all very strange  − 24 March, 2007

An elderly Mandarin woman walked up to me at the bus stop this morning. She had a petition in hand.  She was explaining away, but my Mandarin is not very good, I was quite confused. She was talking about politics, religion, free speech... I read the opening paragraph instead, since it was written in English. It was about a bunch of people who wanted to be part of the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco, but according to the woman,  there were some complicated undercurrents that prevented them from doing so, hence the petition. To me, it is all very strange. If I've got it right, she was talking to me about an exercise group that was being killed off (?) and put in jail, and prevented from taking part in the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco. Maybe I haven't got it right. All very strange.