Chapter 230

I knew I wouldn’t beat that video game addiction out of me, but I could also force myself to do other shit. So I was on my feet before 6 AM and ran to the lake and back, a good 8 km. It felt great. I even got the nod and thumbs up from a sinewy old man who looks like he’s been running marathons since 1952.

I took the dog out for a bit, took a shower and then we went to the Marriott hotel for the breakfast buffet. A British pal goes there once a week so we joined him, gorging ourselves on eggs, bacon, noodles, fruit juice and various Chinese and western staples. A good time was had by all. We talked about various topics, one being the recent news about the government imposing rules on education, banning (or seriously impeding) after-hours cram schools from operating. Chinese students are squeezed like sponges from age 3 onwards, staying in school from the crack of dawn until 10 or 11 PM, and getting dubious tutoring on the weekends and holidays, anything to get a slight competitive edge for the cut-throat university entry exams. Well, no more, Big Brother says. Apparently this comes in the wake of the slacking of the one-child policy and other population control measures; in fact, now the government wants people to make more children, and the main objection was “How are we gonna afford all those cram schools then?!” So they do have the interests of the middle class at heart, sometimes. And maybe also they considered how goddamn unhealthy the whole system is.

Now, of course, this will greatly affect a significant portion of the foreign population, many of whom are employed as English teachers in training centers that operate exactly in the type of after-hours slots that are targeted by that new regulation. And on top of that, the big wall of text that’s been shared on social media (a confusing and clumy translation in English, and the original Chinese that uses too much legalese and complicated terminology for me to want to squint and decipher) talked about restricting teaching jobs held by foreign nationals and to prioritize the Chinese. Ah well. We’ll see what will happen with that. I think my job is safe for the time being but there’s been rumors about those types of “international” high schools that have been mushrooming in China over the past decade also being red taped to death. What can a boy do?

I went back home, played Warband all afternoon and then took a nap before going to the gym. We had a great jiu-jitsu session, and I did some light boxing sparring too. Afterwards we all went to eat Xinjiang barbecue. I don’t like the place that much, it’s always crowded and deafeningly loud, the service is of adequate speed considering how busy they are but the Uyghur waiters are always a bit surly, but they have an ideal location downtown so people often want to go there when it comes time to consume grilled mutton skewers. I much prefer the other Xinjiang restaurant, but hey, a great time was had by all.