Reading this week:
- Tibet as ‘Hell on Earth’ by Elliot Sperling in the Far Eastern Economic Review
Was Tibet “hell on earth” before the Chinese “emancipated the serfs” in 1959?Is it “hell on earth” today, as the Dalai Lama believes? Sperling, the director of the Tibetan Studies program at Indiana University’s department of Central Eurasia Studies, addresses these questions in a succinct and fair article. The article is not available online in China, but I am not sure if that is because the entire Far Eastern Economic Review site is blocked, or just this article.
- Slumming the Golden Arches by Rolf Potts on Yahoo News.
This article, written and posted in June of 2006, appeals to me because as an expat and a traveler, I have to agree with his argument. I am not a huge fan of McDonald’s, but I’m no hipster, either. Potts says that eating at a McDonald’s in a foreign country is not done because you miss the food or the thought of America, but because the traveler/expat seeks an anonymous space that is familiar. I visit McDonald’s in Linyi as an escape when the chaos outside becomes too much. I don’t particularly like the food, but I know what everything is, I know what to expect, and they’ve got the cheapest coffee in town! (And normally, a clean, western style toilet.) Even when the restaurant is packed to the gills with rambunctious school children, I can still relax. Which probably explains why I was able to spend four hours there one afternoon chatting with fellow expats. And don’t think that McDonald’s is really all that American anymore, few are the places that don’t have a Golden Arches, and the regional choices are a fun look at regional differences.
Looking at:
- Inside Red China - Photo galleries of life in “Red China” 1957-1978
Rejoicing at:
- The first Khmer Rouge trial in Cambodia – Wracked by corruption or not, it’s long overdue. First up is Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch.
I read a book about Duch, the commandant of Tuol Sleng prison – a real house of horrors in downtown Phnom Penh. The Lost Executioner documents photographer and author Nic Dunlop‘s quest to find Duch and chronicle the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime.
Related Posts:
- Smugmug Photo Sets I now have all of our recent vacation photos, good...
- Chengdu to Lhasa II After struggling through a rather dismal night thanks to Mr....
- Chengdu to Lhasa I We’re just concluding our first full day in Lhasa and...
- Chengdu to Lhasa III Towards the end of the second day, we passed through...
- Poor Ronald Yea, this guy backed into Ronald McDonald. Then he pulled...
