Even worse are the repeated attempts by local officials to intimidate into silence those who are suffering the most, including a busload [...]]]> There’s a piece in The Guardian today on the horrific incidents of lead poisoning in a Hunan village, the result of pollution from a factory operated by the Tenda Corporation.  It’s a terrible tragedy.

Even worse are the repeated attempts by local officials to intimidate into silence those who are suffering the most, including a busload of victims trying to leave their village in search of medical care.  These officials are scum and they deserve to be exposed for the cowards and bullies that they are.  Bravo to The Guardian for doing so.

My problem though is with the headline.

“China defends detention of lead poisoning victims who sought medical help.”

As I said, this case is tragic and the response by local and provincial officials has been shocking in its cruelty, but CHINA didn’t defend the detention, it was two local party hacks with a third quote from the regional propaganda office.  Of course these hardhearted pleather-toting ernai-loving dimwits are defending their actions, it’s what local officials do.

Sadly, reprehensibly, ’twas ever thus.

But suggesting that the country — or the national government — stands firmly behind these goons is getting ahead of the story.  Maybe the central government has issued orders to squelch any political blowback from this horrible case — they’ve done it before — but the article doesn’t make that claim and the headline should reflect the content.  It’s hard to convince people overseas that China is not a monolith, this kind of carelessness makes that effort more difficult and hinders understanding of the complexities of China’s political landscape.

Let it be said that I am a huge fan of Jonathan Watt’s reporting on China and the environment, and I am well aware that reporters don’t write their own headlines, so this isn’t a slam against Jon in any way, the story is well done and needed to be written.  This is more a nit that needs to be picked with the headline writers and editorial staffs back home.

The centenary of the Wuhan Uprising/Xīnhài Gémìng 辛亥革命 is, well, nearly 18 months away which makes the planning process in Wuhan a little premature perhaps, but nobody ever lost a wager betting against the reflexive compulsion on the part [...]]]> I’m sure this is not the last time I’ll write about 1911 over the coming year BUT…

The centenary of the Wuhan Uprising/Xīnhài Gémìng 辛亥革命 is, well, nearly 18 months away which makes the planning process in Wuhan a little premature perhaps, but nobody ever lost a wager betting against the reflexive compulsion on the part of Chinese local officials to take the most mundane and boring event and blow it out of all proportions.

Nevertheless, “some people” (the Global Times’ favorite source) are already concerned about the costs associated with the Wuhan municipal government’s plan to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of an accidental uprising that succeeded completely in spite of itself, which is not exactly how Wuhan’s leaders spin it:

The Wuhan government’s plan to spend 20 billion yuan ($2.9 billion) to celebrate the centenary of the Xinhai Revolution, the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, has stirred debate among residents who say the government has failed to effectively use public money.

Ruan Chengfa, the mayor of Wuhan, Hubei Province, and also a deputy to the National People’s Congress, told the Xinhua News Agency that a grand celebration is needed because the revolution is a landmark event in China and even Asia, as it ended feudalism. Wuhan is the birthplace of the revolution.

The revolution led by Sun Yat-sen began with the Wuchang Uprising on October 10, 1911 and concluded with the abdication of Emperor Puyi on February 12, 1912, when the Republic of China was established to replace the Qing Dynasty.

Expect plenty of triumphalism in the coming year, as well as a fair amount of tip-toeing around some thorny historiographic issues. (PRC historians treat the 1911 revolution like some kind of idiot older brother to 1949 because of the revolution’s failure to address root social and economic problems and the subsequent shenanigans with Yuan Shikai, warlordism, and the total unraveling of the country, etc.)

Oh, and for the record, while Sun Yat-sen gets credited with being the “father of the revolution” and all that, let us not forget that he only learned about the Wuchang Uprising when he picked up a newspaper on the train between Kansas City and Denver.   Given Sun’s track record when taking an active role in the planning process for an armed insurrection, it’s probably a good thing he was 6000 miles away.  Let’s just say that the good Dr. Sun makes for a pretty decent example of the “Ewing Theory” and its application to the the study of Chinese history and leave it at that.

(h/t Danwei.)

And [...]]]> Amidst the usual nonsense in China’s annual head feint toward participatory democracy, CPPCC celebrity watchers have enjoyed gaping as the likes Song Zuying (whose political credentials so far as we know mainly revolve around her — ahem — presidential services during the Jiang Zemin administration) and TV host Yang Lan play politician for the masses.

And of course there is also hurdler Liu Xiang, taking a much heralded leap into politics.  Now the mixing of athletes and politics is a long standing tradition in the US, and something of a religion in places like the Philippines, and Americans who were expecting their unemployment  checks this past Monday can attest to just how dicey a match up this can be: For every Jack Kemp there is also, unfortunately, a Jim Bunning.

Unlike Senator Bunning however, Liu Xiang kept to his mandate — athletic eye candy for the masses — and in this capacity delivered the basic message that China’s youth should exercise more and that “a healthy body is everything.”

It’s not the worst way to start a political career.  The earliest incarnation of Mao Zedong thought was a rather archly literal interpretation of “national strength” by the future Chairman: a call for Chinese youth to strengthen their bodies.  In a 1917 essay, “A Study in Physical Education,” Mao urged his fellow youth to take long hikes and vigorous exercise to strengthen both body and will.  Young people, particularly students, were too soft and pampered.  If the Chinese no longer wished to be the so-called ‘Sick Men of Asia’ then they must “be able to leap on horseback and shoot at the same time; to  go from battle to battle; to shake the mountains by one’s cries, and the colors of the sky by one’s roars of anger.”*

This past week, the president of the Beijing Sports University, Yang Hua, took up Liu Xiang’s suggestion with one of his own, a veritable clarion call of alarmist rhetoric sure to please the pickled sub-cockles of the Chairman’s heart:

“It is time for the Chinese nation to improve the physical fitness of our next generation,” said Yang. “If we miss the next three to five years a whole generation will be next to useless.

“If there was another war against Japan, would the younger Chinese be able to fight the Japanese one-on-one?”

Trends all suggest that Chinese youth in urban areas are suffering an epidemic of obesity; a combination of the One Child Policy, a love of video games, pressure to study, and the rising popularity of processed meals and American fast food has done a number on the waistlines of China’s little emperors.

What’s striking though is how much the rhetoric surrounding this problem still fixates on ideas of “national strength” rather than the more mundane benefits of exercise and healthy habits, such as living longer and avoiding chronic illness.

In the same article, Jiang Xiaoyu, a senior member of the organizing committee for the Beijing Games, was quoted as saying:

“A survey has shown that Chinese teenagers are behind their Japanese peers in almost every indicator it measured…The physical fitness of the young is a matter of strengthening our country and our Chinese race.”

Racialist “logic” and the “science” of eugenics were very popular among Chinese intellectuals of the early 20th century and while these ideas have long since been discredited in the rest of the world they seem to be thriving here.  Concerns over the “quality” (素质) of babies, and subsequent calls to raise the number of “quality” births, are troubling signs that government officials remain mired in a 19th century worldview that does little to address 21st century problems.

That Chinese youth, like young people around the world, could benefit from more exercise is beyond question, but the reasons should have more to do with health, happiness, and the teaching of concepts like sportsmanship and teamwork rather than the kind of anachronistic, muddle-headed, and tin-eared calls for racial strengthening being made this past week.

———–

*Jonathan Spence. The Search for Modern China, 2nd Edition. (W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1999), p. 317.

2. Can’t decide which is turning me off more on the Olympics, CCTV 5 turning over all of the air time to Wang Meng or NBC just plowing the Olympic hockey gold storyline right through the snow and [...]]]> 1. Nanjing 1912 is what all of China would look like if Chiang Kai-shek had won the war.

2. Can’t decide which is turning me off more on the Olympics, CCTV 5 turning over all of the air time to Wang Meng or NBC just plowing the Olympic hockey gold storyline right through the snow and into bedrock.

3. Three things in China that are likely to result in an early demise for your correspondent: 1)  the mixture of stupidity, explosives, and alcohol that comes every Chinese New Year. 2) Being taken out by a driver with less than five months of experience behind the wheel and who had just enough money after purchasing a car to buy off the driving instructor. 3) That McDonald’s and KFC have competing 24-hour delivery services.

4) Vegas has taken the odds for #3 off of the board.

5) Nanjing is a surprisingly livable city. Of course I’ve only been here in the fall and spring, I understand that in the summer it’s like God’s own curling iron.

6) Toshiba laptop batteries suck donkey di