BLOGGER DOMAIN NOW ACCESSIBLE FROM CHINA VIA DIRECT DIALUP
When I first moved to China in September of 2004, I couldn't get directly to my feed, nor to Blogger. We had a DSL dial up connection when we lived in Dalian; for a grandiose second I thought that I, "Red Wedding" had been blocked, but I realized the "Blogger" domain had been blocked by doing a work around using my AOL software. By the way, this doesn't display well in AOL. I prefer Mozilla as a browser, where it looks just fine!
But back to the censorship issue -- I moved to Shanghai almost a year ago to the day. Same thing, could get to blogs through AOL, not directly from our DSL connection and a browser.
However, I discovered yesterday that, without going through AOL, I can reach this site. I'm really excited about this. I think that says something about relaxing restrictions. At any rate, I couldn't imagine why "foreign" colleagues* here seemed to enjoy the anti-C drama of discussing censorship when major foreign newspapers were always accessible for those who could read English. When we go to hotels, in fact our first temporary place here had CNN, the BBC and a major Hong Kong TV station.
(Yes, I know about the dogs slaughtered and because I live here, I really get it, the way things are done, the mindset. ) It wasn't just on AOL's news, it was on China Daily or Shanghai Daily's site. Which I'll put on the list of links when I remember the HTML I used when I set up this site.
For most of the last year I have been too busy reading Henry Giroux, Patricia Hinchey, Carolyn Heilbrun and Tillie Olsen, to name a few, and finishing a paper to blog, ironically one that has writing in the title. Writing about writing, how strange. And other reasons, laziness, watching TV series to relax from the "mundane stress" of living here, exacerbated by a really "toxic" workplace. I hate cliches but to save time since I'd like to go to sleep before 2:30 AM tonight, I'll use that one.
To those of you reading my blog, I wish you would decloak and tell me what it is you find interesting and I'll give you more. Perhaps you can comment and use anonymous e-mail addresses. We (Mr. F. and I) often send each other articles from the NY Times using outrageous domain names we invent, and I'm sure we're not alone.
In fact an acquaintance in private equity was speaking to me and casually said in passing, "Back when China was "C"... confirming what I already understood. This becomes annoying when I hear people talk about this place as if it were the "Cold War" era. The mother-in-law, "Don't you feel afraid to live in a "C" country? I don't know where I could be safer these days, with respect with being able to walk around and not live in fear of physical hart or violence like most of my fellow Americans must. We feel isolated when it comes to peers who share our cultural references and perspective, but it is hard to think of where we would go that would be as safe as here.
One of the first meetings of the CCP, which took place in a Shanghai home, now a museum walking distance from the trendy Xiantiandi area, a complete contradiction. But there are wax figures depicting the founders of the Party sitting around a table, and in English, their defined objectives, one of which was clearly stated, dismantling capitalism. So with the boom here, I really don't think the economic component requisite for the C definition is in place, so why do people think it's a C country "boogy-man" country anymore? Because the name of the Party? I will say that I found in my recent legal dispute vestiges of leveling power relations in employment law. I liked that. Our salary is divided into a share for housing, something once provided by the State.
How did I grow up so ignorant of the geography of this place --American education. Once you are here and realize you don't know the names or locations of cities with populations in the millions you see that something important is not being taught.
I am offended by friends who say, "But, no,they can't own musical instruments!" when I discussed how overworked my Dalian students with busywork homework and endless private lessons, music, English, Confucianism. I've been to the stores, you can buy Western musical instruments. This is not the era when the piano was fought for. I'll have to write about my visit to the island of pianos, once an International Settlement with 14 consulates on one square mile.
But these overworked children. I was a professional figure skating and so much of my time as a child was taken up by hours of practice. Here I see the same imbalance in the lives of children, en masse. What is this doing to human development? No siblings, little play that is interactive developing problem-solving skills, with the proliferation of computer games and other isolating electronic devices. By your six grade exit exam, the pressure's been on to get into the right middle school.
Internet cafes of hundreds of computers with most young patrons playing video games. It sickens me. The self-absorption I see is scary. I'm not a Luddite but the effects have been better documented than I can do. "Making Connections - Learning and the Brain" the Caines.
I realize I just wrote yesterday that Shanghai is not China, it is and like the States, many provinces, many dissimilar provinces, cultures. It ain't just the food. So we have stereotypes of New Yorkers, people have stereotypes of Shanghainese (and they are not kind) as they do about people from Dalian, etc.
One last thing before I sign off. If you are a working stiff, and not for a multi-national with accountability, beware. People here need us, but many employers or management in education, (not the older international schools, but the younger ones, with more unabashed mercantile objectives.) Their business depends upon finding and employing native speakers, but -- and this has happened more often than not to us, and to people we know who have worked here several years -- they take advantages of newcomers with the "but you're in China, not the U.S." card. They often do things that would be illegal in their home country. I don't exagerate. That is to say, don't think because your boss is American or Irish or Australian that they have any intention of observing labor practices in their own country. I won't make that mistake again!
Things change quickly here. Thank you to whomever I should be thanking for making it possible for me to reach Blogger and other sites through direct dialup.
*meaning Westerners, or more accurately, those of European, North American descent, "Northerners."
But back to the censorship issue -- I moved to Shanghai almost a year ago to the day. Same thing, could get to blogs through AOL, not directly from our DSL connection and a browser.
However, I discovered yesterday that, without going through AOL, I can reach this site. I'm really excited about this. I think that says something about relaxing restrictions. At any rate, I couldn't imagine why "foreign" colleagues* here seemed to enjoy the anti-C drama of discussing censorship when major foreign newspapers were always accessible for those who could read English. When we go to hotels, in fact our first temporary place here had CNN, the BBC and a major Hong Kong TV station.
(Yes, I know about the dogs slaughtered and because I live here, I really get it, the way things are done, the mindset. ) It wasn't just on AOL's news, it was on China Daily or Shanghai Daily's site. Which I'll put on the list of links when I remember the HTML I used when I set up this site.
For most of the last year I have been too busy reading Henry Giroux, Patricia Hinchey, Carolyn Heilbrun and Tillie Olsen, to name a few, and finishing a paper to blog, ironically one that has writing in the title. Writing about writing, how strange. And other reasons, laziness, watching TV series to relax from the "mundane stress" of living here, exacerbated by a really "toxic" workplace. I hate cliches but to save time since I'd like to go to sleep before 2:30 AM tonight, I'll use that one.
To those of you reading my blog, I wish you would decloak and tell me what it is you find interesting and I'll give you more. Perhaps you can comment and use anonymous e-mail addresses. We (Mr. F. and I) often send each other articles from the NY Times using outrageous domain names we invent, and I'm sure we're not alone.
In fact an acquaintance in private equity was speaking to me and casually said in passing, "Back when China was "C"... confirming what I already understood. This becomes annoying when I hear people talk about this place as if it were the "Cold War" era. The mother-in-law, "Don't you feel afraid to live in a "C" country? I don't know where I could be safer these days, with respect with being able to walk around and not live in fear of physical hart or violence like most of my fellow Americans must. We feel isolated when it comes to peers who share our cultural references and perspective, but it is hard to think of where we would go that would be as safe as here.
One of the first meetings of the CCP, which took place in a Shanghai home, now a museum walking distance from the trendy Xiantiandi area, a complete contradiction. But there are wax figures depicting the founders of the Party sitting around a table, and in English, their defined objectives, one of which was clearly stated, dismantling capitalism. So with the boom here, I really don't think the economic component requisite for the C definition is in place, so why do people think it's a C country "boogy-man" country anymore? Because the name of the Party? I will say that I found in my recent legal dispute vestiges of leveling power relations in employment law. I liked that. Our salary is divided into a share for housing, something once provided by the State.
How did I grow up so ignorant of the geography of this place --American education. Once you are here and realize you don't know the names or locations of cities with populations in the millions you see that something important is not being taught.
I am offended by friends who say, "But, no,they can't own musical instruments!" when I discussed how overworked my Dalian students with busywork homework and endless private lessons, music, English, Confucianism. I've been to the stores, you can buy Western musical instruments. This is not the era when the piano was fought for. I'll have to write about my visit to the island of pianos, once an International Settlement with 14 consulates on one square mile.
But these overworked children. I was a professional figure skating and so much of my time as a child was taken up by hours of practice. Here I see the same imbalance in the lives of children, en masse. What is this doing to human development? No siblings, little play that is interactive developing problem-solving skills, with the proliferation of computer games and other isolating electronic devices. By your six grade exit exam, the pressure's been on to get into the right middle school.
Internet cafes of hundreds of computers with most young patrons playing video games. It sickens me. The self-absorption I see is scary. I'm not a Luddite but the effects have been better documented than I can do. "Making Connections - Learning and the Brain" the Caines.
I realize I just wrote yesterday that Shanghai is not China, it is and like the States, many provinces, many dissimilar provinces, cultures. It ain't just the food. So we have stereotypes of New Yorkers, people have stereotypes of Shanghainese (and they are not kind) as they do about people from Dalian, etc.
One last thing before I sign off. If you are a working stiff, and not for a multi-national with accountability, beware. People here need us, but many employers or management in education, (not the older international schools, but the younger ones, with more unabashed mercantile objectives.) Their business depends upon finding and employing native speakers, but -- and this has happened more often than not to us, and to people we know who have worked here several years -- they take advantages of newcomers with the "but you're in China, not the U.S." card. They often do things that would be illegal in their home country. I don't exagerate. That is to say, don't think because your boss is American or Irish or Australian that they have any intention of observing labor practices in their own country. I won't make that mistake again!
Things change quickly here. Thank you to whomever I should be thanking for making it possible for me to reach Blogger and other sites through direct dialup.
*meaning Westerners, or more accurately, those of European, North American descent, "Northerners."
posted by Anonymous at 11:07 PM
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