Notes From Xi'an 西安随感
Ode to Xi'an

Ode to Xi'an

Xi’an. Modern City, city of the ancients, city of technology, science and education, city of a city wall, city of the Buddha’s finger, city of Emperors, city of conquest, city of contradiction. An ancient city of culture without culture, a contemporary culture sublimating a culture, a city finding balance in a ...

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G_ _G_ _ .cn/.com?

G_ _G_ _ .cn/.com?

Originally posted 18/01/10: brought forward, with the Copenhagen one below, as a prelude to an update on the Google story and also maybe to a change in direction in content. I am planning to try and find a bit more time to research a little more before writing as well ...

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Copenhagen, Indignation and a Neo-Naturalistic Chinese Landscape

Copenhagen, Indignation and a Neo-Naturalistic Chinese Landscape

Originally posted 26/12/09. Brought forward with the Google one above as a prelude to a potential change in direction in content- maybe... Two days ago in Xi’an, while workmen were planting pine trees into the central reservation of the new upgraded Chang’an Road, I could hardly make out the tall television tower ...

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The Joy Of Two New Years A Year And A Sense Of Evolution

The Joy Of Two New Years A Year And A Sense Of Evolution

One of the joys of many about living in China is that we get two New Years a year; one Solar, one Lunar and that they are spaced just a few weeks apart. So if there was a false start to New Year plans and resolutions the first time around, ...

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The Yellow River Soup Kitchen I.

The Yellow River Soup Kitchen I.

These pictures represent a small glimpse into the workings, projects and characters of The Yellow River Soup Kitchen. Below this gallery are a couple of brief extracts and opportunities to continue reading, first, the founder's enlightening thoughts on his and the projects motivations and growth, and second, some thoughtful observations ...

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The Xi'an Based Artist Xu Bu- 画家徐步

The Xi'an Based Artist Xu Bu- 画家徐步

This is just a brief note about a Xi'an based artist that my girlfriend and I were fortunate to come across this week. After enjoying a hearty dinner last Sunday, Ling and I strolled up towards the new Art Museum on Da4 Tang2 Bu2 Ye4 Cheng2 (大唐不夜城 ), the new ...

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Hillary Clinton, Independent Travel and Xinjiang Raisins

Hillary Clinton, Independent Travel and Xinjiang Raisins

With my head in the Google cloud[s] this past week it was nice to be brought back down to Earth China with a friend’s visit from Xinjiang and another’s return from overseas. One of my girlfriend’s hometown friends passed through from Xinjiang, where he works as a doctor, and another ...

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Oh Xi'an!

Oh Xi'an!

Xi’an, Xi’an, Xi'anan! I liked it when I first arrived and I like it now. We can complain about this and that, I probably do, I certainly have, but I enjoy living here. I read somewhere recently someone bemoaning the lack of running opportunities here in Xi’an, or more specifically, the negatives ...

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Xi'an... I Like It.

Xi'an... I Like It.

Reading and listening to so many negative, one-sided, manipulative, smug and condescending voices on things China recently (and they were just my own!), I feel like simply writing a brief note reminding myself of why I like living in Xi’an. First and foremost, I like the people that surround me on a ...

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Confucius Notations and the Slow Learning of Chinese

Confucius Notations and the Slow Learning of Chinese

This extract I first discovered some time ago but rediscovered recently, it is taken from the Confucius text Centrality and Commonality: An Essay on Chung- Yung (the Doctrine of the Mean) and has served me as a grounding, though motivating force in my fluctuating pursuit of mastering, to some degree ...

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The Jackson Pollock of Traffic Congestion

The Jackson Pollock of Traffic Congestion

What is it that makes people so self-concerned and so blinkered to the consequences of their actions? I don't know but check out any road junction here in Xi'an and you'll see the consequences. I have arrived back in Xi’an to discover that the road maintenance work on Chang An ...

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Sergey Brin, the “Smart Horse” Google and the China Cyber Crux

March 7th, 2010 § 0

Now, if we can consider Google a “smart horse”, and why wouldn’t we, then according to Zhao Qi Zheng, Google will be galloping freely (again) in China before too long. Zhao, a spokesman for the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, recently inverted the famous Chinese proverb (WSJ): ‘a good horse will never return to graze on grass it has already passed by’, by noting: “If there is good grass, why give up? A good horse wants to eat good grass. So the horse that returns is a smart horse.” Indeed. 

No matter the validity or not of such an analogy, this may be a good moment to introduce the Google founder Sergey Brin’s recent on stage interview at the 2010 TED Talks. An interesting interview that gave an insight into the issues that Google have been wrestling with and which more importantly, also offered a small insight into the mind of one of the key figures affected by the wild machinations that are going on beneath keyboards across China and beyond.

The word that sprung to my mind while watching this guy for the first time was impressive. Charlie from Chengdu Living, though commentating on the Hao Hao Report, put it this way: “What really struck me about this clip is how diplomatic Brin comes across. I’m glad he doesn’t see it as a battle between good and evil, but a nuanced struggle to allow China access to the world’s knowledge. After seeing this and one other interview with Brin regarding China, I feel pretty assured that they’re doing the best that anyone can.” 

This is certainly an intriguing story: two Internet megaliths seemingly facing off against each other over the issue of information accessibility – the nature of which is perceived quite differently by the two; one all encompassing, one that comes up a little short. However, concentrating solely on this dichotomy between what have generally been portrayed as the light and dark forces of the Internet, perhaps stifles the voices of some of the more disparate contributors to this story- here are a few. » Read the rest of this entry «

G_ _G_ _ .cn/.com?

March 1st, 2010 Comments Off

Originally posted 18/01/10: brought forward, with the Copenhagen one below, as a prelude to an update on the Google story and also maybe to a change in direction in content. I am planning to try and find a bit more time to research a little more before writing as well as in the intervening period between Notes add a few more synoptical news references or short random reflections. We’ll see how we go. I could well find myself deleting these words in a couple of weeks!

______________________________________________

I couldn’t quite bring myself to put the name, the word, the verb, or whatever it is in the title, as it has been used so much recently. I will attempt, however, to highlight what a difficult position the Google hierarchy are now in, one certainly not all of their own making but also how the moral as well as profitable thing to do may well be to hang around in the Middle Kingdom for a bit longer yet. However, first a little Google bashing.

Google ChinaFor me and my petty concerns, Google went too far when they started incorporating alternative logo styles and random selections of daily information on their .com search engine, presuming that we the masses, in our beautiful diversity, would all be interested in whatever soupcon of news or random image they felt entitled to share with us. However, this didn’t stop me continuing to use their services; my Gmail account, the Google Chrome Browser, my first blog post on Blogger and all the googling I have continued to do. For others, it was the dilution of Google’s border-less approach to information accessibility when they started dealing with China that spelt the beginning of the end. » Read the rest of this entry «

Copenhagen, Indignation and a Neo-Naturalistic Chinese Landscape

February 28th, 2010 Comments Off

nature_reserve

Originally posted 26/12/09. Brought forward with the Google one above as a prelude to a potential change in direction in content- maybe…

Two days ago in Xi’an, while workmen were planting pine trees into the central reservation of the new upgraded Chang’an Road, I could hardly make out the tall television tower a short distance behind them for the polluted air that surrounded it. However, while today the workmen were still planting trees, the TV tower, itself recently refurbished, was sparkling white and clear in a beautiful blue sky.  And there was I, led to believe that those Copenhagen talks were “at best flawed, at worst chaotic” or even worse aclimate crime scene”. Not so, by the looks of the results on the ground here in happy, naturalistic China.

Now, maybe there is no call for the use of such a jocular tone towards what is obviously a very serious issue. An issue with an agenda that, in recent weeks, has drawn much brow beating and finger pointing from members of government and civil society alike. However, I have also attempted to consider these issues a little from the perspective of having lived in China for a few years.

from China Hush.com

from China Hush.com

 

The first thing to note, that pollution in China, for the Chinese, is a serious issue. (Documentary Photography: Pollution in China). Second, the recognition, that the processes adopted and the new relationships involved in the decisions taken at an inter-state level are of fundamental importance going deeper into the 21st century. Third, it would be better for all concerned in such inter-state processes, such as those that took place in Copenhagen, if the participants were able to recognise their own personal/cultural perspectives, attitudes and circumstances, and the context that defines them and that the same situation with different sets of conditions exist for others. Finally, it is good to see so many trees regularly being planted around this sprawling urban centre of Western China! » Read the rest of this entry «

A Summer Palace Engagement and What Rolls Around

February 22nd, 2010 Comments Off

I apologize for a slightly more personal Note from Xi’an, I am indulging myself as a consequence of matters of the heart dominating these holiday days.

I arrived in Beijing recently an unmarried man and although I left Beijing still an unmarried man I am now an engaged unmarried man. A moment of bended knee madness in the middle of a frozen Summer Palace lake took care of that.

It was a strange feeling even uttering the words of proposal as well as referring to my loved one as my fiancée. Does something feel different? Yes, I think it does. It is not a bad thing or a scary thing, it is most certainly a joyful thing, but there is a sense of the commitment of engagement that you don’t know about until the words are actually spoken. » Read the rest of this entry «

The Yellow River Soup Kitchen I.

February 1st, 2010 Comments Off

These pictures represent a small glimpse into the workings, projects and characters of The Yellow River Soup Kitchen. Below this gallery are a couple of brief extracts and opportunities to continue reading, first, the founder’s enlightening thoughts on his and the projects motivations and growth, and second, some thoughtful observations from a visitor’s chance encounter. The Yellow River Soup Kitchen was established here in Xi’an in December 2005, it was the first Soup Kitchen in China.

*Each picture can be clicked through individually or a slideshow can be created by pressing the PicLens tab below. (The 3D link just goes to the designer’s site.)

» Read the rest of this entry «

Xi’an… I Like It.

January 11th, 2010 Comments Off

Reading and listening to so many negative, one-sided, manipulative, smug and condescending voices on things China recently (and they were just my own!), I feel like simply writing a brief note reminding myself of why I like living in Xi’an.

Local People

First and foremost, I like the people that surround me on a day-to-day basis, the Xi’anese.  They are a matter-of-fact bunch, a straightforward lot, and a generally supportive and friendly collection of people. I generalise on the basis of the impressions that have been planted within me these last three years. I like Xi’an, I like the people and I like living here. We of course must take into account the fact I am a Laowai (老外) and thus treated, generally, with a slightly more friendly and helpful hand than some members of the Chinese community might experience. Though, this may also depend on the extent of each individual Laowai’s forbearance in the face of things China and Chinese. » Read the rest of this entry «

The Hao Hao Report and a Sunny New Year in Xi’an

January 3rd, 2010 Comments Off

While bringing in the New Year I added a new hobby to my days. A pastime which has helped me to engage a little more with matters on the Chinese news front, as I have failed to do that regularly with my own notes here. I passed through into 2010 as a Hao Hao Reporter! Now, although the title is more grandiose than the reality, which is simply volunteering to add media stories one finds interesting on the internet to the Hao Hao Report website, it has been a good way to keep a little more on-top of what is going on in relation to China news, across the media spectrum. It also seems to have a good community of people contributing to it, though disagreements amongst members do seem on occasion to occur! 

hhr-jssThe Hao Hao Report is an excellent site, kicked off in 2006 by Ryan, of  ‘The Lost Laowai, ’The Humanaught’ and ‘Dao by Design’, and which with the help of its members, attempts to aggregate all online media articles that have a central reference to China; whether musings from mainstream media intellectuals or insights from personal blog posts- that is, if they are considered good enough. » Read the rest of this entry «

07/12/09 Xi’an: Dedicated to the Passing of James. D. Lloyd

December 7th, 2009 Comments Off

James 1We are gathered here today to mark the passing of James. D. Lloyd (aka. Jimmy-Lad or 罗玄德) into the afterlife. This is not though the afterlife that some of you maybe thinking of. No, this is not a pathway towards the showering light of heaven but a passing, from the light to the dark, from the glowing streets of Xi’an to the darkest depths of Bolton, England. This is the after-Xi’an-life. After four years in this little planetary oasis of peace and tranquillity, James and his ever present companion 朱宇 (aka. Flora or Big F), have decided to head towards the fresh green pastures of northern England.

James will be missed by all those who have walked Side-by-Side with him over these last few years. There were those students at Aston English School who were delighted to find playground capers had made their way into the classroom. As well as those who initially had faces of sadness, who only wanted to learn vocabulary and grammar the way they knew best, by having it beaten and drilled remorselessly into them, but who were later surprised to realise they were actually learning English and that it was exciting and fun doing so. Even if some did find themselves unwittingly saddled with the names of Bolton FC players, none more afflicted than a 10 year old boy I discovered one day with the name Jussi Jaaskelainen, after the great Bolton shot stopper. » Read the rest of this entry «

Barack Obama, the Great Wall, a Shanghai Hall and the Importance of Tone

November 20th, 2009 Comments Off

I will begin these China news notes by acknowledging that my default mechanism is one of relative non-engagement with and ignorance of contemporary affairs. I tend to take a general sweeping look at life and its processes as I wander through my days and not engage with the minutiae of political matters and relationships. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/19/obama-in-seoul-after-great-wall-visit/So, because of that, I will begin with a quote from President Obama atop the Great Wall in Beijing. Obama noted: “It’s magical. It reminds you of the sweep of history… It gives you a good perspective on a lot of the day-to-day things. They don’t amount to much in the scope of history.”  

This is, generally, how I feel about a lot of the news that bombards us on a daily or, now I suppose, hourly and even minutely basis. This is not to say that these issues are not important, a lot certainly are, though of course a great deal are not. It is just, that in the great scheme of things, they don’t always mean that much and can, I believe, also obscure a wider perspective on our lives and the processes that underpin them. That said, I am going to use these China News notes to keep myself a little more informed, on a weekly basis, of what is going on with things Chinese on a so-called wider news front and not just the everyday way of life that I am a part of here in Xi’an. » Read the rest of this entry «