Blog commenter Jong has pointed out (on numerous occasions actually, but I suppose he wanted to get his point across; for future reference I wasn't ignoring you, it just took time to get the fix made) that a caption on a photograph accompanying one of my web stories about the Tibet protests (here) was open to misinterpretation. Actually, his phrasing was a little more pungent than that: Mr. Elegant...

So. One month to go to the big day. At eight minutes past eight on the eighth day of the eighth month of, yes, '08, this Olympic Games will finally start. I for one will be hooting with joy. I am thoroughly sick of the build up. Can't imagine what it's like for the organizers, tho I suppose the fear of some looming cock up is bracing enough to keep their minds off other matters. There's not too muc...

Saw a wonderful documentary the other day. Really moving and funny, but also gives great insight into how China and the Chinese are changing. It's called My Beijing Birthday and the prime mover (and shaker, quite literally in this case) is Howard Snyder who, apart from being a great guy and living in my compound also speaks just about the best Chinese I have ever heard from a foreigner. This is of...

Forgot to mention that we put up our take on the Weng'an protests over the weekend. Link here. I hesitate to call anything in China a turning point, but it is certainly a major milestone. And as we all know, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, grasshopper....

Today is the 73rd birthday of the Dalai Lama. That's significant as it is now becoming increasingly clear that Beijing's approach to the Tibet issue is to stall until he dies. The Beijing talks between representatives of the Dalai Lama and Chinese officials last week appear to have been dire despite the fact that pretty well the only thing the Tibetans were asking for was a meeting with President H...