Back in Beijing

Arrived in Beijing last night after a long flight from Boston. Interesting little occurence: United Airlines held the bulk of the passengers on the plane at the Beijing airport while the crew made sure that six deportees got off the plane.

“Are you worried about them hiding somewhere on the plane?” I asked one of the flight attendants.

“Yes,” she replied with the clipped manner of somebody who has firsthand experience of such shenanigans.

Three weeks in the US was nice.  Ate Taco Bell. Bought shoes. Watched sports in prime time.  Saw family.

Still, it’s good to get back on a normal schedule of research/writing/teaching/sleep.

Mixed-race relationships and incredibly cheesy advertising.

And we wonder why inter-cultural marriages between foreign men and Chinese women still are the subject of so many bizarre stereotypes and cliches.  This was an image I pulled off an actual advertisement running on Danwei of all places….I almost thought it was a gag ad but it appears that no, this company is completely serious.  Yellow Fever? 白血病?  Can we move past this crap in 2009?

And no…the link is NOT active.

The Historical Record for January 1, 2009

On this date in 976, Li Yu (born 936) of the Southern Tang Dynasty surrendered to the armies of the Song.  Li Yu had attempted to buy off the Song Emperor for many years, trying to preserve a kingdom that covered modern day Jiangxi as well as parts of Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fujian.  Holding out in his capital at Jinling (today’s Nanjing) Li Yu even voluntarily abdicated his title as “emperor” in an attempt to appease the Song court.  No dice.  In the winter of 975 Song troops stormed Jinling and Li Yu was taken prisoner.  He lingered in the Song capital of Kaifeng for a few years until, as the story goes, he was poisoned after having the temerity to write a poem lamenting the loss of his empire and accusing the Song emperor of raping his wife.

Staying in the Song for a moment, on this date in 1085 Song historian Sima Guang published his classic 《资治通鉴》”A Comprehensive Mirror on Government,” a tour de force with 294 volumes and 3 million characters chronicling over a millennium of history.

Today is the birthday of Peking opera star Cheng Yanqiu (1904-1958).  He was born in Beijing to a banner family

Rebecca MacKinnon Interview with Bao Tong

Via Twitter, Rebecca Mackinnon sent me a link to an interview she did with Bao Tong in 1999, sneaking into his apartment building and smuggling the videotape out past the government stooges sent to detain them. Fascinating reading ten years after Τiαnαnmen.

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