Huaiyuan Lou Tulou; built in 1907
We’ve had discussions about Hakka culture in the past with several of our commenters being of Hakka ancestry, so I wanted to show some photos taken by Ted of tulou (土楼; 土樓) in Fujian province. 60% of Hakka are from the Xingning/Meixian area of Guangdong province and over 95% of overseas Hakka were originally from that region, but tulou exist only in Fujian.
Recently, over 2000 Chinese citizens signed the document below, released on December 10th, calling for human rights and democracy with an eventual end to one party rule. I’ve used the translation from the New York Review of Books with sections of their Postscript included. This document was signed by Chinese citizens living inside China, not expat dissidents living abroad. The Postscript gives some information concerning the status of a few of the 303 intellectuals who had signed the document. The blog Global Voices also has an in-depth look at the current status of the more prominent signatories.
What do you think of this document? Should it be discussed or dismissed? Should the signers be arrested and jailed? Is there room in the current China for this type of discussion? Continue reading »
And now for something completely different!
After sailing across the Pacific Ocean in a 15th century Chinese junk, Captain Nelson Liu and his crew of seven on the Princess Tai Ping spent their last few days at the San Diego Maritime Museum before making their way to Hawaii and eventually back to Japan and Taipei.
The 54 foot, 35 ton Fujian style warship, built and launched from Xiamen using the same materials as their ancestors, is following the conjectured route of 15th century Chinese admiral Zheng He who, according to some theories, may have arrived on the North American West Coast long before Cabrillo.
Party members and public servants working in the Tibet autonomous region were given an ultimatum on July 14 to call back their children within two months from overseas schools and monasteries run by the “Dalai clique”, the International Herald Leader (IHL), owned by the Xinhua News Agency, said Wednesday.
Under a regulation drawn up by the regional Party and government disciplinary inspection commissions, which was released last week, those who fail to do so will be expelled from the Party and removed from their posts, the IHL report said.
This LA Times articles provides the basic details:
But one faculty member, Compton recalled, told him that “we have nothing to learn from Third World education.” Another, renowned education theorist Howard Gardner, took him to task for comparing the U.S. with China.
“His point was: How can you have a great educational system when you don’t have freedom of speech?” Compton said. Compton saw the remark as missing the point: America may not have anything to learn from China’s one-party political system, but it might want to know why Chinese students do better in math and science.
The full story on this situation isn’t quite so simple; there are many in China deeply unsatisfied with the Chinese education system. But the topic is certainly worthy of debate (see earlier thread on 50 years of gaokao).
With the help of a post from Tianya (原贴, originally from Xinhua), here are the national essay topics used over the last 50 years. Read the questions and the years carefully enough, and you’ll get a hint of Chinese society as it has dramatically changed over the last 60 years:
1951: My work outside of the classroom; discuss advantages of increasing production and conservation.
1952: Remember a new person’s new event; throwing myself into the motherland’s embrace.
1953: Write about a revolutionary cadre you’re familiar with; remembering the person I’m most familiar with.
Continue reading »
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