China Lectures, Both Online and In Person
• Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, presented the 70th George E. Morrison Lecture in Ethnology at the Australian National University last week, speaking on the topic of “Australia and China in the World.” Audio of Rudd’s lecture is available online here; those who would prefer to read a transcript of the talk can find one here.
For Geremie Barmé’s thoughts on an earlier China-focused speech by Rudd, given in April 2008 at Peking University, turn to pages 212-214 of China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance and read “Facing Up to Friendship,” or see a shorter version of Barmé’s piece in an op-ed at the Sydney Morning Herald.
•Ken Pomeranz is traveling to Princeton University this week to deliver the Stone Lectures, a series of three talks on a broad historical theme designed for a general audience. Event details can be found here; an overview of the schedule is:
Tuesday, April 27: “Almost All Under Heaven: Making and Remaking a “Civilized” Empire”
Wednesday, April 28: “Land, Water, Marriage, and Migration: Regional Economies and Imperial/National Politics”
Thursday, April 29: “One Nation Under Gods: Religion, Culture, and the Containment of Local Loyalties”
• Jonathan Spence has been named the 39th Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and will give a public address on May 20 in Washington, D.C. The title of Spence’s talk is “When Minds Met: China and the West in the Seventeenth Century”; tickets, though free, must be reserved in advance, and requests should be submitted by May 3 using this online form.
Where can I take salsa lessons in Seoul, Korea?
I went to Caliente in Itaewon and now I want to learn to salsa. Where can I get some lessons? Any Salsa teachers out there?
http://www.salsapower.com/cities/seoul.htm
salsa ya a$$ off 
Sex-abuse scandal in Catholic Church: Cardinal William Levada talks to PBS’ ‘NewsHour’ on Tuesday
PBS’ “NewsHour” this week continues its look at the sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.
Margaret Warner will talk to Cardinal William Levada in Vatican City. You can see more of Warner’s reports here.
The interview will air at 7 p.m. Tuesday on WMFE-Channel 24.
Cardinal Levada is prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith. He succeeded Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in that role when Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI. Levada has criticized reporting of the scandal, especially that by The New York Times. He said Times reporting is “deficient by any reasonable standards of fairness.”
Clark Hoyt, the Times’ ombudsman, defended the paper’s coverage in yesterday’s edition. He wrote: “Like it or not, there are circumstances that have justifiably driven this story for years, including a well-documented pattern of denial and cover-up in an institution with billions of followers. Painful though it may be, the paper has an obligation to follow the story where it leads, even to the pope’s door.”
Oprah Winfrey promises ‘Dancing With the Stars’ secrets
Oprah Winfrey promises that Monday’s show will offer backstage secrets from “Dancing With the Stars.”
Yes, that means we’re going to hear about bad-dancing, headline-making Kate Gosselin.
Winfrey’s guests will include “Dancing” host Brooke Burke.
Winfrey is sending Burke, “American Idol” judge Randy Jackson and TV cook Paula Deenback to their first jobs. Deen also will serve up hash-brown casserole, which sounds wonderful — and terrible, if you have cholesterol problems.
“The Oprah Winfrey Show” airs at 4 p.m. weekdays on WFTV-Channel 9.
Shanghai’s Expo: What Everyone Needs to Know
In exactly one week, the countdown clocks in Shanghai will all finally hit zero. This is because this year May Day will also be Opening Day for the 2010 World Expo, an event that has been largely ignored in the United States (at least until very recently), but has been the subject of an enormous amount of advance publicity (and hype) within China, in part because it will be that country’s first World Fair and the first large-scale spectacle held there since the giant National Day parades of last year and the Beijing Games of 2008. It is an event worth paying attention to, even if one feels, as many Americans do, that the era of great World’s Fairs has come and gone, since this one will be the largest in history, at least in terms of the size of the grounds and the number of countries represented by pavilions, and perhaps also it terms of total number of attendees.
I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the event’s meaning and significance lately, as I travel around giving talks linked to my new book, China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know, in part because it seems curious to many Americans that the PRC moved right from holding the costly 2008 Olympics to preparing for this new extravaganza. Luckily, I have answers ready, because the new book is all in the Q & A format and there are several questions I address that relate to the Olympics, the Expo, or both of these mega-events.
So I thought I’d share with readers of this blog the explanation I give in the book for why this World’s Fair is taking place in the wake of the Games. The excerpt will provide readers with a sense of the book’s style (something that they can also get from a short pieces on different subjects that ran recently in Foreign Policy and Forbes) and perhaps encourage some of them to order the publication or drop in on one of the upcoming book launch events I’ll be doing next week in Washington, D.C. on April 27, New Jersey on April 28, and New York City on April 29 and April 30:
Photo by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom
Why hold an Expo so soon after the Olympics?
Given the expense of the 2008 Beijing Games, the Chinese government’s efforts to move straight into gearing up for a World Expo has baffled many foreigners. Also perplexing has been its efforts to cast the Expo as an Olympic-like event.
Part of this befuddlement comes from the fact that in Europe and North America now, World Expos, which are sponsored by an IOC-like organization known as the BIE, tend to be seen as relatively minor affairs that do not necessarily take place in top-tier cities. In 2000 the German city of Hanover played host to one; in 2005 the Japanese city of Aichi did the honors; and among American cities, Knoxville, which would not be considered to even have a shot at hosting the Olympics, is among the urban centers that has held a recent World Expo (in 1984). This makes it seem odd that local and national authorities in China have been promoting the Expo as an “Economic Olympics,” and generally working hard to establish a connection between the Olympics and the Expo, in the hope that they will be perceived as a pair of linked mega-events, not a major one followed by a second-rate one.
The lead-up to Shanghai 2010 has followed closely some parts of the Beijing 2008 blueprint: the Expo, too, has a slogan (“Better City, Better Life” to match “One World, One Dream”), a theme song, and an educational campaign oriented in part around familiarizing people with the history of World’s Fairs (especially the ones in which China participated and the best- known ones of the past, such as the 1889 Parisian Universal Exposition for which Eiffel built his famous tower). The cutesy “Fuwa” Olympic mascots have their counterpart in the Expo’s “Haibao” (a blue Gumby-like figure). In addition, in Shanghai during the lead-up to 2010, as in Beijing during the lead-up to 2008, the city has been undergoing a dramatic facelift, thanks to large infrastructure developments (including the building of new subway lines) and building projects (at the Expo site and in nearby areas).
3 American tourists pose by Haibao, photo courtesy of Vanessa Schwartz
As was the case in Beijing, the new development is being carried out on a staggeringly large scale and on land made available through relocations of longtime residents of neighborhoods. Shanghai’s Expo promises to be the most expensive World’s Fair in history, the one that has the biggest urban foot- print, and the one at which the largest number of countries are represented by official national pavilions—display areas that, as in previous World’s Fairs and World Expos are designed to showcase the cultures, histories, products, and in some cases also the latest technologies of specific lands.
One way to think of the 2008 Games and 2010 Expo is as a combination of events that China hopes will signal how far it has come in the course of a century or so, and how far behind it has left its former reputation as the “sick man of Asia.” Its intention is to leave no doubt that it is now a place with not just one but two cities where great global events can be held. It is not even certain, moreover, that the country will be content to have just a pair of urban centers, Beijing and Shanghai, in the special category of locales worthy of mega-events—for in late 2010, just after the World Expo is over, Guangzhou will host the “Asian Games,” an Olympic-like spectacle, albeit one on a somewhat reduced scale as it brings together teams from across a continent only, as opposed to participants from around the globe.
Excerpted from China in the 21st Century: What everyone Needs to Know, by Jeffrey Wasserstrom, published by Oxford University Press. Copyright © 2010 by Jeffrey N Wasserstrom.
cuban salsa lessons in london for 15year old ?
dance, salsa lessons in london.
Also also…
I’v emailed loads of people who teacch and they say 15 years old is too young…
but i really love cuban music and would love to start dancing !
London is a big place. Defining your area more would help.
Some seem to be held in pubs, or the lesson is just part of a general social evening that goes on to 11pm – and probably serves alcohol – which may be why you are having no luck.
This site turns up for Cuban Salsa searches, and teen cuban salsa classes
http://www.come2salsa.com/salsaclasses.html
"as will as Kids and Teens Salsa Lessons day or evenings. We provide Dance lessons for all ages at any time of the day and evening to suite your timetable and requirement of your students/ members in your own studio or any of our venues. For cost and time arraignment please e Mail: faisal@come2salsa.com"
I’ve found a Saturday class for 8-15 in Surbiton
http://www.danceweb.co.uk/town/Surbiton_24_826.aspx
The fact that they stop the teen classes at age 15 suggests they may let you do adult classes.
This looks like the place I’d want to go – Sunday afternoon classes, and they don’t mention an age limit.
http://www.salsacaribe.co.uk/html/wclasses.htm
If no luck, work on general dance skills, and from DVDs, until they do consider you old enough.
Nadia Bloom: WKMG explains James King’s rescue mission, but saves divine side of story for later
James King told WKMG-Channel 6 tonight how he rescued Nadia Bloom, the Winter Springs girl who was lost four days in the woods. He cited a GPS, logic and the Almighty as crucial to his successful search.
King’s tour of the woods opened WKMG’s 6 p.m. news, but the CBS affiliate is evidently saving the best material for 11 tonight. Anchor Erik von Ancken narrated the story.
King pulled out items he took on the rescue mission: an apple, a nutritional shake and a GPS. ”You go on a search like this, you shouldn’t go not expecting to find the person,” King said. ”So I thought in my mind, ‘What will I do when I see Nadia?’ ”
He also pulled out his Bible, which he had with him when he found Nadia.
He attributed his success to logic — a friend had suggested his path — and heavenly guidance. “I said, ‘Lord, I need you to direct my path,’ ” he said.
Von Ancken noted that King changed direction often when moving deeper into the woods, but repeatedly asked God for confirmation of the path.
What’s coming up at 11?
Von Ancken said: “Something that many of you have also asked us to ask King, How did he hear God? How does anyone hear God? Well, we did ask him that, and we will have that part of his story tonight at 11 o’clock.”
Forgive me, Lord, for having an uncharitable thought. I hate when television drags out the story.
Central Florida News 13 reported the King story earlier today and said that the rescue had inspired him to write a book.
can somebody please tell me where there’s a good class for salsa lessons in houston?
I have been trying to learn to dance salsa forever but i cant find a good class. I luv listening to salsa , i guess i know the basic steps but i would really like to learn a little bit more.
If anyone can please get help me. Thanks.
Strictly Street Salsa?
1915 Commonwealth St, Houston, TX
(713) 524-3938
strictlystreetsalsa.com
Sonia’s World of Dance, LLC?
5539 Richmond Avenue., Houston, TX
(713) 787-9111?
houston-dance-lessons.com
Elvia’s Cantina-Dine & Dance?
2727 Fondren Rd # 2A, Houston, TX
(713) 266-9631
letsdance123.com
‘American Idol’ tops Orlando Magic locally
There were two big programs last night locally.
“Idol Gives Back“ posted an 11.2 household rating in the Orlando market. That means 163,139 homes were tuned to “American Idol.”
The second game of the Orlando-Charlotte NBA playoff series put up an 8.1 household rating in this market: a 7 rating on TNT and a 1.1 rating on Fox Sports Florida. The Magic won the game, 92-77. The 8.1 rating means 117,985 homes were tuned to the basketball game.