One of the standard Chinese things to do is watch American TV shows on your computer. Most of them have Chinese subtitles, which you can’t turn off. I bought a comfortable beach chair from WuMei (not the one you see above) and every lunch (when I am not eating experimental foods with Cynthia or one of the students in the canteen) I have a grilled cheese sandwich or tuna salad sandwich, carrots, Pringles and a Pepsi Lite for lunch and watch one or two episodes of a TV show. I know I am probably violating a bunch of American copyright laws but I am in China and I do as the Chinese do. It is very common for the Chinese to download (VERRRRYYY SLOOOWWLY) whole seasons of a TV series, movies, and of course music. It literally takes 2-3 days to download an hour show. But if you are desperate to see the next episode of Prison Break you will leave the computer on for days at a time and let it download 24-7.
I don’t plan on bringing them back into the US because I am not stuffing my precious Mac with the TV shows. I am filling up a cheap portable 80 gig hard drive that I bought for $ 40, which is running on the university’s Windows computer. I plan on donating it to the next American TV show starved teacher - rather than risk the wrath of the US Customs agents. I watch a complete season series before I switch to a different TV show. I have seen all of Prison Break, Gray’s Anatomy, O.C., Smallville, House, Numbers, and My Name is Earl. I am still downloading 24, Boston Legal, and Lost. Anyone have any suggestions of new shows that I have missed and might like? You can sort of guess my tastes from the above samples. I am tired of all the gore on the CSI shows so don’t suggest any of them. Even though they have Survivor episodes available, they are lacking some of my favorite shows such as Gilmore Girls, and Monk.
Someone asked me if there are American movies here. Yes, in fact most of them are American movies with Chinese subtitles or dubbed in Chinese. I went to see the Di Vinci Code in HangZhou with the Chinese subtitles and it was fine until they started speaking in Latin or French or Spanish. Obviously, I was unable to read the Chinese subtitles to figure out what they were saying. The cost of a big screen movie is very expensive for the Chinese (55 Yuan) which converts to about the same as the US (6-7 dollars) but the snacks were really cheap when compared to US prices. Boo-Hiss, No senior citizen discount. You can also download movies onto your computer for free but it isn’t the same. I like seeing Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey on the big screen and I am willing to pay for that.
