Rain at Last / Blogging

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Weather Report

Rainpipe - Home while it Lasted

I prefer warm and dry days to rainy and cold ones. But after a spring like this one, it’s a relief to see that it’s raining, and that the rain has become continuous.

It feels good, too. When I was caught by a squally shower a few days ago, on my way home by bike, even that felt good. Some farmers may look at it as a bad joke, but it’s surprising how much of the crops still seems to recover, even if the first silage of the year was very poor.

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Blogging

All in all, the English-language, China-related blogosphere seems to have become much calmer than what it used to be – here, too. Probably for a number of reasons, but not least for these commenting rules, readers may think carefully before commenting on these blogposts, and that’s a good thing. But across the board, or where I’m reading, anyway, comment activites have slowed down. One might attribute that to a decrease of interest in China, at least among newsreaders, even if not in terms of business or investment. But the opportunities to read about China, including translations from Chinese-language sources, have broadened a lot.

Danwei has drawn its own conclusions:

So we have decided to change our focus. We’re relaunching on Danwei.com. We will publish periodic issues based around a theme, rather than daily news updates.

That said, Justrecently’s Beautiful Blog has never been about daily news updates. I merely focus on topics that interest me, and see this blog as, well, part of the internet. I may miss out on important trends or even big single events, and I take this opportunity to recommend every blog or website I’ve linked to at my blogroll to the right, underneath the comment section and the Three Represents (Net Nanny / Hermit / Good Ganbu). Besides, when looking at this blog’s statistics on a month-to-month basis, from 2011 back to 2008, “visits” have risen every year so far. So there seem to be some interested readers, and ClustrMaps (according to who the numbers would be much smaller than what the WordPress stats suggest) shows hits from all over the globe, including China.

So I’ll happily muddle on. No Facebook account, no YouTube channel (although I’ve given that some thought more recently – still pondering the idea), and no Twitter. A blog appears to be the ideal platform to write (publicly) what I want to write.

Religious Affairs: Kung Fu, not Sex

Xinhua — A State Bureau of Religious Affairs official has condemned rumors that Shaolin Temple abbot Shi Yongxin (释永信) were embroiled in a sex scandal and a corresponding legal case. Suggestions made on the internet that the abbot had been arrested for using the service of prostitutes were rumors which adversely affected to the image of Buddhism and Shaolin Temple, which was very sad. Such rumors should not be believed, not be spread, and religious personalities should be respected, state newsagency Xinhua quoted the Bureau on Saturday.

Being the abbot of Shaolin Temple, Shi also belongs to China’s political establishment. He was a member of the Ninth National People’s Congress, and is or was chairman of the Henan Province Buddhists Association, and vice Chairman of the Buddhist Association of China.

Shaolin Temple had denied prostitution allegations in a post on its website on May 8, reacting to posts on Weibo (微博, or other microblogging platforms).

Shi’s name can frequently be found on the internet, connected with sonorous car brands. He has been criticized for commercializing the Temple.

There will be Traditionalists and earthly-minded people alike who feel inclined to believe in the recent rumors, as a popular picture about a Buddhist monk is about lazy fat people in robes and living on the alms of working people, who still wouldn’t deny themselves the joys this side of the cupboard has to offer.

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Related
» China’s Golden Vase of National Unity, Dec 26, 2010