For all the talk about democracy leading up to the Olympics, perhaps it is time - in the wake of the Olympics - to take a step back and ponder about what democracy really is. An interesting article appeared in the New Yorker earlier this month about the process of politics. Digging under the hood of democratic politics, it tries to explore two strains of forces that in real … [Read more...] about Understanding Democracy
Archives for August 2008
(Letter) Yang Peiyi and Lin Miaoke inside the Bird’s Nest
Here's a photo of the two girls inside the Bird's Nest, which makes Times UK's "banned" reporting less reliable: … [Read more...] about (Letter) Yang Peiyi and Lin Miaoke inside the Bird’s Nest
An Imperfect Perfection – Follow up
A few weeks ago, accusations and charges of fakery in the Opening Ceremony flew in the Western media like hotcakes when it was discovered that two Chinese girls had participated in performance of the “Hymn to the Motherland” in the Opening Ceremony. We had a discussion here a few weeks ago. Well - a few days ago, it was found out that the Australians also faked - not just one … [Read more...] about An Imperfect Perfection – Follow up
(Letter) One of the things we love about living in China: our neighbours
This is a happy China story that also happens to have some fun cultural elements in it. When we moved into this neighbourhood a year and a half ago, we'd just begun language school and could hardly communicate at all (now we're fluent in Chinglish). We picked this neighbourhood because it has a great outdoor community atmosphere and it seemed to be average (economically) for … [Read more...] about (Letter) One of the things we love about living in China: our neighbours
Beijing Welcomed You … so did you remember its song?
The Olympics are over (except for the Paralympics, that is) and people have trickled out of Beijing, but still in their heads and mine is probably this catchy (some say annoying) song that was sung by an ensemble of veritable who's-who in today's Chinese popular music world. Chinese people seem to really like this kind of qunxing (群星) or star-ensemble singing, where phrases are … [Read more...] about Beijing Welcomed You … so did you remember its song?