Тигр выходит на поверхность. Новое десятилетие уже пришел на Западе, и в Китае мы снова на земле это не человек с солнечной и Лунного Нового года, между Быка и Тигра. Это время, чтобы оглянуться назад и посмотреть, где мы находимся.

В мировой политики время измеряется десятилетиями, и многие называют 00s десятилетие Китай. Это всего лишь упрощение, эти 10 лет только частью более процесс начался в 78, и, возможно, продолжается до сих пор еще на десять лет больше. И все же, если нам придется выбирать одно событие, которое ознаменовала десятилетие в мировой политике, как и конец холодной войны ознаменовало 90-х годов, подъем Китая является самым разумным выбором. Никаких других событий, вероятно, будет более решающую роль в истории мира.

В первом после этого года издание конце концов, мы доказали, что, в общем тенденция десятилетия, 2008 год был пик присутствия Китая в мировых СМИ, и в 2009 вернулся к относительно нормальному уровню. Этот пик не может скрыть общую тенденцию: что Китай неуклонно растет, чтобы стать мировой сверхдержавой и что она уже меняется баланс сил человечества.

Измерение китайский десятилетие

Если нам придется выбрать один единственный параметр для измерения этого роста, это экономика, которая может дать нам лучший ключ. Существует никакого смысла в движении к десятичных знаков при анализе тенденций десятилетия, так что расчет прост: Китай вырос примерно на 7% быстрее, чем западные страны в последнее десятилетие, и все, кажется, указывают , что это будет продолжаться и в 10 секунд.

* Расчет прост: 1.07 * 10 = 2

В размере 7% дифференциальных год, размер китайской экономики по сравнению с западными экономиками удваивается каждые десять лет. В настоящее время большинство оценок ВВП Китая место между 1/4 и 1/2 от экономики США, в зависимости, если она измеряется в номинальном ВВП или PPP. Это означает, что, если ничего другого изменения в следующем десятилетии, китайская экономика станет крупнейшей в мире в любое время в период между 2020 и 2030 гг.

Последствия этого расчета являются огромными, и они уже работают сегодня. Это потому, что в политике мы ведем себя, как на фондовом рынке: решения принимаются с учетом обозримом будущем, а не настоящего. Китай уже вытесняя ЕС в мировой политике, даже если это часть европейской экономики, даже если он не хочет быть героем. Средства массовой информации и политики делают ставки на будущую стоимость Китая.

Вопрос десятилетия

Конечно, ничто не гарантирует, что рост моделей 00s будет продолжаться и в 10 секунд. Существует одна важная школа мысли, что настаивает на неустойчивость китайской системы. Они упоминают коррупцию, растущее неравенство, отсутствие гражданских прав и гражданского общества, подавление творчества и свободного рынка, неспособность строить бренды мирового класса и финансовой системы в беспорядке, среди других проблем, чтобы оправдать свое предсказание, что рано или поздно Китайская экономика связана рушиться.

Те из нас, кто живет и работает в Китае знают, что эти проблемы являются серьезными и очень реальные, и, что где-то по линии там обязательно будет серьезная реорганизация. И тем не менее, те же прогнозы были сделаны регулярно почти каждый год в течение последних трех десятилетий, и коллапса не оправдались.

Главный вопрос этого десятилетия, когда?

Будет ли китайская остановки экономического роста до или после того, как стать сверхдержавой, как большой, как в США? Будет ли китайская серьезно требовать больше прав и свобод, до или после Китая стала развитой страной? Будет ли экономические и политические корректировок делать постепенно с новым поколением китайских лидеров, или там будет опасно взрыва в это десятилетие?

У нас нет ответов на это сегодня, и вы не должны верить любой эксперт по Китаю, который утверждает, иметь их. Все, что мы можем сделать, это сформулировать вопрос выше, и следить за ранними признаками ответить на него в ближайшие годы.

Существует, однако, одно заявление мы можем сделать сегодня. Глядя на мир, очевидно, что многие важные игроки уже ставку на подъем Китая, и эта точка зрения набирает большую поддержку с каждым годом. Как мы видели выше, в той степени, что большинство в мире верит в сверхдержаву сценарий, Китай уже является сверхдержавой. Политическая власть идет на годы вперед от ВВП, и новый мировой порядок уже факт сегодня.

Фото: Эрик Рисберга

* Это расчет инженера, кошмар любого серьезного математика. И тем не менее, большинство мостов мы до сих пор стоят, и когда мы говорим о тенденции десятилетия все более точными, чем это шутка.

Я отсутствовал некоторое время, потому что все мое время праздника был поглощен двумя увлекательные рассказы о Шанхае, один из них сериал, другой роман.

Сериал WoJu, дом улитки, тупо переводится на английский как Узкие Dwellingness, или любой другой. Это был раскаленный в Китае с его первой передачи в эфир в ноябре. Элис Лю Danwei и Youku шум блог покрыли его в последнее время.

В эти блоги отметить, это был самый бурный успех, которого мы помним в китайских телесериалов. Менее чем через месяц она вызвала бурную дискуссию в интернете, привлекает миллионы онлайн и оффлайн, и вместе с тем пришли отвратительные руки цензоров. Одной из причин его быстрого успеха является центральной темой о проблемах, чтобы купить дом, который только что попал в место среди молодых китайских зрителей.

Но Woju гораздо больше, чем повесть о недвижимости и коррупции. Это захватывающая драма, богатые сюжетные линии развиваются вокруг центральной любовный треугольник, заполняется очень реальных персонажей. Острая критика современного китайского общества, и, безусловно, лучший продукт, который я когда-либо видел на материке телевизор. Первоначально это был роман опубликовал в 2007 году Liuliu, китайский писатель , что мы должны более внимательно смотреть в будущее.

Вот мои впечатления от серийного теперь, когда я закончил первые 15 глав. Я остановлюсь на двух основных достопримечательностей: информационное содержание для всех, кто желает понять Китай, и качество продукции независимо от других соображений. В конце концов, также некоторые забавные вещи, которые я наблюдал, связанных с цензурой и другие.

Содержание

Этот последовательный является раем 中国 通, стремящихся специалистов Китая. Всякий, кто пытается понять, что Китай должен смотреть. Если символы не совсем реальные (не художественная литература никогда не может быть) свои заботы, свои проблемы и свои мотивы привет-Fi усиливается отражением тех перемещения молодых граждан Китая сегодня. Это концентрат китайской действительности.

Все элементы мы уже говорили в последние годы есть, ни одного не хватает: гуаньси здания, кадры "二奶 (любители), Шанхай люди издеваются их жены, работающие родители, которые не могут видеть своих детей, незаконным высокий процент кредитов, сговор между застройщиками и местными чиновниками, конфликт между shanghaiers и аутсайдеров, ночь богатые Вэньчжоу, этика нового Китая, 拆迁 или «разрушать и перемещать", "гвоздь людей", которые сопротивляются, Shanzhai мобильных телефонов ... Вы называете это.

И все это настолько точны, что вы даже можете увидеть, сколько символов зарабатывать на своих рабочих местах, что интерес ростовщики просят, или сколько стоит партия кадровые, чтобы получить свой первый маленький 二奶 (любовник).

Есть, безусловно, лучше книги, которые изображают китайского общества в прошлом, но тема меняется так быстро, все они устарели. Я не думаю, что есть другие художественное сегодня, что отражает более точно Шанхае обществе около 2010 года.

"Здравствуйте, я секретарь Песня городского комитета партии (и я соблазнил свою девушку)"

Если вы изучаете китайский, серии Double должны за большой идиоматических мандарина. Если у вас нет, то стоять на DVD-диски с английскими субтитрами, надеясь, что пираты получают человеческий переводчик с его уровнем TOEFL это время. Существует, безусловно, рынок для этого, и я не удивлюсь, если они приходят с кино в следующем году, если правительство не остановит его.

Качество

Но еще более важным, чем все выше качество продукта. Это хорошо фантастики и хороших развлечений.

История обусловлена ​​интенсивным любовный треугольник по центру молодых Haizao, играет красивая актриса Li Nian . Все перечисленные выше элементы, в том числе победителей и проигравших в реальном увлечение недвижимостью, стремятся обойти эту любовь / ненависть история, которая ставит в контакте двух разных миров: laobaixing и кадры, два класса городского Китае.

Но, пожалуй, лучший аспект сериала, дышать свежим воздухом на китайском телевидении, является его полное отсутствие моральных уроков для общественности. Есть нет героев или злодеев здесь. Алчных разработчиков, невыносимо напрасно жена, муж малодушных Шанхай, загадочный, возмутительно девушка Шанхае играл Ли Нянь. Каждый из них является просто человеком, со слабостями и амбициями, как всех нас. Каждый из них может быть до лучших и худших.

Даже коррумпированный чиновник слишком человеческое. Слабый человек в кризис среднего возраста со слишком большой власти в руках и система, которая не проверяет его действия. Коррупция, как и любовь, происходит как естественный ход событий, в результате больное общество, а не зло личного плана. И Jiangzhou, китайский Gotham, который стоит в Шанхае, является могучим вихрем деятельности, где все герои безнадежно течению.

Цензура

Не удивительно, что серийный была подвергнута цензуре со стороны правительства. Тем не менее, была подвергнута цензуре способами, которые кажутся мне чопорные, если не откровенно идиотский.

Так как я в Европе сейчас, мне удалось посмотреть на YouTube последовательный и сравнить с цензурой, имеющееся на китайском сайте Youku. Существовал никакой цензуры на изображении выше, где официальный Шанхае партии нагло разговаривает с парнем девушка, которую он только что изнасиловал делает свободное использование своих политических мускулов.

Вместо этого, изображения ниже были подвергнуты цензуре:

Смотрите оригинальную сцену, и под цензурой вариант, как показано в Китае.

Это первая сцена секса надлежащего последовательного. В первоначальном варианте вы видите стонала лицо Haizao в 1/4 экрана, в то время как другие образы соответствуют соответствующим жена и друг, которые показаны на дому беспокоясь за своих близких, в то время как они делаются рогоносцы олимпийской категории .

Это стонала лицо Haizao более непристойными, чем счастливые песни г-н показано выше? Нарисуйте свой собственный последствия. Также интересно отметить, что производители участвовали в цензуре процесс, и горячие сцены не просто вырезать, но редактировать и заменены другими оригиналами, а в больших изображений жены выше.

Другие детали и вопросы

Я вернусь более подробно, когда я сделал с серийным, но на данный момент у меня есть 2 вопроса для населения, и особенно для многих китайских Я знаю, кто уже смотрел все 35 глав:

1 - Почему серийный шоу так заметно "Coogle" shanzhaied телефон Haizao, это просто, чтобы сделать ее более реалистичной или это месть, потому что Google отказался спонсировать?

2 - Существует одна часть сюжета я просто не могу понять: как можно Haizao быть девственницей, когда она спит с песни, если она живет со своим другом в течение многих лет? Является ли это разрыв в сюжете, или я отсутствуют некоторые серьезные (и тревожно) элемент китайской культуры?

Посмотрите, что я нашел в своем почтовом ящике сегодня. Объявление для "EQ лагере дети Зубастый Кролика в!"

Те из вас, кто достаточно терпелив, чтобы придерживаться этого блога, возможно, помните последнюю сообщение я о популярности книги self-help/business в Китае, и в частности, связанных с Эмоциональный интеллект (EQ). Не удивительно, вообще, мы уже говорили, в обществе, где система образования является безжалостным, что альтернативные концепции R.Goleman "с эквалайзером можно только приветствовать миллионы китайцев с почти религиозной верой.

Но так или иначе, я думаю, что они получили это все неправильно.

Программа в лагере включает в себя курсы по лидерству, управление эмоциями, конкурентоспособность, решительность и социальных сетей, среди прочих страшных предметов. Минимальный возраст для получения доступа к лагерю 3 года, а также брошюра не совсем описания игр, а хардкор EQ обучение с самого начала. Это выглядит довольно успешной тоже с около 10 центров уже открыты в Китае, как вы можете видеть на карте ниже.

Маленькие девочки учатся поднимать руки, как Ху Цзинь Тао

Теперь я не хочу быть более элегантного, чем это строго необходимо на этом блоге, и я боюсь, я мог бы смотреть на это с самого европейского угла. Мне говорили, в США, а также в Китае люди верят в это, и я уважаю вас, если вы делаете.

Но родителям: пожалуйста, пусть играют дети, встретить новых друзей, бродят около nongtang формирования полосы немного вне закона , ездить на велосипеде вокруг соединения, как ореховый Шанхае такси и вернулся домой раз в две недели с ушиб колена и один зуб в кармане . Это даст им нагрузки эквалайзера. Я сделал это, как ребенок, и посмотрите, где я сейчас, в одиночку работает Chinayouren.

И я просто не могу ждать, чтобы получить следующие брошюры для "Необычное мыши Перемещение сыра Летний лагерь для малышей "

В прошлую пятницу я писал очень долго после которой я оказался в том числе слишком много идей. Главное, есть немного затемняется в результате, но это было просто: что лексика играет важную роль в изучении языка, и что из-за этого китайский не только чрезвычайно трудно на высоком уровне, но и становится все более трудным с времени.

Я не думаю, что это новаторское исследование, но это интересно, потому что большинство людей не знают об этом, а также за его последствия в пределе betwen языка и политики, два поля, мы хотели бы развивать в этом блоге. Вот аргумент в полном объеме с выводами, примеры и подробности см. в предыдущем сообщение и комментарии:

• Чтобы выучить новый язык основные знания, необходимые в трех областях: грамматике, фонетике и лексике. Грамматики и фонетики существенно отличаться от словаря в том, что первые два правила, применимые к бесконечным делам, в то время как последний исходных данных. Мы можем назвать их код и данные элементы языка. Кодовые элементы, конечны и не растет. Элемент данных практически бесконечное и растущий, вплоть до того, что он не полностью освоили даже носителями языка.

• При изучении языка, Кодекс элементы играют важную роль в основных и промежуточных уровней , но на продвинутом уровне реальным препятствием для общения, и поэтому для прогресса-это данные. Например, в немецких студентов старших курсов, иногда используется неправильно склонения, и на испанском языке, они могут не различать "я / т" звуков. Эти вещи, как правило, не препятствуют связи, потому что человеческие языки очень избыточна. Я бы никогда не понять "перо" (но), когда спикер говорит: "Перро" (собака). В конце концов, недостатки в размере Кодовые элементы, к тому же, как с акцентом: в большинстве случаев они относятся только как метаданные.

• Но в то время как код выше определенного уровня весьма избыточным, данные остаются существенные на каждом уровне. Заимствование из этой великой статье : фраза "джакузи находится эффективны в лечении Флебит" не имеет смысла, когда один или оба существительных неизвестно. Одно пропущенное слово часто может скрыть смысл целого абзаца или статьи.

• Количество слов, используемых пассивно в реальной жизни намного превышает типичные стандартные списки языковых уровней. Это потому, что полу-слова специализированные, такие как ионные, у acuzzi или матрицы, которые не включены в словарь списков, поскольку они считаются слишком редко. Конечно, каждое из этих слов используется редко, но есть так много, что в целом они на самом деле очень часто используется. Этот элемент данных настолько велик, что не могут быть сохранены в классе, и единственный способ получить его в течение многих лет погружения.

• Причина, почему большинство изучающих язык никогда не понимают этой проблемы, потому что они "обманывают". В большинстве языков в мире, это высокий уровень словарь практически идентичны, и это не нужно учиться. Существует определенная предельного уровня для каждого языка, над которой самые современные слова и международных данных больше нет конкретного языка.

• Это предельный уровень словарного запаса конвергенции различных для каждого языка, но это не столько зависит от языковой семьи или географическое происхождение, а это зависит от размеров и развития общества ораторов. Именно поэтому даже не индо-европейских языков, как Басков очень легко выше среднего уровня: община не является достаточно большим для поддержки сложных условиях, и все выше Данные взяты из Международного слова. Большинство людей, как правило, не понимают и придают слишком большое значение понятие языковых семей, и они придумывают абсурдный списки как этот .

• Интернационализации словарного запаса растет с достижениями в сфере телекоммуникаций и глобализация, тем более, английский язык стал единственным языком научных исследований. Существует смысла изобретать новые термины в шведской науки, например, когда все научное сообщество читают / пишут свои статьи на английском языке. Часто, несмотря на политические усилия по содействию местной лексики, экономика язык вернуться выше данных к Internationalese.

• Существует только один язык в мире, что по историческим, политическим и демографическим причинам остается исключением из этой тенденции: что язык является китайским (мандарин, кантонский и другие, разница не имеет значения здесь). Она представляет собой параллельную систему высокоскоростной передачи данных на уровне, который имеет очень мало слов общего с остальной частью слова. Японские и корейские частичные исключения, которые они получают как от китайской и международной системе, но современные слова становятся все более международным и эти языки сближаются с остальными.

• В дополнение к этому, китайский имеет смехотворно трудно письменности уникальный для его отсутствие функциональной фонетическую письменность. Это усугубляет проблемы лексики: не только есть несколько слов, чтобы узнать, чем на любом другом языке, но каждое слово содержит гораздо больше информации, как это должно быть связано с его соответствующими символами.

• Более того, поскольку не существует стандартный способ записать иностранных имен собственных, даже названия мест и лиц, как правило, "переведены" на китайский язык, иногда отходя полностью оригинальной фонетике и становление китайской имена в их собственном праве. Это добавляет к уже массовый элементов данных на китайском языке.

Все это подводит нас к выводу: китайский самый сложный язык, чтобы узнать на высоком уровне, независимо от происхождения студента.

Это особенно интересно, потому что до сих пор правильный ответ на этот вопрос только: "зависит от вашего родного языка". За исключением японского / корейского студентов, это сообщение подтверждает, что китайцы на самом деле самое трудное для всех остальных. Наоборот, это тоже очень трудно для китайских изучать другие языки, хотя это смягчается тем, что другие языки программирования также имеют функциональные фонетические сценариев.

Еще один интересный вывод: китайский не только трудно, но на самом деле растет в трудности.

Поскольку мир становится все более взаимосвязанным и технология занимает более важной частью нашей жизни, новый полу-специальной лексики занимает все большую часть в повседневной речи. Выражения, которые относятся к международной такие понятия, как "спам" или "плазменные телевизоры" все больше занимают место выражения, относящиеся к местным культурным наследием. В этом смысле мы можем сказать, что все языки в мире сходятся, а китайский остров расходящиеся от всех остальных.

Кроме того, есть политические выводы, что мы можем сделать из этого, но я совершены в письменной форме коротких сообщений, так что мы оставим это на следующий день. Комментарии и поправки Добро пожаловать в мои аргументы выше.

There are some beliefs that, although not originally from China, were embraced so thoroughly by the Chinese that they became part of the local culture. One example is Buddhism, imported from India in ancient times. Another one, I have found out, is the teaching of the modern management gurus, imported from the USA.

It is interesting how analysts of China continue to explain all the social phenomena with the Confucian tradition, when it seems to me that the Johnsonian and Golemanian thought must be at least as influential nowadays. Walk into any Chinese bookshop or check out the local pirate's tricycle to see that self-improvement and cheese management titles rule supreme. The glossiest and most liquid books on the front table are the likes of: “Train yourself to start the next Google”, “How I changed myself from a complete idiot to a Fortune 500 CEO”, or “How I built a company that acquired the company of the idiot in the previous book”.

Now, I have to warn you at this point: the titles mentioned may not be 100% exact, I am illiterate in the field of self-improvement. As a conceited, self-styled free-thinker I cannot help an almost classist repulsion towards those works, and I frown even on the tricycle that sells them. During my years in the old Europe I happily managed to stay away from the rites of personal productiveness. But ever since I moved to China, the new philosophy is lurking at every turn of phrase, and all resistance is in vain.

One of the concepts that appears most often in conversation is that of EQ, or emotional intelligence, coined by D.Goleman in his 1995 best-seller . After dozens of Chinese spin-offs over the years, it has become an everyday expression here. It is not surprising that an idea like EQ should be so popular in the highly competitive Chinese system, where it provides some much needed comfort: don't worry if you didn't make it into a top Uni – the books say – because it's not IQ but EQ that will determine your future. The pair IQ/EQ is also known in Chinese as 智商/情商，(zhishang/qingshang), although I find that the English abbreviation is more commonly used.

Whenever EQ comes up in conversation I like to point out that the concept is unscientific , especially in the loose form in which it is used here. But my wikipedic erudition always fails to impress the locals, and I have seen my EQ summarily analyzed in multiple occasions. The first time this happened to me was during a lunch with my colleague Jia, an otherwise bright engineer, in the first year of my stay in China. I can remember it almost vividly:

- Uln, your Chinese is getting pretty good.
- Thanks - I ignored it. The comment is standard icebreaker in mandarin.
- You have a very good IQ – he continued.
- Hm, thanks, you are also not bad.
- Yes, but.
- But? -

He looked me intently in the eye. It must have been the expression called “frank positive emphatic” in page 362 of the emotional book. When the look had been established, he proceeded:

- IQ is not good enough.
- No?
- No, you should watch your EQ.
- You mean, Ah Q, by Luxun?
- No, I mean EQ.
- So who wrote that one?
- Nobody did.
- It's not a book?
- It is many books.
- Is it any good?
- Listen here. EQ is what explains why some people with lower IQ get further in life than others with higher IQ!
- You mean, like guanxi.
- No, like emotional intelligence.
- Ah, I thought…
- Guanxi is just a part of it. EQ is about your skills to get on in life!
- I see.

But I didn't see. That human relations and non-technical skills are essential in one's career was one obvious thing, that I should check my parameters like a cranky old motor was quite a different one.

- Ваш IQ в порядке - он настаивал, - но вы должны смотреть эквалайзера.
- Как что?
- Как есть открытые позиции в штаб-квартире, который был бы хороший шаг для вашей карьеры.
- Что?
- Корпоративное положение уровня способ использовать ваш опыт эмигранта.
- Но я не хочу жить в Париже!
- Видите ли, то есть эквалайзер.

Я начинаю чувствовать себя немного раздражает философии. Я пережил еще один «положительный эмпатии проникающего", а я нанесены мои контратаки.

- Итак, почему бы вам не обратиться к поехать в Париж себя? - Сказал я наконец.
- Что, я?
- Да, конечно, у вас гораздо больше опыта!
- Но я не эмигрант!
- Так что же, это не требуется.
- Вы знаете, ULN - он помолчал немного - у меня есть дети, чтобы заботиться о.
- Есть семьи пакетов.
- Она никогда не позволит мне, в законах убьет меня!
- Ха! -Я сказал, победивший - Вы должны смотреть EQ!
- Но я уже делать!

И на этот раз он быстро отвел глаза, забыв эквалайзера выглядит, как если бы скрыть некоторые позорные мысли. Но слишком поздно, я поймал его уже. Это была моя очередь тянуть нить.

- Цзя?
- Да?
- Вы очень серьезно относитесь к этому эквалайзер, не так ли?
- Э, я ... делать то, что я могу.
- Создание хороших связей в компании является хорошей стратегией, не так ли?
- Э .. можно сказать, что.
- Как с другом в штаб-квартире, к примеру, не так ли?
- А? Нет, нет, конечно, я не говорю, что .. я бы не стал ...
- Цзя?
- Ну, что?
- У вас есть отличный эквалайзер, Цзя, вы знаете, что?
- Ой, ха-ха, нет, нет, спасибо, у вас есть отличный IQ ...

Таким образом, Обама находится в Китае, и даже если он не является моим президентом, он все еще мой любимый президент. Вот мой непосредственный анализ посещения.

Наиболее важной новостью, на удивление осталась незамеченной все наблюдатели, в том, что Обама хочет стать Евро-Бама на китайском языке. То есть, как я прочитал новый написание его имени в символах, как было предложено на сайте Белого дома :

欧巴马 (oubama) заменит 奥巴马, где 欧 является китайский иероглиф для Европы, в результате чего название звука в китайской, как Евро-Бама.

Некоторые могут сказать, что новый написание выбирается для большей фонетического сходства, или потому, что является стандартом в Тайване, но когда были политики прислушивались к лингвистам? Существует четкая политическая мотивация в названии Евро-Обама, и я вижу светлое будущее проекта.

Я думаю, что выражу мнение многих европейцев, когда я говорю, мы очень рады видеть этот план, наконец, в исполнении. Г-н Обама, пожалуйста, смести все наши куча некомпетентных президентов и премьер-министры, и стать королем Европейского Союза. Тогда, возможно, на следующей встрече с Китаем, вы можете представлять наши интересы единой, вместо того, чтобы каждая европейская племени отправки его немного жалкий главный для КПК умно разделять и управлять ла Сунь-Цзы .

Одна из вещей, мне нравится быть европейской в ​​том, что вы можете быть полностью непатриотично по отношению к ЕС, и никто не заботится. Уважаемые комментаторы Вашингтон Пост , пожалуйста, не беспокоиться. Америка не в состоянии упадка еще и не будет в течение длительного времени. Среди других причин, потому что это необходимо в европейских странах, которые являются слишком некомпетентны объединить в международной политике. И действительно, когда китайский народ видеть, что Обама, они видят лидером Запада, насколько они видят лидером Америки. Потому что видно отсюда, понятия Запада, Европы, Америки, или Euramerica (欧美) никогда не было, что все различны.

После этого важного геостратегического внимание, вы можете продолжать читать то, что еще читать об этом визите. По сути ничего, потому что никаких реальных новости появились еще и большинство журналистов и блоггеров, так делают все возможное, чтобы заполнить их столбцы с общими Китае. Наряду с указанным выше ссылкам, интересные вопросы:

• Будет ли Обама прокомментировать Хьюман Райтс Вотч отчет о черных тюрьмах и других вопросах прав человека? Конечно, это не произойдет, не более, чем Ху Цзиньтао более подробную информацию о новой теории освобождения Тибета. Но это интересно для обсуждения.

• Возможно, более вероятно, что он упоминает окружающей среды, а этот блог предлагает . Я уверен, лидеры двух стран будут говорить об этом, собственно, и другое дело, насколько обязательство будет исходить от встречи. С глухой остального мира мы будем смотреть за тем, если 2 гигантов, наконец, решили сделать шаг и выйти отправки их паров в нашем заднем дворе.

• Наконец, много статей там говорить Обама-мания и сделать большой объем Obamao икона, которая была, циркулирующего в Китае еще ​​до выборов . Я считаю, что молодые современные китайские, как правило, как и Обама, и он чуть более популярными, чем Буш. Но нет такой вещи, как Obamania мы видели в Европе, и большинство людей здесь принять холодный позицию "подождем и посмотрим". В ту минуту, 欧 упоминает некоторые деликатные вопросы или отвечает старые ламы, это займет не более минуты и сформулированы CCTV новости стереть Obamania в воздухе.

Таким образом, уже покинул Obamaos и дать мне несколько Eurobamas, мы устали от политики на на другой стороне этого континента.

Я понял, что в последнее время, в связи с определенным дисбалансом в моем обучении методам , мой китайский навыки чтения может быть запущен перед своей речи, и я был вынужден принять меры по исправлению тяжелой. Рискуя превратить это в блоге С.М., я буду говорить сегодня о страшной покаяния я наложил на себя, чтобы компенсировать эту ошибку. Готовьтесь: Я смотрел все 22 + часов коммунистической телесериала по CCTV, всего за одну неделю и делая паузу, чтобы понять каждое слово и Chengyu.

Это последняя супер производства "Красной Армии против капиталистов" вид, называемый 冷箭 , или "удар в спину". В первой главе была запущена в день 60-летия, на CCTV 1 прайм-тайм, доказывая, что он был рожден, чтобы быть большим. Даже если она не оправдала ожиданий (он был включен позже CCTV 8 ночей), я предполагаю, что все больше людей наблюдали за этим, чем «Фонд Республики» фильм, который так взволнованы западные умы. Правда, мало шума в Интернете о 冷箭, но это только потому, что целевая аудитория другая (и гораздо больше), чем группа интернет-сообщества. Мои собственные исследования с таксистами показали, что это был очень сильный следующий, по крайней мере в первые недели.

Для тех, кто жаловался на политическую пропаганду в "фонд Республики" (или в День независимости, если на то пошло), это только любительские усилия рядом с этим "ударом в спину". Потому что Stab не связана с искажают факты, но с поучительным и предоставления полного морального система для людей. И, как большинство из них широко смотрел китайский сериалов, она по-прежнему следует лояльно в духе первых пьесах морализаторство организованной 1930 партизан в Шэньси.

Маленькая критика

Что касается художественных достоинств, я просто кратко сказать, что, хотя это выглядит как один из самых высоких бюджета "Красная Армия" сериалов на сегодняшний день, улучшение качества не следует. Основная проблема заключается в видимой некомпетентностью его режиссеры и актеры почти без исключения. Зная, что китайцы очень хорошо способен делать хорошие фильмы, когда они получают некоторую свободу, я могу только предположить, что это результат мертвой фантазии бюрократически выбран и подпитываются CCTV мумии кадров.

В этом случае основная история о - сюрприз-поход на Запад, где капитан обнаруживает, что есть капиталистическая шпион враг проник в команде. На самом деле не один, а два, и три, и многое другое можно найти в каждой главе, до конца последовательным большая часть бригады на самом деле секретные агенты. Это дает плохой капитан играет граница Хуан Zhizhong бессчетное количество раз, чтобы запустить его приступы паранойи театральный, видимо, основная точка продажи. One can't help wondering why all those spies don't just get together to kill their clownish captain, rename their brigade with the KMT star, and get on with their counter-revolutionary business.

I don't know if you have experienced this before when watching a film, but it is one of those instances when deplorable script and performance manage to kill the suspension of disbelief right from the first sequence. Then, suddenly, you find yourself watching a bunch of adult people walking around in funny clothes and uttering pointless nonsense. The result is embarrassing.

I have never been much of a TV watcher, but I do understand that TV films are substandard anywhere in the World, and nonsensical plots or braindead dialogs are by no means exclusive of China. Even the fixation with the deeds of the Red Army marching West is not necessarily more ridiculous than, say, the fixation with illiterate cow herders during the golden age of Westerns. But there is something in these Chinese serials that makes them unique beyond the obvious propaganda and quality issues, and that is the complete set of values that they embody for the edification of the masses.

Edifying the Masses: A Communist Catechism

This is the first time, (and most surely the last) that I watch a complete Chinese propaganda serial, but I believe that the effort is not wasted. Because only getting inside these long works one can appreciate that deeper level that flows underneath, the construction of a public moral system that is very much akin to Religious Instruction .

Here are a few of the points I noted while watching the Stab, for the benefit of those who want to understand these works without throwing 22+ hours of their life down the drain:

• Love: The scenes of love are tacky to nauseate an armored brigade, with perhaps the best example in this scene in minute 40 chapter 4, when the captain “falls in love”. In general, love among the communists is virtuous and innocent, and always secondary to the interests of the organization. There is not the slightest romantic indulgence, no concessions to passion other than for the party. When the communist lover is told that her beloved is a Capitalist spy, she abandons him on the spot, and volunteers to kill him if necessary.

• Sex: Of course, this puritanism does not stop the young lieutenant from having proper sex (under the sheets) starting chapter 25, in a clear effort by the authors to attract more audience. “乱搞男女关系!” (disorderly do man-woman relations!!) chastely exclaims the captain when he gets the news through a disgustingly virtuous informer. But worry not, the ethical purity is safeguarded. These two sinners have betrayed the higher cause, and they receive their deserved punishment without further delay: death at the hands of some brigands.

• Violence: We have seen enough of the likes of Eastwood in Alcatraz to have some expectations about the frightful fate of new prison inmates (especially if they are male!). I don't know to what extent this violence is consistent with reality, but what I am pretty sure is that prison wardens do not tell off the inmates screaming “don't be naughty”, and major disputes in the common cells are not settled through pillow fights. This is exactly how things are done in 冷箭, making the whole experience for the high level KMT prisoners like a children's Summer Camp. This is one of the most puzzling parts of the communist ethics, and the most difficult to grasp in a movement that was imposed largely through violent revolution. It seems to come from a belief in molding mentalities through peaceful labour, but, as we will see below, it has little to do with the Christian notion of “turning your other cheek”.

• Class virtue: Virtue is presented as a characteristic of the proletarian class, and salvation must necessarily follow. Like the ancient Christians looking for consolation in the Bible before they were thrown to the lions, so the Chinese Laobaixing today seem to find solace in these serials, while they wait for the next corrupt CCP cadre to come and tear their homes to serve a rich developer. The notion of a Final Judgment that accompanies this kind of teaching is represented through the iconic verses of the Internationale, sung at several points in the serial, with the main theme conspicuously inspired in the melody of the first verse.

• Forgiveness and Revenge: There is an appalling scene of revenge (ch 31 38:00) when the main spies are apprehended, that completely shocked me after 20 hours of mellow bloodless harmony. The righteous blows of the officers are completely devoid of mercy, enjoying the raw pleasure of revenge. In my observation of the Chinese, this represents very well the paradox of their ethical system: Chinese are by nature far more tolerant than any Western people, but –perhaps as a necessary consequence – once a certain level of crime is attained, this sets off a mechanism of ruthless punishment where the object ceases to be seen as human. This is perhaps the most important difference with Christian influenced ethics, where our less tolerant natures were softened by the love doctrines of the New Testament. The whole discussion of d eath penalty in China vs. Europe is an interesting modern development of this difference in outlooks.

Some Conclusions

There are many ideas here worth commenting further, perhaps one of the most interesting would be to see how this communist system of ethics is working (or failing) to keep the always delicate balance between 道德 (virtue) and Deng Xiaoping's 致富 (getting rich).

Очевидно, что китайцы не единственные, ввести этику в их сериалов. Популярные западные издания уже давно обучения нам учение столь же разнообразны, как уважение меньшинств, терпимость к гомосексуализму, патриотизма и демократии. Но самое главное, в то время как западные системы моральных инструкций развивалась в ногу со временем и занимается проблемами современного общества, китайская система осталась застрял в 1930 году, с характерной жесткости религиозной этики. Как следствие, растет, непреодолимая пропасть в Китае между идеи проповедовал и реальные потребности обычных граждан. Это может иметь катастрофические последствия ликвидации всех этики из материкового Китая жизни.

Когда мы говорим о проблемах, как воспринимается расизма, коррупции, отсутствие уважения к общественным благам или окружающей среде, сколько из них связаны с отсутствием реалистичное современное моральную поддержку, или угон этике, предназначенной служить одно интересы властной элиты КПК?

Я хотел бы говорить об этом, но к сожалению этот пост вышла из-под контроля уже, и я знаю, никто не читает мимо первых 1000 слов. Пишите свои идеи ниже о какой-либо конкретной точке, и если мы получим некоторые интересные обсуждения происходит, мы можем попытаться расширить эту тему в новой должности.

I know, I should be studying right now, and not writing posts. But I was just breathing slightly between two sessions of 模拟考试, and I reflected on the fascinating process of learning a new language, and on how, when you have been through it a few times, you end up developing your own secret methods to climb up the long steep ladder.

My approach to learning Chinese this year is based on the one I used with my previous languages: The reading method. It can only be used starting from intermediate level. In the case of mandarin, I would say this is not before 2 years of studying at a normal rate.

The method consists of acquiring first a minimum level of vocabulary to understand most simple texts, and from that point on dedicate your study time to the pleasant hobby of reading novels as captivating as possible. If you are a bookworm like me this works very well, because you end up putting in far more hours of study (reading) than you would if it were normal exercises. I know there are also many resources to read Chinese on the internet with cursor translator included, but computers tend to distract your attention very fast, whereas reading a good book gets your eyes glued to the characters for hours on end.

The result of this method is that you end up with a vast passive vocabulary and excellent character recognition abilities. Then it is up to you in your socializing time to go out and try to use these words in conversation, at the risk of locals saying you sound pompous. Sometimes you can even lift full phrases from a novel, and it is fun when you manage to use them in real life. For example, when I was reading Lu Xun's “AhQ” I placed neatly my favourite line:

Little Yi:我讨厌我的老板，怎么办?

Uln:你先估量对手，口讷的你便骂，力气小的你便打。

Little Yi:天哪！

Uln:怎么啦？

Little Yi:你又在练习！

Uln:我？没有啊。。。

Admittedly, my use of the method is a bit radical. But the social phase is an essential part of it, because once you have used a word a couple of times successfully, it quickly moves into your active vocabulary, and after that it rarely leaves you again. This is only practicable if you live in a Chinese environment, it never worked when I was back in Europe.

Reading speed

The key tipping point in the reading method is that moment when you realize that you can read a story fast enough to actually enjoy it. This is a function not only of your knowledge of characters/words, but also of the interest of the book and of your own personal nerdiness. When I read my first novel “Brothers” last year, I was so excited to taste the Chinese popular literary style that I gladly spent two months ploughing through the 700 pages of chengyu-ridden Yu Hua.

Since then, I have much increased my reading speed, to a point where I can sustainably read non-fiction without falling asleep. The preparation for the high-speed requirements of the HSK has helped me a lot for this, and I must say that, in spite of all my ranting in the previous post , it does make sense to force students a bit. Because the ability to read characters at normal native speeds is one of the most difficult to acquire, in my opinion.

Note that, when I say speed, I am not referring to the speed that comes from knowing all the words in the text. It is obvious that by using less the dictionary it is possible to read faster. My point is that, even for simple texts where all the words are familiar, I still read almost 3 times slower than a native Chinese, even after 1 year of reading books. This is an issue that has appeared only when studying Chinese, and not in any of my previous languages that used latin script, so I have strong reasons to think that it is tied to the use of characters.

I think it probably has to do with the way the brain processes the characters, and the way people schooled in Chinese from an early age have developed differently in this field. The post about reverse pinyin last week pointed me in this direction, and a few experiments I have done with my Chinese neighbours as well. I hope I have the time to write a bit more about this next week.

In the meantime, if there is a non-native advanced reader out there, I would like to hear your experience. Does it eventually get better, and do you manage to read at the same speed as the Chinese? Or do you have the same problem I note here? Дайте мне знать.

OK, off-line I go again. I already missed all Tuesday and Wednesday in an absurd meeting in Changsha so I need to catch up. I'll be back after the HSK, if I haven't showed up by Monday call the fire brigade.

First impressions are usually mistaken, but they are also interesting because the eye is alert to any novelty, and the culture clash is rich with ideas. Warning: this post contains sweeping generalizations. Take it for what it is, and if you are serious about understanding Japan you might want to look somewhere else.

I came to Japan quite randomly, I wanted to spend the holidays in a quiet and relaxing place, and in the week of the Chinese National Day, Japan seemed the only place near enough with the right conditions. I am preparing for the high level HSK later this month, and the plan was to take a few hours a day to practise my characters.

I chose the South of Japan on purpose, with the vague idea that they would probably be a bit more relaxed than in the North, and therefore more suited to my Southern European nature. I soon found out my assumption was wrong. For one reason, there seems to be no such a thing as “South Japan”. Although this place is clearly in the South, they call it West Japan. And the character of the people here is diametrically opposed to any notion of latin indulgence I might have harboured.

The cultural shock came right from the first contact. It was the passport controller at the airport of Fukuoka. I had been given the immigration card in the airplane and, like usual, I had quickly filled my “address on destination” box with a lazy “Hotel Nagasaki”. I couldn't remember the real name of the hotel, and anyway these things are never checked in any reasonable country. In Japan they are. And that is how I met my second Japanese.

“What did you write in this box?,” said the inspector when I was led to his office, pointing at the place in my card.

“Hotel Nagasaki?” I said.

“There is no hotel by this name”.

“No, no, I didn't mean it literally,” I explained, “It is short for 'a hotel in Nagasaki'.”

“Reservation receipt please?”

“Er.. it is in my mailbox, I haven't printed it out.”

And they took me to a series of offices until they found a place where I could connect to the internet and produce my hostel reservation from hostelworld. This took about an hour, enough to convince them that I was a dangerous outlier, so the inspector led me to the searching department.

My third Japanese was an older man who did the most meticulous search I have seen in my life, even feeling with his bare fingers all along the sole of my well seasoned travel socks. He searched into every possible hiding place in my bags and my body, except for that precise one that you were just imagining.

All the while, the three of them -my first three Japanese - treated me with scrupulous respect, constantly smiling, and polite to the point of scary.

One of the things that was shocking in my first dealings in the shops is the “hi!” sound that they emit all the time, to say hello or to hand you something. It comes constantly and accurately, timed like a semiquaver, dressing any human exchange with a singular martial tone. But the most awe inspiring feature is their absolute, compulsive, anal obsession with cleanliness. This country must be the cleanest place I have seen in the World by a large margin.

I came to this conclusion during lunch in one Western cafe in Nagasaki, were I witnessed some peculiar behaviour. It was raining outside, and every time a new client finished paying his order, the cashier walked around the bar with a clean tissue and bent down to wipe the drops of water left by the client's shoes. A completely unreasonable action, even for safety purposes, because the other side of the cafe next to the entrance door was permanently wet and left unwiped.

The only explanation, I figured after a while, was that the entrance area was out of the field of vision of the cashier, hidden by the tables. It wasn'ta safety procedure, it was just that she just could not bear the sight of some drops of water on the spotless floor in front of the bar, even if it was almost pure H2O from the immaculate street outside.

I am impressed by this aspect of the Japanese culture, and I wonder how the thousands of Japanese living in Shanghai cope with the hygiene situation there. I guess this explains why, being by far the largest foreign community in Shanghai, we see so little of them. They must all stick to their Gubei compounds and restaurants and avoid leaving the area unless it is strictly necessary.

The service in the restaurants here is excellent, and the food is prepared with so much care that you actually feel sorry to eat it. The Japanese like things well done, and they manage because, like most Chinese, they are very hard workers. But there is an essential difference in the motivations: Chinese exert themselves for a dream, to buy a car or a better house, or just to avoid being left behind by their fast ecoomy. Japanese already have all those things. Like Westerners, they have little left to dream that can be bought with money. So it seems that they work for the sake of work well done, out of a strong sense of duty and perfection.

When I came to Japan, I was prepared to find meticulous people who revere order. I thought it would be somehow similar to Germany, and although that kind of country is not exactly my idea of fun, it definitely fitted the bill for my week of retirement and study. But Japan is not even comparable to Germany. As far as I have seen it goes further in the field of obsession, to an extreme that for a newcomer -a Southern European one, at any rate- feels like borderline pathologic.

I don't want to judge the character of the different peoples. Each culture has its own ways, and all is well as long as we get along. I just wonder if the little world of efficiency and perfection that the Japanese have built around them is not but an exhausting illusion, and if, somewhere in the middle of all their productive activity, they find the time to think of what is important and just enjoy. The people I am meeting here–starting from the fourth one– are positive and friendly, and I have no reason to suspect they are not contented.

I have just been speaking with a PhD in electro microscopy who is in Nagasaki for a World congress in the field. He tells me that more than half of the participants are German and Japanese, because these two countries rule in electro microscopy applications. Somehow I am not surprised.

“It is a good thing we have Japanese and Germans,” I told him, “Otherwise we would be in trouble to wipe the dust between the atoms”

I was pleasantly surprised when I booked my last minute flight to Japan, I got a very reasonable price for the 1st October National Day. When I went to Pudong airport I understood why: the streets were empty in Shanghai, nobody flew at that time because they were all at home with the eyes glued to the TV set, watching as thousands of men and women, looking silly in their flowery dresses, marched on Beijing's Chang An Avenue.

I had the chance to watch the parade for 30 minutes as I waited to board my plane. I have to say it was beautiful. Sure enough there were cringeworthy moments, like when the TV showed the communist model peasants, workers and miners , shining like Mario Bros in 256 colours. But of course, a good deal of hypocrisy is always mandatory in these State events, in China and elsewhere. And regarding the execution, I have watched quite a few of the famous mass events in Pyongyang, and I am pretty sure North Koreans are white with envy watching this one, if their state channel even cared to broadcast it.

All this display of patriotism reminded me of the conversation I had last week with little Yi. It was after we watched an advert on TV, the one where the little girl stands on Tiananmen Square squeaking in that ghastly toddler tone: “妈妈我爱你!” (mum, I love you), and a similar girl says the same in Tibetan in front of the Potala temple of Lhasa. The screen then goes white, and a message comes up: “祖国我爱你”. Motherland, I love you. I don't remember which was the company announced, but the advert has been showing continuously for months, and it was the eleventh time I watched it.

I had a delicate stomach that day, and pushed to the limits of resistance, I couldnt help bringing up the subject:

“This is ridiculous,” I said bluntly, “you can't love a country like you love your mother!”

“Of course you can,” said little Yi, “you don't understand the feelings of the Chinese!”

“Yeah, right.”

Babbling toddlers and feelings of the people. That was about as much as I could take before lunch. I regretted I'd spoken at all.

“Our country is like a mother for all the Chinese, ” she continued, “that is what they mean.”

“Yeah, OK, except that it is NOT the same. A mother gives you life, she will always love you and no matter what happens, no matter what mistakes you do or how stupid you behave, she will be there for you. A country, if you fail to comply, will just abandon you or even put you to death ”

“Well, it is a different kind of mother. If you fail, the punishment is terrible. If you work hard and succeed, the prize is much greater. It is a mighty mother with higher stakes, what is wrong with that?'

“Nothing wrong, just that that is not Love”

“It is,” she insisted. “Or don't Christians teach love of God, and isn't He much more terrible, that if you fail to behave even your life is not enough, and you get an eternity of pain?”

“I…,”

I shut up. She had some point there. I don't particularly believe in the Christian god, and besides, 2000 years ago they invented a mother Mary precisely to deal with the rough edges of the Old Testament. But it is true that, in religion and in politics, many people in the West feel that same kind of loving feelings as the Chinese. So this was not really a discussion about China, but a more general one on patriotism.

My problem is that I do not accept the word love to refer to a country. For one reason, because I understand love as a feeling that can only happen between persons, perhaps sometimes with animals, but not with things. And definitely not with abstract and easy manipulable concepts like “nation”. But granted, this is merely a problem of language, and I don't have the authority to prescribe how the word “love” should be used, even less how “爱” is employed in Chinese. Still, there is a more compelling argument against love for the motherland: I think it is not in the best interest of the “loving” party.

Let's look at the facts. Human society has to be organized some way, and the power needs to be held by someone. In the past it was the tribe, the emperor or the feudal lord. Now it is the nation-state, nothing particularly wrong with that. All forms of organization require the respect and participation of the citizens to work, and it is in the interest of everyone to treat them accordingly, once their legitimacy has been established. Therefore, I understand it is important to respect and work for the improvement of one's country, and I try to do it, just like I do for my company or for my university. But love them like a mother?

It might be that I am speaking from a very European perspective–though by no means mainstream even there. Perhaps I am failing to take into account the particular circumstances of countries like China. Europeans used to be the haughtiest and most virulent motherland lovers, until their excessive feelings brought about ruin and destruction. Patriotism in China never caused any catastrophe of even comparable magnitude, and instead worked well to save the people from foreign-imposed sufferings. So the feelings of many Chinese are understandable, if not necessarily beneficial today.

And still, the key question we have to ask ourselves is: are these feelings in the interest of the citizen, and in the interest of mankind as a whole? Can the World really be in peace if the relation between citizens and their countries is one of blind love, like child to mother? When there is a conflict of interests, is the loving child not forced to fight for his beloved to the last consequences? Since conflicts of interests and greedy rulers are facts of life that will not disappear, is not the love doctrine in contradiction with the ideal of World Peace that most of us profess?

I would like to hear opinions about this. Of course, I understand that for many sentimental people the feeling of love for their country is very much alive, and there is little to explain since it is just a feeling . But Chinese tend to be very rational and in control of their feelings, and when they choose to love it is rarely out of blind passion, but rather because they consider it a good option. I suspect their patriotism is in most cases the result of a prisoner's dilemma : if other countries act patriotic, the only rational attitude is to do the same.

But I wonder if people are actually following this logic (ultimately a defensive attitude) or are really so in love with their country and their flag that they don't even think much about it. And if you do think about it, do you actually believe that a peaceful World is possible in the long term?

Perhaps I think too much sometimes. Perhaps the fact that I am writing from Nagasaki, where I have just seen one of the most chilling exhibitions of human-caused horrors, might have some impact on my thoughts today. And still, I stand by all I write here.

What are your views?

(PS. On the same subject, also see this post just published on Chinageeks )

One of the things I learned this Summer is that, while I may leave on holidays to Europe, China doesn't really leave me anymore. More than just a country, it is a force of nature, the other face of mankind that is now part of my life. China is always there, and she is everywhere, showing up in unexpected circumstances.

Take Spain, for example. The Chinese community there is largely new, not fluent in languages, and originated from one single point in China: the tiny county of Qingtian, upriver from Wenzhou. When it comes to languages, the Spanish are not much better than them, and the whole situation is full of opportunities for the literate laowai. While a simple “nihao” is usually enough to be the hero of the day, some preparation yields better results. Just wander into a Chinese shop casually dropping a Qingtianese greeting, and comment on the remarkable history of the old stone-carving county, home of the Chinese-Spanish. This makes you popular. And you can drink tea and practice your Chinese conversation for hours on end.

What follows is a true story that happened in my last day of holidays. It includes a Chinese family with extraordinary sleeping abilities, and a team of adventurous Spanish ducks. I hope you enjoy it:

It was the first morning flight from Bilbao to Paris, where I was scheduled to connect with the Air France to Shanghai. As I entered the cabin of the A319, I marked immediately a Chinese family sitting in one of the front rows: a middle-aged mother with her son.

She was wearing a shapeless purple jacket in the style of the hundred names, and her teenage son covered his head in a Korean hip-hop hoody. They stood out in the business atmosphere of the early flight. But what made me notice them—and I couldn't help a smile—is that they were already fast asleep before I even got to my seat. As far as I could see, they didn't switch their positions for the duration of a rather eventful flight.

From the start, the journey proved trying for my nerves. As we were taking off, there was a loud bang coming from the back of the plane, followed by a vibration that grew stronger as we flew. For a while nothing else happened, but then, as we were approaching France, the plane suddenly leant to one side, and the Pyrenees mountains turned 180 degrees around us, until we were headed back West from where we came.

The noise grew worse, and the passengers with notions of geography were increasingly anxious. The town of San Sebastian appeared below us for the second time, only this time the ground seemed much closer. All the service call beeps went off one after the other. I looked around to the other passengers and they were all looking around. Nobody spoke.

Finally, the cabin crew appeared on the aisle, delivering row by row the official version of the facts: during take off a flying object had collided with the blades of engine 2, producing the bang and subsequent vibrations that we were experiencing. It was a common occurrence, and there was no danger. As part of the normal safety procedure, the captain had decided to return to the home airport for maintenance.

“It was probably a bird,” said the stewardess when she got to our row.

“A bird?” laughed the steward, “that was a team of big fat ducks!”

I figured he must have been instructed to keep a light mood. I tried hard to laugh, picturing circles of ducklings turning in the turbofan as we struggled to get past the sharp Basque valleys.

***

After an endless flight we were safety landed back onto Bilbao airport. As we were waiting to disembark, the pilot confirmed that the airplane was done for the day. We had to pick up our luggage first and then go to the Air France office on the second floor to request a new ticket. As usual, my suitcase was one of the last to appear on the rolling band, and by the time I got to the office there was already a long queue, about the length of a duck-stricken A319, and every bit as noisy.

The crowd was growing unruly. Some French passengers harangued the masses with true revolutionary spirit, launching slogans against all winged creatures, including ducks, airbuses, and Air France pilots. Since I was last, there was not much point in queuing, so I just stood on one side in a way to signify my disapproval. Then I noticed the focus was gradually shifting, as the keen Robespierres directed their anger to some unidentified target at the front of the queue. I walked over to have a closer look.

It was the Chinese family.

Clearly, they hadn't understood the instructions to pick up the luggage, and they had come straight to the airline office before anyone else. They were first, and they showed no intention of giving up their position. On the contrary, they were holding it admirably. The mother covered the rearguard with her fierce eye, while the son held fast to the desk. They were obviously well trained in conflictive queues, and they seemed unimpressed by the mob.

Linguistically, the situation was not ideal. The mother was screaming in Qingtianese, the son translated into Chinglese and an Air France employee replied in elaborate Spanglish, while the French head of office stared in disbelief. I was alone, and my faithful friend the Electronic Dictionary & Thesaurus was out of reach in the bottom of my bag. But the time was to act, and I did not falter in the hour of peril.

I cut right to the front and put in a “Qué pasa?什么事?”. All four faces turned to me at once. The queue became suddenly quiet.

“They want to go to China!” cried the employee in Spanish.

“We want to go to China!” cried the son in Chinese.

The positions of the parties seemed to me very much unanimous, and ripe for an easy consensus. But further enquiry proved that it was not exactly so. I managed to reconstruct the following facts:

The family had slept through the flight, right until we landed back in Bilbao. Then they had not understood the strongly accented message of the pilot and they had dashed out of the plane straight to the connections desk, where they had been redirected to the airline office. And they acted so urgently because they only had one hour to catch the connecting flight. All they asked is to board their plane immediately, and they were pretty suspicious of this whole attitude of the staff in Paris.

Because they actually thought they were in Paris.

The problem was not an easy one to explain. Not only the mother's mandarin was as bad as mine, but also she was determined, and she had a deep rooted common sense. They had just flown into Paris and therefore this was Paris, she would take no nonsense from a laowai. I used all my persuasion. I noted how the souvenir shops were selling bullfighters, and not tour eiffels. Finally the young son understood, and he helped me convince her. The fact was settled: We were in Spain, and there were no direct flights to Shanghai from this airport.

The rest was fairly easy to manage, and after a few minutes the three of us left the office with a new ticket. Once their infinite gratitude had been sufficiently expressed, I couldn't help asking the son:

“But, how could you not realize that this is the same airport as before?”

“Well,” he smiled shyly, “Mum was just telling me that she finds all airports in Europe look strikingly similar!”

And his mother, who was tough but good-humoured, found it rather funny, and we all joined in a face-saving laughter. Then I knew I was engaged as official interpreter of the sleeping family.

***

In the end, my work as a translator served my interests well. We got our new tickets before anyone else, the last three places left to connect with the evening Paris-Shanghai. The revolutionaries were so stunned by the performance that they forgot to guillotine us, and the Air France employee gave us some free lunch vouchers for the VIP lounge. To make our wait more pleasant, she said, the company was offering one of their specialty dishes in the “Restaurant des Mondes”.

It was still far from the Spanish lunch time, so we had to wait while they opened the kitchen for us. The prospect of a free lunch worked well to improve the mood of my Chinese friends, and we had a lively chat in the VIP sofas. I took the chance to impress them with my baidupedic knowledge of their hometown. After that they opened up to me, and the last lines of suspicion finally vanished from the woman's brow.

I listened distractedly as the son informed me of the state of the rap scene in Zhejiang. A terrible state that was, apparently, and I waited for a chance to switch topics. It was his mother that I found most intriguing. All the while she was sitting very still, as if lost in her own thoughts. She had an outside appearance that in China would be classified as “peasant”, but her proud, resolute eyes didn't quite fit in the picture. What was she doing flying around with her single son? I finally asked him.

As it turned out, she was a renowned chef back home. Qingtian is the origin of thousands of Chinese restaurants across Europe, and their extended family had made a fortune with a popular chain of Chinese food. She had come as an expert to establish new recipes in the family restaurants in Spain, all the while teaching her son the secrets of the Chinese cuisine. They had toured the country for three months, making the company's food “more delicious, more authentically Chinese”.

“Her most famous recipe is Beijing Duck,” said the kid, licking his lips, “You have never tried anything like that!”

“I would love to have a chance to try it,” I answered, suddenly hungry for duck.

Then the mother, who hadn't said a word all this time, looked at me with a strange smile. I felt there was an invitation coming. Instead, she opened her eyes wide and nervously shook her son's shoulder.

“Heavens!” she cried, “we still haven't picked up our luggage!”

***

When I took them down to luggage collection, their belongings were still lonely turning around on the band, a number of shapeless pieces covered in woven tarpaulin. As we loaded them one by one onto a trolley, the son suddenly found something was wrong. It was the last packet, a cardboard box with some strange little holes pierced on the top. He held the box on his knees and showed me one of the corners where it had been torn open. The box was empty.

The woman was very upset. She started moving her arms up and down and speaking in her sing-song dialect at an alarming speed. I couldn't understand a word of what she was saying, but the replies of her son were more composed, and I could more or less make out the gist of it:

“I told you we couldn't take them on a plane, mum!”, he was saying.

“But how can we pass the long winter without them?”, she replied.

Suddenly I had a very dark premonition. While they were busy arguing, I walked over to the broken box and examined it carefully. As I held it up in front of me, a small, delicate object floated down from the broken corner. It was a feather.

I dropped the box as if it burned my hands, and I kicked it behind the rolling band were it wouldn't be seen. I was in panic now, and I joined the arguing party with my own version of alarmed mandarin:

“We have to het out of here, NOW!”, I said.

“What? But the box?,” said the mother.

“Forget it!” I pushed the trolley towards the door, “we will see to that later!”

“What? But we have to file a complaint. They might have found …”

“No!”

I tried to control my nerves, as I envisioned charges for terrorism, and the dire diplomatic consequences of China's national dish being presented as evidence of the crime. I tried to relax telling myself that at least there hadn't been any human casualties.

“Please help us,” she said.

“We can't do this now! Spain is a bureaucratic country, these things take a long time…” I muttered. “And anyway I'm sure your little friends are going to be fine!”

She gave me another inquisitive glance, like the first time I suggested she was not in Paris. She was clearly reconsidering about my sanity.

“Well, excuse me ,” she said, “but they are important to me, and if you don't want to help me I will have to file the complaint myself”

Just at that moment the airport PA system cracked with a life-saving announcement. All the passengers of the cancelled flight were asked to go back immediately to the second floor, were new information was awaiting us from the captain.

“Quick, this must be our lunch, let's go before we miss it!” I translated, and this argument finally seemed convincing enough for the stubborn lady.

***

On the second floor, the slick French captain was putting in practice the company's open information policy. The maintenance staff had just confirmed—he said—that it was indeed the impact of external objects on the engine that had caused the vibration. The strange bodies had been already extracted and brought in from the hangar for analysis. The decision to return to the airport had proven a good choice, as it was the chief engineer's opinion that we would have never made it to Paris.

A drop of cold sweat fell down my right temple as I considered the chances of those little animals finding their way into the turbine. Even if they managed to tear open the box and then break free from under the piles of luggage, even if they could unlatch the hold door with their little beaks, still, how could they fly over to the engine? It seemed impossible. I remembered the laws of fluid dynamics, and how turbulent airflows exhibit nonlinear, chaotic behaviours. For the first time in my life I felt I understood the real meaning of the Chaos Theory.

In the meantime, the mother had sent her boy to inquire about lost objects, and he was explaining their problem to the captain in such a perfectly unintelligible English that the brave man could only smile politely. They looked around at a loss, only to see that their laowai friend was nowhere to be found. I had just in time slipped into the gentlemen's restroom.

At this point, the airport loudspeakers buzzed again:

Passengers of the AF2435 to Paris, please proceed into our VIP lounge. As a special attention, we are offering you the chef's specialty in our exclusive “Restaurant des Mondes”

***

I joined the family again as they walked down the corridor to the VIP Lounge. It seemed that the luxury meal kindly offered by Air France had conquered the heart of the frightful woman. Her expression showed no more pain for the loss of her beasts, and I hoped she had decided to give up the search. Presently, she was impressed by the quality of the service, and her mood was chatty.

“They know how to treat a client, in France,” she said conversationally, “back in China it's not even comparable.”

“Oh, sure, great service here,”

“Even if they don't have any proper backup plans,” she noted, “they are just great at doing nice surprises.”

“Oh, yeah, you can count on the French for surprises”

“It is all in the attitude, isn't it?”, she said, and her only child nodded in agreement.

As we approached the “Restaurant des Mondes”, the atmosphere was so relaxed that I thought we had passed the worst. I just had to get them on our plane right after lunch, and there would be no more nonsense of lost object complaints. Then I saw the stewardess at the restaurant door, smiling. She held a large sign written in all the major languages of the World, including mandarin. It read:

TODAYS SPECIAL DISH:

“Thin-sliced duck Beijing style”

In case there were any doubts, underneath the text there was a colourful picture of a team of ducks thinly sliced as if by fast rotating blades, swimming in the dark sauce of the traditional Beijing recipe.

I tried with my body to hide the sign from their view, but I was too late. There was not much point anyway, the pictures were all over the place, and the food was coming out any minute. As we sat down, I peeped at her out of the corner of my eye. Her expression was enigmatic, the initial apprehension had turned into something more lofty. Was it triumph? I trembled.

The dishes were served and, unexpectedly, nothing happened. I glanced at my two friends. The were obviously enjoying their meal, emitting now and then favorable grunts and other judgements with the assurance of the true connoisseur. Then, halfway through their ducks, they looked at each other with an understanding smile and, following some mysterious signal, the lady suddenly stood up, knocking her chair behind her, and crying out loudly:

“I want to speak to the person who cooked this!”

There was a spark in her eye as she glared at the kitchen door on the other side of the dining room. I could not think of anything to say this time, so I just sat still, helpless as the slings and arrows flew swiftly towards their target.

Seeing that no help was forthcoming from my side, the mother ignored me and took direct action. She strode across the room and, without further preambles, she thrust open the kitchen door, roaring in Qingtianese. In a minute, the cook came out sporting a high chef hat and howling even louder than her. To my surprise, he was also employing some variety of Zhejiang dialect.

Then something strange happened. The moment he saw the chef, the son stood up and ran across the dining room charging like a fighting bull, and when the three of them were at a close distance, they came together in a long, warm hug.

I stood rather awkwardly next to them, wondering what was next. The chatter of the adults had risen to undecipherable speeds under the flow of emotions. I looked at the teenager for an explanation, but he was too absorbed speaking to the cook. Finally, I managed to catch some fraction of the conversation:

“Uncle Li, we knew it had to be you, nobody else in the World can cook Beijing Duck like mother! What are you doing here?”

“You know, I got a catering contract with Air France, didn't I tell you?”

“Uncle, you really need to help us, mother is really worried! This laowai is with us, but his Chinese is so-so, and he just doesn't get it!”

“Say, my boy, what is the problem?”

“It is the new down-filled coats that mum bought to take home for the winter. She was so upset when we found out that they've been stolen from our luggage…”

I was not there and I do not know more than what is in the press. But in the light of the available information, I think it's worth it to have another look at the events, and see what we make of it. Refer to the NYT diagram linked on the illustration, this paper is hardly suspect of pro-CPC, and the information included (from witness accounts) is about as detailed as has been published concerning the events of 5th May.

It all started with a protest in People's Square, followed by a concentration along Liberation Road, which was met around 6.30 by the People's Armed Police. Up to here everything is “normal” in the logic of street rioting: there were clashes and probably some victims from both sides. But Liberation Rd. is very central, many people live there and surely the NYT would have found at least a witness to mention it if hundreds of people had been killed or made prisoner at this point.

But it is afterwards, especially after 8, along the axes of Tuanjie and Dawan Roads, that the events are not normal by any standard of social disorder. Street riots, like other forms of violence, can have collateral damage, but this is not the case. The police was not there, the Han mobs couldn't have been organized in such a short time, and the only way to explain those deaths is that it was a deliberate large scale massacre of civilian residents and passers by. This is consistent with what was written in other accounts by various newspapers.

The initial count of 123* Han casualties that has been more or less accepted by all sides as minimum is an astonishing figure for actions that happened mostly in the space of 5 hours and in such a reduced area. Looking at other riots in the region, including Xinjiang, Tibet or other Chinese areas, we see this ratio is completely out of range. This was not the heat of the fight in a political riot. It was cold-blooded persecution, the kind of actions that can only be the work of fanatics.

Who was behind the events

In its August 2 issue, the Hong Kong newsweekly Yazhou Zhoukan interviewed Heyrat Niyaz, a Uyghur journalist, blogger, and AIDS activist, the kind of person who is unlikely to be partial to the CPC. Heyrat speaks about the Islamic Liberation Party, Hizb-ut-Tahrir al-Islami, a pan-islamic international political party which is formally peaceful, but which has been accused in the past of inciting violence in Europe. This organization has spread very quickly in Xinjiang in the last decade.

As a witness in Urumqi, Niyaz notes the strong Kashgar accents of many of the protesters and the religious slogans that were heard in the protests. This brings to mind all the times the CPC has spoken of the menace of an Islamist group called ETIM, which might actually exist or not. In any case, some radical groups do exist, as was clearly seen from attacks like this one last year, where 16 policemen were coldly knifed and bombed after being run over.

I will not accuse any group without proof, as I would be guilty myself of the same “solid block” thinking I criticized yesterday. But what we have seen up to now should make any honest observer curious, and it certainly warrants further investigation in the field of radical islamism in Xinjiang. In a region bordered by countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan, it is not at all unthinkable that frustrated youths take example of their counterparts across the border and find an escape in a perverted version of religion.

Response

The Chinese government has handled the crisis relatively well, given the circumstances. Actually, the main objection one could make is the opposite of what most Western readers like to imagine: on Sunday 5th more force should have been used to avoid the murders.

If you think of it, you might agree that the CPC leaders are not precisely idealistic dreamers. When they let the foreign reporters into a place it is because they know they have nothing to lose, and this time they must have been pretty confident that they were not to blame. Also we have to admit that, even when in front of journalists, it is unusual in most armies in the World to exhibit so much discipline and restraint as the Chinese did in the aftermath of indiscriminate racist attacks against their own people.

A large part of the Western media were confused by this attitude, which perhaps explains why they left so early. Indeed, it is some food for thought and it can make some weaker spirits shrink, to consider that for the second time in a row (after the Sichuan disaster) China proves that, sometimes, an authoritarian regime can do things better than a democracy. It takes some solid convictions and some understanding of ones own ideals to be able to look at the World without the mould of good and evil.

In any case, there is little doubt – the Western media has given me no reason to think otherwise – that the Chinese double approach of media control and moderate police action has produced the best results during the crisis. It goes without saying that this only works as a short term formula to curb down the violence, and that much more will need to be done from now on to really solve the problems in Xinjiang. More about long term solutions in the next posts.

Rebiya Kadeer

I will not waste time here to discredit Rebiya Kadeer, because from the beginning she discredits herself. She has provided no basis at all for most of the information she gave to the media, and some of her claims are so absurdly wrong that it actually makes me think she has to be innocent: someone who's made it in business can't possibly be such a bad liar. The only explanation is that she is totally clueless.

Click on the picture for one example of her latest claims.

More than anything, Kadeer gives the impression that she is desperate for TV time. She knows her time of fame is running to an end, and she is forced to place ever stronger claims, raising the stakes at each go to attract the tired audiences. As blogger twofish reflected, if she really cared about the future of Xinjiang, she might have grabbed this chance to send a message of peace and try to connect with the rest of the Chinese at a time when they were brutally attacked, earning perhaps the respect of the moderates.

But how has someone like Kadeer, a successful businesswoman in her time, imprisoned and then released by the CPC, ended up as de facto representative of the Uyghur people? Kadeer was called to play a role, and she plays it just fine. It is a role that has been written by the CPC, and by the Western media, and by the audiences and by the American NED , who is funding her. The story was written long before she arrived, a well proven plot that works with the public and will make everyone happy. It is all over again the Dalai Lama saga, and thanks to the copy-paste now the scriptwriters can relax and enjoy their Summer holidays.

Except, of course, that Rebiya Kadeer is no Dalai Lama, and neither her deeds nor her standing among the Uyghur justifiy any such comparison.

The Important Question

And now down to what many consider the crucial question: is Kadeer in contact or even financing the extremist groups who arranged the killings, or is she, as I suspect, totally ignorant of the reality on the ground? I don't think we will ever find out. It is difficult to believe that the NED, funded by the American Congress, would sponsor anyone connected with terrorism; but if by mistake they did, I am sure they will take good care to hide all the proofs.

Note that, either way, the NED doesn't come out very well from this story. Sponsoring an opportunist who jumps at the chance to get a name for herself while she coldly observes the killings of dozens is hardly in line with the objectives of a National Endowment for Democracy.

But really, is all this so important? I don't think so. Kadeer will not last, and whether she is guilty or not, the peanuts that the NED pays her do not really change anything. Kadeer with her accommodated expatriate Uyghurs of the WUC cannot possibly control the operations of a terrorist group on the ground. And, as an inspirational role, I doubt it very much that she – a woman, twice married, business and PC background – could ever work for young islamist radicals. She will most certainly not turn into the new bin Laden.

No, the real questions for China and for the World are others:

W ho was really behind the killings of 5th July? How will the prisoners be judged? How are the interethnic policies of the CPC failing? How is this failure feeding the bases of some violent groups? What is the connection of these groups with islamist terrorism and what is the probability of Al-Qaeda joining the party? And why is China the only Security Council country that hasn't received a large-scale attack from islamists, in spite of the years-long Uyghur conflict?

And finally, where are the people that are supposed to be answering all these questions?

*See my comment below for the basis of this number.