Happy Chinese New Year! We celebrated it with some native Chinese friends at their home today--what an unexpected feast! The hospitality of the Chinese really contributes to the fun of being in China. Hope you have a wonderful Year of the Snake!

While waiting for a flight tonight, I thought I'd share this common image from the streets of China. "Double Happiness" is a leading brand of cigarettes, and a good reminder that some of the things the world calls happiness lead to quite the opposite. Don't fall for the smoke and mirrors. Well, mirrors aren't so bad, but that smoke! According to a report I read from the World Bank, "a Chinese man smokes 1 in 3 of the world's cigarettes." I believe that, and think I've met that man on the streets of Shanghai.

Far too many Chinese men and some Chinese women have been tricked into the breathing the poison of falsely labeled happiness, even Double Happiness. May Chinese discard that curse from the West and breathe more freely in the future.
Continue reading at the original source →