Take a minute to read the splendid essay over at Water on an aspect of Chinese culture that I could never get used to: the idea that you are the only person in the world who matters and fuck everybody else.

I have countless stories about this, and so does everyone else who’s lived there. The examples cited in this post are priceless. For example:

This idea is sometimes taken to its logical, but most grotesque end. At accidents that occur at places and times where there are no witnesses, but one of the drivers is injured, the other driver sometimes intentionally hits the other person again to kill him. Why? Because if he stayed alive the other driver would be responsible for his medical bills, but if he’s dead then he doesn’t have an impact on the other driver’s life or pocketbook. Pause and consider the twistedness of that. Then pause again to consider that such stories are common enough to make it onto CCTV.

You’ll see some of this in Hong Kong, where people always run into elevators and subways before others get off, and where rudeness is pretty standard. But it’s no where near the level of the Mainland. I kept trying to get used to this, to say it’s part of their culture. But I couldn’t help but get upset when drivers nearly ran me over as I crossed a street because they wanted to get a few feet ahead a few seconds faster.

It was pointless trying to explain my frustration to Chinese friends and colleagues; all they gave me were blank stares. Why should anyone consider anyone else but himself? This attitude explains so much about Chinese behavior, the way they drive, they way they get onto airplanes, the way they cannot form lines, etc., etc., etc. Can a Westerner ever really get used to it?

Water says things have got to change as China modernizes. Considering how hard-wired they are even now to see themselves as the epicenter of the universe, change will inevitably be slow and dificult.

Adam at Brainysmurf is wondering why there’s such a dearth of posts from the Chinese blog contingent about China’s successful launch of a manned spacecraft last week.

I can only speak for myself, and I saw it as a non-event, a bit of a stunt and another sign of China investing in what it needs least. Yes, it’s proof of how advanced they are becoming technologically. But looking at all the problems China is facing, was this really the best place for the government to invest billions of dollars? According to Adam, it appears that even the Chinese are reacting with a huge collective yawn.

Like the Three Gorges Dam, this reminds me how the CCP loves to do things that stroke its own ego. It may not be a smart thing or a necessary thing, but it was still An Achievement and they bask in their pride. To someone like me, it only inspires curiosity (as in, Why are you doing this?) and reinforces my opinion that the government’s priorities are as warped as ever.

I spent more than 20 hours yesterday travelling back to Phoenix from Singapore. Tragically my promised upgrade was unpromised when I got to HK and I had to sit scrunched and miserable in economy.

As always seems to be my fate when I fly economy on Cathay Pacific, there was the noisy Chinese family in the seats right behind me, the five-year-old Chinese boy (whose Ritalin presecription had obviously expired) kicking the back of my chair furiously, but only as I was about to fall asleep. When he wasn’t kicking he was flicking the overhead light on and off, maybe because he wanted me to feel that I was on the dance floor of Propaganda. He succeeded.

When I got to Phoenix, there were mobs of people like I have never seen. The lines to get through the x-ray machines must have been three-hours long, no exaggeration. It turns out bags full of box cutters had been placed in a Southwest Airlines jet and the transportation security guys, in their embarrassment, were ripping everyone’s luggage to pieces. It appears there is nothing they can do to make air travel safe.

It’s now the morning after and the jet lag has been vanquished and more than ever before I realize how much I miss my house and my loved ones and my two cats. I think it’s nearing the time for me to start seriously considering coming back home. (If my employer is reading this, don’t worry, I’ll give plenty of notice if I decide this is the route to go.) Yeah, Asia is loads of fun and I actually like my job, but I realize now just how much happier I am when I am with my friend of 15 years. Life really has little meaning when we’re apart.

I feel happier right now than I have in a year. It definitely tells me something.

Back in June, Conrad referred poetically to the Three Gorges Dam as “the world’s largest open-air latrine.” True enough. But this update reminds us that the filth and pollution are just one aspect of why the entire project smells.

It’s a source of pride to the Chinese Government, but also of corruption and resentment the scale of which is only now starting to fully emerge.

Xiang Tian San: “They told us to move up the hill and re-locate over there. They tore down my old home. My wife was inside at the time and she was killed. And they didn’t give us enough compensation. So we’ve not got a new house. Only this shelter I built.”

He says corrupt local officials siphoned off relocation money his family was entitled to. He built his new shelter from the debris of his old home, and doesn’t know who to complain to. The local Communist Party boss refuses to meet him.

Xiang added: “He stole so much money and built a huge house in Wushan. Now they won’t let us go near him.”

His complaints are echoed by others in this village, also living in shelters.

And as we discovered on a journey down the Yangtze, this is far from being an isolated case.

I try to imagine what these people are going through, with no one to listen to them as their loved ones are killed, as their homes are destroyed and local officials siphon off the money they were promised. I try, but I can’t do it. It’s just too terrible; it can’t possibly be true. But it is.

China does not have to become the next Africa, ripped apart by an all-out AIDS epidemic, according to this article.

A Taiwan-born health expert at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is helping lead the battle against a looming AIDS epidemic in mainland China.

Ray Yip is director of a new CDC China program. He and his deputy, Bessie Lee, launched their effort in spring in the world’s most populous nation.

Having worked in public health in China for more than five years, Yip has seen the alarming spread of the disease, with the number of infected people growing at about 30 percent annually for several years. Without stronger efforts, the number of people with HIV is predicted to jump from an estimated 1.5 million now to 20 million by the end of the decade.

But he also sees the country as being in a unique position to avoid an AIDS disaster.

“The window to avert a catastrophic situation like in the African countries is still within grasp,” he said. “But this opportunity won’t last forever.”

Yip describes what needs to be done and the obstacles he faces. In this entire lengthy article, there is only one reference to where the Chinese government stands in the matter:

“The apparently limited participation to date of government ministries beyond [the Ministry of Health and the State Family Planning Commission] suggests that decision-makers elsewhere in government have not yet been fully convinced of the magnitude of China’s HIV risk,” said the report filed by the team.

Is it not ironic that the war against the lethal disease that threatens to devastate China is being fought by a Taiwanese-born health expert working for America’s Centers for Disease Control, with almost no support from the government of China?

Related post: The indescribable tragedy of AIDS in China

I feel like apologizing. I’ve had some incredible experiences this week, even spending time with a US celebrity (as part of my work) and finding myself in some truly strange circumstances, but I don’t have time to write about it. I’m just trying to get through the week so I can fly home on Friday morning and see my family for the first time in….god, I forget how long it’s been. This is going to be the most welcome vacation I’ve ever taken. Ever.

This is a wonderfully astute — and hilarious– article on how Rush would have reacted if it was Bill Clinton checking himself into rehab. The writer has captured the Limbaugh style in all of its audacity.

First read Rush’s statement, then the article. You’ll be laughing. (No, not at Rush’s plight, which isn’t funny, but at the reminder of exactly how Rush traditionally operates.)

[Link via Atrios.]

This coming week will be, for many reasons, my week from hell, culminating in a trip back to the states to see my family and my beloved next Friday. I don’t see how I’ll find any time at all to write, but I’ll certainly try. Actually, with my trip and my schedule this week, things over here are likely to slow to a trickle for the next three weeks.

I just read this beautiful article on Xu Wenli, imprisoned for 16 of the past 22 years because he believed it was his responsibility to fight for human rights in China.

Wenli’s crime was advocating for democracy in China.

He was jailed in 1981 and served 12 years in prison, most in solitary confinement, for publishing a newsletter and organizing a pro-democracy movement. After his release, he continued his political activity. In 1998, he was sentenced to 13 more years in prison for organizing a political party.

Last Christmas, Wenli was granted medical parole and given asylum in the United States. He and his wife came to Rhode Island to live with their daughter.

“It’s like going from hell to heaven,” Wenli, 60, said in Pawtucket, days after his release from prison.

On the one hand, Wenli’s release is celebrated as a victory in the struggle for human rights in China — a country that continues to punish political expression while ignoring the world community’s calls for reform.

But his release also exposes the cynical reality of the human-rights situation in China.

Wenli was released, many people believe, because the Chinese government wants to improve relations with the United States at a time when its economy continues to boom and the country readies to host the 2008 Olympics.

Wenli’s is an amazing story, involving self-sacrifice and a sense of justice that few of us could ever contemplate. And it makes me think about an argument I’ve been trying to come to grips with lately: that human rights in China should not be expected to mirror those of other nations, like the US. Even though they are improving (according to the argument, at least), it’s unrealistic to ever hold them to our own standards.

Is this argument a fair one? Are there no moral absolutes when it comes to human rights?

This is an intriguing argument I want to elaborate on in an upcoming article for another site. The main aspect of the argument I’m hearing is that what constitutes human rights to the people of China is different than what it would be to the people of the US.

And yet, here we have stories of Chinese people who know little of life outside China demanding certain standards of decency. And these are standards that, I believe, are all but universal. Just as man knows he should not kill, he knows he should not repress and imprison without just cause. To contend that it is otherwise in China is, I believe, insulting to the Chinese. And it lets the oppressors off the hook.

More on this later. It is just starting to incubate. (Anyone who can direct me to more source material on this argument, please let me know!)

Anyone who feels self-confessed drug addict Rush Limbaugh should be extended some special compassion and be given a break should first read today’s Newsday article chronicling what Limbaugh himself has had to say about white-collar types in similar situations:

[T]oo many whites are getting away with drug use. Too many whites are getting away with drug sales. Too many whites are getting away with trafficking in this stuff. The answer to this disparity is not to start letting people out of jail because we’re not putting others in jail who are breaking the law. The answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them and send them up the river, too.”

I wonder if he is singing this same tune today. The article is quite thorough in digging up similar nuggets.

In fairness, the reporter also notes that Rush was an opponent of America’s idiotic “war on drugs.” I guess if you say enough things, one or two of them will end up being right.

[Updated 11:23pm Singapore time]