Mother and daughter. Ping'An, China. 2006.
It seems only fitting to announce the opening of my Etsy store in the dying hours of the last day of the decade. The augur of a blue moon wouldn’t be one to take lightly, if I actually gave two shits about idiocy like that. Instead, I will only hope for all my readers that I make the time to provide you with more stories and photos in 2010 – pronounced “twenty-ten” not “two thousand ten”, folks. Here’s to a new year, a new decade, and another opportunity to get it right.
Young boy. Guangzhou, China. 2006.
December 31, 2009 · Filed Under China
Two Naxi farmers who taught themselves traditional instruments to preserve Naxi music, Baisha, China. Seth Rosenblatt (c) 2006.
Journalists are finally allowed back into Tibet, but there’s no little indication that the Chinese are acknowledging that much of anything took place. They’re still denying that anybody was killed, and while the true number of fatalities might not be in the low hundreds as the Tibetans claim, it’s doubtful that not a single person was killed. Read more
March 30, 2008 · Filed Under China
A pugnacious Dong boy, Chengyang, China. Seth Rosenblatt (c) 2006.
The tensions between Han and Tibetan residents of cities and towns other than Lhasa are well-documented. Tibetans want their exiled leader to return and control of their country to return to their notably undemocratic monasteries. The burgeoning Han population and the Chinese government want to use lands they claim as historically theirs for their own needs.
Caught in the middle, as always, is the average person. Smoking homemade cigarettes made from old newspapers or worrying about future employment, the military action and murders in Tibet seem to be a test of foreign reaction as much as anything else. Nancy Pelosi and one Thai Olypmic torch-bearer aside, international criticism has been muted, so it’s interesting to note that scholars and other intellectuals from within China are able to articulate a message of moderation and dialogue over domination.
I remember seeing in the Shanghai Museum of Art an incredible permanent exhibition on Chinese minority groups, complete with costumes, craftwork, pottery, and lacking the obligatory “sorry-for-destroying-your-way-life” message that you see in Native American or Aboriginal exhibits. The Dong of Chengyang and other south-central minority groups in China were prominently featured, but the Tibetans were less so. Perhaps it’s too hopeful to suppose that although the military and political leaders seemed to have figured out what they want to do with Tibet, the rest of the country hasn’t.
March 23, 2008 · Filed Under China
A Zhuang woman carryies the day’s harvest near Ping’An, China. Seth Rosenblatt (c) 2006.
The dominant culture in China is the Han. A femtosecond of Googling around will show you that within China, racial tensions between the Han and the various minority cultures over which they rule are tense. It is not much different from the United States and the Native Americans, the Japanese and the Okinawans and what’s left of the Ainu, the Australians and the Aborigines.
The list of societies we have decimated in order to assert our own cultural superiority is not endless, but it is a long list and it’s been going on since time immemorial. The difference between those incidents lost to time or occurring in the past and today is that we, globally, have recognized an aversion to invasion, subjugation, and cultural obliteration. What’s happening today in Tibet is nothing less than the same kind of destruction that we all cringe at.
Today? Read more
March 20, 2008 · Filed Under China
Relaxing with a cigarette, rice fields near Yangshuo, Guanxi, China. Seth Rosenblatt (c) 2006.
Nearly two years ago, I wrote, “The FMA and I were having so much fun being the only bikers on the road besides elderly locals that we barely noticed the inadvertant mudbath.”
May I now present to you an Elderly Local. Read more
February 14, 2008 · Filed Under China
Night market chefs, Yangshuo, Guanxi, China. Seth Rosenblatt (c) 2006.
The night market in Yangshuo was one of the most vibrant I visited during my entire trip. Dozens of stalls served up fresh seafood, pork, grilled veggies and the local delicacy, beer fish. Read more
January 13, 2008 · Filed Under China
Preparing dumpings in Hubu Alley, Wuhan, China. Seth Rosenblatt (c) 2006.
Food preparation in both China and India was fascinating, although the appeal of not cooking on the ground made many Chinese dishes more palatable, even if I didn’t know what I was consuming. Hubu Alley in Wuhan was the only redeemable part of the city the FMA and I experienced: it’s one of the three hottest cities in China. Read more
January 11, 2008 · Filed Under China
Old woman. Shanghai, China. 2006.