Many blogs have written about this already, but I still want to do my own post for Xu Zhiyong, who was arrested 3 weeks ago. I have no new information to offer here – info will be forthcoming only when the police decides it – but if you are reading this please do not let the case be buried in the stream of your newsreader. Instead, take this chance to catch up with some background on this extraordinary person.

If anyone still harboured doubts as to the integrity and dedication of Xu, here is a new series of posts by Wang Jianshuo, a non-political Chinese blogger known for years for his honest writing, who happens to know Xu personally from the Young Leaders Forum. Xu is one of the rare cases of activists taken seriously by both Western media and the party’s mouthpieces. The last article quoting him on the People’s Daily came out just one week before his office was stormed by the police, and ironically it was about how government information should be disclosed.

There has been some speculation on the net – especially on Chinese official media – about whether Xu’s NGO really had taxes unpaid and why. This discussion is completely beside the point, unless the Global Times explains that it is normal to be abducted 3 weeks for a first-time, minor tax offense. No, the real reason why Xu has been arrested can be understood in this Xinhua article issued last week:

In the national Justice conference the Minister of Justice Wu Aiying required:  […] lawyers in our country must support the party leaders, adhere to the scientific development concept as a guide, uphold socialism with Chinese characteristics,  ensure the correct political direction in lawyer’s work.

The message is simple, you do things with the party or against the party. There is no middle ground, and trying to find it by studying hard and following the law simply will not do. Because the party leaders are above the law.

I am sure many high placed within the party are against this arrest, and I am sure many dare not speak for fear of losing their own position. It is not the first time I get to this conclusion: we will see real change in China the day there is some real leader with enough cojones to change things. Deng said “Reform” and reform it was, these ones say “rule of law”, and what a joke for the World. Bad times for the honest Chinese people.

In the afternoon of the World Environment Day, the sky in Shanghai has gone almost completely black (brown?) at 3pm, and these little babies have fallen from the sky.

In the same time,  many “Environment Day” squadrons were busy in the parks and beaches for the 1 hour long volunteer cleaning up activity. I hope they are all OK.  I’ve never seen the sky so dark.

Are the heavens complaining against a meaningless WED? Is it a sign, on 6/5, that the regime has lost its virtue ?  I let you figure that out, but please do not leave home without an umbrella.

Photo: Origin unknown (circulating on emails)

You know how Wen Jia Bao asked us this week to have “faith and determination“, and added that the “nation will be the first to recover” from the crisis and grasp the opportunities available. Then come the experts of the World Economic Forum, who are getting ready for their yearly skiing holiday, and they publish a prediction right on their front page:

Global Risks 2009: a new report from the World Economic Forum, identifies a deteriorating global economy, a hard landing in China…

In the report , which you can download here, they go on to speak of China 09 GDP of “6% or below”, a point which the international media is quick to report. How’s that for the confidence. Ouch, one 2 good points below the waistline of the CPC’s 8% , and right in the family jewels.

Mind you, I am not writing this to pick on Wen’s predictions. First of all, the WEF’s report is only making hypothesis, to see their possible impact on the World economy. Second, I think Wen would be as likely to get it right for China’s economy as the gurus of the WEF. After all, the CPC prepares its predictions with the advantage of insider information, and it suffers less distractions than the vedettes at the Convention of Dismalness.

On the other hand, it is a long time already since the Forum passed the heigh of its influence and it looks this year more irrelevant than ever. In the end, the important decisions for the World economy will be taken by Obama’s team and the CPC, and it is unclear how either of them will listen to the WEF. Most importantly, the role of the Forum as a brainstorming event has largely been taken over by the econobloggers, as we saw in this fascinating article you might remember from last month.

Inexplicably, we have not been invited to Davos this time, so we’ll hit the road in Shanghai instead and see how the faith and determination is doing, and whether there are signs of  faltering in the good old Shanghai shopping spirit. A big part of China’s economic Wall is made of the faith of its consumers, who are the ones supposed to make up for the lack of exports. Here’s how they are faring in Shanghai:

Nanjinglu: The usual mobs of shoppers and sellers in spite of the biting cold.

Xujiahui: It is difficult to walk the Street, the shops are as full as ever and the official sign on the Bridge reads: “Do Well Your Economic Survey, capture the situation and the strengths of the District, and promote the development of XuHui.” This district is also undergoing an economic survey, like the one done by these funny villagers, but hopefully using more standard statistical methods.

Sitting 牛: Hordes of consumers worship the goddess of consumption, the Sitting Cow.

We Hire – I got this last night right next to my place. I haven’t been keeping track of the changes these last weeks, but all I can say is that we still see many signs like this. The red character means: We hire.  1200RMB a month plus extras. Searched: waiters, shop manager, dish cleaners, etc.

So there you go, in Shanghai, in spite of some people getting worried and a few foreign startups having a hard time to meet ends, it looks like the F and D are still holding stong. Let’s hope they stay right up there throughout 2009, and we might avert this one of the Global Risks.

Busy week. Yesterday I had to cancel my Chinese lesson in the last minute due to an unexpected request from one of my hardcore Chinese clients. It made me feel miserable, partly because I always feel like a 9-to-5 bitch when I have to break my word for a client. But most importantly, because I know how well my teacher prepares her lesson and how she cares.

To try to make up for it (and to prove that I do study my lessons sometimes) here comes a long overdue post for the Learning Chinese section, dedicated to the most patient of Chinese teachers, FuTing.

Today’s lesson is called: The Riches of the Language.

There are many ways to measure “richness”, and whether one language is richer than other is usually a dumb discussion that I don’t like to enter. However, I can’t help being fascinated by the way some languages seem to have infinite variations and nuances for what in my own tongue is just one word. At the risk of exciting some patriotic readers from all sides: This is the lesson where I discover the amazing richness of the Chinese language.

During our last vocabulary review, I was struck by the number of characters that express different options for taking/carrying things. I asked Fu to help me put them all together, and after a short brainstorming session we came up with the list below.

Here are my 18 20 different ways to carry things in Chinese (and I’m only intermediate level):

1. 带 – dai4   – to carry in general
2. 拿 – na2    - to carry in your hand
3. 抓 – zhua1 – to carry in your hand holding strongly
4. 夹 – jia1    - to carry between two long things (like chopsticks)
5. 捏 – nie1   – to carry with finger and thumb (like you carry a bogey)
6. 挟 – xie2    - to carry under your arm
7. 牵 – qian1 – to carry sb (holding hands)
8. 挽 – wan3  - to carry sb around your arm (holding arms)
9. 攥 – zuan4 – to carry in your hand  tight (like a fly you just caught)
10. 捧 – peng3 – to carry with both hands facing up (like an idol)
11. 端 – duan1 – to carry holding it from the sites (like a big plate)
12. 抱 – bao4  -  to carry something hugging it (like a baby)
13. 拎 – lin1    -  to carry something that hangs (like a handbag)
14. 挎 – kua4  -  to carry a bag with a band across your shoulder
15. 背 – bei1   -  to carry on your back (like a sack of potatoes)
16. 提 – ti2     -  to carry in your hand with the arm down
17. 举 – ju3    -  to carry in your hand with the arm up
18. 抬 – tai2   -  to carry something heavy, usually 2 or more people
19. 驮 – tuo2   – to carry on a donkey/horse/red-nosed reindeer’s back
20. 扛- kang2 –  to carry on the shoulder, like the 7 dwarfs carry shovels
21. 荷 – he4    - to carry on the shoulder or back
22. 挑 – tiao1 –  to carry using a stick with two baskets hanging from it

This is only single characters, excluding combinations of them and excluding words that don’t bring a difference in meaning, like (握 and 抓). I am sure there are still more ways of carrying, and I would like to add them to my carrying list. I would be grateful for any contribution or correction in the comments.

Non-students of Chinese: now you understand what is taking us so long to learn this language!

NOTE: if you are reading this and you are struggling with the characters like myself, you should absolutely try Skritter, a new software that has been developed to help memorize the characters by having you write them yourself, instead of just looking at them on a flash card. I have been trying it this week, and although it is in beta, it works really well. It is stunning the things some people can do with a computer.

UPDATE!: Come on, we got up to 20 already, thanks to XiaoLu, who has earned thereafter the status of VIP commentator. I am sure there are still lots of “carry” characters left, any suggestions?