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Kai
Kai Chang is a software developer and renegade writer: wenkaimc at gmail dot com
Interests: Meditation, martial arts, nature, counterculture, boxing, basketball, fine food and drink, elegant technology, politics, literature, cheesy music and bad flicks, sublime music and transcendent cinema, philosophy that lives in your heart and gut not your head.</p>
<p><b>Zuky</b> comes from the Japanese word <i>zuki</i> meaning "punch" or "hand strike".</p>
<p> This blog was launched on Monday, May 24, 2004 (<a href="http://www.zuky.net/2004/05/welcome.html">Blog Genesis</a>). The archives are being backfilled with previously created content.</p>
Recent Activity
Kai is now following The Typepad Team
Mar 15, 2010
Notes from Istanbul (Part 6)
Posted Dec 25, 2009 at H.K. Chang
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Notes from Istanbul (Part 5)
Posted Dec 25, 2009 at H.K. Chang
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Notes from Istanbul (Part 4)
Posted Dec 25, 2009 at H.K. Chang
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Notes from Istanbul (Part 3)
Posted Dec 25, 2009 at H.K. Chang
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Notes from Istanbul (Part 2)
Posted Dec 25, 2009 at H.K. Chang
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Notes from Istanbul (Part 1)
Posted Dec 25, 2009 at H.K. Chang
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Kai is now following Metric
Sep 24, 2009
Law and order -- for whom?
Exactly. That's the whole problem. What some people call "law and order" means chaos, dehumanization, and brutality for others.
Thanks as always for the kind words, NPK. :-)
Rejecting the Language of the Leviathan
[ Cross-posted at Feministe ] The ugly history of enforcement rhetoric in modern US politics winds its way from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama, by way of Bill Clinton. It's a history of cynical deception and manipulation based on racist fear and violent lust for domination and subjugation, concei...
Yeah this is one of my all-time favorites too! The Linda Ronstadt version was one of the first pop songs I really fell in love with as a kid, I remember listening to it over and over on a cassette of her greatest hits. Nobody will ever come close to Linda Ronstadt in my book but I must say Susanna Hoffs does a great job of it here!
Music — Susanna Hoffs, "Different Drum"
Exactly. You can't "get over" something when you're still in denial about the very thing you're trying to get over. That doesn't work. That's just called, still being in denial and demanding that others join you in this denial.
Boston
[ White race riots against integrated public school busing in Boston, 1976 ]
Ayaaa, sorry to hear it, Lauren. *shakes fist* Damn you, O corn-destroyer nemesis!
Two Sisters
Unfortunately I've been forced to concede defeat to my squirrel-nemesis in my attempts to grow corn. Every corn stalk I've grown has gotten dug up. It's been a slaughter. So today I switched gears and planted spinach and peppers where the corn used to be. We'll see if my nemesis continues to tau...
Thanks, Kathy. Grace Lee Boggs is one of our greatest heroes. And yeah, I really like Jimmy too, so many middle-class liberals these days seem to completely overlook the rich tradition of working-class intellectuals which he embodies.
In Honor of Grace Lee Boggs' 94th Birthday
Over at A Book Without A Cover, Adele has put up a post announcing the upcoming celebration of Grace Lee Boggs' 94th birthday. In honor of this prodigious Detroit icon and her ongoing legacy of tireless social activism, I'm reposting a Zuky piece I wrote upon reading her autobiography a couple o...
Thanks, Nightprowlkitty. I agree, either we believe in human rights for all, or we don't believe in human rights. You'd be surprised how difficult it is even for most "progressives" to grasp this fundamental principle.
Cirila Baltazar Cruz and The Plight Of The Unworthy
[ Cross-posted at Feministe ] In recent weeks, the startling story of Cirila Baltazar Cruz has been stirring outrage and splitting spleens in certain corners of blogland, though it has yet to receive mainstream attention. Some details remain fuzzy, and we have yet to hear directly from the perso...
Yeah, the freckles bit was pretty unnecessary -- kinda seemed like a jab at a seemingly absurd component of Mexican culture to "balance" all that ripping on "American assholes" that had come before.
Glad people are enjoying this on the whole, though! Hehe. Very silly.
From The Onion News Network
I'm only objecting to the notion that if Sa Dingding supported the Free Tibet movement that it'd be like supporting independence for Texas.
But that's not what I wrote, which was: "She has been criticized in the West...for not advocating on behalf of the "Free Tibet" anti-communist movement (which is roughly equivalent to a US singer being criticized in China for not supporting the secession of Texas)." Do you see the problem with what you're doing here? You're inverting various elements of my logic and arguing against something I didn't say. That's grounds for getting banned around here. Please stop.
Sa Dingding has been barred from performing at certain festivals and venues in the West for not being sufficiently behind the Free Tibet cause. That's the reality I was discussing. End of story.
The Neo-Classical Mysticism of Sa Dingding
She grew up living the migratory nomadic life of the Mongolian plateau, with mixed Han-Mongolian ancestry, deeply influenced by the rhythms of nature and the iconography of Central Asian Buddhism. She learned Sanskrit and Tibetan in order to further her understanding of Buddhism, and developed h...
Ansel, who is belittling or dismissing? Please read my post again to see where my arrows are aimed. You don't need to teach me about the Free Tibet movement, I assure you. I've studied Tibet all life and have actually been there. I was involved with Tibetan activists in neighboring Szechuan when I was a student in China, shortly after the June 4 demonstrations, and I got into real political trouble with the Chinese government for my activities. That's not what I'm criticizing here and I think that should be clear from what I've said, here and throughout the history of this blog. Let's keep it straight.
The Neo-Classical Mysticism of Sa Dingding
She grew up living the migratory nomadic life of the Mongolian plateau, with mixed Han-Mongolian ancestry, deeply influenced by the rhythms of nature and the iconography of Central Asian Buddhism. She learned Sanskrit and Tibetan in order to further her understanding of Buddhism, and developed h...
Kathy, yes it is hypnotizing, in a good way! And thanks for your comments on Tibet too.
Ansel, no problem about derailing, I knew my parenthetical statement would be seen by some as inflammatory; but as you may know, I can't help myself. ;-) Anyway, you say that Tibet has a stronger case for independence than Texas; what is the basis for this assertion? The US invaded Mexico about a century ago and simply annexed the southwest. The complex relationship between Tibet and China goes back 2,000 years. During the Tang dynasty (8th century), Tibet invaded China and actually captured the Tang capital of Changan. During the Yuan dynasty (12th century), China and Tibet signed a formal suzereignty treaty which granted Tibet national autonomy under the umbrella of the Chinese empire, which many see as holding to this day. It was around that time that the Chinese throne conferred the title of Dalai Lama to the ruler of the Lhasa artistocracy. That happened 800 years ago. Seeing that the entirety of the US occupies land stolen via genocide, I'm not sure where US Americans think they draw moral standing to lecture anyone on the granting of indigenous self-determination.
As for the modern Free Tibet movement, it most certainly has anti-communist foundations, emerging shortly after the Communists defeated the US-supported Nationalists in the Chinese civil war and Mao declared the People's Republic of China in 1949. The US specifically took up the cause of Tibetan independence in order to destabilize China. The CIA set up camps in Taiwan and Pakistan where it trained Tibetan fighters whom it smuggled in and out of Tibet. The CIA hustled the Dalai Lama out of Tibet and into India after the Lhasa uprising of 1959, air-dropping supplies to his travel party along the way. It doesn't take a genius to notice how differently various independence movements around the world are treated in the mainstream US depending on the ideological orientation of the parties involved.
Anyway, there's a lot more to it than I have time to cover right now. I do understand that there are different legitimate perspectives on all this and I don't hold it against anyone if they come at it through a different lens than me. But I would offer that most US liberals who take up the Free Tibet cause have very little of the necessary historical and cultural understanding to astutely negotiate this terrain.
Peace.
The Neo-Classical Mysticism of Sa Dingding
She grew up living the migratory nomadic life of the Mongolian plateau, with mixed Han-Mongolian ancestry, deeply influenced by the rhythms of nature and the iconography of Central Asian Buddhism. She learned Sanskrit and Tibetan in order to further her understanding of Buddhism, and developed h...
Oh believe me, Mamita, my gardening skills are limited, I'm just learning as I go. And kinda like you, I'm waging some kind of hidden guerilla war against raccoons. Damn thieves! ;-)
Three Sisters and Many Cousins
These are the survivors, doing their thing on the little plot of dirt I've been given permission to use this gardening season. Actually, it's almost pure clay; so the first task was preparing the planting bed with heavy amendments of soil, sand, and compost. Two vicious cold snaps in the first...
Thanks, Quin, link fixed. And yeah I haven't seen anything quite like this either. Seen movies about Japanese relationships with Chinese and Koreans, but that's another matter. Like, entirely.
The Hariyama Bridge
Over at Nippon Cinema, a story that I believe many US folks will find intriguing, at the intersection of African American and Japanese culture and history: In the film, Daniel Holder (Ben Guillory) travels to Japan to claim some of the possessions left behind by his recently-deceased son Mickey....
Kathy, mm, ZC, thank you!
The Sanctuary Honored By New America Media Award
Nezua speaks for all of us over at The Sanctuary: We are happy to announce that The Sanctuary (ProMigrant.Org) will be receiving an award that, in 2006, Hillary Rodham Clinton described as "the equivalent of the “Pulitzer Prize" for journalism (including New Media of course) in ethnic media...
Julie, belledame, thanks for chiming in, appreciate the additional perspectives. Definitely agree that the Christocrats' aggressive propping up of the Israeli right-wing has nothing to do with some pro-Jewish affinity; it's naked imperialism
The Whiteness Problem
The backhanded boycott of the historic UN anti-racism conference in Geneva by mostly-white diplomats from Western nations, whose fortunes just happen to stand upon centuries of white supremacist colonialism, slavery, and imperialism, is farcical on its face. The story being peddled is that the U...
Yeah, agreed. She's an intriguing artist, of mixed Han-Mongolian ethnicity, a Mandarin-speaking Buddhist who taught herself Tibetan and Sanskrit and sings in all three languages. Her singing shows strong Central Asian folk influence, which she sets against the whole dance-lounge vibe beatbed. And it works!
Music — Sa Dingding
Well, I've written guest posts at The Unapologetic Mexican, Nezua and I are hermanos; but this particular post was a collaboration between Nezua, me, and other editors at The Sanctuary, intended to serve as a position paper on our collective view of this story.
Yeah, that "immigration expert" in the article you linked was very helpful, right? "Oh it's just a freak incident of boys "wilding", let's not make this into a big deal..." Disgusting.
Always appreciate your support, Kathy. :-)
The Luis Ramirez Murder: A Logical Step in the Process of Establishing a Subhuman Class
[ Over at The Sanctuary, we've been working on a joint editorial position piece about the Luis Ramirez murder since last week. We posted it this morning. Please go over there to read the full post. ] Three things immediately shock the conscious soul upon learning about the murder of Luis Ramire...
Kathy, you're far too kind but thank you. :-)
The Whiteness Problem
The backhanded boycott of the historic UN anti-racism conference in Geneva by mostly-white diplomats from Western nations, whose fortunes just happen to stand upon centuries of white supremacist colonialism, slavery, and imperialism, is farcical on its face. The story being peddled is that the U...
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