Thursday, July 31, 2008

Chinese Political Satire Has a Long Way to Go

Brought to my attention by Big Will, these Chinese political cartoons are quite funny, if you consider just how inane and unfunny they are. Apparently most of them poke fun at the west, and especially the US. And while most of them deal with real and serious issues such as the income gap in China and US oil consumption, they just about completely miss their marks.

Now, in defense of the cartoonists, these appear to all be taken from mainland English Language news sources, and the cartoonists are not native speakers. Humor, is I think, probably the most difficult thing to understand and translate into a second language. But still, these cartoons are just silly!

My personal favorite is the oil consumption one I linked to above. The wife, commiserating with her hubby, says: "My dear, now I know how you feel when you enter the oil station." Awesome...

I guess when it's very difficult to skewer your own government or leaders for fear of punishment or being branded unpatriotic, you go where you can.

Any thoughts?

Blogging in China

As I am sure you are all aware, China's internet is censored. This is done by a system known as the "Great Firewall", or GFW (More info: Fallows ). The GFW allows the Chinese government to prevent netizens over here from accessing websites that it considers subversive, or too difficult to monitor/control. Included amongst these sites is Blogger, which I am using now, and many of the news sources I access on a regular basis.

I am able to access all these sites quite easily by using a program called Witopia personalVPN, which, in layman's terms, tunnels under the GFW (Witopia). This also allows me to use flickr, which though not exactly blocked, often has trouble displaying images over here. It is, to put it mildly, a valuable resource over here, especially for someone who needs a constant flow of information like I do.

Welcome

After a couple of false starts, I've decided to start blogging in earnest. In the coming days and weeks, I will be writing about my travels around China the past few months, the Olympics, what I am up to now, and my views on China and the world at large. Please comment, criticize, and let me know what you think.

To fill you guys in: Right now, I am living in an apartment in Shanghai's Jingan district with my older brother. After waiting for too long for a sweet job or internship to fall into my lap, I've started tutoring English here in Shanghai part-time, and am still trying to decide what to do long term. Though English teaching isn't particularly to my liking, it is a good way to keep busy and earn some much needed cash.

In about a month, I will probably start working for an SAT prep center in Hangzhou, helping to develop a book for Chinese students, and possibly necessitating a move down there. More on that later, as the details become clearer.