9/10/06 ~ This week in China

On the Rio: Mazzy Star ~ I'm Sailin'

This week Shanghai was treated to a partial lunar eclipse. Here is a Reuters photo from 9/8.

Saturday was the 30th anniversary of the death of Mao Zedong, who founded the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949 and led the nation for 27 years after that. Mostly there have been a lot of new books published lining the bookstore shelves, including a tome poem almost 5 centimeters thick on the Long March (1934-1936), covering 12,000 kilometers, which Mao led during the Chinese civil war to rally and inspire a Communist-led peasant-worker underclass.

I don't watch enough tv to know if there were any special shows, but the newspaper articles were few and far between. I heard from some people at dinner last night that the CNN broadcast on Mao had been blacked out, but the BBC broadcast was allowed to air.

Thirty-seven of the world's top martial arts masters gathered at the famous Shaolin Temple in Central China's Henan Province on Friday for nine days of secluded practice in preparation for the final stage of a supreme kungfu contest.

The masters got to the final stage of the contest by taking out the first three places in each of its six international competitions in the United States, Russia, Australia, France, Germany and Italy, and in the five events held in China.

During the seclusion period, the multicultural contestants will have a chance to learn Shaolin culture and the essence of martial arts in the temple, the birthplace of Zen Buddhism. The contestants must follow temple rules by wearing the kasaya, a patchwork outer vestment worn by Buddhist monks, eating vegetarian meals and shaving their heads and facial hair during the seclusion, Liu said.

After the seclusion period is over the 37 players will take part in a grand ceremony to mark the occasion. They will give demonstrations and compete with the kungfu monks at the temple before they leave for Guzhang County in Hunan Province and Shenzhen in Guangdong Province to vie for the title of "World No 1 Kungfu Master."

I wonder if this will be on tv? Probably more entertaining than Sumu wrestling.