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Does singing “Red Songs” really mean a new revival of the old Party spirit? Or is it something that has been happening all along but makes for easy headlines with Bo Xilai’s recent Chongqing campaign and the CPC anniversary just around the corner? A Guest Post by Zhang Yajun. 
An article in the Global Times about How to Marry a Billionaire causes Yajun to wonder about the cost of equating money with love in today’s China. Today being a beautiful day in the ‘jing, I thought of nothing better than a long hutong ramble, a bit of urban hiking if you will. We started at Xinjiekou, wormed our way through the Sihuan wet market, around Houhai,* down Gulou Dongdajie (stopping for burritos at Amigos), and then south along Jiaodaokou to the National Museum of Art, and then further south still…and that’s where our springtime stroll turned interesting. I had — perhaps naively — assumed that since no protests materialized last Sunday, and the overwhelming security response had brought so much attention to a non-issue, that this Sunday would be comparatively mellow. A few cops, some red armbands, but mostly just NPC bullshit and nothing like the street sweepers and broom beaters of last Sunday’s debacle on Wangfujing. Yep, I was wrong. We made it past the first checkpoint, just north of the cathedral, by putting on the ‘dumb laowai’ act. Since most cops assume foreigners are idiots anyway, this ruse is not too hard to pull off. After a few “We don’t know anything we just want to look at the church, Mr. Police Officer” lines, we were through…only to be stopped just north of the It’s been a weird few days in Beijing. I still believe that the calls for a Jasmine Revolution in China are mostly wishful tweeting, but neither have I been surprised by the government’s security minders wildly overreacting to the whole situation. The Internet has been hit or miss all week, even by the usual standards. VPN services are harder to access and Linked In has now apparently joined Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube as the latest in a long list of overseas social media sites declared verboten by the CCP Net Ninnies. Linked In is now working in Beijing which I think says more about Linked In’s irrelevancy as it does about the the government’s tolerance. And just in case that wasn’t sufficient, there’s always the old school approach as reported by Tom Lasseter on his blog: But in addition to cyber tactics, the Chinese government has also apparently resorted to simpler measures: rows of trees in front of part of the Wangfujing McDonald’s, and a new construction site stretching down the street. Signs say the road is being repaired, though there’s not much evidence of that happening yet. (For pictures, see this post by Beijing-based French journo Jordan Pouille) I’m a taxi guy. There is the Metro. Fast. Modern. Immune to the gridlock just a few meters above. And totally packed out. At rush hour lines 1 and 2 resemble the alimentary canals of giant man-eating tube worms after an all-you-can-eat human parts buffet. Last week I had to tell the dude standing behind me that if he got any closer, he’d have to buy me a drink first. The Beijing bus system is convenient and you’re never more than 50 meters from a stop, but they can be a tad unreliable. Twice in the past month I’ve had the driver of the Number 8 bus simply stop on the North Third Ring and announce he wasn’t going any further. I have no idea why but I’m guessing the riotous mob my fellow commuters formed ultimately beat the reason out of him. Good times! There’s always bicycle I suppose. But as a larger-sized mammal, I’ve found that my riding bikes to be far too amusing for passers-by than is perhaps good for my self-esteem or the general social harmony. A colleagues suggested I buy a car, but with the streets clogged worse than a hutong sewer, the Beijing Municipal |
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Copyright © 2012 Jottings from the Granite Studio - All Rights Reserved
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