A Claim About Truth at a Uniqlo Store in Yulin

The Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo recently made the news due to the some shoppers', shall we say, intense desire to buy items from a newly released clothing line. I don't know whether the only Uniqlo store, which opened less than two weeks ago, in Yulin faced similarly enthusiastic customers. A shirt from another collection did catch my attention on the 30th anniversary of the crackdown at Tiananmen though. I had noticed the shirt similarly displayed before, but the words and apparent image of a brick wall on it had a stronger effect that day.

The shirt also reminded me of last year's post here "A Tiananmen Story Told Through Shirts & Dresses in Guangzhou, China". Had I done something similar this year this Uniqlo shirt probably would've been part of it.

Another Anniversary of a Crackdown in China: Today in Yulin and 30 Years Ago in Chengdu

In Yulin, Guangxi, nothing seemed unusual at Youth Square (青年广场) this evening on the 30th anniversary of the crackdown at Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

The same held true for Dongmen Plaza (东门广场) in Yulin.

And again, nearby on the other side of the Dongmen Commercial Plaza (东门商业广场) nothing seemed out of place, including the children running about and chengguan (Urban Administrative and Law Enforcement Bureau officers) keeping street vendors away.

While considering the date's significance I have previously shared the seemingly everyday nature of what I saw in front of my eyes on June 4 in Chinese cities as far apart as Hengyang, Hunan, and Xining, Qinghai. But the first time was eight years ago when I was in Chengdu, Sichuan. So of all the excellent recent pieces on this topic, for now I will just share a link via a tweet to U.S. Representative Andy Levin's account and photos of the crackdown in Chengdu, where he was a student at the time. It's yet another reminder that what happened 30 years ago in China wasn't at all limited to just Beijing.

Thirty years is such a long time, and yet it was as if I was in Chengdu yesterday, wetting my bandanna to put over my face to battle the teargas, stepping through the glass and rock strewn streets to be with the people as they battled the authorities. https://t.co/9aPNKhJDw7

— Rep. Andy Levin (@RepAndyLevin) June 3, 2019

Uncle Sam Wants You in Yulin, China

Uncle Sam wants you . . .

. . . to work at a Color Lady (出彩丽人) beauty care store in Yulin, Guangxi.

This is far from the first time in China I have seen Uncle Sam in job advertisements. But it is the latest I unexpectedly found myself face to face with this popular symbol of the United States and pondered its usage here.

Gone from Tiananmen But Remembered

Screen capture of "Tiananmen Square Massacre: Black Night In June"

I'll never forget that young couple. When the shot moved in, the way she looked at me.

A journalist decides between staying to record more or preserving what they have already captured. He left. Presumably the young couple stayed. He can still share the story so it is remembered. They made the story.

Arthur Kent's video: "Tiananmen Square Massacre: Black Night In June"

Jennifer Creery's article in the Hong Kong Free Press: "Video: 30 years on, Canadian journalist shares newly restored footage of China’s Tiananmen Massacre horror"

Watched By a Gigantic Panda in Yulin

I am working on a post about the opening of a new shopping mall in Yulin, Guangxi, which speaks to a variety of issues in China. While I don't share a lot of video, in this case I feel it is quite useful for communicating some what occurred. However, uploading the video across the Great Firewall will require more effort and time.

So for now, I will just say my recent time at this new mall has helped me gain appreciation for the fact that even after all of these years in China I'm still not sure what to think when a gigantic panda intently stares . . .

stares . . .

. . . stares, I say, at me.

Good times. After this, the world only become more unusual when the panda danced on the stage. The moves were at times, shall we say, intense for a creature of such a size. Or really any size. At least the panda was distracted from me. I hope.

More later.

A Spider Dreaming Big in Yulin

Answers to a Special Return in China

Nicki in Haikou was the first person to correctly guess part of the significance of a location I recently came across on the first night of my return to a city in China. It is where I took the photo currently used in the header image at the top of this blog. After posting a third photo of the location, Nicki then became the first person to respond with the correct city without me providing extra hints not in the posts here.

Rather curious, I asked her how she did it. She replied, "Third photo.... I can read". I had checked that no signs in the photos displayed the city's name before sharing them, so I wondered what I had overlooked. It didn't take me long to now find it.

Here is a closeup photo of one of the non-cone-shaped traffic cones plainly in view in the third photo:

I have seen traffic cones with advertising for at least two different hospitals in numerous parts of the city. In this case, the advertising is for the Yulin Ruidong Hospital (玉林瑞东医院). And yes, the Yulin Ruidong Hospital is unsurprisingly in . . . . Yulin — a city in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Although the text on the cones is rather fuzzy if you significantly enlarge the third photo at the highest resolution I shared, it is good enough.

So I award the prize for this edition of "Name the City" to Nicki. I even have a special prize in mind, though admittedly it's something I was planning to do anyway. I won't reveal what it is, but when it happens readers here should be able to recognize it. Nicki certainly will.

Sam Crane, who teaches contemporary Chinese politics and ancient Chinese philosophy at Williams College, deserves an honorable mention for my favorite incorrect guess that I received — Guangzhou. There are several aspects of the third scene, including the architecture, which may have lead me to consider Guangzhou too had I never been to this location in Yulin. After I provided some hints that didn't involve traffic cones he correctly figured out the city as well.

This was a tough one, folks. I wouldn't have expected anybody to correctly identify the city without digging deep into my blogging history, recalling some of my earliest posts over 8 years ago, having much familiarity with Yulin, or receiving additional hints. There is still more I have to share about why the location is significant to me and my blogging. That shall come later, as will more about Yulin.

Finally, a piece of advice: never ignore traffic cones.

One Last Photo for a Special Return in China

Last week I posted a photo of a location significant to this blog and later I posted a photo of the same place taken from a different vantage point. Before revealing all, I will share a photo of the same location also taken on that first night of my return but from a vantage point that offers a far more iconic view.

Do you see it now?



Update: Answers are here.

Taiwan Passes Same-Sex Marriage Bill Today: A Look Back at the 2011 Taiwan LGBT Pride Parade

Big news today out of a Taiwan:

Lawmakers in Taiwan have approved a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, a landmark decision that makes the self-ruled island the first place in Asia to pass gay marriage legislation.

The vote came almost two years after the island's Constitutional Court ruled that the existing law -- which said marriage was between a man and a woman -- was unconstitutional. The panel of judges gave the island's parliament two years to amend or enact new laws.

On Friday -- only a week off the two-year deadline -- lawmakers in Taiwan's Legislative Yuan passed a bill making same-sex marriage a reality. It will go into effect on May 24.

Over eight years ago, I shared some thoughts about stumbling upon the 2011 Taiwan Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Parade in Taipei:

Seeing people freely and openly march for a social cause in a land rich with Chinese culture felt surreal. Nothing like this was possible in mainland China where I had been living for over five years. The parade also brought to mind several friends who had repressed their sexuality but felt comfortable during their college years to "come out".

I then shared a personal account to demonstrate one way that decreasing LGBT discrimination would not only obviously benefit the LGBT community but heterosexuals as well. While I still agree with the main point I wanted to make, I later wished I had expressed myself much better (reading it makes me cringe now) and, perhaps more importantly, done so in a separate piece. That way a post which included a video and numerous photos could have been much more focused on the people who had marched and rallied.

So to finally rectify my mistake to a degree and to provide some more context and color for what happened today in Taiwan, without further ado I will share here the video and 16 photos I shared before plus 14 more photos I haven't previously shared of a parade eight years ago in Taipei that was part of paving the way to a long sought and significant gain in rights for many.

The young woman on the right has “我是夏娃” written on her back.
It translates to "I am Eve".
The other has "我爱夏娃" which translates to "I love Eve".

Another Photo for a Special Return in China

The previous post apparently didn't provide enough hints about the significant place (to me and this blog) where I recently arrived. So here is another photo taken from a different, but still not iconic, perspective on my first night back in the city:

The photo includes at least one significant additional clue. The wonton street stall isn't intended to be it, but perhaps the wontons help too.



Update: An additional clue is here. Answers are here.

A Special Return in China

About two weeks ago I arrived in a city I had explored a number of years ago. I was eager to return not only to see what had and hadn't changed and learn more about life there, but also because the city holds a special connection to this blog and my blogging experience. Relevant to the connection, there was one place in particular I especially wanted to seek out. Off the top of my head, I only had a vague sense of its location relative to the hotel where I had stayed long ago. I worried that if I couldn't find it, I might not even be able to be sure whether that was do due to an incomplete search or the location being significantly transformed. Cities can change quickly in China, and it had been a while.

After checking into my hotel, one in a different part of the city than the one I had stayed at during my previous visit, I set out that evening to walk around. I didn't look at a map, just let my wandering instincts take over, and wasn't intent on finding the special location that night. Nevertheless, after almost 40 minutes I was surprised and excited when I saw it in the distance. When I later looked at a map I discovered that without realizing it I had taken a route that couldn't have been much more direct.

So here is a photo taken that night which captures a vantage point that makes the location's significance far less apparent than some others would:

Now it is time for a return of the old game "Which city in China is this?" Normally, I wouldn't think people would have much of a chance with this photo. But in this particular case, reader's have real reason for hope. You don't even need to be a China expert to figure it out. And although digging deep into this blog (and another particular site) could significantly help in identifying the city, you needn't go far at all to see why I was so happy to find this location again.



Update: Two more clues are here and here. Answers are here.

A Stairway to Missing Rooms in China

I try not to be lazy. But yesterday I just didn't feel like taking the stairs.

This isn't the only time recently when I looked at some stairs and thought "nope". More about both of those locations, which are in two different cities, later.