“But the missing from this official story, as it was missing from official reports on the Tibetan riots, is any acknowledgment that Uighurs in general might have legitimate grievances. Grievances about the influx of ethnic Han, the relative lack of economic opportunity, demolition of their traditional cities, limitations on their right to freely practice their religion, or whatever.

That’s a serious omission because, while it is made with an eye on propagating an official story of the spread of development and prosperity, it comes with a long-term price: it inflames the very tensions it attempts to paper over. And it, with marvelous efficiency, it inflames them on both sides. Uighurs are given the impression that their concerns are considered unworthy of acknowledgment by the State, a situation that is a classic recipe for convincing people to take extreme measures. Other Chinese, meanwhile, are deprived of any context for the riots, which feeds into a colonial attitude toward Uighurs that I have experienced firsthand. If you believe that you have given a people nothing but development and progress and economic opportunity, and they rise up against you, then you will come to see them as at best treacherous and untrustworthy and at worst as less than human, with predictable consequences. Legitimate grievances or not, the riots are almost certainly doing terrible damage to the Uighur cause in China.”

“Collective violence is a funny thing. Grievances, hatreds, jealousies, and resentment can linger in the collective consciousness for a long time without being expressed through bloodshed, but the longer it simmers the more extreme the reaction when the barrier is breached and violence enters the repertoire of resistance.

I personally found the wanton violence on the part of the rioters in Urumqi to be abhorrent. But it’s also important to remember, as too many people in the United States failed to do in the aftermath to 9-11, that seeking to understand WHY somebody would commit acts of violence is NOT the same thing as condoning those acts.”

quotes from 2 sensible pieces on the most recent urumqi riots, by Imagethief and Jottings from the Granite Studio, very much worth reading for some context on the situation.
for twitter updates, follow @malcolmmoore and @melissakchan.

hello europe! :D

from icanhascheezburger.

after a hellish week with the cats travel preparations, this pic made me laugh. at moments i’ve been quite tempted to just pack the cats with my sweaters, but i’m glad things seem to be moving in the right direction now. fingers crossed!

Charlotte: That was the worst lunch.
Bob: So bad. What kind of restaurant makes you cook your own food?

quotes from lost in translation, excellent korean barbecue by a restaurant called soba, dongxin road. the whole thing for 4 1/2 people, 124rmb (12 euros). :)

i take all the pictures of food in the blog on the restaurants we go to for dinner, so today i thought i’d show something different: a typical lunch in the company. here it is:


it’s basically a set of random chinese dishes with meat, fish, vegetables, tofu, etc that everybody shares. the ayi orders it from a small restaurant, and an hour later, the delivery boy brings it around and she screams “chi fan le!” :)

sometimes the dishes are good, sometimes they’re not, but since there’s some variety you can always choose the ones you like best. stuff in heavy sauce doesn’t make it to my dish, but in contrast, the beef strips and the curry chicken are a favorite.

we’re usually 8 people eating, and the bill is a grand total of 80rmb, or 10rmb per person (8 euros total, 1 euro/person). amazing, hein?

a couple of months ago i thought that since i was leaving china soon and had been studying chinese for 1 year and a half, i might as well have some sort of certification. so, at my teachers advice, i registered for the hsk (the standard chinese test for non-native speakers, also called the chinese toefl), but on the basic level, because i hadn’t done any specific preparation for this test. to take the test on the basic level you have to know around 800 characters/1033 words.

so last month, i did the test along with a lot of other hopeful students. it’s a multiple choice test from beginning to end, and it has 3 parts: listening, grammar and reading comprehension. the first 2 parts are ok, but the texts they put on the reading comprehension part are really hard, some of them i was completely clueless… i honestly can’t understand the difficulty gap between the three parts. why would they make a reasonably easy test and then make the last part 100 times harder? :|

anyway, a month later, ladies and gentlemen, i am very proud to announce that i’ve passed the HSK exam! :D i was given a level 2 grade, which translates in

“The candidate has acquired the basic (middle) Chinese competence that can meet the demand of basic daily life, a certain range of social communication and study to some degree. “

yay! i’m really happy about this, and it’s a big motivation for me to keep learning chinese elsewhere. perhaps in a couple of years i’ll be ready for the intermediate exam. :)

not that different from the black and white version. i like the fact that, despite it being a color film, the colors turned out so subdued… spring can be like that too. and i haven’t got tired of looking up to the tree tops yet… :)