Author Archive

Wondering Where Quotations Come From

September 30, 2009
By C. Custer

It's amazing how fast China blogs grow old. ChinaGeeks is over half a year old now, and still the Western media hasn't sat us down to have "the talk" about where quotations come from. Maybe it's time they did.
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Posted in China From the West | 9 Comments »

"Hitting Others' Cars, Beating People"

September 26, 2009
By C. Custer

Via Zhaomu’s blog, an account of chengguan attacking and beating traffic police in Hankou: Translation “That group of people was very fierce, after beating the traffic police, they said they were going to kill me!” a PSB officer told a reporter yesterday afternoon remembering the event, he still feels afraid. He said it...
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Posted in Current Events, Translations | 3 Comments »

Could the Three Gorges Dam Lead to Earthquakes?

September 26, 2009
By C. Custer
Could the Three Gorges Dam Lead to Earthquakes?

Recently, Zhao Shilong posted a long, thoroughly-researched piece on the potential of the Three Gorges Dam to cause earthquakes. It’s a bit long and technical for me to translate, so here’s a summary. (Do bear in mind that my Chinese is far from perfect and my knowledge of geology is extremely limited, so it’s...
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Posted in Translations | 4 Comments »

Daughters of China

September 23, 2009
By C. Custer

A recent ChinaHush post got us thinking about the place of women in Chinese society. Plenty has been said, on this site and elsewhere, about the question, but it’s one we keep coming back to because no one has answered it yet. The gender imbalance caused by the One Child Policy in combination with...
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Posted in Culture, Opinions | 66 Comments »

Interview with the Karmapa Lama

September 21, 2009
By C. Custer

The Karmapa Lama is “the only senior Buddhist leader recognized by Beijing, the Tibetans and India.” He’s also a 24 year old who likes hip-hop and violent video games. Recently, he gave an interview in the Times of India. It’s an interesting reflection of the ways Buddhism continues to adapt to the times. He...
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Posted in Culture, Links | 13 Comments »

Ai Weiwei Quick Update

September 17, 2009
By C. Custer

Some of you may know that Ai Weiwei was on the wrong end of some fists a month ago when he went to attempt to testify on Tan Zuoren’s behalf in the latter’s trial (to no avail). You may also know that he had brain surgery yesterday for a cerebral hemorrhage, possibly due to...
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Posted in Links, Translations | 7 Comments »

A Phone Call to the PSB

September 16, 2009
By C. Custer

The following is a translation of a part of this post from Ai Weiwei’s blog. It’s a transcript of a phone conversation between him and a PSB officer, and we think it’s interesting in several ways. The analysis, though, we leave up to you. Backstory On the afternoon of Sept 9th, Liu Yanping saw...
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Posted in Politics, Translations | 9 Comments »

Western Media Bias: The Little Things

September 14, 2009
By C. Custer

There has been some discussion about Thoman Friedman’s most recent op-ed, “Our One-Party Democracy“. In it, he compares China to the US favorably, arguing that China’s autocratic system is more efficient and responsive: There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America...
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Posted in China From the West, Current Events | 35 Comments »

Discussion Section: Sixty Years of China

September 12, 2009
By C. Custer

Maybe you’ve heard. China’s got a big birthday party coming up, and they’re definitely going to be celebrating, with everything from soldiers to tanks to…I’m sure there will be other things, too. So what are your thoughts on the anniversary celebrations? How will these sixty years be viewed in the future? Net gain? Net...
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Posted in Discussion Section, Links | 14 Comments »

Book Review: Apologies Forthcoming

September 9, 2009
By C. Custer
Book Review: Apologies Forthcoming

Apologies Forthcoming is not perfect, but parts of it are. Florid praise draped over the back cover as it is, I think I shall put it more simply: it is a book you should read. Eberlein has done what we so often forget to do, she has put people into history and let them...
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Posted in Book Reviews, Culture | 3 Comments »