Lhasa reminds me of Arizona: dry, sunny, animal skulls as ornamentation, and armed police checking your papers if you happen to look different.

Speaking of police and hyperboles, it’s becoming something of a dilemma whether or not it’s appropriate to post photographs of the security forces in Lhasa online. These consist of paramilitaries [People's Armed Police], city police, and plainclothes PSB agents. One is not supposed to take pictures of these individuals (if you are seen doing so, they will seize your camera and not return it). Since sponsorship is required for foreign nationals to go to most places in Tibet, it’s not simply a personal decision; which comes up against a contrary feeling that an (in effect) occupation of a provincial capital as the status quo is somewhat odd and should be publicized. Given the biased rhetoric that comes from both Chinese and Western sources with regards to Tibet, more information seems useful.

It is difficult to take lots of pictures (especially in the Tibetan/Muslim areas of the city) without catching the security forces peripherally – the patrols are often that dense. I’m somewhat sympathetic to the restrictions on outright voyeurism. There are definite concerns about identifiably photographing these individuals, as they could potentially become targets (unlikely but one never knows.)

The paramilitaries were, for the most part, rather genial (especially when the officers aren’t around). They do interact with the community – it’s unfortunate, for example, that I couldn’t take a picture of a little girl wearing a butterfly costume drawing in a coloring book with two PAP guards. The juxtaposition was so very China, and priceless. (That or a really good PR setup.) The soldiers barter alongside tourists, which seems a much better state of affairs than the alternative – at least they are less likely to (in theory) shoot into a crowd. They are mostly young, and don’t really want to be there. They are extremely handy if you want directions, as they can be found at most major intersections in the city.

While I feel as though I’ve self censored plenty of things I might have written (though more for personal rather than political reasons); the (superficial) exposure to this type of Orwellian reality produced more anxiety than I thought it would. The notion that a photograph could endanger someone else’s livelihood (either the soldiers or local guides) is sickening but ultimately necessary, given the current situation.

Kitschy non-political pro-China-everyone-happy photos to be uploaded soon.

Literally and somewhat figuratively. As of today the bourse’s stocks are still going up, as they have been for the past several days. Maybe they should try that here.

Blogging has been on hold due to work being busy and planning a trip; and posting will likely be infrequent for the next few weeks.

Ambassador Huntsman, in a speech at Tsinghua, said that the U.S. and China need to “DTR” (determine the relationship). Wonder if there’s a diplomatic equivalent of: “say, China, think we can be friends… With benefits? We still want to see Southeast Asia.” Via SF.

Go to Google.cn, be redirected to the HK portal. Type in 你妈逼 (short version of “f*** ur mom’s c***,” a fairly common curse). Click on 手气不错 (“feeling lucky”), or just do a normal search return.

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Seriously how is the above plot different from any given week here. I haven’t seen Avatar, nor do I really want to (preferring to convince myself that I’m able to lord some sort of indie-film-hipster sensibility over the easily entertained masses of humanity… it’s also hard to get a ticket). The film is a big deal here, and many have commented extensively on mainland interpretations of the film as an easily celebrated allegory for eminent domain, which seems like a fairly Sinocentric reading. Recently, the 2D version of the film was pulled to make way for the domestic epic, Confucius, which makes perfect sense since both films are science fiction/fantasy.

Ancient philosophers meh: Hunan claims to have mist-covered picturesque mountains similar to those featured in Avatar (English here), using the resemblance to draw tourists. The city of Zhangjiajie has renamed even named a local peak Avatar Hallelujah Mountain, the first two terms being phonetic transliterations (阿凡达哈利路亚, Afanda Haliluya) which just seems sort of wrong, though not quite Starbucks in the Forbidden City wrong. Popular culture will of course be interpreted in a local context, and instead of assimilation one should view these things as fusion. Perhaps we only wish the interpretations weren’t so crass. HT Ellie.

This is a very interesting visualization, which comes from the European Commission’s Joint Research Center, which captures information about travel times for any given area. These sorts of exercises are very interesting, when realizing that it’s easier (faster anyway) to travel from Shanghai to Chicago than it is to travel from Shanghai to certain parts of rural Anhui. The remotest place in the world is in the PRC: the Tibetan Plateau. Note that the scale is non-linear, so the differences between remote and non-remote are even more considerable than appears at first glance. It would be interesting to use the same methodology and restrict travel options to income levels, to examine economic determinants of geographic access.

The blue lines are shipping routes; apparently Shanghai is the third most central port in the world (after the Suez and Panama Canals).

China mobile has recently begun censoring text messages with ‘yellow content’ (sexting, basically). People were upset by the invasion of privacy, so the compromise with customers was to simply block messages that don’t meet the filter requirements, rather than prosecute individuals sending lurid packets of binary filth. It’s taken as a given that technology controls will eventually run into problems with commerce.

Bearing this important narrative mind, I asked a Shanghainese pro-d0mme friend over noodles how she felt about the new rules. Surely her scheduling methodology would be affected. She replied: “since most of my clients are from the US and Europe, I don’t care. I can still use English” [the filters not being calibrated to reign in worldly, cosmopolitan smut, as it were.]