The SWord for freedom

  I never thought I would return to writing under such circumstances.  I originally thought I would write about my feelings on immigrating to the United States, a review of my new Lexus, or some thoughts on China... but I never imagined that it would be an article like this. About two months ago, I watched a film I'd long wanted to see, " Memories of Matsuko ". I watched it 3 times in two months, and today, I watched it again. Suddenly, I felt the urge to write something.  Because I have seen too many Matsukos. ==================== The first time I heard about this movie was probably around 2014. At the time, a young girl, who is a friend of my ex-girlfriend, had her WeChat name as "Matsuko Kawajiri(川尻松子)," which is the name of the film's protagonist. Looking back, she was also a girl who needed to learn how to love herself. I will discuss her in more detail below. I spent my last two decades in China in Tianjin , a city just a half-hour train ride from the ...

That year, also in June, I was working for one of the three major American media companies based in Beijing. It was an eventful spring. It started at the beginning of the year with the visit of President Bush Sr. to China and then the death of the China communist leader ...... By one night in early June, the eventful spring was finally marked with a huge exclamation mark, and an even bigger question mark. I was still a Chinese citizen at that time. The next morning, I was busy looking for my boss: I couldn't stay in the danger place, I wanted to resign, I wanted to wipe my feet and leave. I didn't realize that my boss was looking for me too. He said that there was one of our Australian cameramen and his British recording assistant in the Beijing Hotel who had just filmed some very important contents. The boss said he wanted me to go and get this material myself, instead of sending the 20 or so interns from the broadcasting school who were working under me. This was a dilemma ...

War, is anti-human. No sane country, or government, or group of people, should have war as a priority. The current Russian government, it seems, is still of the communist persuasion. As a country that has been scourged by it, Ukraine is well aware of communism. It is funny that Russia claims that this invasion is to "de-communism" Ukraine. A few years ago, I met a Ukrainian lady who made a big impression on me. I still have the wrapped ribbon she gave me, the blue and yellow ribbon reminds me of her and her brave country every time I see it. I also know some Russians, and I know how they live and how they think about their country. I just want to say that communism should have been eliminated from humanity a long time ago. But there are still some crazy countries that love it. My prayers are with Ukraine tonight. P.S.:At this moment when the whole world is condemning and sanctioning Russia, China announced its agreement to import Russian wheat. What a great pair of commie bro...

Alice is such an adorable little girl. Even though she’s only 7 years old, she often comes up with surprisingly childish that leave you not knowing whether to laugh or cry. I remember when I first moved into this house, everyone was quite curious about me because they all wanted to know about the current situation in China. One time, Alice asked me: "Uncle Shawn, my Chinese isn’t very good. If I go to China, will the Communist Party arrest me?" I was shocked at the time, feeling both amused and sad ---- this was coming from a 7-year-old girl. I replied, "They probably won’t. At most, people will just be curious about you." Then she said, "I hate Xi Jinping." That I couldn't calm down, I don’t want a seven-year-old to have hate in her heart. I told her, "There’s no need for that. He and the Communist Party have nothing to do with you, and they can’t control you. You just need to live happily and study well. Leave the other matters to the adults....

I've been writing about the things I've seen and experienced in China, with the purpose of revealing a real China to the world, especially the parts that don't get reported. However, with less time available to me and my increasing tendency to write longer articles, along with the low profile I must keep for safety, there are infrequently updates on this blog. But recently I've had some new changes and ideas. It takes days to write a long article, but almost every day there are something new about China that I think it should be worth showing to the world. Maybe I can create a new channel dedicated to this type of short content. That I can take the time to write long articles, and do some timely, short daily content updates. If I post these contents here, I worry that it will dilute the style of this blog. Just as I didn't move the journal content from my old blog over. So my plan now is to create a new twitter account, perhaps under a different name, to post conten...

Last night, on my final night in Tianjin , I only slept for two and a half hours due to an unexpected event. I was cleaning the room because I need to return the key to the landlord and leave China the next morning. When I went downstairs to take out the garbage for the second time, I saw a girl coming towards me in a hurry. She was probably in her early 20s, with heavy makeup, which reminded me of something in that moment. She said,  "Could you please help me call the police?" Her words immediately put me on alert, and I looked around and saw that there was no one else nearby. (of course, it was 2:30am.) My first question was, "Are you injured?" "No, but I was cheated out of my cell phone, so please call police for me."  But I just went downstairs to take out the garbage and didn't bring my phone. So I said I would go with her to the security guard, who should have a phone. However, she didn't know where the security guard was located, so it seems...

What I am about to write below is a magical story in my life. It has always encouraged me. Occasionally I think of it, and now I record it in detail here. In 2004, I started living in Tianjin , a city in northern China. My ex-girlfriend at the time was a kindergarten teacher. One evening she came to me in a big anxious, saying that their kindergarten was going to hold a sports event the next day, and there was some sewing work left to do, but she didn't have a sewing kit on hand, so she came to me to figure out what we can do. A common sewing kit in China,  not easy to bought because it is too inconspicuous At that era, shopping was not as convenient as it is today. There was no sewing kits in the small stores nearby. Finally I decided to take her to the largest Carrefour  supermarket in Tianjin, thinking that there would be sewing kits for sale. It was a slightly longer cab ride, and by the time we arrived at Carrefour it was about 9:30 p.m. The lights were half out at the su...

A few days ago I talked to an US friend Jeff about the history of piracy in China, so I wrote this article. I would like to show the era of piracy of video games and computer software that I saw, from about 1990 to the present. 1990-1995 China's folk computer technology originated around 1990. Before that era, the most pirated was NES (the American version of Famicom). I went through the Atari 2600 period but I was too young. Now it is speculated that the 2600s are original because the market is too small. Piracy of the NES has continued to today. Yes, you can still buy various NES copycats and games in China today. My parents bought me a pirated NES in the mall, made in Taiwan. At the time, such a machine with a cartridge would require a monthly salary of 2 adults. Compared with the massive pirated NES, Genesis as the main competitor of NES, there are fewer pirated cartridge. Because Genesis's market share in China is too small. These early pirated NESes ...

It was a childhood event that I would never forget, a big impact on me. When I was about 12 years old, my family moved to the west of the city. There is a lot of land there, and each household has been allocated a small piece of land to grow various vegetables. Many Chinese people love to grow vegetables, right? My family grows coriander, lettuce, carrot and spring onion. At the time, each household had such a small land Although I looked like a obedient kid, I was actually naughty. Once I with kids ran to other vegetable land, picked some eggplant and beans. Almost all Chinese children did this kind of thing when they were young. Of course now I know this is not right. But at that time it seemed that everyone thought it was not a serious matter. Why do I pick other's vegetables? I forgot what the reason was, but definitely not because of hunger or affordability. Because it's fun? maybe. Anyway, I picked some and put them in my clothes and took them home. I went h...