Tales Of The Superpower Empire: Episode 4

Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM

[http://www.myblogspace.com/jbaihart]

Bio
Name: Jonathan Baihart
Occupation: Uni Student
Date of Birth: 17/9/1986 (Year of the Ox)
Age: 19
Location: Perth, West Australia, Australia (珀斯,西澳 [Posi, Xi’ao)
Email: jbaihart@student.chu.edu.au

[photo gallery] [video gallery] [links]

Blog 01: 27/2/2006 Title: New Years Resolutions

A New Year and New Year’s resolutions. I have decided to start a blog, to try something new. Lets start of with a introduction.
My name is Jonathan Baihard. I’m a University student, studying History at the Charles Hu University in Perth. I live with two flatmates in Mt Lawley in a small students flat, a fifteen minute bike ride from the Mt Lawley campus of Charles Hu University.
Uh, what else…

Online, I am part of the Literary Circle Forums [www.litcirc.com/discussion], and people seem to like my writing there (shameless plug, The Broken Arrow thirty thousand words and counting! ^_^) so I decided to do a blog to express my inner thoughts or something, and to overuse smilies ^_^.

Oh, I work the Coles in Dianella Plaza part time to support myself. I like going out on the weekends, but not so much that I am willing to do it every week. I have just gotten back from staying with my family in Albany over the Christmas break.

[Photo_01.jpg] this is me out the front of the Albany wind farm, where my father works. Its massive windmills provide 60% if the power for the Greater Southern region.

[Photo_02.jpg] Christmas day in Albany. This is my extended family gathered to celebrate with a barbeque.

[Photo_03.jpg] New Years Eve! Look at all the fireworks! First we went down to the Buddhist temple in the centre of town, and it was amazing, although in Perth it is bigger apparently. Its good being Australian, you get to celebrate two new years ^_^, but because of the large Chinese population in the West we it isn’t celebrated as much as over east. The Chinese New Year is the big one.

[Photo_04.jpeg] More New Years photos. That’s my sister at the parade. Check out the hair on the guy behind her. O.o

Blog 02: 1/3/2006 Title: Back in Perth

Yay! Back in Perth and into the hustle and bustle of the city. My parents don’t like it here, they say its to busy, but I adore it.

[Photo_01.jpeg] This is me (the middle guy, the white one XD) with my two flatmates Kim (the guy with glasses on the left) and Daniel. Kim is studying Computer Science at Charles Hu Uni, while Daniel studies Chemical Engineering at WAIT.

Anyway, enough showing photos and something actually interesting for once eh? ^_^ Enrolment for classes!!!

OK, that may not be so interesting, but anyway…

I am a second year DipEd student, majoring in political science. I hope get a teaching job out off it, but I don’t really want to go and teach out in the middle of nowhere, which is apparently how you get a job these days. I could always just do office work or something, or perhaps get another degree, not to sure yet.

Ok, so enrolment. In order to teach in a bilingual society, I have to have an understanding of Mandarin as well as English. I did Minnan in primary and High School, but to qualify as a teacher I had to have an understanding of Mandarin, even though my Minnan is good enough to teach thirty bored year 10’s about preferential voting, so I have to do a couple of Working with Mandarin units this year to get up to scratch. I can read it fairly well, so that part of the course is fine.

Working again at the Coles Deli, fairly dull as per usual, but somehow we seem to have fun. A new manager for the store arrived when I was on holiday, Mr Hong. He seems like an ok guy, doesn’t try to interfere like the old boss did.

Blog 05: 17/3/2006 Title: The Good times are killing

Before I post my photos of my latest photographic expedition ^_^, I thought I would answer a couple of questions that my fellow members at litcirc.com have given me, since no-one who just reads this decides to comment….

Jedi_Scum asks: Far_Crow, Why do you have to learn Mandarin as a second language? I thought that Australia was an Anglo nation?

Reply: Well, Australia has a majority Anglo population, but at the last census I think it was about a quarter of the total population is Chinese. In West Australia it is closer to half, perhaps more, and mostly located in the capitol of Perth, and the southwest.
[County Party voter voice/] Oh no, my rights as a White male are being compromised! Help, help, I’m being oppressed! [County Party voter voice off]
just kidding: the word ‘compromised’ has about four to many syllables for a Country Party voter to pronounce. ^_^
So, in 1984, Australia became a bilingual nation, with both English and Mandarin the official languages in the Federal level. At state level it is the same in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. In Queensland, Tasmania and West Australia things are slightly different. In West Australia the Chinese came from mainly the province of Fujian, and so instead of Mandarin, Minnan is the second official spoken language. In Queensland and Tasmania there is still no bilingual legislation at state level.

So it can be quite amusing when overseas students, (or even students from over east) attending Mandarin Language classes find it packed to the brim with Posi Chinese. ^_^

Now that the sociology lecture is over ^_^, back on topic.

What a week it has been! First off, I went on my third date with Alison! ^_^ we are getting on really well, I mean really well, if you get my drift ^_-, and that’s the most information I will go into online. If you are that desperate to wank off to someone’s blog then look through my link page. ^_-.

Anyway, the second good part of the week is that I don’t have to work on Thursday nights at work! Because the manager hired a two high school kids to work that shift! So now I can sit at home and get drunk on beer and watch anime all night on Channel 17! Yay for Three Kingdoms and the Zheng He Voyages!

The third part isn’t exactly good news, nor is it bad, but both. My flatmate Daniel got a scholarship to Beida university to continue his degree! ^_^ he leaves once this semester is over in June. It will be sad to see him go, not only because of the fact that the Tianlong -8 and Tianlong -9 are both his, along with half the Action DVDs, but because we need to find another flatmate or Kim and I will end up paying more rent ^_^. There may be some friendship attachment involved somewhere as well…
Anyway, we are out on the weekend to celebrate, so look out Northbridge, as three skinny uni students without much money and don’t like Euro-trash dance music will be catching the bus there on Saturday night ^_^

Here are some photos of my flat…

[Photo_01.jpeg] The ‘spacious’ living room. Note the Central placement of the TV, along with the collection of Sony, Nintendo, Heidian [Black Thunder] and Tianlong [Heavenly Dragon] consoles, along with the stacks and stacks of DVDs, Laser-disks, and video game CDs and cartridges.
Also notice how most of the furniture, nay all the furniture, is from Anji. Took three hours to assemble that damn TV cabinet, but it was worth it. ^_^
At the last count, it was 134 DVDs, the combined collection of all three flatmates. Most are Hong Kong action films and comedies, along with many Shanghai comedies, and a fairly decent collection of Hong Kong horror films from the 1970’s, which Kim insists are classics, but I could do without. The rest are Anime DVDs, mostly Japanese, but also a fair amount of Dianshan sets as well, several entire series, along with movies and OVA’s.
As for the game disks…around 70 different games across five different platforms, although we don’t really use the Tianlong -8, except for a few retro visual novels. The majority of the games are…visual novels. ^_^ there is a fair amount of Horror and action games, along with the standard RPGs.

[Photo_02.jpeg] Ah the balcony. You could almost fit a person on here. Almost. And what a view! As you can see, it presents unprecedented views of…the Cantonese takeaway next door! ^_^ If you lean a little to the left you can see a glimpse of the City lights, as long as the smog isn’t to heavy.

[Photo_03.jepg] the mighty kitchen. Notice the many empty containers of food from the Canto takeaway next door!!! ^_^ Apparently there is an oven in here somewhere, but I doubt it ^_-.

[Photo_04.jpeg] My room. Notice the wallscrolls of many, many different anime and manga. There may be a desk under that pile of manga, empty beer bottles and the Tianlong computer.

That’s about it. ^_^ now back to the booze!

Blog 6: 20/3/2006 Title: Party Time!!!

First off, a correction from my previous blog; Wikipedia and Dannbar from litcirc are my friends. The Chinese make up 19.57% of the population, as of the 2002 Census.

Back to business. What a weekend. Saturday night, to celebrate Dan getting into Beida, we all went out to celebrate.

[Photo_01.jpeg] this is me, Alison, Dan and Kim before we caught a taxi into town. Alison is the one wearing the pink qipao, and that’s me in the blue Sun jacket that I bought when I went to KL last year. Kim is in the Green jacket, and Dan in the yellowy-mustard coloured one.

[Photo_02.jpeg] this is Me and Alison at the Orange Duck, which is a fairly nice Cantonese restaurant in Northbridge, and the Duck is to die for. But wait, how can us poor students afford it? In the time between when I wrote my last blog Dans parents gave him money in order to celebrate. No Cheep Yangtze rice wine for us! ^_^
So, we had four orders of duck, along with some *expensive rice wine ^_^
A question about the name Peking Duck. Shouldn’t it be renamed Beijing Duck or even Xinjing Duck? And what’s the deal with aeroplane food? ^_- Thankyou, I will be hear all week ^_^

[Photo_03.jpeg] Then, off to the Moon nightclub for some cocktails and dancing. The crowd was dressed in a mix of western and Chinese styles, like the American style of wearing a mini-skirt and boob top that some of the girls were wearing (Not that I was looking at the other girls in the crowd ^_-). But not that many of them were, the different varieties of qipao dominated the nightclub.

[Photo_04.jpeg] This is Dan after having a *little bit too much tequila ^_^. This photo is going in the blackmail file, ah aha ha ha.

Blog 10: 4/5/2006: I can really be stupid sometimes

How long have I been at Charles Hu University, almost a year and a half, and only now did I find out who Charles Hu was? How is that possible? Have I really been spending to much time at the Tavern?

Anyway, to celebrate the Universities opening of a new Mandurah campus, along with its fifteenth birthday celebration, a statue of Charles Hu was unveiled in the park at the Mount Lawlwey Campus today. Quite a few VIPs there, such as the Premier Nathanial Lau, the Governor General Peter Beazley, most of the state parliament, and the old man himself.

Who is Charles Hu I hear you ask? Well, in 1973 Charles Hu became the first Chinese-Australian to be elected to federal office, and he came from WA. Such was the significance of this, that they decided to name a university that sprawls three (soon four) campuses, two language schools and five cultural centres across the great state of WA!

[Photo_01.jpeg] here is the aforementioned statue, apparently done in a traditional Chinese style.

Yawn, I’m tired. That’s enough for now. Good night!

Blog 12: 30/6/2006 Title: Happy Financial New Year ^_^

Just a quick one today, a public health warning. Over the next few days watch out for any partying accountants, they are to be considered quite dangerous. If you see any rouge accountants, please contact the local authorities ^_^.

In other news, we said goodbye to Daniel Yeak a couple of days ago, as he flew out to China. I will miss him and his Tianlong consoles and visual novels…

In order to make up the rent, Alison has moved in. Yay! ^_^

This isn’t normally a news blog, but I thought I might mention this.

[link: ABC.gov: Australia signs the Nanking pack] So, it seems that Australia (and New Zealand) will soon be officially in Chinas influence. To paraphrase the ABC article, this morning, Australian Prime Minister David Cooper, the New Zealand Prime Minister Julian Anderson, and the Chinese Prime Minister Yao Zheng signed the Nanking pact, making official what was unofficial for so long. China is our and New Zealand’s primary trading partner, and has been since the mid-90’s. A foreigner need only look at the evidence presented in the culture of Australia. Take, for example my blog (Shameless plug) or say the girly magazine Cosmopolitan that Alison reads. Looking idly at the front cover…

27 Ways that Tai Chi can improve your sex life

Chicks in Cars special: Electric Cars: Why these are the hottest item you can own

How to Feng Shui your room to happiness

99 of the latest party qipaos from the streets of Shanghai.

The latest summer fashions from Paris

Special feature: rediscover your Chinese heritage: Why Chinese parents are choosing old Chinese names now rather then English names.

How to score on the rebound: our five page guide

Of the seven topics listed, four have to deal with issues of Chinese culture. Now idly flicking through the NW gossip magazine…

Photos from the 32nd Chinese Film Awards from Hong Kong.

The Bund style qipao: What you need right now

Paris Hilton in trouble with the law on the party island of Hainan

Exclusive Photos: Manyu Whu caught taking cocaine at Shanghai nightclub!

Again, a gossip mag full of celebrities from around the world, most of them from China, with the Brits and Americans taking in a distant second and third.

Personally, I don’t mind being part of the ‘middle kingdom’. To dispel the naysayers that dominated talkback radio for the last twenty-four hours, we won’t stop speaking English and only speak Chinese, or anything like that. It’s the same sort of agreement as Malaysia or Vietnam or Borneo has with China. Over the next year, we will probably hold some joint military exercises; the Emperor or Chinese PM will visit Australia, etc. One bonus is that China will probably back Australia against Japan in our fight to for Japan to end her whaling program, and if that’s not good news, then I don’t know what is.

To Episode 5

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