tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966Thu, 05 Sep 2024 08:41:39 +0000Current issuesmoviesPoliticsbooksEnvironmentBloggingphotographyTibetgenderBeijingCharter 08MusicOlympicsShanghaiTongjiTrafficfootbindinghuman rightsmemoriesmimestudy... caught by the light, trying to make some sense ...http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Rudi)Blogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-659241352730184256Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:51:00 +00002009-02-25T03:08:50.976+01:00Current issueshuman rightsPoliticsI must admit I was pretty shocked when I read that Hillary Clinton, in the frame of her visit to China during her first Asia-trip as U.S. Secretary of State, had stated that human rights could not interfere with other more pressing issues:"Successive administrations and Chinese governments have been poised back and forth on these issues, and we have to continue to press them. But our pressing on http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2009/02/come-again-mrs-clinton.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-9215523273138040599Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:36:00 +00002009-02-21T00:56:48.868+01:00memoriesShanghaistudyTongjiIt is with great pleasure that I present here today the first ever guest post on this blog.C. showed up on my Facebook page a couple of weeks ago. We haven't met for 20 years, ever since we left Tongji University in Shanghai. Now I like to make fun of Italians -rephrase: we ALL like to make fun of Italians ;-)- but the crowd at Tongji was super and I have the fondest memories for several of them:http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2009/02/wonder-years-part-one.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-4692890845079347661Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:31:00 +00002009-02-18T00:45:52.848+01:00Charter 08Current issuesmoviesPolitics"In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it is written the kingdom of God is within man, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy, let us use that http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2009/02/look-up-hannah-some-thoughts-on-china.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-6155193213868159995Sun, 15 Feb 2009 00:30:00 +00002009-02-15T01:32:10.979+01:00BeijingCurrent issues As no doubt a lot of us who would by coincidence happen to read this post, I have been watching the footage on the burning TVCC complex with the "Mandarin Oriental" hotel, next to the new CCTV headquartes in Beijing, and there were two things that struck me in my own analysis of what had happened.First, I found myself wondering: "Do I believe this ?". Of course, I'm not talking about the event http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2009/02/beijing-towering-inferno.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-6202274991761176861Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:37:00 +00002009-02-05T01:32:46.578+01:00Current issuesEnvironmentmimeTrafficI have this friend who is from Bogota, so it should only be natural that when I see something about Bogota in the news, in a magazine or on the Internet, I linger a little longer.So last week, I was reading this article in Newsweek discussing the danger of Obama's "change"-program getting compromised from the start by the nomination of Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary, Geithner, as we may http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2009/02/innovative-traffic-solutions-mime.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-6935339154912348838Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:01:00 +00002009-01-28T02:28:40.262+01:00Current issuesphotographyPoliticsA couple of days ago, "Danwei" brought this article, which seems to have aroused some commotion on the chinese BBS-fora, to our attention. It relates the story of what appears to have been a class, taught by a Renmin University professor and well-known sociologist, Zhou Xiaozheng. Topic of the impromptu lecture: "Israël is definitely a good country"When I read the first few lines of the article http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2009/01/gaza-tank-man.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-3466162665899617720Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:01:00 +00002008-07-13T16:11:30.831+02:00I know this is supposed to be a China-blog, but sometimes there are other things that take precedence over the Middle Kingdom and last month was just such a moment, when one of the most remarkable persons I have and will ever meet in this life came to pass away and started on his journey to the Yellow Springs. So for him, this posthumous tribute: ------------------- Luc, I http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2008/07/for-luc.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-566557533243890154Sun, 18 May 2008 14:42:00 +00002008-05-18T16:59:09.081+02:00Current issuesfootbindingOlympics Dorothy Ko, in what is bound to become a classic on the topic, “Cinderella’s Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding”, has pointed out that the final decline of footbinding as a general practice in China was, to a certain extent, linked to what she calls the “global episteme”. Though by no means the only reason for the decline, it has been the basis for much of the rhetoric of the http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2008/05/footbinding-and-olympics.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-7701073902384541094Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:47:00 +00002008-04-30T21:54:31.152+02:00Current issuesPoliticsTibetI think it can be called an understatement to say that I am kinda fed up with a certain group of Chinese hacking away at the western media and it's so-called biased reporting with respect to the Tibetan uprising of the past weeks. I shed my catholic belief long time ago, but these words I still strongly underwrite: "Let he who is without sin throw the first stone" (free after the Gospelhttp://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2008/04/shouting-at-rash-gate.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-5430736500676216847Sun, 27 Apr 2008 01:27:00 +00002008-04-27T03:31:18.548+02:00Current issuesEnvironmentPoliticsIt's a complex world we live in and though of course it is not anything new I was confronted several times with that thought in the past couple of days. Just take this for instance: with our world's growing focus on the effects of global warming, on seeking to reduce greenhouse gases and CO2 emissions..., we start to look more and more for environmentally friendly technologies and http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2008/04/complex-world.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-2786124781597805709Sat, 21 Jul 2007 15:38:00 +00002007-07-21T17:43:46.951+02:00BloggingAs you may well notice, something went terribly wrong with the template of my blog here. I am trying to work it out, but in the meantime, I beg you to bear with me ... or send me your welcome advice on how I can get that sidebar to be a ... well, sidebar again, instead of a "bottombar".http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2007/07/help.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-5197031303741263455Fri, 20 Jul 2007 01:47:00 +00002008-04-27T03:46:55.710+02:00Current issuesEnvironmentI think it's fair to say that, if you have any interest in nowadays China, even be it mildly, this guy should be on your radar screen. He definitely is on mine, but always with this big questionmark: how long still before he drops off the screen, how long before a missile takes him out of the air ?  Tiptoeing "the line" is feasible when you know where the line is drawn, but in China it http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2007/07/tiptoeing-line.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-1043463212248539962Sun, 24 Jun 2007 21:48:00 +00002007-07-31T13:07:36.485+02:00Current issuesmoviesYesterday I came across this story, taken over from the "Southern Weekend", which Roland translated on his ESWN-blog. Tracking the history of the owners of one of the now infamous brick kilns in Shanxi province, it's a very insightful account of how corruption at the basis works, from it's seemingly harmless origins to it's detrimental results. Go and read it by all means, and don't be http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2007/06/lesson-of-watanabe.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-418231216225426799Wed, 20 Jun 2007 18:14:00 +00002008-04-27T03:49:21.161+02:00Current issuesEnvironmentmoviesphotographySometimes, surfing the web, you just get lucky. The day I stumbled into this website, must have been such a lucky day. Hedda Hammer (Morrison) was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1908. From an early age she had an interest in photography. In 1929 she enrolled at the Bavarian State Institute for Photography in Munich where she studied for three years. Two years after graduation Hedda, http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2007/06/china-through-eyes-of-hedda-morrison.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-7724898452401156206Mon, 18 Jun 2007 23:33:00 +00002007-06-19T01:38:55.279+02:00PoliticsIt's been a long time since I have been posting here. I'm not a compulsory blogger, in fact, I even don't qualify as a real blogger when compared to a lot of others. But neither did I say I was quitting this little hobby of mine. Let's just say I took an extended break and now I'm back. That's all there is to it. I was inspired for this post by all the China and US bashing by the usual suspectshttp://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2007/06/pebbles-world-of-difference.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-4182176731964144041Sat, 21 Apr 2007 23:40:00 +00002007-07-31T13:03:54.880+02:00Current issues I am not an American, nor do I live in the U.S., so maybe my voice should not be heard in the debate, but I simply had to get this off my chest. As the world was yet again watching in amazement as a Korean madman gunned down 32 people in Virginia, followed by an avalanche of expressions of grief and sorrow from the entire nation, I was quite honestly asking myself "So what ?". I know http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2007/04/these-boots-are-made-for-walking.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-2575230882533166883Sun, 08 Apr 2007 22:59:00 +00002007-04-09T01:09:16.019+02:00MusicTen people enter on stage, taking their place in the dark. They will not move one inch from that place anymore during the entire length of the performance. Lights turn on, music starts and then there is that one voice from a woman with long red hair, sitting behind a harp, piercing through the silence yet seemingly leaving it intact: My love said to meMy mother won't mindAnd me father won't http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2007/04/beauty-beyond-words.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-5250166260872828062Sun, 01 Apr 2007 22:31:00 +00002007-04-02T00:34:45.440+02:00Current issuesmoviesChina is a strange country. Consider this.Director Li Yu was told by the Chinese Film Bureau that her latest movie, "Lost In Beijing" (苹果, literally "Apple", after the name of the female lead role) could not be screened at the 2007 Berlin Film Festival unless she would cut about 15 minutes of the original version. Otherwise she might be facing the same five-year ban as was bestowed on Lou Ye for http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2007/04/still-life.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-8521677607814407383Tue, 20 Mar 2007 19:53:00 +00002007-03-22T00:41:28.167+01:00moviesSo what can one do, when the joys of a sunny early spring are brutally interrupted by the return of something resembling winter (but not just quite) ? Last weekend, a bunch of us choose to go into hiding, deep into the dark dungeons of Cinema, not to see one, but two movies.Chinese movies, that is.Then that must have been a film festival, you say ? Spot on ! Otherwise, can you imagine getting up http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2007/03/throne-of-blood.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-2863610054270485914Wed, 14 Mar 2007 21:35:00 +00002007-03-15T00:22:39.660+01:00Current issuesLet's talk about China's Great Wall for a change.What began as defensive structures mostly made of earth, stone and wood, eventually expanded into the longest man-made construction ever erected. Stretching over 4000 miles, it effectively tried to separate China from the rest of the world on it's weakest side: the north. I guess, when Qin Shi Huang woke up one morning in 220 BC with the idea that http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2007/03/wall.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-7520054492470242976Tue, 06 Mar 2007 21:26:00 +00002007-03-07T00:40:36.177+01:00moviesOkay, let's get it over with right at the beginning of this post: I have this Crush (with capital C) for Gong Li.You can read that sentence in the past, present or future tense, it won't make a difference.Ever since she lifted her veil in the sedan chair that took her to her husband's house in "Red Sorghum" (红高粱) (1987), it's been there and that Crush is there to stay.If you want to know what I http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2007/03/centre-stage.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-4773598096323514787Sun, 25 Feb 2007 18:24:00 +00002007-02-25T23:20:37.108+01:00In monte munera ... the rewards are at the top : such was the device of my old school and I should have remembered it, that day last September when I was cycling with my wife on the slopes of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (玉龙雪山) just outside Lijiang in Yunnan province. Unfortunately, not the lack of material but a lack of sufficient upfront training made us give up on the way to our destination http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2007/02/pohaku.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-505983376128379015Mon, 05 Feb 2007 23:10:00 +00002007-02-11T18:21:49.418+01:00Eight o'clock in the evening on an average Saturday. Two bataljons of soldiers march onto the street of either side of the Menin Gate, blocking in effect any traffic that would like to pass underneath the gate. Though the weather is cold, the sidewalks lining the street that passes under the gate are crowded with people, mostly British students, three rows thick, standing still, legs apart and http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2007/02/last-post-for-nanjing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-870568571991947589Wed, 24 Jan 2007 00:57:00 +00002007-01-24T02:08:31.886+01:00Current issuesLast weekend, I was relating to my wife and her friend about my only experience ever in a vegetarian restaurant. The year was 1989, the place Beijing and the restaurant was Gong De Lin (功德林). Established in 1922, the place can boast of some history, and rightfully so. I can't imagine myself ever living the vegetarian way of life (which is why I'll probably never reach Nirvana), but if there is ahttp://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2007/01/enjoy-your-meal.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24294966.post-2430020519663926037Thu, 04 Jan 2007 15:51:00 +00002007-01-04T19:34:15.966+01:00Via the excellent portal Arts & Letters Daily, I came upon this very entertaining and even more informative "boxing match" between in the one corner, Will Hutton, British writer and a.o. columnist for The Observer, and in the other corner Meghnad Desai, British economist, writer and Labour politician. The two gentlemen are having a fascinating sparring match on the topic "Does the future really http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2007/01/boxing-game-on-chinas-future.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rudi)0