The Dreamer and the Rebel

May 18, 2012

When I look at my sons, I feel as if the complexities of my soul have been sundered into two separate facets and placed within each one of them. The following is a gross oversimplification of their as-yet undeveloped characters, but it’s what I think about, so I am going to let loose.

My older son dreams a lot. When he wakes up in the morning, he likes to chill out and let the tendrils of sleep ooze off of him slowly. When he is confronted with something new, he sits and observes. I can see the thoughts collecting into patterns in his eyes and when he has a picture he understands, a smile of comprehension lights up his face. He is a sensitive boy. He likes to watch things go down and silently process them. He loves to be around people and be the center of attention. I believe he thinks deep about things, as deep as one can for a two year old – which in my opinion is deeper than we can ever really know.

My younger son is boisterous, hot blooded and physical. He acts first and thinks later. When he wants something, he dives off in hot pursuit and won’t stop until he gets his hands on it. Usually it’s a toy my older son is playing with. He can take a beating from an older boy stoically and on more than one occasion he just blinks it off and strikes back. He is fearless and when he gets angry, his little body shakes with the fury of a one year old and he screams a challenge out. His little fists ball up and I can see the energy build up and explode out.

When my wife sent me pictures of him with Aiweiwei, I immediately went to plotting. I am more like my older boy, I think, but I have the inner heat of my younger one, no doubt. I want them to be themselves, but of course I can’t help but look for parallels in my own life because my true and unrelenting desire is to help them. I want to make sure my sons do not make the same mistakes their father made (and still makes on a daily basis).

I want them to have the best of me. I want to be able to see the worst in me before it takes a hold of their characters, and help them eradicate, accept, temper, utilize it all.

I want the dreamer to have the iron will of a warrior and the rebel to have the depth of perception of the dreamer. Looking at them, I learn more about myself as well. I need the iron will of a warrior to temper my tendency to dream life out, rather than live it. And I need to process my dreams quick, so when I do act, those acts are decisive yet calculating. We are a work in progress.

Whatever you want little man ... whatever you want

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Sovereignty

May 11, 2012

Recently we’ve been treated to a few events that have brought out the reactions of Chinese netizens across the spectrum of opinion, from the reform-minded to the nationalistic, and what we have read in the state-owned media and in the comments on Sina Weibo helps to shed a bit of light on Chinese society.

Chinese have little or no control over their leaders, their governing Party or the morality of the average citizen. When the Bo Xilai scandal broke, the overwhelming response online was disgust and shame … disgust at the rampant corruption and the shame of having the nation’s dirty laundry aired across the global media and within the halls of the US Embassy. Chen Guangcheng’s dramatic escape and his struggle with the central authorities, the local government in Shandong and the US government in the persons of Ambassador Gary Locke and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton elicited similar reactions. In both cases, Chinese supported, or at the very least didn’t violently oppose, foreign efforts to meddle in “internal affairs” because those affairs were not issues of sovereignty.

The average Chinese citizen feels he/she practices little sovereignty over the actions of the government, so the majority reaction supported reform, freedom and liberal responses to issues that in the past were treated with hardline discipline.

For me, the incident in Guangzhou, in which a Brazilian was beaten by thieves for helping a woman whose purse was stole while gawkers stood and … gawked … is related. The reactions were, again, laced with shame and disgust. Netizens sliced into the collective morality of a society that has consistently displayed an unwillingness to do the right thing when confronted with injustice. The overall lack of morality on the streets of China is something the whole nation is struggling with. On an individual level, no Chinese person would advocate standing around while a person is beaten for coming to the aid of others, but on a group level, the situation is less positive. Here, in my opinion, is another example of the lack of control the society has over an issue. The Chinese media has been rocked time and time again by examples of collective and individual immorality, injustice, corruption and perfidy, yet nothing seems to change.

In stark contrast to those issues, and how the majority of netizens reacted to them, are the recent clamors for war with the Philippines over islands in the South China Sea and the vitriolic outpouring of hatred on Sina Weibo for the foreigner caught messing with a Chinese woman.

When it comes to territory and women, there is no question of sovereignty. The language itself dispels any doubts: Our China, Our Chinese women, We Chinese are all very common phrases. I have watched the video and there is no clear evidence of rape  (or a beating for that matter) and no one is really sure what happened that night, but just the idea of a foreigner infringing upon sovereign territory (Our Chinese women) is enough to bring out the most violent reaction. It reminds me of what happened to black men messing with white women in the US not so long ago. People get emotional when it comes to women, but only if their bodies are at stake. Raping a purse is a minor offense.

The conflict with the Philippines is also based on dubious claims of sovereignty over islands that are much closer to the Philippines than to China, but the proof or lack thereof of sovereignty does not matter. For Chinese, the issue is clear cut: the islands belong to Our China and are therefore inviolable and any infringement upon them should be met with violence. To draw a (perhaps too tenuous) parallel, it is completely rational to demand the US mind its own business when a much larger nation bullies a much smaller one, but just as rational to deride Chinese society for minding its own business when a group of thugs beat up a Brazilian.

Perhaps Chinese are just picking their battles. The average person here knows that the princelings are corrupt, that local governments are brutish and oppressive and that the society at large is fully capable of watching a bad deed go down without lifting a finger, but there is little that can be done to change that. At least in the near term.

But when it comes to foreigners abusing Chine

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Pragmatic above all things

May 9, 2012

I know a girl named Color who stopped me on the street one day and said,

I am different from every other Chinese girl out there. I think deep, she said, and I question everything. Everybody thinks I am weird and I have few friends. I say strange stuff like, Why would you do that? and That doesn’t seem to have much meaning does it? People think I am crazy. Not pragmatic. My mother is trying to marry me off, but I will resist. I don’t want marriage, I want to be me, to find the truth, I want to find meaning in life.

Last Saturday I sat with ten young film students who also run a small company. They make commercial films and PR for townships by day, dream of Hollywood films and groundbreaking documentaries by night. We talked and smoked, smoked and drank.

The word we hear the most, every day, is pragmatic, said Big Jia. That’s the theme of this new film we are talking about here. The lives of the new youth in China, who dream big but are eventually forced to be pragmatic. Get a job. Get married, buckle down, have kids, be responsible, forget the laughing passions of summer.

Just now I spoke with a 58 year old PhD from Europe. Been here in China for many years and has just now realized that he has no savings, a wife and two kids, and cannot retire. He desperately wants to leave China, but can’t yet. Because US schools don’t want him, European schools have no space, schools Down Under favor Down Under people.

A girl that just left is writing a story about a performance artist who vomits into cans, slams velour penises against stone walls and is now finishing up a project in Pakistan. She was off to interview another artist, this one a guy who sold it all to rent a concrete shell in south Chengdu and produce art like a madman, for a show where he might sell nothing, in pursuit of a dream he is busy fleshing out.

I watch them all go through my life, signs from my God, messages from the source of my soul, whispering whispering the truth in my ear every second of every day. I hear the songs on the radio, Madonna’s Material Girl, I look to the sofa nearby and see a little girl who happens to look at me and smile, she is reading a book to her mom. It’s hot out but the aircon is on. I have been staring at this computer, reading the news, doing my email runs, plotting things that I have forgotten before I end this sentence. I hope I remember them before it’s too late … before deadlines pass.

I am envious and arrogant. Because I turn away from the signs to peer at the black sludge.

Color is dating a man 2 1/2 times her age. She quit her job as an editor at a magazine to work in his cafe. She says he is controlling, bad in bed, old and ugly. But he whispers lollipop philosophies to her and sends her SMS quotes from the ancient annals. Is she a young girl playing around and searching for truth? Or is she a swirling strand of straw in the sands of pragmatic settlements? I hope she knows what she’s doing, but I can’t help thinking of her as the ship’s captain calling out directions as the stern sinks lower.

read this aloud, all you with a lisp.

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Chen Guang Cheng in Limbo …

May 3, 2012

Chen Guang Cheng’s great escape from house arrest, oppression and beatings has taken an awkward twist, with the activist in the custody of the Chinese government and the US administration feeling the heat from human rights activists across the world.   The Twitter-verse turned from joyous to shocked to depressed as word came through from people like activist Zeng Jinyan and Chen’s lawyer, Teng Biao, that Chen was safe in the Embassy, then, suddenly, that he was leaving the US Embassy for Beijing’s Chaoyang Hospital.

As soon as that news was reported, Chen’s supporters around the world let out a collective groan of dismay. Releasing Chen to the Chinese government is basically the kiss of death, no matter what assurances the Chinese authorities give concerning his safety and the safety of his family. Yet that is exactly what the US did. For several hours last night, the mood was both somber and furious as friends called for action, shook their heads at US diplomacy and worried that Chen would disappear, this time forever.

All things are murky now. Men in black suits and black cars picked up Zeng Jinyan this morning and she is now under house arrest, according to a tweet earlier today. Representative Chris Smith has called for a Congressional Hearing on Chen’s case and Chen himself told CNN’s Steven Jiang that the Embassy lied to him (must read interview transcript).

How did it come to this?

(more…)

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On the run in China: Chen Guangcheng escapes!

April 27, 2012

Chen Guangcheng is an activist in China’s northern Shandong Province. He is blind and lives in the tiny rural village of Dongshigu, where he fought for the rights of peasants and especially women who faced forced sterilization and other abuses. He was imprisoned more than 4 years for his efforts and then placed under house arrest. His case reached the international audience after several attempts to visit him, most famously by the actor Christian Bale, were beaten back by local police and hired guards. He recently escaped from house arrest and made a run for it … 

Chen Guangcheng is free, for now, and as far as anyone knows, safe. Bill Fu of China Aid tweeted earlier today that CGC was in the 100% safest location in Beijing, which led many to believe that the US has yet another hot potato on its hands …

The story broke on Weibo first, then it was picked up by Yaxue Cao of SeeingredinChina and as soon as she wrote her post and tweeted the news, the whole China Watcher Universe mobilized. ABCNews had a story out very quickly, as did CNN, Reuters and others. For an hour or so, people were speculating about where he is, whether or not he was safe, what happened to He Peirong and what the consequences could be for his family back home. China Digital Times has a breakdown of how the info spun …

Then just now, a video recording of Chen was released on Youtube. In this video Chen describes the surveillance is family was under: “one team in my house, one side outside of my house, more – using my house as the fulcrum – stationed at every intersection and, during the most serious times, all the way to Yingcheng, where 7-8 men stood guard at the bridge.”

The beatings his wife and mother endured “even now, years later, you can easily feel the bumps on her head”;

and he names names. From the village head, to the police chief to various workers and officials within the county’s administration, he names them all. He speaks of the cash incentive for watching and beating him – 100RMB per day, with 10 going to the boss and 90 to the thug – and he expresses his fears for his family.

It is a very intense moment for China, China’s dissidents and for the ruling clique who, in the midst of a nasty takedown, now have to deal with a very famous activist who has escaped. And may have “pulled a Wang Lijun” by heading to the US Embassy … Let’s hope it all works out:

from @bequelin: “Chen Guangcheng may have escaped from house arrest, but he is certainly not safe, nor are his family and supporters.”

Update: Friday Midnight, not much more to tell really other than the complete censorship of Weibo, Chen Kegui (see Yaxue’s post linked above) may be on the run and the US is sticking to “no comment” China Geeks has this post.

Update: Saturday 5am, NYT’s Andrew Jacobs says it’s “fairly certain” that Chen Guangcheng is in the US embassy. The last dissident to hole up with the Americans, the late Fang Lizhi, spent a year in the Embassy until his departure from China could be negotiated. But BBCNews reports that Bill Fu from China Aid has spoken to CGC, who said he wants to stay in China.

Good luck brother. Youtube Video Below:

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