In addition to an indispensable companion piece to the NYT article on Obama’s censored interview with the Guangzhou reformist newspaper Southern Weekly [南方周报], Danwei.org links today to an absolutely delightful video report from Kunming about UFO sightings and research. Not only is Kunming a great city with a thriving Francophone legacy in lush Yunnan province (我继续继续学习法语再tout suite! [try saying that three times fast]), the place produces some accordingly great minds worthy of being coddled for their very ability to embrace the new and unconventional.
The lady interviewed who says “before we couldn’t speak of this casually” uses the phrase 不能乱说 / bu neng luan shuo, which I take in this context as a tactful reference to the previous years of prevailing Maoist ethos. In other words, with China’s reform and opening up, with Deng-era iconography of satellites and new frontiers — and with the coming of that Deng enabled generation of technophiles and architect dreamers that grew up after Li Peng trampled the damp banners on the Monument to the People’s Heroes on Tiananmen — we are free again to speculate about aliens.
The video is here; keep an eye on the silent son who kicks in and drops some science late in the second minute. Ttufo, a Chinese UFO site, can be swum into here. And, whether in wild Yunnan or UFO-rich Oregon, keep your eyes open!
Adam Cathcart 