China Links

Well lets get these fascinating Chinese links (see above, hehe) out there:

Evan Osnos writes a fabulous article in the New Yorker on Chinese tour groups out exploring. He joins Chinese tour group to Europe, and is a much braver man than I.

Bob Dylan goes to Beijing and plays some music. Some people fret others are circumspect.

A revolutionary (for China) Chinese University in Shenzhen China opens. It is revolutionary because it does not accept the Gaokao or entrance exam, and it is backed in its efforts to foster independent thought and research by the local government of Shenzhen. It will not be accredited by the National Education Ministry, but it is trying to carve a new path for Chinese education. I remember reading an interview with Mr. Zhu in Science which I discussed with my Chinese grad student class back in Kaifeng many years ago. They were less excited. Perhaps because they had already invested a lot of time in their traditional Chinese educations of suspect value. hmm

Chinese Ministry of Culture bans time travel!...
...on TV.
Ok less amusing but still pretty weird. The censors in China don't just go after things overtly political or that which might cause social upheaval. They also are pretty puritanical on pornography and I guess time travel too. Perhaps they really are worried about differing historical narratives being put out there.

Superstition again mixes with science and propaganda in contemporary China.

Economic Crimes

Rumors have been circulating around the inter-tubes that Ai Weiwei is/will be charged for economic crimes. Not sure what this means; is this like going after Al Capone for tax evasion?

Sadly in many ways it doesn't really matter. The rule of law does not exist in China in the same way that it does in America or many other countries. You can't look to the letter of the law to explain why things like this happen. For issues like this, it is due to political reasons. By this I do not mean ideological politics, but small ball politics. The rhetoric of ideological politics is everywhere in China from banners pronouncing the "three shoulda's" and the "five woulda's" (Ok I'm being a little sarcastic.) or mandatory political education classes in universities. Even still people don't taken them seriously, every student I spoke with at HeDa dismissed these political education classes as worthless and boring, and even told me that the teachers themselves showed no interest in the subject matter they were supposed to be teaching.