Absurdity, Allegory and China

From yesterday’s Xinhua, China earmarks 73 mln USD for rural environment protection we read that the Ministry of Environmental Protection is throwing what seems to be a lot of money into the polluted countryside to deal with environmental issues. The fund would help save 600 villages out of severe environment problems and award 100 others [...]

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In a 2005 essay by OMA (Office of Metropolitan Architechture) partner Ole Scheeren Made in China, which appeared as the introduction to Architecture and Urbanism July 2005 Special Issue entitled CCTV by OMA, Mr. Scheeren stated: As the national television station, CCTV has a direct relationship to the State – is information filter and propaganda [...]

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Here are a few rush hour shots from a couple of weeks (Nov. 7 , 1008) back which I’ve finally gotten around to. Click photos to see larger view.

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Reading my ShortStat counter this evening I saw the following at the top of the “Last Keyword” box, which tracks Google searches where this blog site was referenced: “chinese school girls taking off soxks (sic).” Hmmmm. Why me in this one? So, I went to Google to find out how I’d popped up in this [...]

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Recently I visited Gangca Tibetan Primary School (elevation 3292 meters, 10, 800 feet) to view a local style of stone architecture called  rDo sBis (in the local Tibetan dialect it is pronounced do we, as in “Do we know where we are?” – accent on the we. This is one of the three styles characteristic [...]

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It’s well after midnight and I can’t get to sleep. The wind is whistling through the windows, which don’t quite shut. Never have. Later today I’ll head to Beijing and early tomorrow morning to Qinghai where the wind will be stronger and the temperatures colder. The sky will be brilliantly blue if it’s not raining [...]

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What a week! First the Phillies won the World Series, and now Barack Obama has won the US presidential election.  This blog usually deals with things nominally China, though there are times when I foul one off into the cheap seats, most notably regarding baseball. No apologies. I love the game despite the hyper-spectacle of [...]

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I’ve added The Plateau Music Project to my blogroll, and I’d encourage you to have a look and a listen. I know several of the people involved in this project, doing the difficult work of recording and archiving what is rapidly being lost. The Tibetan Endangered Music Project was founded in order to preserve endangered [...]

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I get to read the hard-copy of the New Yorker two to four weeks after it’s available in the US. I should go to their website more often. The Stolen Forests by Raffi Khatchadourian deals with the immense amount of Russian timber that makes it’s way into Suifenhe in Heolongjiang. It’s a tale of corruption, [...]

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