Cultural Revolution Retrospectives

[yeniseri]

It goes to show US that regardless of the isms, as long as most of the people get what they bargained for, all is well!

A recent front page story in China was that the government was instituting a programme to allow for certain designted minoritty groups to receive equitable representation in sectors where they are lacking as part of an initiative to bring to the forefront all groups not haveing that access. Now the people who are beniffitn,g and have benefitted, suddenly are mounting a campaigns to stop this equitable representation because it means they will be overshadowed based on the current economic malaise and the coming inflationary cycle.

All the people usually means those in clique X wo make the rules and to hell with those other people Sound familiar!
Stalin and his brethren make great points for socialism (objectivelly) but when you examine the actual reality, they took from the lumpenproletariot and made it the property of the ruling regime. Regardless of isms, this has been the template. The name will change but the pattern and template will remain the same!

[johnbecker]

I make an effort to keep things correct that the blood pressure gets notched up at times.

haha made me laugh thanks

I'm sure the others there will echo me..
Correct can be relative at times. Which makes each day living there
whats that word,,,,an adventure

I spent a lot of times laughing at stuff, and sometimes not when shit
was getting serious...my big lesson was to make sure I knew what I was signing
getting someone trusted to explain it to me...even this is not always a sure thing.

best of luck with your adventure

Adventure indeed...

Cheers!

[johnbecker]

It goes to show US that regardless of the isms, as long as most of the people get what they bargained for, all is well!

A recent front page story in China was that the government was instituting a programme to allow for certain designted minoritty groups to receive equitable representation in sectors where they are lacking as part of an initiative to bring to the forefront all groups not haveing that access. Now the people who are beniffitn,g and have benefitted, suddenly are mounting a campaigns to stop this equitable representation because it means they will be overshadowed based on the current economic malaise and the coming inflationary cycle.

All the people usually means those in clique X wo make the rules and to hell with those other people Sound familiar!
Stalin and his brethren make great points for socialism (objectivelly) but when you examine the actual reality, they took from the lumpenproletariot and made it the property of the ruling regime. Regardless of isms, this has been the template. The name will change but the pattern and template will remain the same!

Indeed.

[Michael]

As I've said already, up until this year the local PSB have not stipulated this to ANYONE I know. Today, for the first time, they expressly stated this condition to me. I've lived in the city for several years now, registered my address numerous times and never had this happen before.

I've heard from people before that the South of China often has more zealous officials than the North.

Did you ever happen to look on the yellow and white immigration card you filled out when entering PRC? On the back it says you have to register within 24 hours. I'd say at least two thirds of the foreigners I've known never read that and were not told about it, so it's quite common. When I first arrived, I read that notice and asked a few people, including my employer about it, and they were not only clueless, but so sketchy "discussing" it that I blew it off for years until I lived in an apartment complex with its own registration office with someone who did not mind answering one or two simple questions, like do I really need to register and how do I do it.

[johnbecker]

As I've said already, up until this year the local PSB have not stipulated this to ANYONE I know. Today, for the first time, they expressly stated this condition to me. I've lived in the city for several years now, registered my address numerous times and never had this happen before.

I've heard from people before that the South of China often has more zealous officials than the North.

Did you ever happen to look on the yellow and white immigration card you filled out when entering PRC? On the back it says you have to register within 24 hours. I'd say at least two thirds of the foreigners I've known never read that and were not told about it, so it's quite common. When I first arrived, I read that notice and asked a few people, including my employer about it, and they were not only clueless, but so sketchy "discussing" it that I blew it off for years until I lived in an apartment complex with its own registration office with someone who did not mind answering one or two simple questions, like do I really need to register and how do I do it.

Hello Michael, I am used to registering when I move to a new place or when my visa in renewed, and doing so within 24 hours.

What seems to be a new condition, in Beijing, is 'you must report to the police station after returning from any trips abroad'. In numerous other visits to the PSB to register they have never previously stipulated this. They are of course entitled to do what they want as it's their country. It doesn't stop this being a pointless exercise. After all, each time you arrive or depart border control records this, they know which flight you departed/arrived on and by looking at your passport they can see whatever stamps are in it. On exit you go through customs, where they can check to see what is in your luggage. So what benefit is there to going to the local police station just to say you've returned from a trip abroad? The visa is the same, the address is the same, nothing has changed. If you go to stay in a hotel anywhere around the country then the hotel registers you, and if you stay with friends then it's on you to do so.

I remember the old immigration card, with the stipulations on things like radio equipment and such like. As I've already said, I've been here a while.

[Michael]

My guess is the Beijing PSB never mentioned it because your following the law and registering makes them have to do a tiny bit of work for each of those foreigners. That local PSB is not part of Exit-Entry, so they don't care if that law is not followed by some foreigner, who might have consequences, but the tea-sipping cops will not.

I'm not even sure what it takes to get a Guangzhou cop to exert effort. I sorta found out when the Olympic torch came through in May 2008. They sure were unhappy to have to get out in the jungle for a few hours.

I remember the old immigration card, with the stipulations on things like radio equipment and such like.

That's before my time. Were you here when they had a separate currency for the laowai's?

[johnbecker]

My guess is the Beijing PSB never mentioned it because your following the law and registering makes them have to do a tiny bit of work for each of those foreigners. That local PSB is not part of Exit-Entry, so they don't care if that law is not followed by some foreigner, who might have consequences, but the tea-sipping cops will not.

I'm not even sure what it takes to get a Guangzhou cop to exert effort. I sorta found out when the Olympic torch came through in May 2008. They sure were unhappy to have to get out in the jungle for a few hours.

I remember the old immigration card, with the stipulations on things like radio equipment and such like.

That's before my time. Were you here when they had a separate currency for the laowai's?

It seems to be the way of many government job types that maximum reward for minimum effort is the aim. On this rule, I can't say I disagree with the local PSB...

In fairness, my experiences, so far, have always been OK with the authorities here. I can't complain about that. The rules from above are something everyone has to deal with.

No, I've not been here that long. I often feel I missed the boat when it comes to that. Back in the 80s and 90s when a lot of the 'legends' were out there teaching openly. Alas they have largely passed away now, and the whole situation here is quite different. C'est la vie.

[Michael]

So radio equipment used to be restricted? Now it's GPS that can get you into trouble. Apparently people get detained for geo-tagging, according to something I read today.

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/if-you ... to-use-gps

[johnbecker]

So radio equipment used to be restricted? Now it's GPS that can get you into trouble. Apparently people get detained for geo-tagging, according to something I read today.

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/if-you ... to-use-gps

The smiley just about sums it all up.

I can't remember all the details from the old form, but radio equipment had to be declared. In fairness, I expect it wouldn't be too far in the past that many countries had similar customs requirements.

[Michael]

China is really strict about mapping. They issued a warning a few years ago that any kind of map-making near any "sensitive" areas could get you jailed. And they have sensitive areas pretty much everywhere, like the city park where I go hiking has several military installations.

Not so much in international airports, but at other border crossings they'll confiscate your guide books or other maps if they have Taiwan, Tibet or Xinjiang a different color than other provinces, even though the map has all the provinces with different colors for visual clarity.

And they skew the GPS so if you manage to unblock Google Maps or use one that is not the single map source allowed by PRC, called Amap, your position will always be 50-700 meters off, and Google stopped allowing offline download of Chinese maps sometime near the beginning of the year.

[windwalker]

seems pretty common.

When I was in Korea back in the 70s you couldn't take pictures of certain places, of course during this time they also had martial law.
This meant among other things that after 12 midnight you couldn't be on the streets. Going down to Seoul from the Z one had to go through a lot of check points.
Nothing like having real "assault rifles" late at night pointed at you as they checked out the paper work.....cigarettes seemed to help ease the process.

[klonk]

In the People's Daily:

"History has amply demonstrated that the Cultural Revolution was totally wrong in theory and practice. In no sense was it, or could it have been, revolutionary or socially progressive.”

Read more: http://www.anglican.ink/article/chinese ... as-mistake

[johnbecker]

As I've said before, my treatment, so far, has been good. The rules are something everyone has to live with; the locals being under more restrictions in certain ways than us visitors. Also to repeat what I mentioned earlier, I know people who've worked in the South and they've said that the rules are very rigorously enforced there. More so than it seems to be in the North. No idea why.

With the obvious recognition of the ancient culture now (albeit for propaganda purposes) it's no surprise the Cultural Revolution has been condemned. Some ideas won't go away, so it's far more sensible to make some use of them instead...

[Michael]

The rules are something everyone has to live with; the locals being under more restrictions in certain ways than us visitors.

Locals married to foreigners are not subject to the one child policy, so is that one? Considering the difficulties of dealing with whether or not the child is a Chinese citizen or foreigner and all the subsequent visa requirements, that's a bit offset.

Foreigners with an outside driving license don't have to take driver training or the driving test, just the written test, but need a Residence Permit, which most don't have. In rural areas, police will usually not enforce a driver's license requirement on foreigners, but that is quite variable.

I can't think of any other ways we have fewer formal restrictions and there are lots of things where the rules for us are different and much more difficult on top of an already difficult social system.

For example, you can use your foreign passport to travel inside China, but it's less convenient than having a Chinese ID card. They can use automated machines in train stations and can also use apps and phones for the tickets themselves, but foreigners have to get their passports checked manually, and if we use an app to get a ticket, we have to cue up in order to print it, whereas Chinese don't. Most rules here are like that, foreigners have a different requirement that is a little or a lot more inconvenient.

Also to repeat what I mentioned earlier, I know people who've worked in the South and they've said that the rules are very rigorously enforced there. More so than it seems to be in the North. No idea why.

Most foreigners I know who've lived here 10 years or more, including those who are literate in the language, never bother to check facts, references, or really know the rules, which is typical for all populations wherever they live, in their home country or not. Their opinion on whether South China is more strict than the North is baseless, just a sip from the stream of half-heard rumors of other foreigners who are not the type of people to find out the correct answers to these types of questions and do not read the clearly printed rules on their immigration cards.