schedule is another challenge. Sometimes clients call around the same time. I suppose how to balance that is an issue many of us (independents and/or small business owners) face.
We are also tidying up our condo, and hopefully will sell it soon. A little plug here: it is in a great location, walking distance to Metra, EL, downtown library, cinema, bookstores, restaurants, parks, all that good stuff. Dear reader, if you or somebody you know are interested, send me a note.
I’ve also volunteered for a few things. Accept my apologies here, my friends, for I truly didn’t have time to finish them at the moment. Some got started, but I need more time.
Maybe this is all part of the mid-age thing, being busy and having many things to take care of.
The script below is available in MSDN. I used it a few months ago but it took me some time to find it again, so I decided to put it here for my own reference.
Purpose: find out information on distributor and publisher databases, articles, and publications in Sql Server replication.
–********** Execute at the Distributor in the master database **********–
use master go
–Is the current server a Distributor? –Is the distribution database installed? –Are there other Publishers using this Distributor? exec sp_get_distributor
–Is the current server a Distributor? select is_distributor from sys.servers where name=’repl_distributor’ and data_source=@@servername
–Which databases on the Distributor are distribution databases? select name from sys.databases where is_distributor = 1
–What are the Distributor and distribution database properties? exec sp_helpdistributor exec sp_helpdistributiondb exec sp_helpdistpublisher
–********** Execute at the Publisher in the master database **********–
–Which databases are published for replication and what type of replication? exec sp_helpreplicationdboption
–Which databases are published using snapshot replication or transactional replication? select name as tran_published_db from sys.databases where is_published = 1 –Which databases are published using merge replication? select name as merge_published_db from sys.databases where is_merge_published = 1
–What are the properties for Subscribers that subscribe to publications at this Publisher? exec sp_helpsubscriberinfo
–********** Execute at the Publisher in the publication database **********–
use AdventureWorks go
–What are the snapshot and transactional publications in this database? exec sp_helppublication –What are the articles in snapshot and transactional publications in this database? –REMOVE COMMENTS FROM NEXT LINE AND REPLACE with the name of a publication –exec sp_helparticle @publication=’‘
–What are the merge publications in this database? exec sp_helpmergepublication –What are the articles in merge publications in this database? exec sp_helpmergearticle — to return information on articles for a single publication, specify @publication=’ ‘
–Which objects in the database are published? select name as published_object, schema_id, is_published as is_tran_published, is_merge_published, is_schema_published from sys.tables where is_published = 1 or is_merge_published = 1 or is_schema_published = 1 union select name as published_object, schema_id, 0, 0, is_schema_published from sys.procedures where is_schema_published = 1 union select name as published_object, schema_id, 0, 0, is_schema_published from sys.views where is_schema_published = 1
–Which columns are published in snapshot or transactional publications in this database? select object_name(object_id) as tran_published_table, name as published_column from sys.columns where is_replicated = 1
–Which columns are published in merge publications in this database? select object_name(object_id) as merge_published_table, name as published_column from sys.columns where is_merge_published = 1