at last
Posted by wangbo in life in Beijing on July 30, 2007
It finally rained. After how many daysweeksmonthsyears? of constant, stifling humidity and not a drop of rain we finally got a decent, if somewhat short, thunder storm. The difference is amazing, simply looking out the window the air is so much clearer. Apparently there’s more rain forecast for this evening. I hope so.
One of the unexpected results of living in China: I have come to love rain. Changsha taught me how good summer rain is at cutting the temperature down to something bearable. Taiyuan and Beijing taught me how good rain is at clearing the air of dust and soot and pollution and how good summer rain is after the long, long dry of autumn, winter and spring. And I’ll refrain from making the obvious statement about north China’s bone dry environment.
I don’t know why I bother
It’s not just Time’s The China Blog (there is no other) that’s full of mediocre posts and worse comment threads. The Sydney Morning Herald jumped on the blogging China bandwagon a while ago. I followed it for a time, but the blog seemed to go dead, so I ignored it until today, when, feeling bored and seeing the link in my bookmarks, I decided to check it out. The second latest article was an introduction to a tiger farm in Guilin, which attracted a huge number of asinine comments (tigers are noble, majestic animals therefore we should never kill them!) and subtle (by Australian standards) racism. Anyway, presented below is what seems to be the most logical comment, written by one Paul Walden, appearing near the bottom of page 5 of the comment thread. Well, I haven’t finished reading through the whole thread, and I don’t think I’ll bother, but of all the comments I’ve read so far, this is the one that comes closest to actually presenting a rational argument. I’ll post it bit by bit with my responses in between:
Granted, no one can claim that the treatment of livestock in Australia and other western nations is optimal. But there are a number of clear differences between the farming operations here and those in China and many other Asian nations.
Good start, Mr Walden. Can’t argue with that.
 Firstly, in Australia, we foremostly farm animals for their protein, which, for those not initiated, is an essential part of our diet (yes, by all means, you can achieve a complete protein source by mixing different vegetable amino acids as well, but as far as I know, scientists aren’t so sure that really does it for our metabolism). In China, on the other hand, animals are bred for purely superstitious reasons.
Last I checked, my father in law raised sheep for their protein, and given the large amount of meat of various (usually perfectly normal) kinds on sale in the markets and supermarkets, I strongly suspect that the overwhelming majority of animals farmed in China are being bred for their protein. That suggests to me that in the overwhelming majority of cases animal breeding in China is no less superstitious than in Australia.
Secondly, people in the west (save those involved in bullfights and illegal dog and rooster fights etc) are generally opposed to unnecessary suffering of animals. In China, however, things are quite different, as can be seen in the rather graphic video clip linked to by Imforthewhales. There’s a huge gap between our basic sets of values here, and, obviously, China has a long way to go.
Y’know, it’s amazing the number of animal cruelty cases I read about in the New Zealand press. And it’s amazing how well taken care of most Chinese pets I’ve seen are. True, Chinese zoos are notorious, and for good reason, but most of the animals I have seen in Chinese zoos looked to be in reasonable health. And true, Chinese people love to see animals performing (just to make a gross generalisation about “the Chinese” myself, but it was not so long ago that such things were just as popular in the West. And farming bears for their bile is beyond abhorrent, but then again, so is battery hen farming So it is absolutely true that China is rather backwards when it comes to animal welfare, but somehow I don’t think the differences between China and the West in that respect are quite so great as you claim.
Thirdly, in China as well as in Japan and many other Asian nations, there’s a blatant disregard for whether the animal species in question will be eradicated or not. At the rate these countries are consuming rare animals, we are bound to see the disappearance of a great number of well-known species in the wild during our lifetime. And tigers only represent one of these groups of animals; for instance, finning is currently decimating a great number of shark species at a staggering pace all around the world. All in the name of stubborn tradition and misguided pride.
And Western countries are somehow innocent of the massive overfishing of the oceans? In fact, the fishing industry is really quite environmentally destructive, and the West is no more innocent than anybody else. I guess we could also add in the really very negative enivronmental effects of Western-style industrial agriculture- habitat loss, pollution from run-off, massive depletion of water resources…… And Australia is certainly not innocent, either, just take a look at the parlous state of the Murray-Darling river system. Nor is New Zealand innocent- go take a look at the state of the lakes in the central North Island. Nor is any other country innocent.
Unless something is done to curb the Asian hunger for a host of rare animals, you can rest assured that your young children will mature into a world less rich in natural beauty than you did. To them, tigers and sharks – among other animals – might well become what the Tasman tiger is to you. Nothing but a memory.
The “Asian hunger for a host of rare animals” does affect certain species in ways that Western “hungers” do not, but take a look at the real picture. All of those “hungers”, be they Asian, Western, African or whatever, are combining to put massive pressure (to put it mildly) on the entire world’s ecosystem. No Asian is any more guilty than anybody else. The ovewhelming majority of them, in fact bear less responsibility for the state of the world’s environment than your average Westerner, since, being too poor to afford the absurdly wasteful lifestyles Westerners are used to, they simply don’t consume the same ridiculously huge amount of resources that are being sucked into ever-expanding Western waistlines.
Finally, to all the rednecks out there (of whom there are unfortunately all to many in this country): don’t let this blog fool you into thinking that the Asian countries have monopoly on immoral behaviour. This problem has nothing to do with race or origin per se – it’s simply a bad habit that needs to be uprooted and extinguished. (Much like the habits of many seemingly civilised Australians when it comes to the appalling treatment of Aboriginals.) It’s just that, in this very blog, we’re discussing the treatment of bred exotic animals, and when it comes to those, the situation in China is cleary way worse than anything you’re likely to encounter in Australia (save possibly at Western Plains Zoo).
Can’t really argue with you there, and the honesty is refreshing, but it would be nice to see that honesty taken a little further. But I’ve ranted enough as it is.
But yes, that was the best comment.
And, well, I really have to wonder what the likes of Time and the SMH are trying to achieve with these blogs. The blog articles are no more informative, and often less informative, than regular Western news reports on China- and the regular news reports hardly go into any depth or context and are all too often little more than “Chinese government bad”, “Chinese economy good”. And the comment threads…… wow……
The good news is there are much better journalist blogs out there.
food for thought
Editorial: Terrorism’s double toll on freedom. There doesn’t seem to be a name or any other kind of attribution, so I assume it’s by somebody on the NZ Herald editorial staff. Anyway, raises a few good points.
just a little headachy
Posted by wangbo in life in Beijing on July 29, 2007
Roubaozi is in town. He arrived Friday for a few days in the real world before he flies off home to Southland for the summer winter holiday. Funnily enough, this means I’ve spent a fair bit of time hanging out with him. Combined with a full morning of interviewing prospective students this morning (not the best. Noticeably lacking in quality compared to the first round two weeks ago), I’m feeling just a wee bit run down, tired and heachachy right now. Well, there was Kiwi Club on Friday night (bastards didn’t order enough Speight’s, we had to switch to Export Gold, with all the results one would expect of a switch to a decidedly inferior beer), pizza and a few De Konincks at the Tree last night, and it’s a really good thing that neither of us has to work tomorrow, cos he’ll be popping round for a couple more quiets later on…. But it’s bloody good to have such a good mate in town again.
So, yes, this blog may be a little on the quiet side for a few days.
Beijing’s coolest cabbie
Posted by wangbo in Environment, news on July 29, 2007
I’ve said it before, I’ll probably say it a million more times, one of the things that worries me most about the future of China is water. And now China Dialogue has an article about a cabbie in Beijing who studied the problem of Beijing’s desperate lack of water and then submitted a 28,000 word essay proposing some interesting solutions. Check it out.
aha
Aha! So I can use Live Writer to post to my canalblog account! My much neglected canalblog account…. Can’t see the canalblog style, though, but I’m assured I can post there. Yeah, I’m planning on getting that restarted as my Chinese study blog, and expanding it from Chinese language to culture and whatever else strikes my fancy. But hey, I’ve got that canalblog account, and canalblog is pretty cool, so I might as well use it for something. Of course, that means actually studying…..
Live Writer doesn’t cooperate with over-blog, though.
Another thing I’ll have to sort out is that annoying habit of opening any new post in Tencent Traveller.
And for some reason, going between Firefox and Messenger and Live Writer (you know, because I tend to be doing a gazillion things at once when I’m online) seems to slow the computer down to somewhere around the “painfully slow even by arthritic snail standards” mark, which is irritating. I’m not sure if that’s Live Writer, Tencent Traveller, or the years of neglect by previous foreign teachers this computer has suffered. Which reminds me, I should probably install Live Writer on the laptop, too.
ftp accounts?
So now I know the cause of the problem I had posting pictures with blogdesk. But Live Writer is a little friendlier and suggested creating an ftp account. Trouble is I have no idea what an ftp account is or how it would help. Help?
and there’s still more
Forced labour, that is. Seems like maybe that Shanxi brick kiln slavery case opened
a big, huge, stinky can of worms.
80s nostalgia
Posted by wangbo in Chinese study on July 27, 2007
Thanks, Micah, for finding this photo essay, and translating it. And at the bottom of Micah’s translation, he links to another piece of nostalgia. Actually, I really like that last one, some of the captions are brilliant. I won’t put the photos in this post, you can follow the link and see them yourself, but here’s a couple of examples of the captions:
那时侯围个“帕å?â€?å?ªæ˜¯ä¸ºäº†æ¼‚亮,基本上跟沙尘暴没有什么关系
At that time people wore a “kerchief” to look beautiful, by and large it had nothing to do with sandstorms.
那个时候光秃秃的墙上基本都写的ä¸?是拆å—
At that time, the words written on bare walls by and large were not “demolish”.
那个时候上天安门的人民群众基本上是�能��乱挥手的
At that time the crowds going to Tiananmen by and large couldn’t wave their hands about as they pleased.
So my translation is crap as per usual, but nevertheless, I think these short, little captions capture quite well a lot of the changes in Chinese society and the environment over the last thirty-odd years. Following the link and looking at the photos will show you even more.
Anyway, very interesting photo essays. Thanks, Micah, for finding these.
more
There’s more on that case of unethical human experimentation gone badly wrong at a hospital in Shanghai I blogged about yesterday. It’s looking like the hospital is in some serious trouble, and the German company that seemed to be taking advantage of China’s more [ahem] relaxed regulations and enforcement should be in serious trouble too. Speaking of which, are these their websites? Those are the first two google results for “berlin heart AG”, but at the base of those pages the company is called BerlinHeart GmbH. The contents of their newsletters (I really don’t want to download the PDFs, real journalists can do the real investigation) makes no mention of China, but then again, their newsletters seem to come out rather irregularly. I suppose if I downloaded some of the PDFs from back in 2004 I might, perhaps, find some mention of their work in Shanghai at the time this kid died, but like I said, real journalists can do the real investigation.
Huh. In the overview of their “For Patients” section, we have this:
“INCOR®� describes our implantable left ventricular assist device and its function. INCOR® is preferably applied for adult patients, whose clinical condition decreases slowly but continuously.
(my emphasis added)
Now, neither of the china.org.cn articles I’ve seen actually mentioned what device, exactly, was implanted in this child, but I find it hard to accept that a device “preferably applied for adult patients” would be suitable for a 13 year old.
Well, I’m trying to figure out how I’d find any of the original Chinese articles or more Chinese reporting on this, I suspect those reports may have a little more detail to them.
Nah, I’m giving up for now. Life in this soup last night’s CCTV 1 weather forecast rather creatively called “fog” is draining me of my energy. But I’ll be interested to see if any more articles come out about this. And if anyone has any ideas of how to find any of the Chinese articles on this, leave a comment. I tried, but to no avail.