To Keep Going Until the End
Here is my first attempt at poetry in Chinese:
坚持不懈
在人类历史上
我只是一个人
但是生命很短
而且没有意义
然而，世界的美丽
充溢着我
即使我们毫无踪迹地离去了
太阳还会挣扎着升起
不要担心
继续微笑
直到突然消逝
The Sunday Animal Market in Kasghar
In America, death disappears (even though death never disappears). From the lonely sterility of nursing homes into which the old vanish to vanish alone….. to bird’s eye view drone attacks eradicating marginal others below…to daily eating habits through which the flesh of the living animal is magically transformed into meat - we de-materialize death…
On this past Sunday, i went to [...]
If I Never Saw Another Bus Again…..
I have been on a bus for 40 out of the last 72 hours. Even when I went to sleep in my hotel room last night, I could still see the motion of the Taklamakan Desert passing by, projected on my closed eyelids like on a movie screen. Frequently, on the bus, I felt as if “I” was [...]
The Strangeness of It All
From the earliest times, human civilization has been no more than a strange luminescence growing more intense by the hour, of which no one can say when it will begin to wane and when it will fade away. – W.G. Sebald
ordinary scenes from lanzhou
I was only in Lanzhou for 24 hours. Enough time to talk to a retired man about his bird collection, stroll down some gray, dusty streets, eat fantastic lanzhou niurou mian (noodles and beef), get my shoes shined (I am not sure the logic behind getting my shoes shined before going to the desert, but hey!), [...]
The Sublime and the Broken
“Just under the surface I shall be, all together at first, then separate and drift, through all the earth and perhaps in the end through a cliff into the sea, something of me. A ton of worms in an acre, that is a wonderful thought, a ton of worms, I believe it.” – Samuel Beckett
In [...]
Encounters
Traveling is about unpredicted encounters rather than tourist sites. As a general rule (with a few exceptions) I find tourist sites, where you are expected to appreciate beauty, insipid and alienating. Instead of feeling moved by the scenery, I am often repelled by its staging and commodification. Unless the place is staggeringly beautiful, and I [...]
Dream from a fever (may 2010)
an e-mail in italian
from a man in china
my father snores upstairs
i drink until dawn
all the signs flash
something is about to change
what happens when you stop
your little repetitions
and someone takes your fetish away?
the ground opens
and kisses your belly
with an ache so great
it reverberates
in the dead bodies of your ancestors.
you have no time to put on your [...]
The Fantasy of China’s Collapse
(image of Saddam Hussein statue being toppled)
(image of Lenin statue being toppled)
and…….?
(image of Mao statue taken by author in Chengu)
In the seminar on East Asian Political Economy I attend, we are in the China phase of the course. For the past the past few weeks, we have read Mary Gallagher Contagious Capitalism: Globalization and the [...]
Ceschi “Bite Through Stone” SXSW 2010
Ceschi \”Bite Through Stone\” SXSW 2010
This is a music video from my dear friend Ceschi recorded in my apartment during SXSW this year. I sincerely urge you to explore his record label “Fake Four Inc.” http://fakefourinc.com/ Ceschi has a new album dropping very soon, so look out for it. Thanks for being a patron of [...]