tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post8182597525296418621..comments2024-02-26T00:59:26.907-08:00Comments on Ana the Imp: The Eye of the PeopleAnastasia F-Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-84189834953897678512012-05-30T16:19:17.486-07:002012-05-30T16:19:17.486-07:00Paul, I'm not sure that many in the West do wa...Paul, I'm not sure that many in the West do want to see the regime fall, or at least I'm not aware that such a desire is in any way widespread. Personally I dislike it less because of its ideology - virtually non-existent - than its hypocrisy and moral corruption. I do believe that the Chinese people deserve stability but with the dignity of some degree of free expression.Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-1596146404260980062012-05-29T17:05:36.442-07:002012-05-29T17:05:36.442-07:00Some form of democracy may eventually come with ri...Some form of democracy may eventually come with rising incomes - democratic sequencing (Randall Peerenboom, Henry Rowen etc). However, thereafter it may be only a matter of time (or economic setback?) before Chinese nationalism comes to the fore; it's currently kept largely in-check (generally restricted to internet chatter) by the relatively moderate leadership of the communist regime - the regime many in the West want to see fall. Then what? Weimar Germany anyone?Paul Lettershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03040916055111078945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-60259337532004838132012-05-29T15:46:45.706-07:002012-05-29T15:46:45.706-07:00They are all a bit gay. :-))They are all a bit gay. :-))Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-15267309994085330582012-05-28T16:52:06.364-07:002012-05-28T16:52:06.364-07:00i see. i know one of them was gay!i see. i know one of them was gay!Yun Yihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06311104014692132715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-46923685362918925592012-05-28T16:21:52.947-07:002012-05-28T16:21:52.947-07:00Yun Yi, a Tellytubbie is a rather endearing charac...Yun Yi, a Tellytubbie is a rather endearing character from a TV show created for children by the BBC. The picture directly under Wen Jiabao is Po, one of a gang of four!Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-50869471279783457612012-05-28T16:15:20.702-07:002012-05-28T16:15:20.702-07:00CWB, I was there too, on a day trip from Hong Kong...CWB, I was there too, on a day trip from Hong Kong. It was different from the latter, though catching up fast. Communism is no more than a fig leaf justifying the rule of a self-perpetuating oligarchy.Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-20516788531095403662012-05-28T11:50:13.860-07:002012-05-28T11:50:13.860-07:00Dennis, "It's a mistake to think that all...Dennis, "It's a mistake to think that all China's leaders are the same. ", i am convinced that the change of china will be always depend on those leaders who have open mind, rather than on chinese majority people. this, is certainly one of those "chinese characteristics".Yun Yihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06311104014692132715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-76967903350649753112012-05-28T11:47:35.204-07:002012-05-28T11:47:35.204-07:00Dennis, you must heard the "communism with ch...Dennis, you must heard the "communism with chinese charactertics", a slogan that government use to shut up people's voice since 1949. one of contemporary chinese philosopher said, that the unparalleled "strange" political "happenings" during new china was really a sick fetus of the marriage of communism and confucianism. i take "confucianism as what they mean "chinese characteristic". <br /><br />ana, democracy will never come to china, that's right. and china will still survive for very long time, with its chronic fatigue syndrome, which never will be cured, bmho.Yun Yihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06311104014692132715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-54712991824208728282012-05-28T11:32:14.381-07:002012-05-28T11:32:14.381-07:00ana, i am convinced that you know china better tha...ana, i am convinced that you know china better than i do. i have not clue what "Tellytubbie" means. i do have sina weibo, but almost never go there at all. information tires me. <br />i don't usually involve politics, but by far, 4 of my articles are disappeared from my sina blog. hopeless!<br />you are right to say that "I do not think that democracy will come to China any time soon."Yun Yihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06311104014692132715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-35673295890568593412012-05-28T01:41:02.146-07:002012-05-28T01:41:02.146-07:00I had always understood that the majority of these...I had always understood that the majority of these state-imposed internet filter were relatively easy to bypass, but I don't really know to what extent this is true.<br /><br />The only thing I can note, is that having visited GuangZhou a years or so ago, I was truly surprised by the almost complete lack of visibility of Communism in daily life, quite the contrary in fact. I only saw one tiny little red flag during the whole stay, not a single uniform, and life was outwardly geared towards Western consumerism - huge shopping malls with all the usual shops. Indeed the majority of the population would not have been out of place in any major Western capital, with their T-shirts, Jeans and ipods/phones. There also seemed to be a tremendous desire to re-connect with their historical past, to the extent that previously run-down/destroyed sites were being renovated and reconstructed.<br /><br />It would seem very difficult under this sort of population pressure to prevent a continuing trend of more openness and freedom of expression, and thus some kind of democracy - whatever your definition of that might be.Clean White Boneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00852235098268083634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-13700478548634921892012-05-27T18:18:33.172-07:002012-05-27T18:18:33.172-07:00consider it doneconsider it doneanthonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02931330128135957439noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-39765589647395364272012-05-27T16:24:42.586-07:002012-05-27T16:24:42.586-07:00Put him on to me, Anthony; I'll mentor him on ...Put him on to me, Anthony; I'll mentor him on Western decadence in general!Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-14081841179022590802012-05-27T16:23:20.561-07:002012-05-27T16:23:20.561-07:00Not just the importance of face but the sensitivit...Not just the importance of face but the sensitivities of Chinese history, particularly the nation's experience at the hand of Westerners in the era of the Unequal Treaties. Thanks, Dennis; I respect your insight here. The thing that amazes me about Dame Hilary and others of her kidney is that they are allowed to occupy such a sensitive high office knowing nothing at all about the world in general, and nothing about China in particular. Only historians should handle foreign affairs! Some hope. <br /><br />Tony Blair took a advice from a panel of experts on the history and politics of Iraq before the disastrous invasion of 2003. Sorry; he did not take advice; he ignored the advice.Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-59106368775145043522012-05-27T16:16:53.593-07:002012-05-27T16:16:53.593-07:00An interesting study indeed, Richard.An interesting study indeed, Richard.Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-1505558202667371732012-05-24T21:33:31.232-07:002012-05-24T21:33:31.232-07:00I am in communication with a university student fr...I am in communication with a university student from China on YT who's English is pretty fair, at least much better than my Chinese which is 'Zero' we exchange East/West perspectives on many issues. It seems that there has been considerable change in china especially for the younger generations, not to western standards but some progress non the less; I mentor him on 'American decadence'.anthonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02931330128135957439noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-41749933767170045102012-05-24T19:58:15.778-07:002012-05-24T19:58:15.778-07:00"I do not think that democracy will come to C..."I do not think that democracy will come to China any time soon."<br /><br />I don't think that it will ever come to China, not in the way that we understand democracy. But I think that we will begin to see "democracy with Chinese characteristics" sometime during the next but one iteration of the Chinese leadership.<br /><br />It's a mistake to think that all China's leaders are the same. Mao Zedong was a vain, arrogant mountebank, and so were Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin, but my impression of Zhu Rongji and his successor, Wen Jiabao, is that they are decent men who actually care about the welfare of their fellow countrymen.<br /><br />Yes, they're communists, but the Communist Party of China isn't going away anytime soon, and I detect a gradual trend towards a more liberal form of governance, culminating in the "democracy with Chinese characteristics" that I alluded to earlier.<br /><br />I might mention that lecturing China in public about its human rights record, as Hillary Clinton is wont to do, is seriously counterproductive. I would have thought that the head of foreign affairs of the most powerful country in the world would know about the Chinese and the importance of face.Dennis Hodgsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-66243994768445086322012-05-24T17:50:52.671-07:002012-05-24T17:50:52.671-07:00China is a microcosm of the trends of propaganda. ...China is a microcosm of the trends of propaganda. It is an interesting study in an alien headset.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com