Views From The West

Yarkand Revisited

March 24th, 2008

I was reading over some of my previous posts, and I realized that, while I had posted some videos of my trip to Yarkand, I had not posted any photos. To rectify this situation, here, in full glorious color, are a select few. I hope you enjoy.

This statue represents Amanisahan, the 15th century Uyghur princess who compiled the 12 Mukam

A Uyghur acrobat balancing on a tightwire 50 feet above the ground

A group of Uyghur farmer musicians performing a part of the Mukam

grape arbor road
Grape arbors overarching the road to the desert just outside Yarkand

desert
The edge of the Taklamakan Desert, one of the largest in the world

line of the desert
The line where the desert meets the Yarkand oasis is very clear to see.

camels
Camels ready to be ridden

Mike with Alibaba
Alibaba and I became good friends after I rode him across the desert.

Posted in Uyghur Music, Uyghur Culture, All | No Comments »

Why I’m Saying Goodbye To Facebook

March 19th, 2008

This hasn’t been an easy process, especially since I started my own Facebook group just a few weeks ago (See my March 11th blog post). But I’ve learned a few things about Facebook during the past week that have made me think long and hard about my involvement in it, and I’ve finally decided that I need to withdraw from it altogether, not just reduce my presence.

There are two basic reasons why I’ve decided to leave Facebook:

1) I learned that Facebook shares user demographic information with third-party internet vendors that the user just happened to do business with online, even without the user’s knowledge or permission.

2) Just as important to me is the wording of Facebook’s Terms of Use, and what the Terms allow Facebook to do with the content that is posted on any user’s Facebook page.

Basically, these terms state that Facebook can do just about anything they want with anything that you post on or upload to your Facebook page, including using it for their own financial gain. Not only that, but they can also sublicense your content out to third parties, and I’m sure that means for a fee. So you’re basically giving permission to Facebook to profit however they can by using your content however they want.

I don’t know about you, but that just doesn’t sit right with me.

Believe me, I felt much more comfortable when I was naive and thought that Facebook was just a way to network with my friends. But I’ve learned too much in the past few days which has shown me that Facebook is not being honest with us regarding online privacy, their use of our “demographic information” and the way they interact with third party online vendors.

Put that together with their Terms of Use, and you don’t have a prayer if they want to either share information about you or use something from your Facebook page for their own financial benefit. You literally have no recourse.

The one good aspect that I discovered in the Terms was that if you remove your content from your Facebook page, the all-encompassing rights that Facebook enjoys concerning your content would be void. But even then, they reserve the right to keep a copy of your content, just not the right to use it any longer.

So if I wanted to use Facebook and never post anything, whether pics or video or even random information about myself, they couldn’t use what I don’t post. But then what would be the point of using Facebook? And that still doesn’t take care of my first reason - that Facebook shares your information with third party vendors without your knowledge or permission.

Thus I have decided to say goodbye to Facebook.

P.S. If you’re on Facebook, and you’d like to look into this issue yourself, here are some websites to get you started:

http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2006/9/25/facebookPrivacy
http://www.zeldman.com/2007/11/28/facebook-privacy/
http://blogs.zdnet.com/social/?p=282
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/4482/

Posted in All, American Culture | No Comments »

Oregon Pics, At Long Last

March 14th, 2008

I know I’m way late, but I thought late would be better than never, so I hope you enjoy these pics - comparing the quick change of weather that we experienced when we were in Oregon for Christmas:

cattails

Cattails growing along the side of the road; looks more like fall than winter

mistletoe

Mistletoe growing thick in oak trees - definitely useful during the Christmas season!

pine cones

Pine cones growing thick in an evergreen

The Stars and Stripes waving in the breeze

water tower

A water tower standing in a neighbor’s field

berries

Bright red berries in the front yard - along with the nice green grass; is it really the end of December?

berries in snow

Yes, it’s really the end of December. Here are some other berries in the front yard, two days later!

snow on trees

Just a few miles up the road, on the way to Crater Lake National Park, the trees are loaded down with fresh snow.

Crater Lake

Even though the lake isn’t frozen over, it’s still very cold, and there’s lots of snow - about eight feet of it!

Crater Lake 2

Another view of Crater Lake as a winter wonderland

Mike & Wendy

Yep, that’s my lovely wife and I, enjoying the bright sunny day - standing on top of eight feet of snow!

Crater Lake lodge

The snow is piled up to the second story of the lodge near the lake.

Yes, it was quite the weather; beautiful warm sunny days, mixed in with beautiful cold sunny days after a heavy snowfall. All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas in Oregon!

Posted in All, American Culture | Comments Off

Facebook Loves Uyghur Folk Music!

March 11th, 2008

Well, actually, I’m not sure if Facebook really loves Uyghur folk music, but I sure do. That’s why I created a new Facebook group called “I Love Uyghur Folk Music.” Any and all are welcome to come check it out. If you already have a Facebook account, just do a search for the name of the group. Hope to see you there!

Posted in Uyghur Music, All | No Comments »

Quake Update - What About The Children?

January 29th, 2008

I’ve been following the continuing story of the Sichuan earthquake in the local and foreign news, and I came across one article that I thought was worthy of posting here. This article is a Newsweek interview with Robert Glover, executive director of Beijing-based Care For Children, an organization in charge of more than 180 orphanages in 30 provinces across China. Here’s the link to this article:

Suffer, The Children

Prepare your heart to be touched by these needy children!

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Table Rock (Back to Oregon)

January 27th, 2008

While we were in Oregon over Christmas vacation, I had the opportunity to hike up Table Rock. Even though I grew up in the area, I never took the time to hike up Table Rock, so I was glad of this chance. Maybe I could find some Indian arrowheads! (Nope, didn’t find any.)

Actually, there are two Table Rocks near my parents’ home in southern Oregon - Lower Table Rock and Upper Table Rock. They’re just a couple miles away from each other, and they both have a flat top. Thus the name “Table Rock.” I hiked up Upper Table Rock.

Here are a few pics that will give you an idea of what it was like. As you can tell from the pics, my hike occurred during the balmy days of winter rather than the snowy days.

manzanita trail
The trail on the way up was lined with many of these Manzanitas.

This dead tree was sticking up through the brush like a church steeple.

ice fingers
These little fingers of ice were growing UP out of the ground!

mike & mt. pitt
The mountain behind me is Mt. McLaughlin if you’re looking on the map and not from the area. It’s known as Mt. Pitt to us locals.

Another view of Mt. Pitt, through the trees

Looking at Lower Table Rock from the top of Upper Table Rock

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I’ll Miss You!

January 25th, 2008

Today I visited the orphanage for one last time before we leave for the US. It was tough saying goodbye to all those lovable kids.

For the past year I’ve had the privilege of visiting a group of about 30 Uyghur orphans at the orphanage every Wednesday evening to teach them English for one hour. I had loads of fun with them; I think they made me laugh as much as they laughed at me, the crazy foreigner. But it wasn’t just fun and games, even though that was my primary teaching method, because their English definitely improved.

And today I had to say goodbye.

As I talked with the older ones, every now and then one of the little ones would quietly sidle up to me and put their hand in mine, just for a few minutes, and then they’d walk away. And all during the time I was there, I would look at one or another of them, and they would give me a big smile, as if to say, “I love you, teacher!” Yes, it was hard to say goodbye to kids that somehow worked their way into my heart.

Counting to four…

What's your name?
“What’s your name?”

Singing
Singing “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes…eyes and ears and mouth and nose…”

The whole group, including the director (in the back row to my left)

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What Moves You?

January 24th, 2008

Recently I found myself riveted to the TV as I watched the rescue efforts in Sichuan, and I found myself moved almost to tears as I witnessed the unfolding drama:

The ever-mounting death toll (which now stands at over 60,000 dead and 25,000 missing)
Rescuers from all over China and many foreign countries working side by side
Heroic stories of miraculous rescues
Heart wrenching stories of schoolchildren crushed in collapsed schools
Heartbreaking stories of people pulled from beneath rubble, only to die minutes later
Heartwarming story of a rescued boy reunited with his father
Premier Wen’s emotional visit to the area
Observing three minutes of silence in memory of the dead (I was in the Urumqi airport, the first time I’ve ever seen it quiet!)

I asked myself, “Why am I moved to tears at this tragedy when the higher numbers of dead in the Myanmar typhoon didn’t affect me nearly the same?”

Sure, I have friends in some of the hardest-hit areas (thank God they’re safe), but that alone doesn’t account for my response.

After thinking about it for the past few days, I think I have come to love China more than I realized.

After living in China for the past fifteen years, my wife and I are planning to leave China for a few years so I can work on a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology with a focus on Uyghur folk music. In the process of getting ready to leave, I think it’s hitting me that I won’t be here for a while, and with the situation the way it is, there’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to return anytime soon. We hope to return (Duh! That’s the whole point of getting this degree!), but sometimes decisions are made for you, and not necessarily the way you would prefer.

So I’m already grieving over my departure from China, my second home.

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Are You My Friend?

January 22nd, 2008

How do you define friendship? Who are your friends? Who can be your friends? We don’t often contemplate questions like these, but recently we’ve had reason to do so.

In American culture, it is possible for a person from one generation to become friends with a person from another generation. For example, it wouldn’t be considered strange if one of my son’s classmates at college became my friend. Likewise, it wouldn’t seem strange for me, when I was in college, to become friends with one of my professors.

Apparently, that’s not the case in Uyghur culture. A person from one generation would not consider a person from a different generation - whether lower or higher - to be a friend. Yes, they might act the same toward that person as they act toward their friends in their own generation, but they would not think of using the term “friend.” That would be disrespectful. The same would apply between a student and a teacher.

A couple weeks ago my wife Wendy was talking with one of her Uyghur college students, and in the conversation Wendy mentioned that she would miss all of her friends when we leave, indicating that she was referring to her students. The student responded, “Oh no, we’re not your friends; we’re your students.”

Then just last week she was talking with an older Uyghur lady when a younger Uyghur lady came up. Wendy introduced the older woman to the younger woman as “my friend.” That brought on gales of laughter from the older woman. Wendy thought that maybe she had pronounced something wrong, but no, it was the concept itself that brought on the laughter.

From this older woman’s perspective, Wendy couldn’t be her friend because of their age difference. She said Wendy should call her “Mother” instead of “friend.”

It seems that, in Uyghur culture, even though you might be friends with someone older than yourself, it’s not acceptable to call them your friend. You can think of them as your friend; you just can’t call them that. That would be disrespectful.

Uyghur people are very hospitable and friendly. They also have very strong cultural rules that determine how to show respect to someone older than yourself. To our American manner of being rather informal with almost everyone, these two values might very well come into conflict regarding how you could be friendly and yet at the same time show respect. But it works very well in Uyghur culture.

Hmm…comparing the way Uyghurs respect their elders with the way this value is often sadly lacking in American culture, maybe we could do with a bit more respect and a little fewer “friends.”

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Kashgar Bostan

January 16th, 2008

I recently made a trip to Beijing, and as I was flying back into Kashgar, I looked out the plane window and noticed how distinct the line was where the green around Kashgar began. Just outside that line of green was dry desert.

It became abundantly obvious - once again - that Kashgar is indeed a desert oasis (Uyghur “bostan”). An island of green in a sea of multi-hued brown. A hub of bustling activity and life surrounded by a rocky, sandy death.

So why am I waxing poetic? Because when I saw that line of green, it hit me yet again that I’ll soon be leaving this place that has become dear to my heart.

And so I’m soaking it up as much as possible, reveling in its uniqueness, storing it away in my heart.

Posted in All | No Comments »

Yarkand Revisited

Why I’m Saying Goodbye To Facebook

Oregon Pics, At Long Last

Facebook Loves Uyghur Folk Music!

Quake Update - What About The Children?

Table Rock (Back to Oregon)

I’ll Miss You!

What Moves You?

Are You My Friend?

Kashgar Bostan

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