Morning Tea: Blogspot Blocked again…Henan Tombs…Kuznets Curve…GPCR Material Culture

First off, Blogspot is blocked…again. I checked out what Chris Amico has done with Eyes East and I’m sorely tempted to go the same route. Until then, I’m back to using proxies. Bastards.

The People’s Daily reports the discovery of 17 tombs in Hebei from the Song and Jin dynasties. The tombs contain a number of artifacts and grave goods. “including 126 copper coins, 15 china utensils, one silver earring, one copper ring, one crystal bead and a brick bearing a man’s portrait.” The brick is of particular interest. It’s about 12 inches x 5 inches with an ink portrait of a man with a long gown, boots, and swords. Archaeologists say that the dress style suggests the figure is from an “ethnic minority.” What that means in the context of a tomb in this location and from that period is anybody’s guess. Fortunately, if they were ethnic minorities, they surely suffered no discrimination. (This I know, because Xinhua they told me so.)

Andrew Leonard at How the World Works takes a look at the applicability of the Environmental Kuznets Curve to the development models in general, and China’s in particular. Leonard’s piece links to this essay from China Dialogue

March 30th, 2007

Official dates

Two dates were made official this evening.

1) YJ and I will be getting married on September 8 in beautiful dowtown Tianjin. Clear your calendars. Alert the media.

2) The Roots will be playing in Beijing on April 17th and we’re going to the show. My buddy Mike J. called me at 4:34 pm to get the go ahead on VIP tickets. It was a “blink” type moment. I said yes and then made the “Your initial reaction will probably be to get mad but hear me out anyway…” call. It was all good and it’s going to be a kick-ass show.

On a related note, I actually won the that’s Beijing trivia challenge for last week and as a result they’re hooking us up for free tickets to the Yen White party hosted by 02culture on Friday night. Those of you who have seen my “going out” clothes perhaps know my dilemma. (I’m a basic black kind of guy.) But I think I can throw together an ensemble to make it to the party–or at least that would fit in at a Miami Heat game. Further plans include checking out Kaiser Kuo and his band Chunqiu tomorrow night at

March 28th, 2007

Toys in the attic: China’s history through childhood souvenirs

It’s not too often that I can reference both Aerosmith AND John Prine in the same title.

IHT reports on a fascinating new museum in Singapore that boasts a collection of Chinese toys from 1910 to the 1970s. Toys are so simple and seemingly ubiquitous that it is easy to take for granted their value to historians, but a collection of material culture like this gives us a wonderful perspective on modern Chinese history. If toys appeal to one’s inner child, they also reflect the social and historical environment of the time when they were made. From Manchu dolls of the 1920s to the Chiang Kai-shek commemorative toys of the 1940s, the “New China” jigsaw puzzles of the 1950s (which incorporate Taiwan) and the Mao’s army girl dolls of the Cultural Revolution, the Museum of Shanghai Toys represent an adults’ world in miniature, bringing visitors back in time through China’s 20th-century history.

The most valuable item in the collection is a “Liberate Taiwan” game from the late-1960s.

“Children’s history,” history that centers on children and the lived experience of childhood, is an intriguing–and difficult–field of research. There are few documents written by children. Those writings that focus on children are

March 27th, 2007

How to view Blogspot blogs in China

Dave from Mutant Palm has posted a fix for the CCP’s kabosh on Blogspot. As a public service, I am reposting here. It took me a couple of tries to get it going, but I’ve got it running now and it’s great. It’s fast AND smooth…kind of like a pina colada made with Bacardi 151.

The Ya, I Yee/Fermi Zhang blogspot proxy patch:

1. Use the Notepad (or other text editor softwares) to write a file with the following codes: function FindProxyForURL(url,host){if(dnsDomainIs(host, “.blogspot.com”)){ return “PROXY 72.14.219.190:80″;}}

2. Save it as proxy.pac (MAKE SURE IT SAVES as .pac file NOT a text file) and put it in the root directory of C:\3. Take Firefox for example,click Tools->Options->Advanced->Network->Settings…-> fill the codes below in the blank under “Automatic proxy configuration URL”: file:///C:/proxy.pac

4. Press Reload on the right, press OK, and OK.5. Relaunch Firefox, done!

Note: Ya, I Yee also has version that will allow access to wordpress.com sites as well. For even more information on proxies and workarounds, check out this post by Ryan written last November on the Lost Laowai blog.

March 27th, 2007

Frog in a Well: East Asia History Roundup

Jonathan Dresner has a roundup of East Asia history news from around the web that includes the Shinzo Abe “comfort women” debacle and apology (see also the controversy over the approaching anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre) as well as the Taiwan textbook flap. Textbooks are a hot topic in Korea too where recent revisions are reigniting the China-Korea history row. North of Beijing, the reconstruction and renovation of the Great Wall continues but sadly those whom the wall once tried to keep out are in danger of losing their native language. The United States gets a mention too with the recent anniversary of Nixon’s visit and the opening of CIA files regarding two agents held in China for over twenty years following a botched operation. Lots of other good things about Japan and Korea. Worth checking out.

March 26th, 2007
 
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