Fool’s Mountain: Blogging for China愚人节山：为中国博客

Zhai Zhigang enters space翟志刚进入空间

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With all the arguments generated by our discussion on cross-strait politics, we need to start a topic that both sides can agree on.  One thing I think we can all agree is that Chinese Cuisine is an important aspect of Chinese Culture.  The only question is: which side of the strait has the better cuisine?与所有的论点所产生的讨论两岸政治，我们必须开始一个话题，双方可以商定。有一件事我想我们大家都可以同意的是，中国风味的一个重要方面是中国文化。唯一的问题是：哪一方的两岸具有较好的菜？ Continue reading »继续阅读»

I have a US passport and it is full of strange text and images designed to emphasis the positive aspects of the US, many of which are at odds with policy of the Bush regime and indeed the history of the nation´s formation.我有美国护照，它充满了奇怪的文字和图片旨在强调积极的方面，美国，其中有许多是不符合政策的布什政权乃至历史的国家的形成。 Much of the design and content of my US passport is meant to be both aesthetic, patriotic and lend an air of ancient authority to the entity that issued it to me (the US Department of State).大部分的设计和内容，我的美国护照的目的是既美观，爱国和提供空中古老的权力实体，印发给我（美国国务院） 。 Continue reading »继续阅读»

This post was submitted by此帖子提交了 tim parsa添伯尔萨 . 。

It’s been almost four months since Ma Ying-jeou has been sworn into office in Taiwan.  After the first few weeks of euphoria, there hasn’t been that much published about Taiwan in English sources - partly because of the Olympics, and partly because not much concrete has happened.这是近4个月以来，马英九已经宣誓就职，在台湾。后的头几个星期的兴奋，一直没有，许多台湾出版的英文来源-部分原因是奥运会，部分因为没有多少具体的事情发生了。 Continue reading »继续阅读»

Without too much fanfare in the West, the 2008 Beijing Paralympics has ended almost as fast as the main Olympics events had rushed onto the world stage.  It’s hard to imagine that in a little over 1 month - the whole hoopla that is the Beijing Olympics has officially ended没有太多大张旗鼓在西方， 2008年北京残奥会已经结束几乎一样快的主要奥运会的事件送往推向世界舞台。很难想像，在一个多1个月-整个喧闹的北京奥运会已正式结束 Continue reading »继续阅读»

The brand is Sanlu (三鹿), one of the best known domestic manufacturers of milk products in China.该品牌是三鹿（三鹿） ，其中一个最知名的国内生产商的牛奶产品在中国。 The scandal involves babies falling ill across the country with kidney stones after consuming Sanlu brand baby formula that have since been found to contain melamine, which can boost the apparent protein content of the product in quality control tests.这一丑闻涉及的婴儿生病在全国各地与肾结石后品牌消费三鹿奶粉已被发现含有三聚氰胺，它可以明显提高蛋白质含量的产品的质量控制试验。 How did this happen?这是怎么发生的呢？ Sanlu says it got a tainted source of milk; nevertheless many people still speculate — based on similar “black-heart food” incidents in the past — that for reasons of profit the manufacturer knowingly kept a closed eye on doping in its food processing chain.三鹿表示，有污染来源的牛奶，但是仍有许多人猜测-基于类似的“黑色心脏换食品”事件在过去-即出于利润的制造商故意保持一个封闭的眼睛掺杂在食品加工链。

The basic story is基本的故事 here这里 (in Chinese) and has seeped into English-speaking media also, for example （在中国） ，并已渗入英语媒体也，例如 here这里 . 。 But it is still a rapidly developing story with new information/rumors coming out every minute.但它仍是一个迅速发展的故事与新的信息/谣言出来的每一分钟。 At this moment it is the top discussion item pretty much everywhere in Chinese news and online forums.此刻这是最讨论的项目几乎无处不在中国的新闻和网络论坛。
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Open thread.打开线程。 Comment away.评论消失。

On Wednesday, Mr. Gorbachev wrote周三，戈尔巴乔夫先生写道 an opinion意见 piece in New York Times commenting on the South Ossetia crises.一件纽约时报评论南奥塞梯的危机。 The following passage sounded eerily familiar:下面的通道极其熟悉的声音： Continue reading »继续阅读»

Tickets to remaining Olympic events are going on sale on Friday (July 25th).其余的门票奥运项目将出售在星期五（ 7月25日） 。 On Water-Wood BBS (水木材论坛（ 水木社区水木社区 ), people were talking about spending Thursday night in line. ） ，人们谈论的支出星期四晚上在行。 But now most are shocked to find that that very long lines have already formed Wednesday night; thousands of Beijing’ers are planning to camp out two nights to purchase what few tickets remain.但是，现在大多数是震惊地发现，这很长的线路已经形成星期三晚上 ，成千上万的Beijing'ers计划露营两晚购买什么门票仍然很少。

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In the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake, a “bottleneck lake” (堰塞湖) formed as a river was blocked by a landslide.在之后的四川地震， “瓶颈湖” （堰塞湖）形成的一条河流被拦截了滑坡。 Collapse of the dam posed塌方造成大坝 a tremendous danger一个巨大的危险 to those down-stream community, and the Chinese government spent huge resources and risked many lives to erase the lake.这些下游社会，中国政府花费巨大的资源和可能许多人的生命抹去的湖泊。

Guangdong provincial party secretary Wang Yang started a mini-landslide of his own, when 3 days ago he spoke to a group of Communist Party cadres at a training course (广东省省委书记汪押嗯开始了一个小型滑坡自己，当3天前，他以一组共产党干部培训班（ 连接连接 ): ） ：

We must make democracy a value to be pursued.我们必须使民主的价值来实现目标。 In governing, we must make sure we use democracy, defend democracy, secure democracy, and develop democracy.在执政，我们必须确保我们利用民主，捍卫民主，保障民主，发展民主。 We must be sufficiently respectful of, and also open up expressions of popular opinion.我们必须有充分的尊重，同时也开辟表达民意。 We absolutely can not block popular opinion, and form a “bottleneck-on-speech lake” ( 言塞湖).我们绝对不能阻止民意，并形成一个“瓶颈上演说湖” （ 言塞湖） 。 We must use democratic methods to continuously improve and expand democracy within the Party, and push forward social democracy. 我们必须用民主的方法，不断提高和扩大党内民主，推进社会民主。 We must self-consciously nurture democratic habits, learn to listen and tolerate, and use democratic methods to unite people. 我们必须自觉培养民主习惯，学会倾听和容忍，并利用民主的方法来团结人民。

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Zhang Ziyi was recently interviewed on a Chinese TV network:章资蛾最近采访了中国电视网络：

She said (in translation):她说， （翻译） ：

The first time I was the lead in an English-language film, I received some high praise. 第一次我是带头英文电影，我收到一些高度赞扬。 And especially as a Chinese person, I thought that was something to be proud of. 尤其是作为一个中国人，我认为这是值得骄傲的地方。

At the Cannes Film Festival, in front of all that media, then they call your name… And as a Chinese person, they then call you by your Chinese name… I was pretty emotional. 在戛纳电影节，前面的所有媒体，那么他们要求你的名字...作为一个中国人，然后他们打电话给您，您的中国名字...我很激动。 I’ve never thought about changing my name, changing it to an English name. 我从来没有想过改变我的名字，改变它的英文名称。 I’ve never thought about adopting an English name just to accommodate them. 我从来没有想过采取英文名称只是为了照顾他们。

My father and mother gave me my name. 我的父亲和母亲给了我我的名字。 It’s mine, and if you want to remember me, you have to put some thought into how to pronounce it. 这是地雷，如果你想记住我，你就必须把一些思考如何发音它。 It’s mine. 这是地雷。

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Despite all of the predictions of doom and concern, I believe the Olympics are already a success.  The WSJ reports world and business leaders are尽管所有的预测的厄运和关注，我认为奥运会已经取得成功。华尔街日报报道世界和商界领袖都 crowding China’s red carpet排挤中国的红地毯 in an unprecedented way:以一种前所未有的方式：

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Chinese president Hu Jintao’s 中国国家主席胡锦涛 brief appearance on the Strong Country internet forum 简短的出现在互联网强国论坛 might be more significant than most of us originally thought. 可能是更重要的不是我们大多数人原先以为。 There have been other signs in recent weeks that the PRC government is reconsidering its approach to Internet speech. 还有其他的迹象在最近几个星期，中华人民共和国政府是重新考虑其做法因特网讲话。 I translate a story ( 我翻译一个故事（ 原文 原文 ), just published in the China Youth Daily (中国青年报, operated by the Communist Youth League). ） ，刚刚出版的中国青年报（中国青年报，由共青团） 。

Zhuzhou Discipline Party Secretary goes online with his real name - Angry enough to smash his keyboard, but too afraid to curse. 株洲市纪委书记上网与他的真实姓名-愤 怒足以粉碎他的键盘，但不敢诅咒。

Yang Ping is party secretary of the Discipline Committee, in the city of Zhuzhou, Hunan province.  Recently, he got a new nickname.杨平是党委书记的纪律委员会，株洲市，湖南省。最近，他获得了一个新外号。 It all started on an internet forum he started to frequent.  The netizens there began to call him “classmate Yang Ping”.这一切都开始通过互联网论坛，他开始频繁。那里的网民开始叫他“同学杨平” 。 Gradually, even his friends began to refer to him this way.渐渐地，连他的朋友开始向他提到这种方式。

He never thought that he’d get this kind of nickname at the age of 47.他从来不认为他会得到这样的昵称，享年47 。 He also never thought that, since he started going online with his real name in May, he would be seeing changes beyond his nickname.他还从来没有想到，自从他开始上网与他的真实姓名5月，他将看到的变化超出了昵称。

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Many discussions involving China and the West end up being a competition: you have this, but we have that.许多讨论涉及中国和伦敦西区被一种竞争：你有这一点，但我们有。

Here is one very popular competition, passed around in different forms on numerous Chinese internet forums for many years.这是一个非常受欢迎的竞争，各地通过不同形式对许多中国的互联网论坛上许多年。 It’s about the glory of our government buildings.它是我们的荣耀政府大楼。 The captions below are translated from the Chinese original:下面的字幕翻译从原来的中国：

The city hall in Marion, Iowa. 市政府在马里昂，爱荷华州。 In China, this kind of building would’ve been torn down long ago. 在中国，这样的建设已经拆掉很久以前。

Government offices for the Fangshan District of Beijing. 政府办事处的房山区北京。 It’s far from the downtown area; a relatively poor mountain area! 它远离市区，一个相对较穷的山区！

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If there’s one thing we’ve consistently如果有一件事我们一贯 criticized批评 here, it’s that the Dalai Lama (and “clique”) has largely failed to reach out to the Chinese people directly.在这里，那就是达赖喇嘛（和“集团” ）已基本上没有影响到中国人直接。 For every interview he provides to the Chinese-language press, it seems he’s done fifty for foreign language press.对于每一个采访，他提供给中国语言的记者，似乎他做50外语新闻。 And even when he makes an attempt to speak to the Chinese (as with an open letter released earlier this year), his ignorance and lack of familiarity甚至当他试图说话的中国（如一封公开信今年初发表的） ，他的无知和不熟悉 shows through节目通过 . 。

But he is at least making an active effort to change this.但他至少作出了积极努力，以改变这种状况。 He has met with individual Chinese in the United States and Germany in recent months.他已经会见了中国个人在美国和德国在最近几个月。 And in his just completed trip through Australia, he met with the Chinese-language press, and also hosted an open Q&A session targeted at overseas Chinese.在他刚刚完成通过澳大利亚访问，他会见了中国语言的记者，还主办了一个开放式问答会议有针对性的在海外中国人。 (Unfortunately the session was organized with a dissident group with links to the FLG… but that’s not the point here.) （不幸的是，会议是一个有组织的持不同政见的团体联系， FLG ...但这不是点这里。 ）

Here’s what he had to say in Australia, courtesy of the International Campaign for Tibet (以下是他不得不说，在澳大利亚，礼节性的国际声援西藏运动（ 原文原文 ): ） ：

Dalai Lama : … Problems related to Tibet must absolutely be resolved between the Han and Tibetan races, no one else can deal with this type of problem. 达赖喇嘛 ： ...相关的问题西藏绝加以解决之间的汉族和藏族的比赛，没有人能处理这种类型的问题。 And precisely because of that, the Chinese, the Han in inland China, you must understand the real situation, this is very important.而正是由于这一点，中国，汉族在中国内陆，你必须了解真实情况，这是非常重要的。

So, what is the real situation in his opinion?那么，什么是实际情况，他的意见？ Read on for more.阅读更多。

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It has been almost 3 weeks since we moved and I promised to post an update.它几乎已经3个星期，因为我们感动，我答应后更新。 Better late than never.迟做总比不做好。

As I mentioned in a正如我前面提到的 previous post以前的职位 , the purpose of the move was two fold.的目的，此举是2倍。 One is to bypass the GFW blocking for readers in mainland.其中之一是绕过封锁桂枝茯苓丸为大陆读者。 The second is to change our previous domain name speak4china to a meaningful but less overarching one.二是要改变我们以前的网域名称speak4china有意义的，但总少一个。

Most readers liked the name foolsmountain.大多数的读者喜欢的名字foolsmountain 。 For Chinese readers, 愚公移山, 精卫填海 are well known stories.对于中国读者，愚公移山，精卫填海是众所周知的故事。 For non-Chinese, a quote from Sydney Smith may carry a similar spirit, “It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little.对于非中国，报价从悉尼史密斯可携带一个类似的精神， “这是最大的错误什么都不做，因为你只能做一点。 Do what you can.”做你可以。 “

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Today’s今天的 Xinhua article新华社文章 brings to our attention that China’s forex reserves have ballooned to $1.76 trillion as of the end of April.使我们注意到，中国的外汇储备已膨胀到一万七千六点零零零亿美元截至4月底。 To put this number in perspective: it is about 15% of the US annual economic output.把这个号码的观点：这是大约15 ％的美国年度经济产出。

Before people get carried away, allow me to explain what the forex reserves is not : it is definitely not the government’s money, so there is no sense in talking about the government spending it.在人民得过且过，请允许我解释什么是外汇储备没有 ：这绝对不是政府的钱，所以没有意义的谈论它的政府开支。 It is also not some kind of surplus money sitting around with no purpose.这也是没有某种形式的剩余资金坐在没有任何目的。 The forex reserves is part of the collateral that backs RMB-denominated debt obligations of China, and that includes all Chinese money and government bonds.在外汇储备的一部分抵押品的背上人民币计价的债务的中国，而且包括了所有中国货币和政府债券。

According to this Xinhua article, which quotes AFP, which got its information from a “Chinese media source” (got it?), China’s forex reserves increased by $74.5 billion in the month of April, or $100 million per hour.根据这一新华社文章，其中援引法新社，这有其信息从“中国媒体的消息来源” （有吗？ ） ，中国的外汇储备增加了七百四十五点零零亿美元在4月或1亿美元每小时。 (The article and all the English ones that copy it say $10 million, but they all did their math wrong!) （本文和所有的英语那些复制说， 1000万美元，但他们都没有他们的数学错了！ ）

China’s (mainland) forex reserves is followed in size by Japan’s at $1 trillion, Russia’s at $548 billion, India’s at $316 billion, and Taiwan’s at $287 billion.中国的（大陆）外汇储备其次是在规模，日本在1万亿美元，俄罗斯在五千四百八十〇万点零万美元，印度为3.16亿美元，与台湾在二千八百七十〇点零零亿美元。 Of course, only Japan is part of the G7 in this group, so it is an exercise for the reader to figure out how much the remaining 6 of the G7 have.当然，只有日本是七国集团在这一组，所以它是行使读者找出多少剩余的6七国集团的。

A large forex reserve gives currency stability and can be a defense of a country’s credit-worthiness.大量外汇储备使货币稳定，并可以防御一个国家的信贷价值。 On the other hand, its rapid increase adds to the inflationary pressure in China.另一方面，它的快速增长增加了通货膨胀的压力在中国。 Besides trade surplus and foreign investments, nobody has a good idea for where all this extra money is coming from — from Chinese expats, perhaps?除了贸易顺差和外商投资，没有一个好主意，所有这额外的钱是来自-从中国移居海外，也许？ I know many of them have sent money back as the RMB rises something like 8% a year against the USD.我知道很多人已经退钱派出的人民币上涨了8 ％ ，像去年对美元。 (On a side note, isn’t it interesting that the shrill rhetoric of Congress to make China revalue the RMB or face punitive tariffs has all but vanished…) （在一个方面说明，是不是很有趣的刺耳言论国会使中国重估人民币，否则将面临惩罚性关税，但已全部消失... ）

Something to ponder, where is this all headed?思考的东西，而这是所有领导？

Did you notice that?你通知？ Everything should still work as before. But if you encounter any problem, please let us know.一切都还是应该像以前的工作。但是，如果你遇到任何问题，请让我们知道。 I will put up a detailed update later.我会提出了详细的更新后。

A volunteer has posted a gorgeous collection of images of the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake on志愿者发布了华丽的收集图片后，四川地震 Tianya天涯 . 。 There are equally beautiful stories attached to these images, but I can’t possibly translate them all.有美丽的故事同样重视这些图像，但我不可能把他们所有人。

Tens of thousands of average citizens have driven into the disaster zone, bringing food, water, and moral support.成千上万的普通公民已经驶入灾区，把食物，水和道义上的支持。 There has been so much traffic that tourist style road-maps have been setup.有这么多的流量风格的旅游路线图已安装。 Along the way, they’ve seen suffering, but also great courage.一路上，他们看到痛苦，而且也极大的勇气。 And here are some of the signs the volunteers saw as they drove:这里的一些迹象显示，志愿者认为他们开车：

Unlimited Thanks! 无限谢谢！