At Anchor, yet Oceans Apart

Michael's brother, P, took us to visit a Chinese tramp vessel, Hui An, that has anchored at the Port of Tacoma for repairs. The ship has left Australia almost a month ago. It originally started from Lian Yun Gang, a Chinese port city. Their next destination is Chile. The sail from Australia has not been smooth. A few days into the sailing, the ship had to turn back to Australia due to some fuel-related problems. Then, the cargo that they loaded, alumina, was found to have gone into a fuel reserve tank through holes in cargo compartments (or something like that). That's why they are here longer than they had planned for.

The Captain, Mr. Wu, hasn't slept for a couple of days trying to deal with all kinds of issues surrounding damages done to the ship and maybe the cargo. He smoked apologetically through a pipe. It looked like that he badly needed one. Besides being friendly and polite, he also speaks good English. Through a quick small talk, I learnt that he went to Shanghai Maritime University and had to work in a factory for many years as punishment for his involvement in 1989 student movement. When talking about how fast Shanghai is changing and how long he can be away from home, he said that one time when he arrived in Shanghai, he couldn't even find his way home, due to the massive changes that Shanghai has undergone during his absence. He shook his head expressing his dis-satisfaction with the pay for the kind of work that he is doing. His wife makes about $100 a month working as a cashier. He strikes me as a man with a lot of responsibilities on his shoulder, family and work.

The 2nd mate took us to the bridge where we could have a view of the harbor and the giant hollow cargo pit in the body of the ship. We could see a few people repairing the ship.

There are 21 men on this ship. All men, not a single women. They have been on the sea away from home for months. They have kids and wife at home. Worst of all, when anchored at any port in the States, they are not allowed off the ship! Obviously, the rules have changed after 9'11. After so many days at sea, finally they are right next to the shore, yet they can't set foot on land! That's really inhumane. Imagine every country had this rule - who would ever want to be a sailor again? Does this actually prevent or deter terrorist activities?

According to the 2nd mate, when American vessels call Chinese ports, they don't have such restrictions in return. Allegedly, in China, one of the lures of working on ocean-going vessels is the pay. But a 2nd mate only makes about $800 a month and ABs (able-bodied seamen) only about $300-400 a month. That's really nothing considering the hardship that they have to endure.

Besides the limited freedom, the food provisions on board the ship are inadequate. They don't get enough vegetables, because they are too expensive to replenish. Whoever budgeted the food provisions must not be on the ship themselves. Little wonder that the 2nd mate is considering quitting and working for a company on shore. There are plethora of opportunities awaiting in China. Why endure all this unjustifiable hardship?!

If the Chinese shipping companies don't take good care of its 50,000 crew members, the Chinese maritime industry will suffer an irreversible brain drain.

Christmas Tree and Holiday Spirit

During lunch time at work today, the topic of Christmas tree came up in my chat with K. I was telling her how I almost bought a small Christmas tree when M and I were at Home Depot on Saturday. I guess I just wanted to have a sliver of that very contagious holiday spirit. Since we are going to spend the holiday away in Mexico, we decided against having one in our house. Yet, this very brief and sudden yearning for a Christmas tree triggered my interest in finding out about the history behind it.

As part of the Christmas decoration, the tree is really the center piece. Little ornaments and lights are hung from tree branches; gifts will be laid out under the tree. Without the tree, the holiday will be very lacking in ambiance.

I had always assumed that the Christmas tree had been part of the Christian tradition all along. In the meantime, I never assumed that the Christians are the only people who had this tradition. Evergreen trees must have caught the attention of ancient peoples from different corners of the world, especially in the coldest months of a year. It is no surprise that, in both Pagan and Christian traditions, we can find origins of such a practice - placing branches or boughs of evergreen trees inside a house usually in Winter. Although in the pagan traditions, the evergreen tree was often used to recognize the winter solstice, the shortest day of a year; while in the Christian tradition, there are different legends, myths and theories that all link this practice with Christianity. For example, one of the legends has it that, around the 7th century, St. Boniface, a monk, cut down a deciduous oak tree being worshipped by a group of Pagans, who had been just baptized. Miraculously, an evergreen tree grew out of the oak tree stump. This symbolizes the death of Paganism and the triumph of Christianity. The fact is that it would be very difficult to trace this tradition to one single origin.

According to many sources, the first documented use of a Christmas tree in the Christian tradition was in 1510 in Riga, Latvia. But Western Germany is really the place where this tradition took roots and spread to other parts of the world. It is said that Martin Luther was the one who started this tradition in the 16th century. Throughout the 19th century and early 20th century, the Thuringia area in Germany boasted the oldest and biggest Christmas decoration industry.

In England, this tradition didn't catch up until the latter half of the 19th century during the Queen Victoria period. She and her German prince, Albert, helped popularize this practice through their own popularity. In the late 19th century, this tradition was introduced across the Atlantic to the States by German immigrants. And the Frank Winfield Woolworth was one of the first American businessmen who started selling Christmas trees in his stores - forerunners of modern day Walmart!

These days anybody can celebrate the holiday with a Christmas tree. In China, it is still a fairly new fad and highly commercialized. It is just another opportunity to for people to get together, to shop and to have fun decorating!