rolling buried alive in china 2012

Learning How to Argue: An Interview with Ran Yunfei

ran yunfei has some of the worst traits of chinese internet intellectual guys... zero useful political insight (he actually believes in the "jasmine revolution" -------- so does jon huntsman) + catnip to western chinawatchers (here, he's noticed by ian johnson, who's into writing stuff about MAO'S VICTIMS and FALUN GONG and like... this, about the rise of DAOISM in china and manages to quote lao-tzu and mention little yue yue getting run over)... unforgivably boring (he patronizingly criticizes ai weiwei for reacting "excessively")... BUT

i'm sort of interested in reading the book he mentions, a sort of microhistory of a temple in chengdu. i guess it's sort of impossible to find, though.

I finished it last year before being detained and it was printed. But then after I was detained the publisher refused to release it. So I told this to the guobao and they said, “You are detained but you haven’t been convicted so you can publish. You’re not yet a criminal and you have the right to publish.” I said, “Hey, can’t you tell the publisher that?” They said, “No way, we can’t call up the publisher like we’re your agent or something. Anyway, we’ll frighten them to death! But you can tell them our views.” So I did and they published it but it’s not available on any online service. We had a press run of 5,000 and I’ve sold about 2,000. They sell it at the temple but only if you ask for it. It can be bought but it’s unavailable.

i find i follow shit like utopia <a href="http://www.wyzxsx.com/";>乌有之乡</a> because even if the majority of opinions they publish or sympathize with are mostly newfarleft stuff, i dig it because-- the writers are more likely to have a much deeper knowledge of how politics/economics/the SYSTEM works in china and when they criticize the leadership (when not attacking american imperialism and eulogizing kim jong il and shouting nationalist slogans), they are a lot sharper and realistic, whereas guys like ran yunfei believe in the jasmine revolution and want to tell us that lei feng was FAKE oh my god THE PARTY HAS LOST ITS WAY.

FUCK bbcode

anyways. reminded of tricia wang dump1ings for sale piece + factory girls obv, the veggie vendors-- excerpt from Eating Bitterness: Stories from the Frontlines of China’s Great Urban Migration

温家宝：政改若不成功文革悲剧可能重现

thought that was a weird headline to see at the top of my qq news, just 'cause not every headline mentions the "tragedy of the cultural revolution"

wen jiabao answers reporter questions after nat people's conference

"after reform and opening, the party set about rectifying a bunch of historical problems. but the excesses of the cultural revolution and the influence of feudalism have not been completely wiped out.

"along with economic reform comes problems like financial inequality, lack of credibility, and corruption. we can't concentrate on economic reform but also must look to political reform, especially reform of how the party and the nation are governed. ... with reform nearing a crucial period of time, we have to complete political reform to succeed economically. the successes of reform and opening can be lost. these new social problems we're seeing can't be ignored. historical tragedies like the cultural revolution can happen again. every party member and leading cadre should feel a sense of urgency.

"of course, reform is difficult. to change things, we need the everyone's enthusiasm, awareness, and support. in this nation of 1.3 billion people, we must proceed step by step, as the conditions of the country dictate, to establish socialist democracy. this isn't an easy. but reform can only march onwards. we can't let things stagnate. we can't stop. we can't go backwards. the only way is to go forward.

"i know people are going to say, this is all talk. but just watch me. let me tell you everyone right now, i will fight until my last breath for the project of reforming and opening china to the outside world."

it's interesting becauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse, it just shows you why EVERYONE loves him... because there's something in there for the new left people and the laid off workers who still yearn for the days of central command economy: he's attacking shit like financial ineq, corruption, which new left guys say was introduced by all the neoliberal economists that run the party now + everyone in china can get behind hating on corruption. and like, if you're a reform minded person, you could think, hey, yeah, we do need political reform to catch up to economic reform (wei jingsheng went to prison for 15 years for something like that)

but just as always, there are no actual concrete suggestions what political reform actually is or who's going to look after it. and there seems to be no movement in that direction, either. so.

http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/watch-your-language-and-in-china-they-do/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120314

lot of great stuff in there! May 35, everybody. also that awesome song about grass-mud horses, so naughty and sensitive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezKfa0YOFSg

while wen jiabao talks about inequality and corruption...

richpeople npc delegate internetlaughs:

Should Chinese political delegates wear Should Chinese political delegates wear Should Chinese political delegates wear Should Chinese political delegates wear $2,000 suits?,000 suits?,000 suits?,000 suits?

CPPCC delegate, CEO of China Power International Development Ltd, Li Xiaolin, wears a salmon pant suit from Emilio Pucci’s spring-summer 2012 collection, prcied at 12,000 yuan. That amount could help 200 chldren wear warm clothes, and avoid the chilly attacks of winter. Li Xiaolin has said, “I think we should open a morality file on all citizens to control everyone and give them a "sense of shame".”

人大代表倒是先富了！奢侈的一身。

Netizens Scour High-Res Photo of ‘Two Sessions’, Mock Members

<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2012/03/china-and-the-unofficial-truth.html";>China and the Unofficial Truth</a>

<IMG SRC="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/li-xiaolin.jpg";>

damn li xiaolin, daughter of li peng

CUNT.

China and the Unofficial Truth

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/li-xiaolin.jpg

damn li xiaolin, daughter of li peng

I'D CRACKDOWN ON HER PRO-REFORM DEMONSTRATIONS AM I RIGHT FELLAS

http://photocdn.sohu.com/20080305/Img255540479.jpg

"my dad could crush your dad with tanks"

http://www.cenews.eu/wp-content/uploads/p100606102.jpg

李鹏访问一个学校，到处彩旗飘扬,甚为高兴。

突然发现一欢迎标语写到：热烈欢迎李朋总理。

不禁大怒：我的那个鸟呢？

btw if u ever need li peng jokes: 江泽民李鹏笑话集锦

quiddities and agonies 《夫妻那些事》 it's new

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWEtI8dDhhI

hahhaahaha wow bo xilai got ousted

to avoid another cultural revolution

http://www.wyzxsx.com/ COINCIDENCE THAT UTOPIA IS DOWN TODAY?????????

薄熙来被免职：官方网站关闭评论栏目

薄熙来落马正是包含有秘密关押条款的刑事诉讼法修改方案在争议声中经中国人大通过，有推友于是在微博上调侃薄熙来是第一个测试新刑诉法第73条的人。但媒体人洪晃在新浪微博上写道：“我不是重庆模式的支持者，但是也不喜欢看见一系列落井下石的嘲弄。我希望薄熙来和他的家人不会成为新的刑法73条的第一个执行对象，希望当过官的人下台能好自为之，返老还乡，平安无事。洪晃指出：目前文化中喜欢”整人“的素质是文革噩梦永远伴随我们的原因之一。”

另外，被看作是毛派网站的乌有之乡、红色中国网、民声网周四均已无法访问。

that this american life story from a while ago has a weird update

An acclaimed Apple critic made up the details

and then tal retracts it all: Retraction

weird

Interesting analysis of Bo Xilai's downfall:

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/mar/19/chinas-falling-star-bo-xilai/

really wondering where bo is going to end up. private sector? say fuck i t and go overseas?

Is prison out of the question?

dylannn do you have anything to add to the reports of tanks in beijing xp

some china expert said that usually when demotions are announced, they'll also announce some ceremonial position also - since there wasn't one for bo's announcement it could very well mean he's going to jail

I think there's a really nice 'prison' they send officials convicted of corruption to, it's like a minimum security hotel

no idea but... this is a pretty common occurrence, i think. the tanks rumour, i mean. and weibo just amplifies it...

i sure haven't seen anything solid enough. bo xilai is not taking zhongnanhai by force.

yeah it seemed highly improbable to me. but I don't know who's the CiC of china's military forces. or how the military is structured at all, even.

hk politics is a mystery to me, really... Only 1,193 people are eligible to vote in the election, as representatives of various sectors of society. and i'm not sure where to go to try to follow it. but this is interesting, beijing throwing their support behind leung chunying.

hah yeah. there's also this

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/03/23/hongkong-election-idINDEE82M07N20120323

hmmmmm, wonder who these 'hackers' were, it's a 'big mystery'

In China's Chongqing, dismay over downfall of Bo Xilai, this kind of thing... a reporter wanders around chongqing, and we learn that luggage carriers and fruit vendors are sort of unaware of the realities of local politics: "well, he must have done SOME good stuff, right?" and then he quotes some guy from UTOPIA.

but here's a localish view of chongqing under bo basically questioning the view of bo as populist/head of successful local government. pretty good.

http://i937.photobucket.com/albums/ad215/jiaoqu/zammo.jpg

http://news.yahoo.com/britain-asks-china-probe-businessmans-death-091625649.html

sounds like a bourne movie!

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/china_law_prof_blog/2012/03/gao-zhisheng-reported-alive.html

http://www.viiphoto.com/showstory.php?nID=1354

look at this

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/03/29/the_revenge_of_wen_jiabao?page=full

i find it a bit hard to follow, maybe because i never saw the chongqing model or bo xilai as being interested in "dragging the Communist Party back toward its most radical, lawless past."

i saw bo xilai as a vaguely liberal figure, despite the singing of communist anthems or whatever. i knew leftwing fringe guys were into bo xilai but was there that much of the far left about him? i know him for the development of dalian, heading economic development in dongbei (by tearing down shitty state owned enterprises, setting up special econ zones, hammering out foreign investment deals), minister of commerce (he pops up lots in canadian politics because chretien went straight to him, and so did harper very recently).... now the guardian has a headline referring to him as a neo-maoist (to me the red songs were basically valueless, i think-- a nationalistic teambuilding exercise that didn't have a lot to do with collectivism or, like, resisting american imperialism).

It remains far from clear whether the Communist Party's webs of patronage and knots of financial and bureaucratic interests can be reformed. But with China's leftist movement decapitated by the purge of Bo Xilai, and Bo's critics now talking about his reign of "red terror" after daily revelations of political and physical brutality under his command, Wen has begun to win over some of his many detractors.

"In the past I did not have a fully positive view of Wen Jiabao, because he said a lot of things but didn't deliver," says a leading media figure with lifelong connections to China's leadership circle. "Now I realize just to be able to say it, that's important. To speak up, let the whole world know that he could not achieve anything because he was strangled by the system."

what system strangled wen jiabao? didn't he shotcall the downfall of bo xilai? why can't he address some of the other things he's been speaking up about? what about the recent speech mentioning "financial inequality, lack of credibility, and corruption"? can we deal with some of those things?

I think the_west is very interested in reading the tea leaves in a favorable way

tbh I'm not gonna get too hung up on the ousting of someone who bought his son ferraris

very interested to get to the bottom of this british businessman's death

i guess my reaction is that i don't see bo xilai as being too far off the party's ideological bullseye. he was nationalistic, was down for the party at all costs (he was supposedly pretty enthusiastic about carrying out the order to shut down falun gong), saw economic growth as the ticket to stability (starting with direct foreign investment and later nurturing chinese consumer market, chinese econ sovereignty etc). he was pretty good at playing popular opinion wherever he landed. in chongqing, he knew it was corruption, urban-rural residency, "morality," shit like that. and he just kind of got caught flexing in the mirror at just the wrong time by someone with slightly more pull. neo-maoist, hardly.

and i've ridden in more ferraris than i could count bought for kids by parents far less wealthy than bo xilai. he hasn't driven it into anyone yet or strangled a ktv girl yet, either. cut the kid some slack. what's his name? guagua or something?

http://beijingcream.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Bo-Guagua.jpeg

“薄熙来的儿子薄瓜瓜曾经对朋友说，他在北京常开的那辆红色法拉利不是他的”

l: 2
r: 4

http://cdt.chinadigitaltime.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/2hpiwe9.jpg
http://www.qidian.ca/attachments/2012/02/1_2012020918423113sCm.jpg

IT'S THE BLACKOUT RARI GOT THE BACK OUT
SHOWIN MY BLACK ASS ENGINE IN THE GLASS HOUSE

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-21/after-bo-xilai-which-way-is-china-s-red-ferrari-headed-

i think this is good.

First, Bo was more an opportunist than an ideologue. To the extent there was a “Chongqing model,” it was largely self-serving: As a big-city mayor and former provincial governor, Bo knew that higher gross domestic product and foreign direct investment were what won attention and plaudits, and he did his best to boost both. He favored state-owned enterprises because that’s where the money was.

i guess my reaction is that i don't see bo xilai as being too far off the party's ideological bullseye. he was nationalistic, was down for the party at all costs

well maybe the ideology is changing! that would be good, I think. but I mean you can spin it the other way and portray bo as a guy who left chongqing with a ton of debt and got in hot water by going after 'corruption' which means people who are well connected with the state.

http://behindthewall.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/30/10944581-hong-kong-property-developers-market-value-drops-49-billion-in-one-day

wish I had a couple mil to buy up some HK property for cheap

that's a pretty big story in vancouver since they're behind lots of high profile
developments @ coal harbour, ubc, richmond
and juust like in hong kong, real estate is a great passion in vancouver (esp richmond)

In Vancouver, the Kwok brothers, through their Canadian subsidiary, Aspac Developments Ltd., are best known for transforming Coal Harbour into a prestigious waterfront neighbourhood, with the Harbour Green luxury condo towers.

Waterfront Place, Aspac’s first Coal Harbour development, was completed in September 2003. Each of the five towers was named after a famous European city: Avila, Bauhinia, Cascina, Denia and Escala.

In Richmond, the Kwoks are involved in the new urban low-rise waterfront community called River Green, which is being developed on the banks of the Fraser River near the Olympic Oval and the Vancouver International Airport.

At UBC, the tycoon brothers are behind the 17-storey highrise called The Wesbrook on the edge of Pacific Spirit Regional Park.

i drive by the river green development everytime i cross the bridge from richmond to sea island/yvr
wonder what the status on it is now

oh also

Urine-soaked eggs a spring taste treat in China city

would definitely try those

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg22/scaled.php?server=22&filename=barfoff.gif&res=medium