Hey, check out this English-language play written by a Chinese playwright. http://www.thatsbj.com/blogging/blogs/index.php/2005/08/24/p1730#more1730

I hear it realllllllllly blows! And to add insult to crappiness, tickets run at nearly $100 in U.S. greenbacks (though prices may have dropped after subsequent nights teemed with empty seats).

Here’s a purported sample line from the script: “Let the king think with his balls. Men love their balls.”

That about sums it up.

August 27, 2005 @ 2:57 am | Comment

You think that blows…
I invite everyone to tune in to CCTV-6 at 19.00 on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for the 3-part epic movie I starred in, Gyantse 1904 about the evil Brits who occupied and devastated Tibet (not to be confused with Gyantse 1959).
Most of the leads were played by Irishmen and I brought my student down to take part (as an Irishman who leapt at the chance to play a sadistic Brit soldier) and, because he and a Frenchman were the only Caucasians in the army, was killed 6 times.
As for me, I play the Scottish (I cannae doo it, Cap’n!!!) interpreter of the Tibetans. I fail miserably. I feel like the time I had my hair cropped and dyed platinum; walking down the Shankill I couldn’t help but have a stupid grin on my face because I knew I looked like an idiot. So feel free to watch- you’ll be laughing WITH me AND at me…

August 27, 2005 @ 5:21 am | Comment

I hope to God that religious spam is removed ASAP.

August 27, 2005 @ 6:43 am | Comment

Yet another reason to avoid the Sportsman’s Lodge in Hollywood. Whew, I won’t forget that lesson twice.

August 27, 2005 @ 7:03 am | Comment

Jesus Christ!

Church Spam!

August 27, 2005 @ 8:43 am | Comment

Im think more likely Louisiana.

August 27, 2005 @ 8:50 am | Comment

Is Richard speaking in tongues, or is he possessed?

Maybe it’s Other Richard.

Or Old Nick.

August 27, 2005 @ 11:12 am | Comment

Sorry, I slept late! I’ll zap it right away…EEK!

August 27, 2005 @ 12:16 pm | Comment

Spam Jesus is gone…

August 27, 2005 @ 12:19 pm | Comment

I hope to see Richard this evening here in Beijing, but it’s surprising he hasn’t typed up a couple of lines to tell us how he’s getting on, now that’s he’s actually back in the country. Instead we get pages of passages from the New Testament exhorting us to put our faith in Jesus and in Bush as God himself supports the Iraq occupation from someone wo calls himself ‘Richard’ who is obviously having a hard time right now.
And I thought Richard was Jewish…

August 27, 2005 @ 7:28 pm | Comment

Keir, I will put up a few lines later today, but I’ve been unable to blog due to my schedule and my computer situation. My notebook is broken, and I don’t like blogging in Internet cafes. Also, all last week in Taipei I was busy with busines-related stuff we can discuss at dinner tonight.

I arrived in Beijing last night and now I have a computer in my room so I can get writting again, at least a little.

August 27, 2005 @ 7:39 pm | Comment

Who’s “we”?

August 27, 2005 @ 10:55 pm | Comment

Hmm, well, apparently banning Spam Jesus, aka Evil Richard, once wasn’t sufficient. The fellow left something like 52 comments in TPD while I was out leading an immoral, decadent and decidedly un-Christian life this evening.

So I deleted him and banned him again. But perhaps an exorcism is in order….

“Spam Jesus, Evil Richard, I hereby command you – BE GONE! I cast you out, henceforth and forever! At least until such a time as you usurp another innocent’s IP address, and then I will be forced to cast you out yet again…”

Let’s see how long that works.

August 28, 2005 @ 1:00 am | Comment

No probs. He posts, we delete.

Make my day Richard.

August 28, 2005 @ 1:33 am | Comment

You mean, “Eeeevil Richard,” I presume…

August 28, 2005 @ 1:40 am | Comment

Of course, Evil Richard. Not “our” Richard.

As I said Lis, as long as he keeps posting his crap, we’ll keep deleting it all day long. Easy.

He even accused me of not being patriotic. I’m not even American.

August 28, 2005 @ 1:53 am | Comment

well, Martyn, if you’re not American, then OBVIOUSLY you can’t possibly be “patriotic”!

🙂

August 28, 2005 @ 2:12 am | Comment

Who says protectionism is a bad thing:

BRITAIN could be facing a bra shortage after an EU ban blocked £50million of Chinese-made clothing heading for the UK, a trade body warned today.

http://tinyurl.com/8srkn

August 28, 2005 @ 5:36 am | Comment

Russian textile manufacturers are fearing that this bra mountain will be dumped on Russia. After all, the EU quotas are all done for this year and the bras have got to go somewhere….

August 28, 2005 @ 8:13 am | Comment

Wow…I have this sudden vision of a Staten Island ferry of bras….adrift…homeless….who will take them in?

August 28, 2005 @ 11:49 am | Comment

Dammit, I’m here too late and missed the spam from Richard’s Evil Twin !

August 28, 2005 @ 7:35 pm | Comment

I wanna see the Jesus spam! Oh wait… it’s probably molested my site as well. Good thing it’s been mothballed for a couple of months – more spam doesn’t really matter.

Anyway, has everybody seen Jim Yardley’s new NYT article Beijing’s Quest for 2008: To Become Simply Livable? A priceless quote:

Far more difficult will be fulfilling Beijing’s promise of playing host to a “green” Olympics as well as meeting a new goal in the city’s revised master plan – to become “a city suitable for living.”

“It’s kind of a new concept for us,” said Huang Yan, the well-regarded deputy director of the planning commission, when she announced the master plan in April. “We’ve never thought about this before.”

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! There you have it folks, right from the central government: We’ve never thought about making Beijing fit for human beings.

August 28, 2005 @ 7:55 pm | Comment

Hey, Conrad or Dave, I’ve always wanted to ask, but feared to reveal my ignorance…..

What’s the html code for that nicely bordered block quote?

August 28, 2005 @ 9:24 pm | Comment

I heard that Edward Norton is in Beijing shooting a movie. He’s staying at the Lee Garden. Anyone have more info on the movie or locations?

August 28, 2005 @ 9:39 pm | Comment

the word is blockquote/blockquote … with >s of course

August 28, 2005 @ 10:06 pm | Comment

You mean like this? Just testing, Lisa or Martyn, feel free to delete.

August 28, 2005 @ 10:13 pm | Comment

Ayup.

Though I still have some funky things happen when I try it on the comments. For some reason, I had to do a bit on the new apprentice post in two chunks.

August 28, 2005 @ 10:30 pm | Comment

Hey guys: I’m currently China book shopping. Do you think we could have a China book recommendation thread (again)?

Does anybody know about this book called Poisonous Deceit about the you know who (FG)? It’s supposedly written by a former official in the you know what (CCP).

August 28, 2005 @ 11:42 pm | Comment

What sort of China books are ya looking for? Travel? history? Politics?

Anything by Jonathon Spence is worth picking up.

Given a choice I would read China Dream and not bother with the coming collapse of China.

Jan Wong can be read or not.

Go onto the Economist and read their archives for China related articles.

Jun Chang see Jan Wong

Ross Terril. Good stuff.

August 29, 2005 @ 2:05 am | Comment

I already have Red China Blues and I’ve read the first couple of chapters. It’s entertaining, but now I’m in the market for heavier stuff. I just bought a history book on the Qing by a professor I had as an undergrad “China’s Cultural Heritage: The Qing Dynasty, 1644-1912”, as well as both The TMN Papers and China’s New Rulers. I’ve read “To Change China” by Spence, but none of the others.

As for Coming Collapse, China Threat, New Nationalism, China Inc, etc. I’d like to be reading things that are either (a) translated source material like the TMN papers or (b) straight up history. I get enough speculation about China’s future here :-). I’m looking for dense background material.

I am, however, looking forward to June Chang’s new Mao book.

August 29, 2005 @ 3:59 am | Comment

Dave, have you read Ronald McFarquar’s excellent three volumes on the Origins of the CR? It’s kind of dry and dense but really good, more an academic read than a popular history.

I’ve got so many books on my shelf I could go on at great length – most are older though. I just got an interesting looking one called “when the legends pass away,” about the images of recent leaders and how they are manipulated.

I’ll look some more when I don’t have a cat on my lap – let’s take this to the open thread above…

August 29, 2005 @ 10:18 am | Comment