| Username |
Post |
| ashu |
Posted
on 15-Mar-02 01:59 AM
"CHINA WORRIED ON THE MISUSE OF THE NAME OF MAO" In what is seen as a very significant move, the government of China has once again conveyed that it has got nothing to do with the spread of terror and violence being unleashed by the so-called Maoists in Nepal.
On the eve of the crucial visit of Prime Minister Deuba to India, Royal Nepalese ambassador to China, Rajeswor Acharya, said the political leadership and people of China have been extremely worried to see the misuse of the name of their great leader, Mao ze Dong, in spreading violence and terror in Nepal.
Talking to the official news agency RSS, ambassador Acharya said the Chinese government has time and again denounced the kind of terrorist incidents taking place in Nepal and that the Chinese government has always supported the government elected by the people through the constitutional process.
In the interview datelined Kathmandu, the Nepalese envoy said as a good neighbor China was always in favor of peace and development in Nepal.
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| 13-thum |
Posted
on 15-Mar-02 02:50 AM
Xinhua news agency addresses Maoist as "anti government guerrillas'. They must be really worried abuout the association of their leader's name with so called terrorists.
13-thum
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| Paschim |
Posted
on 15-Mar-02 02:52 AM
Interesting news, indeed. I hope this piece gets widely covered in the Nepali press and gets understood for its significant message: "Mao's China has moved on". I also found the following two recently published books, a fiction and a biography, of immense personal interest. I highly recommend readers interested in this topic to grab and read either or both of these:
1. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
by Dai Sijie.
First published in French. Incredibly funny and insightful.
2. Mao: A Life
by Philip Short.
Voluminous, authoritative, and detailed.
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| ashu |
Posted
on 15-Mar-02 03:35 AM
Ah, re: Paschim's recommendation, how I'd love to have a Borders-like or a Wordsworth-like or a Barnes and Noble-like bookstore in Kathmandu that
would carry such titles and more.
Kathmandu has a lot of good things, but it has lousy book-stores when it
comes to finding good non-fiction (biographies, history, economics, memoirs
and so on).
After all, honestly, how many Oxford University Press monographs on, say,
with such sexy titles such as "Agragrian reforms in Gujarat" can you read
for pleasure without going slowly insane? :-)
And I miss all those books, still in a basement at a friend's place in
Boston :-)
Oh well.
I envy those of you who live near good, super market-size book-stores and can trot out books ko name for others to read.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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| Paschim |
Posted
on 15-Mar-02 07:30 AM
Ashu, I share your woes. I am also, to mimic Dick Cheney's address in the US, "at an undisclosable location" these days where bookstores have titles only by authors from Albania, Cuba, Uzbekistan, and the Republic of Montenegro. And this is not Pyongyang.
I too dream every night about two things: the premika who dumped me last year, and the boxes of books I've dumped behind in the basements of London, Boston, Washington, and Dilli Bhurtel's Chitwan.
But the trick I've discovered, to not being defeated by this Great Capitalist Conspiracy (GCC) of denying us access to readable books is, like a good vigilante, to keep a list of people who you know are coming and going out of your city as meticulously as you draw up your laundry list of dirty underwears, squat at the airport three nights a week, and unfailingly learn to ask the gentleman who brings your books, "So, Jhalak dai, how was your flight, and how is Bhauju doing back home?"
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| Nepe |
Posted
on 15-Mar-02 10:17 AM
"CHINA WORRIED ON THE MISUSE OF THE NAME OF MAO"
To me the news is almost a humor. It is jagajaher that China has discredited and abandoned Maoist path a long time ago. Then if it is not a humor, then what else, to worry about ‘misuse’ of the name of Mao by Maoists in elsewhere ? What next ? Are we going to hear similar thing about the name of Lenin from Moscow ?
If it is about regular diplomatic courtesy, well, let it be. Otherwise I don’t find anything new in the following assurance too:
>……Chinese government has always supported the
>government elected by the people through the
>constitutional process.
Well, China has not discriminated any type of government in Nepal. Its policy is to support whoever is in power in Nepal. It has supported the absolute monarchy, it has supported the democratic government, it will support whatever/whoever comes to power. The basics of Chinese foreign policy is- don’t mess with our ‘internal matters’, we will do the same.
Miscellaneous:
Ashu wrote:
>Kathmandu has a lot of good things, but it has lousy book-stores….
No. Kathmandu has rather lousy book-buyers.
Paschim wrote:
>I too dream every night about two things: the premika who dumped
>me last year,…
I am totally shocked to hear that. Based on the description of people who know Paschim (An Indun Poet at the famous thread of Paschim), my imagination about Pascim was a totally totally irresistible guy for girls. What happened ? Well, this is not the best time and place for talking about a personal subject like this. But I could not help wondering how on earth such thing can happen. I have a million of questions right now.
Nepe
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 15-Mar-02 03:37 PM
What surprises me is Mao's resurgent influence in rural China.
Mao posthumously has been one major opposition in modern China. Believe me,
Wei Jingshen or Wang Dan are not even wellknown around China's universities.
West has long lost influence in Chinese politics. But Mao keeps on influencing.
I almost every month hear about farmers' protests in rural China. While urbanites
pay respect to Mao in the same way newly rich Congressi in Kathmandu pay
respect to BP Koirala, villagers are still hardcore supporter of Mao. I heard about
some villages where communes were reestablished. Villagers are just not happy
that they are lagging behind cities in these days. They crave Mao's days for
equality. And to tell the truth, Chinese leadership is worried about this.
China will not support any kind of unrest in the name of Mao anywhere. I am
pretty sure about this. China's role in foreign insurgency was always limited. It
helped out UNITA and some Maoist guirillas in South East Asia in 70s and 80s.
China's policy is of non interference and except for Taliban, and China supported
all those regimes who are in power.In a diplomatic loggerhead with Taiwan to
win support from sovereign countries all around the world, they also can't afford
to antagonize even brutal regimes. There is no question China will recognize
Maoist rebels in Nepal.
As for shibboleth of Maoism and socialism are concerned, I think they are just
unrealistic dream for poor people. They won't succeed in China, they won't
succeed anywhere. Not those premature kids brutally slitting throat of NC
supporters in Arghakhachi in the name of Mao are savior of Maoism and its long
lost luster!
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| Paschim |
Posted
on 15-Mar-02 09:40 PM
Biswo, interesting perspective. As Nepe said accurately, the bottomline of Chinese Foreign Policy is: if you don't irritate us, we won't bug you either. Not that this was inspired by some holy principle lifted straight out of the dictates of 'Panchasheel' or something, but more of a pressure to not claim the moral high ground when your ground itself is shaky; but it absolves them from allegations of 'hypocrisy' and 'double standards' which have plagued America's often messy involvement abroad since the Korean War. A conspicuous omission in your list of China-assisted rebellions is though the successful arming and fuelling of the Vietcong south of the border in the 60s. Relations between Hanoi and Beijing have never been warm, but they were fighting a common enemy then. It is actually very interesting to draw parallels between Sino-Vietnamese and Indo-Nepal relations: two small countries, the size of one of the provinces of their giant neighbors, who resisted territorial domination of the bigger power for a thousand years, yet a strange tension when it comes to balancing issues of cultural similarities with distinct national identity. For the IR folks from another thread, here's enough material for two doctoral dissertations!
And Nepe, indeed, that issue is quite personal. Despite Indun Poet's (partially) informed and generous portrayal, let me just say, irrestibility is a relative concept. It was insinuated that my sense of humor was deteriorating. With the help of Gaunthali and Bhurtel, I am hitting back, if you like. But to borrow a verse from my unpublished anthology:
Siyo nai ropda ni nadukhne yo jyan, bichod ma murchha bho
Pharkinchin bhanne jhino chha asha, asha nai amrit ho!
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| Trailokya Aryal |
Posted
on 15-Mar-02 11:38 PM
Dear Bishwoji,
I agree with you. China has seen a revival of Mao Cult (is it a too strong of a word?) in the last 10-15 years. Farmers in rural China still respect Mao, and in the cities like Beijing and Shanghai, its not unusual to see pictures of Mao in taxi-cabs, because the drivers in the big cities think that if you put Mao's picture in your cab, then he will save you from accidents!
[No, its not all coming from the top of my head, more on this, please read this very interesting book on Mao, The Mao Cult... I forgot the author's name though].
Some rural farmers went a step farther and actually built a temple in the early 80s where mao was inshrined as a God. Later, the temple was forced to close down.
In rural China, there are still some people who have started to associate Mao with Gods. A Prof. of mine who did her research in Yunnan has written a very good article on this for the American Anthropologist entitled, Maoist shaman.. anyone interested, please send me an email.
The official party line on Mao is that, that he was a great leader, but he committed some serious mistakes. But he is still credited for having lead the war against the GuoMinDang regime and as the founding father of the People's Republic of China.
Yes, Mao's philosophy (i don't know what this means, except that Mao focused on giving continuity to revolution(s) and that's why there were so many revolutions in China during his reiogn. After the chaos of Cultural Revolution, and Mao's death, the Party has totally stopped fueling revolutions just for the sake of revolution.
And surprisingly enough, college students who are born after Mao's death, and who actuallty didn't get to experience Mao's great (?) deeds, rever him as a hero. Its all nicely written in the afore mentioned book, the mao cult.. I'll find out the author's name, if anyone here is interested in reading that.
Let me recciomend another book on Mao, its a very welll written book on Mao (and probably the most academic work on Mao so far): Mao Zedong, by Jonathan Spence.
And I agree with ashu dai too. I wish I were in DC or NYC where I could just walk into Border's or B&N and buy the books of my choice. here in Kathmandu, even if are willing to spend $$, you won't find the titles you are looking for.
Ce'st la Kathmandou!
Trailokya
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| ashu |
Posted
on 16-Mar-02 01:09 AM
Hi all,
While we are discussing Mao . . . for some time, writer Ian Buruma has been writing about present-day China in The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books.
One of Buruma's minor themes seems to be resurgence of Mao's ubiquitous
visage as a hip, cultural, if kitschy, icon in urban China . . . sort of like, say,
artist Andy Warhol's transformation of Marilyn Monroe into a pop-art icon.
This sort of Mao-chic, I hear, has been taken to a new heights by stunningly ethereal fashion models in Shanghai, a city which a recent New York Times
piece described as something to the effect of "London, Paris and New
York -- all in one place in China."
Maoism, meet Money-ism!!
Money-ism, meet Maoism.
That said, an interestingly subversive tribute to Chairman Mao -- that
fastidious fuddy-duddy who loved good food (and enjoyed sleeping with
young women to cure his various diseases, according to Mao's doctor's
fat book about Mao's life) -- perhaps comes from a restaurant chain that
seems to be doing quite well (i.e. revolutionizing, of course, the state of restaurant food) of all places in Glasgow, Scotland.
Check out: http://www.cafemao.com
I'd especially recommend their chicken stays followed by a coconut prawn
dish. Goes well with a shot of Scotland's national drink.
Cafe Mao!!
Khao Khao!!
On another note, would we in Kathmandu someday have an eatery on Durbar Marg, with a rain forest (or perhaps Rolpa ko forest) ko theme and appropriately called, say, Cafe Prachanda serving, I suppose, the "jungle food" (oh, roots and berries, some game and even crunchy insects) on which one assumes Nepal's Maoist munch day after day?
Just wondering.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 16-Mar-02 03:48 PM
And I think Kathmandu is really a nice place if you are looking for books (that you
can find there!).
After all, most of the classic books of Naipaul, Rushdie, Marquez etc. that I read
were bought in Educational Enterprises, in a book store in the first floor of Himalayan Bank building in Tridevi Marg, and in a (then newly made) big two storey
bookstore in Pulchouk.
A journey to Nepal is always a great experience for a reader. I remember once I
was looking for "The Satanic Verses". Couldn't find in any bookstore in Kathmandu.
Guess where I found it? In a book store in Sauraha, Chitwan. Of course, it is
painful if you are looking for a particular book, but if you find 'the particular book',
then it is going to be rewarding in a lot of aspects. Coming from Shanghai, a supposed metropolitan where a copy of Newsweek or Time would cost US$4.00 so
mostly out of reach for a student like me, Kathmandu was always a great reprieve:
Rs 50.00 for Time(then) and it was available by Tuesday night in Kathmandu.
I hope good things about Kathmandu are still in tact. Kathmandu's beauty also
lies in the fact that you generally underestimate it.I once forgot to bring Nusrat
Fateh Ali Khan's classic CD that a friend from Pakistan gave me in Shanghai. I was
regretting that, and , lo, in Thahiti, I found music shops selling all of Nusrat's
cassettes.
A walk from Basantapur to Ascol, (an hour?) is always thrilling. You can meet a lot
of people, a lot of unexpected things, and it can be shopper's paradise! It may
not be a great walk for Kathmanduites, but for us non-Kathmanduites who
spend most of their time out of Kathmandu, that's just a fabulous experience.
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