It’s April Again

Today I smoked a joint and walked around the Gulou area, and thought about many things. People everywhere, great clumps of pollen swirling in a funnel right above my head. Bright sunlight through the little olive leaves onto my face. I thought of my old professor, Moses. He lives in Beijing and so far has […]

Flashlights in the Dark

I have to admit, I haven’t read a single story about foreign journalists with China visa problems. I found them all to smack of the same droll, insular, looping urgency of first world problems. If all of the reporters were white, I would just say “privilege” and dip my face back into the Stream and […]

Book Review: Hawkins, Sagan, Zinn and Thompson

I have been tearing through books recently, due to my snazzy iPad Mini. I did a review a couple weeks ago, and I like that type of post, so here goes another one, this time 4 (5?) books and not three. I will review the first three here, and then do the last two – […]

Book Reviews: Hitler, Stalin, Assange and Wall Street

I tend to read at random, just grabbing whatever is lying around and swallowing it whole, believing sincerely in the Tao of Reading: the Way will lead the books I should be reading to within arms reach. In keeping with this belief – which came first the belief or the book? – I have had […]

Caixin is awesome, but the sun is still gonna blow up someday

This article here, Urban Platforms in a Policy Pressure Cooker, is just one example of Caixin Online’s excellent reporting on China’s political and economic landscape. The high-quality English is also extraordinary, as most Chinese media almost never nail the news voice that, for better or for worse, dominates the international media’s idea of what is credible […]

Same Work, Same Pay

About 200 pensioners are camped outside of the Chengdu municipal government office building to protest imbalances in benefits offered to private and public sector employees. They represent around 50 state-owned hospitals, clinics, and community health care centers and, from the looks of it, they aren’t going anywhere until the imbalances are addressed. “People from the […]

Was the Wen Jiabao Story a Leak?

The NYT story on the Wen Family finances that came out in October, Billions in Hidden Riches for Family of Chinese Leader, is lauded by mainstream media figures as a journalistic coup and an example of gumshoe investigative journalism. But a small minority of media outlets, led by erstwhile Western media darlings Boxun and Mingjing, counter that […]

An Excellent Argument for Re-election

“Obama succeeded George W. Bush, a two-term President whose misbegotten legacy, measured in the money it squandered and the misery it inflicted, has become only more evident with time. Bush left behind an America in dire condition and with a degraded reputation. On Inauguration Day, the United States was in a downward financial spiral brought […]

Resist the Worst

“When you think about the worst that could happen, you should resist this temptation to make yourself the centre of the world. Turn away from the injustice of being falsely condemned or the despair of being utterly alone. Quash the thought of losing a child. On this melancholy subject, at least, I am with Smith […]

Gibbering again

My vision of myself rarely coincides with the vision others have of me. When people think highly of me, I hear the sniveling thief gibber inside; when people think low of me, I feel the warrior stir. But not just in reaction to what others think. It’s almost as if praise comes exactly then, when […]

Before I die

Factories will have no workers, just a few people making sure the machines are well-oiled Doctors will never touch a knife, only input the data into a computer Disease will be the scourge of the underclass, everyone else will have their genes regularly realigned Drivers will look up at floating highways, and the tolls will […]

Chen Guang Cheng in Limbo …

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 […]

On the run in China: Chen Guangcheng escapes!

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 […]

Calcified Culture, or Unique Characters?

This essay might sound a bit familiar, if you read this blog, as I seem to be circling the idea of change as a possibility. Last essay I wrote on this topic was Silk Roads and Great Walls, and that dealt briefly with the high-level impediments, this one here is a look at the grassroots […]

The sins of the father …

I was struck today by John Garnaut’s profile of General Liu Yuan, embedded in an investigation into PLA corruption. What moved me and stopped me in my tracks, and made me come back here to write this, is the revelation that Liu Yuan is the “last surviving male descendant of Liu Shaoqi”. I know little […]

Foreign Tax not about Foreigners

Perhaps this issue is old hat and considering the fact that much of the implementation and enforcement of China’s Social Security Law is, shall we say, open to debate, there might be no purpose at all in even thinking about it. But I have been. And I have come to the conclusion that every expat […]

The Empire Strikes Back

China-based hacks into commercial and political networks across the planet have made the news again, with the Trend Micro report on an attack called LuckyCat that targeted Asian defense systems as well as Tibetan networks. The attack was traced back to a graduate of Chengdu’s Sichuan University, Gu Kaiyuan. Gu currently works for Tencent and […]

Mother’s milk under attack!

There are daily examples all across the world of the media mis-reporting the news and influencing public opinion. Some of them we just let go and forget about, but others have to be confronted and exposed. Today a story spread across parts of the Chinese web that attacked the natural power of women to breastfeed […]

That cess in yer chest

Tell me how to keep the smile on my face when I start every morning hacking like an old revolutionary until lung butter splatters the toilet bowl like adolescent lust. And clings to it like a first crush. Every morning ya’ll. I quit smoking and I remember someone saying that the first few weeks/months after […]

A True Belief

Tom from Seeing Red in China pointed out some China Quarterly essays and one of them is the inspiration for this essay … Few of China’s problems seem so intractable as the issue of the Chinese soul and what morals are available to guide it in the 21st century. The whole concept of a soul […]

China-US Cold War and what we can do about it

Can it be denied that the US is actively engaging China’s border nations in an attempt to contain and control China? It seems pretty clear to most observers that such was the case years ago – Kissinger commented on the idea of containment back in 2005 – but with the recent moves in Myanmar and […]

Yining in Xinjiang Province bans beards and burkas

The Yining Government just released a plan of action that targets beard and burka-wearers across the municipality. The plan calls for a house-to-house search for any bearded men or women wearing non-revealing clothing and then ordering them to shave and strip. Disobedience will be met with prison terms. The new plan comes on the heels […]

Blinded by the Web

I’m going to switch gears and talk about my own country for a second here. Hitting out at China is actually too easy. There are a bunch of problems in the country and, for the most part, the propaganda and methods of the state are so crude that ridiculing them is like shooting the proverbial […]

Excerpts from an Interview with Luo Fahui

This is a companion piece to ChengduLiving’s Portrait of a Chengdu Artist: Luo Fa Hui. Here I put together some excerpts from an interview back in October. Stay tuned next week for more Chengdu artist love, both here and at ChengduLiving.com On China’s Future: -有希望。中国朝着良性方向发展,不是以前那样封闭。现在我们很多人,都有机会和权贵坐在一起。这是大趋势,不是一个政党可以控制的,所以这个是个很大的希望。现在慢慢的改变,慢慢开始尊重人权,尊重人的思想,自由度,精神上的,越来越宽。首先是看着这30年的变化,亲身体会,当年是怎么样,现在是怎么样,随便怎么比。 There’s hope. China’s is moving forward in a good direction, […]

Agents of Conformity

Today I read Murong Xuecun’s speech given in Oslo. The things he described in his speech are clearly happening all around us and I have rarely, if ever, met a Chinese who will dispute much of what he said. In fact, most of the conversations that end up dealing with the woes of China are […]

Ai Wei Wei, prepare for martyrdom

It’s hard to watch a good man go down, but that is exactly what I find myself doing everyday now since Ai Wei Wei’s battle with the Chinese government took over the front pages of a lot of the mainstream media and China related blogs. He is a heroic figure and, for Westerners, his return […]

There might still be blood ….

I am deeply ashamed that I linked that NYT article. If you read it (Hi Mom!) then you noticed how the voice was decidedly not in favor of the protestors and focused more on the restoration of order. It wasn’t the piece itself that made me link, but the news that it carried with it: […]

There will be blood

There are basically two camps in the world “battling it out” while the rest of the masses shift and moan and watch it all go down. I use quotation marks because there is often no battle at all. In the Arab countries, there is. In the West, there is not. Two possible representations for the […]

Up for Grabs

I spent a full year under the harsh lights of Ctrip’s corporate glare and I wrote a lot of stuff for them. It seemed like pissing into the wind, for the most part. I met great people there, but the Chinatravel.net site for which I worked is the mortally wounded man doggedly clinging to life, […]

The Future is now

While avoiding the drudge work at Ctrip, I stumbled across the theory of neoteny in evolution. Neoteny is when infant features appear in adults ie when we evolve “backward” such that we display childlike characteristics, presumably mentally as well as physically. Paradoxically, moving backward is going forward: evolution in primates is a steady procession back […]

A question of existence

I came across some interesting thoughts the least couple of days. Although I don’t write about current affairs nearly as much as I used to, i still rant about stuff during my lunch break or late at night to bean, who listens politely. I’ve explained a few times already why i don’t write about US […]

Scattered Fam

So we’re on the eternal search for “the Spot” that will allow me to sip tea and write best sellers while bean makes big big money and the lil ones scamper. Possible locations are (were) 1) Pacific Northwest, specifically Portland and Northern Cali, but also and not limited to Canada or northern Washington. 2) Dali […]

Giving notice

I worry about my writing a lot. Its the only thing i can claim as my own and its probably my only legit ticket out of the rat race. My only honorable ticket i guess, cuz if something else got me free of the race and in the cottage by the sea, I would die […]

Poo issues

All last night i pooped out water and wandered between dream states with these lines from J-Dilla’s Jungle Love going through my head over and over ” … i won’t take it like Shaq from three … with out that loot ya instrumentals stay instrumentals” But now daddy has the house to himself, the AC […]

Recent news and other tidbits

Once again, i have neglected my own personal blog in favor of other “cooler” spots that either pay me or raise my exposure level up a micron. Unfortunate, but a lot of it has to do with fatigue and time. With two sons (pic post coming up later, don’t worry) a brother truly has no […]

Fast, Cheap or Good: You can only have Two

Rumor has it that Tom Waits once said this to Jim Jarmusch over whiskey and pop tarts, but it could have been Ben Franklin. I find it to be a pretty decent appraisal of what is possible in today’s world. In the US, I believe people chose “fast and good” whereas in China people chose […]

Into a groove

When it comes to blogging and just writing in general, its important to get your groove on. For a while there I was writing wak destination guides using bad reviews from the web and memories — either mine or some one elses. That actually hasn’t changed. part of my job is still exactly that: armchair […]

What the Wenchuan Quake makes me think of

I still choke up every time I read about the kids that died in the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake. I’ll remember the pictures of a girl impaled on rebar as screaming parents reached up to her … one of them balanced on crumbling concrete trying to reach her before she faded out. I’ll see the blood […]

Why I came to China …

I walked into the Minneapolis Institute of Arts one day way back in 1998 and saw this massive hunk of jade. It had been commissioned by Emperor Qianlong himself to be carved according to the ancient 4th century poem, “Prelude to the Orchid Pavilion,” by Wang Xi Zhi, one of China’s greatest calligraphers. As soon […]

I should be armchair travelin’

but i’m surfin instead. The other day my man Charlie got the China Blues, you know, when it dawns on you that all of the things that you heard about China as a kid actually don’t exist anymore and have been replaced by “ignorant drones on autopilot” … happens to all of us here. I […]

/facepalm

Man everywhere i look the oppression is just getting deeper and deeper — at least when I peep the news. there is China doing all it can to keep dissidents either silent or dead or scared out of their wits there is Iran, hailing revolutions one day, torturing them the next there is Libya and […]

Horse & Tea Trade Route

I’ve been up and down this road and written a few things about it — the road that links India and Southeast Asia with southwest China and Tibet. Here are links to the stories I have written and also a lil slideshow to boot: Yunnan, yonis, Sichuan & ponies Shaxi Town The Horse and Tea […]

Visa Issues

I made a very big mistake and assumed that I could re-new Dorian’s visa in Germany. His visa expired while we were in Germany for Christmas (close enough) and my plan was to apply for a tourist visa to China in Germany and then re-apply for a relative visa once we got back to China. […]

The Beijing Consensus

Let’s take a look at the countries that refused to attend the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony: Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Venezuela, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco, Sri Lanka and the Palestinian Authority A collection of enlightened governments, no doubt about it. Standouts include Afghanistan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The […]

The Assassination of Julian Assange

I want a show of hands: How many people have kept doing it after the condom broke? How many people out there believe that Julian Assange raped or otherwise sexually assaulted the two women in Sweden who came forward to accuse him? The mainstream media (The Guardian, Der Spiegel and especially the New York Times) […]

Holy Shit I miss Sichuan

Man I found myself teary eyed listening to the Ya Jian Bang sing about Sichuan food. I was thinking about what it would feel like kicking it with my peoples out there around a cheap ass table covered in steaming spicy ass delicious heart warming lip smacking eye glazing down home sichuan style dishes lord […]

Horses and Tea and all manner of Roads

I’ve been up and down the “horse and tea trade route” a few times. basically the road from Chengdu south to Bangkok, as far as I am concerned. It extends west all the way to Lhasa and beyond and north to Xi’an, but basically the middle half (Yunnan and Sichuan) is where a lot of […]

China Travel Articles

I have been working for ChinaTravel.net for a couple months now and I am beginning to develop a sense of loyalty to the place. I began working here primarily because I felt I needed a stable income to take care of my stinky-ass son and his mama. Of course I could have kept going the […]

Mixed Blood Prince

I wrote another small essay about raising children in China, specifically about mixed-blood babies and how they are treated here and what they can expect. Chinese grandmas swarm over any cute baby they see, but they tend to ignore Chinese babies in favor of mixed blood or all-foreign babies. There is a love and curiosity […]

Time-Lapse Video in China

Here is a post for ChinaTravel.net about a group of (actually an individual named Joe) filmmakers who are doing some interesting work with time-lapse and tilt-shift video- and photography. The same guys who are in doing the time-lapse stuff are also doing the “Sole Man Project,” in which an Englishman spends one year shoeless in […]

Anti-Japan Protests Rock Chengdu

The conflict between the Chinese and Japanese is getting heated. First Chinese “fishing boats” enter “disputed territory” and snoop around.. Japan sends in destroyers to see what’s going on; the Chinese boats allegedly ram the destroyers. Japan arrests everyone then releases the crew while holding onto the captain for a week. China goes apeshit. Screams, […]

New ish has come to Light

If you have not noticed, I have a few Fiction tales up. I won’t be posting a bunch of tales there, just a couple to whet peoples’ appetites. The latest one is called, “The Imam who Sang” and I like it. Check it out. I also just recently updated Nonfiction to reflect some work i […]

Can’t Truss It ..

No No No No! I try not to get sucked into these discussions anymore, but part of my daily routine is to open sites like Atimes.com and Antiwar.com and others and when I read certain passages I just can’t help my emotional response. Last week, during the peak of the Sino-Japanese pissing contest over rocks […]

New Gig

Hi Everybody, welcome to my new site. Its a little stark compared to my fluffy old Chachin Aint Easy, but hey. things change don’t they. So after a long hiatus, i just want to let you know a little bit about what is going here. I moved to Shanghai in August to take a job […]

“Don’t be Evil” — Tell that to Wall Street

After Google announced that it might leave China, Wall Street and other stock exchanges around the world reacted in typical fashion, by buying Baidu stock and selling Google stock. Baidu’s stock jumped by at least 12%, while Google’s slid by about 1%. For the money-men — the same people, let us not forget, who caused […]

Google unlocks the vault!!!!

Everything the Chinese government has blocked is now available via Google, including pictures of Tiananmen, articles on Free Tibet and the Dalai Lama and everything else. According to Google’s own stats, the most searched for terms in the past 24 hours were Tiananmen and the Chinese for it 天安门 And this picture here says it […]

The American Dream and the Written Word

So I am reading Daniel Boorstin, The Seekers, which is the third in a series that begins with The Creators and continues with The Discoverers. Boorstin is one of my favorite historians. So in Seekers, Boorstin explores the philosophers and “idea-men” that helped to establish the foundations for Western political and social systems. What I […]

Free to Post

I wrote an essay a while back about censorship in China, for Antiwar.com, and I basically said that within the parameters of black and white, all life transpires. Well i am now, thanks to Freedur, safely within the gray. Freedur is a VPN protocol that allows me to surf through a proxy and avoid sneaky, […]

They roundin up Hobos!

Bout to watch the Return of the King. Again. And the only reason I want to do it now is to get the full account of Gandalf the White’s battle with the Balrog. I feel quite comfortable with my fractal personality that involves serious nerdocity, hobo tendencies, sleazy charm, demagoguery and half-ass intellectualism. Add a […]

This shit really happens

In the Sanctuary in Oakland with my main men Big Scott and Johnny Frizzle. Today we tore the house up to try and find my passport. We all had different vague recollections of having stowed it away somewhere in the house, but it turns out I left it at a completely different sanctuary up north […]

Sigh

Headed back Here And just to make it even more lovely, i read more about Chinese products ONCE AGAIN making consumers sick and otherwise doing everything they should not be doing. My lady wants to stay just one year or so, because in 2011 a chemical plant will be built just a an hour or […]

My Rainy Poem

Zhang Yushi — Yu means rain, Shi mean poem or poetry or poet … depending. i met her for the first time back in the days when i was a real rake and rastabout. tenzin my man and i were playing chess in the ole cafe in Fanghua Gai in Yulin. I remember two giggling […]

Well well well

What Providence, What Divine Intelligence … so i am leaving the Wagon today and headed to a different brighter spot up the road a bit. I am looking forward to it very much and i believe its the best way to get my thing going before i head to China and begin life as a […]

My Oasis

A brown hen named Gary gives a flapping sqawk and makes a dash for the cherry tree in my backyard. Her two speckled girlfriends shoot their heads up and cock suspicious eyes, until they see Gary begin painting her beak black with cherry juice. They jump and run, coming to a calm hesitant stop near […]

Wine

The past two nights i have been drinking Yellow Tail Shiraz with my old high school buddy Maximillian. He was one of my first and best friends back when i was 16 and getting my bearings in Germany. I had a friend walk with me in a dream last night, a walk i can barely […]

Rape is the Consort of War

That just kind of came to me earlier today while reading this story here about Somalis in Minneapolis becoming “radicalized” and then heading back to Somalia to be warriors. I was envisioning the journalist interviewing one of the young boys who went back to fight and having the young boy go into a tirade about […]

Violence in Xinjiang

Uighers in Urumqi rioted over the past 24 hours, destroying property, killing people and fighting the police. The immediate cause for the riots was a brawl in Shaoguan, Canton Province that began after some fool posted a note on QQ saying that 6 Uigher boys had raped 2 Han women. Han workers then rampaged through […]

What sammy said last night

I need to record this fool, kinda like my Native-Black-Polack-Commie homeboy Charlie. Last night Sammy came back from the mini mart and said: “dude, mini-marts are like bugzappers for lunatics. And in our neighborhood, there be lotsa lunatics.” its true. If you hang out all day at the minimarts you’ll see people surviving/thriving offa deep […]

Two books that I urge you to read:

The first deals with IslamNo god but God, the origins, evolution and future of Islam This book (FINALLY) traces the roots of Islam back to the socialist hippy rebel Muhammad and his community of passionate young revolutionaries. All prophets are socialist rebels … have you noticed? and their message eventually falls prey to the wealthy, […]

The Hand of Death is no match for a Sweaty Human

So when yer friend is wallowing in the dark night of his/her soul, at 2am, hating him/herself, wondering if there is any meaning whatsoever, then suggest a healthy sweat. God loves sweat. really. he loves funky humans. When we sweat, God sweats, Creation sweats and the whole universe sweats with us. When the Hand of […]

Mengding Mountain Tea

I took a trip last month while i was in china to my main homegirl’s tea spot. here are some pics: From Left to Right: Guan Da Ge, Xiao Bai, Chen Shui Yuan and Chen’s employees. Xiao Bai run’s the plant, Chen is my logistics, tea ware and oolong guy and Guan is my right […]

The Du

MM-MM something about the Du makes me feel all homey. its easy as pie out here. the sky looks like dishwater and i aint seen the sun yet but instead i got down on some Pickled Pepper Beef and some of the tastiest gong pao chick en this fool has ever scarfed down. Got with […]

Chinese girls are silly

My man told me earlier i the week that he would never marry a Chinese girl, even though he has been here for several years and chases them down like the bunnies they are. I remember thinking the same thing for a while, but it only hit home when .. i went home (or Portland). […]

Shanghai

I miss the quiet of my dungeon and the wind through Oregon’s trees. Its sunny here and i am about to be in the Du with all my friends again and its gonna be hard to leave. I am trying to stay for one month but i can feel the pull of oblivion on the […]

Back in China

Shanghai is a sea of skyscrapers as far as my eye can see. There are pockets of two-story blocks of old school homes with laundry hanging from lines strung between houses. The glow of the sun is like that of a streetlamp through fog. When i see the orange orb in the sky it looks […]

Vision of a Man

I wish i had a better keyboard cuz there is something i need to work out and for me keyboards are … key. I notice a lot of bad ass women out there. women who have been in the trenches of love in their twenties, been hurt, been disregarded, been underestimated. In response, i find […]

the Cali sun

is hard to locate not because the clouds are there, but because they’re absent. I haven’t seen a sky like this one in I don’t even know when. Ate a power breakfast of Inca berries, Goji berries, chicken broth infused brown rice, pineapples and bananas and a huge dollop of yogurt. Did Big Scott’s pushup […]

I know why women trip

Motherhood. Its motherhood ya’ll. Before being a mother, girls trip on the intense biological forces that take over all thought and emotion and drive girls to be moms, or at the very least create the conditions under which momhood can best be realized (house, man, dog, fence). Fellaz: consider the intense drive we have to […]

Tell it like it is

Losar is underway and the NYT and Atimes marked the Tibetan New Year with stories about the seething people of Tibet, pinned down by the boot of Communist China. Kent Ewing in the Atimes wants to know when the policy will change. He hits on the real deal in Tibet briefly, way down in his […]

me and my cat gimpy

Gimpy got his first taste of pussy last week. I can imagine the look on his face, that shocked yet determined screwed up expression. A dash of confusion. Thats Chou Gui on the bed takin it all in … Its been an eventful week. I met with a lot of people here involved in international […]

my achin back

So i have to admit. Last night i put 15 pages down, but when i was done i logged in to World of Warcraft and played till 730am. then i had breakfast and walked around. then slept and didn’t get up till 3pm. its bad ya’ll. i dreamt of humans attacking as Horde characters in […]

China’s Charter 08

“China, as a major nation of the world, as one of five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, and as a member of the UN Council on Human Rights, should be contributing to peace for humankind and progress toward human rights. Unfortunately, we stand today as the only country among the major nations […]

Peep This

Here are some stories coming out of Matador.com … They are doing a great job with their articles and site and I am on board for the long haul so check them out and give some feedback … holla. Weird Hotels around the world International Healthcare Options How to Deal with Haters Support yer broke […]

The Bailout …

YO: Read this Wikipedia entry about the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act” then go here and read through this article about where the cheddar is going … then get pissed. then sign this. (and wonder if being the 40th person to do so without doing the math makes you an idiot or a hero.) and then […]

to my Chinese peoples

I just had a dream of China in 2028 and it was a beautiful vision. I thought of a metaphor: an old man who has shed his skin, thrown away his cane and run a marathon. I felt the pain of shedding skin, the anxiety of throwing away the cane, the suffering of running mile […]

Broke Fat White People

Last night I was minding my own business at my man Q’s house in the Pearl District when I get drunk-dialed by Sammy’s ass. He came to pick me up in the broken down Daewoo that he be driving these days, half in the bag, and demanded I take him to several seedy, dark, smelly […]

PEEP THIS!!

Julia Zimmermann came to Chengdu and stayed with me for several days chronicling the earthquake there for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung — my favorite German-language newspaper. Here is her finished work, in German. The photos speak for themselves and if you click on the slideshow to your right, you will see more of the same […]

Universal Health Care?

So my wounded brother is home in Minneapolis now and my living room has never smelled better. Love the kid, but when he spends a week on your coach, you will understand the mixture of sadness and relief I feel. He is now dealing with insurance issues and paying for his substantial medical bills. It […]

Digital Silk Road

Digital Silk Road From: plus8star, 1 week ago Digital Silk Road View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: japan korea) Presentation done at OpenWebAsia in October 2008 on Asia’s digital innovations and their potential impact on the West. SlideShare Link

I reiterate

its transition time and i am getting my room painted, my workshop set up and my routine established. dreams of off the grid cribs become tangible in the MFNW When the full moon watches the sun set over happy valleymt hood floats like a phantom above the treesa rainbow canopy encases the worldand meets the […]

Ma Shan acts like a Child!

I heard this a lot when i was in China (and sometimes here as well) and i always wanted to put across my response: Thank You! Over there in China, children and women should never be listened to, according to an old saying attributed to some white-bearded sage. For China to become what it wants […]

What we deserve

I went to watch the Vp debate at Nicole’s friend’s house. A lot of very liberal women were there and we basically laughed a lot at what Palin had to say and especially how she said it … But i had a sick feeling in my stomach as I watched, because I know that a […]

Its all bad; its all good

My landlord Nikki V is doing a piece for KBOO Radio about austerity measures people (may or may not have learned from their parents/grandparents) are using to get by in “this nasty economy.” I listen with mild interest, because so far my economy seems unaffected by Wall Street’s 777+ drop this week after the big […]

Village People in the Twilight Zone

On the night of the Fall Equinox, in the hills of northern California, beneath an ancient oak tree, surrounded by leaves, herbs and Tribe: I slipped into madness. I unlocked an old familiar riddle and chased the smirking moustached man through the mazes Between. I found countless paths through the madness, countless countless paths that […]

The Coming Storm in Xinjiang

  A Muslim pilgrim near Hotan This post here (with accompanying IHT article) tells of the latest heavy-handed policies used by the Chinese government to win the hearts and minds of the Uighers in East Turkestan/Xinjiang Province. Here is Reporters Without Borders with more bad news. Has everyone forgotten or ignored the fact that during […]

peep this

Yo: I urge you all to check out this video by the Hanyuan B-Boys … they put it down for their town and have all of China writing to them about the merits of breaking amidst the rubble … here is an edited version of what i have been writing here on the Brave New […]

The Security Establishment

Now that I have finished my stint in a semi-corporate setting in a security company, i can let you know a little bit about how things work. These companies do business here with the permssion of the Chinese government. This means that they are under the constant supervision of the Public Security Bureau. As such, […]

We Need Your Help

I was thinking about young Chinese this morning. Last night i was chillin with Li Du, Zachary Mexico and Liang Kegang in a KTV establishment. It was a young PSB dude’s birthday and he wanted me to come out and drink with him cuz we have been chillin together during this Holland Heineken House gig. […]

Rage against the dying of the light

or just post some love on yer blog and send it through the underground. i remember telling some young Chinese friends about the Tank Man in Tiananmen and they all laughed at me and said it was a piece of CIA propaganda. I think for everybody who does not live in China, the image of […]

Day 6 – The Calm Before the Storm

The second week is just around the corner and I felt the lull today. Indeed, the preliminaries and qualifying rounds are almost over. The Chinese blitz on the gold medals will have its Dunkirk in a couple days when athletics begins and “their” sports come to a close. On ticket sales, one noticed a slight […]

Trolls.

Anyone who has written or who reads about China issues has encountered the ChiCom Troll. I didn’t realize there was such a distinct term for these people, i always called them “brainwashed fanatic spittle round the mouth haters” — anyway here is an introduction to trolls that made it into the NYT. Basically, for web […]

busy day

In this small blurb about a photo that made it into a tabloid about the Tiananmen protests in 1989, we see another example of the many people these days who don’t know about what happened and frankly don’t care, yet face the consequences for their ignorance. I wrote before about a couple of copy editors […]

Friedmann has found his issue

He is just hammering away, hammering away at the alternative, renewable energy grid that would bring the US out of its doldrums. No mercy. I remember being annoyed with good ol TF for some of his views on globalization and war in the middle east, but he’s got this one nailed. his issue is important […]

Picture me Laughing

china gives peeps designated “arrest me” zones to do their thing. “Chinese people know better than to go demonstrate in a {issue} zone during the Olympics, except maybe a few people with nothing to lose,” he said. “They know the risk of retribution is very high.” He added: “It is not a step toward allowing […]

Aint Nothing Changed

Things is hectic in this piece … for real. after the K’ming bombings the government made a few changes to security that are putting a crimp in everyone’s style. In the Metro lines the only security they have are cadres of fussy old women — the same people who yell at bicycles that cross the […]

Bombs in Kunming

Reports came in this morning that at least two bombs destroyed two buses in Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province. Although unconfirmed, the word is that suicide bombers boarded the buses and blew themselves up at 7:50 and 8:00am. A possible third and fourth bombing is rumored but unconfirmed. BBC was the first foreign media outlet […]

No Fun Olympics

Check out my no-fun dork shoes: China’s “top-down” approach to security in the Olympics guarantees that there will be very little mirthful exchanges between the people (in public places at least) and the Games here will be … well … all business. 2am curfew. anti-drunken partying behavior by the coppers. random security checks. jumpy cops […]

We have seen this before, and its always sinister

In today’s NYT, the “demise” of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is treated with the soft gloves of supposed objectivity. The article begins by saying that the tumultuous tumble in stock value of the two mortgage giants is inexplicable and at the same time potentially devastating for the US economy and, above all, taxpayers.“There is […]

Sucked in

Every week or so i find a new web tool for this blog. I am trying out the “share me” button, even though I myself have not signed in to any Diggs, Blinks or de-lish-us sites. i am interested to know how many of you actually use and are familiar with these content sharing applications.

Indocrination II

My good friend and patna Fraggle Beanmilk has just been hired by a large daily newspaper here in the Du. They signed ol’ Beanmilk to a three year contract and the training began yesterday. So far, she has learned that Marxist Theory on the media is right in line with the current Party theory and […]

The death of traditions

It is so hot and humid in Chengdu right now that my brain is bathing in its own liquid, humming strange tunes to itself and sending me images of massive artillery guns firing into the distance. Spengler is a columnist for Asia Times who has derided the Europeans for lacking the courage to face the […]

Hakka in Sichuan

Hey. I am doing research on the Hakka people in Sichuan. The Hakka are sometimes referred to as the “Jews of China.” They reportedly originated in the Yellow River Valley and migrated south to Fujian and Guangdong to escape wars and famines. They settled in and around the Pearl River for many centuries, retaining their […]

perhaps … perhaps …

This here is an interesting article on Obama, if only for the defense of his rejection of public financing. Dowd here says that going after the money is what Kerry failed to do and will keep Obama from being a “chump” like Democrats in years past. I am getting more skeptical, but you never know. […]

Read This

My MAN Rindy dropped it on this piece right here. I urge everybody to read it and pass it around. Send it to Obama’s braintrust. He is already beginning to betray us, everybody: Isreal vs. Iran, public financing, ethanol … not complete sell out yet, but its early yet. Obama needs to know that we […]

Mainstream

For the past week I have been a scab for USAToday. I haven’t actually written anything for them, but just in case the Tangjiashan quake lake bursts, then I should be there to write something up about the ghost towns of Beichuan, Mianyang and Mianzhu and all of the people whose houses and fields have […]

what does it take

Today i rolled through Dujiangyan and took a look at the field hospital set up by the German and Sichuan Red Cross. The field hospital is there to take over from the seven local hospitals that are no closed due to damage from the quake. They take on all of the patients that are not […]

aftershocks

today … bout three minutes ago, a large aftershock shook chengdu. the largest in a long time, maybe since the original quake. and it lasted for about one minute. here things rattled and my heart raced, but nothing damaging happened. but if it was this heavy here, then up north people died. and who knows […]

It aint funny

I can’t comment back because blogger is blocked in China … it isn’t funny, what happened to Falun Gong followers in China. The brainwashing campaign in China, which i posted on before, is extremely successful. The kids here know nothing of the torture and persecution. When falun gong is mentioned in China, people invariably laugh, […]

Kids Day

Tomorrow is kids day in China so a group of us are headed north to Shifang to play drums and be funny guys for the kids in the refugee camps. I already have a song called “Stank Feet” all thought out. Today I read a notice issued by the police to the citizens of Shifang, […]

my people

I was brought into a new community recently, Matador Travel Community and i must say i really dig it. i usually hate forums and communities because they demand much and they spring up like mosquitos in the night. Butthis one is filled with people like me so I am down. I put two stories up […]

Woe unto the Enemies of the State

Patriotism at the expense of another nation is as wicked as racism at the expense of another race…Let us resolve to be patriots always, nationalists never.– Rev. William Sloane Coffin Today at 2:28pm, the entire Chinese nation stood at attention for three minutes to remember the victims of the Sichuan Earthquake. Today’s edition of the […]

mom i can’t see your hand

A Poem by an anonymous Chinese circling the web(translated): Children quickquickHold fast to Mother’s handThe Road to HeavenIs so darkMom is afraidyou’ll hit your headQuickHold fast to Mother’s handHave Mom walk with you momI’m afraidThe road to heaven is so darkI cant see your handSince the walls felland stole away the sunI haven’t been able […]

Around Qing Cheng …

Yesterday i climbed as far as it is possible to climb right and Qing Cheng mtn is def. devastated near the top. Past the Tai An Old town basically every building lies in ruins. There are a few valleys which will take months to clear. Boulders and huge chunks of mountain clog the roads at […]

We felt it comin …

My friend Rachel wrote the day before the quake: “I feel like the world is shifting” if ya’ll check the first few lines of my post “The Illusion of Coincidence” you’ll see that there was something in the air … just to embellish a bit: yesterday was Buddha’s birthday. The plates that caused this earthquake […]

rumors of more earthquakes coming

Rumors are spreading fast throughout the city that there will be another large earthquake this evening at 830pm … this has not been confirmed by anyone in the scientific world. from Shanghaiist:“Intrigue. There were rumours of a “huge impending earthquake” but concerned villagers in the Matang Village of the Maerkang County were told by the […]

love atcha

here are some pics of my kitties. there are three surviving kitties and the two sisters take turns licking and caressing the lil kitty-cats. i believe the white one is the mom. I have already thought up a fairy tale based on Auntie Lickems, Mommy and the three adventurous furballs. I cannot comment back or […]

The Illusion of Coincidence…

A great many strange things have happened in the past few days … perhaps not as many as may be transmitted by the feeling that accompanies one or two strange happenings, but nonetheless … something is happening. I was sitting with my friend Himmler one evening. His woman Jodie and roommate Wu Tong were in […]

HK Torch Relay

here is a column i wrote for Antiwar.com that will not get published: On Friday the torch arrives in Hong Kong. Demonstrators from around the world are arriving ahead of time to take advantage of this opportunity: after Hong Kong the flame will be traveling through Mainland China, where security will be extremely tight. This […]

Sleeveless Tendencies

First off … looks like the fervor might be dying down. we shall see. Does anyone else see the parallels between the Games and the Primary? We are down to the last few states and it is getting crucial — for china they are down to the last few cities on the torch relay. But […]

Doublespeak and Bullscat

Politicians truly are amazing. In China it is fitting that the government spokesperson is a woman, Jiang Yu. In Chinese (and every other) society it is an older woman who will do most of the scolding, attacking, reprimanding and declaring in a household. And by older I mean just slightly past menopause, when their daughters […]