The sandstorm early this week was rather big news nationally, sweeping over 11 states in the north and north-east of the country. On the TV news they showed footage from Beijing, where in the middle of the day it looked like someone had just pulled a curtain across the sky and the sun, dimming everything into a yellowy haze.

Yesterday in class we were talking about ideas of beauty, and how the Chinese ones differ from the European or Western ones. I've been wondering at the flat heads of many Chinese, especially men and boys. This is best visible on young kids, who have their heads shaven, and you can see how the back of their head is very oddly flat, and not round like it would normally be. I thought this is just some genetic difference in the shape of the skull, but when I mentioned it to a student, she laughed and said that this is how parents would shape their kids' heads as it's considered to be attractive. Children would be given hard, flat pillows, and some sort of frame to keep their head in place, and press it flat when they are still young and the skull can be shaped. To me, a person with different ideas of beauty and what looks good, the flat heads just look seriously strange.

From what I hear, appearances are extreme important in the Chinese society. For example, I was told that employers pay great attention to what the candidates for a job look like, if they are considered to have 'prosperous' or 'successful' looks, they are far more likely to be employed in a higher position than those unfortunate ones who just look common or even ugly. For a man, the desired looks would include a round face, well-proportioned facial features, a flat head (of course) and they should preferably be a little plump, if not even fat. When I tried to ask what would be the ideal looks for women, I was told this is more complicated... But I have noticed that they find different women beautiful than I do, sometimes a gorgeous student of mine will present a friend of hers to me as the "most beautiful girl in the class according to everyone". And somehow these "most beautiful girls" never seem that special to me, while I find some other apparently plain-looking ones to be really beautiful. And the Chinese always wonder at the ugly Chinese women who manage to become movie stars or singers in the West...

Finally, some new pictures are up, a couple taken on the train to Beijing last weekend and a couple of flowery, springy photos I took on campus this afternoon, while waiting for a student at the main gate. And something scary: The Invasion of the Giant Doves.