Perfect Enlightenment
I learned 25 years ago and have relearned on this trip that perfect enlightenment with respect to Asia comes only in the understanding that you will never really understand. Actually, Churchill said it first and said it best in referring to Russia. It is “…a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”. I’m now convinced, again, that his insight applies perfectly to China as well. I probably should have waited for a little soak time after the trip before opining as I’m now getting ready to do. Maybe my views would have mellowed a bit, but events have overcome me, and I can wait no longer. The trigger event was a trip out of Xian to see the Terra...The Long River
S. and I are now comfortably ensconced in the Jade Suite of the MV Yangzi Explorer with the intention of cruising the four hundred miles or so between Yichang (population circa four million) and Chongqing (population seven million). Yichang I’m sure you’ve never heard of, but Chongqing you may know as Chunking which it used to be before the Chicoms started tinkering with the names of their towns. I also remember Chunking as the only Chinese food ever to cross our family table. It was the name brand of the boxed chow mein that my mom got at the local grocery. Let’s deal with the name thing first. When the first missionaries arrived in the area about five...What’s Past Is Prologue
The words in the title of this blog are inscribed on the facade of the National Archives in Washington, DC, but actually they are a corruption of the Bard’s words in The Tempest Act II, Scene I wherein he wrote “ whereof what’s past is just prologue of what’s to come, that is, the future”. If China’s past is just prologue of it’s future, we’re in trouble; but I don’t think so. What I’m going to say is not likely to square with any history you’ve read about China, if you’ve ever read any. China’s history, it’s prologue, if you will, is really pretty simple. It, like Caesar said of Gaul, can be divided into three parts. First, there is the dynastic part. ...China Revisited
My first visit to China and Beijing was in 1985, four years before the episode we all remember which played out at Tianamen Square in 1989. As I stood in the center of the square with S. yesterday, I had flashbacks to my experiences over the last twenty-five years. I thought it might be worthwhile, even interesting to recount some of them for you as a prelude to the blogs I intend to post during and after our current trip as tourists to the Middle Kingdom. It’s worth while to note that the literal translation of Tianamen is Gate of Heavenly Peace or sometimes, mandate from Heaven. I guess the gods will never leave us alone, even in China. 1. My first...