Jottings from the Granite Studio

And it has come down from on high…the Beijing municipal government today unveiled its long anticipated if not especially eagerly awaited Olympic traffic plan. Odd number. Even number. It won’t matter. What does matter is that we can forget about getting a cab on a weekday downtown. Just start walking now, you’ll get to where you’re going eventually.

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It’s a busy research and teaching month…but hey, aren’t they all? Some quick links this Friday morning.

Fans of aviation history, mercenaries, or John Wayne movies in general will be glad to know that the WW II-era aviation squadron “The Flying Tigers” are getting their own memorial park in Yunnan. The new park will [...]

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It has been a busy week here. YJ is finally finished covering the 17th Party Congress (she claims to have won the office pool on the leadership selections). Personally, I’ll just be glad when we can get through breakfast and/or dinner without listening to CCTV news droning on with lists of names.
Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao….Wu [...]

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Hong Kong-based citizen journalist and Global Voices Online contributor Oiwan Lam is facing charges of indecency in Hong Kong for posting an artsy topless photograph found on Flickr. She is facing a lengthy–and expensive–court battle and needs your help. The case has quickly become a cause célèbre in the China blogosphere. More information [...]

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A few links, some of which might require a quick annotation or gloss on key words:
–Michael Turton reports on The View from Taiwan that The National Palace Museum in Taipei has begun digitizing its immense collection “of loot Chinese Art treasures.”
–EastSouthWestNorth has translated an article by the “Off Track Scholar” (壞軌書生) entitled “Commemorating the Return, [...]

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Via Danwei comes a report that inclusion of the Cultural Revolution film “Though I am Gone” (我虽死去) has resulted in the cancellation of the Yunnan Film Festival. The film, available in 10 parts on YouTube, documents the horrific killing of Bian Zhongyun, the principlal of the Girls Middle School attached to Beijing Normal University. Her [...]

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Story in Spiegel Online profiling Duong Van Ngo, a 77-year old trilingual resident of Saigon (excuse me, Ho Chi Minh City) who claims to be the last of the city’s public letter writers. In the old days, these fixtures outside post offices and ports would draft and sometimes translate letters and documents and even scribble [...]

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First of all, I know I’m slacking this week but hey…I wrote something like 41 posts in February (with only 28 days) and in the past five days I’ve had to finish up Chunjie-ing, find new digs in Beijing, and move all of our worldly possessions from Tianjin. All to the good. We’re finally moved [...]

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One of THE BEST blogs currently in the Chinese blogosphere is China Dialogue. Its excellent collection of Chinese and English articles (with translations) on environmental topics make it the very definition of a must-read blog. In today’s edition, Jiang Gaoming, professor of Botany at the Chinese Academy of Science and vice secretary-general of the UNESCO [...]

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1.) Richard at The Peking Duck sticks his head in the dragon’s maw and asks: “How many years does Chinese civilization go back, and what criteria are applied to come up with the famous claim of ‘5,000 years’?” Well, the comments came fast and furious and are well worth checking out. Sam, from The Useless [...]

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