Music Monday: The Chopstick Brothers

This week, surprise, surprise, The Chopstick Brothers 筷子兄弟 (kuaizi xiongdi), remain at the top of the Baidu Music charts with the song Little Apple 小苹果 (xiao pingguo). Just as little can imply cute in English, 小 can imply cute in Chinese.And that's how I interpret the song.

Other than that, there isn't much to say about this song. It's annoying. I feel like I've been hearing it for years. In fact the song isn't that old. It came out on their album 老男孩之猛龙过江 which happens to also be a movie, one I have never seen.

I'm sure there's much more to say on the subject, but you won't hear it from me. Curious, and being something of a sadist, I did explore their work some. It wasn't really time well spent, in my opinion.

Next week, we'll be looking at a newish release by Wang Faye, which is infinitely more interesting than 小苹果． 
 

Astrill

Astrill is completely fucked. Now, if that were completely true, I wouldn't be writing this. But most days I don't use a computer. I just make do with my iPad. And Astrill is completely fucked on that.

Frankly, it's quite frustrating, dealing with this bullshit. I cannot begin to explain the just how large of an inconvenience the Great Firewall is. Now, when it was merely an inconvenience, it was sufferable. But it is no longer merely an inconvenience. It really does make one think about moving.

That said, I've gone a whole damn year without a VPN. It isn't really necessary,just like internet isn't really necessary, but the world is so much more damn convenient with it.

All I can say is this, I hope someone is developing new means of circumventing the Great Firewall. For me, it is an inconvenience, but for other people, for people that can't afford to shell out a $100 for a product that only sometimes works, it really is a problem.

That's what I think China is doing. They're attacking services like this to dissuade marginal users from using them. If that's not what they're doing, that's what they should be doing.

Some people, regardless of China's aspirations concerning cyber sovereignty, will find ways of accessing the wider web. By mounting sporadic attacks on VPNs, China inconveniences these users, but doesn't really force them seek out new technologies. At the same time, these attacks me people with upcoming renewals rethink those renewals. That's exactly what happened to me. Astrill became unusable right when my expiration date was approaching, so I said, fuck it; I don't need a VPN.

Really, what we need is satellite links for laptops. Elon Musk, make it happen. I'd love to see the CPC block that.     

Back

I'm surprised to be writing this. I'd quite forgotten this blog of mine. I'm surprised to see certain posts have been so popular. Needless to say, I've changed quite a bit since I first started this blog. And now that I am contemplating restarting it, I think it necessary to chuck a few posts, indeed the majority of posts, down the memory hole.

I won't destroy these posts completely. Consider it an edit. In the future the blog will focus much more time and energy on the Chinese language. I'm still rather incompetent at it, but at least I'm experienced in my incompetence.

In any case, I hope you enjoy my return. I know I will.