What’s wrong with that. Sounds like me wifey and I having a normal coversation.

June 11, 2005 @ 9:33 am | Comment

I posted this already on the Open Thread but please excuse me if I reproduce it here. I wanted to post this here on the biggest China website in order to reach as many people as possible such is my outrage.

I’d like to complain about a post from a total nutter (abusing China) that bingfeng has posted on his blog under the banner:

“How Some Westerners Look At Me And China”

exerpt:
——————-
“get it straight and get it straight now. Your filty stinking hellhole of a corrupt piss–saliva saturated culture isn’t worth anything else but to be bashed and to be bashed incessantly. Your constantly idiotic defense is so rudimentary of propaganda narrow minded immaturity that is it any f*cking wonder that foreigners when they leave your nasty corrupt cesspool nation that we have a sour, bitter taste in our mouth?”
——————-

I didn’t want to post this on his blog because I was so disgusted that he used the rantings of a complete idiot (you always get 1 or 2, especially on the Net) and in a fit of blatant opportunism held up this post as if to prove what…….?

BTW, this rant was in response to bingfeng accusing somebody of…….yes, you guessed it……”China-bashing”.

Bingfeng: if a “westerner” trawled through a mainstream PRC chat and/or news forum (not just a blog), selected a post from an absolute lunatic, translated it and posted it on a blog under the headline “What some Chinese think of me and the west” you would have gone absolutely berserk, and rightly so.

Therefore, why are you doing this? What point are you trying to prove exactly? That there are 1 or 2 nutters in the world?

What anti-China stereotypes are you trying to confirm with this?

Do you look upon the idiotic rantings of a single lunatic as some sort of confirmation or evidence 0that westerners are all nasty rascists who all deep-down really hate China and want to keep it from ruling the world?

By the way, I should mention that the abusive comments in question came from Horse’s Mouth.

HOWEVER, the Horse’s Mouth blog has nothing at all to do with the comments and particularly the views expressed. The Horse’s Mouth was simply the place where these comments were left.

As a reader of the Horse’s Mouth, I can say that this excellent blog never, to my knowledge, abuses China.

June 11, 2005 @ 10:04 am | Comment

Thanks, Paul. It gives us a lot of insight into why arguments on touchy China-related issues are so defensive, emotional and angry. The arguments begin with defensiveness and rage, which, I believe, all goes back to the inferiority complex issue raised a week or two ago. It explains a lot. It is also a crutch — when you argue from the position of martyr, stating as a given that you are despised by Westerners and an underdog, it’s a lot easier to justify emotional outbursts and to grandstand. I’m not saying anybody actually does that; I’m just being theoretical. 🙂

June 11, 2005 @ 10:16 am | Comment

Apologies for getting so angry! I’m so glad I got that off my chest! I was absolutely livid today when I saw it, outraged is not the word.

Thank you for allowing me to vent my anger on The Peking Duck.

I thought the Open Forum had started just in time but then you linked to it yourself.

Gordon (Horse’s Mouth):

What are your feelings about this? I hope I did enough to distance The Horse’s Mouth from the outburst of that idiot.

Never mind what he actually said, if someone wants to abuse ANYBODY or ANYTHING like that then his words must be treated with the contempt they deserve.

Again, thank you to The Peking Duck for providing the platform.

June 11, 2005 @ 10:34 am | Comment

Okay, I am going to take an unpopular stance on this issue. Sure that comment was vitriolic and smacked of an outraged commentator. If you have a blog, at least one that doesn’t paint a gallant beautiful picture, it’s going to provoke some readers. It’s just part of having a blog and writing on a blog. Emails can also be even more vitriolic. I speak from experience on both of this aspects.

As far as that commentator–deviant surrealist, I don’t really take such a condemning view of what he said nor how he said it. It would be hypocritical of me to do so, and I most certainly feel there are a lot of hypocrites–foreign and Chinese here, though I think self-censorshp, especially for foreigners controls them from saying what they really want to say.

I think also sometimes, some commentators–who have been in China, but are now sitting quite comfortably in their western carpeted bedrooms in front of their PCs or laptops, with the central air blaring, eating their next slice of pizza before going outside and driving down to the local mall, forget the uncomfortable times in China they had.

Instead, now back in their own comfort zones, they adhere to that warm, gushy correct stance of “different cultures are enriching.” They think of how wonderful it was to be living in a different country, and they think how utterly mundane and how utter inadequate they feel back home. So, when a commentator dumps such a negative comment on a blog, they feel a sense of outrage because it threatens that “correct stance” in their minds. The recurring thought of “I will be going back to China someday” conflicts with the comment, and therefore, I must castigate that poster as a racist China hater.

Now look at the various postings here: a Chinese who wants asylum in Australia. The crackdown on the media in China. Pollution in China. Anything and everything–a lot of it is negative, does that make it wrong? Did you ever feel like you couldn’t stand one day outside in China as a foreigner? Did you ever get sick and fed up with the paradigm of a foreign monkey? Did you get fed up with the constant staring and the comments from Chinese who didn’t think you understood them as they chatted about you and your Chinese whore of a wife? The corruption, the filth, and the general refusal to deem anything you said as legitimate because you aren’t Chinese?

But then, maybe those emotions don’t really count because they aren’t real now back home. They are only real when you feel them in the moment, and aren’t worth acknowledging or admitting to–because you’re afraid it might show a moral weakness on your part or worse, be politically unacceptable, maybe even socially unacceptable; deep down, though, you remember, but you don’t want to. It goes against the grain of appealing to romantic interests, and in the moment now, the correct stance in your mind dominates and prevails.

June 11, 2005 @ 7:14 pm | Comment

Hank, there is some real wisdom in your words. It is very easy, very tempting and very natural to romanticize and sentimentalize one’s experience in China. But when you are actually there, it is almost never an easy experience. There are a lot of wonderful experiences and, especially, there are a lot of wonderful people. But life as an outsider in China is replete with frustration and pain. I have to keep remembering this everytime I hear that little voice in my head wooing me back to China. Your comment really drove this home, so thanks.

Should the commenter have lost control like that and spewed invective? I don’t know, it seems unnecessary and counter-productive. It just gave my friend Bingfeng more grist for the “Westerners are China bashers” mill and it doesn’t really contribute much to the dialogue. We can express our discontent, our criticism and our concerns a bit more respectfully.

June 11, 2005 @ 7:27 pm | Comment

Richard,
I agree. The poster’s comment wasn’t productive and can be used as fodder; but as cynical as I sound, I think if it wasn’t that, it would have been something else. As far as vitriolic comments, just stop by the China Daily forums, and you’ll get a good strong dose of it. Appealing to reason is necessary, but appealing to the reality should be considered too. The daily life here cannot be ignored because it speaks too loudly, and that’s not beefing, that’s a fact.

June 11, 2005 @ 7:33 pm | Comment

You’re preaching to the choir, I promise.

I’m reading yet another book about China, a Cultural Revolution memoir, and the writer describes the way the people all speak (and even think?) in slogans. That’s really what the China Daily forums boil down to: slogan shouting. You’ll see evidence of it in the comments of several Chinese blogs as well. It can drive you nuts because there’s no meaningful dialogue, only vacuous phrases. Just an observation.

June 11, 2005 @ 7:41 pm | Comment

Richard,

I saw the title “blog wars” in my RSS reader and I chuckled because I knew where it was going.

I think Hank and yourself have done a fine job of putting things into perspective and playing the devil’s advocate for both sides without ignoring the realities.

I made that post in good humor. Maybe a bit critical, but still in humor and the point I was trying to get at was simply that if you are going to run an English website, is it too much to expect that it be done in a professional manner? For crying out loud, the People’s Daily is supposed to be the ‘mouth piece’ for the Chinese Communist Party so their poor excuse for an ‘English version” site is a direct reflection upon the level of half-assed standards the CCP must feel to be acceptable ( I won’t touch that one any further). Look at Xinhua, while it is still part of the propaganda machine it is, in my opinion, put together rather well and in a professional manner. They even know how to make puns which I believe shows a much higher ability to command the English language.

Anyway, I felt that Bingfeng’s accusations against me as being a ‘China-basher’ were quite unfounded and that’s why I allowed the rabid response from ‘deviant surrealist’ to remain. Besides, as I’ve seen you state before, I don’t like to add further censorship to that which already exists in this country and if that’s how people want to represent themselves, fine. It’s a reflection upon them, not me (Thanks, Paul, for your effort to distance the comments between the poster and myself).

In spite of all the daily frustrations that must be dealt with, I still enjoy my time in China [most of the time]. If I didn’t, I would have fled back to the comforts of home a long time ago. Nor would I have returned 5 different times since my first visit some years ago.

I find it rather intriguing to live in a society where everything you have ever known and valued is challenged on a daily basis. It can also be very [emotionally and physically] tiring at times too.

Cheers! (I’ll add more on your slogans comment a bit later)

June 11, 2005 @ 9:01 pm | Comment

Oops,

Before I get called a hypocrite by the poster of another comment to my site, I have removed one comment from my blog.

Some jackass made the comment (Putting statistics into Perspective) “anyone who kills 30 million Chinese is okay by me”.

Where do these people come from?

June 11, 2005 @ 9:09 pm | Comment

Dear everyone,

As I said below, some people use the anonymity of the internet to express things that they would never say to someone in person. I agree with Richard; it’s mainly a matter of how a thing is said and how the dialog is conducted. I mean, some stuff is just never okay – like cheering on mass slaughter, as Gordon just cited. And maybe certain topics are always going to provoke invective (Taiwan! Taiwan!). But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with honestly expressing one’s frustrations and making level-headed criticisms. And also as they say in shrink terms, keeping it to how you feel when crappy stuff happens to you, not turn it into a huge cultural generalization. Even if you have ample grounds for making the generalization. Report on what happened to you, or people you know. Use concrete examples. That’s much more effective than spewed invective a la Gordon’s poster or the sentiments expressed by some of those Chinese students in Australia. And even if you piss people off or don’t change anyone’s mind, at least you know you tried to do it right.

That’s my take, anyway.

June 11, 2005 @ 9:34 pm | Comment

Thanks Gordon.

June 11, 2005 @ 9:35 pm | Comment

Go on Paul!

Re the abusive commentor to Horse’s Mouth, idiot, pure and simple. Why dress it up anyway different?

Sure, life here can be frustrating sometimes, which, in some wierd and twisted way, just serves to make the goods bits even better. (You’ve got to keep smiling, haven’t you).

davesgonechina/Laowai1979 did a good couple of good posts recently about the “us” and “them” attitudes among mainlanders, you know, the “we’re different, we’re Chinese” mentality, put that together with with the “eternal victim” complex, the “1.? billion minds all think alike” syndrome and I think the result is occasional frustration and that abusive post on Horse’s Mouth. You can hear the frustration in the words.

Gordon was actually fair-minded enough to mention some of the views expressed by the abusive poster as I know he detests censorship. I think I would have left it too but ignored his rants as it wasn’t polite….and if it’s not polite, it’s out of sight, isn’t that right Richard! Ha ha.

June 12, 2005 @ 12:21 am | Comment

Well Martyn you’re welcomed to label the commentator as an idiot, but I happen to think this country is filled with idiots, foreign and Chinese, and unfortunately, both are not out of my sight or worse, out of my hearing.

My wife (yes, she’s Chinese) said to me six months ago, “Foreigners are really stupid” when we met some who came here to teach at a newly opened private language school here. They didn’t come here on working Z visas. One month later, the owner split town with the students money, and the foreigners were left with no money and expired visas, and no plane fare back home. I quickly saw the Oriental stars in their eyes go pale after that.

You don’t do favors by painting reality with a day-glo brush.

If it’s such a wonderful place, why do foreigners spend such an exhorbitant amount of time on the internet? They go outside, they get jeered at, they get ripped off–it’s a wonderful life. Then, they come back to the holy ground of their apartment and pray for internet access. Right? Right.

Politeness be damned, and that poster merely said what he felt at the time, although I could point to many, many Chinese sites where the invective is downright raw (remember Condoleeza Rice’s visit a few months back?); the real obscenity is out there–everyday, but none of us can change it, so we all write about it here, as if Chinese really gave a damn, which they don’t–except when foreigners say something bad about China.

So in summation, lie through your teeth, but don’t expect me to believe you. I’m not that stupid, and the Chinese aren’t either, but they are counting on foreigners to be so, but don’t dress it up any different and if you do, I still won’t believe you.

I can think a million things worse than that commentator’s remarks. Some of you act like the whole world pivots upon that commentator’s or your own comments. It doesn’t. Really! It’s an opinion borne out of frustration. Oh dear it’s not polite?

You think going inside a shit smeared squatter surrounded by 15 chinese hooligans laughing at your private parts as you defecate is polite? You think getting ripped off is polite? You think training little children to giggle, laugh, and point at the foreigner is polite? You think having 9 year old children drill you on American politics as if you represent the very White House itself is polite?

Hope you get my point. Stop dressing it up as different because you sound like an idiot if you do, and a sanctimonious hypocritical one too. End of my Sunday afternoon rant, and Gordon, thank you for having the balls to keep that comment on your site.

June 12, 2005 @ 2:30 am | Comment

Hank, get it all out man! Good rant, this is why Sunday afternoons were created.

I’d label that commentor on Gordons blog an idiot because he was simply abusive, that’s it. You think that’s anyway to put across your views, your anger, your frustration? I don’t

I know what you mean about mainlanders and the ones which act like you mention above, I call them idiots as well, pure and simple. Of course, that means tha there are, as far as I’m concerned, a hell of a lot of idiots in China. Hey, I don’t make the rules, I only play by ’em.

But is the sometimes/often appauling behaviour of mainlanders the benchmark that we should use? Because they do then is it really ok for us to do it as well? I don’t think so.

Re all foreigners are stupid. Of course, many, many mainlanders say this and I know for a fact that it’s a commonly use dphrase in mainland circles.

However, go to the UK, America etc and people don’t generally treat each other with great suspicion, unlike China.

Try and set up a business, do a business deal in the UK and the chances are that all concerned will be generally straight-forward and trustworthy, unlike China.

TRy to get something done in the UK and, again, generally, people won’t lie to you, unlike China.

GIve me a choice on how I would prefer to live and obviously I’d choose the UK, but that not the reality in China and Hank, you’d better get used to it as it ain’t gonna change soon mate.

June 12, 2005 @ 2:52 am | Comment

Hank, well, I felt after I posted that I was being somewhat sanctimonious, but it’s how my mother raised me…not to be sanctimonious, but to be polite. Doesn’t mean that you can’t say what you think (unless like I said it involves hoping for the deaths of 30 million people, which is really not very nice at all). It just means, I don’t know, I’m tired of yelling and invective. I can’t listen to talk radio here (in LA), it’s so hateful and stupid, I get so pissed off just driving down the freeway at times, my blood pressure goes up every day when I read the newspaper…and yeah, I’ve visited some of those English language Chinese chatrooms (like at China Daily) and it’s profoundly depressing and disturbing, and I feel the same way at US sites like Little Green Footballs and so on and so on…there’s just a lot of hate and sh1t and tragedy and trauma in the world and reasons to scream and cry and want to pick up an Uzi every effin’ day.

I just don’t want to add to it, that’s all.

And I want to hear about peoples’ experiences, not just their expressions of anger and rage that result from said experiences. If that makes any sense.

June 12, 2005 @ 3:01 am | Comment

Martyn,
who the hell you talking to? After five years, I know it’s not going to change soon–unless I lead my secret CIA operative forces to charge the mainland and install Subways all over China, which isn’t a bad idea after all really.

My point was simply why the hell ignore the impoliteness and then label that idiot’s comment as impolite?

Come on, the impoliteness is out there everyday, and when one attempts to act like it doesn’t exist or resents those whom vocalize it, as if the impoliteness really doesn’t frustrate him or her, well, man, I find it almost laughable, and I think “Oh man you’re so full of shit!”

No, Martyn, I am not directing this towards you, but it just seems that there are some foreigners who don’t get over it, whom think to admit such a thing is China bashing or as I wrote previously, a moral weakness; they have a big cross to bear, which is that correct stance in their minds. As if that isn’t enough, when someone points outs the less than laudatory aspects of living here, they are suddenly confronted with the collective creed, “You should not say bad things about China!”

June 12, 2005 @ 3:10 am | Comment

Yeah, I can understand completely Lisa, which is frankly, why I don’t post here more often.

June 12, 2005 @ 3:17 am | Comment

I think we’re at cross purposes here and by the way after 5 years you’re still a infant China expat.

I’m saying that cos it took me much more than a decade to reach this present level of thinking in my own mind.

As I said above, I don’t criticise that idiot poster and ignore the idiots in China or make excuses for them so who the hell are you talking to?

You’re right, a lot/most mainlanders are prickly about China and don’t tolerate criticism of China. Should we direct our anger at THEM just because they are not like us?

Don’t you know after 5 years here about the Patriotic Eduction which kicked in after Tian***en and represssion in the media which is partly to blame for creating a general distrust of foreigners/victim mentality complex and a nation of nationalistic and brain-dead people utterly uncapable of independent thought?

Yeah, rant and rave about it, get all the anger off your chest but don’t try and tell me about China and/or how I should be reacting to it.

June 12, 2005 @ 3:23 am | Comment

Hank, I think there’s a difference between you posting about your frustrations based on your daily experiences and some guy who’s just shouting, “your country sucks and is a sh1thole!” That’s kind of what I was trying to say. The latter is just venting, and it might be satisfying to the ventor (sp.?) but it’s not like I’m going to get that much out of it (unless its the rude pundit talking about Bush, but that’s another subject).

I like to hear peoples’ stories, and I also like to hear peoples’ reasoned arguments. I’m more of a story-teller myself so that’s the approach I tend to take.

Anyway, hang in there, and I really am going to sleep now…

June 12, 2005 @ 3:25 am | Comment

Martyn,
“by the way after 5 years you’re still a infant China expat.”
you really think that? I don’t. I think you’re just using that as fodder to rear back off your sensitivity. Most foreigners don’t stay here that long, but I willing to concede I don’t have a bead on this place, but I never stated I did, or presumed I did.
WTF? You got me all wrong. I said I wasn’t directing towards you, and I wasn’t attempting to tell you how to react. I see I struck a nerve. Don’t worry. I’m good at that, but honestly, I wasn’t directing at you, but I do know about the Patriotic Education act.

By the way, didn’t you state, “Hank, you’d better get used to it as it ain’t gonna change soon mate.?”

Before making statements like that, you’d better get use to people responding and not always in confirmation of everything you state. Isn’t that why we all comment? Or was that abolished as part of the Patriotic Education Act too?

Sorry if my words sound in anger, but they’re not. I am just pointing out, oh how do they say it here? The other side of the coin?

I apologize, but it was never my intention to offend or insult you.

June 12, 2005 @ 3:37 am | Comment

Martyn,
Really!

June 12, 2005 @ 3:39 am | Comment

Look, I don’t want to get all heavy but mainlanders leering at you when you’re on the toilet, mothers pointing at foreigners and teaching their kids to say, hello is ABSOLUTELY NORMAL for a lot of people here.

YES, this challenges the very basics of the cornerstone of western cultural values that I share with you and YES, in China even the most basic of tenets that we were all brought up with are up for grabs and mean nothing here.

You’ve got to bear in mind that what is dowright rude, stupid, annoying, totally frustrating for us in China is NORMAL for them.

Sure, a lot of the world understands what we’d call basic manners and a lot of world does but China doesn’t. They don’t conform to our cultural norms and that can be absolutely maddening most of the time.

June 12, 2005 @ 3:41 am | Comment

Hank mate, no offense taken and don’t you go apologising as it’s not needed.

I want to repeat that I only said you’re an infant expat because it’s taken me personally more than 10 years to reach the kind of inner peace that I kinda enjoy now. You’re right, the vast majority of expats don’t stay for more than 5 years.

I know exactly what you’re saying. Yes, get the other side of the coin out there in the open but I’m only doing the same from my point of view.

Let’s also not forget how difficult it can be sometimes to have a Chinese wife!

June 12, 2005 @ 3:46 am | Comment

…and Hank, you should post here more often. Trust me on that.

Hey, I’m getting tired of the reputation of being the site’s premier China-Basher anyway, you could take up some of the slack.

June 12, 2005 @ 3:50 am | Comment

“Let’s also not forget how difficult it can be sometimes to have a Chinese wife!”

Martyn,
Mate, I love you. Anyone who can state that will make me ketou down and prostrate myself before him, and that definitely includes you.

Just keep posting. I love your comments (fact is, I agree 100 percent and they generally confirm what I’ve experienced and/or thought).

I know five years ain’t shit, but I really don’t want to know more..and it isn’t really a point of pride with me–the smart foreigners leave earlier, at least I like to think so. (the last statement was directed only at me and me only)

Anyway, thanks for understanding. About posting more, well I don’t know. I think Other Lisa has a point. How much can I vent about– what you pointed out– is normal behavior?

Makes me look foolish really, and I know it does. Just don’t like to be reminded of it–China bashing or not. We are all self-conscious about our experiences and opinions. Maybe even paranoid? well that’s another issue of mine, I’d rather not go into.

Anyway, thanks for understanding!!! (three exclamation points express sincerity)

Best,
Hank

June 12, 2005 @ 3:58 am | Comment

Good on yer Hank.

Re Chinese wife, yes, it’s funny when one meets another foreigner who says they have a CW. One only needs to look at them, shake ones head and sigh. It usually guarantees exactly the same reaction.

After re-reading one of my comments above I really regret saying you’re a Chinese infant as it sounds patronising. I really only meant that I was a China infant after 5 years and how I think nowadays is very different to how I thought then. Forgive, forgive.

About you posting or not, the thing I like best about The Peking Duck is that I can be among people who really KNOW China. The davesgonechina, the Other Lisas, the Shanghai Slims, the Filthy Stinking No 9’s of this world are all on here.

Bit like being in my local pub but with a few brain cells added! Ha ha. (Elephant & Castle, Guangzhou).

June 12, 2005 @ 4:33 am | Comment

Hank,

If you get the chance, drop me an email. The address is posted on my blog.

June 12, 2005 @ 8:23 am | Comment

My wife (yes, she’s Chinese) said to me six months ago, “Foreigners are
really stupid” when we met some who came here to teach at a newly
opened private language school here. They didn’t come here on working Z
visas. One month later, the owner split town with the students money, and
the foreigners were left with no money and expired visas, and no plane
fare back home. I quickly saw the Oriental stars in their eyes go pale
after that.

You don’t do favors by painting reality with a day-glo brush.

Hank, please post here every day. Please?

June 12, 2005 @ 9:53 am | Comment

Ha! What a great little debate Hank and Martyn!

Yes, Hank, I agree with Martyn and Richard, come and post on the Peking Duck everyday because you are amongst friends here.

June 12, 2005 @ 10:02 am | Comment

ha ha. Classic.

June 12, 2005 @ 11:09 am | Comment

Hank,

I drug my wife in here to read your comments (also married to a Chinese woman) and I could almost count the level of jaw drops by the word. Priceless!!

I’m thinkin of starting another blog just for foreigners married to Chinese women.

It’s not a slam, I love my wife dearly, but sometimes she drives me up the wall with some of the shit she comes up with.

(just a short example)

I went to get a new tattoo the other day (I’ll be posting about it later) and afterwards they wanted to wipe the surface of the tattoo with iodine (one of two things that can kill me quickly). I took one look and said no f*cking way. I know what that is and I’m deathly allergic to it. She told the ‘boss’ (not the tattooist) and he said, oh but he should have this.

She turns to me and says, “he does this for a living and he says you should do it”.

Hellllooooooooo! McFly! Anybody home in there!

Really, there are times that I go to the top of my building just to scream.

June 12, 2005 @ 11:31 am | Comment

oooh tattoos! hope you put up a photo.

Hank, I hope you do post. we miss you!

June 12, 2005 @ 1:27 pm | Comment

Hey Other Lisa,

I didn’t realize that you were the Paper Tiger. I think I’ve bought up all of your shares on Blogshares 😛

I’ll throw your link up on my blogroll list.

Cheers!

(oh yeah, I’ll put a photo up soon. I want to wait until its healed a bit.)

June 12, 2005 @ 7:07 pm | Comment

I’m thinkin of starting another blog just for foreigners married to Chinese women.

What a great idea! And you’d be just the guy to do it, Gordon. For what it’s worth, Xiufen says;

The Government made Chinese people stupid

She’s a published author, and high in one of the “alternate” political parties, but her English is just medium, so she’s learned to get to the meat of the point. I won’t tell you about the nutty shit she comes up with on other days.

Great comments: I won’t try to improve on them.

June 12, 2005 @ 11:29 pm | Comment

Hey Gordon, in a moment of synchronicity, I just added you to my blogroll as well!

And what the hell is blogshares?!

June 12, 2005 @ 11:32 pm | Comment

It’s some sort of pretend share buy and sell thing where blogs are like corporate companies.

I think the share price goes up and down with the success of the blog.

Gordon must obviously see great success for your blog as he’s bought your shares.

He knows what he’s doing as he is (or was very recently) a blog-share millionaire!

June 13, 2005 @ 4:18 am | Comment

Lisa, if you are even more confused now, then you’d better go to the Horse’s Mouth and click on the little “blogshares” box somewhere on the left I think.

June 13, 2005 @ 4:20 am | Comment

I presume you all know the book “The Ugly Chinaman”? Can’t remember the title in Chinese, but it’s available in English translation … by a Taiwanese guy whose name also slips my awful memory. Anyway, he basically vents his spleen about what’s wrong with Chinese people these days, and doesn’t really say anything worse than you guys.

As for the old generation… I had a very enjoyable evening in Tianjin with about a dozen university academics in their 60s (and their wives) … and I have to say that they were collectively one of the most gracious and civilised groups of people I have ever had the fortune to be around. I could never imagine them doing any of the shit that the younger generation of Chinese inflict on foreign visitors, no matter how hard to perpetrators (and some foreigners) may try to justify it. Frankly, the way they carry on is a perversion of Chinese culture. You know, Confucius once talked of a town where the officials didn’t have to do anything about guests from other regions, because the people would naturally care for them … that was his idea of ideal Chinese culture.

June 13, 2005 @ 9:16 am | Comment

Bo Yang was mentioned in Jerome Keating’s article Filthy. He spent 12 years in prison during the KMT fascist rule.

uglychinamen.com (or something very close to that) is blocked in China. It’s a collection of the writings you speak of.

June 13, 2005 @ 9:43 am | Comment

Hehehe…Paul’s got it.

too bad I can’t cash any of that in for real dough. I started playing less than a month ago and now I’m sitting on 23 million.

Other Lisa, (how fitting since my aunts name is lisa) if you have any questions, just email me and I’ll help you set it up if you’re interested.

Don’t even think of buying shares in The Peking Duck, they’re all taken.

If you’ve got a blog, go to my site or Laowai’s and click on the Blog Shares icon. Then register your own site and claim your blog. I find it to be a lot of fun.

June 14, 2005 @ 7:41 am | Comment

So it’s like a stockmarket version of rotisserie baseball, kinda?

I don’t know, I think if I find one more thing to do online that takes up time I am going to be in biiig trouble…

June 14, 2005 @ 10:27 am | Comment