Sascha's blog

One Second Encounters

Sascha — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 20:00:52 -0700

I can only remember a few, but my mind swims with them in the hours before i rise and after the alarm has already been silenced.

I remember the little Chinese meimei sitting with her grandmother on a bench in Chengdu, on Renmin Road South. I was walking along with Heather from Proximity Butterfly....

The Wandering Hakka

Sascha — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:51:59 -0700

In Sichuan there are a lot of Hakka, a wandering tribe of Chinese spread all over the earth, in Chinatowns from the Bay to Mauritius. They came to Sichuan during the late Ming and Qing Dynasties to re-plenish a land devastated by repeated massacres and mass pillaging.

The Emperor at the time gave each...

The Mighty Min

Sascha — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:38:30 -0700

The mighty Min flows down from the Tibetan Plateau, through Dujiangyan, passing by the birthplace of Daoism -- Qingcheng Mountain. Here, the River meets the 2000 year old irrigation project that splits the river into two parts: one headed south to Chengdu and the other, which rushes along...

Crouching Tigers

Sascha — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:17:16 -0700

In Hanyuan County, just south of Yaan in the middle of the Tibetan foothills, there was once a great battle between the Taiping rebels and the Qing Imperial Troops. The rebels were routed by the Dadu river and fled into the hills. Many of them were gong fu masters from the eastern provinces. INstead...

Rara Gyata

Sascha — Fri, 30 May 2008 02:02:36 -0700

In Litang, the spiritual heart of the Tibetan resistance in Kham, there are legends of Rara Gyata: the warrior who fought 500 battles against the Chinese only to be betrayed and murdered by the Nepalese while operating in and out of the border with Tibet.

Of all the resistance fighters from Kham -- the...

The Lady in the Red Dress

Sascha — Thu, 29 May 2008 00:31:13 -0700

As the dragon of the Himalayas snakes its head down through Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces all the way down to Chiang Mai, it runs into the rolling green hills of Guizhou Province. The deep valleys and fertile uplands of this region nurtures and protects the last of China's ancient peoples. There are silversmithing...