big brother is watching

But he's doing a pretty sloppy job of it. This morning, my last in Shanghai, I got up to work out in the health club (we're talking 5 star hotels) and turned on BBC News (CNN was all about the car crash in Glasgow, 24/7) while I pedaled. They had a story on the 10th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong, and at one point the commentary turned to frustration among Hong Kong residents with the Beijing government. Suddenly the screen went black for about 10 seconds. I thought I had jiggled something or hit a switch, but I notice the same thing on the two screens next to me. And then just as suddenly it came back on. At the time I thought it was a coincidence, but then after returning to my room to shower and pack, I had
BBC on again, and it had the exact same blackout. The ironic thing is that the blackout didn't completely eliminate criticism of the government. When the news report returned, it was to a clip of pandas that had been sent from the mainland to Hong Kong, and the voiceover was saying, ". . . but most Hong Kong residents want democratic reform, not pandas." That's a pretty lame job of censorship if you ask me. Later on the bus I asked the professor who is traveling with (and lecturing) us about this and he was certain it was censorship.
This may explain the spotty internet access I've had here. I was able to get onto my email a few times, but I noticed I couldn't open an attachment. And now I can't get on at all. And while I'm able to post to this blog (with great difficulty) I am not able to read my own posts! (So I apologize in advance if I repeat myself.) Today we drove south from Shanghai to the old imperial capital of Hangzhou, a big tourist destination for the Chinese, a city full of greenery and the famous West Lake (Xi Hu), which is right near our hotel. Apparently, this is the place that successful Shanghai businessmen have traditionally built their villas.
More later.