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.

And a slew of more links that have been backing up and on my feelings on the matter at hand

Am I really posting everything I can on Ai Weiwei's disappearance, yes it seems like it. Here is Ai Weiwei and Qingming. Here are a few articles trying to take in the disappearances from a wider perspective. Both are very good. Really there is not much to say on the issue. Anyone who has seen or read enough can perceive that the powers that be in China are afraid. There are so many issues which keep them up at night.

Often I was asked pointed questions about what I thought about the CCP by young Chinese people while I was living there.

I suspected that they were trying to bait me, to get me into an argument, in which they could stand up and defend China's honor against the ignorant American who dares come to China to criticize it. I always made it my policy (for good or for ill) to sidestep the question, to deflect it, to answer truthfully and yet to avoid falling into any rhetorical or logical traps.