My overland journey through Vietnam, China and Japan finished half a year ago, but my in-depth report of that trip is finally complete. Six months in the making, this is the latest permanent feature for the ComingAnarchy.com travelogue library. I hope it was worth the wait.
Some of the features:
* Two dozen travel pages.
* More than 230 photos.
* Three Robert D. Kaplan quotes.
* Six pictures of the Viceroy himself.
* Cameo appearances by Adamu, Heirabbit, Lady Curzon, and Masamania!
* Thinking pagan about the future of China and the future of Japan.
* Most importantly, something entirely new: ambient sounds for each travel page, recorded on location, allowing you to get the sense of what it was really like to be where I traveled.
* By popular request, more sister!
Click for the travelogue.
Many thanks to Mutantfrog, Sonagi, Lirelou, and Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace for their assistance in polishing the final product.
About Curzon
Lord George Nathaniel Curzon (1859 - 1925) entered the British House of Commons as a Conservative MP in 1886, where he served as undersecretary of India and Foreign Affairs. He was appointed Viceroy of India at the turn of the 20th century where he delineated the North West Frontier Province,
ordered a military expedition to Tibet, and unsuccessfully tried to partition the province of Bengal during his six-year tenure. Curzon served as Leader of the House of Lords in Prime Minister Lloyd George's War Cabinet and became Foreign Secretary in January 1919, where his most famous act was
the drawing of the Curzon Line between a new Polish state and Russia. His publications include
Russia in Central Asia (1889) and
Persia and the Persian Question (1892).
In real life, "Curzon" is a US citizen from the East Coast who has been a financial analyst, freelance translator, and university professor; he is currently on assignment in Tokyo.
Great section on China, Curzon. As a resident of Nanjing I can vouch for your every word. The cleanliness issue dwarfs almost everything else. To be honest, I read the Vietnam section just to answer a burning question, “Is it cleaner than China?”. The “Nanjing Massacre Museum” was exposed for what it is: pure politics. Iris Chang’s statue was hilarious – just the tacky kind of distortion her book is (replete with fake and/or out of context pictures). Next they need to make a bronze scupture of a woman having a shotgun inserted into vagina and blown away, with all the parts scattered everywhere (‘cuz y’know, there’s a story some old Nanjing lady told…)
I suppose the next step is to question our own “massacre” history, i.e. “6 million”. After the next generation passes away, we’ll be left with a sparse historical record, and I assume that by that time these figures and hysteria (like UFO abductions) will simmer down a bit.
It’s especially pertinent to point out the lack of self-introspection in Chinese gov’t. Objectively recounting the past and paying for it, that would destroy the party in two minutes.
But the comparison to the US is perhaps exaggerated a bit. In the US censorship is “backdoor”, and anyone not towing the line loses access to what is always government produced and controlled information. I didn’t realize how serious the American situation was until I went to Japan and saw the first pictures of bombing carnage from Yugoslavia. Somehow that information, the stuff that’s most damning and able to incite action, gets purged from mainstream news. I love reading independent writers, but that’s not what most people read. I love reading about newly exposed historical documents that have been banned from public view for 60 years (like Roosevelt’s communiques on Japan before Pearl Harbor), but alas it’s not the habit of the public to care. US journalists, like Japanese, pride themselves on a tough image, and ask tough (i.e. personal) questions to politicians. But when seen from afar, these questions and this attitude in fact don’t threaten the US government at all.
I see the stage of the US and China on the “Book of Changes” external phenomenon graph roughly as 锺¢ and 霔¡ respectively, which also represent fall and spring. The temperature is the same, but the direction is different.
And lastly a suggestion for fellow bloggers: lets all band together against tackiness. This is the first and foremost concern of decent people.
sorry it’s not 锺¢ it’s Ã¥”¦Å’ （攚”¦Ã¯Â¼”°