Fire, Peaches, and the Wrath of the Gods…No, seriously.

Report out of Tianjin, the city by the sea, only 80 miles east and 20 years behind Beijing…residents are doing what they can to alleviate the bad luck of China’s annus horribilis by, what else, setting off firecrackers to blow away the bad luck.

In particular, there are fears that certain gods might be interested in harming the city’s youngsters. I’m not really sure where this belief comes from, but further information is certainly welcome. Nevertheless, the good folks of Tianjin are preparing for spiritual warfare the old fashioned way…by stockpiling explosives.

Practically speaking, if you’re doing some early shopping for July 4 fireworks in TJ, be prepared to find many stores currently sold out of boomers, screamers, and assorted things that go bang.

Oh yeah, and if peach cobbler was on the menu you may find yourself similarly out of luck as anxious parents have cleared store shelves of canned peaches (桃罐头). You see, 桃 (tao/’peach’) is a homophone for 逃 (tao/’escape’) and so children who eat peaches (tao) can escape (tao) the fate of being snatched by nefarious supernatural forces who seek to do them harm.

Gotta love living in China sometimes.

(Thanks to YJ’s mom for the

June 12th, 2008

The Historical Record for June 12, 2008: The Southern Song

It’s always exciting to move into a new house. That sense of expectation, of planning where to arrange things, that glorious feeling of being home. It’s probably less thrilling if you’ve moved into your new home because the bank foreclosed on the old house. Even less so if the new place is half the size of the old one and you lost all of your furniture and savings in the move…and half your family was in the clutches of murderous marauders from the north. I’m just saying.

Such was the fate of the Southern Song, founded this date in 1127 after losing their capital, an emperor, most of the imperial family, and the top half of China to the Jurchen invaders of the Jin Dynasty. No worries though. Within 150 years years they’d lose the bottom half too, this time to the Mongols of the Yuan Dynasty. Whoopsie.

Sadder still, on June 12, 1127 the Southern Song weren’t even really moved in yet, it would be little while longer before a new capital was established at Lin’an (present day Hangzhou). Yep, they founded the new dynasty while, in imperial and dynastic terms, they were still sleeping in the Ryder truck.

June 12th, 2008

South Korea’s beef with the US

Excellent piece in today’s NYT by Choe Sang-hun on the fallout from Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s decision to lift a five-year ban on imports of American beef.  As Choe argues, this was always about far more than food safety, a point that seemed lost on US Ambassador Alexander Vershow, who poured gasoline on the fire by suggesting that fears of beef imports would be alleviated as “Koreans begin to understand more about science.” 

This is a small country in a strategic location with a deep sense of grievance about being manipulated by the great powers around it. Chinese emperors demanded tribute from Korea; Japanese occupiers forbade Koreans to speak their own language; American, Chinese and Russian cold war rivalries divided Korea in two. While mostly approving of their alliance with the United States, South Koreans remain acutely sensitive to any suggestion that they must do America’s bidding…

To many South Koreans, however, the beef dispute is not entirely about health concerns or science. It is not entirely about the economy, either — beef from the United States is half the price of homegrown meat. To them, it is also the latest test of whether their leader can resist pressure from superpowers, even if there is

June 12th, 2008

Confucius and Man at Tsinghua

Professor Daniel A. Bell spoke at the Beijing Bookworm on Tuesday night in support of his latest book, China’s New Confucianism. Professor Bell is a noted and respected scholar who has published several books and articles, as well as numerous essays in the online and print media, and I was curious to attend the talk. It is obvious that Professor Bell has reflected a great deal on issues of Confucianism and politics, and he should be commended for his attempts to expand the debate on Chinese reform and development beyond a simple East/West dichotomy. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed in the talk, though to be fair I don’t think I was the target audience.

The goal of Professor Bell’s lecture was to challenge stereotypes regarding the direction of political reform in China, in particular the role of Confucianism in the development of a modern Chinese political culture, a worthy (and difficult) endeavor. Now it is the nature of preparing public lectures to simplify arguments and to eschew overly long or complex explication. It’s unavoidable: time constraints, consideration of the audience’s level of background knowledge, and the need to pace the lecture so as to hold interest all come into

June 12th, 2008

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