Perhaps the most eloquent blog entry ever made, and it consisted of 2 characters.
- I didn't put the characters in the title because I couldn't get them to be an opening and closing quote - I think that has more effect.
This is from a review of 3 books in the Ocotber 24th edition of the New York Review of Books. Unfortunately, it requires a subscription to read the complete article.
For a Song and a Hundred Songs: A Poets Journey Through a Chinese Prison
by Liao Yiwu, translated from the Chinese by Wenguang Huang
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 404 pp., $26.00
This Generation: Dispatches from Chinas Most Popular Literary Star (and Race Car Driver)
by Han Han, edited and translated from the Chinese by Allan H. Barr
Simon and Schuster, 265 pp., $24.00
Ai Weiweis Blog: Writings, Interviews, and Digital Rants, 20062009
by Ai Weiwei, edited and translated from the Chinese by Lee Ambrozy
MIT Press, 307 pp., $24.95 (paper)
The books are all translations of works by Chinese authors - you know, China, our trading partner. I'll take excerpts from 3 different parts of the story.
The first excerpt talks a little about Liu Xiaobo, a nobel laureate, currently a political prisoner in Jinzhou, Liaoning:
The 2nd excerpt is about Liao Yiwu's book:
- Tofu Fried on Both Sides: Two enforcers punch the inmate on the chest and back. The sustained blows sometimes cause the inmate to go into shock
.
- Stewed Ox Nose: The enforcer rams two fingers up the inmates nose until it bleeds
.
- Sichuan-style Smoked Duck: The enforcer burns the inmates pubic hair, pulls back his foreskin and blackens the head of the penis with fire
.
- Noodles in a Clear Broth: Strings of toilet papers are soaked in a bowl of urine, and the inmate is forced to eat the toilet paper and drink the urine.
The menu is hard to read, and it is lengthy. Liao lists thirty-eight dishes and comments on which of them could end in permanent injury or death for the inmate. Elsewhere, he notes how death-row prisoners live with the awareness that their organs will be harvested and sold after their executions. Somehow, though, Liaos square look at painful and degrading treatment does not cloud his poets eye. Riding in a police car, he observes the shops on both sides of the street blurring into a colorful sliding stage; famished inmates crammed chunks of rice into their mouths, stretching their necks like crowing roosters to help swallow. The translator, Wenguang Huang, deserves much credit for keeping Liaos art alive.
The 3rd excerpt is about Han Han and talks a little bit about his blog entry:
Hans Internet hits would reach an even higher total if cyberpolice didnt delete his more provocative posts shortly after they appear. Seeking to minimize the deletions, Han watches his words and frankly admits to his readers that every essay has undergone self-censorship. Foreign journalists sometimes frustrate him, he says, because they do not understand that he cannotat least, not nowbe as candid as he would like to be. He actually is more expansive when responding to questions from Chinese reporters because he knows he can trust them to do the requisite self-censorship for him. Yet he still gets his points across, and censorship sometimes even magnifies their force. The day after Liu Xiaobos Nobel Peace Prize was announced in Oslo, for example, Han posted a blog entry that consisted only of a pair of quotation marks: . A flood of comment followed. His readers had figured out that this was an open invitation to comment on something that was officially unspeakable.
The human spirit! And people understood.
Han Han: [center][/center]
chervilant
(8,267 posts)(That's what I call my blog...)
Bill USA
(6,436 posts)1-2
gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)uppityperson
(115,681 posts)ourfuneral
(150 posts)I wanted to see if my post went through. Thanks for the welcome!
TeamPooka
(24,259 posts)ourfuneral
(150 posts)Plus the state of our infrastructure, education system, anything you pick, we're losing.
MADem
(135,425 posts)ourfuneral
(150 posts)This will be my last post in this thread. Good night.
MADem
(135,425 posts)expect any pushback?
Good night, indeed. Enjoy your stay.
TeamPooka
(24,259 posts)uppityperson
(115,681 posts)things with each other.