I'm sure this is for "gun hei fat choy" but it's more fun to think it's the car of a big guy named Choy.

* Spotted in Chinatown. Of course.

The global economy is complicated!!

* Thanks to my brother for the link!

China Sentences Rights Activist to Jail

Confined to house arrest for seven months, Chinese activist Hu Jia still managed to use the Internet and telephone to chronicle the harassment of dissidents in his country before he was hauled off to jail last December.

Hu, one of China's most prominent human rights advocates, was given 3 1/2 years in prison for ''inciting state subversion,'' said his lawyer, Li Fangping. The evidence against Hu included five Internet articles he wrote and two interviews he gave to foreign media, Li said. continued...

Having a Taiwanese mother, parents who live in China and a B.A. in East Asian History I have heard, witnessed and learned things about China that people farther from the matter may not have and it's not pretty. While I'm relieved to see that media coverage, the NY Times specifically, has been more focused recently on highlighting the wrongs China commits day in and day out, I am reserved in my hope that this will affect public opinion enough. I'm sure most people are sickened by the Tibet situation for example but I realize more and more that until governments step in, meaningful reform will likely not take place. And it doesn't look like our government is going to do the right thing.

Here's a sampling of articles from the past 30 days:

China Rights Activist Sentenced to Jail Excerpt: A Chinese activist who had petitioned for land rights was sentenced Monday to five years in prison and then shocked with electric batons when police scuffled with his family, his lawyer said. More on Hu Jia Excerpt: Mr. Hu has worked on many causes in China, including volunteering to help AIDS patients and participating in tree-planting campaigns. He is a prominent blogger who also disseminates information about peasant protests, dissidents and other issues often censored in the Chinese news media. On Dec. 27, security agents dragged him from his apartment as his wife, Zeng Jinyan, also a well-known blogger, was bathing their infant daughter. She has remained mostly under house arrest during her husband’s incarceration.

U.S. Drops China From List of Top 10 Violators of Rights Excerpt: The State Department no longer considers China one of the world’s worst human rights violators, according to its annual human rights report released Tuesday, a decision that immediately earned the ire of human rights groups. In the annual report on more than 190 countries, the State Department did say that China’s “overall human rights record remained poor” in 2007. China, the report said, tightened media and Internet curbs and increased controls on religious freedom in Tibet and the Xinjiang region. The report said China’s abuses also included “extrajudicial killings, torture and coerced confessions of prisoners, and the use of forced labor.”

China Tries to Thwart News Reports From Tibet Excerpt: For the past few days, CNN, the BBC, Google News, Yahoo and YouTube have been blocked or have faced temporary blackouts or service disruptions in some parts of China. Some foreign journalists also say their e-mail service has been disrupted. Such measures are not unusual here. China strictly censors news that appears in the Chinese media and occasionally disrupts the activities of international news organizations and foreign Web sites operating in China, particularly if the content they are distributing is deemed politically offensive to the government.

Heparin Find May Point to Chinese Counterfeiting Excerpt: Federal drug regulators, in announcing Wednesday that the mystery contaminant in heparin was an inexpensive, unapproved ingredient altered to mimic the real thing, moved closer to concluding that Americans might be the latest victims of lethal Chinese drug counterfeiting. The finding by the Food and Drug Administration culminated a worldwide race to identify the substance discovered early this month in certain batches of heparin, the blood-thinning drug that had been linked to 19 deaths in the United States and hundreds of allergic reactions.

Tibetan Exiles: Protest Deaths Near 140 Excerpt: The group said the overall toll was ''around 140,'' and it listed the names of 40 Tibetans killed in protests that started March 10. Previously, the Dalai Lama's government said 99 protesters died. China has put the death toll at 22.

China Bars Olympics Coverage From Tiananmen Square Excerpt: Apparently unnerved by recent unrest among Tibetans and fearful of protests in the heart of the capital, China has told broadcast officials it will bar live television shots from Tiananmen Square during the Beijing Olympics.

4 Executives Are Charged Over Tainted Toothpaste Excerpt: The chemical, diethylene glycol, which is banned from certain ingestible items in the United States, was discovered in almost a million tubes of toothpaste last May and led to recalls in 34 countries. The chemical, commonly used in antifreeze and as a solvent, can lead to kidney damage or liver disease. The toothpaste ended up being distributed in the United States in prisons, luxury hotels, hospitals and discount stores. It was one of the earliest global alerts to broader manufacturing problems in China that allowed scores of tainted products, including toys, children’s jewelry and pet food, to end up on store shelves. The chemical in the toothpaste was used instead of the more expensive chemical glycerin.

Chinese Rights Activist Reported Missing Excerpt: A Chinese lawyer who has urged the Communist Party to improve its human rights record in advance of the Summer Olympics has disappeared, according to his wife, who said Friday that she was worried that the authorities might have detained him because of his political advocacy. The lawyer, Teng Biao, 34, disappeared on Thursday evening after calling to say he would be home in 20 minutes, said his wife, Wang Ling. Shortly afterward, she said, she heard shouting in the parking lot below the family apartment and later found her husband’s empty car. Witnesses told her that two men had dragged someone out of the car and taken him away, she said.

Not hot off the presses but a worthy read nonetheless!

In Beijing, Orwell Goes to the Olympics

Excerpt: The penalty for “Chinglish” is usually humiliation, not incarceration. Still, citizens are asked to snitch, Mao-era style, on people who shame China with their shaky English. An outfit called the Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages Program issues prefabricated foreign phrases to workers who cannot converse in any foreign tongue. The Olympics have become one more tool in the authoritarian state’s box of tricks. Yes, curbing Chinglish — along with current efforts to eliminate spitting, littering and pushing to enter a bus or train — shows the better side of authoritarianism. Clean streets are agreeable, and Beijing’s may now be better than New York’s. The city’s Spiritual Civilization Office has begun a monthly “Learn to Queue Day,” surely welcome to all who have been victims of the scramble to board a Chinese bus. It reminds one that China could have a government far worse than it has now. Yet behind the attack on Chinglish lies an Orwellian impulse to remake the truth. Banished from Beijing for the Olympics will be not only fractured English, but disabled people, Falun Gong practitioners, dark-skinned villagers newly arrived in the city, AIDS activists and other “troublemakers” who smudge the canvas of socialist harmony.

Welcome to the year of the rat, the first sign in the zodiac!

And it's my dad Stephen Harner!

Welcome to the first in the series of Remote Blogging! In this case, my parents took a trip to Xinjiang for my Mom's 60th birthday and have sent in photos and a description via email. The area looks breathtaking - hope to visit it one day!

Dear Andrea,

For your info, we stayed in Urumuchi, the capital, and made day trips to Shiheze and Turfan. The capital and Turfan were key stops along the silk road from China to the Middle East and Europe. The native population are Uighurs, Moslems since about the Yuan Dynasty, but Buddhist before that. I think I saw something to the effect that Urumuchi is the place on the planet most distant from any ocean. The city is at the northern foot of the Tianshan mountain range (in which sits the lake). There is enough rainfall on the northern side of the range to support agriculture, crops like corn, cotton, and fruit. It's very much like California's Central Valley. Turfan is known for its grapes and raisins. But the high mountain range, with the Tianshan peak towering about 3000 meters above sea level, prevents precipitation to the south. There the landscape is "gobi," the local term for rocky desert, for hundreds of miles.

Love,
Daddy

* Chinatown, NYC.

* Chinatown, NYC.

This picture delights me to my core.

Once in a blue moon a video so great inspires a haiku!

Puppy's exhausted expression.
Duckling forces kiss and cuddle.
TGIcuteFriday!

Wow. The idea that pollution could be so bad as to affect sports performance is frightening. Pollution makes me sad and wheezy.

* Thanks to my Uncle Derek for the photos and his email: I saw one of these women in Taiwan in 1979. She was 96 years old. I wanted to take a picture of her feet. She was so superstitious that she thought the camera would steal here soul, so she refused.

* Thanks to my bro for the photo!
** To smell more click here.

Drinking video games - yum!

&

Medical restaurants - yummier!

Oh! Don't forget about air sex.

This is hilarious and reminds me of the first time Jonah met my mom (she's Chinese). After hearing her speak Chinese, he commented, "wow, your Mom's really racist!" I was perplexed and asked why he thought that. "She keeps saying the n-word, over and over and over!" he said. I laughed my tatas off because just as "like" peppers American English, "neiga" (translation = "that") can frequently and consecutively (neiga, neiga) be heard in Mandarin. I hadn't heard it through the filter of a non-Chinese speaking ear so it never sounded weird! but ever since then it does indeed sound like my mom repeatedly and shamelessly says the n word.

Omg, I am desperate for the fishies to nibble on my face of dead skin! No really, I mean that. I want to feel the suckling lips of fish and know that I'm getting the fishiest exfoliation treatment. I want fish to suck my face silly!!!

* Pudong, China.

Don't forget to pick me up some chicken feet, k?!...is how the saying goes...

* Shanghai, China 12.06

Oh, right! Silly me, I hung them out to dry!

* Taken in Shanghai's French Concession 12.06.

or rather...working it !!!! ha ha ha ha ha ha HA HA HA!

* Photos by Jonah from my visit to my mom's well-frequented hair salon in Shanghai.

** Am currently tired and tipsy after a day at Kamakura and after a feast at Steakhouse Hama in Roppongi...good night!!

...after a year of being threatened by it. LAME.

* taken several years back on a family trip to the fantastic city of Lijiang, China.

* taken several years ago in Southwestern China.

This is good service. You can avoid all your fake smiles and "no, I'm ok" and "no, I'm just looking" *and* steal all you want.

* Somewhere in China, I forget where, years and years ago.

Don't be fooled:

Wang Yiming, 21, is a self-confessed internet addict, one of a growing number in China. He used to spend hours online each day, often going without food or sleep. His face is drawn and sallow.

"But I couldn't control my addiction. Friends were also telling me that I was on the net too long, but I thought: 'It's my life, I can do what I want.' I became a real loner, was withdrawn, and wouldn't listen to anyone."

As I sit here, feeling sorry for myself because the weather has been sucking and all sources point to it continuing to suck, I also feel bad for my parents!!