I have again taken the silver bird to China, this time to Nanjing in an official capacity, namely, for the Jiangsu People-to-People Conference and 70th Anniversary Commemoration of the JSPAFFC (Jiangsu Provincial People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries). Nanjing, all from my limited experience, is quite a different city from others I have visited in China. Famous for its scholarship, universities, and students, the tree-lined streets have a more gentle (but still vibrant) pace than other cities, and in many ways, it reminds me of inner-city Melbourne. Arriving a day earlier than other conference attendees at the slightly famous Jingling Hotel, I decided to visit the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, because I'm such a cherry bundle of joy, right? This event, which has haunted me for many decades since I first learned about the event, refers to the brutal Japanese fascist invasion in 1937 of what was then China's capital city. After the city fell, the invaders brutally killed more than 300,000 people (roughly a third of the population of the city at the time) in the next forty days in what has not-euphemistically been called "The Rape of Nanjing". If you can imagine the worst possible atrocities that humans are capable of carrying out, turn it up even higher on the dial, and maybe then you have the Nanjing Massacre.

The Memorial Hall is a vast complex dedicated to preserving the memory of these events and is perfectly organised, starting from the social and political environment prior to the invasion, the collapse of the seriously out-gunned defending Chinese army against the invasion, the occupation itself, the few foreigners who tried to protect civilians and record events, the international court cases following the war, and, interestingly, concluding exhibits on the importance of the memorial and the desire of peace with forgiveness. With written, photographic, and video records from the events, interviews of survivors, and even a hall of a mass grave unearthed in situ, the hundreds of other attendees made their way through with great quietude - I noticed four others of European background present at the time. If you ever find yourself in Nanjing, put aside a few hours at least to visit this "must-see" memorial and give homage to the victims.

It was a curious juxtaposition from horror to beauty that immediately afterwards I would visit the nearby Cloud Brocade Museum, dedicated to the silk weaving and Yun brocade style. It had some very charming pieces, and quite a good story to tell about the development of the craft, along with many quite superb examples and contemporary pieces for sale. Despite the size of the building, the entire museum can be easily completed within an hour, and I get the sense that the exhibition is still in development. Continuing a more aesthetic bent, that evening I ventured to the Confucian temple area of Fuzi Miao. This is pretty much what it says on the tin: a bustling area of vendors, restaurants, and, of course, temples, all beautiful in architecture, historical in content, and located alongside a river and surrounded by parkland. Of course, as is befitting such a place, it is a very popular haunt for numerous young women engaging in historical cosplay.

I find myself in Melbourne for a mere several days between concluding my recent holiday to China and returning to said country for a conference, and intresting enough, a new city for me to visit (Nanjing) albeit one relatively close to the several just visited (Beijing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou, and Shanghai). The purpose of this upcoming visit is an international conference for the 70th anniversary of Jiangsu (Province) Friendship Associations and I'll be there in an official capacity and, so I've been told, I'm expected to give a brief speech on behalf of the small Australian delegation. Between work demands, and a furious effort to get in some substantial progress on my Euclid University doctoral studies, I've even managed to get a hint of a social life with a couple of enjoyable dinners with friends and a couple of gaming sessions (along with moving of the substantial RPG Review Cooperative library to my premises).

I'm also going to take this opportunity to express my valedictions to the recent passing of activist and author Tracy Sorensen. We knew each other quite well in the mid to late 1980s in Western Australia when we were both involved in the youth wing of what would be the Democratic Socialist Party. Fellow-comrade at the time, Neville Spencer has written a very good summary of Tracy's life for "Green Left Weekly" and, the day before she died, a rather heartfelt account of meeting her partner was published in "The Guardian". Although Tracy and I had not really been in contact for literally decades, I do have very fond memories of her excellent humour, steadfast commitment to justice and environmentalism, and her excellent organisational ability. The universe has been a bit unjust in taking her early, yet with her whimsical sense, she even managed to write about her illness from her organ's point-of-view. So fare well, old comrade and friend. It truly was a honour to know you.

Leaving the canals and silk stores of Suzhou, the next part of the trip was the nearby city of Wuxi, which is a relatively small 7 million people, notable for the rather beautiful Taihu Lake and freshwater pearl production. After a day there, the next stop was Hangzhou, which, along with Wuxi, is rather notable as a scientific research hun. It is also a very convenient base to visit the rather astounding Longmen Ancient Town, famous for its Qing dynasty buildings. Inhabitants of the town like to claim that they're all descendants of the Emperor Sun Quan, who had Longmen as his hometown almost 2000 years ago. In many ways, it was like visiting some of the preserved medieval streets in some European cities (e.g., Barcelona, Freiburg), but it was superior to both those examples in authenticity. Hangzhou is also famous for its tea and tea research, so a visit to the Meijiawu Tea Village was also in order; delicious and educational.

The final leg of the trip was to Shanghai, a truly astounding metropolis with an estimated 27 million people. Situated at the mouth of the Yangtze River, astoundingly important for trade, the city is famous-notorious for being carved up by foreign powers (French, British, American) with extraterritoriality and consular jurisdiction. If anything positive can be said of these impositions, it would be Shanghai's deserved reputation as a cosmopolitan city and the existence of some fine 19th-century Western colonial architecture alongside the very modern skyscrapers, many with their own truly innovative designs. Alas, my enjoyment of these surrounds was knocked down by a day when I was struck with a literal 24-hour 'flu. One evening, I was shaking, sweating, with joint-muscular pain, convinced that I had COVID or similar, and, after a day's complete rest, I was perfectly fine. Which was just in time for a meeting with representatives of the Shanghai People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (they need a snappier title).

The following day was off to the airport for the overnight flight back to Melbourne. Capsule movie reviews for the journey back: "Panda Plan", Jackie Chan slapstick with an utterly improbable plot 1/5; "Los Tonos Mayores", a teenaged girl starts receiving coded messages through a metal plate in her arm, another superb example of Spanish-language magical realism, mystery, and psychodrama 4/5; "Complètement cramé!" French-English film starring John Malkovich pretending to be a butler for the nostalgia of where he and his recently deceased wife first met. The film location (Château du Bois-Cornillé, Bretagne) is beautiful, the characters and their interactions fascinating, but it's very weak on theme, 3/5. Thus ends a ten-day whirlwind trip to five eastern Chinese cities. The hotels were all excellent, the food is excellent, the Internet is terrible, and the country safe and pleasant. My next trip? In a week to Nanjing.