THE SEATS OF POWER, CHINESE STYLE

THE SEATS OF POWER
CHINESE STYLE

One of a Series

© Gwendolyn Stewart 2009; All Rights Reserved

TIANJIN DUO

Zhang Lichang (left), then Tianjin Party Secretary, and Li Shenglin (right), then Tianjin Mayor, at the 16th Congress of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), in the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, November 2002.

CHINA THEN & NOW: ON THE GRAND CANAL

ON THE GRAND CANAL

© Gwendolyn Stewart 2009; All Rights Reserved

HANGZHOU, CHINA, 1981

BARBAROSSA: Nazi Germany Attacks the USSR

OPERATION BARBAROSSA


© Gwendolyn Stewart 2009; All Rights Reserved

THE BREST FORTRESS MEMORIAL

On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union at Brest, in what is now Belarus. The Nazis were surprised by the resistance, memorialized by the Brest Fortress monument pictured above.

THE SILK ROAD IV: BUKHARA

TIM ABDULLAH KHAN 

BUKHARA (UZBEKISTAN), USSR 1984 

The man wears a helmet, the woman and the child (in the sidecar) take their chances. Or perhaps there was a law covering the driver of a motorcycle, and only the driver. 

Bukhara, as we have seen, is an ancient Silk Road capital. The Tim Abdullah Khan (above) was a silk bazaar, dating back to 1577.  There is a vivid description of its construction and role here. The practical result of this domed construction, for the visitor, is a drop of ten degrees in the summer heat when you enter  into this covered marketplace. 

ABOVE LAKE BAIKAL

ABOVE LAKE BAIKAL

RETURN VISIT, 1990

While we are in the area, a photograph taken a half-dozen years later that gives some idea of Siberian country living.

This time I had come to Baikal and Irkutsk to cover the meeting between U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. I stayed to see a bit more of the area around the lake, including the infamous Baikalsk paper plant, now once again in the news.

INTERLUDE ON LAKE BAIKAL

LATE AFTERNOON

ON LAKE BAIKAL

TWO WOMEN & THEIR KNITTING

Listvyanka (Russia), USSR, 1984

Lake Baikal is famous as the "Gem of Siberia." I had been so keen to see it that I flew straight from Moscow to Irkutsk, the nearest big city, on my first trip to the USSR.

NASA has posted two striking images of Baikal from space, iced over, here.

More to come in RUSSIA REDUX

AS THE WHEEL TURNS -- TO CHINA? II

CHINA THEN & NOW II 

NANJING 1981 

AS THE WHEEL TURNS II 

Forbid the ownership of private cars; start allowing for markets, especially in agricultural goods; and Voilà! Chinese farmers hitched up the farm machinery they did have, and drove to the city to sell their wares in town. 

Pictured above, vegetables being driven into Nanjing, China, in 1981.  Outstanding feature of the vehicle of choice (or of the mother of necessity), what I came to call a "naked engine." 

GUARDIAN OF THE DRAGON GATE

A FIERCE GUARDIAN 

OF THE DRAGON GATE 

THE LONGMEN GROTTOES 

NEAR LUOYANG, CHINA 

Luoyang (in Henan province) is one of the ancient capitals of China, and a major locus for the introduction of Buddhism into the Middle Kingdom. For several hundred years beginning in the fifth century, a vast panorama of Buddhist figures was carved out of a kilometer-long stretch of rock face and caves along the Yi River.  These are known collectively as the Longmen (Dragon Gate) Grottoes.  The central section of the ensemble includes an enormous Buddha, whose ears are 6'2".  S/He is identified as the Vairocana (Vairochana) Buddha, a being with a countenance somewhere between placid and passive.  Startling, then, to find among the Buddha's retinue the fierce warrior above, said to be a "'World Protector,' guardian of the Buddhist teachings."  

It was startling, too, to hear this passage from Barack Obama's Inaugural Address: "For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.  We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers."  To have the new president strain so hard to be ecumenical, to be inclusive, as to include "non-believers" (and to think to pair "Jews" with "Hindus"), and yet leave out one of the great world religions, Buddhism, was, at best, disconcerting. 

A SUMMER DAY ON THE RIVER (NOVOSIBIRSK)

A SUMMER DAY ON THE RIVER

THE RIVER OB' 

NOVOSIBIRSK (RUSSIA), USSR 1984 

On a Sunday two-thirds of the way between Mother's Day and the Summer Solstice, a treat from a boat on the River Ob'.  We have taken off from the city of Novosibirsk, the largest in Siberia, and a major node on the Trans-Siberian Express.  

SURFACE & SUBSTANCE: HANGZHOU, CHINA

SURFACE & SUBSTANCE 

HANGZHOU 1981 

 
COMPLIMENTS 

TO WEST LAKE AT DAWN

Out wandering in Hangzhou early in the morning on my first trip to China, I meet a man standing at West Lake at dawn.  "It is very beautiful," I say. 

The local sets me straight:  "Yes, but the housing in town is very poor." 

NIXON GO TO CHINA?

NIXON GO TO CHINA?

NETANYAHU GO ??

OBAMA CHIMES IN

Picture this: The cliché heard 'round the media echo chamber.

If Richard Nixon can go to China, perhaps Bibi Netanyahu can -- Fill in your chief wish for an Israeli prime minister.

For a recent example: "Just as it took a Richard Nixon to go to China, it will take a Netanyahu to enforce a peace settlement that will require a withdrawal from most of the West Bank settlements." -- Kishore Mahbubani, Japan Times, Sunday, May 10, 2009

But Benjamin ("Bibi") Netanyahu has been here before, and so have we.

He was Prime Minister the first time from 1996-99. "He wants to be Nixon going to China and still be honored by the John Birch Society," we were told. By Thomas L. Friedman, in the May 19, 1998, New York Times. Friedman was asking, "Who Is Bibi?"

We might ask, why do we keep falling back on this cliché?

Today we learn that Barack Obama is now also on record with the Nixon-Goes-To-China analogy for "Bibi":

"Israeli analysts said Mr Obama had effectively given Mr Netanyahu the choice of alienating his Right-wing coalition allies and imperilling his fragile government or alienating Israel's most powerful ally.

"But Mr Obama, in an interview with regional newspapers, said Mr Netanyahu's Right-wing stance was an advantage. He compared him to the former President Richard Nixon whose impeccable Right-wing credentials made possible his outreach to Chairman Mao's China in the early 1970s."

FACING TIANANMEN II: ZHONGNANHAI

"FACING" TIANANMEN

ZHONGNANHAI 

WITH GUARDS AT ATTENTION 

THE FRONT GATE ("NEW CHINA GATE") 

OF THE SEAT OF POWER IN CHINA: 

BEIJING'S "WHITE HOUSE" OR "KREMLIN" 

On the "Avenue of Eternal Peace" 

To the West of the Forbidden City (Map) 

(Description and some history) 

Who made the decisions that led to the crackdown and the bloodshed on June 3-4, 1989? "Zhongnanhai." 

A QUIET DAY IN TIANANMEN SQUARE

A QUIET DAY 

 IN TIANANMEN SQUARE 

PLA SOLDIERS MARCH THROUGH. 

THE PORTRAIT OF MAO ZEDONG GAZES ON. 

BEIJING 1981 

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY II: YAN'AN, CHINA

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 

ON FARAWAY STREETS

YAN'AN WELCOME 

WITH SHY BOY 

YAN'AN, CHINA 1981 

The small boy hides behind the man's left side (being prevented from flight by having his wrist firmly grasped).  The grown-ups (with perhaps one exception) seem to enjoy the sight of the "very tall" photographer visiting Yan'an, the "cradle of the Chinese revolution," in 1981. 

THE SILK ROAD II: BUKHARA

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

ON FARAWAY STREETS

BASHFUL IN BUKHARA

BUKHARA (UZBEKISTAN) USSR 1984

You have been introduced to one of the monuments of the Silk Road city of Bukhara; now meet a few of its people.

THE SILK ROAD I: BUKHARA

NADIR DIVAN BEG MADRASA 

Today, something from the world of Islam – something beautiful, and something a bit unusual. Shown above is a close-up of the pishtaq (a "portal projecting from the facade of a building") of the Nadir Divan Beg Madrasa in Bukhara, Uzbekistan.  

Bukhara is a Silk Road city, Persian-influenced, over two millennia old.   The UNESCO World Heritage Committee calls it "the most complete example of a medieval city in Central Asia." It was once "the largest center for Muslim theology in the Near East";  a madrasa (madrasah, medresseh) is a school, a school for the study of Islamic religion and thought. 

The Nadir Divan Beg Madrasa, built in 1622, was, the story goes, originally meant to be a caravanserai. This is supposed to somewhat soften the violation of the Islamic prohibition against the depiction of living creatures:  better on an inn for trading caravans than on a religious institution. 

But then, phoenixes (above) are only mythical, no?  And the human (man?) in the sun? As to the two white deer (one shown above), well, perhaps they may be called "stylized."

When I visited Bukhara in 1984 and photographed the madrasa, Uzbekistan was part of the Soviet Union. Uzbekistan has been independent since the end of 1991. 

OTHER WEDDINGS II

TO THE BELL TOWER 

OTHER WEDDINGS II 
QINGDAO, CHINA 

Red is the traditional color for brides in China. But though the young woman in this couple is dressed in white, in a "Western" gown, tradition has not been altogether neglected. Observe the touches of red. 

Here, in 1994, a video camera is also coming up the stairs to the heights of the Bell Tower. 

OTHER WEDDINGS I

AT LENIN'S FEET

OTHER WEDDINGS I  

BACK IN THE USSR  

As June is almost here, and with it the wedding season in the USA, two weddings from other countries, other cultures: In today's photograph a newly married couple in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk comes in 1984 to be photographed at the foot of the Lenin statue in the heart of town.

A RAINY DAY IN THE PROVINCES

A RAINY DAY IN THE PROVINCES

ON THE EVE OF PERESTROIKA

LENIN BILLBOARD & CAR

ROSTOV-ON-THE-DON (RUSSIA), USSR

Thinking Again About Communism, III

The USSR on the Eve of Perestroika: "To Us the Most Precious Is the Preservation of Peace" -- V.I. Lenin," the slogan on the billboard says. The year is 1984.

Lenin had died in 1924. (More in HERE BE GIANTS)

ALL RISE: OBAMA & THE FALL OF COMMUNISM

ALL RISE 

The 16th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party 

OBAMA & THE FALL OF COMMUNISM
THE FALL? WAS WHEN EXACTLY? 

Today, in Washington, D.C., President Barack Obama made a rather strange statement for someone who is supposed to be so bright, and who is in charge of the national security apparatus of the U.S. 

Here is the wind-up: "Fidelity to our values is the reason why the United States of America grew from a small string of colonies under the writ of an empire to the strongest nation in the world." 

Okay. Then: Enemy soldiers… strong alliances …  

Then, "It's the reason why we've been able to overpower the iron fist of fascism and outlast the iron curtain of communism, and enlist free nations and free peoples everywhere in the common cause and common effort of liberty." 

"…outlast the iron curtain of communism.…" 

Oh, yes? The People's Republic of China, ruled by the Chinese Communist Party, has fallen? (and the regimes in Cuba, and North Korea, and Vietnam…?) 

Twenty-five years ago, President Ronald Reagan came back from his first trip to what he had been pleased to call "Red China" and spoke of the "so-called Communist China." This in 1984. 

In the fall of 2007, at the time of the most recent Chinese Communist Party Congress, I showed an American in Beijing a copy of the photograph above, taken at the previous Congress, the 16th (November 2002). He looked at the giant hammer and sickle and said, Oh, Russia. 

Whatever one may think of what has happened since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Communists have not ruled there since December 1991, while in China they go on and on.  So far.