Real Men

Having not gotten our passports back from the Chinese bureaucracy (we are waiting to get our residence permits), and thus unable to stay in any hostels or hotels, Kim and I spent the first weekend of our National Week holiday in 沈阳 Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province, where awesome PiAers Jason and Kat are posted.

Kat, because she's a bad-ass, plays on an all-male half-Chinese, half-expat ice hockey team. They were playing a tournament, so I saw my first ever game of ice hockey. Which is how I met Elvis, the manliest man in China.

Elvis plays on the team, and after the game, a group of us went out to dinner. We let Elvis be in charge of ordering, so soon the table was crammed with more 东北菜 (northeastern food) than we could eat, and more bottles of Snow-brand beer (the Budweiser of China) than we should have drunk.

Numerous toasts welcomed us Shenyang, and then we moved into toasting to "存爷们“ (cunyemer), or northeastern slang for "Real Men". Thus Kim and I learned our new favorite phrase, which is highly applicable to many situations in life. Elvis, being a 存爷们 indeed, has a wavy mullet, a face cut out of rocks, and a low booming voice to match. He is also obsessed with 牛仔 (niuzai), or Cowboys. Several times throughout the night Elvis mimicked riding a horse and throwing a lasso, spinning his six-shooters around, taking a shot, blowing the smoking ends of his guns, and then smoothing his hair.

Here he is keeping the party going:



Elvis told a story about the time the hockey team rode a train to Harbin and drank the entire train out of beer. He also resolutely categorized the ladies according to our characteristics: Kat is masculine but in the best of ways, i.e. 酷 (cool) and 另类 (unconventional), Kim is 温柔 (soft/gentle - as evidenced by her dress and demeanor), and I am 文静 (quiet - although he described this as reading books and studying a lot).

He was very very adamant about the importance of keeping in touch so that in the future, we can all learn from each other, do business with each other, play hockey with each other, etc etc. I have his email address, and if I ever need advice about opening a cowboy-themed restaurant or installing facades on buildings, Elvis will be my man!