Archive for February, 2010

Tibet and Western Romanticism

February 16, 2010
By C. Custer

Thanks to twitterer niuB for pointing us in the direction of this excellent piece in Foreign Policy on myths and truths about Tibet, and the strange collective nostalgia many Westerners seem to have for a place they’ve never been and a people they’ve never been among. The entire article is worth a read, but...
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Posted in China From the West, Links, Opinions | 36 Comments »

Twitter: Is it a Trap?

February 16, 2010
By C. Custer

Twitter has been a boon for the Chinese dissident community. It is, in essence, an open forum outside the reach of GFW censorship. It is a place where Tan Zuoren’s sentence can be spread through an entire community within a couple minutes of it being handed down, a place where Ai Weiwei can respond...
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Posted in Discussion Section, Opinions, Science and Technology | 25 Comments »

The Spring Festival Motorcycle Army

February 15, 2010
By C. Custer

If you live in China, all you have to do is step onto the street to experience what chunyun, the rush of Chinese people on all forms of transportation to get home for Spring Festival, is all about. And while the holiday has already started this year, if you don’t live in the South,...
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Posted in Culture, Current Events, Translations | 2 Comments »

Happy Year of the Tiger!

February 14, 2010
By C. Custer
Happy Year of the Tiger!

Another Spring Festival is here. We here at ChinaGeeks want to wish you a happy year of the Tiger, and a fun (and safe!) holiday! If you want to know more about what this whole Spring Fesitval thing is about, check out our translation of the story of spring festival from last year! Again,...
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Posted in Culture, Current Events | 1 Comment »

Translation: Tan Zuoren's Verdict

February 11, 2010
By K. Drinhausen

The following is a guest post by K. Drinhausen: The final sentence for the good man of Sichuan? Even considering the various indicators of the Chinese governments harder stance against any form of dissent in the past year (or even criticism voiced within the system) the outcome of the appeal of Tan Zuoren still...
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Posted in Current Events, Translations | 22 Comments »

"War of Internet Addiction": A Must-See Movie

February 11, 2010
By C. Custer

I apologize for stepping on Max R.’s most recent translation, which is here and which everyone should read. But I would be remiss if I didn’t point you in the direction of this post on Youku Buzz, and this machinima film, called War of Internet Addiction. That link goes to Youku, but viewers outside...
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Posted in Culture, Current Events, Politics, Video | 1 Comment »

Li Yinhe: "Who is a Han Traitor?"

February 11, 2010
By Max R.

The following is a translation of this post by Li Yinhe. Translation Nowadays there are some young people who are quite conservative in their thinking, who have more or less stopped at the level of the Westernizing faction of the late Qing dynasty. They advocate a Chinese “system” but Western “usage”. They promote the...
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Posted in Translations | 18 Comments »

Will Americans Learn Chinese?

February 10, 2010
By C. Custer

As an American who speaks Chinese and a high school Chinese teacher, it was with some interest that I read the NYT’s most recent Room For Debate blog entry. With the caveat that, if my experience when I was asked to write something for RfD was any indication, the editors are looking from specific...
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Posted in China From the West, Culture, Opinions | 23 Comments »

Tan Zuoren Sentenced to 5 Years, Ai Weiwei's Thoughts

February 9, 2010
By C. Custer

Note: You can follow up to the minute tweets on Tan Zuoren’s sentencing here, but most of them are in Chinese. Tan Zuoren, like Ai Weiwei, was conducting a citizen’s investigation into the deaths of students in the Sichuan earthquake last year. On March 28th, he...
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Posted in Current Events, Translations | 84 Comments »

Wu Zetian Comics

February 9, 2010
By C. Custer

In lieu of posting anything original, today I point you in the direction of Hark, A Vagrant!, indisputably the best history-based webcomic on the interwebs. It is almost always funny, and although Kate Beaton rarely writes comics on Chinese history, her comic on Wu Zetian is pretty great: Yes, in internet years, this borders...
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Posted in Culture, History, Links | 4 Comments »