I am out of town and I will try to get the problem fixed when I am back in China. First I need to find someone who can help me port the whole site off of MT and into a more user-friendly environment like WordPress. For now the comments are hopelessly screwed up, and without comments this blog isn’t very interesting. Any site designers out there?
May 2, 2008
The Discussion: 33 Comments
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1
By lensovet
looks like WP has a built-in importer, and MT has a built-in exporter, and there are instructions on how to use the two in tandem here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Importing_from_Movable_Type_to_WordPress
May 2, 2008 @ 4:02 pm | Comment
2
By flotsam
If you are really stuck you could contact daobydesign.com, but importing to wordpress is a cinch
May 2, 2008 @ 6:13 pm | Comment
3
By richard
I’d rather pay someone to do it, as I need some customization.
May 2, 2008 @ 6:19 pm | Comment
4
By Rohan
What kind of customization?
Drop me an email if you don’t want to post that up here.
(I usually fill in the email address field, though I have no idea if the site carries it through to the admins.)
May 2, 2008 @ 7:19 pm | Comment
5
By CCT
http://www.chinatibet.info/
May 2, 2008 @ 11:57 pm | Comment
6
By nanheyangrouchuan
How about a “BS filter” to deal with CCT, Serve the people, Cao Meng De and their ilk?
May 3, 2008 @ 1:33 am | Comment
7
By Amban
@CCT
From the China-Tibet info site, we can find the following gem:
If Tibet is a colony, then it is probably the only one in recent history in which the “colonized” have ended up with more rights than the “colonizer”.
That sounds like a really cynical joke to me. Not even you believe in that. “More rights”? Is to be considered “benevolent treatment” when Tibetans are supposedly exempt from the one-child policy? (Let alone the fact that there are reports that Tibetans are subject to forcible sterilizations.)
Well, who asked the Tibetans if they wanted to be ruled like a province of China, where Han Chinese CCP officials have the last word on everything that matters and where Chinese is the language of government?
And for anyone that ever doubted who is in charge in Tibet and whose language and culture matters, just take a look at official local government websites in TAR, where Tibetans are told that their culture is bad and backward, and the PRC has only brought good things. You only need to look at the following picture to think of colonialism:
http://www.xzcd.com/news_list.php?id=12239
May 3, 2008 @ 1:35 am | Comment
8
By dennis
How about a “BS filter” to deal with CCT, Serve the people, Cao Meng De and their ilk?
Definitely need one for you that’s called “doesn’t know shit about anything and constantly spew out garbage filter”.
May 3, 2008 @ 1:48 am | Comment
9
By ecodelta
@CCT & Amban
http://chinalawyerblog.wordpress.com/
May 3, 2008 @ 2:31 am | Comment
10
By ecodelta
@CCT
Something lighter. Maybe you already know
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2008/05/responding-to-chinese-grievances/
May 3, 2008 @ 2:42 am | Comment
11
By CCT
@ecodelta,
I’ve read that guy’s blog previously, long before his observations about Xinjiang.
My honest opinion at the time (and now), all discussions of Xinjiang or minority issues aside… the guy sounds like a grade A asshole.
May 3, 2008 @ 2:47 am | Comment
12
By AC
Condemnation of the Western conspiracy – Western scholars have launched a joint appeal. People with knowledge and conscience can no longer remain silent?
http://www.jungewelt.de/2008/04-14/047.php
This is the german version, it was published in 5 languages.
May 3, 2008 @ 2:57 am | Comment
13
By Amban
@AC
Die Junge Welt is an ex-GDR rag and I don’t see any prominent China scholars among the signatories. And “conspiracy”? I beg you pardon. There is not a shred of evidence that there is a Western conspiracy at work. Quite to the contrary, a lot of Western politicians and business people are embarrassed by recent events and would wish for nothing else than more calm…
May 3, 2008 @ 3:06 am | Comment
14
By CCT
@ecodelta,
Yes, I saw that yesterday. The author makes good points… but isn’t it a little silly responding to a poem as if its a rigorously argued white paper? Might as well take the US national anthem apart line by line… (land of the free?! In 1814!?!)
There can be a very convincing argument put out there that the West played a very significant role in China’s original downfall, and has effectively done little to help China’s modernization process since.
This iss only one of several possible “narratives” (as otherlisa might be prone to say), but many Chinese obviously find it convincing.
May 3, 2008 @ 3:09 am | Comment
15
By Amban
@CCT
My honest opinion at the time (and now), all discussions of Xinjiang or minority issues aside… the guy sounds like a grade A asshole.
“…or minority issue aside.” Yes, let’s talk about what’s really important, who is a grade A asshole and who is a grade B asshole.
May 3, 2008 @ 3:10 am | Comment
16
By Amban
@CCT
There can be a very convincing argument put out there that the West played a very significant role in China’s original downfall
“Original downfall”. What do you mean? The rise and fall of political regimes? The Qing dynasty fell seventy years after the Opium war. And the most bloody conflicts that have been fought in China have been fought between Chinese. Not that this whitewashes the Brits, the French and so on, but a sense of proportion is always useful
May 3, 2008 @ 3:14 am | Comment
17
By AC
Amban,
Where is the complete signature list? I haven’t seen one. I thought a few hundred scholars signed (according to Xinhua).
I posted the Die Junge Welt link because that’s the only link I can find at the moment.
May 3, 2008 @ 3:15 am | Comment
18
By AC
Here is the Xinhua link (Chinese):
http://tinyurl.com/5mesxb
May 3, 2008 @ 3:25 am | Comment
19
By CCT
@Amban,
Did you read the petition? I had to rely on a translator of course. It didn’t speak of an orchestrated “conspiracy”, but rather just actions that remind the signatories of Europe’s imperialist/racist tradition.
Some of the signatories are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gianni_Vattimo
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domenico_Losurdo
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luciano_Canfora
… looks like all are academics of some variety. Philosophers, historians.
I don’t see how they’re any less qualified to comment on Tibet and China than, say, Nobel prize winners. And hopefully we can at least agree that they’re not brain-washed Chinese nationalists.
May 3, 2008 @ 3:27 am | Comment
20
By Amban
@AC
Where is the complete signature list? I haven’t seen one. I thought a few hundred scholars signed (according to Xinhua).
So Xinhua is your main source of information about what Western China scholars think? I say no more.
@everybody else
…and contrary to what we are told by some people posting on this blog, the PRC government seems to have been deeply involved in the protests…
Chinese consulate suspected of mobilizing students for torch relay
Suspicions are growing that the Chinese consulate general in Busan mobilized Chinese students to participate in the Olympic torch relay in Seoul Sunday, which led to violence leaving several Koreans and policemen injured.
On or around April 20, a Busan-based consul in charge of education affairs, surnamed Zhang, requested that Silla University in Busan offer transportation for its Chinese students to take part in the event, according to the Busan Metropolitan Agency and school officials.
“Following requests from both the consulate and an association of Chinese students here, we sponsored them with transportation for the sake of their safety,” said an official at Silla University.
The school provided four school buses for about 150 students. Among them was a 20-year-old student, surnamed Chen, who was detained by police for assaulting anti-Beijing protestors.
The consul led the students in the trip, police said.
A newspaper reported yesterday that Chinese embassy officials provided more than 900,000 won ($900) to a Chinese students’ group in Busan and provided uniforms and flags.
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/
May 3, 2008 @ 3:27 am | Comment
21
By CCT
@Amban,
Did you read the petition? I had to rely on a translator of course. It didn’t speak of an orchestrated “conspiracy”, but rather just actions that remind the signatories of Europe’s imperialist/racist tradition.
The signatories… … looks like all are legitimate academics of the humanities. Philosophers, historians.
I don’t see how they’re any less qualified to comment on Tibet and China than, say, Nobel prize winners. And hopefully we can at least agree that they’re not brain-washed Chinese nationalists.
May 3, 2008 @ 3:32 am | Comment
22
By Amban
@AC
Thanks for the link. It looks like the German is a translation of the Chinese article, not the other way around. The appeal in Die Junge Welt follows Xinhua’s talking points, one by one, which indicates that was written for a Chinese readership…
May 3, 2008 @ 3:33 am | Comment
23
By Amban
@CCT
Yeah, I did read the article, it’s pure demafoegiry. Especially this paragraph:
Am Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts hing gut sichtbar am Zugang zu den westlichen Konzessionen in China das Schild: “Eintritt verboten fuer Hunde und Chinesen”. Dieses Schild ist nicht verschwunden, sondern hat nur ein paar Varianten erfahren, wie die Kampagne beweist, die sich vornimmt, die Olympischen Spiele in Peking zu sabotieren oder irgendwie abzuqualifizieren: “Olympia fuer Hunde und Chinesen verboten”. Der heutige antichinesische Kreuzzug steht voll und ganz im Einklang mit einer langen und infamen imperialistischen und rassistischen Tradition.
First of all, while discrimination against Chinese certainly existed in Shanghai, there was no sign with that wording (“No dogs and Chinese”). Secondly, it is very inappropriate to invoke this trope since it is the Beijing dictatorship that is calling the shots now, who can come and not come to attend the Olympics or go to Tibet or whatever.
May 3, 2008 @ 3:39 am | Comment
24
By AC
Amban,
No, it was addressed to European scholars. The original is in Italian, as Domenico Losurdo is a scholar in Italy. It was published in 5 European languages, Chinese was not one of them.
May 3, 2008 @ 3:44 am | Comment
25
By AC
“So Xinhua is your main source of information about what Western China scholars think? I say no more.”
Of course I first looked in the Western mainstream press. But then again, would they publish such self-defeating information?
I say no more.
May 3, 2008 @ 3:56 am | Comment
26
By Amban
@AC
would they publish such self-defeating information?
Why would this appeal be self-defeating for mainstream press? There are no suprises in the appeal itself, and it is signed by a group of intellectuals from the former communist left in Europe.
May 3, 2008 @ 11:55 pm | Comment
27
By Michael Turton
Amban, why are you wasting your time responding to those two well-known pro-China trolls, AC and CCT? Don’t feed the trolls!
Michael
May 4, 2008 @ 12:25 am | Comment
28
By Amban
@Michael Turton
You’re right…
May 4, 2008 @ 12:29 am | Comment
29
By ecodelta
@CCT
“… the guy sounds like a grade A asshole.”
Well. The guy is a jerk. He recognized it himself in one of his post. But he has some good points.
I personally would not like to have anyone breathing down my neck. No matter how many advances he may bring.
It is curious, but CH is repeating the same old arguments that colonial EU used not long ago.
May 4, 2008 @ 5:02 am | Comment
30
By ecodelta
@CCT & AC
By the way. Has anyone of you already seen this?
http://tinyurl.com/5xfq2x
May 4, 2008 @ 5:04 am | Comment
31
By ecodelta
@CCT
“There can be a very convincing argument put out there that the West played a very significant role in China’s original downfall, and has effectively done little to help China’s modernization process since.”
During the last 60 Years CH did not need any help from the “west” to go even deeper in its own downfall.
About no help to rise again, only the opening of the “west”, specially US, markets made it possible for CH to provide enough jobs opportunities for its population. Not to speak of massive capital investment from abroad.
Going further back in time. To the beginning of the downfall of CH. during the Qing dinasty. Much did CH itself to precipitate its own downfall.
It could have been easy to play one of the foreign powers against the other, but total lack of knowledge of outer world and a self superiority complex prevented them to take the right actions.
May 4, 2008 @ 5:22 am | Comment
32
By richard
If this works, it means my site is back.
May 6, 2008 @ 10:03 pm | Comment
33
By CCT
@ecodelta,
Yes, I posted the video from that interview to this site last week. No idea if it was swallowed.
Good effort by the Greek/Latin major at Columbia to make this happen, and the Dalai Lama is clearly making an effort to reach out more to the Chinese people.
Doesn’t change any of the fundamental issues on the ground, but attitude is important.
May 7, 2008 @ 12:17 am | Comment