China
March 9, 2009
- A Chinese news Web site reported yesterday that U.S. navy vessels have been busy conducting what they call "illegal surveying activities." Surveying might indeed be "surveilling" spelled phonetically.But, who gives a flying fajita about phonetics. All the Defense Department would ask is that we think about what might have prompted the surveillance in the first place. ...
- Continue Reading » 0 Comments
March 6, 2009
- The short-lived student democracy movement of 1989 had one prominent supporter among the Communist Party leaders: Zhao Ziyang. Fearing a loss of power as the protests grew and ordinary citizens joined the demonstrations, Deng Xioping, then head of the Party, wrote an editorial for the People’s Daily accusing the students of creating “turmoil”. This was really a signal that the hard-liners ...
- Continue Reading » 0 Comments
March 2, 2009
- According to a BBC article, a group of mothers whose children were killed in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989 are now urging the Chinese government to end the taboo against acknowledging the event not as a “political disturbance” but a massacre. They want a full investigation of Deng Xiaoping’s decision to send tanks and troops to crush what was a peaceful demonstration of students and ...
- Continue Reading » 0 Comments
March 1, 2009
- Exciting news: our latest novel, Rabbit in the Moon by Deborah & Joel Shlian has won the the gold medal in the Genre Fiction category for the Florida Book Awards. The Florida Book Awards-now the most comprehensive state book awards program in the nation--is an annual program established in 2006 that recognizes, honors, and celebrates the best Florida literature published in the previous ...
- Continue Reading » 0 Comments
February 17, 2009
- Last night, the Senate passed the modified version of the Baselines bill. This version, our sources say, is the one "approved" by the Chinese government. Essentially, the bill conveniently excluded the seas and oceans between the Kalayaan Islands and Scarborough shoals under our regime of islands, which, effectively means that we don't own those prime properties. This is the official ...
- Continue Reading » 0 Comments
February 9, 2009
- A continuation of a conversation with Wu Qiujing in Fujian Province, Zhangzhou, ChinaWQ - Good evening, Hanshi.SK – Hello.WQ - How's your day?SK - Very excellent and I am still at it.WQ – Good. I have some questions to ask you. Do you have time?SK – Sure.WQ - What do you mean by Self-Revealization? Is it to know more about human nature?SK – Human nature would be an aspect of it. It is ...
- Continue Reading » 0 Comments
February 5, 2009
- I turned in my book review of 'The Vagrants' to the Oregonian newspaper this week. Yiyun Li will be reading at Powell's Books at the end of the month, so the review will run in the Sunday edition prior to her event here in Portland. This is her first novel and follows her award winning short story collection. It is a must-read work with high literary merit, political importance and a story ...
- Continue Reading » 0 Comments
February 2, 2009
- As China faces its own domestic financial crisis, the leadership has received increasing criticism from within the country, most notably the December 10, 2008 Charter ’08, a petition originally signed by 300 dissidents, now with perhaps thousands of additional signatures. Fears of destabilization have produced a wave of crackdowns designed to squelch dissent before a series of politically ...
- Continue Reading » 0 Comments
January 30, 2009
- "Experience is the one thing you can't get for nothing," Oscar Wilde once said.I think of my father born January 31, 1918 between wars, and in the midst of an epic flu pandemic,a man who worked hard all his life, who witnessed the Great Depression, and survived it. I think of his strength, and courage. I think how one can be strong, courageous, and gentle, too.Like Mr. Wilde, my father ...
- Continue Reading » 2 Comments
January 19, 2009
- On December 10, 2008, more than 2000 Chinese citizens released a signed petition they called Charter 08 to mark the 60th anniversary of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The name, Charter 08, came from the famous Charter 77 dissident group formed in cold war Czechoslovakia. The Chinese document calls for an end to one party rule, to be replaced by a system based on human rights ...
- Continue Reading » 0 Comments
