Blogaround

Fiona the baby hippo. Image source.

1. Aladdin Makes No Sense (posted September 28) "Also if the cave says 'only one can enter' but then clearly allows two, maybe it just means that the rules don't apply to Abu. But then how come they all of a sudden apply to Abu when he touches the giant ruby?"

2. omg are you following Fiona the baby hippo (from the Cincinnati Zoo)? She is the cutest thing ever! Here watch this video and see how cute she is. She was born premature and it's really amazing how hard people worked to help her survive.

3. Honest Trailers - Star Trek: The Next Generation (posted September 26) lololol

4. Every Member of Congress Who Took Money From the NRA and Tweeted 'Thoughts and Prayers' to Las Vegas (posted October 2) Vote them all out.

5. A Few Remarks on the Problem of Psalm 22:16 (posted 2015) "There is widespread agreement among critical scholars (including all those surveyed here) that Psalm 22 is not a depiction of crucifixion, and that the Septuagint’s translation of “dig” is incorrect."

Blogaround

A chinchilla. The Chinese word for chinchilla is 龙猫 [lóng māo] which literally translates to "dragon cat." I will be forever delighted by this. Image source.

1. Apocalyptic upbringing: how I recovered from my terrifying evangelical childhood (posted April 5) "In the evangelical Christian world of midwest America, it was normal for adults to tell children they would probably never grow old. The end could and would come any minute now."

2. Do we need to be saved like Saul of Tarsus was saved? (posted April 10) "Our sin + infinite debt = Jesus’ crucifixion OR our eternal torture in hell. None of the history matters. None of the nuances of language matter. All of the references to Jesus’ cross that don’t talk about it in terms of paying a sin debt can be cast aside and ignored."

3. The Disgusting Hypocrisy of the Anti-Trans Bathroom Movement (posted April 15) "However, when the issue becomes gun rights and not bathroom rights, this group switches sides dramatically."

4. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Lead (posted April 17)

5. What Everyone Is Missing about the Indiana Abortion Law (posted April 18) Oh god this is terrible.

6. Why I Hate Jesus (posted April 18) "Over the years, I have had a number of people write me about how the modern Jesus was ruining their marriage. In many instances, the married couple started out as believers, and somewhere along way, one of them stops believing. The still-believing spouse can’t or won’t understand why the other spouse no longer believes. They make it clear that Jesus is still very important to them and if forced to choose between their spouse and family, they would choose Jesus. Simply put, they love Jesus more than they love their families." Yeah I also hate this version of Jesus.

7. Boundary Setting vs Tone Policing (posted March 24) "There’s a difference between 'Please don’t speak to me that way' and 'You shouldn’t use that kind of angry language; nobody will listen to you that way.'" This is a really interesting article. I've always found tone-policing to be a tricky and complicated concept (and I'm not even sure I agree with feminists who call it out and talk about how tone-policing is bad)- definitely not as straightforward as feminists on the internet make it seem.

8. A Ritual for Renaming and Remembrance of Baptism (posted April 11) "Let's celebrate the changes in the lives of trans folks just like we celebrate new births, marriages, confirmations, graduations, retirement, and all other transitional moments!"

Have a good week, everyone!

Chinese Seeing-Eye Dogs are the Cutest Things

I'm writing this post because, you guys, look how cute and smart these dogs are. But actually, turns out it's more serious than that: in China, a country with 1.3 billion people, millions of whom are blind, there are only around 50 or 60 seeing-eye dogs. There's a huge need- for more people to get dogs and for society to accept the rights of blind people to walk around with their dogs in public places.

The Chinese word for "seeing-eye dog" is 导盲犬 [dǎo máng quǎn]. 导[dǎo] means "guide", 盲[máng] means "blind", 犬[quǎn] means "dog". (In your Chinese 101 class, you may have learned that 狗[gǒu] means dog. You're right! Good job paying attention in your class! Usually we use 狗[gǒu]. For example, if you want to say "I have a dog" or any everyday sentence about something a dog did, you say 狗[gǒu]. 犬[quǎn] is a more official word which is used in the names of specific breeds of dogs, or in this case, the official name for seeing-eye dogs. Sort of like in English we have "dog" and "canine", where "canine" is way more official/scientific. To be clear, I am NOT saying that 犬[quǎn] means "canine"; usually it should be translated as "dog". 犬[quǎn] is more official than 狗[gǒu], just like "canine" is more official than "dog", but the cutoff between 犬[quǎn] and 狗[gǒu] is at a very different place than the cutoff between "canine" and "dog". Translation is hard.)

I found several videos showing guide dogs in China:

Video 1: China View: Clearer future for China's guide dogs



I put this one first on the list because it's in English. It's about the dog training center in Dalian, a city in northeast China. The center was founded in 2006 and seems to be the only training center for guide dogs in China.

Video 2: 导盲犬Candie [Candie the guide dog]



This is a nice video showing Candie, a yellow lab who works as a guide dog in Beijing. Candie was born in California and trained in the US; you can see her owner giving her commands in English. Other than that, the whole video is in Chinese. For y'all who can't understand Chinese, I still think this video is worth watching because it shows a lot of very normal everyday-life things in a big Chinese city like Beijing. You can see what it's like to ride the subway [5:35-11:00], walk on the street [4:00-5:35], go to a taichi class [11:00-14:30], etc.

"Turn right." Qin Lian gives commands to Candie in English. (Click image to see larger version.)

People on the subway sneakily take pictures of Candie. (Click image to see larger version.)

Beijing subway. (Click image to see larger version.)

Candie waits while her person is at tai chi class. (Click image to see larger version.)

Random people pet Candie and tell her she's a good dog. (Click image to see larger version.)

Qin Lian and Candie. (Click image to see larger version.)

Playing. (Click image to see larger version.)

Grocery shopping. (Click image to see larger version.)

Customers at the grocery store pet Candie. Candie's owner tells them not to pet her when she's working. (Click image to see larger version.)

The video mainly focuses on the dog, rather than the owner. However, near the end of the video [23:10-27:40] we see that the owner, Qin Lian, is involved in programs to educate the public about guide dogs.

Qin Lian lets people pet Candie, and teaches them about guide dogs. (Click image to see larger version.)

Video 3: 你是我的眼 [You are my eyes]



This video focuses on Chen Yan, a 19-year-old blind girl who has a guide dog named Jenny. Again, it's entirely in Chinese, but again, it's nice because you can see pretty typical everyday scenes in China.

This video is a lot of talking- Chen Yan talks about her dreams, sometimes sounding hopeful and sometimes not. (At one point, she mentions that some people think the only job blind people can do is give massages. THIS IS A THING IN CHINA. There are special massage places which advertise that their masseuses are blind. Supposedly blind people are really good at it.) She feels a big responsibility: because she is lucky enough to have a guide dog, she believes she should travel and take the dog to as many places as possible, and also work to advocate for acceptance of guide dogs in Chinese culture.

Chen Yan talks about her dreams- including playing the piano. Actually she plays very well. (Click image to see larger version.)

Chen Yan and Jenny. (Click image to see larger version.)

Chen Yan and Jenny eating ice cream together. (Click image to see larger version.)

Jenny. So cute and so hardworking. (Click image to see larger version.)

Chen Yan helps to educate people about guide dogs. Here she is having Jenny lead this boy around. (Click image to see larger version.)

A volunteer stands outside a store, holding a sign that says, "我愿意与导盲犬一起买酸奶。 [I am willing to buy yogurt with a guide dog.]" Advocating for the right to bring guide dogs into stores and other public places. (Click image to see larger version.)

Video 4: 自然密码 [Natural Code]



自然密码 [zìrán mìmǎ] ("Natural Code") is a nature documentary show, and this episode is about seeing-eye dogs. (Again, it's all in Chinese.) There is a bunch of footage of the training school in Dalian, and it also discusses the need for more education and advocacy for the rights of blind people in Chinese society.

A group of dogs playing together at the training school. All of them are labs or golden retrievers. (Click image to see larger version.)

Trainer and dog. (Click image to see larger version.)

This dog is named Sherry. (Click image to see larger version.)

Sherry and her person at the subway station. (Click image to see larger version.)

This video is fun because you see a lot of how the dogs are trained. My ABSOLUTE FAVORITE PART [10:05-11:15] is when the dog and trainer are walking on the sidewalk, and the trainer pretends to run into a post and fall down. He then gives this entire monologue to the dog, in Chinese, about how you need to pay attention to stuff like that, blocking the sidewalk, and when you're with your blind owner you better not let them run into stuff. Meanwhile the dog is just wagging its tail and jumping around so happily.

As the trainer gives a speech about how you can't let your person run into stuff, the dog jumps on him happily. (Click image to see larger version.)

Trainer: "Come look at what this is."
Dog: "This is the happiest day of my life." (Click image to see larger version.)

Trainer: "Get it? In the future you'll remember, right?" (Click image to see larger version.)

Training the dogs to not be distracted by anything. Like, for example, a chicken leg dangling in front of them. (Click image to see larger version.)

Massive group of dogs playing. (Click image to see larger version.)

Sherry and her person. (Click image to see larger version.)

There were a few points in the videos where the dogs' owners got into arguments over their right to bring the dog into a public place. In video 3, at the 9:30 mark, Chen Yan is yelling at a grocery store employee who won't let her bring the dog into the store. In video 4, at the 25:05 mark, Sherry's person (sorry, I didn't catch her name) argues with a taxi driver who won't let the dog in the taxi. (A lot of yelling about "she doesn't bite!") Before he drives away, she tells him she's going to make a note of his taxi ID number and report him. As far as I can tell, legally, people have the right to bring a guide dog to all these public places, but in reality, they often get stopped and not allowed in.

Overall, though, the videos showed that most people in public who saw the dogs were curious about them. There were a lot of people taking cell phone photos, lots of comments about how well trained the dogs are, and lots of petting the dogs (which they're totally not supposed to do).

Several of the dogs' blind owners talked about how much their dogs changed their lives and helped them become more independent. Hopefully, in China's future, even more people will have that opportunity.

Blogaround

Image source.

1. With No Google, the Incarcerated Wait for the Mail (posted January 25) "For one, people trying to get degrees while behind bars are at a disadvantage when it comes to research materials. Also, missing out on technological advances while in prison makes reintegrating into the real world more challenging."

2. Christian Creationist Youth Minister: 'I Was Discriminated Against By The Bakery Based On My Creed' (posted January 22) "Bill Jack last year walked into a small privately-owned Denver, Colorado bakery and demanded they bake him a cake decorated to look like a bible, with the words 'god hates homosexuality' written on it, and an image of two men holding hands, with a large 'x' over it." TOTALLY WHAT JESUS WOULD DO, YES?

3. What We Get Wrong About Sex Trafficking (posted January 27) "What, you didn’t suffer electric shock? You didn’t have your eye gouged out? You weren’t chained in someone’s basement? You’re more than 18 years old? You weren’t a virgin? Well! Will someone bring out the real victims please?"

4. The caveat of ‘being saved’ (posted January 28) "Does saying, 'God spared me' somehow negate the importance of all the other human beings who were not spared?"

5. If Disney Princesses Had Realistic Hair (posted January 26) Yep.

6. The Problem with Christian Facial Hair (posted January 23) "I’m not ignorant enough to think that the only reason women lust is due to how gorgeous a man’s facial hair is. I’m not blaming men at all."

Blogaround

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1. The Other Lie (posted September 9) "'As a white man,' he said, 'I have been taught that I was created to lead everyone else.'"

2. The Rabbi Shofar and the Dog. I laughed so much.

3. Pope Francis Marries 20 Couples, Including Some 'Living In Sin' (posted September 14)

4. The Afghan Girls Who Live as Boys (posted September 8) "Niima could never work in the store as a girl, nor could her mother, even if she wanted to."

5. Reclusive Deity Hasn’t Written A New Book In 2,000 Years (posted September 16) "In His first book, He created this dense, sprawling, multifaceted universe, and there are readers out there clamoring to know what’s happened to all those characters since the Bible ended."

6. White People Problems (posted September 17) "Yes, he feels that the fate of the planet is hanging in the balance, but in his everyday life political issues impinge on him because they affect his relationship with his dad, not because they threaten his personal safety or access to jobs or justice. But this discrepancy is exactly my point."

7. How Playing Good Christian Housewife Almost Killed Me (posted September 18) "As Deb went over each aspect of the Power & Control wheel, I began to realize that, yes, of course, all of these elements were present in my marriage ... it’s just that we had different names for these things ... we had chapter and verse to teach us that power and control is actually good and godly. We called it 'Agape Love' - it’s the kind of love which God has for His creation ...this was the relationship we were supposed to use as our model between husband and wife."

8. Against Sharing (posted September 19) "Drivers rushed to sign up, and thousands leased and bought cars just to work for Uber — especially immigrants and low-income people desperate for a well-paying job in a terrible economy."

9. Adrian Peterson and Black Parenting (posted September 19) "Black parents beat their children to keep them from misbehaving in the eyes of whites who had the power to send black youth to their deaths for the slightest offense."

10. And these goats:

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 Have a good week!

Blogaround

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1. Jesus Is Not Our Zoloft: Reflections on Mental Health and the Church (posted March 31) "Jesus will not supernaturally make your mental health better or easier to manage. What makes your mental health better or easier to manage is everything Jesus cannot do: psychotherapy, medication, and supportive care .... Sure, a support group at your church may help you manage your bipolar disorder. But that’s your support group providing supportive care, not Jesus. Thank Jesus if you want for being the reason your church exists in the first place, but don’t pretend Jesus gives you the supportive care himself."

2. #IfTheyGunnedMeDown Shows How Black People Are Portrayed in Mainstream Media (posted August 11) "#iftheygunnedmedown which picture would they use?"

3. World's first surviving panda triplets are 'very healthy' (posted August 13) So cute! Thank you, baby pandas, for filling the world with cuteness. See also this article from the Chinese side of the internet.

4. America Is Not For Black People (posted August 12) "By all accounts, Brown was One Of The Good Ones. But laying all this out, explaining all the ways in which he didn't deserve to die like a dog in the street, is in itself disgraceful. Arguing whether Brown was a good kid or not is functionally arguing over whether he specifically deserved to die, a way of acknowledging that some black men ought to be executed."

5. On Race, the Benefit of the Doubt, and Complicity (posted August 15) "Surely I had heard him wrong. I’ve been doing this all my life—giving people the benefit of the doubt, imagining that racism is largely a thing of the past, not nearly as bad as they say."

6. SWAT Wedding Photos Shot in Chongqing Go Viral (posted July 27) Awesome!

Praising God in General

God made a world the contains baby deer and kittens. God is the best! Image source.

The writer of Psalm 104 has a lot of praise for God, and for once it's praise I can actually agree with. Because it's very general.

God "set the earth on its foundations."

God "makes springs pour water into the ravines."

"He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate."

"All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time."

Baby flamingo, you guys. Image source.

You guys, the world is beautiful and awesome, and God made it that way. He gave us this fantastic earth, with rivers and mountains and animals and cities full of people and all the awesome, rich diversity that is humanity.

Most of the time, life is great.

And I can agree with this psalm because everything is so general. God made the world. Stuff in the world is pretty awesome.

Just don't go crediting God with specific happenings. God helped you find a job? God healed you when you had a cold? God made the bus come on time so you wouldn't be late for work? I don't know about that. If God has a hand in micromanaging every little event, then he'd better explain why so many awful things happen in the world every day. He can help you find your keys, but he can't be bothered to keep children safe from violence and war?

In the past, I think I prayed too much. I prayed about EVERYTHING. Because the more you pray, the better, right? Every little thing, every tiny problem I had, I prayed about. I remember once, after coming back home from the grocery store, I realized I forgot to buy ice cream. It didn't make sense- if God is with me, if he is so close and he can speak to me all the time, why wouldn't he remind me about the ice cream?

And I remember the first time I came to China, it was a mission trip, and there were a few things that didn't go as planned, resulting in about a week of what felt like wasted time. Didn't God care that I had gotten friends and family to pay thousands of dollars to send me all the way across the world, in his name? How could this happen? I know the laws of nature don't care who gets inconvenienced, but man, doesn't God care? Shouldn't he make it less likely for that stuff to happen to me, because I/donors had spent so much money on that trip- and in his name?

I don't believe he intervenes like that anymore. Yes, sometimes, but generally no. So I don't feel like I can pray and ask him to do stuff, or thank him for things that happened. (Even though the bible has a ton of examples of people doing just that.)

But back to Psalm 104. He made the world, and it's great- in general.

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This post is part of a link-up on the topic of Psalm 104. To read other people's posts, click here: Fleeing the Headlines and Finding My Faith.

Blogaround

1. The Tanks and the People (posted June 3) "Twenty-five years ago, before the Tiananmen massacre, my father told me: 'Son, be good and stay at home, never provoke the Communist Party.'"

2. Ghosts of Tiananmen (posted June 4) Photos.

3. Modest is Hottest? (posted May 18) "I grew up believing that the lack of men falling at my feet was a sign of some sort of moral failing on my part."

4. To the lady ashamed of being pregnant with her fourth (posted May 31) "Countless strangers in grocery stores have seen me with my three little ones and impertinently asked me how many children I was planning on having. I don’t know, person I have never met before. Tell you what, how about next week I will bring my husband here and all three of us will discuss our family planning and come up with a number you find suitable."

5. should colleges use trigger warnings? (posted June 4) "With an awareness of what it’s like to be a rape victim, with some education about how victim blaming can re-traumatize rape survivors, my professor could have made my Faulkner class a safe place to discuss the realities of sexual violence."

6. How Turbulence Happens, and Why It's Not So Scary After All (posted June 5) "The pilots aren't worried about the wings falling off; they're trying to keep their customers relaxed and everybody's coffee where it belongs."

7. Giraffe Friends. Adorable.

8. Legolas. Bahahahaha this is for those who like puns and silliness.

9. Religious OCD: 'I'm going to hell' (posted May 31) Maybe I can relate to this a little bit. God sees and knows everything, right? So even if other people think it's not a big deal if stuff isn't completely completely perfectly perfect, well, God knows.

NEVER EVER EVER let cats near lilies

Though this picture is the MOST ADORABLE thing you'll see all day, it's REALLY BAD and you should NEVER give cats access to lilies. Lilies are poison.

My kitty is fine now, but last week I was scared to death because he ate part of a lily. And lilies are poisonous to cats.

Lilies kill cats. (Click for more information.)

So make sure if you have cats, you don't bring home any lilies for Easter or anything.

SERIOUSLY your cat could DIE.

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Here's what happened with my little angel:

So, I had some lilies in a bucket (yeah I don't have a vase...) on top of my fridge. You know, it's high up where Kitty can't get it. No worries. At this point I didn't know they were bad for kitties.

Everything is going fine, they're blooming and my apartment smells so nice.

But then one morning, I got out of bed and found SOMEONE had barfed on the couch, and there were some lily petals on the floor. The flowers were starting to die, so they had fallen down.

Ah. Great, why do I have a cat? So I cleaned it up and didn't think about it much, until the afternoon when I remembered my mom and sister had told me lilies are very poisonous for cats. I started looking for information online, and wow, cats can DIE from that. It causes kidney failure. It's really really bad.

So I'm like, eh I don't want to bother with taking him all the way to the vet, eh, sounds too complicated... but then I started getting more and more worried.

I looked up the Chinese word for "lily" (百合花 bǎi hé huā), and I'm thinking, "man, it's possible that if I didn't speak Chinese, my cat would DIE." And I called the vet and asked them what to do. (From this point on, you can assume all dialogue is in Chinese.)

The guy on the phone asked when Kitty ate the lily and when he threw up, and if he's eaten any cat food today. I am such a bad cat owner, I actually had forgotten to feed Kitty that day. Wow. So I said I don't think he's eaten, and the guy on the phone said to see if he eats or not- if not, I need to bring him in that night because it's very serious.

I put food in his bowl and he ate some, but then I decided just to be safe, I'll take him to the vet.

And I threw out all the lilies.

So I told the little munchkin that we're going to the vet, and I tried to put him in a bag so I could take him, and he was really really not a fan of that- it took many tries to get him in.

Then we went out and took a taxi to see the vet. And you know, when the woman at the front desk sees me come in, she's not sure what to do because I'm white and oh no what if we need to find someone who can speak English. This kind of situation drives me crazy, but I get why people think that way- a lot of white people live in China and can't speak Chinese. So I have to be the one to talk first and then it's all good.

We go into one of the examination rooms and put Kitty on the table, and oh he's so nervous. Sticking a thermometer up his butt didn't help.

I told the vet all about it, and she said a lot of stuff I couldn't understand- probably the Chinese word for "kidney failure." She said it's very serious and cats can die from eating lilies. And she asked a lot of questions about when he ate it, when he threw up, how many times he threw up (I don't know but there were 2 spots on the couch, so...), did I actually see him eating the lily, etc.

She told me they would do some tests- I don't know enough medical vocabulary to understand it, but I knew it involved blood tests and I couldn't catch the rest. She told me it would cost 830 RMB. I said okay.

So then some other vet people came in and helped stuff Kitty into a sleeve where only his head and one leg was sticking out- man, he hated that. And they put the cone of shame on him. And I kept reassuring him in Chinese that it would all be okay. And the vet is petting him and calling him "mimi" (咪咪) which means "kitty" to try to get him to calm down.

Yeah and then they stuck a needle in his arm to get the blood sample and he started hissing at everybody and I told him, if you didn't want to come to the vet, you shouldn't have eaten a lily.

Okay so that's done, and they removed the cone of shame and took him out of the sleeve and let him be free. The vet said it would take 15 minutes for the results to come back. So I just hung out there in the examination room, alone with my poor sad little animal, who kept tensing up every time a dog would bark in the next room over.

The vet came back with the results and said it all looked normal, but we can't necessarily be sure yet- it may be too soon to tell. I should keep an eye on him and bring him back immediately if he throws up again.

And she said, you know, it's normal for cats to just barf maybe once or twice a month, maybe he just has hairballs or something and he didn't eat the lily. No one actually saw him eat it.

I don't buy that- really, I find lily petals on the floor and barf on my couch on the SAME DAY- I think there's a connection. But I think he only ate a little and then threw up, so it got out of his system and he's okay.

The next day he was eating just like normal, and running around causing chaos just like normal, so he's fine.

All right. Ah this cat is so much trouble and I had to spend a lot of money for that, but I told him, it's okay, you're worth it.

AND WHAT DID WE ALL LEARN FROM THIS? I will never bring lilies into my apartment again.

Giant bears, however, are safe for kitties.

Blogaround

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1. Speaking is Painting: Why No Translation Can Be “Perfect” (posted February 13) This is exactly how I feel about Chinese and English.

2. A Closet Comes Undone (posted February 9) "It’s happened and I’m all the way out and people are talking about me without me."

3. Popular Chinese Websites (posted February 20) The basic ones you gotta know if you live in China.

4. How to cut a bagel into 2 interlocking halves:

5. Church Signs, a Blurred Lines Parody Video (posted February 20) WOWWW I love this video. Not your typical cheesy Christian parody.

6. Does Frozen feature Disney’s first animated gay couple? (posted February 18) Cool!

7. "Hey Jude / your make is bad / you should fix that / compiler error."

8. 3D Printing Helps Fix Child’s Heart, Save Life (posted February 22) Awesome!

9. And this dog:

Image source.

Have a good week, everyone!

Blogaround

1. An American Theology (posted January 3) "I’m not interested in a personal salvation that is about me and Jesus. I’m not interested in a Jesus who was only born to die and to keep me from swearing."

2. Why I am a Radical Activist for All Things Evil (posted January 21) "Because my pursuit of compassion, love, and respect led me to cross the picket lines of the culture wars."

3. Cat playing a theremin. Well, you need to watch this video.

4. 15 U.S. Olympians Posing With A Siberian Husky Puppy Is The Cutest Thing You’ll See Today. ADORABLE!!!

Tiger (a story about how Chinese see the world)

Image source.

So hey, let's play charades! Your word is "tiger." How will you act it out?

I'm thinking something along the lines of prowling around like a big scary cat, but that's just me.

We played charades in one of my classes recently. (Important background information: I teach English in China.) The students were laughing and fooling around the entire time, and they loved it- even though some of them were pretty low-level and kept looking up the words on their phones. At one point, one student had to act out "run" so he ran across the classroom, and everyone was like "What? Do it again." They knew what it was- they just wanted to make him run around the classroom again. Sneaky.

But the part that stuck out the most to me is when I gave the word "tiger" to a student.

He held up three fingers, and laid them horizontally across his forehead. Then one more finger, vertically crossing all three of them in the middle.

Like this, with his fingers.

And the other students were all like "Tiger!"

And I bet most Americans would have no clue how in the world that's supposed to be a tiger.

That right there is the Chinese character 王 (wáng) and it means "king." And in China, apparently it's common knowledge that tigers have the character "王 (wáng)" on their foreheads.

So in this round of charades, the student was acting out something that had a 王 (wáng) on its forehead, and his classmates correctly guessed that it must be a tiger.

Crazy, isn't it? Crazy how different cultures can be. How amazing, how foreign, how incredibly different from the way my own language and culture has structured my brain. Here in China, for perhaps a billion people, one of the first things that comes to mind when they think of a tiger is that it should have a 王 (wáng) on its head.

Wow.

Tigers don't really have a 王 (wáng) on their heads. It's an example of how humans look for patterns in chaos. Here, take a look at some tigers:

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Okay you guys, this one definitely has 王 (wáng). Image source.

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Do you get it? Do you see the 王 (wáng)? The largest cat in the world- the king of the cats- he is marked with the Chinese character for "king."

Wild.