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this small copper statue of bodhisattva avalokiteshvara ( 15th to 16th_century ) from western tibet is in the exhibition ''images of the divine south and southeast_asian sculpture from the mr . and mrs . john d . rockefeller 3rd collection'' at the asia_society in manhattan . the 50 sculptures in the show come from what is considered to be one of the finest small gatherings of such material in the united_states . review by holland_cotter , page 32 .

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the owner of an internet cafe in southern china has been arrested and charged with subversion for posting articles critical of the communist_party , the latest sign of the government 's campaign to tame the explosion of electronic information . jiang shihua , a high_school teacher who operated the cafe in the city of nanchong in sichuan_province , is the third person in recent months known to face serious charges for political statements on the internet . his arrest on aug . 16 , five days after he began posting the articles under a pseudonym , was reported this week by the free china movement in washington , based on chinese television accounts and by reporters without borders , a media watchdog group in paris . china 's leaders have embraced the internet as a key to development but also fear it , and special ''web police'' units have been formed to search for illegal activities including fraud and pornography as well as outlawed political debate . this month , the authorities shut down new culture forum , a web_site in shandong_province that sponsored lively debate .

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inside a gray six story office building , a dozen young men gathered around a conference room table on saturday evening to discuss the internet . only one was over 30 , and all looked like computer nerds , the kind of people who prefer to spend a saturday night talking about their favorite software , rather than venturing into one of the lively cafes on the street below . yet with the chinese authorities tightening control over information networks , even something as innocuous as an internet club is now suspect . so the participants met with an air of secrecy , engaged in a lengthy debate over lukewarm cups of tea on how to avoid government interference , and wondered about the true identity of five latecomers who sat to one side of the room and said little . the internet is still very sensitive in china , " said a 24 year old computer technician , who like the other participants asked not to be identified . " we 're not trying to do anything illegal , but if the government finds out about us , we 're finished . " the internet is just starting to grow in china , and the authorities are trying to keep it firmly within their grasp . today , china issued a new set of rules to regulate internet use , the latest in a recent series of moves to assert control over the flow of information here . rather than try to choke off internet_access , as some of the young men gathered around the table had feared , the regulations instead appear to be steering the flow of electronic information through officially controlled ports so that it can be better monitored . the new regulations require that any network offering internet_service be subject to close supervision by the ministry of post and telecommunications or one of three other designated government agencies , the new china news_agency announced . the new regulations are intended to insure " healthier development of the exchange of international computer information , " the news_agency said . but the rules were clearly also concerned with information the government deems threatening . " neither organizations nor individuals are allowed to engage in activities at the expense of state security and secrets , " the agency said . " they are also forbidden to produce , retrieve , duplicate or spread information that may hinder public order . " the transmission of pornographic or obscene material was also expressly banned . the rules come at a time when internet users in china have gained easy access to a wide range of politically sensitive material posted by dissident groups based outside of china . reports that were accessible within china via the internet today were offered by human_rights_in_china , a new york based group the center for modern china , run by the dissident writer liu_binyan and based in princeton , n.j. , and china spring , another new york based dissident group . china 's security apparatus is widely believed to monitor an enormous volume of telephone and fax connections , and it is expected to do the same with internet messages . it is an open question whether the authorities will try to block access to information they do not like , and whether they would succeed if they tried . access to the internet , however , is still a privilege for relatively few in a country where few homes have a private telephone let alone a computer . most who have access to a computer do so through their workplace . about 4 , 000 people have registered for internet accounts with the ministry of post and telecommunications in beijing and shanghai since it began offering china 's main commercial internet_service in mid 1995 . zhang shiyong , a computer science professor at fudan_university in shanghai who directs the university 's internet operations and advises shanghai 's post and telecommunications on computer networks , estimates that fewer than 30 , 000 internet users in china have an e mail address , mostly university professors and students , and scientific researchers . others familiar with the internet assert that 50 , 000 to 100 , 000 in china may be using it , many of them university students with irregular access because of limited computer time , and others who privately pay a registered user to share an e mail address . a main impediment to internet growth is the high cost . while university professors and students get e mail free , shanghai 's post and telecommunications office charges 75 a month for 40 hours of use , a sizable fee in a city where a typical office worker makes 250 a month . for all the free_speech potential that the internet portends , robin_munro , hong_kong director of human_rights_watch asia , said few if any dissidents within china had access to it , because of limited access to computers . he suggested that , with official monitoring , the internet would not be an ideal route for transmitting politically sensitive information anyway . most professors who use the internet focus on research , professor zhang said , while most graduate students he knows use it to get information on how to study overseas . " we 're not happy about that , of course , but we do n't stop it , " he said . " we want to encourage them to use the internet as much as possible . " proponents of the internet hope that chinese users will eventually send 70 percent of their electronic transmissions to other domestic users , professor zhang added . he estimates that only about 10 percent are domestic now , with an overwhelming majority of e mail directed overseas . today 's regulations were not the only recent effort to control information services in china . last month , the government announced that foreign news organizations selling economic information would now be supervised by the new china news_agency , which will have the final say over who can have access to the service and how much they pay . president jiang_zemin , in one of several efforts to assert wider political authority , recently called on the nation 's news_media to " pay special attention to politics . " in less formal wording obey orders . in early january , the ministry of post and telecommunications suspended all new subscriptions to the internet indefinitely . the official reason was that this was necessary while the network 's technical capacity was expanded , but officials of the shanghai post and telecommunications said that authorities in beijing suspended the system 's growth while they formulated the new regulations . now that the regulations are out , new subscriptions will presumably resume soon . as concerned as they are about the internet 's ability to spread undesirable information efficiently , china 's leaders also recognize its benefits . shanghai 's municipal government recently announced plans to link its tax offices and social_security services via a local internet connection , as well as to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in telecommunications infrastructure . " over the past few years , with the growth of a market_economy and progress in spreading information , computer information networks have been playing an active role in accelerating china 's economic , scientific , technological and educational development , " the new china news_agency reported in january . at the gathering on saturday evening , nearly all of the participants voiced optimism that the expansion of internet china would help businesses , in particular , because of the way it would expand their access to information . all , that is , but the four conservatively dressed men and one woman who came late and sat in a clump to one side . none offered a name card when all others attending passed out their own , and none signed the e mail address list . they watched , they listened , they said little . one took notes . and everyone else was reminded that , internet or not , best watch what one says . correction an article on monday about chinese efforts to regulate access to the internet misidentified the director of the center for modern china in princeton , n.j . it is chen yizi , not liu_binyan . an article last monday about chinese efforts to regulate access to the internet misidentified a new york based publication that is available on the internet . it is beijing spring , not china spring .

has a location of china

a 29 year old pro_democracy activist , wang jinbo , was sentenced to four years in prison for posting articles on overseas internet sites that demanded a reassessment of the government 's 1989 decision to send in troops to break up student demonstrations in tiananmen_square . the linyi intermediate court in shandong_province found mr . wang , who had been associated with the now illegal china democracy party , guilty of subversion . elisabeth rosenthal ( nyt )

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in china , too , hackers and m.b.a . 's dream of silicon jackpots . among the many start_ups trying to emulate everything from yahoo to ebay , three year old sparkice i com ltd . is already the old guard , and its 36 year old founder zeng qiang edward zeng to foreigners is already famous . all this before his company has made a dime or seriously begun carrying out its plan for global e_commerce . it is all on the verge , says mr . zeng , who conjures up wild success with his spiel . ''we want to be the cyber bridge between east and west , '' he says , pointing to the large map of the world behind his desk , next to the picture of president_clinton shaking his hand last year at one of the internet cafes mr . zeng started here in 1996 . others may dream of selling the proverbial shirt to a billion chinese , but mr . zeng 's idea is instead to use the internet to sell the products of a million chinese companies to wholesalers , retailers , factories and individuals abroad . ''we are the future , connecting the merchandise made in china with the global buyer , '' he says . ''we aim to be the dominant mega portal , '' he says , ''and i do n't think anyone can compete with us . '' hedging his bets , though , he and several competitors are also exploring the potential for domestic e_commerce . mr . zeng 's history may entitle him to some confidence . born in beijing , he studied economics at qinghua_university there and , in 1987 , after securing a master 's degree , became a policy adviser in the central government 's state planning commission . he declines to discuss the tumultuous events of 1989 , when beijing was engulfed in pro_democracy_demonstrations , only commenting that things look different in hindsight . but the facts are suggestive on june 4 , when the tanks rolled in , he was attending an econometrics conference in tokyo . instead of returning home , he flew to toronto with scarcely a dollar in his pocket . as soon as he could save up 20 , he bought a book called ''how to succeed in the stock_market , '' he recalls fondly . he soon was in another master 's degree program , then a job as a statistician for the canadian government , and he started building up his own capital . the big flash came in early 1996 , he says , when he read about an israeli company developing an internet telephone service . he flew to israel to see for himself , then hurried to beijing , establishing his chain of internet cafes that are popular with computerless students . no big_business in china is entirely private , and mr . zeng is building a series of strategic alliances at home , necessary to sew up suppliers and gain official cooperation . he already has a partnership with a state telecommunications company and is exploring joint_ventures with government ministries and companies . he is also pursuing ties with some giant electronic stores in the united_states . so far the company has relied on capital ' 'something over 10 million , '' mr . zeng says from his own pockets and a handful of foreign investors . like every other entrepreneur here , he hopes to raise big money abroad , perhaps with a public_offering in new york . but all investments are in limbo just now , after a key minister 's surprise claim that foreign investment in chinese internet_services is illegal . projected revenues ? ''we 're targeting billions of dollars a year ! '' he says . this year , between the cafes and modest web sales , sparkice should take in 5 million , he says , but it projects five times more for next year , and then . . . . a half century in china the silicon mogul

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after watching adam_smith 's two part series on the chinese economy , the first impulse is to invest , to get in on the ground floor of china 's booming , astonishing economy . that is not an unreasonable impulse . on channel 13 tonight and on nov . 18 , mr . smith offers a vivid glimpse of china 's emerging middle_class , now 200 million people and climbing rapidly . supplying them makes china a golden market , not only for american companies with products to sell but also for americans with money to invest in the shanghai and hong_kong stock markets . mr . smith calls it the " china play , " and he brings on a western investment banker in hong_kong who says , " i foresee a 50 year bull market developing . " we have heard this sort of message , of course . the chinese economic_miracle is a favorite and important media theme mr . smith breaks no new ground . but in his simple , explanatory style , he makes the chinese marketplace understandable to americans only casually acquainted with china . the two half hour programs are a quick , viewer friendly course in chinese economics . they reflect mr . smith 's surprise , on his first trip to china since 1976 , at the buying power and size of the consumer population . he mentions in passing that for all its vigor , china 's economy could founder , given that nation 's various political and civil_rights problems , and even the possibility of regional conflicts . he notes that the 200 million middle_class consumers represent less than 20 percent of china 's population , clustered mostly in urban coastal areas , while 1 billion chinese inland still suffer from poverty and hardship . will this mix erupt in some unforeseen way after the death of deng_xiaoping , china 's 89 year old leader ? while other journalists raise these downside problems in detail , the message of mr . smith 's program is that the worst_case_scenarios wo n't happen china will stay on the high road , regaining the glory it enjoyed through most of history as a rich and powerful nation . so get aboard , america . or , as j . stapleton_roy , the american ambassador , puts it , china is a market that cannot be ignored . mr . roy makes several appearances , becoming a sort of assistant narrator , reinforcing mr . smith 's message and providing some startling statistics . the chinese economy , he says , is growing faster than any other nation 's , and at the current pace will be the wealthiest economy in the world in 30 years . for every 100 urban households , there are 101 television sets , 77 cameras , more than 55 vcr 's and good products , not cheap merchandise . in the rich guangdong_province near hong_kong , wages and incomes are rising by 20 percent a year , on average , and bank deposits by 40 percent , mr . roy reports . and other experts tell us that by the end of the century , china could have more billionaires than the united_states , while already 80 million people in the rising middle_class make 10 , 000 a year . this rich marketplace has already paid dividends for american companies , mr . roy explains , giving mr . smith 's documentary just the suggestion of a sales pitch for foreign investment . a visit to the a.t . t . operation , trying to supply china 's huge demand for telephones , demonstrates the payoff now and to come for one big investor . and then mr . smith and his camera crew move quickly to the next scenes and interviews , never bogging down as they portray , in broad strokes , china 's new wealth , its modern cities and rising , westernized middle_class . mr . smith 's great skill is in the insights that explain in some simple , memorable way how economics works . his visit to a beijing family parents and young daughter does this towards the end of tonight 's program . the parents , two of china 's new consumers , earn 141 a month , he as a property manager and she as a bookkeeper . but they spend only half this income on necessities in a nation where the state still subsidizes rents , utilities and three daily school meals for their daughter . that leaves half the income for consumption , a neat explanation of how china can be both a great source of low wage labor and also middle_class consumption . can the subsidies and the good times last ? no one knows , mr . roy says , but mr . smith bets that the good times will . adam_smith made in china pbs , tonight thursday at 8 ( channel 13 in the new york area ) first of a two part series produced by alvin h . perlmutter , inc . and wnet new york . peter foges , producer douglas p . sinsel , coordinating producer ellen egeth , associate producer laura blodgett , researcher nancy e . pelz paget , program administrator terence williams , creative consultant alvin h . perlmutter , executive_producer adam_smith , host and editor_in_chief .

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six people affiliated with the prestigious qinghua_university here have been sentenced to prison for downloading material from the banned falun_gong spiritual movement from the internet and passing it along , a human_rights group said on sunday . in a decision handed down by the beijing first intermediate court on dec . 13 , the six were given prison sentences of 3 to 12 years , according to the group , the information center for human_rights and democracy , which is based in hong_kong . all had been arrested between january and april of this year . four of the six were graduate students , and the remaining two were professors . qinghua , china 's leading university of science and technology , had a huge number of falun_gong practitioners before the chinese government banned the movement as an ''evil sect'' in the summer of 1999 . qinghua 's graduates include prime_minister zhu_rongji . falun_gong combines buddhism , taoism and mysticism with a slow_motion exercise program that followers say provides benefits for both physical and spiritual health . with falun_gong meetings and materials forbidden , chinese practitioners nonetheless found the internet to be an effective organizing tool . through their computers , highly educated followers like those at qinghua followed news of the group and the latest teachings of the movement 's spiritual leader , li_hongzhi , a chinese citizen who lives in exile in the united_states . although web_sites relating to falun_gong are blocked in china , people who are skilled at using computers can often gain access to them . while falun_gong demonstrations and swift arrests used to be a nearly daily occurrence on tiananmen_square here , they tapered off dramatically in the second half of 2001 , as some left the movement and others hid their belief . but recently the government has mounted a renewed propaganda campaign against the group . last week , china 's most popular television newsmagazine , ''daily focus , '' broadcast a gruesome story about fu yibin , a falun_gong follower from beijing who killed his father and wife , and nearly killed his mother . panning the inside of the family 's home , with blood everywhere , the report suggested that falun_gong was responsible . sunday_night 's 7 o'clock news showed a jailhouse interview with mr . fu , which suggested that he continued to believe that he acted in accordance with the movement 's principles . today , the people 's daily is to carry yet another commentary on the case calling falun_gong ''a blight on society'' and warning that it remains a threat . the newspaper posted the commentary on its web_site at midnight sunday . foreign spokesmen for falun_gong , based in the united_states , have ridiculed the story about mr . fu , saying that such acts are totally contrary to the peaceful principles of the movement . the falun_gong movement says that more than 1 , 500 practitioners have died in custody in china . the chinese government , in turn , says that that as many practitioners have died because they believed that falun_gong could cure them , and so did not get needed medical treatment .

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the trial of a 30 year old computer executive , soon to begin in shanghai , heralds a new electronic battleground for china 's political dissidents and security forces determined to preserve communist_party control . lin hai , the defendant , is charged with ''inciting subversion of state power . '' prosecutors say that from september 1997 until his arrest in march , mr . lin gave tens of thousands of chinese e mail addresses to ''hostile foreign publications . '' in particular , they say , he provided addresses to an electronic newsletter called vip reference , which is compiled by chinese democracy advocates in washington and sent to hundreds of thousands of computer users inside china . according to the indictment , mr . lin helped the newsletter ''carry out propaganda and incitement by distributing essays inciting subversion of state power and overthrow of the socialist system . '' mr . lin appears to be the first legal casualty of a building struggle , as internet users here and abroad make shreds of the government 's efforts to censor political debate and filter foreign news . vip reference which sends out reports on dissident activities , essays and reprinted articles on human_rights and other issues is the most prominent of several electronic forums that are breaching china 's information defenses . ''we 're promoting freedom of speech on the internet , '' said feng donghai , a software_engineer at columbia_university who moved to the united_states three years ago and helped start vip reference last fall . ''they are putting lin hai on trial to set an example . '' the main vip reference , sent out every 10 days , mostly includes essays and debates on democratic topics . a subsidiary daily news edition , sent daily , includes detailed accounts of dissident initiatives and arrests . the main newsletter is now sent to more than 250 , 000 addresses in china said its publisher , lian shengde , who spoke from washington . the daily news edition goes to about 25 , 000 , and the numbers are steadily climbing as sympathizers send in lists of chinese addresses . the newsletter accepts addresses indiscriminately many are from commercially traded lists then mails to everyone . the theory is that when so many are automatic recipients , individuals cannot be accused of deliberately subscribing . ''we 're posing a new problem for the communists , '' said mr . lian , a software_engineer in his 30 's who moved from china after the 1989 military crackdown on student led demonstrators in beijing 's tiananmen_square . ''i do n't think there 's any way they can stop us . '' another , similar publication is tunnel , a self described ''webzine'' of commentary written in china and sent electronically to the united_states from where it is wired back to thousands of accounts inside china . addresses are , for vip reference , www . ifcss . org ftp pub org dck and for tunnel , www . geocities . com siliconvalley bay 5598 . chinese script software is required . a third newsletter , public opinion , is edited and distributed electronically from inside china . it includes commentaries and reprints of items taken off the internet and is produced by a group of young computer company workers who call themselves ''political netters . '' over the last year , these newsletters , plus assorted on line discussion groups , have become important means of communication among political activists , said xiao_qiang , executive director of human_rights_in_china in new york . china now has some 1.2 million internet accounts , many shared by several users , with the numbers zooming . the government has encouraged hookups in the interest of promoting national development , but is fighting a losing battle to control political uses . chinese officials use an electronic ''firewall'' to block access to web_sites it deems objectionable , including those of human_rights groups and some considered pornographic . but it cannot keep up with new sites , and clever users can sidestep the firewall . e mail is virtually uncontrollable , although agents can identify a particular individual and read that person 's mail . china 's security agencies have formed special units to fight not only conventional computer crimes like illegal break ins and fraud , but also the spread of dissident information . to evade government filters and electronic disruptions , vip reference is mailed from a different american address every day . somehow , the authorities zeroed in on mr . lin . last week , mr . lin 's wife , xu hong , learned that his trial will begin on nov . 26 but will be a closed proceeding so that she cannot attend . the lawyers she hired will be present but , ms . xu said by telephone , ''i 'm afraid the lawyers wo n't have much influence on the results . '' if convicted as charged , mr . lin may face a prison sentence of five years or more . he and his wife have a_20 month old son . ms . xu , who says her husband is innocent , said that e mail addresses are ''public information , like telephone books , which can be exchanged or purchased . '' he has never been involved in politics , she said .

has a location of china

three years after he was arrested for running dissident information on his web_site , a man from sichuan_province was sentenced to five years in prison this month for ' 'subverting state power , '' rights groups have learned . the man , huang qi , was arrested in june 2000 after his web_site featured condemnations of the 1989 shootings of demonstrators around tiananmen_square . the court , in chengdu , did not explain the lengthy delay in sentencing . erik eckholm ( nyt )

has a location of china

in a case that attracted international attention , a court convicted du daobin , a 40 year old internet dissident , of subversion but then commuted his sentence , mr . du 's lawyer said . mr . du was sentenced to three years in prison , suspended for four years , an unusual legal maneuver that means he will not have to serve a prison sentence . mr . du , a civil_servant from central china , was arrested last year after writing more than two dozen internet essays criticizing the arrests of other internet essayists and also advocating broader political freedoms . jim yardley ( nyt )

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for the last 10 years , the hans and the lins have lived together under the same roof as distant relatives and dear friends . they raised their two rambunctious sons together . they bought their small brick house together . but now the house is divided in more ways than one between hans on the left side , and lins on the right . it is hard to see the families sharing anything other than dagger glances ever again , because of a summertime tragedy reminiscent of ''lord of the flies . '' in june the hans' only son , han zhixiang , 9 , drowned in a swirling , but far from turbulent , river near this town , as the lins' only son , lin qiang , 12 , and several other boys watched , without helping . that much is agreed , but the rest is not clear cut . according to the han family , lin qiang ordered the others to hide han zhixiang 's clothes and keep their mouths shut . they say he even contemplated burning the body . so a few weeks ago , the hans did something that has become more natural in china they sued their friends for damages . the story of the hans and the lins is emblematic of how ordinary citizens are developing a litigious itch to resolve the kind of disputes that used to be handled informally in places like xianyang , a town of 10 , 000 in fujian_province . while people once dismissed the courts as corrupt and biased , many chinese now believe that the brand of justice being meted out can be fair and reliable . they hope the courts may also be able to resolve social rifts that otherwise could lead to a generation or more of mistrust . ''i saw on television that lawyers can help you get justice , and make people take individual responsibility for their actions , '' said deng yundong , an uncle of han zhixiang 's , whose family had never before met a lawyer , let alone stepped into a courtroom , before this summer . ''i 've heard that the legal system has improved a lot , so we have a lot of faith in it . '' so , too , does ma meiju , lin qiang 's mother . but she feels cautiously confident that her son 's defense that the death was purely an accident will prevail . ''i do n't know what 's in their hearts , but i think they just want the money , '' ms . ma said . the case pitting the han family against the parents of lin qiang and another boy , nie dao erhuang , 9 , began in august . it comes at a time when more chinese , rural and urban , have become accustomed to the nuances of civil cases through news reports , web_sites and pop_culture . the number of ''personal rights'' cases , of which civil cases are one important component , more than tripled from 1992 , to 11 , 763 cases in 2000 , said minxin pei , senior associate and co director of the china program at the carnegie endowment for international peace in washington . in the 1992 movie ''the story of qiuju , '' a peasant woman sues a local official for kicking her husband . and a few years ago , chinese television began broadcasting ''legal report , '' a_20 minute daily program that often focuses on workers suing employers or government agencies . ''before , a lot of people did n't know anything about the law , '' said lu jun , general_manager of shanghai fashang information science and technology , which produces a web_site that provides legal services and information . ''but now , they have a lot more confidence in the legal system as a way to protect the people , and strengthen social order . it 's a very good thing for china . '' han bangsun , the father of han zhixiang , has become a quick study . during a break in the trial , mr . han approached a reporter and pulled out a copy of an aug . 13 article in the official people 's daily . it was about a boy in henan_province who drowned last summer in the company of older boys . the boy 's parents sued the other families for failing to protect the boy . this summer , the court awarded the plaintiffs roughly 730 a princely sum here . ''it 's the same case as ours , so i 'm confident we can win , '' said mr . han , a 38 year old construction_worker . in an interview , the hans suggested that their son , who they said could not even swim , was lured to the river by lin qiang , the leader of the pack . and , had the boys at the scene simply cried for help , the hans' lawyers argued in court , han zhixiang might have been rescued . but because the boys did not tell anyone what had happened , his body was not found until four hours after he disappeared , about a half mile downriver . a few days after the drowning on june 15 , the lins and the nies , despondent , scraped together 365 from friends and relatives the equivalent of what the lins make annually from selling produce on the street . they delivered it to the hans for the funeral expenses . the hans accepted the money , and even signed some papers acknowledging the gift . but a few hours later , the hans returned most of the money . and the next month , they filed a lawsuit demanding more than 3 , 100 in compensation . ''we 're not doing this for the money , '' mr . han said . ''we 're doing this to get justice . '' after a three and a half hour hearing , the three judge panel announced that it needed more time to weigh the evidence . it still has not ruled . the families no longer talk to each other . they barely look at each other . in fact , if one family 's door is open , the other keeps its door shut . perhaps it was not surprising , then , that after a reporter met for an hour with the hans , huang juju , nie dao erhuang 's mother , called and tried to get the last dig in . ''are you done with them yet ? '' she asked . ''all you 'll hear from them are lies . ''

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the half poetic , half academic title of the friday program at the peter norton symphony_space was ''yunnan revealed indigenous music and dance from china 's land of clouds . '' it was full of interesting bits , and everywhere it has been , which is mostly to east_coast colleges , it has been festooned with panels and classroom study and lecture demonstrations . ( the new york stop on the tour , jointly presented by the world music institute and the asia_society , had lecture demonstrations on saturday at the american_museum_of_natural_history . ) this is good , as far as it goes , a kind of live discovery_channel documentary . yunnan is a fascinating province in the southwest of china bordered by tibet , myanmar , laos and vietnam . it is home to 25 ethnic groups , as distinguished from the han , who dominate china . four of those groups the yi , the dai , the naxi and the wa , each symbolized by a hanging scroll at the back of the stage were represented in this program . there were 15 performers , each of whom sang , played , danced and spoke , offering snippets that could n't very well convey the cultural and social context from which they were torn . as dance , not much of interest transpired . one does not expect from folk_dance the ancient traditions and artistic subtleties of high art dance , from wherever in the world . but this was pretty rudimentary , even as indigenous dance , the least interesting aspect of this presentation . there were some hops and some skips and a circle dance or two and a couple of lifts and a nice swaying movement , and that was it . the program 's appeal lay , instead , in the gorgeous fabrics and costumes and above all the exotic musical instruments . no evening can be a complete loss when one is confronted with a moon guitar , a tobacco box , a spirit drum , a gourd pipe and gourd flute , a bamboo flute , a naxi jew 's harp and various other drums and percussion , along with a comparatively common chinese instrument , a two string erhu , all festively decorated . they were erratically amplified , sometimes audible and sometimes not , but they hinted pungently at life in a distant land . dance review

has a location of china

the city contemporary_dance company from hong_kong , which began a short run on thursday night at the kaye_playhouse , is a sleek , sophisticated troupe founded in 1979 by willy tsao , who now also leads two other chinese modern_dance companies . the company , in its first new york appearance since 1994 , made a fine impression in ''365 ways of doing and undoing orientalism , '' choreographed by mr . tsao , xing liang and sang jijia . it 's a vividly pictorial and enjoyable work that mostly weathers its choreographic unevenness and somewhat odd structure . part 1 , ''earth , water , fire , wind , '' opens with mr . xing scantily_clad and crouching beside a small fire . to rumbling , incantatory sounds , he slowly unfurls his body , first traveling slowly with undulating , buckling tremors , then with smooth balletic propulsion . his dance is punctuated by various intrusions two men enacting a stylized combat , a conga line quintet in evening dress , a rather weak parody of the ''swan_lake'' cygnets all representing ( according to mr . tsao 's program notes ) western dance . mr . xing , a wonderful dancer , holds this part together with his easy shifts from slow , floor bound lunges , to sudden , silent , leg scissoring leaps . chinese traditions take center stage in part 2 , ''spring , summer , autumn , winter , '' which uses sections for each of the four seasons to bring on a fabulous plethora of swords , swirling sleeves , masks , dragons , lanterns , headdresses , parasols and tight satin dresses . ( a bow here to the set and costume designer , silvio chan . ) the dancing takes second place to these continually evolving visual effects , as does peter suart 's serviceable score , alternately jazzy , lilting and atmospherically sonorous . in a final section , ''nothingness , humankind , heaven , void , '' mr . xing walks through a forest of shining rods , a tiny figure against huge projections a buddha 's face , dancers' bodies , lotus flowers . mr . tsao may hope , as he indicates in program notes , to criticize stereotyped perceptions of eastern dance . but ''365 ways , '' with its ambitious roll call of chinese performing traditions , may do more to perpetuate them . deeper considerations aside , however , it 's a good night at the theater . the final performance of the city contemporary_dance company is tonight at the kaye_playhouse , 68th_street between lexington and park avenues ( 212 ) 772 4448 . dance review

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to the editor in his article " in china 's orphanages , a war of perception " jan . 21 , patrick e . tyler says only two foreigners , one of whom is me , appear in " the dying rooms , " the television film about chinese orphanages . he notes that i have been barred from china ( although it has been since 1991 , not 1989 ) and wonders why the film makers did n't seek out " a slightly more neutral observer . " how does my being barred from china destroy my " neutrality , " whatever that is ? in the film , made for channel 4 in britain , i comment only on china 's one_child_policy and on the traditional_chinese preference for male babies . mr . tyler says of the other foreigner in the film , steven w . mosher , that his " enthusiasm for overstatement " caused beijing to condemn him . i have met mr . mosher once , for about 60 seconds , but i know that many years ago he was permanently barred from china for his reports on forced abortions there , allegations that are now widely accepted as fact . as mr . tyler says , these revelations have troubled many abroad , especially potential a'optive parents . they should know that the evidence of dr . zhang shuyun is by no means the major evidence , damning though it is . official statistics show that mortality in china 's orphanages runs from 50 to 90 percent , the latter occurring in the shanghai orphanage . fourteen delegates to the shanghai municipal people 's congress condemned this orphanage they were disciplined . the report was quashed . one delegate is now detained . dr . zhang 's brother , accused of sedition , must report daily to the police . jonathan mirsky hong_kong the writer is east_asia editor for the times of london . the dying rooms'

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lead the color splashed and richly figured chinese_ceramics on view at the metropolitan_museum_of_art through aug . 26 are a highly personal document of more than 2 , 000 years of stylistic developments in pottery . the vessels and figures , which date from the han dynasty ( 206 b.c . to a.d . 220 ) through the ching dynasty of the 19th_century , are from a collection amassed over 50 years by stanley herzman , a new the color splashed and richly figured chinese_ceramics on view at the metropolitan_museum_of_art through aug . 26 are a highly personal document of more than 2 , 000 years of stylistic developments in pottery . the vessels and figures , which date from the han dynasty ( 206 b.c . to a.d . 220 ) through the ching dynasty of the 19th_century , are from a collection amassed over 50 years by stanley herzman , a new york collector and clothing manufacturer . the 94 jars , bottles , vases and tomb guardians exhibited in ''a selection of chinese_ceramics from the collection of adele and stanley herzman'' were either donated by the couple to the museum several years ago or are promised gifts . the collection is one of only three major holdings of chinese_ceramics given or promised to the museum since world_war_ii . most of the pieces reflect the interest of mr . herzman , 82 years old , in the boldly colored or patterned earthenware and porcelain he discovered on his first trip to china , in 1936 , when he was an importer of embroidered linens . over the years , said mr . herzman in a telephone interview last weekend from his office in englewood cliffs , n.j. , his taste became increasingly focused on ming blue and white and polychromed porcelains , tang earthenware vessels and tomb sculptures , and sung stoneware and porcelain . the most memorable object in the show , and one of mr . herzman 's favorites , is the essence of simplicity a potted , cone shaped dish with a shimmering brown black glaze . the glaze terminates in a ragged line near the base , revealing the chalk white clay . the egg shell fineness of this clay , which resembles porcelain , is also emphasized in the rim of the dish , where the glaze was wiped when wet to leave a thin copper colored line . one of the more arresting tang vessels , produced between a.d . 618 and 906 , is a ewer with a bamboolike handle and a bud shaped mouth . its spherical body is dribbled with greens and caramels the same palette and approach morris louis would usein his color field paintings of the late 1950 's . these colors appear in more muted lead glazes on numerous tang sculptures on women of the court wearing softly draped shawls that cover their hands , on a fierce faced tomb guardian , his right arm raised to stave off an unseen attacker . another impressive tang figure is an earthenware camel , its head reared back dramatically . according to suzanne vallenstein , the museum 's research curator who organized the show , mr . herzman 's tang and ming ceramics will fill out the museum 's holdings in key areas . ''it 's a dancing taste but with consistencies , '' mrs . vallenstein said . ''there 's an eye for color and pattern throughout . '' dragons are a dominant theme on the ming porcelain pieces whipping around jars , raging across dishes , slithering up and down the sides of vases . incised green dragons show up on three stunning buttercup yellow bowls . a fiery red dragon marches around the sides of a white dish , and green dragons embellish an incense vessel with bright green handles in the shape of elephant heads . calligraphy decorates several objects . the most exquisite is a white ming bowl on a stem base . blue tibetan characters that translate into the phrase ''prayer of blessings'' encircle the sides , visually balanced by a band of scrolls at the base . the show 's most arresting piece of stoneware is a two foot tall wine jar , painted with robust flattened flowers , which bears below its neck the inscription ''eighteen scholars , loving their cups , grasp them and ascend to ying mountain . eight mortals , after they 're drunk , are oblivious of their returning to their grottos . heavenly wine , immortal pool of dew . '' mr . herzman said he bought most of these pieces after world_war_ii . some were purchased during his textile buying trips to the far east and when he served as an adviser on cottage industries for the united_states_government in south_vietnam . others were bought over the last 10 years at auctions and from dealers in new york and london . during this period prices for these pieces have doubled and in some cases increased more than tenfold . mr . herzman said that most of the pieces in the collection were priced from 25 , 000 to 125 , 000 . ''my wife says to be a true collector it has to hurt , '' mr . herzman said . ''well , i have been in pain for many years . '' james j . lally , an oriential art_dealer based in new york and the former president of sotheby 's in north_america , said he has followed mr . herzman 's collecting strategy for more than 15 years . ''i think he is a vanishing breed a collector who bought for the fun of it , with a constantly active approach , willing to listen to anyone but always making up his own mind , '' mr . lally said . ''he has tried to find what was not well represented in american collections . he has tried to buy unusual things . '' giuseppe eskenazi , a london dealer in oriental art , agreed that mr . herzman is a collector with an independent spirit . ''he has done this collection on his own , '' he said . ''it is a very personal collection and very representative of the periods covered with different wares , different materials and different shapes . '' when the exhibition closes , the ceramics that are not among the herzmans' future gifts to the museum will be returned to the couple 's apartment on fifth avenue in manhattan . there , they are exhibited more casually on shelves and tabletops in rooms that also display mrs . herzman 's collection of 20th_century sculpture and paintings by matisse , david smith , henry moore , barbara hepworth and milton avery . antiques

has a location of china

ancient china did n't have a phrase for ''rite of passage , '' but if one existed , it would probably revolve around mastering appreciation of what the chinese called superfluous things . for the scholar , the sage and the monk , the creation of art was an act of self actualization , and the ' 'superfluous'' tools used in the creation of art were actually essential . ''in china , the holistic view of art was implicit , '' gerard tang and hugh moss write in ''arts from the scholar 's studio'' ( oriental ceramic society of hong_kong , 1986 ) , edited by susan ribeiro . ''it viewed the artistic process , involving artist , medium and audience , as a means to self realization . the end product was expanded consciousness , enlightenment rather than the physical work of art . '' for the ancient chinese literati , scholarship did not mean book learning alone . an educated man was supposed to spend hours occupying himself writing poetry , painting or doing calligraphy . the scholar expressed his refinement and erudition in the choice of his accouterments , which we now call scholar 's objects intricately carved brush pots , whimsical ceramic water droppers in the shapes of frogs or turtles , jade carvings , metalwork , lacquer wares , brush rests and scholar 's rocks . today chinese scholar 's objects are probably the most affordable chinese antiques on the market . there are many for sale in manhattan this season , and they make wonderful presents , as they have for a thousand years in china . chinese scholars spent years selecting the perfect brushes , brush pots and ink stones for their studies . they might add a table screen , a tray , a carved rhino horn cup , an ancient chinese bronze incense burner , a wonderfully made wooden box to hold seals or a ceramic container for seal paste . interestingly , scholars preferred antique objects . ''collecting and connoisseurship evolved the same profundity aspired to in the other fine_arts , '' mr . tang and mr . moss write . ''by tang and song times , both collecting and connoisseurship were widespread , encouraged not a little by the convenience of authentic works of art in influencing official careers . to offer direct bribes in the form of money was hardly conducive to the elegance of chinese life but the gift of a fine painting or calligraphy , an ancient bronze or stone rubbing , was a refined gesture and one where great value could easily be concealed from the unknowing mind . '' william lipton , owner of the gallery bearing his name at 27 east 61st_street , is currently producing a book with a california scholar , dr . sarah handler , about the woods of china . he said he planned to illustrate it with wooden scholar 's objects , which he has been collecting for nearly 30 years . ''i bought a brush_pot in hong_kong in 1974 that started me , '' he said . ''in those years one rarely found anything made of wood in hong_kong . i had just begun collecting . all the old peking dealers were still around then , and they knew what made a scholar 's desk interesting . by 1982 , i was a dealer . '' he opened his gallery in 1993 . he rejects the widely held view that chinese scholars were minimalists , as least when it came to the arrangements on their desks . ''today a museum might show a painting table with a brush_pot and one other thing on it , '' he said . ''in fact , chinese scholars loved diversions . they filled their desks with all kinds of interesting things , in addition to 'the four treasures of the studio' ink , ink pot , brush , paper . they had ruyis , '' scepters , ''trays , ink boxes and seals with auspicious greetings . many liked to play with contrasts they would place an elaborate ancient bronze ewer next to simple wood brush_pot . '' mr . lipton has several scholar 's objects for sale in his gallery . others are shown in thick notebooks kept in cupboards . the china 2000 gallery , at 5 east 57th_street , specializes in small scholar 's objects ( and the antique chinese pieces of furniture on which they sit ) from the 17th to the 19th_century . ''the setting for the literary and artistic endeavors of the scholar is a creative and uncommonly rich and delicate world , '' wrote the gallery 's owners , karen and leon wender , in ''an intimate world , '' a recent catalog . ''the objects with which he surrounds himself are there to express the ideals of scholarship , morality and refined taste . '' the gallery has a selection of antique painted fans , brush pots , brushes , ink stones , seal boxes and small bronzes , ranging from 500 to 20 , 000 . ''the chinese have always valued antique scholar 's objects , '' ms . wender said . ''it is not uncommon to find a brush_pot from the 16th_century inscribed by a famous 18th_century painter , who put his name on it because he loved it so much . '' the chinese_porcelain company , at park_avenue and 58th_street , has a variety of scholar 's objects ranging from 4 , 200 to 7 , 500 , including a celadon glazed ming table screen with two cylinders to hold incense and a cylindrical bronze ming censer with horses running beneath branches of pine , prunus and bamboo the ''three friends of winter , '' symbols of longevity . the gallery also has a pair of colorful , painted enamel incense holders from the mid 18th_century and a ming cloisonn box and cover for seal paste that is decorated with classic chinese motifs a lotus and chrysanthemum . scholar 's objects were meant to appeal to the senses sight , touch and emotion . ''certainly there is a tactile quality to all these things , '' mr . lipton said . ''but there is also emotion . the ruyi , for example , is not just a scepter it means 'may all your dreams come true . ' '' scholar 's objects are full of surprises . a brush_pot at william lipton is made of huanghuali , a prized dense yellow rosewood , and is carved to look like an ordinary gnarly tree trunk . after years of handling its bumps and indentations have the smooth sheen of silk . china 2000 has a brush_pot that looks as if it is full of knots and wormholes . it 's all trompe_l'oeil , of course . ''time and touch are what create the patina that is so difficult to duplicate , '' ms . wender said . during the later part of the ming_dynasty ( 1368 1644 ) , the chinese produced a literature of connoisseurship whose texts had titles like ''eight discourses on the art of living'' and ''treatise on superfluous things . '' craig clunas discusses them in ''superfluous things material culture and social status in early modern china'' ( university of illinois press , 1991 ) . ''these texts were widely read among the literati , '' mr . wender said . ''they were the heart and basis of confucian thought . '' the texts listed which possessions were the marks of the educated man . they were , mr . clunas explains , ''a way of sending and receiving messages about society and about an individual 's place within it . '' he explains that objects should be gu , or ''ancient and morally ennobling'' ya , which means elegant as opposed to vulgar and jia , or lovely . ''objects are carriers of ideas , '' he writes , quoting from chandra mukerji 's book ''from graven images . '' ''they help to make autonomous forces out of ideas by remaining in the physical world long after their production . '' superfluous , indeed . antiques

has a location of china

nothing but the faint sound of birds nesting on surrounding hilltops can be heard inside this new mountaintop site part museum , part monument that is the first public commemoration of one of the darkest chapters in china 's recent past . inside the circular pavilion that is the site 's centerpiece , the walls are lined with a series of gray tablets , each starkly engraved with images depicting the cultural_revolution , china 's decade long descent into madness , beginning in the mid 1960 's . there is mao swimming in the yangtze_river in 1966 , giving a bravura demonstration of his vigor at age 72 , and a false sign of hope to a country almost religiously devoted to him . the weeks and months ahead would instead reveal that time to be the dawn of a new and terrible era , during which perhaps a half million people were killed , a few of whom are buried in these hills alongside the trails that lead to the exhibits . ''under heaven , all is chaos , '' mao wrote , announcing the era 's tone exultingly to his wife and co instigator , jiang_qing , in a letter quoted on another tablet . from that point , the slate panels function almost like a newsreel as the events , ever more senseless , unfold . there are the huge rallies in beijing that august , where millions of young people , inspired by mao 's utopian oratory , waved their little red books in frenzied adulation as he spoke . there is the arrest and humiliation of the state president , liu shaoqi , who was denounced as a ''capitalist roader'' and beaten severely . he ' 'died under tragic conditions , '' in the delicate wording of the museum , a private institution opened earlier this year without the blessings of a government that still prefers to suppress discussion of past atrocities . there is the smashing of priceless antiquities and the burning of books by red guard militias , part of a heedless rush to sweep away the old and build a new society from scratch . there are the denunciations and beatings of teachers , and later of the students by students themselves , as the great proletarian cultural revolution began to devour its own children . then , finally , come the stunningly candid scenes of mao himself , growing more decrepit by the frame , physically decomposing , the communist demigod rotting in his armchair by the end of the decade of horror , like an overripe fruit . in some scenes , chairman_mao is barely able even to hold his head upright as his country falls apart around him . it has taken 29 years for anyone in china to mount a public exhibit on the period of state sponsored terror and turmoil that swept this country from 1966 to 1976 . and it is telling that it has happened here , on the outskirts of this out of the way city in the northeastern corner of guangdong_province , far from the public eye . just as remarkable is the hush that surrounds the museum , which provincial officials have reportedly ordered newspapers here not to write about . chinese intellectuals who have published novels and nonfiction accounts of the cultural_revolution describe restrictions like those as the product of a system that , while open like never before for the world 's business , still remains determined to manage what the public can and cannot learn and what they should remember and forget . ''i had to talk to 10 publishing houses before i could get my last novel published , '' said ke yunlu , a writer who has focused unrelentingly on the cultural_revolution . ''in it , a group of students stoned their teacher to death , and after 10 years , when there is an investigation , nobody admits anything . this is what history is like in china no stones are ever thrown , but people are dying . '' recently china has demanded that japan face up to the brutal history of its conquest of this country between 1937 and 1945 , but for the cultural_revolution , not yet a generation into the past , the country 's archives remain closed and academic conferences and seminars banned . ''it is very unhealthy for a nation to forget about its past , '' said zhang xianliang , one of china 's best known authors , who was arrested at age 20 for a poem deemed counterrevolutionary during another period of ideological fervor , in the late 1950 's . he spent most of the cultural_revolution in labor_camps . ''our history and our memory are full of empty pages . we still ca n't talk publicly about mao 's crimes , but that day will come . '' at the end of the 1970 's , many chinese vented their feelings about the arbitrary destruction of millions of lives and careers during the cultural_revolution , and for a time the subject enjoyed a vogue among writers . what could be said in the press , however , was strictly limited and debate was reined in by a government made nervous by the criticism . eventually , a bland official judgment said that during mao 's career he had been ''right'' 70 percent of the time . a visitor at first found the museum here abandoned but for a lonely guard , whose teeth were stained by constant intake of tea and tobacco . the hilltop is home to a pagoda steles in honor of communist leaders , like mr . liu , and deng xiaoping , who were victims of mao 's purges and , at the summit , a large cement ink brush and book , apparently intended to symbolize freedom of speech . on a return visit the next morning , the site was overrun with laughing schoolchildren , but their teachers insisted the cultural_revolution 's history was not being taught to them and said the outing was merely intended to give the students some fresh_air . pressed to say how she would explain the killings and purges if a curious student inquired , one teacher said , ''i 'd just say every country makes mistakes . '' later , a couple of elderly women who acknowledged living through the period dodged questions about their impressions of the museum , and walked away when asked about their experiences of the 1960 's and 1970 's . three local men in their 30 's , one of them using a video_camera , also toured the site . ''every family had some kind of experience of this history , '' one of them said . asked if he had heard the stories of his parents and grandparents , he said , ''they only say china is growing now , and it is better to look to the future . '' even the museum 's founder , peng qian , a former deputy_mayor of this city who raised money for it from private donations , including one from the hong_kong billionaire li_ka_shing , dodged a reporter 's requests to meet , saying he was too busy and later turning his telephone off to avoid further calls .

has a location of china

on oct . 16 , the day she died , liu zhongxia was riding in her onion cart when it scraped a sedan . usually her death would have gotten little attention . but in a country increasingly divided between rich and poor , a detail stood out the sedan was a bmw . mrs . liu was a peasant . the driver of the bmw , su xiuwen , is the wife of a businessman . the initial scrape was minor , but after a confrontation , mrs . su drove the car into mrs . liu . the trial in december lasted less than two hours , with mrs . su receiving a suspended_sentence . the death was ruled an accident . and that would have ended it , except for two things . first , the ''bmw case'' tapped into sharp class resentments emerging in this communist country , which long espoused a classless society . and second , that anger was able to coalesce in what is becoming an increasingly influential court of appeals in china the internet , which boiled with online outrage . this week , in a rare step , officials here announced an investigation into possible judicial corruption in the case , state media reported . there is already speculation that mrs . su could face a harsher verdict , a result that would appease the online critics but could also set an uneasy precedent for reformers trying to establish a genuine rule of law in china . ''if the case involved a tractor , i 'm sure it would n't have attracted any attention , '' said qu wenyong , dean of the sociology department at heilongjiang university in harbin . ''but it involved a bmw , which symbolizes wealth and power . people immediately associated it with the gap between rich and poor . '' that yawning gap is a fundamental contradiction of china 's economic boom . wealth is pouring in , swelling the middle_class , yet hundreds of millions still live in poverty . here in the northeast , once the country 's industrial center but now mired in unemployment , it is not hard to find class bitterness rubbed raw by the case . ''we ordinary people have to obey the laws , '' said a taxi_driver . mrs . su , he said , does not ''she has the power . she has the privilege . she can drive wildly . '' initially , the accident barely attracted attention outside harbin . that day , mrs . liu 's husband , dai yiquan , accidentally bumped their onion cart into the side of the bmw , pushing the car about three feet . mr . dai , interviewed at his small village home outside harbin , said mrs . su jumped out and began hitting him . then , after bystanders intervened , she returned to the car , apparently to back up . but she unexpectedly drove forward , crushing mrs . liu and injuring several others . the car crashed to a halt against a tree . ''my wife was dragged for six or seven meters , '' mr . dai said . he said he tried to lift her right arm but it was broken . he saw blood coming out of her mouth . ''people said she was already dead , '' he recalled . ''i was just dumbfounded . '' the question at trial was whether mrs . su had intentionally tried to harm mrs . liu or had simply mistakenly put the car into first gear instead of reverse . the trial was notable for its lack of eyewitnesses , though many saw the incident . mrs . su 's husband admitted that he had paid more than 20 , 000 a huge amount of money in rural china to people who were injured , which may explain why none testified at the hearing . one of them was mr . dai , who said he had received almost 10 , 000 , roughly eight years' wages . he said he did not even attend the trial . ''i just want peace for my family , '' a weary mr . dai said as one of his two daughters listened . ''i do n't care about the verdict and whether it is justice or not . '' but china 's ''netcitizens'' cared very much . editors at sina . com , the country 's most popular web_site , said that after the verdict , more than 200 , 000 messages were posted to chat_rooms , many suggesting corruption was to blame . a spate of stories in the media fueled their anger . before the verdict , newspapers in harbin covered the case lightly afterward , reporters from outside the province swept in . some stories speculated that mrs . su was connected to a politically powerful family . others quoted mr . dai accusing mrs . su of intentionally trying to harm his wife . guo liang , a scholar with the chinese_academy_of_social_sciences who studies the role of the internet in chinese society , said the case was the latest example of the net 's growing influence . he said internet protests of a beating death last year that involved police officers helped prompt a change in national detention laws . the net also became a primary source of information during the initial sars outbreak . mr . guo noted that while most internet users are china 's urban elite , he recently finished a study showing that poorer , more rural residents are increasingly online , renting time at internet cafes for as little as 12 cents an hour . ''this platform has really changed the situation in china , because everybody can write something , '' he said . ''they just log on to sina . com and read all kinds of newspapers . and the fascinating thing for them is , they get to leave their comments . '' but there are definitely limits . the government methodically arrests internet ' 'dissidents'' and tightly monitors postings about sensitive political subjects , like tibet , taiwan and falun_gong , the banned spiritual movement . government censors can tolerate unexpected subjects like the bmw case for weeks undoubtedly using them to gauge public opinion only to shut them down abruptly . chinese newspaper reporters and online editors say censors did just that late wednesday in the bmw case . newspapers were told to stop reporting and links to the case were erased from sina . com . no public explanation was given . the role of the internet is particularly complicated for those working to reform china 's legal system . some analysts applaud the light that online scrutiny can sometimes shine on the justice system , yet worry about its influence on legal rulings , particularly when fact and rumor can so easily get mixed . meng fanxu , a lawyer in harbin , cautioned that people who had not read the transcripts of the bmw case should not become the equivalent of judges , even the thousands of angry ones on the internet . ''if used properly , the internet can promote justice and the rule of law , '' mr . meng said . but if ''carried too far , and in a blind manner , it may disturb judicial justice and mislead the public to mistrust the law . '' guan mingbo , mrs . su 's husband , says the internet has victimized his family . he said online speculation that his late father was a prominent provincial politician was unfounded he was a government clerk . mr . guan , who owns a development company , said he paid money to mr . dai and others as an apology , and to help cover medical and funeral costs . ''my family has become the victims of the internet and the newspapers , '' mr . guan said in a telephone interview . ''it has gotten me in turbulent waters . '' asked about suggestions of his wealth and connections , mr . guan said ''i am a common person , too . '' his wife , he said , was not a murderer , just a bad driver who did not know how to handle a car . in fact , he told state media , he used connections at the local traffic authority to get her a license in 1997 . otherwise , he said , she would not have been able to pass the test .

has a location of china

to the editor mr . tyler 's balanced report on conditions in chinese orphanages seems to indicate that there is indeed a distance between a deliberate government policy and neglect and the incompetence of individual orphanages . why else would , or could , " some party members , lawyers and journalists working inside the system " in shanghai press hard for an investigation ? he also points out that , contrary to steven mosher 's assertion that china 's one_child_policy " is hated by the people of china , " family_planning and population_control are concepts that many chinese willingly support . like alice a . jardine , the harvard professor quoted in mr . tyler 's article , i implore those watching " the dying rooms , " a film made with a hidden camera and with commentary by a known biased scholar such as mr . mosher , not to allow a taste for sensationalism to overwhelm their sense of fairness . timothy tung new york the dying rooms'

has a location of china

in the 50 years since mao tse tung decreed that art and science must serve socialism , china has not had much of an ivory_tower . mao 's brief romance of the nation 's top minds while the communist_party consolidated power gave way to repeated purges and persecutions that continued through his death in 1976 . his successor , deng_xiaoping , liberalized the economy and decriminalized free thought , at least as expressed in private salons . but the ranks of american universities are filled with exiled chinese scholars who clamored too loudly for democracy . others have simply been marginalized by the nation 's narrow focus on getting rich . aside from a clutch of influential scholars devoted to finding pragmatic solutions to china 's vast economic and social problems , intellectuals often have to choose between quiet irrelevance and public condemnation . despite the difficulties , some chinese intellectuals are today engaging in a full throated debate about the country 's future . in academic conferences at home and abroad and in journals of scholarly opinion that are cloaked in the protective veil of academic jargon ( and , often , english ) , political_scientists , sociologists and economists are sparring openly about the state of the country 's quasicapitalist , mostly antidemocratic government . the question that captivates leading minds there is the same one that engaged court intellectuals at the end of the qing_dynasty , when china first began opening itself to the west at the end of the 19th_century how to make the country modern . many of china 's leading scholars are not dissidents , and they see their task as constructive , not polemical . just as china 's economy has begun to resemble those of industrialized_countries , intellectuals have focused on issues familiar to scholars in europe and the united_states . their concern is not whether china should become capitalist , but what kind of capitalism it should have . one camp , arguably the dominant one , is what the chinese call neoliberal . its proponents argue that china should complete its economic and social evolution that began under mr . deng by selling off state companies , shrinking the government , strictly enforcing property rights and letting the market work its magic . the neoliberals in some ways tend to echo ronald_reagan and margaret_thatcher , though some also share the antidemocratic tendencies of augusto pinochet , the chilean dictator who governed with an iron fist but also pushed the development of a vibrant market_economy in the 1970 's and 80 's . they have enthusiastically embraced china 's integration with the world_economy . on the other side are a loose knit group of intellectuals who have begun to refer to themselves by a misleadingly similar name , the new left . many in this school want the government to reduce inequality , provide a social_safety_net and intervene more in the market to tame the economic cycle . they tend to reject the prevailing view among china 's elite that popular democracy is a luxury the country can afford only after it becomes rich . instead , they argue , china needs the dynamic energy of democracy to force change and combat corruption . xudong zhang , an associate professor of comparative literature at new york_university , has compiled a volume of essays , ''whither china ? , '' that explores the conflict . mr . zhang and several of the scholars who contributed essays , including cui zhiyuan , wang hui , wang shaoguang and gan yang , consider themselves proponents of the new left . they mostly attack neoliberals , though mr . gan and wang shaoguang were once considered pioneers in the rival camp . if their battle seems a little removed from the china portrayed in the news_media , that 's because it is . many chinese can read and write only on a rudimentary level . just 1 percent ever attend college . moreover , while many chinese intellectuals teach at universities in beijing and shanghai , others are as likely to take jobs in hong_kong , singapore or any number of american universities . discussion of china 's current problems often hinges on classical , western views of development , with scholars debating whether french radicals or british gradualists are better models for reform . rousseau inspired thinkers during mao 's time burke 's rejection of the french_revolution and his support for the aristocracy appeals to many today . there are postmodernists , feminists and libertarians in the mix . still , these scholars are not without influence . some so called neoliberals have become advisers to chinese leaders , including premier zhu_rongji , who has supported a faster pace of reform and who steered the country into the world_trade_organization . the change of leadership that is expected to take place at the 16th party congress in the fall has also provided an opening for a more general review of future options , even the scope of political change . neoliberal thinking came into vogue in the 1990 's . not unlike russia and much of eastern_europe , china has an early vision of capitalism , informed partly by past communist propaganda , as a system that works only in its crudest form . the state went from owning assets on behalf of the people to insisting that bureaucrats and well connected entrepreneurs had a right to profit from those assets . that approach was reinforced by two events , the 1989 military suppression of dissent around tiananmen_square and mr . deng 's 1992 ' 'southern tour , '' when he urged people to get rich . the state showed that it would enforce political unity but protect economic opportunism . one central task was reconciling the need to protect the new wealth of the few from the demand for equality from the masses . to justify the communist_party 's intervention on behalf of elites , some neoliberals reached for historical precedent . they disavowed china 's francophilic past and embraced england 's ''glorious revolution , '' which led to parliamentary rule by the aristocracy , championed by edmund burke . likewise , isaiah berlin 's 1958 essay on freedom , ''two concepts of liberty , '' became a touchstone . mr . berlin 's focus on ''freedom from'' instead of ''freedom to'' was treated as a guiding philosophy for a minimalist state that let the market work . partly inspired by these ideas , china 's economy expanded at nearly a double_digit clip for much of the decade , and it attracted more foreign investment than any other developing_country . but neoliberals have begun to encounter sustained opposition from fellow reformers . like the neoliberals , many of those in the new left are western educated , and they reject socialism . but this nascent opposition also questions the dogma of capitalism . there is no sure formula for development , they say , but surely it is not the bureaucratic capitalism that dominates the country today . mr . cui , now a research fellow at singapore 's national university , argues that china does n't understand the nuances of american and european economic policies . he cites , for example , china 's attempts to inject life into moribund state owned companies , still the backbone of the industrial economy , as an example of what has gone wrong . similarly , wang shaoguang , a yale educated political_scientist now at the chinese_university_of_hong_kong , argues that china 's leaders have allowed the central government to atrophy by placing blind faith in the market to provide public goods . in the 1990 's , he says , the government 's tax revenue as a share of the country 's overall economic output fell below 10 percent , as the government failed to collect taxes . in only three other nations , peru , bangladesh and the former yugoslavia , does the central government control such a small share of output . this forced even some seemingly essential institutions to generate revenue in other ways a phenomenon known as ''chuang shou . '' the military 's efforts to make money created a fuzzy subeconomy of military backed ventures that traded on connections and access to public goods , like the telecommunications spectrum and even missiles . the government has recently begun to restrain that practice , but the defense budget remains too low to stop it , mr . wang argues . mr . wang also bemoans the lack of a comprehensive safety net for the unemployed and uninsured . the new left also seems to have rediscovered democracy , which many intellectuals abandoned as impractical ( and politically dangerous ) after the 1989 crackdown . the prevailing view is that while democracy is fine in theory , in practice it risks shattering the stability that has allowed the country to prosper . but mr . gan , a research fellow at the center for asian studies in hong_kong , argues the opposite that china needs democracy to preserve social order . after mao 's cultural_revolution , which many in china view as a disastrous experiment in mass democracy akin to the jacobin terror that roiled france , most chinese became too alienated from politics , mr . gan argues . too few people pay attention to public_policy . it is that vacuum that allows local officials to steal state funds with impunity , or mass movements like falun_gong , the exercise and meditation society , to enchant millions of people . if the grandfather of china 's neoliberals is burke , it is alexis de tocqueville who guides many in the new left . tocqueville is quoted often , because as a french nobleman he rejected the excesses of the french_revolution but also saw the british as futilely resisting the ''universal spread of democracy throughout the world . '' and of course tocqueville made clear that democracy , not capitalism alone , was the key to america 's success , shaping not just its politics but its society , law , culture and economy . china became politically quiescent in the 1990 's , at least in part , because neoliberals endorsed the government 's authoritarian agenda . more diverse views , even those expressed in china 's wobbly ivory_tower , could rattle the country 's carefully managed political edifice . ''it still matters a great deal , '' mr . gan writes , ''if a nation 's intellectual mainstream considers democracy theoretically worth defending . ''

has a location of china

lead china is changing , no question about that . tom_brokaw has been saying so since he first stood in front of the court of supreme harmony in the old forbidden_city last friday . since then , mr . brokaw has interviewed zhao_ziyang , and connie chung has met her cousin , and keith miller has floated down the yangtze . china is changing , no question about that . tom_brokaw has been saying so since he first stood in front of the court of supreme harmony in the old forbidden_city last friday . since then , mr . brokaw has interviewed zhao_ziyang , and connie chung has met her cousin , and keith miller has floated down the yangtze . jane pauley and bryant gumbel have watched a chef make noodles . china has been all over nbc_news , and nbc_news has been all over china . so , yes , we have a sense of change , although it is just possible that the really great change is in television . the quintessential image in the coverage may belong to willard scott . all week the ''today'' weatherman has been in beijing today he goes to shanghai reporting on snow flurries in the upper peninsula of michigan and a hot , dry patch in the southwest . then he says happy birthday to someone in oklahoma . we are getting the real global village it is no longer theory but fact . we are also getting nbc_news as a road show . it does n't matter where mr . brokaw and his colleagues pitch their tent . one place is as good as another . the only difference is that once the tent is pitched , we will see more of what lies outside . thus we have been seeing china . we 're not always sure why we 're there , but mostly the view has been pleasant . at the same time , nbc has been insistent on great stirrings . the changes in china , mr . brokaw said the first night he was there , might be ' 'some of the most sweeping changes in the history of mankind . '' well , are they ? garrick utley reported one night that most chinese peasants ''are experiencing something new prosperity . '' then we saw a segment on the new rural capitalism . old shacks were surrendering to two story houses with washing_machines . ''everyone is building a house , '' a chinese woman said , talking about her neighbors . ''they all have money . '' on the other hand , after mr . miller floated down the yangtze he said , ''the yoke of poverty has not been lifted . '' nbc_news has been giving us mixed messages , even if some of them are supposed to represent journalistic balance . immediately after mr . utley reported on rural prosperity , for example , mr . brokaw , as anchor , came close to contradicting him . ''everyone in rural china is not doing well , '' he said , and ''a steady stream of peasants is coming into the cities looking for work . '' then nbc went to a station break . that 's balance of a kind . one night mr . utley practiced it on himself . he reported on chinese young people . young people , mr . brokaw said when he introduced the segment , represented ''the greatest internal challenge'' to the chinese government . we saw a commercial photographer 's studio then . a young man and woman , smartly dressed and just married , were having their picture taken . ''today they want all the frills of the west , '' mr . utley said . he also said that ''everywhere we traveled , we heard the same hopes . '' peace , prosperity and consumerism , apparently , were flourishing all over china . ''a new set of values , '' mr . utley said , ''is emerging . '' but a moment later just after a young woman said she wanted to get rich mr . utley noted that ''this was still a marxist leninist dictatorship . '' then mr . brokaw said there were reports that the government might step up military training for disaffected youths . the television images , though , have n't given us a sense of disaffection mostly we have seen smiling faces . china does have dissidence , presumably from both left and right , but the television images mostly have suggested harmony . still , nbc has been trying . when mr . brokaw interviewed prime_minister zhao , who is expected to succeed deng_xiaoping as china 's paramount_leader , he asked him if the government was losing influence among young people . mr . zhao said that the more the young people understood what the government was doing , the more they would be content . the interview , on ''meet the press , '' was notable for mr . zhao 's easy asurance , and in its way , it was a sure sign that something really had changed in china . mr . zhao wore a suit and tie , smiled several times , and spoke about his home life . he said his wife was in poor health , and that she stayed home and raised flowers and four grandchildren . whatever happened to suspicious , even xenophobic , chinese_communist leaders ? on television , mr . zhao seemed like almost any other inhabitant of the global vilage . and that , in fact , was suitable for the coverage . whether china really did sell silkworm missiles to iran mr . zhao said it did n't was almost incidental . television mixes issues in a blender . mr . zhao , who presumably is one of the most powerful people in the world , just seemed like a regular guy . so , what are we truly learning from nbc 's china coverage ? it 's hard to know , but a lot of it has been fun . miss pauley visited a chinese school , and when she left the children sang ''goodbye , goodbye , '' which seemed to be from ''the sound of music . '' mr . gumbel , her co host on ''today , '' reported on the growing use of cosmetic_surgery in china . then he did a live interview with a woman who had her eyes made to look more western . could that be disaffection , or a lessening of cultural_identity ? mr . gumbel , sensing something important , asked the woman why she had undergone surgery . ''i do n't know , '' she said , and then fell into silence . a few minutes later , the noodle maker came along with a fat long twist of dough . he pulled and twisted and began turning it into noodles . then miss pauley surprised mr . gumbel with a big birthday cake he admitted to being 40 . the nbc crew , and , apparently , some of the chinese spectators , sang ''happy birthday . '' the singing was ragged , but it was another sure sign of the global village .

has a location of china

one of china 's largest newspapers has filed a lawsuit against one of the country 's leading internet portals claiming that it violated copyright laws , setting off a media war and highlighting the first signs of a possible shift in policies toward intellectual_property_rights here . in the suit , which was filed in october and is expected to go to court soon , the newspaper , the beijing news , is seeking 400 , 000 in damages from a popular internet site called tom . com , alleging that it has copied and republished more than 25 , 000 articles and photos without authorization since 2003 . china has long had the reputation as a sort of no man 's land for intellectual_property_rights , with companies in virtually every industry freely copying designs and other content from foreign companies and domestic rivals with little fear of punishment . the lawsuit , however , is headed to court at a time of accelerating legal change and signs of increased efforts by law enforcement to protect copyrights and intellectual_property . it is also a critical time for china 's newspaper industry , which grew explosively in the last decade or so but now faces an even faster growing rival internet based news_media . now , as in the united_states and many other countries , with computer use and broadband access booming here , newspapers are losing readers to large , corporate owned web_sites . what had set china apart from much of the rest of the world until recently was that these web_sites faced no legal obstacles in copying material from newspapers , often wholesale . ''there is a very brutal competition between newspapers with seven or eight big ones just in beijing and now a big , new player , the internet , wants to wipe them all out , to change the landscape , '' said yu guofu , a lawyer who specializes in intellectual_property . ''the press is leading a hard life and facing an unpleasant future , but it has decided it is better to protect its rights than just sit and wait to die . '' according to one recent study , newspaper readership in china has declined sharply in the last three years , with the number of people who say they read a newspaper at least once a week falling to 22 percent last year from 26 percent in 2003 . a major presumed cause for the decline is that big internet content providers , or portals , have become one stop sources for all manner of information , including news , entertainment and blogs . until recently , the general practice for most portals was to lift news and other information directly from other sources , sometimes crediting the original source and sometimes not , but rarely paying for the information . the beijing news lawsuit was filed a little more than a year after a meeting of major newspaper publishers in nanjing at which strategies were discussed to shore up the industry 's base and combat the leeching of content and readers by internet companies . ''in terms of the law , things are quite clear , that tom 's use of beijing news 's work without authorization clearly violates beijing news 's copyrights , '' said yu guoming , dean of the school of journalism at renmin university in beijing . ''there are lots and lots of cases very similar to this one , but with this lawsuit , the traditional media is sending a very clear signal to the electronic_media that their free lunch is over . '' a spokesman for tom . com , tu jianglu , denied any violations . ''as a big company we respect copyright and property rights , '' he said . ''i can only say that there are other facts that make this more complicated . '' the beijing news declined to comment on the lawsuit . until recently , china 's laws have generally been anything but clear on intellectual_property , and have made it difficult to win a suit over an alleged infringement . such an environment may have served china 's needs earlier in its industrial takeoff , when its industries were straining to catch up with the west . the battle in the news_media reflects part of a shift in the intellectual_property landscape as china 's growing place in world trade has brought strong new pressures to rein in wholesale piracy . many of the country 's largest internet companies , for example , are listed on foreign stock_exchanges , making them liable for lawsuits filed abroad . zhang xin , a spokesman for sohu . com , a leading portal , said , ''we 've signed agreements with over 1 , 000 traditional news organizations in china , which means that if we use their articles or reports , we definitely have reached prior agreement with them . '' an awareness also seems to be taking hold here that chinese companies must build strong brands of their own to succeed and that they cannot do so in an environment where copying goes unpunished . ''to enhance the country 's development we are trying to encourage innovation , '' said xu chao , vice director of the national copyright bureau , a government_agency . ''we are placing more emphasis on intellectual_property , and have made improvements in the law . it used to be possible for traditional media or internet media to simply copy each other 's work , but now this has been forbidden . ''

has a location of china

five bare chested men sat around a knee high table in a back alley , sipping beer and picking at cold noodles , their hairless skin gleaming with sweat in the afternoon heat . they talked about what this town is famous for the tremendous earthquake that struck in 1976 and about whether another earthquake is coming this year . " the weather has been strange this week , " said chen gang , 31 , a chubby factory worker in blue nylon shorts . " see how black the sky got the other day ? that must be a sign . " his neighbor , a thin man with a graying crewcut , scowled at the suggestion " that was a rain cloud , you stupid melon ! " then he turned to reassure a visitor with a smile " everything is fine in tangshan . the government has helped us a lot , and life is good . " this summer , the talk of many towns in northern china is about earthquakes . unusually hot weather and heavy floods are signs that some kind of tectonic activity is imminent , some people are saying . the mere suggestion that an earthquake might hit is scaring others , who see it as tantamount to inviting trouble . to ordinary chinese , who traditionally accepted a view that harmony between heaven and earth was delicately balanced by the emperor , a natural_disaster could be taken as a harbinger of political or social upheaval . over the centuries , according to chinese teachings , an earthquake came as a dynasty changed or an emperor fell . although communist leaders have campaigned for decades against superstitious and traditional beliefs , common faith in the politics of earthquakes only grew after 1976 . on july 28 of that year , an earthquake shook tangshan so fiercely that falling buildings killed 242 , 000 people , by the official count , making it one of the deadliest on record anywhere . just six weeks later came the death of mao_zedong , the founder of communist_china , at the age of 82 . prime_minister zhou_enlai had died in january that year , and gen . zhu de , the leader of the red_army , died in early july . to suggest to an ordinary citizen that the deaths of mao and two other prominent leaders bore no relation to such a horrific earthquake , well , that is still a tough argument to make . this year china 's paramount_leader , deng_xiaoping , is said to be increasingly frail as he approaches his 92d birthday next month , and he has not appeared in public for more than two years . the possibility that mr . deng might soon depart this world together with an earthquake , an even 20 years after his predecessor did , seems too neat a cosmological parallel to ignore . " of course i 'm afraid it will happen again , " said yang guangying , 58 , who lost two sons in the 1976 earthquake and regularly visits a memorial in the center of town . " this year is very dangerous . everyone knows that . " like several other residents of tangshan , a coal_mining city of 1.4 million 100 miles east of beijing , mrs . yang seems to accept whatever fate awaits her . " the earth has its ways that i do n't understand , " she said . " we 're hardy people , and sometimes we think we can live through anything . but we 're just people . " in tangshan , where virtually every building looks new , mrs . yang has heard rumors that another earthquake will strike on july 28 at 3 42 a.m. , precisely the moment the big one occurred 20 years ago . she is not sure whether to believe it , but she said some people in tangshan and the surrounding towns are already sleeping outdoors in case an earthquake occurs at night before then . chinese seismologists are having a hard time fighting such rumors . " chinese people always think that big events are linked , " said chen huizhong , director of the national center for seismic data and information in beijing . " we are trying to teach people that earthquakes happen for geological reasons , and that it is impossible to predict the day an earthquake will happen . it is very hard work . " mr . chen said that many seismologists believe the area around beijing and tangshan has entered a_10 year " active period , " when there is a higher danger of earthquake , but that others challenge the notion that an active period can be identified with any accuracy . yet in what seems to be an effort to calm residents , the tangshan authorities actually issued a report this month saying a new study by the local seismology bureau asserted that no earthquake would occur in tangshan for at least 300 years . in beijing , however , a newspaper carried detailed instructions for what to do in case of an earthquake for example , stay away from windows and leave a building to avoid collapses caused by aftershocks . " this year is the 20th_anniversary of the tangshan earthquake , " the beijing youth daily said . " publicizing how to take refuge during an earthquake is necessary . " at the tangshan memorial to " resisting the earthquake , " as it is officially called , a woman paused to offer her view . " we went from five mouths to three , " said jin meiling , 55 and silver haired , whose husband and son were crushed to death . " everything was in ruins . we had no food or water for days . the soldiers eventually came with water and popsicles , but it was a long time before we ate more than one meal a day . " i 've heard the talk this year . i think people are just talking about earthquakes because it 's the 20th_anniversary . "

has a location of china

chinese authorities are determined to stop ''harmful information'' from spreading through the web , but the controls it places on web_sites and internet_service_providers do not differ much from those employed by the united_states and european_countries , a senior official responsible for managing china 's internet said tuesday . the official , liu zhengrong , who supervises internet affairs for the information office of china 's state council , or cabinet , did not directly dispute the contention of many critics that china operates a vast and technologically sophisticated firewall to protect the ruling communist_party against what it views as web based threats to its authority . but he sought to put the country 's web policing operation in the best possible light , emphasizing that china 's internet minders abided strictly by laws and regulations that in some cases have been modeled on american and european statutes . ''if you study the main international practices in this regard you will find that china is basically in compliance with the international norm , '' he said . ''the main purposes and methods of implementing our laws are basically the same . '' the briefing about internet controls was one of the few times any senior chinese official has spoken in detail about the matter . officials assigned to enforce the communist_party 's controls on the news_media operate behind closed doors and rarely make public statements about their work . beijing 's internet policies have come under close scrutiny abroad since google and microsoft acknowledged helping china censor information available through web searches and blogs , and yahoo was accused of providing data that helped convict dissidents who had used its e mail accounts . mr . liu said china 's effort to regulate content on the web was aimed primarily at preventing the spread of pornography or other content harmful to teenagers and children . he said its concerns in this area differed minimally from those in developed countries . human_rights and media watchdog groups maintain that china 's web censorship puts greater emphasis on helping the communist_party maintain political control over the increasingly restive society . such groups have shown that many hundreds of web_sites cannot be easily accessed in china mainly because they are run by governments , religious groups or political organizations critical of beijing 's policies or its political leaders . mr . liu said chinese internet users were free to discuss many politically sensitive_topics and denied that the chinese police have arrested or prosecuted people for using the web to circulate views . rights groups maintain and court documents show , however that legal authorities have cited e mail messages and postings on domestic and foreign web_sites as evidence against chinese dissidents accused of ''incitement to overthrow the state'' and ''leaking_state_secrets . '' the official objected to what he suggested were biased criticisms of china 's internet controls that ignored similar restrictions by foreign governments and private companies on their web_sites . he cited , for example , statements on web_sites run by the new york times and the washington_post that reserve the right to delete or block content in reader discussion groups that editors determine to be illegal , harmful or in bad taste . chinese news_media web_sites are also monitored in that way , he said . ''major u.s . companies do this and it is regarded as normal , '' mr . liu said . ''so why should china not be entitled to do so ? '' editors , journalists and web_site operators in china say domestic news and discussion sites must ban a long list of topics deemed off limits by party officials or face penalties . such controls appear to have only superficial similarities to attempts by private companies in the united_states and europe to monitor content on the web_sites they operate . mr . liu also said powers the bush_administration gained under the patriot act to monitor web_sites and e mail communications , and the deployment of technology called carnivore by the f.b.i . to let the agency scrutinize huge volumes of e mail traffic , were examples of how the united_states has taken legal steps to guard against the spread of ''harmful information'' online . ''it is clear that any country 's legal authorities closely monitor the spread of illegal information , '' he said . ''we have noted that the u.s . is doing a good job on this front . '' the bush_administration says its efforts to police online communications pertain mainly to preventing terrorist attacks . mr . liu said there were now 111 million web users in china and in the last five years china had expanded the bandwidth available to connect with overseas web_sites nearly 50 fold to 136 , 000 megabits per second , underscoring its commitment to let citizens gather information and interact with people around the world . the number of web_sites chinese users cannot access amounts to a ''tiny percentage'' of those available abroad , he said .

has a location of china

richard_gere , travel photographer molly ringwald , new yorker to be bruce roberts , recording artist at long last . richard_gere has been many things sexy leading man , impromptu spokesman for troubled asian nations , buddhist . now he is combining those roles in " tibet the pure realm , " an exhibit of photographs he took there . the show , with 22 black and white photographs that mr . gere shot between 1983 and 1993 , is on display at the menil collection in houston and will open at the robert miller gallery in new york on wednesday . " the photographs represent the spiritual and physical voyage i have taken through various communities of the himalayan region , from zaskar to tibet , " mr . gere said yesterday through his spokeswoman , emily bear . limited edition prints of the photographs are being sold in sets of portfolios at 12 , 500 each , and the proceeds will go to the gere foundation , which promotes awareness of tibet . mr . gere , whose films include " pretty woman , " is a longtime critic of china 's presence in tibet . he has studied there with the dalai_lama . in 1993 he interrupted the academy_awards ceremony to give a long speech on his cause , and was told he would not be invited back .

has a location of china

in chinese_art , something new often turns out to be something old , reclaimed and transformed . and images that to the casual eye appear genial and carefree can be coded emblems of discontentment and nostalgia . such is the message conveyed by " chinese porcelains of the 17th_century landscapes , scholars' motifs and narratives , " organized by julia b . curtis at china institute . many of the 65 jars and bowls on view are virtuoso examples of the craftsman 's art . but as the exhibition and its informative catalogue suggest , they are also subtle indicators of political upheaval . the early 17th_century was an unhappy time for china . a succession of inept rulers had brought the ming_dynasty ( 1368 1644 ) to the brink of disaster . civil_war tormented the country . when the invading manchus finally breached the great_wall in 1644 , capturing beijing and establishing the qing_dynasty , the sense of a culture cut loose from its moorings was heavy in the air . all of this had its impact on art , particularly on a porcelain industry that had long been under imperial control . by 1630 the ming court , distracted and short of cash , dropped its support of the great kilns at jingdezhen in southern china and the potters turned to different clientele , the class of government officials called scholar gentry and the wealthy bourgeoisie who emulated their taste . the art created for these patrons is the subject of the china institute show , and to anyone familiar with late ming imperial wares , the change they represent is striking . opulent colors are traded for an austere , classical palette of blue on white . elaborate floral designs and fabulous beasts are replaced by dreamy landscapes , solitary figures , literary scenes and poems , all associated with the prevailing scholarly ideal . these motifs were of great anti quity , but by the ming period they were specifically associated with the sung ( 960 1279 ) and yuan ( 1279 1368 ) dynasties , the most recent of china 's several " golden ages . " the twist was that where such images were once restricted to paintings , they now appeared in the more democratic , often mass produced medium of ceramics . the adaptation of old motifs to new formats is most dramatic in the transfer of landscapes to porcelain . a panorama of hills and lakes wrapping around a ming cricket box has the same dynamic , eye leading pull as the painting in a horizontal hand held scroll . and a landscape of piled up mountains on a tall qing vase , its peaks interspersed with poems and figures of wandering scholars , ingeniously reworks the model of the sung period vertical hanging scroll . this vase is particularly noteworthy for including a poem that laments the death of a sung dynasty military hero who had tried to expell the tatars from china , a bold historical reference for the early years of the manchu usurpers . but such sentiments appear , usually more obliquely phrased , on other vessels . even the simplest images carry moral lessons . and the ethical value of detachment from a corrupt world is constantly reinforced . the orchid a flower that hides itself in the tall grass but gives off a sweet fragrance becomes a politically charged symbol of scholarly reclusion . the pine , the plum and the bamboo recall the wise man who survives life 's vicissitudes through a combination of fortitude and resilience . the manchus , it turned out , were not the barbarians they were feared to be . antiquarians at heart , they went to considerable lengths to preserve chinese_culture and under their rule the kilns at jingdezhen flourished again as imperial foundations , producing work of memorable beauty . among those included in the show are a small beaker with a misty hillside village spiraling around its body a brush_pot with lines of specklike descending geese , as delicate as an image on a southern sung album page , and a dish with a poem alluding to " peach blossom spring , " the story of a mythical land of perfect happiness , much sought after but virtually impossible to find . this last lovely , escapist image perfectly illustrates the interpretive approach of " chinese porcelains of the 17th_century " as a whole . in the historical context it has defined , even the most inconsequential vessel comes across as the visual equivalent of a schubert song , mingling effortless grace with a capacity for profound emotional ambivalence . " chinese porcelains of the 17th_century landscapes , scholars' motifs and narratives " remains at china institute gallery , 125 east 65th street , manhattan , through aug . 5 . art review

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the chinese government issued stern new regulations today that were intended to control the release of information on the internet , underscoring the government 's love hate relationship with cyberspace in a country where the number of internet users is growing dramatically . the new regulations , published today in the communist_party newspaper people 's daily , specifically govern the posting and dissemination on the internet of ' 'state secrets , '' a vaguely_defined term that has been applied by the government to cover any information whose release it has not sanctioned . the pronouncement may have little direct impact , because much of what is formally forbidden under the new rules had already been illegal under existing law , even if it was not formally applied to the internet . enforcement will be difficult in a country that brims with internet cafes and free e mail services . officials will be cautious , too , about aggressively dampening an industry whose exuberant growth has been a magnet for foreign investment . but many people here said the regulations served mostly as an extremely loud warning that could have inhibiting effects on the lively discussions that crisscross china via e mail and chat_room postings . and certainly the regulations illustrate the government 's resolve to tame , if not totally control , the unwieldy beast that is the internet , which has rapidly become a means for chinese to bypass the state controlled media to obtain and transmit information . the new regulations for the first time extend the state secrets law to the web , including chat_rooms and personal e mail . for example , the use of e mail to transmit what might be regarded as secret information is expressly forbidden . the regulations also put operators of chat_rooms on notice that they will be held liable for their content . and internet sites are required to submit to ''examination and approval by the appropriate secrecy work offices , '' although the rules do not specify what that process involves . a basic principle of the new computer information systems internet secrecy administrative regulations is that ''whoever puts it on the internet assumes responsibility . '' the internet has emerged not only as an effective propaganda tool of the government , but also as a potent means to organize and publicize popular discontent . it has been used by overseas dissidents to communicate with kindred spirits in china and by the banned falun_gong spiritual movement to organize protests . last year , a computer technician was sentenced to two years in prison for providing 30 , 000 chinese e mail addresses to dissidents abroad . last week , a group of disgruntled farmers in a small village in anhui_province in central china turned to the internet and e mail to expose a corrupt local communist_party chief . china now has nearly nine million internet users , up from two million a year ago , according to a survey by the government 's china internet information center . but some say the nine million figure may be too low . the information center also said china had 35 . 6 million e mail accounts . in recent months , government officials have repeatedly said that they were planning to issue new regulations to impose further controls on both the content of and the financial arrangements behind the internet in china . the regulations today are the first , but probably not the last , effort to spell out what that might entail . another law , adopted quietly last fall , requires all the people who use encryption software to register with the government by monday . the software is used to encode e mail messages so that they can not be read by anyone but the intended recipient . financial regulations will follow soon , officials said , and those rules are expected to restrict in some fashion foreign investment in the chinese internet . the government plans to require all internet companies based here to obtain government approval before going public in foreign markets , the wall_street_journal reported today . the new regulations were issued by the state secrecy bureau , a little known agency whose exact function the main government news office was unable to describe , despite repeated requests . internet users and internet companies alike have been aware all along that they risked arrest if they used the internet to spread sensitive information . still , some have taken advantage of the relative anonymity of the internet to speak out against government policy . in the last year , the government has occasionally arrested people for posting illegal information on the web . that has included members of the falun_gong movement who posted pictures of followers whom the police had reportedly tortured . ''i do not think it will have a big effect , '' guo liang , who studies the internet at the chinese_academy_of_social_sciences , said . ''people already know that you could n't use the internet to reveal state secrets or do things that are illegal . '' also , provisional regulations have been circulating since early 1998 , according to a web_site of the local secrecy bureau in lianyungang , a small city in coastal jiangsu_province . although two years ago , some chinese web_sites carried news items culled from foreign wire services , today chinese commercial sites take their political news only from the official state media or avoid such topics altogether , focusing instead on sports or entertainment . ''these regulations will not have much of an effect on us now , since we already conform to these kind of requirements , '' said paul jin , deputy executive general_manager at sina . com , one of china 's most popular sites . sina . com , like most chinese sites , screens entries into its chat_rooms to make sure that they are appropriate and not ''offensive to the government . '' but web experts said enforcement of the regulations was probably impractical in a country where the volume of internet communications is exploding . although the authorities certainly have the technical ability to read e mail , and do at least sometimes monitor the mail of known dissidents , experts say the government cannot keep up with all messages or necessarily trace them from particular individuals . many users still gain access the internet through computers used by many individuals like those in internet cafes , universities or even government offices .

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the beijing modern_dance company , the most prominent of the new wave of chinese modern_dance troupes , made its new york debut last night at the joyce_theater and won the expected ovation . rightly so , in that the company includes some forceful , energetic dancers and presents its works ( or at least the work presented last night ) with high technical accomplishment . that said , ''rear light'' is for all its intermittent brilliance an odd duck of a dance . it is based on ''the wall'' by the cult english psychedelic rock_band pink_floyd or more precisely , and this makes a big difference , on the film that the director alan parker made of the album and its stage show in 1982 . in all its incarnations ''the wall'' is a big , rambling metaphor for alienation and angst . we gather from the album that our hero grew up traumatized by the horrors his father experienced in world_war i . unhappy at school , smothered by his mother , he turns into a drug addled rock star and eventually into a national front fascist . eventually the giant wall of his repressions is destroyed and innocence reigns his soul . but the album is equally well remembered as the soundtrack for rock 's most spectacular arena concerts , wherein a huge wall was literally built up and torn down . mr . parker 's film makes all this far more explicit , like some gigantic rock video . li hanzhong and ma bo , the choreographers of ''rear light , '' were attracted to the piece by the movie . the brooding , atmospheric music , a little lugubrious for dance , is mostly there . but the 70 minutes of excerpts include all the sound effects that trigger specific , highly british imagery for anyone who recalls the film . on top of which the beijing company enacts a far more abstract choreographic exercise . maybe those who read a chinese allegory into all this are right . maybe the outlines of fallen bodies are meant to evoke protest marches . maybe the hostile conformity of the crowd as set against the lone outsider is a comment on chinese society . there are certainly affecting moments , particularly a duet that recalls the tortured relations between our hero , his wife and his mum . or a fascinating bit with two dancers in white unitards that extend floppily into traditional_chinese water sleeves and , if you wish , water socks . but i , at least , was left with the odd feeling that the dance does n't so much bridge two highly disparate cultures as reveal the gulf between them . and it is odd telling , no doubt , for parsers of present day chinese dissidence that mr . li and ms . ma cut off the music after ''the trial . '' the wall 's actual destruction and the sappy hippie ending are gone . does that mean some chinese are still fearful to depict the actual end of repression ? the program repeats through sunday at the joyce , 175 eighth_avenue , at 19th street , chelsea . dance review correction february 16 , 2005 , wednesday a review in some copies last wednesday about the beijing modern_dance company , at the joyce_theater , misidentified the war in which the father of the hero on pink_floyd 's album ''the wall'' experienced horrors . ( a film about the album and its stage show was the basis of the dance company 's ''rear light . '' ) it was world_war_ii , not world_war i .

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nancy jervis shudders when she remembers the china institute 's first summer seminars for new york city public_school teachers . the teachers " were interested in chopsticks and bound feet and other notions , " said ms . jervis , an anthropologist who is the institute 's vice_president for programs . " and i said to myself , you could either throw up your hands in despair , or work hard to make the chinese human beings for these teachers . " the new ork times , july 14 , 1996 that was seven years ago . there has been progress , ms . jervis said , but the need for teachers and guidance_counselors familiar with china and its culture is greater now as the percentage of asian students in city schools grows and non asian teachers and staff members find themselves uncertain about the most effective way to give them academic and other advice . those are among the reasons that the china institute is holding an expanded series of summer seminars on chinese_culture and national identity for 30 teachers and guidance_counselors , most from brooklyn and queens . " it 's important to work within a student 's culture , " said a participant , bonnie hirschorn , a guidance_counselor at john bowne high_school in flushing , who winces at the cultural insensitivity she showed toward a chinese girl struggling with math . the only tutor she could find was younger than the girl and in china that is considered a loss of face for the student . " i did n't know it was a faux_pas , " ms . hirschorn said . nian hong liang , who teaches chinese history at fort_hamilton high_school in brooklyn , was born in china and once taught american history in guangzhou . he said he hopes to use what he learns at the institute to expand the knowledge of american born chinese . " if you ask some chinese who liu di hua is , " mr . liang said , referring to a pop singer from hong_kong , " they know right away . but ask them who mao_zedong is and you get a blank stare . " anthony ramirez neigborhood report upper east side

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there were no cutting edge eruptions , just the quiet pleasure of well made art , in four dances performed by kun yang lin dancers on friday night at queens theater in the park . the evening 's premiere , ''traces of brush , '' explored the parallels between dance and ancient chinese calligraphy . set to charged , atmospheric music by andy teirstein , ''traces'' began with a starkly suggestive poem about calligraphic art , written and read by myrna patterson on a dim stage , which she shared with a mysterious , crouching male dancer in a long white skirt . their move into the wings drew on six other dancers jillian harris , adam klotz , mr . lin , kimberly miller , wendy joy reinert and jennifer rose dressed in loose white costumes and moving through what looked like a physicalization of the poem . a solo followed for chi tsung kuo , a powerful performer whose wearing and manipulation of a soft feathered fan was filled with as much mystery as his presence at the start . the group then returned for a closing section that looked more like a finale than what was so compellingly suggested at the start the evocation of the stroke of a brush , the energy of that stroke and what it produced on paper , and the flow and abrupt completion of painted lines . the program , part of the theater 's asian cultural festival , also featured ''moon dance , '' a solo performed to music by dead can dance , in which mr . kuo suggested , and then seemed to become , a bird , the bird 's environment and the darkly unpredictable forces of nature , all on a dimly_lighted stage under a projected full moon . mr . lin 's eye for plotting and handsome thematic symmetry was evident in ''chi . '' his ''emptiness of snow'' stood out for his gift for moving his dancers fluidly and concisely through sculptural individual body shapes and massed groups . this last piece , to a score by kenneth kirschner and tibetan bell meditation music , was inspired in part by the asian tsunami of 2004 and by the zen buddhist state of an emptiness of mind that leads to spiritual fullness . at their best , mr . lin 's dances , simultaneously abstract and specific , create and inhabit worlds of their own , informed by that empty fullness . dance review

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a secret encoded circuit_board containing sensitive technology was missing from the wreckage of an american satellite aboard a chinese rocket that exploded in 1996 , and american officials said today that they suspected that the chinese authorities took it . the disclosure of the missing circuit_board , which tells an orbiting satellite which way to point to receive and transmit signals to and from earth , was made today at an unusual joint hearing of two house committees , national_security and international_relations . if china did steal the circuit_board , it would be a violation of a technology agreement that beijing and washington last amended in 1993 to prevent the transfer of militarily sensitive american technology . in raising that possibility , the disclosure today opened a new front in congress 's inquiry into whether sensitive space technology was transferred to china by american aerospace corporations using chinese rockets to launch their satellites . representative curt weldon , republican of pennsylvania , said the missing circuit_board would be a main focus of a special select committee the house created last week to investigate the wide_ranging accusations involving china . the control box containing the circuit_board was recovered at the crash site , he said , but the board was gone . ''we better call the chinese on this issue , '' mr . weldon said . ''that is a very serious concern . '' on feb . 15 , 1996 , united_states military monitors at a command post in southern china watched the chinese rocket streak toward space carrying a 200 million american communications_satellite made by loral space and communications and hughes_electronics , but 22 seconds after liftoff , the long_march rocket exploded , showering debris and burning fuel on a nearby chinese village , where by american accounts as many as 200 civilians were killed . for five hours , united_states officials said , chinese officials barred them from the crash site , purportedly for their own safety . when the americans finally reached the area and opened the battered but intact control box of the satellite , a secret encoded circuit_board was missing . now congressional investigators are asking whether there could be any explanation for the loss of the board , other than that the chinese took it . at today 's hearing , mr . weldon quoted a statement he said was given to him by the national_security_agency that warned ''if the encryption board were reversed engineered , the knowledge gained could be used to strengthen adversaries' knowledge'' of the devices the united_states uses to safeguard its communications systems . a senior defense_department official said tonight that he was not aware that the government had demanded that the chinese account for the missing encoded card . ''we 're not 100 percent sure they filched this encryption card , '' the official said . ''it may have just fallen out , but we have to assume they do have it . '' at the hearing , lawmakers also disclosed that the justice_department has begun an investigation of a second failed china missile launching that involved an american satellite . this second inquiry is centered on the possibility that an american aerospace corporation shared sensitive information with the chinese without government supervision . today 's revelation also adds a new dynamic to a justice_department inquiry into the matter . federal investigators are trying to determine whether hughes and loral divulged sensitive technology to chinese rocket scientists during an analysis of the february failed 1996 launching . the state_department oversees exports of the encoded boards as militarily sensitive technology . but when the same components are embedded in a satellite , the whole unit falls under the export controls of the commerce_department . a government auditor told a senate inquiry this month that the commerce_department rules were looser than the state_department rules . government officials insist that united_states satellites launched on chinese rockets are protected with armed american guards around the clock . but the commerce rules provide little protection against sensitive technology being released in accidents like the february 1996 explosion . william a . reinsch , an under secretary of commerce for export administration , told a house hearing last thursday that ''there would not have been any effect on national_security'' if chinese engineers illegally obtained the encoded device . but the defense_department said in a statement it provided to mr . weldon that the impact of the ''loss of the chips'' on national_security would be minimal , rather than nonexistent . in addition , mr . weldon said , the national_security_agency , the government 's code makers and code breakers , said that it had changed the encoded algorithms in satellite circuit_boards after the failed 1996 launching . ''if there was only 'minimal impact' to national_security , why did the n.s.a . change the algorithms ? '' mr . weldon asked today 's witnesses from the state , defense and commerce departments , who included mr . reinsch . the administration officials said they were not prepared to answer that question . today 's hearing also provided new details into the justice_department 's investigation of the role of american satellite makers in helping china 's troubled rocket program . one year before the 1996 accident , a chinese rocket containing a hughes satellite failed , and hughes did a study of that failure . the commerce_department permitted hughes to provide the study to the chinese after the company assured the department that its review was done independently of the chinese and the department determined that the review complied with the license , according to testimony by mr . reinsch . mr . reinsch said the justice_department had recently requested all its documents on the 1995 accident . bert brandenburg , a justice_department spokesman , said the department 's review of the 1995 study was part of their investigation into the 1996 study by loral and hughes , a subsidiary of the general_motors_corporation . marcy j . k . tiffany , general_counsel for hughes , said that hughes employees had held meetings with the chinese to obtain data for the 1995 study and that the commerce_department had reviewed the scope of those meetings to insure they would be in compliance with the license . mr . reinsch told the panel that the hughes study would not help china 's missile program because it only involved the integration of the hughes satellite with the chinese rocket . but representative benjamin a . gilman , republican of upstate new york , chairman of the house international_relations committee , asked why the commerce_department did not seek advice from other agencies before allowing hughes to share the report with china . ''you quietly authorized a united_states company to share information regarding a chinese launch failure in 1995 without sharing that decision with any other agency , '' he said . mr . reinsch replied , ''this was a judgment we made on our own . '' representative tillie fowler , republican of florida , asked why a pentagon agency did not seek additional expertise on another technology sale to china that congressional and industry officials said involved hughes . ms . fowler asked pentagon officials why they approved the 1996 sale of encrypted ground station terminals to a chinese military company , the china electronics systems engineering corporation . the terminals , called vsats , are the heart of a closed telecommunication network in which the users , typically businesses , transmit data via satellite . the communications can be coded through separate equipment . ms . fowler asked why officials from the defense_intelligence_agency , who are supposed to be consulted on such technology transfers , were apparently not consulted . david tarbell , the head of the defense technology security administration , the pentagon agency responsible for reviewing technology transfers , said he would reply later to the inquiry . mr . tarbell did not return a reporter 's phone call . ms . tiffany , the hughes lawyer , said , ''we comply with all american laws and restrictions in our overseas sales , and those laws do not prohibit the sale of vsats to the chinese military . ''

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the chinese authorities appear to have refined their attempts to block access to popular united_states based internet search engines , people who use the web in different parts of the country said today . users said they could once again reach google , which had been barred for almost two weeks , although altavista , another popular american search site , remained inaccessible . but now the authorities , shifting strategies , appear to be selectively blocking access to specific google content . web users , no longer automatically diverted to rival search sites that adhere to the government 's strict censorship rules , can now search freely on google . but they cannot retrieve all their search results . for instance , users searching for information on falun_gong , the outlawed spiritual movement , turned up many references through google . but exploring those references proved impossible , and users' internet browsers often ceased to operate properly once an unauthorized reference had been clicked on . and though google users could find many articles on jiang_zemin , china 's president and communist_party chief , they could read only the ones prepared by china 's official media outlets , not those provided by opposition groups . similar selective censorship limited the availability of web content about tibet . the more nuanced approach to filtering the internet for the country 's 46 million users may reflect overwhelmingly negative reaction to blanket blockage . chinese users , writing on internet bulletin_boards in recent days , bitterly condemned the exercise . google is widely used to get access to an array of documents and web addresses that use chinese_characters . the easing could also reflect the high cost in manpower and telecommunications capacity needed to control the flow of information from the web . china provided no official explanation for its initial blocking of google , and no announcement was made today either . it remained possible that google could be completely blocked in the future , especially in the weeks before a shift in political leadership , scheduled to take place in november .

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lead chinese officials today disclosed for the first time that an earthquake in southern yunnan_province in 1970 killed about 10 , 000 people . chinese officials today disclosed for the first time that an earthquake in southern yunnan_province in 1970 killed about 10 , 000 people . the officials also said an earthquake in the same province on nov . 6 killed 730 people and not 938 , the figure given earlier . speaking at a news conference about this month 's earthquake , chen zhangli of the state seismology bureau said a quake measuring 7.7 on the richter_scale hit the same part of yunnan in 1970 and killed about 10 , 000 people . his comments were echoed by zhang dejiang , deputy minister of civil_affairs . but neither official provided any further details on the 1970 quake , nor did they say why information about it was not disclosed earlier . no official report in 1970 the officials appeared to be referring to an earthquake in yunnan on jan . 5 , 1970 . at the time , reuters reported from hong_kong that the royal hong kong observatory had recorded the quake and described it as severe , and the news_agency cited an unconfirmed report that it might have leveled part of kunming , the provincial capital . the chinese government and the official press made no mention of the quake . china 's policy in the first decades of communist rule was not to disclose natural_disasters and accidents unless foreigners were involved . only in the last few years has the government reported disasters like earthquakes and plane crashes , often belatedly . the death toll in the quake this month , which left 300 , 000 people homeless , was difficult to calculate because it occurred in a mountainous area of the province , mr . zhang said . the figure of 938 was never officially issued to the press , but was given to united_nations relief agencies and was widely reported abroad . rescue teams have now surveyed the entire area of the nov . 6 quake , mr . zhang said , and the new death toll of 730 will remain unchanged . about 4 , 015 people were injured , he added . officials have said the toll would have been higher , except that the quake 's epicenter was not near a large town and many people were outdoors at the time . apparently most of the inhabitants of one village near the epicenter were watching an outdoor movie , while residents of another village were attending an outdoor meeting .

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one thing the academy_awards will not have this year is a speech on chinese repression in tibet by richard_gere , the actor who has led the way in hollywood 's growing concern for tibetan rights . but in a larger sense , mr . gere banned as an oscar presenter after his televised denunciation of china in 1993 no longer needs to steal a platform to advance his favorite cause . whatever happens at the academy_awards on monday , tibet is looming larger than ever on the show business map . last june , 100 , 000 people attended a two day free tibet concert in san_francisco , where saffron robed buddhist monks talking about their imprisonment mingled with music groups including the beastie boys and smashing pumpkins . in august , at an american himalayan foundation dinner in los_angeles , harrison ford , sharon stone , steven seagal , shirley maclaine and other stars lined up to shake the dalai_lama 's hand . and three weeks ago , at an anniversary benefit for tibet house in new york , founded 10 years ago by mr . gere and robert thurman , the columbia_university scholar , the performers included allen ginsberg , philip glass and natalie merchant . honorary chairmen included roy lichtenstein , henry_luce 3d and professor thurman 's daughter , uma . most important , perhaps , the isolated mountain kingdom , for the last decade the concern of a relatively small group of scholars , human_rights advocates and celebrities , is the subject of four movies being made . two of them ''kundun , '' martin scorsese 's movie based on the life of the dalai_lama , and one by jean jacques annaud are major productions that seem likely to draw worldwide attention to the tibetans' plight . ''tibet is going to enter western popular_culture as something can only when hollywood does the entertainment injection into the world system , '' said orville schell , a china scholar who is writing a book on western conceptions of tibet . ''let 's remember that hollywood is the most powerful force in the world , besides the u.s . military . '' why tibet rather than some other cause , whether the oppression of women in the islamic world or the continued detention of the burmese opposition_leader daw aung san suu kyi , who like the dalai_lama is a nobel_peace_prize laureate ? what is it about tibet , which has languished in obscurity for most of the last half century , that makes it the cause du jour for celebrities and noncelebrities alike ? western fantasies find eastern home the answer has several factors . there is the ferocity of china 's actions in tibet , and china 's status in the post cold_war world as the most important large country still holding another land in subjugation . but there is also the growing appeal of buddhism in the united_states , tibet 's remoteness and mysteriousness and the personality of the dalai_lama . for tibet is not just a good cause . tibet is also a state of mind , a distant place onto which westerners have long projected their fantasies . no other cause just now contains the full mix of ingredients of the tibetan plight the size and growing power of the occupier , the reputation for spirituality of the oppressed , the country 's continued image as a pristine place where spirituality takes precedence over materialism . ''the tibetans are the baby seals of the human_rights movement , '' said professor thurman , who is in a sense the academic godfather of the tibetan cause , a former monk turned scholar who has translated some of the tibetan_buddhist classics into english . the image is apt , suggesting the innocent , pacific and largely defenseless tibetans being clubbed by giant , powerful , merciless china . given the harshness of the chinese occupation , tibet is a legitimate and compelling cause . in some ways , the chinese occupation of tibet is a very old story . it began in the 17th_century , but since china put down an insurrection in 1959 and forced the dalai_lama , tibet 's political and spiritual leader , into exile , china has sought to eradicate the tibetan identity , to annex the territory culturally as well as physically , tibetan activists say . chinese spokesmen retort that chinese rule has brought modern ways to a poverty stricken and superstitious land run by a kind of medieval theocracy . but human_rights advocates accuse china of closing all but 13 of the small territory 's 6 , 254 buddhist monasteries , sending thousands of monks to re education camps , banning the display of photographs of the dalai_lama , and resettling tens of thousands of ethnic chinese colonists on tibetan land . the argument is that tibet 's existence as a distinct culture is threatened by chinese policies . and given the acceptance of that accusation in the west and the exotic appeal of tibet itself , the surprise may be that tibet took so long to become a celebrity cause . ''the fascination is the search for the third eye , '' said melissa mathison , wife of harrison ford and the screenwriter of ''kundun . '' ''americans are hoping for some sort of magical door into the mystical , thinking that there 's some mysterious reason for things , a cosmic explanation . '' growing enchanted steps on the road ms . mathison , explaining how she became interested in tibetan_culture , said the first step might be a search for spiritual meaning , which is soon replaced by an awareness of the tibetans themselves , especially of the personality and character of the dalai_lama . ''tibet offers the most extravagant expression of the mystical , '' she said , ''and when people meet his holiness , you can see on their faces that they 're hoping to get this hit that will transcend their lives , take them someplace else . '' in a telephone interview , mr . gere explained that he first became interested in tibet more than a decade ago when he became a buddhist and was introduced to the dalai_lama during a visit to the leader 's home in exile in dharmsala , india . ''it became clear to me that the situation for the tibetans was worsening , and they had no public voice , no contact with the media , no presence at the united_nations , '' mr . gere said . ''they had been gobbled up by the chinese and had no protector . '' mr . gere denies that there is a ''critical_mass'' of interest building on tibet . many of the same people who became interested in tibet a decade or so ago , he said , are still working for the cause . the work includes regular meetings in hollywood and elsewhere , as well as support for institutions like tibet house in new york and the international campaign for tibet in washington , a lobbying group with close ties to the tibetan government in exile . cycle of awareness the critical factors to be sure , other perceived injustices in the world have long generated their own movements , from opposition to indonesia 's occupation of east_timor to the detention of mrs . aung san suu kyi . indeed , there was a movie sympathetic to mrs . aung san suu kyi , ''beyond rangoon , '' directed by john boorman . but the military dictatorship of myanmar , as burma is now known , did not become the focus of a tibet style campaign . the movies on tibet , especially given their star quality , could now even become an issue in chinese_american relations , making washington 's efforts to improve the atmosphere with beijing more difficult . last november the chinese government warned the walt disney company that it was jeopardizing its future business in china by producing ''kundun , '' leading 59 prominent hollywood figures to call on president_clinton to resist china 's efforts at censorship . others close to the campaign say public interest in tibet is reaching a new high . ''the movement has had its ups and downs , '' said john ackerly , director of the international campaign for tibet . china 's suppression of student demonstrations in tiananmen_square in 1989 helped the cause , he said , because ''that validated what the tibetans were saying . then it kind of faded , and now it 's catching on again with these movies . '' tibet , in fact , has gone through several stages of fascination for westerners . at various times it has served the european and american imagination as a place of remoteness and immensely high mountains , of unspoiled physical beauty and a life style uncorrupted by the rampant materialism of the west . james hilton 's casting of tibet as shangri_la in his 1933 novel , ''lost horizon , '' mr . schell contends , was born out of the anxiety leading to world_war_ii , which fostered the yearning for a place apart , a peaceful realm divorced from the chaos of modern life . more recently , other events have paved the way for greater public attention to tibet , a territory of only 1.2 million people . the end of the cold_war and the democratization of eastern_europe removed the chief american obsession overseas . the release of nelson_mandela in south_africa and his election as president of a post apartheid nation lessened another concern . when the dalai_lama won the nobel_peace_prize in 1991 , he became not just world famous , but the world 's most famous symbol of a nonviolent , meditative philosophy of existence . he has turned out to be a man of quiet charisma and a shrewd , tireless spokesman for his cause . at the same time , with political idealists searching for a focus , china suddenly loomed as the chief remaining repressive state . ''we 're living in an era where self_determination has been acted out except in this one stark case , '' mr . schell said . ''you add to that a whole revival of interest in esoteric individualism , people searching for a spiritual side . next , enter the dalai_lama , crowned as a nobel laureate . tibet has done some of the most extraordinary public_relations i know of . '' the hollywood love affair with tibet

has a location of china

to the editor in her review of marc riboud , ''a land ever in flux the pictorial record'' ( july 20 ) , vicki goldberg quotes from robert s . and helen lynd 's ''middletown'' about mankind 's sluggish adaptation to new conditions ''the process of social_change is epitomized in the fact that the first packard car body delivered to the manufacturer had a whipstock on the dashboard . '' this example seems both inapt and inept on the lynds' part , because being towed by a horse was an often necessary part of motoring in those days . robert c . curtis lexington , mass . marc riboud

has a location of china

sarah stackhouse and lucas hoving went to the people 's republic of china and experienced a high point in their lives as teachers of american modern_dance . david hochoy , an american of asian descent , found that going home was possible in an unexpected way . and the student dancers of the guangdong modern_dance company which makes its american debut thursday at the american_dance_festival in durham , n.c . discovered a very different world of dance than the one they knew . all were involved in a program under which american dance teachers worked in china for three month periods to bring new ideas and insights to students trained in classical_ballet and chinese folk_dance . in recent conversations , several of the teachers , who ranged in age from their 30 's to their 70 's , talked of surprising challenges and rewards . it was sometimes a hurdle , they found , for the students to break free from the institutionalized , codified dance technique they knew . western music , too , presented difficulties . and though the idea of making dances about one 's emotions took some getting used to , the pieces developed by the students in choreography classes included a solo about abortion and a duet about two men struggling with their feelings for one another . in turn , the teachers had to get used to their students' lack of personal freedoms . " i had been told they were fantastic technicians and wonderful mimics , " said mr . hochoy , one of the teachers and a former member of the martha graham dance company . " they are good at copying , because i think that 's the way dance has been taught for a long time in china . it was hard to introduce a conceptual approach . " the idea of dancing from the inside out dance as an externalization of what 's happening inside was hard to get across , " he added . " society in communist_china discourages the individual . in chinese_culture , it is not considered good taste to show your inner life . i used the motivations martha would use with us . and ultimately , they understood that for choreography to be interesting it had to reveal something about who they were . " but the 20 student dancers , some of whom had sacrificed higher paying jobs to enroll in the modern_dance program , were eager to learn . when miss stackhouse began to teach them a dance by jose limon , with whom she once performed , she realized that the bach score seemed fast to them . " it was n't like their music , which is more romantic , more like tone poems , " she said . " but i was amazed at how quickly they dealt with that . " the company , based at the guangdong dance_academy in canton , was the product of the summer yang meiqi spent studying at the american_dance_festival in 1986 . miss meiqi , director of the academy , thought chinese dancers needed more exposure to modern_dance , and by the next year she and charles reinhart , director of the festival , had developed a three year program of instruction in american modern_dance techniques , improvisation and choreography . the students , selected by audition , were graduates of state dance academies throughout china these schools offer a seven year program in ballet , chinese folk_dance and an amalgam of folk_dance and russian ballet called chinese classical folk_dance . modern_dance is being taught at the guangdong academy in twice yearly shifts by american teachers , who also included lynda davis , douglas nielsen , ruby shang and chiang ching , a classmate of miss meiqi 's at the peking dance_academy , who left china in 1962 . from its start , the program emphasized choreography as much as modern_dance techniques . mr . reinhart has asked that during the north_carolina festival the guangdong dancers perform choreography they created . " i felt it was important to find choreographers , " said mr . hoving , who has danced with graham and limon . " so almost all my work was on the creative thing . we had a lot of discussions . i went to the city library and brought back books on art . i gave the students what one usually gives in composition class assignments having to do with time , space , energy , rhythms , shapes . " some teachers noted that the student dancers seemed less competitive than their american counterparts . " everyone is looked after , " mr . hochoy said of the students . " their salaries are paid , even if they do n't come to class . " several students were on leave from large dance companies that are attached to military bases , rather like american military marching bands . " during the cultural_revolution , the arts were to entertain the military , peasants and workers , " miss stackhouse said . " i was shocked when in came military trainers , and i saw these beautiful dancers up at 5 in the morning to do military drills . " the project ended its first year with a dance demonstration . " two of the students , excellent choreographers , had talked themselves into a second year in the project , " miss stackhouse said . " after the demonstration , an air_force plane flew down , and two big guards plucked them out and back to the air_force base in beijing . " i made a goof or two , " she continued . " one goof , a pretty big one , was when i organized these open classes to get in people from the community to share in the program , so it was not all behind closed doors . we showed dances the students had done . i said , 'let 's have a discussion . ask questions , like why do we roll around on the floor ? ' " her visitors did not respond . " they are not into that kind of thing , " she said . " they do n't want to appear as if they do n't know something . they 'd hold forth in a big dialectic about the art of dance . so every once in a while i 'd ask a question for them . 'do you wonder why we roll on the floor ? ' i 'd say . then they 'd be glad i asked . " she and her colleagues mr . hoving and mr . hochoy are all eager to return to china . born in trinidad , mr . hochoy talks of his paternal grandmother , who emigrated to that caribbean island from canton as a 16 year old mail order bride . living in trinidad and new york , he had come to think of himself as simply a " skinny asian . " in canton , he said , he began to feel " beautiful " for the first time . " i thought , 'how ironic it is , going back to the land of my forefathers and taking with me an american art form as a gift . ' " dance

has a location of china

tour groups to china do n't always take in performances of the highest level . technicolor acrobatic spectacles and vendors' relentless song and dance routines along the great_wall do n't quite cut it . but on wednesday , the joyce_theater arrives in beijing for a two week fund_raising trip that promises to marry typical tourist pleasures with serious dance encounters . the 8 , 850 price_tag ( not including airfare ) ensures participants access to wonders like the labyrinthine ancient world of the forbidden_city . it also offers a glimpse into the equally dizzying world of contemporary chinese dance , through talks and performances in several cities . ten donors have signed up to join linda shelton , the theater 's executive director , and richard ablon , a board member who has helped organize international joyce forays since a 2001 trip to cuba . ''one of our selling points for the trip , '' ms . shelton said , ''is that the people that travel with me will be looking at dance the same time that i see it , and then will possibly see it on a joyce stage down the road . that 's very exciting , for me and for them . '' in recent years , the joyce has shown chinese troupes like the guangdong modern_dance company ( the nation 's first modern company , founded in 1990 ) , the beijing modern_dance company and the new york based shen wei dance arts . ms . shelton sees the trip as a fact finding mission , one she hopes will lead to surprises for her theater . ''there 's a little china boom going on , '' said ralph samuelson , the director of the asian cultural council in new york . ''it 's somewhat reminiscent of the japan boom of the '80s . '' for many american arts organizations , he added , ''this is new territory . '' but not for all . charles l . reinhart , who directs the american_dance_festival in durham , n.c. , first led a delegation of choreographers to china in 1980 . his voice still drops to an awe struck whisper when he describes how the director of the guangdong dance_academy , yang mei qi , approached him in 1986 after watching a modern_dance class at the festival , which she was attending as part of its international choreographers workshop . ''we do not speak a word of each other 's language , '' he said recently from the festival 's manhattan office . ''but boy , did we connect . '' by now the story is dance lore ms . yang and mr . reinhart hatched a plan to send american teachers to china over a three year period with the goal of introducing modern_dance to ms . yang 's students . the guangdong modern_dance company , which counted shen wei among its original members , was born of this effort . ms . yang endured many growing_pains with her fellow dance pioneers , from uninterested audiences to a government that was at times all too interested in monitoring this western import . in a 1992 article for contact quarterly , roger copeland , who teaches dance and theater at oberlin college in ohio , described choreographers' struggle to create in the repressive years after the tiananmen square massacre in 1989 . certainly censorship still exists . but so do the beginnings of a framework for understanding and supporting independent dance . mr . reinhart has been invited to send teachers and companies to shanghai for two weeks in august . ( his chinese colleagues are particularly interested in shen wei and pilobolus . ) new companies are springing up , and chinese choreographers are gaining more exposure to international works . last year , the tibetan choreographer and dancer sang jijia returned to china after an apprenticeship with william_forsythe 's company in germany . as in other sectors of chinese_culture , foreign visitors say , the rate of change is mind_boggling . ''these younger 30 year olds who were in midlevel positions have now moved up to higher positions , and they are much more open , '' mr . reinhart of the american_dance_festival said . ''it was impossible to talk about doing an a.d.f . shanghai in 2000 , and it 's possible now . '' if , that is , his hosts can raise the money . these days , the main hurdle faced by contemporary_dance in china is far more familiar to western artists financing . ''the idea of arts as propaganda no longer prevails , '' willy tsao , who runs three dance companies in china , wrote in an e mail message . ''the government sees that art serves more the purpose of entertaining the public than of education , thus wants the art groups to get more support from the audience through box office and commercial sponsorship . i see that this is a natural transition when the chinese government is adjusting its policies , shifting from a totalitarian state to a freer society . to me , this is a period of true test only those who are truly devoted will stay away from the 'entertainment trap . ' '' while supporters of china 's contemporary_dance scene are optimistic about its progress and its future , most say the choreography has a way to go before it can hold its own on international stages . ''i 'm extremely pleased , '' lan lan wang , a native of taiwan and a dance professor at connecticut_college , said of china 's progress . ms . wang has been active in modern_dance in china since the late 1970s , traveling there to teach and working to foster ties with american companies and institutions . ''however , '' she added , laughing , ''the works are not good . i hope , for presenters , it 's not about 'we 're bringing these works to america because china is popular right now . ' i think still we have to look at the art . '' criticism in china remains a fledgling trade . but american critics have often agreed with ms . wang 's assessment . reviewing the beijing modern_dance company 's debut at the joyce_theater in 2005 , robert greskovic , in the wall_street_journal , described its production ''rear light'' as ''earnest , contemporary_dance with little color or distinction . '' shen wei was more diplomatic in assessing his countrymen , who have yet to achieve anything like his recognition . his newest dance , ''re , ii , '' was given its premiere by les grands ballets canadiens de montr al last week alongside works by christopher_wheeldon and jiri kylian . his dance theater work ''second visit to the empress , '' based on chinese opera , will be presented at the lincoln_center festival in july . he will contribute choreography for the opening ceremonies of the 2008 olympics in beijing . ''i just think they need more education , '' mr . shen said of the beijing troupe . ''they need more research . they just need to do more work . you ca n't say bad or good . it 's just that they do n't yet have much experience . '' dance

has a location of china

lead at one of beijing 's elite universities not long ago , students were subjected to another of a series of propaganda films intended to insure the reindoctrination of china 's future leaders along the correct communist road . at one of beijing 's elite universities not long ago , students were subjected to another of a series of propaganda films intended to insure the reindoctrination of china 's future leaders along the correct communist road . these same students had led ''the counterrevolutionary_rebellion'' crushed so brutally in june , and they have since been subjected to steady , numbing sessions of political education . the film that evening , ''wei wei kunlun , '' which translates roughly as ''towering mountain , '' depicted china before the communist takeover in 1949 . a scene of a demonstration being violently broken up brought cheers because unlike the case in june no tanks were used . party officials asked the students why they had applauded . ''because it was such a good film , '' they said . common on the campuses stories of quiet mockery of this sort are common on the campuses . the familiar slogan ''only socialism can save china'' has been slightly altered to become , ''only without socialism can china be saved . '' freshmen at beijing_university have been sent off to hebei_province for military and political training for a year older students say that when the freshmen return they will practice ''peaceful_evolution'' on them the party catch phrase for the supposed capitalist strategy to undermine chinese communism through the introduction of alien cultural influences . one upperclassman , a party member , said , ''we will pass on to them their proper education in the four evils'' excessive eating , drinking , gambling and promiscuity and he seemed to be quite serious about the task . the rapid changes in eastern_europe , and especially the overthrow and execution of nicolae ceausescu , the rumanian leader who was a longtime ally of the chinese leadership , have brought a few daring gatherings and posters . like the mockery , they are indicative of a lasting disgust and a resoluteness of spirit largely untouched by the ideological corset being tightened everywhere in intellectual and academic life . but while the investigations are winding down and students and teachers await the party 's judgments on punishment , there is wariness and mistrust everywhere and a general depression about the future that argues against any rapid re emergence of the sort of demonstrations that electrified the world last spring . a sense of caution the unexpected death of a prominent figure like deng xiaoping or zhao_ziyang , the party leader who lost his job after showing some sympathy with the june demonstrations , could create a pretext for students to gather and march , but few believe the leadership would react a second time with so much confusion and delay . students and teachers interviewed over the last three weeks described caution and lack of purpose . among many students there is a self imposed cap on political discussion and an aimless escapism . there are increasing experiments in casual sex and alcohol_abuse . ''we 're watching trashy movies and reading trashy novels , '' one student said . ''sidney sheldon is very popular now , and so is 'i 'll take manhattan . ' '' students speak of a sense of isolation from the larger society . ''the campus is a very small world , '' one said . ''it 's like living in a cage , and you feel watched all the time . '' people are ' 'depressed and discouraged , '' she said . ''life seems meaningless now , and they are cynical . they feel bored . life is boring if you 're in school or out , boring if you have a boyfriend or not , boring if you work or not . '' students still speak of politics to their closest friends , ''but that gets boring , too , '' the student said . ''we do n't disagree about anything . we all want change . but politics once again seems like empty talk . '' something to hide the analogy of rumania frightens the government right now , another student said . ''all the killing frightens us , too . we do n't think the chinese_army will crack so quickly as in rumania , and many more could die . '' most students , one said , had made less than fully forthcoming self criticisms and protected their friends , and there is a feeling that many teachers and deans are also protecting students from the authorities . ''but there are a lot of people who participated and have something to hide , '' he said . ''so people do n't trust one another . it is one of the biggest successes of the government . '' some students said many wanted either to go abroad or to make a lot of money and live an easy life . everyone seems to be learning english and trying to pass the language examinations required to study abroad . but freshman are now judged too young to study abroad , and graduating students are told they must stay in china and work off their debt to society . ''it 's a way of keeping people here , '' a teacher said . teachers describe relatively open political discussion in the faculty rooms , but they are under strict orders not to discuss politics in class or with students . ''the party tells us , 'if you have your own views , o.k. , but do n't pollute them , ' '' a teacher said . another described a faculty meeting with the party secretary , who complained that while some students had informed on others , no teachers had done so , behavior that set a bad example . the party secretary was particularly outraged because he had received anonymous letters purporting to inform on him . ''we felt he had no sense of shame , '' the teacher said . ''only the die_hard leftists or the careerists pursue this witch_hunt . '' caution is still needed one must nonetheless be careful , another teacher said . she was teaching a night class in english to adults who were behaving passively while she was trying to explain the prefix ''octo . '' ''so i finally said 'why do n't you talk ? you 're as stubborn as octogenarians ! ' ''the class laughed , but the next day she was called in by the party secretary and asked why she had made fun of the party leadership , which is largely composed of elderly officials . ''i said that it was in the textbook , '' she said , ''and that was that , but it worried me . someone obviously made a report . '' another teacher said that while he understood his students' anger and shared it , he tried to caution them that the situation could get worse , as it did in the 1950 's and '60 's . ''the students are impatient , of course , and want rapid change , and they have their own ideas . but i do n't want them to get into trouble or waste their lives . we 've all been inspired by a few demonstrations and by rumania , but i tell them 'right now , your lives are more important . do n't throw them away . ' ''

has a location of china

''china was once known as 'the land of rites , ' '' said linda wrigglesworth , a london dealer in antique chinese , tibetan and korean textiles who exhibited at last weekend 's international asian art fair in new york . ''the formation of chinese civilization was synonymous with the establishment of its ritual system and religions , an establishment continuously illustrated through dress . '' and what dress it was . ms . wrigglesworth and jacqueline simcox , another london antique textile dealer , each showed resplendent chinese court costumes , antique silks and embroideries at the fair , which closed on wednesday . so did arthur leeper , a dealer from belvedere , calif . ms . simcox had a sumptuous lady 's costume from 1900 in purple satin embroidered with blue begonias . ''it was bought by belgium 's minister to china early in the century and was on display at the victoria and albert museum in the 1970 's , '' she said . ''it is in perfect condition . '' she also had an 18th_century table frontal , or tablecloth , with a red ground featuring a large white crane holding in its beak a branch with three peaches . both cranes and peaches symbolize longevity . ms . wrigglesworth showed a midnight blue , late 19th_century imperial overcoat that had belonged to empress longyu , the wife of emperor guangxu . ''we know who wore it because only an empress could wear the symbols of the sun and moon on her shoulders , '' said gary dickinson , a historian with wrigglesworth ltd . ''it may have come out of china after the 1911 revolution , or in the 1920 's , when a warlord known as the christian general took over the imperial palace , expelled the last emperor and sold some imperial robes to raise money for a military campaign . '' ms . simcox and ms . wrigglesworth were the previous owners of some of the fine antique chinese pieces in a ravishing new exhibition at the china institute in new york , ''weaving china 's past the amy s . clague collection of chinese textiles'' ( through june 7 ) . organized by the phoenix art museum , this show includes about 30 chinese silk textiles dating from the song dynasty ( 960 1279 ) through the qing_dynasty ( 1644 1911 ) . it is organized according to type ( brocades , tapestries and embroideries ) and includes throne covers , costumes , tibetan decorations and buddhist banners . ''in china , textiles were appreciated as fine_art , just like painting and calligraphy , '' said claudia brown , director of the center for asian studies at arizona_state_university and the show 's curator . ''our aim was to put these textiles in the context of the greater fabric of chinese_art . '' eight large , colorful banners from the qing_dynasty nearly steal the show . they were probably made for the interior of a nobleman 's house . ''i think they may have been hung as a room divider , visible on two sides , '' said ms . wrigglesworth , who sold the banners to mrs . clague . the banners are decorated on both sides , with tapestry on the front and painted silk on the back . the upper segment of each has a cloud shaped form with a narrative scene . in the large field of decoration , each banner has a trompe_l'oeil vase of flowers with a separate narrative scene on the base . inspired by 17th_century woodblock prints , the scenes illustrate ''the romance of the western chamber , '' a drama from the yuan dynasty ( 1279 1368 ) . ''these are rather like themes from shakespearean plays they were classics and everyone would have recognized them , '' ms . simcox said . ''the same stories were used in woodcuts , porcelains , paintings and textiles . '' in this romance , zhang , a young scholar , falls in love with oriole and they have a secret tryst . oriole 's mother finds out and chastises the maid , who is supposed to guard oriole 's virtue . mother and daughter take refuge in a monastery , which is attacked by a rebel known as the flying tiger . zhang writes to his friend general du , asking him to save the monastery from the flying tiger . the general succeeds . but oriole 's mother will not let her daughter marry until zhang passes the civil_service exam . after several more obstacles , zhang is finally allowed to marry oriole . ''these panels are exceptionally rare , '' ms . wrigglesworth said . ''the chances of finding anything like them again will be in my next life . '' mrs . clague was born in texas and has lived in phoenix for nearly 40 years . she has been involved with the phoenix art museum since 1967 . robert clague , her late husband , had collected chinese cloisonn enamels , chinese glass and bronzes . mrs . clague began collecting chinese textiles in 1989 . ''what 's wonderful about her collection is that it reflects one person 's taste , '' ms . simcox said . antique picture frames bonhams , the london auction house , has organized a sale of 272 picture frames for wednesday . ( items for sale can be viewed at www . bonhams . com . ) most are antique , ranging from a handsome 17th_century dutch ebonized frame ( think of rembrandt 's paintings ) to a 19th_century florentine frame , carved , pierced and gilded , with scrolling leaf motifs . ''we do four frame sales a year , '' said alan montgomery , the head of the frame department . ''we are the only auction house in britain that holds sales of fine frames . we schedule it for the week of the old masters sales . '' people use frames in unpredictable ways . ''antique spanish frames are incredibly popular among owners of picassos these days , '' mr . montgomery said . ''collectors of impressionists buy elaborate 19th_century gilded frames for their pictures because that 's what the impressionists used , mostly because they were cheap at the time . the impressionist painters would rub the gold so the frames did n't look so glitzy . '' some of the plainest frames are the most elegant . lot 225 is an 18th_century dutch rosewood veneered frame so simple it looks modern . most frames at bonhams are estimated at a few hundred dollars apiece . price depends on condition . ''it 's quite rare to find frames in good original condition that have n't been cut down or altered , '' mr . montgomery said . ''having the original gold is also rare to find , but quite important . '' he said interior decorators buy frames to install mirrors and these frames are often expanded or cut down . ''only about 30 years ago did people realize how valuable frames are if they are still in their original condition , '' he said . three years ago edward balfour and justin wessels founded framefinders in manhattan . they have a shop at 454 east 84th_street , a web_site and occasional auctions . mr . balfour once worked at eli wilner company , a period frame and mirror shop at 1525 york avenue , at 80th_street , in manhattan . ''we focus on american frames made from the 1840 's to the 1880 's , '' mr . wessels said . ''the architect stanford_white , for example , designed frames for his artist friends . no two were alike . we sold one last november for 44 , 000 . '' the firm 's next auction is scheduled for may 13 . antiques

has a location of china

beijing checks idol worship government censors in beijing moved yesterday to rein ''happy boy , '' china 's version of ''american_idol , '' agence_france_presse reported . the finale of last season 's version of the show , ''super girl , '' won by li yuchun , right , was watched by 400 million viewers , roughly one third of china 's population . ''no weirdness , no vulgarity , no low taste , '' were among the restrictions imposed on the show 's producers by the state administration of radio , film and television , according to a notice posted on the administration 's web_site . in addition , relatives and contestants must do their best not to cry , scream or wail in order to ' 'maintain a happy and inspiring atmosphere , '' and the judges are prohibited from ' 'mocking or humiliating contestants . '' contestants must only sing ''healthy and ethically inspiring'' songs , and the show must not indulge in ''gossip . '' the censor 's notice said the rules were aimed at ''preparing a good atmosphere'' before the communist_party 's national congress late this year . the publication of the new rules came amid the initial search for ''happy boy'' contestants . ten thousand people have already applied in changsha , the capital of hunan_province . the search goes nationwide today . a photographer 's legacy the foundation established after the death of the celebrity photographer herb ritts is donating 2 . 5 million and 189 of his works to the museum_of_fine_arts , boston , which plans to create a photography gallery in his name , the associated press reported yesterday . mr . ritts , who died in 2002 at 50 , photographed the famous , often for magazines like vogue and vanity_fair . the museum mounted a show of his work in 1996 that was derided by many critics but proved to be one of its most popular exhibitions . ''the museum was making a major statement about accessibility , about what we thought was art , and what we thought were the preoccupations of a younger generation in america , '' said malcolm rogers , the boston museum 's director . the gift is the largest ever by the herb ritts foundation , which has focused largely on aids related causes since it was founded in 2003 . venice 's pop menace conservation organizations say that st . mark 's square in venice , below , could be damaged by two concerts to be staged there on june 5 and 6 june by elton_john , the art newspaper reported on thursday . a 1989 concert there by pink_floyd was attended by about 200 , 000 people , who left a mess that took three days to clean up . two sixth century columns next to the basilica of st . mark 's were damaged when fans climbed them to get a better view . anna somers cocks , who leads venice in peril , a group seeking to preserve the city , said , ''there is no parallel with the pink_floyd concert as the numbers for elton_john will be strictly controlled , but there is some concern about the weight of the open air theater and the people on the square as there is a complex system of drains underneath it . '' maurizio zanetto , secretary of the venetian branch of the heritage organization italia nostra , said , ''we will do what we can to lobby against the elton_john concerts and raise awareness of the potential damage that will be done to st . mark 's square . '' but maurizio calligaro , chief of staff for the mayor of venice , noted that a crowd of 5 , 000 the size to which each concert will be limited pales beside the 35 , 000 people who gather in the square on new year 's eve . tickets are already on sale online for the concerts , though the city , which will be paid about 200 , 000 euros ( 268 , 730 ) for the use of the square , is not expected to give its permission for the events until next week . gary farrow , a spokesman for elton_john , said the singer ''looks forward to a beautiful and harmonious event in the city . '' art and abbatoirs some neighbors of the artist damien hirst in the cotswolds , in central england , are upset over plans to include an ''abattoir rail'' at one of his studios , the guardian reported on thursday . the rail could be used to move animal carcasses before they are suspended in formaldehyde , a technique mr . hirst , below , made famous through works like ''mother and child divided , '' a cow and a calf each cut in half and displayed in a tank of the preservative . a petition has been started and placards posted around the studio , an old manufacturing plant . vicky radwell , whose home overlooks the studio , pronounced herself ''gobsmacked'' by the news . ''most people around here are quite horrified that there are going to be dead animals there , '' she said ''dead animals in art is just outrageous . it 's not beautiful , is it ? '' a spokeswoman for mr . hirst said ''this is nothing to do with an abattoir . it is an area where we will be using formaldehyde . that has been approved and we have planning permission for it . we never have and never would need an abattoir . '' who 's the wild one ? the founder of the company that produces the ''girls gone wild'' video series has defied a federal_judge , refusing to surrender to united_states marshals on a contempt citation , the associated press reported yesterday . judge richard smoak of united_states_district_court ordered the company 's founder , joseph r . francis , into custody after settlement negotiations stalled in a lawsuit brought by seven women who were minors when mr . francis' company , mantra films , videotaped them at the beach in panama city , fla . mr . francis , 34 , who makes an estimated 29 million a year through the videos of girls exposing their breasts , drew the contempt order on wednesday after lawyers for the women said mr . francis had threatened them during negotiations . ''this judge has gone as far as to call me the devil and an evildoer , '' mr . francis said on thursday . ''it is a case of a judge gone wild . '' mr . francis 's lawyers have appealed the order , which would send him to jail .

has a location of china

lead a series of earthquakes rattled northern china late wednesday and early_today , killing at least 18 people and flattening about 8 , 000 houses in a largely rural area , the authorities said . a series of earthquakes rattled northern china late wednesday and early_today , killing at least 18 people and flattening about 8 , 000 houses in a largely rural area , the authorities said . officials of the state seismological bureau said the quakes were not related to the tremor in northern_california on tuesday . the bureau said that five tremors , registering up to 6.0 on the richter_scale , shook an area along the shanxi hebei provincial border and that at least 28 people had been injured . the first quake , measuring 5 . 7 , was felt in beijing , about 135 miles to the east , but there were no reports of injuries or damage in the capital . the california quake

has a location of china

a lifetime of quilts and carousel horses among american connoisseurs of art , there are few names as legendary as havemeyer . the family patriarch , henry o . havemeyer , built the american sugar refining company into an early 20th_century colossus . he and his wife , louisine , amassed one of the great private collections of european impressionists , which they later donated to the metropolitan_museum_of_art . in 1947 their daughter electra havemeyer webb ( 1888 1960 ) founded the shelburne museum in vermont , an epicenter for american folk_art . the museum caused a stir in 1994 when it deaccessioned five of mrs . webb 's impressionist works at a sotheby 's auction to add 31 million to its endowment fund . now another chapter is about to unfold at a country_house auction that guernsey 's will conduct in old westbury , n.y. , next weekend a 700 lot sale is being offered by the family of one of mrs . webb 's granddaughters . the granddaughter , lillian bostwick davis , who died in 1966 , was the wife of dr . e . william davis , currently vice_president for medical affairs emeritus at newyork presbyterian hospital . he is selling about half of the contents of the couple 's colonial style house the rest will be divided among their four children . there is a preview , which begins thursday on the grounds of the long_island estate , of the sale 's contents english and american antiques , british ceramics , french and chinese_porcelain , antique rugs and , true to mrs . davis 's grandmother 's taste , lots of folk_art carousel horses , cigar store indians , folk sculpture , portraits , quilts and toys . the auction will be sept . 16 and 17 under a tent on the property ( information guernseys . com ) . dr . davis does not consider himself a serious collector . nonetheless he spoke knowledgeably about their collection during a recent visit . ''the webbs moved here to old westbury in 1923 because electra 's husband played polo , and this was the center of the polo world , '' dr . davis said . ( j . watson webb was a famous left handed champion player . ) like her grandmother lillian bostwick davis loved art , particularly folk_art . ''my wife was a serious artist , '' dr . davis said . ''i 'm no artist , but she got me started as a collector . we began with carpet balls and witches balls and it went from there . it was infectious . '' ( in 19th_century england ceramic carpet balls were used for indoor bowling hand blown glass witches balls were thought to capture evil spirits . ) throughout his eight bedroom house there are folk_art portraits of children , carved carousel horses , antique dolls and toys , including a two foot tall wooden noah 's ark , complete with 33 pairs of hand carved animals . the beds are covered with album quilts , pieced quilts and appliqu d floral quilts . display cabinets are filled with english lusterware , limoges porcelain , chinese export and royal doulton character jugs . walls boast needlework samplers , maritime paintings and etchings of trotters , a particular passion of dr . davis 's father in law , dunbar w . bostwick , a breeder of trotting horses in shelburne who died in january . dr . davis said none of the works are very important most of the auction estimates are in the low hundreds . ''these are not serious paintings , '' he said . he had access to expert advice john wilmerding , his wife 's cousin , is a professor of art_history at princeton and an authority on 19th_century american art . dr . davis is particularly fond of two carved wooden carousel horses made about 1900 , each estimated to sell for 15 , 000 to 20 , 000 . guernsey 's has attributed them to the firm of gustav a . dentzel , a german born carousel carver who immigrated to philadelphia in 1860 and founded a carving dynasty that lasted till 1929 . his two horses are considered rare because they are prancers , not jumpers or standers , and retain their original paint . ''the bay prancer has a wonderful expression in his eyes , '' said dr . davis , who kept it in his elegant paneled barn , which was moved many years ago from a nearby webb property to stable dr . davis 's real horses . dr . davis , who plans to retire next year , is selling the estate , with its house , barn , pastures and three bedroom cottage , for 5 . 5 million . now it 's up to his eldest_daughter , elliot bostwick davis , to carry on the family 's legacy . she is currently chairwoman of the art of the americas department at the museum_of_fine_arts , boston . the china_trade historic deerfield , the museum complex in western massachusetts , has a show of china_trade imports at its flynt center of early new england life ( through march 2007 ) . the 114 object show includes chinese export porcelains , silks , fans , metalwork , lacquerwares and paintings . among the most fascinating pieces is a canton album of 24 hand painted watercolors that record the entire tea production process , from harvesting to packing , around 1790 . ''i got interested because you hear of china_trade influence in america 's coastal communities , but you never hear about it in inland towns like ours , '' said amanda e . lange , the museum 's curator of historic interiors and the author of the show 's 284 page catalog . ''before the revolution residents of the connecticut river valley were very dependent on trade with the british west indies , where they sold beef , barrel staves , onions and flax seed , '' she said . ''once the american revolution was resolved , they were n't able to trade with the west indies and were looking for new opportunities abroad . china was on everyone 's list . '' china was n't interested in most american goods , but it did buy ginseng ( native to new england ) , silver coins , lead and turpentine . new england traders returned with shiploads of black and green_tea and new commodities that were considered ''benchmarks of style , fashion and status among the rural elite , '' ms . lange said . ''most people here could afford tea everyone was indulging in it twice a day but only those we call 'the mansion people' had access to such luxury_goods , '' she said . ''chinese porcelains and lacquerwares were real status symbols . by wearing chinese silk , you were making a statement about your place in society . '' less than 100 years after the deerfield massacre of 1704 , ''deerfield was not the sticks anymore , '' ms . lange said . ''people here aspired to the same things as new yorkers and bostonians . '' antiques

has a location of china

lead because of an editing error , a front page article thursday about chinese plans to cut back on foreign study misidentified the source of reports that only 3 , 000 students a year would be allowed to go abroad . that number was cited by chinese students who had spoken with chinese consular officials in the united_states it was not based on official chinese or american figures . because of an editing error , a front page article thursday about chinese plans to cut back on foreign study misidentified the source of reports that only 3 , 000 students a year would be allowed to go abroad . that number was cited by chinese students who had spoken with chinese consular officials in the united_states it was not based on official chinese or american figures .

has a location of china

mayhem intensified american action thrillers dish out violence with the best of them , but this week , by way of hong_kong , comes another breed of mayhem in " the killer , " a film by john woo released on tape by fox lorber . in a category called the hong_kong movie , " the killer " not only carries violence to the level of mass slaughter , it does so in an almost melodious balletic style that raises the emptying of an automatic to something of an art form . with the stylized killing there is also compassion , even nobility . for example , it is an unusual assassin who kills to earn money for a double cornea transplant for a woman he accidentally blinded in an earlier shoot out . uncommon , too , is the relationship between the hero , a brooding hit man played by the asian superstar chow yun fat , and a detective portrayed by danny lee . blazing away at adversaries , the two develop a starry eyed admiration for each other that , amid the flying gore , grows into brotherly love . " alternately gripping and laughable , the movie 's mixture of blood and suds suggests an unlikely fusion of 'the wild bunch' and 'dark victory , ' " wrote stephen holden in the times when the movie played in theaters last year . video dealers say " the killer " will be popular , especially in the dubbed version ( a subtitled tape is also available ) . the hong_kong style also appeals to hollywood . lured away from hong_kong , mr . woo is in new orleans filming " hard target , " a thriller starring jean claude van damme . mr . woo said he had often been approached by american producers but had turned them down . " most of the scripts were kung_fu or karate , " he said . " hard target , " he added , has a story that allows him to use some of the character elements he used in " the killer . " mr . woo said that the impending takeover of hong cong by china in 1997 had already curtailed film making in the colony and that he would now work in the united_states and in europe . he said he was confident american producers would honor his style . " for me to make a good movie , i need to share all the happiness and sadness and love and beauty , " he said . someday , he added , he would like to make a musical . data base delight video guidebooks commonly list films , but one new guide goes further . the book of video lists by tom weiner , published this week in an enlarged fourth edition by andrews mcneel , cross references movie titles with lists of directors and actors and breaks films into other lists in more than 650 categories . after that come 6 , 500 capsule reviews . the price is 12 . 95 .

has a location of china

for sun jiazheng , the chinese_culture minister , the emergence of a global culture wears many faces . on the one hand , moviegoers in beijing can swoon at screenings of ''titanic . '' on the other , computer jockeys in shanghai might surf web_sites that carry ''unhealthy'' material . ''i would say that to a considerable extent , china has opened up its cultural market , '' mr . sun said in a speech on wednesday night at the museum of television and radio in midtown_manhattan . ''however , china 's market economic system is newly established , and its cultural industry with a market mechanism has just started to take shape . therefore , we face both opportunities and real tough challenges . '' mr . sun , in an interview after the speech , trumpeted foreign investment opportunities in china 's electronic_media , but emphasized that certain sectors , particularly the internet industry , would have to open up ''gradually'' and with continued government monitoring of content . as part of the chinese delegation to the united_nations summit meeting , mr . sun was giving his talk in celebration of an agreement that permits the museum to acquire programming from the chinese government 's audiovisual archives . he was introduced to the audience by henry a . kissinger , former secretary of state . at its heart , mr . sun 's speech heralded china 's impending entry into the world_trade_organization and called for foreign investment in the country 's media infrastructure , from opening theater chains to distributing videotapes and music recordings . one example of openness , he said , is that china will soon import 20 american movies a year instead of 10 . at the same time , foreign cultural materials would be allowed into the country only ''as long as they abide by chinese laws and regulations , and cater to the tastes of the chinese people , '' mr . sun said . the last decade has seen a gradual emergence of civil_society in china , with an attendant rise in forms of cultural expression not sponsored by the state . punk bands perform at nightclubs , guerrilla filmmaking is not uncommon , and experimental painters have toured their exhibitions abroad . yet , the government continues to try to exercise control over the media , occasionally shutting down journals and asking prize winning directors to cut their movies . the booming new media industry is an especially sensitive area , given the growing number of internet users more than 17 million and the anarchic nature of the medium . mr . sun said that the government was working on a policy that would encourage growth , but that officials had not settled on details . americans have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into start up enterprises , even though government rules sometimes keep the internet companies mired in paperwork . ''personally , i believe that the development of the internet is definitely , absolutely a good thing , '' mr . sun said . but ''the content contained in the internet is mixed , '' he said . ''the chinese government has called attention to this development , the fact that there exists some unhealthy content on the internet . '' except for pointing to pornography , mr . sun did not specify what might be deemed unhealthy . the government continues to block access to certain web_sites , including those of several foreign news outlets , even though many savvy computer users can get around the firewalls . this summer , the government announced that local officials would start internet surveillance units and track down people who post political dissents . the authorities have made several arrests in the last few months for such offenses . summit in new york globalization

has a location of china

lead tibetan ritual dances performed by monks who followed the dalai_lama into exile in 1959 have been seen in new york sporadically since the 1970 's . tantric buddhism from tibet has increasingly attracted american followers in the past decade with the usual complement of artists and movie actors , among them robert rauschenberg and richard tibetan ritual dances performed by monks who followed the dalai_lama into exile in 1959 have been seen in new york sporadically since the 1970 's . tantric buddhism from tibet has increasingly attracted american followers in the past decade with the usual complement of artists and movie actors , among them robert rauschenberg and richard_gere . it was no surprise , then , that hunter_college playhouse was packed on saturday night for the performance billed as ''sacred dance of tibet . '' americans , with scores of children , outnumbered the tibetans , of course , and many seemed conversant with the teachings of penor rinpoche , the lama who heads the palyul namdroling monastery in south india . the four separate lineages within tibetan buddhism may not be distinct to an outsider , but it was obvious that the young monks who accompanied penor rinpoche on this visit dance differently from groups that have come here under the dalai_lama 's patronage in the past . the tradition represented here is nyingma , and this young indian born generation of musicians and dancers had a dramatic breadth and rawness that constrasted with the more classical precision of the tibetan monks from the namgyal monastery who performed here in 1981 . as usual , the basic step in these public sacred dances or cham is a hop on one foot with the other raised in front . yet there is also variety in pattern and dynamic , with the monks in this case reaching a vivid emotional crest in their unexpected swoops and shifts in weight . masks , skulls , daggers or beribboned whisks worn or carried by the dancers have a symbolic value . the dances are intended to eliminate negative feelings and to bring in auspicious circumstances . it is hard for all to be persuaded that the dancers on stage merge with the deities they portray . but the deer dance for two masked men received an exciting performance , and an invocation to the female spirits ( dakinis ) , in which the men rhythmically rocked forward and back with rattles and bells , had a trancelike beauty .

has a location of china

citing national_security , china 's government announced on tuesday night that it would further restrict the flow of information into the nation by more closely regulating international agencies that supply financial news to china . international wire agencies selling economic information in china namely reuters and dow_jones will now be " supervised " by the official new china news_agency for the content of their reports as well as the subscriptions they sell to chinese customers . while the full ramifications of the decision may not be clear for days or weeks , it appears to have been prompted by concern among chinese leaders about growing access to information from abroad , both from international news_agencies and from the internet , although the internet is not yet used widely in china . at the very least , the decision seems intended to intimidate foreign news organizations . " foreign economic information providers will be punished in accordance with the law if their released information to chinese users contains anything forbidden by chinese laws and regulations , or slanders or jeopardizes the national interests of china , " said the announcement , as reported by the news_agency itself . it described the decision as having been issued by china 's cabinet in the form of a circular . in addition to the government 's desire to limit information it deems unwelcome , however , a driving force in the decision was apparently the new china news_agency 's desire both for hands on control over information networks and , perhaps even more , the right to charge fees to users and sellers of information . an american news_media executive in beijing said the chinese news_agency has been " trying to do this for months . " " i ca n't believe the government finally went along with it , " the executive said . " it 's this current climate of paranoia that allowed it to happen . " if the new china news_agency stands to gain , chinese banks and securities_firms that trade currencies , commodities , stocks and bonds may suffer badly , if their access to market information is blocked or slowed . although the announcement did not spell out how the new china news_agency intends to vet all the market information , company news and analysis that are available from news organizations each day , it implied that adding a new layer of " supervision " may involve delays . of the many issues left fuzzy and uncertain by the announcement , perhaps the largest is whether the news_agency will actually try to vet all the market news that reuters and dow_jones report each day . although both news services are oriented toward financial news , they also include political coverage that reaches subscribers . access to international news in china has grown steadily in recent years as the fax_machine and international travel became common , but there remain strict controls on what can be broadcast or printed within china . reuters quoted an unidentified chinese official early_today as saying that the new restrictions would not mean a slowdown in up to the minute financial news , and would not constitute censorship . on tuesday , executives at dow_jones and reuters expressed great surprise at the announcement , in part because it runs counter to a steady trend of allowing more financial information to be available , and allowing agencies to sell freely to chinese institutions . " the open flow of economic information is good for china , " said james mcgregor , who is both chief representative for dow_jones in beijing and president of the american chamber of commerce . " abundant information makes markets stable . " a reuters executive in hong_kong read from a prepared statement , saying " on the face of it , this has extremely serious implications for reuters , as well as for many other organizations active in china . " in recent years , reuters and dow_jones have each won thousands of customers among china 's banks and securities_firms that use up to the minute market information to trade on international and domestic capital markets . neither company will say exactly how much it earns in china , but one executive said it was in the tens of millions of dollars each . the financial information business boomed along with china 's securities markets in 1993 and 1994 , but has fallen since then , in part because a series of scandals led to tighter government regulation . bloomberg , a supplier of financial information in much of the world , has just begun to enter china . " this certainly runs counter to the grand objective of making shanghai an international financial center , " john pinkel , chief representative of h . g . asia , a hong_kong based securities firm , said on tuesday . he also questioned whether the official news_agency 's monopoly on financial information would allow its staff to use it to their advantage . other western executives questioned whether members of china 's cabinet fully understood how damaging their decision could be . nor does the decision bode well for hong_kong , the vibrant financial and trading center over which china will resume control on july 1 , 1997 . " i am afraid this latest move will only send the signal that chinese leaders still do not understand how the freedom of information underpins economic success , " martin c . m . lee , leader of hong_kong 's democratic_party , told reuters . the announcement did not specify when supervision would begin , but said that foreign wire services already in china would have to apply to the news_agency within three months for permission to continue . although the announcement was couched in political terms , saying the overall aim was to " safeguard state sovereignty , " much of it was concerned with controlling the business side of news distribution . it specifies , for example , that international wire services will no longer be able to sell services directly to customers , and must determine subscription rates together with the new china news_agency . part of the reason may be that the agency , which retains considerable political clout , has watched its revenue fall in recent years because of its heavy reliance on government funding . in contrast , state run television stations and newspapers that sell their own advertising during a booming economy are doing far better . yet another issue raised by the announcement is how badly it might affect china 's bid to enter the world_trade_organization . although chinese leaders are determined to join , they have been blocked so far because efforts to open their economy have only gone partway . in the long run , even if china 's leaders somehow succeed in limiting information that is available from financial news organizations , it is hard to imagine how they could prevent freer communication via the internet . though the internet craze has not hit china yet , when it does , it will be far harder to control . " it 's a lot easier to control a commercial service , because they 're trying to keep track of you so they can charge you , " esther dyson , chairman of the electronic frontier foundation , an independent group in new york , said on tuesday . " they ca n't control the internet any more than they can control what people say in their own homes . " chinese leaders are still grappling with how to control information over the internet . last week , one media executive said , all of china 's internet providers were called to a meeting with government officials , who lectured them on the dangers of pornography on the internet . " they 're well aware of the internet , and they 're scared , " said ms . dyson . " in the long run , there 's nothing they can do about it . "

has a location of china

with parachutes braking its swift fall to earth , the shenzhou_5 spacecraft made a safe , early morning landing on the grasslands of inner mongolia on thursday , official news organizations reported , completing an apparently successful mission that established china as only the third nation to send a person into space . state television reported that the touchdown occurred at 6 23 a . m , about 21 hours after the spaceship blasted off on wednesday from the gobi desert carrying the nation 's first ''taikonaut , '' yang liwei , a lieutenant_colonel in the chinese military . within minutes , grainy images of search teams inspecting the shenzhou_5 re entry capsule were televised to the nation . the launching and the landing were not televised live . the re entry capsule separated from the propulsion module at 5 35 a.m . and began descending toward earth , according to the official new china news_agency . state television said the capsule entered china 's airspace at roughly 6 a.m . and continued its descent to the ground . colonel yang , who is expected to become china 's newest hero , took a short , congratulatory telephone call from the chinese prime_minister , wen_jiabao . the 38 year old astronaut was reported to be in ''good spirits'' and was first shown in brief television footage emerging from the capsule in his space_suit and then waving to cameras . the safe landing meant china could take its place as one of the world 's space faring nations at a time when the united_states shuttle program remains grounded following the columbia_disaster and the russian program is suffering from budget restraints . nations like india and japan , while offering congratulations to china , are now racing to match its achievement of manned_space flight . ''it 's significant that we now have a third nation to send a man into space , '' said roger launius , the former chief historian for the national_aeronautics_and_space_administration . but mr . launius noted that the mission was making few waves in the united_states and russia , where sending astronauts into near orbit of the earth is commonplace . ''in the overall scheme of things , this is not a technologically mesmerizing event , '' mr . launius said . ''a lot of people are saying , 'been there , done that . ' '' in china , though , the shenzhou_5 , or divine vessel , has carried great political and symbolic significance for a nation eager to be regarded as a technologically_advanced and modern . the mission also carried enormous political risks , since a failure would have been seen as devastating failure of the country 's new political leadership . instead , top leaders hope to bask in some of the mission 's reflected glory . throughout the day on wednesday , the government run television_network , cctv , provided exhaustive coverage of the orbiting spacecraft , a marked contrast to the scant information provided before the launching . by the end of the day , the formerly obscure colonel yang was all over television and the internet . the chinese president , hu_jintao , was shown delivering a farewell speech to the astronaut not long before he boarded the space capsule . mr . hu was also shown wearing dark sunglasses and looking skyward at the launching site as the spacecraft lifted into the sky . oddly inconspicuous on wednesday was jiang_zemin , mr . hu 's predecessor , whose decision in 1992 put china on the path toward sending a man into space . mr . jiang remains the head of the chinese military , which ultimately oversees the project , and there had been speculation that he and mr . hu might jockey for credit for the shenzhou 's success . within an hour of the capsule 's safe landing , however , chinese media were reporting that mr . jiang had made a congratulatory call to mission control . colonel yang seems unlikely to get much sleep in the coming days . the rough outlines of his life have already become known in households throughout china . he was born in 1965 in liaoning_province in northeast_china . he is a former fighter_pilot in the chinese air force , who logged 1 , 350 hours of flight before becoming an astronaut in 1998 . in an interview taped with cctv days before the launching when he was still one of three finalists for the mission , colonel yang was comfortable and largely unscripted , talking about training exercises with high gravitational forces that forced tears to roll from astronauts' eyes . he said he was not frightened of space travel and told a story of landing a fighter jet after one of his engines failed . he said he liked to play ping_pong and basketball , but also described a life greatly constrained by astronaut training . he said he eats all of his meals at the space_program 's canteen and that he had never been able to take his son to kindergarten . he said he had never met his son 's teachers and knows them only by name . he also was humble . asked if he would claim individual honor from the shenzhou_5 , he demurred , saying ''it is a matter of collective honor'' for all 14 astronauts who trained for the mission . china in space the return

has a location of china

china adopted elaborate new rules today restricting use of the internet , a medium that is fast fraying the government 's monopoly on information . the new rules spell out in more detail than before the government 's definition of computer crimes , which include use of the internet to defame government agencies , to promote separatist movements or to divulge state secrets . officials cited a need to ''to safeguard national_security and social stability'' as they annouced the rules , which are clearly aimed at squelching the rapidly growing use of electronic mail and web_sites by dissidents to spread their message . announcing the new regulation , zhu entao , an assistant minister of public security , said computer information networks are indispensable to the country 's economic and scientific advance . ''but the connection has also brought about some security problems , including manufacturing and publicizing harmful information , as well as leaking_state_secrets through the internet , '' mr . zhu said , according to the official new china news_agency . mr . zhu spoke on monday at a news conference to which foreign journalists were not invited . in 1996 the government declared that laws against pornography , social disturbances or breaches of state security would apply to the internet , and the practical impact of the new regulation will depend on how it is enforced . but the announcement is a warning to dissenters and their sympathizers here and abroad . earlier this month , for example , after he was released from prison and sent to the united_states , the democracy advocate wei jingsheng said he planned to use the internet and other forms of telecommunications to press his cause from abroad . the new rules will not affect hong_kong , reuters reported , quoting anthony wong , director general of the territory 's telecommunications . mr . wong said the internet was covered by the ''one country , two systems'' doctrine adopted when britain ceded hong_kong in july . use of the internet to retrieve information and send e mail has soared since china first allowed global connections in 1994 . at the end of october , 620 , 000 internet subscriptions had been established , the internet information center of china , an arm of the state run company that oversees internet_services , reports . many of those accounts are shared by 10 or 20 people , though a growing number of people have computers at home and may pay more than 200 to establish a personal account . though the connecting lines are often crowded and slow , users can still tap the bountiful resources of the global internet . the cabinet approved the new rules on dec . 11 . the government did not publish the text , but reuters reported that among other things it prohibits using the internet to ' 'split the country'' chinese terminology applied to supporters of the dalai_lama or of formal independence for taiwan . another article bans ' 'defaming of government agencies , '' which could apply to statements by democracy advocates . the regulation calls for unspecified ''criminal punishments'' and fines of up to 1 , 800 , reuters reported , and applies to companies providing internet_access as well as to individuals using it . in 1996 , inveighing against the ' 'spiritual pollution'' of china , the government used its control over the telecommunications system to block access to more than a hundred web_sites , including those of many foreign newspapers , human_rights and dissident groups and taiwanese agencies , as well as sites considered pornographic , like playboy magazine 's . in early 1997 , it reopened access to some sites . this evening , access through chinese internet providers to some newspapers , including the new york times , and to the web pages of well known dissident groups abroad was apparently blocked . a user trying to sign on received no response . but the pages of many other foreign news sources , including the washington_post , were accessible , as were many x rated sites reached via a common web browser . controlling web_sites is a sisyphean task because so many new ones are constantly being created , and people with skill and determination can find ways to bypass the government barriers . though a monitor may be able to identify messages by their labels for example , www . amnesty . com seditious information can be disguised . still , one blocked site , that of the group human_rights_in_china , based in new york , still gets dozens of ''hits'' from inside china each week , said the executive director , xiao_qiang . another banned site from the united_states , china news digest , gets hundreds each week , he said . e mail is the government 's real achilles' heel . security agents can tap phones and monitor the contents of some among the blizzard of letters , but there is no way to censor them . more likely , a monitoring program could be used to gather evidence against addressees should the government wish to suppress their access to information . the scattered , usually silent remnant of democracy advocates here has found ways , together with exiles , to exploit electronic mail . it is not so useful , they say , for sending sensitive messages directly to one person in china , because the line might be tapped and because so many accounts have numerous readers . ''but it 's great for the mass distribution of information , '' mr . xiao said by telephone from new york , noting that news or articles can be sent to dozens or hundreds of addresses to be widely read , with no one clearly responsible . he pointed to an electronic magazine called ''tunnel , '' a weekly forum for free political discussion that is mainly written and edited inside china . the contents are sent by e mail to a silicon_valley address where it is electronically mailed back into china to thousands of addresses . some 20 issues have appeared since it began in june . china 's struggle to tame the squirming internet octopus reflects what many experts see as the government 's central conundrum how to foster economic_growth and freedom while keeping tight screws on politics . mr . zhu , the security official who announced the new rules , gave no nod to the possible trade offs . ''the safe and effective management of computer information networks , '' he said , ''is a prerequisite for the smooth implementation of the country 's modernization drive . ''

has a location of china

dancers move through a dream and try to escape a nightmare in ''nomad the river , '' which yin mei presented on wednesday night at dance_theater_workshop . ms . yin , a chinese born choreographer , grew up during mao 's cultural_revolution ( 1966 76 ) , and ''nomad'' is a haunting evocation of her feelings about that era 's political hysteria . the piece begins with a taped reading of excerpts from a diary ms . yin kept at the time . the recitations abound with fanatical slogans . but the choreography that follows the reading proceeds with a meditative calm . gaye atay , sonja kostich , pedro osorio and ms . yin appear to be on a visionary spiritual quest enhanced by the production 's setting and electronic score , both by christopher salter . people come dimly into view and fade away as they move in lea xiao 's atmospheric lighting through what appears to be a forest of translucent fiberglass panels . many of the musical sounds are delicate . others are not . outbursts of what sound like gunshots ring out . dancers run in panic . throughout the work , which lasts about an hour , there are sudden juxtapositions of calm and disruption , as if ms . yin were choreographically demonstrating how terrible memories can produce nightmares . there are flurries of nervous gestures . dancers roll up in pieces of sheet_metal as if entombing themselves . freed from these tombs , they shake the metal and create thundering noises . at one point , their steps forward suggest that they are wading in a river , perhaps a stream of purification at another , mr . osorio smears his legs and those of the women with bloodlike red paint . the production ends with repetitions of the revolutionary slogans . ''nomad'' poignantly acknowledges that although forgetting a painful past may be impossible , art may be one way of coming to terms with it . ''nomad the river'' will be performed again tonight at 7 30 at dance_theater_workshop , 219 west 19th street , chelsea , ( 212 ) 924 0077 . dance review

has a location of china

lead television programming has been blamed for many things , but china is perhaps the first country to accuse a program of helping sow the seeds of a counterrevolutionary_rebellion . television programming has been blamed for many things , but china is perhaps the first country to accuse a program of helping sow the seeds of a counterrevolutionary_rebellion . the chinese government has ferociously denounced a previously acclaimed television_series , ''river elegy , '' whose six parts were broadcast twice last year on the government run national network . '' 'river elegy' was a propaganda coup for bourgeois liberalization , '' hong minsheng , the deputy director of china central television_station , said in a blistering self_criticism broadcast on the evening news . ''the broadcast of 'river elegy' provided theoretical and emotional preparation for the recent turmoil and rebellion . '' the attacks on ''river elegy'' represent the latest front in the century old debate about whether traditional_chinese culture should be glorified or scorned , whether the nation 's poverty is best diagnosed as the result of foreign imperialism or of a rotting indigenous civilization . oddly , the communist authorities are firmly on the side of ancient tradition , the defenders of the honor of the ''old china'' that they rebelled against in seizing power 40 years ago . a heretical strain most chinese are taught in school that theirs is a glorious cultural inheritance , but since late in the last century a heretical strain of intellectual thought has attributed china 's lack of economic and democratic development to flaws in its culture . ''river elegy , '' which suggests that chinese civilization is stagnant and needs to be refreshed by foreign influences , is the most powerful statement of this heretical strain so far . it has come to symbolize the debate about how china should modernize and whether it should cherish or discard certain values and symbols of the nation 's past . the television_series takes its name from the yellow river , a potent symbol of china , which is portrayed as violent , erratic and stagnant . what is needed to revive china , the film suggests , is the influence of the pacific_ocean trade , exchanges and the west . ''those who are now criticizing it as being a rejection of china 's national culture and a need for complete westernization that criticism is well founded , '' said andrew j . nathan , a professor of political_science at columbia_university , in a telephone interview . the television_series was firmly backed by zhao_ziyang , the communist_party leader who was ousted in june after the suppression of the democracy movement , and its principal scriptwriter , su xiaokang , was a leading dissident and the object of a nationwide manhunt before he escaped to hong_kong . the criticisms of the series thus have a political dimension , and the attacks on it have been on the airwaves and front pages since late july . 'bourgeois liberalization' '' 'river elegy' distorts chinese history , entirely negates the fine traditions of chinese_culture and vilifies the chinese people , '' the national television news declared , after convening a panel to castigate the program . ''the essence of the film is to negate the socialist system , oppose the leadership of the communist_party and propagate all round westernization . 'river elegy' is the product of bourgeois liberalization , in collusion with the doctrine of 'peacefully transforming china' as peddled by the international reactionary forces . we should see that behind the series there is a life and death struggle for the chinese nation and the socialist system . '' in another sign of the communist_party 's effort to rebuild its legitimacy by presenting itself as the defender of traditional culture , a politburo member , li ruihuan , called for more emphasis on the study of china 's cultural_heritage . mr . li said that while it was wrong to copy indiscriminately from ancient culture , china should devote more attention to ancient books and other emblems of the civilization . the role of defender of traditional culture is a somewhat delicate one for the communist_party , which had scarcely taken over china when it ordered the dismantling of the city walls and many other ancient sites in beijing . the desecration of ancient culture reached its peak in the cultural_revolution from 1966 to 1976 , when anything old was considered fair game for the red guards , who destroyed ancient temples , books , vases and furniture with equal abandon . horror and applause ''river elegy'' tried a more intellectual approach . the series which aroused an immense reaction of both horror and applause throughout the chinese speaking world complained that the chinese take such pride in their past achievements that they obscure their present failures . ''the fact remains that our civilization is moribund , '' mr . su asserted in the series . ''river elegy'' even criticized the great_wall , which it labeled ''a symbol of confinement , conservatism , impotent defense and timidity in the face of invasion . '' the television_series made some of the same points as the book ''the ugly chinaman , '' written by a taiwanese social critic , bo yang , five years ago . that book has been banned in china but remains in demand among young intellectuals . its popularity and that of the ''river elegy'' series reflect the struggle among chinese intellectuals to account for their nation having been left behind as the rest of the world industrialized in the last two centuries . '' 'river elegy' crystallizes in the 1980 's an issue that 's been around china since the 1880 's , '' said harry harding , a china scholar at the brookings institution in washington , ''and that is the degree to which chinese_culture provides the basis for modernization , or conversely , the extent to which western_culture provides that basis . ''

has a location of china

the news that some movie actors are into buddhism may not cause you to sign up , but you do n't have to live in southern_california to subscribe to hollywood 's current interest in china and tibet . as orville schell , a veteran china watcher , reports on ''dreams of tibet , '' western movies have become the most powerful way to bring chinese repression , particularly with regard to tibet , to the world 's attention . even as president jiang_zemin , china 's leader , arrives in washington to talk with president_clinton about trade and human_rights , the director jon avnet is delivering ''red corner , '' with richard_gere playing an american jailed by the chinese . already released is ''seven years in tibet , '' which got its director and star jean jacques annaud and brad pitt banned from china . and promised in december is martin scorsese 's ''kundun , '' about the exiled dalai_lama . although tonight 's offering from ''frontline'' seems at times to be a cross between a hollywood promo and a travelogue , it finally gets beyond the picturesque and asks are american companies with an eye to the huge chinese market frightened of speaking out about china 's restrictions on freedom in general , and in particular on what this program views as its destruction of tibetan society ? the program asserts that tri star ( a division of sony ) , which put out ''seven years in tibet , '' ' 'did everything possible to play down the political message of the film . '' and to judge by a charlie_rose interview shown here , michael eisner , the head of disney , which financed ''kundun , '' is not likely to take on china soon again . henry a . kissinger , now an adviser on china for disney , serves as tonight 's main voice against coming down undiplomatically hard on what china has done to tibet and to its own dissidents . he cautions policy_makers against interfering in china 's ''internal affairs . '' while making little effort to sort out the complexities of chinese united_states relations , ''dreams of tibet'' is implicitly critical of the clinton_administration , which came into office breathing fire about china 's human_rights deficiencies but has since ' 'delinked'' trade policy and human_rights principles . that , mr . schell concludes , has reduced tibetan exiles to putting their faith in the generosity of entertainers and the power of the movies . 'on the brink of peace' pbs , tonight ( channel 13 , new york , at 10 ) if the condition of tibet does n't satisfy your evening 's discouragement quota , stay_tuned for abba eban 's review of the israeli palestinian peace effort put into motion by the famous 1993 handshake of yitzhak rabin and yasir_arafat . this being a fairly standard account from the israeli labor party 's point of view , mr . eban , the former israeli foreign_minister , does not go out of his way to praise prime_minister benjamin netanyahu . he does not come to bury the peace talks , which he favors deeply , but at the moment he ca n't find much to praise there either . frontline dreams of tibet pbs , tonight ( channel 13 , new york , at 9 ) a frontline co production with ben loeterman productions . produced and directed by ben loeterman nancy fraser and david breashears , co producers orville schell , correspondent . frontline is produced by a consortium of public television stations wgbh boston , wtvs detroit , wpbt miami , wnet new york and kcts seattle . michael sullivan , executive_producer and david fanning , senior executive_producer for frontline . television review

has a location of china

in a case that has stoked fears about academic_freedom in this former british colony , a prominent pollster said on friday he had been warned by the head of hong_kong_university not to publish surveys critical of the beijing appointed chief executive of hong kong , tung_chee_hwa . the pollster , robert chung , said the university 's vice_chancellor , cheng yiu chung , told him through a deputy that the university would ' 'dry up'' the financial support for his work if he did not stop conducting polls on the popularity of mr . tung or the postcolonial government . ''i felt it was a very clear message , '' said dr . chung , at an emotional news conference in which he broke down twice . dr . chung 's disclosure capped a week of bitter accusations and denials that began on july 7 , when he wrote a column for the south_china_morning_post describing how he was pressured . ''more than once , i was given a clear message from mr . tung via a special channel that my polling activities were not welcomed , '' he wrote . ''mr . tung did not like me polling his popularity , or the government 's credibility . '' a government spokesman , stephen lam , said today that neither mr . tung nor anybody on his staff had instructed the university to stop polling . with dr . chung 's decision to name names , a personal dispute has escalated into a furious debate over whether hong_kong is stifling academic_freedom . such questions have been raised about press_freedom and the legal system since hong_kong reverted to chinese rule in 1997 . but its eight publicly funded universities have been generally untouched by political pressure . ''this is potentially more serious than those other disputes because hong_kong 's future depends on the free flow of information , '' said michael degolyer , a professor at baptist university who also conducts polls about the government . ''if hong_kong gains a reputation for limiting or restricting its news flow , any hope of making this the financial center of asia are gone . '' dr . chung 's surveys have revealed a marked deterioration in the popularity of mr . tung a trend that mr . degolyer 's polls also show . although hong_kong has rebounded from the asian_financial_crisis , this normally tranquil city has been disrupted by protests over falling real_estate prices and the lack of government reform . mr . degolyer said dr . chung 's polling methods were sound . but he noted that the professor brought a ''pro_democracy'' perspective to his work . dr . chung did not return calls seeking comment . hong_kong_university , one of the most highly_regarded institutions in asia , said it would set up a commission to investigate dr . chung 's allegations . but student groups marched on the hilly campus , calling for the vice_chancellor to resign .

has a location of china

for years , the last place to look for a modern display of chinese_art was in china . now that may be changing with the opening of china 's first western style museum here , more than a dozen years after its original sponsor first conceived of it . the arthur m . sackler_museum of art and archeology , which opened in beijing on may 27 , has joined a string of sackler galleries and museums around the world . this one primarily displays relics and fossils discovered by chinese archeologists . the opening was the culmination of years of trans_pacific dreams and headaches . but running a museum in china entails special challenges , and the headaches could get worse . it is not even clear , for example , whether the museum will be opened to the public , except to specialists who make appointments or to those chinese and foreigners pushy enough to talk their way past the guards . the museum is inside beijing_university , where guards stand at each gate to keep visitors out . for now , by appointment only " they have assured us they will let in outside visitors , " said jill sackler , mr . sackler 's widow , on a visit to beijing for the opening ceremony . still , for now , visits are by appointment . dr . arthur m . sackler , a psychiatrist and medical publisher who donated millions of dollars to the arts before he died in 1987 , gave 10 million to have the museum built in beijing in partnership with a group of chinese archeologists . but the sackler team has just handed over control and responsibility to the chinese partners and the authorities , who have no experience operating a modern museum . one major challenge is how the chinese will pay maintenance costs , including an estimated 70 , 000 a year in electricity bills . the museum was designed with two separate lighting systems , so the chinese can turn the lights up to make it look like any western museum , or dim them to save money . the success of the museum will hinge on how well the chinese manage it . one parallel , and it is not encouraging , is of western designed hotels that have been handed over to chinese management . inevitably , six months after they are turned over , cockroaches emerge , the plumbing leaks , the wallpaper and carpets accumulate a camouflage pattern of stains and the staff members replace their smiles with scowls . indeed , the american architect i . m . pei declined an offer to design the sackler_museum in beijing , apparently for just that reason . his previous effort in china , the fragrant hills hotel in beijing , is run by local managers and has quickly degenerated into a second_rate establishment . the bills are especially onerous for the chinese partners , the archeology department of beijing_university . the university may be among the nation 's leading institutions , and the department may be the best in the nation , but neither has much money to pay for the museum . so the department is seeking to raise money through a new museum shop and entrance tickets . but neither the shop nor the tickets are likely to raise much money if the public is not invited . while the department says it wants outsiders to visit , the university seems reluctant to ease its restrictions on visitors . in fact , university officials hesitated before allowing foreign reporters to attend the museum opening , and they escorted a restricted number of journalists in and out of the campus . " we are in the middle of negotiating a way to resolve this problem , " said li boqian , the director of the new museum and the chairman of the university 's archeology department . " we want this museum to be a window for cultural exchange between china and the rest of the world . " where to display artifacts ? with 4 , 000 years of history , china may have more archeological artifacts above and below ground than any other place in the world . today 's economic boom is sending construction shovels into the ground at breakneck_speed , so the number of accidental finds is growing every month . the problem is that there has been nowhere safe and attractive to show them off . in a typical local museum , most pieces sit_in dirty showcases under a faint yellow lightbulb . but at the new sackler_museum , 800 year old porcelains , 2 , 200 year old bronzes and 4 , 500 year old ceramics are displayed in pristine cases , like pieces in sackler galleries in the smithsonian institution in washington , the royal academy of art in london and at harvard_university . the new museum occupies a pavilion with a spacious courtyard recalling the imperial style residences in the summer palace , where chinese emperors would read poetry and listen to the lute . inside , however , a visitor walks through wide , open corridors and rooms painted in subtle tones of beige and white that reflect light . the inaugural exhibitions featured a few remarkable relics , including the fractured skull and bones of a golden buffalo mountain man the chinese call jinniushan man . the fossil , which chinese scientists say is 280 , 000 years old , is early and different enough that it has led some experts to cast doubt on the theory that all people are descendants of a single african ancestor . after the exhibition ends , the fossils are to be returned to a secret vault , and copies will be displayed instead . most chinese museums , which have poor security , do this , and the archeology department will do the same with its prized possessions . chinese archeologists say they hope the museum will inject new life into a field that is underfinanced and understaffed . these days , with money becoming the major focus of chinese society , the life of a chinese archeologist does not inspire envy , and its organizers say they hope that a modern museum will lure students who are genuinely interested in the field . from the start , chinese authorities said they considered the museum a sensitive project . initially , the government was even hesitant to accept the museum as a gift from mr . sackler , partly because it was generally suspicious of westerners . the project finally got under way in 1986 , but ran into many snags and the opening was delayed several times . one mundane , time consuming task , for example , was to properly clean and repair the collection 's 10 , 000 objects , many of which had never been restored . correction june 30 , 1993 , wednesday an article on june 30 about the new arthur m . sackler_museum of art and archeology in beijing omitted the name of the architect . he is lo yi chan of prentice chan , ohlhausen in manhattan .

has a location of china

the chinese look at unusual , highly textured hunks of stone the way westerners gaze at billowing white clouds in a summer sky as sources of inspiration and fantasy . for those with imagination , rocks can embody animals , people , mythological dragons , craggy mountains , just about anything . ''rocks provided a kind of entertainment for the chinese in the old days , '' said ruby chan , the owner of chinart , a chinese antiques gallery at 273 fifth avenue , at 29th_street . rocks have been objects worthy of rapt contemplation in china for more than 1 , 000 years . ''the chinese consider rocks miniature versions of landscape , '' said arnold chang , the painting specialist at kaikodo gallery , at 164 east 64th street in manhattan , which has several for sale . ''the rocks represent nature . '' the chinese collect ancient stones for their abstract , formal and spiritual qualities . robert d . mowry , head of the department of asian art at the arthur m . sackler_museum at harvard , once wrote that the most prized rocks were ' 'descriptive enough to suggest natural forms weathered trees , lofty peaks , aged scholars but abstract enough to leave actual interpretation to the viewer 's imagination . '' on sept . 20 , christie 's will auction the niliuzhai collection of classical_chinese rocks , an anonymous group of 65 antique chinese examples . niliuzhai , a word created by the chinese consignor , is ' 'derived from a poem by a song poet that refers to the marks made by swans when they walk on snow , '' said laura b . whitman , christie 's vice_president in the chinese works of art department . the chinese have traditionally collected two kinds of rocks huge limestone garden rocks and scholars' tabletop rocks . an appreciation for garden rocks goes back to the tang_dynasty ( a . d . 618 to 906 ) , when special boulders became the subjects of essays and poems . large weathered rocks were installed outdoors , where they could be admired in groups or alone . in new york , such rocks are at the astor court in the metropolitan museum and the new york chinese scholar 's garden at the staten_island botanical_garden . rocks moved indoors during the song dynasty ( 960 to 1279 ) , when literati began taking what were called spirit stones into their studios . the chinese valued these tabletop rocks more than garden rocks . ''even if a confucian scholar could not go out to the mountains , he could always find inspiration in his studio , '' ms . whitman said . ''the rock provided a mind 's landscape . abstraction was not new to the chinese . '' the scholars' rocks , ranging from an inch to five feet_tall , were mounted on custom made wooden stands and sometimes served as censers , brush rests , ink stones or seals . the rocks at christie 's are in many sizes and styles . one looks like the wings of nike of samothrace another , like the rocky cliffs at etretat , france . a third resembles an eagle swooping down on its prey . did the scholars go out into nature looking for such odd rocks ? ''it seems that from the beginning there were finders , like antiques dealers , '' ms . whitman said . ''as early as the 11th century , rocks were in the antiques markets we read about them in poems . by the 17th_century , there were whole books on rocks . 'chats on rocks , ' for example , discusses both where elegant gentlemen and the nouveaux riches collected theirs . '' liang jiutu , the author of that 19th_century book , offers advice ''in collecting , it is the choice of rocks that comes first . if the rock does not seem like a painting by the powers of nature , then you should n't choose it . '' scholars' rocks encompassed different kinds of stones , shapes , colors , textures and sizes . they were ranked according to strict criteria . the preferred rock was a dense black limestone from the subterranean quarries in lingbi county of anhui_province , in eastern china . lingbi rock , fine grained and textured , seems moist to the touch . ''it tends to be glossier , '' ms . whitman said . ''sometimes you see white calcite deposits shot through it . '' the rock is also prized because it sometimes produces a metallic , bell like sound when tapped , a feature important to connoisseurs . ( lingbi rock was used for making chimes . ) the song emperor huizong inscribed one of his lingbi rocks with this statement ''the mountain is high while the moon looks small , the water ebbs and the rock juts forth . '' over the centuries , the supply of lingbi rock dwindled , and scholars turned to slate gray sandstone from yingde in the north central region of guangdong_province . by the ming period , more stones had become acceptable marble , malachite , yellow quartz , soapstone , turquoise and coral . ( ''in the time of the ming_dynasty , the chinese thought coral was a rock , '' ms . whitman said . ) even petrified wood was collected and displayed as scholars' rocks . christie 's has two examples in the sale one looks like a chestnut tree in winter , devoid of leaves . certain stones were appreciated for their distinctive markings , like the piece of soft gray limestone at christie 's called a chrysanthemum stone , which is embedded with radiating crystals of pale quartz . it was always permissible to ''complete'' the look of a rock by carving or chiseling . scholars' rocks always had custom wooden stands , which varied in style according to the region and era . usually the stand was fitted for a specific rock , with a cavity , if necessary , to cradle an uneven bottom . the carved hardwood stand was meant to raise the stone from the mundane realm to the sacred . ''the best bases echo the best furniture , '' ms . whitman said . ''a great stand affects the quality of the rock , but a lousy one does n't because you can always have another stand made . of course , having the original increases the value of a piece . '' a stand also helps orient the gaze . ''some stones have only one view others work like sculptures in the round , '' she said . who buys scholars' rocks ? ''we have had five years of rock mania , '' said carol conover , kaikodo 's objects specialist . ''people are n't buying them the way they buy other art . it 's very personal . they treat it like they do sculpture you either like it or you do n't . '' collectors have included roy lichtenstein , brad pitt , brice marden and the manhattan art_dealer c . c . wang . the most widely known collection , which belonged to the artist richard rosenblum , inspired one of the best books on the subject mr . mowry 's catalog ''worlds within worlds'' ( harvard_university art museums , 1997 ) . ''the rocks appeal both to classic old style chinese collectors and younger people who are more interested in their graphic qualities , '' ms . whitman said . the estimates for the scholars' rocks at christie 's start at a few hundred dollars apiece . for the garden rocks , the range is 10 , 000 to 50 , 000 . the manhattan galleries china 2000 fine_art , william lipton ltd . and chambers fine_art also show scholars' rocks regularly . antiques

has a location of china

last december , china 's foreign_minister , li_zhaoxing , sat down for a remarkably candid online chat with chinese internet users . ''people are not too keen about your looks , '' one participant chided , according to a translation published in the south_china_morning_post and mr . li replied , ''my mother would not agree with this view . '' the exchange was the first time that a senior chinese official had engaged in an online chat with ordinary citizens , but its improbably personal moments belied the restrictive government 's tenuous relationship with the internet . indeed , as the number of people online in china has quintupled over the last four years , the government has shown itself to be committed to two concrete , and sometimes competing , goals strategically deploying the internet to economic advantage , while clamping down with surveillance , filters and prison sentences on undesirable content and use . both trends , experts say , are likely to continue . ''the continuance of communist_party rule is only possible to the extent that the government delivers economic_growth , '' said duncan clark , the managing director of bda china , a telecommunications and technology consulting_firm based in beijing . ''much as henry iv in france was known for the chicken in every pot , '' he said in an e mail message , ''china 's rulers are bent on putting communications , mobile_phones , internet_access and the new growth area , broadband , into as many hands as possible . '' china is already the largest mobile communications subscriber market in the world , with more than 320 million subscribers . internet users who numbered fewer than 17 million in 2000 are now estimated to be somewhere near 90 million , according to the china internet network information center , the government 's clearinghouse for internet statistics . china is second only to the united_states in the number of people online , and the 90 percent of its total population around 1.3 billion who are not online still represents a vast , untapped market . the internet has given rise to several chinese companies worth billions of dollars , including web portals like netease , sina and sohu all traded on nasdaq . and american interests responded after beijing 's pledge this year to increase purchases of united_states telecommunications equipment . in june , china 's leading internet search_engine , baidu . com , announced that the american search powerhouse , google , had bought a stake in the company . days later , yahoo unveiled yisou . com , its own china based search_engine . and on nov . 11 , cisco_systems of san_jose , calif . , announced that it had been chosen to build the business portion of a new backbone network linking 200 chinese cities . the company , which has secured over 100 million in contracts with china_telecom since last june , was also the main provider of equipment for the country 's largest existing public network , chinanet . but not everyone is celebrating the way china has nurtured the internet . ''china is the world 's biggest prison for cyberdissidents , '' said tala dowlatshahi , a spokeswoman for the group reporters without borders , based in france . ''it 's extremely worrying . '' human_rights groups , which consider the internet in china to be something of a blessing and a curse , have long raised concerns about the chinese government 's use of the technology . the rise of china 's internet hinted at more freedoms , but it also promised the government a new and effective means of monitoring its citizens . and while some technologically adept citizens have been finding ways to circumvent the monitoring , the government is also becoming more sophisticated , and it remains just as willing to punish transgressors . in a 2004 report called ''the internet under surveillance , '' reporters without borders noted that although chinese officials had released four people detained for their activities on the internet since the spring of 2003 , there were still 61 people imprisoned ''for posting messages or articles on the internet that were considered subversive . '' the report also noted that the internet , in its chinese manifestation , is purposly built for social control and monitoring . ''there are just five backbones or hubs through which all traffic must pass , '' the report noted . ''no matter what i.s.p . is chosen by internet users , their e mails and the files they download and send must pass through these hubs . '' the opennet initiative an international partnership linking internet and legal research centers at the university of toronto , harvard_law_school and cambridge_university tracks state filtering and surveillance practices . according to the group 's most recent bulletins from china , the government has found new ways to filter search_engine results . sensitive keywords like ''falun_gong'' or ''taiwan independence'' will often return no hits . and with more interactive activities like blogging , online chat and message boards , the monitoring is intense and redundant . ''those who host such activities within the country understand that they can be held responsible for what their users say there , '' said jonathan zittrain , a law professor and a founder of the berkman center for the internet and society at harvard , ''and therefore themselves engage in monitoring . '' western companies have been chided by human_rights groups for acquiescing to demands from the chinese government that , for instance , certain words be filtered in their search engines , or that hardware be tailored to assist in surveillance though most companies counter that they have no control over how the government uses their products . and while it occasionally appears that incremental improvements are being made reporters without borders noted that china finally tried and sentenced most of the cyberdissidents whom it had held without trial for years china 's huge investment in internet technology remains generally inseparable from the government 's expressed desire to control the information carried . ''the evidence points to the government not giving up on surveillance and filtering , '' professor zittrain said . ''indeed , they are refining the techniques for each . '' but so , too , will cyberdissidents refine their efforts to do and say what they want on the internet , experts say . ''on the censorship topic , best to think of it as a cat and mouse game , '' mr . clark of bda china said . ''there will never be an absolute winner or loser . '' the kind of cultural and economic flourishing that the internet has already wrought in china is irreversible , mr . clark said . repercussions for a narrow range of sensitive_topics , he acknowledged , are real and often severe . but apart from these , ''china 's internet is a hothouse of content on a wide range of topics and interests , '' mr . clark said , ''especially those embraced by the teens and 20 somethings who make up the bulk of the online population still . ''china 's rapidly emerging middle classes , numbering tens if not hundreds of millions , are dependent on the internet and the internet is dependent on them , '' he said . ''there 's no putting the genie back in the bottle now , and no real attempt to do so . ''

has a location of china

lead sir percival david 's 40 year pursuit of ceramics made from the tang through ching dynasties took him to beijing several times in the 1920 's and 30 's . there he acquired extraordinary 10th to 18th_century treasures installed for centuries in the palaces of china , some of which are on view in ''imperial taste chinese_ceramics from the percival david collection'' at the virginia museum of fine arts . sir percival david 's 40 year pursuit of ceramics made from the tang through ching dynasties took him to beijing several times in the 1920 's and 30 's . there he acquired extraordinary 10th to 18th_century treasures installed for centuries in the palaces of china , some of which are on view in ''imperial taste chinese_ceramics from the percival david collection'' at the virginia museum of fine arts . the show of 56 items remains here through dec . 10 and will then travel to the kimbell art museum in fort_worth and the museum_of_fine_arts in boston . sir percival , an heir to the sassoon textile and banking fortune , was born in 1892 in bombay , where his family 's mills were located . he studied at bombay university and london university and settled in england , where he became totally immersed in studying and collecting chinese_art . in 1924 he traveled to beijing to view the imperial collection , much of which he found stored in boxes . at his suggestion , these works were uncrated and exhibited in a building he paid to have restored . the show was a great success , and on sir percival 's next visit , in 1927 , he was named an adviser to the national palace museums . he also learned that art from the imperial collection was up for sale . after complex negotiations , he acquired about 40 pieces , and he added to his holdings during several more trips in the 1930 's . in 1952 he donated his collection , and its home , a 19th_century house on gordon square in bloomsbury , to london university . the exhibition here was organized by the los angeles county museum of art , where it opened last july , in collaboration with the percival david foundation . money came from the national endowment for the arts and the federal_council on the arts and humanities . rosemary scott , the curator of the percival david foundation , assembled the show and produced its splendid catalogue ( 22 . 95 ) . from the 1 , 500 objects in the collection she chose 56 ceramics , 31 of which were potted and painted for , or owned by , the princes of the realm . ''it is a very restricted but representative selection , '' said elizabeth jackson , the secretary librarian of the foundation , in a telephone interview from her london office . ''the exhibition spans the period of the collection and contains some of its finest pieces . '' thinly potted tang and sung vessels are among the show 's more exceptional works , in terms of both their form and their subtle decoration . a pale gray vase from the ninth century , incised from top to base with the mouths , scales , gills , fins and flipped tails of two fish that seem locked together like siamese twins , is a marvel of understatement . the stark simplicity of a 10th century spittoon , its flared cone top set on a ball base , is relieved by its silken gray green glaze . several basins and bowls of the 12th and 13th centuries are surfaced with lacy white on white tracings of leaves , flowers and calligraphic images . one of the most exquisite objects in the show is a 13th century narrow necked pear shape vase glazed icy blue . , the crackles on its surface are evenly spaced like stripes . this was sir percival 's favorite vessel and one of the most admired ceramics in the 1935 exhibition of chinese_art treasures he helped to organize . that show , sponsored by london 's royal_academy at burlington house , included loans from china 's imperial collection . notable among the later works now on display are several boldly decorated outsize vessels . a 25 inch tall temple vase of the yuan dynasty , dated 1351 , is described in the catalogue as one of the most important blue and white porcelains in existence . from chrysanthemum scrolls at the top to peonies at the base , the vessel is lavishly decorated . its handles are blue elephant heads , and its body is covered with soaring phoenixes and a dragon that sweeps around the vase enveloped in clouds . a wilder white dragon decorates a robust blue ming flask , one of very few vessels ornamented with this reverse decoration . a ming turquoise wine jar the size of a soccer ball is decorated with a gilded copper collar and calligraphy aligned like a zipper below the neck . the 18th_century porcelain teapots , jars and dishes are more delicately decorated with birds and blossoms . ''imperial provenance and imperial association have become essential parts of the price structure in the market , '' said james j . lally , a new york dealer in oriental art . ''it always was there , but now it has a renewed importance with the advent of taiwanese and some hong_kong collectors who share this taste . any porcelain in the market today is worth significantly more if it has an imperial reign mark . '' imperial reign marks , designating ceramics made for the sovereigns of china , are scarce , but vessels known to have been in a palace collection and others of comparable refinement are commanding extraordinary prices at auction especially in sotheby 's sales held over the last year in hong_kong . on may 16 , a sung bowl with imperial association once used by scholars to wash brushes was sold for 2 . 82 million , a record at auction for chinese_ceramics . the buyer was identified as a chinese man living in los_angeles . two 18th_century porcelain bowls , decorated with enamels by artisans at the beijing palace workshops , brought 1 million each in different sales . one , a kang hsi vessel formerly in sir percival 's collection that was sold in may , is glazed a bright pink and decorated with a sinuous branch . the other , a chien lung vessel auctioned a year ago , is painted with pink flowers and landscapes on a yellow ground . antiques

has a location of china

lead to the editor to the editor comparing television 's role in the student demonstrations in beijing in 1989 and in chicago two decades ago ''on tiananmen_square , echoes of chicago in '68 , '' june 4 , reuven frank speculates on how long it might have taken to arrange television coverage of the ' 'storming of the winter palace by the bolsheviks in march 1917 . '' mr . frank has got his revolutions scrambled here . the march revolution was a completely spontaneous , unorganized uprising of workers and mutinous soldiers which swept away the monarchy and installed a democratic government in its place . the bolsheviks played almost no part in these events indeed , most of their leaders were in prison or abroad at the time . the bolshevik coup d'etat , which put an end to russia 's brief experiment in democracy , came the following november ( october by the old style russian calendar ) . louis jay herman new york tales of revolt

has a location of china

lead chinese students at many colleges and universities across the united_states have signed a petition to their government on behalf of an american educated molecular biologist who was arrested nearly a year ago in shanghai during a crackdown on political_dissent . chinese students at many colleges and universities across the united_states have signed a petition to their government on behalf of an american educated molecular biologist who was arrested nearly a year ago in shanghai during a crackdown on political_dissent . the petition , dated dec . 18 , is addressed to zhao_ziyang , the chinese party leader . it cites recent reports that the prisoner , yang wei , was about to go on trial in shanghai ''on charges of promoting and instigating counterrevolutionary propaganda . '' the charges refer to articles mr . yang had written for the journal ''china spring , '' published in new york city since 1982 by a chinese emigrant physician , wang bingzhang , founder of the chinese alliance for democracy . in addition , mr . yang was accused of joining dr . wang 's organization and of handing out leaflets during student demonstrations for freer speech and democracy in december 1986 . he was arrested at his parents' home last jan . 11 . constitution is cited the petition noted that some signers might not see eye to eye with mr . yang on his politics and that many did not belong to any political organization . nevertheless , it declared , prosecuting mr . yang for joining an organization and expressing ideas were violations of china 's constitution . ''human_rights situation in china , '' the open_letter said , ''is a major concern of many chinese students and scholars abroad and has drawn a lot of attention of the international_community . '' it said mr . yang 's case was entirely political and belied mr . zhao 's recent assertion that there were no political_prisoners in china . detaining mr . yang for 11 months without formal charges or trial was also contrary to the country 's law on criminal_procedure , the signers said . the petition demanded that the detention of mr . yang be explained and that he and his family be given the right to choose their own defense lawers . it further asked that mr . yang be tried in public , and that his rights to a proper defense be fully assured . finally , the petition requested that representatives of chinese students abroad be allowed to attend the trial or testify for mr . yang and that they be guaranteed freedom to return overseas to resume their studies .

has a location of china

the chinese spacecraft shenzhou_5 blasted off from the gobi desert on wednesday carrying a single astronaut . the launching left government leaders jubilant yet also anxiously awaiting his safe return so china can stake its claim as one of the world 's elite space faring nations . the launching took place about 9 a.m. , according to the state run television_network , cctv . at about 9 30 , the network showed a videotape of the rocket soaring to the heavens . the shenzhou_5 , or divine vessel , is expected to orbit earth 14 times before returning after a voyage of roughly 21 hours . if successful , the mission would make china the third nation to send a man into space , coming more than four decades after the soviet_union and the united_states accomplished the feat at the height of the cold_war . the mission also carries broad political significance for the chinese government , which hopes to win good will and inspire nationalism in its citizens , many of whom regard the communist_party as an increasingly irrelevant political dinosaur . top officials also want to display china 's growing technological savvy and stake a claim to being a world power considered equal to the united_states . until recent days , the mission has been cloaked in secrecy , down to the most basic information , including how many astronauts would be on board . but on wednesday morning the lone astronaut proved to be lt . col . yang liwei , 38 , who was chosen from a pool of 14 . ''i will not disappoint the motherland , '' sina . com , the country 's leading web_site , quoted him as saying . ''i will complete each movement with total concentration . and i will gain honor for the people 's liberation army and for the chinese nation . '' a former pilot , colonel yang became an astronaut after passing an aptitude test in 1993 . soon after he rose aloft this morning , colonel yang was asked by a doctor at the control center about his condition , the new china news_agency reported , and replied , ''i feel good and my conditions are normal . '' assuming he can safely return the spacecraft to its landing spot in inner mongolia , mr . yang would become an instant national hero , putting a human face on a mission that has emphasized the collective technical prowess of the space_program , rather than individuals . ''the successful launching of the shenzhou_5 manned spacecraft is a glory for our great motherland , '' president hu_jintao said in comments issued by the new china news_agency , ''and it signifies that our country has scored an initial victory in this first effort at manned_space flight . it also signifies the chinese people have made another historically significant step forward in their progress toward conquering the summit of world science and technology . '' such promises do not deter skeptics , who note that the chinese military is responsible for the space_program and worry that the shenzhou_5 is a part of a program to develop military applications in space . other analysts say china is developing military oriented space technology but say the shenzhou_5 has little , if any , military application . the mission is expected to conduct some scientific_experiments and is carrying seeds for agricultural tests . the mission would mark the greatest achievement of a space_program whose development has been interrupted by the convulsions of contemporary chinese history . first with the great_leap_forward of the late 1950 's , then later with the cultural_revolution in the 1970 's , china 's domestic turmoil slowed , and at some points stopped , the space_program . in the early 1970 's , china had started a secret program to send a man into space , even selecting a training group of astronauts before the project was canceled . but in 1992 , jiang_zemin , then the president , who remains the leader of the chinese military , which oversees the space_program , signaled china 's renewed ambitions in space with a new program to send a man into orbit . since then , china has launched four unmanned spacecraft , beginning with the shenzhou 1 in november 1999 . the final test run for this week 's launching was the shenzhou 4 last december , which chinese officials say spent seven days in space before returning . in all , putting a man into space took more than a decade . ''china has had a very careful , slow paced buildup to this launch , '' said john m . logsdon , director of the space policy institute at george_washington_university . ''this is the result of a deliberate decision made a decade ago . it 's a very comprehensive program . '' it also has big ambitions . compared with the united_states , where nasa has an annual budget of roughly 15 billion , the chinese space budget of 2 billion is small , though it compares favorably with countries like india and russia . still , the chinese plan to begin exploring the moon , to launch a hubble like space telescope and , possibly , to construct a rival space_station to the existing international_space_station . ''the second phase of our program involves more advanced technologies such as space rendezvous and docking , and will also include the establishment of an outer_space laboratory system , '' said gu yidong , a high ranking space official , in an interview this week with the new china news_agency . mr . gu said china ultimately intended to explore and exploit space , particularly for energy resources , suggesting futuristic possibilities like using space as ''an ideal industrial base . '' the chinese assert that they were actually first to try to send a man into space . a 16th_century ming_dynasty artisan , wan hu , held kites in each hand and strapped himself to a chair equipped with rockets , according to some historical accounts carried in the state news_media . his servants reportedly lit the gunpowder fueled rocket as mr . wan tried to launch himself into the sky . he failed , dying in the explosion .

has a location of china

teapots of silver and porcelain are undoubtedly luxurious , but chinese literati traditionally preferred theirs made of a particular type of purple clay , which they valued more than gold . called zisha ( literally ''purple sand'' ) , it is from yixing , a small town on the west_bank of lake tai about 120 miles west of shanghai . yixing ware is the focus of ''tea , wine and poetry qing dynasty literati and their drinking vessels , '' a small but fascinating exhibition at the china institute gallery , at 125 east 65th street in manhattan , through june 16 . ''this very special clay has been known since the 10th century , but the production of yixing teapots flourished with the popular fashion for tea drinking among the literati in the late ming_dynasty , '' said willow weilan hai chang , the director of the gallery . ''in yixing you have to dig 10 meters down to find the clay , then sift and purify it and let it settle in a hole for a certain period before you can mix it with other ingredients . according to the classics no family would ever share its recipe with another . '' ms . hai chang , a native of china with an advanced degree in archaeology , said the clay had distinctive qualities . ''teapots made of purple sand keep tea fresh , '' she said . ''they make tea vibrate with taste . '' ( yixing ware is still being made . ) edith frankel of the e . j . frankel gallery in new york gives a more scientific explanation in a catalog for a 2005 show on zisha ware . ''the composition of the clay allows for minimal shrinking during firing , and this makes for a tightly fitting lid , which reduces oxidation and holds the tea 's flavor , '' she wrote . ''the porosity of yixing clay also helps it to absorb the flavor of the tea brewed in the teapot . '' but the appeal of purple clay to the literati did not stop with the raw_material . it 's what artists did to it that they treasured . in this show yixing vessels , from the 1500s through the early 1800s , are organized by the potter or by who inspired the potter , whether it be a scholar , poet , designer , calligrapher or seal engraver . ( the qing_dynasty supplanted the ming in 1644 . ) these are thought to be the first chinese pottery items that bear the names of their artists . they are signed with seals and decorated with poetic inscriptions and willow and plum tree branches , some of which have been incised by collaborating artists . ''what is most appealing about qing drinking vessels is the complete integration of form with poetry , calligraphy , painting and seal engraving , '' said shu kong soong , a taiwan architect whose collection forms the core of the exhibition . ''the literary and artistic embellishments of these works arouse both the mind and the senses . no other object in the scholar 's studio can match their artistic complexity and richness . you ca n't get more intense than this . '' the works come in purplish brown , red , terra_cotta and russet , colors enhanced by the patina of long use . in addition to the seals and inscriptions , some are embellished with jade or coral finials , mahogany handles or pewter casings . ''the combination of refined workmanship and literati taste elevated a utilitarian pottery product into a cultural symbol , '' ms . hai chang said . ''yixing ware has remained the favorite choice of tea lovers and collectors until the present day . '' one section is devoted to chen hongshou ( 1768 1822 ) , a prominent artist who was also a magistrate . a bit like the contemporary architect michael_graves , he created teapots in a variety of shapes one resembles a crescent moon , another a bamboo hat . he sketched the shapes for a master teapot craftsman named yang pengnian , who then made ( and signed ) them . ''chen was also famous for seal carving , calligraphy and painting , '' ms . hai chang said . the show has a stone seal he engraved for a friend and album leaves he covered with loose brushstroke paintings of flowers . one bears the inscription ''not bound by rules but excelling over those that delineate without restraint . '' others also experimented with novel forms . one early ocher yellow teapot with the seal of chen mingyuan ( active from the mid 17th to the early 18th_century ) is square and looks completely modern . many of the teapots are small enough to fit in the palm of the hand . ( ''they are meant to be intimately appreciated , '' ms . hai chang said . ) they hold very little tea , which was to be consumed like a fine liqueur . ''only with a tiny sip can you really taste tea , '' said ms . hai chang . ''in fact everything affects the taste of tea . first you want tea grown in high mountains with fog . normally the best tea is harvested before april 5 , when you can find buds with only one leaf attached . then , when brewing the tea , you have more choices what kind of water ? spring water from the mountains is best . how to heat it ? boil it over a fire fueled by dry branches ? this at least is the_dream . '' the show also has a few wine vessels , including an unsigned ming cup in the shape of a curled lotus leaf . in the center is the figure of an old man , a scholar enjoying nature . the clay is covered with lacquer and gold finishes . the cup was designed for a wine drinking game . when it 's full , wine flows out of a hole in the base , which encourages the user to drink up quickly . these vessels are shown with porcelain teacups so small they look as if they were made for a dollhouse gold painted fans with calligraphy and depictions of bamboo and orchids ( ''good plants to show gentlemanly character , '' ms . hai chang said ) a scholar 's rock resembling an elephant 's leg a hanging scroll with a painting of a mountain studio ( to show that scholars were particular about the environment in which they drank their tea ) engraved ink slabs in leaf forms and a lacquer wrist rest with an inscription that tells you how to draw a plum tree ''in painting prunus the brushstrokes should be slim but not fat , similar to a crane standing on an empty islet . '' mr . soong has been collecting antique yixing wares , which are hard to find , since 1983 . ''i was brought up in a family in which the political and cultural demise of traditional china was a constant theme , '' he said . ''the impetus to collect was ignited by the desire to retrace the steps of the past so as to understand the disintegration of the present . the world of purple sand fits into this larger theme , because it evolved into an art form in the late ming and by the 19th_century lost all artistic momentum . the beginning and the end are always on my mind . '' antiques

has a location of china

to her fellow students , hu yingying appears to be a typical undergraduate , plain of dress , quick with a smile and perhaps possessed with a little extra spring in her step , but otherwise decidedly ordinary . and for ms . hu , a sophomore at shanghai normal university , coming across as ordinary is just fine , given the parallel life she leads . for several hours each week she repairs to a little known on campus office crammed with computers , where she logs in unsuspected by other students to help police her school 's internet forums . once online , following suggestions from professors or older students , she introduces politically_correct or innocuous themes for discussion . recently , she says , she started a discussion of what celebrities make the best role models , a topic suggested by a professor as appropriate . politics , even school politics , is banned on university bulletin_boards like these . ms . hu says she and her fellow moderators try to steer what they consider negative conversations in a positive direction with well placed comments of their own . anything they deem offensive , she says , they report to the school 's web master for deletion . during some heated anti japanese demonstrations last year , for example , moderators intervened to cool nationalist passions , encouraging students to mute criticisms of japan . part traffic cop , part informer , part discussion moderator and all without the knowledge of her fellow students ms . hu is a small part of a huge national effort to sanitize the internet . for years china has had its internet police , reportedly as many as 50 , 000 state agents who troll online , blocking web_sites , erasing commentary and arresting people for what is deemed anti communist_party or antisocial speech . but ms . hu , one of 500 students at her university 's newly bolstered , student run internet monitoring group , is a cog in a different kind of force , an ostensibly all volunteer one that the chinese government is mobilizing to help it manage the monumental task of censoring the web . in april that effort was named ''let the winds of a civilized internet blow , '' and it is part of a broader ' 'socialist morality'' campaign , known as the eight honors and disgraces , begun by the country 's leadership to reinforce social and political control . under the civilized internet program , service_providers and other companies have been asked to purge their servers of offensive content , which ranges from pornography to anything that smacks of overt political criticism or dissent . chinese authorities say that more than two million supposedly ''unhealthy'' images have already been deleted under this campaign , and more than 600 supposedly ''unhealthy'' internet forums shut down . critics of the program say the deletions , presented as voluntary acts of corporate civic virtue , are clearly coercive , since no company wants to be singled out as a laggard . having started its own ambitious internet censorship efforts a ''harmful information defense system , '' as the university calls it long before the government 's latest campaign , shanghai normal university is promoting itself within the education establishment as a pioneer . although most of its students know nothing of the university 's monitoring efforts , shanghai normal has conducted seminars for dozens of chinese universities and education officials on how to tame the web . nevertheless , school officials were not eager to talk about the program . ''our system is not very mature , and since we 've just started operating it there 's not much to say about it'' said li ximeng , deputy director of the school 's propaganda department . ''our system is not open for media , and we do n't want to have it appear in the news or be publicized . '' for her part , ms . hu beams with pride over her contribution toward building a ''harmonious society . '' ''we do n't control things , but we really do n't want bad or wrong things to appear on the web_sites , '' she said . ''according to our social and educational systems , we should judge what is right and wrong . and as i 'm a student cadre , i need to play a pioneer role among other students , to express my opinion , to make stronger my belief in communism . '' while the national web censorship campaign all but requires companies to demonstrate their vigilance against what the government deems harmful information , the new censorship drive on college campuses shows greater subtlety and , some would say , greater deviousness . it is here that the government is facing perhaps its most serious challenge how to direct and control young people 's thoughts in a world of increasingly free and diverse information . and the answer relies heavily on stealth . for one thing , interviews with many students at the school 's sprawling and well manicured campus showed that few knew anything about the student run monitoring . even those who had heard of it never imagined that so many students were involved . ''five hundred members sounds unbelievable , '' said a male undergraduate who , fearing official reprisals , asked that he be identified only as zhu . ''it feels very weird to think there are 500 people out there anonymously trying to guide you . '' as they try to steer discussion on bulletin_boards , the monitors pose as ordinary undergraduates , in a bid for greater persuasive power . even topics that to outsiders would seem devoid of political interest merit intervention . one recent discussion about the reported sale online of a video showing the torture of a cat grew heated . some urged harsh punishment or even death to the animal abusers , while others said the video should be sold to the japanese , because of their supposed fondness for perverse material . at that , several monitors jumped in and began talking about the need to develop china 's legal code to handle such matters . the monitors do not see themselves as engaging in censorship or exercising control over the speech of others . in interviews with five of the monitors , each initially rejected the idea that they were controlling expression , and occasionally even spoke of the importance of free_speech . ''our job consists of guidance , not control , '' said ji chenchen , 22 , who is majoring in travel industry studies . ''our bulletin_board 's character is that of an official web_site , which means that it represents the school . this means that no topics related to politics may appear . '' a classmate , tang guochao , agreed . ''a bulletin_board is like a family , and in a family , i want my room to be clean and well lighted , without dirty or dangerous things in it . '' in the past , china 's efforts to control the internet have often foundered in the face of the curiosity and inventiveness of web surfers , who constantly find ingenious ways to find content that is banned and to discuss controversial topics . several students at shanghai normal university said they expected the same thing to happen there . ''i do n't think anybody can possibly control any information in the internet , '' said ji xiaoyin , 20 , a junior studying mechanical design . ''if you 're not allowed to talk here you just go to another place to talk , and there are countless places for your opinions . it 's easy to bypass the firewalls , and anybody who spends a little time researching it can figure it out . ''

has a location of china

lead sotheby 's auctioneers recorded nearly 500 , 000 in sales today at their first auction in china , and the organizers said the profits would go to renovate half a mile of the great_wall . sotheby 's auctioneers recorded nearly 500 , 000 in sales today at their first auction in china , and the organizers said the profits would go to renovate half a mile of the great_wall . ''it 's super , '' julian thompson , an auctioneer and chairman of sotheby 's international , said after 73 chinese and western works of modern_art and rare objects brought a total of 1 . 76 million yuan , or about 475 , 850 . after auction costs of about 100 , 000 , half the remaining money is to go toward renovating the crumbling great_wall and half toward saving the italian city of venice , which is sinking beneath the waters of the lagoon of venice . danial vial , a parisian public_relations agent , who organized the auction as part of four days of events to benefit the great_wall and venice , said enough money was raised to rebuild a kilometer of the wall . parts of the wall were built more than 2 , 200 years ago , and many sections have been reduced to rubble by time and warfare . some bids were made by telephone from new york and los_angeles , but most of the purchasers were among more than 200 wealthy foreigners who paid 4 , 300 each to attend the benefit . the auction was held in the former imperial palace in a 15th_century hall where chinese emperors once worshipped their ancestors . some participants said their purchases would be souvenirs of the unusual benefit , which included a caviar luncheon on the great_wall , boating at an imperial palace and a gala performance by opera and ballet stars at the great_hall of the people . the painting that had been expected to bring the highest price ''china proverb'' by robert rauschenberg went for only 40 , 387 , half its presale_estimate . a painted pottery jug by picasso sold for 14 , 808 , also well below its presale_estimate . the cheapest item was a sevres porcelain cup that went for 500 yuan , or 135 , about half the annual salary of the average chinese factory worker .

has a location of china

for many westerners , it takes a leap of faith to put craft based art like pre columbian textiles , islamic calligraphy or chinese_ceramics on the pedestal reserved for painting and sculpture . yet that leap can prove effortless in the right circumstances . such is the case in " hare 's fur , tortoise shell and partridge feathers chinese brown and black glazed ceramics , 400 1400 , " at the china institute gallery . the concentration of nearly 80 jars , ewers and bowls is physically gorgeous the chromatic variations in the iron rich glazes range from rich pumpkin skin russet to deep space black and has the additional intrigue of fresh scholarly spadework . the show , organized by robert d . mowry for the arthur m . sackler_museum at harvard , sets important precedents . it 's the first american exhibition devoted to the dark glazed wares that enjoyed an on and off vogue in china for nearly a millennium . and it is the first systematic study of where , when and why these elegantly somber works were made . much of the information comes from intensive archeological research in china , particularly in the last decade . the excavation of legendary kiln sites , some dating back to the han dynasty ( 206 b.c . to a.d . 220 ) has led to a refined chronology for the whole ceramic tradition . the show 's fine catalogue draws a complex picture of ceramic styles rising and falling with shifts in politics and taste . the green celadon wares preferred by aristocrats of the tang_dynasty ( 618 907 ) , for instance , gave way to darker wares during the sung ( 960 1279 ) , and these in turn were replaced by the polychrome porcelains of the mongol yuan dynasty ( 1272 1368 ) . different kilns were favored with patronage at different times , and those that sustained the highest visibility developed signature glazing techniques . the exhibition 's title comes from names of the three most famous styles developed in the sung period , the golden age of dark glazed ceramics . " hare 's fur " refers to radiating patterns of brown or silver streaks on the black grounds , associated with the jian kilns in the 11th century . the light brown mottling on a dark ground known as " tortoise shell " was characteristic of the jizhou kilns in the 12th and 13th centuries . " partridge feathers " describes the rust colored swells against jet black perfected by cizhou potters from the 11th to 14th centuries . these and other styles overlapped in time and few disappeared entirely . old forms were repeatedly updated consumers changed from aristocrats to bourgeoisie . sometimes a ceramic type found a vigorous life outside china . this was true when black glazed tea bowls were carried to japan by buddhist monks in the 12th_century and became permanent fixtures in the japanese tea ceremony . fashions in tea consumption , in fact , played a crucial role in shaping ceramic styles . teas preferred by taste makers of the tang_dynasty were red and were thought to look best in the green celadon bowls . sung enthusiasm ran to white leaf tea . ground to a powder and whisked into a milky froth , it was seen to advantage in the brown and black glazed wares on view here . in the slightly later yuan period , green_tea was all the rage , and only light or multi colored porcelains would do . in such domestic fads and they were domestic even when elevated to the status of court rituals the social and the esthetic tellingly merge . changes in ceramic forms and in gustatory habits were as much indicators of political activity as successive painting styles were in europe . and the fashion for different teas , which dictated the color of the bowls they were designed to hold , remains a fugitive , abstract component in the beauty of these objects . beauty and abstraction are the chief ingredients in the hard to define poetry of the ceramics at the china institute . the glazes themselves feel symbolically allusive , with colors and textures evocative of physical sensations a loamy brown seems to carry the scent of damp earth a russet orange suggests the heat of fire a mottled blue purple has the mouth watering tactility of the skin of a fruit . even monochrome surfaces seem to hold subliminal graphic images a sprinkling of silver dots on the inside of a conical bowl looks like a constellation filled night sky . and when images are made explicit , they are often stylized to near abstraction . flying phoenixes on a southern sung bottle have a calligraphic flair peonies on a wine jar are ornamental clusters of flamelike curves . images of nature resonate with deep moral significance in chinese_culture , and even a passing familiarity with taoist and buddhist thought is valuable for understanding chinese_art . one does n't have to look too far to see that the world_view animating the great landscape paintings is also implicit in the modest span of a ceramic dish . contemporary western viewers come to chinese_art with perceptual advantages of their own . fluent in the language of modernist abstraction , they are familiar with the concepts that pure color and line can be vehicles of thought , that the decorative can be a radically expressive mode and that accident and intention can have equal status in the making of art . seen from this perspective , the ceramics at the china institute would have been right at home in the guggenheim_museum 's recent survey of 20th_century abstract paintings . with one difference . where those paintings were created as icons , meant to occupy the shrinelike precincts of a museum , a jar or a bowl in " hare 's fur , tortoise shell and partridge feathers " was made for other places and purposes to warm the hand that lifted it on a cold winter evening or to bring tea to thirsty lips on a summer afternoon . such intimacy is foreign to the western concept of high art , though a careful look at mondrian 's touch rich abstractions might argue otherwise . yet it is the sense of a universe held in the hand that underlies all of the objects here . " hare 's fur , tortoise shell and partridge feathers chinese brown and black glazed ceramics , 400 1400 " remains at the china institute gallery , 125 east 65th street , manhattan , through july 6 . art review

has a location of china

lead beijing 's first large scale auction of antiques ended today with overpriced items going once , going twice and gone back to the warehouse . beijing 's first large scale auction of antiques ended today with overpriced items going once , going twice and gone back to the warehouse . of 33 antiques valued at 270 , 000 , only three of the cheapest items , bought by a japanese businessman and his friends for 2 , 168 , received bids . ''we 'd buy if the prices were reasonable , '' said a hong_kong businessman who left before the auction ended . ''but the prices are way too high . they do n't know how to auction . they 're starting far too high . '' 400 attend auction more than 400 people , including about 40 foreigners , attended the auction , which was sponsored by the beijing auction market , a state run organization that obtains most of its goods from antique stores . the auction market opened last month with a little publicized sale of less expensive items that garnered 27 , 400 . today 's auction , which the sponsors said was the capital 's first large scale official sale of antiques , attracted more attention , bringing in diplomats , foreign businessmen and their spouses looking for bargains . the only bargain was the entry fee , a modest 2 . 70 . many of the most expensive items were antique copies of older pieces , such as a 17th_century reproduction of a scroll from the song dynasty ( 960 1126 ) that had a starting bid price of 81 , 000 . an original 19th_century scroll with a starting price of 27 , 000 was ignored by bidders , as were several vases and bowls going for 8 , 100 and up . pottery figure brings 622 the japanese businessman finally broke the no bid ice on the 17th item when he paid 622 for the least expensive item on the list , a pottery figure dating to the sui dynasty ( 581 618 ) . the businessman and his companions also bought a song dynasty bowl for 868 and a bronze mirror from the tang_dynasty ( 618 907 ) for 678 . the auction market in beijing is the fifth to open in china . the press here has praised the markets as another means to speed up the circulation of goods and promote a market based economy . chinese will get a second chance to see high priced art on the block on sunday , when sotheby 's auctions off 67 lots of modern chinese and western art . proceeds are to go to a fund to restore the great_wall and the italian city of venice .

has a location of china

some chinese internet users seeking the popular search_engine google today instead are now instantly routed to globepage , which calls itself the ''premier asian search_engine . '' others typed in the letters www . google . com and were seamlessly linked to www . online . sh . cn , or shanghai hotline . ''one of china 's best internet content providers'' reads a banner on its opening page . it is run by china_telecom , the dominant fixed line phone and internet company . the diversions are an intensification of an effort to block access to google that began last week , and they appear to represent an unusually strong campaign to funnel chinese internet traffic into sites the government deems friendly and safe . analysts described the reroutings as an attempt to trick chinese users by replacing the united_states based search_engine with beijing backed services that offer carefully filtered content the equivalent of ordering a grand cru and getting grape juice . ''this is the furthest they 've ever gone to try to create a dumbed down web , '' said duncan clark of b.d.a . china , a telecommunications consultancy . ''they determined to provide only a web that 's fit to see . '' since china first began regulating internet_access in the mid 1990 's , officials have oscillated between embracing the new medium as a way to invigorate china 's economy and viewing it as a dangerous forum for subversion that could undermine the authoritarian government . many experts argue that china has so far succeeded in taming the internet . some 46 million chinese now have access to the web , and it has become an integral part of business and academic life . but the authorities have used a variety of high tech methods to make it difficult for government opponents to use the web or spread their message widely . the new controls on google and another american internet search_engine , altavista , at least temporarily reverse a trend toward looser restrictions that took hold during the past year , when china unblocked access to some major media sites , including those run by the new york times and cnn . those sites remained available to chinese users today , though some people reported that china 's internet monitors now selectively deny access to news content on those sites . authorities have applied particularly heavy pressure on the media before a leadership transition scheduled to take place in november . jiang_zemin , china 's president and communist_party secretary , is expected to hand over at least some of his duties to a new generation of party officials . while china 's media watchdogs always scrutinize content on the internet as well as on television and in newspapers , officials often increase censorship during times of political stress . google , based in mountain_view , calif . , is immensely_popular in china because it provides nearly instantaneous links to millions of chinese web addresses and documents . google offers chinese users a special page that makes it possible to search for web content in chinese_characters . but unlike rival search engines like yahoo , google does not have a subsidiary based in china and does not filter content for local users to comply with beijing 's rules . while the authorities have blocked access to popular web_sites in the past , some local users expressed outrage today as internet censors began automatically rerouting them to other search engines that chinese officials like better . some of them described the redirecting as an expropriation of google 's internet address and a violation of the company 's intellectual_property , with one correspondent speculating that the behavior could cause ''a big international lawsuit . '' ''changing a web address is clearly a serious violation of china 's own laws , '' a correspondent using the name fantast wrote on an internet bulletin_board . ''this kind of behavior , if it continues , will turn into a disaster for the country . '' another user , with the online identity emos , added , ''i would like the government to give some reasons why it is doing this . '' users who tried to access google were redirected to sites that have registered with the chinese government and follow strict censorship procedures . many of them have reported record traffic in recent days . they include tianwang , a search_engine run by beijing_university baidu . com , financed by american investors and yahoo . the contrast between the favored sites and google can be stark . a search for information related to jiang_zemin on google turned up 154 , 000 references . the first one listed was a link to a web_site bitterly critical of the chinese president run by falun_gong , a religious sect the chinese government has sought to suppress . an identical search on yahoo produced just six references . the first one is the ''life story of president jiang_zemin'' written by the people 's daily , the voice of the chinese communist party . chinese officials have not publicly explained the blocking of google or altavista , and people contacted at china_telecom 's internet arm said they had no idea why their users were being shepherded to sites they did not choose to visit . beijing legal times , a government controlled newspaper , reported that china telecommunications administration and public_security_bureau shut down google because it contained ''harmful content . '' the report also claimed that google provided services for american intelligence agencies , though it offered no evidence . it said that when the name of ''a certain , unnamed state leader'' was fed into the search function , one of the first sites to pop up was ''an insulting game directed at him . ''

has a location of china

the restaurant in the fashionable qianhai district is almost empty , courtesy of the afternoon rains , though a small young woman is sitting on an upstairs sofa , slightly uncomfortable in her chic surroundings . with her oval glasses , shy demeanor and slightly hunched posture , the woman , liu di , looks like a bookworm . what she does not look like is a threat to anything , certainly not china 's government . yet the government has already imprisoned her for a year . in recent months , during significant dates on the political calendar , officials have posted security officers outside the beijing apartment she shares with her grandmother . ''they think i 'm a dangerous figure , '' said ms . liu , 23 , giggling slightly at the thought as she picked at a thai rice dish . it is ms . liu 's other identity that has made her a target of the communist_party . known on the internet as stainless_steel mouse , she is a dissident whose incarceration over her writings attracted international attention from human_rights groups that demanded , and eventually helped win , her release . even now , roughly eight months after she was freed , ms . liu must live a watchful life . upon her release , she resumed her studies at beijing normal university , yet for months administrators left it unclear whether she would be allowed to graduate . she monitored courses until she was finally awarded her diploma in late june with a degree in psychology . she did not attend the ceremony . she still does not have a full time job , nor is she certain when , if ever , she will cease to draw the government 's attention . it has been a disorienting , dizzying ride for a quiet woman who rarely grants interviews and who says she has always felt like something of a misfit . it was , in fact , in cyberspace where she first felt accepted . ''to me , the internet is a huge virtual space , '' she said . ''it is so different from real life . you can be more free . '' ms . liu first logged onto that other world when she was in college . she had grown up in beijing in a family that revered books . her father worked in the library of the china fine_arts museum , while her mother was a factory worker who died when she was 15 . her grandmother was a reporter for the government 's main newspaper , people 's daily . an awkward and shy child , she retreated into books , particularly science_fiction . she was struck by orwell 's ''1984 , '' with its grim warning against totalitarianism . ''it 's very horrific , '' she said . ''i had never thought about how human nature could be so dark . '' by middle_school , she had decided to become a writer and chose psychology as her college major because to write she thought she ''needed to know more about human beings . '' on campus in 2000 , ms . liu noticed other students staring into their computers . ''a lot of other students were logging on , so i started , '' she said . she combed through online college bulletin_boards and personal web_sites before searching deeper and finding voices of discontent . ''there were a lot of opinions and stories that could n't be seen in newspapers , '' she recalled . ''i liked it . '' in cyberspace , ms . liu found her community . she plumbed literature for a nom de plume , trying clockwork orange and banana fish ( a j.d . salinger reference ) before settling on stainless_steel mouse , from the science_fiction of harry harrison . she began participating in discussions on a web_site called ''democracy and freedom , '' which is often at odds with the government . by 2001 , she opened her own site , much of it dedicated to literature , but she also published some articles calling for more freedom . as cyberspace became her home , she began to defend what the chinese call netcitizens . she wrote an essay defending a man jailed because of political postings on his web_site . she defended another intellectual singled out by the government for organizing a reading association and for posting political essays online . she wrote a critical attack on an advocate of nationalism and began dabbling in satire and parody at the government 's expense . in one posting , she called for the organization of a new political_party in which anyone could join and everyone could be chairman . she said it was a spoof . but by september 2002 , college administrators issued a warning . ''they said the postings i published on the web went too far , '' she said . ''some of the stuff i thought was written in a joking manner . but they thought it was too far . '' terrified , she said , she scaled back on her online writing . but two months later , administrators ordered her to the campus police station , where officers took her to a beijing prison . she was put in a cell with three other women , including a convicted murderer . even today , she says she does not know which of her essays led to her arrest . ''i think a normal government should not be challenged by these writings , '' she said . ''we are not promoting violence . we 're not organizing to challenge the government . '' in prison , she underwent some interrogation sessions . she said that she was frightened initially but that she was treated fairly well . she said that she had two meetings with a lawyer , and that her family was allowed to bring her books , magazines and university textbooks . she also learned from a guard that she was becoming famous in the outside world . human_rights groups were holding up her case to protest the government 's treatment of internet dissidents . shortly before prime_minister wen_jiabao was scheduled to visit the united_states last november , the government suddenly released ms . liu and two other internet dissidents . her father escorted her from the prison , and she cried when she got home . of the international outcry over her arrest , ms . liu said she was stunned . ''i 'm delighted that people care about me , '' she said . she spent her first month out of prison under house_arrest at her father 's apartment . then , on christmas day , she was told house_arrest had ended . in the end , she said she was never formally charged with a crime . but since her release , security officers have twice been posted outside her apartment in march , during the annual meeting of the national people 's congress , china 's legislature and on june 4 , the 15th anniversary of the government crackdown against pro_democracy protesters at tiananmen_square . even so , ms . liu has resumed writing . several months ago , she signed an online petition calling for the release of du daobin , another online internet essayist . ( mr . du had been jailed after calling for her release from prison . he was recently convicted of subversion but was given a suspended_sentence . ) she recently wrote an article in a hong_kong magazine criticizing the arrest of two crusading newspaper editors in southern china . asked why she takes such risks given her history , she said , ''it 's the right thing for me to do , so i 'm going to keep doing it . '' she still surfs the internet late into the night . government monitors have managed to block her name stainless_steel mouse from some web_sites . but she said she sometimes uses another moniker titanium alloy mouse . ''stainless_steel is low end , '' she said , smiling . ''titanium steel is much higher end . '' the saturday profile

has a location of china

lead a series of major earthquakes rocked northern china wednesday night and today , killing at least 29 people and injuring hundreds in largely rural areas west of beijing , the authorities reported today . a series of major earthquakes rocked northern china wednesday night and today , killing at least 29 people and injuring hundreds in largely rural areas west of beijing , the authorities reported today . officials estimated that 5 , 000 to 8 , 000 homes were destroyed , and it was clear that the death toll might climb further . because of a combination of poor communications and roads and a reluctance to spread bad news , information about natural_disasters is seldom rapidly available in china . the quakes began at 10 57 p.m . wednesday ( 10 57 a.m . eastern time ) , with a temblor measuring 5.7 on the richter_scale . at least four more measuring 5.0 or above were reported during the night , including the strongest quake , which came at 1 01 a.m . today and measured about 6 on the richter_scale . that quake could be felt in beijing , where it swayed tall buildings but caused no reported damage . yungang cave area affected the epicenter of the quakes was said to be around the border of hebei and shanxi provinces , in north central china . at least some of deaths occurred near the city of datong , which has a population of one million and is known for its yungang caves , containing enormous carved buddhas dating from the fifth century a.d . it is not known if the caves were affected . the latest aftershock occurred at 6 29 p.m . today , registering 5.1 on the richter_scale but causing no known damage . hundreds of lesser aftershocks were also recorded . officials did not link the quakes in china with the temblor in california on tuesday , and there was no apparent connection . a spokesman for the chinese foreign ministry today offered condolences to the families of victims in the california quake . the official new china news_agency reported tonight that 29 people had been killed and 34 injured in the quakes . the government sponsored china news service , which has more independence and is often more accurate , said several hundred people had been injured . the associated press reported that at least 150 people were injured . the government has offered scarcely any information about the earthquakes , and the latest dispatch from the new china news_agency contained just three terse paragraphs . the people 's daily carried a small item about the quakes , but no news on casualties , at the bottom of the front page today , and tonight 's television news did not mention the quakes . in part , the reticence is simply the consequence of lack of clear information and the difficulty of finding out what is happening in remote areas of rural china . but like many other countries , china has been traditionally reluctant to give out much information about natural_disasters . 240 , 000 killed in 1976 the biggest quake in recent chinese history came in the summer of 1976 , as chairman_mao was dying and the ''gang of four'' was consolidating its power . that quake , which was focused on the northern city of tangshan , killed 240 , 000 people . at the time of the tangshan quake , almost nothing was known of the casualties . over the next few months and years , word gradually filtered out about the extent of the tragedy , and now the government acknowledges the damage by way of saying how rapidly the city has been rebuilt . an earthquake last nov . 6 in yunnan_province of southwestern china killed about 730 people , the authorities disclosed 12 days later . in giving a final assessment of the nov . 6 earthquake , seismology officials also disclosed that a 1970 quake in the same area had killed 10 , 000 people . there had been no previous report of casualties from the 1970 quake , although it had been noted by foreign seismologists . the california quake china

has a location of china

an f.b.i . agent admitted in federal court here today that he had provided inaccurate testimony last december on a critical point that made a los_alamos scientist accused of mishandling nuclear_weapons secrets appear deceptive when he had not been . the issue is crucial because the government has successfully argued since last december that the scientist , wen_ho_lee , be held without bail in part because his pattern of deceptions , along with the fact that computer tapes containing a vast amount of nuclear_secrets remain unaccounted for , suggested he was a major threat to national_security . in his written decision denying bail last december , the federal_judge , james a . parker , cited dr . lee 's ' 'deeply_troubling'' deceptions . dr . lee is trying for bail a third time , and the government is now acknowledging what amounts to misleading testimony . dr . lee is the first person to be accused under the specific atomic_energy statute cited in his 59 count indictment , and a growing number of asian_americans and civil_rights advocates have rallied to his side , saying he was singled out at least in part because of his chinese ancestry . robert a . messemer , an f.b.i . supervisory special agent , had said under oath last december that when dr . lee improperly downloaded weapons secrets six years ago onto portable computer tapes he lied to a colleague , kuok mee ling , in order to get permission to use dr . ling 's computer . mr . messemer testified that dr . lee told dr . ling that he was just going to download a resume , which was not true . but since then , dr . lee 's defense lawyers have gained access to dr . ling 's previous grand_jury testimony , and it does not mention dr . lee speaking of a resume . mr . messemer today acknowledged that he had made ''an honest error'' on this critical point in his december testimony . ''at no time did i intentionally provide false testimony , '' he said . ''i made a simple inadvertent error . '' mr . messemer insisted that , in other areas , dr . lee had indeed been deceptive . there were , however , several other instances in which the defense appeared to show that the government had misled the judge in describing dr . lee 's supposed deceptions . mr . messemer had testified at the december bail hearing that dr . lee had not disclosed certain contacts with chinese scientists during officially_sanctioned , professional visits to beijing in the 1980 's . but the defense lawyers have since obtained a report dr . lee filed after a 1986 trip in which he listed seven chinese scientists with whom he had spoken . mr . messemer also acknowledged that , though dr . lee had clearly disclosed the contacts , he was never subsequently questioned about them . mr . messemer also disclosed that he had never consulted dr . lee 's trip report before testifying in december . he still maintained that dr . lee had been deceptive because he had not been open about ''the full nature and scope'' of his contacts . the government contends that until dr . lee faced questioning a year ago , he failed to report a highly suspicious meeting with a chinese scientist in his hotel room in a 1988 visit . the government also insists that dr . lee 's downloading of the huge library of weapons secrets was itself a deliberate act of deception that took more than 40 hours of computer time and that he had knowingly violated rules on the handling of classified data . none of the statements in court here today or yesterday appeared decisive . the government presented weapons experts who insisted that dr . lee 's downloading was unprecedented and a grave threat to national_security because the data , in hostile hands , could alter the global balance of power . the defense offered its own experts who insisted that most of the information was already public and that its usefulness to another country was extremely limited . in one tense exchange , paul robinson , the president of the sandia national laboratories and a witness for the prosecution , said that one defense expert , harold m . agnew , a former director of the los_alamos_national_laboratory , had simply not understood the information dr . lee downloaded or had not understood the threat posed by dr . lee 's actions . dr . agnew fired off a written affidavit to the court yesterday in response to that testimony , saying , ''what paul said is a bunch of bull , '' and then rebuted parts of dr . robinson 's testimony . in two other areas today , defense lawyers tried to show that government witnesses had provided misleading evidence in december . mr . messemer had said dr . lee failed to disclose correspondence with some chinese scientists , saying he had only exchanged christmas cards . today , one of dr . lee 's lawyers , mark holscher , produced a transcript of an interview with dr . lee and the f.b.i . on march 5 , 1999 , in which dr . lee did discuss correspondence with the chinese scientists . in addition , mr . messemer said in december that in the search of dr . lee 's home , the f.b.i . had found letters that dr . lee had sent to several foreign scientific institutes seeking a job . the prosecution has said in previous filings that they believe the principal reason dr . lee improperly downloaded the nuclear_secrets was to enhance his job prospects with the foreign institutes . but under questioning , mr . messemer acknowledged today that the f.b.i . had found some letters but had no evidence they were either mailed or received by the foreign institutions , which were in countries like australia , france , singapore and switzerland . the bail hearing will resume on friday . judge parker has allowed the examinations and cross examinations of the witnesses , much of it in closed sessions because it involved classified_information , to go on far longer than is usual at bail hearings .

has a location of china

for most people , chinese_ceramics means ming and ching dainty white vases with blue hermits meditating in soggy blue forests , hulking green pots with flowers crawling over them , or little teacups with red and blue dragons chasing in circles . even the museum quality examples of this stuff are uncomfortably reminiscent of hotel rooms and chinese restaurants . the ceramics in " new finds , old treasures early chinese_ceramics from the meiyintang collection , " at the asia_society , do not look like hotel room furniture . for one thing , the most recent objects in the show date from the 13th century and were made for the imperial court . in contrast , the ming and ching styles date from the 14th century to early this century and were made largely for export . the chinese kept the good stuff for themselves . ( did n't you always suspect as much ? ) for another , the exhibition begins in the fifth millennium b.c. , long before the emergence of anything recognizable as " chinese " culture . the pottery of the yangshao era ( 5000 to 1500 b.c. ) is decorated with geometric motifs similar to those on african and archaic greek pottery another reminder that abstraction is a fundamental tendency of the human mind , not an aberration of 20th_century art . the shang and chou dynasties , from around 1500 to 221 b.c. , are the great age of chinese bronzes , and the ceramics of this period are often the same shape as the bronze vessels . what 's surprising is that the ceramics seem to have different , more linear decorative motifs . the dragon mask ( tao tieh ) motif , which is nearly ubiquitous on the bronzes , is nowhere in evidence on the ceramics . a wonderful han dynasty jar ( just before the beginning of the christian era ) bears a scene of a mounted archer pursuing a tiger , surrounded by curving bands of white , beige and lavender it seems more reminiscent of indian than of chinese painting . only in the tang period ( a . d . 618 to 906 ) do the ceramics begin to look definitely chinese . several of the objects in this section of the show an earthenware camel , a tomb figure of a seated woman and a phoenix headed ewer have the distinctive combination of brownish red , blue and green glazes known as sancai . what 's special about sancai is not merely the choice of colors ( often imitated in later centuries ) but also the casualness of their application seemingly poured over the object , leaving large areas of raw clay bare . by the seventh century , chinese potters had reached a kind of sophistication that we often think of as particular to our own time . tired of technical perfection , they enlivened the exquisitely controlled forms of their work with a rough , haphazard use of color . this deliberate contradiction was refined in the sung period ( a . d . 960 to 1279 ) , which marks the high point of chinese_ceramics . in the ru , ge and guan styles of these centuries , simple shapes and subtle blue green glazes were enhanced with a network of tiny cracks called crazing . a label explains that the first cracks to appear were stained black , while the secondary cracks were colored golden brown the combination was known as " iron wires and golden threads . " after the imposing refinement of these pieces , it 's almost a relief to turn to the pottery of the liao , a " barbarian " tribe that conquered the north of china in the early 12th_century . the liao potters revived the warm colors of the sancai glazes , applying them over incised patterns of leaves and flowers that look like line drawings by matisse . throughout the exhibition , the objects are accompanied by wall texts and explanatory labels that provide just enough background for the layman while hinting at the more complex questions that preoccupy scholars . from room to room , the labels trace the technical evolution of the ceramics , from crude earthenware to harder stoneware up through the evolution of porcelain , made from special clays that fuse into the hardness and translucency of glass . a set of white bowls and cups from the eighth century may be nothing much to look at , but it is the direct ancestor of the plates of today . other labels explore the opposition between popular and court styles actually , it turns out that the latest archeological discoveries suggest that these were less different than scholars have thought . the unexplained mystery here has to do with the anonymous swiss collection from which the exhibition is drawn . ( " meiyintang " is not the name of the owners but a chinese word meaning " hall among rose beds . " ) the two volume catalogue available in the asia_society bookstore reveals that the 80 objects in the exhibition are merely a fraction of the collection . some of the objects here have long been famous , others are recent finds hence the show 's title , " new finds , old treasures . " it would be nice to learn more about the history of the collection in the meantime , it 's our good fortune to get a glimpse of its contents . " new finds , old treasures early chinese_ceramics from the meiyintang collection " remains at the asia_society galleries , 725 park_avenue , at 70th street , through june 18 . art review

has a location of china

orville schell , a journalist and author who is one of the nation 's top china experts , has been appointed director of the asia_society 's newly established center on u.s . china relations , the society is to announce today . mr . schell , 66 , currently the dean of the graduate_school_of_journalism at the university of california , berkeley , will take over immediately but remain at the university until the spring . he will step down as dean but keep his faculty position . mr . schell said the center would conduct research , organize symposiums and work to educate the public on ''this incredibly important and complicated and sometimes manic relationship between the united_states and china . '' among the most pressing issues facing the two nations are the environment , intellectual_property , trade and human_rights , he said . ''global_warming is not going to be solved unless the united_states and china figure out how to do it , '' mr . schell said . ''everybody else is a bit player . '' equally important , mr . schell said , is whether china can ''peacefully evolve toward a more prosperous , democratic , environmentally sound society . '' based in new york , the center was established with a gift from arthur ross , a life trustee at the asia_society . ( mr . schell 's official title will be the arthur ross director . ) the organization will coordinate its research and education efforts with those of asia_society outlets around the world and with various institutes and policy organizations that focus on china . richard c . holbrooke , the chairman of the asia_society , who among numerous other past posts served as assistant secretary of state for east asian and pacific affairs from 1977 to 1981 , emphasized that the institute was not ''a lobbying group to set policy . '' ''this is to create a broader base of understanding between the two most important countries in the world , who are having an uncertain relationship right now , '' he said . mr . schell 's reporting on china has sometimes been highly critical , particularly after the government crackdown on tiananmen_square protesters in 1989 . but he is not associated with a political position , said vishakha n . desai , president of the asia_society . ''especially in the last decade , orville has been very involved with developing a collaborative relationship , without being an apologist or a critic , '' she said . ''that independent thinking is very important . '' mr . schell , the author of 14 books , 9 of them on china , contributes to numerous magazines and newspapers , including the new york times . he has also been a frequent commentator on network television . born in new york , he earned his bachelor 's degree at harvard_university with a major in far eastern history . he earned his master 's and doctoral degrees in chinese studies at berkeley . in the 1960 's he was an exchange student at national taiwan university . his wife , liu baifang , is chinese , and two of their three children are now studying in china . mr . schell also worked for the ford_foundation in indonesia and covered the war in indochina as a journalist for the new yorker and other publications . ''this country has worked its way into my life , lo , these 40 years , and in many ways it 's nice to come back to it full time , '' he said of china . ''china is one of those places where , once you get stuck on it or it on you it 's not easy to detach . '' correction_october 2 , 2006 , monday an article in the arts on tuesday about the appointment of the journalist orville schell as director of the asia_society 's new center on u.s . china relations included incorrect information from the society about his reporting on the war in indochina . although he wrote for several publications , the new yorker was not one of them . because of an editing error , the article also referred incorrectly to mr . schell 's academic record at the university of california , berkeley . although he worked toward a doctoral degree in chinese studies and passed his ph . d . oral examination , he did not earn his doctorate .

has a location of china

tapping away at one of his computers in a cramped two room apartment in western beijing , lloyd zhao is engaged in an extraordinarily dangerous endeavor searching through the night for holes in the electronic wall that the government has built to keep chinese from seeing web_sites of falun_gong , the outlawed spiritual movement . periodically , firewall programs that mr . zhao has installed on his computer detect a signal from another computer in china that is trying to identify him . the string of numbers from the snooping computer that appear on mr . zhao 's screen can invariably be traced to a branch of the public_security_bureau . ''they look for anyone who tries to reach falun_gong web_sites overseas , '' says the shaggy haired mr . zhao , 33 , a fervent falun_gong follower and an advanced computer technician . when the surveillance becomes too intense , he switches internet accounts , operating systems , even hard disk drives and telephone lines to mask his online identity . he says the threat of detection will not dissuade him from his self appointed mission to keep open the lines of communication between the discipline 's united_states based founder , li_hongzhi , and followers here , where a government campaign to eradicate the movement has entered what beijing hopes is the endgame . since china set out to crush falun_gong nearly two years ago , as many as 200 people have died , possibly thousands have been beaten or tortured , and millions have been cowed into renouncing their faith in mr . li 's apocalyptic cosmology . on wednesday , chinese officials confirmed a human_rights report of a mass_suicide by falun_gong followers in a labor_camp , but falun_gong adherents continued to insist that the inmates were tortured to death . page_a10 . but mr . zhao and hundreds like him continue to elude china 's internal security forces , using temporary cell phone numbers , encryption programs and obscure internet_services based overseas to keep the remaining network of followers connected . that makes mr . zhao one of the ' 'most dangerous'' of falun_gong 's remaining proponents , according to he zuoxiu , a physicist and a communist_party member who has played an integral role in having the movement banned . mr . he says falun_gong is an evil cult that , unchallenged , could threaten china 's tenuous stability , should it galvanize the millions of people disenfranchised by the transition from a centrally_planned to a market driven economy . sitting in his apartment a few miles from mr . zhao 's apartment , mr . he said people like mr . zhao should be hunted down and locked up until they have recanted their beliefs . the two men , separated not only by age but also by spiritual beliefs mr . he , 74 , is an avowed atheist , and mr . zhao believes in multiple gods are on opposite sides of a confrontation that has drawn considerable attention in the west , in part because it represents the most sustained challenge to communist_party authority in more than a decade . on one side is a group that believes that it is engaged in a battle with evil beings for control of the universe . on the other is a government that promotes atheism and feels so threatened by a relative handful of people that it has marshaled the full force of its police power to bend them to its will . ''the number of followers is getting smaller , and the crackdown is growing fiercer , but it 's going to end with our victory soon , '' mr . zhao said at one of many recent interviews , almost always at restaurants or bars or shopping_malls around the city , for which his lanky frame , clad in black , would suddenly emerge from the crowd at the appointed hour . mr . zhao said he had decided to speak out because master li says followers should step forward to ''validate'' falun_gong . mr . zhao said he believed that the authorities would find it difficult to identify him , because zhao is a common surname in china . he asked that this article use his anglicized first name , which he uses with foreigners but which does not appear on any of his identity papers . one meeting was in a private room on the second floor of a thai indian restaurant where mr . zhao and two visitors were obliged to order too much food to buy some isolation . yet he still chose his words carefully , stopping in midsentence whenever a waitress passed by outside or entered the room . no matter where he is , his eyes have a habit of looking out their corners as if he were listening for footfalls from behind . he turns vague when asked how the end will come . under attack , falun_gong has evolved from a well regulated movement with a structure not unlike that of the communist_party into a nonhierarchical mass movement whose structure mirrors that of the internet , on which it depends . there are no longer any national falun_gong posts in china , only local volunteer ''tutors'' and ''facilitators'' like mr . zhao who look to master li for guidance . although mr . zhao is an important node in that network , he is the first to concede that he and his friends are dispensable . if they are caught , he said , other devotees will take their place . the communist_party can punch large holes in the falun_gong movement . but until the government ' 're educates'' or imprisons every last true believer , he explained , the network will endure . still , the destruction of the group 's internal hierarchy has fragmented its members into loosely connected groups , some following charismatic tutors or even fake scriptures that are circulating in china . interpretations of mr . li 's messages now vary_widely among followers . one manifestation of the less cohesive dogma may have been the self immolation of followers this year on tiananmen_square , an act that senior followers in the united_states say went against mr . li 's teachings . inspiration after bar binges , a spiritual quest mr . zhao got his start on computers in the early 1980 's . by the time he reached his 20 's , he was among the first computer geeks in china , going days without sleep while he hacked away at his keyboard . his expertise later landed him a string of high tech jobs . one was at a company that installed pinhole video cameras and other surveillance equipment in hotel rooms . for years , he softened the edges of his spiritually arid life among computers with binges in beijing 's bars . with beer , cigarettes and sleep_deprivation , his health deteriorated to the point that he began losing his teeth . he speaks today with a self consciously stiff_upper_lip that hides a gap where his eyeteeth once were . many falun_gong followers live in an industrial urban jumble of half finished concrete shells , smokestacks and high tension power lines where traditional religion has been replaced by official atheism . mr . li , a former clerk in a government grain bureau , was among dozens of self styled ' 'masters'' who stepped in to fill that void in the early 90 's with spiritual disciplines based on the practice of traditional_chinese breathing exercises that seek to channel qi , the body 's vital energy , to improve health or obtain supernatural powers . he wrapped his exercises in a complex cosmology that mixed traditional religious tenets with popular notions of extraterrestrials and u.f.o . 's to create a vivid belief system that struck a chord with many chinese who were searching for moral and spiritual guidance . in 1996 , a friend sent mr . zhao an e mail message that directed him to a falun_gong web_site in the united_states . he logged onto the site and spent the night reading an online edition of zhuan falun , mr . li 's main text , which followers regard as their bible . mr . zhao bought a copy the next day . three days later , he said , he stopped smoking and drinking and was immersed in the world that mr . li presents . at its core , mr . li 's message is a simple one be a better person and you will be saved . he cast his followers in the pivotal role of a cosmic morality play , the aspect that most attracted mr . zhao . ''master li has said that there is not much time left , and so all followers should grasp this chance to reached the highest spiritual level that they can before the day comes , '' mr . zhao said at another meeting , this time beneath the soaring escalators of a new shopping_mall here . ''my aspirations are different now . i 'm pursuing the improvement of my inner self . '' at the peak of the movement two years ago , thousands of falun_gong ''tutors'' guided followers in exercise and study sessions in parks and plazas at dawn each day . the tutors were , in turn , grouped into ' 'stations'' and met regularly to discuss the development of the movement and the planning of periodic mass events . station ''chiefs'' communicated with the falun dafa research society in beijing , which took orders from mr . li . falun dafa , or great law of the dharma wheel , is the formal name for falun_gong , or dharma wheel practice . mr . he , the physicist , was among the first prominent chinese to speak out against the growing organization . according to mr . he , one of his students became mentally unstable after practicing the discipline in the mid 90 's , and the physicist faulted falun_gong for the student 's trouble in a televised interview in 1998 . in a magazine article a year later , mr . he warned again of the movement 's danger to youth . that article inspired a_10 , 000 strong falun_gong demonstration outside the leadership compound here in april 1999 , the event that precipitated the government 's eradication campaign . falun_gong 's formal structure in china broke down after the crackdown , as members of the hierarchy were rounded up , with the most active sentenced to lengthy jail terms . those tutors not under detention are now under close surveillance by the neighborhood committees that are the lowest rung of the communist_party 's national surveillance system . nonetheless , many falun_gong followers continue to meet daily , though it is impossible to tell how many remain active . mr . li says there are 70 million practitioners in china and 100 million followers worldwide , though he has never offered evidence to support that . closer scrutiny suggests the movement in china never numbered more than several million , and china 's antifalun gong campaign has most certainly scared off many . the government has had more than a year to measure the breadth and depth of what is left , and it apparently believes that it has identified the remaining core , 40 , 000 people , according to mr . he . by dealing harshly with the most militant , a manageable number in the scope of the vast internal security apparatus , beijing hopes to neutralize the rest . ''the detention_centers are all full up ! '' mr . he exclaimed , sitting in his study in black long johns and a gray hand knit sweater one afternoon . he said that at the beginning of the year the government switched from its strategy of sending followers arrested in the capital back to their home provinces and began collecting the detainees at centers here . as many as 6 , 000 of the most active followers are in detention , to be held until they have recanted their beliefs or are sent to reform through labor_camps in the countryside , mr . he said . mr . he has become one of falun_gong 's prime enemies , described in the group 's literature as a demon in league with evil beings , including president jiang_zemin , who are fighting falun_gong for control of the universe . mr . he smiles at the reference , his eyeglasses and thin gray hair askew , but he insists that such talk is far from harmless . he said it recalled the language of the taiping , the mid 19th_century spiritual movement that turned into full scale armed rebellion , which took over a huge swath of the country , cost millions of lives and threatened to bring down the last imperial government before it was suppressed . that assessment paints mr . zhao as a threat to china 's social order , a role mr . he knows well . ''i did underground work , '' he said , recalling his early days as a communist_party member before the party took power in 1949 . ''we went to demonstrate , but the core in the movement would n't go to the streets . falun_gong is the same . '' practice as pressure grows , a movement adapts in mr . zhao 's crowded apartment , a diptych that shows the falun_gong founder both seated and standing sits atop a white enameled bookshelf beside mr . zhao 's bed . the apartment 's only other decoration is a round pillow with a large yellow swastika , a buddhist symbol of good will , surrounded by smaller swastikas and yin yang symbols , associated with taoism , the other ancient philosophical strain that has contributed to master li 's teachings . this is where mr . zhao sits to perform his exercises each day . the pillow 's emblem represents the falun , or dharma wheel , and is described by mr . li as a miniature of the cosmos that he says he installs telekinetically in the abdomens of all his followers , where it rotates in alternating directions , throwing off bad karma and gathering qi . many falun_gong adherents say they can feel the wheel turning in their bellies . the rest of mr . zhao 's falun_gong paraphernalia books , tapes and photographs of mr . li are stored elsewhere in case his apartment is raided . mr . zhao and others like him download and disseminate inspirational falun_gong videos , falun_gong propaganda fliers and even mr . li 's books formatted for desktop printers , all with the intent of keeping the movement in china alive . mr . zhao has distributed hundreds of compact_disks containing a complete falun_gong kit , including links to secure internet servers overseas and dozens of falun_gong web_sites , as well as photographs of u.f.o . 's and videos of the corpses of some of the followers reportedly tortured to death by the police . ''when master li issues a new message , 99 percent of the followers in beijing will have it within three days , '' mr . zhao said . china recently issued a new legal interpretation of the antisubversion laws that allows it to hand down lengthy prison terms to followers like mr . zhao who distribute leaflets or disseminate mr . li 's messages , which have grown increasingly apocalyptic . ''it is in fact time to let go of your last attachments , '' mr . li wrote to followers in august , adding that believers should ''let go of all worldly attachments ( including the attachment to the human body ) . '' on jan . 1 , mr . li told his disciples ''the present performance of the evil shows that they are already utterly inhuman and completely without righteous thoughts . so such evil 's persecution of the fa can no longer be tolerated . '' that set off a debate among falun_gong followers in china about what mr . li 's message meant . senior followers in the united_states were quick to issue an appeal that followers keep calm . a week later , a similarly cautionary_note was posted on the web_site by followers in china , who wrote that ''certain disciples had some extreme interpretations'' of the message . mr . li never clarified his remarks , and three weeks after he made them , five followers ignited themselves on tiananmen_square . the chinese government seized on the self immolations as proof of its contentions that falun_gong is dangerous . some falun_gong followers insisted that mr . li prohibits the taking of life , even one 's own , and that the five could therefore not have been falun_gong followers . but contrary to the falun_gong public_relations campaign , which is organized in the united_states , mr . zhao said he believed that at least some of the people who set themselves on fire were indeed followers . ''what they did was wrong , '' he said . ''but it was very brave . '' mr . zhao said his job was to keep mr . li 's message pure and to prevent additional followers from going astray . with a few keystrokes in the darkness , he circumvents the government 's electronic barriers and up pops mr . li 's image on the screen , along with a message that reads , ''removing the evil beings that manipulate people to damage humankind is also protecting humankind . '' special report

has a location of china

to the editor as every new film about tibet is released , do we really need orville schell up on his high yak lecturing us about misperceptions of tibet 's past and the illusory nature of cinema ''under the spell of a culture opposite to the west 's , '' june 17 ? the ' 'many other westerners'' that i know , as opposed to those mentioned by mr . schell , are not sitting around in a shangri_la di da state of existential dread , craving some lost tibetan utopia . in fact , they are studying at the ever growing number of buddhist centers in the west , reading serious books by the dalai_lama and others , and using the brilliant tools imbedded in the deep wisdom of tibetan buddhism not only to help us see the true nature of our own culture , but also to help the world face up to the political realities brought on by the brutal chinese colonization of tibet . are artists , writers and filmmakers the authors of mr . schell 's ''virtual tibet , '' or is it a creation of journalists and critics who ca n't resist continually linking hollywood and tibet in the media ? anyway , it 's no longer about mr . schell 's antiquated notions of west versus east , of spiritual emptiness versus cross cultural nostalgia . it 's about our increased awareness of how the many wisdom traditions and cultures of the world complement each other . and that transcends both the virtual tibet and the real one . dana lafontaine minneapolis tibet

has a location of china

'china and the far east photographs' westwood gallery 578 broadway , at prince street soho through aug . 7 john thomson ( 1837 1921 ) was a remarkable scottish born photographer who lived in and toured asia from 1862 to 1872 . lugging his big wooden view camera and 12 by 16 inch glass plates , he visited china , hong_kong , borneo , cambodia , siam , singapore and other exotic locales , braving hostilities to document the landscapes , people and customs of countries where westerners were commonly regarded with suspicion . he produced an important visual archive of the region , at which this show can only hint . fifteen of the prints on view are vintage 40 others are limited edition reprints from thomson 's original glass plate negatives , now owned by the wellcome institute in london . the vintage albumen photos naturally have much more appeal , but the others are carefully done as silver gelatin prints that retain the markings and imperfections of the originals . in the staid british outpost of hong_kong , a far cry from the glitzy skyscraper capital of today , thomson photographed such landmarks and events as the clock_tower , the botanical gardens , the happy valley race_track , the white stag temple , the central waterfront wharf with its long line of low , handsomely arcaded buildings , and the visit of the duke of edinburgh in 1869 , marked by a flotilla of bannered boats in the harbor . but while his views of hong_kong and other places are notable for their documentary quality , it was people who brought out the real photojournalist in him . the king of siam , photographed in european and in siamese regalia a farmer being trundled to market in a wheelbarrow with a pig lashed to it prosperous looking chinese merchants and ministers of state , street gamblers , a pigtailed schoolboy , the many denizens of an ornate yangtze house boat , a quartet of borneo tribesmen posing with spears and shields , the dignified profile of an old cantonese woman these are some of the more memorable ''people'' photographs in the show . the match of artistry and technical skill they reveal gives thomson 's work its power . grace_glueck art in review

has a location of china

for the first time in perhaps a decade , the national people 's congress , the communist_party run legislature now convened in its annual two week session , is consumed with an ideological debate over socialism and capitalism that many assumed had been buried by china 's long streak of fast economic_growth . the controversy has forced the government to shelve a draft law to protect property rights that had been expected to win pro_forma passage and highlighted the resurgent influence of a small but vocal group of socialist leaning scholars and policy advisers . these old style leftist thinkers have used china 's rising income gap and increasing social_unrest to raise doubts about what they see as the country 's headlong pursuit of private wealth and market driven economic_development . the roots of the current debate can be traced to a biting critique of the property rights law that circulated on the internet last summer . the critique 's author , gong xiantian , a professor at beijing_university law_school , accused the legal experts who wrote the draft of ''copying capitalist civil law like slaves , '' and offering equal_protection to ''a rich man 's car and a beggar man 's stick . '' most of all , he protested that the proposed law did not state that ' 'socialist property is inviolable , '' a once sacred legal concept in china . those who dismissed his attack as a throwback to an earlier era underestimated the continued appeal of socialist ideas in a country where glaring disparities between rich and poor , rampant_corruption , labor abuses and land seizures offer daily reminders of how far china has strayed from its official ideology . ''our government only moves forward when it feels there is a strong consensus , '' said mao shoulong , a public_policy specialist at people 's university in beijing . ''right now , the consensus is eroding and there is a debate over ideology , which we have n't seen for some time . '' the divide does not appear likely to derail china 's market led growth . president hu_jintao , in what chinese political experts and party members said was a clear reference to the debate , told legislative delegates last week that china must ''unshakably persist with economic_reform . '' china has generally stuck by its market opening commitments to the world_trade_organization . wen_jiabao , the prime_minister , has allowed billions of dollars in foreign investment to flow into the once tightly protected financial sector . legislative officials insist that the proposed law , which has taken eight years to prepare and is intended to codify a more expansive notion of property rights added to the constitution in 2003 , will sooner or later be enacted , though possibly with some significant modifications . but mr . hu and mr . wen wittingly or unwittingly invited the debate when they made tackling growing inequality a center of their propaganda efforts , political analysts say . the state run news_media are abuzz with calls to make ' 'social equity'' the focus of economic policy , replacing the earlier leadership 's emphasis on rapid growth and wealth creation . since his rise to power in 2002 , mr . hu has also tried to establish his leftist credentials , extolling marxism , praising mao and bankrolling research to make the country 's official but often ignored socialist ideology more relevant to the current era . he told party leaders in 2004 to study how cuba and north_korea maintained political order , party officials say . and he has tried to distance himself from his predecessor , jiang_zemin , who invited private businessmen to join the communist_party and was viewed as permitting well connected officials to enrich themselves with public property at the expense of the poor . ''hu is himself a centrist who is not really pursuing one agenda or the other , '' observed a party official who said he could be punished for talking about leadership politics if he were quoted by name . ''but he did pull us to the left to restore balance , and that gave the old guard an opportunity it has not had in years . '' as a result , analysts say , the leadership may find it harder to pursue market oriented solutions to some pressing problems , like providing health_care to rural residents , grappling with rampant_corruption in the state sector , expanding access to education and overhauling banks , insurance and securities companies . beijing 's new plan to address its rural woes , labeled ''building a new socialist countryside , '' promises an infusion of government cash for peasants and rural areas . but it steers clear of tackling some restrictions on economic activity , like a ban on private land sales in the countryside , that many pro market economists say have left peasants economically disenfranchised . ''my impression is that allowing an expanded role for the market in education and health_care is off the table , '' said mr . mao , the people 's university policy expert . ''rural land ownership is also too sensitive to consider now . '' the tensions reflect rising concern that breakneck growth averaging nearly 10 percent annually over 20 years has left china richer but also dirtier and , by the standards of the one party state , politically volatile . corruption , pollution , land seizures and arbitrary fees and taxes are among the leading causes of a surge in social_unrest . riots have become a fixture of rural life in china more than 200 ' 'mass incidents of unrest'' occurred each day in 2004 , police statistics show undermining the party 's insistence on social stability . many western and some chinese experts have argued that these problems stem from china 's authoritarian political system , and that they will not easily go away until people have a greater say in how they are governed . but the communist_party and many left leaning scholars reject that view . they say the ills are caused by capitalist excesses and rising inequality , which they say requires that the government reassert itself in economic affairs . one measurement of inequality , the gap between the average incomes of urban and rural residents , has risen to about 3.3 to 1 , according to the united nations development program , higher than similar measures in the united_states and one of the world 's highest . a study by the party 's central research office estimates that the ratio could rise to 4 to 1 by 2020 if current trends continue , a_level some chinese economists say could incite wider social turmoil . such political fears seemed to give an opening to critics who felt economic policies had strayed too far toward capitalism . the strength of leftist opposition had faded throughout the 1990 's after deng xiaoping , who called economic_development ''hard truth , '' and later mr . jiang tolerated little ideological discussion of the direction of changes . liu guoguang , a marxist economist and a former vice director of the chinese_academy_of_social_sciences , stimulated an outpouring of opinions about inequality last summer when he gave a private talk that was transcribed and posted on the internet . his talk supported the emphasis on growth and development but called for a much larger role for the government in managing economic affairs . in a subsequent interview with business watch , a state run magazine , mr . liu said , ''if you establish a market_economy in a place like china , where the rule of law is imperfect , if you do not emphasize the socialist spirit of fairness and social responsibility , then the market_economy you establish is going to be an elitist market_economy . '' he has been joined by other scholars , including mr . gong , whose incendiary polemic on the property_law prompted a succession of sympathetic essays and study sessions . also contributing to the response is the hong_kong based economist lang xianping , who has used a television show to pillory what he describes as raids on state assets by managers and foreign investors . one top official who has come under scrutiny is zhou_xiaochuan , the central_bank governor and a promoter of market initiatives . mr . zhou attracted foreign investment to the financial sector , partly delinked china 's currency from the united_states dollar and steered the three biggest state owned banks toward stock_market listings overseas . mr . zhou was attacked directly in a widely circulated hong_kong newspaper article and indirectly by commentators in beijing , who accuse financial officials of selling china 's most valuable assets too cheaply . ji baocheng , president of people 's university in beijing , criticized mr . zhou 's banking changes in a public session of the legislature last week . he cited the big hong_kong stock_market listing of china_construction_bank , which was completed after the government injected billions of dollars to clean up its balance_sheet . mr . ji said the government priced shares in the bank too low , given the fresh infusion of capital , and he accused officials of ''blindly sacrificing the interests of china and its people . '' the government defends the overseas listings as a necessary step to raise capital , attract foreign experts to the boards and executive offices of the troubled banks and put the financial system on sounder footing . some pro market economists , who seemed ascendant in the 1990 's and early in this decade and now often sound defensive , have denounced the leftist revival as dangerous . many also criticize the hu wen administration for micromanaging investment and bank loans , tinkering with property and stock markets and declining to extend market oriented policies to the countryside . zhou ruijing , a retired newspaper editor associated with the pro market camp , captured the sentiment in a january magazine essay . ''a widening gap between rich and poor is not the fault of market reforms , '' he wrote . ''it 's the natural result of them , which is neither good nor bad , but quite predictable . '' correction march 16 , 2006 , thursday an article on sunday about the ideological debate over socialism and capitalism at the current session of china 's legislature gave an incorrect university affiliation in some copies for mao shoulong , a public_policy specialist who was quoted discussing the erosion of a consensus about ideology . he is with people 's university in beijing , not tsinghua_university .

has a location of china

cavin morris gallery 560 broadway , at prince street soho through tomorrow with minimal resources and fanfare , new york galleries regularly open doors to new cultural realms . this splendid little show surveys the relatively unstudied terrain of ceremonial textiles and wedding objects ( blankets ) made by some of the dozens of indigenous ethnic minorities alternately ignored and persecuted who occupy china 's vast , sparsely_populated border areas . for centuries they have pursued their own traditions , absorbing elements from vietnam , laos , thailand and myanmar as well as from china 's han majority . techniques involve ikat , indigo dye , silk embroidery and appliqu . religion is usually a mix of animism , buddhism and ancestor worship . hybridization dominates , as does a penchant for geometric patterns that seem abstract but are usually encoded genealogies . a sumptuous long bei ( dragon cover ) from around 1900 , made by a subgroup of the li peoples of hainan_island off the coast of south_china , is embroidered with dragons and phoenixes . the motifs originated in 13th century commissions from the han emperors but gradually became so sacred to the li that objects like this are seldom displayed . another subgroup , the meifu li , takes a different tack ceremonial skirts whose intricate patterns have a fine grain , almost digital intricacy , represent rows of pacman like figures ( also ancestors ) and reflect the influence of buzzy indonesian ikat weaving . the yao , one of the hill tribes of south_china , are responsible for a shaman 's robe whose long stitch embroidery in red , black and gold conveys a bristling vitality not unlike a basquiat painting , while its mural like tiers of priests and guardians reflect vietnamese and laotian influences . also of yao origin are blankets of recycled fabric whose appliqu d motifs evoke american quilts and distill lotuses into diamonds fluted by eight gently curved lines . this show can give you a humbling inkling of how much you do n't know and new perspectives on what little you do . roberta_smith

has a location of china

when negotiators from china and the united_states clinked their champagne glasses here last month to celebrate a trade agreement between the two countries , nobody exulted more than china 's internet entrepreneurs . the deal , which opens the door to china 's entry into the world_trade_organization , will also allow foreign companies to own stakes of up to 50 percent in chinese internet companies by 2006 . even as china reaches outside itself to become a full fledged member of the club of trading nations , the outside world is reaching deeper into china through the internet . while the market access promised by the trade deal could still be hindered by cumbersome regulations , china 's cyberspace is officially open . that breakthrough , experts say , will accelerate a digital gold_rush that began in new york last july , when a hong_kong company with an auspicious name issued shares on the nasdaq . the offering , by china . com , raised 84 million and put a 1 . 5 billion value on the company , which is an internet content provider and a portal . while china . com 's stock has since had the bungee jumping ride typical in high technology , it remains a potent symbol of how entrepreneurs here can make a fortune by putting together two alluring concepts the world 's most populous country and the world 's most exciting new medium . last year represented more than a coming out party for a single chinese cyber venture . with nearly seven million users across the country , 1999 was the year that the internet in china crossed the threshold from being a heady concept to a market with genuine opportunities . ''we hit a critical_mass of users by the end of 1999 , '' said wang yan , the general_manager of sina . com , an internet provider that runs the most popular web_site in china . ''the coming year will mark the launch of e_commerce in china . '' sina . com executives attribute their site 's popularity to its good graphics and the fact that it is a home grown service , not a hong_kong import , like china . com , which also provides web consulting services and advertising services . as in the united_states , few of the major chinese internet companies are profitable . even so , foreign investors have poured tens of millions of dollars into companies like china . com , sina . com and sohu . com , another major chinese player . the investors prefer to focus on the growth potential . bda china ltd . , an internet consulting company based here , estimates that the number of online users in china will jump to 33 . 6 million in 2003 from 12 million in 2000 , a compound annual growth rate of 57 percent . electronic_commerce , which generated a paltry 8 million in revenue here in 1998 , could generate 3 . 8 billion by 2003 , according to the international data corporation , an american market_research concern . ''all these grand numbers are based on the prospect of a mass market , '' said duncan clark , a partner in bda china . ''the question is how long is your time horizon ? '' for example , most chinese now pay cash on delivery for goods , and full fledged e_commerce will probably have to wait for more credit_card users about 50 million cards are outstanding . still , the growth in card use is reasonably strong . the larger question for the future of the internet is the role played by the chinese government . beijing 's top communications official stunned investors last september when he unexpectedly reaffirmed a longstanding ban on foreign investment in internet_service_providers . some american companies , including intel , dell computer and dow jones company , had already financed chinese start_ups , and are now uncertain about the status of their investments . most own stakes of less than 50 percent , so , theoretically , they should be allowed to retain their investments . but wu jichuan , the information industry minister , has made ominous noises about internet companies that are more than 50 percent foreign owned . thanks to the trade agreement between the united_states and china that was signed in november , ownership restrictions are supposed to be lifted gradually . by 2002 , foreign companies will be allowed to own up to 50 percent of internet content companies . by 2006 , they will be allowed to own up to 49 percent of internet_service_providers . many analysts here suggest that beijing 's real intent is not so much keeping foreign companies out as in regulating those that get in . ''if they block foreign investment , how are they going to license the necessary technology for secured transactions to do e_commerce ? '' mr . clark of bda china asked . ''if they stunt the internet , where is the growth going to come from ? '' jiang_zemin , the president of china , has said he favors growth in the internet but has not specifically addressed those issues . beyond foreign money , some analysts question whether the chinese government will tolerate the flood of foreign information some of it culturally and politically sensitive that would become available with unbridled growth of the internet . at the moment , beijing is pursuing potentially conflicting goals nurturing a commercial , nonpolitical internet while trying to curb its tendency toward anarchic growth . last fall , the authorities warned internet providers not to provide links to foreign news outlets , and they continue to block a handful of specific foreign web_sites , including those of the new york times , the washington_post and cnn . still , people can sign on to them by dialing into servers outside the chinese mainland . normally , access to the internet in china is provided by links to one of the two state owned telephone companies , china_telecom and china unicom . for all the talk about china erecting a wall around the internet , the emergence of the net as a tool that could be used by the chinese people for domestic political purposes is perhaps a greater threat to beijing than foreign news articles . last summer , members of a spiritual movement , falun_gong , circulated updates about their group electronically , despite a sweeping crackdown and the arrest of hundreds of falun_gong leaders by the government . ''the exponential ability of party a to speak with party b , which is so exciting to people in silicon_valley , is a major threat to the government , '' mr . clark said . in beijing , the current crop of internet entrepreneurs studiously avoids politics , while trying to help their country enter the digital mainstream . since the lucrative initial_public_offering of china . com , major american investment_banks have been swarming over china 's most promising start_ups . sina . com and sohu . com are both planning to sell shares , perhaps as soon as next month . charles zhang , the 35 year old founder and chief executive of sohu . com , who holds a doctorate in physics from the massachusetts_institute_of_technology , has become the most celebrated of china 's internet pioneers by creating a service that appeals exclusively to mainland_chinese users . yet even he professes admiration for peter yip , the chief executive of china . com , for having locked up the most valuable domain name in 1997 and for being the first to go public . determined not to fall behind its rivals in other areas , sohu recently started an e_commerce business that allows more than 100 merchants to sell books , compact discs and computer software over the internet . electronic_commerce , an even more nascent business in china than advertising supported services , generated 42 million last year , international data estimates . in every debate about the internet here , the conversation inevitably drifts back to the numbers fewer than 2 percent of china 's 1.3 billion people own personal_computers . goldman_sachs estimates that 0.2 percent of china 's people now have access to the internet . with growth prospects like that , the world 's last communist empire could create more than its share of 21st_century tycoons . international

has a location of china

the computer files at the heart of the case against the former los_alamos scientist wen_ho_lee were given higher security classifications last year only after he was fired in the midst of an espionage investigation at the weapons laboratory , defense lawyers and federal officials say . at the time dr . lee downloaded the files onto his computer , they were classified but not designated secret or confidential , as the indictment against him alleges . instead , they were governed by a lower kind of security precaution , according to both sides in the case , as well as a document that federal prosecutors filed as evidence . mark holscher , the lead lawyer for dr . lee , said the after the fact change , which he said his team discovered while studying prosecution evidence , would be a powerful weapon for the defense . but mr . holscher would not say how he intended to use it , beyond declaring , ''the indictment is deceptive . '' though government officials conceded that the original security level was low , they emphatically denied that the material dr . lee downloaded was insignificant . ''we stand by our indictment and look forward to litigating this issue when dr . lee is tried , '' said myron marlin , a justice_department spokesman . ''what lee stole was the crown_jewels . '' on monday , the albuquerque journal reported the low level of security for the downloaded data . since his indictment on dec . 10 , dr . lee has been held without bail , in solitary_confinement and under unusually tight security in santa_fe , n.m . federal prosecutors have accused him of seizing the heart of the american nuclear_arsenal , but his backers maintain that his actions were nothing out of the ordinary and that he is being singled out because of his ethnic background . a native of taiwan , dr . lee is a naturalized american citizen . the downloaded material had a security designation ''protect as restricted data , '' or pard , a category applied to scientific data so voluminous and changing so frequently as to be impossible to assess in terms of security . it is not a security classification per se , but rather a rule for handling potentially sensitive materials , and is governed by the secrecy provisions of the nation 's atomic_energy laws . while pard material by definition is classified and the designation holds out the possibility that some of it might be highly sensitive , it is not subject to the same stringent precautions applied to data designated secret or confidential . for example , scientists working with it may leave it on their desks overnight , rather than in a safe . and careful records are kept on the disposal of all secret and confidential data before its shredding and burning pard printouts required no such accounting . still , pard data must be kept in secure premises at the weapons laboratory by law it cannot be transferred onto unsecured computers , as the government has charged dr . lee with doing . both sides in the case agree that the material dr . lee is accused of downloading contained nuclear_secrets . a federal official intimately familiar with the legalities of the case and strongly supportive of the government 's position said the downloaded data included computer instructions on how to simulate the design of a nuclear_warhead , including exact dimensions and other geometrical information that when standing alone would be guarded assiduously . ''i do n't think this is poking a major hole in the case , '' the official said of the pard issue . ''what would be a problem is if things were n't as alleged in the indictment . '' stu nagurka , an energy department spokesman , said the agency ''ca n't comment on the indictment in any way . '' a senior administration weapons expert strongly contested the idea that the pard behind the indictment was any less important than more concentrated data on nuclear_arms . ''a duck is a duck is a duck , '' the official said . the defense team countered , though , that any critical information was buried in a virtually indecipherable mass of benign data . commenting on the dispute , steven aftergood , a secrecy and classification expert at the federation of american scientists , a private group in washington , said the development would throw the government on the defensive . ''this takes some of the heat off wen_ho_lee and puts it on the government , and particularly on the security system , '' mr . aftergood said . ''the murkiness of the classification issue takes this out of the category of 'crown_jewels , ' 'worse than the rosenbergs' and 'change the strategic balance , ' '' he added , citing descriptions of the case . ''it 's much more complicated than it seemed at first . '' when dr . lee was arrested in december , after years of being investigated as a possible chinese spy , the government , in a 59 count indictment , accused him of systematically endangering the design security of virtually every nuclear_warhead in the american arsenal through unauthorized computer transfers of many of the most sensitive nuclear_secrets . while he is not charged with espionage , the indictment claimed he acted ''with the intent to secure an advantage to a foreign nation . '' most of the data that dr . lee downloaded is missing . he claims it was destroyed and insists that his actions were strictly in the line of scientific duty . stephen m . younger , director of nuclear_weapons at los_alamos , told the federal court at a december bail hearing that the downloaded data in the wrong hands could ''change the global strategic balance . '' the indictment said that in 1993 , 1994 and 1997 dr . lee had illegally transferred secret and confidential restricted data , the federal term for information on the design , manufacturing and use of atomic_weapons . but according to ''grand_jury exhibit one , '' a 47 page los_alamos analysis of material that dr . lee downloaded in 1993 , 1994 , 1995 , 1996 and 1998 , the downloading involved either unclassified or pard data . the analysis was filed in the federal courthouse in albuquerque as prosecution evidence . a brief reference to pard was made in dr . lee 's bail hearings in december when paula burnett , a federal_prosecutor , asked cheryl wampler , a prosecution_witness and the author of the los_alamos analysis , what the term meant . ''literally , it stands for 'protect as restricted data , ' '' ms . wampler replied , ''and that is converted into a numbering system'' that in a computer indicates the degree of security . ''it would have been level five , '' she added . the prosecutor questioned her no further , and defense lawyers did not pursue the point . later , though , they discovered that pard 's security ranking was five on a scale of nine , the highest level being reserved for secret restricted data . a 1995 los_alamos security manual defined pard as ''a handling method for classified computer system output that is generated as numerical data or related information and that is not readily recognized as classified or unclassified because of the high volume of output and the low density of potentially classified data . '' but today , officials at the weapons laboratory say the category has long been troublesome , given its ambiguous nature . though it was once used widely in the nation 's nuclear_weapons complex , the energy department , which runs the laboratories , has faulted pard as antiquated and risky in terms of security and had moved to eliminate it , even before the lee case , said jim danneskiold , a los_alamos spokesman . mr . danneskiold said the department had ordered the pard category eliminated by june 30 , 2002 . ''it 's going away , '' he said . ''in practice , less and less has been generated over the last five years . it 's fairly rare at this point . new pard has not been created in years . '' john d . cline , an albuquerque lawyer on dr . lee 's legal team , recently wrote a weapons scientist to say that ''it appears from the evidence now available that all of the files ( including data files and input files ) were protected at the pard level . '' in an interview , mr . cline said , ''we 're examining this issue for its potential benefit to the defense . '' dr . lee 's trial is to begin on nov . 6 . a federal official agreed with the defense 's portrayal of the pard ubiquity . but he added that subsequent classification analysis showed that it was littered with state secrets , many of them major . ''i 'm fairly confident that there is n't anybody who 's going to be saying it was less than s.r.d . , '' or secret restricted data , the official said of expert judgments about the downloaded data . asked why the security of the downloaded data was changed , a senior official in the justice_department referred the question to the energy department . a senior official there said the investigators had evaluated the material dr . lee had downloaded and then discovered it contained highly sensitive material . the evaluation ''was done to determine the sensitivity of the files , '' resulting in the higher security designations , the official said . the change in security status occurred between dr . lee 's firing in march of last year and the indictment in december , federal experts said . mr . holscher , dr . lee 's lead lawyer , was highly critical of the government 's action . ''the government did not disclose that the over 20 references to secret restricted data were classifications made after the investigation started , '' he said in an interview . ''that was never revealed in court or to the public . ''los_alamos rates these materials as a five on a scale of nine in terms of sensitivity , and then tells two federal_judges that they are the crown_jewels , '' he said . ''so what do they call the millions of documents at higher levels of classification ? '' dr . lee 's lawyers said the new development makes their client 's actions seem less like the systematic looting of the nation 's top nuclear_secrets , as the government contends , and more like a research misdemeanor , as the defense has argued . the development is likely to fuel comparisons between the way the government handled evidence of computer security lapses by a former director_of_central_intelligence , who lost his security_clearance , and by dr . lee , whose ankles and wrists are shackled during weekly visits he is allowed to make with his family . robert m . henson , a former weapons designer at los_alamos who in 1995 sounded the first alarms about the possibility of chinese spies at the laboratory , said dr . lee had ''probably stretched the rules'' in downloading pard but no more . ''shame on him if he did , '' dr . henson said . dr . henson also told of his own missteps with pard , including once when a flurry of paper blew out an open laboratory window . he added that the category deserved to be eliminated as its goals of achieving both high secrecy and relative openness were inherently contradictory . ''it 's probably illegal , '' he said of pard , ''and that 's why they 're trying to make it go away . ''

has a location of china

for years , the last place to look for a modern display of chinese_art was in china . now that may be changing with the opening of china 's first western style museum here , more than a dozen years after its original sponsor first conceived of it . the arthur m . sackler_museum of art and archeology , which opened in beijing on may 27 , has joined a string of sackler galleries and museums around the world . this one primarily displays relics and fossils discovered by chinese archeologists . the opening was the culmination of years of trans_pacific dreams and headaches . but running a museum in china entails special challenges , and the headaches could get worse . it is not even clear , for example , whether the museum will be opened to the public , except to specialists who make appointments or to those chinese and foreigners pushy enough to talk their way past the guards . the museum is inside beijing_university , where guards stand at each gate to keep visitors out . for now , by appointment only " they have assured us they will let in outside visitors , " said jill sackler , mr . sackler 's widow , on a visit to beijing for the opening ceremony . still , for now , visits are by appointment . dr . arthur m . sackler , a psychiatrist and medical publisher who donated millions of dollars to the arts before he died in 1987 , gave 10 million to have the museum built in beijing in partnership with a group of chinese archeologists . but the sackler team has just handed over control and responsibility to the chinese partners and the authorities , who have no experience operating a modern museum . one major challenge is how the chinese will pay maintenance costs , including an estimated 70 , 000 a year in electricity bills . the museum was designed with two separate lighting systems , so the chinese can turn the lights up to make it look like any western museum , or dim them to save money . the success of the museum will hinge on how well the chinese manage it . one parallel , and it is not encouraging , is of western designed hotels that have been handed over to chinese management . inevitably , six months after they are turned over , cockroaches emerge , the plumbing leaks , the wallpaper and carpets accumulate a camouflage pattern of stains and the staff members replace their smiles with scowls . indeed , the american architect i . m . pei declined an offer to design the sackler_museum in beijing , apparently for just that reason . his previous effort in china , the fragrant hills hotel in beijing , is run by local managers and has quickly degenerated into a second_rate establishment . the bills are especially onerous for the chinese partners , the archeology department of beijing_university . the university may be among the nation 's leading institutions , and the department may be the best in the nation , but neither has much money to pay for the museum . so the department is seeking to raise money through a new museum shop and entrance tickets . but neither the shop nor the tickets are likely to raise much money if the public is not invited . while the department says it wants outsiders to visit , the university seems reluctant to ease its restrictions on visitors . in fact , university officials hesitated before allowing foreign reporters to attend the museum opening , and they escorted a restricted number of journalists in and out of the campus . " we are in the middle of negotiating a way to resolve this problem , " said li boqian , the director of the new museum and the chairman of the university 's archeology department . " we want this museum to be a window for cultural exchange between china and the rest of the world . " where to display artifacts ? with 4 , 000 years of history , china may have more archeological artifacts above and below ground than any other place in the world . today 's economic boom is sending construction shovels into the ground at breakneck_speed , so the number of accidental finds is growing every month . the problem is that there has been nowhere safe and attractive to show them off . in a typical local museum , most pieces sit_in dirty showcases under a faint yellow lightbulb . but at the new sackler_museum , 800 year old porcelains , 2 , 200 year old bronzes and 4 , 500 year old ceramics are displayed in pristine cases , like pieces in sackler galleries in the smithsonian institution in washington , the royal academy of art in london and at harvard_university . the new museum occupies a pavilion with a spacious courtyard recalling the imperial style residences in the summer palace , where chinese emperors would read poetry and listen to the lute . inside , however , a visitor walks through wide , open corridors and rooms painted in subtle tones of beige and white that reflect light . the inaugural exhibitions featured a few remarkable relics , including the fractured skull and bones of a golden buffalo mountain man the chinese call jinniushan man . the fossil , which chinese scientists say is 280 , 000 years old , is early and different enough that it has led some experts to cast doubt on the theory that all people are descendants of a single african ancestor . after the exhibition ends , the fossils are to be returned to a secret vault , and copies will be displayed instead . most chinese museums , which have poor security , do this , and the archeology department will do the same with its prized possessions . chinese archeologists say they hope the museum will inject new life into a field that is underfinanced and understaffed . these days , with money becoming the major focus of chinese society , the life of a chinese archeologist does not inspire envy , and its organizers say they hope that a modern museum will lure students who are genuinely interested in the field . from the start , chinese authorities said they considered the museum a sensitive project . initially , the government was even hesitant to accept the museum as a gift from mr . sackler , partly because it was generally suspicious of westerners . the project finally got under way in 1986 , but ran into many snags and the opening was delayed several times . one mundane , time consuming task , for example , was to properly clean and repair the collection 's 10 , 000 objects , many of which had never been restored .

has a location of china

on a recent evening , zhang aijing sat at her terminal at the internet division of people 's daily , watching comments drop from cyberspace into the communist_party newspaper 's chat_room . ms . zhang is an ''editor'' assigned to ''anchor'' discussions , and her responsibilities include weeding out comments overly critical of the party . with a click of her mouse , ugly thoughts disappear . she had just posted a notice on the site about a western reporter 's visit and was watching intently to see what came in . after all , unpredictable things happen here , where party propaganda meets cyberspace and , as if to underscore that point , a screen saver flashes smiling images of diana , princess of wales , her wedding and prince_william nearby . ''the u.s . is a killer we ca n't forget may 8 , '' comes the first reply , referring to the day last spring when nato forces bombed the chinese embassy in belgrade . most chinese reject nato 's explanation that the attack was an accident . more angry comments tumble in . but soon another message hits the screen ''i want her to know that we chinese people do n't like our government . '' and another ''the communist_party does n't let chinese people read newspapers from overseas . '' the comments stand . ''we try to let the people speak , '' said jiang yaping , who heads the internet division , with a shrug . ''we are the main newspaper of the party , so of course there are limits . but it would take something stronger than these to be removed . '' with the ambivalent blessing of the government , locally produced web_sites and chat_rooms have spread rapidly here in the last two years , giving china 's estimated seven million internet users a forum for public debate and discussion even a degree of dissent that previously was unavailable . on the local internet , chinese are exposed to information and opinions that could never appear in the tightly_controlled chinese media , on topics like the crackdown on pro_democracy protesters in tiananmen_square on june 4 , 1989 , and the mistreatment of people with aids . local_governments are even using web_sites to poll residents about policy issues , like bus fares . ''the internet is changing china , '' said minxin pei , a researcher at the carnegie endowment for international peace in washington . ''now we have people voting in cyberspace who cannot vote in political space . that will certainly have an effect . '' it is a delicate balancing_act for china 's leaders and for the commercial web_sites . they must preserve the sense of freewheeling openness that makes the internet so popular while maintaining the control over information and dissent that the communist government requires . for the government , the internet has been , at times , a useful tool after the embassy bombing in belgrade , for example , chat_rooms gave chinese an outlet for their anger . but it is clearly a double edged sword . the banned falun_gong spiritual group , whose leader is now based in new york , has frequently used e mail and the internet in its campaign for legal recognition and to help mobilize its followers , although its web_sites are now blocked . this month , information minister wu jichuan announced that government ministries would monitor internet sites , but did not elaborate on what form that monitoring would take . ''we will not allow the introduction of trash that is harmful to the people , '' he said . to experts it is no surprise . ''i expect that the government will be very deeply involved in regulating the internet for two reasons , '' said kenneth dewoskin , a partner at pricewaterhousecoopers who spoke at a recent conference on the internet at beijing_university . ''the chinese government has always had a strong interest in managing information . and also , the government has a strong commercial interest in the net it 's a major owner . '' but control over a multi headed , constantly morphing creature like the internet is difficult to achieve , as chinese censors have already learned . although the government restricts access to a number of foreign web_sites , many technically savvy beijingers know how to get around the barricades . to get to the new york times on the web or to sites related to falun_gong , for example , chinese who know the proper codes can dial a device called a proxy server , which effectively masks the identity of the site being visited . some government officials use proxy servers to read the times web_site . but domestic web_sites face a great deal more direct pressure , from readers hungry for the broadcast of more information and from a government that wants less . sina . com is one of china 's most popular web_sites , featuring a creative blend of features , sports and entertainment . it runs celebrity chat_rooms , where internet surfers can ' 'meet'' people like the film_director zhang yimou . this fall it made waves by displaying china 's first online birth surfers could follow the prenatal development and birth of a real baby called dian dian . but one of sina . com 's special strength is news , and that requires especially deft handling . unlike china 's newspapers and magazines which are owned and controlled by the government sina . com is the product of a private chinese company , the stone group . ''we are not under the media control of the chinese government , '' said paul jin , executive deputy general_manager of sina . com in beijing . ''still , we have to be very careful . '' ''we have to make sure that every article is suitable to the chinese government , '' mr . jin added , noting that the sina . com 's mainland_china web_site contained different offerings from its chinese_language web_sites overseas . ''we make our own judgments . news here has great value , but it also has risks . '' when it started up just over a year ago , sina . com included dispatches from foreign news_agencies , including agence_france_presse and reuters . but after the government reiterated that its own newspapers were not permitted to use text directly from foreign news organizations , sina . com dropped the practice as well . today , it writes some of its own dispatches but mostly buys copy from the chinese press . many private web_sites in china avoid news that has not been sanctioned by the government , especially political news , even though urban chinese are inveterate news junkies and there is great market demand . even though the dow jones company is a major shareholder in sohu . com , popular chinese general interest web_site , the site offers only dow_jones 's business and financial news , not its broader news service . but it is in the chat_rooms that the dicey stuff appears . ''we do n't worry too much about news items , '' mr . jin said . ''it 's the chat_rooms that make us really nervous . especially around sensitive days , like june 4 , we have to screen very carefully , since you never know what will appear . '' at sina . com and people 's daily , the goal is to review all comments within minutes after they drop and remove those deemed inappropriate . the people 's daily chat_room got government permission to go online on may 8 , the day of the embassy bombing in belgrade , provoking an outpouring of popular anger . the chat_room had already been months in planning . the government ''thought that people had a lot to say at that time , '' said mr . jiang , explaining the timing , ''although some people criticized us for allowing this kind of discussion . '' since then , he said , leaders have becoming increasingly supportive of the enterprise , since the chat_room , which gets more than 2 , 000 visitors a day , gives citizens a chance to vent their anger and also for china 's officials to stay in touch with popular opinion . but the heated chat_room debates that occurred on many chinese web_sites in the month after the bombing showed that the internet could buttress , but also occasionally undercut , government policy . in early may , for example , most of the entries were attacks on the united_states , nato and president_clinton , reflecting the widespread view that the chinese embassy had been deliberately chosen as a target . but by the end of the month , the anniversary of the june 4 , 1989 , crackdown in tiananmen_square was fast approaching . along with thousands of patriotic entries , a few more controversial thoughts occasionally made their way online if only for a few minutes . on the chat_room netease , which was devoted to the embassy bombing , one person ventured ''june 4 is coming . what do you think ? '' the events of june 1989 , when tanks moved into central beijing , killing hundreds of civilians , are among china 's ultimate political taboos . more recently , in a people 's daily chat_room on aids run by an expert from the health ministry , viewers got official statistics ( via the expert ) as well as a embarrassing account ( courtesy of a net surfer ) of how a chinese deputy health minister had been heckled as he left the stage at a recent international aids meeting in malaysia . chinese take advantage of the relative anonymity provided by the internet to say things they might not utter in other public forums . although it is theoretically possible for a chat_room to tell what phone_number a comment is coming from , many chinese gain access to the internet through internet cafes and it would be difficult to connect a particular comment with a particular individual , experts said . many experts say that the quick growth of the internet will push the chinese media to be more open and that it has done so already . ''the internet is very international , and with the net you really cannot construct obstacles to prevent people from knowing things , '' said mr . jiang , of people 's daily . ''so often it 's better that we inform people about something rather than have them learn about it elsewhere . but we stand on behalf of the chinese government , and in some areas it better for us to keep quiet . '' for the foreseeable future , the chinese government will certainly continue to try to exert control over the beast that has been unleashed . but monitoring every entry in every chat_room will become increasingly cumbersome as the number of internet users in china grows . ''that is a problem for us , '' mr . jiang said . ''right now we do n't know just what we will do . ''

has a location of china

'photography and video from china' max protetch gallery 511 west 22d street chelsea through jan . 28 with a wealth of contemporary chinese_art soon to arrive in new york city ( starting with the guggenheim_museum 's ''china 5 , 000 years'' later this month ) , this group show gives at least a taste of some of the work being produced in at least two high profile media . as with much recent asian art that has circulated internationally , identity is a central issue . with a single exception , the emphasis among the chinese artists included here , however , is less on questions of ethnic or sexual self definition than on the position of the individual in a society that has traditionally placed high value on conformity and control from above . a sense of this cultural reality is vividly conveyed in a series of photographs by zhuang hui . part documentation , part conceptual art , each captures dozens of uniformed figures the entire staff of a shopping_mall in one case , all the soldiers in a battalion in another in neat as a pin formation , with the artist himself , another face in the crowd , included in every shot . other works are more direct sendups of accepted social models . yang zhenzhong 's photographs present ideal family units but substitute chickens for people . men in wang jinsong 's ''pledge series'' offer uniform maoist salutes but wear up to date western style clothes . a sense of constraint is physically suggested in li yongbin 's video of faces flattening themselves against the camera lens , and in a video by zhang peili , figures , apparently under surveillance , seem to be trying to work their way out from behind a gallery wall . the interactive , performance_art implications of mr . zhang 's video ( the viewer sees both the video and his own reflection in a mirror ) are picked up in the work of ma liu ming , a young artist who made his united_states debut in a show at the jack tilton gallery last summer . in a photograph he depicts himself dressed as a woman in a painting with the body of a baby in a video he appears nude but heavily made up , pacing rapidly back and forth through a crowded art gallery , continually adjusting a camera . in a new york context , mr . ma 's self referential , gender centered work will probably look most familiar , and he is the only artist given substantial representation here . but there are remarkable things going on in chinese_art and culture these days , and shows like this help to bring a local audience up to speed . holland_cotter

has a location of china

lead covering the recent tumultuous events in china has proved a logistical challenge for american television . here are observations from several news correspondents sent to beijing by the various networks . 'the walkie_talkie became my lifeline' covering the recent tumultuous events in china has proved a logistical challenge for american television . here are observations from several news correspondents sent to beijing by the various networks . 'the walkie_talkie became my lifeline' once the shooting began , the camera crews were ordered back to the cover of the beijing hotel . the equipment was simply too unwieldy for anyone to operate while under fire . as the tanks rolled closer from the west , as the sound of machine_guns grew_louder , i stood with the protesters in tiananmen_square and waited . i clutched a walkie_talkie , through which i could at least describe the scene to my colleagues based in a hotel a few miles away . but during the bloody siege of saturday night june 3 , the walkie_talkie became my lifeline and my only means of communication . i described to those listening the roar of the tanks , the wailing of the injured and the smoke of the burning armored_personnel_carriers , set on fire by wild eyed civilians . one of the first tanks exploded from a molotov cocktail right in front of me . within moments , abc had engineered a way for my reports on the walkie_talkie to be broadcast live . i never could hear the anchorman in new york my only contact was bureau chief mark nelson at our radio base , who gave me a cue each time to start talking . the idea that these reports were airing live in america seemed as unreal as the bloodied bodies being wheeled past me . still , once the gunfire turned on those of us on changan avenue , even the walkie_talkie felt heavy . i knew the bullets were so close that the two way could pick up the sound . at times , the guns sprayed the protesters and me for a solid two minutes . after each barrage , there 'd be silence . more blood covered bodies would be wheeled past me on carts , and i 'd radio in again . during one lull , i climbed onto the seat of a rickshaw , 60 yards from the troops who 'd seized the square . i could see a line of soldiers seated on the ground in a semicircle facing us , protected by their shields . the protesters around me stared back in silence . it was an eerie calm , which on cue from our radio base , i began to describe to peter_jennings , our anchorman in new york . within seconds , machine_guns opened on us i stopped broadcasting and tried to race for cover , but there was no place to run except straight down the boulevard . at that moment , the walkie_talkie became my warning light as well as a microphone . my colleague jackie judd radioed that a convoy was racing our way from the east she could see it from the balcony of the beijing hotel barr seitz , my interpreter , and i were about to be trapped . the sound of approaching tanks was terrifying . within minutes , i crouched in a ditch in time to watch the first tank from the east bear down and crush the tractor on which i had just been perched . then came the automatic_rifle fire i could n't even use the walkie_talkie . i searched for a better place to hide , but people were throwing everything they could at the tanks , and the tanks were firing back . broadcasting , even on the two way , was now impossible . we started back toward the hotel , but soldiers continued to fire on us . someone told me my radio would be confiscated in the hotel , so i tossed it in the bushes near the door before escaping inside . i was reluctant to let go of it until a sniper fired on the few of us converging on the hotel entrance . the radio seemed a small sacrifice for the walls of the beijing hotel . kyle gibson , producer , abc_news 'a game of cat and mouse' it was 10 30 a.m . on sunday , june 4 . the slaughter had been going on for nearly 12 hours . a crowd of demonstrators lingered around the remains of a bus blocking changan avenue in front of the beijing hotel . three hundred yards away , a line of soldiers stretched across the street , each cradling an ak_47 . behind them , dozens of tanks and armored_vehicles stood guard over tiananmen_square . i had been watching the carnage from a balcony of the hotel , high enough to get an overall view , but close enough to dive for cover as bullets whizzed by and more protesters fell in the street below . throughout the night , my colleague tom mintier and i had struggled to control our horror as we telephoned live reports to cnn , using a room we had dubbed ''tokyo base'' in order to avoid revealing the exact location over obviously tapped phone lines . fronting onto changan avenue , it served not only as a vantage_point but as a staging area for our camera crews in the square , enabling us to collect and hand off the latest videotapes of the assault to be smuggled out of the country . now , there were rumors that soldiers would soon sweep through the hotel looking for reporters and tv equipment . already , plainclothes police officers had begun searching some of those entering or leaving the lobby . with two other colleagues , tom and i slipped out of the building , trying to look inconspicuous as we carried duffel bags loaded with tv cameras , sound recording equipment , cables and videotapes . we climbed aboard two rickshaws . as they moved north on wangfujing street , away from changan , shooting broke out again . around the corner , just out of view , the people 's liberation army had claimed at least 30 more lives . following the government 's ban on satellite feeds two weeks earlier , we had devised a system to ''pigeon'' our material to hong_kong or tokyo for transmission to the united_states . but as the military tightened its grip on beijing , the question became less one of getting the pictures out than of getting any material at all . by midweek , the police were in the beijing hotel in strength . cnn 's last crew departed just hours before the security forces moved in . on the streets , meanwhile , taking pictures became a game of cat and mouse , with tv crews sneaking a few shots and quickly moving on to avoid arrest . it did n't always work . cnn camerawoman cynde strand , sound man bill albers and producer bruce kennedy were among the many journalists detained by police or soldiers for shooting street scenes . their equipment was confiscated , and they were released with a warning that the military ''could do anything it wanted to'' to prevent pictures being taken . mike chinoy , correspondent , cnn 'television without pictures' suite 1535 of the beijing hotel became our bunker during china 's bloodletting . my perch was a balcony wrapped around a corner of the hotel , facing west , toward the square and along the expanse of changan avenue . with the phone gripped under my arm and keeping my head low , i simply told what was in front of my eyes and hoped my words conveyed the chaos and tragedy below . our cameraman worked from a nearby balcony , draping the camera in a white bath towel , so it would blend into the concrete wall and be less noticeable from the street . it was impossible to get the pictures out quickly , though , because the chinese authorities had cut off satellite_communications two weeks earlier . so , for many hours , the sophisticated technology of television was reduced to a single telephone_line television without pictures . we kept the telephone_line open for hours at a time . our immediate fear was that it would be cut or that we would be kicked out of the hotel . we took precautions against both . the new york control room played music over the phone line to let us know they were still connected . the doors to the rooms were always bolted . we began using a special knock to signal each other . it was essential , also , to protect the videotapes shot at the square and hotel . we hid cassettes in a ceiling panel and strapped to the underside of a toilet tank . when we felt it was safe , our young runners would tape the cassettes to their wrists and chests , sneak out the hotel 's back door and speed away on bicycles to abc 's base of operation a few miles away . late monday afternoon , a feeling of danger set in . all at once , we spotted fires erupting in the west , saw tanks moving below our windows with guns manned and heard a knock on our door . i grabbed the phone , ran into a bathroom and locked the door . ''good morning america'' was on the air , and the bathroom seemed like the safest place to keep our live broadcasts going . the last report out of suite 1535 came from that secure little room . i told our new york anchors that a hotel worker was in the hallway , just a few feet away , delivering orders to seal our windows and balcony doors . it was decided that the situation had become too precarious . we packed fast . most of the videotapes had been safely sent out , and the telephone , my lifeline , was left behind . jackie judd , correspondent , abc_news 'new york , are you there ? ' friday , may 19 , approximately 11 30 at night , beijing time . beep . beep . ''hello , new york . '' nothing . beep . beep . ''new york , are you there ? '' i 'm frustrated the fifth battery for the cellular_phone had died . i was with tom bettag , the executive_producer for ''the evening news , '' and we had only one battery left . we desperately needed to get through to anyone to find the cbs_news van . bettag and i had been out in tiananmen_square all day talking with students . deng xiaoping had outlawed the demonstrations , and protest leaders were trying to decide what to do . for them , it was a night of living dangerously . hundreds of thousands had congregated . lost among them was a cbs_news van or us , depending on how you looked at it . the cellular_phone was my only link to find them . the van had the microwave and was the only place to broadcast live from in the square . i had no idea where they were . students streamed into the square , despite the midnight deadline , which was less than three minutes away . without the van , there was no way i could broadcast . would the students leave ? hardly . would troops move in ? maybe . but first i had to find the van . bettag desperately popped in our last battery . before we could even call out , the phone rang . it was lane venardos , director of cbs_news special events . he was based at the shangri_la hotel but was in constant communication with new york and , more importantly , with the van i was to meet . ''get to the north end of the square , '' he shouted . ''near mao 's picture . you 'll do a special report as the deadline comes . '' bettag and i broke into a run . the world 's largest square was even larger when one was running through the dark against the tide of people streaming toward the center . with minutes to spare , we finally found the broadcast position . it was a flatbed_truck with a generator powering a microwave and lights . a crowd had formed . it was midnight . the deadline came and went . the students defiantly stayed . back in new york i was on the air not so much because of the microwave or the generator but because of a battery for a cellular_phone . dan rather , anchorman ''the cbs evening news'' 'taxi_drivers were our best allies' the day after tiananmen_square had been cleared by tanks and troops , chinese soldiers continued to fire off rounds at curious onlookers . understandably , our camera crews a seasoned , battle wary group with experience from vietnam to beirut were a little edgy . we decided on a ride and run format . we 'd cruise a neighborhood in a car with tinted_windows if the street seemed clear of military patrols , we 'd jump out and try to tape interviews or on camera reports . we had only mixed success . just a few days earlier , the streets of beijing had been jammed with people expressing solidarity with the tiananmen demonstrators . now , with chinese state television showing hundreds of suspects , many beaten and almost all flanked by armed soldiers , it was almost impossible to find a beijing resident who knew much about the demonstrations . ''i do n't care for politics , '' they 'd say . or , ''yes , i heard something about that , but i did n't pay much attention . '' many of the taxi_drivers were our best allies . they 'd park as innocently as possible near a military compound so we could surreptitiously tape the enormous troop presence . one , particularly , was eager to help because many of his friends and neighbors had been hauled away during nighttime roundups . our most successful technique for getting tv pictures in off limits areas involved what we called the bike cam . that meant that an enterprising nbc cameraman mounted a small 8 millimeter video_camera in an empty soft_drink box , exposed the lens through a hole cut in the cardboard and attached it all to the carrying rack on the back of a black flying pigeon , china 's all purpose bicycle . i rode a second bike a few feet behind , describing where we were , what we were seeing . at one point we lost our chase car , so we pulled over near the forbidden_city 's gate of heavenly peace , where a giant portrait of mao stares across to tiananmen_square . we pretended to be lost tourists , looking at a map and pointing in exaggerated confusion . the armed soldiers stationed there with a long line of tanks and armored_personnel_carriers were not amused . they ordered us to move on , which we did , while the camera recorded the startling juxtaposition of china 's past and present , the forbidden_city guarded by tanks in camouflage green paint . tom_brokaw , anchorman , ''nbc_nightly_news'' 'everyone wanted to express an opinion' dong dan park is a quiet little spot about one mile east of tiananmen_square . sunday , may 21 , the day after china imposed martial_law , i went to the park with three nbc_news colleagues to see how ordinary citizens were reacting to events in the square . because we were n't sure whether the chinese authorities would enforce prohibitions against news photography and conducting interviews , we posed as tourists , with a pair of home_video camcorders slung over our shoulders . we hired pedicabs for the ride to the park . beijing on that sunday did not have the appearance of a city under martial_law . there were no signs of soldiers or policemen . children in the park giggled as they climbed on playground equipment young lovers sat on benches and held hands . we were somewhat surprised when we began taping interviews . though we were trying to be as unobtrusive as possible , we knew that our ''cover'' as tourists was pretty thin , that people would probably shy from our cameras . but practically everyone we talked to wanted to express an opinion . and all of those opinions were against the government . a group of old men in mao suits told our translator in chinese ''the government is wrong . the students are right . the leaders of this country are corrupt . '' i asked one of the old men ''are n't you afraid of the government ? '' ''no , '' he scoffed , ''i 'm 87 . what do i have to fear at this age ? '' we returned to dong dan park five days after the massacre at tiananmen_square . children were still playing and lovers were still holding hands on the benches . but when we approached people , they covered their faces to avoid the cameras , refusing to talk to us . some warned us that we were breaking the law and that we could be arrested or shot . we found some of the same old men who had been so outspoken on our previous visit . we asked them what they thought of martial_law now . ''we ca n't answer that question , '' said one . chinese state run tv has begun running pirated excerpts of news stories taped by american networks . the images of people who have dared to speak against the government are replayed , and chinese viewers are urged to help track them down . we watch the chinese newscasts with a feeling of apprehension . will they replay one of our old stories and single out one of the people we interviewed as a ''counterrevolutionary , '' to be hunted down and imprisoned ? will we be part of that process ? george lewis , correspondent , nbc_news

has a location of china

when museums recreate period rooms , they acquire an aura that lies somewhere between fact and fiction . the furnishings are real , but the setting evokes an imaginary scene the way a doll house does . the effect is amplified when museumgoers confront an entire house like the one created for the exhibition ''beyond the screen chinese furniture of the 16th and 17th centuries , '' on view here at the museum_of_fine_arts . leaving the museum 's chinese sculpture gallery , a visitor passes behind a screen to discover a labyrinthine house surrounded by courtyards and gardens that suggest the home of a wealthy scholar or prosperous merchant in the ming_dynasty . exposed timbers form the frame of the house , and the walls are made of plexiglas etched to resemble lattice screens . within these transparent enclosures are a reception hall , a study and a bedroom , placed around a series of courtyards . everything the visitor sees , from the relationship of the landscape to the house and the arrangement of the furniture and art inside it , has a ceremonial basis . the curator of the exhibition , nancy berliner , an expert on the interpretation of chinese_culture , has lived and studied in beijing . ''i looked to period literary sources and wood block prints for clues to the placement of the furniture according to the social customs of the time , '' she said , referring to the richly finished hardwood chairs , tables and chests among the 130 objects on display . the traditional relationship of courtyard to house is enhanced by the illusion of outdoor space created by high ceilings and skylights in the exhibition space . the house faces an imagined south following the chinese custom for good fortune . the circuitous route around the courtyard was believed to discourage evil spirits , which were said to travel in straight lines . the hong_kong born architect , yun sing jung , a principal of the boston firm jung brannen associates , said that he had designed the courtyard house from books and his own scholarly knowledge . he was already a trained calligrapher versed in poetry , painting and early wood block prints by age 19 when he came to north_america in 1949 . ( the calligraphy painted on the walls of the exhibition is his own . ) upon entering the reception hall , one first sees an elegant folding chair made from yellow pear wood with a foot rest and a back splat carved with the design of a flowering vine . ( china of this period , the catalogue notes , was the only asian nation in which chairs were used most of them folded , or collapsed , to be moved to other rooms or out of doors . ) this chair was the seat of honor , and according to a passage from a novel on the wall caption , a gentleman visitor would sit there , awaiting a lady as she finished dressing in a room off a rear courtyard . the reception hall is also furnished with couch beds to seat both host and guests . an unadorned couch bed on view demonstrates what the catalogue calls ''the calm and serene countenance'' that would have been perceived as more elegant by the literati than the more ornate openwork carving of the second one on display . ms . berliner contends that like the upturned crest rails on nearby ming chairs , the flanges on the long table relate to the roof ridge in chinese houses from the han period to the present . ''the furniture in these rooms is an extension of the architecture , '' she said . in a ming bronze vase displayed on the long table , a few sprigs of cherry blossoms herald the forthcoming season , while through a window the bright green fronds of young bamboo trees can be seen . such details reinforce the house 's sense of the realism . infused with simplicity , the rooms are peaceful , but nowhere more so than in the scholar 's study , where a painting table in front of a fan shaped window is prepared with an ink stone and brush_pot for the work at hand . a pair of stools in twisted root wood and a decorative rock displayed on a stand were the kind of natural forms that served as inspiration for the scholar . scrolls were stored in the adjoining bookcase . in the bedroom at the back of the house , furniture was elaborately decorated , particularly the six poster canopy bed , which , would have been carried through the streets as part of a woman 's dowry . this bed , covered in yellow brocade and carved with a dragon motif , bespoke the kind of intimacy often portrayed in period prints . clothes were carefully folded on an ornate garment rack placed next to the bed . most of the carved decorations were symbolic of the natural world and evoked the seasons . two armchairs in the garden are carved with a pattern of pine , bamboo and plum blossoms together , they are known as the ''three friends of winter'' because all three are at their peak in february . ming furniture is usually constructed without nails or glue . the components fit together like a sophisticated puzzle , the pieces of which are marked for assembly with characters that stand for familiar lines from calligraphic essays of the kind that mr . jung learned in his youth . four table legs are marked with characters that read ''the universe is vast and time is eternal . '' in the shadows of this domestic compound and its rich furnishings , time appears to stand still . arts artifacts

has a location of china

a group of prominent chinese academics , lawyers and liberal reformers made a bold public demand on sunday for a definition of freedom of expression in china that would clearly establish the extent to which citizens can legally criticize the nondemocratic government . the group posted a petition on web_sites in china as well as overseas . the petition focused on china 's vaguely_defined antisubversion law , which the police often invoke to arrest critics of the government , and called for a ''judicial interpretation'' of the legality of the provision under the chinese constitution . the petition also called for the release of du daobin , an internet essayist who was arrested late last year on subversion charges . organizers plan to collect signatures on line and to present the petition to the government in another example of how the internet is becoming a potent vehicle for mobilizing support for political and legal reform here . ''in recent years , and especially since last year , the internet has emerged as a forum where intellectuals can defend civic freedoms , '' said wang yi , 30 , a law professor in western china who helped organize the petition drive . the petition is signed by 102 writers , editors , lawyers , philosophers , liberal economists and dissidents . they include liu xiaobo , a well known dissident from the tiananmen_square crackdown in 1989 yu jie , an essayist and government critic liu junning , a liberal political theorist and he weifang , a beijing law professor and commentator . the issue of constitutional reform is gaining an increasingly high profile in china in official and intellectual circles . in march , the national people 's congress is expected to ratify a much touted constitutional_amendment establishing the right to private_property . the government is also considering an amendment to the constitution to include ' 'respecting and protecting human_rights . '' public awareness of the chinese constitution as a supreme law has been growing . protesters increasingly cite it in making claims on issues of basic rights . but as china tries to establish itself as a nation ruled by laws , those rights remain largely unfulfilled , as evidenced by mr . du 's case . he is a minor government official in central hubei_province who gained a following for his writings on the internet , including his support for democracy in hong_kong . he also wrote an essay calling for the release of a jailed internet dissident , liu di . ms . liu was released in november and has signed the current petition . the authorities arrested mr . du in october , and prosecutors are now trying to decide whether enough evidence exists to bring an indictment . the authorities contend that mr . du wanted to topple the government . but mo shaoping , the beijing lawyer representing him , said the provision was so vague that it failed to define boundaries for freedom of speech or limits on criticizing the government . ''du daobin maintains that he was n't trying to subvert or overthrow the government , '' said mr . mo , who did not sign the petition . ''his criticisms were well intentioned and constructive . '' the petitioners contend that the vagueness of the law is essentially a license for abuse that allows the police to arrest anyone who criticizes the government , regardless of their intent . as a remedy , they are calling on china 's highest court , the supreme people 's court , to review the constitutionality of the provision . ''the main problem with the law is that it 's very broadly expressed , and so we need more specific legal definitions , '' said mr . he , the beijing law professor who signed the petition . ''but the judiciary has never offered any clear direction . '' petition organizers are trying to tap into the growing influence of china 's 80 million internet users , a number that is rising rapidly . the petition warned that convicting mr . du would be an ''utterly dangerous precedent'' for internet users . mr . wang , one of the petition organizers , said the petition drive was partly the result of a greater confidence on the part of intellectuals in making such a public stand . he cited several cases over the last year in which the government has responded to petition drives . yet asked if he worried about official retribution , he said ''i 'm really not sure about the size of the risk . under a nontransparent legal system , it 's a bit like being behind a closed door , and you do n't know if the police_officer is one meter from your door or a thousand meters away . ''

has a location of china

senator trent_lott , the majority leader , said today that senate investigators had concluded that china improved its military missile program when it received sensitive american space technology after the clinton_administration loosened export controls . in a scathing floor speech , mr . lott , a mississippi republican , also said ''new information'' had surfaced on china 's effort to influence the 1996 american elections . but he said he could not discuss the disclosures because they were classified . ''national_security concerns are regularly downplayed and even ignored , '' mr . lott said . his comments mark the first attempt by a congressional leader to characterize the disparate findings of 10 house and senate committees on the far reaching inquiry into whether china illegally obtained american technology that helped beijing 's ballistic_missile program . with the speech , mr . lott was hoping to create a sense of momentum and focus that the overall investigation has been lacking . senate democrats immediately accused mr . lott of jumping to false conclusions and politicizing the investigation . ''the statement by the majority leader endangers national_security , '' said senator bob_kerrey of nebraska , the ranking democrat on the intelligence committee , ''because it threatens our committee 's capacity to produce a bipartisan set of recommendations . '' republican senators have expressed frustration that the inquiries of four senate committees , which have held 13 hearings since may , have gained little traction . at a meeting last thursday of several republican senators who advise mr . lott on china , several urged him to tie together the most important findings , and go on the attack . ''we needed to bring the interim conclusions to the senate floor , '' said senator tim hutchinson , an arkansas republican on the china task_force . a senior republican aide added , ''clearly , there was a feeling we had to turn up the pressure . '' mr . lott and other republicans said the administration was stonewalling their requests for documents , an accusation that mr . kerrey and white_house officials denied . in his floor speech , mr . lott dropped no bombshells and offered no new evidence to support his assertions . he restated some of the principal accusations made in the senate hearings to date and called them ''five major interim judgments . '' first , mr . lott said the administration 's controls over the export of american satellites for launching on chinese rockets was ''wholly inadequate . '' he cited the testimony of the general_accounting_office , the auditing arm of congress , that the shifting of licensing authority over commercial satellites to the commerce_department from the state_department in 1996 loosened restrictions . mr . lott also noted that the justice_department was investigating two instances where sensitive technology may have been improperly diverted to the chinese . one case involves information loral space and communications and hughes_electronics shared with chinese engineers after a failed launching of a loral satellite in february 1996 . the second instance involves information hughes shared with chinese officials after the failed launching of a hughes satellite in 1995 . a senior commerce_department official acknowledged last week that the department had erred by failing to refer the hughes damage report to the state_department for review before the company gave the results to the chinese . mr . lott also said china 's military benefited from the information shared by loral and hughes . that was the conclusion of three federal agencies that reviewed the information the companies gave to chinese rocket scientists . ''the jury is still out on how much satellite exports enhance china 's ballistic_missile programs , '' he said . mr . lott said the administration had ignored intelligence findings that china shipped m 11 missiles to pakistan in 1992 and had refused to impose strict sanctions on china that would also hurt american satellite makers . administration officials have said the evidence was not solid enough . finally , mr . lott said new information had emerged about china 's effort to influence the 1996 elections . senator richard c . shelby , the alabama republican who heads the intelligence committee , said the same thing after a closed meeting last week with louis j . freeh , the director of the federal_bureau_of_investigation . neither senator gave any details . but mr . lott renewed his call today for an independent_counsel to investigate the matter . on wednesday , the head of the pentagon agency responsible for safeguarding american technology exports will testify before the intelligence committee . and the senate governmental affairs committee this week invited c . michael armstrong and michael t . smith , the former and current chief executives of hughes , to testify at a hearing scheduled for july 29 . senators said they are willing to subpoena the executives if they do not testify voluntarily . on the other side of capitol_hill , the house select committee investigating the china accusations has hired a . r . cinquegrana , a deputy inspector general of the central_intelligence_agency , as its chief investigator .

has a location of china

lead in february 1986 , the central ballet of china arrived in new york to begin its first american tour . ''on the move , '' an hourlong ''great performances'' presentation on channel 13 at 9 this evening , follows the company around the city and includes a brief history of the company . the most lasting impression in february 1986 , the central ballet of china arrived in new york to begin its first american tour . ''on the move , '' an hourlong ''great performances'' presentation on channel 13 at 9 this evening , follows the company around the city and includes a brief history of the company . the most lasting impression dancers are dancers are dancers . the segments filmed in china focus on the rigorous demands of the dance school . most students begin at age 12 . they live together in dormitories . there is no privacy . a modest ballet tradition was snuffed out by the cultural_revolution and its condemnation of western influences as ''poison weeds . '' when that upheaval ended in 1976 , this new ballet_company was formed . the dancers are sometimes referred to as ''children of a lost generation . '' the students are seen being tutored by dai ailian , a major figure in chinese dance . some 1946 film clips show her performing folk dances , considered to be the first ingredient in developing a national chinese style . she acidly observes , ''the only good thing about the cultural_revolution is we 'll never have another one . '' but the bulk of ''on the move , '' directed by merrill brockway of ''dance in america'' distinction , focuses on the company 's stay in new york . rehearsing hurriedly for a performance at the brooklyn_academy_of_music , they are described by one observer as ' 'swans in pajamas . '' before going on stage , they ferociously play cards to relax . the performance itself is relatively smooth , although there is some carping about the orchestra conductor . but one dancer named johnny ( he once spent some time in texas ) is pleased , saying in english , ''we never enjoyed this much enthusiasm from chinese audiences , '' adding with a grin , ''i 'd like more . '' the performers then become tourists . they take a subway ride and get in one of the new cars , which prompts one young woman to complain that they should have waited for an old train with more character . figure that one out . and , of course , they visit several dance studios and schools . dancers are insatiable when it comes to watching other dancers . graciela daniele , the broadway choreographer , introduces them to break dancing . paul taylor , daring them to be foolish , conducts a class in modern_dance and the visitors discover that here is not just a new way of moving but a new way of feeling . at the american school of ballet , suki shorer demonstrates the balanchine method , prompting one chinese dancer to liken the experience to ''trying to swim in an ocean when you have known only quiet streams . '' finally , at the alvin_ailey studio , miguel godreau gets everybody bopping to the percussive lures of jazz dancing . needless to say , the enthusiastic reactions of the visitors end up making much of ''on the move'' a very effective commercial for american dance and dancers . the executive producers of ''on the move'' are sidney kantor and mary yung kantor , who arranged the company 's tour . as a showcase for the young chinese company , the documentary , written by glenn berenbeim , is charming . perhaps not surprisingly , given their country 's acclaimed culinary traditions , the dancers offer an abundance of food metaphors . one says , ''we do n't want to go home until we have a taste of everything . '' in the end , another says ''we have tasted american dance and we are still hungry . '' all in all , delicious . note channel 13 stays in an ethnic groove this evening with ''james galway and the chieftains , '' an hour of irish jigs , reels and traditional airs recorded in concert at wolf_trap farm park . mr . galway plays the flute and pennywhistle . led by paddy moloney on the uilleann pipes , the six man group known as the chieftains joins in for a program that includes everything from ''danny boy'' to ''down by the sally gardens , '' a love song composed by yeats . there 's even a bit of irish step dancing , supplied by brian grant . like the old country itself , the session , which gets under way at 10 p.m. , is enormously friendly and beguiling .

has a location of china

john thomson china institute in america 125 east 65th street manhattan through june 11 in the early 1870 's john thomson , a scottish photographer based in hong_kong , traveled throughout china , recording the people and sights he encountered . when he returned to london in 1872 , he took with him 1 , 200 glass plate negatives , which he proceeded to publish in elaborate volumes . this fascinating show offers a wide range of thomson 's views of china . he was especially adept at photographing representative social types in carefully posed scenes , whether buddhist monks playing chess , an outdoor chiropodist , or the operator of a portable peep show . occasionally thomson photographed architectural details and landscapes , as well as such landmarks as the great_wall . but it is his pictures of people , whether manchu ladies in elaborate hairdos or a thief with his thumbs cut off , that are most fascinating . thomson published these and other images in high quality reproductions , with extensive captions describing the subjects and his own role in recording them . the pictures here , though , are based on copy prints from thomson 's original negatives and appear without his captions many are also marred by scratches and scrapes . thomson is best known for his later photographs of characteristic street types of london , but it is easy to see their roots in his pictures from china . despite their technical flaws , these images offer an intriguing window into the past , both of china and of photography . charles hagen

has a location of china

staidly english and exotically chinese , hong_kong became a photographer 's mecca after the british took it over in 1841 . as the crown colony on the south china sea developed from a barren rock into a bustling metropolis , westerners and asians among them felice beato , john thomson , lai afong , pun lun , william pryor floyd and the american milton m . miller recorded its scenes and events , selling images of prospering hong_kong to itself and the rest of the world . now , on the eve of the colony 's reversion to chinese rule , the asia_society and the hong_kong arts center have organized ''picturing hong_kong photography 1855 1910 , '' a sort of homage to the early years . the 75 images range from big panoramas of hong_kong 's harbor to the wallet size images known as cartes de visite . while for the most part they show the up side of life in the ''fragrant harbor , '' as the chinese called it , there are exceptions one is an anonymous 1890 's view of bystanders gazing at beheaded pirates of kowloon , a part of the territory . the fascination of hong_kong is partly based on the tension of british and chinese coexistence , but this the photographs do not often convey . the show 's curator , roberta wue , points out that scenes of the english settlement of victoria with its fine buildings , well tended streets and private residences were meant to stress hong_kong 's identity as a royal colony and to symbolize the beneficence of the british presence . by contrast , views of the chinese areas to the east and west promoted their exotically asian aspects narrow passages , quaint architecture and the commotion of street life . but even though they catered to occidental stereotypes of asians , these photographs provided for the western_world more glimpses of chinese life than any other source . scenes of the colony 's center and the superb harbor that made it the hub of asian trade dominate ''sights of hong_kong , '' the show 's first section . a splendid panorama of the praya , or waterfront , circa 1868 71 attributed to the scottish photographer john thomson shows the massive victoria peak rising behind a long line of ''hongs , '' the warehouses vital to the life of the city . the harbor also appears in a large print of the queen 's road , made by miller in the 1860 's . its focus is the road leading to the harbor and the handsome buildings that lined it , including the landmark clock_tower then under construction . a much sterner view is beato 's spectacular 1860 panorama of the harbor bristling with the fleet of the north china expedition . beato was an experienced battle photographer who , in the second opium war of 1858 1860 , accompanied the anglo french expedition north to beijing on its mission of extracting chinese trade concessions . the images of ''life in hong_kong , '' the second section of the show , run from groups and individuals to scenes of shops and classrooms . a rare thomson view of a chinese curio shop ( 1868 71 ) depicts fan wielding clerks awaiting business in its dark interior . ''leaving school'' ( 1897 ) , by the british photographer d . k . griffith , shows a custom unheard of in america pigtailed chinese boys ceremoniously bowing to their teacher at the end of class . and a vignette by an unknown photographer , dated 1887 , portrays an upper_class english child on her donkey in front of a large house , respectfully attended by a chinese groom . although western and asian togetherness is rare in these photos , there are a couple worth noting in one , europeans favor a chinese restaurant with their presence , accompanied by chinese guests and servants in the other , a group of white uniformed health officials pose assertively in a plague ridden chinese quarter . the last sections , ''portraits and people'' and ''cartes de visite and stereo views , '' is a potpourri of hong kongers in formal and casual poses , among them a lovely , late 60 's hand colored portrait by thomson of an elegant young chinese woman serving tea , with the ambiguous title , ''pay you chow chow ? '' facing the camera , too , are the formally attired staff of an american trading company , two ceremonially dressed japanese ambassadors , musicians , gamblers , a fortuneteller and a barber who did his customers' hair in the shaved front , pigtail back style imposed even in british hong kong . all told , ''picturing hong_kong'' is a lively , humanizing portrait of a complex community that throws some light on its situation today . not the least of the show 's treasures is its handsome , informative catalogue . ''picturing hong_kong photography 1855 1910'' remains at the asia_society , 725 park_avenue , at 70th street , through aug . 17 . photography review

has a location of china

when pony ma , the 35 year old co founder of china 's hottest internet company , sends a message to friends and colleagues , the image that pops up on their screens shows a spiky haired youth wearing flashy jeans and dark sunglasses . that is not how mr . ma actually looks or acts , but it is an image that fits well with the youthful , faintly rebellious nature of a company led by somebody who may be china 's closest approximation to sergey brin and larry page , the young founders of google . in the two years since mr . ma 's company , tencent , went public in hong_kong , it has grown into a powerhouse that has crushed everyone else in the field . no other internet company in the world not even google has achieved the kind of dominance in its home market that tencent commands in china , where its all in one packaging of entertainment offerings and a mobile instant_messaging service , ''qq , '' www . qq . com has reached more than 100 million users , or nearly 80 percent of the market . ''everyone talks about eyeballs , '' said william bao bean , an internet analyst at deutsche_bank securities . ''well , they 've got all the eyeballs in china . and now they 're beginning to cash in on that . '' but the rise of fast growing companies like tencent is also worrying the chinese government , which strictly regulates the internet and is wary of the web 's ability to mobilize huge online political communities or perhaps to nurture underground economies . a few weeks ago , china 's central_bank which oversees the country 's 2 . 6 trillion economy even went so far as to issue a warning about tencent 's virtual currency , q coins , which allow customers to shop online for games , music and even virtual furniture . a central_bank official said the agency was studying whether tencent 's online tokens were a threat to china 's currency , the yuan or renminbi . he also said the authorities would crack down on the coins if they were used to engage in money_laundering . that is far from tencent 's intention . already one of china 's wealthiest entrepreneurs worth an estimated 850 million the soft_spoken mr . ma says he simply wants to let people in china use the web the way they want . ''i think every internet user likes personalization , '' mr . ma said during an interview here . ''in 2005 and 2006 , we came up with a new strategy 'online lifestyle . ' '' while america 's internet users send e mail messages and surf for information on their personal_computers , young people in china are playing online games , downloading video and music into their cellphones and mp3 players and entering imaginary worlds where they can swap virtual goods and assume online personas . tencent earns the bulk of its revenue from the entertainment services it sells through the internet and mobile_phones . another distinguishing feature is the youthful face of china 's online community . in the united_states , roughly 70 percent of internet users are over the age of 30 in china , it is the other way around 70 percent of users here are under 30 , according to the investment_bank morgan_stanley . because few people in china have credit_cards or trust the internet for financial transactions , e_commerce is emerging slowly . but instant_messaging and game playing are major obsessions , now central to chinese_culture . so is social networking , a natural fit in a country full of young people without siblings . tencent combines aspects of the social networking site myspace , the video sharing site youtube and the online virtual world of second life . ''they have what i call the largest virtual park in china , '' said richard ji , an analyst at morgan_stanley . ''and in china , the no . 1 priority for internet users is entertainment in the u.s. , it 's information . that 's why google is dominant in the u.s. , but tencent rules china . '' tencent 's rapid rise is one reason america 's biggest internet companies , like yahoo , google and ebay , have largely flopped in china . analysts say the american companies struggle here partly because of regulatory restrictions that favor homegrown companies , but also because foreign companies often do not understand china 's internet market , which is geared primarily to entertainment and mobile_phones . google has lost market_share to the search_engine baidu . yahoo recently transferred its operations to a chinese company , alibaba . com . and ebay , even after buying one of its biggest competitors in china , has continued to lose ground last december it handed its chinese operations over to tom . com , which is based in hong_kong , in a joint_venture . chinese youth prefer instant_messages to e mail messages they play games , form communities and even adopt virtual personas , or avatars , which requires selecting an online image or personality and then buying that character virtual clothes , hairstyles , furniture and perhaps even a virtual pet that must be fed with virtual pet_food . it is a world that now dominates the life of li meixuan , a 21 year old college student in beijing who became hooked on tencent 's qq offerings in high_school . ''i play with qq about three to five hours a day , '' said ms . li . ''i usually play qq games , buy game stuff from the qq game and buy decorations for my qq show . '' tencent will not release statistics on how its q coins are doing , but analysts say the currency is so popular that an underground economy in q coins has emerged , even though the coins are not redeemable for cash . mr . ma dismisses talk about the coins harming the chinese currency . ''the media has misled the public , '' he said . ''a central_bank official said that q coin did not affect the renminbi it adds vibrancy to the economy . our competitors raised this to intentionally cause panic . '' the controversy has done nothing to dim the company 's stock price , which has soared about 200 percent over the last year , giving the company a market value of roughly 7 billion . the rally was fueled by tencent 's rising profit , which jumped 221 percent through the first three quarters of 2006 , to 100 million . tencent was founded in 1998 by college buddies here in this southern china city , led by ma huateng , or pony ma , as he is known in english . mr . ma has a boyish face and a quiet demeanor . but he is one of china 's most respected entrepreneurs . and when he shows up at internet conferences in china he is mobbed by young people eager to have a picture taken with him or to shove their name cards into his pocket . mr . ma earned a degree in computer science in 1993 from shenzhen university , where his professors remember him as a diligent student who always stood out . ''he left a deep impression on me , '' said wang jingli , the former chairman of the university 's computer science department . he recalled how he once assigned mr . ma to solve a classic chess problem called the eight queens puzzle . ''he gave me all the answers in graphics , which was very rare among the students i taught . '' later , mr . ma worked as a software developer for a paging and telecommunications company . but after making a lot of money trading stocks in his free time , he founded tencent with his boyhood friend zhang zhidong . it was one of the first companies to offer instant_messaging in china . but in the early days , profits were hard to come by . ''they did n't really have a revenue model , and they did n't know how they were going to make money , '' said shirley yeung , who was among the first to invest in the company for pccw , the hong_kong telecom operator . ''they were a bunch of young techies working in a crummy building but passionate about creating something new . '' in 2001 , the company got a big infusion of capital from mih , a division of a south_african media company called naspers . mih paid 35 million to acquire about 50 percent of the company . tencent 's fortunes improved later that year when the company teamed up with china_mobile , the giant state owned mobile operator , to forward internet messaging to mobile_phones . ''that was our first bucket of gold , '' mr . ma said . by 2004 , tencent was making a handsome profit on revenue of more than 130 million and goldman_sachs was brought in to take the company public in hong_kong , where tencent 's offering raised 184 million in june 2004 . since then , the company has been on a tear . other big chinese internet companies , like sina , sohu , netease and baidu , are trying to keep pace . and so are the american internet companies , like myspace , which is looking to enter china 's market . but mr . ma is not standing still . ''there are a lot of opportunities in the market now , '' he said . ''the leader of the market today may not necessarily be the leader tomorrow . ''

has a location of china

''china born under the red flag'' concludes the ambitious three part pbs history that began with ''china in revolution'' and continued with ''the mao years . '' tonight 's two hours cover the deng years , from the death of mao_zedong in 1976 and the ascendancy of deng_xiaoping to deng 's death in february . it is a story of economic resurgence and political_repression , of astounding successes and intractable problems . deng began his rise to power amid the commotion of the cultural_revolution . none of the students , teachers , journalists or officials interviewed tonight mourn the passing of mao or the fall of the gang of four , adversaries of deng who in those years carried mao 's policy of endless revolution to its brutal and chaotic extreme . a victim of the time says , ''when the big tree falls down , all the monkeys run away . '' with deng 's ascension and the appearance in 1978 of democracy wall in beijing , where people were allowed to criticize their rulers , hopes rose that the government 's rigors were being softened . what one man calls a genuine ''cultural fever'' excited the young western music and ideas spread . but that did not last long . tonight 's account also gives due attention to the 1989 democracy rallies in tiananmen_square , which , as television audiences around the world saw for themselves , ended with an army crackdown and the jailing of dissidents . the pictures , seen again last week in the coverage of hong_kong 's reversion to chinese rule , have lost none of their force , and the events still scar china 's past and darken its future . while freedom advanced temptingly only to be beaten back , the loosening of economic restrictions created a new prosperity . ''communism , '' deng said , ''will not be saved by rhetoric but by improving people 's living standards . '' with the breakup of communes , many farmers flourished , and deng 's opening to the west brought boom times to southern coastal cities . but as in russia and other formerly communist lands , millions of workers and farmers were left adrift , without the security they had enjoyed under communism . a displaced worker laments the loss of ''the iron rice bowl , '' the lifetime guarantee of a job , a place to live and food even if the factory where one worked was a dead loss . a side effect of turning china into an economic dynamo , the program reports , has been unemployment for 100 million peasants . this vivid history of 20 tumultuous years is at once an appreciation of the society 's strides toward a better life for many of its people and a condemnation of the unyielding grip of the communist_party bosses . tonight 's witnesses , who were born under the red flag and gave their lives to revolutionary ideals , look back with feelings of profound waste , and the narrator finds deng 's legacy to be a combination of ''brutal , outmoded communism and a harsh new capitalism . '' ( china night begins at 8 on pbs with ''himalaya . '' the bbc cameras offer spectacular views of peaks , plateaus and foothills and wherever they turn find living things , some in surprising forms . ) china born under the red flag pbs , tonight at 9 ( check local listings ) judith vecchione , executive_producer sue williams , writer , producer and director kathryn dietz , co producer john martin , editor jason kao hwang , music will lyman , narrator . television review

has a location of china

lead anyone tempted to believe that the recent demonstrations led by chinese students and their brutal_suppression by the chinese government constitute an anomaly in chinese history will find remarkable evidence to the contrary at ''china between revolutions photographs by sidney d . gamble 1917 1927 , '' an exhibition now on view at the china institute in anyone tempted to believe that the recent demonstrations led by chinese students and their brutal_suppression by the chinese government constitute an anomaly in chinese history will find remarkable evidence to the contrary at ''china between revolutions photographs by sidney d . gamble 1917 1927 , '' an exhibition now on view at the china institute in america . the exhibition features 81 black and white images of chinese life taken by gamble , a western sociologist who had the rare opportunity to document chinese life in the years of the republic that followed the fall of the manchu dynasty in 1911 and lasted until the nationalist takeover in 1928 . it contains two historically significant pictures of student demonstrations that took place in beijing in 1919 . one photograph , which shows students speaking out against their government 's acquiescence to the treaty of versailles , which ceded chinese territories to japan , was taken 70 years almost to the day before the recent terror in tiananmen_square . in response to that earlier protest , the chinese republic arrested more than 1 , 000 of the students . the second picture , taken during a demonstration in november 1919 , shows a crowd of students in quilted jackets filling a square and holding banners of protest against the wounding of seven students in fuzhou , a city in southeastern china . the image is eerie , so closely does it resemble the protests of two months ago . sidney d . gamble , an heir to the procter_gamble fortune , was a witness to a convulsive period in china 's history . he made his first visit to china soon after the fall of the ching dynasty ended the manchu era and his last as chiang_kai_shek came to power . for the most part , however , his pictures were taken to illuminate china 's social life and culture , not its political upheavals . after studying at princeton and the university of california at berkeley , he was asked to undertake a social survey of beijing in behalf of the y.m.c.a . over the course of several years there he gathered statistics on incomes , occupations and health_care , and he supplemented these bare facts with his photographs , of which he took some 4 , 000 during his career . the selection of photographs in the exhibition reveals a deft eye and a fluid intelligence . unlike earlier western photographers in china , gamble did not search for spectacular landscapes or record exotically costumed individuals within the confines of a studio . rather , he photographed in a candid , deceptively casual way , taking street scenes and images of people at work that seem quite modern for their time . his pictures are in much the same spirit as the contemporaneous work of lewis hine , who is considered the guiding spirit of 20th_century documentary photography . the exhibition is divided into four sections , which correspond to the four areas of gamble 's picture making activity public life , the workplace , religion and family ceremonies . the images of public life , including those of the student demonstrations , are the most fascinating historically , while those in the other groupings often have primarily pictorial charm . for example , in a 1919 picture of a silk loom in operation , obviously taken with a slow shutter speed , the loom operator 's face appears to look in two directions at once at the loom , and at the camera . ''old lady sitting on burner , '' taken in the forbidden_city in 1918 , shows a haughty dowager whose feet taper to tiny points , a result of the tradition of foot binding . occasionally gamble 's eye would stray to subjects with no apparent connection to his sociological activities . one of the most beautiful of these shows a row of carved granite drums and a temple bell , displayed in a courtyard and raked by sunlight . as is true of all of the photographer 's work , the picture is exquisitely sharp and technically flawless . dr . nancy jervis , the director of chinese studies at the institute and the curator of the exhibition , says gamble 's photographic negatives lay unused in shoe boxes for more than 50 years . some 15 years after his death in 1968 , the trove of images was discovered in his home in the riverdale section of the bronx his daughter , catherine g . curran , has been instrumental in bringing the work to public attention . a deluxe book reproducing many of gamble 's photographs was published last year , and the exhibition , which was organized by the china institute and the sidney d . gamble foundation for china studies , will travel throughout the united_states under the auspices of the smithsonian institution traveling exhibition services . major financing was provided by the henry_luce foundation . because gamble 's photographs depict aspects of a culture foreign to most americans , the exhibition goes to some lengths to explain the images on view . the curator has written informative captions that in many cases are as detailed as the images themselves . in addition , the exhibition has been installed unconventionally , with the photographs all recently printed mounted on wire mesh scrolls and the captions printed on wooden plaques . the decorative effect smacks of chinoiserie , but it does not hamper one 's enjoyment of this historically fascinating show . at a time when photographs customarily are displayed on the basis of their esthetic merits , the exhibition of gamble 's work is something of an exception . it reminds us that part of what makes camera pictures so appealing is their power to render worlds far apart from our own both geographically and chronologically and to provide insights from the past that bear directly on the present . ''china between revolutions photographs by sidney d . gamble 1917 1927'' remains at the china institute in america , 125 east 65th street , until sept . 9 . it then travels to south hadley , mass . , glens_falls , n.y. , seattle and other cities .

has a location of china

a derelict chinese spy_satellite weighing more than two tons is getting ready to plunge back to earth , which could create a hazard for people on the ground or an intelligence bonanza for any foreign country that can recover its film and cameras . federal experts and industry reports say the satellite may re enter the atmosphere by march or april . most satellites burn up quickly during re entry . but this one is said to be heavily shielded and designed to survive the fiery plunge . most likely , the satellite will hit the sea in a harmless splash and sink out of sight . even so , world governments are gearing up for a possible impact on land , which if it occurs in a heavily_populated area might kill people , embarrass china and prompt an international incident . the spy_satellite about the size of a small car is believed to have no nuclear_power source on board , so the danger arises only from its speed and weight , which could have the effect of a small bomb exploding . the craft 's impending plunge is reported in the current issue of aviation week space technology , an industry magazine . it says the satellite , of a type known as fsw 1 , was launched in october 1993 from a space complex in the gobi desert . after finishing its surveillance mission and after its fiery return , the craft is meant to deploy a parachute for a soft_landing on the ground and pickup by the chinese_army . but the satellite malfunctioned 10 days after launching , the magazine reports , and is losing altitude . aviation week space technology says space analysts expect the errant satellite to simply plunge back as an inert lump . but they also say there is a slight chance that the spacecraft 's recovery system might still function , leading to the possibility of a bizarre situation in which the secret spy craft would come sailing down with its parachute open onto a place like central_park . the satellite , now about 100 miles high , has an orbit inclined 56 . 5 degrees to the equator , meaning that it could fall onto any part of the earth between 56 . 5 degrees north latitude and 56 . 5 degrees south a swath that includes all of the continental united_states . maj . don planalp of the air_force , a spokesman for the united states space command in colorado_springs , colo . , said in an interview that 11 sensors were tracking the satellite closely and that its re entry date was estimated as april 1 , 1996 . aviation week space technology said american and european analysts predicted that the impact could come in february or march . repeated calls to officials at the chinese embassy in washington produced no comment . in the past , chinese officials have spoken of the fsw 1 series of satellites as intended strictly for natural_resources monitoring . but western experts widely regard them as spy_satellites .

has a location of china

with one trade dispute over copyright piracy just settled , the united_states and china each warned today of a new confrontation over opening china to a broad array of american products . the sudden threat of a new rupture in trade relations between washington and beijing was unexpected , and came as the united_states trade representative , mickey kantor , arrived here for what had been billed as a conciliatory visit after weeks of brinkmanship over a threatened trade_war to end copyright piracy . mr . kantor , who formally signed the agreement reached two weeks ago to end the pirating of american videos , computer software and other intellectual_property , said at a news conference today that he was determined to enforce a 1992 agreement intended to reduce chinese barriers to american computers , machinery , agricultural products , textiles and beer . " if that agreement is not adhered to , " mr . kantor said , " i have no choice but to invoke " trade enforcement statutes authorizing him to impose sanctions on chinese exports to the united_states . as of dec . 31 , mr . kantor said , china had stopped complying with the 1992 accord by suspending its program to lift quotas , licenses and other barriers . the export of those american products to china could substantially reduce a 30 billion annual trade imbalance , which has grown to nearly half the size of america 's trade_deficit with japan . " i do n't want to do it , " he said . " i 'd like to have the agreement fulfilled . " pressed on how soon he would make his determination , mr . kantor said " it 's up to me . it 's been delegated to me by the president of the united_states . " at a separate news conference , china 's trade minister , wu_yi , bluntly accused the united_states of violating the " most important commitment " in the 1992 accord , which called on washington to staunchly support china 's bid to join the general agreement on tariffs and trade and the group that succeeds it , the world_trade_organization . china had hoped to be a founding member of the world_trade_organization , and ms . wu bitterly chastised washington for blocking china 's bid . " very regrettably , when the negotiations concerning china 's gatt resumption reached the critical moment , the american side took the lead to block that process , " she said , " and as a result china failed to become a contracting member . " now that the american side has not seriously implemented its commitment , the chinese side is entitled to express its displeasure . the chinese side is also entitled to take corresponding action . " she did not elaborate , but officials traveling with mr . kantor said washington received notice several weeks ago that china was suspending its implementation of the 1992 accord to lift import barriers on 155 categories of american products . the effect of the chinese decision could mean billions of dollars of lost sales for american companies . " just in wood products , there 's a 1 billion market , " in china , one american trade official said . united_states officials today characterized ms . wu 's criticism of washington 's lack of support for china 's bid to join the trade organization as disingenuous . under the 1992 agreement , they said , the united_states made a commitment to work " constructively with the chinese government " to " reach an agreement on an acceptable protocol " for china 's admission to the world trade body . the phrase " acceptable protocol , " they said , referred to china 's obligation to remove its extensive trade_barriers to qualify for membership . from ms . wu 's remarks , it seemed clear that chinese leaders had not come to terms on a strategy to resume negotiations to enter the world trade group . china 's initial bid to join the trade organization collapsed in december after eight months of negotiations . a western diplomat here said that in the following months , chinese officials " have been wrestling " with the question of whether china 's moribund state industries protected by subsidies and captive markets could survive exposure to the open competition and free_trade required under world trade rules . mr . kantor said that any internal struggles that might be under way in the chinese leadership as the death of its paramount_leader , deng_xiaoping , appears imminent , were of no concern to him . " in two years in this job one of the constant themes you run into is someone is always having an election , someone 's government is always changing , people are always asserting that a particular government ca n't move on an issue because of internal political concerns , " he said .

has a location of china

lead bug eyed dragons emblazoned on the chinese_ceramics exhibited at the yale university art gallery are bound to spark more fantasy than fear in viewers . for the winged , horned reptiles whipping energetically around beach ball sized jars , breathing fire as they stretch clawed paws on basins and raging , fangs bared , on the center of great platters , are propitious symbols not docile , but seemingly well disposed to all . bug eyed dragons emblazoned on the chinese_ceramics exhibited at the yale university art gallery are bound to spark more fantasy than fear in viewers . for the winged , horned reptiles whipping energetically around beach ball sized jars , breathing fire as they stretch clawed paws on basins and raging , fangs bared , on the center of great platters , are propitious symbols not docile , but seemingly well disposed to all . these mythical beasts dominate the images seen on the yuan and ming porcelains in this exhibition of works from the idemitsu museum of arts in tokyo , a privately_owned institution of a japanese petrochemical company . the show , ''in pursuit of the dragon traditions and transitions in ming ceramics , '' includes 90 porcelains , of which 31 are decorated with the bewhiskered monsters . they are but a small part of the idemitsu 's holdings , which also include japanese and middle_eastern ceramics , as well as european and american 20th_century art . organized by the seattle art museum , which produced the excellent catalogue ( 19 . 95 ) , the show will remain at yale through jan . 15 . what could be more appropriate in this the chinese year of the dragon than an exhibition of some of the world 's most spectacular crockery on which these beasts play a starring role ? ming blue and white wares are embellished with blue dragons or white ones . polychromed vessels are splashed with green , red , orange , yellow or brown beasts . dragons crown the lids of boxes , slither around the necks of ewers , rim basins and dramatize otherwise understated dishes . the animals are depicted in the traditional_chinese manner with a camel 's head , deer 's horns , cow 's ears , snake 's neck , hawk 's claws and tiger 's paws . the show 's most majestic ming monster is a marvelous blue dragon with bulging eyes and a scaly body wrapped around a massive blue and white jar about 20 inches in diameter . the vessel , made between 1425 and 1436 , is a rarity , one of only two known . the other one was donated in 1937 to the metropolitan_museum_of_art . the idemitsu 's porcelains , decorated with dragons , flowers , leaves , butterflies , landscapes or glorious washes of color , trace the evolution of ceramics in the yuan and ming periods , from 1260 to 1644 . porcelains flowered in china during a period of great artistic ferment more than 200 years before this technology reached the west . among the earliest major achievements are monochrome porcelains that include elegantly shaped stem cups a white one with straight sides , and a red one with a flared mouth and a sturdy meiping jar dipped in a rich cobalt glaze that accentuates the boldy rounded form . seeing the development of color and decoration on these vessels , one suspects that ceramists experimented with colored glazes cobalt blue , celadon , blood red , turquoise and egg yolk yellow the way bakers learn to ice cakes . first they frosted the surfaces without a whisper of decoration . then , after glassy coatings were mastered , they moved on to more complex techniques , such as carving images in the surface . two outsized 15th_century celadon platters , larger than hula hoops , illustrate these developments . on one of these vessels , 27 inches in diameter , the surface is a glowing lime_green glaze . on the other , the shimmering green coating is carved with fruits and flowers . painterly ceramics abound in this exhibition , and three shallow dishes show how images were modified over a century in the hands of different artists . these plates one blue and white , the others blue and yellow are decorated at the center with a flowering branch and on the rim with sprays of peaches , litchis , cherries , persimmons and pomegranates . the blue and white version , made between 1426 and 1435 , is the freest and most realistic botanical rendering . a yellow and blue dish decorated a half century later in the same tradition is strongly expressionistic . although beautifully drawn , the motifs on the third dish , which dates from 1506 to 1521 , are predictable . chinese_ceramics have commanded an increasingly enthusiastic international following since the early 1970 's . many of the finest porcelains in the collection of the idemitsu , which was founded in 1966 , were acquired over the last 16 years . in this period , prices for great rarities rose from well under 100 , 000 to 1 million or more . james j . lally , a new york oriental art_dealer , was a chinese_art specialist at sotheby 's and its president in new york during the period when the idemitsu bought many treasures from sotheby 's and christie 's in london . ''the idemitsu 's ceramics collection far outdistances anything done earlier in this century by the morgans or rockefellers , '' he said . ''they choose masterpieces of each form there are no compromises . '' among many of the works in the exhibition found at sotheby 's auctions in london was the massive dragon jar , which was bought in 1981 for 1 . 5 million , then a record at auction for chinese_art . in 1983 , the museum bought a large 14th century blue and white foliate dish , awash with lacy flowers , for 117 , 986 . in 1976 a bowl with a molded and incised dragon and cloud design , glazed blue on the outside and red on the interior , was bought there for 102 , 960 . the idemitsu also shopped at christie 's in london , where in 1982 it paid 618 , 624 for the 15th_century blue and white dish decorated with a pomegranate branch bordered by fruit sprays . money for the exhibition is from the national endowment for the arts , kyoto 's metropolitan center for far eastern art studies , the asian cultural council and the federal_council on the arts and the humanities . the exhibition is to travel through january 1990 , visiting the detroit institute of the arts , pittsburgh 's carnegie museum of art , the birmingham museum of art , the los angeles county museum of art and the honolulu academy of the arts . antiques

has a location of china

lead it was a gripping day for sunday morning television news viewers the death of ayatollah_ruhollah_khomeini , a natural_gas explosion in the soviet_union and , most dramatically , details and pictures of the violent clearing of student demonstrators from tiananmen_square by chinese troops . it was a gripping day for sunday morning television news viewers the death of ayatollah_ruhollah_khomeini , a natural_gas explosion in the soviet_union and , most dramatically , details and pictures of the violent clearing of student demonstrators from tiananmen_square by chinese troops . suddenly , the downfall of house speaker jim_wright had become passe . instead of devoting part of its hour to ''ethics and politics on capitol_hill , '' as planned , ''this week'' on abc_news concentrated on iran and , especially , china , and representaive newt_gingrich , the republican whip , never made it onto ''meet the press'' on nbc_news . beginning saturday night and resuming sunday morning , the networks had been running still photographs and televised scenes from china as they came in . they conveyed action , confusion , crisis . what exactly was going on was not always clear , but that in a way added to their immediacy . taken together , they told a strong story soldiers , so many soldiers , moving in on the protesters students pounding with sticks on an armored troop carrier burned out buses and stranded bicycles the improvised barricades crushed by the military machines recorded voices of witnesses describing beatings of students by the soldiers . the large number of deaths reported by the morning papers were not documented by the pictures , but after two weeks of coverage of determined students , the heavy presence of troops shown on the screen left little doubt that there must have been many casualties . television had made heroes of the youths , and now hearing of the deaths , many viewers must have remembered some of the young faces and imagined some of the young bodies in the path of the tanks . on the talk_shows , nobody had a kind word for the chinese authorities . on cbs_news' ''face the nation , '' that epitome of conservatism , senator jesse_helms , found himself in agreement with , of all people , representative stephen j . solarz , the brooklyn liberal , that washington could not tolerate such behavior . though they and other experts differed on how far the administration should go in registering its displeasure , indignation was the prevailing mode . correspondents , too , entered the indignation stakes . jim laurie of abc went so far as to use words like obscene and unforgivable to describe the crackdown . even by television standards , it was a startling presumption of judgment . peter_jennings , the abc anchor , took on the role of editorial writer when he announced that the chinese rulers were sending their country ''back , back , not forward . '' richard roth of cbs had something personal to be indignant about he and his camerman , derek williams , had been roughed up by troops and held for 19 hours . his account of their experience on one of several cbs_news specials was all the more effective for its dispassion . the reporting was scrupulous he took pains to point out that his bruises were carefully tended by an army doctor and as an eyewitness , mr . roth never went beyond what he had actually seen . while cnn carried reports from beijing in its usual useful way through the day , the other networks confirmed the importance of what had happened by breaking into scheduled programs into the early afternoon , until the sports events took over . moreover , the presence of dan rather of cbs , mr . jennings ( who had been called back from london ) and tom_brokaw of nbc certified even for those who looked forward to nothing heavier on sunday than a golf game that something of moment had occurred . details and pictures kept coming in through the morning and early afternoon . not all were informative jackie judd , an abc correspondent , did her reporting from inside the beijing hotel . the network evening specials on china offered useful recapitulations of events leading up to the saturday night assault . nbc 's coverage of the decisive confrontation seemed especially close to the action . experts , including of course henry a . kissinger on abc , were brought in to offer analysis , advice , criticisms . among the more dramatic moments on cbs was a recording of a denunciation of the chinese government by an english_language announcer on radio beijing and an appeal to the world to do something about the ''barbarous'' action . dan rather reported that the speaker was soon replaced by a spokesman for the government line . mr . rather also quoted the plaintive last words delivered over the student loudspeaker in the square , ''chinese people do not shoot at chinese people . ''

has a location of china

four years after china 's leaders crushed a movement by millions of prodemocracy protesters , they are facing a new challenge one that is quieter and less confrontational but eventually perhaps more serious . the challenge is most visible in the form of hundreds of thousands of satellite dishes that are sprouting , as the chinese say , like bamboo shoots after a spring rain . already millions of chinese can hook in via satellite to the " global village , " bypassing the communist_party commissars and leaving them feuding over how to respond . state control is slipping in short , the information_revolution is coming to china , and in the long run it threatens to supplant the communist_revolution . for while political power here grows out of the barrel of a gun , as mao once observed , it is sustained by the communist_party 's monopoly on news and propaganda a monopoly that is now crumbling . " the government has already lost control over information , " a senior chinese journalist said . " the leaders may not know it yet , but these days they simply ca n't control what people know . " most satellite dishes are technically illegal , but hard_liners are finding themselves stymied in their efforts to organize a crackdown . fundamentally , their frustrations reflect the headaches that the party encounters as it tries to maintain political controls while liberalizing the economy . the information_revolution in china began in the 1980 's , with the spread of short wave radios and the end of the ban on listening to broadcasts by the voice of america and the british_broadcasting_corporation . but the pace has picked up enormously in the last couple of years . direct dial to the outside fax machines are everywhere , even in private homes , and direct dial international telephones are multiplying much more quickly than the number of state security employees who bug such calls . the number of long distance phone_calls doubled from 1989 to 1991 , when 1.7 billion were recorded . computers are spreading as well , so that a growing number of people can communicate via electronic bulletin_boards and electronic mail . young people exchange information with chinese students studying in the united_states , and they can even swap computer viruses like the one developed a couple of years ago that appears on a screen to ask whether the computer operator likes prime_minister li_peng . if the person at the keyboard says no , regular work can continue . if the person says he likes the prime_minister , the virus wipes out all the computer 's memory . in fujian_province , opposite taiwan , millions of chinese aim their antennas eastward and tune in taiwan television news and other programs . in guangdong_province in the south , families watch hong_kong television , sometimes with official cable systems . voices from abroad short wave radios have proliferated and are now an important source of news for dissidents and officials alike . chinese listen not only to bbc and voice of america but also to broadcasts from australia , france and taiwan . the next technological wave may belong to satellite dishes , which first appeared in shops about a year ago and now seem to be everywhere . in beijing alone , dozens of shops sell the dishes , typically about five feet in diameter , for about 500 including the receiver . " lots of customers can afford them now , because they 're hardly more expensive than a video recorder , " said cao hongxia , a manager at an electronics shop on the bustling wangfujing street . " i get people coming in who want to buy a hundred dishes and then resell them elsewhere . " the hard_liners staked out their position recently in a confidential communist_party document prepared by the city of beijing . the paper , one of a series about how to improve social order in beijing as it applies to be host to the olympics in the year 2000 , uses harsh language to argue that satellite dishes can be used to watch pornography and reactionary programming . some welcome the change another briefing paper , prepared by shanghai authorities and published in " internal reference selections , " a confidential magazine , takes the opposite view . it argues that if china is to modernize its economy , then it must give its people access to instant information and embrace new technologies like satellite_television . " we should have confidence in the viewers , " the report declares . " we should n't seal the window just because a fly might slip in . " senior government leaders recently agreed in principle on a crackdown , and they have held inter ministry meetings in the last week to decide how to proceed . but the authorities seem deeply constrained because of conflicts of interest within the government . the army general staff department and the ministry of radio , film and television , for example , both turn a good profit by selling satellite equipment to the public . the ministry of electronics operates a factory that says it plans to build 60 , 000 to 70 , 000 satellite dishes this year . it may seem surprising that government ministries should manufacture and sell products that the same government bans . but with china 's push toward a market_economy in recent years , this is not so unusual . a clinic in southern china run by the family_planning commission switched its focus when it discovered it could make more money as a fertility clinic . and a branch of the official women 's association was caught last year running a prostitution racket . a shattered monolith as a result , the government sometimes resembles not so much a communist monolith as a disorganized conglomerate . the politburo , acting as a fractious board of directors , often ignores tacit disobedience . even if the central government ordered a major crackdown , it is unclear that it would be enforced outside the capital . local_governments , always lethargic about implementing edicts they dislike , are making money by running cable_television systems that depend on satellite_television . " the leaders are trying to ban the dishes , " said another chinese journalist . " but i do n't see how they can succeed . " governments throughout the world are fretting over the same realization their armies can repel invading troops but are useless against television broadcasts . banned images , new ideas in arab countries , dishes offer viewers a chance to see programs racier than those broadcast by local stations . in taiwan , people tune in to mainland_china television news programs . in india , millions of people are hooking into cable systems connected to satellite dishes , directly encountering foreign ideas and values that never bother to apply for a visa . no one yet knows what the sociological or political consequences will be . china passed a law in 1990 banning the use of satellite dishes to receive foreign television signals , except with permission from the police . but the law does not ban the sale of the dishes , nor even their installation , so long as they are used to receive china 's own programming . " when i bought my dish , the salesman told me that if the police ever asked , i should tell them that i use it only to watch china_central_television , " said a 28 year old businessman who bought his dish a few months ago . " the police know that 's absurd , but they ca n't prove it . " the huge white dishes now perch on the roofs of apartment and office buildings in cities like beijing , shanghai and guangzhou , and sometimes even on the roofs of newly built peasant homes . grass roots sabotage the latest trend is for employers and " street committees " to erect one or two huge dishes and then hook up everyone in an apartment building for a fee . the street committees are supposed to be the communist_party 's grass roots monitoring organizations , but they like to make money too . " we do n't have enough people to implement the law against satellite receivers , " said jin guojun , an official of the beijing radio and television bureau , and simultaneously the president of the beijing cable_tv network . " and the best approach is not to ban satellite dishes and leave it at that , but rather to give the public an alternative like cable_tv . " at last count , 1 , 800 cable_television systems were operating in china , with 429 set up in just the first three months of this year . some simply show videos , but many show satellite programs , of which by far the most popular are those broadcast by star television in hong_kong . a state statistical bureau survey several months ago found that 4.8 million households in china can receive star television presumably a significant underestimation , since the bureau counted only government authorized satellite dishes . " there 's a tremendous amount of potential as the economy of china opens up more and more , " said arnold tucker , executive vice_president of star television . " that 's as true for satellite tv as for toothpaste or ads or bicycles or anything else . " films , sports and news star television , which belongs to the stable of companies controlled by li_ka_shing , a hong_kong billionaire , gets its revenue only from commercials . it offers five channels chinese_language films and television serials music television english_language sports english_language films and serials and bbc_television news . the most politically sensitive by far is bbc . chinese are beginning to discover that the bbc broadcasts a separate chinese_language soundtrack , and so they can watch the bbc_television news in chinese . to be sure , most viewers are more interested in sit coms or cops and robber shows than in news programs . " what people want is entertainment , " said zhang zedong , manager of the satellite sales counter at a state owned shop . " they 're not so interested in bbc , but rather in mtv and sports and chinese_language serials . " yet even mundane programming like taiwanese sit coms seems to have a corrosive effect on the authority of the communist_party . the sit coms offer a window into how people overseas live , underscoring the wealth and freedom abroad . american cops and robbers shows sometimes play on chinese television , and viewers often find the plot twists full of surprises like the moments when the bad guys are read their rights and allowed to call a lawyer . to some chinese , that kind of novelty is more memorable than the plot itself .

has a location of china

sale of chinese_porcelain from the hodroff collection porcelain collectors who care about provenance will like christie 's jan . 24 sale of the collection of chinese export porcelain being consigned by leo and doris hodroff , a couple who have been accumulating porcelain for 50 years . many pieces in the 255 lot sale still retain the labels of their former owners , including those of rafi and mildred mottahedeh , benjamin edwards iii and martin hurst . the hodroffs have donated porcelain to the minneapolis institute of art , the norton museum of art , the peabody essex museum and winterthur museum . ''they have given away a lot , but they still have a lot , '' said becky macguire , christie 's specialist in chinese export art . ''they collected across the board , 16th_century to 19th_century . the typical profile these days is to focus on one area . '' the collection is strong in privately commissioned porcelain made for the west , like dishes bearing a patron 's coat of arms . one small punch bowl , for example , was made for the ''society of bucks , '' a georgian men 's society dedicated to eating and drinking . its coat of arms shows the heads of the gods bacchus and ceres , hinting at some of the rituals of membership . another western commission , from about 1800 , is a grisaille saucer dish whose center is a portrait of west wycombe park , a house on the thames outside london . the house is shown in the distance surrounded by trees and parkland . in the foreground three deer graze on the banks of the river . the border is a diamond pattern in gold and blue . the estimate for the plate , formerly in the mottahedeh collection , is 1 , 500 to 2 , 500 . viewing begins jan . 18 . 20th_century sales the results of the 12 auctions of 20th_century decorative_arts this month were mixed . ''all in all there was too much on the market at one time , and things were too aggressively estimated , '' said barbara deisroth , a private consultant . ''if there is a lesson here , it 's that putting high estimates on pieces does n't mean those pieces will achieve those prices . '' business also may have been hurt because the auctions followed design miami , a small fair of 17 prominent international design galleries , which was held during art basel miami_beach . what follows is a chronological rundown of some of the results . the total reached by los_angeles modern auctions on dec . 3 of dr . basia gingold 's furniture designed by the architect r . m . schindler was an unremarkable 298 , 650 . ( it was estimated at 284 , 400 to 418 , 300 . ) the wolfsonian florida international university museum in miami bought a display cabinet , and the art institute of chicago bought four pieces a side chair with a built in radio cabinet , both from about 1945 , a pair of triangular end tables , from about 1943 , and a hand colored rendering of a medical office building . peter loughery , the owner of la modern , said the publicity that the sale generated may have scared off buyers . ''afterwards collectors told me they thought prices would go sky high and so did n't participate , '' he said . the dec . 14 sale at phillips de pury company in new york totaled 3 . 7 million , below the low estimate of 3 . 8 million . bauhaus era pieces were the big winners . a rare tea glass that was designed by josef albers , estimated at 60 , 000 to 80 , 000 , sold for 268 , 000 . an early barcelona chair by mies_van_der_rohe sold for 100 , 800 ( estimate 40 , 000 to 60 , 000 ) . the total for the three sales of 20th_century design at sotheby 's was 18 . 8 million , just above the presale high estimate of 18 . 7 million . ''the sale was an improvement on last december and similar to what we did in december 2003 and 2004 , '' said james zemaitis , the specialist at sotheby 's . ''each sale was driven by one monster masterwork that a half dozen people fought for . '' the krosnick sale of george nakashima pieces totaled 2 . 6 million ( against a high estimate of 1 . 9 ) . the two red roses foundation , a private museum in florida , bought the ''arlyn'' dining table for a record 822 , 400 . ''nakashima is the one american blue chip designer of the 20th_century , '' mr . zemaitis said . ''he is the only one on the level of such prewar giants as ruhlmann and rateau . '' the american renaissance sale totaled 6 . 9 million . an 11 piece dining suite that greene greene had designed in about 1908 for the freeman a . ford house in pasadena , calif . , sold for 2 . 1 million , a record for greene greene at auction . ( the high estimate was 600 , 000 . ) ''the suite descended through the family and had never been on the market , '' mr . zemaitis said . a tiffany studios ''tulip'' table lamp made about 1900 sold for 486 , 400 , against a high estimate of 300 , 000 . the various owners' sale totaled 9 . 3 million . the new york dealer french company bought the top lot , a life size bronze sculpture of a baboon by rembrandt bugatti , for a staggering 2 . 2 million ( against a high estimate of 800 , 000 ) . bonhams 's 20th_century sale in new york on dec . 16 totaled 1 . 6 million . a tiffany ''dragonfly'' lamp on a cattail base from a private collection brought 260 , 250 , more than twice its estimate . christie 's six sales of 20th_century works achieved 23 . 7 million . the sale of daum glass , from the collection of dr . simon pinhas , totaled 2 . 76 million . ms . deisroth , the consultant , was not surprised it did well . ''he was a beloved man , '' she said . ''the sale had the right estimates and the results were good . '' the tiffany sale totaled 5 . 9 million . mcclelland rachen , the new york art advisers , bought the top lot , a ''magnolia'' leaded_glass and bronze floor lamp made about 1920 for 1 . 47 million , just under the high estimate of 1 . 5 million . a private collection of pieces by french designers g . argy rousseau and ren lalique totaled only 2 . 9 million . ''the estimates were very aggressive , '' ms . deisroth said . the sale of works from the new york gallery historical design reached 3 . 88 million , including some crazy prices . ''the baby bootlegger , '' a two foot long red marble sculpture of a speedboat by michel karch , sold for 132 , 000 , against a high estimate of 35 , 000 . the los angeles county museum of art bought an adolf loos clock for 90 , 000 , against a high estimate of 60 , 000 . the various owners sale reached 5 . 66 million . the biggest surprise ? a european dealer bought a silver claret jug designed by carlo bugatti in 1907 for 688 , 000 , against a high estimate of 180 , 000 . the sale of mirrors and other works by the 1950s parisian designer line vautrin achieved a solid 2 . 64 million . antiques

has a location of china

lead while beijing 's university students won much of their renown for the hunger_strike by 3 , 000 students in the center of the capital , the strike has ended and for most of the tens of thousands of students in the area , fasting is nearly impossible . while beijing 's university students won much of their renown for the hunger_strike by 3 , 000 students in the center of the capital , the strike has ended and for most of the tens of thousands of students in the area , fasting is nearly impossible . the problem is that students walking in the area are given free food everywhere they go , as a sign of support . housewives hand students loaves of bread , restaurants give them free meals , vendors give them free ice pops , and so on . it is often rude to refuse , so students often find that whenever they walk around town they must face the burden of carrying the food back . the students have also collected large amounts of money , more than they know what to do with for now , because of a combination of a few large donations and aggressive solicitation by young people all over the capital . ''please contribute money for our dear college students ! '' a teen_age girl from the no . 132 middle_school shouted to a large crowd the other day , as her friend passed a cardboard box around . ''they risk their lives and fight for the interests of our people . ''

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antique chinese glass is a stepchild in the family of chinese decorative_arts . there are only a handful of scholarly books on the subject , and few american museums have high quality chinese glass collections . ( the outstanding exceptions are the museum_of_fine_arts in boston and the corning museum of glass in upstate new york . ) much more attention is paid to chinese painting , calligraphy and ceramics from ancient times through the ming_dynasty ( a . d . 1368 to 1644 ) . ''lack of knowledge has made people afraid to touch chinese glass , '' said mostafa hassan , owner of a manhattan gallery , imperial oriental art . mr . hassan , a former specialist at christie 's , sells pink , amber , turquoise and ' 'mutton fat'' white examples of 18th and 19th_century chinese glass in his gallery , at 790 madison_avenue , near 67th street . the market for chinese glass has had dramatic ups and downs . in the early 1980 's it was relatively inexpensive because there was little demand for it . by the end of the 1980 's the market heated up and the prices for the finest examples increased dramatically . the stepchild status persists , however . as james b . godfrey , a sotheby 's specialist , said , ''glass can be a whimsical market . '' a few years ago two scholars , claudia brown and donald rabiner , tried to explain the prejudice against post ming chinese glass . in ''clear as crystal , red as flame later chinese glass , '' a catalogue for a 1990 exhibition at the china institute in america , they wrote , ''particular disdain has long been reserved for 'late' chinese_art , that is , works of the qing_dynasty ( 1644 1911 ) . '' ms . brown , curator of asian art at the phoenix art museum , and mr . rabiner , an art_history professor at arizona_state_university who died in 1992 , explained ''the obvious merits of qing period jade , enamel , lacquer and glass were sadly obscured by the belief that 'late' is but a euphemism for decadent , representing at best the triumph of technique over good design , and more commonly bearing witness to a notable decline in workmanship . '' a coming show at alvin lo oriental art limited , a gallery at 5 east 57th_street in manhattan , may challenge such attitudes . mr . lo , whose father , p . c . lu , was a renowned hong_kong dealer , has been collecting glass for 15 years . on sept . 14 he is opening an exhibition titled ''18th_century the golden age of peking glass , '' which includes 18 pieces , ranging from monochrome examples in egg yolk yellow , ruby red and opaline green with simple shapes ( what is called ' 'scholar 's taste'' ) to highly decorative pieces with multicolored glass overlays . the lo exhibition is timed to coincide with asia week in new york , a major period of sales of oriental antiques . the doyle sale is on sept . 13 . the ''art of pacific asia'' show runs from sept . 15 through 18 . sotheby 's sale is on sept . 15 and includes several pieces of later chinese glass . lot 10 , for example , is a pair of 19th_century yellow jars with covers . ''jars with covers always seem popular with people , because they like the shape , '' mr . godfrey said . ''what is also compelling is the color . yellow is the most sought after because it is the color associated with the chinese imperial_household . '' one lot at sotheby 's is a brush washer . mr . godfrey called it ''a typical scholar 's object , in that it is more subtle , simple and less complex . '' the estimates for the glass range from 2 , 000 to 10 , 000 . christie 's ''fine chinese furniture , ceramics and works of art'' sale on sept . 16 will have little glass , except for a handful of small bottles . mr . lo uses the popular term peking glass because people associate chinese glass with the imperial palace workshop and the commercial glass houses of beijing . in fact the chinese have made glass since about 700 b.c . it is just that glass apparently did not rate royal patronage until 300 years ago . in 1696 the second emperor of the qing_dynasty , kangxi ( 1662 1722 ) , established a glass house within the palace workshops , apparently after learning that a german missionary in beijing , kilian stumpf ( 1655 1720 ) , knew how to construct kilns , formulate glass batches and work the materials into forms . the founding of the imperial workshop was ''an event that would profoundly affect the history of chinese glass for at least a century , '' ms . brown and mr . rabiner wrote . ''imperial patronage greatly increased the status of this material , whose principal function had long been the economical imitation of jade and other hard stones . '' the palace workshops grew productive and glass became very fashionable , both inside the court and out . mr . stumpf 's influence over the forms the glass took was short lived . as ms . brown and mr . rabiner wrote in the phoenix art museum catalogue for the 1987 show ''chinese glass of the qing_dynasty 1644 1911'' ''however much technical assistance the european craftsmen may have lent , few surviving pieces of chinese glass owe a discernible debt to european styles . '' what happened in fact was just the opposite . by the time of the qianlong empire ( 1736 1795 ) , the chinese were making glass in the shapes of traditional_chinese pots , vases , dragon handled cups , even statues of horses . ''glassmaking had long encompassed the imitation of hard stones , '' the catalogue continues , ''but now , working side by side with lacquerers , enamelers and jade craftsmen , glassmen took inspiration from other crafts . '' in the lo exhibition , there are a pair of opaque green glass cups decorated with bas relief carvings of lotus leaves , birds , and flowering branches . mr . lo said that the carved glass cups were made to imitate carved jadeite . ''jadeite was always very expensive it was a precious material , '' mr . lo said . ''peking glass was made to look like jade , lapis lazuli , turquoise and rose quartz . it imitated rubies , sapphires and emeralds . '' collecting chinese glass can be a tricky enterprise . ''i do n't sell it because it 's so easy to copy , '' said ralph chait , a veteran manhattan dealer in chinese_art . mr . lo concurred . ''you have to buy from a reputable source , '' he said . ''some of the marks on glass are very deceiving . they could be from the imperial glass works , but they could also be marks added in the 20th_century . to make matters worse , there are genuine pieces that have no marks . you have to have a basic understanding of what pieces would have been marked , and which would not . '' mr . lo warned that there are fakes on the market . ''in the early 1980 's , when i started dealing in 18th_century glass , prices were so low that it was n't worth faking , '' he said . ''when prices shot up in the late 1980 's , i began to see decorative pieces with marks that should n't have had any marks . the chinese do a very good job at imitating old peking glass . '' mr . lo 's prices range from 8 , 500 to 150 , 000 ( for an unusual pair of glass horses ) . the show is to continue through sept . 24 . antiques

has a location of china

scientists from 150 governments began a four day meeting here today to try to agree on what latest evidence of global_warming should be used as the basis to set global environmental policies . the intergovernmental panel on climate change , an organization of hundreds of scientists that the united_nations created in 1988 to assess warming , has drafted a thick report that doubles the top end of the temperature increase predicted over the next century , by 11 degrees . the meeting here is the first of several to fine tune a summary of that report to be used by governments in negotiating a climate treaty . the report updates the organization 's latest assessment of global_warming , in 1995 , and suggests an acceleration of the trends that have caused alarm among environmentalists . the draft finds that the warming in the 20th_century was likely to have been the greatest of any century in the last 1 , 000 years for the northern hemisphere and that the 1990 's was the warmest decade of the last millennium . rising temperatures have also lengthened the ''freeze free'' season in many mid and high latitude regions , the draft says , and they have cut snow cover since the 1960 's by 10 percent . the rate at which the sea_level rose in the last century was 10 times faster than the average rate over the last 3 , 000 years . the findings add urgency to treaty negotiations aimed at carrying out the reductions in greenhouse_gases stipulated by the 1997 kyoto_protocol , a treaty signed by more than 100 countries , but not ratified by any industrialized_nations . the latest round of talks ended without an agreement in november in the netherlands , and today dissension rippled through the conference hall . greenpeace argues that scientific evidence is being ignored by industrialized_nations reluctant to enact costly policies to cut emissions of carbon_dioxide and other greenhouse_gases . chinese representatives complained that the forum ignored the views of scientists who discount evidence of global_warming as part of normal climatic fluctuations or cast doubt on the effects of carbon_dioxide . ''the organization is supposed to report objectively , but it now tends to fix the conclusion first and then find evidence to support that conclusion , '' said lu xuedu , a delegate from the chinese ministry of science and technology . among beijing 's objections to the 1 , 000 page summary report , from which china 's contribution was left out , mr . lu said , is the finding that the increase in greenhouse_gases and associated warming stemmed primarily from human activities , a contention that bears directly on the coal dependent power generation that drives china 's economic_development . china , nonetheless , is working to reduce its carbon_dioxide_emissions by adding power_plants fueled by natural_gas , water or nuclear_energy , said gao feng , deputy director general of the treaty and law department of the foreign ministry . mr . gao said china had cut its coal production , to 992 million_tons in 1999 from 1.4 billion in 1996 . china continues to show relatively low gas emissions per capita . north_america and western_europe are the largest contributors , with the united_states being the largest of all . a far greater number of proposed challenges to the summary report came from the american_petroleum_institute and oil companies like exxonmobil , as well as from delegates from the organization_of_petroleum_exporting_countries .

has a location of china