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At “The City of Roses”

Posted: 23 May 2012 10:19 PM PDT

In my past trips to Portland, Oregon, I was always struck by how green this city is, especially while looking down as the plane descends toward the airport. Portland is in fact known as "The City of Roses." Given the amount of rain in the Pacific Northwest, the whole area is lush and carpeted by plants. I am writing from the city today. Since I have a little bit of time, I decided to cross the Willamette river and take a few shots of the city looking West. Some of you may not know, Portland and Suzhou are sister cities. Suzhou is known for its water canals and gardens. Whether that sisterhood is founded on a shared love for gardens and nature or not (probably not), education, culture, and economic exchanges have been fostered. While over the Willamette, it struck me, this is a bridge city.

Waterfront Park, Portland, Oregon (by hiddenharmonies.org) - click to enlarge



Willamette River, Portland, Oregon (by hiddenharmonies.org) - click to enlarge

Willamette River, Portland, Oregon (by hiddenharmonies.org) - click to enlarge

Chinatown gate, Portland, Oregon (by hiddenharmonies.org) - click to enlarge


(Though I was disappointed seeing so many homeless people hanging around the gate.)

Gan Lulu makes appearance with quirky dress again

Posted: 23 May 2012 01:07 PM PDT

Notorious model Gan Lulu and her mother continued to challenge the public's tolerance.

Recently, Gan was spotted at an event wearing a weird and wacky dress, with a sloping shoulder, and one side of pants totally removed off making the side of her crotch visible to the masses!

Not clear what that event was for, but obviously the mother-and-daughter pair happily cashed in by selling the daughter's "flesh" out.

Gan Lulu bizarre dress

Gan Lulu bizarre dress

Gan Lulu bizarre dress

Gan Lulu bizarre dress

CCTV host Yang Rui in “foreign trash” comments trouble

Posted: 23 May 2012 01:03 PM PDT

Yang Rui, foreign trash

Yang Rui, the host of Dialogue on CCTV International, has caused a huge wave of controversy, especially in the western media, for his remarks on his Sina Weibo account calling foreigners "trash," and "spies."

The English-speaking host's post came amid Chinese government's 100-day crackdown campaign against illegal foreigners in Beijing, and the disturbed feelings online provoked by two recent videos showing expats behaving terribly (British citizen molesting a Chinese woman in Beijing street, and Russian cellist insulting a Chinese woman on a train).

Yang was thus accused of fanning the flames of racism, and being an xenophobe.

He was also satirized as doing a great job as a communist party mouthpiece for his support behind the 100-day campaign.

Many web users were seen as well flocking to Yang Rui's microblog to demand for his dismissal, to which People Daily did not support however, by citing a previous case that CNN host Jack Cafferty was not sacked by CNN either for calling Chinese people "basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years" in a TV show in April 2008.

Yang's post has been removed, but you can read a full translation of the post by The Wall Street Journal here:

"The Public Security Bureau wants to clean out the foreign trash: To arrest foreign thugs and protect innocent girls, they need to concentrate on the disaster zones in the [student district] Wudaokou and [drinking district] Sanlitun. Cut off the foreign snake heads. People who can't find jobs in the US and Europe come to China to grab our money, engage in human trafficking and spread deceitful lies to encourage emigration. Foreign spies seek out Chinese girls to mask their espionage and pretend to be tourists while compiling maps and GPS data for Japan, Korea and the West. We kicked out that foreign bitch and closed Al-Jazeera's Beijing bureau. We should shut up those who demonize China and send them packing."

Responding to the controversy caused by his remarks and accusations against him, Yang then sent a statement to The Wall Street Journal:

For a long time, many young Chinese took it for granted that Westerners are well-educated and polite since they come from industrial nations, where the rule of law prevails. Most of them are friendly. They travel, do business and make a living here honestly. But, some are not, as a number of recent videos involving the apparent attempted rape of a young Chinese girl on one of the main streets of our capital and the disrespect shown to a middle aged woman on a Chinese train.

The sensational nature of the empowered new media means that some isolated events can ignite strong public reactions. After looking at these incidents I termed these expats "foreign trash," and I believe they should be brought to justice if they are found to have violated our laws. I want to separate them from the silent majority in the expat communities who obey and respect our culture and society. Singling out these Foreign Trash serves to protect the good reputation of decent Westerners. My posting of May 16 is a wake-up call. Western and Chinese, no one should be above the law.

In writing my blog that day I was reacting to the cyber videos I saw and used an unfortunate example, a group whom I percived to be hostile to China and its people, whom had been recently expelled from China. It was a reaction of the moment and nothing more. The more serious part of the accusations against me is the mischaracterization of what I said in Chinese; pofu (泼妇) if you look it up on Jinshan Ciba (金山词霸), one of the most popular Chinese traslation sites, and A Chinese English Dictionary (汉英词典; Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, Third Edition, Jan, 2010) means "shrew."

I hope this will put this issue to rest for those who are willing to listen.

Verdicts in Bo Xilai affair to be delivered next month: Global Times

Posted: 23 May 2012 06:40 PM PDT

Wang Lijun is to be tried for treason for his attempt to seek asylum at the US consulate in Chengdu. (Internet photo)

The results of the investigation into the attempted defection of Wang Lijun, the former police chief of Chongqing whose dramatic flight to the US consulate in Chengdu in February triggered China's largest political scandal in 20 years, will be announced next month, reports the Global Times, an English-language tabloid published under the auspices of the official Chinese Communist Party newspaper People's Daily.

This is the first time an official media outlet has reported on the investigations into Wang, Bo and Gu, and this is regarded as a deliberate disclosure by the top echelon of the party.

The newspaper says the verdict will also be announced in the cases of Wang's former boss, the sacked party chief of Chongqing, and Bo's wife Gu Kailai, who is accused of murdering British businessman Neil Heywood over a financial dispute. It is believed that Wang's suspicions concerning Gu and his fear of reprisal from Bo prompted him to convey what he knew to US diplomats in February. The scandal of Wang's flight led to Bo's subsequent ouster and detention for investigation.

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post said Beijing has formed a special task force to investigate Wang and that he will stand trial for treason in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province which neighbors Chongqing.

It is unclear if the trial will be open to the public, the report said. The heaviest penalty for treason which seriously harms the country and its nationals is death, though Ong Yew-kim, a legal expert in Hong Kong, told the newspaper that it is unlikely that the former police chief will be executed. "He did not kill people or hold weapons illegally. He is likely to get a jail sentence of about eight to ten years," Wang was quoted by the South China Morning Post as saying. Wang has also cooperated with the authorities in providing information on his former mentor Bo, which is also expected to mitigate his punishment.

An inside source in Chongqing told the newspaper that Wang performed deeds of merit as a well-known crusader against organized crime and for this reason also is expected to avoid being sentenced to death.

Three agencies are handling the investigations into the three. The Ministry of State Security has taken over Wang's case since taking him into custody after he left the US consulate in Chengdu on February 7. Bo is under investigation by the discipline inspection department of the Communist Party, while his wife is being investigated by the police on suspicion of intentional homicide.

Source: Want China Times and Globle Times

You might also like：

US opens up about Wang Lijun's visit to consulate
In Rise and Fall of China's Bo Xilai, an Arc of Ruthlessness
Missing Frenchman was also lover of Gu Kailai
Bo Xilai weighed 3 cover-ups for Wang Lijun murder
Wang Lijun sought help from Henry Chang-yu Lee over Heywood's death
无觅

Blood Samples May Prove Heywood Poisoning

Posted: 23 May 2012 07:56 PM PDT

The Los Angeles Times' Barbara Demick reports that Chongqing police reached out to U.S-based forensic scientist Henry C. Lee, a professional acquaintance of Wang Lijun best known for his work in the O.J. Simpson and Phil Spector trials, to analyze a blood sample that likely came from dead British businessman Neil Heywood:

The timing and the description of the Heywood case match all the details that have been released of the death, although the detective who called Lee from the Chongqing police did not disclose a name. "I don't know who was the victim, who was the suspect," said Lee, who added, "I don't get involved in politics."

Lee did not recall the exact date he received the phone call, but thought it was one week before Wang fled to the consulate. The never arrived in Connecticut.

However, it appears that Wang had had a preliminary test of the sample performed elsewhere. A businessman familiar with the case said that at the consulate, Wang offered the technical evidence from a test of the blood sample.

"The test confirmed the poisoning. There is physical evidence, a sample of flesh. The forensic evidence is very strong," said the businessman, who asked not to be quoted by name.

The Telegraph's Jon Swaine writes that the blood samples suggest that investigators may prove decisively that Neil Heywood was poisoned, a revelation that would have serious consequences for , or anyone else involved in the incident.

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Tom chats about rural China on ChinaBlogcast.com

Posted: 23 May 2012 07:24 PM PDT

I had the chance last night to record a podcast with Mike from the new website ChinaBlogcast.com. We talked a bit about my last few posts on life in rural China, and I shared a few other thoughts and anecdotes. You can download it or listen online here.

Secondly, I'd just like to encourage you to check out Mike's other episode and add China Blogcast to your podcast subscriptions (this is week 2, so it won't take long to catch up). At the moment there is a real shortage of China related podcasts, and this is a very good addition to the others that already exist. Mike is planning on releasing a new ~30 minute episode every Thursday featuring chats with other China bloggers.


Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Asia, Beijing, China, Podcast, Rural area, Rural society in China, Thursday

Need a Job? Be a Chinese Internet Censor

Posted: 23 May 2012 07:10 PM PDT

The Wall Street Journal's China Real Time Report calls attention to a notice posted by Sina Corp. on Monday which invited candidates to apply for the position of "monitoring editor," a notice which drew a wealth of cynical comments from netizens about China's censorship regime:

Monitoring Editor: 1) Handle various tasks related to information safety; 2) propose specific information safety-related requirements, oversee the implementation and analysis of data; 3) gather requirements for information safety editing, oversee implementation and guarantee implementation results. Job requirements: undergraduate degree or junior college plus three or more years of work experience; experience working as a monitoring editor. Resume.

…

users largely mocked the ad on Monday. "Compensation: 50 Cents," wrote one user, a reference to the amount of money government-hired online commentators are rumored to receive for every pro-government comment they post online.

"Monitoring experience a must, editing experience not necessary," joked another.

Readers unsure if they're cut out for the position can have a look at the comments below the job posting and see which ones jump out at them as in need of further monitoring.

 

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Female teacher inserts bean into 3-year-old girl’s vagina

Posted: 23 May 2012 10:39 AM PDT

Female teacher inserts bean into 3-year-old girl's vagina

Recently, a Weibo post revealing a 3-year-old girl was punished by her female teacher by inserting a kidney bean into her vagina aroused an uproar online.

The microblog post said the girl's parents did not realize it until they sent their daughter to the hospital to take out the bean, 4 days after the bean was inserted by the female teacher, in her 20s, from the Gelin Shuangyang Kindergarten in Yangpu district, Shanghai on May 11.

The parents learned that the girl was punished by the teacher because she did not go with other children for the games at the playground.

The local police have launched an investigation into the horrific case. But there is no result yet so far, according to the victim's parents.

Chinese netizens condemned the teacher's sick and abnormal behavior, while they felt confused over her intention. "If it was done by a male teacher, he could be believed to have sexual perversion," said a netizen.

Pictures: College student activists protest against domestic violence

Posted: 23 May 2012 09:50 AM PDT

To promote the awareness of "anti-domestic violence," three college girls wore a makeup as "injured brides" to stage a protest on the Qianmen Pedestrian Street recently.

The protesters held up the banners that read "Are you still silent, while the violence is by your side?" and "Love is not the excuse for domestic violence." And in the same time, they handed out flyers to passers by.

College student activists protest against domestic violence

College student activists protest against domestic violence

College student activists protest against domestic violence

Expansion and Iran on Table at SCO Summit

Posted: 23 May 2012 05:30 PM PDT

From June 6-7, China will be hosting the 2012 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Beijing. The SCO is an international mutual-security organization thought by some to be a collective attempt to counter NATO and limit influence in central Asia. Earlier this week, the future of Afghanistan was a major talking-point at the NATO summit in Chicago, and will likely also be addressed at the SCO summit. has been attending SCO summits as a guest since the organization's beginning, and last year applied for observer status – a notion supported by Beijing, reflecting its desire for a stable Afghanistan. CRIEnglish notes that full observer status will likely be granted to Afghanistan at next month's summit:

Afghanistan is expected to gain full observer status.

Chinese vice foreign minister Cheng Guoping says their respective applications will be decided upon by consensus.

"The security and stability of Afghanistan bordering the region of SCO states is closely related to the affairs of SCO members. And Turkey as an important country in this region has good ties with SCO members. The admission of the two countries will help them and SCO states to jointly counter terrorism, separatism and extremism as well as drug trafficking and cross-border crime." Cheng says.

Cheng notes this would be the first time the SCO has admitted a new observer since 2005, and a new dialogue partner since 2009.

Also on the agenda – and likely to steal the spotlight – at the upcoming summit is . An SCO observer since 2005, has been denied member status, as the SCO limits any state under UN sanctions from full membership. In the midst of an ongoing EU oil embargo, and after the US Senate's recent approval of new sanctions against Iran (which China characteristically and vocally opposed), Iranian President Ahmadinejad will attend the upcoming Summit in Beijing. From Reuters:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit China in June for a security summit and discuss his country's disputed nuclear programme with Chinese President Hu Jintao, a senior diplomat said on Wednesday, criticizing new sanctions aimed at Iran.

[...]Ahmadinejad's visit to China takes on particular significance as China is a veto-wielding permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and has resisted U.S. demands for sanctions on Iran.

Iran, OPEC's second-largest producer, exports most of its 2.2 million barrels of oil per day to Asia, home to its four main customers: China, Japan, and South Korea.

All four nations have cut back on their purchases, dissuaded by a previous package of U.S. financial sanctions due to take effect at the end of June as well as an EU oil embargo and a ban on shipping insurance, which take effect on July 1.

The Economic Times notes that Beijing has expressed approval of India and Pakistan, both SCO Observers since 2005, eventually becoming members of the organization:

China, the host of the next Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, today welcomed the proposed accession of India andPakistan to the security grouping, but said no timetable should be set to grant them full membership.

"We welcome relevant countries to become members of the SCO," Chinese Vice Foreign Minister, Cheng Guoping told a media briefing on the summit scheduled to be held here on June 6-7.

"The relevant countries should work hard towards political, legal and technical preparations for [the membership]," he said answering a question about elevating India and as members as proposed by Russia which is the biggest country in the forum along with China.

For more on the upcoming SCO summit, see Chinese Foreign Minister outlining the agenda, from CCTV:

Also see prior CDT coverage of Iran, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and Central Asia.

 

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What the Chinese Want

Posted: 23 May 2012 02:38 PM PDT

In the Wall Street Journal, Tom Doctoroff, a China-based executive and author of "What Chinese Want: Culture, Communism and China's Modern Consumer," gives his perspective on what Chinese consumers want and what foreign companies need to do to win a following in China:

The speed with which China's citizens have embraced all things digital is one sign that things are in motion in the country. But e-commerce, which has changed the balance of power between retailers and , didn't take off until the Chinese need for reassurance was satisfied. Even when transactions are arranged online, most purchases are completed in person, with shoppers examining the product and handing over their cash offline.

Chinese at all socioeconomic levels try to "win"—that is, climb the ladder of success—while working within the system, not against it. In Chinese consumer culture, there is a constant tension between self-protection and displaying status. This struggle explains the existence of two seemingly conflicting lines of development. On the one hand, we see stratospheric savings rates, extreme price sensitivity and aversion to credit-card interest payments. On the other, there is the Chinese fixation with luxury goods and a willingness to pay as much as 120% of one's yearly income for a car.

Every day, the Chinese confront shredded social safety nets, a lack of institutions that protect individual wealth, contaminated food products and myriad other risks to home and health. The instinct of consumers to project status through material display is counterbalanced by conservative buying behavior. Protective benefits are the primary consideration for consumers. Even high-end paints must establish their lack of toxicity before touting the virtues of colorful self-expression. Safety is a big concern for all car buyers, at either end of the price spectrum.

Read more about advertising and consumerism in China via CDT.

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Photo: China Post, by Michael Steverson

Posted: 23 May 2012 12:35 PM PDT

Word of the Week: Celestial Empire

Posted: 23 May 2012 12:00 PM PDT

Editor's Note: The  comes from China Digital Space's Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon, a glossary of terms created by Chinese netizens and frequently encountered in online political discussions. These are the words of China's online "resistance discourse," used to mock and subvert the official language around censorship and political correctness.

If you are interested in participating in this project by submitting and/or translating terms, please contact the CDT editors at CDT [at] chinadigitaltimes [dot] net.

天朝 (tiān cháo): Celestial Empire

The Celestial Empire is an ancient name for China. Recently, netizens have used the term sarcastically to refer to China under the current government. Oftentimes the term is used to suggest that China's leaders are self-important and have a China-centric view of the world.

网络用语，中国大陆网民对中华人民共和国的称呼，多见于与动漫相关的网站，使用时往往带有讽刺或称颂色彩。

Dragon, symbol of the Celestial Empire

Character combining the characters for "Celestial" and "Kingdom."

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[Not Fit for Young Children] Today’s Most Viral Image: Dog-on-Chicken Love

Posted: 23 May 2012 10:46 AM PDT

At Tea Leaf Nation, we try to keep things (relatively) highbrow, or at least strive not to descend into outright vulgarity.

But who are we to overturn the will of the netizen masses?

With over 23,000 re-posts, this short movie of a randy young canine is Sina Weibo's most viral image of May 23, according to Hong Kong University's Weiboscope. (It's actually number 2, but a text file sits at number 1). Weiboscope tracks the most re-posted images among prominent users.

A Bite of China, A Slice of Life

Posted: 23 May 2012 10:31 AM PDT

Beauty, sheer beauty

There is a reason why the petit madeleine could have had such an effect on novelist Marcel Proust. Modern neuroscientists have told us that our memory is intricately connected with our senses of taste and smell. [In case you're interested, there is actually a book called Proust Was a Neuroscientist by American journalist Jonah Lehrer, published in 2007. You can read its book review on the New York Times here.]

China Central Television (CCTV)'s documentary, "A Bite of China," (舌尖上的中国) has proved the exact same point. (For a taste of the series, check out its first episode (in Chinese) on Youtube.) The seven-episode series tells a mesmerizing story of the Chinese cuisine, introducing different regional varieties and showing the hard work and profound artistry hidden behind each and every dish.

Now that the series is being broadcast again on CCTV's Channel 1, even some candidates preparing for China's arduous college entrance exam are spending precious cramming time to watch it. So what's so attractive about "A Bite of China"? Microbloggers on Sina Weibo might help you find out the reasons.

Mouthwatering and tear-inducing, it's the best material to teach patriotism

Must...control...appetite

Succulent winter bamboo shoots are stir-fried with smoked pork. Steam comes up from the frying pan, the bubbling frying oil sounding. Juicy sauce flows on top as the chef adds one finishing touch to the dish. Is your stomach grumbling yet?

Even if you are not so much of a foodie (in Chinese, 吃货), A Bite of China presents such a variety of delicacies that it calls up memories of home and childhood. Under the nostalgia attack, many Chinese spectators claim to have teared up.

@活着呢吧 tweeted beautifully: "The rooftop vineyard in the last episode reminds me of the grape vine trellis that grandpa set up when I was little; the grapes were green and there were big fuzzy worms on them. It reminds me of a dog grandpa raised, and the goldfish in the huge water jar… No trace of my childhood can be found in today's Beijing. I can only look into my own memories…" @剑剑不是那个贱贱 summed it up: "The most striking feeling after watching the series is not food-craving, but homesickness. I hope that the memories of food can be passed down forever."

While some overseas Weibo users vow to taste all that they can put their hands on once they come back to China, others who cannot return lament their meager good food supply abroad.

Fancy documentary vs. harsh reality.

For some, "A Bite of China" has certainly evoked great patriotic feelings: certainly the most successful piece of work from the point of view of China's Ministry of Propaganda. @HM 要坚持 tweeted as a grateful urban resident: "Living in the city, I didn't even know that the most common-looking foodstuff are collected in such [hard and] mysterious ways. What an eye opener! A lot of people now say that things are better in foreign countries, but really, China is the most profound country of all!"

But there are those who feel divided, like @中青报曹林: "There are in fact two Chinas on the tip of the tongue. One is full of sunshine and affection. It is written by simplicity, warmth, beauty, humanistic concern, grandma's tears, mom's hands, and memories of home. The other China, gloomy and filthy, is written by additives, carcinogens, 'trench oil', brightener, lean meat powder, pesticide residue, phosphor powders, and trans fat. Which China should I love? "

Eating in China can be a fun, communal activity. But this is ridiculous

Indeed, the effect of gastronomic anesthesia doesn't last forever. For those who don't easily forget, "A Bite of China" actually serves as a reminder of China's many food safety issues. However enticing the food looks, reality kills the appetite at the end of the day. @ieamd turned to puns, "When the sun shines through present food/reality [现食, homonym of 现实], the delicacy yesterday becomes a chemistry lesson," while @DJ大嘴巴王鹏 resorted to wordplay: "'China on the Tip of the Tongue' [literal translation of 'A Bite of China' 舌尖上的中国] has already become 'China on the Blade'"–that is to say, Chinese food has killed many and still is threatening people's lives.

"A Bite of China" just makes you want a bite of… everything

But let's still look on the brighter side! Following the lead of "A Bite of China," topics in the form of "A Bite of __ (with  names of an alma mater, province, city, and more added on) went viral on Weibo and other social network websites.

Chinese sausage, in all its glory

Pictures of different regional cuisines are collected and shared. People are rediscovering local dishes of towns and villages. There just doesn't seem to be an end of it. For an example, here's "A Bite of Shanghai." A few hours ago, "A Bite of Jiangsu" was among the most popular topics on Weibo.

University students who never seem to stop complaining about their dining hall food join the crowd this time, compiling dining hall delicacies in a frenzy. Interested in the grub available at China's most prestigious university? Here's "A Bite of Tsinghua." Have they grown softer because it will be graduation season soon? 

Picture–The U.S. Army Cannot Beat the PLA on This One

Posted: 23 May 2012 09:11 AM PDT

At least, not in this photo contrast. While it may present an unfair picture of what appears to be U.S. Army discipline, we can safely say Gunnery Sergeant Hartman would not have been impressed.

@落雪是花博报 tweets on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter: "What's the job of a solider? And how do you accomplish this job? Look at Chinese soldiers and American G.I.s, have you realized something?" [1]

Footnotes    (? returns to text)
  1. 军人的天职是什么？如何为这个天职奋斗？看看中国军人和美国大兵，你明白了什么？?

The Daily Twit (@chinahearsay Twitter feed) – 2012-05-23

Posted: 22 May 2012 08:59 PM PDT

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A Flourishing Profession: Reflections on a Career in Asian Studies

Posted: 23 May 2012 07:00 AM PDT

By Charlotte Furth

At the March annual meeting of the Association of Asian Studies, held in Toronto, the association recognized Charlotte Furth with the AAS Award for Distinguished Contributions to Asian Studies. Furth is Professor Emerita of history at the University of Southern California and has written and edited five books, including A Flourishing Yin: Gender in China's Medical History, 960-1665 (UC Press, 1999). Below is an expanded version of remarks that Furth gave at the AAS award ceremony, in which she reflects on the changes to Asian Studies that have taken place since she entered the field in 1959, particularly regarding the presence of women in the academy.

I feel like a poster child for what the second wave of feminism has done for Asian Studies. We just saw six woman scholars receive book prizes for their scholarship in the field; we are about to hear Gail Hershatter speak as retiring president of our association. This is a moment to celebrate, not only for me, but for a whole generation of women scholars. Thinking about the road we have travelled suggests a trip down memory lane to my own beginnings on our collective journey. What was it like in 1959, when I started graduate work in history at Stanford University?

The few women graduate students in the history department were welcome to fill out seminars, but we were not expected to get jobs. I fit a typical profile: a faculty wife presumably keeping herself occupied. To underscore this situation, Mary Wright, wife of my Chinese history professor Arthur Wright, worked as a librarian at the Hoover Institution. In spite of the fact that her brilliant monograph The Last Stand of Chinese Conservatism was on my graduate seminar reading list, she was not invited to teach in the department. Jobs in all fields of history were not publicly advertised: they were filled via an old boy's network of phone conversations pretty much controlled by a student's dissertation advisor. I got a job at California State University Long Beach in 1966 mostly because there was a national candidate shortage. I was hired sight unseen: the history department was tired of the merry-go-round of young men who taught at Long Beach only until something better came along. They figured that as a faculty wife at a nearby institution (my husband had moved to UCLA), I would probably stay around for a while. They must have been satisfied; I was their first female tenure-track hire, but they added three more women between 1966 and 1970.

We women scholars who found a foothold because of the post-Sputnik higher education market were the ones available to respond to the affirmative action movement that gathered steam in the 1970s. Today, most women in the AAS have never even heard of a "Committee for the Status of Women in Asian Studies" Joyce Kallgren, Carolyn Elliott, Hanna Papanek, and Barbara Ramusack had a lot to do with getting this committee going in the early 1970s. For a number of years we would comb the AAS program for evidence of female participation on panels and membership on committees. I recall driving with fellow member and friend Karen Leonard from Los Angeles to Arizona to meet with Richard Park, AAS President at the time, to get him to commit to the national campaign for an Equal Rights amendment to the US constitution. The feminist goal was to get professional associations to boycott holding conventions in states that refused to ratify the amendment. This is America; we never did get an Equal Rights amendment, but the AAS board did withhold commitment to a convention venue in New Orleans for a time.

In fact, the movement of women into the academy was unstoppable, and by the early 1990s so few came to its meetings that the "committee on the status of women in Asian Studies" quietly went out of business. Barbara Ramusack was the last chair.

Along with women scholars came research on women and gender. Sometime in the early 1970s, John Fairbank called a meeting of the contributors who were writing for the late Qing and Republican volumes of the Cambridge History of China. There were two women in room, Susan Mann and me. Her topic was late Qing merchants and dynastic decline; mine was reform intellectuals. Toward the end of the meeting, I suggested that maybe the Cambridge History should add an essay on women. Fairbank was a classy guy: he said he would look into it. But the truth was that at that time there was no research. Susan and I did not begin to do feminist scholarship until the early 1980s. I recall Joyce Kallgren, then editor of the Journal of Asian Studies, telling me quietly that since I had tenure and a book out, going in this direction was now "safe."

As the saying goes, "everything changed" in the following twenty years. It was fun to troll AAS meetings for papers on feminist and cultural studies topics that I could recruit for the new journal, Late Imperial China, that I edited with James Lee. And I particularly remember a series of wonderful conferences. There was the "Engendering China: Women, Culture and the State" conference held in Cambridge, Massachusetts in February 1992, organized by Merle Goldman, Gail Hershatter, Christine Gilmartin, Lisa Rofel, and Tyrene White. It became a volume of the same name in Harvard's Contemporary China Series in 1994. In June 1993, Ellen Widmer and Kang-I Sun Chang organized "Women and Literature in Ming Qing China" held at Yale, which led to the book Writing Women in Late Imperial China (Stanford 1992). Dorothy Ko gathered a group of us who were working on pre-modern women in Japan and Korea as well as China in La Jolla, California in the summer of 1996, and this became the volume Women and Confucian Cultures in Pre-modern China, Japan, and Korea edited by Ko, JaHuyn Kim Haboosh, and Joan Piggott (UC Press 2003).

These group efforts bring me to the subject of collaboration in general. It is certainly not the case that conferences and edited volumes are exclusively "women's work" in Asian Studies or other fields. People trained, like me, in the early 1960s recall the wonderful series Confucianism in Action, and The Confucian Persuasion, edited by David Nivison and Arthur Wright, that set the standard for intellectual history of East Asia for our generation. But I do think that collaboration is often given less respect than it deserves as scholarship, and not just "service." It accelerated the development of feminist scholarship on China, and I believe that the intellectual contribution made by my collaborative work is an important reason why my achievements are being honored tonight. So please take away a commitment that we continue to support and encourage it.

AMC Acquisition: Yes, There is a Soft Power Angle to This Story

Posted: 23 May 2012 04:25 AM PDT

Anytime a Chinese company gets involved with a media company, someone is bound to theorize about a nefarious government plot behind it designed to control the hearts and minds of the populace. The acquisition of AMC Entertainment by Wanda Group is one deal that has so far been discussed in the press on its merits, with little or no discussion of any over-arching political considerations.

That's why I got a sinking feeling when I started reading "How the Deal for AMC Entertainment Furthers China's Culture Agenda" by Bruce Einhorn in Bloomberg. The title is quite provocative, and I thought the piece was going to be some sort of "wink wink, nod nod" about China's use of media to further a political agenda.

But I was wrong, and I apologize to Bruce for even thinking that.

So what's with the "culture agenda" reference? It's a valid one, and actually quite straightforward:

[R]elax: You shouldn't expect the multiplex at your nearby mall to take down The Avengers to show Chinese propaganda such as The Beginning of a Great Revival, last year's government-approved celebration of the party's 90th anniversary. China's leaders aren't naive enough to expect results overnight.

More likely, the AMC deal will provide a building block to develop China's film industry, with Wanda using its American acquisition to gain expertise in operating the kind of large, nationwide cinema chains the nation needs.

Ah. China is actively seeking to build up its cultural infrastructure, and the AMC acquisition certainly dovetails with that policy quite nicely, doesn't it?

Good article, valid point. My bad. I gotta stop letting my inner cynic run wild.

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Okay, seriously…one last Yang Rui story

Posted: 23 May 2012 04:16 AM PDT

Editor's note: We really meant for YJ to have the last word on L'Affaire Yang Rui, but friend of the blog Luke Hambleton sent us an email describing a recent close encounter of the Yang kind.  It was too good not to post.  Enjoy. – JJ

———————–

Last summer, I was in the studio audience on a brand new Chinese culture show hosted by Yang Rui on a Chinese language CCTV channel. Yang 'warmed' the audience up by admitting that none of them would know him and then spent ten minutes chatting 'at' me in English, which was clearly nothing more than an effort to show off. You could tell he was very sensitive about his lack of fame among ordinary Chinese, but that he holds his 'communicator with the great laowai masses' role in very high esteem.

As the show went on it got better (worse) with Yang making frequent Chinese mistakes, mostly messing up lines of poetry that were corrected by heckling from the audience. We frequently had to shoot bits again due to Yang tripping over chengyu or the odd couplet or three. Yeah, Tang poetry can be obscure, but these were famous pieces every middle school student should know.

The subject of the show was an interview with Li Xiangting 李祥霆, one of China's greatest guqin (zither) masters. When it came to studio Q&A with the master, he turns to me and, in English, starts asking me about my favorite part of the show. I reply in English that I liked the tune the master played, one that had been composed in the Han dynasty supposedly to commemorate the attempted assassination of Qin Shihuang, to which Yang switches into condescending mode, speaking in a laowai voice: "Ohhh…you know Chin Shhii Huuuang?!" He then invites me onto the stage for me to put my questions to Master Li.

We step-up together and he places himself right between us ready to translate and I begin: "李老师，您好！"With this the audience claps and cheers and Yang looks like I've just winded him in the stomach. Before I can ask my question he gives a closed-lip smile and accuses me of 'tricking' him into thinking I couldn't speak Chinese. No, Yang, you never asked (by the way, how the hell he thought I understood the Qin Shihuang bit, I'll never know).

I then ask the master a couple of questions about what advice he might have for people outside of China wanting to learn the guqin.

But it wasn't over. I had taken away Yang's position of 'laowai whisperer', he needed to reassert his face and authority. So, very unprofessionally, he turns his back to Master Li, the focus of the show, and starts grilling me (almost literally under the heat of the studio lights) about the innate differences between YOUR Western music and OUR Chinese music and how Western music is so suibian but Chinese music should be played with the soul – how could a non-Chinese ever achieve this? I began answering in Chinese but he pressed me, I kid you not, to stop and answer in English. So I gave an answer about music being fundamentally based on the same principles etc. He didn't like my answer and didn't bother to translate, just told me to sit down.

The whole sorry episode ended up on the cutting room floor, with only my question and Master Li's answer making it into the final show.

On the way out the door I overheard audience members engaged in fierce agreement over Yang's unimpressive Chinese skills and how poorly the show was hosted: "Master Li was awesome, just a shame the host came across as so uneducated!"

 - Luke Hambleton is a difangzhi monkey and real ale enthusiast residing in Beijing.

 

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