Friday 27 April 2012

The Definition Of Guts

A blind man, freshly escaped from illegal imprisonment, sending a message from hiding to the leadership of the world's newest Suprepower. Watch it now.

18 comments:

justrecently said...

Chen is a walking Chinese classic. Or Chinese soft power at work.

Mike Fagan said...

You are absolutely correct FOARP.

To my mind, the greatness of Chen Guangcheng is that his exposure of government hypocrisy evaporates the "rule of law" legitimating myth down to its concentrated form: rule of men. For that service to the Chinese people, rendered all the more bold by his own several acts of defiance, Chen Guangcheng's voice might well be the single most morally compelling voice in all of China, if not further afield too.

Over the long term, the freedom of people in Taiwan, Tibet and elsewhere may well depend more on the actions of dissidents such as Chen and his like than anything the various political pandarins in Taipei, Washington and elsewhere might do.

Anonymous said...

I almost feel out of bed when BBC reported the news. A blindman scaled a six foot fence and then motored a couple of 100ks to Beijing.

Heads will roll....

KT

Gilman Grundy said...

"Pandarins" - I have to admit, I laughed when I read that one.

Mike Fagan said...

Puns are two for a round, though I don't expect to be in a Hong Kong pub anytime soon.

Anonymous said...

Would anyone like to send something in for the 2012 Hidden Harmonies Essay Contest?

Topic:

Every society has a set of values around which it builds its culture. The West likes to think its most important value is freedom. What do think are the most important Chinese values, and how do you think they might be better than those in the West?

justrecently said...

how do you think they might be better than those in the West?

Hehe - a guided essay.

Gilman Grundy said...

@JR - Well, the 15th of June is not so far away, better hurry if you want to get a application in . . .

Anonymous said...

Entrant must be a college/university student studying in China or a Chinese student currently studying abroad. Graduate or post-doctoral students are also eligible.

Gilman Grundy said...

So basically they don't even need to have lived in the 'west' before they write an essay talking about how a particular Chinese cultural value is 'better' than 'western' cultural values? Par for the course with the people at HH I'm afraid.

justrecently said...

FOARP, I must admit that I'm not very familiar with the HH message these days, but don't you know that Chinese people, travelled or not, are very familiar with Western countries, while the West doesn't understand China?

You'd never qualify, even if you were eligible to participate.

Anonymous said...

A blindman scaled a six foot fence and then motored a couple of 100ks to Beijing.
Totally believable.


don't you know that Chinese people, travelled or not, are very familiar with Western countries, while the West doesn't understand China?
Why? Are you feeling insulted and patronised by pretentious self-congratulatory foreigners? Maybe you do understand how we feel after all.

justrecently said...

Maybe you do understand how we feel after all.
Who is insulted? And who is we?

Mike Fagan said...

"The West likes to think its most important value is freedom. What do think are the most important Chinese values, and how do you think they might be better than those in the West?"

Fascinating. Two brief comments:

1) There are two types of freedom, which, when instantiated as "rights" are antagonistic. That complicates the first clause; what is commonly called "freedom" in the west today might be more accurately expressed as a greater or lesser lattitude of privilege.

2) It seems to me that the type of "value" characteristic of Chinese culture lies not so much with the ends of a given action, but with the manner in which the action is executed, or in which the "value" is pursued.

Meursault said...

Blimey, I don't write anything for about 3 years, then suddenly I write two comments on two seperate blogs within just one week!

Anyway, I felt you should be the first to know. It is 16.10 on Monday the 21st of May 2012 and I just saw Chris Devonshire-Ellis walk into the Thai Cherry Spa on Circular Road, Singapore. His blotchy red face looked a bit worse for wear, and his white flannel suit had seen better days, but it was definitely him, and he is definitely going for a handjob.

Gilman Grundy said...

Aaaaaaand strangely enough, this blog has been getting an unusually large number of visits from Singapore recently. Including a visit coinciding with the leaving of a nice little message accusing me of playing search-engine shenanigans in getting the post exposing CDE as a non-lawyer and non-graduate to the top of the rankings (no Chris, you did that by drawing everyone's attention to it)and threatening me with made-to-order negative publicity if I don't take it down.

Chris, mutual acquaintances tell me that the reason why I get these threatening messages from you every 3-4 months is because that's your funk-cycle. At any rate, you could have saved your time and not bothered - if the emails you sent me threatening physical violence didn't work, this weak nonsense isn't going to work either.

Anonymous said...

Did ya ever meet the scumbag? Seems like you hate the guys guts permanently. I'm in Singapore, aint never seen him here neither. Guess no-one wants to hang out with him.

Gilman Grundy said...

@'Anonymous' - Wow, an apparently drunk commenter, I wonder where you came from . . .

Meantime, Chris, no, I don't hate your guts, and no, we've never met, nor have I ever contacted you, although you've contacted me lots of times. The harassing messages and comments you've been sending me every few months are unprofessional to say the least, and thuggish into the bargain. The best thing you can do is just cut it out.

I'm not taking down what I've written about you (i.e., you're not a lawyer, or even a university graduate, despite having claimed to have been) because it's true. I'm not taking down the emails you sent me (from you own corporate email address) because they serve as a record of the kind of guy you've been and the kind of threats you like to make.