don’t show how you care about human right, just look at what concrad wrote “Lucky bitch. If she was in China not only would not of the single things that I mentioned be true” , this is how he shows impathy to that woman!!!he is no differrence from the devil CCP, there is no famous medias in US reported this descrimination savage crime, not a piece on CNN, NYTIMES, WASHINGTONPOST ETC, you guys are such all the same, fake human rights protectors, actually i would say, you are all losers, then coming to poor asia, and pretend you are god to save people here. bitch~!

July 29, 2004 @ 9:38 am | Comment

I vote we all pitch in and buy George some Valium.

July 29, 2004 @ 9:41 am | Comment

I second Boo’s comment, but vote for Prozac or Paxil.

Does he provide any worthwhile input? Do his comments make your blog an overall better discourse for discussion?

If the answer is no, you know what to do.

July 29, 2004 @ 10:10 am | Comment

I vote for banning and an Apple pie for George. He will know what to do with that.

July 29, 2004 @ 10:22 am | Comment

I say keep him. He miiiiiight just make sense one day.

July 29, 2004 @ 11:49 am | Comment

He has, on occasion, been polite and intelligent. But then he goes into automatic pilot and spews out insults. I’ll make the final decision in 24 hours.

July 29, 2004 @ 12:12 pm | Comment

The thing that annoys me the most about George is his cross-posting of the same comments throughout multiple posts.

I am generally averse to banning people, so I would suggest putting him on “probation” and telling him to calm down.

July 29, 2004 @ 12:19 pm | Comment

Wow! Went to bed, and woke up to WWIII conducted by our dear george.

Must admit I misread his “90%” thingy (in mitigation I was about to pop off to bed), but I offer no apologies considering that his message was about killing people.

I know his antics has gone beyond what Voltaire had in mind, but I say keep him – tolerance is the hallmark of free speech.

george – 2 wrongs don’t make 1 right

July 29, 2004 @ 5:10 pm | Comment

Oh pleeeeeease let him stay. Pretty please? We need a bit of comic talent around here … it’s been my first real smile of the day, reading his comments in the Taiwan post. Can we keep him? pleeease?

July 29, 2004 @ 7:37 pm | Comment

flavorful. but it gets very annoying. really waste my time to read his so called comments.

July 29, 2004 @ 8:36 pm | Comment

I really looking forward to the day when we have a mainland Chinese blogger really worth reading. I’m looking for someone with keen insights into Chinese media and politics who is not a CCP apologist yet doesn’t blame the country’s every ill on them. Someone who has a fair eye for distinguishing bias and accuracy in world media. From time to time I have read some good comments from rational intelligent mainlanders, but they don’t appear to have a permanent web presence. Then again, we have the Blackie Laus, the Georges and on my site recently, the Jessicas who introduced herself as a “Chinese living in the US Bible Belt, Jesus Christ kiss my ass.”
To be fair we have more than our share of crazies in the US (some of them earn sizable salaries) and I’m sure there are insightful mainland Chinese bloggers writing in Chinese. However, many of the English language bloggers only focus on daily life and computer technology and that is understandable given the Stainless Steel Mouse incident and others.
So, this is an invitation. Blow us away. Are you up to it George or is everyone going to have to block your IP address? Get a blog and give us something worth reading.

July 29, 2004 @ 9:38 pm | Comment

Richard, if I were in your position I would ban him. However, somebody who cares as passionately about freedom of speech as you can’t really do that without being accused of hypocrisy. Those of us who find him more offensive than entertaining can simply skip over his comments, it won’t do us any harm.

July 29, 2004 @ 9:39 pm | Comment

Come on Richard. Enough of this Democracy nonsense. Embrace your dictatorial side. Richard’s from China, I’m sure he appreciates arbitrarary and unappealable censorship.

And George, I think US homeland security personnel should beat the hell out of all mainland visitors. As a matter of courtesy. It should make them feel right at home.

July 29, 2004 @ 9:49 pm | Comment

I’ll let him carry on for now (though hopefully he’s gone away — no word from him for the past 12 hours or so).

Chris, there’s free speech, but there’s also respect for other people who come here. When George expressed a desire to see more Americans killed by terrorists, that certainly crossed the line. I’m a fervent believer in free speech, and I would fight for George’s right to set up his own web site and say whatever he chooses. That doesn’t mean I have to provide him a soapbox on my own private blog. That said, since the consensus is that he should be allowed to stay, and since he’s certainly good for laughs, I’ll let him post — for now. But I’ll have second thoughts if he says he wants Americans to die.

July 29, 2004 @ 10:31 pm | Comment

Brian, Hailey Xie was doing a good job for a while, until some dumb expat bloggers scared her to death by browbeating her over her beliefs on Taiwan. That was a real shame. We had a nice opportunity to see into the mind of an intelligent, articulate Chinese lady, and instead of welcoming her we ganged up on her. Hopefully we learned a lesson.

July 29, 2004 @ 10:34 pm | Comment

Why is it that 9 out of 10 expatriate bloggers or comment posters are Taidu lackeys? It’s genuinely depressing that even when fairly liberal Chinese will not accept Taiwanese independence, they are all denounced as Chicom shills. Left or Right it doesn’t make a difference, China bashing is a sport enjoyed by all.

July 30, 2004 @ 12:16 am | Comment

I suppose I should stop calling them Taidu lackeys/running-dogs/counter-revolutionaries/stealth-imperialists/traitors/sycophantic japanese quislings/etc, afterall its only fair. Can never go wrong with following the Golden Rule, but its just so difficult at times. Misinformed expatriates shall do for now.

July 30, 2004 @ 12:26 am | Comment

hey, Conrad:

go to hell, get out of Hongkong!!!! you loser, can not find a job in your country, then beg your life here in china!!! loser, loser, every body knows you are a loser, complaining only yourself is the “virtue” of all your losers here, is there anyone here can tell me he is successfun in his career, actually my friends in US told me, those who come to asian for life from american are all losers, they can not find a job in his own country, so Conrad, whoever you are, you are just a loser!!!!!! go to hell with all your family! and get out of Hongkong and china!!!!!!

July 30, 2004 @ 12:34 am | Comment

Hey, George,

I am moved by your passion. I guess that you must be still quite young, so you can still be (so!) passionate. But seldom can youthful passion come along with objectivity and rational thinking. So you are biased. As others already pointed out, that was an isolated incident, and it occurred not because of the discrimination against Chinese. “not a piece on CNN, NYTIMES, WASHINGTONPOST ETC”, I think it is because such incidents are too commonplace in the US ( in fact, I am a little fed up with the way Chinese media report it already ). I would say, don’t direct your anger to wrong people, don’t hate people that do no harm to your loved ones. While you are here shouting, you have disturbed a private party assembling mostly polite gentlemen who have been kind to China, but who are not of your kinds. No one would sympathize you, some only laugh at you, even try what he may to stir you!

When you grow old, you must grow calm, and the passion would die away. Hopefully you have a way to keep the balance. One observation of yours that I would second is that Cornad is really arrogant. But he is the most arrogant in the blogosphere I have seen here these two years. Considering this, you may give him the privilege of just ignoring him. And indeed, a lot of other things are more worth of your anger and energy.

July 30, 2004 @ 1:07 am | Comment

yeung:

i think you are a nice and well educated person, that i really respect, i know too, chinese medias are so crazy about reporting things in a way, that really disgust even many chinese people, like Falungong or something, but on the other side, i don’t think many chinese people agree that US medias are objective, so i choose my own decision, i believe no one, especially when you judge other people or country, you have to be the right one, otherwise you have no right to judge, i have US colleagues too, most of them are nice people. there are few like Concrad, who behave like an asshole, also as to nation’s pride, i never agree that other countries or people talk Taiwan should be independant or better, you have no right, it should be solved by chinese and taiwanese, taiwan is always part of china, only Jiang kaishi failed his national war, then he went to taiwan, taiwan issue is domestic issue, none of your foreigner’s business, US and UK critizise Hongkong election, but UK government never gave that right to hongkongnese before either. the head officers designated to hongkong were all asigned by UK government, none of them were elected by hongkongnese. so at this point, UK government is no difference from CCP, no one show democracy to hongkongnese. it is rediculous that UK government critisize CCP for that, i think CCP is an asshole too, just like Conrad

July 30, 2004 @ 1:23 am | Comment

Personally, I reckon because Conrad’s so ‘arrogant’ and opinionated online, he must be a meek wee mouse in real life.

Hehe.

Tell me if I’m wrong, Conrad!

July 30, 2004 @ 2:40 am | Comment

I’m going to go out on a limb here but I believe that George is not who he claims to be–some Chinese guy who needs to vent his rage against “certain” americans.

More likely, I think he’s a anglo/american educated laowai (possibly expat) who’s just posting here to troll for responses to his fiery comments. Disturbingly, it seems that he attempts to rile up anti-PRC sentiment by making half-assed arguments just begging for a response (which he has duly received many times already). If he really cared about the points he’s making, he could have easily put forth much better arguments on his own behalf.

A few observations:
1. his grammar is so bad at times it definitely seems contrived, then reverts to being decent with minor, semi-methodical errors scattered throughout
2. despite his nonsensical grammar, his vocabulary and word usage are stellar at times.
3. jiang kaishi? every mainland chinese person knows him and loves him as jiang jieshi or the westernization chiang kai shek (or something similar). that’s something that just doesn’t happen.
4. There are other things I noticed in his posts too, but I don’t feel it’s worth my effort to go back and find them.

Well, it’s just my theory. If I’m wrong, I apologize in advance.

Irrespective of who you really are, George–you need some help man.

July 30, 2004 @ 4:04 am | Comment

I can’t believe this: I miss all the good stuff by not checking in for a day!

Richard, I’m with Conrad: it’s your website, you can ban or leave George be as you wish. There doesn’t seem to be much sense in many of them but if you want to keep access to what the raving lunatics are thinking it’s worth keeping him around.

As for Jing the comments are way off the mark. Are you implying the expats are in position to comment on China? If we follow your rule then the rest of the world is no position to comment on the USA’s actions, either. The beauty of the modern era is people can be educated in other cultures, politics and history and then make legitimate remarks about them. It make be a shock to the system, but there it is. Deal with it.

I’d spend more time on this but it isn’t worth it. Brainwashed minds cannot be changed.

July 30, 2004 @ 4:12 am | Comment

Richard,

You, me, and George go way back. You know my feelings on the matter.

Kevin
loser AND asshole

July 30, 2004 @ 7:49 am | Comment

This is NOT about freedom of speech because Peking Duck is not a public forum. It’s a private blogspace. If you want to ban him or put him on probation, that’s your call – it’s your HTML.

Personally, I find such comments a complete waste of my time. I come to a blog looking for insights, not lame childish rants. I say bid him a permanent “zai jian”, and make room for more intelligent commenters (hopefully both Chinese and expat).

Please don’t let a fine blog site devolve into another internet mud-wrestling room.

July 30, 2004 @ 8:19 am | Comment

I think the funniest thing would be if it turned out that Conrad actually is one of George’s American colleagues.

July 30, 2004 @ 8:22 am | Comment

Okay, I understand all the arguments. The majority seems to be getting a perverse kick out of George, so I’ll take no action for now. For now.

Henry, I really don’t think he’s a laowai. I’ve noticed the shifts from God-awful grammar to merely mediocre grammar as well, and they seem to correspond to his moods. When he is enraged — like whenever he addresses Conrad — his grammar takes a steep dive, presumably because he’s typing fast and furious, which I think explains the discrepancy.

July 30, 2004 @ 12:32 pm | Comment

Simon I will assume you made a typo and meant to say “are not in a position…” I was not saying this at all but rather that many expatriates are misinformed. Many come already with the idea that the PRC is evil (true or not) and thus everything it does is wrong. With that in mind, expatriates tend to default to the anti-China position without bothering and stick to this simply because the Chinese take the other position.

Also I needn’t remind you that the issue of Taiwan is above all an issue of territoriality and national sovreignty, issues vital to the interests of all states. Critiques of human rights are one thing, communist excesses another, but advocating seccession while not being a party to the outcomes is both wholely unwelcome and dangerous.

As for calling me brainwashed, that is your perogative. We all have our own prejudices that we carry and I doubt anything will really change them.

July 30, 2004 @ 1:41 pm | Comment

Several points in this thread interest me.

I think George should be cut some slack and allowed to stay. As pointed out, no one has to read him. My belief rests on free speech principles and inclusion instead of exclusion. However, the principles of free speech have some known and sensible limitations. For instance, if George gets absolutely loony, with gibberish, just eliminate his comment, but don’t ban him.

It seems George has something against Conrad, which is understandable as Conrad seems opinionated and thinned skinned. Conrad should be able to take care of himself as he can throw the punches; one would assume him can take them also.

Bloggers who claim they own the site,I recognize they pay money for it, set it up and maintain it, as a justification/shield for autocractic control of the site and the right to censorship are off base. I liken blogging to being in the public domain inviting visitors from the public, to read and comment, much as public accomodations vinvite members of the public to use their facilities. A person owns a hotel, maintains it, advertizes it and asks the public to use it. Ask one, ask all(in the U.S.). The innkeeper cannot discriminate just becasue he does not like the customer or does not like what he says, unless of course, the conduct or speech goes over the line into criminal activity or into circumscribed categories of prohibited speech. I think blogkeepers should have similar restrictions on their censorship ability.

George, you have done your thing with Conrad, now provide us with comments about other issues, especially if you are HK or mainland people. I think most of the people who read this blog are interested in issues involving China mainland, Taiwan and HK and would appreciate the points of view of people from those areas.

July 30, 2004 @ 6:54 pm | Comment

Thanks for the opinions, Pete. I’ve decided not to ban George, and I haven’t deleted any of his comments. Not yet.

July 30, 2004 @ 7:39 pm | Comment

So we’re losers for coming to China because we can’t find a job in the States. Interesting comment by “philosopher” George. I wonder if he has ever bothered to check out the number of Chinese living in the States and lining up at our embassies to come the U.S.? Are they losers for going there?

As for not finding a job in the States – I quit my job to earn practically nothing here (in comparison) thinking I could make a difference here in China and by my walk of life, show the people I come into contact with that all Americans are not ***** despite our political differences.

One more thing, what about the American murdered in China some months ago? I guess Boy George liked that!

Oh well!

July 30, 2004 @ 11:26 pm | Comment

Well, just because George is Chinese, don’t get on his case about his calling expats a bunch of losers and misfits. I used to hear it all the time amongst the HK expat population to refer to the FiLTH that filled the bars and boardrooms … Failed in London, Try Hong (Kong). If expats are allowed to make these jokes about themselves (and frequently do), you can hardly blame George for picking up on that … even if he hasn’t quite recognised that shades of meaning and self-depreciation by expats themselves.

July 31, 2004 @ 2:47 am | Comment

losers are always losers, because only losers always bear a negative attitude, complains and critisize all the time without good purpose, this attitude won’t help him successful anyway! becaue i met successful american too, they try to enjoy to good sides, also critisize the bed sides, but speak with good purpose, not like the losers here, complaining the CCP, complaining the chinese people, complaining the house they live, complaining the water they drink, complaining the food they eat here, complaining the taxi, complaining the hospital etc, complaining everything, i just don’t understand if there is nothing good here, why should they come to china??? they even laugh at the poor chinese here as if they were rich, all forgot how much debt they own to the credit card company in their own country, yes, many chinese live in shitty house, but remind losers here, you own nothing, besides, even so, most chinese treat you losers friendly enough, while they are not worth of getting you to laugh at them! losers! asshole!!!

August 1, 2004 @ 3:32 am | Comment

Sadly Andrea, this is the real Conrad persona.

August 1, 2004 @ 11:10 pm | Comment