Jianjun's Blog

I have been looking for a three-column theme for my WordPress blog for some time. Now you see I got it!

Yesterday I customized some widgets in the two sidebars and changed its header image to ‘my own’ – a piece of famous ink brush painting work dating back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279). What you see in the blog header is just a tiny part of the whole picture. How big is the original work? Some statistics:

According to some books, there are altogether 1,643 people and 208 animals illustrated in the picture.

It recorded people’s lives in the then Capital of Song – Bian Jing (now Kaifeng of Henan Province) around Qing Ming festival (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qingming_Festival). The whole work covers the scenes of the prosperous city center and part of the countryside along the Bian River（汴河）. The following picture is a glimpse of the city and Bian River of today.

Another development of this weekend is my right eye has been hurtful since yesterday afternoon and today it’s literally cherry-red! Guess I need to take a little rest after this post and REALLY stay away from my PC for one day. {seesmic_video:{“url_thumbnail”:{“value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/BYCimuB2Cg_th1.jpg”}”title”:{“value”:”WordPress Theme Changed, Eye Red As Cherry ”}”videoUri”:{“value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/hTrAv2MGnA”}}}

Award-winning Singaporean producer Siok Siok Tan‘s new Beijing 2008 Olympics documentary ‘Boomtown Beijing‘（北京沸腾）will be screening on April 20th, 2008 in Beijing. All proceeds from the screening will be donated to the Library Project.

‘Boomtown Beijing’ approaches Beijing Olympics from common people’s eyes. For event updates and movie trailer, visit Boomtown Beijing web site. To reserve tickets and for venue information, visit this link.

According to BBC News, Gordon Brown (I just knew he’s the current prime minister of Great Britain) said he will meet Dalai Lama when the exiled spiritual figure visits Britain.

The report also quoted that the Tory leader David Cameron said: “Does the prime minister agree that our relationship with China is vital… But we must be absolutely clear in telling the Chinese that this is unacceptable.”

“But we must be absolutely clear in telling the Chinese that this is unacceptable”? Mr. Cameron sounded like it was in 1840 when the British Empire attacked China in the Opium War. Maybe these guys never want to see a China that is strong and independent. Just as they can’t like Russia, they can’t like China.

The mobs in Tibet attacked civilians not only Han, but also Uygurs. Foreign tourists in Tibet saw innocent people beaten to death by these same guys wielding long knives, and shops set to fire. Do you call this peaceful protest? CNN footage shows Lamas were among the rioters damaging public facilities. Are they peaceful Buddhists? Ridiculous!

If memory serves me right, history tells me that it was just the then British Empire that had wanted to separate Tibet from China even before the 14th Dalai Lama was born. They invaded India, sent their King into exile. They exported opium to China to poison its people… Now they are “telling the Chinese”.

Tibet has always been part of China. Before it was peacefully liberated (not as the western media say it was invaded) from a cruel feudal system, the serfs had no basic human rights. Even in the 1950s, to celebrate Dalai Lama’s birthday, they used human sacrifice! Lamaism was used as tool to slave the brainwashed people. To learn more about the feudal rules of old Tibet from a literary perspective, I suggest Tibetan author Alai’s novel Red Poppies. Here’s a review by Guang Yue.

Further resources:

A Few More Words Regarding the Tibet Issue（西藏问题再啰嗦几句）blog post by drunkpiano
http://www.my1510.cn/article.php?8ea5a6e56d721111
(in Chinese with pictures from the rioting)

Tibet Violence Deepens, with Violence and Rioting by By Christopher Johnson (the Christian Science Monitor) details how PLA soldiers were beaten without attacking back even though they were equipped with riot gear, how innocent Han and Muslim Hui people were beaten up and police cars were burned. The ‘peaceful’ protest is a lie.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20080315/wl_csm/ostreets

*Update*
A blogger wrote about first-hand Tibet situation. The protests were not peaceful from their observance (March 14th):
http://kadfly.blogspot.com/2008/03/more-from-lhasa.html