Dearest Readers:

My deepest apologies for not updating my “blog” sooner, but I had been away from Taiyuan, which, I am proud to say, is quite lovely this time of year.  Just this morning I was lounging on my extra large kang, watching a private performance from one of my favorite local opera stars (a lovely lass, but only when in full make-up, a long story indeed), looking out into the frigid city, which was choked with coal smoke, and I exclaimed how happy I was to be back in Shanxi.

You see, I have just returned from a super top-secret meeting in Chongqing with my fellow KMT leaders, deciding on how to best pretend to resist Japan while secretly crushing the Red Menace.  I cannot tell you the details of the plan, but it involves this odd creation I learned from your internets, some sort of food that is passed off as Chinese food and has the odd moniker “Orange Chicken.”  Perhaps you have heard of it?  We certainly do not have it in China, but I plan to have my chefs perfect this dish and introduce it into CCP territory, starting with the Jin-Cha-Ji base area.  After eating this crap, it is just a matter of time before Mao and his wife sharing peasant hordes drop dead from malnutrition. Surely this is the most brilliant military plan ever hatched over hotpot!

But I digress.  While in Chongqing, I had some time to catch up with the “Generalissimo,” Mr. Jiang Jieshi (you might know him as Chang Kai-shek) himself.  Now, my devoted readers will know that we have a very rocky relationship–after all, it is myself, the Model Governor, that should be the leader of China, a fact that the Generalissimo must surely be aware of.  Ever since Time Magazine published this bad boy, he no doubts realizes that his time at the top is running out:

But even though we are not on the best of terms, we do have some fond memories, especially of our days back in Japan, before those little bastards became Public Enemy #2.  As you might imagine, I was pretty crazy back then.  But do you know who was my constant companion at the Geisha house?  That is right, the General-fucking-issimo!  Now days he is married to that uptight Christian and spends his time practicing breathing, but back then he, like me, had a love of high priced prostitutes.  If you don’t believe me, you can ask He Yingqin, that sick bastard can attest to all of this.

On my way back, I was thinking about our conversation concerning some of our favorite Japanese working girls, and how hilarious it was that the leaders of the Chinese Nationalist Party had spent so much of our formative years making sweet love to ladies of a nation with which we are now at war.  But then I realized, this is hardly rare.  As we all know, the youth of China, particularly our young men, are proudly nationalistic and spend much of their days loudly denouncing the xiao ribenr, often proclaiming their desire to take the war to Japan and eliminate the hated Japanese.  All true.  But when these angry youth (we call them fenqing) are not denouncing Japan, spend their time furiously masturbating to Japanese porn.  When you stop to think about it, this phenomenon is quite interesting.  Now, there are hundreds of millions of Chinese men who hate Japan.  Right now, how many of them are intently staring at Japanese women getting banged by Japanese men, all the while jerking off and hoping their roommates/mothers/wives/ayis do not get back home early?  If I told you that right now, as you read this, there are 88,000 Chinese dudes engaging in self-pleasure while viewing images of Japanese people, whom they hate, having sex, would you not say that this number is far too low?

Now, I hope you would agree that furiously and angrily whacking off to Japanese porn is not a good thing for the youth of China.  But what to do?  First, I suggest you follow the example set by the Generalissimo and myself, starting by understanding that there are things out there worse than Japan.  I refer, of course, to the Chinese Communist Party.  By the way, could you imagine Commie Porn?  Do you think anyone would get their self-love on to this:

Now, once you understand that Japan is not the biggest problem facing China, you can continue to follow your KMT leaders by having actual sex with Japanese women.  Not exclusively, mind you, but every once in a while.  For the sake of argument, let’s say that you cannot have sex with actual Japanese people, what to do?  Yes, you can continue to beat off to Japanese porn, but do so in moderation and without hatred in your fist.  Remember, you hold the future of our nation in that hand.  And mix in non-Japanese porn.  Yes, I know Western women are large and scary, but you will get used to this, and as usual there is something to learn from the barbarians.  Some of you no doubt will recall my use of the zang sancheze a few years back in Beiping.  Needless to say, that is not one of our countless Chinese inventions.  As for Chinese porn, yes I know, much like our robotics division, we lag far behind Japan.  Some have deemed our porn pathetic, and I must admit this is not far from the truth.  But to the fenqing, I appeal to your nationalism: Without your support, our porn industries will never match that of the Japanese.  So unless you hate your country, the next time your mom goes to calligraphy class and leaves you all alone, make it a patriotic self-pleasuring.  But please, not to Ding Ling, as that is just gross.

YXS

 
Victoire de la politique sur la Nature :

Des chercheurs chinois ont derniérement découvert que le terrible tremblement de terre du Sichuan en mai 2008 était sans doute dû à la construction d’un barrage sur une ligne de faille et donc au cisaillement accéléré par le poids de la retenue d’eau.

Ainsi, après nous avoir enfin pu réussir à nous plaindre de nos « dirigeants » quand la météo du week-end était pourrie (il y a 15 ans c’était encore simplement « pas de chance »), nous allions enfin pouvoir les accuser à chaque tremblement de terre :  l’Homme avait enfin totalement politisé les caprices  de la Nature : victoire …. ou danger mortel ?

La façon dont les choses se déroulent concernant la Grippe A H1N1 me laisse à craindre que le danger ne l’emporte…

Don Quichotte en jupon

En effet alors que, pour une fois, nos élus avaient pris au sérieux cette épidémie en mobilisant, en anticipant, en commandant suffisamment de doses de vaccin, nous n’avons pas pu nous empêcher de considérer que cette Grippe était encore une tentative de cette satanée et réactionnaire nature de prendre le dessus et que nous devions absolument politiser le dossier et trouver le moyen de repousser toute tentative de responsabilisation individuelle pour transférer sur « ceux qui décident » le poids de la « faute ».

Et le grand jeu du « celui qui dit qu’y est » a alors commencé : faire passer une Ministre somme toute courageuse pour un Don Quichotte en jupon, jeter la suspicion sur le vaccin, jouer la carte du conflit d’intérêt économique, lancer dans la bagarre les experts de tous bords et les didacticiens de tous horizons.

Nous n’avons même plus osé faire passer notre stade d’alerte du 5A (« transmission interhumaine d’un virus grippal à l’étranger dans au moins deux pays non limitrophes d’un même continent ») au 5B (idem mais en France).

Retard coupable

Et ce soir en commençant à observer les commentateurs reprocher la saturation des Centres de Vaccination qu’ils avaient eux même contribué à vider quelques semaines auparavant faisant ainsi perdre un temps précieux (200.000 vaccinés sur 7.000.000 convoqués !!) je me laisserai bien gagner par la colère (il faut vacciner 30% de la population pour stopper l’épidémie et aller vite pour devancer les risques de mutation). 

Finalement ce qui me calme c’est d’entendre autour de moi tous ces jeunes couples qui font preuve d’un bon sens remarquable et ont depuis le début respecté les consignes, se sont protégés pendant la grossesse, puis à la maternité et ont été les premiers à se rendre tranquillement au centre de  vaccination fin Octobre. Le bon sens a pris de l’avance. Heureusement.

Il n’en reste pas moins, qu’il nous faudra très certainement nous poser la question des moyens permettant « la prochaine fois » de communiquer plus efficacement et plus en profondeur : conférences citoyennes ? capacité à générer de l’enthousiasme autour de la recherche scientifique ? meilleure intégration des Soignants dans les décisions ? utilisation de moyens modernes pour parler lisiblement à la génération qui fait l’opinion ?

Je n’ai pas les réponses mais il est de la responsabilité de chacun de se poser ces questions .

Åh vad jag har längtat efter hettan och stickandet och domnandet i munnen som framkallas av rätter från Sichuan! Vi gick med Maggie till ett s.k. Private Kitchen i tisdags och jisses vad gott och hett det var! Verkligen the real thing, inte alls anpassat efter Hongkong-kinesernas preferens för milda smaker…

Bakom dörren i bostadshuset ett par våningar upp döljer sig…

En lite hemlig restaurang som man måste känna till för att hitta, och en familj som kan servera underbar, högklassigt pocherad fisk i chiliolja med (som ni ser) en massa Sichuan-peppar i lysrörsbelyst hemmiljö! Tror det var kinesiska mormor eller farmor som var bas i köket!

Det är svårt att beskriva upplevelsen (av maträtter från Sichuan); det känns som om man knockas, man blir såklart högröd, det heta förflyttar sig i munnen, det kan hoppa och sticka på höger sida för att sedan smyga över till vänster sida, och fortsätta längre bak i gommen och sen fram på tungan… och det är inte bara hett utan som ett helt spektrum av smaker varför man genast vill ha mer!

Vi valde några kalla och några varma rätter på menyn. Fisken i chilioljan är min favorit sedan den där magiska middagen i Beijing 2006 då amerikanska B och jag upplevde samma rätt efter en iskall vilsen promenad flera timmar i minus 20 grader. På bordet står en kanna med te (ett måste!) och svenska kocken M’s svala, härliga rosévin som vi inledde måltiden med (innan smaklökarna slogs ut)… snyggt, bra val!

Sen provade vi Maggies spanska vita som hon och jag köpte på Wine and Dine Festival för ett tag sen… vi det laget fick man vara glad om man ens kände sin mun längre, det var kanske inte så schysst mot det smarriga vinet (det är vinagenten på bilden, inte Maggie)…

Mot slutet öppnade vi K’s och min flaska, italienska Villa Sparina 2007 som jag tyckte växlade mellan att smaka rumsvarmt smör eller nån typ av hårdost av bättre kvalité… M tyckte det smakade mer som sherry… de andra tyckte det fanns annat att prata om än vinet… jag tycker helt klart om den informella stilen där man lägger sin flaska på kylning i familjens kylskåp. K hade tydligen stoppat flaskan i en påse och kom samtidigt åt en ficklampa som låg bredvid som gjorde att han och M åkte färjan från Lamma med en upplyst, guldglödande flaska! Den är ju rätt glödande som den är i sig själv men nu blev det extra effekt, det tyckte jag var roligt! Bredvid vårt bord satt ett gäng japanska affärsmän och gapade, jag minns andra bord och fingrar som skalade heta räkor andäktigt och fler jättestora skålar med fisk i chiliolja som bars ut. Ja, det var en härlig kväll! Vi avslutade på typiskt Hongkong-vis; med dessert på ett litet desserthak i Causeway Bay!

]]> http://sheilazhao.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/to-my-homegirl/ Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:03:46 +0000 sheilazhao http://sheilazhao.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/to-my-homegirl/

Swine-mate

This is a bit overdue. But alas…

I returned to Beijing about two weeks back, after a month traveling China’s western frontier. Em, after a 6 hour flight delay and a border snafu, also safely returned to Hong Kong.

I miss the road already, and it feels odd not having The Swine’s presence around 24/7. She has been a good colleague throughout the trip, as well as a good friend.

For that, thank you.

Xining

Last week I published an interactive feature at The Atlantic online called “The Nine Nations of China.”  In it, I described how we should look at China, not as a single homogeneous entity, but as a mosaic of nine distinct regions.  Many readers commented that they found it a useful primer for understanding this complex and often overwhelming country.  But the Nine Nations framework is more than an antidote to cultural curiosity; I believe it offers an essential practical tool for anyone – investors, CEOs, policy-makers – who need to think strategically about China.  To understand why the Nine Nations matter, it helps to know how and why I came up with this framework in the first place.

In 2004, I was working in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, for a private equity fund focused on small-medium enterprises (SMEs).  Most people are surprised to hear that there actually is a PE fund in Sichuan, which is part of the region I call “The Refuge,” insulated deep in China’s interior.  Given the unfamiliar and rather undeveloped business environment, we had to figure out an investment strategy that made sense.  What was Sichuan good at?  What resources did it possess?  Out of all the different investment opportunities we were being presented with, which would enjoy a sustainable competitive advantage as China’s economy developed, particularly against rivals from more advanced parts of China?

Next to my desk was a copy of China’s annual statistical yearbook, and I also had access to similar but more extensive data online.  To help guide our efforts, I began an extensive project of “industry mapping,” comparing provincial and other data on crops, minerals, and industrial output to identify regional patterns and relationships.  Because I had traveled widely throughout China over the years, I already had a sort of “mental map” of the country based upon what I had seen.  But the statistics I analyzed opened up a whole new window on China’s economy.  They revealed, for instance, how the area I would come to think of as “The Yellow Land” accounts for over 60% of China’s wheat production – an output equivalent to the entire United States – more than 80% of its apples, and roughly half of its coal reserves; that “Shangri-La” in the southwest accounts for nearly 90% of China’s tin output and 70% of its sugarcane; and that “The Back Door” produces virtually all of its radios and stereos. 

By themselves, these figures seem almost trivial; taken together, they began to paint a picture of nine distinct regions – the Nine Nations I presented in The Atlantic.  Moreover, as I researched them further, these “nations” appeared to have consistent historical identities that reached back thousands of years.  It was only several years later, when I joined another private equity fund in Hong Kong and had shared this framework with one of the partners, David Bussmann, that he introduced me to the research of William Skinner and other academics who had written on regionalism in China.  Although my conclusions in some ways differed from theirs, the fact that people in other fields, focused on different concerns and using different methodologies, had arrived at findings that were quite similar – at times strikingly so – to my own made me think I might be on to something real.

My own discoveries coincided with a dawning realization among other people doing business in China that this huge country was turning out to be more complicated than it looked.  In 2005, Businessweek observed that:

GM isn’t alone in discovering that China is not a monolithic market. The country, with 1.3 billion citizens speaking more than 100 dialects, is wildly diverse. What people eat, wear, and drive differs greatly from north to south, east to west, rich to poor, young to old, city to countryside. Urumqi in the northwest is further from Guangzhou in the southeast than Oslo is from Rome, and the desires and needs of people who have benefited from the economic changes of the past two decades barely resemble those of individuals who have been left behind. “It’s clear that you can’t treat China as just one country,” says Glenn Murphy, managing director of ACNielsen China in Shanghai.

That same year, in his book “One Billion Customers,” China veteran James McGregor advised readers that it was essential to understand that “China is not one market but a collection of many local markets, each with its own practices, traditions and methods of local protectionism.”  In fact, such observations have become standard fare at China conferences. 

Once the point is inevitably raised, however, discussion trails off, leaving the obvious questions unanswered:  What exactly are those markets?  How are they different?  Why do those differences matter?  The importance of these issues is widely recognized, but for the most part, we have lacked a vocabulary for talking about them in a meaningful way.  Even professional marketing studies—where people presumably pay good money for insights into such patterns—tend to lump provinces into ad hoc directional groupings (southeast, southwest, central) with little regard for shared history or business trends.

The default solution has been to rely on broad dichotomies between urban and rural, coast and interior, and leave it at that.  In response to my feature in The Atlantic, Dan Harris of www.chinalawblog.com commented that he finds these distinctions more useful than regional ones:

My problem I see with this map is that it is exactly that. A map. And as a map, it distinguishes among regions geographically and that is not how I view many aspects of China. Just by way of an example, I see Beijing having commonalities with Shanghai just because they are two powerful and relatively sophisticated big cities. Different as these two cities are (and they are plenty different, in their cultures, in their attitudes and even in their languages), they still share many commonalities in terms of business.

On an operational level, I agree.  The day-to-day realities of business – quality of infrastructure, prevailing wages, education levels, land prices — almost certainly vary more between urban and rural areas than among the nine “nations.”  But on a strategic level, I could not disagree more.  If you are thinking about where to invest in what industries, where to set up a sales office or factory, or what trends will shape the Chinese market over time, then I believe you ignore the Nine Nations at your peril.

A rural Chinese village in 1980 might have looked and felt the same whether it was located in the Back Door, the Metropolis, the Crossroads, the Rust Belt, or the Refuge.  But today, that village in the Back Door is a thriving factory town, whose young female workers send their paychecks back to the village they left behind in the Crossroads.  Their male counterparts are migrant laborers busy transforming that village in the Metropolis into a luxury condo community, while the town in the Rust Belt serves as a dumping ground for unemployed workers from nearby state-owned steel mills, and the one in the Refuge remains as quiet as it ever was, except for one family who made a fortune selling animal feed to local farmers.  I’ve seen these changes with my own eyes, and the differences among the Nine Nations are critical to explaining how and why they happened, and what changes we can expect in the future.

As that Businessweek article I quoted points out, China is a land the size of Europe, and I would argue that the comparative advantages between different regions of China are as important as the comparative advantages between actual nations.  This is something that Chinese leaders themselves have been slow to comprehend.  When I travel all over China, I frequently meet with mayors and provincial governors, and hear them describe their economic plans.  For the most part, all of them want to develop the same “pillar industries”: automobiles, information technology, clean energy, pharmaceuticals – and maybe, if they’re really ambitious, financial services.  All of them are striving to imitate Shanghai and Beijing.  But the fact is, hundreds of cities are not all going to succeed in becoming the “car capital” or “IT capital” of China.  I hardly hear anyone asking the really essential questions, the ones we had to ask in Sichuan:  What makes this place special?  What is it better at than anywhere else?  What competitive niche can it fill in the broader Chinese economy?

To be sure, there are other factors that matter.  Generation gaps, urban and rural disparities, ethnic and religious differences, and shared cultural values often cut across regional lines and play important roles.  But in my experience, China can seem so large, so overwhelming – such a jumble of conflicting images — that just breaking it down into a handful of smaller, more digestible pieces can make even those factors easier to comprehend.

When someone mentions Miami or Milan, Los Angeles or London, Detroit or Dublin, their names evoke certain associations in our minds.  Even if we’ve never been there, we immediately think of beaches or fashion, actors or bankers, automobiles or pubs.  These images don’t tell us everything we need to know, but they give us a starting point.  But when someone mentions Changsha, Chongqing, or Changchun, our impressions – if any – are likely to be vague.  Even if you have been there, it may not be entirely evident how they fit into the bigger picture.  The Nine Nations framework tries to provide that context.  Simply by knowing that Changsha is in the Crossroads, Chongqing is in the Refuge, and Changchun is in the Rust Belt, you already know something useful about them – not everything, but a good starting point.

Let me just close by sharing just one concrete example of how differences among the Nine Nations can matter, even in an operational business context.  When the Sichuan SME Fund was first set up, the managing director – an American friend of mine – wanted to hire a Chinese investment team with the relevant training and experience in private equity.  As I mentioned in The Atlantic article, The Metropolis (the region centered on Shanghai) tends to be the most cosmopolitan and sophisticated region in China, so most of the qualified candidates he initially hired came from there.  He soon found out, though, that they were ill-suited to the task.  None of them could speak the local dialect, and they looked down on the entrepreneurs we were working with as country yokels.  The entrepreneurs, in turn, distrusted the Metropolitans, suspecting they were fast-talking city-slickers out to rip them off.  Eventually, my friend had to replace the entire team with locals from The Refuge.  Their financial skills were not always fully up to speed, but they were infinitely better at identifying promising opportunities and establishing trust and rapport with potential partners.  True, people from Sichuan and Chongqing – the two provinces that make up The Refuge — sometimes display a kind of homespun, town-next-door rivalry, but compared to other parts of China, they share a similar outlook, values, and mannerisms.  If we had recognized this – if we been aware of the Nine Nations of China and how they could impact our business – we might have saved ourselves a lot of headaches.

Reporters Without Borders, nov. 23, 2009-

Reporters Without Borders deplores the three-year jail sentence that human rights activist and blogger Huang Qi was given at the end of a 15-minute hearing yesterday in Chengdu.

“There is still time for the judicial authorities to reach a just decision on appeal,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We again urge the judges to act humanely as this resolute activist’s health is now very precarious.”

Huang’s wife, Zeng Li, and his mother, who were the only people allowed to attend yesterday’s hearing, challenged the verdict and sentence as soon as they were announced. Huang was quickly escorted out of the courtroom by police officers but he had time to shout that he wanted to appeal. He was then driven away in a police van without being allowed to speak to his family.

Zeng requested a copy of the court’s verdict but was refused on the grounds that Huang himself would submit his own appeal. Under Chinese law, his lawyer should be given a copy of the verdict within five days. Huang has 10 days to file an appeal.

- Reporters Without Borders

AFP, Nov. 22, 2009-

BEIJING — A Chinese dissident who campaigned for the parents of children killed in last year’s Sichuan earthquake was sentenced Monday to three years in jail on a state secrets charge, his wife said.

Huang Qi, 46, who had investigated accusations that shoddy school construction contributed to the quake’s heavy toll, was found guilty by a court in the city of Chengdu of possessing state secrets, his wife Zeng Li told AFP.

“We will surely appeal,” she said by phone from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province.

The sentence came just days after US President Barack Obama paid his first visit to China, during which he raised the issue of human rights, saying the United States believed in fundamental rights for all people.

US ambassador Jon Huntsman also specifically brought up Huang’s case with the Chinese government in the lead-up to Obama’s visit, a US embassy official told AFP.

The sentencing was the second move since Obama’s visit by Chinese authorities against dissidents.

On Thursday, Zhou Yongjun, a student leader of China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, was tried for fraud, also in Sichuan.

No verdict has been announced in Zhou’s case.

The nature of the state secrets in Huang’s case was not publicly released, but his lawyer Mo Shaoping denounced the verdict, saying it was information freely available on the Internet, although he declined comment on it.

“We do not acknowledge the verdict. We maintain that he is innocent,” Mo said.…… (more details from AFP)

Oh my god, I am so stoked about this place. I have read John Lethlean’s reviews on Epicure (review 1 & review 2) and in both reviews he stressed about how interesting the menu is so we decided to give it a go one (very) late Saturday lunch.

From the outside, the restaurant looks just like any other suburban Chinese restaurant (which was why we’d never been) but the dining room was large and spacious (I guess it also helped there only three tables were taken up) but the inside was rather nicely decked out. We, of course, have a TV playing Hong Kong movie in the corner (you’d need that).

It was yum cha hour but I decided that we wanted to try their menu. The menu was awesome. It had all the interesting things not available in your typical Chinese restaurant. I was so excited at how interesting the menu is. I have never even heard and or read about many of the items. So, with that in mind, please don’t think too badly of me that I ordered four dishes between the two of us.

(‘Pickled black fungus and chilli salad’ – $8.80)

The first ‘entree’ was pickled wood ear mushrooms and chilli. Personally I object to it being called fungus because that just kills the dish’s appeal. The vinegar smell was very strong but strangely enough it didn’t really taste very vinegary at all. It was rather salty. I can’t say I liked it very much but at least I have tried something new. I still remember my former boss Sila’s reaction a few years back when she came across woodears ‘Ewww!!! It looks like ears! I can’t eat that!’

(‘Sichuan style devilled chicken’ – $18.80)

We had to order the ‘devilled chicken.’ It didn’t really matter that it was probably the only dish in the menu we had heard of. Let’s face it, why wouldn’t you order the dish that had more chilli and Szechuan peppercorn in it than the chicken? It was awesome. The chicken pieces were well flavoured and the Szechuan pepper numbed my tongue. The sensation was just unbelievable. Sure I have had this gong bao dish before but it was never as intense and delicious as this one.

(‘Crispy corn kernels coated in salty duck egg yolk paste’ – $13.80)

John Lethlean mentioned this dish in his review. I love anything coated in the salted egg yolk and deep fried and I have had a few dishes with it before (mainly pork, chicken or prawn) but I have never heard of it being done with corn kernels. A basket of it came (i.e. a lot of food) with a bit of sprinkles on top. I didn’t really quite get the idea of the sprinkles on top but that didn’t bother me.

The corn kernels were yummy. It was piping hot and crunchy with sandy, salty egg yolk ‘batter’. It was the best thing since sliced bread. I swear if they sell this at the cinema instead of pop corn, I would be in heaven. The corn used, I suspect, was frozen corn kernels. I was actually expecting tinned corn and was pleasantly surprised. Yum.

(Sichuan noodle jelly in clay pot – $13.80)

I was forewarned by the picture menu that the ‘noodle’ in this dish wouldn’t exactly be noodles but I was still mildly surprised when these bubbling claypot of bright green cubes showed up. This dish presented itself a little bit later than the rest and by then I had sufficiently assaulted my poor tongue with the previous dishes (it was numb). I found this dish to be rather hot.

The ‘noodle’, I believe them to be jelly cubes made from mung bean – so for those of you who are familiar with the mung bean product, it wasn’t so different. It was semi crunchy and chewy. The sauce was the typical Sichuan feel, hot and salty. I brought most of it home as it was just too much food. And I feel bad for not doing it justice at the restaurant.

We were also given segments of sweet navel orange at the end. A welcome relief.

The food here carried that very typical Szechuan flavours – the hot, the spicy, the salty and the oily. I loved it. It wasn’t toned down for the Australian palate and there was no chilli rating. You just order it and hope that you are strong enough for it. It was hot and gutsy and I loved it for that. Oh yeah, did I mention I loved it? Josh did too.

(Our funky takeaway bags)

We ended up taking all of the dishes home because we just couldn’t eat everything. The waiters were incredibly nice and professional (a rare find in a suburban restaurant, I tell you). The food was so incredibly interesting and honestly good. Handsome and richly decorated dining room. And cheap. Did you notice how cheap the dishes were?

We are so going back.

SiChuan Dining Room, 723 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn
(03) 98188758

Radio Free Asia, 2009-11-20 -

HONG KONG— Hard on the heels of a state visit to China by U.S. President Barack Obama, authorities in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan have begun the trial of a former 1989 student leader and will shortly sentence an activist who tried to help victims of last year’s devastating earthquake.

Authorities in Sichuan’s Shehong county began the trial of U.S. resident and former leader of China’s 1989 student movement Zhou Yongjun for “economic fraud” after he tried to visit his ailing father in 2008, just one day after Obama ended his three-day trip.

“This case definitely exists,” Zhou’s lawyer Chen Zerui said.

“But there is no evidence whatsoever to show that Zhou Yongjun is directly connected to it.”

Zhou was a student at the Chinese University for Political Science and Law at the time of the student protests and ensuing military crackdown on June 4, 1989, in which hundreds died.

He was among a group of students who knelt in front of the Great Hall of the People on April 22 to present a list of demands to China’s leaders after the death of moderate premier Hu Yaobang.

Lawyer appointed

Chen, assistant to top Beijing-based lawyer Mo Shaoping, was retained only in late August after Zhou’s family tried to hire Mo to defend him in May.

He said he had already called into question some of the evidence presented by police.

“I have asked for a suitable agency to review the evidence based on handwriting,” he said, adding that he had also found holes in the legal procedures used to bring the case against Zhou.

Zhou’s relatives, who attended the trial, said he didn’t look himself.

“He seemed in low spirits and his voice was very faint,” said a brother-in-law surnamed Ye. “We wondered if he was sick.”

“It has been such heartache for our family. Zhou disappeared for about a year, and we were all very worried. His parents are old, and they are extremely distressed,” Ye said.

Cyber-dissident tried

Meanwhile, a court in the provincial capital Chengdu said it would announce its decision in the trial of cyber-dissident Huang Qi for “possession of state secrets.”

“I received a phone call and a fax… from the court,” said rights lawyer Mo, who is acting on Huang’s behalf.

“They said the sentencing would be open and that relatives could attend.”

Mo added that there had been no opportunity for Huang, 46, to defend himself throughout the trial, which was held at Chengdu’s Wuhou district People’s Court.

“There was no opportunity for either Huang Qi or his lawyer to say anything throughout the trial,” Mo said, adding that a typical sentence for the charge of “possessing state secrets” was three years’ imprisonment.

“They just read out a statement. I didn’t send a lawyer over to save the fees. If he is found guilty, we will appeal.”

Huang’s wife Zeng Li said she has had no direct communication from the court regarding her husband’s case.

“I am very worried now. If they send him to jail, Huang Qi won’t be able to get medical treatment in prison,” she said.

“He is in very poor health.”

Held after quake

Huang was detained by the Sichuan authorities on June 10, 2008 after he tried to help parents of children who died in the May 12 earthquake to investigate allegations of shoddy construction following the collapse of school buildings across the quake-hit region in which thousands of schoolchildren died.

He was formally arrested on July 18, 2008.

Zhou, who is a permanent resident of the United States with two children, was detained in the wake of the June 4 crackdown and released in 1991 following international political pressure for the release of student leaders.

He arrived in the United States in 1992, and was granted permanent residency.

Zhou’s case highlights the situation of dozens of Chinese political activists who have been allowed to leave China and seek asylum in the United States, but are now unable to get permission to return to visit relatives.

- Radio Free Asia

This is a china test.

Une des tours surplombant la ville et la rivière, offrant un magnifique panorama

De la tour, nous surplombons les rues animées et de magnifiques toits...

Jolis toits en ardoise

Tout le charme de la ville, outre ses toits, réside dans le fait qu'elle est particulièrement vivante. Les intérieurs manquant de confort, les habitants vivent en partie dehors. Les boutiques sont par ailleurs, comme souvent en Chine, complètement ouvertes sur l'extérieur. On aperçoit ici des couturières, des personnes mangeant dans la rue...

Vue sur une cour intérieure. Les Maisons traditionnelles étaient constituées de plusieurs cours, 4 en général, le nombre de cours d'une propriété donnait une indication quant à la richesse des proopriétaires

La ville, relativement préservée du tourisme de masse, n'est pas encore devenue une ville-musée jonchée de boutiques de souvenirs. Ainsi, les portes entrouvertes permettent-elles d'apercevoir l'intérieur des maisons, souvent exigües, manquant visiblement de confort. Ici, vue sur une cuisine.

Aperçu des vieilles rues et ruelles étroites, des jolies lampes et boiseries qui ornent les maisons

Comme un peu partout au Sichuan, les gens jouent, et jouent encore, au Mahjong et aux cartes du Sichuan, longues et fines (une sorte de rami)

Boutique de fabrication d'articles en soie

Notre hôtel est extraordinaire, traditionnel, vraiment beau, propre, une excellente surprise, mon plus joli hôtel depuis toutes ces années à arpenter la Chine pendant mes vacances

Une fois de plus, un délicieux dîner - de très loin mon meilleur Guoba depuis de très longues années (soupe de riz croustillant au poulet et à la sauce aux prunes, un plat traditionnel du Sichuan), au menu également, la spécialité du coin, de la viande séchée, et ce dans un cadre devenu rare en Chine, une ancienne demeure familiale.

Fait remarquable dans cette partie historique de la ville, un certain calme règne, et tout particulièrement dans les cours et jardins intérieurs des principales propriétés, devenues des hôtels et des restaurants, dans lesquelles nous avons pu boire du thé aux chrysanthèmes, un de mes thés préférés, dans un cadre magnifique, pour nous tous seuls, dans un calme parfait... et le calme est si rare en Chine. J'ai également pu bavarder avec discuter avec le propriétaire, qui avait fait un voyage en France... j'ai mis un temps fou à comprendre qu'il me parlait du Lido et du Moulin Rouge

HISTOIRES DE PETITS COMPAGNONS DANS LE CAR (à compléter)

Notre car au retour de Langzhong... je mange des gauffrettes..............

:-D

  Ai WeiWei , 1957, se recupera en Munich de las graves lesiones ocasionadas por una  golpiza que le propinò la policìa en su paìs, la razòn: su trabajo militante en la provincia de Sichuan, vìctima de un devastador sismo recientemente, cuyos daños humanos y materiales todavìa no han sido cuantificados . 

Màs imàgenes del terremoto pueden ser obtenidas en: http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20080513_1.htm

El artista debiò ser intervenido de emergencia  como lo atestigua el informe mèdico publicado originalmente en el blog del artista.

Ai  es uno de los artistas màs importantes de la China actual, hijo de un intelectual desterrado y perseguido:Ai Qing,  su familia tuvo que esperar que finalizarà la Revoluciòn Cultural para ser rehabilitada,  Estudiò Cine por dos años, tiempo en el cual junto con otros artistas fundò el Grupo Stars (Xingxing), irreverentes e individualistas no tardaron en llamar la atenciòn de las autoridades, quienes no dudaron en intimidarlos, la presiòn diò su  frutos el grupo se disolviò y la mayorìa de sus miembros salieron al extranjero, entre ellos Ai  quien se fue a Estados Unidos, luego de doce años regresa porque su padre estaba enfermo.

Esos años lejos de caso dejaron una profunda huella en su estilo artistìco, fuertemente influenciado por Marcel Duchamp. “Aprendí a ser un artista inteligente, no un artista únicamente con habilidades visuales o técnicas. Éstas hacen falta, pero sólo como herramienta para representar tu idea”.

Controversial  y comprometido ante una realidad social que exige silencio y pasividad a sus miembros”…..la gente no está acostumbrada a asumir su responsabilidad. No está acostumbrada porque el mayor éxito de las sociedades totalitarias es hacer pensar a la gente que no es nada, que haga lo que haga nada va a cambiar”.

“La gente no está acostumbrada a asumir su responsabilidad. No está acostumbrada porque el mayor éxito de las sociedades totalitarias es hacer pensar a la gente que no es nada, que haga lo que haga nada va a cambiar”. Para los que quieran seguirlo directamente su ùltimo blog pueden encontralo, si to davìa no lo ha censurado el gobierno chino en http://blog.aiweiwei.com/ o  visitando su pàgina web http://www.aiweiwei.com/

This tour to Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces aims to give a privileged insight into two panda reserves, which up until now have had little tourism.

The Giant Panda is one of the most recognised creatures on earth, yet it is also one of the most critically endangered with only 1600 surviving today in China, when once it ranged from Burma in the south to the outskirts of Beijing in the north. In the last few years, since the banning of logging in 1999, a host of measures are being undertaken to increase the country’s conservation efforts. One development is the establishment of basic ecotourism facilities in key areas that offer the opportunity to trek in unique panda habitat. Here too is the last remnants of rural China can be enjoyed.

The itinerary allows unique viewing and walking opportunities to track and view wild pandas in their natural habitat, as well as meeting with traditional rural communities, still practising their ancient agricultural methods, and meeting with the individuals fighting to ensure the survival of wilderness in China. The Reserves of Foping and Changqing were established in the late 1990s as two of eight contiguous reserves set up for Giant panda protection in the Qinling Mountains, south of Xian, and as such hold some of the best high altitude primary forest and flora to be seen in China. Around 220 species of birds and other endangered mammals including Clouded leopard, Takin, Goral and Tufted deer also inhabit the park.

Source: Nature & Kind Travel Collection

The intrigue of this baby blue trailer and the happy go-lucky name finally won me over today. Who could resist? Especially with a mascot like this little guy:

I ordered the small Sichuan Cold Sesame Noodle bowl, which was a measly $3. They also have the choice of a large, which is about double the size, for $5. The first bite was pretty good. The noodles were slightly mushy, but I tried to ignore it because I liked the texture of the peanuts mixed in with the dish. The subtle spicy and sweet flavors reminded me of something I might have tried to make when I was a kid. I would pretend the kitchen was a laboratory and I would mix concoctions and experiment with ingredients… I’m pretty sure one of those times I made something very closely resembling this dish.

The description on the menu board said there was cucumber mixed in as well, but I didn’t see or taste it. The bowl was well endowed with huge leafs of cilantro.

I’m going to be honest, I couldn’t eat it all. My stomach wouldn’t let me. I was very disappointed because the trailer made me feel so happy when I looked at it. But the food was disagreeable when I ate it. The after taste even continued to linger 1 bag of skittles and a cup of goldfish later. I’ve read some really great reviews about this place, so maybe it’s just my taste. But I’ve also read some not-so-great reviews about Chubby Hug, so maybe it just depends on who’s dining. Worth a try? Meh.

Menu

Chubby Hug is located at the corner of 51st and Duval, next door to The Peddler.

www.chubbyhug.net

Radio Free Asia, 2009-11-10 -

HONG KONG— More than 100 laid-off elementary school teachers in central China petitioned the local government Tuesday over retirement pensions, members of the group said.

The teachers, who work for the education system in Dawu county of central China’s Hubei province, said they were angered over back premiums they would have to pay to be eligible to receive their pensions.

One protesting teacher surnamed Liu said the group had gathered in front of the county government’s Letter and Visit Office early Tuesday morning.

“Around 100 teachers have come, and we are petitioning over retirement pensions,” Liu said.

“The government asked us to pay 20,000 yuan (U.S. $2,928), but we’ve never had so much money in our whole life. How can we afford that?” he asked.

The teachers said that before they were laid off, their salaries were very low……. (more details)

Machine workers protest

In a separate development on Monday, around 100 laid-off workers in China’s southwestern Sichuan province also petitioned the local government over retirement pension, leading to a scuffle with police.

The workers, from the Changjiang No. 2 Hydraulic Machinery Factory in Luzhou city, had been laid off in 1990s, but had been informed that their benefits would end after the factory was recently sold to a real estate developer.

A protester who asked to remain anonymous said the workers had been forced to petition the government for assistance at the Luzhou city hall.

“Workers are now extremely anxious because the new owner will no longer take care of us. This is why we have to petition the government to pay attention to our benefits,” the worker said.

But rather than hear the concerns of the protesting workers, the Luzhou city government dispatched about 100 police officers to confront the workers, leading to a scuffle between the two groups.

The anonymous worker said the confrontation between elderly workers and young policemen left several protesters injured.

“Our workers are all in their 70s or 80s, but the police are all in their 20s and 30s, so you can imagine what happened when the two groups began to push and pull at each other,” the worker said.

“Three old workers were injured and sent to the hospital in ambulances. According to other protesters, the three remained in hospital at least through Monday night.”

Attempts to contact local officials by telephone went unanswered……. (more details from Radio Free Asia)

So the timing of this Must See Monday could not have been better – in the middle of the radio segment of broadcast, sound is a big topic on all of our minds lately. This week’s speaker, Susan Feeney is Senior Editor for Planning at All Things Considered.

Why is this relevant to travel? Well, I probably inherited the itchy feet and restless nature, but I might have gotten the idea that I could tie this into making a living from somewhere else. As I listened to the clips Feeney brought as examples, I was transported back to how I felt when I was a kid and the radio, especially NPR, first started to take me places. Growing up without reliable television reception meant I spent a lot of time listening to radio in the house, as well as in the car; I heard news long before I got older and interested in newspapers. The drive to school, five minutes early on but, as I got older and switched around a bit, up to half an hour, meant morning updates. Road trips meant frantic searches on the radio dial for the next public broadcast station, because static and station boundaries always seemed to hit just at the good parts.

One of the reporters I remember most is Sylvia Poggioli – her stories and, even more, her frequent signoff from Rome, sunk deep into my memory and imagination, even as she continues to broadcast.

Now, I still put radio on whenever I’m in the car. However, a bike commute means I drive much, much less and the unexpected (and probably only) downside means much, much less radio.

It was startling, after just a semester, to see how differently I could listen to a radio piece. Feeney’s discussion of each piece, and radio in general, really made the presentation even deeper. Information, like behind the scenes information like what happened to the journalists reporting on the earthquake from China, how their stories got put together, or the reaction afterward made good listening. But they helped us understand how reporters operate in tense, emotional, possibly dangerous situations and still get their jobs done. These examples also illustrated some of the differences between radio and other formats, especially the discussion of whether the family’s search for their son would have been different in print or television.

Feeney played a piece on Hurricane Katrina by Robert Siegel to discuss accountability journalism, a piece which also happened to have very little natural sound, but a high emotional impact for many listeners.

She also played two pieces from a series by Melissa Block that took place in Sichuan province, China. The first actually recorded the 2008 earthquake that hit Sichuan province and the second documented a couple’s search for family members. A third piece, which I came across on NPR’s website, has Block’s follow-up work one year later in pictures as well as sound.

Overall, while I wish I had more time in radio this semester, an evening listening to/with Feeney is the perfect way to keep me interested in sound – and set the bar very, very high for anyone who wants to get involved.

Recipe can be found here. I ran out of dried shrimp so there isn’t that in there and I used red chili pepper flakes instead of whole dried peppers.

The clams I used in last night’s bisque.

I hoard images. Photography has always been so inspiring and I’d like to share some that I’ve found.

The Sichuan Province in China is mostly a mountainous region with the Qinling Mountains in the north and the towering Himalayas in the west – a testament to the powerful seismic forces active in the region. The earthquake in May 2008 was a magnitude 7.9 that created a surface slip displacement of 9 meters!! (Very rarely does the ground travel this much. Just to put things in perspective, the recent earthquake in the Moro Gulf, Mindanao, Philippines in October was magnitude 6.6 and slipped 1.63 meters) One photographer managed to capture the earthquake as it was happening while doing a wedding photoshoot at a Catholic seminary – a hundred year old building, reduced to ruble in less than 10 seconds. Here are a few of those AMAZING photos taken from BBC.

I haven’t been able to track down the photographer whose name is Wang Chang. So if anyone can find him or his website, let me know.

Paoma Mountain

Kangding’s most well-known landmark is one of its nearby mountains, Paoma Mountain. The snowy peak was made famous by the immensely popular song, Kangding Love Song.

Going from Ganzi to Kangding also marked the longest bus ride Em and I had this entire trip: 14 hours!! While the ride was beautiful, being on a dirty bus for 14 hours was pretty trying…

Bus ride

Passby Lake

Ganzi

Ganzi is a Tibetan trading town, located in a stunning valley in the shadow of the nearby Chola snow mountain range.

Across the street from the Ganzi bus station, there’s a restaurant called the Daba Han Tibetan Family Restaurant. The hole-in-the-wall joint is owned by a middle aged Han couple and a young Tibetan help. A+ to them in name creativity.

Trola

Trola Pass lies between Dege and Manigango. At 4916 meters above sea level, it’s the highest pass outside of Tibet.

A Chengdu, nous logeons dans une rue complètement refaite à neuf mais dans un style ancien, et qui se targue d’être, en Chine, « The newest new old street ».

Cela est assez révélateur de la différence d’approche que nous pouvons avoir en matière d’architecture et de goût pour les vieilles pierres…

C’est assez réussi ceci dit, et il y règne une ambiance incroyable, ce qui révèle là aussi à quel point la Chine a pu changer depuis mon premier séjour là-bas : à l’époque, pas de lumières le soir dans les rues, pas même sur les axes majeurs, dans les grandes villes, tels que la Place Tian An Men, les gens rentraient tôt, se couchaient et se levaient tôt et jouissaient de très peu de distractions. A Chengdu, malgré tout, régnait déjà à l’époque une ambiance particulière, probablement liée à la douceur du climat même au cœur de l’hiver… les gens jouaient au Mahjong dans la rue, à longueur de journée, les personnes âgées sirotaient du thé en jouant aux cartes dans les multiples parcs, jardins et maisons de thé qui jalonnaient la ville, une atmosphère nonchalante qui contrastait énormément avec Beijing, où les températures à la même époque voisinaient avec les –10, voire -15°.

Les maisons de thé en bois ont disparu, elles étaient également des lieux de spectacles (cf. « les tambours » de Lao She pour s’imprégner de l’ambiance aujourd’hui disparue qui pouvait régner dans cette ville, mais aussi suivre l’exode de la population en Chine de l’invasion japonaise).

Nous voici donc dans une rue que nous connaissons pour y avoir séjourné il y a quelques années, alors qu’elle était justement en plein chantier, et où des newest new old houses émergeaient de terre…  cela est assez agréable même si ça  fait un peu vitrine touristique : tous les produits phares de la région y sont vendus, la rue est remplie de restaurants assez chics pour la plupart, où l’on peut manger en terrasse, ou à l’intérieur de cours carrées, assis sur les chaises en bambou typiques de la région, ou sur des reproductions de meubles classiques.

Des nettoyeurs d’oreilles se promènent entre les tables. Ils sont dotés d’outils terrifiants, de longues baguettes en métal qu’ils cognent les unes contre les autres, ils sont habillés en tenue traditionnelle mais modernité et préservation des tympans des volontaires obligent, une lampe frontale orne leur front…

Une ambiance de vacances règne vraiment dans la rue, et nous profitons bien des véritables festins quelle offre… la nourriture y est vraiment délicieuse…

Un peu trop épicées les petites brochettes !

Les épices du Sichuan sont très dangereuses, j’ai mis plus d’une 1/2 heure à m’en remettre, de ces sympathiques brochettes ! J’ai eu du mal à les terminer tant elles étaient épicées !!!! J’avais des palpitations à la fin du repas. La mort par gloutonnerie m’attend en Chine, je le sais ! Les dangers de la Chine sont multiples et pas toujours ceux auxquels on pense en priorité. Une épice bien dissimulée… La plus féroce certainement est le poivre du Sichuan (le Huajiao), délicieux, mais absolument terrible !
Journée calme en dehors des épices, ah non, j’oubliais ces chauffeurs de taxi fous, qui roulent sur le mauvais côté de la route parce que des routes d’une 10aine de voies, cinq pour chaque côté, ça ne suffit pas !!!!! (il a apparemment fait plein d’autres bêtises que je n’ai pas vues Arrive un moment où mieux vaut ne plus regarder !)