Of phones, bikes and poodles
Hi there, this is Owen and this is my podcast for Friday 24th April, 2015. I hope you are all well and that you had a nice Easter. The weather was fabulous here for the last month. Every day is warm and sunny. I live very close to the main Yunnan University campus. It's a nice campus with lots of cherry trees. For a couple of [1] weeks all the trees were in full blossom [2] – all pink and white. They looked beautiful. Spring is the dry season in Yunnan, so people are very worried [3] about fires in the countryside. Last weekend I went camping in the countryside, and it was very dry and windy. You're not allowed to light any fires, but I'm sure the government was a little worried because it was Tomb Sweeping Day. It's a special day when you visit the graves, or tombs [4] of your family. In Switzerland, the tradition is to go on November 1st – in the autumn. In China, it's in the spring. You go to visit the tombs to honour your ancestors [5], to respect the dead members of your family. In Yunnan the graves of the ancestors are often in forests on the tops of mountains. And what do people do there? Well, they clean their ancestors' tombs but they also burn incense [6] and paper money and they let off fireworks. It's all a bit risky in Yunnan at this time of the year. Fortunately I didn't hear about any forest fires. Today I will tell you about an amazing story which was a big hit on the internet in China. Then I have a story about something that I bought, and the story of a dog named Muffin.
There was a great story in the news about a stolen phone. It all started in New York more than a year ago. An American journalist was sitting in a bar in New York, when somebody stole [7] his iPhone. He later bought a new iPhone. After a few months, something strange started to happen. He began to get strange pictures on his new phone - pictures which he hadn't taken. Some of the pictures were of a Chinese man standing in front of an orange tree. This continued for a couple of months – strange pictures on his new phone. Where did they come from? He had no idea. Then a friend asked him ‘Did you recently lose an iPhone?' The friend then told him that his old iPhone was probably now in China. Apparently [8] this is where most stolen iPhones end up [9]. And because the stolen phone was still connected to his iCloud account, the American could see pictures from the new user of his old phone. The journalist then wrote an article with the title: ‘Who is this man and why are his pictures showing up on my phone?' and posted it online. Somebody in China saw this article, translated it into Chinese and posted it on Weibo. Weibo is like Chinese Twitter. Next thing the American journalist started receiving lots of messages on Twitter from people in China: “We'll find this man,” they said. They named him ‘Orange Tree Man' because of the photo of him in front of the orange tree. The story quickly became the top story on Weibo. And amazingly [10], it only took a few hours before they found ‘Orange Tree Man' in Guangdong province. The American journalist then joined Weibo so that he could contact the ‘Orange Tree Man'. Soon the American had 100'000 followers on Weibo. Some of his followers asked him to teach them English, so he started doing short English lessons which he posted on his Weibo account. Before long he was quite famous in China. Next he decided to travel to China to meet ‘Orange Tree Man'. He flew to Beijing and then took a flight to the south of China. On the plane somebody recognized him. They knew his face from the internet. He was surprised. Then when he arrived in Guangdong, ‘Orange Tree Man' was there to welcome him with about 100 people from all the media in China – photographers, camera crews and journalists. He was now really famous in China. He couldn't believe it. For the next seven days, the American and ‘Orange Tree Man' visited all the local places, ate lots, drank lots, and all the time there were lots of journalists and camera crews with them. In the end, the two of them were made ambassadors for American-Chinese friendship. A truly amazing and bizarre story made possible by the internet and social media.
The traffic in Kunming is very bad. There are too many cars and not enough parking spaces. The government tries to limit the number of cars in the cities. It seems that everybody in China wants to buy a car, but the government makes it difficult. One of the ways the government limits the number of cars in Chinese cities is to make it difficult to get a new number plate [11]. In Beijing, for example, there is a number plate lottery every month. Every adult who is registered [12] in Beijing and has a driver's licence [13] can apply for one number plate. If you are lucky you get a number plate. If you are unlucky you can wait for years to get a number plate for your car. It's also difficult to get a number plate for a scooter or motorbike, but an e-bike doesn't need a number plate. The E in e-bike stands for ‘electric'. Vittoria and I bought an e-bike. We bought a second-hand one at a market in town. And then we bought a big lock [14] for it. We were always very careful where we parked it and that we locked it. Last week we got home late at night but the gate at our apartment complex was locked [15]. So we had to leave our e-bike in front of the gate. In the morning it was still there with the lock but in the night somebody stole the battery. We only bought it last month. And a new battery will cost us the same as the whole bike. But at least [16] we had our bike for more than a month. That's not bad for an e-bike in Kunming, people tell me. Stealing bikes and e-bikes is a big problem in Kunming. A friend of mine bought a second-hand mountain bike the other week [17]. He knew the problem. So he wanted to make his bike unattractive to steal. He painted [18] it in lots of different colours – with all the colours of a rainbow [19]. But it didn't help. After a few days somebody stole it. He was very angry. I'm sure that he won't see it again. I think that the bicycle thieves [20] steal the bikes in Kunming but they sell them in a different city.
At the moment we're looking after a friend's dog. The dog's name is Muffin and she's a poodle. She was born in Thailand and when her owner moved to Kunming, she somehow smuggled [21] her into China. Muffin is very smart [22] and very human almost. It's the second time she has stayed with us. She knows us and she knows our apartment. But she's a nervous dog. For the first two days she refused to eat. She doesn't like walking much, but that's good because we live on the 7th floor of our apartment building, and there's no lift so we don't like going in and out too often. She hates other dogs and children and she will only eat her food if you warm it up in the microwave first. As I told you before, our apartment is next to the zoo. You can see the zoo from the living room window. All day we can hear animal sounds: elephants, bears, monkeys and lots of birds. Now little Muffin is also a bit confused [23] by all the sounds. She spends a lot of time looking out of the living room window barking [24] at the zoo.
The May Day holiday is in a couple days. Vittoria is going to visit her friend in Hainan. Hainan is an island off the south coast of China. I haven't decided what I will do. Maybe I will explore an area of Yunnan I don‘t know yet, but I'll tell you more next time. As always, thank you for listening. A special thank you to Lorena from Ecuador who wrote an interesting comment on the website. My father, Gerry, will be back in two weeks. I'll be back on May 22nd. Remember that you can listen to all our podcasts on our website www.podclub.ch or by downloading our app. Until next month! Bye!
Glossaire: Owen in China [1] a couple of: two
[2] blossom: the flowers on a tree, for example a cherry or an apple tree
[3] worried: nervous, not happy
[4] tomb: the place where a dead person is buried (we also say “grave”) and where there is a stone or a monument to remember them
[5] honour your ancestors: pay respect to all the members of your family who lived before you
[6] incense: something you burn (for example in a church) that smells good
[7] stole: took illegally (steal, stole, stolen)
[8] apparently: it seems, it looks like
[9] end up: finally arrive
[10] amazingly: surprisingly
[11] number plate: a piece of metal with the official number of the car on it (e.g. BE 2456)
[12] registered: here: If people are registered they inform the government where they live so they live in the city legally.
[13] driver's licence: a permit to drive a car
[14] lock: a thing with a key (or a combination of numbers) to stop somebody opening a door or taking something.
[15] locked: closed with a lock
[16] at least: as a minimum
[17] the other week: recently, a week or two ago
[18] painted: covered in colour
[19] rainbow: When the sun shines and it rains at the same time, you get a rainbow.
[20] thieves: people who steal things (thief, thieves)
[21] smuggled: brought (into China) illegally
[22] smart: here: clever
[23] confused: made uncertain
[24] barking: making the noise that a dog makes
