Summer Palace (open thread)

A sanctuary from the oppressive heat (it’s 106 in Phoenix!), where readers can discuss life, love, China and the myriad peculiarities of life.

The Discussion: 94 Comments

richard, allow me put a AD for my blog, (so few hits, hehe.)
http://hblog.blog-city.com

June 17, 2005 @ 9:12 pm | Comment

Hey, at least you can probably see through the air. It’s the usually slatey fug here in BJ. I was in Chengdu yesterday, which was pleasantly breathable by comparison. Although it was also completely drenched.

June 17, 2005 @ 9:13 pm | Comment

Hey, Richard, as long as I am posting complete inanities on your blog, can I ask a question? Technically, as the Peking Duck, shouldn’t your posts be “roasted” rather than “baked”? I realize this is a fine and arguable distinction, but we flacks are into such things. That’s why we have so few friends.

June 17, 2005 @ 9:19 pm | Comment

Henry, your blog isn’t opening. Maybe there is a problem with blog city again?? It was down much of yesterday, so if people were trying to visit they wouldn’t have been able to.

And please, advertise here any time you’d like.

June 17, 2005 @ 9:20 pm | Comment

Will, the “baked” is simply for convenience — it’s snappier and easier to say “Baked by Richard” than “Roasted by Richard.” And “roasted” can have negative connotations.

June 17, 2005 @ 9:21 pm | Comment

And if any of you haven’t seen the new No Dogs and Chinese thread, please don’t miss it. Shanghai Slim did some great sleuthing, and there are some great comments.

June 17, 2005 @ 9:24 pm | Comment

richard, i am glad your site attract new readers, but it seems a lot of old friends leave, like JR, mark antonie, bellevue. i dont understand why JR and bellevue disappeared

June 17, 2005 @ 9:27 pm | Comment

I thought that might be the answer, but I had to hear it from you. (Although “Roasted by Richard” does have a pleasant, alliterative ring, it suggests a flame.)

I can see Henry’s blog from here. Perhaps its being blocked by the state of Arizona. Henry: The hits will come. It’s probably a pretty rare blog that gets much of an audience in its first three days! Keep on going.

June 17, 2005 @ 9:28 pm | Comment

Bellevue posted here yesterday several times. Mark Anthony Jones threatened me with a lawsuit because he didn’t like the way I exposed him in a comment, so he won’t e back anytime soon, which is too bad. JR insulted several people, and there was a consensus that he wasn’t welcome. I never said that to him and he is welcome to comment anytime. That is his choice.

But get this! Since he left, we now have Martyn, Andrew, Mark, John1, Henry, Lin, Echo, Laowai, Gordon, Imagethief, Will, wkl, KLS, Allan, Tony Ken and many, many more. So that’s pretty good, don’t you think? Lost one (JR) and gained at least 16!! Pretty good ratio, no? ๐Ÿ™‚

June 17, 2005 @ 9:33 pm | Comment

Loved Benson’s cartoon today. That is all.

June 17, 2005 @ 9:36 pm | Comment

not bad, but JR and bellevue greatly enhance the diversity of the opinions, although i personally don’t like bellevue’s anti-ccp, anti-china hysteria.

since many of the topics are revolved around a few areas, liek taiwan, democracy, city, etc. it could be better to categorize posts so people could make comments more consistently

June 17, 2005 @ 9:39 pm | Comment

wow, i dind’t realize that peking duck doesn’t have a category by topics, that is awful

June 17, 2005 @ 9:42 pm | Comment

Fifteen. Will=Imagethief. But it’s still a great crowd. People come and go. It keeps the dialogue fresh. But you seem to have achieved some kind of critical mass. Before long you’ll need to invest in an actual BBS system to manage all your itinerant posters, arguments, bitch-sessions etc.

June 17, 2005 @ 9:42 pm | Comment

Sorry Will, I forgot you’re Imagethief.

To the anonymous poster above, I want to implement categories, among many other things. I promise, I am busy enough with this blog as it is!!

June 17, 2005 @ 9:45 pm | Comment

i got the first place and put a AD, that’s good.
but i can access my blog from yesterday to now, there’s no way to block USA, hehe.

June 17, 2005 @ 9:45 pm | Comment

Bingfeng, don’t the actual posts themselves (as opposed to the open discussion threads) act to sort individual topics? I thought the point of these open threads was they could drift from topic to topic without someone going, “Hey! That’s off-topic!” That’s the beauty of it. (And, Richard, let my add my voice to the list of those thanking you for doing it.)

Of course, years later, we seem to have re-discovered the idea of the BBS, but what the hell. It’s working.

June 17, 2005 @ 9:45 pm | Comment

Bingfeng, will you help me with the code for categories? I’m no html artist.

June 17, 2005 @ 9:46 pm | Comment

Henry, you’re right – I can access your blog now. There were networking problems with all blog city sites yesterday, but it was technology, not censorship. ๐Ÿ™‚

June 17, 2005 @ 9:49 pm | Comment

Can I argue against categories? Or at least for the inclusion of one “unrestricted” category? I like a drifting conversation. Imagine a dinner party where everybody stayed on one topic for four hours.

June 17, 2005 @ 9:50 pm | Comment

Devi, that is downright wicked. And I love it.

June 17, 2005 @ 9:50 pm | Comment

richard, how about adding a header or title to comment page, i got confused in which topic sometimes.

June 17, 2005 @ 10:21 pm | Comment

when he said categories I thought he meant for articles, not for the open boards….

I’d like to see a ‘recently commented’ set of links. so that we could keep up with conversations without having to do quite so much scrolling, or remembering the titles of stuff we’d posted to.

June 17, 2005 @ 10:53 pm | Comment

Because it’s Saturday…another post, On Spitting and Staring.

June 17, 2005 @ 11:56 pm | Comment

Don’t forget about me…I still check into your blog from time to time.

June 18, 2005 @ 12:39 am | Comment

May I propose a Chinglish contest?
Today I bought a DVD set of the movie “War and Peace” (Soviet version by Bondarchuk, 1968), and the back of the DVD box says:

“According to Russia text Tolstoy part for through big condition of focus for story of a classic love for turbluent age of big ages for taKing , art achievement very is highly, slice longly until 424 minutes, story relating at Nepoleon flicKing the soldier taKe the offsensiving Russia hour, love story too becoming the plot, war clapping very hard and considerabely, this with original run neck to necked. have noing simplifying with nodifier, this is exactly the place of this classic. also is rared on the movie history. Combining an explosive mix of intense action and edgy humor with a sizzling all star cast, director Quentin Tarantinoscores with the entertaining Jackie Brown. What do a sexy stewardess, Astreet tough gun runnerthis of collect and keep value very high, became the movie circles top of a classic it make.”

Now, can any of you beat THAT? You couldn’t make this kind of sh– up even if you tried… ๐Ÿ™‚

June 18, 2005 @ 1:05 am | Comment

If you follow the subtitles in Chinese, that’s probably how the story really goes!

http://paintedover.com/uploads/show.php?loc=17&f=untitled1_1.gif

What do I win?!?

June 18, 2005 @ 2:11 am | Comment

Ivan: The one I’d nominate was the Mr. Bean set I bought, no doubt influenced by the engaging tagline “Bean is Wacky!” The synopsis on the back was immortal: “Based on the bestselling novel by Enid Blyton…..”

June 18, 2005 @ 2:16 am | Comment

I just read an interview with Australia defector Chen Yongjin on the below link. It certainly helps to learn more about his mindset and motivations.

I also notice that more than a few Peking Duck commenters were absolutely right about Chen.

http://www.asianresearch.org/articles/2633.html

June 18, 2005 @ 2:27 am | Comment

“to suppress pro-democratic movements in order to protect its own tyranny. I had greatly supported pro-democratic movements since the June 4th Tiananmen Massacre. Now, I support democratic movements even more. I hope that one day China will fundamentally change its political system.” — Chen Yongjin

steve:

You were right about him being a supporter of student activistism in 1989. Good work.

June 18, 2005 @ 2:34 am | Comment

Are you talking about the comments saying he was a part of the FLG? I was suspicious having read about the protests in Canada, which were organised by them.

It seems to me that a hell of a lot of overseas dissident activity can be directly traced back to them. To a certain extent, you have to say fair play to them!

June 18, 2005 @ 2:35 am | Comment

Not so much that Richard W but monitoring the F*L*G, TB and TW groups was his job.

This is the best question and answer of the interview:
————————————————–
Q – Some people say if a diplomat chooses to defect, he is considered a traitor to the country. How do you view this comment?

Chen: As a diplomat, I am supposed to serve my country. But what I am doing here is not at all protecting my nationsโ€™ interest, but rather persecuting my own people and myself. In fact, I became a tool used by the CCP to persecute my people. This is against my conscience. I have not betrayed my country. What I betrayed is a dictating party that had long been detested by the worldโ€™s people.
————————————————–

June 18, 2005 @ 2:42 am | Comment

Richard W:

What’s with the current East European theme on The Three T’s?

China too small for you? Ha ha.

June 18, 2005 @ 2:43 am | Comment

Mr. Chen sounds like a fine man. I must admit that I was supicious at first but the more that comes out about him the more I wish him and his familiy well.

Reading that he decided to publicly quit the CCP on The Epoch Times did him no favours in my book. Epoch Times is far too anti-CCP even for me.

Chen’s right about one thing, he betrayed the CCP NOT China. The CCP is NOT China.

June 18, 2005 @ 2:50 am | Comment

I’m stretching a point! It’s all about 1989. It might be naive to ask, but I’m intrested in why the CCP survived 1989, and the other Communist Parties of the world (well, not all of them) didn’t.

I’ve identified a couple of figures who I think have been, or might have been, pivotal in what did and didn’t happen. And I’m rambling. Call it thinking aloud!

June 18, 2005 @ 2:53 am | Comment

Why the CCP didn’t fall and comparing and contrasting with other communist parties?

I see that the big issues don’t scare you mate. Good on yer.

I’ll pop over in a minute.

June 18, 2005 @ 3:13 am | Comment

Don’t forget Ivan and Richard W as new commenters Richard. At least I think they are new commenters.

It’s also a huge plus for any website to have eswn as a regualr commenter. Anywhere where eswn posts is going to keep me coming back that’s for sure.

June 18, 2005 @ 3:21 am | Comment

106 in Pheonix? What’s that in degrees Celsius? 33?

At least it’s dry heat I would expect, that’s always better than hot and humid. It’s the muggy-ness that gets to me the most.

June 18, 2005 @ 3:42 am | Comment

By the way,, “Stir-fried by Richard” sounds good and also has a Chinese connotation!

How about “Carved” or “Served-up by”….

June 18, 2005 @ 3:44 am | Comment

Rwillmsen,
What do you win? You win a free set of Kenny G CDs, to play over and over and over again.
And yes I can imagine what the Chinese subtitles say on “War and Peace”:
“Prince Andrei, you must use your Kung Fu to destroy the Jade Tofu Master of France!”
“HA! Pierre, I see through your game! You want to trick me into showing you my Kung Fu!”

June 18, 2005 @ 4:21 am | Comment

Ivan,

Sinosplice had a great post here:

http://www.sinosplice.com/weblog/archives/2005/03/23/closer-subtitle-surrealism

June 18, 2005 @ 4:34 am | Comment

Ben

I like that “Stir-fried” by Richard. I’m sure he’ll kick himself for not thinking of that at the time!

June 18, 2005 @ 4:47 am | Comment

watched something the other day, though I can’t for the life of me remember what it was (borrowed disk). gotta start writing this stuff down…

there was no speaking whatsoever. it was a scenery shot of some misty mountains with ominous music playing in the backgrounds and people in period english costume in the distance on horseback…and the english subtitles kicked in with

“are you going to finish that butter?”

June 18, 2005 @ 5:12 am | Comment

And did they? Finish the butter, I mean. I’m gripped.

June 18, 2005 @ 5:17 am | Comment

Echo

Your life appears to be just one long, white-knuckle, roller-coaster of a ride! Does the fun never stop?

Are you going to finish with the butter indeed.

June 18, 2005 @ 5:18 am | Comment

I blinked, and missed the next three lines.

June 18, 2005 @ 5:23 am | Comment

Richard W, nice post about spitting and staring on your site.

How the hell do you come up with this sort if thing below?

“The British would sweep the board in any event which rewarded moving of their own volition to other countries and then spending all their time writing very very long sentences complaining about everything around them, while never forgetting to include the odd self-deprecating remark to mitigate their bigotry and anticipate criticism. Ho hum.” – The Three T’s.

Classic.

June 18, 2005 @ 5:29 am | Comment

that bit was perfection. I also quite liked this one :

“Another classic complaint amongst Western visitors to China is the staring. Often, for a Chinese peasant, seeing a foreigner is akin to us finding Chief Running Bear in full costume directing traffic.”

thanks, rw, for a good laugh

now where’s that post on party compare/contrast? c’mon c’mon, feed me

June 18, 2005 @ 5:34 am | Comment

Yes, the Running Bear cooment was the first out-loud laugh of the piece.

June 18, 2005 @ 5:37 am | Comment

Anything new on Echoes, Echo?

June 18, 2005 @ 5:37 am | Comment

I could say yes to bump my hits up by one, but that would be lying. got something written, but it’s an op-ed thing and I need to give those a bit to simmer then go back for re-edit.

and : P if that was a dig for expecting rw to feed me when I’m not feeding others today. I mean, you’d be right and all, but I’d still stick my tongue out at you ; )

ooh, wait, I just remembered the language one I wanted to post but, of course, completely forgot. I bow to you, sir, in gratitude

June 18, 2005 @ 5:45 am | Comment

Haha, I’ll keep an eye out for them. I checked Echoes earlier on.

You’re on my Firefox Bookmarks now anyway.

June 18, 2005 @ 5:48 am | Comment

Spitting: Don’t you know that’s what the parasol was invented for? That’s why Chinese ladies carry umbrellas when the sun is shining.

June 18, 2005 @ 5:48 am | Comment

ivan, that gives a whole new meaning to the term pennies from heaven.

does anyone else want to run up to the girls buying whitening face stuff and scream acid + face = bad!

martyn..what, I’m not rss’ed?! gasp….

linguistical musing posted. likely only of interest to me, I’m pretty sure I only write em down so I can click on one link later instead of running through my house trying to locate 8.2 million post-its. I want to run up to the maker of post-its and scream post-its + absentminded people = logistical nightmare!

June 18, 2005 @ 6:04 am | Comment

amusing english known no geographical bounds…from the blog-city technical update board :

“Blogboard viewing: Some people are experiencing ugly blogboards”

June 18, 2005 @ 6:07 am | Comment

RW,
Your eloquent lines about what “the British” expatriates do, rings very true. Except, you should clarify that it’s not a “British” thing, it’s an “ENGLISH” thing. The Scots are very different. Please remember that the Scots, if they could, would institute passport control at the northern border of England.
And the Scots do not bother – as the English do – to make the requisite “self-deprecating remark to mitigate their bigotry.” The Scots do not imagine any reason to deprecate themselves, OR anyone else – except for the English who richly deserve it.
And then the Irish are another story entirely. Their problem is that they have been deprecated for so long that they consider it to be the natural condition of Humanity, and so they deprecate EVERYONE, equally and without reservation.
Finally the Americans are yet another different story. Americans are no good at deprecating anyone, because Americans are illiterate and virtually speechless and have lost any command of any language.

June 18, 2005 @ 6:12 am | Comment

Speaking on behalf the Geordie nation, if Scotland were to become independent a lot of us would want them to take the north-east with them!

June 18, 2005 @ 6:27 am | Comment

if you’re in a lyrical mood, go here

http://yvonne.blog-city.com/

a chinese girl’s english blog. I quite like her prose. my favorite bit from a post entitled ‘take it easy’ :

“Wisdom is born from silliness.”

June 18, 2005 @ 7:01 am | Comment

Sorry I should have posted the below here.

I was just reading and having a laugh at Danwei’s latest post about how nasty McDonalds (this time) have, once again, managed to offend the Chinese people and hurt their feelings terribly with their latest…and very innocuous…TV ad.

The “Online Survey” he links to is also just soooooooo China.

By the way, Bingfeng and Henry, you’re both famous! Some of your Peking Duck posts of yesterday are feautured on Danwei.

June 18, 2005 @ 7:06 am | Comment

Just waking up…Martyn, where on Danwei are Bingfeng and Henry quoted? I can’t find it. ๐Ÿ™

June 18, 2005 @ 7:42 am | Comment

martyn,

i have already become “famous” in danwei many many years ago. i may not right every time, but i appreciate danwei’s efforts to diversify the voices it hears. i hope there will be more chinese voices there in the future, so a balanced view of china could be presented to its readers, which are ultimately beneficial to themselves

June 18, 2005 @ 8:07 am | Comment

richard: Beijing’s Bitch:
danwei.org/archives/001812.html

June 18, 2005 @ 8:11 am | Comment

Thanks KLS.

June 18, 2005 @ 8:16 am | Comment

Where’s Other Lisa today? ๐Ÿ™

Hope the kitten is okay.

June 18, 2005 @ 8:41 am | Comment

bingfeng

What you just said above about balanced and diverse opinions and views is a big part of why I find myself coming back to Peking Duck.

The quality of the comments is another reason.

June 18, 2005 @ 9:05 am | Comment

Speaking of which, what have you got up your sleeve for today Richard? It’s Saturday so perhaps a few nice meaty and juicy topics would be appropriate?

I’m raring to go.

June 18, 2005 @ 9:09 am | Comment

Martyn,
You’re a Geordie? Without giving away too much of my identity, I’ll tell you that my family were from somewhere in the North of England.
(Thinking now of the old BBC tv adverts for John Smith’s beer, with all the penguins – if that’s any clue to my provenance… ๐Ÿ™‚
Oh and you know, it’s not true, what some of the English used to say, that “Asia begins at Calais.” No, Asia begins north of the Trent! ๐Ÿ™‚
The idea of Newcastle (the Scottish part of England) wanting to join Scotland, reminds me of what the Russians of Keralya (on the border of Finland) say:
They say, “We want Finland to declare war on Russia, and then Russia will surrender two minutes later so all of Russia can become part of Finland.”
And finally, as the men said in one episode of “Last of the Summer Wine” – “are we in Hell?” “No, if we were in Hell we would be farther south!” ๐Ÿ™‚

June 18, 2005 @ 9:37 am | Comment

Hi All,

I’m off kitten duty for the weekend. I miss the little bugger already. But I had my sister and some other friends over last night for a riotous evening of eating, wine-drinking and watching BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and for dessert, a transcendentally silly episode of Classic Star Trek – the one with the fake Greeks, the dwarf, Captain Kirk kisses Uhuru, etc.

Sort of like Rocky Horror Picture show…

I have en entry for bad DVD jacket, which I will post forthwith…

June 18, 2005 @ 12:43 pm | Comment

I think this description of the film “Hong Kong X-Files” is pretty spectacular because unlike a lot of other DVD jackets, which just cut and paste random DVD copy from DVDs unrelated to the title you are buying, this actually is an attempt to describe the DVD:

“Boss’s bone is refined strong for tendency to grow is prosperous the bone field, and requests bewitching god to a family man to bring into effect excessive(ly) to fall. PETER is loved woman’s beauty, and friend takes toward the bone field, thus middle evil(ly) swelling. the all day long is reluctant to leave on the ground of lovely spring scene. MRS. MAY also suffers the refined strong violent treachery brinning into effect of bone, tragic turn of fortune vegetable. Two friends of PETER more die in the bone field priority, and dying law is strange, and one refined(ly) but is fleeed to the greatest extent: HONG KONG X-FILE.”

I bought this DVD in a little market near BCLU; I was laughing so hard that the other shoppers must have thought I was completely out of my mind.

I have a couple other candidates too but the “tragic turn of fortune vegetable” makes this one hard to top, I think.

June 18, 2005 @ 1:09 pm | Comment

Nice of you to turn up at last missus!

Ivan, ha ha, yes a Geordie from just south of Newcastle. Don’t let the posh typing fool you, my accent’s as thick as you like man. Why-aye!

I liked the Last of The Summer Wine quote. I’ve spend most of my life hearing similar.

June 18, 2005 @ 1:10 pm | Comment

My entries in the Chinese DVD cover sweepstakes, category: Ringing Endorsements

– Moulin Rouge DVD cover: “Not a complete disaster.”

– Queen of the Damned DVD cover: “This movie not only sucks, it blows!”

June 18, 2005 @ 1:18 pm | Comment

Martyn, is it 4 AM in Guangzhou? (isn’t all of China still in Beijing time?) boy you’re even more of a nightowl than I am!

June 18, 2005 @ 1:18 pm | Comment

Yes, it is 4am here (hoots another night owl from the Chinese wood …)

June 18, 2005 @ 1:19 pm | Comment

Oops, make that 3:15 am (night owl with poor night vision)

June 18, 2005 @ 1:20 pm | Comment

Howdy Shanghai!

Yep, those are pretty strong entrants. If I didn’t have a cat on my lap, I’d go fetch one of my other favorites, which is about a famous Revolutionary battle.

It is an absolutely drop-dead gorgeous day in Venice Beach CA, by the way…

June 18, 2005 @ 1:33 pm | Comment

Hey Other Lisa!

I tried to teach the security guards at my apartment building to greet me with “Howdy!” but they won’t.

Later I realized it was probably because I explained to them that it was a “countyside” greeting in the US. Stupid me. ๐Ÿ™‚

Bed time … zzz

June 18, 2005 @ 1:44 pm | Comment

I had to explain “howdy” to my friend the linguist PhD in Beijing…

Night, Slim!

June 18, 2005 @ 1:47 pm | Comment

Ivan, good point about the f*cking English bastards. I’ve changed that sentence on my blog now! Ich bin German meself.

Great quote from the DVD Other Lisa. One of my favourites is emblazoned across the cover of that comedy about Steel City Strippers, from my home town:

‘Even the Full Monty, as promised, was not delivered!’

Btw, more generalisations on Eastern Europe and China now online!

June 18, 2005 @ 6:51 pm | Comment

Because it’s Sunday…somethnig about Parks and Pineapples!

June 18, 2005 @ 11:31 pm | Comment

Echo, I enjoyed your piece “Why I cannot unilaterally hate the ccp” on Echoes this afternoon.

So that was the op-ed you mentioned yesterday.

Maybe if I keep cracking on and keep my head down, I might have one of my Peking Duck comments featured on your site…..

…..hey, a man’s got to set his sights on something, right?!

June 19, 2005 @ 3:43 am | Comment

Henry’s new blog and Echo’s Echoes are almost identical I’ve just noticed.

June 19, 2005 @ 4:05 am | Comment

I’m sure you can set your sights not only on something higher, but likely something quite a bit more interesting. being the first man to parachute off the ‘bird’s nest’ perhaps. having a beer with miss universe. or the queen. but whatever pleases you ๐Ÿ˜‰

they certainly *look* almost identical, but he’s a lot more amusing than I am I’d think.
so should I romp around the playground screaming ‘mine first’ or contentedly accept the idea of uniformity….decisions decisions

June 19, 2005 @ 4:23 am | Comment

Haha. Stomp away. I think “You’re such a COPIER!” Is the correct phrase you’re looking for.

June 19, 2005 @ 4:28 am | Comment

By the way, Echo, if it’s feeding time in your part of the zoo, Richard W has just posted that compare and contrast essay on China and Eastern Europe…so grab your chopsticks and your little tin lunchbox and head over to the Three T’s.

How about this quote from his latest post about Chinese Parks:

“We had a fascinating conversation for about 20 minutes about the different books we were reading. At least, that’s what I was talking about – it’s quite
possible that he was telling me that he’d just failed his driving test for the third time and was thinking of buying a canary.”

Hahaha, dear me.

June 19, 2005 @ 4:44 am | Comment

“thinking of buying a canary”. Yeah that is a good one. Three T’s you say?

June 19, 2005 @ 5:20 am | Comment

martyn, thanks for the heads up, but I already scoped it. had to leave it for later, unfortunately. not because of lack of interest mind you, more because a) am having a vaguely braindead afternoon in which I keep forgetting basic english words like palm tree and b) while pulling the wiki links for political figures for the op-ed I ran across some bizarrely cool stuff about turn of the century chinese philosophers and got sidetracked. because of a, both b and rw’s article are sitting in open windows unread, being entirely too heavy for me at the moment.

and yeah, I’m totally that girl who just razzed rw into feeding her then walked away as soon as he put down the plate. ouch…sorry, man

June 19, 2005 @ 5:26 am | Comment

“bizarrely cool stuff about turn of the century chinese philosophers”

How about playing nice and sharing with your friends? It’s a braindead Sunday after all.

June 19, 2005 @ 5:39 am | Comment

..or even better, link to it on your site.

June 19, 2005 @ 5:48 am | Comment

haven’t read it all yet, see above, but help yourself. start with a brief history here
http://www.polycrit.com/HuShih/

they’ve got some links, transcriptions of speeches given in ~1933 I think it was in chicago

also head to the wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_philosopher
and click on anyone that sounds interesting. at least, that’s what I do. ‘true classic of perfect emptiness’ sounded like fun but it’s linked to an empty page so I’ll have to try google next

June 19, 2005 @ 6:14 am | Comment

“A very interesting book is the Poetry of the South (Chu Ci or Chuci) ?? (ascribed to Qu Yuan ??), that shows the mystical, nature-bound character of the southern thinking.”

from the same period as the books of confucious and the book of changes…anyone know anything about this one? my curiosity’s piqued…

June 19, 2005 @ 6:21 am | Comment

Hey Richard, isn’t it possible to start a noew People’s Congress thread when the old old hits 50 comments?

Or is the whole open thread thing still very much under review, on probation?

June 19, 2005 @ 7:40 am | Comment

Thanks for the links Echo.

June 19, 2005 @ 7:59 am | Comment

Echo, I blogrolled you as well.

Allan, I’m stumbling in the dark with it. I didn’t want to open a new one last night because I was afraid it would take away interest from the new Stimson article I put up, but maybe I’m worrying too much. There are good sides to it, but I worry it may drain ciommenters away from important posts.

June 19, 2005 @ 10:15 am | Comment

Ok, thanks. I like the ‘community’ feel of the open threads but I can understand your concerns. I’m 100% sure these open threads will prove to be a winner.

June 19, 2005 @ 1:20 pm | Comment

I just flicked over to Horses Mouth, perhaps HM has got a bit of a scoop:

‘Unfortunately I don’t have all the details yet, but a friend in Yangshou (Guangxi Province) has informed me this evening that riots broke out between villagers and local police.’

June 19, 2005 @ 1:55 pm | Comment

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