The Blip Report for Monday, April 22nd 2024
the China files
I read a story about a Canadian in China, Roger Ames, a Professor at Peking University and a vice-chairman of the International Confucian Association, and about his new book called ‘A Sourcebook in Classical Confusion Philosophy’ - ‘Sinologist's new book to clarify Chinese philosophy for the West’, that takes certain sections from some of the Chinese classics, and that:
“presents the original texts alongside English translations in a bilingual format and offers comments on the core concepts and thoughts of each section.”
that should make it easier to read and compare the translation and different languages.
And I read another story from China - ‘Exhibition commemorating Shakespeare kicks off in Shanghai’, that is done to celebrate Shakespeare’s 460th birthday! I’m wondering if anything will be done in Canada this summer, eh? perhaps, he won’t be forgotten. We’ll see.
But then I read a story about Chinese cultural relics being returned back to China - ‘Over 150,000 lost Chinese cultural relics return to homeland’, that over 10 million artifacts have been stolen or smuggled out of China since the Opium war in 1840, but that since 1949, over 150,000 artifacts have found their way home. And the best part is that in the United States, 38 artifacts that were recovered by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office were returned this week. This kind of cooperation between countries should be seen much more often, hopefully.
And I read another hopeful story about hydrogen - ‘China completes 1,500 km road haul test with hydrogen-powered heavy trucks’, that China is continuing its testing of hydrogen powered trucks, and that 428 hydrogen refueling stations have been built so far in China. I think that Canada has plans to produce hydrogen, but I haven’t seen any plans to actually use it. I guess we’ll just be the drawers of water and the hewers of wood (and the makers of hydrogen). Too bad, so sad.
And I also read a fascinating story about research in China against mosquitoes !!! - ‘Scientists use gut bacteria to prevent mosquito-borne diseases’, that:
“Chinese scientists have developed a more natural strategy to prevent mosquito-borne diseases by changing insects' gut microbes, which might be used as an alternative to controversial experiments that see genetically-modified mosquitoes released in Florida.”
Yessiree. Me and mosquitoes have been adversaries for my entire lifetime!
But then a little birdie asked me why haven’t any North Atlanteans discovered something like this. Because with over 300 bio-weapons labs around the world, someone should have come up with something similar.
Well … yeah … but I guess if your research is all about offensive use of bio-weapons - and also about how birds and bugs can be used to spread diseases - as my feathered friend reminded me, then you’re not really researching for defenses against disease. But, in all fairness, I just think that if our researchers were allowed to do this kind of defensive research, that they could discover some new ideas too.
And lastly, Saturday was the first day of Gu Yu, Grain Rain, the 6th term in the Chinese solar calendar, and the last solar term of spring. So I watched a video about GuYu, about Anhua in Hunan province, where tea is grown, and about the tea trail. And on the first day of GuYu, how the new leaves are picked, and fried, and rolled, by hand, to make and drink GuYu tea on that same day! And about the GuYu Festival to honor the ancestor Cangjie, who made the first Chinese character - 4000 years ago.