Beijing taxis and the directionally challenged…progress made?

Today I flagged a cab to head over to the new US Embassy (a building with  all the charm of a medium-security prison for Midwestern tax cheats glorious symbol of American freedom, F–k yeah!)  and my driver was perplexed even though I had carefully explained in Chinese how to get there.  Now this is hardly unusual as I have long lamented in this space, but what was remarkable was this particular driver had with him…a map!  In fact, he had a whole book of maps.  This was a huge step up from the driver earlier this week who took three tries to find the Third Ring Road…

In the end, we didn’t actually need the map (I knew the way) but I was impressed at this level of preparedness on the part of a taxi professional.

Progress? Perhaps.

April 17th, 2009

The Historical Record for April 17, 2009: Treaty of Shimonoseki

On April 17, 1895, Japan and the Qing Empire signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki, ending the Sino-Japanese War which had been a disaster for the Qing from start to finish.   The war began when the Qing court and the Japanese government vied for the role of “protector” of Korea, a longtime tributary state of the Qing but who in recent years had become a much valued prize for Japanese imperialist expansion.  If you want to think of this as China and Japan playing the “No, she’s MY BFF” game so beloved by 12-year old girls the world over, go ahead, I won’t stop you.

The vaunted Beiyang Fleet and Beiyang Army, products of a decade-long effort in local military modernization by Li Hongzhang, failed to live up to their promise (Artillery shells were filled with sand, cannons exploded backwards…let’s just say the relationship between corruption and product quality isn’t exactly a new problem in China) and Japan routed Qing forces in a number of key land and naval battles before finally bottling up and destroying the remains of the Beiyang Fleet at the Battle of Weihaiwei.

The Qing sued for peace, and the Japanese presented a list of demands

April 17th, 2009

The Historical Record for April 15, 2009: The Death of Hu Yaobang

Today marks 20 years since the death of Hu Yaobang, former General Secretary of the CCP and one of Deng Xiaoping’s key allies in inaugurating the Reform and Opening Era.  Hu was a fascinating figure, he was one of the youngest survivors (barely) of the Long March and a long-serving political cadre whose own career tracked the vicissitudes of his patron Deng.  He was persecuted and purged during the Cultural Revolution only to be rehabilitated and named as Deng’s hand-picked choice to bump Mao’s chosen successor, Hua Guofeng, off the political stage.  Not surprisingly perhaps, Hu was not Mao’s greatest fan.  Once asked by a journalist which aspects of “Mao Zedong Thought” might help China to modernize, Hu responded: “None, I think.”

He also once  rather infamously suggested that the Chinese would be better off hygiene-wise if they abandoned chopsticks in favor of Western forks and spoons.  Let’s just say the idea didn’t stick.

But it was his support of economic liberalization for which, in life anyway, Hu is best remembered.  He was a staunch proponent of opening the economy as rapidly as possible and scrapping Maoist dogma in favor of pragmatic steps to develop the country.  Unfortunately,

April 15th, 2009

Yeah, but “Terracotta Cabana Boys” just doesn’t sell as many tour packages…

From Xinhua:

A Chinese history academic is refuting the modern interpretation of the First Emperor’s terracotta army, saying the figures are servants and bodyguards, instead of warriors as many people believe.

“The clay figures should be taken as copies of the emperor’s guards and servants,” said Liu Jiusheng, associate professor of history at Shaanxi Normal University. “Their layout in the pits, with chariots and horses, represented grand ceremonies with the emperor’s presence.”

Many people believe the 2,200-year-old terracotta army, buried around the mausoleum of Qin Dynasty’s first emperor about 35 km east of Xi’an, indicated the emperor had wanted the clay warriors to help him rule in the afterlife.

The army is known to most Chinese people as the “terracotta warriors and horses”.

Liu, an expert on Qin (221-207 B.C.) history who has been studying the terracotta army for more than 20 years, ruled out the hypothesis.

“It’s against the Chinese tradition and value systems to bury clay warriors in imperial mausoleums — the Chinese traditionally value peace in the afterlife,” Liu said.

In his April, 2009, publication on terracotta research, Liu said the clay figures were most

April 13th, 2009

Voices from China’s Past: Wang Fuzhi on Defending China

Wang Fuzhi (王夫之, 1619–1692, courtesy name, Ernong 而农, he also styled himself Chuanshan 船山) was witness to a calamity — the fall of the Ming Empire first to the bandit armies of Li Zicheng and subsequently to the Manchu ‘peacekeeping forces’ under the regent Dorgon.  He became active in the anti-Manchu resistance and when the last of the Ming claimants proved unable to restore a Chinese emperor to the throne, Wang “retired” in  his early-30s, living  in the hills of Hunan province, and devoting himself to a life of writing and scholarship.  So virulent were his writings attacking the Manchus that his essays and books went unpublished for nearly 200 years, until Wang was “rediscovered” in the latter half of the 19th century when his particular brand of anti-Manchuism seemed a useful complement to more recently imported and adapted ideas of ethnic-nationalism.  The fact that philosophically, Wang espoused a form of materialism, guaranteed that while nearly unknown in his own time, he would be well-remembered in ours.

This is Wang Fuzhi in high dudgeon:

“Now even the ants have rulers who preside over territory of their nests, and when red ants or flying white ants penetrqate their gates, the ruler

April 13th, 2009
« Newer Entries  
  Older Entries »

日历

April 2009
M T W T F S S
« Mar   May »
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930