Jottings from the Granite Studio

Speaking of walls, via AP:
BEIJING — A $258 million restoration project is planned for an ancient town where the Great Wall meets the sea, state media reported Thursday.
The project will transform Shanhaiguan, built in 1381 during the Ming Dynasty as a strategic military post to help defend Beijing, the Xinhua News Agency said.
“We will [...]

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Granite Studio might be moving. I’m exploring a few options, including my own domain name as well as possibly making the jump to Typepad. Nothing has been done yet, but check this space for a updates.
That’s right, the Great Fire Wall is at it again. Nothing makes the CCP look more like a [...]

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Run…do NOT walk…to read this hysterical historical timeline from the gang at Sinocidal.

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Interesting article in yesterday’s NYT on the Manchu language in China (hat tip: Kate Merkel-Hess). In the village of Sanjiazi, in Heilongjiang near the border with Inner Mongolia, 18 residents, all octogenarians, represent China’s last native speakers of Manchu.

With the passing of these villagers, Manchu will also die, experts say. All that will be [...]

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NPR has a piece in this Monday’s (3/19) Morning Edition about the last few women in China with bound feet. The practice was first banned in 1912. Several other attempts to eradicate the custom followed. In the wake of the both the 1927 Northern Expedition and the 1949 establishment of the PRC, officials and cadres [...]

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YJ and I want to thank everybody for a wonderful time last night at our St. Patrick’s Day-Housewarming-Engagement party. We met a lot of new people and got to spend time with old friends, I hope that everybody else had as good a time as we did. At one point there were representatives from the [...]

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UPDATE: YJ would like to remind everybody that this is also our engagement party. So…it’s now officially our “engagement/housewarming/St. Patty’s Day” bash.
Like any of you need a reason to throw down…we give you three.
As most know, YJ and I have new digs in the Dongzhimen area (Beijing) so we’re holding a party on March 17 [...]

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From AP: Hong Kong University economist Zhang Wuchang has rekindled a long simmering debate over whether economic imperatives trump historic preservation. Professor Zhang wrote:

“The cultural enlightenment from excavating the tomb of Qinshi Huang will surpass the pyramids of Egypt. Not starting excavations is the same as having nothing. Only by excavating will we find [...]

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The Beijing city government is continuing its push for Beijing taxi drivers to be conversant in English by 2008. Frankly, I’m not sure why unless the first phrase they learn is: “How do you get there?” You see, in Beijing knowing the location of a particular place is not included in the “taxi fare package [...]

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Story in Spiegel Online profiling Duong Van Ngo, a 77-year old trilingual resident of Saigon (excuse me, Ho Chi Minh City) who claims to be the last of the city’s public letter writers. In the old days, these fixtures outside post offices and ports would draft and sometimes translate letters and documents and even scribble [...]

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