Mao Zedong, Madame Mao and Hua Guofeng

One of the first things I realized when I arrived in Beijing in November of 2006 was that my historical knowledge of a country that traces its own origins back for more than 4,000 years, was simply missing. After spending a day walking through the Forbidden City with my friend Yang Pei, I quickly came to realize that the mountain I originally perceived was merely the tip of a gigantic iceberg, submerged with more than 9/10ths invisible to my western eyes.

I went back to my hutong and started building a graphic animation, a timeline that I could use to visually take me from the here-and-now, back through the dynasties to the beginnings of recorded time. Today, the announcement of the death of China's Hua Guofeng reminds me that I still have lots of Asian history homework to do. Digging through the Wikipedia like an archeologist... I assemble another detailed segment in my timeline of transition.

Born to a poor family of Shanxi province in 1921, Hua Guofeng was originally named Su Zhu (蘇鑄). In 1936, at the age of 15, he joined the Long March. Like many young revolutionaries in those times, he took on a long and patriotic name: Zhonghua kangri jiuguo xianfengdui (中華抗日救國先鋒隊), which means "Chinese, Resisting-the-Japanese, Nation-saving, Vanguard. Later he shortened it to Hua Guofeng. In 1938 he joined the Communist Party of China and in 1969 and was named to the Central Committee, where he eventually succeeded Zhou Enlai as prime minister. On his deathbed in 1976, Mao Zedong selected Hua Guofeng as his successor.

During a relatively short term of leadership, Hua is credited for quickly ousting the Gang of Four, a group led by Mao's widow - his last wife of 38 years - Jiang Qing and her three close associates, Zhang Chunqiao, Wang Hongwen and Yao Wenyuan. The Gang of Four effectively controlled the power organs of the Communist Party of China through the latter stages of the Cultural Revolution, although it remains unclear which major decisions were made through Mao Zedong and carried out by the Gang, and which were the result of the Gang of Four's own planning. Jiang Qing's explanation is remembered as her most familiar quote: "I was Chairman Mao's dog. When Chairman Mao asked me to bite, I bit!"

Near the end of Mao's life, a power struggle occurred between the Gang of Four and the alliance of Deng Xiaoping, Zhou Enlai, and Ye Jianying. The "Gang" hoped that key military leaders, Wang Dongxing and Chen Xilian would support them, but it seems that Hua won the Army over to his side. Their downfall in a coup d'état on October 6, 1976, merely a month after Mao's death, brought about major celebrations on the streets of Beijing, and marked the end of a turbulent political era in China.

The Gang of Four, along with disgraced Communist general Lin Biao, were labeled as the two major "counter-revolutionary forces" of the Cultural Revolution, and officially blamed for the worst excesses of the societal chaos that ensued during the ten years of turmoil from 1966-76.

Hua Guofeng became the leader whose emergence marked the end of the Cultural Revolution. However, Deng Xiaoping was already maneuvering to replace him. Hua was effectively stripped of his powers by 1978 and formally lost the chairmanship in 1981. Hua Guofeng, died today in Beijing at the age of 87.

East meets West... on the sands of time

Wang Jie and Tian Jia outperformed their Chinese teammates, Xue Chen and Zhang Xi to represent China in the finals of women's beach volleyball on Thursday. They will face the American defending champions, Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor - who remain unbeaten for more than a year.

May-Treanor says they won't allow the mass of patriotic Chinese fans to disrupt their concentration... "We'll just focus on the match, we will not be disturbed by the audience."

There are several things that come to mind all at once as I ponder this situation. I will try to focus, despite the discovery that not only are the Chinese using ancient, mystical and occult powers to sweep up the gold, but they are using western methods of mind control to do so.

Here's the inside story. It appears that the clever Chinese have discovered how to adapt the most ancient of Daoist philosophies, that of the Vulcan mind-meld, to unify and motivate an entire nation of supportive fans to bond with and thus empower, all of their Chinese Olympic competitors to the level of super-heroes.

This didn't come easily, however. Certain long-held traditions were casually sacrificed in order to employ these proven western tactics as a complement to the existing hive-mind tactics of Daoist harmony. Informed sources reveal that Chinese girls were selected for their physical features including "having great smiles and thin legs." Then it appears that they were forced to get suntans and placed into gangs where traditional taiji movement and Tibetan chanting was merged with other western influences to create the ultimate weapon of mass distraction: the Chinese women's beach volleyball Cheerleaders!


I cannot wait to get back to Beijing... to work for their liberation. These girls naturally provide lots of cheeky support as the British might say. See the scandalous evidence provided in agent BSR-12's photo report "Beijing - Day 6 (8/17)," somehow smuggled past China's strict media censors.

Lang Lang

Lang Lang just turned 26. He's an amazing classical pianist and kind of a nut. What kind of nut? You decide...

According to Wikipedia, "Lang Lang was two years old when he saw Tom playing piano in "The Cat Concerto," a Tom and Jerry cartoon on TV (Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor composed by Franz Liszt). According to Lang Lang, this first contact with Western music was what motivated him to learn the piano."

He is both loved and hated, with some critics calling him "Bang Bang." No matter, he is an exciting and captivating artist, one that breaks the rules and has fun. I love Lang Lang!

Dr. Ho Feng Shan, honored as a Righteous Gentile

Dr. Ho Feng Shan served as the Chinese Consul-General in Vienna in 1938-39. He was honored as a "Righteous Gentile" whose efforts saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust. Boys Town Jerusalem, embodied the concept of Hakarat Hatov - acknowledgment and gratefulness - in adding a memorial for Dr. Ho to their commemorative garden in Jerusalem in 2004.

"He used his position to provide visas for Austrian Jews fleeing the Nazis - one of the first diplomats to do so," they explain. "The title of 'Righteous Among the Nations' was bestowed upon him in October, 2000 for his humanitarian courage in issuing Chinese visas to Jews. Nazi policy at the time was not to deport Jews who could show they had visas to foreign countries, and Dr. Ho, disregarding instructions from his superior, the Chinese Ambassador in Berlin, issued visas to Shanghai to all who Jews requesting them. At the time, the Viennese consulates of England, France, Switzerland and others refused to do so."

The Shanghaiist.com has an article and a video interview with Israeli photojournalist and documentary film maker Dvir Bar-Gal all about Shanghai's Jewish history and the story of Dr. Ho Feng Shan who died in San Francisco in 1997 at the age of 96.

Olympics links... Happy 8-08-008

Wired Magazine says, "The 2008 Beijing Olympics will happen while most Americans are sleeping. While NBC, the games' official media outlet in the United States, will be providing thousands of hours of content on the web, the only way to truly ensure you won't miss too many record-breaking moments is to spread yourself across the web and take advantage of the many video outlets online." So, they launched a Wiki article: Watch the Olympics Online.

The Summer Games Channel on YouTube will provide a burgeoning collection of professional video content produced by the Associated Press, The New York Times, Getty Images, Reuters, France 24, The Travel Channel, GroundReport, Euronews, and Paralympic Sport TV. The Summer Games channel has the official backing of some of the top sources around.

Here's another collection of 25 Sites to Experience the Beijing Summer Olympics.

SUMM3R provides a place for posting and finding news, photos and videos from the Summer Olympics in China. Create a profile to track your reading history and comments throughout the games. Want to follow a particular athlete, sport or country?.

This official screensaver from the International Olympic Committee celebrates the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The screensaver offers a variety of photos showcasing the people and culture of Beijing, China. It also includes a persistent RSS feed of IOC Olympic-focused news.

What's in my China bag?

Last week I stumbled upon the writings of Derrick Story, a reporter assigned to Beijing, who wants to remain light, mobile and yet well-equipped. He shares the details of his collection of must-have electronic gadgetry in Assignment Olympics: What's in the Bag. Combing through his narrative after just taking a (very short) walk in the Wisconsin woods about an hour before sunrise, reminds of what is missing from his list.

I am walking down a fresh cut, made into the forest by a road-making crew. It is absolutely dark and I discover a large, unexpected rock in the middle of what I expected to be a smooth bulldozer-graded pathway. I immediately remember my winter in China and slow down, heighten my senses and begin to choose each step with conscious intent and focus. Pay attention! A few more steps and I discover an ankle-breaking hole, but because I am alert and moving much like a person without sight, I sense the hole with my foot and avoid stepping into it.

This is how you learn to walk in China. Assume that nothing is safe when it comes to sidewalks, stairs, streets and pathways. You will soon learn to take each step with a heightened sense of awareness... or accidents may happen.

In Shanghai I was delighted to see so many people riding silent, electric, two-wheeled scooters. At night, the frugal Chinese save battery power by turning off their headlights as they whisk down the narrow crowded streets at more than 25kph. You quickly learn to pay attention to each and every step you take. There are occasional holes in the sidewalks and pipes sticking out here and there.

In Dali, a small and ancient city where I lived at the base of a range of mountains, there are streams that run alongside most of the streets, downhill from west to east. There are no fences or guard railings to keep you from stepping off the edge, falling 1 - 4 feet into the gurgling waters. That would make it harder for people to wash their clothes or vegetables.
China has been working at a blistering pace to prepare Beijing for an influx of foreigners. Many of the old public toilets in the hutongs of the city have been torn down and replaced with new modern facilities. Within a few months all of the prostitutes on my street disappeared, the pirate music shops put away their catalogs of bootleg CDs and the street vendors, selling the latest Hollywood blockbuster DVDs for less than a buck, are gone.

I still wonder how many foreigners, coming from the "developed" world, where fear of law suits insures a high level of attention paid to public safety, will discover how much they take for granted. What's in my China bag? A wind-up powered, LED flashlight and a small, thin pocket knife are two of the things I never left home without.

The air in Beijing never bothered me but those who are concerned can now check the Daily Air Quality Monitoring Map. Richard Spencer explains the pollution tracking methods used to create the map.

Here's another useful set of maps for those seeking to comprehend the new building layout in Beijings Olympic center: BBC Sport's Olympic Map.