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22 Nov 09
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The peculiar persistence of Chinese communism China is not about to collapse, democracy is not arriving in the forseeable future, censorship will continue, the CCP isn’t going away and it may still be in power generations from now.
Read this detailed and relatively balanced picture of why this... |
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14 Nov 09
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What should Obama do for China? Here’s your chance to tell him.
I arrived in one piece. Was hoping maybe winter would be late this year. But no. It’s brutal out there. |
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12 Nov 09
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On my way to China I’ll be boarding my flight to Beijing in just a few hours. The trip will be part business, part meeting old friends and going back to the places I love the most.
Apologies in advance if comments are held for moderation, especially first-time... |
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10 Nov 09
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1989, a ripple effect from Tiananmen to Checkpoint Charlie? Foreign Policy offers an interesting if somewhat debatable book excerpt on the role the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations played in influencing soon-to-follow demonstrations in Europe, where less than six months after the crackdown in Beijing the... |
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01 Nov 09
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What Chinese and US PR people can learn from each other My recent interview, over here. |
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01 Nov 09
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Kaiser Kuo on China’s Internet Last night I spent more than an hour listening to a speech Kaiser Kuo gave at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln on what the Internet has meant for China, and for US-Chinese relations. I was thinking about breaking the speech down, but then saw that a... |
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26 Oct 09
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Away I’ll be traveling to LA for a few days and won’t be on line much. You can use this as an open thread. |
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25 Oct 09
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October 1 PRC parade - the big picture Get a load of this. Awesome. (It says October 4 but I didn’t see it until today.)
Via this article. |
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22 Oct 09
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Pollution, pollution The Tianjin Steel Plant in Hebei province.
Indescribably beautiful (if that’s the right word) photos by Lu Guang of the underbelly of China’s economic miracle, the part we all want to forget. Simply breathtaking in their eerie, terrible... |
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18 Oct 09
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Yunnan’s dwarf theme park No one told me about the Kingdom of Dwarves theme park when I was in Yunnan (and don’t miss that slideshow!). It’s on my list for the next trip. And for those looking for work, they’re recruiting - as long as you’re under... |
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15 Oct 09
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Anita Dunn names Mao Zedong her “favorite philosopher” Anita Dunn is the White House Communications Director, who’s been quoted everywhere for her on-target assertions that Fox News is a Republican channel, not a news channel. When I heard her say it a few days ago I was stunned (in a good way) that she... |
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08 Oct 09
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Why did the Chinese starve to death in the ’50s without protest? Please, go read these two posts by one of my very favorite writers right now. She knows whereof she speaks.
I remember reading how the Georgian peasants were convinced Stalin was unaware of their plight as they starved to death in the 1930s, and if there... |
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07 Oct 09
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Jeremy Goldkorn on the PRC’s blocking of Danwei Superb article that I can certainly relate to. Closing lines:
Last week Beijing saw a display of military and economic might that the Chinese government and a huge number of its people are rightly proud of. But China wants more for itself. The government... |
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07 Oct 09
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Obama blows off the Dalai Lama Only, not quite.
Of course, if you were listening to Fox News and the assorted voices of Greater Wingnuttopia today, you’d think Obama had just handed Czechoslovakia over to Hitler. |
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02 Oct 09
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60th anniversary hangover Go here now for one of my favorite blogger’s take on yesterday’s extravaganza and the following hangover. If comments aren’t open there, you can leave them here. Now, I’m not saying I agree with everything Jeremiah says,... |
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01 Oct 09
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Report on the October 1 parade from Beijing Got this email from a friend and thought it was good enough to share. He has lived in China for about 10 years and never wants to live anywhere else. You can love China and be critical at the same time. The two are not mutually exclusive, and in fact... |
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01 Oct 09
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“No danger PRC Internet cops will shut Peking Duck” Sorry for this aside, but I couldn’t let it just pass.
In yesterday’s post on the Empire State Building “going PRC” I cited Jules Crittenden, one of the most irritating proponents of militarism and torture, for his snide reaction... |
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30 Sep 09
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Outrage! Empire State Building “going PRC” on October 1 China has done bad things, and it’s done good things, like all countries. China has its fair share of atrocities, injustices and a considerable legacy of repression and injustice. But China is not Nazi Germany, they are not a nation of deranged... |
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29 Sep 09
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I love a parade A total must-read - the NY Times on the 60th anniversary preparations. Anal-retentiveness has been totally redefined:
Performers have been carefully screened. Even the workers who are decorating the city with tens of millions of flowerpots had to undergo... |
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29 Sep 09
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World Bank Head: Dollar will lose its place to the euro and renminbi Funny that we talked about this just yesterday in regard to a relatively obscure article, and now it is the 2nd leading story on the front page of the NY Times. Get a load of this:
The president of the World Bank said Monday that America’s days as ... |
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28 Sep 09
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“The dollar is dead - long live the renminbi” That’s the headline from this new article, one of many I’ve been seeing on the inevitable arrival of the post-dollar world. This one sees the current economic upheaval as a sort of gigantic correction that will restore equilibrium to a global... |
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28 Sep 09
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Peyton’s Place I was standing in my kitchen during a visit back to the US about a year ago when a rather sinister-looking black snout suddenly burst through the pet door used by the cats. I would soon learn that the creature was a pot-bellied pig that, for reasons too... |
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24 Sep 09
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Happy Birthday, PRC! Check out these delightful videos. No one can fault them for a lack of creativty. Where else but China? |
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23 Sep 09
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Last post on FGM, for now For whatever reasons, the topic of female genital mutilation always brings out an odd type of commenter, always male (of course), usually someone who insists on seeing it as the equivalent of male circumcision (which is like comparing what Van Gogh did to... |
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20 Sep 09
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Scandinavia stands up to female genital mutilation Norway, Sweden and Denmark do the right thing.
Scandinavians — rather than quietly recoiling as immigrant mothers take their Europe-born daughters on vacation to Africa be circumcised — are fighting the traffic in female genital mutilation (FGM).
Swe... |
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19 Sep 09
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Photos of PRC’s 60th Anniversary Rehearsals Amazing. |
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18 Sep 09
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NY Times: China’s economy is back while US bleeds This is the most outspoken article I’ve seen to date in a non-Chinese media proclaiming the bounce-back of China’s economy, in sharp and painful contrast to the ongoing mayhem in America.
Just eight months ago, thousands of Chinese workers... |
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17 Sep 09
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Swine flue deaths in China - are there any? Below is an email I received today from a reader in Australia. I am neutral on the topic, at least for now, but quite curious. Maybe someone in the know can contradict or verify it. If its numbers are accurate, they raise some important questions.
I work... |
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16 Sep 09
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Cheerleading on steroids This is not the kind of link I would normally post (team sports are not my thing), but when I watched this video I was totally blown away. Let’s never mess with Korea. |
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15 Sep 09
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Ayn Rand In 1998, I read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged back to back. I admit, I was intrigued. It sounded good, at least on first reading. The story of the titans, men of iron will and vision and ruthless compassion (never sentimental sympathy or pity or... |
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15 Sep 09
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China’s migrant workers hit by economic meltdown An excellent multimedia look at how they are surviving, and the difficult future tens of millions face as they trudge back to their villages unable to find work. As I read the articles and listened to the testimonies, I was reminded how the slightest... |
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14 Sep 09
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Topless Bulgarian woman captivates a Qingdao beach [I see that he wrote this on August 24. Sorry for not seeing it until now.]
One of my favorite bloggers has translated an amusing story that touches on sensitive cultural/legal issues. His summary:
I find this story amusing because a) the Bulgarian woman... |
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11 Sep 09
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China: All that glitters…? My friend Dror has put up an interesting post on Thomas Friedman’s controversial column that I wrote about yesterday. Dror fears that many of us, dazzled by gushing reports of China’s success a la Friedman, will get a distorted picture of a... |
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11 Sep 09
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September 11 I commented on twitter earlier today that it doesn’t feel like the eve of September 11th. For the past eight years, as the date approached, I would keep thinking about the tragedy, I would count the days to the anniversary, I was acutely aware that... |
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09 Sep 09
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China’s reasonably enlightened autocracy Thomas Friedman, not my favorite columnist, compares China’s system of strong-man government to America’s clearly broken system in which corporate interests can easily sabotage the government’s efforts to improve the lives of its... |
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27 Aug 09
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The Rice-Sprout Song A few days before I left China, a friend handed me two books by Eileen Chang, an author who for a long time had been on my list but who I never actually got around to reading. I read one of them, The Rice-Sprout Song, on my flight home from China nearly a... |
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04 Aug 09
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Turning site off Am on a 30-hour trip and don’t want to have to think about dealing with comments. I’ll be back, but not sure when. Thanks for your understanding. |
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04 Aug 09
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115 degrees (46 degrees C) in the shade You really don’t know what hot is until you’ve tried to get into a car that’s been sitting in the afternoon sun in Phoenix this week, where authorities today warned people to only go outside in the morning and at night if possible. A... |
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04 Aug 09
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China to “save the world”? I got tired of posting stories on whether China would come out of the crisis faster and in relative better shape than America, but the mass media still find it an irresistible topic. I follow a lot of them and they can be summarized as... |
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01 Aug 09
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Amoiist (Peter Guo) released from jail - “Let the evil go to hell!” When I first started playing with Twitter last year one early follower was a fellow who posted under the name Amoiist. I was surprised that when I clicked his name, I got the dreaded “cannot find server message” - he was blocked, and this was... |
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31 Jul 09
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Xu Zhiyong’s arrest: How far backwards can China go? If I looked at the news out of China today and saw good things I’d perhaps put up positive posts, provided i felt I had anything useful to add. But looking at the news today, and over the past several days, I see really bad news, to the point of... |
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31 Jul 09
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I’m in America, my PC’s in China Strangest thing. I noticed that although I am back in the land of the free, my Mac will not allow me to go to any blogspot or wordpress sites. It also won’t let me get to the NY Times. It automatically changes the url from nytimes.com to... |
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31 Jul 09
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Chinese officials (with too much time on their hands) harass hepatitis B advocacy group It’s stories like this that reawaken that old “China is evil” tape I used to play a lot on this blog back when I thought I knew everything. Now, when I am fully aware of just how little I know and how fundamentally stupid I am, I still... |
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23 Jul 09
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Total Eclipse in Suzhou I know I am (very) late with this, now that the eclipse is more than a day old. But it was breathtaking to stand under the overcast sky yesterday, still quite bright at 9.30am, and watch the sky get progressively darker in a matter of seconds, turning... |
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21 Jul 09
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Suzhou A couple of days ago I came down to this beautiful city for the first time to have a look around, meet my site designer (a great designer and a great host) and maybe get a glimpse of the eclipse tomorrow morning, though weather reports and the current... |
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08 Jul 09
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Thank you for the people, China I just want to say that the people who showed up for my party last night are the greatest anywhere. Old friends, journalists, colleagues, blog readers, bloggers, Chinese and foreigners - a perfect batch of outstanding friends. The tragedy in Urumqi ate... |
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04 Jul 09
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Welcome to the club, Danwei Just about everyone’s favorite English-language site on China appears to be unreachable here. This might be server issue, but that’s what I kept thinking a couple of weeks ago.
…Danwei’s server in Texas has been generally... |
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29 Jun 09
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Is TPD and other sites being blocked to meet quotas? Interesting viewpoint on why certain sites that ordinarily would be left alone are now being added to the censor’s list. If the blogger’s hypothesis is true, this site may be permanently blocked in China no matter what I do. Sigh. |
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28 Jun 09
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Laowai! All my friends in China know only too well (much too well) how much I love Kunming. As I get ready to leave China in a few weeks, it’s the one place I feel I absolutely must go back to one more time before heading home.
I had only one very brief... |
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28 Jun 09
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Guest Post: “The Good News From Iran Today” The following is a guest post from my friend Bill Stimson.
“The Good News From Iran Today”
by William R. Stimson
It has happened now in Iran like it did in Myanmar a short while back.
Common people, secular and religious, cried out with one... |
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