CHINA ARTICLES by Brian Hennessy
On the Western media and Tibet
Recent commentary in the international media on the pre-Olympics riots in Tibet is typical of most western reporting in this part of the world: surface-level observations which do not do justice to a complex historico-political situation. In the long run, such facile commentary will do nothing to help Tibetan people achieve their goal of cultural […]
Sichuan earthquake: the aftermath.
Brian Hennessy. China Australia Consult. May, 2009 Nothing prepares you for the desolation of a city recovering from an earthquake. It's not the physical destruction that is so difficult to confront, although that is bad enough. Rather, it's the people. Traumatised people. I'm a psychologist who specialises in this area. I know about these things. […]
Campus window.
Brian Hennessy. China Australia Consult. 2005 Campus window I look out of my 15th floor window. Across the campus to the First Affiliated Peoples Hospital rising in the middle distance. Across the crowded student dormitories and old staff apartments, grey 1954 vintage reminders of an ideological past long gone. Below, new China rising. Reaching for […]
Qiongren: the poor people.
Brian Hennessy. China Australia Consult. February, 2009 China's Qiongren: the aged, farmers, laid-off workers, the mentally-ill, migrant workers, peasants, and the uneducated. 800 million of them. Stoic and tough survivors of both communist and capitalist economic policies and promises; natural disasters (usually drought and flood, but last year an earthquake also), and life itself. […]
Returning migrant workers: injustice and resilience.
Brian Hennessy. China Australia Consult. March, 2008. You can feel the suppressed emotion, despite their blank expressionless faces. It hangs over the entrance to the Chongqing railway station like a Yangtze River fog. A grey pall of despair. A cruel prelude to a return to life as it was 30 years ago before Deng Xiao Ping’s […]
Eling park.
Brian Hennessy. China Australia Consult. 2004 Eling Park was created toward the end of the Qing Dynasty, before the overthrow of the last emperor, Pu Yi. During the anti-Japanese war the government of China relocated to Chongqing, and these grounds housed the embassies of Australia, Denmark, Turkey, the UK, and the USA. Deng Xiao Ping, Zhang […]
Graduates.
I met them at a job fair in Jiangbei District. My role for the day was to assess their English language competence and recommend the best of them to prospective employers. In some ways, it was a sad experience. So many talented young people looking for a chance. Too many graduate camels trying to squeeze […]
Yixueyuan Lu.
This is where I live. Sandwiched between the main road running from Jiefangbei to Shapingba, and the main road to Yang Jia Ping and beyond, this little segment of Chongqing is notable only for its ordinariness. Yet in the few years that I have lived here, I have seen it change from the depressing squalor […]
Workers park in Chongqing.
She was no oil painting. In fact, she was probably the most unattractive person I have seen in China. Some foreign (laowai) blood in there somewhere for sure. Pale white skin, freckles, and a pomeranian face. A western front-end, Chinese amidships, and as broad as a junk on the lower reaches of the Yangtze. A […]
Teahouse.
Brian Hennessy. China Australia Consult. 2004. I'm sitting in a teahouse near the back gate of my university. Red lanterns outside, comfortable cane chairs inside, and a welcoming smile from the receptionist. This is where I come to relax, to read a book, or maybe to prepare some notes for tomorrow's class. There's more going on […]