Comme les Chinois

Comme les Chinois : portraits

2008-05-18

J’ai pris une pause après ce voyage de six semaines qui s’est terminé samedi dernier, durant lequel j’ai visité Hong Kong, Taiwan, Beijing et la province du Guangdong. Des milliers de photos et des heures d’enregistrements sonores sont en attente de traitement. Pour le moment, vous pouvez consulter les portraits des gens dont les entrevues … Continue reading “Comme les Chinois : portraits”

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I have been taking a break after the six-week trip that ended last Saturday, and which took me to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Beijing and Guangdong province. Thousands of pictures, and hours of sound recording are waiting to be processed, but in the meanwhile, you can take a look at the portraits of people whose Q&A was or will be published on this blog. (link)

The Dujiangyan earthquake

2008-05-12

The strong earthquake that shook the province of Sichuan, which epicenter was said to be around Dujiangyan (都江堰), a city of 600,000 people at 15km northwest of the capital Chengdu, hits strangely close to home. One of my good friends, now living in Montreal, is originally from Dujiangyan and she is visiting her hometown for … Continue reading “The Dujiangyan earthquake”

Une copine à moi vient de Dujiangyan, est en visite là-bas en ce moment. Ceci est la couverture d’un magazine (article en couverture sur Dujiangyan) publié par la compagnie pour laquelle elle travaillait avant, à Beijing. Pas encore de nouvelles d’elle.

Pogné à Newark, dé-pogné en Chine

2008-05-11

I am stuck at the Newark Airport, having my 5PM flight for Montreal cancelled, waiting for the next one at 8:25PM. It gives me time to relax, and rip a few CDs… The news concerning CommeLesChinois.ca are that it is no longer blocked in China! The reasons why it was unavailable in the first place … Continue reading “Pogné à Newark, dé-pogné en Chine”

The reasons why it was unavailable in the first place remain obscure. My friends in China said that it had been blocked before I had even started adding contents to the site. The machine hosting this site (twiddle at dreamhost.com) was always the same.

So, it was while browsing this site’s stats that I found out that I had hits from Mainland China. Someone in Shanghai googled my site out on the Tous les jours bakery boycott story, on April 28th, 2008.

An unrelated tale from the Wall, the Radio-Canada.ca was once again (presumably) banned last week, according to my own “investigation”, confirmed by Radio-Canada’s tech columnist.

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Je suis pogné à l’aéroport de Newark, après que mon vol à 17h vers Montréal ait été annulé, en attendant le prochain à 20h25. Ça me donne le temps de relaxer et ripper une coupe de CDs… Et les nouvelles concernant CommeLesChinois.ca sont que ce n’est plus bloqué en Chine!

Pourquoi ce n’était pas accessible initialement, je n’en sais rien. Mes amis en China m’ont dit que c’était bloqué avant même que je ne commence à ajouter du contenu au site. La machine qui héberge le site (twiddle à dreamhost.com) a toujours été la même.

C’est en regardant les stats du site que je me suis rendu compte de hits venant de Chine Continentale. Quelqu’un à Shanghai avait alors trouvé, le 28 avril 2008, mon article sur le boycott du café Tous les jours.

Une nouvelle à part en provenance du mur: Radio-Canada.ca est à nouveau (présumément) banni en Chine depuis la semaine dernière, selon ma propre “enquête”, confirmé par Bruno Guglielminetti dans sa chronique techno.

Sunshine in Hong Kong

2008-05-10

Taken this Thursday, in Hong Kong.

九記牛腩 (kao kee ngau lam) curry noodles in Central

2008-05-09

On Thursday for lunch, one of my uncles took me to one of those famous places that only locals know, a curry noodles place in Central called 九記牛腩 (literally “nine & co. beef brisket”). Everything is written in Chinese, including its sign! (At our table, sat Asian-looking English-speakers) The menu is one of those minimalistic … Continue reading “九記牛腩 (kao kee ngau lam) curry noodles in Central”

On Thursday for lunch, one of my uncles took me to one of those famous places that only locals know, a curry noodles place in Central called 九記牛腩 (literally “nine & co. beef brisket”). Everything is written in Chinese, including its sign! (At our table, sat Asian-looking English-speakers) The menu is one of those minimalistic ones: three kinds of noodles (yii mein, ho faan, mai faan), two kinds of soup base (curry or broth).

Continue reading “九記牛腩 (kao kee ngau lam) curry noodles in Central”

Shenzhen and Dongguan

2008-05-09

Shekou, Shenzhen, China Briefly put, Shenzhen is the Special Economic Zone saddled on the Chinese border with Hong Kong SAR, while Dongguan is a city, roughly the same size (we talk in terms of municipal delimitations) than the former. Some parts of Shenzhen look like Beijing, and is certainly one of China’s richest cities (if … Continue reading “Shenzhen and Dongguan”

Shekou, Shenzhen, China

Briefly put, Shenzhen is the Special Economic Zone saddled on the Chinese border with Hong Kong SAR, while Dongguan is a city, roughly the same size (we talk in terms of municipal delimitations) than the former. Some parts of Shenzhen look like Beijing, and is certainly one of China’s richest cities (if not the richest).

Yantian, Fengang Town, Dongguan, China

Last Tuesday and Wednesday, I travelled to Shenzhen and Dongguan, on my way back from Kaiping. It was a bus ride of about three hours (90 yuan) from Kaiping to Shenzhen’s Luo Hu hub (at the border with Hong Kong). I took the subway (5 yuan) to the end of the green line at Windows of the World and a cab (60 yuan) to the new suburb of Shekou (蛇口), in southwest Shenzhen, where one of my cousins, an expat sent overseas by his Montreal company, lives.

On the next day, I went to Dongguan, where I visited an uncle’s factory, in the district of Yantian (雁田 – not like the Shenzhen port), a 1h30 ride by private taxi from Shekou. Then, I returned to the northwest district of Shajing (沙井), to visit the factory where my cousin works.

More elaborate posts are to come, once I compile the pics.

Diaolou in Zili Village, near Kaiping City

2008-05-09

On Monday and Tuesday morning, we visited Kaiping, a town about 150km west of Hong Kong, famed for its diaolou. We visited only one cluster of diaolou, Zili Village, a 30-minute ride by taxi (around 60RMB). Diaolou are the heritage of returning Overseas Chinese. They are fortified towers, dwellings, constructed to sustain attacks from invaders, … Continue reading “Diaolou in Zili Village, near Kaiping City”

Diaolou are the heritage of returning Overseas Chinese. They are fortified towers, dwellings, constructed to sustain attacks from invaders, thieves. Their architectural influences are unique, in that they incorporate elements from outside of China, such as flamboyant balconies.

Radio-Canada.ca à nouveau bloqué en Chine? (mai 2008)

2008-05-09

Après au moins six mois à être bloqué en Chine, le site web de Radio-Canada était à nouveau accessible aux internautes basés en Chine continentale. Une semaine après l’envoi d’une lettre par Hubert T. Lacroix, président de CBC/Radio-Canada, à l’ambassade chinoise à Ottawa, les Chinois pouvaient à nouveau cliquer sur Radio-Canada.ca et CBC.ca (voir article). … Continue reading “Radio-Canada.ca à nouveau bloqué en Chine? (mai 2008)”

Voilà qu’en voyage de deux jours dans la province du Guangdong, j’ai remarqué à Shenzhen hier (7 mai 2008 – vers midi, HKT) que Radio-Canada.ca n’était plus accessible. Un “server not responding” apparaissait en pointant sur le portail de Radio-Canada ou son site de nouvelles, tandis que CBC.ca répondait encore à l’appel. Une défaillance du routage? Un blocage temporaire automatisé par mot-clés? Le pare-feu qui tombe à nouveau?

Deux amis vivant à Beijing m’ont confirmé plus tard aujourd’hui (8 mai 2008 – le soir) qu’ils ne pouvaient pas accéder à Radio-Canada.ca non plus.

Mise à jour (2008-05-11): Bruno Guglielminetti rapporte dans le carnet techno de Radio-Canada que le site serait re-bloqué depuis dimanche, d’après des commentaires venant d’internautes en Chine. Vu que je ne suis plus en Chine, je ne suis plus en mesure de vérifier personnellement si le site est encore bloqué aujourd’hui. (Mon article a été référencé par InsideTheCBC.com.)

Very fresh chicken, in four times

2008-05-08

When we traveled to the village of Zili, near the small town of Kaiping (famous for its diaolou, and a UNESCO World Heritage site), one of the “tourist attractions” was home-style countryside food, such as free-range chicken. The meat is either considered strong or rubberish. I like to think that our Canadian chicken tastes like … Continue reading “Very fresh chicken, in four times”