You have to read this hilarious post, which brought back a flood, a stream, a pile of memories. Great writing that takes you right there. Not for the delicate.

We now have eight bloggers who’ve told me via email or comments that they’d like to join the party. That’s pretty good! I’m looking at Saturday December 6 around lunchtime. Sunday is possible, too — please let me know if you have a preference.

Also, if someone has a suggestion for a meeting place, let me know. Somewhere easy and central, like Wangfujing or Guo Mao would make sense. Thanks to all who’ve responded (and if you haven’t, what are you waiting for?).

Damn, I am having a true “China fit” today. All I can think about is China, my last days there, the things I never put into this blog, the very very last day in Beijing when I swore I would never go back to that city, my sitting and shivering alone in my apartment with no heat and only my laptop and the world’s slowest Internet connection (my property agent assured me it was broadband), the despair I felt when the waitress misunderstood my request again and brought me some kind of animal’s guts, the evil guard at Fudan University who wouldn’t let me visit my friend at his dorm, the sensation that with SARS Beijing had spun out of control and was off somewhere in The Outer Limits, the fight every morning at work to get on the elevator, the first time I saw a woman — very well dressed — blow her nose Chinese-style, the half-day wait at the bank, watching someone brush her hair over the food at a buffet, the lady at the barbershop who tried to drag me upstairs for a special massage, the time when I…. Well, you probably get the point.

So what is a “China Fit”? Is it when you feel disgust at China? Revulsion? Anger? No, it’s absolutely the opposite. It’s when all you can do is recount those things, and in spite of the shock, in spite of the frustration, in spite of the infinite sense of helplessness, you still miss it and you still wish you were back there.

I thought of Singapore as a haven, and it was — for a few weeks. China, for all of its, um, challenges brought out my creativity. It inspired me. I almost had a sense of mission as I wrote about it between January and May. And now, as I try to write about it from far away, I often feel it is forced, like I’m grasping at things to write about. Not always. But often enough. I have never, not once, felt as inspired as I did during those five months. The only time I came close was when I wrote about saying goodbye to my friend Ben, and that’s only because I managed to mentally transport myself to that night in Beijing; I was actually in Beijing as I wrote it, at least mentally.

[Uh-oh. I can see this is going to be one of those posts that I’ll consider deleting later. Too emotional and written too quickly.]

Anyway, the only thing on my mind at this instant is What Next? As much as I am tempted, I feel I cannot go back to China for more than a visit. I have some major commitments back home. But I would be lying if I were to say I don’t want to go back, and if the oportunity arose in the future for me to return, under more comfortable terms than before, I would be damn tempted.

Maybe my upcoming trip to Beijing in a few weeks will remind me of China’s myriad “uniquenesses” and sober me up. But tonight, for some reason, I am intoxicated. (No, not literally.) Writing this will hopefully bring me back to earth.

Gou le.

Anyone curious about the Great Leap Forward and the mass famine that resulted should read this wonderful review of Jasper Becker’s book Hungry Ghosts.

I especially recommend it to those who see Mao’s role in the tragedy as a passive one, and to those who see the famine that killed tens of millions as a a kind of accident, a by-product of a well-intentioned cause (“Oops!”).

There are some generous excerpts from the book, and the comments are good, too, with several pointing out how the number of dead is almost certainly higher — way higher — than 30 million, the usual number being bandied about.

The writer draws some intelligent parallels between Mao’s famine of 1958 with Kim Jong Il’s famine of today. Depressing and horrifying beyond words.

Link via Radio Free China.

I’m not making this up — and it’s fully supported by the WTO. No, not that WTO; I mean the World Toilet Organization:

Pop the lid on the cleanser, get out the scrub brush and be sure to leave the seat down — it’s time to get ready for World Toilet Day.

The Singapore-based World Toilet Organisation has begun collecting tips to improve bathroom etiquette to mark the day, held annually on November 16.
The suggestions will be used to create the agenda for next year’s World Toilet Summit in Beijing, the group said in a statement Friday.

“If everyone joins in, there (will be) better public toilets and happier people,” said Jack Sim, a founding member of the World Toilet Organisation and president of the Restroom Association of Singapore.

What are you doing to contribute to World Toilet Day?

Another one, I mean. Be sure to read his thoughtful post on this often uncomfortable, often very interesting circumstance. I applaud his courage.

Related Post: Gays in China

While I don’t like John Derbyshire very much, I enjoyed reading his recent article on the Xi’an student riots, one of the more bizarre events in recent weeks to come out of China. He makes some keen observations on how outraged today’s Chinese can become over perceived slights to China, and why this same patern of irrational outrage keeps on repeating.

China seems to me a very sad place. If she were a normal country, under constitutional government, China could lead the world. She has an energetic and talented population, with a higher average intelligence than any Western nation and a long, strong tradition of intellectual endeavor. If she could let go of her non-Chinese colonies (Tibet, East Turkestan), she would have a homogeneous population without any of the distractions caused by fractious minorities. With the Confucian ethic of family solidarity still more or less intact, she could run a welfare state much smaller and cheaper than those required in individualistic countries like the U.S.A. Having almost no “installed base” of 19th-century technology, she could carry out infrastructure planning and development from scratch, using modern materials and techniques. China could quite easily be a paradise on earth.

Instead, poor China is stuck in some horrible time warp. Unable to let go of her 19th-century imperial acquisitions, she garrisons vast territories populated by resentful non-Chinese peoples. Her national psyche poisoned by the humiliations of 70, 100, or 150 years ago, she snarls and spits at those who should be her natural friends and trading partners, and amasses armaments whose only purpose can be, or at any rate is, to fill her neighbors with fear and mistrust. Cumbered with a stupid, reactionary and corrupt ruling class, her people cannot make their voices heard. Instead of striding forward into the bright future that should rightly be theirs, they seethe, and burn, and from time to time boil over. Why do you treat us like this? Poor China; poor, poor China.

Link via The Cerebral Smurf.

Why do I dislike Derbyshire? Here’s why.

The BBC has a strange piece about a trend in America — naming babies after popular brand names:

Americans are increasingly turning to the world of popular culture to name their children, a study has found.

Children have been named after big brands as diverse as beauty company L’Oreal, car firm Chevrolet and designer clothes company Armani.

There are even two little boys, one in Michigan and one in Texas, called ESPN after the sports channel.

Can you imagine going through life introducing youself as ESPN? Car models are especially popular, with 55 American boys named Chevy and 5 girls named Celica.

(If I have a child — and it’s not likely anytime soon — some of the names I’d consider might be Clorox, Bumble Bee, iPod, Haagen Daz, Lucent, Snickers, Pentium, BandAid, Durex, and Noxzema.)

The expert quoted in the article says the trend most likely reflects the parents’ material hopes:

“It is no different from the 19th century when parents named their children Ruby or Opal… it reflects their aspirations” he says.

Orcinus has a great post about the Republican’s strategy of demonizing Democrats as weak-kneed and even treasonous in regard to Iraq. This is to be a major theme in coming elections and is already manifesting itself (he gives plenty of examples). Such reckless talk subtly encourages violence against the evil liberals:

This is not mere hyperbole; it is an exercise in eliminationism. As Buzzflash recently observed, talk like this is part of an increasing trend in conservative rhetoric: Pat Robertson wishing to “nuke” the State Department, Bill O’Reilly saying Peter Arnett should be shot, Coulter wishing Tim McVeigh had set off his bomb at the New York Times Building, John Derbyshire wishing for Chelsea Clinton’s demise. Unsurprisingly, the same kind of talk is now heard on the “street” level, and it often pops up on talk radio. As we learned in Oklahoma City, eventually this kind of “hot talk” translates into all-too-real tragedy.

What is becoming increasingly clear is that conservatives are less and less inclined to rely on “intellectual” or political exchanges, and are turning more to an eliminationist strategy that seeks to demonize liberals and make them social outcasts — and concomitantly, acceptable targets for violence because of the “damage” they cause the nation through their ostensible treason.

As usual, Dave’s post is scrupulously researched. His conclusion — that the Republicans are actively attempting to create what is in effect a one-party system — is scary as hell.

I looked back this afternoon at some of the posts I wrote early this morning and I felt a true sense of mortification. How could I write such emotionally overwrought, hot-headed, self-righteous and pompous crap? According to blog protocol, you aren’t supposed to go back and delete posts, but I may do some serious pruning before I go to sleep.

(By the way, my site’s clock is off by about 8 hours; it’s about 9:30 pm here in Singapore right now. If anyone can tell me to how to reset, let me know.)