Like many, YJ and I have been following the trial of Liu Χiaobo. That the trial was scheduled for the Christmas holiday so that it might somehow escape notice in the rest of the world is just another in a staggering assortment of evidence that Liu’s persecutors are cowardly and despicable. I’d go on at length, [...]
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Interesting little post on The Beijinger blog last week. Seems one of our fellow Lao Wai had a holiday gathering which — as these things do — went late, got a bit loud, and thus resulted in an oddly frantic clash with some of his elderly neighbors. I say frantic, because a simple noise complaint degenerated [...] It’s Christmas here in NH and I’ll be enjoying the festivities with friends and family for a few days. I’ll be back next week with new posts but until then…happy holidays [...] We’re busy getting ready for our annual trip to New Hampshire. It’s strange that on today, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, that thanks to the international date line our Monday is going to be approximately 36 hours long. But anyway…as I prepare to go back to the United States for a [...] If the British takeover of Hong Kong was the moral equivalent of three guys kicking in the back door and at gunpoint turning your suburban home into a crack house, then the Portuguese in Macau were more like a couple of shady dudes who wanted to rent out your old tool shed, hoped you’d forget they were [...] I’ve said it before, but nothing makes the CCP look more like a bunch of insecure moonbats than their fixation on “guiding public opinion” (read: censorship and propaganda). The 2009 SCIO Internet News Work training session recently wrapped up in Beijing, and over the next few days China Digital Times is publishing translated notes from the [...] Never ones to miss a chance for unintentional comedy, the boys at The People’s Daily this week are engaging in a little Freudian wish-making with an article that reads like it was cut straight from The Onion. (The last line alone is priceless.) Nowadays, there is a popular saying among Japanese girls that goes “What we want is [...] December 16 is an interesting day for Tang history. On this date in 705, Empress Wu Zetian died in Luoyang at the age of 82 sui. Founder of her own dynasty, the Zhou, and a strong wielder of personal power throughout the latter half of the 7th century, Wu Zetian is one of the more complicated [...] The Onion is running a feature on “The Top Ten Stories of the last 4.5 Billion Years” with important and noteworthy sections entitled “Industrial Revolution Provides Millions of Out-of-Work Children with Jobs” and “Conquerors you may have missed.” Naturally, you can’t have such a comprehensive historical rundown without including China, right? Either Ming Or Yuan Dynasty [...] There have been several discussions of the book by Wang Xiaodong & friends Unhappy China. While most of the book features the sort of puerile lack of self awareness usually associated with teenage males and reality TV stars, I had to give props to this excerpt on China Digital Times: Τibet: Don’t Play Games With Archeology! [...] In Tuesday’s Pearl Harbor post, I appended a little shout out to my home state’s role in ending the Russo-Japanese War. Well, just when you thought China had a monopoly on specious historical claims, here comes Maine and their splittist propaganda: Really enjoyed your recent post on Pearl Harbor and historical absolutism. It’s somewhat difficult for [...] As most Americans and a few Japanese (or should that be reversed?) know, yesterday was the 68th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor once seemed to be one of those few events in history that seemed impervious to my rule about there being no absolutes in history. The Japanese bombed us so we [...] It’s Sunday in the hutong, and at this time of the year that means college football and paper grading. But I took some time out to have a laugh at this atrociously hysterical piece by publishing magnate Conrad Black on Stephen Harper’s recent visit to Beijing. The whole thing is pretty funny, but fellow fans of [...] Today is the birthday of Zhu Yunwen, the second emperor of the Ming dynasty, born December 5, 1377. The first son of the first son of the Ming dynastic founder Zhu Yuanzhang (Ming Taizu/The Hongwu Emperor), Zhu Yunwen took the throne following the death of his grandfather in 1398. Not that everybody was happy about the [...] |
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History museums
Christmas in Montpelier, VT. We’re up here visiting my sister and I have to say…it’s been a nice break from the daily grind of Beijing living. YJ and I are constantly amazed over such commonalities as “pedestrian right of way” and “customer service.”
Having a bit of a break from family to-do’s, we wandered around the downtown [...]