China: Dusty discussion

A storm in the Chinese blogsphere this week. Not the heated kind, though—this one's meteorological. A sandstorm has been raging through Beijing and parts of Northern China since April 10. Here are three posts from the last four days:

April 16
DARKS Temporary Base blog

来到西安快两年了
却是在几天前才遇上了沙尘暴
尽管感觉很恶劣
还是如同第一次见到雪那样大惊小怪起来

I've been in Xi'an close to two years now
But it's only in these last few days that I've seen a sandstorm
Despite feeling terrible
It's nothing worse than the shock of seeing my first snowstorm

那天醒来觉得很暗，以为无意中早起了
可是往窗外一看，天居然是土黄色的
于是干脆以此为理由蒙上被子逃掉了早上的课

It was dark out when I woke up that day, I thought I'd gotten up too early
But looking out the window I saw the sky was dirt-yellow
More than enough reason to pull up the blanket and skip class

下午路过寸草不生的足球场
不小心嘴里被吹进少许沙土，好象含了跳跳糖

In the afternoon I walked passed a barren football field
Wasn't careful and got a lot of sand blown in my mouth, seemed to taste rather sugary

April 17
Hua Dao's blog

来北京四年了还是第一次看到沙尘暴，天黄黄的，大清早起来，大地被铺上了黄黄的一层衣服，空气中弥漫着呛人的味道，这破地儿…哈哈

It's my first time after four years in Beijing to see a sandstorm. The sky's all yellow. I got up early, mother earth had been covered in a layer of yellow clothing, the air was full of a choking smell. This bloody place…haha

April 18
LovLif blog

我不管什么2008，这种天气我已经不指望政府能够两三年里搞定，与其骂来骂去，倒不如静下来做些有用的事。植树节你去植树了没？回答是的，我在这里给你鞠个躬，明年咱们一块。就是现在我也随时奉陪。2008不是我们治沙的理由，如果为了奥运，我情愿天天对着窗口望着尘土飞扬，写些赞美沙尘的文章。

No matter what they say about 2008, I don't count on the government being able to do anything about this kind of weather within the next two to three years. Instead of getting angry, it would be much better to do something useful. On Arbor Day did you go plant any trees? If you answered yes, I bow here before you. Next year we'll go together. For now I'm just going with the flow. 2008 isn't our excuse for controlling the sand, but be it for the Olympic games I'm willing to every day stand at the window and watch dust fly up into the air, write articles glorifying the sand.

April 19
Luo Buding's blog

我很少看到北京有这样的春天了。今天又是狂风，天虽然是看见蓝色了，可是我很担心这几十吨沙子刮到哪里去了呀……环境污染刻不容缓呀……

I don't often see this kind of weather in Beijing. Gales again today, although blue sky can be seen, I still worry where these several tons of sand have gone…environmental pollution, no time to delay…

Another timely story this week, the New York Times‘ two China correspondents’ winning of this year's Pulitzer prize for international reporting has also seen some blog-time:

Lian Yue's Eighth Continent blog pastes a paragraph from an English-language article on the Pulitzer story but receives only one relevant comment:

Joseph Kahn 刚写一篇文章，引述别人，说胡戈在私下跟小不死聊天时表示，每天应付官员腐败、农民维权已经占去了大部分时间，没有空也没有意愿来跟老美争霸。按他的意思小不死这没看过三国的笨蛋还真信了。

Joseph Kahn just wrote a piece in which he quotes somebody as saying Hu, while chatting with Bush in private, says dealing with corrupt officials and rural land activists takes up most of his time every day and doesn't leave any for thoughts of contending against America for hegemony. His implication is that Bush, this idiot who hasn't even read Three Kingdoms, actually believes it.

Zhang Rui posts only a short list of the winners and an even shorter statement: