Thursday, August 13, 2009
Some anecdotal evidence as to why one should be paranoid about the media (yes, even the NYT you latte-sipping, tree-hugging, pinko-hippie terrorist)
Tibet got a lot of attention last year due to the 3/14 riots. The international media was up in arms. Human rights activists called for a parallel human rights torch relay as a mockery of the Olympic torch relay. From what one could decipher from the news media, it seemed like a classic Elves vs. Orcs tale. The Chinese were unequivocally wrong.
The following are a couple of conversations I've had with Tibetans and Han Chinese. This isn't necessarily the truth about the situation in Tibet, but it does make the picture a bit more nuanced, something I never read or heard about while watching the news coverage in the US:
1. A Tibetan girl selling maps for money noted that the riots was basically the result of "the Dalai Lama messing around." The Dalai Lama is enlightened, yes, but he is also the political leader of Tibet. So that means he isn't just some religious guru that transcends the politics. Rather, he gets right into the dirt as well.
2. Monks and religious leaders live in the nicest conditions, far above those inhabited by ordinary Tibetans. Tibetans are deeply religious, so this is understandable, but I think this has led to sharply divergent views on Tibetan within Tibetans. It seems that the monks are the ones who deeply oppose government rule, not ordinary Tibetans. Monks require children to not talk to PLA soldiers or accept their food.
3. Not all PLA soldiers are heartless monsters. One was practically begging for a tourist to put out his cigarette in the Potala Palace compound for the sake of protecting the sanctity of the palace. No one wants violence.
4. Han and Tibetans get along. I believe that if it wasn't for the government and it wasn't for the monks, there would be no conflict. Its not ethnic, but political.
5. Despite all this, repression of religious freedom is real. Soldiers are everywhere.
6. If the Chinese propaganda ministry (I don't use propaganda ministry negatively here because that's what it is along with the White House press secretary, etc.) wasn't so stupid, China would have a much better public image in the world right now. They don't understand that press freedom actually helps them because reporters would then become more understanding.
7. Most of the participants of Tibetan riots, according to several people, were Sichuanese Tibetans, who are considered a separate group from Tibetans from Tibet.
The following are a couple of conversations I've had with Tibetans and Han Chinese. This isn't necessarily the truth about the situation in Tibet, but it does make the picture a bit more nuanced, something I never read or heard about while watching the news coverage in the US:
1. A Tibetan girl selling maps for money noted that the riots was basically the result of "the Dalai Lama messing around." The Dalai Lama is enlightened, yes, but he is also the political leader of Tibet. So that means he isn't just some religious guru that transcends the politics. Rather, he gets right into the dirt as well.
2. Monks and religious leaders live in the nicest conditions, far above those inhabited by ordinary Tibetans. Tibetans are deeply religious, so this is understandable, but I think this has led to sharply divergent views on Tibetan within Tibetans. It seems that the monks are the ones who deeply oppose government rule, not ordinary Tibetans. Monks require children to not talk to PLA soldiers or accept their food.
3. Not all PLA soldiers are heartless monsters. One was practically begging for a tourist to put out his cigarette in the Potala Palace compound for the sake of protecting the sanctity of the palace. No one wants violence.
4. Han and Tibetans get along. I believe that if it wasn't for the government and it wasn't for the monks, there would be no conflict. Its not ethnic, but political.
5. Despite all this, repression of religious freedom is real. Soldiers are everywhere.
6. If the Chinese propaganda ministry (I don't use propaganda ministry negatively here because that's what it is along with the White House press secretary, etc.) wasn't so stupid, China would have a much better public image in the world right now. They don't understand that press freedom actually helps them because reporters would then become more understanding.
7. Most of the participants of Tibetan riots, according to several people, were Sichuanese Tibetans, who are considered a separate group from Tibetans from Tibet.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Sky burial
There's something incredible about being kilometers up in the sky and the clouds so close that you can just reach up and wiggle your fingers to have them touch you. Being high makes you want to go even higher. That feeling pushes itself until you're not just with the clouds, but surging and flying past them. All you want to do is climb every mountain around you and then after that, climb even higher.
It would be wrong to ignore the fact that the sky burial was most likely borne out of practical considerations: the lack of fuel source for cremation, or the rockiness of the ground, preventing in-ground burial. But I'd like believe to some degree that it also encapsulates that wish to fly straight up into the sky after a lifetime of being so agonizingly close.
The burial goes like this: the corpse is cut into tiny pieces by Tibetan specialists. Bones and cartilage are ground into a pulp and mixed with yak butter and others. It is all left on a mountaintop, where vultures and elements wear the body down until ideally nothing remains. The birds and the wind carry every piece of the body into the sky. Some sources say that it is a final act of compassion to the rest of the world, giving alms to the birds. At the same time, it perhaps also reunites the body with that which resides just above it.
Either way, its a practice that as far as I know only exists in Tibet. There's a sort of perfect sense to it that is awe inspiring.
Anyways, what is it about retrospective romanticizing? There was hardly any reflection while I was in Tibet - only afterwards.
It would be wrong to ignore the fact that the sky burial was most likely borne out of practical considerations: the lack of fuel source for cremation, or the rockiness of the ground, preventing in-ground burial. But I'd like believe to some degree that it also encapsulates that wish to fly straight up into the sky after a lifetime of being so agonizingly close.
The burial goes like this: the corpse is cut into tiny pieces by Tibetan specialists. Bones and cartilage are ground into a pulp and mixed with yak butter and others. It is all left on a mountaintop, where vultures and elements wear the body down until ideally nothing remains. The birds and the wind carry every piece of the body into the sky. Some sources say that it is a final act of compassion to the rest of the world, giving alms to the birds. At the same time, it perhaps also reunites the body with that which resides just above it.
Either way, its a practice that as far as I know only exists in Tibet. There's a sort of perfect sense to it that is awe inspiring.
Anyways, what is it about retrospective romanticizing? There was hardly any reflection while I was in Tibet - only afterwards.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Chengdu
Just a few more words about what Chengdu has been like since I'm in this hotel and I have internet access:
So we haven't made it to Tibet because we don't have original copies of documentation from the Chinese government authorizing our entry into Tibet. Luckily, for once, it seems that things are on track. We had Lhasa ship the original documents for about 5 USD and we received it in about six hours. We are set for tomorrow if everything goes as planned.
The driver of the hotel shuttle from the airport to the aforementioned hotel was interestingly in cahoots with every single business in town, it seems. In fact, while driving the hotel shuttle, he recommended for us to to go to a different hotel. "You know, don't tell my bosses, but my friend has a great hotel that you guys can live in. Its cheaper and bigger for sure."
Later on, we asked him to recommend a good place to eat local Sichuan food. He maintained that there was no good place to eat around here since it was the boondocks, far away from Chengdu proper. We asked him to take us to the airport instead. We drive for a while and he pulls over in front of a little restaurant. "Oh yeah, this place is great, my friend owns it." Good man.
After dinner, we walked to the airplane cargo service to pick up our documentation. The cargo service involved walking down a narrow, unpaved road for about 45 minutes or so. We got a rickashaw man (friendly guy) to carry us about halfway for 4 yuan, which is a measly amount: 70 cents. We saw people digging through trash on the way back for copper to sell or other odds and ends. We wasted about 1000-2000 yuan the past three days.
So we haven't made it to Tibet because we don't have original copies of documentation from the Chinese government authorizing our entry into Tibet. Luckily, for once, it seems that things are on track. We had Lhasa ship the original documents for about 5 USD and we received it in about six hours. We are set for tomorrow if everything goes as planned.
The driver of the hotel shuttle from the airport to the aforementioned hotel was interestingly in cahoots with every single business in town, it seems. In fact, while driving the hotel shuttle, he recommended for us to to go to a different hotel. "You know, don't tell my bosses, but my friend has a great hotel that you guys can live in. Its cheaper and bigger for sure."
Later on, we asked him to recommend a good place to eat local Sichuan food. He maintained that there was no good place to eat around here since it was the boondocks, far away from Chengdu proper. We asked him to take us to the airport instead. We drive for a while and he pulls over in front of a little restaurant. "Oh yeah, this place is great, my friend owns it." Good man.
After dinner, we walked to the airplane cargo service to pick up our documentation. The cargo service involved walking down a narrow, unpaved road for about 45 minutes or so. We got a rickashaw man (friendly guy) to carry us about halfway for 4 yuan, which is a measly amount: 70 cents. We saw people digging through trash on the way back for copper to sell or other odds and ends. We wasted about 1000-2000 yuan the past three days.
Research
So I haven’t written about my research at all. That’s because my research really just involves buying ever flavor of Chinese ice cream there is and spinning around in circles to prove to passerby that I, in fact, will never get dizzy (to the Charles Kao, Friedman Family Travel, and Summer Environmental studies: I have been hard at work comparatively analyzing mode transportation shifts in urban landscapes). Here are just some very preliminary thoughts before I finally start writing my reports and papers:
For the past two months, I’ve been in Shanghai, China and surrounding Jiangsu province conducting research on Chinese attitudes towards different modes of transportation and their consequences, from widespread smog to the growth of a wasteful consumer culture to the exacerbation of class differences. I surveyed around 1000 students, conducted interviews, and read a constant stream of news stories about cars and public transportation.
One thing for sure: the Chinese want cars. Chinese consumer demand recently surpassed that in the US and the car craze is evident in pretty much every publication. In my survey, most students expressed strong feelings to buy a car as “as soon as they were financially able.” According to a recent Chinese news piece, whereas the “big three” items a bachelor needed to find a wife in the 1980s were a bicycle, a washing machine, and a television set, the big three that a single dude needs today is a car, a house and over 10,000 yuan monthly (now you know, eligible bachelors and creepy nerdy white dudes with Asian fever otherwise known as all my friends!). Interestingly, according to the survey, more people expressed strong feelings for a car in Shanghai as opposed to the smaller, less developed Zhenjiang.
All of this has widespread consequences. People know it too. But despite a high degree of concern expressed for global warming, acid rain, air pollution, and more, the concern did not ameliorate the desire for a car. It’s also important to remember that most people living in China today have experienced firsthand what poverty is and wanting a better life is only natural. I came into the project vehemently opposed to private car ownership but have somewhat revised my views. Cars are a novelty, a luxury that many people have envied for decades. Before people start getting on bikes or returning to public transportation en masse, a culture in which most people have experienced the novelty of driving a car is must already be present.
I maintain my love for public transportation, however, and I think that the gradual replacement of public transportation with cars will result in subtle, but important effects on living in cities. For example, public transportation is one of the last truly public places, where the rich mingle with the poor and people are forced to watch and interact with each other. The white-collar car driver goes to work enclosed from the rest of society, works in his high-rise building, and then returns to his isolated, high-rise apartment. It’s a sad living and with my first long experience with public transportation, my environmentalism increasingly has become a means towards understanding how modern life as a whole can be improved.
For the past two months, I’ve been in Shanghai, China and surrounding Jiangsu province conducting research on Chinese attitudes towards different modes of transportation and their consequences, from widespread smog to the growth of a wasteful consumer culture to the exacerbation of class differences. I surveyed around 1000 students, conducted interviews, and read a constant stream of news stories about cars and public transportation.
One thing for sure: the Chinese want cars. Chinese consumer demand recently surpassed that in the US and the car craze is evident in pretty much every publication. In my survey, most students expressed strong feelings to buy a car as “as soon as they were financially able.” According to a recent Chinese news piece, whereas the “big three” items a bachelor needed to find a wife in the 1980s were a bicycle, a washing machine, and a television set, the big three that a single dude needs today is a car, a house and over 10,000 yuan monthly (now you know, eligible bachelors and creepy nerdy white dudes with Asian fever otherwise known as all my friends!). Interestingly, according to the survey, more people expressed strong feelings for a car in Shanghai as opposed to the smaller, less developed Zhenjiang.
All of this has widespread consequences. People know it too. But despite a high degree of concern expressed for global warming, acid rain, air pollution, and more, the concern did not ameliorate the desire for a car. It’s also important to remember that most people living in China today have experienced firsthand what poverty is and wanting a better life is only natural. I came into the project vehemently opposed to private car ownership but have somewhat revised my views. Cars are a novelty, a luxury that many people have envied for decades. Before people start getting on bikes or returning to public transportation en masse, a culture in which most people have experienced the novelty of driving a car is must already be present.
I maintain my love for public transportation, however, and I think that the gradual replacement of public transportation with cars will result in subtle, but important effects on living in cities. For example, public transportation is one of the last truly public places, where the rich mingle with the poor and people are forced to watch and interact with each other. The white-collar car driver goes to work enclosed from the rest of society, works in his high-rise building, and then returns to his isolated, high-rise apartment. It’s a sad living and with my first long experience with public transportation, my environmentalism increasingly has become a means towards understanding how modern life as a whole can be improved.
Bad times
I'm sitting in the hotel in Chengdu right now. Why? I have no idea. I should be hiking the Himalayas and half the way into becoming a sherpa right now. Unfortunately, I'm sitting in here in the Detroit of China (just kidding, its actually a really cute city full of pandas...pandas pandas pandas) watching my dad watch TV (watching us?).
What was supposed to happen on our way to Tibet was an overnight train to Beijing for a day and a night, followed by a flight to Lanzhou in Gansu province for three days, and then an overnight train to Lhasa. What happened instead was 1. Missed our flight to Lanzhou and had to buy another ticket, 2. Missed our train to Lhasa and had to buy a plane ticket from Xian to Chengdu to Lhasa instead 3. Realized that we needed original copies of our approval by the (sic) Everything is Super (sic) Tourism Bureau of Tibet and thus missed our flight to Lhasa and had to buy another ticket, finally followed by 4. Sitting in a hotel watching my dad watch the TV watch us. How the hell did we only hit 1 out of 3? Determination and guts.
Anyways this whole fiasco has been 太腐败了 (which means too corrupt...originally meant to refer to the government, its now used in every day language for everything, from a bad situation to taking your friends out to a good meal)...but as they say, Sherpas Never Give Up. And damned if we do. Its now or never (or, like a year). Its Tibet or bust.
What was supposed to happen on our way to Tibet was an overnight train to Beijing for a day and a night, followed by a flight to Lanzhou in Gansu province for three days, and then an overnight train to Lhasa. What happened instead was 1. Missed our flight to Lanzhou and had to buy another ticket, 2. Missed our train to Lhasa and had to buy a plane ticket from Xian to Chengdu to Lhasa instead 3. Realized that we needed original copies of our approval by the (sic) Everything is Super (sic) Tourism Bureau of Tibet and thus missed our flight to Lhasa and had to buy another ticket, finally followed by 4. Sitting in a hotel watching my dad watch the TV watch us. How the hell did we only hit 1 out of 3? Determination and guts.
Anyways this whole fiasco has been 太腐败了 (which means too corrupt...originally meant to refer to the government, its now used in every day language for everything, from a bad situation to taking your friends out to a good meal)...but as they say, Sherpas Never Give Up. And damned if we do. Its now or never (or, like a year). Its Tibet or bust.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Video update extravaganza
Because like most teenagers writing blogs with the sole purpose of striving for some semblance of maturity, I am too dumb and too lazy to persist.
We went to Hangzhou for a while and rode bikes from a bike sharing program around. It was the best single day in China so far. Look at my dad ride that bike! Now that's classic.
This was a fashion show I saw on TV in Nanjing involving women wearing vomitted on dead animals. I'm sorry I have the writing maturity of a ten year old.
 |
| From China |
We went to Hangzhou for a while and rode bikes from a bike sharing program around. It was the best single day in China so far. Look at my dad ride that bike! Now that's classic.
 |
| From China |
This was a fashion show I saw on TV in Nanjing involving women wearing vomitted on dead animals. I'm sorry I have the writing maturity of a ten year old.
This was the solar eclipse in Shanghai. Too bad it was raining the entire day but it was still pretty sweet to see the sky turn entirely black for five minutes. No worries though. I sacrificed some dumplings to summon back the sun. Who knew that sacrificial offerings could be so delicious? |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)