Some smaller tidbits I'd like to share

[Jul. 4th, 2006|03:44 am]
Lets see, we're starting the third week of classes already, as hard as that is to believe. Things are going good on the academic arena with lots of quizzes, practice exercises, but also reading some interesting literature by Chinese authors and papers by Chinese sociologists. Its not exactly the same as reading in English, but it definitely feels more like reading than deciphering now. And some of the roommates have been teaching me some local dialect which surprises people a bit when I first use it.

Last night after I got out of class I went to meet some friends at a concert. It was in a huge old building here built by the Russians in the Russian style - symmetrical, huge, fairly lavish interior, I'll try and post a picture or two of it. I wandered up to the third floor, following the sound of the music, and entered an auditorium about 2/3rds full, with 200 people sitting and clapping to the music. The music was being played by 5 students and it was definitely Rock'n'roll, but not exactly the fast, energetic, angry or exuberant rock we're used to in the states. Instead, like I said, people sat. This reminded me a bit of my dad's description of the Byrds playing in Chapin hall in 1970 where the audience sat. The guitar players and the drummer were very talented with the riffs and keeping a strong beat going (although they seemed to have forgotten to amplify the bass drum which was noticeably lacking). What was really interesting was the lead singer who wanted to kick things up a notch. He would occasionally raise his clenched fist repeatedly trying to get the audience to follow, but all he could elicit was a little more intensity out of the monotonous clapping of the seated audience. The whole time there were several people sending text messages on their phones, pulling out expensive cameras to take pictures, and also, when the singer announced the concert was over and started into the last song people started to exit in masse. I don't think it was because they didn't like it, it was just what you did, let the music walk you out.

On a totally different note, I wanted to talk a little bit about the media here. I have my list of blogs that I like to read to keep up on China news like EastSouthWestNorth , Danwei.com , China Digital Times , The Useless Tree (written by my Chinese Politics professor this last semester), and Chris Bothur's Blog written by a friend of mine from last summer. In addition to the New York Times and Xinhua.com, these form the sites I usually visit when I'm bored and want to read news. What is interesting is that with the exception of China Digital Times and my old blogspot site, all of these are accessible in China. China Digital Times is run by Falun Gong members and is specifically pointed against the communist party, so I understand why they block it. The others (lots not listed) tend to provide fairly even reporting on Chinese events, even if they do occasionally have biting commentary about specific issues (especially EastSouthWestNorth). There are a number of factors why these blogs are allowed, but I think the biggest thing I like to keep in mind is that censorship here is highly intelligent and often incomprehensible to foreigners, indeed many Chinese as well. But the relationship between media and the communist party and China in general is hardly the relatively unidimensional one of push and pull that it was even five years ago, instead being much more educated and expansive over many different issues.

For an excellent discussion of this, see EastSouthWestNorth's entry on this here. Of course being less biased against China means the reports released into the news will cover more issues and not just the bad, but it also means that there are easily as many if not more terrible things happening in China which are not reported in the interest of focusing on other aspects and not seeming biased. In some ways this is a lot like the last presidential debates where reporters would give equal weight to statements by Republicans and Democrats without actually checking if the facts mentioned were correct. The big question is whether the blogosphere will ever be organized enough to produce a comprehensive but 'balance' picture, instead of allowing netizens to surf endlessly on articles that tell them what they want to hear. Nobody knows, and I can't really claim this blog is contributing to any such noble goal.