[Heeplist] (no subject)

[Cláudia Leão]

Rick, 

I can't ask all my family and friends to join me on Weibo, I NEED to connect to FB. I don't have a phone so the only way I have to keep in touch with my relatives is through it. And The Great Firewall is also blocking access to my wordpress blog.

About the people I've mentioned that never heard about the Beatles - they were not teenagers, they were around my age, on their 40s.

I'm getting crazy here. After 8 months traveling peacefully, in two days in China I was already ripped off four times (even in a convenience store) and yesterday I was victim of a scam and I lost almost 2000 dollars. When I asked for help to the hotel's concierge to call the police he told me that that would be a waste of time since I can't PROVE what happened and I can't identify the ladies who stole me.

I've been dreaming about visiting China since I started practicing kung fu more than 10 years ago, I was expecting that this would be the most wonderful part of my journey but today I feel miserable. I've spent the entire morning crying and I just don't wanna leave the hotel room. 
Do you know how it is to be 100% by yourself, without a connection with relatives and friends, and having to learn that you should not trust people...?
 
Best,

Claudia


On Nov 13, 2013, at 3:12 PM, "Rick Wilson" <futureprimitive1 at gmail.com> wrote:

"






*Thanks for these videos Shawn!! Unfortunately here in China the access to
YouTube, Facebook, Google, Skype is blocked...  (The Great Firewall!!) I'm
trying to set up a VPN to cheat this prohibition and hopefully I'll be able
to watch them soon! Can you believe that because of this stupid firewall
the average Chinese people have no idea how The BEATLES or The ROLLING
STONES look like?!? Yesterday I went to a Karaoke house and they do have a
few Beatles' songs in their library, but performed by chinese artists...
Crazy!!! Cheers! Claudia*"

Excuse me, Claudia, but I have a bit of a problem with misinformation.  I
have lived in China for nearly nine years now, and I use Google and Skype
daily without the use of a VPN service.  China has their very own versions
of YOUTube and Facebook, so do not need the xenophobic American versions.
www.youku.com/ is the Chinese version of YOUTube, and there are no songs
that are banned there, unlike in the West.  www.weibo.com/ is the Chinese
version of Facebook, where any and every citizen of China and the rest of
the world are free to post tweets, etc. any time they like with some
censorship or common sense (no nudity), but with no flaming or banning
because they are Chinese unlike in the West.  Hell, it took eight years for
the guys here at the list to actually accept that I was an American living
in China and not Chinese to accept me here!  Yes, there are many cover
versions of songs in the karaoke clubs, usually Russian or from Hong Kong,
but any KTV, as the Chinese call them, has a wide selection of Western
music to choose from.  I have sang, or tried to sing many a "Uriah Heep"
song as well as tunes by "Metallica" and even "Slayer" (Much to the chagrin
and shock of my Chinese students, I may add!  lol), all by the original
artists uncensored.  Ask anyone today who is a teenager in Brazil, the U.S.
or even in the U.K. who the "Beatles" and "Stones" are or what they look
like, and YOU will get many a strange stare, not just in China.  One of my
current students often wears a "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band"
t-shirt to class, so I am quite certain that she knows who they are and
what they look like; and, most any student of English can sing "Hey,
Jude!", "Yesterday" or "Let It Be".  Try to remember that China has 1.6
billion people, there is more of everything here, and one cannot judge a
country with a population so large on the reactions of one or two people.
Lastly, I in no way wish to defend the Great Chinese Firewall, but they
only wish to weed out sites that are harmful to the health of their
citizens.  Yes, that is censorship, and, yes, that is not something that I
would condone, however, when I see television shows like "Drugs, Inc.", and
I see how drugs are controlling the lives of thousands of Americans, then
perhaps a bit of self-censorship on the part of our government wouldn't
hurt at all.  True freedom is not being able to do anything that YOU want
anytime, but it is being able to have the means to ensure that all of us
can enjoy life to the fullest aka the pursuit of happiness.  Please,
remember that before spreading misinformation to others who have no idea.
Thank YOU, kindly!

Rick
[?]


-- 
http://about.me/rick.wilson
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