Here's a question for someone smarter than me:  Would Hu Jintao and the new Standing Committee be capable of, or willing to, initiate a Tiananmen-style crackdown on a similar protest?

##Distraction with Chinese Characteristics

Shutty teaches English in Shaoxing and keeps a <em>very</em> entertaining journal, which "virtually every young foreign teacher in Shaoxing is reading".  From <a href="http://www.shutty.net/the_journal.htm">Shutty's journal</a>:

<quote> I am beginning to have a little love affair with DVD though.  Like, when it's 10pm and I have 8am class, I think, "Boy, I should do some class planning for tomorrow."  So, I open my papers and then I think, "Well, maybe I'll just watch the entire 16 hour Band of Brothers DVD real quick first."  Next thing I know, my alarm is going off, Band of Brothers is playing in the background, I am drooling all over my papers and we end up playing games in class.  It's like cocaine or something.  I love the $1 DVD.  Must......break.......habit.</quote>

This is something that many an English teacher in China can sympathize with.