Must-Read Articles on 1989 Protest
Tiananmen killings: Was the media right? from BBC News by James Miles
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8057762.stm
There was no Tiananmen Square massacre, but there was a Beijing massacre. The shorthand we often use of the “Tiananmen Square protests” of 1989 gives the impression that this was just a Beijing issue. It was not. Protests occurred in almost every city in China (even in a town on the edge of the Gobi desert).
Tiananmen at Twenty from The Nation by Jeffrey Wasserstrom
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090615/wasserstrom
How long can the regime keep expressions of discontent from snowballing again into something that threatens its power? This remains an open question, especially in light of the global economic downturn, which has not hit China as hard as it has many other countries but has led to a staggering number of factory closings and prompted an urban-to-rural migration of many workers who are not happy to be heading home. This is a phenomenon to watch, since economic frustrations were a crucial spur to action in 1989 and are likely to figure centrally in the next big challenge the leadership faces from below.
For now, though, the long series of high-growth years provides the regime with a buffer, allowing many who are struggling to think they could do well in the future. The party’s real difficulties will come when the memory of the recent upward surge has receded and a broad cross-section of people who have been left behind start to lose hope of prosperous times ahead. This is bound to happen eventually, but not yet. And we should not underestimate the ability of this regime, which has been so effective at defying the odds, to further delay its long-predicted demise.
Also noteworthy are comment from The Guardian: Lessons from Tiananmen (”The best way to remember those who died in the Tiananmen massacre is to reaffirm the Chinese people’s right to civil liberties”) and an interview with Wang Dan (Wired) on the importance of IT to the political awareness of young Chinese citizens, in which Wang Dan called on Western governments to civil society in China.
Buchimifan (@buchimifan) roamed to the Square 3 or 4 hours ago. According to his tweets, to the East side of Tiananmen Square, “It looked harmonious and there were more police cars than mosquitoes.” Policemen checked his bag politely. “Taking photographs was OK. Some took a lot of photos of policemen.” See the photos taken on the Square by Buchimifan (on Flickr).
“Why don’t those ordinary people disclose their financial condition?”
Written by Caijing (财经) correspondent Wang Heyan (王和岩). Originally in Chinese “为什么老百姓不公布财产？” from Caijing’s website.
CPPCC members from Communist Party stay in Beijing’s Friendship Hotel during the period of Two-Congresses (National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference). Most of them are former or incumbent provincial CPPCC chairmen. All of them have rich political experience and some might even be so care-free as to tell some truth. If I can interview with these guys, I’m gonna get a scoop.
I was wrong. Although less stately, their pride of government official kept me miles away like a hot summer’s sun.
But luckily, not everyone is like that. I waited for two days in the hotel until I finally caught a great figure. I followed him from the entrance of dining hall as this friendly and amicable man walked out. I seized the chance and asked “Mr. Chairman, what’s your opinion on the financial disclosure measures?”
He answered, grinning, “I’m sorry, but I don’t have a clue on this.”
I continued, “Altay, Xinjiang and Cixi, Zhejiang are carrying out financial disclosure measures on officials. Will your province have similar move?”
He answered “I’ve no idea.”
“Have you had discussions on this issue recently?” I asked again.
He said, walking, “No. We didn’t discuss that issue among Communist Party members.”
I wouldn’t let it go, “Will you propose any suggestion or motion in this regard?”
He looked in my eyes and asked me, “No. If this is the case, why don’t those ordinary people disclose their financial condition? And why don’t those entrepreneurs tell the workers how much they profit?”
“Why ordinary people don’t disclose their financial condition,” I could believe what I’ve just heard, and asked to confirm “By entrepreneurs, do you mean the executives of state-owned enterprises?”
Clearly he answered, “No. I meant bosses of private businesses.”
And I was too astonished to say anything.
“I lowered the ethic standard. I thought I was only an ordinary person.” This is what a corrupt official would say when convicted. It seems that on the matter of financial disclosure statement, some officials thought they were ordinary people too.
Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father Translated Awkwardly into Chinese
When Hilary Clinton learned her book Living History was censored by the Chinese publisher, she was “amazed and outraged“. Given Mrs. Clinton’s memoir was heavily censored, I would guess Mr. Obama won’t feel that angry when he discover his memoir Dreams from My Father was translated into Chinese in an awkward and broken way.
I’ve previously known from the Chinese media that President Obama wanted the translation of his books to be satisfactory, and he specifically required translations in all the languages shall have the same cover. I do believe Obama should be happy about the cover, which is the quite the same as English version:
Front cover of the Chinese version of Dreams from My Father
But the Chinese version itself is anything but a satisfactory translation. In fact, the Chinese translation is really awkward, according to this comment on the translation [in Chinese].
This book was translated by Henry (Wang Huiyao) who possesses a shiny resumé and a bunch of glamorous titles. But when it comes to translation, he is far from good. Bill Clinton could be a president and play saxophone as a hobby, but this doesn’t guarantee he is a professional musician.
I wish I could explain how bad the Chinese translation is, but this seems impossible if you can’t read Chinese. And if you can, I’d recommend you to read that blog article linked above. For short, I would like to tell you there was a lot of omission and mistranslation in the Chinese version, and the Chinese text was far from fluent or coherent. Also it seems the translator didn’t know much about American politics (he didn’t even know what a Primary is) or the life of Barack Obama.
Chinese Blogger Attacked When Giving Speech in Bookstore
It was February 14 yesterday, the Valentine’s Day, and it didn’t end up like a day of love, but fear. Chinese liberal blogger and author XU Lai (徐来) a.k.a. ProState (钱列宪) on the Web was attacked by two unidentified men with knives when he was giving a speech at One Way Street Library. Soon after that he was hospitalized and had a surgery. I sincerely wish he will recover soon.
Although nicknamed “ProState”, on most cases the blogger writes “against” the State. Because of his witty satires and sensitive news postings, his blog “ProState has Something to Say” has a large reader base, and has been taken down by the State for many times.
No one knows who did this, and probably we’ll never know. As noted on this blog, Mr. ProState is very much liked among the public. The attackers are not likely to be those who have different opinion, because it is “politically correct” in this country to challenge liberal opinion, you don’t need a knife. Probably not the government either, an assassination in small bookstore is not quite terrifying to the public. The most likely attackers are the evil individuals and companies that were criticized by ProState on his rather influential blog.
What I have to say is, if it was really the government, I’d say democracy is an inch nearer.
