Beijing: The Soft Sleeper Experience

It is so easy to get on the train at 10:30 pm and wake up in Beijing at 8 am that I did it again. Did not bring a camera this time. I took the hard sleeper down, but my friend wanted to take the soft-sleeper back. It was a pleasant experience both ways.

I visited the newly-renovated National Museum of China with my German friend, where there was an exhibit entitled "The Art of the Enlightenment." It was beautifully done. They spared no expense.

In his article for The Art Newspaper, András Szántó asks some probing questions, "Will investments in the National Museum and the Enlightenment exhibition pay off for China and Germany? The question begs larger questions still. Can museums shape social attitudes? Does culture have a meaningful role in statecraft? Should art institutions act in the service of governments?"

En route to the museum on Friday, around noontime, we hit the so-called Night Market off of Wangfujing Street, Dongcheng District. A picture is worth a thousand words:

Spiders, silk worm or bee larvae, geckos, starfish, two kinds of scorpions, and seahorses to name a few of the edible delicacies.

On this trip, I also bought about US$100 of clothes for the coming spring weather. We wandered the streets of Qianmen and eventually went to the Temple of Heaven. We had intended to get to the Summer Palace, but the weather was hot and we got a late start so it made more sense to visit some of the sites in the city.

Obama, not Huntsman, in 2012

Join me in spreading the word to expatriates living in China about a new group supporting Obama in 2012: http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/Obamain2012-China.

My Fellow Americans in China,

While I am a big Matt Damon supporter and even like a lot about the former Ambassador to China, Mr. Huntsman, there is no question in my mind that Barack Obama is the right man for the POTUS job in 2012...since Elizabeth Warren is not running.

In a recent Vanity Fair article, Nobel Laureate in Economics, Joseph Stiglitz, identified the most serious problem facing our nation and Paul Krugman has also written powerfully on the topic of a type of elitism that does not adhere to the Jeffersonian meritocracy that was once the basis for our nation (e.g., http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/opinion/09krugman.html?src=me&ref=general).  Barack Obama, certainly not Donald Trump, Newt Gingrich, Huntsman, Pawlenty, or the fake from Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, is most likely to address these issues--even if we cannot hope for audacity.

Let Barack Obama continue what he has started: http://whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com.  

He has made great appointments, like Lisa Jackson and Elizabeth Warren, Sonya Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. He stopped Osama bin Laden and begun the glacial movement towards an improved health care system. His foreign policy and economic teams had productive meetings with China this week.

Join me in spreading the word to expatriates living in China about this new group: http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/Obamain2012-China.

I am a JD with a Master of Studies in Environmental Law. I am an experienced campaign staffer from New Hampshire, who has been the controversial head of the county Democrats (I accused the State Party of illegal fundraising and spoke ex cathedra about the shamefulness of the Democratic Governor's budget there). I worked for Howard Dean's Presidential campaign (and was a 2004 Convention Delegate for him), volunteered for Ralph Nader in 1996 and 2000 (I know, I know, but I lived in Vermont then), and supported John Edwards in the 2008 NH Primary (I know, I know, but he was for a carbon tax and he talked about poverty).

Before moving to Changchun in February, I ran a nonprofit for fifteen years, called Project Laundry List (www.laundrylist.org), that was on the front page of the Wall Street Journal twice and appeared in the New York Times eight times. We/I were on the World News, CBS Morning Show, and the major national TV stations in Japan, Germany, and Korea. I am proudest that we were on The Colbert Report, though. I am telling you all of this because I want you to know I am serious and doggedly persistent.

I am also busy as can be, teaching and learning about the Waking Green Dragon (the name of my blog). We cannot do this without teamwork so I am asking you to consider joining Team Obama in 2012- China. China Daily reports that there are at least 71,000 Americans (mostly highly educated foreign experts) living here. That is too many people to ignore.

I am looking for steering committee members and individuals with broad networks. Please DO NOT respond to this message, but email me personally at alee@alexanderplee.com.

My goal is to create a massive electronic movement of American expatriates in China who support the President. My main focus in life is on energy and environment issues, but this is a general group. For those interested in energy and environment issues specifically, please see: http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/OFA-EE-China and http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/EnergyandEnvironmentTeam.   

Thanks. Are you in?

Freedom of Religion in China

Regrettably, I have not been to Mass since I arrived here three months ago. I work on Sunday and I have not made a great effort, given my pre-conceived notions of how it might earn me a ticket home or worse. I am not comfortable with attending the services of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, despite my concomitant discomfort with much of the Roman hierarchy.

It seems that dialogue and embracing the religious spirit espoused by China's religious community are essential at this juncture. A total prohibition on communication between the Chinese Catholic clergy and the Vatican seems the most egregious of the accusations leveled by the Commission in the report referenced below. The Great Leap Backward seems to be the biggest thing standing in the way of smoother sailing for the US and China. I pray that we can find common cause.

China Daily reports:

BEIJING -- China's religious community on Friday rejected a US commission report accusing China of religious freedom violations, saying its "finger-pointing" practice and "irresponsible remarks" are not in conformity with a religious spirit.

The section with regard to China included in the report is "strongly subjective, full of prejudices, and not true to reality", according to a written consensus released after a joint meeting of the secretary-generals from China's five major religious groups -- Buddhists, Taoists, Islam, Catholics and Protestants.

In an annual report on religious freedom released on April 28, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent, bipartisan US federal government commission, attacked China, saying it found violations of religious freedom in the country.

"What has been described about China in the report is entirely different from what we have observed and experienced," the consensus said.

 

This is the summary of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom:

FINDINGS: Unregistered religious groups or those deemed by the Chinese government to threaten national security or social harmony continue to face severe restrictions, although the government tolerates some religious activity within approved organizations. Religious freedom conditions for Tibetan Buddhists and Uighur Muslims remain particularly acute as the government broadened its efforts to discredit and imprison religious leaders, control the selection of clergy, ban religious gatherings, and control the distribution of religious literature by members of these groups. The government also detained over five hundred unregistered Protestants in the past year and stepped up efforts to destroy churches and close illegal meeting points. Dozens of unregistered Catholic clergy remain in detention, in home confinement, or have disappeared. Falun Gong adherents continue to be targeted by extralegal security forces and tortured and mistreated in detention. The Chinese government also continues to harass, detain, intimidate, disbar, and forcibly disappear attorneys who defend the Falun Gong, Tibetans, Uighurs, and unregistered Protestants. Because of these systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, USCIRF recommends in 2011 that China again be designated as a country of particular concern., or CPC. The State Department has designated China as a CPC since 1999.

Religious communities continue to grow rapidly in China. Hundreds of millions of Chinese manifest their belief openly. Senior-level government officials, including President Hu Jintao, have praised the positive role of religious communities and articulated a desire for religious groups to promote economic and social development.. There are reports that the government is considering legalizing charitable activities of recognized religious organizations. These are positive steps that could lead to greater accommodation of religious activity sanctioned by the government. At the same time, the government praises religious groups who resist foreign infiltration,. supports extralegal security forces to suppress the activities of so-called cult organizations, actively harasses, imprisons, tortures, and disappears advocates for greater religious freedom, destroys unregistered religious venues, and severely restricts online access to religious information and the authority of religious communities to choose their own leadership and parents to teach their children religion.

PRIORITY RECOMMENDATIONS: Religious freedom encompasses many issues in U.S.-China
relations, including the rule of law, freedom of expression, and the well-being of ethnic minorities. Promoting religious freedom in China is a vital U.S. interest that can positively affect the United Statese future security, economic, and political relations with China. As part of Chinaes CPC designation, USCIRF urges the Secretary of State to impose a new sanction targeting officials or state agencies that perpetuate religious freedom abuses or provinces where religious freedom conditions are most egregious. In addition, USCIRF recommends that the U.S. raise religious freedom concerns in multilateral fora where the United States and China are members, coordinate potential sources of leverage within the U.S. government and with allies to build a consistent human rights diplomacy with China, develop and distribute proven technologies to counter Internet censorship, raise religious freedom and negotiate binding human rights agreements at the U.S.-China Strategic Dialogue, and integrate human rights concerns, consistently and openly, into the entire structure of U.S.-China bilateral relations. Additional recommendations for U.S. policy towards China can be found at the end of this chapter. (pages 124-40)

The section on Catholics begins on page 128.

Shanghai: A Modern City

The airport in Shanghai is tremendous, but I arrived late and it was vacant which struck me as an amusing way to chronicle the journey. The rest of my weekend in this megalopolis was chock full of humanity. This was a very misleading entrance to a city that swarms with people, especially on a holiday weekend. (May 1 is a big deal around here; some of my colleagues have eight or nine days off.)

I proceeded to my CouchSurfer's home where I found that she works in communications for International Paper. We had only the beginning of a good conversation about paper versus pixels. She was incredibly generous and had another chatty (conversation-starved) American sleeping on the floor. Unable to house a third person, she had referred Irina from Romania to another CouchSurfer, but suggested that the two of us pair up for a fun weekend of adventures. That is exactly what I did.

This photograph is more interesting inverted.

In the morning, I left Pudong by subway and headed to People's Square. I waited at a Starbucks where I was approached for a picture (this is very common) by a young Chinese man from Harbin who was in the city for holiday and to get a passport to Singapore so that he could take an exam there later this year. Soon, Irina showed up and the three of us set off. Probably put-off by the price of admission ($35 yuan for the regular and special exhibit), he abandoned us at the door of the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center, which another Shanghaier and CouchSurfer had marked as a "must-see."

Inside the museum, by far the most amazing thing is the scaled model of the whole city of Shanghai. The skyline of this city rivals any other city I have ever visited and The Bund is one of the most gorgeous, urban environments I have ever witnessed. Following are some images from the museum and from The Bund by day and by night. Irina and I paid 30 RMB for a double-decker bus tour that was worth every penny.

The Oriental Pearl Tower

The TCM Museum

On the following morning, I decided to abandon plans with Irina for a shopping trip (prices on clothes are said to be cheap in Shanghai while the food is expensive). I was going to go to Qi Pu Lu (nicknamed Cheapo Lu), but decided instead to go to the Traditional Chinese Medicine Museum by myself, where I lingered for a couple hours and talked a young woman who was studying acupuncture at the Visitor's Desk to give me a tour. As it was the holiday, the gift shop (does anybody need some snake or ginseng?) and the English audio tours were unavailable.

Pictures were not permitted inside the museum, but she and her fellow medical student allowed me to snap a panorama of the third floor's extensive collection of herbal, animal, and mineral samples. It was like Noah's Ark combined with the Arnold Arboretum and the Colorado School of Mines. There were hedgehogs and tiny deer and their antlers and gall bladders from ungulates, armadillos, horns from water buffalo and turtles (live and mounted). There was ginseng and plants few have ever seen. There were geodes and stones that get ground into a dust, too.

In the afternoon, I met Irina and her host, Fiona, for a lunch at YuYuan Gardens. YuYuan Gardens is a charming delight and was filled with amazing architecture and dragons.

A small fraction of the humanity--many foreigners--visible from our restaurant's second-story window. Those on the bridge were on their way to the inner-sanctum (the non-commercial part) of YuYuan Gardens.

Finished lotus leaves which wrapped sticky rice and a sesame ball stuffed made of lotus paste with a poppy-seed filling. The purple scoop is sweet potato. I also had a long kebab-skewer with a fish on it.

Some People and Things in Beijing

A policeman takes a rest in Ritan Park- The Temple of the Sun.

An older gentleman, also in Ritan, flies a kite that looked like a bluebird soaring over the city.

Artist at work in Ritan Park.

A better look at the work in progress.

A group of "pensioners" singing and playing the erhu in Ritan Park.

The erhu is a two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a "southern fiddle"

Some stonemasons at work repairing a sidewalk.

This looks like it was put here at about the time that Hasbro came out with its first CHIPS model.

Soldiers marching on Saturday morning around noon in front of the new National Museum of China, which was an impregnable fortress and must be left for next time.

Publish Post

Men cleaning a building.

Aye, Way, Way Out of Control

One of the readers here asked me about Ai WeiWei. Truth be told, he is much more famous outside of China where people read the Time-100. Most people here are unaware of the controversy.

It is true that China has, over the last few months, increased its arrests and indictments of people who use their pen and/or tongue to inspire dissent or reform. 

It is true that the recent decision to cancel the Documentary Film Festival is also an outgrowth of the chilling on what we, in the United States, see as the freedom of assembly and, more generally, freedom of speech. China is at a crossroads and there are those who think that some in the Party are not smart enough to see the graffiti on the wall, but I trust that they collectively know some further opening and reform is needed so that Chinese people can thrive in the kind of creative environment which leading world powers must maintain if they wish to rise to the top. Ambition, not morality will cause the forces on the National Communist Party's leadership to eventually (and I think soon) re-think the way that they restrict communications and the transfer of information. You are already beginning to see micro-blogs from certain ministries.

In my opinion,  Huntsman was right to speak out. There are large protests in Hong Kong about this and even a few reports that WeiWei is being tortured to get a confession. Who knows?

I suppose comparisons are odious, especially when made between a military person charged with defending the country and an artist whose raison d'etre is to challenge the system. Nevertheless, I cannot help but ask, "What is happening to Bradley Manning?"

In this season of Easter, maybe the best thing to say is, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."

Three Cups of Bitter Truth

There are, in the body politic, economic and social, many and grave evils, and there is urgent necessity for the sternest war upon them. There should be relentless exposure of and attack upon every evil man whether politician or business man, every evil practice, whether in politics, in business, or in social life. I hail as a benefactor every writer or speaker, every man who, on the platform, or in book, magazine, or newspaper, with merciless severity makes such attack, provided always that he in his turn remembers that the attack is of use only if it is absolutely truthful. 

-Theodore Roosevelt

I distributed to a large number of my mentors and former board members a stinging, brutal treatise of muckraking by famed author Jon Krakauer. It is called Three Cups of Deceit.  It deals with a just-as-famous author and humanitarian, Greg Mortenson, who was the author of Three Cups of Tea. I have been thinking a lot about this indictment over the last week, because, quite coincidentally, I am totally absorbed in the gripping Mortenson memoir-cum-novel.

The hot water for this beautiful cup of tea was dispensed from a copper spout no less than a meter in length at a restaurant on my street, Longli Lu. The taste, if you can believe it, matched the exquisite beauty. 2011 (c) Alexander Lee

 

 

One obvious response to this falderal is to say that Gandhi beat his wife and Martin Luther King, Jr., plagiarized, but, like these men, Mortenson has done some great work, even if it is not all that he claims and even if it is more symbolic than real at times.

A second obvious response is to say that Krakauer has done a great service by exposing the duplicity of and mismanagement by the Central Asia Institute's raison d'être, Greg himself; however, any such observation is quickly tempered by the obvious conclusion that Krakauer let his information bake for a long time and the rage that could lead somebody to undertake a project such as Three Cups of Deceit is palpable and rather concerning.

This is certainly more than Lloyd Bentsen exclaiming, "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy." It is not an ad hominem attack, but one that takes Teddy's charge--"[remember] that the attack is of use only if it is absolutely truthful"--and metes it out less with a rake and more with a sledgehammer. 

For me, TR's admonition is missing an important extra caveat. The truthful attack upon a person's character and flaws is not useful inasmuch as it serves only to discredit a scoundrel, it must also lead to societal soul-searching and reform. It is not, for instance, sufficient to say that Mortenson should never manage another nonprofit unless he gets adequate training and demonstrates contrition on par with the gravity of his errors. We must also ask: How do we avoid creating more monsters like Mortenson? What is broken with the way that we run nonprofits? Why do people, who succumb to some of the temptations that Greg has, buckle? What inexorable pressure is there upon those of us who are considered prophetic or pioneering to keep upping the ante?

Some of these questions certainly arose for people who watched The Social Network (2010). Did the twins with the original idea (an arguable point itself, which I hope my reader will concede for sake of this discussion) deserve the credit for Facebook or was it the masterful nerd who executed their idea to the tune of several billion dollars?

I would really be interested in hearing some of your thoughts on this unfolding human drama. I am less interested in the question of loyalties or, whom do you sympathize/empathize with most?  I am much more interested in the questions of reform that this story begs us to consider.