ChunZhu (蠢猪 – Stupid Pig) is a mid twenties male Cantonese-Chinese-American from a lower middle working class immigrant family. I attended the University of California Berkeley and graduated after four years with a degree in International Political Economy. I am currently working as an English trainer at Microsoft Beijing’s Advanced Technology Center.
I am a jack of all trades and master of none. I was a mediocre student at Berkeley, usually ranked just above the mean, participating occasionally in classes, and gained minor respect from a small number of my professors. I speak English, Spanish, Cantonese, and Mandarin, but am fluent (barely) only in English and am nearly illiterate when it comes to Chinese. I have worked a variety of jobs and performed adequately though without any distinction, starting out as a janitor at a movie theatre before becoming a dishwasher, photographer’s assistant, resident’s adviser, event assistant, accountant, an English teacher at a Guangdong university, and now, an English trainer.
I did some volunteering as a tutor for new immigrant children in Chinatown and was a high school cross country assistant coach in my spare time. I participated in a large variety of sports, gaining a yellow belt and an award in judo, ran a decent but unremarkable time at the Bay to Breakers, and rumbled with my friends during weekend backyard football games. I played many computer games but rarely to the end, was involved in the development of a text based online game but quit after coding a raccoon, and wrote after action reports which were nominated for a hall of fame award, though it failed to win.
I am nothing special. I go through life doing what I want and what is necessary, rarely amazing or disgusting anyone in the process. I write this blog for no purpose and don’t expect this thing to become very popular. I predict that due to lack of interest, this blog will soon fade away like the millions of other abandoned blogs out there after a few months of obscurity…
…but while it’s around, I hope you enjoy the words of Stupid Pig. Thank you for reading.
I appreciate this page. Does that count?
Hell yes it counts.
Hey,
I found your blog by following the link left on my China Digital Times article on Women in rock bands. I am hoping to go to China this this June and find a job. I see you teach English at the Microsoft Center. I would really like to get some information. Could you email me? Thanks. M.A.G.
Hello MAG,
Well, I don’t have your e-mail, so I’ll just write a whole entry about it in my blog. Let me know if you have any more questions.
Hi, I have really enjoyed your articles and views of China. i rather agree with them. I am a Wandering Irishman currently in Vietnam , teaching and living , normally resident in Australia, or Canada, or back home in Ireland.
Thanks for the kind words.
hi there stupid pig,
your article is interesting… i got this link from the Dalai Lama org site. would love to hear from you more.
May I inquire as to where in Northern California you grew up?
Great blog! I am adding Stupid Pig to my Blogroll right now! I guess you were born in a year of the pig?
Martin
http://erguotou.wordpress.com
@madison – thanks, glad you like it. what’s the Dalai Lama org site?
@chang – a little south of Oakland
@erguotou – thanks. actually born year of the rat, my dad just called me stupid pig as a term of endearment… or resentment
This is quite a packed site you have here, i love the topics and opinions, which i must say i agree with on many fronts. I’ve been living in Ningbo for a year and a half, and many of my views on China have changed from my perceptions in college. What motivates you to write? How many hours do you spend per week? Do you plan to stay here for awhile?
Keep up the good work, I have a new favorite bookmark.
@jonathan – Glad you enjoy the blog. Motivates me? Well, I’ve studied Chinese economic development in college and now I’m in China, so I just thought I’d put my general thoughts down for all the world to read and criticize. Hours per week… I would say about an hour a day. And plan to stay… I’m going back to school in a couple months so I might not be writing as much, but until then my output should stay relatively constant. Hope to see your comments in the future!
I just recently discovered your blog and I’m hooked! I loooove it!
Uh, my brain’s fried right now so that will be all. Next time I’ll try to write something more substantial.
@joni – Glad you like it, hope your brain gets better!
I linked you to my page.
^That still isn’t very substantial, is it? Oh well.
hello I have a question:
I am moving to china from september and I have a wordpress blog. I hear that is not visible in china, is yours?
If so how did you do it?
Thank you
@ Jakob – I work for Microsoft so we don’t have to deal with the Great Firewall. WordPress got unblocked a month or so ago, but I think it might be blocked again.
I’m not sure if you can log in using anonymouse or not, but yeah… maybe vidalia and privoxy combo might work for you. Good luck.
I love this blog
Ahh…I am from your old stomping grounds. I live in the Bay area. I’m not your typical left wing/ leftover hippie Californian. I’m a transplant who thinks of herself as moral leaven for the California culture.
Hi, I found your blog because I was trying to find out if I could bring some cheese to China. I come out out to Beijing relatively frequently and put up with eating all your crazy foods and I thought it would be fun to have a cheese and wine evening with my girlfriend as retaliation. I am always going on about cheeses because I start craving it whan I’m out there and she is really interested.
What do you think, can I bring a few samples on the plane or is it illegal?
ChunZhun – I came across your blog while doing research on the California Propositions for the government class I teach at a high school here in Sacramento. My husband and son are Cal grads (I’m a Bruin, myself) and I just cracked up when I read your response to the “Humane Treatment of Animals” prop. Anyone who has spent a goodly amount of time on or near this campus/city comes away a bit jaded–especially if they are balanced and moderate about all things that really matter. People in Berkeley will politicize anything. I’m waiting for them to propose a ban on Duct tape–because it might hurt the sensibilities of the avian population…not that I expect to “quack-up” anybody reading this…
So, what exactly is the biggest mis-conception the Chinese have about us Americans?????
read quite a few of your posts. interesting observations. but, as an westerner, living in china only for few years. probably 99% of time you spent there was in big cities, would help you very little to understand the history and culture of china.
@Robert – I think you can bring cheese to China. I think it just has to be sealed or something. Or maybe my cousin was lucky when he brought it over for me.
@ Chipper – Mis-conceptions? Well, I’m an american and I’m neither white nor do I own a gun. There’s quite a few, but there’s a quite a few misconceptions that Americans have about Chinese people too.
@IPsnort – Your statement is pretty general… someone can live in a single their whole life in America and know very little about what people call American ‘culture’ or ‘history’. And also, it seems like you’re saying only the countryside would teach someone about Chinese culture and history. A lot of Chinese city folk spend 100% of their live sin the big cities. Does that mean they don’t know anything about Chinese history and culture?
If there’s one thing that I learned from being in China, it’s that all of China is real and the foreigners who go living in some tiny village with minority folk in Ningxia for the purpose of learning about ‘real’ China actually do it for the sole purpose of being cooler than the ones who work in the big cities.
Hey Chenzhu,
It is interesting that I should find this blog because a couple of people said that “ZHuno” means “stupid pig”. I am under the impression that it is not actually a word in the chinese vocabulary… I suppose that is maybe unlikely, but due to the fact that so many people were unsure about giving it a definition it possibly is not. Not only that but it would have been snapped up as a 5 letter domain… even if it meant stupid pig! I got it only 4-5 months from now.
If my site (zhuno.com) got famous then I would imagine that it would be unsettling if it meant “stupid pig” in China. As far as I am concerned it means whatever I want it to mean
. Well… it is not a word in the english language anyway; so it does mean whatever I want it to mean I suppose.
Do you have any suggestions as to whether “ZHuno” means anything in Chinese transcription? After all, transcription is only transcription! All the letters I am using in the domain name are european of course…
Nate
Hey Chunzhu,
I’m Leon. I speak English, Mandarin, Cantonese and take Spanish in high school. Also, my Mandarin is crappy and I only know like 200 Chinese words, but my Gong Dong Wah is pretty good!
Have you taken a personality test? I’m ENFP. It seems that I will be like you in the future since I jump around from thing to thing and don’t commit. Videos at youtube.com/yumyumshisha. Yumyumshisha!