What's on and What's Not

Today, after an unsuccessful attempt last night, Y and I Skyped the school superintendent. We talked about the kids and this and that. She also mentioned that the Olympic protests were all over the news and that maybe we were going to have some anxious parents. Apparently the American press has been warning American tourists in China. Y has been watching Chinese TV and she said the news here is propaganda about how the protesters are trouble makers, etc, etc. I noted from a SF paper i could read on line that a Chinese student in San Francisco said people were all wrong, that Tibet was always a part of China and still is. Okey dokey then.

I will note that I have been watching Chinese TV at night too. My absolute favorite is the Communist pageant with the cast of thousands, literally. I also like the Japanese dramas and English language movies dubbed in Chinese. There is also a version of the Shopping Channel for which I have the same amount of patience as at home -- nil. Sometimes they show highlights of Olympic Diving and clips from what appear to be Italian soccer matches.

I explained to the small crowd that gathered in the superintendent's office during today's Skyping that Xi'an is some 500 miles from Beijing where the Games are being held. Y pointed out that while the Olympics were advertised alot there, they really weren't featured in this part of China. Not only is Xi'an 500 miles from China, it is really a far distance -- sort of how you include a factor of 7 when you measure dog years in people years. I am not sure the factor is 7 when you consider how far is it from Beijing to Xi'an, but it isn't a one to one relationship, that distance.

I have been poking around on line trying to see what in fact is censored. I have been able to get in CNN and the BCC and the Times no problem as sites, but when I tried to access the Dalai Lama's own site, it wouldn't load. I tried to Google Tibet and none of the sites would load. Google will list stories about the Dalai Lama, but you can't load the pages. The other thing that doesn't load is anything with the key works China and democracy, or tiananmen square protests. If you just type "cultural revolution in china" into the google browser at the top of the page here, it gives you the "problem loading page" message, and the page won't load. I just googled free tibet and got a list of sites, but cannot get to them. Now, right after I refreshed my query for free tibet, the list wouldn't come up. I think I will stop for now. Any requests? (and no bad puns about "Can you Sing Sing Far Away?")