Comments on: Harbin Wrapup…On to the North Korean Border

By: Benjamin Ross

Benjamin Ross — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:48:54 +0000

Tong-
You are not really ignorant, just slightly. There are many levels of Jewish observance. Jews of different denominations follow different levels of ritual. A statement like “I thought Jewish people observe Kosher Dietary Law” would be like saying “I thought Chinese people do Kung Fu” to a Chinese who prefers basketball. I was brought up in a house where we did not keep kosher. If I were to follow all of the laws of Halacha, there would be no way I could travel around China unless I subsisted only on fresh fruit. I probably wouldn’t be checking my blog comments on a Saturday morning either.

By: Tong

Tong — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:34:03 +0000

Ben Ross, I don’t think “two atomic bombs ended Japanese occupation” will be seen in Chinese museum any time soon, just like this particular museum won’t advertise all the data collected by 731 is in this random country’s hand. As to USSR troops, they fought Japanese on the ground in the northeast and that was what Northeastern Chinese witnessed. Some US troops were in South, my grandma used to say “America butter is the best”. Reason being when US troops left, the food left behind were rationed to the locals. Hmm, occasionally we ate sautéed spam growing up, now I am wondering how we got that idea?

I must be really igorant, from the last couple entries, I gather you are Jewish, I thought the Jewish observe Kosher Dietary law. Sausage made of pork?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:12:24 +0000

>some random country (they weren’t mentioned at all in any of the exhibits) defeated their army and expelled them out of China.

The country that defetead Japanese army in China was USSR:-)

By: T.

T. — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:40:40 +0000

Sure you can go to North Korea. Americans are allowed in during the Mass Games. I am considering going this October holiday myself – my friend is going and she’s American.

By: Benjamin Ross

Benjamin Ross — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:26:46 +0000

Jiang-

Yeah, that’s it. I must have just forgotten the numbers. It is a pretty scary place. Just the site of the building itself (I’ll post a pic when I get back to Beijing) is enough to send a chill through your bones. It looks like a concentration camp. It was definitely pretty full of pr0paganda though…so much though that I started to get a little skeptical.

By: Jiang

Jiang — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:16:54 +0000

Is the Museum of Japanese Biological Warfare 日侵华第731部队遗址 instead of 779? In our textbooks, it’s depicted notorious and a symbol of Japanese. When I was a kid, I saw a TV drama about the Japanese Biological Warfare troop. It’s really horrible and scared me. But now, I think it’s a good site for nationalism pr0paganda.

By: Gabrielle

Gabrielle — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:32:05 +0000

You just made me remember something that I probably never would have remembered otherwise. When I visited the northern realms of China(Beijing and Shenyang) I had a co-worker who was obsessed with di4 san1 xian1. Every time we would go out to eat, she would yell out the dishes name when ordering it as though no one could hear her. Her tones always confused the hell out of anyone Chinese. It was by far her favorite dish, and she would always make sure to order enough so she could take some home. Although comical, it was a bit annoying. I swear, if she could, she would have taken a bath in di san xian. That is how much she loved that dish. Funny times, I tell you.