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Stay the course

I recently wrote a post about my Chengdu Compound, and the comments on the post, and on Reddit, reflect two things, in general: 1) Good

The Pensioners are back

Retired doctors, nurses, and health workers converged on Chengdu’s government offices today for the third time in a month. The first time I was able

We be sharing poetry about Chengdu.

Check it out here on the Chengdu Forum. Or below. Now I know where all the recycling goes down a funk street in hongpailou past the rows

Li Cheng Peng Book Signing in Chengdu

Li Cheng Peng, an outspoken ex-sports journalist turned censorship-slayer and social media darling has a new book out: “全世界人民都知道:SmILENCE” (The Whole World Knows: SmILENCE) He

Anren Jianchuan Museum Cluster

I made a visit to the Jianchuan Museum Cluster a few months ago and then wrote a post for Chengduliving on the museum and Fan

Insomnia

Sometimes I can’t sleep at night, I toss and turn, alarm bells and laughter going off in the street. Honking cars in my dreams. I

Adrift during the Holiday

I find myself sleeping, tweeting, taking notes. Talking to people I don’t know. Coffee and cigarettes. And carrying my son around on my shoulders so

The Struggle for Hong Kong

Here in Chengdu, people have been asking me: “Hey, did you hear what they did in Hong Kong? They stood up to the government.” There

Silk Roads and Great Walls

What we today call the Chongqing Model and the Guangdong Model are just new names for an ancient struggle. Since the first brick was laid

The Empire Strikes Back

China-based hacks into commercial and political networks across the planet have made the news again, with the Trend Micro report on an attack called LuckyCat

Don’t wink at me

I am a stranger in a strange land. I need connections or I will wither and die. And the connections I need are not just

Ode to Third Ring Road

You can catch me on the Third Ring Road, zipping down the sideline on my Bad. Moduh. Scooduh. I’m on there enough to have found

Imprisoned

Liao Yiwu is a Chengdu native and he recently escaped over to Berlin via the Horse and Tea Trade Route pathways of southern China. Reading

Excerpts from an Interview with Luo Fahui

This is a companion piece to ChengduLiving’s Portrait of a Chengdu Artist: Luo Fa Hui. Here I put together some excerpts from an interview back

Up for Grabs

I spent a full year under the harsh lights of Ctrip’s corporate glare and I wrote a lot of stuff for them. It seemed like

My wrist hurts

And when I was in Chengdu a few weeks a go I told my shifu Li Cuan about it and he made me pound on

Dorian’s First Birthday

Lil Dorian turned one on February 8th and we went to our old stomping gronds in San Sheng Xiang to celebrate with good friends. The

Holy Shit I miss Sichuan

Man I found myself teary eyed listening to the Ya Jian Bang sing about Sichuan food. I was thinking about what it would feel like

My man Fu Qiang

Has just opened up a shop selling his CDs (compilations of music he digs) and art. He takes pictures and uses software to make his

The Du

Here is a little list of cool spots in Chengdu. This is actually a VERY incomplete list, but its a good start. holla.

Haiti

here is a short essay on Haiti and Chengdu and some of the similarities and differences in the disasters that struck here and there.

China reacts to Avatar the Movie

Avatar the movie opened up in China on January 4th, 2010. Lines stretched for blocks outside of most every theater in the nation for the

Crib finalized

Contract signed. The crib is real nice, we is happy. I wish I could show you pics, but i have to wait till those greasy

Chengdu Living

Spent all day yesterday cooking up various meals and eating them on the spot. I’ve been brewing the soup for two days (into the third)

Free to Post

I wrote an essay a while back about censorship in China, for Antiwar.com, and I basically said that within the parameters of black and white,

Summer in Portland

is almost perfect. its not too hot and when it does get hot the rains come politely like butlers in the morning to dress up

Mengding Mountain Tea

I took a trip last month while i was in china to my main homegirl’s tea spot. here are some pics: From Left to Right:

Work is the Enemy of Doubt

Fortuitous fortuitous this is the word of the day. I spent the last two days meeting my old tea suppliers Bai Ting Ting who provides

The Du

MM-MM something about the Du makes me feel all homey. its easy as pie out here. the sky looks like dishwater and i aint seen

Back in China

Shanghai is a sea of skyscrapers as far as my eye can see. There are pockets of two-story blocks of old school homes with laundry

PEEP THIS!!

Julia Zimmermann came to Chengdu and stayed with me for several days chronicling the earthquake there for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung — my favorite German-language

Some ill from the Du

My man Chengduxi, who put up my Auryn tattoo back in the day — had to get it recolored by Poh in Pai, but so

When things die

I was in Chengdu for the past two days taking care of some business and I went to check out my old home in Three

Beijing 2008

I am finally in Beijing. After several months of talking about it and changes to the plan on a weekly basis, I am now officially

The death of traditions

It is so hot and humid in Chengdu right now that my brain is bathing in its own liquid, humming strange tunes to itself and

My Neighbors

Here are some pics by photographer Andreas Mueller of the village i live in and some of my neighbors:

Blogger up in China!

Well i’ll be damned. After all this time, China has decided(?) to let blogger do its thing. So i am visible in China. This is

it just keeps gettin thicker

ya’ll don’t even know. I went to Hanyuan the other day and just got back in the Du. I was planning on staying a month

The Gov’s Side of the Story

So the meeting between the local government officials of Three God’s Village and the villagers took place today at 10am. The meeting was held in

serendipity

i just got back from Beichuan a few minutes ago. Beichuan was near the epicenter of the earthquake, so most of the villages in that

aftershocks

today … bout three minutes ago, a large aftershock shook chengdu. the largest in a long time, maybe since the original quake. and it lasted

Luo Shui

We went to Luo Shui today, about 20 of us in several cars and trucks loaded with toys, paints, candy and other goodies for the

False Alarms and Party Poopers

Yesterday Chengdu went crazy as every man, woman and child rushed to the streets to throw up tents (again) or jump in cars to head

mom i can’t see your hand

A Poem by an anonymous Chinese circling the web(translated): Children quickquickHold fast to Mother’s handThe Road to HeavenIs so darkMom is afraidyou’ll hit your headQuickHold

A Theory of Relativity

First off: Blogger is blocked in China, so people cannot see it here, I cannot comment back to any of you and i do use

Around Qing Cheng …

Yesterday i climbed as far as it is possible to climb right and Qing Cheng mtn is def. devastated near the top. Past the Tai

China handles business

President Hu Jintao made it to Dujiangyan today and shook hands with Prime Minister Wen Jiabao… Today I took a ride with a civil engineer

To Mianyang

Tomorrow we will try and head up to see if we can help. THe local authorities and Red Cross have designated the Bookworm and Cafe

I’ll make ya famous

Well Chengdu is basically back to normal. My friend Charlie’s harrowing experience is all over the web now — here is the AP story, which

Chillin in Flower Village

Well the tremors have picked up now and rumors are rife about another large earthquake. But rumors have been flying all day about no water,

Chengdu Earthquake day after

Here is a story I wrote that didn’t find space … its a time-pegged story which means I can probably not publish it anywhere else.

Spent last night with my People

I want to first reply to those who have commented about Qing Cheng Mountain: If anyone has ever been there you may remember the very

We felt it comin …

My friend Rachel wrote the day before the quake: “I feel like the world is shifting” if ya’ll check the first few lines of my

A shaky night

There is a tremor going on as i write — has been shaking my building for the past three minutes. still shaking. had tremors all

No Sleep tonight

Well now that i feel i have done my part cross-referencing links and straining at Chinese characters its time to write lil something for my

Chengdu TV on earthquake

The tv news just reported 107 deaths and 648 injuries. They also say that gas is tough to come by — some people have been

rumors of more earthquakes coming

Rumors are spreading fast throughout the city that there will be another large earthquake this evening at 830pm … this has not been confirmed by

More Updates for Chengdu Earthquake

The death toll is rising — so far it is up to 107 and the schoolchildren in Dujiangyan are not completely accounted for. The countryside

chengdu earthquake gets worse

Dujiangyan has been hit with tragedy. 900 schoolchildren are believed to be buried under their schoolhouse when it collapsed. DJY is 56km north of chengdu,

updates on Chengdu earthquake

we just experienced another tremor at 710pm. the locals are trying to drive out of the city, but most of the roads out are jammed-packed

The Illusion of Coincidence…

A great many strange things have happened in the past few days … perhaps not as many as may be transmitted by the feeling that

holla

Let me know if you can see my entire blog and comment on it, cuz i can’t. I have been saving up my energy for

Aint nothin special bout me

i walked back to my house tonight around 2am and i live near the Tibetan district of town. there were police cars on every block

pear blossoms and rapeseed

i went walking through the orchards yesterday, but the people i guided there were uninterested in fairy-watching or pollen-passing, so i stowed away my plans

Hold a Fist Up for Tibet

Yesterday I talked with my editor Katherine about Tibet and she asked what was going on. I said well, if people in Kham and Amdo

gou re de

Today i spent the whole day with my man Liu Yuan running from one massive development project to another, extolling the virtues of Chengdu’s real

Back in The Du

I have been wrestling with being called a racist by people who read my occasional column on antiwar.com — i admit that i do have

Sascha Matuszak© Copyright 2021. All Rights Reserved.